Page Text: The ReadDown
Short Audiobooks You Can Listen to in a Day
Sometimes you just want to binge a good story—maybe you’re getting ready for a long flight, or car ride, or you just have a mountain of laundry you need to fold. This list of entertaining audiobooks can all be finished in a day. So go ahead, start listening!
1
by Helen Ellis
3 Hours and 12 Minutes
Enter the hilarious and inventive mind of Helen Ellis. The bestselling author of American Housewife teaches listeners her technique by which, if you don’t have something nice to say, you say something not so nice…in a nice way. While listening, you’ll encounter her thoughts on marriage and manners, thank-you notes and three-ways, ghosts, gynecology, and the monogrammed art of living as a Southern Lady.
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by Mohsin Hamid
4 Hours and 42 Minutes
Exit West is a visionary love story written and read by Mohsin Hamid. In a country on the brink of civil war, Nadia and Saeed meet and embark on a passionate love affair. But when violence breaks out in the streets, the neighborhood they once intimately knew is left unrecognizable and they must decide if they will stay, or leave their homeland behind.
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by Seth Rogen
6 Hours and 14 Minutes
Listeners are in for a real treat with this audiobook! Not only is Yearbook filled with hilarious personal stories from one of the biggest names in Hollywood, but the audiobook cast features more than 80 voices, including Seth Rogen’s mom and dad, Nick Kroll, Jason Segel, Dan Aykroyd, Tommy Chong, Billy Idol, and more!
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by Tony Kushner
6 Hours and 54 Minutes
In this production, adapted especially for the listening experience, Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, and the entire cast recreate their acclaimed performances from the 2018 Tony Award-winning National Theatre revival of Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. With narration by Bobby Cannavale and Edie Falco, and a musical score by Adrian Sutton, this audiobook is a compelling and immersive theatrical listening experience.
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by Oyinkan Braithwaite
4 Hours and 15 Minutes
A short, darkly funny, hand grenade of a novel about a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has a very inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. Sharp as nails and full of deadpan wit, Oyinkan Braithwaite’s deliciously deadly debut is as fun as it is frightening.
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by Samantha Irby
7 Hours and 40 Minutes
Samantha Irby laughs her way through tragicomic mishaps, neuroses, and taboos as she struggles through adulthood: chin hairs, depression, bad sex, failed relationships, masturbation, taco feasts, inflammatory bowel disease and more. This much-beloved romp is a treat for anyone in dire need of Irby’s infamous, scathing wit and poignant candor.
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by Elizabeth Strout and Rona Munro
1 Hours and 26 Minutes
Elizabeth Strout’s beautiful and heartbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning book is given new life in this audiobook performance of the stage production, read by actress Laura Linney. Listeners will get lost in this haunting story of Lucy Barton as she explores her family and upbringing, and her undying need to be a writer.
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by Diane Keaton
4 Hours and 30 Minutes
In this deeply personal book, written and read by the beloved actress Diane Keaton, Keaton explores the bonds between siblings. Growing up, she and her brother Randy were best friends, spending all of their time together. But as Randy grew older, he became more and more reclusive. Here Keaton contemplates the inner workings of a family, the ties that hold it together, and the special bond between siblings even when they are pulled far apart.
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by Phoebe Robinson
9 Hours and 30 Minutes
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone as insanely funny and brutally honest as Phoebe Robinson. In her newest collection, Phoebe shares her thoughts on our current cultural moment, blending together stories about performative allyship and white guilt with stories about zip-line attendants and dating someone from the UK. Listening to her wholly original voice would be a fabulous way to spend the day.
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by Tom Bissell
6 Hours and 16 Minutes
The supremely talented Tom Bissell returns with a fascinating story collection about people on the cusp of artistic and personal crises. This collection has something for everyone as each story ranges from laugh-out-loud funny, to dark and mysterious, to painfully cringe-worthy.
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by Celeste Ng
10 Hours and 2 Minutes
Celeste Ng’s suspenseful novel will keep listeners on the edge of their seats. For the Lees, a Chinese American family living in 1970s Ohio, their world is forever changed when their favorite child, Lydia, is found dead in the local lake. Lydia was the shining light who was supposed to fulfill the dreams that her parents were never able to pursue. After her shocking death, the threads holding the family together start to unravel and family secrets will be brought to light.
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by Jacqueline Woodson
3 Hours and 53 Minutes
Two families from different social classes are joined together by an unexpected pregnancy and the child that it produces. Moving forward and backward in time, with the power of poetry and the emotional richness of a narrative ten times its length, Jacqueline Woodson’s extraordinary novel uncovers the role that history and community have played in the experiences, decisions, and relationships of these families, and in the life of this child.
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by Akwaeke Emezi
5 Hours and 34 Minutes
In the town of Lucille, everyone—including best friends Jam and Redemption—has been taught that monsters don’t exist anymore. But when Jam meets Pet, a creature made of horns and claws, who claims to be hunting monsters, Jam has no idea what to believe. Jam sets out to uncover the truth, but can she save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?
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by Taylor Jenkins Reid
9 Hours and 4 Minutes
Written as an oral history, this gripping novel chronicles the meteoric rise of one of the biggest bands of the 1970s, their legendary lead singer, and ultimately reveals the reasons behind their infamous breakup. A wild ride from start to finish!
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