Category: Audiobooks

This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by TryAudiobooks.com/cooking.

Listen while you cook! While spending hours in the kitchen prepping meals for the holidays, put on a good audiobook and let the story help you along. Cooking for Picasso and The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living are great cooking memoirs or you can listen to Where Am I Now? read by Mara Wilson herself! Let audiobooks be your secret ingredient this holiday season. Visit TryAudiobooks.com/cooking for a free download and get started!

Dear audio-bookworms, please excuse me while I sweep the broken pieces of my heart up off the floor. I just finished the most amazing audiobook, and it was totally by accident. You know when you finish one audiobook but you haven’t queued up the next one yet? (Gasp, the horror.) Well, that just happened to me! I had no choice but to pray for an old forgotten audiobook on my phone.

I asked, and the universe answered.

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez has already gotten heaps of love and praise. But what we still need to talk about is how fantastic it is on audio. Performed by six actors, we meet a striking teenager whose family has left behind their comfortable life in Mexico in hopes of getting treatment for her traumatic brain injury in the US. Some of their new neighbors are great (like the boy from Panama who’s got a little crush), and some are… not great. Ultimately, their new life sets in motion a chain of events that is at turns beautiful, at turns tragic.

I especially loved the cool little vignettes between the main chapters that tell the stories of immigrants from all over the Americas. The narrators breathe so much texture into these stories, and the simple, beautiful language works perfectly on audio. Here’s hoping you’ve fallen in love with some great listens lately, too!

10 Amazing YA Books That Are Even Better on Audio

When it comes to taste in YA books, librarian extraordinaire Molly Wetta is just about flawless. While she didn’t always love audiobooks, she’s now a total convert. Don’t miss her list on Book Riot of all-time favorite YA audiobooks. Yep, these books are amazing in print, but she swears they’re even BETTER on audio!

Meet the Voice of Brit Bennett’s The Mothers

The Mothers by Brit Bennett is just about the hottest new release this fall. I think literally every Book Riot contributor is reading it right now — including me! Naturally, we were beyond honored to have guest contributor Robin Whitten, founding editor of AudioFile Magazine, chat with narrator Adenrele Ojo about what it was like to record The Mothers, the one author she’d especially love to voice, what her special recording session rituals are, and more!

Ron Swanson or Tom Sawyer: Who Said It?

I’ve already mentioned the joyful news that Nick Offerman is the voice of Tom Sawyer on a new audiobook. But why is this pairing so magical — is it the visual of his Parks and Rec character Ron Swanson whitewashing a fence in his big beautiful mustache? Fortunately, Book Riot contributor Deepali Agarwal was willing to roll up her sleeves and do some research. You know, for science.

Take a look at these pics of Ron Swanson and the quotes they’re paired up with, and see if you can tell who said it: Swanson or Sawyer?

This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by Penguin Random House Audio.

Life can be stressful. Book Club doesn’t have to be. Listen to your next book club pick on audio! Visit PenguinRandomHouseAudio.com/bookclub and get ideas, recipes, and recommendations to make your next book club meeting even more enjoyable.

Hello, my audiobook nerds! I have no chill today, I’m just gonna cut right to the chase and tell you guys about two Very Important Audiobooks. First up: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson. It’s freaking NIMONA. On audio!!! Book Riot has written literally over 100 posts about how great Nimona is — the lovable, weird, big-hearted comic about a shape-shifting sidekick and her evil villain bestie. This brand-new audio adaptation is exceptionally well done, and it makes for a super fun, super fast listen with a full-cast, sound effects, original music, basically the whole shebang. (Just listen to this excerpt and you’ll see what I mean.)

In other Very Important Audiobook news, drop everything and run (don’t walk) to the nearest recording of You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson. Look, I love essays by funny ladies. You could even say they’re my jam. Well, all my past faves pale in comparison to this hilarious new collection of essays about feminism, race, pop-culture, and being a black woman in America. Phoebe Robinson is funny and poignant literally 100% of the time (how?!), and the audiobook is bananas phenomenal (with tons of ad libs you won’t find in the print version). Listening to this audiobook was a good life choice.

