Audiobooks by Michael Perry

Hunker: Brief Essays on Human Connection

Another in a series (including From the Top, Roughneck Grace, Million Billion, and Peaceful Persistence) of collected brief essays by New York Times bestselling author and humorist Michael Perry. 'Although these pieces were written during times of unrest and pandemic, they drew on human connection,' says Perry. 'Week after week, slowly at first, and then regularly, I received messages, emails, comments, and sometimes even a handwritten note from readers who weren't looking to me for advice or a 'take' on the latest news blast or controversy or tragedy or variant. Instead they said they were grateful for a brief break from it all. Something to go with their morning coffee. Something to read before bed. Something heartfelt, something goofy. Something that was anything but that other thing. Something to lighten the hunker.'

Michael Perry (Author), Michael Perry (Narrator)

Audiobook

From the Top: Brief Transmissions from Tent Show Radio

“I’m happy to go to the opera, but I should like to be allowed to wear steel-toed boots with my evening suit. I like to read Harper’s with a chaser of Varmint HunterMagazine. Maybe that’s why I enjoy a good show under canvas. Here we sit, brain-deep in arts and culture, but we’re also just people hanging out in a tent, some of us wearing logging boots, a few of us wearing Birkenstocks, but best of all we’re breathing free fresh air filled with music.” From Scandihoovian Spanglish to snickering chickens, New York Times best-selling author and humorist Michael Perry navigates a wide range of topics in this collection of brief essays drawn from his weekly appearances on the nationally syndicated Tent Show Radio program. Fatherhood, dumpster therapy, dangerous wedding rings, Christmas trees, used cars, why you should have bacon in your stock portfolio, loggers in clogs - whatever the subject, Perry has a rare ability to touch both the funny bone and the heart. ©2013 Michael Perry (P) 2019 Michael Perry

Michael Perry (Author), Michael Perry (Narrator)

Audiobook

Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy

The beloved memoirist and bestselling author of Population: 485 reflects on the lessons he's learned from his unlikely alter ego, French Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne"The journey began on a gurney," writes Michael Perry, describing the debilitating kidney stone that led him to discover the essays of Michel de Montaigne. Reading the philosopher in a manner he equates to chickens pecking at scraps-including those eye-blinking moments when the bird gobbles something too big to swallow-Perry attempts to learn what he can (good and bad) about himself as compared to a long-dead French nobleman who began speaking Latin at the age of two, went to college instead of kindergarten, worked for kings, and once had an audience with the pope. Perry "matriculated as a barn-booted bumpkin who still marks a second-place finish in the sixth-grade spelling bee as an intellectual pinnacle ... and once said hello to Merle Haggard on a golf cart."Written in a spirit of exploration rather than declaration, Montaigne in Barn Boots is a down-to-earth (how do you pronounce that last name?) look into the ideas of a philosopher "ensconced in a castle tower overlooking his vineyard," channeled by a Midwestern American writing "in a room above the garage overlooking a defunct pig pen." Whether grabbing an electrified fence, fighting fires, failing to fix a truck, or feeding chickens, Perry draws on each experience to explore subjects as diverse as faith, race, sex, aromatherapy, and Prince. But he also champions academics and aesthetics, in a book that ultimately emerges as a sincere, unflinching look at the vital need to be a better person and citizen.

Michael Perry (Author), Michael Perry (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Scavengers

When the world started to fall apart, the government gave everyone two choices: move into the Bubble Cities... or take their chances outside. Maggie's family chose to live in the world left behind. Maggie rechristens herself 'Ford Falcon' - a name inspired by the beat-up car at a nearby junkyard. But when Ford comes home one day to discover her family missing, she must find the strength to rescue her loved ones with the help of some unlikely friends.

