Curtis Sittenfeld has 9 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 18 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.1★ across 105 ratings. The most-rated is You Think It, I'll Say It.
You Think It, I'll Say It
Summary
“Every bit as smart, sensitive, funny, and genuine as her phenomenally popular novels,”* a dazzling collection from The New York Times best-selling author of Prep, American Wife, and Eligible. “I really loved all the characters in this book. They’re so complex and interesting, and in every story, you’ll find them going through these pivotal moments in their lives.” [Reese Witherspoon (Reese’s Book Club x Hello Sunshine Book Pick)] Named one of the 10 best books of the year by People and USA Today and one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post • NPR • Financial Times • San Francisco Chronicle • New York Public Library • Refinery29 A suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie. A high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. A shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate’s seemingly enviable life. Curtis Sittenfeld has established a reputation as a sharp chronicler of the modern age who humanizes her subjects even as she skewers them. Now, with this first collection of short fiction, her “astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers’ heads” (The Washington Post) is showcased like never before. Throughout the 10 stories in You Think It, I’ll Say It, Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. With moving insight and uncanny precision, Curtis Sittenfeld pinpoints the questionable decisions, missed connections, and sometimes extraordinary coincidences that make up a life. Indeed, she writes what we’re all thinking - if only we could express it with the wit of a master satirist, the storytelling gifts of an old-fashioned raconteur, and the vision of an American original. *Booklist (starred review) Long-listed for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction “At once psychologically acute, deftly crafted and deeply pleasurable.” (San Francisco Chronicle) “Witty and buoyant.... Each deceptively simple and breezy story is masterfully paced and crafted.” (Chicago Tribune) “Perfectly paced, witty and laced with unexpected twists: Every story here sticks its landing. Whatever [Sittenfeld] writes, we’ll read it.” (People) “Razor-sharp, often hilarious.... [Curtis Sittenfeld] is a sharp observer of human nature and human relationships.... A witty, breezy, zeitgeist-y collection.” (USA Today)
©2018 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2018 Random House Audio
Rodham
Summary
New York Times Best Seller From the author of American Wife and Eligible.... He proposed. She said no. And it changed her life forever. "Deviously clever.... Sittenfeld's Hillary is both a player in the Game of Thrones and a romance novel heroine. She's a brilliant badass who has found her voice and knows how to use it. She's whoever she wants to be." (O, The Oprah Magazine) Named One of the Best Books of the Year by: The New Yorker NPR The Washington Post Marie Claire Cosmopolitan (UK) Town & Country New York Post In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise: Life magazine has covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she's attending Yale Law School, and she's on the forefront of student activism and the women's rights movement. And then she meets Bill Clinton. A handsome, charismatic Southerner and fellow law student, Bill is already planning his political career. In each other, the two find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced. In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times; although she said no more than once, as we all know, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton. But in Curtis Sittenfeld’s powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail - one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life. Brilliantly weaving a riveting fictional tale into actual historical events, Curtis Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute and witty story for our times. In exploring the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for political power, as well as both the exhilaration and painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world still run mostly by men, Rodham is a singular and unforgettable novel.
©2020 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2020 Random House Audio
Eligible
Summary
From the "wickedly entertaining" (USA Today) Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times best-selling author of Prep and American Wife, comes a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Equal parts homage to Jane Austen and bold literary experiment, Eligible is a brilliant, playful, and delicious saga for the 21st century. This version of the Bennet family - and Mr. Darcy - is one that you have and haven't met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late 30s who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help - and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling, and the family is in disarray. Youngest sisters Kitty and Lydia are too busy with their CrossFit workouts and paleo diets to get jobs. Mary, the middle sister, is earning her third online master's degree and barely leaves her room except for those mysterious Tuesday-night outings she won't discuss. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters, especially as Jane's 40th birthday fast approaches. Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip's friend, neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy, reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming.... And yet, first impressions can be deceiving. Wonderfully tender and hilariously funny, Eligible both honors and updates Austen's beloved tale. Tackling gender, class, courtship, and family, Sittenfeld reaffirms herself as one of the most dazzling authors writing today.
