AUDIBLE EDITOR

Doug Polisin

Goofy. Introspective. Bookish. Doug's go-to genre is literary fiction and, thanks to the recently adopted Wittels, his go-to place for listening is the local dog park.

Doug's Current Listens

"It's All About Suckage-Avoidance"

I had the immense pleasure of speaking with one of my all-time favorite writers, George Saunders, when Lincoln in the Bardo released in 2017. You can hear me geek-out with the award-winning author in this Audible Range article, as we discuss the origins of his highly inventive first full-length novel and the importance of “finding the fun” when writing. And below, I discuss three essential listens for Saunders fans.

Lincoln in the Bardo By: George Saunders

“Come for the record-breaking narrator cast—totaling over 166 voices—including incredible performances from Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, and Saunders himself, but stay for a one-of-a-kind work whose originality is matched only by its poignancy.”

Tenth of December By: George Saunders

“Hearing Saunders read these stories himself is a true gift. You get the sense that you're hearing the characters as the author heard them in his head, whether it's the voice of a baby deer or a manager giving the worst pep talk via memo.”

Congratulations, by the Way By: George Saunders

“This, along with David Foster Wallace's This Is Water, should be required listening for all humans. Personally, it never fails to bring me back to center, reminding me to choose kindness and compassion, and that empathy is a gift we too often forget to give.”

Memorable Scenes From Recent Listens

It
By:Stephen King
Narrated by:Steven Weber

Ben meets Pennywise

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"I'm gonna show you Marvell, Arkansas."

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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
By:Mark Twain
Narrated by:Nick Offerman

Armor is to Hank, what salad is to Ron Swanson

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I Can't Make This Up
By:Neil Strauss - contributor, Kevin Hart
Narrated by:Kevin Hart

Kevin Hart's "Charming Manipulation Scale"

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"Their eyes met. And they looked away."

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It
Ben meets Pennywise

Testimony
"I'm gonna show you Marvell, Arkansas."

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Armor is to Hank, what salad is to Ron Swanson

I Can't Make This Up
Kevin Hart's "Charming Manipulation Scale"

Preparation for the Next Life
"Their eyes met. And they looked away."

HUMOR

Born a Crime

Stories from a South African Childhood

By: Trevor Noah

Narrated by: Trevor Noah

Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins

Release date: 11-15-16

Language: English

5 out of 5 stars 213,463 ratings

A Comedian's Path to Self-Discovery

Just as fans of The Daily Show weren't quite sure what to expect when he was announced as the show's new host, I started Born a Crime not really knowing what I'd find in Noah's book. Comedy? Political and social commentary? Sure, but not in the way I expected. Instead, I was given so much more. Noah's story is intertwined with the final years and aftermath of apartheid-era South Africa. It's a story that begins with Noah's mother throwing him from a moving car to avoid a potentially fatal dispute with gangsters and follows the comedian's path to self-discovery amidst episodes both bittersweet and comical. It's eloquent and touching and funny and made all the better with his reading; especially as he recounts anecdotes involving his mother – the true show-stealer – and delivers clever turns of phrase as only a top-notch comic and storyteller can.
Zero K

By: Don DeLillo

Narrated by: Thomas Sadoski

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Release date: 05-03-16

Language: English

3.5 out of 5 stars 392 ratings

Frightening. Redemptive. Brilliant.

To say that I am a DeLillo fan would be an understatement. For me, he’s one of the few novelists whose books consistently act as lightning rods for those big, revelatory, a-ha moments where I’m reminded of the myriad intricacies of human life; of what it means to be alive – right here, right now – and that, despite the endless chaos surrounding us, perhaps there’s something redeeming about the human spirit. At the very least, he pulls things out of the periphery – things we don’t want to see or deal with – and brings them to the forefront. And something about that feels redemptive; it makes me feel less alone. This is all to say: upon finishing a DeLillo book, I expect to feel changed. With Zero K, he doesn’t disappoint. This isn’t a book for the faint-hearted or for lovers of plot-driven stories (with DeLillo, this is often the case). Instead, for a relatively short book, DeLillo poses big questions regarding mortality and identity, technology and religion, and the result is rather frightening, though brilliant, all the same. Parts of this book straight up terrified me – the structure, the language, the dialogue becoming dreamlike; a kind of funhouse existentialism. Again, it’s not for everyone. But if you’re looking for a necessary and important book from a necessary and important author, look no further.
I Can't Make This Up