Michael Perry (Author), Sandy Rustin (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Jesus Cow: A Novel

New York Times bestselling humorist Michael Perry makes his fiction debut with this hilarious and big-hearted tale, a comic yet sincere exploration of faith and the foibles of modern life that blends the barbed charm of Garrison Keillor, the irreverent humor of Christopher Moore, and the audacious insight of Chuck Klosterman. Life is suddenly full of drama for low-key Harley Jackson: A woman in a big red pickup has stolen his bachelor's heart, a Hummer-driving predatory developer is threatening to pave the last vestiges of his family farm, and inside his barn is a calf bearing the image of Jesus Christ. His best friend, Billy, a giant of a man who shares his trailer house with a herd of cats and tries to pass off country music lyrics as philosophy, urges him to avoid the woman, fight the developer, and get rich off the calf. But Harley takes the opposite tack, hoping to avoid what his devout, dearly departed mother would have called "a scene." Then the secret gets out, right through the barn door, and Harley's "miracle" goes viral. Within hours pilgrims, grifters, and the media have descended on his quiet patch of Swivel, Wisconsin, looking for a glimpse (and a percentage) of the calf. Does Harley hide the famous, possibly holy calf and risk a riot, or give the people what they want, and raise enough money to keep his land, and, just possibly, win the woman and her big red pickup truck? Harley goes all in, cutting a deal with a major Hollywood agent that transforms his little farm into an international spiritual theme park, think Lourdes, only with cheese curds and t-shirts. Soon, Harley has lots of money . . . and more trouble than he ever dreamed.

Michael Perry (Author), Michael Perry (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Scavengers

Holes meets The City of Ember in this imaginative, captivating, and humorous middle grade novel from New York Times bestselling adult author Michael Perry. When the world started to fall apart, the government gave everyone two choices: move into the Bubble Cities...or take their chances outside. Twelve-year-old Maggie and her family chose the latter. They live in the world that was left behind. Deciding it's time to grow up and grow tough, Maggie rechristens herself 'Ford Falcon'-a name taken from the beat-up car she finds at a nearby junkyard. This is where Ford's family goes to scavenge for things they can use and barter with. Thus far, they have been able to survive this brave new world by working together. But when Ford returns one day to discover her home ransacked and her family missing, she must find the strength to survive on her own and rescue her loved ones. This wholly original tween novel combines a page-turning adventure, heartfelt family story, and triumphant journey of self-discovery. With Scavengers, Michael Perry achieves the perfect mix of humor and heart in a world where one person's junk is another person's key to survival.

Michael Perry (Author), Sandy Rustin (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Scavengers

When the world started to fall apart, the government gave everyone two choices: move into the Bubble Cities...or take their chances outside. Twelve-year-old Maggie and her family chose the latter. They live in the world that was left behind. Deciding it’s time to grow up and grow tough, Maggie rechristens herself “Ford Falcon”—a name taken from the beat-up car she finds at a nearby junkyard. This is where Ford’s family goes to scavenge for things they can use and barter with. Thus far, they have been able to survive this brave new world by working together. But when Ford returns one day to discover her home ransacked and her family missing, she must find the strength to survive on her own and rescue her loved ones. This wholly original tween novel combines a page-turning adventure, heartfelt family story, and triumphant journey of self-discovery. With Scavengers, Michael Perry achieves the perfect mix of humor and heart in a world where one person’s junk is another person’s key to survival.

Michael Perry (Author), Sandy Rustin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Population: 485

After a 12-year absence, a real-life prodigal seeks to serve his hometown -- New Auburn, Wisconsin, population: 485 -- by joining the volunteer fire and rescue department. In a place where men post claims of manhood on bug deflectors, where the local vigilante is a farmer's wife with a pistol and a Bible, and where the most senior firefighter is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), writer Michael Perry sets out "to meet my neighbors at the invitation of the fire siren." This audio also includes eight wise and witty essays selected from Perry's new book, Off Main Street. Whether fighting fires, playing nurse to a murderer, hitting the road with a truck driver, or meditating on Elvis and osmosis, Perry shows us that his small-town roots have not limited his worldview -- in fact, they've enlarged it in some of the subtlest, most observant and memorable ways possible. This collection is a diverse and generous survey of the author's talents as a journalist, penetrating observer and rural-bred storyteller of Wisconsin.

Michael Perry (Author), Michael Perry (Narrator)

Audiobook