©2016 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2016 Random House Audio
American Wife
Summary
On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband’s presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House - and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, “almost in opposition to itself.” A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice learned the virtues of politeness early on from her stolid parents and small Wisconsin hometown. But a tragic accident when she was 17 shattered her identity and made her understand the fragility of life and the tenuousness of luck. So more than a decade later, when she met boisterous, charismatic Charlie Blackwell, she hardly gave him a second look: She was serious and thoughtful, and he would rather crack a joke than offer a real insight; he was the wealthy son of a bastion family of the Republican party, and she was a school librarian and registered Democrat. Comfortable in her quiet and unassuming life, she felt inured to his charms. And then, much to her surprise, Alice fell for Charlie. As Alice learns to make her way amid the clannish energy and smug confidence of the Blackwell family, navigating the strange rituals of their country club and summer estate, she remains uneasy with her newfound good fortune. And when Charlie eventually becomes president, Alice is thrust into a position she did not seek - one of power and influence, privilege and responsibility. As Charlie’s tumultuous and controversial second term in the White House wears on, Alice must face contradictions years in the making: How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her public persona? In Alice Blackwell, New York Times best-selling author Curtis Sittenfeld has created her most dynamic and complex heroine yet. American Wife is a gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and the exigencies of fate into a brilliant tapestry - a novel in which the unexpected becomes inevitable, and the pleasures and pain of intimacy and love are laid bare. Praise for American Wife “Curtis Sittenfeld is an amazing writer, and American Wife is a brave and moving novel about the intersection of private and public life in America. Ambitious and humble at the same time, Sittenfeld refuses to trivialize or simplify people, whether real or imagined.” (Richard Russo) “What a remarkable (and brave) thing: a compassionate, illuminating, and beautifully rendered portrait of a fictional Republican first lady with a life and husband very much like our actual Republican first lady’s. Curtis Sittenfeld has written a novel as impressive as it is improbable.” (Kurt Andersen)
©2008 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2008 Books on Tape
Prep
Summary
An insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story, as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender in a hothouse of adolescent angst and ambition. Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant 14-year-old when her father drops her off in front of her dorm at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts. She leaves her animated, affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, at least in part because of the boarding school’s glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls in kilts hold lacrosse sticks on pristinely mown athletic fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel. As Lee soon learns, Ault is a cloistered world of jaded, attractive teenagers who spend summers on Nantucket and speak in their own clever shorthand. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of - and, ultimately, a participant in - their rituals and mores. As a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider and is both drawn to and repelled by other loners. By the time she’s a senior, Lee has created a hard-won place for herself at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her carefully crafted identity within the community is shattered. Ultimately, Lee’s experiences - complicated relationships with teachers; intense friendships with other girls; an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush; conflicts with her parents, from whom Lee feels increasingly distant - coalesce into a singular portrait of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.
©2005 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2019 Random House Audio
The Tomorrow Box
Summary
An unnervingly funny and sharply observant story about the privilege, class division, and purposeful lives of old friends by Curtis Sittenfeld, the New York Times bestselling author of Rodham. Andy Wofford, middle-aged father and English teacher at a third-tier private school, receives a surprising invitation for a drink from an old college classmate. Once awkward and forgettable, Michael Kinnick has become a famous, wealthy, and absurdly confident lifestyle guru. Of all the people who’d want to catch up, why Michael? After thirty divergent years, why now? Mildly apprehensive, Andy is also very curious. Curtis Sittenfeld’s The Tomorrow Box is part of Currency, a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.
©2021 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Sisterland
Summary
Curtis Sittenfeld, New York Times best-selling author of American Wife and Prep, returns with a mesmerizing novel of family and identity, loyalty and deception, and the delicate line between truth and belief. From an early age, Kate and her identical twin sister, Violet, knew that they were unlike everyone else. Kate and Vi were born with peculiar "senses" - innate psychic abilities concerning future events and other people’s secrets. Though Vi embraced her visions, Kate did her best to hide them. Now, years later, their different paths have led them both back to their hometown of St. Louis. Vi has pursued an eccentric career as a psychic medium, while Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. But when a minor earthquake hits in the middle of the night, the normal life Kate has always wished for begins to shift. After Vi goes on television to share a premonition that a devastating earthquake will soon hit the St. Louis area, Kate is mortified. More troubling, however, is her fear that Vi may be right. As the date of the predicted earthquake quickly approaches, Kate is forced to reconcile her fraught relationship with her sister, and truths about herself she’s long tried to deny. Funny, haunting, and thought-provoking, Sisterland is a beautifully written novel of the obligation we have toward others, and the responsibility we take for ourselves. With her deep empathy, keen wisdom, and unerring talent for finding the extraordinary moments in our everyday lives, Curtis Sittenfeld is one of the most exceptional voices in literary fiction today.
