15 short nonfiction audiobooks

Letters to a Young Poet

by Rainer Maria Rilke

When Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke received a series of verses from a young student with the request to reply with feedback, he poured his insights and advice into the letters compiled here. You've probably encountered snippets from this compilation somewhere along the way; in less than two hours you can hear the complete work. If you have a creative bone in your body, it's well worth the time to give this a listen at least once, especially because it's read by Dan Stevens.

Memorial Days: A Memoir

by Geraldine Brooks

A gentle, lovely, and moving grief memoir. Brooks had been married to fellow writer and journalist Tony Horwitz for thirty-five years when he collapsed and died in 2019 while on book tour far from home. He was just sixty years old. She was stunned—and then quickly swept into a barrage of pressing to-dos, everything from finding new health insurance for herself and her sons to finishing her manuscript-in-progress (that would be the 2022 novel Horse) so she had money to pay the bills. Three years after his death, she traveled to tiny Flinders Island, off the coast of her native Australia, to finally give herself time and space to grieve. This book is the result of that experience. I listened to Brooks narrate her own audio and that format served the story well.

I Am, I Am, I Am

by Maggie O'Farrell

In O'Farrell's memoir-of-sorts, she tells the story of her life through seventeen brushes with death. I didn't quite believe the premise when I first heard it (Seventeen brushes? Really?), but O'Farrell doesn't mess around with this heart-pounding collection, in which she recounts near-misses with car accidents, murderers, anaphylaxis, a childhood bout with encephalitis, and more. There's obviously some sensitive content here, but I'd like to especially point out that O'Farrell's heart-rending essay on miscarriage is some of the finest writing I've seen on the subject (a subject that's not covered enough in literature).

Raising Hare: A Memoir

by Chloe Dalton

Did I know I wanted to read about a wild hare? No, I did not, but word of mouth pointed me in the direction of this lovely little memoir. When British political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton finds a leveret, a newborn hare, she winds up bringing it home to keep it safe from harm. Wild hares are not easy to raise but she finds a way, always with the intention of releasing it one day. However, the hare becomes her shadow and companion in the meantime and she must learn how to hold their relationship loosely as the hare comes and goes. This is a meditation on nature, freedom, and the relationship between humans and animals.

A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape

by W. Ralph Eubanks

I downloaded this on a whim, and what a lovely surprise! Having just read and researched Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance, I enjoyed catching all of the references in this expansive-yet-accessible exploration of Southern literary history. Eubanks connects the contributions of giants past and present—from William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright all the way up to contemporary authors like Jesmyn Ward and Natasha Trethewey—to Mississippi's culture, landscape and history. I enjoyed learning more about authors I've read and getting to know authors that were unfamiliar to me, and vicariously exploring a state I've only visited once. While I loved the audiobook narrated by James Shippey, the hardcover has gorgeous photos that surely enhance the reading experience.

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

by John Green

Trust John Green to make anything interesting, even tuberculosis. This deep dive into the curable yet deadly disease covers the history, healthcare inequity, and science. Green befriended Henry Reider, a young tuberculosis patient in Sierra Leone in 2019 and has been an advocate for treatment and prevention ever since. I loved the audiobook as narrated by the author.

Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir

by Julia Zarankin

This bestselling Canadian memoir celebrates a spirit of curiosity and the wonder of nature. “To be among birds is to be constantly learning.” Lit professor Zarankin, who describes herself as a serial enthusiast and novice naturalist, was as surprised as anyone when she fell head-over-heels for birdwatching at the age of 35—years before the hobby zoomed to popularity during the coronavirus pandemic. In this memoir, she interweaves stories of the birds she’s logged with tales from her childhood in the Soviet Union, her subsequent moves to Paris and the U.S., and current Toronto-based birdwatching community, which has become her surrogate family. A natural choice for nature-lovers and those eager to enjoy the thrill of vicariously stumbling into a new hobby. Lovely on audio, as read by Nan McNamara.

Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give

by Ada Calhoun

I blew through this essay collection on marriage, relationships, infidelity, divorce, and personal growth that came into being because of her viral Modern Love column, and made a hundred highlights along the way. This book would have horrified me when I was younger, but Will and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary this year: we're hardly newlyweds. To give you a taste: "'The first twenty years [of marriage] are the hardest,' an older woman once told me. At the time I thought she was joking. She was not." Or this: "Even good marriages sometimes involve flinging a remote control at the wall." I loved it.

