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Hi fellow listeners, the Audie Award finalists were announced late Wednesday to honor the best audiobooks of the year, and I have some first impressions to share with you!
I’m amped that The Underground Railroad and Another Brooklyn have each received TWO nominations, both for Literary Fiction/Classics and Best Female Narrator. And I’m excited to see several more of Book Riot’s favorite listens, too, like You Can’t Touch My Hair, Around the Way Girl, Shrill, Sleeping Giants, IQ, and Homegoing.
Filed under “surprise,” Born a Crime and Behold the Dreamers didn’t get any nods. Born a Crime likely came out too late in the year, but Prentice Onayemi’s performance on Behold the Dreamers is a Book Riot favorite. I also did a double take at the category for Shrill… the humorous feminist essay collection is a finalist for Business/Personal Development??
On the inclusivity front, the Audies did really well in some categories but is still very uneven in others. We like the inclusivity we see in Literary Fiction/Classics and Humor, but too many categories are still 100% white and male (or 100% white and female). See the full list of finalists here.
Finally, You Can Listen To The Full Little House on the Prairie Series
Fans of Laura, Pa, Ma, Mary, Carrie, and Jack: all nine books of the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder are now available on Audible, read by the fantastic Cherry Jones! We’ll always have a soft spot for these books told from Laura’s point of view about her pioneer family’s life in a little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods in the late 1800s. I might not fall asleep to the sound of Pa’s fiddle at night, but I wouldn’t mind drifting off to Cherry Jones reading these familiar stories <3
John Cleese’s New Audiobook: “I Think It’s the Best Thing I’ve Ever Done”
Calling all Monty Python and Fawlty Towers fans! When he finished writing his memoir So, Anyway…, John Cleese felt creatively drained, and that wasn’t the mental place he wanted to be in while recording the audiobook. So he gave himself permission to wait until he was recharged and ready to do it properly. The payoff? “I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever done,” he told Book Riot’s Swapna Krishna.
Read on for John Cleese’s thoughts on comedy, self care for creatives, and why So, Anyway… is even better on audio! (Hint: he miiight have rewritten it a little bit as he went along.)
These Audiobooks are Up for Grammys
The Grammy Awards are this Sunday, and books by Amy Schumer, Carol Burnett, Patti Smith, Elvis Costello, and John Doe are all up for Best Spoken Word Album. You can listen to excerpts from all five titles at EW (if you’re not blinded by all that whiteness).
Smalls out! Thanks for nerding out about audiobooks with me. If you want to stay in touch and swap audiobook recommendations before the next Audiobooks! Newsletter, you can find me on Twitter at Rach_Smalls or on Instagram at Ladybits Knits.
High five,
Rachel