Every year, the National Book Critics Circle presents awards for the finest books published in English.
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  • Play The Memory Palace
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Memory Palace
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Autobiography, 2011

    The Memory Palace

    • UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 9 mins)
    • By Mira Bartok
    • Narrated By Hillary Huber
    Overall
    (27)
    Performance
    (13)
    Story
    (13)

    When piano prodigy Norma Herr was healthy, she was the most vibrant personality in the room. But as her schizophrenic episodes became more frequent and more dangerous, she withdrew into a world that neither of her daughters could make any sense of. After being violently attacked for demanding that Norma seek help, Mira Bartok and her sister changed their names and cut off all contact in order to keep themselves safe.

    Lady says: "A little less than expected"
  • Play A Visit from the Goon Squad
    AUDIOBOOK
    A Visit from the Goon Squad
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2010

    A Visit from the Goon Squad

    • UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 8 mins)
    • By Jennifer Egan
    • Narrated By Roxana Ortega
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (891)
    Performance
    (528)
    Story
    (529)

    Jennifer Egan brings her unique gifts as a novelist and short story writer to a compulsively listenable narrative that centers on Bennie Salazar, an aging punk rocker and record executive, and the beautiful Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs.

    Laurene says: "Excellent, subtle, moving"
  • Play How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
    AUDIOBOOK
    How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Biography, 2010

    How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

    • UNABRIDGED (13 hrs and 26 mins)
    • By Sarah Bakewell
    • Narrated By Davina Porter
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (54)
    Performance
    (43)
    Story
    (41)

    This question obsessed Renaissance writers, none more than Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, perhaps the first recognizably modern individual. A nobleman, public official, and winegrower, he wrote free-roaming explorations of his thought and experience, unlike anything written before. He called them essays, meaning “attempts” or “tries.” He put whatever was in his head into them: his tastes in wine and food, his childhood memories, the way his dog’s ears twitched when it was dreaming, as well as the religious wars....

    Darwin8u says: "Interesting and in parts Inspired."
  • Play Half a Life: A Memoir
    AUDIOBOOK
    Half a Life: A Memoir
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Autobiography, 2010

    Half a Life: A Memoir

    • UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 10 mins)
    • By Darin Strauss
    • Narrated By Darin Strauss
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (19)
    Performance
    (18)
    Story
    (16)

    Acclaimed novelist Darin Strauss examines the far-reaching consequences of the tragic moment that has shadowed his whole life. In his last month of high school, he was behind the wheel of his dad's Oldsmobile, driving with friends, heading off to play mini-golf. Then: a classmate swerved in front of his car. The collision resulted in her death. With piercing insight and stark prose, Darin Strauss leads us on a deeply personal, immediate, and emotional journey.

    Philippa says: "Penance Finally And Thankfully Meets With Peace"
  • Play The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, General Nonfiction, 2010

    The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

    • UNABRIDGED (22 hrs and 42 mins)
    • By Isabel Wilkerson
    • Narrated By Robin Miles
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (521)
    Performance
    (382)
    Story
    (382)

    In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to previously untapped data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.

    Lila says: "Superior non-fiction"
  • Play Cheever: A Life
    AUDIOBOOK
    Cheever: A Life
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Biography, 2009

    Cheever: A Life

    • UNABRIDGED (27 hrs and 59 mins)
    • By Blake Bailey
    • Narrated By Malcolm Hillgartner
    Overall
    (38)
    Performance
    (13)
    Story
    (11)

    John Cheever was a soul in conflict, a high-school dropout who published his first story at 18, a dire alcoholic who recovered to write the great novel Falconer, a secret bisexual who struggled with his longings and his fierce homophobia, whose groundbreaking work landed him on the covers of Time and Newsweek, a man who believed in the power of family love and sexual pleasure, a man whose desperate loneliness was never wholly offset by his faith in the joy of creation.

    Marc-Fr says: "all you ever wanted to know about Cheever"
  • Play Wolf Hall
    AUDIOBOOK
    Wolf Hall
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2009

    Wolf Hall

    • UNABRIDGED (24 hrs and 19 mins)
    • By Hilary Mantel
    • Narrated By Simon Slater
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (1381)
    Performance
    (720)
    Story
    (718)

    Winner of the prestigious Man Booker prize for fiction. In the ruthless arena of King Henry VIII's court, only one man dares to gamble his life to win the king's favor and ascend to the heights of political powerEngland in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn.

