
Insomniac City
New York, Oliver, and Me
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 $19.18
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Stephen Bel Davies
-
By:
-
Bill Hayes
About this listen
Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at 48 years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change.
Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.
And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance - 'I don't so much fear death as I do wasting life,' he tells Hayes early on - is captured in funny and touching vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age 75 to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015).
Insomniac City is both a meditation on grief and a celebration of life, a love song to the New York City and to all who have felt the particular magic and solace it offers.
©2017 Bloomsbury US (P)2017 Audible, LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
My Name Is Barbra
- By: Barbra Streisand
- Narrated by: Barbra Streisand
- Length: 48 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career.
-
-
BARBRA IS LIKE BUTTAH!
- By JoeGato57 on 11-08-23
By: Barbra Streisand
-
The Town of Babylon
- A Novel
- By: Alejandro Varela
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When his father falls ill, Andrés, a professor of public health, returns to his suburban hometown to tend to his father's recovery. Reevaluating his rocky marriage in the wake of his husband’s infidelity and with little else to do, he decides to attend his 20-year high school reunion, where he runs into the long-lost characters of his youth.
-
-
I will think about The Town of Babylon for a long time.
- By Ian Huntington on 05-20-22
By: Alejandro Varela
-
And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?
- A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks
- By: Lawrence Weschler
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lawrence Weschler sets Oliver Sacks' brilliant table talk and extravagant personality in vivid relief, casting himself as a beanpole Sancho to Sacks' capacious Quixote. We see Sacks rowing and ranting and caring deeply; composing the essays that would form The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat; recalling his turbulent drug-fueled younger days; helping his patients and exhausting his friends; and waging intellectual war against a medical and scientific establishment that failed to address his greatest concern: the spontaneous specificity of the individual human soul.
-
-
Excellent and Exceptional
- By KK on 10-19-19
-
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
- By: Shehan Karunatilaka
- Narrated by: Shivantha Wijesinha
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali.
-
-
Absolutely Splendid...
- By Paul Frandano on 02-07-23
-
Oaxaca Journal
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks - introduction
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oliver Sacks is well known as an explorer of the human mind - a neurologist with a gift for complex, insightful portrayals of people and their conditions. However, he is also a card-carrying member of the American Fern Society, and since childhood has been fascinated by these primitive plants and their ability to survive and adapt in many climates. Oaxaca Journal is Sacks' spellbinding account of his trip with a group of fellow fern enthusiasts to the beautiful, history-steeped province of Oaxaca, Mexico.
-
-
A gem
- By Daniela on 06-04-15
By: Oliver Sacks
-
Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
-
My Name Is Barbra
- By: Barbra Streisand
- Narrated by: Barbra Streisand
- Length: 48 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career.
-
-
BARBRA IS LIKE BUTTAH!
- By JoeGato57 on 11-08-23
By: Barbra Streisand
-
The Town of Babylon
- A Novel
- By: Alejandro Varela
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When his father falls ill, Andrés, a professor of public health, returns to his suburban hometown to tend to his father's recovery. Reevaluating his rocky marriage in the wake of his husband’s infidelity and with little else to do, he decides to attend his 20-year high school reunion, where he runs into the long-lost characters of his youth.
-
-
I will think about The Town of Babylon for a long time.
- By Ian Huntington on 05-20-22
By: Alejandro Varela
-
And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?
- A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks
- By: Lawrence Weschler
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lawrence Weschler sets Oliver Sacks' brilliant table talk and extravagant personality in vivid relief, casting himself as a beanpole Sancho to Sacks' capacious Quixote. We see Sacks rowing and ranting and caring deeply; composing the essays that would form The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat; recalling his turbulent drug-fueled younger days; helping his patients and exhausting his friends; and waging intellectual war against a medical and scientific establishment that failed to address his greatest concern: the spontaneous specificity of the individual human soul.
