Last week I shared my favorite books of 2025 and today I’m sharing my favorite audiobooks. Please think of these as companion posts: there are no duplicates between the two lists, and neither format is more “favorite” than the other. (It’s just my way of squeezing in more books, while helping keep the overwhelm at bay where naming superlatives is concerned.)
In most years in recent memory, my favorite print books and favorite audiobooks lists have been pretty well balanced. No surprise there, because I listen to a lot of really good audio. But this year I read fewer books in the audio format: even though it appears I spent about the same amount of time listening this year as I did last year, in 2025 I listened to a handful of long to very long books, which meant fewer books read over all. (Not a complaint, just the way it is.) Last year I put twelve titles on my favorites list; this year, just seven.
Some of these were well worth my reading time, like the sixty-seven hours I spent on The Power Broker. Some of these I feel more ambivalent about, like the twenty-five and a half hours I spent on The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. I read a handful of quite short books that provided some balance—like the just-under-six-hour A Marriage at Sea—but most of my listens fell squarely in the ten to fifteen hour range.
With the exception of memoir, I don’t typically listen to much nonfiction on audio, but my 2025 favorites don’t reflect that a bit: nearly half of my audio favorites are nonfiction, and just one of my three favorites is memoir (in essays). After all these years as a happy reader, I’m glad I can keep surprising myself.
I hope you enjoy perusing my roundup of favorites, and I would love to hear your favorite books and audiobooks of the year in the comments section. (I’ve already plucked some excellent recommendations from your comments on my favorite 2025 books post: you’ll even see one of them in December Quick Lit next week!)
Favorite audiobooks of 2025
All books featured here were chosen because I loooove them. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.More details here.
This was one of my first audiobooks of 2025 and it set the tone for a wonderful year of reading with my ears. The bold premise is this: on a delayed flight from Hobart to Sydney, an older lady goes into something like a trance, walks the center aisle, and tells every single passenger their age and cause of death. After the flight, some passengers try to laugh it off, but many are deeply disturbed by the woman's predictions and go on to seriously rethink how to live their lives in the months following the flight. This multi-voiced novel tells the story of the "psychic" as well as those of many of the people impacted by her predictions. As so often happens with Liane Moriarty novels, I was engrossed by the story—and then after the book gave up its secrets, I found myself lingering on its themes of probability, agency, and love, for long after I finished listening. This was especially great on audio, as narrated by Caroline Lee and Geraldine Hakewill. 15 hrs 53 mins. More info →
While reading this tightly interconnected collection of short stories ranging from 1700s Nantucket to present day New England, I gasped each time I experienced a new way Shattuck played one off another. Shattuck explains in the epigraph that the dozen stories are styled as a “hook-and-chain” poem: they are presented as pairs, with the second story providing a new perspective or fresh insight on what was shared in the first. The first and last stories serve as corresponding bookends, with the bracketed ten stories also divided into complementary pairings. This is the best short story collection I've read in ages and I suspect it could happily stand up to multiple rereadings; I finished it nearly a year ago and still find myself thinking about and recommending it all the time. I’m so glad I opted for the audiobook; the excellent full cast includes Ed Helms, Paul Mescal, Jenny Slate, Nick Offerman, and others. 9 hrs 29 mins. More info →
I didn't make myself choose a hands-down-favorite for 2025, but if I did, this nonfiction collection would be a strong contender. Actor and director Sarah Polley’s memoir-in-essays knocked my socks off. It’s a clear-eyed examination of painful memories from her personal life and decades-long career, ranging from scoliosis to high-risk pregnancy to sexual assault. The title comes courtesy of a concussion specialist who treated Polley and advised her on how to rewire and ultimately heal the pathways in her brain by confronting whatever caused her discomfort head-on instead of avoiding it by babying her nervous system. She skillfully uses that same approach in each essay, looking one by one at painful hinge moments from her life and engaging with the thorniest questions that linger. The audiobook as narrated by the author was perfection, and definitely the right book at the right time for me. 7 hrs 56 mins. More info →