8 Amazing Audiobooks (That Probably Wouldn’t have Existed 5 Years Ago)

You guys, there are so many more audiobooks in the world than there used to be. Only 7,000 audiobooks were published in 2011, compared to 35,000+ that were published last year! I love this boom for many reasons, especially because we have so many more listening choices than we used to. The aughts were all about mainstream bestsellers by white authors. Not so 2016, friends. Book Riot contributor Casey Stepaniuk has rounded up eight amazing audiobooks — magical realism! funny personal essays! epic love stories! — by black authors from the US, Canada, Jamaica, Nigeria, all performed by black narrators.

How to Be an Excessively Efficient Reader

Do you time your audiobooks to match up with your life? Like, let’s say you drive 30 minutes to work every day — do you look for books that go down in easy half hour chunks? Book Riot contributor Trisha Brown is a self-described excessively efficient reader, and she’s nailed the art of matching audiobook length and tone to the flow of her daily life. 25 minute walk to work? The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae. 8 minute wait for a train after happy hour? What If? by Randall Munroe. 40 minutes to kill in the wee hours on a Saturday morning? Dawn by Octavia Butler. Read on for more inspiration for perfect audiobook-to-activity pairings!

5 Excellent Hard-to-Find Classics on LibriVox

We at Book Riot heart LibriVox, a magical site where you can listen to thousands of audiobooks in 36 different languages… for free! They’re all public domain titles read by volunteers, i.e. lots of fantastic titles that are out of print and can’t be found anywhere else. Book Riot contributor Zoe Dickinson has been using (and loving) LibriVox for years, and recommends 5 of her all-time favorite finds. Enjoy!

This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by The Call by Peadar O’Guilin.

You wake up alone in a horrible land. A horn sounds. The Call has begun, and you have three minutes and four seconds to save your life from the Sidhe, the most beautiful and terrible fairies you’ve ever seen. 14-year old Nessa knows she’ll be Called soon, and no one thinks she has any chance to survive. But she’s going to prove them wrong. Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call is a heart-stopping, blood-pounding, can’t-put-down-until-you’ve-read-the-last-word fantasy thriller you won’t be able to forget. Could you survive the Call? (Narrator Amy Shiels will appear in next year’s Twin Peaks revival!)

Hello hello! The sunflowers are out here in Kansas, baristas are brewing pumpkin spice lattes, and I even had to wear real pants the other day. I’ve been celebrating the chill in the air with some fantastic female-driven thrillers. You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott is about gymnastics, girlhood, and a mysterious death that tears a tight community of families apart, and Lauren Fortgang performs it like the star of a one-woman Tony Award-winning show on Broadway. I also live-tweeted my listen of Stephen King’s Carrie, which I’d never read (or seen!) before. I knew it was about a high school outcast who gets her revenge at the prom, but everything else was basically a surprise. It’s a fast-paced, intense little thriller with badass action scenes performed by Sissy Spacek — definitely the most fun I’ve had with an audiobook in awhile. I hope you’ve got some fun listens on deck, too!

11 Websites to Find Free Audiobooks Online

The cat’s out of the bag… we love audiobooks at Book Riot. As contributor Nikki Vanry puts it, “We love listening to ’em on our commutes. While we’re cleaning the house. While we’re running. Or, even while we’re cooking. It’s a lot of time for audiobook listening.” If, like us, you burn through audiobooks faster than you can get your li’l paws on them, you’ll be happy to know that Nikki put together a handy guide to 11 websites that offer thousands and thousands of free audiobooks online. In her words, “That’s a lot of books. Get to listening.”

Nick Offerman is the Voice of Tom Sawyer

These days a lot of celebrities are getting in on all the audiobook action, which is a trend that I love. That being said, just because someone is a fancy celebrity doesn’t automatically guarantee they’re going to be fantastic on an audiobook. (If we are at a party together and I’m a little tipsy, you might even be able to get me to name a few duds I’ve heard.) But when it does work, the combination can be completely MAGICAL. Bryan Cranston and The Things They Carried. Thandie Newton and Jane Eyre. Sissy Spacek and To Kill a Mockingbird. This is why I’m so excited about Nick Offerman’s brand new performance of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain! Head over to Book Riot to get the lowdown and listen to a clip.

