Audiobooks narrated by T. Ryder Smith

"Klara and the?Sun meets S. A. Barnes's Dead Silence with a touch of Becky Chambers' A Psalm for the Wild-Built in Nebula Award-finalist A.D. Sui's darkly philosophical murder mystery, as a death monk and a team of researchers trapped onboard a spaceship of the dead encounter something beyond human understanding... Vessel Iris has devoted himself to the Starlit Order, performing funeral rites for the dead across the galaxy, guiding souls back into the Infinite Light. Despite the comfort he wants to believe he brings to the dead, his relationships with his fellow Vessels are distant at best, leaving him reliant on his AI implant for companionship. The spaceship Counsel of Nicaea has been lost for more than a thousand years. A relic of Earth's dying past, humanity took the ship to the stars on a multi-generation journey to find another habitable planet yet never reached its destination. Its sudden appearance has attracted a team of academics eager to investigate its archeological history. And Iris has been assigned to bring peace to the crew's long departed souls. Carpeted in moss and intertwined with vines, Nicaea is more forest than ship. Skeletons are all that remain of the crew, and Iris' religious rituals are met with bemusement by the scientists--and outright hostility by the engineer Yan Fukui. Determined to be more than just the curator of the dead, Iris tries to make himself useful to the team, desperate to form friendships. But Nicaea's plant life isn't the only sentience to have survived in the past millennia. Something onboard is stalking the explorers one by one. And Iris with his AI enhancement may be their only hope for survival. . ."

A.D. Sui (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Woody's Words: Woodrow Wilson Rawls and Where the Red Fern Grows

"The life of Woodrow “Woody” Wilson Rawls, the author of the children’s classic Where the Red Fern Grows, is revealed in this nonfiction book for ages 7–10 that celebrates persistence, creativity, and chasing dreams. When Woody Rawls read The Call of the Wild, a classic novel about a stolen mistreated dog and a kindly man, his life was forever changed. Maybe it was because he loved his own dog, or maybe it was because the story reached deep into his heart and stayed there. From then on, Woody was determined to learn to write and become a teller of tales. Woody didn't care that he couldn’t afford pen and paper. He would use a stick in the sand if he had to. Woody trusted his heart and used his imagination to create his stories, which he shared with Rowdy, his trusty hound. Woody never stopped writing even when it was hard to and when life got in the way. He went on to write several novels and publish two books for children—including the timeless classic Where the Red Fern Grows. This story of hard work creatively presented by author Lisa Rogers will resonate with young readers and adults alike. 'A poignant tribute to the power of story.'—Kirkus Reviews"

Lisa Rogers (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Songs of Nashville: The Real Stories Behind Country Music’s Greatest Hits

"Taking readers inside the songwriting mecca of Nashville’s Music Row for the real stories behind country’s most influential songs—and featuring exclusive interviews with songwriters like Vince Gill, Clint Black, Buddy Cannon, Jelly Roll, and Taylor Swift co-writer Liz Rose—Songs of Nashville gives you a front-row seat to the lives and work of the artists who’ve shaped country music. Songs of Nashville is the ultimate insider’s guide to the stories behind country music’s biggest and most unexpected hits over the past fifty years. For the first time, go behind the scenes with the songwriters who crafted the anthems of your life—discover the inspiration, heartbreak, and triumph behind the lyrics, melodies, and more that defined generations. From legends like Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton to superstars like Luke Combs and Carrie Underwood, this intimate musical exploration reveals the untold stories of the songs you know and love. More than a celebration of hit songs; Songs of Nashville is a tribute to the brilliant minds who wrote them. With in-depth interviews, readers will read firsthand accounts of how these songs were born, from spontaneous moments of inspiration to the magic of collaboration on Music Row. Whether you’re a fan of Johnny Cash, Miranda Lambert, or Jelly Roll, or an aspiring songwriter yourself, Songs of Nashville is a must-read to discover the secrets of the creative process and the enduring power of storytelling that makes country music timeless. Get ready to fall in love with your favorite songs all over again."

Jake Brown (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Buddhist Years: Collected Writings

"A brand new volume of previously unpublished writings from the archives reflecting Jack Kerouac’s Buddhist thinking From a young age Kerouac was a spiritual thinker and questioner, and he always considered himself a spiritual writer. Buddhism gave more meaning to Jack’s work as a writer: he was working not for personal accomplishment and glory but for human betterment. And Buddhism justified his lifestyle: with its vision of the material world as empty and illusory, he was free to do what he wanted. This collection shows Jack at his earnest, soulful best. The writing is consistently and wonderfully Kerouacian: it is honest, reflective, heartfelt, and revealing, with great characterizations amid his self-exploration as he wrestles with his consciousness, desperate for belief."

