The Mission of the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards is to celebrate the best of American literature, to expand its audience, and to enhance the cultural value of good writing in America.
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  • Play The Corrections
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Corrections
    ABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 2001

    The Corrections

    • ABRIDGED (9 hrs)
    • By Jonathan Franzen
    • Narrated By Dylan Baker
    Overall
    (643)
    Performance
    (104)
    Story
    (105)

    The Corrections is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century - a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. Richly realistic, darkly hilarious, deeply humane, it confirms Jonathan Franzen as one of our most brilliant interpreters of American society and the American soul.

    Charles says: "A memorable book; flawless narration"
  • Play True Believer
    AUDIOBOOK
    True Believer
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature, 2001

    True Believer

    • UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 23 mins)
    • By Virginia Euwer Wolff
    • Narrated By Heather Alicia Simms
    Overall
    (11)
    Performance
    (4)
    Story
    (4)

    What's new in LaVaughn's life is Jody, a boy she knew as a child who's come back to the housing project where she lives. Jody is like a miracle: he smells like chlorine; he calls her "little buddy;" he goes with her to the dance. It's just as if he's in love with her. Except not quite.

    Helen says: "This is a fantastic book..."
  • Play In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
    AUDIOBOOK
    In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Nonfiction, 2000

    In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

    • UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 18 mins)
    • By Nathaniel Philbrick
    • Narrated By Scott Brick
    Overall
    (500)
    Performance
    (153)
    Story
    (157)

    The ordeal of the whaleship Essex was an event as mythic in the 19th century as the sinking of the Titanic was in the 20th. In 1819, the Essex left Nantucket for the South Pacific with 20 crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than 90 days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival.

    Linda says: "Riveting"
  • Play Embracing Defeat
    AUDIOBOOK
    Embracing Defeat
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Nonfiction, 1999

    Embracing Defeat

    • UNABRIDGED (21 hrs and 39 mins)
    • By John W. Dower
    • Narrated By Edward Lewis
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (103)
    Performance
    (28)
    Story
    (27)

    This illuminating study explores the ways in which the shattering defeat of the Japanese in World War II, followed by over six years of American military occupation, affected every level of Japanese society. The author describes the countless ways in which the Japanese met the challenge of "starting over", from top-level manipulations concerning the fate of Emperor Hirohito to the hopes, fears, and activities of ordinary men and women in every walk of life.

    Keith says: "Pulitzer Prize Winner!"
  • Play When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
    AUDIOBOOK
    When Zachary Beaver Came to Town
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature, 1999

    When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

    • UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 59 mins)
    • By Kimberly Willis Holt
    • Narrated By Will Patton
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (52)
    Performance
    (15)
    Story
    (13)

    Nothing ever happens in Toby's small Texas town. Nothing much, that is, until this summer, which is full of big changes. It's tough for Toby when his mother leaves home to become a country singer. And Toby takes it hard when his best friend Cal's older brother goes off to fight in Vietnam. But now their sleepy town is about to get an even bigger jolt with the arrival of Zachary Beaver, billed as the fattest boy in the world. Toby is in for a summer unlike any other, a summer sure to change his life.

    A User says: "A Great Listen!!"
  • Play Holes
    AUDIOBOOK
    Holes
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Young People's Literature, 1998

    Holes

    • UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 23 mins)
    • By Louis Sachar
    • Narrated By Kerry Beyer
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (373)
    Performance
    (130)
    Story
    (135)

    Stanley Yelnats isn't so surprised when a miscarriage of justice sends him to a juvenile detention center. After all, his family has been ridden with bad luck ever since a one-legged gypsy put a curse on his great-great grandfather. He is told that the hard labor he must perform, digging five-foot holes in the dried up soil where Green Lake once sat, is meant to build character. But it soon becomes clear to Stanley that the warden is really using the boys to search for something very valuable.

    Jannice says: "Holes"
  • Play Cold Mountain
    AUDIOBOOK
    Cold Mountain
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 1997

    Cold Mountain

    • UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 21 mins)
    • By Charles Frazier
    • Narrated By Charles Frazier
    Overall
    (509)
    Performance
    (149)
    Story
    (148)

    One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished America in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor.

    M. Dunn says: "Cold Mountain (Unabridged)"
  • Play Sabbath's Theater
    AUDIOBOOK
    Sabbath's Theater
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 1995

    Sabbath's Theater

    • UNABRIDGED (16 hrs and 56 mins)
    • By Philip Roth
    • Narrated By David Dukes
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (96)
    Performance
    (18)
    Story
    (17)

    Once a scandalously inventive puppeteer, Mickey Sabbath at 64 is an aging, raging powerhouse, defiantly antagonistic and exceedingly libidinous. But after the death of his longtime mistress, Sabbath embarks on a turbulent journey into his past.

