I’ve shared unputdownable books, not just once but twice. These are books that for a variety of reasons—plot, pacing, the timing in my reading life—I simply could not put down.
When you transfer that idea to the audio realm, what you’ve got is an “unpausable” audiobook. (Hat tip to team member Brigid for coining the term.) An unpausable audiobook is one that has me taking the scenic route home, walking the extra mile, washing every dirty dish in the kitchen, folding every piece of laundry (and then actually putting it all away, gasp!), and generally doing anything that will give me a few more minutes or hours of listening time.
For me, these unpausable audiobooks are often tense and suspenseful, with a strong sense of narrative drive that keeps me listening. But I’m also inclined to listen to “just one more chapter…” and then another, and another, of books that feel like important conversations with trusted confidants (which is why you’ll see a fair amount of memoir on my list), or when I’m so intrigued by or immersed in the story’s world I don’t want to leave it, or when I’m holding my breath waiting to see what will ultimately become of characters I’ve become deeply invested in. And of course: the narrator’s performance is a crucial component in the how-much-laundry-gets-folded equation.
When reviewing my reading journal recently, I noticed that I haven’t exactly been killing it in the audiobook department this year. I’ve spent an unusually high percentage of my listening time with audiobooks that have been fine, serviceable, or just okay—worth the listening time but definitely not standout selections. That realization got me thinking about the exceptions: what exceptional audiobooks have I been listening to lately, and what memorable titles from the last few years do I find myself thinking of often and recommending all the time? That’s how this list of audiobooks I personally couldn’t stop listening to was born.
While this isn’t every unpausable audiobook I’ve read (far from it!), I hope you enjoy this assortment—and I especially hope that it gets you thinking about what makes an audiobook unpausable for you. Please tell us in comments!
13 Unpausable audiobooks
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The Eighth Life
This was the Georgian novel that I didn't know my life was missing, and one of my favorite books of 2021. This family saga spans one hundred years, beginning in Tbilisi, Georgia in the years just before the 1917 revolution, and carrying almost to the present day, unfolding the story of each new generation. I couldn't wait to find out where the story would carry each character. The family possesses a magical chocolate recipe that they mix up at opportune moments, but whether it's a blessing or a curse remains to be seen. This book is a commitment but I'm so glad I read it. The ending is amazing. Broad content warnings apply; if you're a sensitive reader, please do your due diligence before diving in. Wonderful on audio, as narrated by Tavia Gilbert, and translated from the German by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin. 40 hrs 55 mins. More info →
Wrong Place Wrong Time
This was the best kind of brain bender! In the opening pages of this time travel mystery, a British woman watches in horror from her window as her 18-year-old son stabs a man on the street. A horrific scene ensues, the police take him away, she spends the evening at the station in shock and agony. But then Jen wakes up the next morning, only to find that it’s not the next morning at all, but the day before the crime occurred. When she wakes up the next morning, it’s the day before that. Jen seems to be living her life backward, and—with the help of a physicist friend-of-a-friend—determines that the only way to break out of the time loop is to “undo” whatever event put her son on the path to murder. To do that she has to go far, far back in time, getting to the roots of her most important relationships. Narrated by Lesley Sharp. 10 hrs 7 mins. More info →
The Hotel Nantucket
Over the past few years, I’ve gotten into the habit of listening to the latest Hilderbrand on audio, read by longtime narrator Erin Bennett. This 2022 release is my favorite of recent years. When the story begins, the titular hotel’s Gilded Age glory days are long gone: it’s a real dump (and in a fun plot twist—haunted!) when London billionaire Xavier Darling buys it sight unseen. The new owner hires local restaurateur Lizbet Keaton to make his hotel the best property on the island, if not the whole Eastern seaboard. And that means The Hotel Nantucket has to wow Shelly Carpenter, the influencer who’s become a national obsession for her blog Hotel Confidential. The influential critic regularly reviews hotels for her eighteen million followers and awards each property anywhere from one to five keys. The staff is energized by this audacious goal, because no hotel has ever earned five keys from Shelly Carpenter. To earn the coveted fifth key, they’ll have to do everything right. Super fun, and I especially enjoyed the ghost story element! 12 hrs 27 mins. More info →
