Browse · Audiobooks · 42 picks

Audiobooks worth the listen

The narrator is the difference between an audiobook you finish and one you abandon in week two. These shelves are chosen for the performance as much as the book, and every entry names who reads it and how long it runs.

An audiobook is a different thing from the book. A good narrator makes a dense novel easy and a thin one memorable, and a bad one can ruin a favorite. So these shelves start with the voice. The first is for performances that are better than reading the page. The second is for full-cast productions, which are closer to radio drama. Then memoirs read by the people who lived them, long series to disappear into, short books for a single trip, nonfiction that works as a documentary, and thrillers for a long drive.

Each entry gives the narrator, the runtime in hours and two lines of ours: why it is here and who it suits. Years are when the book was first published, since most of these have had more than one recording. The narrator named is the edition we mean.

Add any of them to your audiobook library with one tap. The narrator and runtime come with it, and the entry stays unfinished until you say otherwise.

Performances better than the page

8 books

Books where the narrator adds something the print edition does not have. Several are read by actors who treat it as a role.

Science fiction · 2021 · 16 h

Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir, read by Ray Porter

A man wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of why, and works it out one experiment at a time. Porter's reading of the alien, Rocky, is the reason this is the most recommended audiobook of its decade. A sound effect in the audio edition does something the print edition cannot.

Works even for people who think they do not like science fiction. Listen before the film arrives.

Science fiction · 2011 · 11 h

The Martian

by Andy Weir, read by R. C. Bray

An astronaut is left behind on Mars and grows potatoes. Bray's deadpan delivery suits a narrator who is mostly swearing at chemistry, and his version is the one most listeners mean when they recommend it. A later edition is read by Wil Wheaton.

Eleven hours. For a week of commutes, or one long drive.

Comedy, Science fiction · 1979 · 5.9 h

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams, read by Stephen Fry

Earth is demolished for a bypass and one Englishman survives it in his dressing gown. Fry reads Adams the way Adams sounds in your head, and the whole thing is under six hours. The later books are read by Martin Freeman.

A short first audiobook. For people who have been told they would like it and never got round to it.

Fantasy · 1937 · 10 h

The Hobbit

by J. R. R. Tolkien, read by Andy Serkis

Serkis, who played Gollum in the films, reads the whole book and does every voice, including the one you are thinking of. The songs are sung. His Lord of the Rings recordings followed and are just as committed.

Ten hours. Good for families, and for adults who read it as a child and want it read to them.

Classic, Romance · 1813 · 12 h

Pride and Prejudice

by Jane Austen, read by Rosamund Pike

Pike played Jane Bennet in the 2005 film and reads this edition with the timing of someone who knows where every joke is. Mr. Collins has never been funnier. It is the recording that made a lot of people realize Austen is comedy.

For a first Austen, or a tenth. Under twelve hours.

Classic · 1925 · 4.8 h

The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald, read by Jake Gyllenhaal

Gyllenhaal reads Nick Carraway as a man who is not sure how he feels about anyone he is describing, which is the book. Under five hours, and the last page is still the last page.

One long afternoon. Try it if you had to read it at school and remember nothing.

Literary fiction · 2019 · 9.9 h

The Dutch House

by Ann Patchett, read by Tom Hanks

A brother and sister are thrown out of the house they grew up in and spend decades parked outside it. Hanks reads the brother, Danny, and his ordinary-guy warmth is exactly right for a narrator who understands less than his sister does.

For a family story without villains. Ten hours.

Fantasy · 2020 · 7 h

Piranesi

by Susanna Clarke, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor

A man lives alone in an endless house of halls and statues and keeps careful notes about the tides. Ejiofor reads his journal with the innocence the book needs, and the moment the reader understands more than he does is devastating on audio.

Seven hours. Know as little as possible going in.

Full-cast productions

5 books

Recordings with a cast rather than a narrator. These are closer to radio drama and are worth hearing even if you have read the book.

Literary fiction · 2017 · 7.4 h

Lincoln in the Bardo

by George Saunders, read by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris and a cast of 166

Lincoln's son Willie dies and the ghosts of a Georgetown cemetery narrate the night. The novel is written as overlapping voices, so the audio edition gave every one of them a different reader, including the author's friends and a few famous ones. It is the right way to experience the book.

Seven hours. For readers who found the print layout hard to follow.