I'd heard raves for years about Graff's 9/11 oral history ever since it was published in 2019, but the truth is, I was scared of it. I was flying from Europe to New York on 9/11, and knew these pages contained both the details of what I already knew and plenty I didn't yet know. But this book reemerged on my radar this summer and for reasons I cannot articulate, late this summer, I felt like it was finally time. This is an oral history of 9/11, beginning with observations about the "severe clear" of the September blue sky and ending in the weeks following the attacks. Graff and his team conducted more than 500 interviews for this project, and they've been assembled to narrate the events of that day across the United States and especially at the attack sites as it was experienced in real time. This was not an easy read, but I'm so glad I finally read it. Breathtaking, important, sobering, profound—all the superlatives apply. Narrated by a full 45-person cast. 15 hrs 55 mins. More info →
If every reader holds a fascination for an unlikely subject, mine is urban planning—which is why the recommendations I've received to read The Power Broker over the years are legion. I finally picked it up and slowly made my way through its 1344 pages, which have frequently been described as a tour de force of biography, history, and journalism. In these pages I learned how I had no idea what I didn't know, and that my own experience moving through New York City, the United States, and even some cities of the world had been decidedly impacted by this man who never held elected office and yet built more infrastructure and structures than anyone who's ever lived—and influenced the building of many more. I'm so glad I finally read this: I was expecting something akin to Witold Rybczynski's A Clearing in the Distance about Frederick Law Olmsted and the building of America (and NYC parks) in the 19th Century, and was surprised to discover it felt much more like Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, a Lincoln biography that lingers on the question of how history would be different both then and today had Lincoln survived to lead his country through the Reconstruction era. Here Caro poses an inversion of that question, asking how New York City might be better—that is, more equitable, accessible, and beautiful—had Moses not held the power to shape the landscape and infrastructure from the crucial years of 1924 to 1968 in ways that today are irreversible. Narrated by Robertson Dean. 67 hrs. More info →
After all the challenging nonfiction I enjoyed in 2025, this lovely narrative was a story I could sink into with a big happy exhale. Author of the Dial A for Aunties and Vera Wong series Sutanto demonstrates her range in this new bittersweet love story that feels very different in tone and structure from her previous works—more wistful, vastly less zany, and unfolding as a long conversation between a grandmother and her teenage granddaughter. The story begins at a fancy family dinner: teenage Izzy has always felt out of place in her highly traditional Indonesian family of origin—but then her beloved grandmother shocks them all when she walks in with a woman on her arm, and stuns Izzy with an astonishing story about the love of her life. I was hanging on every word of the narrative—and was also struck by the tender and real intergenerational dynamics. I especially loved looking over Izzy's shoulder as she slowly took in the love and loss her grandmother experienced long before Izzy entered the picture. This was featured in our 2025 Fall Book Preview and was wonderful on audio, as narrated by Louisa Zhu and fan favorite Emily Woo Zeller. 11 hrs 19 mins. More info →
I'm so happy I stumbled upon this 2024 debut while browsing because I ate it up! This multigenerational family saga begins when a cash-strapped and very pregnant young woman named Charlotte lands in Nashville to start a new life with the soon-to-arrive daughter she does not want to have. No plot summary can do this justice, but I loved it for its realistic and emotionally resonant exploration of race, class, ambivalent parenthood, resentment, tragedy, and redemption through four generations of a Black southern family. This was excellent on audio, as narrated by Karen Chilton, but I switched to print at the end so I could find out what happened faster. 14 hrs 5 mins. More info →
What are your favorite audiobooks of 2025? Please share in the comments.
Thanks for sharing these, Anne! My new audiobook credit arrives today and for once I don’t have an immediate choice lined up. Excited to check these out later!
I only get through about one audiobook a month since I generally only listen while driving. I love memoirs especially as read by the authors, and Awake by Jen Hatmaker and Lionel Richie’s Truly did not disappoint (though I feel it necessary to point out that Richie’s memoir is narrated by Blair Underwood who you will quickly forget is not the author himself!)
I enjoyed Heartwood, Culpability, Run for the Hills, and the under the radar gem Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin (narrated by the incredible Julia Whelan)! I chose These Summer Storms because it was narrated by Julia also, and although I’ve always thought I would enjoy reading the phone book, even Julia could not save that one! I was also disappointed by Broken Country after so many incredible reviews. To end on a positive note, Say You’ll Remember Me, although full of some heavy content for a romance, was another good one from Abby Jimenez.
Janna says:
I would say The Only Plane In The Sky and Here One Moment were both favorite audiobooks for me in 2025. I could not stop listening to either book.
