
How to Read a Book
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $25.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Eileen Stevens
-
By:
-
Monica Wood
About this listen
"The perfect pick to really light a fire under my book club, and yours....A reminder that goodness, and books, can still win in this world." —New York Times Book Review
"A beautiful, big-hearted treasure of a novel." —Lily King
National Bestseller *
From the award-winning author of The One-in-a-Million Boy comes a heartfelt, uplifting novel about a chance encounter at a bookstore, exploring redemption, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.
Our Reasons meet us in the morning and whisper to us at night. Mine is an innocent, unsuspecting, eternally sixty-one-year-old woman named Lorraine Daigle…
Violet Powell, a twenty-two-year-old from rural Abbott Falls, Maine, is being released from prison after serving twenty-two months for a drunk-driving crash that killed a local kindergarten teacher.
Harriet Larson, a retired English teacher who runs the prison book club, is facing the unsettling prospect of an empty nest.
Frank Daigle, a retired machinist, hasn’t yet come to grips with the complications of his marriage to the woman Violet killed.
When the three encounter each other one morning in a bookstore in Portland—Violet to buy the novel she was reading in the prison book club before her release, Harriet to choose the next title for the women who remain, and Frank to dispatch his duties as the store handyman—their lives begin to intersect in transformative ways.
How to Read a Book is an unsparingly honest and profoundly hopeful story about letting go of guilt, seizing second chances, and the power of books to change our lives. With the heart, wit, grace, and depth of understanding that has characterized her work, Monica Wood illuminates the decisions that define a life and the kindnesses that make life worth living.
"A deeply humane and touching novel; highly recommended for book clubs and fans of Shelby Van Pelt's Remarkably Bright Creatures." — Booklist
©2023 Monica Wood (P)2023 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Patrick Fraley, Edward Asner
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a cemetery in a mythical small town in Illinois, the dead speak about their lives. Each free-verse monologue stands as an epitaph for the person speaking, yet the play is ultimately about life, not death. Featuring 50 performers with specially commissioned original music, this is the only audio version of this landmark classic available.
-
-
Magnificent American poetry
- By Admiral Pike on 04-14-05
-
Broken Country
- By: Clare Leslie Hall
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
-
-
Excellent book!
- By Kayce Turner on 03-14-25
-
How to Read a Book
- The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
- By: Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
- Narrated by: Edward Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them - from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Audiences will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.
-
-
An excellent book.
- By idris on 12-30-21
By: Mortimer J. Adler, and others
-
The Lion Women of Tehran
- By: Marjan Kamali
- Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi, Nikki Massoud
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.”
-
-
Wonderful story Awful Narration
- By Sogol on 08-14-24
By: Marjan Kamali
-
When We Flew Away
- A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
- By: Alice Hoffman
- Narrated by: Mara Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired people for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius. Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel about one of contemporary history's most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank's life before she went into hiding.
-
-
More Timely Than Ever
- By Lisbeth on 11-09-24
By: Alice Hoffman
-
The Keeper of Stories
- By: Sally Page
- Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has a story to tell. But does Janice have the power to unlock her own? She can’t recall what started her collection. Maybe it was in a fragment of conversation overheard as she cleaned a sink? Before long (as she dusted a sitting room or defrosted a fridge) she noticed people were telling her their stories. Perhaps they had always done so, but now it is different, now the stories are reaching out to her and she gathers them to her.
-
-
I loved it
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-03-23
By: Sally Page
-
Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Patrick Fraley, Edward Asner
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a cemetery in a mythical small town in Illinois, the dead speak about their lives. Each free-verse monologue stands as an epitaph for the person speaking, yet the play is ultimately about life, not death. Featuring 50 performers with specially commissioned original music, this is the only audio version of this landmark classic available.
-
-
Magnificent American poetry
- By Admiral Pike on 04-14-05
-
Broken Country
- By: Clare Leslie Hall
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
-
-
Excellent book!
- By Kayce Turner on 03-14-25
-
How to Read a Book
- The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
- By: Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
- Narrated by: Edward Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them - from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Audiences will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.
-
-
An excellent book.
- By idris on 12-30-21
By: Mortimer J. Adler, and others
-
The Lion Women of Tehran
- By: Marjan Kamali
- Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi, Nikki Massoud
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.”
