NPH Chooses Random House

Neil Patrick Harris was in the studio for Random House reading his new book, Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography. The Emmy and Tony award winner, best known for his roles on How I Met Your Mother and Doogie Howser, M.D., “takes readers on adventure through his life and career,” according to the publisher, “drawing on his experiences—from being a child star to coming out, acting on Broadway, and becoming a father.” In the book, which is out October 14 in print and audio, Harris, has, per Random House, created a “reading experience for his fans that is nontraditional, imaginative, and laugh-out-loud funny.”

Palmer Explores the ‘Art of Asking’ at Hachette

Musician and performance artist Amanda Palmer read the audiobook for her own title, The Art of Asking. Palmer (who is married to writer Neil Gaiman), delivered a viral TED Talk of the same name, and in the book tells the “story of an artist struggling with the new rules of exchange in the 21st century, both on and off the Internet,” according to the publisher, which bills the title as “part manifesto, part revelation.” The audiobook, on sale November 11, includes such special features as an original performance and a PDF of photos and lyrics.

Elwes Calls On a Few Friends for S&S

Actor Cary Elwes, who played Westley in The Princess Bride, reads from his memoir, As You Wish, for Simon & Schuster Audio. The audiobook includes special appearances from Princess Bride co-stars: Christopher Guest, Carol Kane, Chris Sarandon, Andy Scheinman, Wallace Shawn, and Robin Wright along with producer Norman Lear and director Rob Reiner (Billy Crystal, who did not make the first CD version of the audiobook, will be featured on the download version and any physical reprints). The book, which goes on sale October 14, is a first-person account and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic, according to the publisher.

Ericksen a Fan Favorite for Brilliance

Brilliance turned to Nora Roberts fans to help select the narrator for Blood Magick, the final book in the author’s Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy, on sale October 28 (the print version is being released the same day by Berkley). After polling hundreds of readers, asking them for feedback on narration style, narrator gender, and characterization, the publisher landed on Audie Award–winning narrator Susan Ericksen, who, according to Brilliance, “deftly winds her way through the multiple characters and accents in this thrilling audiobook.”

Lawlor On Call for Tantor

Audie Award finalist Patrick Lawlor was in the studio last month recording Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician, a memoir by cardiologist and Intern author Sandeep Jauhar. The book chronicles “the formative years of [Jauhar’s] residency while observing firsthand the crisis of American medicine through the eyes of a cardiologist,” according to Tantor. The book was published in hardcover by Farrar, Straus and Giroux on August 19, and Tantor will release the audiobook on October 28.

Macmillan Gets Unde-Nye-able

Bill Nye—scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor—was in the Macmillan studio this month recording his audiobook for Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation, which goes on sale November 4. Nye was the creator and host of the popular Emmy Award–winning PBS/Discovery Channel show Bill Nye the Science Guy. He also appears on the Science Channel’s 100 Greatest Discoveries and PBS’s The Eyes of Nye. His book, per Macmillan, is an “impassioned, compelling argument for the scientific unviability of creationism and the absolute necessity of its removal from the classroom.”