Heidi says:
I agree. Awake by Jen Hatmaker was a fabulous audiobook in my opinion. I kept forgetting to listen to it on my walks during my lunch breaks but then became so fascinated with her stories and the way she integrated the voices of people in her life throughout this book, I couldn’t wait to finish. It also mirrors some of what I experienced is why I first chose it for my “free” audiobook credit.
Nanette Stearns says:
Here are a few of my 2025 favorites:
How we Learn to be Brave by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde (I was lucky enough to meet her a couple weeks ago and told her how much I appreciated her work).
The Man who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench (Barbara Flynn and Judi Dench)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jake Gyllenhal) and In Memoriam by Alice Winn (Christian Coulson) – both re-reads and still favorites.
Elizabeth Rank says:
Thanks for sharing a thought-provoking list! I generally lean to audio for non-fiction and memoir, but also had a fair amount of fiction this year! Favorites included You Are Here, The Correspondent, Jane Eyre (Thandiwe Newton), Dinner for Vampires, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Tom Lake and all of Becky Chambers.
Julie says:
I’ve listened to some great audiobooks this year! A few that especially stand out in my memory are: When the Cranes Fly South, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 1 (can’t wait until my turn for Volume 2 comes up at the library), and The Correspondent.
Julie says:
Graff’s newest book, When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day is similar to The Only Plane in the Sky with the full cast recording mixed with actual audio clips of people like FDR and Winston Churchill as it walks through the days leading up to and through D-Day. I’m not even necessarily a huge history reader but this one was an engaging and incredibly interesting listen! I also thoroughly enjoyed Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton and Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham on audio.
Tory says:
A highlight of my year was listening to the Finlay Donovan series! I am also a big fan of Charlotte McConaghy, and loved the audio for Wild Dark Shore. Elizabeth Evans is a narrator I enjoy but only if she’s cast for the right book (she isn’t always imo) but she was PERFECT reading Every Time I go on Vacation Someone Dies and the sequel.
I also listened to the GOAT Julia Whelan reading her book Thank You For Listening for I think the third time? What an absolute delight. And speaking of that … As much as I love Julia I don’t think she was the right narrator for Great Big Beautiful Life. I may be the only person on the planet who thinks that though.
Nancy Andrews says:
Thank you, Anne, for your list and thoughtful reviews. My two favorite audio books this year came from MMD. I listened to Run Toward the Danger by Sarah Polley and The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. Loved and enjoyed both. Your recommendation brought me to Run Towards the Danger and Doona’s led to the Eyes and the Impossible. I loved listening to both narrators, Sarah Polley and Jude Law. Sooo good!!! And, thank you Anne and Donna!
Michelle says:
I agree. Donna’s rec for The Eyes and The Impossible inspired me to grab that audiobook from the library. It was fantastic and audio was 100% the way to go! I’m listening to The Only Plane in the Sky right now and just wow! It’s a tough one but it’s so beautifully told. I do find myself on the verge of tears at least once per listening session (which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just very emotional).
Nikki says:
I cannot agree more regarding “The Only Plane in the Sky” – I will say, it brought me right back to that day and was hard to listen to at times. But it was done SO well with many voices working on this audiobook. What I loved is it highlighted a lot of smaller stories that a lot of us were not aware of that occurred that day. Smaller stories of how we all came together to help. It gave me hope for humanity. I recommend this book to everyone, and only the audiobook version.
Deirdre says:
I read most of my (70 so far this year) books on audio. I am usually just happy if the audio is unmemorable, as in it doesn’t overwhelm the book. This year I had a few disappointments and even DNFs based on audio alone. One that stood out as particularly good on audio to me was The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (I get the sense this is also awesome on paper, but audio had some fun benefits).
I adored The History of Sound and am so grateful to you for bringing it to my attention. I haven’t seen the movie yet and am not sure I want to based on reviews I’ve seen—I don’t want it to mess with my memory of the book.
Ola Kraszpulska says:
This has been a shorter audiobook year, my commute is now brief (yay!), and my job doesn’t allow me to listen while I work for the most part.
My favorite audiobooks for this year:
I’ll have what she’s having, Chelsea Handler
I never thought Chelsea Handler would become my spiritual guru, but wow, this book!
