This is the very best your ears can handle, voted on by the good people at the Audio Publishing Association. Winners and nominees included on the list, because you can't have too many good audiobooks.
Looking for digital audiobooks you can listen to on your phone? Start here!
Note: some titles are Audible originals, and those we can't get. Sorry.
See Also:
All the sinners bleed : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
Titus Crowne is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County. A former FBI agent and security expert, Titus came home to take care of his father and look out for his troubled younger brother. He ran for Sheriff to make a difference, especially in the Black community which has so often been treated unfairly by the police. But a year to the day after his election, a school shooting rocks the town. A beloved teacher is killed by a former student, and as Titus attempts to deescalate and get the boy to surrender, his deputies fire a fatal shot. In the investigation, it becomes clear that the student they shot had been abused by the dead teacher, as well as by unidentified perpetrators. The trail leads to buried bodies, and secrets. While Titus tries to track down a killer hiding in plain sight, while balancing daily duties like protecting Confederate pride marchers, he must face what it means to be a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Cos
See Also:
Sing a Black girl's song : the unpublished work of Ntozake Shange
Author(s):
Description:
In the late 60s, Ntozake Shange was a young student at Barnard College discovering her budding talent as a writer, publishing in her school's literary journal, and finding her unique voice. By the time she left us in 2018, Shange had scorched blazing trails across countless pages and stages, redefining genre and form as we know it. This is a new posthumous collection of unpublished works from throughout the life of this seminal Black feminist writer. Here we meet young Shange, learn the moments that inspired for colored girls who have considered suicide, travel with an eclectic family of musicians, sit on "The Couch" opposite Shange's therapist, and discover plays written after for colored girl's' international success.--
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
818 Sha
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Pat
See Also:
None of this is true : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
Celebrating her forty-fifth birthday at her local pub, popular podcaster Alix Summers crosses paths with an unassuming woman called Josie Fair. Josie, it turns out, is also celebrating her forty-fifth birthday. They are, in fact, birthday twins. A few days later, Alix and Josie bump into each other again, this time outside Alix's children's school. Josie has been listening to Alix's podcasts and thinks she might be an interesting subject for her series. She is, she tells Alix, on the cusp of great changes in her life. Josie's life appears to be strange and complicated, and although Alix finds her unsettling, she can't quite resist the temptation to keep making the podcast. Slowly she starts to realise that Josie has been hiding some very dark secrets, and before she knows it, Josie has inveigled her way into Alix's life, and into her home. But, as quickly as she arrived, Josie disappears. Only then does Alix discover that Josie has left a terrible and terrifying legacy in her wake, and that Alix has become the subject of her own true crime podcast, with her life and her family's lives under mortal threat. Who is Josie Fair? And what has she done?
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Jew
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
Growing up in rural Oregon, Brandon Wolf grappled with the devastating loss of his supportive mother and with the embedded racism and homophobia of a community that made him feel like an unwelcome stranger. After the lack of connection and role models led him down a spiral of risky behavior, Wolf escaped to survive. In Orlando, he found what he'd been searching for: belonging, in a community that was a safe space with people he'd come to call his chosen family. They taught Wolf how to love, and be loved, unconditionally. Then, on June 12, 2016, in an exhilarating refuge where Wolf and hundreds of others had discovered a liberating new normal, they were suddenly challenged with fighting for a way out, in order to survive. Overnight, everything was ripped away by chaos, panic, and fear. But the unimaginable tragedy also gave Wolf a new power: purpose. In this unforgettable coming-of-age memoir, Wolf shares his transformative journey from young outsider to galvanizing activist. Marshaling the compassion and strength of a community, Wolf explores how to get through the darkest times with healing, hope, and resistance. "With our backs against the wall," he writes, "we find a way out together."