-
-
Wonderful story Awful Narration
- By Sogol on 08-14-24
By: Marjan Kamali
-
When We Flew Away
- A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary
- By: Alice Hoffman
- Narrated by: Mara Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired people for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne's journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius. Bestselling author Alice Hoffman delivers a stunning novel about one of contemporary history's most acclaimed figures, exploring the little-known details of Anne Frank's life before she went into hiding.
-
-
More Timely Than Ever
- By Lisbeth on 11-09-24
By: Alice Hoffman
-
The Keeper of Stories
- By: Sally Page
- Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has a story to tell. But does Janice have the power to unlock her own? She can’t recall what started her collection. Maybe it was in a fragment of conversation overheard as she cleaned a sink? Before long (as she dusted a sitting room or defrosted a fridge) she noticed people were telling her their stories. Perhaps they had always done so, but now it is different, now the stories are reaching out to her and she gathers them to her.
-
-
I loved it
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-03-23
By: Sally Page
-
Great Big Beautiful Life
- By: Emily Henry
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy Little Crescent Island for the same reason: To write the biography of a woman no one has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the most storied (and scandalous) families of the 20th Century.
-
-
Just, wow.
- By julia lee on 04-25-25
By: Emily Henry
-
The Faculty Lounge
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Mathieu
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With its ensemble of warm and unforgettable characters, The Faculty Lounge shows listeners a different side of school life. It all starts when an elderly substitute teacher at Baldwin High School is found dead in the faculty lounge. After a bit of a stir, life quickly returns to normal. But when, a week later, the spontaneous scattering of his ashes on the school grounds catches the attention of some busybody parents, it sets in motion a year that can only be described as wild, bizarre, tragic, mundane, beautiful, and humorous all at once.
-
-
Not Funny
- By P. Rishel on 08-24-24
By: Jennifer Mathieu
-
Behind Every Good Man
- A Novel
- By: Sara Goodman Confino
- Narrated by: Helen Laser
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s a doozy of a bad day for Beverly Diamond when she catches her husband, Larry, in a compromising position with his secretary. What’s a DC suburban wife to do with a soon-to-be ex, two young kids, and no degree or financial support in 1962? Beat the louse at his own game, that’s what.
-
-
So entertaining
- By Compute on 09-16-24
-
Frank and Red
- By: Matt Coyne
- Narrated by: James Killeen
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frank is a miserable old curmudgeon. An agoraphobic recluse and widower whose only company is the 'ghost' of his wife, Marcie. He is estranged from friends and family and is entirely cut off from the rest of the world. That is until he meets Red. Red is six years old. He's a funny, imaginative, and kind little boy who - following the separation of his parents - moves in next door. Red is fascinated by his new neighbour and seemingly oblivious to Frank's grumpy demeanour and strange ways.
-
-
Humorous and compassionate
- By Sheila S. on 05-24-25
By: Matt Coyne
-
Time of the Child
- By: Niall Williams
- Narrated by: Dermot Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doctor Jack Troy was born and raised in Faha, but his responsibilities for the sick and his care for the dying mean he has always been set apart from the town. His eldest daughter, Ronnie, has grown up in her father’s shadow, and remains there, having missed one chance at love – and passed up another offer of marriage from an unsuitable man. But in the Advent season of 1962, as the town readies itself for Christmas, Ronnie and Doctor Troy’s lives are turned upside down when a baby is left in their care.
-
-
The very top of my Audio listens.
- By Whipsnead on 12-24-24
By: Niall Williams
-
Look on the Bright Side
- By: Kristan Higgins
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett, Christina Moore, Xe Sands
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lark Smith has always had a plan for her life: find a fantastic guy, create a marriage as blissful as her parents’, pop out a couple of kids, and build a rewarding career as an oncologist. Things aren’t going so well. For one, the guy didn’t work out. Theoretically, she’d love to find someone else, but it hasn’t happened. Two, she’s just been transferred out of Oncology for being too emotional. (Is it her fault she’s a weeper?) Three, her parents just split up. Deviating from the plan was … well, not in the plan. A potential solution comes from the foul-tempered surgeon Lorenzo Santini.