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood
I read this in the past and decided to re-vist for the upcoming show. Love the different readers for the POV’s in this. It’s also very good!
The Housemaid, Frieda McFadden
I know McFadden is nutritionally potato chips of reading, but I found myself hooked on this one. The pacing and the twists were really engaging!
Renae says:
My favorite audiobook was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Absolutely outstanding! Besides his writing, which I always enjoy, the narrator, Ray Porter, does an incredible job! I’m not a science fiction fan, per se, but this was a story that was gripping and funny and stressful and amazing! 🙂
Guest says:
Completely agree!!
Amanda says:
I second the nominations for Wild Dark Shore and Heartwood – both audiobooks are engrossing and well narrated. I also loved Buckeye by Patrick Ryan – I had a hard time not listening to this one.
LeeAnn Warnaka says:
I just listened to my first Audiobook ever – The Correspondent. Blew me away!
Catherine Barrett says:
Oh man, I’m worried you set the bar too high with your very first audiobook experience being The Correspondent! How will anything else ever live up to that?? (Mostly kidding, but that WAS excellent on audio!)
Janet Keeler says:
I came here to say this. ❤️
Jill Bartock says:
I don’t listen to a lot of audiobooks but two of my favorites this year were Fairy Tale by Stephen King and Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. I have to say I’ve started to like audiobooks more in 2025 and will continue my listening in 2026.
Ola Kraszpulska says:
I’m 25 out of 30 on the libby waitlist for Fairy Tale!
Heather says:
Thanks for this list! I’ve already put several holds in my library app for these. This year’s standout audiobooks for me were:
– The Kamogawa Food Detectives (recommended from your podcast)
– The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
– Meditation for Mortals
– My Friends – can I say that this might be the best book I have ever consumed? HUGE shout out to the narrator who captures the teenage tone so well. I have never laughed and cried so much in one reading.
Jackie says:
I agree about My Friends on audio. It was soooooo good!
Jill Jaclin says:
Thanks Anne! I loved the Vera Wong murder series on audio and am currently listening to her Next Time Will Be Our Turn. I absolutely loved The Correspondent by Virginia Evans on audio. The full cast really added to the enjoyment. I also loved And So I Roar by Abi Dare on audio which is the sequel to The Girl with the Louding Voice
Julie Burenga says:
I am new to audio reading. My 3 favorites this year: Finding Me by Viola Davis, Go as a River by Shelley Read and Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
Jackie says:
Finding Me on audio is great! I listen to a lot of memoirs and this one is in my top 3 all time.
Katie says:
The Power Broker is at top of my list for 2026. I have the audio and paper copy so I can go back and forth. My son has been after me to read it as it’s his favorite book and has read it several times. Glad it’s a favorite of yours!
Joy M says:
Same for me. I’m hoping hubby will listen with me.
Sandra Mosolgo says:
The Corespondent & That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz
Joy McDonald says:
Not counting children’s books, over 90% of my reading is done via audio. Here are some of my 5 star listens:
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, the Audible version read by Hugh Grant. Listened on a road trip last weekend and Grant’s interpretation is brilliant.
The Academy, by Hilderbrand & Cunningham. So juicy and Erin Bennett’s narration was on point.
The Women, by Kristin Hannah. Narrated by Julia Whelan and Kristin Hannah. This one shook me.
Michelle says:
Now I’m curious about your favorite children’s books of the year. I loved Candle Island and Return to Sender. So appreciate everyone sharing their favorites. Mine was probably I Cheerfully Refuse.
Elizabeth Akins says:
My three favorite audio books for this year were: The Correspondent, The Borrowed Life of Fredrick Fife and Harriett Tubman, Live in Concert!
Thanks for these recommendations to add to my growing audio tbr list😊
Gayle says:
I enjoy your list of fave audiobooks for the year and have been an audio-reader for several years. I am currently listening to, and highly recommend, Taste by Stanley Tucci who also narrates. It’s the only way to consume this memoir!
Wendy Barker says:
I have three audiobook raves this year:
James:A Novel by Percival Everett – Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s viewpoint was just terrific.
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki – I know this one has been out for a while but it was recommended by several people whose opinion I trust and they weren’t wrong
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende – historical fiction that moves from the Spanish Civil War to Chile under Pinochet.
And I am currently listening to Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood which is read by Atwood. I’m pretty sure it will be another favourite.
