Chelsea Green’s Audiobook Gift Guide

We all have one of those people on our gift lists. You know the type: the hardcore hobbyist with very specific taste who is sick of socks and isn’t all that into reading.

Lucky for you, some of our most popular (and interesting) books also come in audiobook form! Get your loved-ones the gift of storytelling and knowledge without having to watch it collect dust on the bookshelf. There’s an audiobook out there for everyone, no matter what they’re into.

The best part? Our audiobooks are guaranteed to arrive in your hands – and the hands of the recipient – in minutes!

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For the Maker in Your Life: Material by Nick Kary

A master craftsperson explores the ways in which working with our hands reveals the essence of both our humanity and our relationship with the natural, material world.

In Material, Kary takes readers along with him to visit some of the places where modern artisans are preserving, and in some cases passing on, the old craft skills. His vivid descriptions and eye for detail make this book a rich and delightful read, and the natural and cultural history he imparts along the way provides an important context for understanding our own past and the roots of our industrial society.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
A Material Connection: Becoming a Maker			On Audible
The Story Tools Tell			On Libro.FM

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For the Storyteller in Your Life: Courting the Wild Twin by Martin Shaw

Master mythologist Martin Shaw uses timeless story-wisdom to examine our broken relationship with the world.

In Courting the Wild Twin, Dr. Martin Shaw invites us to seek out our wild twin – a metaphor for the part of ourselves that we generally shun or ignore to conform to societal norms – to invite them back into our consciousness, for they have something important to tell us. Through the use of scholarship, storytelling, and personal reflection, Shaw unpacks two ancient European fairy tales that concern the mysterious wild twin. By reading these tales and becoming storytellers ourselves, he suggests we can restore our agency and confront modern challenges with purpose, courage, and creativity.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
Who is the Wild Twin?			On Audible
The Condition of Wondering			On Libro.FM

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For the Foodie in Your Life: Fermentation as Metaphor by Sandor Ellix Katz

Chelsea GreenPublishing · Audio Sample: Fermentation as Metaphor

Bestselling author Sandor Katz—an “unlikely rock star of the American food scene” (New York Times), with over 500,000 books sold—gets personal about the deeper meanings of fermentation.

In Fermentation as Metaphor, stemming from his personal obsession with all things fermented, Katz meditates on his art and work, drawing connections between microbial communities and aspects of human culture: politics, religion, social and cultural movements, art, music, sexuality, identity, and even our individual thoughts and feelings. He informs his arguments with his vast knowledge of the fermentation process, which he describes as a slow, gentle, steady, yet unstoppable force for change.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
Fermentation as Metaphor			On Audible
We Need the Bubbling Transformative Power of Fermentation			On Libro.FM

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For the Change-Maker in Your Life: The Reindeer Chronicles by Judith D. Schwartz 

In a time of uncertainty about our environmental future—an eye-opening global tour of some of the most wounded places on earth, and stories of how a passionate group of eco-restorers is leading the way to their revitalization.

The Reindeer Chronicles demonstrates how solutions to seemingly intractable problems can come from the unlikeliest of places, and how the restoration of local water, carbon, nutrient, and energy cycles can play a dramatic role in stabilizing the global climate. Ultimately, it reveals how much is in our hands if we can find a way to work together and follow nature’s lead.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
Letting Go of Fear and Embracing Hope			On Audible
Rewilding: Restoration by Letting Go			On Libro.FM

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For the Athlete in Your Life: Peak by Marc Bubbs

An integrated and personalized approach to health, nutrition, training, recovery, and mindset.