13 Audiobooks to Inspire a Road Trip

One of the books I’m most excited about this fall is The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang, which will finally be here on October 4th. In this road trip book, the dad of a wealthy immigrant family plots a return to their ancestral lands in China after they lose their fortune in the financial crisis. But not everyone in the family is on board, and they wind up on a (hilarious) road trip across America to regroup. In honor of the time-honored Road Trip Book, contributor Rachel Manwill has rounded up 13 of her favorites on audio, from Neil Gaiman to Gloria Steinem. (She’s headed out on a two-week cross country road trip herself, so she really knows her stuff!) Check ’em out and add some listens to your TBR.

This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by The Call by Peadar O’Guilin.

You wake up alone in a horrible land. A horn sounds. The Call has begun, and you have three minutes and four seconds to save your life from the Sidhe, the most beautiful and terrible fairies you’ve ever seen. 14-year old Nessa knows she’ll be Called soon, and no one thinks she has any chance to survive. But she’s going to prove them wrong. Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call is a heart-stopping, blood-pounding, can’t-put-down-until-you’ve-read-the-last-word fantasy thriller you won’t be able to forget. Could you survive the Call? (Narrator Amy Shiels will appear in next year’s Twin Peaks revival!)

The Most Exciting Audiobook of the Year?

Have you guys read Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey yet? It’s been making headlines for selling almost half a million copies — pretty badass for a book of poems that was originally self published. Rupi Kaur moves people with her words, and excitement about Milk and Honey has spread through word-of-mouth, booksellers, and social media. And if you haven’t read it yet, you’re kind of in luck that you waited, because the audiobook just came out!

Andrews McMeel Publishing has only published a few collections of poetry, so we’re really lucky that they stumbled onto Milk and Honey. After a little experimenting, they noticed that spoken-word poets were really popular on college campuses. As they put it in a piece by Publishers Weekly, “We saw that there was this generation of young women, mostly in that early-20s age group, who were responding to this form of expression.”

Milk and Honey is a mix of prose and poetry that explores survival, violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity, taking a journey through life’s most bitter moments to find sweetness. It’s divided into four chapters that each deal with a different kind of pain and heartache, and you can check out an excerpt of the audio here, performed by Rupi Kaur (yes!).

How Audiobooks Can Help With ADHD

I love Kate Scott’s recent piece for Book Riot about what she calls her “Tigger brain.” Even though she wants to read pretty much everything ever written (yep, same here), her neurobiology doesn’t always cooperate (again, same!). I like to think that while my wandering attention doesn’t always make it easy to be a reader, at least I wind up listening to some COMPLETELY CAPTIVATING books — sometimes they’re the only ones that can hold my attention! For Kate, listening to audiobooks is her version of meditation, and it’s her #1 reading tip for people with ADD / ADHD.

My Latest Audiobook Obsession

Remember 2 seconds ago when I was talking about audiobooks that are COMPLETELY CAPTIVATING? This is fully true of Crazy Rich Asians, a gossipy novel about Singapore’s most rich and famous. Rachel and Nick, both young academics in New York, take a romantic trip to Singapore where Nick will be the best man in his friend’s wedding. Oh, and P.S.: Nick will also introduce Rachel to his family, no pressure. What’s more, Rachel has no idea that her humble, mild-mannered boyfriend is actually from one of Singapore’s richest families and is the most eligible bachelor in the country. Shenanigans, schemes, and gossip ensue.

I don’t know why I didn’t read this book instantly. Maybe I worried that it would be formulaic with half-hearted chuckles? Think again, self: it’s more like Edith Wharton meets Gossip Girl set in Singapore with a dash of Emily Gilmore. It’s completely funny and original, and it has what I’ve come to think of as a strong narrative voice — a quality that I love about audiobooks like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, City of Thieves, and anything by Nora Ephron. It’s almost like these stories were meant to be read out loud.

