Audiobooks That Speak Volumes

Don't have time to read a book? Why not listen to one?

Mar 15, 2024

I’m frequently asked how I have time to read so many books. My answer is simple: audiobooks. Because I rarely have time to sit and read a physical book for long, uninterrupted stretches, I rely on audiobooks to propel my reading while doing daily tasks. The below list includes 17 books that I think translate particularly well to the audio format and in some instances are even enhanced by it. Before I get to the recommendations, however, I have a few audiobook-related thoughts:

Yes, listening to books counts as reading! As long as you are paying attention and absorbing the material, why should it matter if your eyes are doing the work or your ears?
Audiobooks are a fantastic way to keep reading even when you are busy. After a long day and with so many competing interests, it can be hard to sit down with a physical book. Audiobooks are the ultimate multitasking device. Consider listening while you go for a walk, do laundry, drive, commute, cook dinner, etc. I try to keep my task simple when I start a book so that I’m not distracted and can get comfortable with the narration. You can also play with speed to make sure you’re absorbing the book at your preferred pace.
Audiobook listening can be an acquired skill; more experience might make it easier to listen to more complex books or at a faster speed. Memoirs are the best starting point for people looking to get into listening to books. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah is a classic recommendation for new audiobook listeners because of Noah’s inflection and comedic timing. Romances, thrillers, and general non-fiction are also great when you’re ready to move beyond memoirs, but really any genre with accessible narratives and not too many characters will work. Many more recommendations in this vein below…
Some people who are particularly invested in their audio experience have favorite (and least favorite) narrators. Some narrators, like Julia Whelan, have acquired (audiobook) fame. Some particularly lucky or well-connected authors have celebrities narrate their audiobooks, like Meryl Streep for Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake and Tom Hanks for Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House (sensing a theme?). And of course, it’s fairly standard for authors to narrate their own memoirs, which allows them to add personal inflection or humor that might otherwise be lacking on the page.
Perhaps the most important question of all: where can you listen to audiobooks? I strongly encourage you to look beyond Audible, which is owned by Amazon, and support your local library or independent bookstore. Download Libby, a free app that allows you to link your library card for easy access to its digital catalogue (just be aware of due dates). If you want to purchase the book, download and use Libro.fm, which is set up similarly to Bookshop.org. You choose the independent bookstore you want to support, and proceeds from your purchase go to them.

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Harry, who wishes he could listen to audiobooks.

Read by the Author (Translation: Really Great Memoirs)

Monsters - Claire Dederer

What do you do with art created by someone who has done bad things? Is it ok to consume or do you have to give it up completely? Is it possible to separate the art and the artist? These are questions Claire Dederer grapples with in this smart piece of cultural criticism cum memoir of a critics journey. Dederer begins the book by challenging her love of Roman Polanski’s movies and her inability to reconcile great films with his obvious misdeeds. She explores the special behavioral dispensation given to artists, mostly men like Miles Davis and Pablo Picasso, who society has given the crown of “genius.” These are just some of the many topics covered by Dederer in this thoughtful and fascinating piece of criticism. There aren’t clear answers to the questions posed, but clear answers to complicated questions wouldn’t be in line with the premise. Instead, Dederer encourages her readers to consume art with a critical eye rather than mandatory abstention.

Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life - Delia Ephron

After Delia Ephron wrote an op-ed in The New York Times about the terrible customer service she encountered while trying to discontinue her late-husband’s landline, she receives an email from a man named Peter, who she had met long ago. Their correspondence turns into a late-in-life marriage, with a ceremony in a hospital wing on the eve of the start of Delia’s treatment for leukemia, the same cancer that killed her sister, Nora. The second half of Delia’s memoir focuses on her medical journey, from an experimental therapy she is given to a harrowing bone marrow transplant. Along the way, Delia introduces readers to her many wonderful doctors and friends who support her throughout. Delia preserves these moments by reprinting the emails sent by friends while she was in the hospital, and boy does Delia Ephron have a literate group of friends. Left on Tenth was a challenging story of hardship and resilience, of finding love after death, and in many ways, an ode to New York read by an icon of the city.

