Author Archives: Lena Yang

About Lena Yang

An avid reader and dog-petting enthusiast, Lena can often be found relaxing in the sun with a good cup of tea.

November’s Top 10 Audiobooks.com Member Downloads

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Listen to last month’s most popular fiction and non-fiction titles downloaded by Audiobooks.com members.


Fiction


A Time for Mercy by John Grisham, narrated by Michael Beck

Publisher Summary:

Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.

In what may be the most personal and accomplished legal thriller of John Grisham’s storied career, we deepen our acquaintance with the iconic Southern town of Clanton and the vivid cast of characters that so many readers know and cherish. The result is a richly rewarding novel that is both timely and timeless, full of wit, drama, and—most of all—heart.

Bursting with all the courthouse scheming, small-town intrigue, and stunning plot twists that have become the hallmarks of the master of the legal thriller, A Time for Mercy is John Grisham’s most powerful courtroom drama yet.

There is a time to kill and a time for justice. Now comes A Time for Mercy.

Read more and sample the audio →


Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline, narrated by Wil Wheaton 

AN UNEXPECTED QUEST. TWO WORLDS AT STAKE. ARE YOU READY?

Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything.

Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive—than even Wade dreamed possible.

With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest—a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize.

And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants.

Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance

Lovingly nostalgic and wildly original as only Ernest Cline could conceive it, Ready Player Two takes us on another imaginative, fun, action-packed adventure through his beloved virtual universe, and jolts us thrillingly into the future once again.

Read more and sample the audio →


Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly, narrated by Peter Giles

On the night he celebrates a big win, defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a former client in the trunk of his Lincoln. Haller is immediately charged with murder but can’t post the exorbitant $5 million bail slapped on him by a vindictive judge.

Mickey elects to represent himself and is forced to mount his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles. All the while he needs to look over his shoulder—as an officer of the court he is an instant target, and he makes few friends when he reveals a corruption plot within the jail.

But the bigger plot is the one against him. Haller knows he’s been framed, whether by a new enemy or an old one. As his trusted team, including his half-brother, Harry Bosch, investigates, Haller must use all his skills in the courtroom to counter the damning evidence against him.

Even if he can obtain a not-guilty verdict, Mickey understands that it won’t be enough. In order to be truly exonerated, he must find out who really committed the murder and why. That is the law of innocence.

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Daylight by David Baldacci, narrated by Kyf Brewer, Brittany Pressley

FBI Agent Atlee Pine’s search for her sister Mercy clashes with military investigator John Puller’s high-stakes case, leading them both deep into a global conspiracy—from which neither of them will escape unscathed.

For many long years, Atlee Pine was tormented by uncertainty after her twin sister, Mercy, was abducted at the age of six and never seen again. Now, just as Atlee is pressured to end her investigation into Mercy’s disappearance, she finally gets her most promising breakthrough yet: the identity of her sister’s kidnapper, Ito Vincenzo.

With time running out, Atlee and her assistant Carol Blum race to Vincenzo’s last known location in Trenton, New Jersey — and unknowingly stumble straight into John Puller’s case, blowing his arrest during a drug ring investigation involving a military installation.

Stunningly, Pine and Puller’s joint investigation uncovers a connection between Vincenzo’s family and a breathtaking scheme that strikes at the very heart of global democracy. Peeling back the layers of deceit, lies and cover-ups, Atlee finally discovers the truth about what happened to Mercy. And that truth will shock Pine to her very core.

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Fortune and Glory by Janet Evanovich, narrated by Lorelei King

The twenty-seventh entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series isn’t just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum’s career. It’s the adventure of a lifetime.

When Stephanie’s beloved Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune.

But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their way—along with a new adversary who’s even more formidable: Gabriela Rose, a dark-eyed beauty from Little Havana with a taste for designer clothes. She’s also a soldier of fortune, a gourmet cook, an expert in firearms and mixed martial arts—and someone who’s about to give Stephanie a real run for her money.

Stephanie may be in over her head, but she’s got two things that Gabriela doesn’t: an unbreakable bond with her family and a stubborn streak that will never let her quit.