As narrator, Lynn Chen hits it out of the park with breezy humor, backstabbing relatives, and effortless accents from New York, Singapore, China, Taiwan, Australia, England, and more. I loved everything about this audiobook and am psyched that the saga continues with two more books. <3

This week’s Audiobooks! newsletter is sponsored by Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty.

Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong? In Truly Madly Guilty, #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty takes on the foundations of our lives: marriage, sex, parenthood, and friendship. She shows how guilt can expose the fault lines in the most seemingly strong relationships, how what we don’t say can be more powerful than what we do, and how sometimes it is the most innocent of moments that can do the greatest harm. This can’t miss audiobook is read by Caroline Lee.

Hello, bookworms! I’ve been all over the map with my listening this summer, and it’s gotten me thinking about the interplay between story and narrator. I’ve abandoned several great stories with ho hum narrators, as well as ho hum stories with great narrators. But then sometimes you hit the jackpot with a spectacular book read by a spectacular narrator, like Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers, read by Prentice Onayemi.

In Behold the Dreamers, it’s 2008 and Jende and Neni have immigrated to New York from Cameroon to grab their little piece of the American dream. Jende gets work as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers, and Neni is in night school to become a pharmacist. As Jende and Neni watch Clark’s work and home life start to crack, so too does their idea of what it means to be an American.

As narrator, Prentice Onayemi shows a fantastic range that’s so necessary for this book, seamlessly shifting from Cameroonian chauffeur to wealthy financial executive; Eastern European housekeeper to trust fund hippie; Harlem mother to white church lady. Onayemi nails it, and I’m so excited to listen to more of his work. (I hear he kills on The Sellout.)

Speaking of spectacular books read by spectacular narrators, Jacqueline Woodson’s Another Brooklyn promises to be another jackpot listen. It’s her first adult novel in 20 years, and this excerpt read by Robin Miles is amazing.

15 Audiobooks That Will Transport You Around the World

A few weeks ago we had a little chat here about the need for diverse voices on audiobooks. Listening to different accents, rhythms, music, and soundscapes is such an excellent way to become immersed in someone else’s world. Jamie at Book Riot has rounded up 15 books that do just that — from Mexico to Australia, Nigeria to Korea, these stellar authors and narrators will transport you all over the globe.

Your Brain Doesn’t Get Any Gold Stars for Reading Print Instead of Audio

“I’ve been asked this question a lot and I hate it,” writes University of Virginia psychologist Daniel Willingham about whether or not listening to audiobooks is “cheating.” In a fascinating blog post, he unpacks this idea of “cheating” itself: it assumes that the listener got some reward without putting in enough effort. He goes on to explain why, from a cognitive perspective, there’s no real difference in the work it takes to read a book versus listen to it once you become an adult.

Dr. Willingham describes the two basic processes involved in reading: “decoding” (interpreting strings of letters as words that have meaning), and “comprehension” (understanding the context and story). Researchers have known for years that reading comprehension and listening comprehension are highly correlated. The decoding process, on the other hand, is specific to reading print, and is, in fact, an extra step for your brain. But by the time you’re around 10 years old, decoding has become so second-nature that it’s essentially automatic and isn’t any extra “work.”

For more on the science behind why your brain doesn’t get any gold stars for skipping audio, check out this great piece by Melissa Dahl at New York Magazine.

Things You Can Do While Listening to Audiobooks

Scooping the cat litter, drowning out office gossip, repairing fences, showering, playing Pokemon Go — these are just a few of the excuses we’ve found to squeeze in a bit more listening! Sarah D. asked everyone at Book Riot what we do while listening to audiobooks, and she’s put the answers together in a handy rundown. Here’s what we do while listening, what about you?

This week’s Audiobooks! newsletter is sponsored by Truly Madly Guilty by Liane Moriarty.

Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong? In Truly Madly Guilty, #1 New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty takes on the foundations of our lives: marriage, sex, parenthood, and friendship. She shows how guilt can expose the fault lines in the most seemingly strong relationships, how what we don’t say can be more powerful than what we do, and how sometimes it is the most innocent of moments that can do the greatest harm. This can’t miss audiobook is read by Caroline Lee.

