Smart listening: 8 academic audiobooks that are surprisingly accessible

by Alberto Manguel

Move over Marvel—the hottest literary property right now thanks to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film is Homer’s The Odyssey. With the popularity of Homer’s original, as well as so many retellings, the story is familiar—Odysseus leaves Troy after the Greeks’ war against that city, but he has a lot of trouble getting home. For a deeper dive into why this story, and The Iliad, have endured, Manguel’s book is a must read. And if you still need to check out or want to revisit Homer’s original, the author recommends and cites the Robert Fagles translation, which, oh by the way, is read by none other than Ian McKellen. 

Read by Malcolm Hillgartner

by Robert Garland

Can a book about death be a lighthearted, quick-paced listen? Astonishingly enough, absolutely! Garland looks at rituals and beliefs surrounding death and the afterlife in numerous ancient societies, from Zoroastrians to Egyptians, as well as Jewish, Christian, and Muslims beliefs. What do you do with a dead body? Well, it depends on if you think the body will be needed again to navigate the underworld or be resurrected at the end of days. Or, maybe the body isn’t needed at all. Who knows for sure, but Garland delights in explaining what various people have thought through time.

Read by Zeb Soanes

by Daryl Fairweather

Economic and life advice from an academic press seems like a good idea, if potentially impenetrable and dull. But that's not the case with Fairweather’s debut! Uncertain what she wanted to study at college, the summer after finishing high school, Fairweather’s father gave her Freakonomics. That book proved lifechanging, as it determined her to study economics. In fact, she so took to the topic that she ended up at the University of Chicago for graduate school, studying with Steven Levitt, one of the book’s authors. The first black woman to receive a PhD in Economics at Chicago, Fairweather has now used all that knowledge to write her own book about applying economic theory to improving your life. 

Read by the author

by Robert F. Williams

Why is the current U.S. Army structured the way it is? According to Williams, it’s because ever since WWII, the driving force behind Army decision making has been the Airborne Mafia, the men who pioneered jumping out of perfectly good airplanes to then act independently when necessary. These men set the culture for the U.S. Army—leaders jump first and eat last, for example—when many of the most important post-war positions were taken by paratroopers. And their ideas continue to hold sway, as the prestige that comes with jump wings is necessary to move up the ranks.

Read by Jim Seybert

by Chas Henry

Maybe it’s Veterans Day being just around the corner, but I had to include a second military history. Well, I also had to include it because Fuji Fire covers an event in American military history entirely new to me. In 1979, the biggest tropical cyclone on record slammed into Japan. It was destructive in its own right, but the storm also set in motion a tragedy at the U.S. Marine camp located on Mt. Fuji when the fuel farm caught fire, killing 13 and severely burning dozens more. Henry details what led up to this tragedy and follows the injured Marines through recovery and lessons learned. Do be advised the burn descriptions are pretty detailed in this riveting listen.

Read by the author

by Leo Damrosch

Really and truly, this biography of Robert Louis Stevenson is just as ridiculously compelling as any of his novels. Author of such classics as Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson was a sickly Scottish child, raised by his nurse, and uninterested in formal education. But he was a passionate reader, and, well, passionate about other things as well. The book is an exciting listen, thanks to Damrosch’s clear enthusiasm for his subject, as well as Pryal’s great narration, getting just enough of the Scottish brogue to add texture, but not enough to make someone unused to the accent struggle.

Read by Richard Pryal

by Jaap de Roode

What do animals in the wild do when they get sick? Just wait and hope they get better, or do they treat themselves? De Roode believes many animals have found a way to do the latter. In fact, in his studies, he’s discovered that animals, from butterflies to apes, seek out medicinal plants when they are ill. But why are some plants medicinal in the first place? (Spoiler—often to stop other insects and animals from eating them!) Each chapter leads to yet another discovery like this, keeping de Roode’s popular science book moving and extremely engaging.

Read by Anand Jagatia

by Peter Geye

And lest you think academic presses only publish nonfiction, I cannot speak glowingly enough about this remarkable novel from the University of Minnesota Press. In its simplest terms, it’s the story a marriage of convenience between an older lighthouse keeper and a decidedly younger woman whose family has fallen on hard times in early 20th-century Minnesota. But it’s so much more than that. It’s a character study of passionate intellectuals, stultifying social norms, and two people who might not be as different as they seem even as they struggle to live under the same roof.

Read by A. W. Miller