She’ll need both to survive because this search for “fortune and glory” will turn into a desperate race against time with more on the line than ever before. Because even as she searches for the treasure and fights to protect her Grandma Mazur, her own deepest feelings will be tested—as Stephanie could finally be forced to choose between Joe Morelli and Ranger.

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Non-Fiction


A Promised Land by Barack Obama, narrated by Barack Obama

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency—a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.

Obama takes readers on a compelling journey from his earliest political aspirations to the pivotal Iowa caucus victory that demonstrated the power of grassroots activism to the watershed night of November 4, 2008, when he was elected 44th president of the United States, becoming the first African American to hold the nation’s highest office.

Reflecting on the presidency, he offers a unique and thoughtful exploration of both the awesome reach and the limits of presidential power, as well as singular insights into the dynamics of U.S. partisan politics and international diplomacy. Obama brings readers inside the Oval Office and the White House Situation Room, and to Moscow, Cairo, Beijing, and points beyond. We are privy to his thoughts as he assembles his cabinet, wrestles with a global financial crisis, takes the measure of Vladimir Putin, overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds to secure passage of the Affordable Care Act, clashes with generals about U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, tackles Wall Street reform, responds to the devastating Deepwater Horizon blowout, and authorizes Operation Neptune’s Spear, which leads to the death of Osama bin Laden.

A Promised Land is extraordinarily intimate and introspective—the story of one man’s bet with history, the faith of a community organizer tested on the world stage. Obama is candid about the balancing act of running for office as a Black American, bearing the expectations of a generation buoyed by messages of “hope and change,” and meeting the moral challenges of high-stakes decision-making. He is frank about the forces that opposed him at home and abroad, open about how living in the White House affected his wife and daughters, and unafraid to reveal self-doubt and disappointment. Yet he never wavers from his belief that inside the great, ongoing American experiment, progress is always possible.

This beautifully written and powerful book captures Barack Obama’s conviction that democracy is not a gift from on high but something founded on empathy and common understanding and built together, day by day.

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Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey, narrated by Matthew McConaughey

Publisher Summary:

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson, narrated by Roger Wayne

Publisher Summary:

For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. ‘F**k positivity,’ Mark Manson says. ‘Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it.’ In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected modern society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.

Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—’not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault.’ Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.

There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

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The Best of Me by David Sedaris, narrated by David Sedaris

For more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to listen without laughing.

Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler’s lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say “give it to me” in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.

But if all you expect to find in Sedaris’s work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these essays, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms—at long last—with the other.

Taken together, the performances in The Best of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected—it’s often harder, more fraught, and certainly weirder—but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful.

Full of joy, generosity, and the incisive humor that has led David Sedaris to be called “the funniest man alive” (Time Out New York), The Best of Me spans a career spent watching and learning and laughing—quite often at himself—and invites listeners deep into the world of one of the most brilliant and original writers of our time.

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Is this Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld, narrated by Jerry Seinfeld

Publisher Summary:

The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy.

Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”

For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.

Read more and sample the audio →


New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!

Audiobooks.com’s Best Audiobooks of 2020

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As 2020 wraps up, Audiobooks.com looks back on the audiobooks that have given us comfort, joy, and distraction in a most unprecedented year. From captivating debuts to sensational memoirs, the audiobooks of 2020 provide a unique snapshot of the changes and convictions that are sweeping the world.

Here are Audiobook.com’s best audiobooks and staff favorites of the year.

F I C T I O N

S C I E N C E
F I C T I O N

N O N – F I C T I O N

H I S T O R Y

T E E N
F I C T I O N

M Y S T E R Y
& T H R I L L E R

F A N T A S Y

B I O G R A P H Y
& M E M O I R

P O L I T I C S

T E E N
F A N T A S Y

R O M A N C E

H O R R O R

H E A L T H
& W E L L N E S S

S C I E N C E
& T E C H N O L O G Y

J U V E N I L E

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller, narrated by Lulu Miller

Part biography, part memoir, part scientific adventure, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a wondrous fable about how to persevere in a world where chaos will always prevail.