Hi, audiobook lovers! By the time you read this, I’ll be in the middle of a 5-day staycation: knitting gloves for the cooler temps ahead, drinking a cold beer, and listening to the rest of Imbolo Mbue’s fantastic debut Behold the Dreamers. (I’ve promised myself I’m not going to spend the entire time taking over gyms from the 13-year-old bike gangs in my neighborhood.)

My brain is already in pre-vacation mode, so I’m totally content to let Book Rioters Jamie and Kay do the heavy lifting this time! They’ve been hitting it out of the park with some solid audiobook recs, and I have a feeling you’re about to add a few new titles to your listening queue.

10 of the Best Audiobooks of 2016 So Far

I’m guessing you can completely relate to these feels of Book Riot contributor Jamie Canaves: “Where once I used to hope that a book would someday be available as an audiobook now I find myself having the conundrum of deciding whether I want to read recent releases with my ears or eyeballs (or both!).”

Jamie rounded up ten of Book Riot’s favorite audiobooks of 2016 (so far), including: a paranormal thriller read by a Star Trek alum, a time travel adventure with pirate ships, a story about kickass lady assassins with mechanical arms, a science memoir, and a short story collection with reality show contestants, a ridiculous neighbor war, and a bra size fitter (!). Read on to see what we’re loving so far this year.

Listen to Amy Schumer read an excerpt from The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo

Amy Schumer’s memoir The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo is coming out on August 16, and I. Can’t. Wait. (Earlier this summer, I refreshed my library’s website every day until it finally showed up in the catalog and I got the #1 spot on the holds list. I guess you could say I’m dedicated.) I am so ready for Amy to dish out all the smart satire, feminism, and butt jokes. If you, like me, can’t wait until next week, you can go here to find an excerpt of her reading the chapter, “My Only One-Night Stand.”

10 Great Science Fiction and Fantasy Audiobooks

Want to add more science fiction and fantasy to your reading list? (Yes, the answer is yes.) Kay Taylor Rea is a Book Riot contributor, a Slytherin, and a self-described SFF nerd. She also recommends ten great audiobooks with just about everything there is to love about SFF, including: time travel, aliens, a modern faerie tale, steampunk set in India, a Jane Austen-style Regency drama but with magic, and an epic fantasy masterpiece set in a post-post-post-apocalyptic world. Enjoy!

This week’s Audiobooks! newsletter is sponsored by All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker.

Wendy Walker’s blockbuster new audiobook All is Not Forgotten begins in the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, where everything seems picture perfect. Until one night when a young woman is attacked at a local party. The attack reveals fault lines within the close-knit community, and the quest to find the monster who invaded their town—or perhaps lives among them—drives this psychological thriller to a shocking conclusion. Dylan Baker—whose acting credits include appearances in the Spider-Man film series, The Good Wife, and The Americans—performs this gripping tale of one town’s search for the truth.

Hello again, audiobook fans! Lately I’ve been really into dark and twisty crime novels and lighthearted romantic comedies — I guess the common denominator is entertainment. I hope you’re being entertained by some great listens this summer, too. And if you’re stuck on what to listen to next, maybe you’ll get some ideas from today’s newsletter <3

We Need Diverse Voices

As the need for diverse books grows ever more apparent, I often find myself thinking about diverse voices on audiobooks, too. I’m actively working to be inclusive with my reading choices, and this includes my listening choices. And I’ve come to love the immersive experience of hearing the vast range of inflections, cadences, and accents of all the characters who are represented in inclusive audiobooks.

Mary Burkey from Booklist Online recently talked about this to several people behind the scenes, and I was fascinated to learn that many studios employ a full-time research staff and linguist to get the details right. Sometimes they also work with the author to find and cast the perfect person to tell the story, and music and soundscapes are a big piece of the puzzle, too. Check out Mary’s piece at Booklist for the full scoop as well as oodles of suggested listens.

I’ll Listen to Mr. Darcy All Day Long

When I started listening to a lot of audiobooks, one of the weird things that happened is that I started a mental To-Be-Read list of not just authors that I wanted to check out, but narrators too. I started picking up on names that have been recommended by my audio buddies, shown up in reviews, and won awards. This week I finally got to cross narrator Katherine Kellgren off my audio TBR, and she was just as stellar as I’d hoped she would be!

