This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by Audiobooks.com.
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Happy New Year, audiobooks friends! I had a wild and crazy New Year’s Eve — I went to a train restaurant with my toddler and stayed up late to finish listening to Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. It was BASICALLY the best NYE ever, this book was a sneak attack of awesomeness that stands out as one of the best of 2016.
Most U.S. listeners know Trevor Noah for taking over The Daily Show from Jon Stewart. Those are giant shoes to fill, and it seems like most Americans think of him as “the guy that I don’t love as much as Jon Stewart.” I’m so happy that we get to know him a little better through this memoir, and I’m now a 100% converted fan.
In Born A Crime, Trevor Noah is at turns deeply insightful and ridiculously funny. He grew up in South Africa under Apartheid as the child of a black mother and white father — in other words, it was LITERALLY a crime for him to exist. In between brilliant commentary about race and Apartheid, he entertains with stories about being a smartass kid at a Catholic school, his side hustle selling pirated CDs in high school, and his spectacular failure at the senior prom.
At the heart of Born a Crime is Noah’s relationship with his mom, a devout Christian and stubborn non-conformist. His love for his mom burns brightly on every page, even as they constantly butt heads. The book closes with a shocking story about his mother’s troubled marriage that still sucks the breath out of me.
Trevor Noah is a fantastic storyteller and an even better narrator. You’ll be SO glad you put this on your to-be-read list.
10 Audiobooks for Podcast Listeners
Book Riot contributor Rebecca Hussey is drawn to a particular kind of audiobook: the kind that reminds her of a podcast! Lately she’s loving memoirs and essays that are chatty, topical, and told in an original — often humorous — voice. They keep her listening without demanding intense concentration. If this sounds like your cup of tea, check out these 10 audiobooks she recommends for podcast listeners.
4 Dangers of Listening to Audiobooks in Public
Has an audiobook ever made you sob in public?
Book Riot Contributor Susie Rodarme drew these rad original cartoons about the dangers of listening to audiobooks in public that are possibly (definitely) based on her real life experience, check ‘em out!
‘Square’ is the New ‘Rectangle’: How Audiobook Covers are Made
Raise your hand if you love iconic book covers! My heart thumps for the covers of The Great Gatsby, Invisible Man, and The Handmaid’s Tale, to name a few. And one thing these covers all share is that they’re rectangular — NOT square. So what’s a cover designer supposed to do with that? (It’s like when Instagram wants you to crop your perfectly framed photo, no thank you, I don’t think so, WTF.)
Fortunately, cover designers are non-evil geniuses who can piece together complicated puzzles to create square artwork that scales from a mobile phone screen to a traditional CD box to a freaking huge Times Square billboard. All while looking awesome. You can get a closer look at the cover design process over on Audible’s blog.