Audio Books

"My book, READING WITH PATRICK, is about a student of mine named Patrick, and this remarkable literary and intellectual awakening we experienced together in a county jail in Arkansas. He was a student in my class who was incredibly bright, really quiet, and just had trouble coming to school. I really encouraged him to come to school to write and to read and we had this incredible year together where he improved incredibly. Three years after this, I’ve left Arkansas—it’s a place where a lot of people leave—I agonize about it, I decide to go to law school. My parents are like, “what the heck are you doing in Arkansas?” Three years later, I’m in law school and I find out from a friend that Patrick had gotten into a fight and killed someone. I was totally devastated. I was shocked. I went back to Arkansas to visit him in county jail and I discovered that his reading skills had regressed. They were worse when I first met him in the eighth grade, and it’s because he had dropped out of school the year after I left the Delta. The heart of the book is really about us reading together in jail for seven months while we’re waiting for his trial, and about the incredible agility and the power of reading together and writing together. And it’s also about me grappling with my own failures and trying to think about the legacy of racism and poverty in the Mississippi Delta."

S2 E62: Michelle Kuo, Author of Reading with Patrick

"What inspired me to write MEDITATE WITH ME: A Step-by-Step Mindfulness Journey was I wanted kids to have a way to slow down. I wanted to give kids a beloved book that they could connect to, that they could interact with, practices that were easy for them, a way to feel their breath in their body, a way to slow down when they need it, and a way to really calm themselves…a way to sort of start practicing self-soothing techniques that they’ll really need throughout their entire lives."

S2 E63: Mariam Gates, Author of Meditate With Me

"I was inspired to write this book, UNLEASHING THE INNOVATORS, because I love big companies, I worked in one for 25 years, and in my consulting practice, company after company I meet is struggling with culture change, and revitalization, and growth, and energy, and risk and dealing with fear of failure. And many of them were using startups to try to kind of put new energy into the company. And yet, I didn’t think there was a playbook for that."

S2 E65: Jim Stengel, Author of Unleashing the Innovators

"My book THE FOUR TENDENCIES is about a personality framework that I’ve identified called the Four Tendencies that divides all of humanity into four types: Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, and Rebel. I got my first insight into this framework when I had lunch with a friend and she said something that got me obsessed with this question of personality types. She said, 'I know I would be happier if I would go running, and when I was in high school I was on the track team and I never missed track practice, so why can’t I go running now?' And I thought, 'Well, why? It’s the same person, the same behavior, at that time it was effortless but now she can’t do it. What’s going on?' My determination to figure out the answer to that question, in the end, led me to write a whole book, called THE FOUR TENDENCIES."

S2 E66: Gretchen Rubin, Author of The Four Tendencies

"I think that I realized there were a lot of stories and ideas that didn’t really make sense to talk about on stage in a stand-up context because they were just too embarrassing, or not funny enough, or just too personal, and I couldn’t figure out a way to perform them live. And so I started writing them down and they just sat in this document, and I just hoped one day I’d get brave enough to do it or smart enough to figure out how to do them on stage, and I just couldn’t. People kept suggesting I write a book and I always just felt like, 'Oh God, that’s something you do when you have a long life.' I just didn’t feel like I had enough to offer, and then I thought, “Oh, maybe I should do all those stories that I've never figured out how to tell on stage. Maybe they’re a book.' And I started looking at them and I was like, “Wow this stuff’s embarrassing, I’m never gonna be able to say this in front of people.' So I just gave up on that ever happening and I started turning it into a book.  And then to get through it I had to get an intention together, I had to get a mantra together and I was like, 'Okay, I’m gonna write the book that I wish had been available to me when I was 18. I wanna write a bible for people who want to grow and feel better about their awful choices.'"

S2 E70: Whitney Cummings, Author of I'm Fine...and Other Lies

"My book, SO MUCH I WANT TO TELL YOU: Letters to My Little Sister, is a collection of essays and lessons that I’ve learned over the past decade since her suicide in 2007."