Fiction, Music · 2019 · 9 h

Daisy Jones & The Six

by Taylor Jenkins Reid, read by Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, Pablo Schreiber and others

An oral history of a fictional seventies band, with each member remembering it differently. The book is all interviews, so a cast reading them makes it a documentary about a band that never existed.

Nine hours. Fleetwood Mac fans will like it most; if you saw the series, this is the version where you imagine the songs.

Science fiction · 1965 · 21 h

Dune

by Frank Herbert, read by Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, Simon Vance and cast

The desert planet, the spice, the family that inherits it. The Macmillan Audio edition uses a narrator for most of the text and a cast for the dialogue, which helps with a book that has a lot of people thinking in italics.

Twenty-one hours. If you saw the films, this gives you the inner monologues back.

Horror, Science fiction · 2006 · 12 h

World War Z

by Max Brooks, read by Max Brooks, Alan Alda, Mark Hamill, Simon Pegg and cast

An oral history of the zombie war, told by survivors around the world. The complete audio edition, released in 2013, gives each interviewee a different actor, which is how the book should have been published in the first place. It has very little to do with the film.

Twelve hours. The zombie story that is really about governments and supply chains.

Horror, Classic · 1897 · 16 h

Dracula

by Bram Stoker, read by Alan Cumming, Tim Curry, Simon Vance and cast

The novel is letters and diaries, so a cast reading them makes sense, and this one has Tim Curry as Van Helsing. It is long, and the middle sags in any format, but the Transylvania chapters are as good as horror gets.

Fifteen hours. Save it for October, or listen now if you have only seen the films.

Memoirs read by the people who lived them

7 books

Author-read memoirs are the one place where the writer is always the right narrator. These are the ones where it makes the biggest difference.

Memoir · 2016 · 8.7 h

Born a Crime

by Trevor Noah, read by Trevor Noah

Noah's childhood in South Africa, where his birth to a Black mother and a white father was literally illegal. He does every accent and every language, and the chapters about his mother are the best thing he has written.

Nine hours. The standard answer to 'which audiobook should I start with'.

Memoir · 2018 · 19 h

Becoming

by Michelle Obama, read by Michelle Obama

From the South Side of Chicago to the White House, with more about the first part than you would expect. Obama reads it herself, at length, and the sections about her father and about the early marriage are the ones people mention.

Nineteen hours. For a month of walks.

Memoir, Comedy · 2011 · 5.6 h

Bossypants

by Tina Fey, read by Tina Fey

Fey on Second City, Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock and being a woman in charge of a writers' room. It is short and the jokes land because she delivers them. The audio includes the original SNL Palin sketch.

Under six hours. A single road trip.

Memoir · 2020 · 6.7 h

Greenlights

by Matthew McConaughey, read by Matthew McConaughey

Thirty-five years of diaries, bumper stickers and stories, read by a man who clearly enjoys reading them. On the page it can seem like a motivational poster; in his voice it is a long, funny conversation with someone who has lived strangely.

Seven hours. Listen rather than read; this one only works as audio.

Memoir · 2022 · 6.4 h

I'm Glad My Mom Died

by Jennette McCurdy, read by Jennette McCurdy

A child star on Nickelodeon, a mother who managed every part of her life, and what happened after the mother died. The title is a joke and also not. McCurdy reads it flatly, which is the right choice for the material.

Six hours. Heavy, and over quickly.

Memoir · 2021 · 7.4 h

Crying in H Mart

by Michelle Zauner, read by Michelle Zauner

The singer of Japanese Breakfast on her Korean mother, her mother's cancer, and the food that connected them. Zauner is a musician and reads with a musician's sense of pace. The chapters about cooking are as moving as the ones about the hospital.

Seven hours. It will get you if there is a dish that means a parent to you.

Memoir · 2019 · 15 h

Know My Name

by Chanel Miller, read by Chanel Miller

Miller was known as Emily Doe in the Stanford assault case until she published this. It is a book about the years of the trial and about becoming a person again, and it is far better written than its subject would lead you to expect.

Fifteen hours. Difficult, and one of the most praised memoirs of its decade.

Long series to live inside

7 books

First books of series with a consistent narrator across every volume, so once you like the voice you have hundreds of hours ahead.

