David Mitchell has 21 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 26 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 954 ratings. The most-rated is Of Mice and Men.
Of Mice and Men
Summary
Steinbeck’s tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one of America’s most widely read and beloved novels. While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck’s work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men (1937), creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and shared dream that make an individual’s existence meaningful. Of Mice and Men also represents an experiment in form, which Steinbeck described as “a kind of playable novel, written in a novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands.” A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.
©1937 John Steinbeck (P)2011 Penguin
Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse
Summary
Why is every film or tv programme a sequel or a remake? Why are people so f***ing hung up about swearing? Why do the asterisks in that sentence make it okay? Why do so many people want to stop other people doing things, and how can they be stopped from stopping them? These and many other questions trouble David Mitchell. Join him on a tour of the absurdities of modern life - from Ryanair to Richard III, Downton Abbey to phone etiquette, UKIP to hot dogs made of cats. Funny, provocative and shot through with refreshing amounts of common sense, Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse celebrates and commiserates on the state of things in our not entirely glorious modern world. Photo Credit: Chris Floyd, Camera Press London
©2015 David Mitchell (P)2019 Audible, Ltd
Dishonesty Is the Second-Best Policy
Summary
David Mitchell’s 2014 best seller Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse must really have made people think - because everything’s got worse. We’ve gone from UKIP surge to Brexit shambles, from horsemeat in lasagne to Donald Trump in the White House, from Woolworths going under to all the other shops going under. It’s probably socially irresponsible even to try to cheer up. But if you’re determined to give it a go, you might enjoy this eclectic collection (or eclection) of David Mitchell’s attempts to make light of all that darkness. Scampi, politics, the Olympics, terrorism, exercise, rude street names, inheritance tax, salad cream, proportional representation and farts are all touched upon by Mitchell’s unremitting laser of chit-chat, as he negotiates a path between the commercialisation of Christmas and the true spirit of Halloween. Listen to this book and slightly change your life!
©2019 David Mitchell (P)2019 Audible, Ltd
David Mitchell: Back Story
Summary
Shortlisted for: Biography/Autobiography of the Year – Specsavers National Book Awards 2012 David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life. As well as giving a specific account of every single time he's scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details: The singular, pit bull-infested charm of the FRP (‘Flat Roofed Pub’) The curious French habit of injecting everyone in the arse rather than the arm Why, by the time he got to Cambridge, he really, really needed a drink The pain of being denied a childhood birthday party at McDonalds The satisfaction of writing jokes about suicide How doing quite a lot of walking around London helps with his sciatica Trying to pretend he isn’t a total **** at Robert Webb’s wedding That he has fallen in love a LOT, but rarely done anything about it Why it would be worse to bump into Michael Palin than Hitler on holiday That he’s not David Mitchell the novelist, despite what David Miliband might think
©2012 David Mitchell (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
The Bone Clocks
Summary
David Mitchell is an eloquent conjurer of interconnected tales, a genre-bending daredevil, and a master prose stylist. His hypnotic new novel, The Bone Clocks, crackles with invention and wit - it is fiction at its most spellbinding and memorable. Following a scalding row with her mother, 15-year-old Holly Sykes slams the door on her old life. But Holly is no typical teenage runaway: A sensitive child once contacted by voices she knew only as "the radio people", Holly is a lightning rod for psychic phenomena. Now, as she wanders deeper into the English countryside, visions and coincidences reorder her reality until they assume the aura of a nightmare brought to life. For Holly has caught the attention of a cabal of dangerous mystics - and their enemies. But her lost weekend is merely the prelude to a shocking disappearance that leaves her family irrevocably scarred. This unsolved mystery will echo through every decade of Holly's life, affecting all the people Holly loves - even the ones who are not yet born. A Cambridge scholarship boy grooming himself for wealth and influence, a conflicted father who feels alive only while reporting from occupied Iraq, a middle-aged writer mourning his exile from the bestseller list - all have a part to play in this surreal, invisible war on the margins of our world. From the medieval Swiss Alps to the 19th-century Australian bush, from a hotel in Shanghai to a Manhattan townhouse in the near future, their stories come together in moments of everyday grace and extraordinary wonder. Rich with character and realms of possibility, The Bone Clocks is a kaleidoscopic novel that begs to be taken apart and put back together.