    Joshua says: "A great book by a great writer"
  • Play How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
    AUDIOBOOK
    How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
    ABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Nonfiction, 1994

    How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter

    • ABRIDGED (2 hrs and 56 mins)
    • By Sherwin B. Nuland
    • Narrated By Sherwin B. Nuland
    Overall
    (96)
    Performance
    (28)
    Story
    (28)

    There is a vast literature on death and dying, but there are few reliable accounts of the ways in which we die. The intimate account of how various diseases take away life, offered in How We Die, is not meant to prompt horror or terror but to demythologize the process of dying, to help us rid ourselves of that fear of the terra incognita.

    Ruth says: "Required reading for those still breathing"
  • Play The Shipping News
    AUDIOBOOK
    The Shipping News
    ABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 1993

    The Shipping News

    • ABRIDGED (5 hrs and 11 mins)
    • By Annie Proulx
    • Narrated By Robert Joy
    Overall
    (171)
    Performance
    (24)
    Story
    (24)

    Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, The Shipping News shows why E. Annie Proulx is recognized as a gifted and original writer. When Quoyle, a 36-year-old, third rate newspaperman, learns that his two-timing wife has abandoned him and their two daughters, he returns to his ancestral home on the Newfoundland coast, to rebuild his life. We also recommend Proulx's, Accordion Crimes.

    Karen says: "Find the unabridged version!"
  • Play All the Pretty Horses
    AUDIOBOOK
    All the Pretty Horses
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 1992

    All the Pretty Horses

    • UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 46 mins)
    • By Cormac McCarthy
    • Narrated By Frank Muller
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (860)
    Performance
    (217)
    Story
    (222)

    All the Pretty Horses, the first volume of the Borders Trilogy, tells of young John Grady Cole, the last of a long line of Texas ranchers. Across the border Mexico beckons; beautiful and desolate, rugged and cruelly civilized. With two companions, he sets off on an idyllic, sometimes comic adventure, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.

    Gene says: "A Super-Listen"
  • Play From Beirut to Jerusalem
    AUDIOBOOK
    From Beirut to Jerusalem
    ABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Nonfiction, 1989

    From Beirut to Jerusalem

    • ABRIDGED (3 hrs and 3 mins)
    • By Thomas L. Friedman
    • Narrated By Thomas L. Friedman
    Overall
    (92)
    Performance
    (27)
    Story
    (25)

    In From Beirut to Jerusalem, Thomas L. Friedman, a columnist for The New York Times and a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, has drawn on his decade in the Middle East to produce the most trenchant, vivid, and thought-provoking book yet on the region.

    Annie says: "They choose the past over the future"
  • Play Paris Trout
    AUDIOBOOK
    Paris Trout
    ABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 1988

    Paris Trout

    • ABRIDGED (2 hrs and 59 mins)
    • By Pete Dexter
    • Narrated By Charles S. Dutton
    Overall
    (16)
    Performance
    (5)
    Story
    (5)

    The man accused of shooting a black girl, a storekeeper named Paris Trout, has no great feeling of guilt, nor any fear that the system will fail to work his way. Trout becomes an embarrassment to the polite white society of his small Georgia town, which prefers to hold itself high above such primitive prejudice. But the trial does not allow any avoidance of the stark reality of social and racial tensions.

  • Play Paco's Story
    AUDIOBOOK
    Paco's Story
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 1987

    Paco's Story

    • UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 48 mins)
    • By Larry Heinemann
    • Narrated By Richard Ferrone
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (17)
    Performance
    (5)
    Story
    (5)

    The only man in Alpha Company to survive a cataclysmic Vietcong attack, Paco Sullivan is sent back to the U.S. with his legs full of pins, daily rations of Librium and Valium, and no sense of what to do next. One evening, he limps off a bus and into the small town of Boone, determined to find a real life; but no matter how hard he works, nothing muffles the anguish in his mind and body.

    Fran says: "Wanted it to end"
  • Play White Noise
    AUDIOBOOK
    White Noise
    UNABRIDGED
    National Book Award Winner, Fiction, 1985

    White Noise

    • UNABRIDGED (12 hrs and 33 mins)
    • By Don DeLillo
    • Narrated By Michael Prichard
    • Whispersync for Voice-ready
    Overall
    (137)
    Performance
    (53)
    Story
    (56)

    Jack Gladney teaches Hitler studies at a liberal arts college in Middle America where his colleagues include New York expatriates who want to immerse themselves in "American magic and dread". Jack and his fourth wife, Babette, bound by love, fear of death, and four ultramodern offspring, navigate the usual rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. Then a lethal black cloud floats over their lives, an airborne "toxic event", an industrial accident.

    A User says: "HORRIBLE performance."
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