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt

When I had no idea what to listen to next after finishing my current read, I popped over to our What Should I Read Next Patreon community and asked for recommendations... which led me to this book, which had been halfheartedly lingering on my TBR for a while. I had been under the mistaken impression it was a comedy work, but nope, that was completely wrong. I plunged in, as advised, knowing little but definitely intrigued by the inclusion of Lyle Lovett as a narrator. (All I will say is: he plays himself.) Forgive me if you already know this, but this is a memoir, written by an anonymous author, who explains how and why she came to operate the pseudonymous Twitter account @DuchessGoldblat. I LOVED it.

Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays

by R. Eric Thomas

If I wasn’t already an R. Eric Thomas fan for life, this collection would have clinched it: I’m not sure I have words for what it meant to me. In his sophomore book of essays, the Here for It author tells hilarious, moving, and deeply insightful tales of love, adult friendship, family, and marriage, and also therapy, Zoom funerals, working alone, COVID isolation, middle age, and his home city of Baltimore. There’s no weak link in this collection: every story feels immediate, intimate, and real. I’ve thought of “Break Room Cake Communion” and “Jericho” nearly every day since reading them. I can’t stop talking about this book. For fans of Samantha Irby’s Wow, No Thank You and Saeed Jones’s How We Fight for Our Lives..

Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater

by Peggy Orenstein

“What did you do when life came to a terrifying, screeching halt?” In the opening pages, journalist Orenstein answers her own question: in the early days of COVID-19 she resolved to make a sweater, start-to-finish. Facing not only a pandemic but middle age, a looming empty nest, and her father’s dementia, she perceived her life to be “unraveling.” Deciding to control what she can while learning practical skills, she embarks on a whirlwind education on shearing sheep, dyeing wool, and spinning. Her pragmatic project also prompts meditations on the history of women and crafting, the meaning of place and home, and care for our natural world. An earthy, eye-opening, and entertaining memoir. For fans of Mary Pipher’s Women Rowing North and Sutton Foster’s Hooked.

Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain

by Andrew McCarthy

Our team member Ginger raved about this book ... and then when I was looking for an audiobook Will and I could listen to together on our way to the beach, I realized the walk in question takes place on Spain's Camino de Santiago. Will and I were actively anticipating our upcoming trip to Spain, so the timing was perfect! This is the real-time account of the Brat Pack actor's 500-mile walk across Spain with his 19-year-old son Sam, detailing the pair's reasons for embarking on the trip, their long, hot days spent walking—sometimes upwards of 20 miles a day—in the hot summer sun, the fellow walkers they meet along the way, the food they eat, the coffee they drink, the inns they sleep in, what they talk about along the way. We rarely listen to audiobooks together and enjoyed this one so much. The narration was especially good: the elder McCarthy reads the majority but son Sam frequently adds his own voice, which made for a wonderful listening experience.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession

by Michael Finkel

This story of French thief Stéphane Breitwieser's unmatched eight-year crime spree almost defies belief. In his meticulously researched tale, Finkel lays out how and why Breitwieser carried out more than 200 thefts of fine art worth over a billion dollars from 1994 to 2001, nabbing works from museums and galleries in France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. This was interesting, if not exactly emotionally resonant. In fact, the bit that intrigued me most was Finkel's almost passing reference to how Breitwieser has more in common with bibliomaniacs than with his fellow art thiefs—I would have loved to have heard more about that! I listened to the audio version, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini. 5 hours 39 minutes.

The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion

This book is Didion's account of the year following her husband's death, but it's really about the many years of the life they lived together. Writing in real-time, she captures emotion on the page so well. I felt like this wasn't just an exploration of her own grief and mourning, but an inquiry into capital-case Grief and Mourning. So well done, and so worth reading (if a little tough to do so at times).

A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

by Sophie Elmhirst

This truth-is-stranger-than-fiction true story follows Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, an eccentric couple who set sail from their native England for New Zealand in 1972, but whose voyage took a near-fatal turn when they were shipwrecked after a year at sea. It turned out a sperm whale had tried to surface beneath their vessel, and the impact cracked their ship clean in two. Their flares turned out to be duds, they were poorly prepared to survive on their life raft, they feared rescue would never come—but four months later they were spotted and saved by a Korean fishing vessel. The maritime episodes read like an adventure yarn, but Elmhirst's story begins prior to their voyage and ends well after, making this truly a story of a challenging marriage and not just one about their ill-fated sailing escapades and aftermath.

15 short nonfiction audiobooks

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