I already love audiobooks (I’m an aural-o-gist!), so I didn’t think twice about whether to binge-listen to the S-Town Podcast or not. I split the seven-“chapter” (episode) podcast into two days of listening while editing image files at work and baking a lasagna at home. As my own personal auralogist, I decided to come up with a “listen-alike” list inspired by the thematic elements of S-Town. Here’s that bibliographic homage to the show.
Midnight in the garden of good and evil : a Savannah story
John Berendt
eAUDIO
True Crime--classic Southern crime drama where the victim is a male prostitute killed by a Savannah socialite; worth trying out if you loved the Southern Gothic aspect of the podcast.
- Melody
True crime addict : how I lost myself in the mysterious disappearance of Maura Murray
James Renner
eAUDIO
"When an eleven year old James Renner fell in love with Amy Mihaljevic, the missing girl seen on posters all over his neighborhood, it was the beginning of a lifelong obsession with true crime. That obsession leads James to a successful career as an investigative journalist. It also gave him PTSD. In 2011, James began researching the strange disappearance of Maura Murray, a UMass student who went missing after wrecking her car in rural New Hampshire in 2004. Over the course of his investigation, he uncovers numerous important and shocking new clues about what may have happened to Maura, but also finds himself in increasingly dangerous situations with little regard for his own well-being. As his quest to find Maura deepens, the case starts taking a toll on his personal life, which begins to spiral out of control. The result is an absorbing dual investigation of the complicated story of the All-American girl who went missing and James's own equally complicated true crime addiction. James Renner's True Crime Addict is the story of his spellbinding investigation of the missing person's case of Maura Murray, which has taken on a life of its own for armchair sleuths across the web. In the spirit of David Fincher's Zodiac, it is a fascinating look at a case that has eluded authorities and one man's obsessive quest for the answers"--
True Crime--follow along with a journalist who becomes obsessed with his subject
- Melody
The innocent man : [murder and injustice in a small town]
John Grisham
eAUDIO
Sometimes the truth can be stranger than fiction ... In his first work of non-fiction, John Grisham delivers his most extraordinary thriller yet: the account of an innocent man sent to death row. "The innocent man" chronicles the life of Ronald Keith Williamson, who left his small town in Oklahoma in 1971 as a second-round draft pick of the Oakland A's and seemed destined for a major league career. He was later convicted in the same town, sent to death row, and came within five days of being executed for a murder he did not commit. After 12 years in prison, Mr. Williamson was freed in 1999. He died at the age of 51 on Dec. 4, 2004. In a true legal thriller Grisham recounts the murder, its aftermath, the trial, the imprisonment, and the exoneration.
True Crime--esteemed fiction writer seeks the truth
- Melody
The spider and the fly : a web of memory and murder
Claudia Rowe
eAUDIO
True Crime--the print book is subtitled “A Reporter, a Serial Killer, and the Meaning of Murder,” this literary true crime thriller tells the story of a journalist getting into the head of a man who strangled eight women–an he gets into hers…
- Melody
Foxcatcher : the true story of my brother's murder, John du Pont's madness, and the quest for Olympic gold
Mark Schultz
eAUDIO
"On January 26, 1996, Dave Schultz, Olympic gold-medal winner and wrestling golden boy, was shot three times by du Pont family heir John E. du Pont at the famed Foxcatcher Farms estate in Pennsylvania. Following the murder there was a tense standoff when du Pont barricaded himself in his home for two days before he was finally captured. How did such a horrifying senseless murder happen?...Mark Schultz takes us through his remarkable wrestling career from high school to world and Olympic championships, revealing both the triumphs of his career and the personal and financial struggles that gave him no choice but to join forces with the eccentric, controlling du Pont."--Provided by publisher.
True Crime--another story set in Yankee territory, and one that involves madness, money, and murder
- Melody
This close to happy : a reckoning with depression
Daphne Merkin
eAUDIO
"This Close to Happy is the first account to endeavor to tell the story of what it feels to suffer a lifetime's worth of clinical depression from the inside out and from a woman's point of view"--
Depression & Mental Illness--an autobiography about a gifted writer’s lifelong battle with depression and the struggle for relief
- Melody
Fast girl : a life spent running from madness
Suzy Favor Hamilton
eAUDIO
Depression & Mental Illness--highly talented youth hiding a double-life
- Melody
A very expensive poison : the definitive story of the murder of Litvinenko and Russia's war with the West
Luke Harding
eAUDIO
Elemental Poison--a polonium political assassination story
- Melody
The disappearing spoon : and other true tales of madness, love, and the history of the world from the periodic table of the elements
Sam Kean
COMPACT DISC 546 Kean
The periodic table is one of man's crowning scientific achievements. But it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the 'frequently' mad scientists who discovered them.
Elemental Poison--fascinating tales from the history of the periodic table
- Melody
Listen to the short story “Brokeback Mountain,” which inspired the film of the same name that Olin enlightened John B. about
- Melody