-
-
Excellent and Exceptional
- By KK on 10-19-19
-
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
- By: Shehan Karunatilaka
- Narrated by: Shivantha Wijesinha
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler, and closet queen—has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster round can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali.
-
-
Absolutely Splendid...
- By Paul Frandano on 02-07-23
-
Oaxaca Journal
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks - introduction
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Oliver Sacks is well known as an explorer of the human mind - a neurologist with a gift for complex, insightful portrayals of people and their conditions. However, he is also a card-carrying member of the American Fern Society, and since childhood has been fascinated by these primitive plants and their ability to survive and adapt in many climates. Oaxaca Journal is Sacks' spellbinding account of his trip with a group of fellow fern enthusiasts to the beautiful, history-steeped province of Oaxaca, Mexico.
-
-
A gem
- By Daniela on 06-04-15
By: Oliver Sacks
-
Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
-
-
Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
-
All That Remains
- A Renowned Forensic Scientist on Death, Mortality, and Solving Crimes
- By: Sue Black
- Narrated by: Angela Dawe
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dame Sue Black is an internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist. She has lived her life eye to eye with the Grim Reaper, and she writes vividly about it in this book, which is part primer on the basics of identifying human remains, part frank memoir of a woman whose first paying job as a schoolgirl was to apprentice in a butcher shop, and part no-nonsense but deeply humane introduction to the reality of death in our lives. It is a treat for CSI junkies, murder mystery and thriller fans, and anyone seeking a clear-eyed guide to a subject that touches us all.
-
-
I wanted a science book about forensics. I got a mostly-memoir instead.
- By A Customer on 11-29-19
By: Sue Black
-
For Blood and Money
- Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug
- By: Nathan Vardi
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For Blood and Money tells the little-known story of how an upstart biotechnology company created a one-in-a-million cancer drug and how the core team—denied their share of the profits—went and did it again. In this epic saga of money and science, veteran financial journalist Nathan Vardi explains how the invention of two of the biggest cancer drugs in history became (for their backers) two of the greatest Wall Street bets of all time.
-
-
Must-read for biotech enthusiasts and scientists
- By Anonymous User on 03-16-23
By: Nathan Vardi
-
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
- A Novel
- By: Gabrielle Zevin
- Narrated by: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam and Sadie—two college friends, often in love, but never lovers—become creative partners in a dazzling and intricately imagined world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. It is a love story, but not one you have heard before.
-
-
This book sucked the life out of me
- By RMan on 08-08-22
By: Gabrielle Zevin
-
The Mind's Eye
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Oliver Sacks, Richard Davidson
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exploration of vision through the case histories of six individuals - including a renowned pianist who continues to give concerts despite losing the ability to read the score, and a neurobiologist born with crossed eyes who, late in life, suddenly acquires binocular vision, and how her brain adapts to that new skill.
-
-
Same ole Sacks--great yarns as usual.
- By Rlelli07 on 10-26-10
By: Oliver Sacks
-
Migraine
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dr. Oliver Sacks argues the migraine cannot be understood simply as an illness, but must be viewed as a complex condition with a unique role to play in each individual's life.
-
-
Why is this an audio book?
- By BW724 on 06-25-19
By: Oliver Sacks
-
100 Boyfriends
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Transgressive, foulmouthed, and brutally funny, Brontez Purnell’s 100 Boyfriends is a revelatory spiral into the imperfect lives of queer men desperately fighting the urge to self-sabotage. As they tiptoe through minefields of romantic, substance-fueled misadventure - from dirty warehouses and gentrified bars in Oakland to desolate farm towns in Alabama - Purnell’s characters strive for belonging in a world that dismisses them for being Black, broke, and queer. In spite of it - or perhaps because of it - they shine.
-
-
Great story but omg
- By Angela Martinez on 06-24-22
By: Brontez Purnell
-
My Sister, the Serial Killer
- A Novel
- By: Oyinkan Braithwaite
- Narrated by: Adepero Oduye
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit. Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works.