©2014 David Mitchell (P)2014 W.F. Howes
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Summary
A Booker finalist and Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winner, David Mitchell was called “prodigiously daring and imaginative” by Time and “a genius” by the New York Times Book Review. The year is 1799, the place Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor, the “high-walled, fan-shaped artificial island” that is the Japanese Empire’s single port and sole window onto the world, designed to keep the West at bay; the farthest outpost of the war-ravaged Dutch East Indies Company; and a de facto prison for the dozen foreigners permitted to live and work there. To this place of devious merchants, deceitful interpreters, costly courtesans, earthquakes, and typhoons comes Jacob de Zoet, a devout and resourceful young clerk who has five years in the East to earn a fortune of sufficient size to win the hand of his wealthy fiancée back in Holland. But Jacob’s original intentions are eclipsed after a chance encounter with Orito Aibagawa, the disfigured daughter of a samurai doctor and midwife to the city’s powerful magistrate. The borders between propriety, profit, and pleasure blur, until Jacob finds his vision clouded, one rash promise made and then fatefully broken. The consequences will extend beyond Jacob’s worst imaginings. As one cynical colleague asks, “Who ain’t a gambler in the glorious Orient, with his very life?”
©2010 David Mitchell (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
Utopia Avenue
Summary
New York Times Best Seller The hotly anticipated new novel from the internationally best-selling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas. Utopia Avenue may be the most extraordinary British band you've never heard of. Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967 and fronted by folksinger Elf Holloway, guitar demigod Jasper de Zoet, and blues bassist Dean Moss, Utopia Avenue released only two LPs during its brief, blazing journey from the clubs of Soho and draughty ballrooms to Top of the Pops and the Top 10; to Amsterdam, Rome, and a fateful American fortnight in the autumn of 1968. David Mitchell's new novel is the story of Utopia Avenue and its age; of riots in the street and revolutions in the head; of drugs and thugs, schizophrenia, love, sex, grief, art; of the families we choose and the ones we don't; of fame's Faustian pact and stardom's wobbly ladder. Do we change the world, or does the world change us? Utopia means "nowhere", but might it be somewhere, if only we knew how to look?
©2020 David Mitchell (P)2020 Penguin Random House Canada
The Origin and Evolution of Earth
Summary
This course chronicles the history of Earth and life on Earth from the point of view of the minerals that made it all happen. A major theme is how minerals and life coevolved, leading to the unprecedented mineral diversity on our world compared to the other planets in the solar system. Professor Hazen tells this epic story in 48 action-packed lectures that take you from the big bang to the formation of the solar system to the major milestones that marked the evolution of Earth and life. He also looks ahead at what to expect millions to billions of years in the future. It's easy to think that the green Earth dominated by life that we experience today is just as it's always been. But Professor Hazen introduces you to a succession of starkly different Earths, starting with the black, basalt-covered planet of 4.5 billion years ago, and progressing through blue, gray, red, and white phases as Earth, minerals, and life developed in concert. Major episodes covered in these lectures include the formation of the moon from the collision of a Mars-sized body with the early Earth; the Great Oxidation Event, which was sparked by the earliest photosynthetic life and is responsible for Earth's iron and other important mineral deposits; the formation of the first continents; the start of plate tectonics more than 3 billion years ago; the repeating cycles of supercontinent formation; the Cambrian explosion of life, resulting in the first animal shells, bones, and teeth; the great episodes of mass extinction, including the dinosaurs; and the rise of humans - along with much else. Most impressively, Professor Hazen is a pioneer in the study of mineral evolution, which is a unique lens through which to view the development of Earth. He tells the story with authority and with a rare gift for making you see the world in a new, intriguing way. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2013 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2013 The Great Courses
Alien World Order
Summary
Long ago, the Galactic Federation sent the Atlans, a fierce group of humans from the Pleiades, to Earth to confront the newest colony of the combative ever-spreading alien race known as the Reptilians. The ensuing battle sank the continent of Lemuria and drove the Reptilians underground beneath the Indian subcontinent as well as to Antarctica. Able to shapeshift to appear human, the Reptilians then infiltrated the Atlantean civilization, abducting humans and creating Reptilian hybrids. As Len Kasten shows, this technique of infiltration and hybridization prior to an all-out attack has been the hallmark of Reptilian conquest throughout the galaxy. Chronicling the history of the Reptilian Empire's influence on Earth and their conquest of 21 star systems, Kasten reveals how the human race is enmeshed in a skillfully concealed plot to enslave humanity and exploit our planet's physical and biological resources. Revealing Hitler's pact with extraterrestrials and the Reptilian influence on the Nazi state, he shares new documents that disclose the rescue and rehabilitation of Nazi war criminals to assist in the Cold War, which then corrupted many US government institutions.