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
306.7662 Wol
See Also:
The Wager : a tale of shipwreck, mutiny and murder
Author(s):
Description:
"On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. But then, six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes, they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death, for whomever the court found guilty could hang."--Container.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
910.9164 Gra
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice and her truth was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears's groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her terms, at last.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
B Spe
See Also:
The light we carry : overcoming in uncertain times
Author(s):
Description:
Drawing from her experiences as a mother, daughter, spouse, friend, and First Lady, Michelle Obama shares the habits and principles she has developed to adapt to change and overcome obstacles.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
B Oba
See Also:
The wisdom of Morrie : living and aging creatively and joyfully
Author(s):
Description:
Later life can be filled with many challenges, but it can also be one of the most beautiful and rewarding passages in anyone's lifetime. Morrie Schwartz draws on his experiences as a social psychologist, teacher, father, friend, and sage to offer us a road map to navigate our futures.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
362.1968 Sch
See Also:
Soul boom : why we need a spiritual revolution
Author(s):
Description:
The trauma that our world experienced in recent years--as result of both the pandemic and societal tensions that threaten to overwhelm us--has been unprecedented and is not going away anytime soon. Existing political and economic systems are not enough to bring the change that the world needs. Here, Rainn Wilson explores the possibility and hope for a spiritual revolution, a "Soul Boom" in order to address today's greatest issues--mental health, racism and sexism, climate change, and economic injustice. Sharing his experience of losing his father during the summer of 2020 as well as his personal struggles with addiction and mental health, Wilson is an empathetic narrator and thinker who readers will appreciate and trust. Wilson's approach to spirituality--the non-physical, eternal aspects of ourselves--is relatable and will apply to people of all beliefs, even the skeptics. The book offers the keys to delving into ancient wisdom and seeking out practical, transformative answers to life's biggest questions.--
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
204 Wil
See Also:
Goodbye Christopher Robin : A.A. Milne and the making of Winnie-the-Pooh
Author(s):
Description:
After serving in the First World War, Milne wrote a number of well-received plays, but his greatest triumph came when he created Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, and, of course, Christopher Robin, the adventurous little boy based on his own son. This is a story of celebrity, a story of both the joys and pains of success, and, ultimately, the story of how one man created a series of enchanting tales that brought hope and comfort to an England ravaged by the First World War.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
828.91209 Thw
See Also:
Leslie f*cking Jones : a memoir
Author(s):
Description:
A candid memoir filled with vivid anecdotes: Growing up in the South, navigating stand-up comedy's challenging early days, brushes with celebrities like Chris Rock and Whoopi Goldberg, and insights on Ghostbusters, Supermarket Sweep, The Daily Show. Revealing struggles as a tall Black woman in comedy.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
791.4302 Jon
See Also:
Normal women : nine hundred years of making history
Author(s):
Description:
"Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men, but that they'd evolve to become ever more inferior? These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory's Normal Women. In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women--some fifty per cent of the population--center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The "normal women" you will meet in these pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot. A landmark work of scholarship and storytelling, Normal Women chronicles centuries of social and cultural change--from 1066 to modern times--powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women" --
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
942.0099 Gre
See Also:
Someone else's shoes : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"Nisha Cantor is the longstanding second wife of wealthy American businessman, Carl, a master of murky wheeler-dealing. In London as part of their privileged, globe-trotting life, Nisha is caught entirely off-guard when, at the gym of all places, she learns Carl plans to divorce her. Nisha is glamorous, fearless, and determined to hang onto the life she has created for herself. But soon, she must scramble to adjust to an entirely new landscape as she tries to work out how to get back at Carl, and the woman who is now ensconced with him in the penthouse of the Bentley Hotel, taking Nisha's rightful place (and her wardrobe). Sam is at the bleakest point of middle age. Her husband is jobless and depressed, her daughter barely gives her the time of day, and her boss is systematically destroying the small pleasures she once gained from her job. She is a woman who feels invisible to everyone and trapped by everyone else's needs. When she mistakenly grabs Nisha's gym bag, Sam finds herself wearing Nisha's six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes to take a series of important meetings. The unexpected results give her a jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change, and that something is herself. And when the two women finally meet, they will discover that each needs the other to put right the wrongs that are done to them, and to the women around them."