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The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek, narrated by Ken Jennings and Alex Trebek

Longtime Jeopardy! host and television icon Alex Trebek reflects on his life and career in this wise, charming, and inspiring memoir.

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My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, narrated by Grace Gummer

Exploring the psychological dynamics of the relationship between a precocious yet naïve teenage girl and her magnetic and manipulative teacher, My Dark Vanessa is a masterful portrayal of troubled adolescence and its repercussions.

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The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham, narrated by James Langton, Alana Kerr Collins

Inspired by true events, The Forgotten Home Child is an unforgettable novel about a young girl caught in a scheme to rid England’s streets of destitute children.

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A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough, narrated by David Attenborough

Broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough shares a lifetime of wisdom and a hopeful vision for the future.

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A Promised Land by Barack Obama, narrated by Barack Obama

In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama offers a riveting, deeply personal account of history in the making.

Read more and sample the audio →

If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha, narrated by Sue Jean Kim, Ruthie Ann Miles, Frances Cha, Jeena Yi

In contemporary Seoul, four young women make their way in a world defined by impossible standards of beauty, room salons catering to wealthy men, ruthless social hierarchies, and K-pop mania.

Read more and sample the audio →

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey, narrated by Matthew McConaughey

From the Academy Award®–winning actor comes an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.

Read more and sample the audio →


New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!

10 Royally Good Audiobooks for Fans of ‘The Crown’

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In a year of great uncertainty, we can at least all take solace in the fact that The Crown will undoubtedly serve up a slice of really good television in November. From the gorgeous sets to glamorous fashions, Netflix’s flashy period drama just premiered its most momentous season yet. After all, it’s got Margaret Thatcher, the Falklands War, IRA attacks, and, of course, Lady Diana Spencer.

If you’re dying for more royal goodness after binging the latest season, check out our list of the best audiobooks to dive into for more drama and intrigue. From biographies to historical fiction, you’re bound to find your next perfect cup of royal tea.


The Gown by Jennifer Robson, narrated by Marisa Calin

Since its premiere in 2016, The Crown has held the title of the most expensive show ever produced by Netflix. Of the whopping $130 million that Netflix invested into the first two seasons, £30,000 (roughly $37,000) alone went into creating an exact replica of one of the most famous gowns in history: Queen Elizabeth’s wedding dress.

With The Gown, Jennifer Robson takes us inside the workrooms where Queen Elizabeth’s famous wedding gown was created. Balancing behind-the-scenes details with a sweeping portrait of a society left reeling by the calamitous costs of victory, Robson introduces listeners to three unforgettable heroines whose lives are woven together by the pain of survival, the bonds of friendship, and the redemptive power of love.

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Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words by Andrew Morton, narrated by Michael Maloney, Caroline Langrishe

Season four of The Crown introduced viewers to a young Lady Diana Spencer, who, two decades after her death, remains an icon and enigma. Andrew Morton’s blockbuster biography is a must-listen for any Princess Diana aficionados and is as close to an autobiography as we’ll ever get. Written using secret tapes recorded by Diana and Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words reveals Diana’s unhappy marriage, her relationship with the Queen, her extraordinary life inside the House of Windsor, her hopes, her fears, and her dreams. In this fully revised edition of his groundbreaking biography, Morton considers Diana’s legacy and her relevance to the modern royal family.

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The Queen’s Secret: A Novel of England’s World War II Queen by Karen Harper, narrated by Bianca Amato

Karen Harper’s The Queen’s Secret focuses on a different Queen Elizabeth: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother. As a steely, enduring figure who is resolutely devoted to the crown, the Queen Mother’s role in the show has grown ever more diminished as The Crown chugs forward in time and shifts the focus onto Queen Elizabeth’s children. So, for those who want more of Queen Mum, The Queen’s Secret will be sure to satisfy that craving.

In this riveting novel of royal secrets and intrigue, Karen Harper lifts the veil on one of the world’s most fascinating families, and how its “secret weapon” of a matriarch maneuvered her way through one of the most dangerous chapters of the century.

