Favorite audiobooks of 2022 Archives

The Violin Conspiracy

by Brendan Slocumb

This fine arts thriller begins with a bang: Ray McMillian may be the most talented young musician in the world. Two weeks before the most important competition of his life, he opens his violin case after getting off a flight and discovers his $10 million dollar Stradivarius is gone—replaced by a white Chuck Taylor and a ransom note. I was hooked! Slocumb then takes us back in time to show us how Ray, a young Black man from North Carolina who doesn't have the family wealth or privilege so many of his classical music peers do, fell in love with both music and his great-great grandfather's fiddle, and came to devote his life to winning the Tschaikovsky Competition—and how he came to own a $10 million Strad! We also experience many painful and heart-pounding instances of the racism Ray experiences as a Black man moving through a space that's predominantly white—and how his Blackness is used against him by those who wish to claim his violin as their own. I loved this, and JD Jackson's narration was the icing on the cake.

Fresh Water for Flowers

by Valérie Perrin

After loving the works of Maylis de Kerangal in 2021, I've been interested in exploring more French literature, and I've had Perrin in my sights because she's published by Europa, a publisher I love for translated works. (Hildegarde Serle translates this one.) When Fabled book buyer gave me a nudge to read this, I was only too eager to jump in! I was hooked by her English language debut from the lyrical and utterly surprising opening passage, in which narrator Violette grounds us in her work as a cemetery caretaker. She sees her setting not as a sinister place but as a garden of souls where she gently tends the dead and those who come to pay them tribute. The achingly sad and touching story unspools over more than twenty years, yet always felt immediate, even urgent, mixing love and betrayal, drama and resilience, friendship and loss, drama and resilience, even poetry to great effect. I listened on audio, which was a little tricky in places because the narrative jumps through time, but I still loved experiencing the story in that format. I'm eager to read more of Perrin's works and already downloaded her new release Three to begin next.

How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

by Angie Cruz

From the publisher: "Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight."

Oh William!: A Novel

by Elizabeth Strout

From the publisher: "I would like to say a few things about my first husband, William. Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret—one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us. There are fears and insecurities, simple joys and acts of tenderness, and revelations about affairs and other spouses, parents and their children. On every page of this exquisite novel we learn more about the quiet forces that hold us together—even after we’ve grown apart."

A Ghost in the Throat

by Doireann Ní Ghríofa

From the publisher: "When we first met, I was a child, and she had been dead for centuries. Moving fluidly between past and present, quest and elegy, poetry and those who make it, A Ghost in the Throat is a shapeshifting book: a record of literary obsession; a narrative about the erasure of a people, of a language, of women; a meditation on motherhood and on translation; and an unforgettable story about finding your voice by freeing another's. On discovering her murdered husband’s body, an eighteenth-century Irish noblewoman drinks handfuls of his blood and composes an extraordinary lament. Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill’s poem travels through the centuries, finding its way to a new mother who has narrowly avoided her own fatal tragedy. When she realizes that the literature dedicated to the poem reduces Eibhlín Dubh’s life to flimsy sketches, she wants more: the details of the poet’s girlhood and old age; her unique rages, joys, sorrows, and desires; the shape of her days and site of her final place of rest. What follows is an adventure in which Doireann Ní Ghríofa sets out to discover Eibhlín Dubh’s erased life—and in doing so, discovers her own."

Chirp

The Change

by Kirsten Miller

With perimenopause comes great gifts and responsibilities, at least in this revenge fantasy about three women in their 40s. Nessa’s newfound ability to hear the dead leads her, Harriett, and Jo to the abandoned body of a teenage girl. The police decide the girl is just a drug-addicted sex worker and wash their hands of the case so the women decide to investigate on their own and discover a dark secret hiding in their wealthy town. Good thing they’ve got some rage to channel… Narrator January LaVoy brings the rotating perspectives to life, making for a thrilling read.

The Latecomer

by Jean Hanff Korelitz

This is the decades-long story of a wealthy Brooklyn family and their triplets—the smart one, the weird one, and the girl—conceived with the help of IVF. For a bevy of reasons this family never quite gelled, and the siblings carry not a trace of affection for each other. Everything changes when the triplets reach college age, and their mother, yearning for some semblance of familial love, decides to thaw the fourth and only remaining embryo and have another child. The arrival of that child—the latecomer—blows up the whole family. An unexpected bonus was the thread of modern art that runs through the book: I googled so many artists and works along the way. Whispersync narration available.

Everything Sad Is Untrue: (a true story)

by Daniel Nayeri

The praise from critics on this one is effusive: NPR cautions, "it hooks you right from the opening line," Kirkus Reviews calls it "a modern epic," and BookPage says, "This book could change the world." From the publisher: "A sprawling, evocative, and groundbreaking autobiographical novel told in the unforgettable and hilarious voice of a young Iranian refugee. 'A patchwork story is the shame of the refugee,' Nayeri writes early in the novel. In an Oklahoman middle school, Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of a skeptical audience of classmates, telling the tales of his family's history, stretching back years, decades, and centuries. Nayeri deftly weaves through stories of the long and beautiful history of his family in Iran, adding a richness of ancient tales and Persian folklore."

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt

When I had no idea what to listen to next after finishing my current read, I popped over to our What Should I Read Next Patreon community and asked for recommendations... which led me to this book, which had been halfheartedly lingering on my TBR for a while. I had been under the mistaken impression it was a comedy work, but nope, that was completely wrong. I plunged in, as advised, knowing little but definitely intrigued by the inclusion of Lyle Lovett as a narrator. (All I will say is: he plays himself.) Forgive me if you already know this, but this is a memoir, written by an anonymous author, who explains how and why she came to operate the pseudonymous twitter account @DuchessGoldblat. I LOVED it.

Favorite audiobooks of 2022