Jack Kerouac (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Rising Horde

"FIGHT THE HORDE OR DIE. Cent and Torres have been trapped with evil before, but this isn’t quite the same thing. Stuck on Harold Campbell’s island with nowhere to go and surrounded by a growing number of obayifo, they will have to find allies if they want to make it out. But not everyone can be trusted, and even those you think you can trust have ulterior motives. As the long night drags on, and with morning—and the promise of safety—still hours away, shadowy forces make their move, further complicating Cent and Torres’s plans. This isn’t the first time Cent and Torres have had to fight for their lives against an unrelenting creature that doesn’t just want to kill them but also take away everything they hold dear. If they’re not careful, it might be their last time. Beyond the Gathering, the Rising Horde will emerge …"

Sam Sisavath (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Gathering

"THE NIGHTMARE HAS JUST BEGUN. They thought the worst was behind them, but they were wrong. Very wrong. After surviving one brutal night against a creature they call the obayifo, Cent and Torres are unexpectedly reunited when both are recruited by the mysterious billionaire Harold Campbell to join his fight against the creatures that lurk in the shadows. For Cent, it’s an easy decision: Find and kill the obayifo and rid the world of their scourge. For Torres, it’s a little more complicated. There are forces turning her against people she trusts, with her future—and those of the people she loves—in the balance. From abandoned basements to dark sewers to secret complexes, Cent and Torres will be inducted into a world they didn’t even know existed until now. And it’s much, much more complicated and vastly more dangerous than they ever thought. After The Last Storm has receded, it’s time for The Gathering to begin …"

Sam Sisavath (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Self-Portrait: Collected Writings

"A collection of previously unpublished writing culled from the Kerouac archive Jack Kerouac’s archive is vast. Throughout his life he was constantly writing, and he meticulously saved and catalogued his material. The result is that beyond the work published in his lifetime there has been a rich stream of posthumous writing that is far from tapped, adding depth to his lifework—the Duluoz Legend—and our understanding of Kerouac the man. Far from being the adrenalized thrill-seeker that he depicted in On the Road’s Dean Moriarty, Kerouac himself was deeply spiritual, shy, and reclusive. He sought adventures for the sake of experience, needing them to fuel his writing, which according to him was his sole reason for living. Few people sacrificed more for their art. This collection of previously unpublished writing culled from the Kerouac archive, and as a companion to Paul Maher Jr.'s Becoming Kerouac, spans Kerouac’s adult life, from a journal written at age seventeen to autobiographical reflections a few years before his death. Self-Portrait is a blend of fictional and nonfictional pieces, a few abandoned starts but most complete in themselves and all of them chosen for the revelations they contain. In The Moon and Sixpence, Somerset Maugham wrote, “A man’s work reveals him … No one can produce the most casual work without disclosing the innermost secrets of his soul.” There are more than two dozen Kerouac biographies, but Self-Portrait reveals the artist in his own words, from his early ambition to the deep self-examination of his “Self-Ultimacy” period, his three-year struggle to write On the Road, musings about himself and America in the half-dozen years before the novel was published and then in the aftermath amid his public withdrawal, suffering from alcoholism and hounded by fame. Through it all there are tortuous feelings about his family—love, guilt, duty, and betrayal. As fans of Kerouac have come to learn, reading his work is a visceral probe. This audiobook includes bonus writings not included in the print edition."

Jack Kerouac (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Art of Dying: Writings, 2019-2022

"When Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker’s art critic and the leading art writer of his generation, published his eye-opening autobiographical essay, “The Art of Dying,” in December 2019, he reported that he had lung cancer and had been given six months of life. Fortunately, his treatment was showing some improvement, and so, he wrote, “These extra months are a luxury that I hope to have put to good use.” And he did. The Art of Dying begins with that essay and collects all forty-six pieces that he subsequently published in the magazine before his death in October 2022. These last works explore the meanings and purposes of art, not only in relation to the writer’s own condition, but also under the stress of an intensely anxious period spanning the pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protests, the 2020 presidential election, and the war in Ukraine. Reviewing exhibitions and, occasionally, books, Schjeldahl probed the art world’s answers to the questions—esthetic, moral, political—posed by these tempestuous three years, in writing inflected with generosity and openness. Comedian and author Steve Martin contributes a foreword, and writer and curator Jarrett Earnest contributes an introduction."

Peter Schjeldahl (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Last Storm: The Shadows

"The storm of the century. A ghost city. Law enforcement all but suspended. Hurricane Matthew is a force to be reckoned with. It has been forecasted to drown the city of Houston in an unrelenting torrent of rain. In the days before its arrival, the city was evacuated, leaving behind only a skeleton police force and civilians unable to flee its destructive path. It’s the perfect time and the perfect place for the perfect crime. Richter has it all figured out. A professional with years of experience, he leads a group of similar professionals that have seen and done it all. The plan goes down without a hitch, just as Richter envisioned. It’s everything else that goes off the rails. Forced to seek refuge in an abandoned apartment building to wait out the storm, Richter crosses paths with a police officer and her partner. They think they’re each other’s worst enemies, but they’re wrong. Very wrong. There is a creature of endless hunger waiting in the shadows, and it’s ready to feed. Good guys? Bad guys? None of it matters tonight."

