Lena Dunham has narrated 8 audiobooks on Listento.it by 11 authors, with an average listener rating of 3.8★ across 376 ratings. The most-rated is Lincoln in the Bardo.
Lincoln in the Bardo
Summary
Winner of the 2018 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year The long-awaited first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented February 1862. The Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln’s beloved 11-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill. In a matter of days, despite predictions of a recovery, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. “My poor boy, he was too good for this earth,” the president says at the time. “God has called him home.” Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt several times to hold his boy’s body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory where ghosts mingle, gripe, commiserate, quarrel, and enact bizarre acts of penance. Within this transitional state—called, in the Tibetan tradition, the bardo—a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul. Lincoln in the Bardo is an astonishing feat of imagination and a bold step forward from one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Formally daring, generous in spirit, deeply concerned with matters of the heart, it is a testament to fiction’s ability to speak honestly and powerfully to the things that really matter to us. Saunders has invented a thrilling new form that deploys a kaleidoscopic, theatrical panorama of voices to ask a timeless, profound question: How do we live and love when we know that everything we love must end? The 166-person full cast features award-winning actors and musicians, as well as a number of Saunders’ family, friends, and members of his publishing team, including, in order of their appearance: Nick Offerman as Hans Vollman David Sedaris as Roger Bevins III Carrie Brownstein as Isabelle Perkins George Saunders as The Reverend Everly Thomas Miranda July as Mrs. Elizabeth Crawford Lena Dunham as Elise Traynor Ben Stiller as Jack Manders Julianne Moore as Jane Ellis Susan Sarandon as Mrs. Abigail Blass Bradley Whitford as Lt. Cecil Stone Bill Hader as Eddie Baron Megan Mullally as Betsy Baron Rainn Wilson as Percival “Dash” Collier Jeff Tweedy as Captain William Prince Kat Dennings as Miss Tamara Doolittle Jeffrey Tambor as Professor Edmund Bloomer Mike O’Brien as Lawrence T. Decroix Keegan-Michael Key as Elson Farwell Don Cheadle as Thomas Havens Patrick Wilson as Stanley “Perfesser” Lippert With Kirby Heyborne as Willie Lincoln, Mary Karr as Mrs. Rose Milland, and Cassandra Campbell as Your Narrator Praise for the audiobook “Lincoln in the Bardo sets a new standard for cast recordings in its structure, in its performances, and in its boldness. Now, let's see who answers the challenge.” (Chicago Tribune) “Like the novel, the audiobook breaks new ground in what can be accomplished through a story. It helps that there’s not a single bad note in the cast of a whopping 166 people. It’s also the rare phenomenon of an audiobook being a completely different experience compared to the novel. Even if you’ve read the novel, the audiobook is worth a listen (and vice versa). The whole project pushes the narrative form forward.” (A.V. Club) “The result is an auditory experience unlike any other, where the awareness of individual voices disappears while the carefully calibrated soundscape summons a metaphysical masterpiece. This is a tour de force of audiobook production, and a dazzling realization of Saunders’ unique authorial structure.” (Booklist) “The finished audiobook’s tapestry of voices perfectly mirrors the novel.” (Entertainment Weekly)
©2017 George Saunders (P)2017 Random House Audio
Us
Summary
Can your favorite hockey players finish their first season together undefeated? Five months in, NHL forward Ryan Wesley is having a record-breaking rookie season. He's living his dream of playing pro hockey and coming home every night to the man he loves - Jamie Canning, his longtime best friend turned boyfriend. There's just one problem: the most important relationship of his life is one he needs to keep hidden, or else face a media storm that will eclipse his success on the ice. Jamie loves Wes. He really, truly does. But hiding sucks. It's not the life Jamie envisioned for himself, and the strain of keeping their secret is taking its toll. It doesn't help that his new job isn't going as smoothly as he'd hoped, but he knows he can power through it as long as he has Wes. At least apartment 10B is their retreat, where they can always be themselves. Or can they? When Wes's nosiest teammate moves in upstairs, the threads of their carefully woven lie begin to unravel. With the outside world determined to take its best shot at them, can Wes and Jamie develop major-league relationship skills on the fly? Warning: contains sexual situations, a vibrating chair, long-distance sexytimes, and proof that hockey players look hot in any shade of green.