    S. Marie says: "A unique perspective of history"
  • Play The Forever War
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Forever War
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, General Nonfiction 2008

    The Forever War

    • UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 40 mins)
    • By Dexter Filkins
    • Narrated By Robertson Dean
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (174)
    Performance
    (37)
    Story
    (36)

    Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, we witness the chain of events that began with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, continued with the attacks of 9/11, and moved on to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Forever War allows us a visceral understanding of today's battlefields and of the experiences of the people on the ground, warriors and innocents alike. It is a brilliant, fearless work, not just about America's wars after 9/11, but ultimately about the nature of war itself.

    Terry says: "A memorable "read""
  • Play The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2007

    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

    • UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 57 mins)
    • By Junot Diaz
    • Narrated By Jonathan Davis, Staci Snell
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (1806)
    Performance
    (564)
    Story
    (565)

    Things have never been easy for Oscar, a sweet but disastrously overweight, lovesick Dominican ghetto nerd. Oscar dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, of finding love. But he may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku: the curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations, dooming them to prison, torture, tragic accidents, and, above all, ill-starred love. Oscar, still waiting for his first kiss, is just its most recent victim.

    Kathleen says: "Fabulous listen"
  • Play Brother, I'm Dying
    AUDIOBOOK
    Brother, I'm Dying
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Autobiography, 2007

    Brother, I'm Dying

    • UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 51 mins)
    • By Edwidge Danticat
    • Narrated By Robin Miles
    Overall
    (80)
    Performance
    (30)
    Story
    (29)

    Award-winning, best-selling author Edwidge Danticat taps her exceptional storytelling gifts for this memoir of the two men who raised her. When the author was only four years old, her parents emigrated from Haiti to New York in search of a better life, leaving their daughter in the care of her uncle Joseph. A peaceful pastor in Port-au-Prince, Joseph raised Edwidge with the love and devotion of a father, despite facing many hardships in politically turbulent Haiti.

    Chandra says: "A Superb Reflection"
  • Play The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Criticism, 2007

    The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century

    • UNABRIDGED (23 hrs and 7 mins)
    • By Alex Ross
    • Narrated By Grover Gardner
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (199)
    Performance
    (55)
    Story
    (54)

    The Rest Is Noise takes the listener inside the labyrinth of modern music, from turn-of-the-century Vienna to downtown New York in the '60s and '70s. We meet the maverick personalities and follow the rise of mass culture on this sweeping tour of 20th-century history through its music.

    Paula says: "Learned so much!"
  • Play The Inheritance of Loss
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Inheritance of Loss
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2006

    The Inheritance of Loss

    • UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 12 mins)
    • By Kiran Desai
    • Narrated By Meera Simhan
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (300)
    Performance
    (68)
    Story
    (70)

    In a crumbling, isolated house at the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga lives an embittered old judge. He only wants to retire in peace, but then his orphaned granddaughter, Sai, arrives on his doorstep. The judge's chatty cook watches over her, but his thoughts are mostly with his son, Biju, who is hop-scotching from one New York restaurant job to another. A novel of depth and emotion, Desai's second, long-awaited novel fulfills the grand promise established by her first.

    Bob says: "Gorgeous prose but grim"
  • Play Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution
    AUDIOBOOK
    Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution
    ABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, General Nonfiction 2006

    Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution

    • ABRIDGED (11 hrs and 51 mins)
    • By Simon Schama
    • Narrated By Simon Schama
    Overall
    (56)
    Performance
    (15)
    Story
    (14)

    With powerfully vivid storytelling, often in the voices of the slaves themselves and the white abolitionists who became their emancipators and protectors, Schama details the odyssey of the escaped blacks through the fires of war and the terror of potential recapture at the war's end, into inhospitable Nova Scotia, where thousands who had served the Crown were betrayed and, in a little-known hegira of the slave epic, sent across the broad, stormy ocean to Sierra Leone.

