I am no stranger to extra long audiobooks: I finally read The Power Broker, clocking in at 67 hours, last year. I’ve read and enjoyed quite a few 40+ hour epics. But most of the time, my nonfiction audiobook reads are much shorter.
Short audiobooks are an excellent way to build momentum in your reading life. You can move through them quickly, whether listening on your commute or tackling chores around the house. Sometimes, when tackling a household project (hello, spring trimming and weeding) I can listen to a whole book in a single afternoon. This book list focuses on nonfiction audiobooks today but the important point is to find books that capture your interest, no matter the topic or genre.
Every reader has their own audiobook style. Personally, I love to listen to great stories, not information absent of a larger narrative. This means that I tend to listen to mostly fiction on audio, saving my nonfiction for print reading. As you’ll see from this list, there are exceptions to that rule. I love listening to memoirs and essay collections on audio. Even the occasional history or long form investigative journalism can reel me in if it’s of the “truth is stranger than fiction” variety.
These 15 audiobooks deliver great reading experiences in 7-ish hours or less or even faster if you increase your listening speed. They’re also wonderful listening experiences.
I hope you spot some old favorites and identify some potential gems on my list. Please share your favorite short nonfiction audiobooks in the comments!
Short nonfiction audiobooks
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The Year of Magical Thinking
This book is Didion's account of the year following her husband's death, while their daughter was on life support, but it's really about the many years of 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 a more universal experience. So well done, and so worth reading (if a little tough to do so at times). Narrated by Barbara Caruso. 5 hours 5 minutes. More info →
Letters to a Young Poet
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. 1 hour 51 minutes. More info →
I Am, I Am, I Am
In O'Farrell's 2018 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 (seventeenseemed an unbelievable number of near-misses), but O'Farrell doesn't mess around with this heart-pounding collection, in which she recounts car accidents, anaphylaxis, dangerous men, a childhood bout with encephalitis, and more. There's obviously sensitive content in this collection, but her heart-rending essay on miscarriage merits special mention: it's some of the finest writing I've seen on the subject. Those new to O'Farrell could easily begin with this collection, but readers of her novels may draw special pleasure from finding in these pages the real-life experiences that clearly informed so many of her characters. The audiobook is narrated by Daisy Donovan, with Ann Patchett narrating her introduction to the work. 5 hours 59 minutes. More info →
Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
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. 5 hours 35 minutes. More info →
A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape
I downloaded this expansive-yet-accessible exploration of Southern literary history on a whim a few years ago after having read and researched Zora Neale Hurston and the Harlem Renaissance, and it turned out to be a lovely surprise! 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 may also enhance your reading experience. 5 hours 26 minutes. More info →
Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder: A Memoir
“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 and 2021 Summer Reading Guide selection, 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. This is lovely on audio, as read by Nan McNamara. 6 hours 51 minutes. More info →
Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give
After reading and loving Also a Poet, I was eager to read more from Calhoun and 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 a younger me. 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. Calhoun narrates the audiobook herself. 3 hours 17 minutes. More info →
Becoming Duchess Goldblatt
A thoughtful memoir written by an anonymous author, who explains how and why she came to operate the pseudonymous Twitter account @DuchessGoldblat. While ostensibly about social media, it's really about finding and forming community, the power of friendship in difficult times, the painful and lingering effects of a difficult childhood, and the redemptive possibilities of creativity and generosity. This was superb on audio, as narrated by Gabra Zackman, J. Smith-Cameron, and Lyle Lovett, who plays himself. (This was our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club February 2023 selection.) 5 hours 30 minutes. More info →
Congratulations, The Best Is Over!: Essays
If I wasn’t already an R. Eric Thomas fan for life, this collection would have clinched it. 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 first read this in print and had to re-read it once it came out in audiobook; Eric’s narration is not to be missed. (It was a joy to talk with Eric in WSIRN Episode 392: Insightful and entertaining memoirs, where you can hear him share more about this collection) 6 hours 40 minutes. More info →
Unraveling: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater
“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, as narrated by the author. 5 hours 52 minutes. More info →
Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain
Will and I listened to this together on our way to the beach several years ago, while we were actively planning a trip to Spain. That was perfect timing to enjoy this real-time account of the Brat Pack actor's 500-mile walk across Spain on the Camino de Santiago with his 19-year-old son Sam. He details the pair's reasons for embarking on the trip, their long, hot days spent walking 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. 6 hours 43 minutes. More info →
The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession
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. More info →
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck
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. I listened to the audio version, narrated by Marisa Calin. 5 hours 50 minutes. More info →
Memorial Days: A Memoir
I only recently read this 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. 4 hours 56 minutes. More info →
Raising Hare: A Memoir
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. Narrated by Louise Brealey. 6 hours 26 minutes. More info →
What are your favorite short nonfiction audiobooks? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 15 super short audiobooks you can finish in four hours or less, Get hooked on a new mystery series with these 10 audiobooks, and 15 MORE celebrity memoirs read by their authors.