S2 E72: Anna Akana, Author of So Much I Want to Tell You

"I had been working in the single-mom space through my blog and podcast, and speaking and media engagements, for more than five years. I was raised by a single mom, I became a single mom, and I had a lot of initial shame around being a single mom. And, you know what? It happens to suit me really well. And I found myself relaxing into this time that I’m in and finding all these women—there’s ten million single moms in our country, millions worldwide, and these women have nothing to be ashamed about. I’m meeting incredible women every day that are doing incredible things—in business, in their communities, with their families—and I wanted to reach out to them. And I wanted to inspire the women that aren’t quite there yet."

S2 E75: Emma Johnson, Author of The Kickass Single Mom

"I wrote this book, AN AMERICAN FAMILY, to tell the story of my family’s immigration to the United States. But behind all this, the American values that inspired me to decide to come to the United States and then make it a home."

S2 E76: Khizr Khan, Author of American Family

"PLAYING WITH FIRE is set in the 1968 presidential campaign, but the book is about nothing less than life and death, because that's what was at stake in the 1968 presidential campaign."

S2 E78: Lawrence O'Donnell, Author of Playing With Fire

"In this New Year, you might want to try meditation. Some of you may have wondered about the benefits, stress reduction, lowering of anxiety, helping you cope more efficiently, be less frustrated, less addicted in your behavior. The most important thing from the beginning is not to turn it into another self-improvement project. Meditation can be useful if you don’t expect too much from it. So let me guide you a little bit into the way I think about it."

S3 E01: Mark Epstein, Author of Advice Not Given

Here's a clip from our new audiobook, YOU HAVE NO IDEA, by Vanessa and Helen Williams. Vanessa and Helen Williams.

Summary:
When Vanessa Williams was growing up, she had a plan: She'd go to college and major in musical theater; afterward she'd get her MFA from the Yale School of Drama, and then she would embark on a successful career on Broadway. But her life took a detour and she wound up the first black Miss America in September 1983 (an accomplishment that she never planned for or desired), only to be forced to resign ten months later due to a nude photo scandal-much to the shock of her mother, Helen, who had told her, "never pose nude for anyone". But Vanessa survived this setback, and many others to come, to enjoy a thirty-plus-year career as an award-winning singer and actress. Vanessa has been asked to write her memoir many times, but only now-in collaboration with her mother, Helen-is she ready to tell her story. 

Vanessa grew up in Millwood, New York, part of one of the town's only African-American families. As a teenager, Vanessa and Helen were constantly at odds. But despite their early conflicts, Helen has always ardently protected and supported her daughter, staying in contact with the FBI about the death threats Vanessa received after being crowned and being there for her through the birth of her four children and dissolution of her two marriages. 
Vanessa describes how she's made it through the ups and downs of her life as well as her career-from the The Right Stuff to Kiss of the Spider Woman to Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. Jointly written by Vanessa and Helen and filled with dozens of personal family photos and mementos, You Have No Idea is an empowering celebration of the love between a mother and daughter and the life, thus far, of a woman who beat the odds to achieve her destiny. 

Available for purchase at:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/You-Have-Idea-No-nonsense-Hollywood/dp/B007UWP9D4/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1347370805&sr=1-1">Amazon - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/you-have-no-idea-vanessa-williams/1110953350?ean=9781101564257">Barnes & Noble - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/you-have-no-idea-famous-daughter/id519734426?uo=4">Itunes - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B007SYMA4K&qid=1347371063&sr=1-1">Audible.com - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/book/helen-williams/you-have-no-idea/10122723/:">emusic.com - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>

You Have No Idea, written and read by Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams

Philip Pullman reading "Little Red Riding Hood" from his new book, Grimm Tales.

About the book:
2012 is the 200th anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales. In celebration of this anniversary, award-winning author Philip Pullman presents his fifty favourite stories from the Brothers Grimm in a 'clear as water' retelling, making them feel fresh and unfamiliar with his dark, distinctive voice. 



Philip Pullman: Grimm Tales (Author Reading) Little Red Riding Hood

Katherine Angel reads an extract from her book Unmastered: A Book on Desire, Most Difficult to Tell.

