Eight-year-old orphan Beth Harmon is quiet, sullen, and by all appearances unremarkable. That is, until she plays her first game of chess. Her senses grow sharper, her thinking clearer, and for the first time in her life she feels herself fully in control. By the age of 16, she's competing for the US Open championship. But as Beth hones her skills on the professional circuit, the stakes get higher, her isolation grows more frightening, and the thought of escape becomes all the more tempting.

In a world where the human population has suffered devastating losses, a handful of survivors cling to what passes for life in a postapocalyptic, dying landscape. A world where humans wander, drugged and lulled by electronic bliss. A dying world of no children and no art, where reading is forbidden.

To Fast Eddie Felsen, a young pool hustler, there was only one thing that mattered: to make the big time and the big money in the world of pool by beating the best in the country. Hustling suckers in small towns for good stake money was practice for his goal, and when he felt ready he went to Bennington's pool hall in Chicago to find Minnesota Fats. Eddie and Fats pit nerve against skill in a fantastic match over an unbroken 36 hours.

Keita Ali has nothing: no bank account, no papers, no legal identity. A runner, he has fled home - a brutal dictatorship that produces the world's fastest marathoners - to live as an illegal refugee in a wealthy Western nation, surviving on winnings from local races. But the government is cracking down on illegal immigrants, so Keita - who will be executed if he is deported to his homeland - goes underground.

Why we think it’s a great listen: An all-time Audible favorite that mixes historic fiction, adventure, and romance with one of the most fascinating literary devices: time travel. Outlander introduces an exhilarating world of heroism and breathtaking thrills as one woman is torn between past and present, passion and love. In 1945, former combat nurse Claire Randall returns from World War II and joins her husband for a second honeymoon. But their blissful reunion is shattered....

If you’re afraid to open your bills, if you’ve never added up how much you owe, if you can’t even imagine being debt-free, it’s time to join the thousands of people Gail Vaz-Oxlade has helped. Her straightforward approach to money management is based on self-control, hard work, and prioritizing what’s really important. In Debt-Free Forever, Gail gives you a clear strategy and the steps needed to implement it. So if you’re finished with excuses, overdue notices, and maxed-out credit cards, buy this audiobook, follow Gail’s plan, and start becoming debt-free forever. 

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet.

After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now. For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined.

Tout frais émoulus de l'École de l'Espace, Nil, Mila, Élisabeth et bien d'autres, sont en train de rejoindre l'Esperanza 64 en orbite. Comme son nom l'indique, le vaisseau est le 64e du nom et, à l'instar de ses prédécesseurs, il va, sous deux mois, être lancé vers une étoile proche dans le cadre du programme Exodus. Manœuvré par un équipage de 4 000 hommes et femmes, il mettra des milliers d'années pour atteindre sa destination. Il emporte dans sa soute 25 000 000 de caissons, communément appelés cercueils, où sont conservés, congelés, les futurs colons de l'hypothétique exoplanète.

Montréal, 1978. Alors que survient l'assassinat du parrain calabrais Paolo Violi, nul ne devine l'ampleur de la «machine» mafieuse qui se cache derrière ce meurtre. Pour le clan adverse des Siciliens, c'est le début d'une épopée qui va durer plus de 30 ans. Après avoir échappé à la justice pendant des décennies, les chefs mafieux Nicolò et Vito Rizzuto sont arrêtés et condamnés au milieu des années 2000, l'un à Montréal et l'autre aux États-Unis. Or, dans le cœur du clan sicilien, frappé d'une série de meurtres stratégiques, la débandade continue.

Né en 1921, Léo Major grandit à Montréal durant la Grande Dépression. Aîné d’une famille nombreuse, il développe une relation conflictuelle avec son père et quitte la maison à 14 ans. Son père lui dit qu’il ne fera jamais rien de bon dans la vie: Léo va lui prouver le contraire. En 1940, il s’enrôle dans le Régiment de la Chaudière. Après un entraînement long et exigeant, il participe au débarquement de Normandie. Dès son arrivée en sol français, il multiplie les actions d’éclat.

À 36 ans, Édith est une femme résolument moderne, à la carrière brillante. Elle dirige de main de maître une société de conseil, possède un bel appartement dans le Vieux-Montréal, vit des aventures sans lendemain et rencontre fréquemment Marguerite, une femme très différente d'elle, avec qui elle partage pourtant une longue amitié. Mais sous ces apparences, elle est aux prises avec de terribles démons.  

Guided by leading experts and personalities in wellness, sleep meditations are brief listens focused specifically on helping you decompress before bed. They don’t require any previous experience - they're easy to get into and designed to help you take a moment at day’s end to just relax.   

Bedtime stories are narrated by the world’s most celebrated voices and written with no beginning, middle, or end so you don’t stay up to hear what happens next. They're interesting enough to give your mind something to focus on, but delivered in a way that encourages sleep. 

Due to its ability to deeply relax the mind and body, ASMR has become a source of calm and pleasure for millions.  

Sleep 101s are short, educational pieces that go deep—but not too deep—into all things sleep. They cover topics like understanding your circadian rhythm, how to ease into a meditation practice, tips about getting better sleep, and more. 

Sound baths are full-body listening experiences that calm the mind and body with resonant instruments like tuning forks and crystal bowls. 

In this five-part series, US happiness expert and positive psychologist Michelle Gielan and British journalist and author Oliver Burkeman explore ways to become truly happier, backed up by scientific evidence. Bringing their own unique and counter-balanced personalities to proceedings they ask questions such as: what is happiness? Can we make ourselves happier? And why is everyone talking about mindfulness? Michelle and Oliver tackle these questions with the help of some of the world’s leading experts on the subjects and at the end of each episode, Michelle leads the listener through a quick and easy practical exercise that has been shown to increase happiness. Listeners will be left with a genuine takeaway from each episode and encouraged to explore the topics further and take their own steps towards a happier life.

We’ve all heard the word wellness, but what does it actually mean? Why is the concept of wellness so popular right now? And why is the wellness industry booming? In this series the comedian Alice Fraser goes on a quest to find out. On the way she meets the three guys known as the so-called fathers of wellness, she takes part in a yoga class with a social media influencer and she chats to two scientists carrying out a landmark study on the meaning and measurement of wellbeing.

Meditation is everywhere: your mobile phone, clothing stores and even in colouring books. But where does it come from and what even is it? With the help of neuroscientist Ash Ranpura, comedian Alice Fraser explores the science, history and culture behind meditation. On the way we will meet the tiny part of the brain that triggers most of our fear and anxiety, the NBA coach who taught Michael Jordan how to meditate, and the writer who says the best way to cope with our polarised politics is to practice mindfulness.

What is social media doing to our brains? How can we make sure smartphones don't affect our health? How do we overcome jealousy, cyberbullying and the ever present FOMO? These are some of the questions that social psychologist Aleks Krotoski addresses in this series aimed at teenagers and their parents. She delivers the latest science about screentime to help you make the right decisions about how much, or how little, to use technology in your life.

Losing weight is one of the hardest things you can do and everyone seems to have a solution. There are new diets appearing all the time, new exercise routines, new technologies. So how do we know what to believe and why is it still so damn hard? Scientist Dr. Giles Yeo helps podcaster and columnist Olly Mann separate the fact from the fiction. Olly tries to figure out why he’s still fat and what he can do about it. They look at the latest science: how genes can affect our weight, how our brains are telling our bodies to keep that fat, and why proteins make you feel fuller for longer.