Katherine Kellgren reads Austenland by Shannon Hale, in which a wealthy matriarch bequeaths a Mr. Darcy-obsessed woman with an all-expenses-paid trip to a Pride and Prejudice themed retreat where guests and actors spend a month in period costume as Regency era characters. (With bonus smooching for guests on the platinum package.) The story itself is frothy, funny, and smart, but it was Kellgren’s performance that really made it for me. She’s a super versatile voice actress, and her entire cast of characters was hilarious — the dour Regency hostess, the hot Irish gardener, the rich American trophy wife whose fake accent is more Alabama than England, the standoffish but frustratingly handsome (because of course) nephew, etc. etc. Kellgren’s performance of Austenland is entertaining, sweet, and perfect for the upcoming dog days of summer.

10 Audiobooks for the Rest of Your Life

Book Riot’s Head Honcho (aka Editor-in-Chief) Jeff O’Neal suggests 10 great listens not only for recent graduates, but for the rest of us, too. “Whatever comes next is the beginning of what will be the bulk of their lives,” he writes. “In short, there is a lot of living left to do.

“Some cover things school probably should have covered, some are reminders of things they probably learned, and some are things that might actively contradict what most of them were taught.” Read on for Jeff’s picks to prepare you for whatever comes next.

The Frank O’Hara Poems That Inspired Mad Men

I’m in Mad Men withdrawal, and I can’t believe the final episode aired a little over a year ago. Somehow it feels like it was both longer and shorter ago. I just got a little pick-me-up, though, because Mad Men’s creator, Matthew Weiner, just recorded a brand new audiobook of Frank O’Hara’s lovely Lunch Poems! Weiner credits Lunch Poems as a major influence on his creative vision for Mad Men — bask in his performance of the poem “Lana Turner” here.

This week’s Audiobooks! newsletter is sponsored by All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker.

Wendy Walker’s blockbuster new audiobook All is Not Forgotten begins in the small, affluent town of Fairview, Connecticut, where everything seems picture perfect. Until one night when a young woman is attacked at a local party. The attack reveals fault lines within the close-knit community, and the quest to find the monster who invaded their town—or perhaps lives among them—drives this psychological thriller to a shocking conclusion. Dylan Baker—whose acting credits include appearances in the Spider-Man film series, The Good Wife, and The Americans—performs this gripping tale of one town’s search for the truth.

Hey there, fellow audiobook lovers! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been sailing through books this week while I roam my neighborhood catching Pokémon. I’ve been listening to the fabulous short story collection Hot Little Hands by Australian writer Abigail Ulman, about teenage girls and young women who grapple with sex, love, punk bands, gymnastics, and horse camp (right?!). But I bet some quick and action-packed listens by Dan Brown, Ernest Cline, Maggie Stiefvater, or Daniel José Older would also make for perfect Pokémon-catching material! Whatever you’re into right now, I hope you’ve got some great listens to keep you company.

10 Audiobook Narrators We Can’t Get Enough Of

Book Riot contributor Cassandra Neace asks: “Do you have a narrator that has made such an impression on you that you would listen to them read the phone book? What is it about their voice that makes you want to listen to everything they’ve ever recorded?” Cassandra surveyed our fellow Book Riot contributors, and our list of favorites includes professional voice actors, British actors with diehard fandoms, and surprising celebrities. Read on to find out which 10 audiobook narrators we can’t get enough of!

The Book Lin-Manuel Miranda Narrated Before He Became Bonkers Famous
I just finished listening to the most beautiful book that I’ve been dying to tell you guys about. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz came out on audio in 2013, and while it was a big YA award winner, it just started showing up on my radar this year. Which makes sense, because YOU GUYS it is narrated by Lin-Manuel Miranda! (You know — that guy who wrote a bananas popular musical about the Schuyler sisters and some other people.)