-
-
That’s it?!!!
- By Danni B. on 12-26-18
-
Gratitude
- Essays
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A deeply moving testimony and celebration of how to embrace life. No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks. During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death.
-
-
To the Point, Yet Told From the Heart
- By LJT on 01-18-16
By: Oliver Sacks
-
Dr. Oliver Sacks on Music and the Mind
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Robert Krulwich
- Length: 1 hr and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dubbed "the poet laureate of medicine" by The New York Times, Dr. Oliver Sacks is one of the great medical writers and storytellers of our time. He has transformed our understanding of the human mind and restored narrative to a central place in the practice of medicine. His best-selling books, including Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars, entertain, enlighten, and inspire his many fans around the world.
-
-
fascinating stories and connections
- By Patty on 04-30-15
By: Oliver Sacks
-
Hallucinations
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Dan Woren, Oliver Sacks
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hallucinations don’t belong wholly to the insane. Much more commonly, they are linked to sensory deprivation, intoxication, illness, or injury. Here Dr. Sacks weaves together stories of his patients and of his own mind-altering experiences to illuminate what hallucinations tell us about the organization and structure of our brains, how they have influenced every culture’s folklore and art, and why the potential for hallucination is present in us all.
-
-
Not Just Hallucinations
- By Pamela Harvey on 01-05-13
By: Oliver Sacks
-
An Anthropologist on Mars
- Seven Paradoxical Tales
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Oliver Sacks
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To these seven narratives of neurological disorder Dr. Sacks brings the same humanity, poetic observation, and infectious sense of wonder that are apparent in his bestsellers Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat. These men, women, and one extraordinary child emerge as brilliantly adaptive personalities, whose conditions have not so much debilitated them as ushered them into another reality.
-
-
SACKS IS AN ABSOLUTE JOY !!
- By Jeff on 09-22-13
By: Oliver Sacks
-
Less
- By: Andrew Sean Greer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You are a failed novelist about to turn 50. A wedding invitation arrives in the mail: Your boyfriend of the past nine years is engaged to someone else. You can't say yes - it would be too awkward - and you can't say no - it would look like defeat. On your desk are a series of invitations to half-baked literary events around the world. Question: How do you arrange to skip town? Answer: You accept them all.
-
-
Endearing, funny, but sometimes overly clever
- By Lili on 07-30-17
Touching and Intimate Portrait
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is a wonderful story of Mr. Sacks and Mr. Hayes meeting and getting to know each other, growing together with time. It is also a story about Mr. Hayes’ relationships with New York City and the people he meets and shares with parts of himself. It is sad Mr. Sacks leaving the story, but happens quite simply.
The Story of Relationship
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked the way Hoyt was able to connect with nearly every walk of life padding across Manhattan's terrain. I'm sure my NY bred cynism is coloring the feel that perhaps some more "realistic" experiences were either figuratively "photoshopped" or otherwise eliminated. Thus the drop in points. Maybe I would have felt different if I had grown up familiar with the inimitable personality of neurologist Oliver Sacks. Instead, I was inundated with Archie Bunker pop culture (I hope to goodness I am not dating myself!). Despite my spiky take on Hoyt's what... syrupy??... take, I’ll likely be reading this again.
Narrator Stephen Bel Davies left no lines between himself and Hoyt (sans the saccharine).
Addicting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great perspective piece. Beautiful and sad. I hope Billy finds peace.
4.5
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Would you consider the audio edition of Insomniac City to be better than the print version?
Love the narration and really fun to listen to while driving!What other book might you compare Insomniac City to and why?
Similar to Oliver Sacks books in that you learn something while also listening to art like writing.What does Stephen Bel Davies bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His voice is perfect for this book!If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
WOW this is gonna be good!Any additional comments?
Thank you!Amazing Read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Magnificent
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Highly recommended!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Required Reading for Any Sacks Fan
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
moving, funny, perceptive
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.