Run for the Hills
Wilson deftly combines the heavy and the light in this found family story of four scattered half-siblings who meet for the first time and pile into an old PT Cruiser to go find the father who abandoned them long ago. Wilson’s stories often feel larger than life, yet the emotional heart feels real and relatable. Quirky, warm, and bighearted, with a multigenerational cast and road trip hijinks galore. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s no spoiler to say I found this coast-to-coast adventure to be an utter delight. A 2025 MMD Minimalist Summer Reading Guide pick. Narrated by Marin Ireland. 7 hrs 22 mins. More info →
Walking with Sam: A Father, a Son, and Five Hundred Miles Across Spain
I’m so glad I listened to this real-time nonfiction account of the Brat Pack actor's 500-mile walk across Spain on the Camino de Santiago with his 19-year-old son Sam. He details the pair's reasons for embarking on the trip, their long, hot days spent walking 20+ miles a day in the hot summer sun, the fellow walkers they meet along the way, the food they eat, the coffee they drink, the inns they sleep in, what they talk about on the journey. My husband Will and I enjoyed listening to the audiobook together on a summer road trip: the elder McCarthy reads the majority but son Sam frequently adds his own voice, which makes for a wonderful listening experience. 6 hrs 43 mins. More info →
The Rachel Incident
I’ve been recommending this book nonstop ever since I first read it: it’s a provocative novel that thoughtfully interrogates themes of power, class, art, and the queer experience. It reads like a warmer, wittier Sally Rooney, perfect for fans of introspective first-person literary fiction. Rachel is living in London, happily married and pregnant, when she hears the news that one of her long-ago college professors is in a coma. This discovery prompts her to recall a pivotal year in her early twenties, when she lived in Cork, Ireland and met her best friend James while working at a bookstore. As their lives become ever more entangled with those of the professor and his wife, I found myself walking extra miles and folding extra laundry so I could more quickly discover what would happen next. I adored the Irish accents in Tara Flynn's excellent narration. 9 hrs 22 mins. More info →
Trust
This multi-layered Pulitzer Prize winner is told in four distinct parts, each one subtly—or, in the case of the final section, not so subtly—changing the meaning of what came before, and each with its own narrator. Part I is a biographical novel based on the life of an infamous Wall Street trader who flourished after the stock market crash of 1929. Part II is an unfinished draft of the autobiography the trader began writing, with the help of a ghostwriter, to "correct" the novel's portrayal of his life. Part III is from the point of view of that ghostwriter, and Part IV ... no spoilers, but it blows the lid off the whole thing. Structure nerds like myself will find much to appreciate here. Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and Orlagh Cassidy. 10 hrs 21 mins. More info →
Be Ready When the Luck Happens: A Memoir
I downloaded the audiobook of Ina Garten’s much-anticipated memoir on a whim and couldn’t stop listening to Ina narrate her own story. I found Ina to be the perfect traveling companion during a stressful road trip: chatty, engaging, and soothing all at once. Maybe you should take my words with a grain of salt because I’m by no means a superfan: I have a few Ina Garten cookbooks, I’ve had good luck with her recipes, I’ve seen a few snippets of her TV show while vacationing someplace with all the channels. I’m not a student of Everything Ina—but golly, I loved this memoir in which she covers her early life, relationship with Jeffrey, Barefoot Contessa origins and growth, musings on what makes a recipe sing, her Paris apartment, and more. 8 hrs 47 mins. More info →
A Song to Drown Rivers