Nikki S says:
I also really enjoyed A Marriage at Sea on audio. Also high on my list was The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case. So compelling!
Katie Pritchard says:
My favorite audiobooks this year were The Unmaking of June Farrow- amazing. I re-read Daisy Jones and the Six on audio again and loved it just as much. And The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- I don’t know what took me so long to read this one, but it was so heart warming.
Adrienne H. says:
Anne – I’m so glad you tackled Only Plane in the Sky. I agree it was such a fantastic book, and the audio format just added so much emotion that I think would have been missing in print. This year I have loved the Emma M. Lion series in audio and still have a couple left to go. I’m listening to these in short spurts because I honestly do not want this series to end. I’ll be an outlier here and say that I tried to listen to the audiobook of Tom Lake and just hated it, but after I switched to the print version, I loved it. Meryl Streep’s voice just grates on my nerves for some reason. This year I have also really enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. I’m still on the waiting list at the library for the audiobook version of The Correspondent… hopefully soon! Happy Reading!
Suzy says:
I read Here One Moment and The Only Plane in the Sky in print, but I’d love to hear them on audio! And I just bought the ebook version of Grown Women, I’m looking forward to that! (was that on your recommended ebooks on sale list??)
I also listen mostly only in my car and do not drive far, but I managed to get in about 16 books on audio this year. I listen to (old fashioned) CDs, so some of my listens are from previous years…I get what I can.
I enjoyed very much:
Project Hail Mary, after also reading it in print.
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson, after reading it in print TWICE. So good!
Darling Girls, by Sally Hepworth
Lucky Man, about and narrated by Michael J Fox. So like him.
We Are the Brennans, by Tracey Lange
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
The Devil Wore Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Lottery by Patricia Wood, and
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.
Trish says:
Wheel of Time in audio has consumed my ears since June. I can’t stop listening to the writing ❤️. I’m decades late to the series and so thankful to be in love with this series. On book 7, which is 150+ hours of time experiencing the Wheel turns as the Wheel wills 😊.
Anne says:
This is high on my “maybe next” list! I’m happy to hear the plug for it. 🙂
Karen says:
Anne, thank you for this list! It couldn’t be more timely as we have a drive from the Midwest to the Florida Keys coming up! Thank you to you and to your team for my 2 best audiobooks of the year. The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers was something that would never have been on my radar and I found it delightful. Ethan Hawkes’ narration! A sweet and fun story about a thoughtful and kind animal community! And also These Heathens by Mia McKenzie. I loved the protagonist and her dawning awareness of all the possibilities in her life. It seemed a bit like another favorite, Mary Jane, in that it was a young girl realizing other people in other families were quite different than her own.
Kathy says:
Thanks for these suggestions. My favorite narrator is Juliet Stevenson. I first learned of her from your recommendation of Middlemarch. Recently I listened to Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon A River Narrated by Stevenson and loved it. Highly recommend, one of my favorite books of the year.
Hilary says:
I just finished These Heathens on audio (read by Bahni Turpin) and it was fantastic.
Dare I Say It (a book all about menopause) written and read by Naomi Watts was surprisingly good on audio.
The Third Gilmore Girl written & read by Kelly Bishop was unsurprisingly great. She has lived an amazing life!
Margaret says:
Future Boy, written and read by Michael J Fox. It was an easy 3 hour listen and I loved it. If you are a Back to the Future (or Family Ties) fan, you will enjoy. Movie clips and interviews are inserted throughout so kept me very entertained.
Leith says:
I love to see other’s audio recommendations. I have long been an audio book listener dating back to taking recorded books on cassette out of the library. “Here one Moment” would also be one of my favorites. The top audiobook for me this year was “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The combination of the two excellent narrators and the author’s extensive research of NASA were amazing. I know I would have enjoyed reading the book but the audio experience raised it to a higher level.
Thanks for sharing everyone!
Why is no one talking about Theo of Golden? This was the best audiobook, after The Correspondent , that I listened to all year. It was such a beautiful gentle break from the world.
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47 comments
Thanks for sharing these, Anne! My new audiobook credit arrives today and for once I don’t have an immediate choice lined up. Excited to check these out later!