©2017 Len Kasten (P)2017 Tantor
Home Front
Summary
The blockbuster best-selling author of Night Road and Firefly Lane delivers a masterful novel that explores the sacrifices of one American family and illuminates the true cost of honor, duty, and love. From a distance, Michael and Joleen Zarkades seem to have it all: a solid marriage, two exciting careers, and children they adore. But after twelve years together, the couple has lost their way; they are unhappy and edging toward divorce. Then the Iraq war starts. An unexpected deployment will tear their already fragile family apart, sending one of them deep into harm’s way and leaving the other at home, waiting for news. When the worst happens, each must face their darkest fear and fight for the future of their family. An intimate look at the inner landscape of a disintegrating marriage and a dramatic exploration of the price of war on a single American family, Kristin Hannah's Home Front is a provocative and timely portrait of hope, honor, loss, forgiveness, and the elusive nature of love.
©2012 Kristin Hannah (P)2012 Macmillan Audio
Black Swan Green
Summary
By the New York Times best-selling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Selected by Time as One of the Ten Best Books of the Year A New York Times Notable Book Named One of the Best Books of the Year by The Washington Post Book World, The Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News, and Kirkus Reviews A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist Winner of the ALA Alex Award Finalist for the Costa Novel Award From award-winning writer David Mitchell comes a sinewy, meditative novel of boyhood on the cusp of adulthood and the old on the cusp of the new. Black Swan Green tracks a single year in what is, for 13-year-old Jason Taylor, the sleepiest village in muddiest Worcestershire in dying Cold War England, 1982. But the 13 chapters, each a short story in its own right, create an exquisitely observed world that is anything but sleepy. A world of Kissinger-esque realpolitik enacted in boys' games on a frozen lake; of "nightcreeping" through the summer backyards of strangers; of the tabloid-fueled thrills of the Falklands War and its human toll; of the cruel, luscious Dawn Madden and her power-hungry boyfriend, Ross Wilcox; of a certain Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck, an elderly bohemian emigré who is both more and less than she appears; of Jason's search to replace his dead grandfather's irreplaceable smashed watch before the crime is discovered; of first cigarettes, first kisses, first Duran Duran LPs, and first deaths; of Margaret Thatcher's recession; of Gypsies camping in the woods and the hysteria they inspire; and, even closer to home, of a slow-motion divorce in four seasons. Pointed, funny, profound, left-field, elegiac, and painted with the stuff of life, Black Swan Green is David Mitchell's subtlest and most effective achievement to date. Praise for Black Swan Green “[David Mitchell has created] one of the most endearing, smart, and funny young narrators ever to rise up from the pages of a novel.... The always fresh and brilliant writing will carry readers back to their own childhoods.... This enchanting novel makes us remember exactly what it was like.” (The Boston Globe) “[David Mitchell is a] prodigiously daring and imaginative young writer.... As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall.” (Time)
©2006 David Mitchell (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
Behaving Ourselves
Summary
David Mitchell sets out on a vigorous but impeccably polite investigation into the confusing world of manners. Are they really in decline, as many would have us believe? Or are we just throwing off the shackles of the Victorian obsession with etiquette?
Over the course of the series, David eats his lunchtime sandwiches with children in a primary school and later goes to a street market to see manners - good and bad - in action. He explores where our manners come from with Professor Steven Pinker from Harvard University and the author Henry Hitchings. What do we mean by 'civility' and 'good manners' in public places? Why are people still pinching vicars' bottoms, and what can the state do to improve standards of public behaviour? And, David asks, how is the digital age changing our sense of public space?
Produced by Chris Ledgard.
©2018 David Mitchell (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks
That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Radio Series 3
Summary
David Mitchell and Robert Webb star in the complete third series of their Sony Award-winning comedy show, as broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
Here, the duo return to their radio roots, and this third fantastic series finds them in their finest-ever sketch-show form.
©2018 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2007 BBC Audiobooks Ltd
That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Radio Series 1
Summary
More sketches from the inside-out world of David Mitchell and Robert Webb, including what James Bond is really like as a party guest, and the rather too exciting world of Rabbit Newsnight. Their distinctive and lopsided view of the world includes the worst possible name for a dry cleaning shop; the brave and dangerous work of Hairdressers Sans Frontiers; and the tragic consequences when a stray piece of ham goes unchecked. Mitchell and Webb's gallery of peculiar characters is populated by misfits, eccentrics, the occasional talking animal, and a few stray Radio 4 arts programme presenters. Starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, with Olivia Colman and James Bachman.