©2016 Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy (P)2017 Audible, Inc.
Not That Kind of Girl
Summary
For readers or listeners of Nora Ephron, Tina Fey, and David Sedaris, this hilarious, poignant, and extremely frank collection of personal essays confirms Lena Dunham - the acclaimed creator, producer, and star of HBO's Girls - as one of the brightest and most original writers working today. "If I can take what I've learned in this life and make one treacherous relationship or degrading job easier for you, perhaps even prevent you from becoming temporarily vegan, then every misstep of mine will have been worthwhile. This book contains stories about wonderful nights with terrible boys and terrible days with wonderful friends, about ambition and the two existential crises I had before the age of twenty. About fashion and its many discontents. About publicly sharing your body, having to prove yourself in a meeting full of fifty-year-old men, and the health fears (tinnitus, lamp dust, infertility) that keep me up at night. I'm already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you with this book, but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expensive juice cleanse or having the kind of sexual encounter where you keep your sneakers on. No, I am not a sexpert, a psychologist, or a registered dietician. I am not a married mother of three or the owner of a successful hosiery franchise. But I am a girl with a keen interest in self-actualization, sending hopeful dispatches from the front lines of that struggle."
©2014 Lena Dunham (P)2014 Random House Audio
One More Thing
Summary
B.J. Novak's One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories is an endlessly entertaining, surprisingly sensitive, and startlingly original debut that signals the arrival of a brilliant new voice in American fiction. A boy wins a $100,000 prize in a box of Frosted Flakes - only to discover how claiming the winnings might unravel his family. A woman sets out to seduce motivational speaker Tony Robbins - turning for help to the famed motivator himself. A new arrival in Heaven, overwhelmed with options, procrastinates over a long-ago promise to visit his grandmother. We also meet Sophia, the first artificially intelligent being capable of love, who falls for a man who might not be ready for it himself; a vengeance-minded hare, obsessed with scoring a rematch against the tortoise who ruined his life; and post-college friends who try to figure out how to host an intervention in the era of Facebook. Along the way, we learn why wearing a red T-shirt every day is the key to finding love, how February got its name, and why the stock market is sometimes just...down. Finding inspiration in questions from the nature of perfection to the icing on carrot cake, One More Thing has at its heart the most human of phenomena: love, fear, hope, ambition, and the inner stirring for the one elusive element that might just make a person complete. Across a dazzling range of subjects, themes, tones, and narrative voices, the many pieces in this collection are like nothing else, but they have one thing in common: They share the playful humor, deep heart, sharp eye, inquisitive mind, and altogether electrifying spirit of a writer with a fierce devotion to the entertainment of the listener. With special appearances by Lena Dunham, Jenna Fischer, Mindy Kaling, Julianne Moore, Carey Mulligan, Katy Perry, Jason Schwartzman, Emma Thompson, and Rainn Wilson.