Life Lessons

By: Neil Strauss - contributor, Kevin Hart

Narrated by: Kevin Hart

Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins

Release date: 06-06-17

Language: English

4.5 out of 5 stars 55,725 ratings

A Truly Authentic Kevin Hart Performance

It's not hard to imagine Kevin Hart standing in front of thousands in a packed arena or stadium, mining his incredible life for stories outrageous, fantastical, and altogether side-splitting. That's his day job. It's a lot harder to imagine being an audience of one to his boundless, larger-than-life personality; of what it would be like to have the world's greatest comedian step offstage and - with the same hilarious intensity and one-of-a-kind observations - tell his story directly to you. But this is precisely the experience one has while listening to I Can’t Make This Up. In audio, Kevin’s singular delivery and comic timing are on full display and fans are treated to ad-libbed content, brilliant asides, and hilarious tangents not on the page. The result is a truly authentic Kevin Hart performance: surprisingly heartfelt, incredibly inspirational, and always funny.
The Sellout

A Novel

By: Paul Beatty

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Release date: 07-07-15

Language: English

4 out of 5 stars 3,907 ratings

A Feat of Satiric Endurance

I'm kicking myself for waiting as long as I did before listening to this one. Beatty's novel earned him the distinction of being the first US writer to win the Man Booker Prize, drew as many comparisons to Pryor and Chappelle as Vonnegut and Twain in its brazen honesty and laugh-out-loud dissection of contemporary American society, and made plenty "Best of" lists last year. But it was hearing narrator Prentice Onayemi that finally convinced me to start Beatty's comic send-up of race and identity in America. Onayemi captures the manic, unceasing energy of Beatty's writing and performs a feat of satiric endurance, moving between characters with the vocal dexterity of a comedian and impressionist rolled in to one. And just as Beatty plays with social taboos and preconceived notions, you can hear Onayemi playing around similarly with his characterizations and, in turn, playing with the listener's expectations.
Priestdaddy

A Memoir

By: Patricia Lockwood

Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Release date: 05-02-17

Language: English

4 out of 5 stars 941 ratings

Every Turn of Phrase Reveals Some Hidden, Intangible Truth

I want to be careful about the way in which I write about this book. Not because the subject matter is scandalous (it's not), but because, like all beautifully complex things, it'd be easy to mislabel or to put Lockwood's memoir in a box; to diminish its magnificence and, ultimately, the spell it cast over me. It deserves more than that. So, I'll say this: great writers are often lauded for having an original voice. Well, Lockwood has that and then some (including an amazing – and amazingly absurd – sense of humor). More importantly, she's an original thinker whose devotion to language and words and poetry – her primary trade – can be felt in every line, every turn of phrase, and every bit of confounding imagery that seems to reveal some hidden, intangible truth that normally exists just outside of fingertips' reach.
Preparation for the Next Life

By: Atticus Lish

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins

Release date: 04-14-15

Language: English

3.5 out of 5 stars 461 ratings

Vivid. Distinct. Beautiful.

A finalist for the 2015 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Atticus Lish's Preparation for the Next Life is not only striking in its tightly crafted, yet incredibly detailed prose, but in its heart-breaking portrayal of people both physically and emotionally displaced. To say I fell for this book, an unlikely love story between an undocumented Chinese Muslim immigrant and a recently returned Iraq War veteran, would be an understatement. This book carried me away like no other book this year. The characters are so vivid; their physicality and voices so distinct, I couldn't help sharing in their lostness. Beautifully narrated with heartfelt sincerity by Robertson Dean, this book demands your attention and deserves it.
Slaughterhouse-Five

By: Kurt Vonnegut

Narrated by: James Franco

Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins

Release date: 11-03-15

Language: English

4.5 out of 5 stars 18,581 ratings

'That was I. That was me.'

