When my son was younger and we had a long road trip ahead, I would hunt for the best audiobooks around. Harry Potter, Summerland and The Golden Compass filled our car rides with suspenseful storytelling and creative voices.
Last year, one of my talented teaching colleagues noted she was listening to a terrific audiobook. Hmm… I hadn’t thought about audiobooks in ages. My Amazon membership provided a couple credits for Audible so I opened the catalogue. With amazement, I scrolled through the vast collection of choices. Top YA titles, biographies, history books and more were available to accompany me on my way to work.
A librarian friend extolled the virtues of Libby, the public library app, to access all the audiobooks on the digital shelves of my local public libraries. I dropped the Audible app and moved comfortably into the shelves of the Arlington and Alexandria public libraries.
Now, I have an audiobook, as well as a paper book going at all times. The Libby app allows me to wait in a cue for the most popular books while I listen to an available title.
Here are some of the best audiobooks I have heard over the last year:
Biographies
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- Educated by Tara Westover
- Unfaithful Music Elvis Costello
- In Pieces by Sally Field
- Yes Please by Amy Poehler
- Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
Fiction
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
- American Street by Ibi Zoboi
- The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
- Far From the Tree by Robin Benway
- The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry
- My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows
- Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
- The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
Non-Fiction
- Console Wars by Blake J. Harris
- On Writing by Stephen King
A Reading Life 
Several people in my book club listen to our chosen book on tape. They have raved about Trevor Noah’s Born A Crime. I’ve listened to books with my class, but never tried it for me – will have to do so before too long. Thank you for the suggestions.
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Thank you for the list! Audiobooks are how I get through my long commute to work and back. Furiously Happy, read by the author, is one of my favorites.
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Thanks for the recommendation!
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I get audiobooks from Libby and Audible pretty regularly. I’ve only listened to a few from your list: Born a Crime (amazing!!); The Red Queen series (riveting!), and Beartown (actually, I read/listened to that one), so my to-read list just got a bit longer. A lot of the audiobooks I listen to are middle grade books (like Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan). If you haven’t ready, you might try Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas. Thanks for sharing these titles!
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Loved LIttle Fires Everywhere!
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Thank you for these recommendations! Since my commute is short, I haven’t listened to audiobooks for ages. I used to with my son, and it was glorious.
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