Ari is a Mexican American teenager who likes to keep to himself. Until he meets Dante, a bubbly teen who’s new in town and volunteers to give Ari swimming lessons. Dante’s infectious charm wins over a sullen Ari, but after one of them is injured, their friendship grows deeper and more complicated.

Aristotle and Dante is the kind of book that wraps you all over in tingly goosebumps and makes makes the hair on your arms stand up straight. It’s about kissing, boys who like boys, and two Latino teenagers who are learning to be OK with their feelings and desires. It’s also about parents, PTSD, and family secrets. And it’s about figuring out how to open up to the people who matter to you most.

As narrator, Lin-Manuel Miranda finds the perfect balance between lighthearted teenage humor and existential angst, and his kissing scenes are 100. It was also really nice to hear a Latino narrator on a story about two Mexican American teens. And for more from the author, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, he recently wrote a moving piece for Book Riot about creating sanctuaries for LGBTQI+ teens through fiction.

Gilmore Girls Actress Teams Up With Where’d You Go, Bernadette Author
One of my very favorite audiobooks ever of all time is Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple, read by Kathleen Wilhoite (you might know her as Luke’s sister, Liz, on Gilmore Girls). About an architect mother, a father who builds robots, their precocious daughter, Bee, and a mysterious disappearance to Antarctica, Where’d You Go, Bernadette lands squarely in that sweet spot where satire meets warm heartedness — and Wilhoite captures that essence gorgeously.

Maria Semple’s newest book, Today Will Be Different, is coming out this October, and Hachette Audio has confirmed that Kathleen Wilhoite is lined up for an encore performance. EXCUSE ME while I flail my muppet arms; I hope I don’t accidentally hit you in the face!! My birthday is also in October, and I can’t think of a better bookish birthday present to myself <3

This week’s Audiobooks! newsletter is sponsored by TryAudiobooks.com. 

Have you ever taken a road trip with your family that seemed to go on forever? We all have! Audiobooks can solve that problem by providing entertainment for the whole family.  Visit TryAudiobooks.com/family-travel for a free full download and start listening with the whole family on your next car ride.

Hello again, audiobook-loving friends. You know how we were commiserating about how hard it is to find audiobooks that everyone in the family can listen to together? I remember it just like it was a few weeks ago. (Oh wait, it was!)

100 Family-Friendly Audiobooks, You’re Welcome

Librarian and Book Riot contributor Molly Wetta has come to the rescue with 100 family-friendly audiobooks that are fun for kids, but are also engaging enough for adults. Many have voices you’ll recognize – like Kate Winslet (Matilda!), Tim Curry (Sabriel and A Series of Unfortunate Events!), and Stephen Fry (a bunch!). Whether you’re in the car with five-year-olds or teenagers, Molly promises something for everyone that will make your trip fly by.

Lindy West’s Shrill is Kind of the Most Fantastic Thing Ever

If you are a person who appreciates unapologetic feminism, body positivity, and a well-placed poop joke, Lindy West’s Shrill might wind up being the best book of essays you have ever listened to in your life. Sandwiched between HILARIOUS jokes about reading high fantasy by Robert Jordan on the bus, and the situation with deeply disturbing high school choir outfits, Lindy has gifted us a “fat feminist abortion manifesto” (her words), because “people don’t expect to hear from women like that. And I want other women to see me do that and I want women’s voices to get louder.”

I love Lindy West’s amazing comedic timing in her writing for The Stranger, Jezebel, and The Guardian, and listening to her deliver her jokes on audio was kind of the most fantastic thing ever. She confesses that she never wanted to be the poster child for fighting virtual trolls and calling out rape jokes, yet she does it every day for everyone who wants women’s voices to get louder. She’s doing it for me, and she’s doing it for you. Thank you, Lindy West <3

A Brief History of the Audiobook, With Mustache Jokes

From a 1940s New York Public Library project that recorded textbooks for blind soldiers, to a record company that produced talking books by Dylan Thomas, Eudora Welty, T.S. Eliot, and William Faulkner in the 1950s, Book Riot contributor Aram Mrjoian has turned up some fascinating tidbits about the history of audiobooks (complete with jokes about Tom Selleck’s mustache, because Book Riot).