It's probably been about a decade since I've visited Slaughterhouse-Five and yet, upon recently listening to Vonnegut's beloved novel, it was as if I was 'unstuck in time,' traveling back to some version of myself – a pimply, lanky teenager – who was in complete awe of Vonnegut's unique voice and blown away by the following line: 'That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book.' It's a line that still makes me dizzy; as if Vonnegut himself was somehow trapped in the book. And it's in finding this tone that Franco's narration succeeds. Yes, he deftly voices German and English soldiers with cold, comical detachment and gives the alien race of Tralfamadorians a nasally omnipresence, but it's in his delivery of Vonnegut's short, declarative sentences – the beaten quality of 'so it goes' – that I was reminded that this is a book about a soldier who, just like Vonnegut, cannot escape his memories of war.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: Nick Offerman

Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins

Release date: 09-19-17

Language: English

4.5 out of 5 stars 7,924 ratings

Simply Gumptious

I didn't think it was possible. Nick Offerman's reading of Tom Sawyer is one of my all-time favorites; a performance that made me fall in love with Twain's classic all over again. But I may actually love his performance here even more. The character of Hank Morgan – a bearish, no-nonsense adherent to practicality and pragmatism – could be seen as a natural predecessor to Ron Swanson (the character Offerman played in Parks and Recreation) as well as the very embodiment of the gumption the actor writes of in his own work. That is to say, this is a character tailor-made for Offerman. Even better is the fact that we get to hear him voice boastful knights and flittery damsels and a villainous Merlin. But mostly, I'm happy to see Offerman quickly becoming the go-to performer and interpreter of Twain's brilliant stories.
Spill Simmer Falter Wither

By: Sara Baume

Narrated by: John Keating

Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins

Release date: 03-08-16

Language: English

3.5 out of 5 stars 1,234 ratings

A Stand-Out Debut

Full disclosure: I recently adopted a dog, so there were parts in this book that were especially powerful and strangely transcendent, mirroring emotions and deftly putting into words things I now find myself experiencing again and again. But this story, at its surface a bonding between two damaged outcasts - one man, one dog - became much more to me. Sara Baume, in a stand-out debut, injects lyricism and poetry into every sentence, revealing moments of profound sadness as well as the magic of two lost souls finding one another. I won't say it's for everyone. But it's an extraordinary listen for fans of introspective, character studies. It’s a cloudy, Sunday morning, wrap-me-up-in-words kind of story. And for me, it was a beautiful reminder to be kind.
I Am Brian Wilson

By: Brian Wilson, Ben Greenman - contributor

Narrated by: Fred Berman

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Release date: 10-11-16

Language: English

4.5 out of 5 stars 602 ratings

A One-of-a-kind Career

In my last year of college, I took a class in digital recording and with unfettered access to a music studio, my roommate and I decided it'd be fun to try to recreate, as close as possible, a recording of the pop masterpiece "God Only Knows." It consumed us. And we quickly found that Brian Wilson's genius is inimitable. Which is to say, I'm a fan of The Beach Boys, but more so the mysterious figure of Wilson; the sandbox piano, the decision to focus on writing and recording over touring, the enormity and intricacy of Pet Sounds. In this memoir, Wilson reveals himself like never before, writing of his struggles with mental illness, the voices he hears, the ups and downs of a one-of-a-kind career in music, the family battles, and the love, and music that has sustained him.
The End of the Affair

By: Graham Greene

Narrated by: Colin Firth

Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins

Release date: 05-07-12

Language: English

4 out of 5 stars 11,395 ratings

Late to the Party...