About the book:

Unmastered is a new kind of book that allows us to think afresh about desire. Incisive, moving, and lyrical, it opens up a larger space for the exploration of feelings that can be difficult to express. Touching on experiences of desire and pleasure, as well as grief and pain, the book probes the porousness between masculine and feminine, thought and sensation, self and culture, power and pliancy. Katherine Angel reflects on the history of her own feelings, on her encounters and beliefs, and shows how our lives can be shaped by sexuality and feminism; by the words we use, and the stories we tell. The result is a book letting light into places that are often dark and constrained - a searching, erotic work that shifts in meaning and resonance even as it is read. 


Katherine Angel: Unmastered (Author Reading)

An extract from the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, including the 5 'missing pages' discovered by the Anne Frank Foundation in 2001. Insightfully read by the actress Helena Bonham Carter. 

The book is now also available digitally, watch the app trailer here: po.st/hTXSEh 

In Amsterdam, in the summer of 1942, the Nazis forced teenager Anne Frank and her family into hiding. For over two years, they, another family and a German dentist lived in a 'secret annexe', fearing discovery. All that time, Anne kept a diary.

An intimate record of tension and struggle, adolescence and confinement, anger and heartbreak, Anne Frank's diary is one of those unique documents, famed throughout the world.It portrays innocence and humanity, suffering and survival in the starkest and most moving terms.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Saturday, 20th June 1942) read by Helena Bonham Carter

“Tell me the story of Everest,” she said, a fervent smile sweeping across her face, creasing the corners of her eyes. “Tell me about this mountain that’s stealing you away from me.”

In 1924 George Mallory departs on his third expedition to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Left behind in Cambridge, George’s young wife, Ruth, along with the rest of a war-ravaged England, anticipates news they hope will reclaim some of the empire’s faded glory. Through alternating narratives, what emerges is a beautifully rendered story of love torn apart by obsession and the need for redemption.

Available for purchase at:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Above-All-Things/dp/B00BERA54O/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1361991931&sr=1-1">Amazon - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/above-all-things-unabridged/id597733960?uo=4">iTunes - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B00B5HHTPG&qid=1361992080&sr=1-1">Audible.com - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://www.emusic.com/book/tanis-rideout/above-all-things/10130200/"> emusic.com - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>


Above All Things by Tanis Rideout, read by Emily Gray

Mercy Thompson returns in the seventh novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Mercy Thompson’s life has undergone a seismic change. Becoming the mate of Adam Hauptman—the charismatic Alpha of the local werewolf pack—has made her a stepmother to his daughter Jesse, a relationship that brings moments of blissful normalcy to Mercy’s life. But on the edges of humanity, what passes for a minor mishap on an ordinary day can turn into so much more…

After an accident in bumper-to-bumper traffic, Mercy and Jesse can’t reach Adam—or anyone else in the pack for that matter. They’ve all been abducted.

Through their mating bond, all Mercy knows is that Adam is angry and in pain. With the werewolves fighting a political battle to gain acceptance from the public, Mercy fears Adam’s disappearance may be related—and that he and the pack are in serious danger. Outclassed and on her own, Mercy may be forced to seek assistance from any ally she can get, no matter how unlikely.

Available for purchase at:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Frost-Burned-Mercy-Thompson-Book/dp/B00BP3FDXA/ref=tmm_aud_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1362591602&sr=1-1">Amazon - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/frost-burned-mercy-thompson/id613789951?uo=4">iTunes - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_2?asin=B00BL7ZMTK&qid=1362591971&sr=1-2">Audible - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>
<a href="http://www.emusic.com/book/patricia-briggs/frost-burned/10130491/">emusic.com - Audiobook (downloadable format)</a>


Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs, read by Lorelei King

Development Executive/ Founder

Audio 5:1
(Artist publication and development agency.)

*Currently under construction

Penguin Random House Audio is the market leader for adult and children's audiobook publishing. Follow us on Twitter @PRHAudio.

You Have No Idea, written and read by Vanessa Williams and Helen Williams

PRH Audio

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