I'm not a huge fantasy reader but I folded so much laundry so I could keep listening to this book! Liang based her plotty, romantically-laced historical fantasy on the ancient legend of Xishi, one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. Xishi’s beauty is renowned throughout the land, but when the king’s military advisor discovers she is brave as well as beautiful, she is recruited to use that beauty as a weapon in service of her people. Driven by her sense of duty, she consents, agreeing to spy on the enemy kingdom of Wu by becoming their reviled king’s concubine: her job is to make the man she loathes fall in love with her. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next, and was also impressed by Liang's thoughtful examination of the complexities of womanhood, the horrors of war, the obstacles to love, and even the nature of fame. I wish we could all talk about that ending! Narrated by Natalie Naudus. 10 hrs 22 mins. More info →
Colored Television
This darkly comic satire centers on a Los Angeles-based novelist named Jane who is tired of pouring herself into her work only to barely make ends meet. L.A. is expensive—especially with two kids—and novel writing just doesn't pay. Jane decides she wants to "sell out" like her friend Brett and become a screenwriter, with its predictable hours and paychecks. But when Jane makes one tiny lie in order to secure a gig, it leads to a bigger one, then a bigger one—and it's only a matter of time before her precarious house of cards comes crashing down. This was smart, funny, and packed with insider-y publishing mischief. Fun fact: Senza is married to novelist Percival Everett, and she draws on her own life experience in sooo many ways in this (fictional) story. I initially tried this in print and it just didn't stick but once I switched to the audiobook narrated by Kristen Ariza, I breezed right through it! 10 hrs 14 mins. More info →
The History of Sound: Stories
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’m so glad I read it via audiobook thanks to the full cast, which included Ed Helms, Paul Mescal, Jenny Slate, and Nick Offerman reading me stories. 9 hrs 29 mins. More info →
Good Dirt
In this propulsive, genre-blending work, Wilkerson explores grief, trauma, and social justice issues through the lens of one family and its precious heirloom. Ebony "Ebby" Freeman, the twenty-nine-year-old daughter of an affluent Black New England family, suffers a painful and public romantic betrayal in the opening pages. She flees to France to heal but can’t escape the pull to untangle past events—both her recent humiliation and her still-unanswered questions from a trauma she suffered two decades prior. In an alternating timeline, Wilkerson lays out the history of the family’s heirloom stoneware pot and each generation that has possessed it, ever since it was first thrown by an enslaved master craftsman. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen to Ebby and her ancestors. Narrated by January LaVoy. 11 hrs 26 mins. More info →
Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory
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. That same approach is used skillfully in each essay. The audiobook as narrated by the author was the right book at the right time for me. 7 hrs 56 mins. More info →
What unpausable audiobooks do you recommend? Please share in the comments.
P.S. 10 audiobooks to listen to while you clean, purge, and tidy, 15 standout summer novels perfect for seasonal listening, and 20 extra-long audiobooks so you can get the most out of those credits.
43 comments
Thank you for this list! I’ve been commuting a lot this summer, and needed another good book after I finished The Wedding People (amazing on audio).
I’ve been listening to a lot of audiobooks recently, and one that grabbed me from the first chapter and didn’t let go was Keigo Higashino’s The Devotion of Suspect X.
THE GHOSTWRITER by Julie Clark was absolutely unpausable for me. Loved it! Also loved the Ina Garten memoir on this list—so good!
Thanks for the list. I’ve finally decided to give audio books a try. I just listened to none of this is true by lisa jewel and it was great!
My Father’s House and the sequel The Ghosts of Rome by Joseph O’Connor – full cast, completely engrossing, spectacularly well done audiobooks. About an Irish Catholic priest who forms a “choir” in the Vatican, an escape line to help Jews and allied soldiers in occupied Rome. (Fiction, but many of the characters had real life counterparts)
I’m about halfway through Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab – I’ve binge-listened to 9 hours of it over the past two days (rare for me when not travelling). The trio of narrators bring each of the main characters to life and the prose is deliciously sensual. I don’t normally stay up late listening to audiobooks, but I may need to do that here!
Project Hail Mary was one of the best audiobook experiences. It is a must read on audio.
I am listening to Project Hail Mary right now and its amazing on audio! Truly amazing!!!