Stay True - Hua Hsu

As a first-generation Taiwanese American in the early 1990s, Hua Hsu arrived at Berkeley with a very specific understanding of himself as an individual; his likes and dislikes, his music preferences, his style choices. His first impression of Ken, a Japanese American student whose family has been in the United States for generations, is warped. Hsu views Ken as too mainstream and with a simplistic view of the world. As the two spend more time together, however, Hsu and Ken grow close, developing the tight bond so easily developed by college students. But one night, almost three years after they met, Ken is unexpectedly murdered in a carjacking, throwing Hsu’s life into disarray. Stay True is Hsu’s attempt to reckon with the loss of his friend in the thirty-years since his death. Although there are elements of eulogy, Hsu emphasizes friendship, adolescence, and the ability to grow amidst tragedy. Hsu, now a writer for The New Yorker, reads his writing with grace and beauty, effortlessly weaving together his past with current reflections.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination - Elizabeth McCracken

McCracken’s first pregnancy was spent in Bordeaux with her husband and was, by her own account, easy and idyllic. The decision to forgo a fancy doctor in Paris and instead choose a midwife for the birth seemed neither hard nor exceptional, but later, McCracken will wonder if it was fateful. 40 weeks into the pregnancy, McCracken learns that her baby has no heartbeat and is dead in utero. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination is a reflection on love, loss, mourning, pregnancy, and motherhood. A few months later, the couple learns that McCracken is pregnant again, making the memoir just as much a contemplation of the second pregnancy as the first. McCracken explores the indelible conundrum of experiencing pregnancy, creation, and life in the wake of unexpected disaster. Not only was this book moving - indeed certain details near the end brought me to tears - but the writing was exquisite. McCracken has a beautiful eye for detail, and her ability to write about personal tragedy is a gorgeous attempt to heal and remember. Having her read it in particular was an absolute gift.

I Am I Am I Am - Maggie O’Farrell

Using seventeen brushes with death, I Am I Am I Am is the story of O’Farrell’s life. When O’Farrell was a young child she became ill with a mysterious illness that left her paralyzed for a year and close to death. At age 18, while working at a holiday resort, O’Farrell escaped a predatory man on a hike who later was arrested for strangling and murdering a woman a few days later. After giving birth to her first child, O’Farrell experienced extreme bleeding that made the doctors believe she was going to die. Although each incident is its own chapter, they are not in chronological order, slowly revealing O’Farrell’s life and providing context for her experiences. Do not think that these incidents make this a depressing book. It is the opposite. Each close encounter with death seems to give O’Farrell more perspective and appreciation for life, which becomes critical after her daughter is born with serious, life-threatening allergies and all of the survivalist lessons that she has learned for herself must be used to keep her daughter alive. This is a wholly unique and singular book, possibly O’Farrell’s best.

Dinners with Ruth - Nina Totenberg, Memoir

Dinners with Ruth is a story of friendship and NPR journalist Nina Totenberg’s memoir. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Totenberg met in the mid-1960s when she was working on a story about one of the cases that RBG was arguing. Their friendship blossomed over the years in deep and meaningful ways. RBG cared for Totenberg when she lost her first husband, served as the officiant for her second wedding, and was frequently a guest at her dinner table. In return, Totenberg cared for RBG when her husband died as well as in the final years of RBG’s life. Totenberg is quick to point out, however, that they did not mix work with their friendship, and RBG would never explicitly discuss what was going on inside the Supreme Court. I enjoyed listening to this book because Totenberg narrates it herself. It’s warm and engaging, addressing both light and heavy topics about two women who have earned a spot in the iconography of American culture and history.

Books With Audio That Enhance the Reading Experience

Stone Blind - Natalie Haynes, Fiction/Mythology

The Gorgons, gods amongst mortals ruled by Poseidon, live on a rocky outpost in the Greek islands. When they are given the gift of a mortal child (albeit one with wings), named Medusa, they are unsure how to handle the new task, but soon become consumed with her care. A series of unfortunate events lead to a curse that turns Medusa’s hair into snakes and gives her eyes the power to turn anything living into stone, enforcing a self-imposed physical and visual exile. Her life probably would have continued as is - for Medusa in Stone Blind is gentle and kind, terrified of using her powers to harm anyone - until Perseus, a precocious and bumbling son of Zeus arrives with the help of the gods to take a Gorgon head. The chapters alternate amongst the perspectives of the gods and mortals operating in her orbit, sometimes fairly far afield. It’s not immediately clear how all of these perspectives will intersect, but rest assured that they eventually do, such as in any Greek epic. The audio narration of each distinct character added necessary dramatics that made me appreciate this fantastic tale.