I only get through about one audiobook a month since I generally only listen while driving. I love memoirs especially as read by the authors, and Awake by Jen Hatmaker and Lionel Richie’s Truly did not disappoint (though I feel it necessary to point out that Richie’s memoir is narrated by Blair Underwood who you will quickly forget is not the author himself!)
I enjoyed Heartwood, Culpability, Run for the Hills, and the under the radar gem Home of the American Circus by Allison Larkin (narrated by the incredible Julia Whelan)! I chose These Summer Storms because it was narrated by Julia also, and although I’ve always thought I would enjoy reading the phone book, even Julia could not save that one! I was also disappointed by Broken Country after so many incredible reviews. To end on a positive note, Say You’ll Remember Me, although full of some heavy content for a romance, was another good one from Abby Jimenez.
I would say The Only Plane In The Sky and Here One Moment were both favorite audiobooks for me in 2025. I could not stop listening to either book.
I agree. Awake by Jen Hatmaker was a fabulous audiobook in my opinion. I kept forgetting to listen to it on my walks during my lunch breaks but then became so fascinated with her stories and the way she integrated the voices of people in her life throughout this book, I couldn’t wait to finish. It also mirrors some of what I experienced is why I first chose it for my “free” audiobook credit.
Here are a few of my 2025 favorites:
How we Learn to be Brave by Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde (I was lucky enough to meet her a couple weeks ago and told her how much I appreciated her work).
The Man who Pays the Rent by Judi Dench (Barbara Flynn and Judi Dench)
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Jake Gyllenhal) and In Memoriam by Alice Winn (Christian Coulson) – both re-reads and still favorites.
Thanks for sharing a thought-provoking list! I generally lean to audio for non-fiction and memoir, but also had a fair amount of fiction this year! Favorites included You Are Here, The Correspondent, Jane Eyre (Thandiwe Newton), Dinner for Vampires, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, Tom Lake and all of Becky Chambers.
I’ve listened to some great audiobooks this year! A few that especially stand out in my memory are: When the Cranes Fly South, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 1 (can’t wait until my turn for Volume 2 comes up at the library), and The Correspondent.
Graff’s newest book, When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day is similar to The Only Plane in the Sky with the full cast recording mixed with actual audio clips of people like FDR and Winston Churchill as it walks through the days leading up to and through D-Day. I’m not even necessarily a huge history reader but this one was an engaging and incredibly interesting listen! I also thoroughly enjoyed Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton and Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space by Adam Higginbotham on audio.
A highlight of my year was listening to the Finlay Donovan series! I am also a big fan of Charlotte McConaghy, and loved the audio for Wild Dark Shore. Elizabeth Evans is a narrator I enjoy but only if she’s cast for the right book (she isn’t always imo) but she was PERFECT reading Every Time I go on Vacation Someone Dies and the sequel.
I also listened to the GOAT Julia Whelan reading her book Thank You For Listening for I think the third time? What an absolute delight. And speaking of that … As much as I love Julia I don’t think she was the right narrator for Great Big Beautiful Life. I may be the only person on the planet who thinks that though.
Thank you, Anne, for your list and thoughtful reviews. My two favorite audio books this year came from MMD. I listened to Run Toward the Danger by Sarah Polley and The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. Loved and enjoyed both. Your recommendation brought me to Run Towards the Danger and Doona’s led to the Eyes and the Impossible. I loved listening to both narrators, Sarah Polley and Jude Law. Sooo good!!! And, thank you Anne and Donna!
I agree. Donna’s rec for The Eyes and The Impossible inspired me to grab that audiobook from the library. It was fantastic and audio was 100% the way to go! I’m listening to The Only Plane in the Sky right now and just wow! It’s a tough one but it’s so beautifully told. I do find myself on the verge of tears at least once per listening session (which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just very emotional).
I cannot agree more regarding “The Only Plane in the Sky” – I will say, it brought me right back to that day and was hard to listen to at times. But it was done SO well with many voices working on this audiobook. What I loved is it highlighted a lot of smaller stories that a lot of us were not aware of that occurred that day. Smaller stories of how we all came together to help. It gave me hope for humanity. I recommend this book to everyone, and only the audiobook version.
I read most of my (70 so far this year) books on audio. I am usually just happy if the audio is unmemorable, as in it doesn’t overwhelm the book. This year I had a few disappointments and even DNFs based on audio alone. One that stood out as particularly good on audio to me was The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (I get the sense this is also awesome on paper, but audio had some fun benefits).