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The Woman Before Wallis: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal by Bryn Turnbull, narrated by Mary Jane Wells

Scores of books and movies have already been written about Wallis Simpson, the woman for whom King Edward abdicated the crown. The banished Duchess of Windsor made appearances in three out of four seasons of the show, but nothing has been said of Thelma Morgan, the American divorcée who captured Prince Edward’s heart before Wallis. In The Woman Before Wallis, Bryn Turnbull takes readers from the raucous glamour of the Paris Ritz and the French Riviera to the quiet, private corners of St. James’s Palace to tell a sweeping story of love, loyalty, and betrayal.

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Mrs Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn, narrated by Simon Prebble

If you want to switch gears for a more lighthearted royal story, Mrs Queen Takes the Train will absolutely be your cup of tea. William Kuhn draws listeners into a few delightful, fictitious days in the life of a modern monarch.

Queen Elizabeth, now elderly and feeling a bit low, pops down to the stables to check on her horses. Then, in a hoodie borrowed from stable lass Rebecca, the Queen strolls out of the palace in search of a little fun. This lively, wonderfully inventive romp takes listeners into the mind of the grand matriarch of Britain’s Royal Family, bringing us an endearing runaway Queen Elizabeth on the town.

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Royal by Danielle Steel, narrated by Nick Afka Thomas

Although Danielle Steel’s Royal isn’t based on any real-life monarchs, it’s got all the heartbreak, drama, and romance to satisfy everyone who’s trying to fill the royal-sized hole left behind by the latest season of The Crown.

As war rages on in the summer of 1943, the King and Queen choose to quietly send their youngest daughter, Princess Charlotte, away to safety to live with a trusted noble family in the country. In time, she settles comfortably into a life out of the spotlight, utterly in the dark about her royal lineage. But, when a stack of hidden letters comes to light, a secret kept for nearly two decades finally surfaces, and a long lost princess emerges.

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The Other Windsor Girl: A Novel of Princess Margaret, Royal Rebel by Georgie Blalock, narrated by Ann Marie Gideon

Revisit the whirlwind life of your favorite royal troublemaker through the eyes of one of her ladies-in-waiting in Georgie Blalock’s The Other Windsor Girl. In dreary post-war Britain, Vera Strathmore, the daughter of an impoverished noble is swept into the fame and notoriety of the royal family and Princess Margaret’s fast-living friends when she is appointed as Margaret’s second lady-in-waiting. Thrust into the center of Margaret’s social and royal life, Vera watches the princess’s affairs unfurl with delicious drama.

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Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown, narrated by Eleanor Bron

From her iconic style to her rebellious spirit, it’s no wonder Princess Margaret aroused passion and indignation in equal measures. If you’re dying to learn more about the most talked-about English royal, look no further. Combining interviews, parodies, dreams, parallel lives, diaries, announcements, lists, catalogs, and essays, Craig Brown’s Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret is a kaleidoscopic experiment in biography and a witty meditation on fame and art, snobbery and deference, bohemia and high society.

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Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family by Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie, narrated by Omid Scobie

Fans who were hoping to see the latest Harry and Meghan royal drama play out on screen will be disappointed. The Crown creator Peter Morgan has confirmed the series’s sixth and final season will focus on the administrations of John Major and Tony Blair, the latter of which happened nearly a decade before Harry and Meghan met.

But, fret not! There’s plenty of material to dive into as Harry and Meghan’s saga unfolds. Finding Freedom by Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie is the first in-depth and intimate portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s life together. With unique access and written with the participation of those closest to the couple, Finding Freedom reveals why they chose to pursue a more independent path and the reasons behind their unprecedented decision to step away from their royal lives.

Read more and sample the audio →


The Crown: The Official Companion, Volume 2: Political Scandal, Personal Struggle, and the Years that Defined Elizabeth II (1956-1977) by Robert Lacey, narrated by Alex Jennings

Finally, your essential The Crown listening list wouldn’t be complete without Robert Lacey’s official companion book. As the show’s historical consultant, Lacey takes listeners through the real history that inspired the drama. Volume one covers the show’s first season from 1947 to 1955, while volume two covers the second and third seasons from 1956 to 1977. Extensively researched, Lacey’s companion audiobooks offer an in-depth exploration from behind the palace gates.

Read more and sample the audio →


New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!