©2013 Curtis Sittenfeld (P)2013 Random House Audio
Giraffe & Flamingo
Summary
In this incisive short story about memory and the limits of self-perception, the New York Times bestselling author of Rodham and Prep reflects on motherhood, gender, power dynamics, and the lingering effects of the past. Emily appears to have it all: professional success and a sweet family life. But when her promotion causes her family to relocate to a new city, the move unexpectedly stirs up unpleasant memories of Jack Olney, the handsome jock who bullied her during college. As Emily sorts through her recollections and past humiliations, she decides to reach out to her old dorm mates. Do they remember her? Are they happy? And whatever happened to Jack? With piercing emotional truth, Curtis Sittenfeld explores the indignities we can’t ever seem to shake - and the pitfalls of self-reflection.
©2020 Curtis Sittenfeld. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Currency
Summary
Inequality. Influence. Fraud. Sabotage. These are the themes of great fiction and our modern economy. In this collection of short stories by some of today’s most scintillating writers, the rich get poorer and the poor get richer. Yeah, right! From the heartbreaking to the hilarious, here are eight instantly classic battles over currency, class, privilege - and social distance. SIMPLEXITY by Kiley Reid, read by Arden Cho A twenty-eight-year-old entry-level worker at a design firm navigates the microaggressive corporate landscape in a quick and delicious satire by Kiley Reid, the New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age. I WOULD BE DOING THIS ANYWAY by Jia Tolentino, read by Kelly Marie Tran A razor-sharp short story about anonymity, mutual deception, and the perils of overexposure—debut fiction by Jia Tolentino, the New York Times bestselling author of Trick Mirror. REWARDS by Emma Cline, read by Helen Hunt Two women reflect on the value of their lives in a wry short story of male privilege and undeserved rewards by Emma Cline, the New York Times bestselling author of The Girls. CREWELWORK by Justin Torres, read by Wilson Cruz Poised between his lush introversion and the brutal realm of his every day, a young artist considers the price of precarity in this powerful short story by Justin Torres, the author of We the Animals. THE TOMORROW BOX by Curtis Sittenfeld, read by Eric Dane An unnervingly funny and sharply observant story about the privilege, class division, and purposeful lives of old friends by Curtis Sittenfeld, the New York Times bestselling author of Rodham. IF YOU ARE LONELY AND YOU KNOW IT by Yiyun Li, read by Malcolm Hillgartner He tends to his garden and bees. He keeps quiet. He avoids drama. Until one transgression causes an emotional adventure in this heartfelt short story by Yiyun Li, a PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author. ME AND CARLOS by Tom Perrotta, read by Jackson White A darkly comic short story about American class divides and coming-of-age regrets by Tom Perrotta, the New York Times bestselling author of Election and The Leftovers. THE SUMMER HOUSE BY Cristina Henríquez, read by Thom Rivera Accustomed to being used, a jack-of-all-odd-jobs is torn between desire and duty in a short story about loneliness and wounded love by Cristina Henríquez, the author of The Book of Unknown Americans.
©2020, 2021 Simplexity © 2021 by Kiley Reid. I Would Be Doing This Anyway © 2021 by Jia Tolentino. Rewards © 2020 by Emma Cline. Crewelwork © 2021 by Justin Torres. The Tomorrow Box © 2021 by Curtis Sittenfeld. If You Are Lonely and You Know It © 2021 by Yiyun Li. Me and Carlos © 2020 by Tom Perrotta. The Summer House © 2021 by Cristina Henríquez. (P)2020, 2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.