I adored The History of Sound and am so grateful to you for bringing it to my attention. I haven’t seen the movie yet and am not sure I want to based on reviews I’ve seen—I don’t want it to mess with my memory of the book.
This has been a shorter audiobook year, my commute is now brief (yay!), and my job doesn’t allow me to listen while I work for the most part.
My favorite audiobooks for this year:
I’ll have what she’s having, Chelsea Handler
I never thought Chelsea Handler would become my spiritual guru, but wow, this book!
The Testaments, Margaret Atwood
I read this in the past and decided to re-vist for the upcoming show. Love the different readers for the POV’s in this. It’s also very good!
The Housemaid, Frieda McFadden
I know McFadden is nutritionally potato chips of reading, but I found myself hooked on this one. The pacing and the twists were really engaging!
My favorite audiobook was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Absolutely outstanding! Besides his writing, which I always enjoy, the narrator, Ray Porter, does an incredible job! I’m not a science fiction fan, per se, but this was a story that was gripping and funny and stressful and amazing! 🙂
Completely agree!!
I second the nominations for Wild Dark Shore and Heartwood – both audiobooks are engrossing and well narrated. I also loved Buckeye by Patrick Ryan – I had a hard time not listening to this one.
I just listened to my first Audiobook ever – The Correspondent. Blew me away!
Oh man, I’m worried you set the bar too high with your very first audiobook experience being The Correspondent! How will anything else ever live up to that?? (Mostly kidding, but that WAS excellent on audio!)
I came here to say this. ❤️
I don’t listen to a lot of audiobooks but two of my favorites this year were Fairy Tale by Stephen King and Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney. I have to say I’ve started to like audiobooks more in 2025 and will continue my listening in 2026.
I’m 25 out of 30 on the libby waitlist for Fairy Tale!
Thanks for this list! I’ve already put several holds in my library app for these. This year’s standout audiobooks for me were:
– The Kamogawa Food Detectives (recommended from your podcast)
– The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
– Meditation for Mortals
– My Friends – can I say that this might be the best book I have ever consumed? HUGE shout out to the narrator who captures the teenage tone so well. I have never laughed and cried so much in one reading.
I agree about My Friends on audio. It was soooooo good!
Thanks Anne! I loved the Vera Wong murder series on audio and am currently listening to her Next Time Will Be Our Turn. I absolutely loved The Correspondent by Virginia Evans on audio. The full cast really added to the enjoyment. I also loved And So I Roar by Abi Dare on audio which is the sequel to The Girl with the Louding Voice
I am new to audio reading. My 3 favorites this year: Finding Me by Viola Davis, Go as a River by Shelley Read and Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
Finding Me on audio is great! I listen to a lot of memoirs and this one is in my top 3 all time.
The Power Broker is at top of my list for 2026. I have the audio and paper copy so I can go back and forth. My son has been after me to read it as it’s his favorite book and has read it several times. Glad it’s a favorite of yours!
Same for me. I’m hoping hubby will listen with me.
The Corespondent & That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz
Not counting children’s books, over 90% of my reading is done via audio. Here are some of my 5 star listens:
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, the Audible version read by Hugh Grant. Listened on a road trip last weekend and Grant’s interpretation is brilliant.
The Academy, by Hilderbrand & Cunningham. So juicy and Erin Bennett’s narration was on point.
The Women, by Kristin Hannah. Narrated by Julia Whelan and Kristin Hannah. This one shook me.
Now I’m curious about your favorite children’s books of the year. I loved Candle Island and Return to Sender. So appreciate everyone sharing their favorites. Mine was probably I Cheerfully Refuse.
My three favorite audio books for this year were: The Correspondent, The Borrowed Life of Fredrick Fife and Harriett Tubman, Live in Concert!
Thanks for these recommendations to add to my growing audio tbr list😊
I enjoy your list of fave audiobooks for the year and have been an audio-reader for several years. I am currently listening to, and highly recommend, Taste by Stanley Tucci who also narrates. It’s the only way to consume this memoir!
I have three audiobook raves this year:
James:A Novel by Percival Everett – Huckleberry Finn from Jim’s viewpoint was just terrific.
My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki – I know this one has been out for a while but it was recommended by several people whose opinion I trust and they weren’t wrong
A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende – historical fiction that moves from the Spanish Civil War to Chile under Pinochet.