Maggie Gyllenhaal Reads Anna Karenina and I Can’t Even

When mermaid unicorn goddess Maggie Gyllenhaal recorded Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar earlier this year, I freaked out a little. How does it get more perfect than that, right?? Here’s how: Gyllenhaal just recorded a brand new edition of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and now I don’t even know what to do with myself. Hold me.

I just watched BBC’s gorgeous new War & Peace mini-series (Gillian Anderson as Anna Pavlovna!), and this recording of Anna Karenina is the best possible follow-up. That smoky voice, reading those famous opening lines… It’s up for pre-order now, and will be officially out from Audible on July 12. Confetti canon!

This week’s Audiobooks! newsletter is sponsored by TryAudiobooks.com. 

Have you ever taken a road trip with your family that seemed to go on forever? We all have! Audiobooks can solve that problem by providing entertainment for the whole family.  Visit TryAudiobooks.com/family-travel for a free full download and start listening with the whole family on your next car ride.

Hey there readers,

It’s June, school’s out, and we’ve entered PRIME audiobook season: ‘tis the season of summer road trips! We did a lot of these when I was growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s. My family of 7 would squeeze into a Dodge Caravan with a canoe on top and a pop up camper in the back and drive across the country to live in the woods and watch bears eat out of dumpsters. (I have kind of a weird family.) It was also the only time we got to eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

We’d drive straight through for 24 hours or more, and my mom always took the night shift, listening to CDs of old timey radio mysteries from Barnes and Noble. I had yet to discover audiobooks, but I listened to the audio of Disney movies that I had checked out from the public library and dubbed onto cassette tapes while I tried to sleep on top of duffel bags in the trunk. (To this day I can recall entire chunks of dialogue from Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.)

Flash forward to 2016, and we have so many more listening options. Whatever your vacations family look like, here’s hoping you find some great listens this summer. <3

In the Country We Love: My Family Divided
When she was just 14, Diane Guerrero’s parents (Orange Is the New Black, Jane the Virgin) were arrested and exported to Colombia and she was left on her own in the U.S. Yikes! The biggest surprise for me in Guerrero’s new memoir was how much of her story I could relate to — the ordeals of her family breaking up when she was 14 years old, hopping around between schools, being drawn to the arts, and wrestling with ADHD and depression all resonated deeply with me. It was a powerful reminder that commonalities exist in unexpected places, even between a brown working-class girl who grew up Catholic in Boston and a white middle-class girl who grew up Mormon in Iowa.

Guerrero tells her story with directness, honesty, and personality, and In the Country We Love reminded me of books like Leah Remini’s Scientology memoir, Troublemaker, that aren’t wrapped up in layers of mysterious metaphors, but are so remarkable and told with such candor that they don’t really need to exist any other way. This was exceptionally moving on audio — Guerrero has an authentic and playful voice that bubbles through in her performance, which made for a very lovely listen.

Roald Dahl Audiobooks for Everyone in the Family
One of my pals at Book Riot has been totally stumped about what to listen to on a family road trip with her two preschoolers and husband. They’ve already listened to (and loved, obviously) Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux, which is not an easy act to follow. We all bounced around some ideas — Ramona? Stuart Little? — and then the idea of Roald Dahl came up! With The BFG coming out in movie theaters on July 1, now is the perfect time to brush up on the books, and we’re happy to report that we think they hold up pretty well.

I’m personally a huge fan of the Roald Dahl audiobook collection that came out a few summers ago with fancy actors like Kate Winslet, Stephen Fry, and Chris O’Dowd performing Matilda, The BFG, and all the rest. You can preview some of my favorite clips here!

Stephen King on His Love for Audiobooks

June is Audiobook Month, and we’ve been celebrating by watching Stephen King gush adorably about why he hearts audiobooks: “The more you listen to audiobooks,” he says, “You start again to experience the words as sounds, which is something that you don’t always do when you’re reading to yourself.”

Watch to find out Stephen King’s favorite audiobook of all time, how many audiobooks he listens to per year, why he thinks audiobooks are more suspenseful than print, and how a great narrator is like listening to your favorite music in surround sound. Happy Audiobook Month!