October’s Top 10 Audiobooks.com Member Downloads

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Listen to last month’s most popular fiction and non-fiction titles downloaded by Audiobooks.com members.



Fiction


A Time for Mercy by John Grisham, narrated by Michael Beck

Publisher Summary:

Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the story than meets the eye. Jake’s fierce commitment to saving Drew from the gas chamber puts his career, his financial security, and the safety of his family on the line.

In what may be the most personal and accomplished legal thriller of John Grisham’s storied career, we deepen our acquaintance with the iconic Southern town of Clanton and the vivid cast of characters that so many readers know and cherish. The result is a richly rewarding novel that is both timely and timeless, full of wit, drama, and—most of all—heart.

Bursting with all the courthouse scheming, small-town intrigue, and stunning plot twists that have become the hallmarks of the master of the legal thriller, A Time for Mercy is John Grisham’s most powerful courtroom drama yet.

There is a time to kill and a time for justice. Now comes A Time for Mercy.

Read more and sample the audio →


The Return by Nicholas Sparks, narrated by Kyf Brewer

Publisher Summary:

Trevor Benson never intended to move back to New Bern, North Carolina. But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he’d inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any.

Tending to his grandfather’s beloved beehives, Trevor isn’t prepared to fall in love with a local . . . yet, from their very first encounter, Trevor feels a connection with deputy sheriff Natalie Masterson that he can’t ignore. But even as she seems to reciprocate his feelings, she remains frustratingly distant, making Trevor wonder what she’s hiding.

Further complicating his stay in New Bern is the presence of a sullen teenage girl, Callie, who lives in the trailer park down the road. Trevor hopes Callie can shed light on the mysterious circumstances of his grandfather’s death, but she offers few clues—until a crisis triggers a race to uncover the true nature of Callie’s past, one more intertwined with the elderly man’s passing than Trevor could ever have imagined.

In his quest to unravel Natalie and Callie’s secrets, Trevor will learn the true meaning of love and forgiveness . . . and that in life, to move forward, we must often return to the place where it all began.

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The Sentinel: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child, narrated by Scott Brick

Publisher Summary:

As always, Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there. One morning he ends up in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee.

But there’s nothing pleasant about the place.

In broad daylight Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. “It was four against one” . . . so Reacher intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution.

The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information . . . and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent, and clear his name.

Reacher is intrigued. There’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up, and murder—all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against.

Rule one: if you don’t know the trouble you’re in, keep Reacher by your side.

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The Searcher by Tana French, narrated by Roger Clark

Publisher Summary:

Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After twenty-five years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.

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Troubles in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand, narrated by Erin Bennett

Publisher Summary:

After uprooting her life in the States, Irene Steele has just settled in at the villa on St. John where her husband Russ had been living a double life. But a visit from the FBI shakes her foundations, and Irene once again learns just how little she knew about the man she loved. 

With help from their friends, Irene and her sons set up their lives while evidence mounts that the helicopter crash that killed Russ may not have been an accident. Meanwhile, the island watches this drama unfold—including the driver of a Jeep with tinted windows who seems to be shadowing the Steele family.

As a storm gathers strength in the Atlantic, surprises are in store for the Steeles: help from a mysterious source, and a new beginning in the paradise that has become their home. At last all will be revealed about the secrets and lies that brought Irene and her sons to St. John—and the truth that transformed them all.

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Non-Fiction


Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey, narrated by Matthew McConaughey

Publisher Summary:

I’ve been in this life for fifty years, been trying to work out its riddle for forty-two, and been keeping diaries of clues to that riddle for the last thirty-five. Notes about successes and failures, joys and sorrows, things that made me marvel, and things that made me laugh out loud. How to be fair. How to have less stress. How to have fun. How to hurt people less. How to get hurt less. How to be a good man. How to have meaning in life. How to be more me.

Recently, I worked up the courage to sit down with those diaries. I found stories I experienced, lessons I learned and forgot, poems, prayers, prescriptions, beliefs about what matters, some great photographs, and a whole bunch of bumper stickers. I found a reliable theme, an approach to living that gave me more satisfaction, at the time, and still: If you know how, and when, to deal with life’s challenges—how to get relative with the inevitable—you can enjoy a state of success I call “catching greenlights.”