Fantasy · 2006 · 25 h

Mistborn: The Final Empire

by Brandon Sanderson, read by Michael Kramer

A heist crew plans to overthrow a god-emperor who has ruled for a thousand years. Sanderson's magic system is built like a rulebook and the plot pays attention to it. Kramer reads all of his Cosmere books, so the voice carries across a dozen titles.

Twenty-five hours and a complete trilogy. The usual first Sanderson.

Epic fantasy · 2010 · 46 h

The Way of Kings

by Brandon Sanderson, read by Michael Kramer, Kate Reading

A soldier turned slave, a scholar with a hidden agenda, a world of storms. The Stormlight Archive is Sanderson at his biggest, and each book is as long as a trilogy. Kramer and Reading split the point-of-view characters.

Forty-five hours. For listeners who want one series to last the whole winter.

Fantasy · 2007 · 28 h

The Name of the Wind

by Patrick Rothfuss, read by Nick Podehl

An innkeeper tells the story of how he became a legend, over three days, and this is day one. The prose is the point, and Podehl reads it like someone who knows it. The third book is still unwritten; readers have made their peace with that.

Twenty-eight hours. For fantasy readers who care about sentences.

Science fiction · 2014 · 16 h

Red Rising

by Pierce Brown, read by Tim Gerard Reynolds

A miner on Mars learns his whole society is a lie and is remade to infiltrate the ruling class. It starts as The Hunger Games and becomes something closer to a war epic by book three. Reynolds has read every volume, and the series is still going.

Sixteen hours. Fast, angry science fiction.

Science fiction · 2011 · 21 h

Leviathan Wakes

by James S. A. Corey, read by Jefferson Mays

A missing girl, a stolen ship, and a solar system on the edge of war. The Expanse is nine books, Mays reads all of them, and the ending is planned and delivered. The TV series covers roughly the first six.

Twenty-one hours. Science fiction where the ships obey physics.

Fantasy, Comedy · 2020 · 13 h

Dungeon Crawler Carl

by Matt Dinniman, read by Jeff Hays

Aliens turn Earth into a dungeon reality show and a man in his underwear, with his ex-girlfriend's cat, has to survive it. Hays's performance, with dozens of voices and an AI announcer, is the reason this self-published series became an audiobook phenomenon.

Thirteen hours. Funny, violent, and much better than the premise sounds.

Fantasy · 2015 · 16 h

The Fifth Season

by N. K. Jemisin, read by Robin Miles

A world that ends regularly, a people who can move the earth and are hated for it. One of the three narrators is in the second person, which is strange in print and natural when Miles reads it. All three books won the Hugo.

Fifteen hours. Fantasy that is about something.

Short enough for one trip

4 books

Under ten hours. A long drive, a flight, or a week of short commutes.

Science fiction · 2017 · 3.3 h

All Systems Red

by Martha Wells, read by Kevin R. Free

A security robot has hacked its own governor module and would rather watch soap operas than guard anyone. Three hours, and the start of the Murderbot Diaries, which are mostly this length. Free's dry reading is now the voice of the character.

One flight. Enough to know what the fuss is about before the TV series.

Self-help · 2018 · 5.6 h

Atomic Habits

by James Clear, read by James Clear

The habits book everyone has heard of, and it is short enough to actually finish. Clear reads it plainly. The useful parts are the specific ones: make a habit obvious, make it easy, attach it to something you already do.

Under six hours. Listen once at normal speed and skip the repeated bits on a second pass.

Fiction, Comedy · 2019 · 7.5 h

Nothing to See Here

by Kevin Wilson, read by Marin Ireland

A woman is hired to look after two children who catch fire when they get upset. It is funnier than that sounds and kinder. Ireland is one of the best narrators working, and this is the book to hear her in.

Seven and a half hours. For a bad week.

Fiction · 2020 · 9.9 h

Anxious People

by Fredrik Backman, read by Marin Ireland

A failed bank robber takes an apartment viewing hostage and everyone in the room turns out to be a mess. It is a comedy with a sad thing underneath it, and Ireland handles the switch between the two.

Ten hours. For readers who liked A Man Called Ove.

Nonfiction that works like a documentary

6 books

History and reporting that read like a story. Good narrators matter more here than anywhere, since there is no plot to carry a dull voice.

History · 2011 · 15 h

Sapiens

by Yuval Noah Harari, read by Derek Perkins

The whole history of humans in one argument: we won because we can believe in things that do not exist, like money and nations. Specialists quarrel with it, and it is still the clearest big-picture history most people will hear. Perkins reads it without hurry.