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Moy
See Also:
The making of another major motion picture masterpiece : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew, leaves an indelible impression, and then disappears for twenty-three years. Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books in Oakland, California, reconnects with his uncle and, remembering the comic book he saw when he was five, draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero. Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie. Cue the cast: We meet the film's extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Han
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
"Sycamore seed siblings Merwin and Louise must use their wits and imaginations to navigate a mysterious and often dangerous world, filled with talking plants, monsters, meteors, and the fear of never finding the right conditions to set down roots and become big trees"--
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
J FIC Sel
See Also:
What happened to Rachel Riley?
Author(s):
Description:
Rachel Riley, one of the most popular girls at East Middle School, has become a social outcast. But why? New girl and podcast enthusiast Anna Hunt knows there's more to the story than meets the eye.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
J FIC Swi
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim, Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US as a maintenance worker at the Sea Breeze Motel. Now, convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Pow
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
Who hasn't wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you've probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this "Poison Ivy League" college, its location unknown to even those who study there, is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate? and where one's mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Hol
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
It's spring and Three Pines is reemerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should reemerge. But something has. As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the ︣Sreť du Qǔbec investigators' lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they've arrived in the village of Three Pines. But to what end? Gamache and Beauvoir's memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother's murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt? As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 150-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Pen
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
On a poor farm surrounded by marshlands, six sisters--Grace, Willa, Freya, and triplets Deedee, Darcy, and Dolly--live in fear of their father and the superstition that haunts him: The Curse of the Six Daughters. Their beloved grandmother tries to protect them, but the future seems bleak. When the Full Moon Fayre makes a rare visit to Hollow-in-the-Marsh, the girls slip out to see the famous Shadow Man, an enigmatic puppeteer. Afterwards, oldest sister Grace is missing. Following the Full Moor Fayre into the Lost Marsh, Willa will have to battle her inner doubts and the legends that have haunted her family. Can she save her sister from one fate, and outrun her own?
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
J FIC Str
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
Felicity "Fizzy" Chen is lost. Sure, she's got an incredible career as a beloved romance novelist with a slew of bestsellers under her belt, but when she's asked to give a commencement address, it hits her: she hasn't been practicing what she's preached. Fizzy hasn't ever really been in love. Lust? Definitely. But that swoon-worthy, can't-stop-thinking-about-him, all-encompassing feeling? Nope. Nothing. What happens when the optimism she's spent her career encouraging in readers starts to feel like a lie? Connor Prince, documentary filmmaker and single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with an exasperated Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass, unless he agrees to cast the contestants according to a list of romance archetypes. When he says yes, and production on The True Love Experiment begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Lau
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
"Every great city has a soul. A human avatar that embodies their city's heart and wields its magic. New York? She's got six. But all is not well in the city that never sleeps. Though Brooklyn, Manny, Bronca, Venezia, Padmini, and Neek have temporarily managed to stop the Woman in White from invading--and destroying the entire universe in the process--the mysterious capital "E" Enemy has more subtle powers at her disposal. A new candidate for mayor wielding the populist rhetoric of gentrification, xenophobia, and "law and order" may have what it takes to change the very nature of New York itself and take it down from the inside. In order to defeat him, and the Enemy who holds his purse strings, the avatars will have to join together with the other Great Cities of the world in order to bring her down for good and protect their world from complete destruction"--
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Jem
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
Colm Tóibín shares a a memoir in essays about growing up in Ireland during radical change, as well as cancer, priests, popes, and homosexuality.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
824.914 Toi
See Also:
Author(s):
Description:
David and Cheryl Burroughs were living the dream life when tragedy struck. Now, five years after that terrible night, Cheryl is remarried. And David is serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison for the brutal murder of their son. Then Cheryl's sister, Rachel, arrives unexpectedly during visiting hours and drops a bombshell. She's come with a photograph that a friend took on vacation at a theme park with a boy in the background who has a familiar, distinctive birthmark, and even though David and Rachel realize it can't be, they both just know. It's David's son, Matthew, and he's still alive. David plans a harrowing escape from prison, determined to do what seems impossible, save his son, clear his own name, and discover the real story of what happened that devastating night.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Cob