Several People are Typing - Calvin Kasulke, Fiction

The entirety of Several People are Typing is told through the exchange of Slack messages at a New York PR firm. This satirized portrayal of an American corporate workplace, one in which employees communicate primarily online and work from home at will, highlights the absurdity of the intense connectivity expected of employees in the digital world. Illustrating this point is Gerald, a mid-level employee whose consciousness has been commandeered by the company’s Slack channels, trapping Gerald in a 24-hour work day. Listening to this book is the best way to read this novel. Each character is portrayed by a different voice actor and the end-result feels like the performance of a play rather than just a bizarre reading of Slack messages.

Kitchens of the Great Midwest - J. Ryan Stradal, Fiction

Eva is only a baby when readers meet her, but it is already clear that she is a food wunderkind. Her father, who narrates the first chapter, is something of a food savant himself, obsessed with creating the perfect combination of fresh ingredients to fill the void created by his wife who left the two of them to chase her dream of becoming a sommelier. Each chapter of the book is told from a different perspective (only one from Eva herself; she is 11 and growing excessively spicy habanero peppers in her bedroom), moving forward in time and tracking Eva’s growth as she breaks out as a “once in a generation” palette. I loved each character that I was introduced to (particularly the religious Lutheran woman with killer peanut butter bars), and learned by the end to not pick up the book when hungry. This book was a particularly good choice for audio - I would turn it on and not want to shut it off, looking for excuses to sneak a few more minutes in.

In Memoriam - Alice Winn, Historical Fiction

In Memoriam is both a war story and a love story centered around two young men who fall in love at British boarding school before being sent to fight in the trenches of World War I. Sidney Ellwood and Henry Gaunt come from privileged, aristocratic backgrounds. Their social status guarantees an officer rank after they enlist, and they are almost immediately sent to the Belgian trenches where any remaining idealism about the heroics of war are quickly shattered by the brutality all around them. The men they are tasked with leading die in droves and boys with whom they grew up are constantly added to their school’s in memoriam list. The two rely on one another throughout it all, until an ill-fated scouting trip ends in Gaunt with a bullet hole in his chest, leaving Ellwood without a friend and partner to continue fighting for. In Memoriam is a remarkable debut novel with gravitas befitting a much more experienced writer. I felt completely immersed in the world that Alice Winn built, from the schoolboy idealism, to the horrors of the trenches, to the escapades in a POW camp. The audio rendering of the school’s in memoriam lists that are interspersed throughout the novel are beautiful and moving. If I had been reading on the page I might have skimmed and moved on, which defeats the purpose of this larger story on love and incomprehensible loss.

Compellingly Written, Compellingly Read

Sirens and Muses - Antonia Angress, Fiction

Louisa is a talented young painter who has recently transferred to Wrynn College from a community college near her home in Louisiana. Her roommate, Karina, born in New York City to wealthy art collectors, is assured of her spot at Wrynn artistically, but struggles to fit in with other members of the student body, finding intrigue in the trust-fund holding, anti-capitalist, artistic provocateur, Preston Utley. When Louisa learns that her grandfather has had a stroke and the money going to her tuition will have to go towards his medical bills, she pins her hopes for staying at Wrynn on the winter art show, which has substantial cash prizes for its winner. When Preston stages a controversial prank at the art show, all three students and a visiting professor separately move to New York and strike out on their own. Removed from the comforts of school, each is confronted with the tensions between making art and making a living. I listened to most of this book through Libby and thought the narrator did a fantastic job telling the story and giving it life. Of course, the narrator had much to work with in this beautifully written, compelling story of seekers and strivers, dreamers and idealists.

Wastelands - Corban Addison, Non-Fiction/Legal

In rural eastern North Carolina, the hog farming industry is king. One of the biggest producers of pork within the United States and across the world, the farms provide regional jobs while lining the pockets of pork barons. A consequence of these farms, however, is a horrible stench that permeates throughout the region, coating the surfaces of everything it touches, including the homes and livelihoods of the mostly poor Black families that live near the facilities. Although more modern pollution reduction techniques exist, heavy lobbying and deregulation efforts have made it so that they are not required, effectively reducing the quality of life for local residents. Wastelands is about the legal fight to hold the hog industry to account led by the residents and their legal team. Spanning nearly a decade, the book has the feel of a true crime thriller based on the level of detail used to describe the play-by-play of the legal strategy and subsequent trials.