©2018 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2006 BBC Audiobooks Ltd
That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Radio Series 4
Summary
The fourth BBC 4 radio series starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The pair have also starred in Channel 4's Peep Show and won numerous BAFTAS, national comedy awards, and Chortle awards.
Sketches and biting satire are featured, with a cast of four, including David and Robert, performing in front of a live audience. Topics covered in previous series have included 'Numberwang', 'Big Talk', 'Dinner Guests' and the snooker commentators.
©2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2009 BBC Audiobooks Ltd
How to Cope with Mitchell and Webb
Summary
David Mitchell and Robert Webb tackle various subject matters in a 'How to Cope with...', a guide talking you through every day scenarios and situations. The subject matters discussed are How to Cope with... Being Normal; Pubs; Being Dumped, Parts 1 and 2; Coffee; Malmaison Hotels; Nudists; The Smoking Ban; Actors; Servants; and Getting Older. This recording doesn't need to remind us just how great Mitchell and Webb are as a comedy duo, and will by no means need to even attempt at getting the listener's attention once the play button is pressed, but will simply show us once more everything we know and love about Mitchell and Webb and why their quirky hilarity and foibles work so well together. For example: How to cope with Actors. Try "not be put off by their luvvie-ness" and "do not assume that all actors are all thick...Stephen Fry is an actor and also a world class boffin. David Mitchell's GCSE results are very impressive."
©2009 HarperCollins Publishers (P)2009 HarperCollins Publishers
That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Radio Series 5
Summary
Comedy from the lopsided world of David Mitchell and Robert Webb, with Olivia Colman and James Bachman.
The radio sketch series which spawned BBC TV’s That Mitchell and Webb Look returns with five brand-new episodes. Among the topics given the unique Mitchell and Webb treatment are the future of farming (battery penguins); Thomas Hardy's exciting idea to make his books even sadder; the very confusing goings on in a cash-register shop; a horror story for slugs; the Escalator brothers inventing the world’s first horseless staircase; and the very last programme the BBC ever does....
Includes four episodes first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2013 plus a bonus fifth episode first broadcast exclusively on BBC Radio 4 Extra.
©2015 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2015 BBC Worldwide Ltd
That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Radio Series 2
Summary
David Mitchell and Robert Webb star in the complete second series of their critically-acclaimed BBC Radio 4 show.
Starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, from Channel 4's "Peep Show", That Mitchell and Webb Sound is a hilarious mix of satirical sketches and surreal characters that provides a fantastically skewed perspective on everyday life. Meet soporific late-night DJ Adrian Locket; Peter and Ted, commentators who reveal the murky underside of the snooker world; crime fighter Angel Summoner and his redundant sidekick BMX Bandit; and the obnoxious, incredibly posh person who is still unaccountably a waiter. In addition, there's Numberwang!, the maths quiz that makes very little sense, plus thrilling coverage of people you don't know buying houses and living in them, and thinking where to go on their holiday and then booking it.
Zany and original, this consistently funny and imaginative series highlights the absurdity of reality TV, politics, chat shows, and milk helplines.
©2018 BBC Audiobooks Ltd (P)2006 BBC Audiobooks Ltd.
Ghostwritten
Summary
Winner of the Mail on Sunday John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. A magnificent achievement and an engrossing experience, David Mitchell's first novel announced the arrival of one of the most exciting writers of the 21st century. An apocalyptic cult member carries out a gas attack on a rush-hour metro, but what links him to a jazz buff in downtown Tokyo? Or to a Mongolian gangster, a woman on a holy mountain who talks to a tree and a late night New York DJ? Set at the fugitive edges of Asia and Europe, Ghostwritten weaves together a host of characters, their interconnected destinies determined by the inescapable forces of cause and effect.
©1999 David Mitchell (P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Arctic Drift
Summary
A potential breakthrough discovery to reverse global warming, a series of unexplained sudden deaths in British Columbia, a rash of international incidents between the United States and one of its closest allies that threatens to erupt into an actual shooting war.... NUMA director Dirk Pitt and his children, Dirk. Jr. and Summer, have reason to believe there's a connection here somewhere, but they also know they have very little time to find it before events escalate out of control. Their only real clue might just be a mysterious silvery mineral traced to a long-ago expedition in search of the fabled Northwest Passage. But no one survived from that doomed mission; captain and crew perished to a man - and if Pitt and his colleague Al Giordino aren't careful, the very same fate may await them. Filled with the breathtaking suspense and audacious imagination that have become his hallmarks, this is a tour de force - further proof that when it comes to adventure writing, nobody beats Clive Cussler.
©2008 Clive Cussler (P)2008 Penguin