Fifteen hours. For long walks, and for arguing with afterward.

History, True crime · 2019 · 15 h

Say Nothing

by Patrick Radden Keefe, read by Matthew Blaney

A mother of ten is taken from her Belfast flat in 1972 and never returned. Keefe uses her disappearance to tell the story of the Troubles through the people who fought in them, and the last chapters answer the question the first chapter asks. Blaney's Belfast accent is right.

Fifteen hours. The reporting the TV series came from.

Business, True crime · 2018 · 12 h

Bad Blood

by John Carreyrou, read by Will Damron

The Theranos story, by the reporter who broke it. The machine never worked, the board was full of generals, and the people who said so were followed by private investigators. It is a thriller that happens to be true.

Twelve hours. Required listening if you have ever sat through a pitch deck.

History, True crime · 2017 · 9.1 h

Killers of the Flower Moon

by David Grann, read by Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee, Danny Campbell

The Osage of Oklahoma became the richest people per capita in the world in the 1920s, and then they started dying. Three narrators take the three parts of the book, and the last part, about what Grann found that the FBI missed, is the one the film could not fit.

Nine hours. Short for what it covers.

History · 2023 · 8.5 h

The Wager

by David Grann, read by Dion Graham

A British warship wrecks off Patagonia in 1741, and two groups of survivors arrive home with opposite stories about what happened. Grann sorts it out from the logs and the court-martial. Graham reads it like an adventure, which it is.

Eight and a half hours. For fans of Endurance and Master and Commander.

Memoir · 2018 · 12 h

Educated

by Tara Westover, read by Julia Whelan

Westover grew up in Idaho with survivalist parents, no schooling and no birth certificate, and ended up with a doctorate from Cambridge. Whelan, who has narrated hundreds of books, keeps the reading level and lets the events do the work.

Twelve hours. One of the most listened-to memoirs of its decade, for good reason.

Thrillers and horror for a long drive

5 books

Books that make a three-hour drive feel short. Most are read by one narrator with a good sense of dread.

Thriller, Science fiction · 2011 · 31 h

11/22/63

by Stephen King, read by Craig Wasson

A teacher finds a doorway to 1958 and sets out to stop the Kennedy assassination, and the book is mostly about the five years he has to live in the meantime. Wasson's narration is the one King fans recommend above all his others.

Thirty hours. The length is the point; you live in the fifties with him.

Horror · 1983 · 16 h

Pet Sematary

by Stephen King, read by Michael C. Hall

A family moves next to a road where trucks go too fast, and behind their house is a place where buried things come back. King has called it the one that scared him. Hall, of Dexter, reads it quietly, which is worse.

Sixteen hours. Not for the car with children in it.

Thriller · 2012 · 19 h

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn, read by Julia Whelan, Kirby Heyborne

A wife disappears on her fifth anniversary and the husband does not look innocent. Two narrators for two diaries, and the switch at the halfway point works even better on audio, where you have been trusting a voice.

Nineteen hours. If you know the twist, it is still worth hearing how it is built.

Horror, Gothic · 2020 · 11 h

Mexican Gothic

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, read by Frankie Corzo

A socialite in 1950s Mexico City goes to check on her cousin, who has married into an English family living in a decaying mansion in the mountains. It is a gothic novel that knows all the rules and breaks one. Corzo keeps the dread rising.

Eleven hours. For readers of Rebecca and Jane Eyre who want the house to be actively hostile.

Fiction, Science fiction · 2014 · 11 h

Station Eleven

by Emily St. John Mandel, read by Kirsten Potter

A flu ends the world, and twenty years later a travelling Shakespeare company tours the Great Lakes. It is less a disaster novel than a book about what people keep. Potter reads it steadily and lets the time jumps land.

Eleven hours. The end of the world, told gently.

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How this page is put together

These shelves are OmniTrackr's own picks, written by the site and checked against publisher and audiobook retailer listings. Nothing on this page is a member rating, and nothing is sponsored; links to retailers, where shown, are plain links. The chart at the top is the current top audiobooks on Apple Books in the United States and refreshes a few times a day.

Runtimes are rounded to a tenth of an hour and follow the edition named. Years are first publication of the book, because most of these have been recorded more than once; the narrator is how you tell which recording we mean.

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