So I took a one-way ticket to the desert and wrote this book: an album, a record, a story of my life so far. This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops.

Hopefully, it’s medicine that tastes good, a couple of aspirin instead of the infirmary, a spaceship to Mars without needing your pilot’s license, going to church without having to be born again, and laughing through the tears.

It’s a love letter. To life.

It’s also a guide to catching more greenlights—and to realizing that the yellows and reds eventually turn green too.

Good luck.

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Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day by Jay Shetty, narrated by Jay Shetty

Publisher Summary:

Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the #1 podcast On Purpose, distills the timeless wisdom he learned as a monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life.

Shetty grew up in a family where you could become one of three things—a doctor, a lawyer, or a failure. His family was convinced he had chosen option three: instead of attending his college graduation ceremony, he headed to India to become a monk, to meditate every day for four to eight hours, and devote his life to helping others. After three years, one of his teachers told him that he would have more impact on the world if he left the monk’s path to share his experience and wisdom with others. Heavily in debt, and with no recognizable skills on his résumé, he moved back home in north London with his parents.

Shetty reconnected with old school friends—many working for some of the world’s largest corporations—who were experiencing tremendous stress, pressure, and unhappiness, and they invited Shetty to coach them on well-being, purpose, and mindfulness. Since then, Shetty has become one of the world’s most popular influencers. In 2017, he was named in the Forbes magazine 30-under-30 for being a game-changer in the world of media. In 2018, he had the #1 video on Facebook with over 360 million views. His social media following totals over 38 million, he has produced over 400 viral videos which have amassed more than 8 billion views, and his podcast, On Purpose, is consistently ranked the world’s #1 Health and Wellness podcast.

In this inspiring, empowering book, Shetty draws on his time as a monk to show us how we can clear the roadblocks to our potential and power. Combining ancient wisdom and his own rich experiences in the ashram, Think Like a Monk reveals how to overcome negative thoughts and habits, and access the calm and purpose that lie within all of us. He transforms abstract lessons into advice and exercises we can all apply to reduce stress, improve relationships, and give the gifts we find in ourselves to the world. Shetty proves that everyone can—and should—think like a monk.

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Rage by Bob Woodward, narrated by Robert Petkoff

Publisher Summary:

Bob Woodward, the #1 international bestselling author of Fear: Trump in the White House, has uncovered the precise moment the president was warned that the Covid-19 epidemic would be the biggest national security threat to his presidency. In dramatic detail, Woodward takes readers into the Oval Office as Trump’s head pops up when he is told in January 2020 that the pandemic could reach the scale of the 1918 Spanish Flu that killed 675,000 Americans.

In 17 on-the-record interviews with Woodward over seven volatile months—an utterly vivid window into Trump’s mind—the president provides a self-portrait that is part denial and part combative interchange mixed with surprising moments of doubt as he glimpses the perils in the presidency and what he calls the “dynamite behind every door.”

At key decision points, Rage shows how Trump’s responses to the crises of 2020 were rooted in the instincts, habits and style he developed during his first three years as president.

Revisiting the earliest days of the Trump presidency, Rage reveals how Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats struggled to keep the country safe as the president dismantled any semblance of collegial national security decision making.

Rage draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand witnesses as well as participants’ notes, emails, diaries, calendars and confidential documents.

Woodward obtained 25 never-seen personal letters exchanged between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who describes the bond between the two leaders as out of a “fantasy film.”

Trump insists to Woodward he will triumph over Covid-19 and the economic calamity. “Don’t worry about it, Bob. Okay?” Trump told the author in July. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get to do another book. You’ll find I was right.”

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Didn’t See That Coming: Putting Life Back Together When Your World Falls Apart by Rachel Hollis, narrated by Rachel Hollis

Fear. Grief. Loss. Betrayal. Rachel Hollis has felt all those things, and she knows you have too. Now, she takes you to the other side. 

With her signature humor, heartfelt honesty, and intimate true-life stories, #1 New York Times bestselling author Rachel Hollis shows readers how to seize difficult moments for the learning experiences they are and the value and growth they provide.