The Boys - Katie Hafner, Fiction

Ethan is a man with quirks. Extremely smart and musically gifted, Ethan would be content to stay in his lane working and going home to a comfortable life devoid of risk. His wife Barb is the antidote to his personality, pushing him to travel on a Backroads style bike trip (providing very funny scenes) for their anniversary, adopt a cat, and consider having children. One day, Barb comes home with two Russian children to foster. Worried about his ability to keep children alive, Ethan becomes obsessed with the twins, crafting their lives within an immaculate bubble, but driving Barb out of his life. Now newly single, Ethan decides to take the boys on the same biking trip that he and Barb enjoyed a few years earlier. Hilarity and one of the weirdest and most enjoyable plot twists that I have read in recent years ensues. It is very rare that I am utterly surprised by a twist in a book’s plot and, if I am, that I am also delighted by it. I guarantee that you will not see the twist coming - it comes from so far out of left field and is completely bizarre - but somehow Hafner makes it work perfectly. Listening to the book makes this story even funnier and I often caught myself laughing out loud.

I Have Some Questions for You - Rebecca Makkai, Fiction/Mystery

When Bodie Kane was a senior at her New Hampshire boarding school in the 1990s, her former roommate, Thalia, was murdered and left for dead in the campus pool. The school’s athletic trainer, a Black man named Omar, was arrested, charged, and convicted of the crime despite an absence of conclusive evidence. Over 20 years later, Bodie, a successful podcast host, returns to the school to teach a two-week class on podcast production, encouraging her students to select projects about something related to the school. After one of the students decides to reinvestigate the circumstances surrounding the murder, Bodie finds herself sucked back into her life as a high school student, while questioning her understanding of the crime. At the same time, she must grapple with student-teacher power dynamics, unequal aspects of the criminal justice system, and a burgeoning awakening coming from the emergence of the #MeToo movement. This book was propulsive on audio. The book is long, but the narration, done by the above-mentioned Julia Whelan, keeps it moving through attention-grabbing and well-voiced character.

Apples Never Fall - Lianne Moriarty, Fiction/Mystery

One night, a woman named Savannah arrives on Stan and Joy’s doorstep claiming that she is a victim of domestic violence and fleeing her abusive partner. Stan and Joy take her in, but a moment of hospitality morphs into days and weeks. Stan and Joy’s adult children look skeptically at Savannah, who seamlessly inserts herself into their lives despite her inability to account for her backstory. Who is this random woman and what does she want? When Joy goes missing just days after Savannah leaves, the police look at Stan as the prime suspect and the children are forced to reckon with their family’s past in order to decipher their present. Apples Never Fall is a long book with short chapters that kept me turning pages even after I knew I should go to sleep. I read this book partly via audio and partly with a physical copy and thought the audio version worked well with the first half of the book as Moriarty developed the characters and the physical version was perfect for when I wanted to speed through to find out what happens next. You could also choose to savor the mystery being read to you and let it unfold in due course.

Dear Committee Members - Julie Schumacher, Fiction

Professor Jason Fitger is a middle-aged novelist and English professor at a mid-tier college in the midwest in 2009. As the budget for the English department gets slashed in favor of more profitable subjects, Fitger is forced to teach more classes to more mediocre students. As a result, he is also asked to write an alarming amount of letters of recommendation, which Fitger takes on as his solemn duty to academia. Dear Committee Members is told through a series of these letters for everyone including graduate thesis advisees, departmental administrators, and students who have not even taken his class. Unable to confine himself to the typical standards of such a letter, Fitger uses the opportunity to expound upon the sorry state of the university, the job market, his personal life, his career as a novelist, and his opinions of the institutions that he is writing to. This book, which is read by the author, is uproariously funny. Laugh out loud while sitting in public funny. Schumacher has created something incredibly smart and well-crafted; somehow fitting a much larger story about the state of academia in a recession era economy into a series of unimportant, yet hilarious, letters of recommendation.

The Family Game - Catherine Steadman, Fiction/Thriller/Mystery

Harriet Reed is an up and coming British mystery novelist who is newly engaged to Edward Holbeck, the oldest son of an extremely rich family. Her introduction to the family is marred, however, after the father gives Harriet a tape containing a dark secret about a series of murders that he claims to have committed. Unsure if this is a riddle - the family is notorious for their tradition of oddly immersive games - Harriet starts to dig into what has been revealed to her, only to discover that she might be next. Catherine Steadman, a talented author who is also an actress known for her role on Downton Abbey, reads the book herself, complete with accents and inflections that left me thoroughly invested. I was captivated by the plot and the characters in The Family Game from start to end, and immediately requested other books written by her as soon as I was finished.

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