Painter Alicia Berenson shoots her husband and then never speaks again. Psychotherapist Theo Faber becomes determined to find out why. The twist is the reason people recommend it, so go in knowing as little as possible.

It is opening night at The Manor, a new luxury resort, and the guests are hiding more than they let on. Secrets, lies and a murder follow, told by a full cast of narrators.

A woman who badly needs a fresh start takes a live-in job with the wealthy Winchesters, and soon realizes that the family’s secrets are more dangerous than her own.

Four friends in a retirement village meet every week to discuss unsolved crimes. When a local developer is found dead, they get their first live case. It is funny, warm and has been made into a Netflix film.

Daphne’s fiancé leaves her for his childhood best friend, so she ends up sharing a house in Waning Bay, Michigan with that friend’s ex, a scruffy, chaotic man named Miles. An opposites-attract romance with a lot of humor.

Ph.D. candidate Olive Smith kisses the first man she sees to convince her best friend that she has a boyfriend. He turns out to be Adam Carlsen, a hotshot professor with a fearsome reputation, who agrees to play along.

Tova Sullivan works the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, where she befriends Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus with secrets of his own. Michael Urie voices Marcellus, and it has been made into a Netflix film.

Between life and death, Nora Seed finds a library where every book is a life she might have lived if she had made different choices. Carey Mulligan reads this gentle story about regret and second chances.

Percival Everett retells Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Jim, the enslaved man traveling with Huck. It won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is one of the shortest books on this list.

Sam and Sadie, two college friends who are often in love but never lovers, become creative partners in the world of video game design. At 13 hours 52 minutes it is the longest book here, and it still fits inside a month.

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family’s cherry orchard in Northern Michigan and ask her to tell the story of Peter Duke, the famous actor she fell in love with at a theater company called Tom Lake.

A nameless teenager known as the kid joins a gang of scalp hunters on the Texas-Mexico border around 1850, led by the ruthless Judge Holden. It is poetic, bleak and extremely violent.

Set against China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space and invites an alien civilization to answer. A hard science fiction novel about first contact.

Bilbo Baggins is swept into an adventure with a company of dwarves who want to reclaim their homeland from the dragon Smaug. Andy Serkis, who played Gollum in Peter Jackson’s films, brings every voice to life.

Kirsten Raymonde never forgets the night the famous actor Arthur Leander has a heart attack on stage during King Lear, the same night a deadly flu pandemic arrives. Years later, she travels the Great Lakes region with a group of actors performing for the survivors. A haunting novel about art and survival.

Piranesi lives in a house with endless rooms, thousands of statues and an ocean that surges up the staircases. A short, hypnotic fantasy read by Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Dave Grohl reads his own stories from Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, and it feels like a long conversation with a funny friend.

Viola Davis traces her path from a childhood marked by poverty to an acclaimed acting career, reading her own story with the emotion it deserves.

Bourdain’s candid, funny account of life in professional kitchens, from his early days as a dishwasher to running a kitchen in New York City.

Trevor Noah grew up in South Africa under apartheid, the son of a Black mother and a white father at a time when their relationship was illegal. He tells it with humor and plenty of voices.

Jeannette Walls grew up with a brilliant, charismatic father who taught his children physics and geology, and a free-spirited mother who disliked domestic life. It is a memoir of resilience about a family that was both deeply dysfunctional and vibrant, and she reads it herself.

Paul Simon sits down with Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce Headlam to talk about songwriting and the stories behind his music, with musical excerpts woven in. Part memoir and part investigation.

The story of a shipwreck, a desperate fight for survival and a court martial that raised hard questions about an empire. A number one New York Times bestseller.

In 2011, three accomplished women each fell for the charming Ethan Schuman, and then joined forces to expose a catfisher. Part memoir, part investigation.

Michelle McNamara’s relentless search for the Golden State Killer, with an introduction by Gillian Flynn and an afterword by Patton Oswalt.

In 1920s Oklahoma, members of the Osage Nation who had grown wealthy from oil on their land were being murdered. Grann follows the investigation that followed.

A practical system for building good habits and breaking bad ones through small changes. James Clear reads it himself.

Eckhart Tolle explains why living in the present moment brings peace, and how to stop the mind from dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. He reads it himself.

Mark Manson argues that we should stop trying to be positive all the time and instead choose what is truly worth caring about. It is blunt, funny and full of strong language, and at 5 hours 17 minutes it is the shortest book on this list.

A collection of Brianna Wiest’s essays on purpose, cognitive biases, daily routine and more. Each one is short, so it is easy to listen in small pieces.