Rachel Hollis sees you. As the millions who read her #1 New York Times bestsellers Girl, Wash Your Face and Girl, Stop Apologizing, attend her RISE conferences and follow her on social media know, she also wants to see you transform. 

When it comes to the “hard seasons” of life—the death of a loved one, divorce, loss of a job—transformation seems impossible when grief and uncertainty dominate your days. Especially when, as Didn’t See that Coming reveals, no one asks to have their future completely rearranged for them. But, as Rachel writes, it is up to you how you come through your pain—you can come through changed for the better, having learned and grown, or stuck in place where your identity becomes rooted in what hurt you. 

To Rachel, a life well-lived is one of purpose, focused only on the essentials. This is a small book about big feelings: inspirational, aspirational, and an anchor that shows that darkness can co-exist with the beautiful.

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Is this Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld, narrated by Jerry Seinfeld

Publisher Summary:

The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy.

Since his first performance at the legendary New York nightclub “Catch a Rising Star” as a twenty-one-year-old college student in fall of 1975, Jerry Seinfeld has written his own material and saved everything. “Whenever I came up with a funny bit, whether it happened on a stage, in a conversation, or working it out on my preferred canvas, the big yellow legal pad, I kept it in one of those old school accordion folders,” Seinfeld writes. “So I have everything I thought was worth saving from forty-five years of hacking away at this for all I was worth.”

For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favorite material, organized decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.

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Staff Pick: ‘A Deadly Education’ by Naomi Novik

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Title: A Deadly Education

Author: Naomi Novik

Narrator: Anisha Dadia

Can anyone say with absolute confidence that they had a good high school experience? Are there people out there for whom those long, cringe-worthy years didn’t turn into a black hole of memories you no longer talk, much less think, about once you’re safely outside the reaches of adolescence? It turns out even witches and wizards have a rough time of it at the magical Welsh school, Scholomance. Only, in addition to battling the crippling embarrassment of their teenage years, they also have to fight their way past the maleficaria—monsters with a particular thirst for young witches and wizards—just to graduate.

Now that’s rough.

A Deadly Education sees Nebula Award-winning author Naomi Novik returning to series form after her two previous standalones, Uprooted and Spinning Silver. Set at the Scholomance school in Wales, A Deadly Education follows prophesized villainess-to-be Galadriel, or El, who despite her affinity for dark magic is trying to thwart her ominous destiny. Her acerbic attitude keeps people at arm’s length—that is until she inadvertently catches the attention of school darling Orion Lake. She could care less, though. All she wants to do is keep her dark powers in check and maybe, hopefully, form an alliance by graduation so she can make it out of the Scholomance alive.

I was primed to love this audiobook because my two guilty pleasures just happen to be books about witches and books about boarding schools. But even the most magic-adverse person would find themselves hard-pressed to not love El in her more vulnerable moments. Novik’s masterful ability to create memorable characters is on full display here, and narrator Anisha Dadia’s animated performance only serves to heighten El’s sharp tongue and no-nonsense attitude. If you’ve been searching for the antihero of your dreams, look no further—El is your gal.

Clocking in at just under 11 hours, A Deadly Education is a thrilling ride that puts an unexpected spin on the magic school genre. In a world where students learn magic or literally die trying, you can’t help but root for these hapless young pupils as they risk their lives to stand in the cafeteria line.

Novik has once again proven herself to be one of the most imaginative fantasy writers of our time. With A Deadly Education, she has created an endlessly fascinating albeit grotesque world for listeners to discover. Just proceed with caution and make sure the maleficaria don’t get you.

Publisher Summary:

I decided that Orion Lake needed to die after the second time he saved my life.

Everyone loves Orion Lake. Everyone else, that is. Far as I’m concerned, he can keep his flashy combat magic to himself. I’m not joining his pack of adoring fans.

I don’t need help surviving the Scholomance, even if they do. Forget the hordes of monsters and cursed artifacts, I’m probably the most dangerous thing in the place. Just give me a chance and I’ll level mountains and kill untold millions, make myself the dark queen of the world.