-
-
Enjoyed the book but not the narration
- By Dee on 06-14-24
By: Kristan Higgins
-
Three Days in June
- A Novel
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.
-
-
Simple, Enjoyable, performed 5 stars
- By PM on 02-14-25
By: Anne Tyler
-
The Bird Hotel
- A Novel
- By: Joyce Maynard
- Narrated by: Joyce Maynard
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano.
-
-
Review of ‘The Bird Hotel’.
- By g. marks on 11-13-23
By: Joyce Maynard
-
Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame
- A Novel
- By: Olivia Ford
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes. Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago.
-
-
Beautifully plotted
- By Patty Says on 02-28-24
By: Olivia Ford
-
Colored Television
- A Novel
- By: Danzy Senna
- Narrated by: Kristen Ariza
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jane has high hopes her life is about to turn around. After years of living precariously, she, her painter husband, Lenny, and their two kids have landed a stint as house sitters in a friend’s luxurious home high in the hills above Los Angeles, a gig that coincides magically with Jane’s sabbatical. If she can just finish her latest novel, Nusu Nusu, the centuries-spanning epic Lenny refers to as her “mulatto War and Peace,” she’ll have tenure and some semblance of stability and success within her grasp. But things don’t work out quite as hoped.
-
-
Frustrating
- By Carolyn White on 12-12-24
By: Danzy Senna
-
We All Live Here
- A Novel
- By: Jojo Moyes
- Narrated by: Jenna Coleman
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Her career is in freefall and her love life is . . . complicated. So when her real dad—a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago—suddenly appears on her doorstep, it feels like the final straw. But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach you: about love, and what it actually means to be family.
-
-
Sad
- By C. J. Kromminga on 02-12-25
By: Jojo Moyes
-
The Emperor of Gladness
- A Novel
- By: Ocean Vuong
- Narrated by: James Aaron Oh
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One late summer evening in the post-industrial town of East Gladness, Connecticut, nineteen-year-old Hai stands on the edge of a bridge in pelting rain, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia, who convinces him to take another path. Bereft and out of options, he quickly becomes her caretaker. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond, one built on empathy, spiritual reckoning, and heartbreak.
-
-
Absolutely Beautiful
- By Stephanie on 05-16-25
By: Ocean Vuong
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The One-in-a-Million Boy
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
-
-
Loved it
- By Justin on 10-20-16
By: Monica Wood
-
How to Read a Book
- The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
- By: Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
- Narrated by: Edward Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them - from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Audiences will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.
-
-
An excellent book.
- By idris on 12-30-21
By: Mortimer J. Adler, and others
-
When We Were the Kennedys
- A Memoir from Mexico, Maine
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Monica Wood
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1963, Mexico, Maine. The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on a father's wages from the Oxford Paper Company. Until the sudden death of Dad, when Mum and the four closely connected Wood girls are set adrift. Funny and to-the-bone moving, When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how this family saves itself, at first by depending on Father Bob, Mum's youngest brother, a charismatic Catholic priest who feels his new responsibilities deeply.
-
-
Cried and laughed.
- By Nancy N Barcelo on 07-03-15
By: Monica Wood
-
Ernie's Ark
- The Abbott Falls Stories
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In nine interlinking stories, the town of Abbot Falls reacts as Ernie Whitten, a pipefitter, builds a giant ark in his backyard. Ernie was weeks away from a pension-secured retirement when the union went on strike. Now his wife Marie is ill. Struck with sudden inspiration, Ernie builds the ark as a work of art for his wife to see from the window; a vessel to carry them both away; or a plea for God to spare Marie, come hell or high water.
-
-
Wonderful story!
- By Jennifer Biritz on 04-08-21
By: Monica Wood
-
Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Amanda Friday, Andy Harrington, Elizabeth Klett, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spoon River Anthology is a collection of poems that describe life - and death - in a small town. Each poem is a monologue delivered by a resident of Spoon River, describing events in their lives, and the circumstances that led to their occasionally untimely end. Edgar Lee Masters wrote this theatrical masterpiece to highlight the typical small town. The fascinating characters and realistic imagery make it easy to see why this is an American classic.