©2014 B. J. Novak (P)2014 Random House Audio
You Don't Look Your Age
Summary
"...the decided advantage of the audiobook is that it is read by a cast of stars as long as your arm - thanks to Nevins' considerable achievements in television and production...This is choice listening for the car, as the stories are short and thus lend themselves to erranding and other short hops." Fran Wood, NJ.com This program is read by the author and a full cast: Cynthia Adler, Alan Alda, Bob Balaban, Christine Baranski, Kathy Bates, Ellen Burstyn, Glenn Close, Katie Couric, John Henry Cox, Blythe Danner, Lena Dunham, Edie Falco, Tovah Feldshuh, Diane von Furstenberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Gayle King, Diane Lane, Sandra Lee, Judith Light, Jenna Lyons, Audra McDonald, Janet Mock, Sheila Nevins, Rosie O'Donnell, Jean Richards, RuPaul, Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, Gloria Steinem, Martha Stewart, Meryl Streep, Marlo Thomas, Lily Tomlin, and Gloria Vanderbilt. "Thank you to Sheila Nevins for putting all this down for posterity. Women need this kind of honest excavation of the process of living." - Meryl Streep An astonishingly frank, funny, poignant audiobook for any woman who wishes they had someone who would say to them, "This happened to me, learn from my mistakes and my successes. Because you don't get smarter as you get older, you get braver." Sheila Nevins is the best friend you never knew you had. She is your discreet confidante you can tell any secret to, your sage mentor at work who helps you navigate the often uneven playing field, your wise sister who has "been there, done that," your hysterical girlfriend whose stories about men will make you laugh until you cry. Sheila Nevins is the one person who always tells it like it is. In You Don't Look Your Age, the famed documentary producer (as President of HBO Documentary Films for over 30 years, Nevins has rightfully been credited with creating the documentary rebirth) finally steps out from behind the camera and takes her place front and center. In this program you will hear about the real life challenges of being a woman in a man's world, what it means to be a working mother, what it's like to be an older woman in a youth-obsessed culture, the sometimes changing, often sweet truth about marriages, what being a feminist really means, and that you are in good company if your adult children don't return your phone calls. So come, sit down, make yourself comfortable, and slip on those headphones. You're in for a treat.
©2017 Sheila Nevins (P)2017 Macmillan
Courage Is Contagious
Summary
A collection of essays celebrating the influential former first lady, by an array of acclaimed contributors and with a foreword by Lena Dunham Michelle Obama's legacy transcends categorization. Mrs. Obama was not only our first black first lady; she was President Obama's equal partner in marriage and parenthood and a tireless advocate for women's rights, education, healthy eating, and exercise. Her genre-busting personal style encouraged others to speak, to engage, even to dress as they wished. In an extension of his popular T, The New York Times Style Magazine feature, Nick Haramis has assembled 19 essays from prizewinning writers, Hollywood stars, and political leaders - all of whom have been moved and influenced by Mrs. Obama's extraordinary example of grace in power. Here are original testimonials from Gloria Steinem, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alice Waters, and Charlamagne tha God, among others. Presidential biographer Jon Meacham supplies historical perspective. Actress Tracee Ellis Ross suggests that Mrs. Obama "provided an antidote to all the false representations of black women that have inundated us for centuries." Anna Wintour and designer Jason Wu celebrate the former first lady's impact as an international fashion icon. Two ninth-grade girls - one in training to be a boxer - talk about how Mrs. Obama has emboldened them to be themselves. Here are some of the many facets of Michelle Obama as she continues to inspire us, a stirring reminder that the best of America once lived in the White House, embodied in one authentic, inclusive, and courageous woman. Read by the authors and a full cast of narrators: Lena Dunham Nick Haramis Alice Waters Janet Mock Issa Rae Charlamagne tha God Gloria Steinem Patton Oswalt Rashida Jones Jon Meacham Gabourey Sidibe Adasendis De La Cruz Laura Camacho Adenrele Ojo Hillary Huber Kimberly Farr Erin Spencer Raymond Lee Zainab Jah
©2017 Lena Dunham, Jenni Konner, and Nick Haramis (P)2017 Random House Audio
Is it evil not to be sure?
Summary
Is it evil not to be sure? is a collection of entries from Lena Dunham's diary - or what she called her "Creative Snippets and Observations Journal" - from the fall of 2005 and the spring of 2006. It is a candid, chaotic, and occasionally poetic snapshot of a young person becoming an adult. Read by the author, with additional narration by Andy Ward
©2017 Lena Dunham (P)2017 Random House Audio
Thalia Book Club: Abbi Jacobson, Carry This Book
Summary
Broad City's Abbi Jacobson brings together an evening of conversation centered on her latest book, a wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful illustrated look at the world around us - all through the framework of the things we carry. In conversation with Lena Dunham (Girls).
©2017 Symphony Space (P)2017 Symphony Space