And I am currently listening to Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood which is read by Atwood. I’m pretty sure it will be another favourite.
I also really enjoyed A Marriage at Sea on audio. Also high on my list was The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case. So compelling!
My favorite audiobooks this year were The Unmaking of June Farrow- amazing. I re-read Daisy Jones and the Six on audio again and loved it just as much. And The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- I don’t know what took me so long to read this one, but it was so heart warming.
Anne – I’m so glad you tackled Only Plane in the Sky. I agree it was such a fantastic book, and the audio format just added so much emotion that I think would have been missing in print. This year I have loved the Emma M. Lion series in audio and still have a couple left to go. I’m listening to these in short spurts because I honestly do not want this series to end. I’ll be an outlier here and say that I tried to listen to the audiobook of Tom Lake and just hated it, but after I switched to the print version, I loved it. Meryl Streep’s voice just grates on my nerves for some reason. This year I have also really enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. I’m still on the waiting list at the library for the audiobook version of The Correspondent… hopefully soon! Happy Reading!
I read Here One Moment and The Only Plane in the Sky in print, but I’d love to hear them on audio! And I just bought the ebook version of Grown Women, I’m looking forward to that! (was that on your recommended ebooks on sale list??)
I also listen mostly only in my car and do not drive far, but I managed to get in about 16 books on audio this year. I listen to (old fashioned) CDs, so some of my listens are from previous years…I get what I can.
I enjoyed very much:
Project Hail Mary, after also reading it in print.
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson, after reading it in print TWICE. So good!
Darling Girls, by Sally Hepworth
Lucky Man, about and narrated by Michael J Fox. So like him.
We Are the Brennans, by Tracey Lange
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
The Devil Wore Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Lottery by Patricia Wood, and
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough.
Wheel of Time in audio has consumed my ears since June. I can’t stop listening to the writing ❤️. I’m decades late to the series and so thankful to be in love with this series. On book 7, which is 150+ hours of time experiencing the Wheel turns as the Wheel wills 😊.
This is high on my “maybe next” list! I’m happy to hear the plug for it. 🙂
Anne, thank you for this list! It couldn’t be more timely as we have a drive from the Midwest to the Florida Keys coming up! Thank you to you and to your team for my 2 best audiobooks of the year. The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers was something that would never have been on my radar and I found it delightful. Ethan Hawkes’ narration! A sweet and fun story about a thoughtful and kind animal community! And also These Heathens by Mia McKenzie. I loved the protagonist and her dawning awareness of all the possibilities in her life. It seemed a bit like another favorite, Mary Jane, in that it was a young girl realizing other people in other families were quite different than her own.
Thanks for these suggestions. My favorite narrator is Juliet Stevenson. I first learned of her from your recommendation of Middlemarch. Recently I listened to Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon A River Narrated by Stevenson and loved it. Highly recommend, one of my favorite books of the year.
I just finished These Heathens on audio (read by Bahni Turpin) and it was fantastic.
Dare I Say It (a book all about menopause) written and read by Naomi Watts was surprisingly good on audio.
The Third Gilmore Girl written & read by Kelly Bishop was unsurprisingly great. She has lived an amazing life!
Future Boy, written and read by Michael J Fox. It was an easy 3 hour listen and I loved it. If you are a Back to the Future (or Family Ties) fan, you will enjoy. Movie clips and interviews are inserted throughout so kept me very entertained.
I love to see other’s audio recommendations. I have long been an audio book listener dating back to taking recorded books on cassette out of the library. “Here one Moment” would also be one of my favorites. The top audiobook for me this year was “Atmosphere” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The combination of the two excellent narrators and the author’s extensive research of NASA were amazing. I know I would have enjoyed reading the book but the audio experience raised it to a higher level.
Thanks for sharing everyone!
Oh Anne, thank you for the rec of The History of Sound! I am 33% in and am enthralled! I think you would like this article I just found, an interview with the author Ben Shattuck. https://suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk/meet-the-author-ben-shattuck/#:~:text=Dau%20Short%20Story%20Prize%20for,on%20the%20coast%20of%20Massachusetts
Why is no one talking about Theo of Golden? This was the best audiobook, after The Correspondent , that I listened to all year. It was such a beautiful gentle break from the world.
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