-
The Library Book
- By: Susan Orlean
- Narrated by: Susan Orlean
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. As one fireman recounted later, “Once that first stack got going, it was good-bye, Charlie.” The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more.
-
-
Had To Turn It Off
- By Meg on 01-17-19
By: Susan Orlean
-
The One-in-a-Million Boy
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
-
-
Loved it
- By Justin on 10-20-16
By: Monica Wood
-
How to Read a Book
- The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
- By: Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren
- Narrated by: Edward Holland
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1940, this book is a rare phenomenon, a living classic that introduces and elucidates the various levels of reading and how to achieve them - from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading. Audiences will learn when and how to “judge a book by its cover,” and also how to X-ray it, read critically, and extract the author’s message from the text.
-
-
An excellent book.
- By idris on 12-30-21
By: Mortimer J. Adler, and others
-
When We Were the Kennedys
- A Memoir from Mexico, Maine
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Monica Wood
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1963, Mexico, Maine. The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors, all dependent on a father's wages from the Oxford Paper Company. Until the sudden death of Dad, when Mum and the four closely connected Wood girls are set adrift. Funny and to-the-bone moving, When We Were the Kennedys is the story of how this family saves itself, at first by depending on Father Bob, Mum's youngest brother, a charismatic Catholic priest who feels his new responsibilities deeply.
-
-
Cried and laughed.
- By Nancy N Barcelo on 07-03-15
By: Monica Wood
-
Ernie's Ark
- The Abbott Falls Stories
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In nine interlinking stories, the town of Abbot Falls reacts as Ernie Whitten, a pipefitter, builds a giant ark in his backyard. Ernie was weeks away from a pension-secured retirement when the union went on strike. Now his wife Marie is ill. Struck with sudden inspiration, Ernie builds the ark as a work of art for his wife to see from the window; a vessel to carry them both away; or a plea for God to spare Marie, come hell or high water.
-
-
Wonderful story!
- By Jennifer Biritz on 04-08-21
By: Monica Wood
-
Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Amanda Friday, Andy Harrington, Elizabeth Klett, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spoon River Anthology is a collection of poems that describe life - and death - in a small town. Each poem is a monologue delivered by a resident of Spoon River, describing events in their lives, and the circumstances that led to their occasionally untimely end. Edgar Lee Masters wrote this theatrical masterpiece to highlight the typical small town. The fascinating characters and realistic imagery make it easy to see why this is an American classic.
-
The Library Book
- By: Susan Orlean
- Narrated by: Susan Orlean
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. As one fireman recounted later, “Once that first stack got going, it was good-bye, Charlie.” The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more.
-
-
Had To Turn It Off
- By Meg on 01-17-19
By: Susan Orlean
-
Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Patrick Fraley, Edward Asner
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From a cemetery in a mythical small town in Illinois, the dead speak about their lives. Each free-verse monologue stands as an epitaph for the person speaking, yet the play is ultimately about life, not death. Featuring 50 performers with specially commissioned original music, this is the only audio version of this landmark classic available.
-
-
Magnificent American poetry
- By Admiral Pike on 04-14-05
-
Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Deaver Brown
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spoon River has 244 accounts of the lives of people in the town that explain its goings on over a couple of centuries. Each free form verse is presented as an epitaph of one of the citizens delivered themselves, often criticizing the words said about them on their tombstone or the monument or stone left above them. The stories build on one another as well as reference various family members and others mentioned in other stories.
-
-
Surprised this is on Audible
- By Ladybug on 09-14-12
-
How to Age Disgracefully
- A Novel
- By: Clare Pooley
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Lydia takes a job running the Senior Citizens’ Social Club three afternoons a week, she assumes she’ll be spending her time drinking tea and playing gentle games of cards. The members of the Social Club, however, are not at all what Lydia was expecting. From Art, a failed actor turned kleptomaniac to Daphne, who has been hiding from her dark past for decades to Ruby, a Banksy-style knitter who gets revenge in yarn, these seniors look deceptively benign—but when age makes you invisible, secrets are so much easier to hide.
-
-
Aging imperfections
- By Susan Love on 08-07-24
By: Clare Pooley
-
The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
- A Novel
- By: Anna Johnston
- Narrated by: Tim Carroll
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.