I've had so many people here at Audible recommend Graham Greene's The End of the Affair that, on some subconscious level, I think I made it a point of contention not to listen. That is until I was faced with a family vacation that required a lengthy car ride with my folks; at which point, my mother selected Greene's captivating story of love, obsession, and faith on the basis of Colin Firth's name alone. And, truly, Firth dazzles here; his voice a roller coaster of rage and resentment when faced with the scorn of a lover and the incredulity of God’s existence, but delicate and poignant for moments when yearning feels like a tangible thing you can touch. For over six hours, we sat in silence, rapt. I may be late to the party, but this audiobook deserves every bit of praise it’s received.
Digging Up Mother

A Love Story

By: Johnny Depp - foreword, Doug Stanhope

Narrated by: Doug Stanhope and Friends

Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins

Release date: 08-16-16

Language: English

4.5 out of 5 stars 3,973 ratings

Not Your Average Comedic Memoir

Fair warning: Doug Stanhope is not for the faint of heart. If you’re easily offended, sensitive to foul language or, in general, stories featuring hard drinking, drug usage, sexual debauchery, and gross-out humor, stay away from this book. But, if you’re a fan of uncensored, truth-telling comedy – in the vein of Pryor and Carlin – and want to hear a wholly unique comedic voice helm a truly unique audiobook, this is an insane adventure you won’t want to pass up. Stanhope is a comic’s comic; a true stand-up road warrior dedicated to his craft; and his abrasive style (nothing is sacred) and candid storytelling is on full display here in audio. Stanhope uses the format as an opportunity to go further than the written page – becoming a self-aware narrator, color commentating throughout, expanding on stories, and bringing buddies in to tell their sides of the story – so the experience is that of sitting next to him at a bar, words drenched in booze and smoke. This isn’t your average comedic memoir; it’s a surprisingly heartfelt and outrageously hilarious story that took me out of my comfort zone and reminded me that sometimes your only recourse from the insanity of the world is a good laugh.
Tenth of December

Stories

By: George Saunders

Narrated by: George Saunders

Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins

Release date: 01-08-13

Language: English

4 out of 5 stars 1,688 ratings

Simply Remarkable.

George Saunders' short stories are beautiful, yet frightening; hilarious, yet unsettling. And I think that's because, while his plots may involve the bizarre – human lawn ornaments, love-inducing pharmaceuticals, thwarted abductions – his characters and their moral dilemmas seem so real. It's the honesty he gives to their humanity and the possibility of redemption that make the stories seem instructive, sacred. And with Saunders narrating, there's a closeness to the material that resonates when listening. You get the sense that you're hearing the characters as the author heard them in his head, whether it's the voice of a baby deer or a manager giving the worst pep talk via memo. Saunders is a natural storyteller – giving characters distinct voices and believable pacing. But it's his simple telling that makes these stories so special.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

By: Mark Twain

Narrated by: Nick Offerman

Series: Twain's Tom and Huck, Book 1

Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins

Release date: 09-20-16

Language: English

4.5 out of 5 stars 12,202 ratings

Fall in Love All Over Again

I am not exaggerating when I say that this is one of the best things I have ever listened to. Nor would it be dishonest to say that this recording made me fall in love with Twain's classic ode to adolescence all over again. But perhaps the strangest thing, as I keep telling all my friends, is that I completely forgot how truly, laugh-out-loud funny this book is. I have the narration to thank for that reminder. Park and Recreation's Nick Offerman is known for playing the quintessential gruff male, but he thoroughly astonishes here, bending his baritone effortlessly to give Twain's characters life. My favorites: the uptight, exhaustive wailing of Aunt Polly; the cracked pleading of drunkard Muff Potter; and, of course, the winking, boyish charm of Tom himself, which Offerman gracefully transforms into tenderness during moments of adolescent melancholy. Which is to say, you can hear Offerman enjoying the reading and loving its characters.