15 comments
What a wonderful list, Anne. I love a memoir on audio, and there are several on this list I want to read. I would add 107 Days by Kamala Harris, All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley, and All My Knotted-Up Life by Beth Moore.
This may be a title to read next winter but I would like to add Winter: The Story of a Season by Val McDermid. It is creative NF about her affinity for winter. Through short essays, McDermid takes us to frosty city streets as well as windswept coasts. There are holidays, Halloween and Christmas plus some holidays specific to the Celtic world. The book is available in print as well but it is an audio must to listen as McDermid delivers this delightful book with her amazing brogue. So grab a cuppa’ and cozy up somewhere for a real treat! It could be a perfect break…it is short at 2 hours and 15 minutes. You won’t want to speed this up but rather luxuriate in the experience.
Sounds divine, Michelle! I seem to be forever on the hunt for soulful winter reading experiences. I would love to hear recommendations from others as the Winter reading season is more miss than hit for me.
Just like you predicted, Anne, I see some familiar and some new. I’m eager to check out several. Is there a way to save a list of the titles and authors from your email? TIA, Barbara
Thank you for this wonderful list, and (bonus!) most are available on my Library’s Hoopla. My favorite short audio memoir is The Light of the World by Elizabeth Alexander. Memoirs written by poets are typically my favorite, and Alexander’s narration adds a beautiful layer to this moving story of losing her husband at a young age.
What a wonderful recommendation. Her memoir is beautiful and so moving.
How did you know I needed this list? My audiobook style is very similar to yours, Anne. I second your recommendations of BOTH of R. Eric Thomas’s books, Walking with Sam, Everything is Tuberculosis, Raising Hare (I read this one in print), The Art Thief, and A Marriage at Sea. Those last 2 were 3 out of 5 stars, kinda average writing IMO. For celebrity memoirs, I loved those by Amy Poehler, Colin Jost, and Tina Fey but not Molly Shannon’s. See the SNL theme there. I’m really enjoying Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves on audio.
Just listened to The Greatest Sentence Ever Written- less than 2 hours on audio, read by the author. Interesting read.
Nice list, thank you. For short non-fiction I would add Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist. Memoir and history and science all in one. Read by the author, an NPR reporter, so you know she has a great voice!
Ta-Nahisi Coates’ books are also good on audio, but I understand they aren’t for everyone.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad is not an easy book to listen to but it’s important to understanding what is going on in the Middle East. It is read by the author and clocks in at 5 hours and 21 minutes.
Thank you for sharing this, Wendy. I have the book on my library waitlist, but I suspect I will be more likely to complete this on audio.
Great list! Two of my favorite short, non-fiction audio books are The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer and Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston.
I’ve now added 4 more books to my TBR, thank you very much! I have read 5 others in print. I have come up with these:
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngsen, clocking in at 6 hrs, 29 min. Epistolary novel, one of my all time favorites, recently listened to it on audio, perfect voices and accents for the two characters.
Wishin and Hopin by Wally Lamb, 4 hrs, 41 min. A portrait of childhood and school days.
Happens Every Day, by Isabel Gillies. 6 hrs, 18 min. A memoir about the betrayal of her husband, very listen-able, I couldn’t stop.
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