-
-
Somewhat engaging but predictable
- By RSNYC on 10-15-24
By: Anna Johnston
-
The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven
- By: Nathaniel Ian Miller
- Narrated by: Olafur Darri Olafsson
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year and he might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next. But his time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured, and Sven flees even further, to an uninhabited fjord. There, with the company of a loyal dog, he builds a hut and lives alone, testing himself against the elements.
-
-
Stick with it
- By Cathy Sumeracki on 01-10-22
-
Lula Dean's Little Library of Banned Books
- A Novel
- By: Kirsten Miller
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.
-
-
Small town attitudes
- By Maureen Teague on 08-26-24
By: Kirsten Miller
-
The Starlets
- A Novel
- By: Lee Kelly, Jennifer Thorne
- Narrated by: Gail Shalan
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Summer, 1958. Vivienne Rhodes thinks she’s finally landed her break playing Helen of Troy in Apex Pictures’ big-budget epic, A Thousand Ships, an anticipated blockbuster meant to resurrect the failing studio. Naturally, she’s devastated when she arrives on the remote Italian island of Tavalli and finds herself cast as the secondary character, Cassandra—while her nemesis, the fiancé-stealing Lottie Lawrence, America’s supposed “sweetheart,” is playing the lead role instead.
-
-
Great story
- By Joyce C. on 01-04-25
By: Lee Kelly, and others
-
The One-in-a-Million Boy
- Booktrack Edition
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Andrew Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records' obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays, Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly. Quinn soon discovers that the boy had talked Ona into gunning for the world record for Oldest Licensed Driver.
-
-
Not even done yet—-listener beware!!!!
- By Amy Jane on 12-30-18
By: Monica Wood
-
The Keeper of Stories
- By: Sally Page
- Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone has a story to tell. But does Janice have the power to unlock her own? She can’t recall what started her collection. Maybe it was in a fragment of conversation overheard as she cleaned a sink? Before long (as she dusted a sitting room or defrosted a fridge) she noticed people were telling her their stories. Perhaps they had always done so, but now it is different, now the stories are reaching out to her and she gathers them to her.
-
-
I loved it
- By Meaghan Bynum on 02-03-23
By: Sally Page
-
How to Read Now
- Essays
- By: Elaine Castillo
- Narrated by: Elaine Castillo
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At once a deeply personal and searching history of one woman’s reading life, and a wide-ranging and urgent intervention into our globalized conversations about why reading matters today, How to Read Now empowers us to embrace a more complicated, embodied form of reading, inviting us to acknowledge complicated truths, ignite surprising connections, imagine a more daring solidarity, and create space for a riskier intimacy—within ourselves, and with each other.
-
-
Necessary
- By Anonymous User on 01-08-23
By: Elaine Castillo
-
Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting
- A Novel
- By: Clare Pooley
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Every day Iona, a larger-than-life magazine advice columnist, travels the ten stops from Hampton Court to Waterloo Station by train, accompanied by her dog, Lulu. Every day she sees the same people, whom she knows only by nickname: Impossibly-Pretty-Constant-Reader and Terribly-Lonely-Teenager. Of course, they never speak. Seasoned commuters never do. Then one morning, the man she calls Smart-But-Sexist-Manspreader chokes on a grape right in front of her. He’d have died were it not for the timely intervention of Sanjay, a nurse, who gives him the Heimlich maneuver.
-
-
Wonderful friendship story
- By Barbara S on 10-17-22
By: Clare Pooley
-
Mrs. Quinn's Rise to Fame
- A Novel
- By: Olivia Ford
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing could be more out of character, but after fifty-nine years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren—which Jenny never had—Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the prime-time TV show Britain Bakes. Whisked into an unfamiliar world of cameras and timed challenges, Jenny delights in a new-found independence. But that independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago.
-
-
Beautifully plotted
- By Patty Says on 02-28-24
By: Olivia Ford
Story of redemption and love
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The characters, I just finished snd I miss them already.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
So good!!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story…so redeeming. I loved it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Unique, lovely, heartwarming story
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What an extraordinary book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful Book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great read… it captures a chapter in one’s life
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The parrots were a great addition to the character list!
Excellent Narration, Excellent Book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Genuinely loved EVERYTHING about this book❤️
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.