Peak is a groundbreaking book exploring the fundamentals of high performance (not the fads), the importance of consistency (not extreme effort), and the value of patience (not rapid transformation). Dr. Marc Bubbs makes deep science easy to understand, and with information from leading experts who are influencing the top performers in sports on how to achieve world-class success, he lays out the record-breaking feats of athleticism and strategies that are rooted in this personalized approach.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
Sleep, Performance, and the 21st-Century Athlete			On Audible
The Right Way to Hydrate			On Libro.FM

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For the Artisan in Your Life: Carving Out a Living on the Land by Emmet Van Driesche

Carving Out a Living on the Land tells the story of how Van Driesche navigated changing life circumstances, took advantage of unexpected opportunities, and leveraged new and old skills to piece together an economically viable living, while at the same time respecting the land’s complex ecological relationships.

From spoon carving to scything, coppicing to wreath-making, Carving Out a Living on the Land proves that you don’t need acres of expensive bottomland to start your land-based venture, but rather the creativity and vision to see what might be done with that rocky section or ditch or patch of trees too small to log.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
Your Starting Place as a Farmer			On Audible
DIY Wreath Making			On Libro.FM

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For the Dreamer in Your Life: From What Is to What If by Rob Hopkins

The founder of the international Transition Towns movement asks why true creative, positive thinking is in decline, asserts that it’s more important now than ever, and suggests ways our communities can revive and reclaim it.

We do have the capability to effect dramatic change, Hopkins argues, but we’re failing because we’ve largely allowed our most critical tool to languish: human imagination.

From What Is to What If is a call to action to reclaim and unleash our collective imagination, told through the stories of individuals and communities around the world who are doing it now, as we speak, and witnessing often rapid and dramatic change for the better.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
What if We Started Asking Better Questions			On Audible
Look to a Brighter Future			On Libro.FM

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For the Adventurer in Your Life: Hitching for Hope by Ruairi McKiernan

A modern travel tale—part personal pilgrimage, part political quest—that captures the power of human resilience.

Following the collapse of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economy, social activist Ruairí McKiernan questions whether he should join the mounting number of emigrants searching for greater opportunity elsewhere. McKiernan embarks on a hitchhiking odyssey with no money, no itinerary and no idea where he might end up each night. His mission: to give voice to those emerging from one of the most painful periods of economic and social turmoil in Ireland’s history. Engaging, provocative and sincere, Hitching for Hope is a testimony to the spirit of Ireland. It is an inspirational manifesto for hope and healing in troubled times.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
The Spirit of Hitching			On Audible
Making Your Own Hope			On Libro.FM

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For the Naturalist in Your Life: Dancing with Bees by Brigit Strawbridge Howard

A naturalist’s passionate dive into the lives of bees (of all stripes)—and the natural world in her own backyard.

Brigit Strawbridge Howard was shocked the day she realised she knew more about the French Revolution than she did about her native trees. And birds. And wildflowers. And bees. The thought stopped her—quite literally—in her tracks. But that day was also the start of a journey, one filled with silver birches and hairy-footed flower bees, skylarks, and rosebay willow herb, and the joy that comes with deepening one’s relationship with place. Dancing with Bees is Strawbridge Howard’s charming and eloquent account of a return to noticing, to rediscovering a perspective on the world that had somehow been lost to her for decades and to reconnecting with the natural world.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
Speaking for the Bees			On Audible
On Swarms and Stings			On Libro.FM

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For the Animal-Lover in Your Life: Bringing Back the Beaver by Derek Gow

Bringing Back the Beaver is farmer-turned-ecologist Derek Gow’s inspirational and often riotously funny firsthand account of how the movement to rewild the British landscape with beavers has become the single most dramatic and subversive nature conservation act of the modern era.

In addition to detailing the ups and downs of rewilding beavers, Bringing Back the Beaver makes a passionate case as to why the return of one of nature’s great problem solvers will be critical as part of a sustainable fix for flooding and future drought, whilst ensuring the creation of essential lifescapes that enable the broadest possible spectrum of Britain’s wildlife to thrive.

Featured Excerpts			Get the Book
Beavers: A Short History			On Audible
A Man, A Mission, and a Grumpy Beaver			On Libro.FM

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