I’ve listened to some amazing audiobooks this year, and as more people I know are getting into reading audiobooks, I wanted to share some recommendations. I also like to recognize the importance of excellent narration, which I think often goes unacknowledged, beyond a few well known narrators. One good source of audiobook recommendations are the Audie awards.
What makes a good audiobook? For me, it’s a narrator who gives me a greater understanding of the story than I might get just from reading it. These are usually more emotional stories. I particularly appreciate listening to stories involving accents, dialects, and unfamiliar languages, like The Bandit Queens, Warrior Girl Unearthed, and Trespasses. Some narrators also bring quite a bit of humor to their reading, like Haynes, Petkoff and Nankani. And a great narrator is able to give different characters unique and distinctive voices. In Uriah Heep, for example, the narrator voices many literary characters, from Sherlock Holmes to Mr. Darcy, and each voice felt distinctive and just what you’d expect the character to sound like.
Here are some of my favorites this year. These are books that would also be great in print or ebook, but the narrators made the book even more special.
- Remarkably Bright Creatures – by Shelby Van Pelt, narrated by Michael Urie and Marin Ireland
- The Bandit Queens – by Parini Shroff, narrated by Soneela Nankani
- Stone Blind – narrated by the author, Natalie Haynes
- Less is Lost – by Andrew Sean Greer, narrated by Robert Petkoff
- The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep — by H.G. Parry, narrated by Calum Gittens
- Oceans Echo – by Everina Maxwell, narrated by Raphael Corkhill
- Our Missing Hearts — by Celeste Ng, narrated by Lucy Liu
- Trespasses by Louise Kennedy, narrated by Bird Brennan
- Foster by Claire Keegan, narrated by Aoife MacMahon
- Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley, narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc
- The World Record Book of Racist Stories, narrated by the authors, Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar
I’ll also add that romances make great audiobooks. They don’t require a ton of concentration and tend to be full of the humor and emotion that make for good listening (and the occasional sexy Scottish brogue doesn’t hurt). Here are a few of my favorites from this year:
- Mad About You by Mhairi McFarlane, narrated by Chloe Massey
- Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake, narrated by Kristen DiMercurio
- How to Walk Away by Katherine Center, narrated by Therese Plummer
- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches — by Sangu Mandanna, narrated by Samara MacLaren
Those are some of my favorite audiobooks for the year so far. You can find my favorite 2022 audiobooks here. Which ones do you recommend?
The Book Stop 
Thanks for sharing your audiobook recommendations. I enjoy listening to audiobooks because the good ones do exactly what you say, they give you a greater understanding of the story and characters. There are some excellent narrators out there. So professional. I also saw you listened to Less Is Lost – I really enjoyed reading the print version Less – maybe I’ll try the audiobook of this one!
Tuesdays with Morrie narrated by the author Mitch Ablom, On the Marsh narrated by the author Simon Barnes, One Italian Summer forgot the author but narrator is none other than Lorelei Gilmore aka Lauren Graham, I liked various Erin Henry audiobooks.
Not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but Natalie Haynes has a brilliant podcast called Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. My favourite episodes are the ones on Homer’s The Iliad and the one on Clytemnestra.
Great post! I’ve read Remarkably Bright Creatures and Ocean’s Echo, and I can imagine that they’d be amazing to listen to as well. I agree about romance audiobooks — especially when I’m caught up with work stress or just a busy schedule, it’s nice to have that lighter listening to look forward to.
I keep meaning to read Remarkably Bright Creatures but the waitlist on it is so long. Maybe one day lol.