    A User says: "Outstanding book"
  • Play The March: A Novel
    AUDIOBOOK
    The March: A Novel
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2005

    The March: A Novel

    • UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 11 mins)
    • By E.L. Doctorow
    • Narrated By Joe Morton
    Overall
    (495)
    Performance
    (71)
    Story
    (73)

    Almost hypnotic in its narrative drive, The March stunningly renders the countless lives swept up in the violence of a country at war with itself. The great march in E.L. Doctorow's hands becomes something more, a floating world, a nomadic consciousness, and an unforgettable reading experience with awesome relevance to our own times.

    Jim E says: "Uncivil War"
  • Play American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
    AUDIOBOOK
    American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Biography, 2005

    American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

    • UNABRIDGED (26 hrs and 30 mins)
    • By Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
    • Narrated By Jeff Cummings
    Overall
    (653)
    Performance
    (292)
    Story
    (298)

    J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.

    Roy says: "A "Blast" from the Past"
  • Play Gilead
    AUDIOBOOK
    Gilead
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2004

    Gilead

    • UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 59 mins)
    • By Marilynne Robinson
    • Narrated By Tim Jerome
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (537)
    Performance
    (81)
    Story
    (79)

    In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's life, he begins a letter to his young son, an account of himself and his forebears. Ames is the son of an Iowan preacher and the grandson of a minister who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ bound in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for abolition: He "preached men into the Civil War", then, at age 50, became a chaplain in the Union Army, losing his right eye in battle.

    Jim says: "The wonder of retrospect"
  • Play The Known World
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Known World
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2003

    The Known World

    • UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 13 mins)
    • By Edward P. Jones
    • Narrated By Kevin Free
    Overall
    (422)
    Performance
    (49)
    Story
    (43)

    Henry Townsend, a black farmer, bootmaker, and former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor, William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful white man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation, as well as of his own slaves. When he dies, his widow Caldonia succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart.

    Rachel says: "wonderful and highly recommended"
  • Play Atonement
    AUDIOBOOK
    Atonement
    UNABRIDGED
    • By Ian McEwan
    • Narrated by Jill Tanner
    • Length:14 hrs and 4 mins
    • Release Date: 08-15-03
    • 3.90  (877 ratings)
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2002

    Atonement

    • UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 4 mins)
    • By Ian McEwan
    • Narrated By Jill Tanner
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (877)
    Performance
    (184)
    Story
    (180)

    In Atonement, three children lose their innocence, as the sweltering summer heat bears down on the hottest day in 1935, and their lives are changed forever. Cecilia Tallis is of England's priviledged class; Robbie Turner is the housekeeper's son. In their moment of intimate surrender, they are interrupted by Cecilia's hyperimaginative and scheming 13-year-old sister, Briony. And as chaos consumes the family, Briony commits a crime, the guilt of which she shall carry throughout her life.

    William R. Creech says: "Well written; well read."
  • Play Being Dead
    AUDIOBOOK
    Being Dead
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction, 2000

    Being Dead

    • UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 50 mins)
    • By Jim Crace
    • Narrated By Virginia Leishman
    Overall
    (145)
    Performance
    (17)
    Story
    (15)

    Jim Crace has been called "one of the brightest lights in contemporary British fiction" by The New York Times Book Review. His novels have won a Whitbread Prize, an E.M. Forster Award, the Guardian Fiction Award, the GAP International Prize for Literature, and have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Far-ranging in its imagery, Being Dead is a provocative examination of mortality.

    J. Cline says: "Contemplating Death"
  • Play Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
    AUDIOBOOK
    Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
    UNABRIDGED
    • By Ted Conover
    • Length:11 hrs and 33 mins
    • Release Date: 04-25-05
    • 3.90  (114 ratings)
    National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, General Nonfiction 2000

    Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

    • UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 33 mins)
    • By Ted Conover
    Overall
    (114)
    Performance
    (38)
    Story
    (38)

    As he struggles to be a good officer, Ted Conover angers inmates, dodges blows, works to balance decency with toughness, and participates in prison rituals - strip frisks, cell searches, cell "extractions" - that exact a toll on inmates and officers alike. The tale begins with the corrections academy and ends with the flames and smoke of New Year's Eve on Conover's floor of the notorious B-Block. Along the way, Conover also recounts the history of Sing Sing.

    Steve says: "THE BEST BOOK ON PRISON LIFE I HAVE EVER READ!!!"
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