Sam Sisavath (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Hijacking of American Flight 119: How D.B. Cooper Inspired a Skyjacking Craze and the FBI's Battle to Stop It

"He pulled off what some deem the crime of the century: skyjacking a commercial jetliner, collecting a ransom of $200,000, parachuting off the aft stairs of the Boeing 727 into the night, and simply disappearing. Since November 1971, “D. B. Cooper”—no one knows his real name or identity—has become a figure of enduring fascination and obsession. The FBI pursued him for over forty years, before closing the case and leaving it unsolved. Unsolved, perhaps, but much admired. D. B. Cooper’s exploit over the skies of the American Northwest has inspired books, films, and endless speculation. What’s less known is that it inspired imitators. None were more daring than the hijacker of American Flight 119. After commandeering the flight from St. Louis with a machine gun and collecting $502,500 in ransom, he parachuted out over Indiana. Unlike Cooper, he was tracked down. In The Hijacking of American Flight 119, John Wigger explores the wave of hijackings that swept over commercial flights between 1961 and 1972. One hijacker ran across the ramp in Reno, Nevada, with a pillowcase over his head, gun in hand, to seize a United Airlines flight. Another collected a large ransom in Washington, D.C., before jumping over Honduras. Yet another rode a bicycle across the tarmac with a rifle strapped to the handlebars. Motivations involved an admixture of ideology, greed, derring-do, and a desperate need to be noticed. What they had in common was that their exploits transfixed the nation’s attention, bringing about a transformation in airline security that remains with us still. With its focus on the parachute hijackers, Wigger’s book gathers together the stories of this period of daring criminality and recounts them in gripping fashion, showing their effect on the public, the media, and law enforcement. Using never-before-published interviews and first-hand accounts, he brings to life one of the most chaotic and fascinating periods in American aviation history."

John Wigger (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Vengeance Is Mine: The Mountain Meadows Massacre and Its Aftermath

"The long-awaited follow-up to the groundbreaking Massacre at Mountain Meadows Published in 2008, Massacre at Mountain Meadows was a bombshell of a book, revealing the story of one of the grimmest episodes in Latter-day Saint history, when settlers in southwestern Utah slaughtered more than 100 members of a California-bound wagon train in 1857. In this much-anticipated sequel, Richard E. Turley Jr. and Barbara Jones Brown examine the aftermath of this atrocity. Vengeance Is Mine documents southern Utah leaders’ attempts to cover up their crime by silencing witnesses and spreading lies. Investigations by both governmental and church bodies were stymied by stonewalling and political wrangling. While nine men were eventually indicted, five were captured and only one, John D. Lee, was executed. The book examines the maneuvering of the defense and prosecution in Lee’s two trials, the second trial ending in Lee’s conviction. Turley and Brown explore the fraught relationship between Lee and church president Brigham Young, and assess what role, if any, Young played in the cover-up. They trace the fates of the other perpetrators, including the harrowing end of Nephi Johnson, who screamed “Blood! Blood! Blood!” in his delirium as he lay dying more than sixty years after the massacre. Turley and Brown also tell the story of the massacre’s few survivors: seventeenchildren who witnessed the slaughter and eventually returned to Arkansas, where the ill-fated wagon train originated. Vengeance Is Mine brings the hitherto untold story of this shameful episode in Mormon and Utah history to its dramatic conclusion."

Barbara Jones Brown, Richard E. Turley (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Blown by the Same Wind

"Things in the sleepy fishing town of Cold Storage, Alaska, are changing. It’s the summer of 1968; the men are wearing their hair long, the Vietnam War is at its height, and multiple assassinations have gripped the country. But some things remain the same. Ellie’s bar is still the place to catch up on the town gossip, and there’s a lot to talk about, from the boys who have returned from the war (and the ones who haven’t), to the robberies that are plaguing the locals, to the new guy in town: a famous monk from Kentucky. Ellie, herself a fugitive of sorts, is curious about this “Brother Louis” and worries about his motives, but he seems harmless enough. However, when a handful of other outsiders arrive to town and start poking around the bar and asking questions, she begins to have reservations. Have they followed this mysterious monk, rumored to be the famous author Thomas Merton, to Cold Storage? And what is it that they want, particularly the inept FBI agent with the strange name: Boston Corbett? Inspired by assassination conspiracy theories, the life of Thomas Merton, and the changing tide of the ’60s, Blown by the Same Wind is a coming-of-age story for the town of Cold Storage itself."

John Straley (Author), T. Ryder Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by T. Ryder Smith

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