At least, that’s what the world expects. Most of the other students in here would be delighted if Orion killed me like one more evil thing that’s crawled out of the drains. Sometimes I think they want me to turn into the evil witch they assume I am. The school certainly does.

But the Scholomance isn’t getting what it wants from me. And neither is Orion Lake. I may not be anyone’s idea of the shining hero, but I’m going to make it out of this place alive, and I’m not going to slaughter thousands to do it, either.

Although I’m giving serious consideration to just one.

With flawless mastery, Naomi Novik creates a school bursting with magic like you’ve never seen before, and a heroine for the ages—a character so sharply realized and so richly nuanced that she will live on in hearts and minds for generations to come.


New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!

Interview with C.L. Polk, Author of ‘The Midnight Bargain’

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If you’re an ardent fantasy fan, then you’ll know C.L. Polk from her World Fantasy Award-winning debut, Witchmark, the first entry in the Kingston Cycle series. This year, she’s stepping away from the world of the Kingston Cycle with her first standalone novel, The Midnight Bargain, which follows sorceress Beatrice Clayborn who must make a choice between her family and her ability to cast magic.

We got the chance to pick C.L. Polk’s brain about audiobooks, what inspired her to write The Midnight Bargain, and which book she’s most looking forward to this year. Keep reading to see what she had to say.


Audiobooks.com: What can readers gain from listening to the audiobook version of The Midnight Bargain that they might not necessarily get from reading the print version?

C. L. Polk: I really love audiobooks because they’re my perfect accompaniment on walks, while commuting, and even washing the dishes at home. The Midnight Bargain is enhanced by the companionable feeling of listening to someone read to you, bringing the voices of the characters and the world to life, all so the story can take you away.


Audiobooks.com: This will be your second collaboration with narrator Moira Quirk, who also narrated your previous audiobook Stormsong. How involved are you in the casting process and what do you look for in an audiobook narrator?

C. L. Polk: I was so happy to have Moira Quirk reading for me again. She really brought Grace to life in Stormsong. My involvement in the casting process is limited, so I’m very lucky to have Moira again!


Audiobooks.com: This is your first standalone novel. How did it feel to venture away from your Kingston Cycle series?

C. L. Polk: I really enjoyed writing The Midnight Bargain. I had been spending years in the world of the Kingston Cycle, and as the trilogy was coming to a close, it was time to do something different, and Beatrice’s story was waiting there, fresh and different and twirling in a circle to make all those skirts bell out. It’s always bittersweet when a saga comes to an end, but The Midnight Bargain was far too absorbing a project for me to feel sad about the end for long.


Audiobooks.com: The Midnight Bargain grapples with a world in which women forfeit the right to practice magic after marriage in order to protect their unborn children. Why did you decide to explore the issue of reproductive rights through a fantastical lens? What did the genre allow you to do or say that you otherwise couldn’t have?

C. L. Polk: This is what I always do. I’m writing about different worlds where magic is real—but the problems our world faces are problems there, too. I had the beginnings of The Midnight Bargain in my head for a few weeks, but I wasn’t really getting the traction I needed to make the story fly. But current events had me thinking about reproductive rights, and how we still have to fight, sometimes bare-knuckled, to control our lives. But to talk about that in a fantasy story, I had to provide a better reason than just warring opinions. The idea of the spiritborn provided that reason.


Audiobooks.com: Do you think you’ll ever return to Beatrice Clayborn’s story in the future?

C. L. Polk: I think if I did return to the world, I would have to tell a different character’s story, and so far, no one has volunteered! I think they’re wary of the ordeal Beatrice went through, honestly.


Audiobooks.com: In addition to your book projects, you also run a blog about the craft of writing. What advice do you have for all of the aspiring writers out there?

C. L. Polk: To thine own self be true. Write what you love. Please yourself. Always prioritize your enjoyment. Writing novels is hard work. it takes a long time. And you need to love the book for years and years afterward.


Audiobooks.com: What’s one book, real or one you wish was real, that you’re dying to read or listen to?

C. L. Polk: I need to read Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse. I loved her Sixth World books so much, and I’ve been dying to get my hands on her new series since the announcement.


New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!