Nonfiction

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Economics (1,312)

Philosophy (2,919)

Social Sciences (4,538)

Unexplained Phenomena (1,282)

Gender Issues (742)

Politics (4,660)

True Crime (2,019)

World Affairs (1,944)

A brainy book that’s all heart

I once interned at Texas Monthly, where Mimi Swartz was already an editorial dynamo who could dissect Ann Richards’s wardrobe and tell you where to get the best margarita in the state. She uses her investigative and narrative chops to thrilling effect with Ticker, a thoroughly riveting account of the quest to build an artificial heart. Highlighting the individual stories of cardiology pioneers and patients, Swartz goes inside the operating room and through complex ethical debates to ferret out answers to questions like, What makes the heart more special than other organs? If it’s just a pump, why can’t we create an artificial one that works long term? And what are the implications of extending life beyond nature’s law? Perfect pacing, fascinating characters, and intellectual provocations make Ticker a brainy book that listens like fiction.

Kat J.

Audible Editor

Mother-child murder is not always what it seems

Great true crime transcends the basic story it is telling by shedding light on the darkest sides of our human nature. To the Bridge succeeds in that endeavor many times over. This story is absolutely not for the faint of heart; it's a tearjerker, and while the tagline on the cover of this audiobook reads "A True Story of Motherhood and Murder," I only believe half of that to be true. It is absolutely a story of murder, but chalking this up to a failure of a mother alone—regardless of the tragic fact that she threw both of her children off an Oregon bridge—is to only tell half of the story; a story in which both parents failed to meet their obligations to their children, and in the end, created a toxic environment that led to the downfall of a family.

Kyle S.

Audible Editor

Sensitive to smell?

Kate Grenville is a novelist and sense-triggered migraine sufferer with some questions: What is fragrance made of, how is it regulated, and what is it doing to our bodies? In this well-researched and skeptical exploration of what’s (quite literally) under our noses, Grenville reports that the smells we covet are often made from questionable, and even known carcinogenic, substances—and there’s little being done to regulate them. Hidden in the elusive label parfum are ingredients such as hydroxyphenol, linalool, ethylhexyl palmitate, hexyl benzoate, methyl phenylacetate, formaldehyde, and more. Everything from the air we breathe to the clothes we wear contains chemical cocktails that Grenville alleges could be making you sick. This debut audiobook performance from narrator Belinda McClory (best known for her role as Switch in The Matrix) delivers exactly what a perfume promises: allure, hypnotism, and delight—without the potential side effects. As a migraine sufferer myself, I’m looking forward to seeing if choosing unscented products and politely asking my friends to forgo the cologne will positively affect my health.

Rachael X.

Audible Editor

Parsing fact from fiction

I started listening Carlo Rovelli's book The Order of Time narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch (because who wouldn't listen to that?!) and it was lovely and poetic, but I had to put it down because he was arguing that time isn't absolute. Apparently time moves faster at higher altitudes, so if one twin brother lives on a mountain and another on a plain, the mountain brother ages faster...and then my head exploded. It seems I'm both fascinated and horrified by relativism, so this brilliant book-length essay from Michiko Kakutani helped me recalibrate after my adventure into physics. The former chief book critic at The New York Times deals with her subject deftly: how do we hold onto facts and the idea of absolute truth in a land that seems to be built on the shifting sands of narrative creation? It turns out a literary critic is the perfect person to parse fact from fiction and give us a whopping lesson in how storytelling works in the process.

Emily C.

Audible Editor

Minimum income for all

Universal Basic Income ("UBI") will probably be a hot topic in the next election cycle. Annie Lowrey’s audiobook—she’s a proponent of UBI, as the title implies—feels less like a political argument and more like a "what if" conversation with a well-informed friend. Lowrey surveys places where UBI is working or has been tried, and takes into account possible objections to a minimum income plan for the US She invites listeners to contemplate an "ethos" of UBI, a society that is inclusive, simple, and humane. How would $1,000 each month, no strings attached, change your life?

Christina H.

Audible Editor