Some of my very favorite audiobooks:
Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
The Extraordinaries – TJ Klune
The Unmaking of June Farrow – Adrienne Young
Malibu Rising – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Concrete Rose – Angie Thomas
Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus – Dusti Bowling
As You Wish – Cary Elwes
Hooray for unpausable audiobooks! This summer, audiobooks are working much better for me than print reading, and as it turns out, I’ve recently read three of your picks – “Good Dirt”, “Run Towards the Danger” and “Run for the Hills”. Loved them all! Other unpausable audiobooks I’d add to the list: Fredrik Backman’s “Beartown” trilogy (narrated by the fabulous Marin Ireland) and Kate Quinn’s books (narrated by the fantastic Saskia Maarleveld), particularly “The Rose Code”, “The Diamond Eye”, and “The Briar Club”. Thanks so much for this post, Anne. I’m definitely adding more to my audio TBR!
Project Hail Mary NEEDS to be on this list. It is so good!
Another great one to add is The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb. There is even classical music between sections.
Thank you for this list. I listened to some of the ones you selected and did enjoy them. Loved Run for the Hills. Marin Ireland as a narrator is amazing. On audio, I’ve recently loved the Sarah Adams “When in Rome” series, “Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers,” by Jesse Q. Sutanto,
Nathan Hill’s The Nix is one of my all-time faves on audio along with Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Just finished The History if Sound which was stellar, too!
Ann Pachett’s novels are always enjoyable but the audio version of Tom Lake read by Meryl Steep brings depth and nuance and humor to the text. Definitely “unpausable.”
Agree! Still have flashbacks to the joy of listening to “Tom Lake”.
100% agree. I loved the book, but I also admit I think I would find Meryl Streep reading the phone book unpausable!!!
I definitely agree. I enjoyed the book but the audio by Meryl was awesome!
Love this list! I would agree on Run For The Hills as an audiobook, as I tried to read it on my e-reader and couldn’t get going so I took a try on it as an audiobook based on your recommendation in the Summer Reading Guide. So glad I did because I find it much more consumable as an audiobook.
Broken Country audiobook! Have your tissues handy
Be Ready When the Luck Happens was wonderful. I haven’t enjoyed a memoir so much in a long time.
The one I couldn’t stop listening to this summer, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. You won’t regret a minute of it!
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa was wonderful in audio.
Also, I couldn’t pause Tom Lake, narrated by Meryl Streep.
Great list of titles I’m anxious to try. I recently listened to Run For the Hills. So funny and heartwarming . I’m a big fan of Kevin Wilson’s books. This will not disappoint!
I have listened to so many books since this one, but my all time favorite audiobook is still, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
I have read many on your list and mostly agree but didn’t LOVE listening to Andrew McCarthy’s memoir of walking the Camino with his son OR Kevin Wilson’s Run for the Hills which fell short for me from the standard he set with Nothing to See Here. Neither were bad but not great either. One of my very favorite books ever was Trust which I can very enthusiastically recommend. AMAZING!!! I would definitely add all of the Cormorant Strike audio books to your list–completely incredible especially as you come to love the continuing characters. Robert Glenister is the consummate narrator. There are seven so far in the series with the eighth-The Hallmarked Man- coming out on 9/2. These are the definition of unpausable for me. I literally clear my calendar when a new one comes out! Highly recommend!
I loved TRUST so completely. (Not many in our Book Club agreed with the three of us who did, however)
I heard a NYTIMES INTERVIEW before reading the book. Then I listed to the audio book after our Book Club, and definitely agree with the Pulitzer Award)
I found Know My Name by Chanel Miller to be unpausable, and I usually have a lot of trouble staying focused on audiobooks. This one was just incredible (and read by the author).
My two fave recommend-to-everyone audiobooks have been included by commenters (Born a Crime and As You Wish). Just yesterday I listened to all nine hours of The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case. I couldn’t stop! So fascinating even if the title and the conclusion focus far too much on their “mom-ness.” (I mean, they didn’t even have a carpool. And one was a forensic accountant!) I liked this one almost as much as I’ll Be Gone in the Dark.
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is so perfect on audio. Marcellus is perfection.
Agree completely. I had first tried to read that one in print and couldn’t find momentum but I truly LOVED it on audio.
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl
The Advantures of amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakr
A Class Apart/A Class Entwined and A Class Forsaken by Susie Murphy
There are 4 more Susie Murphy titles in the series — I just got the next three on Audible….will probably have listened to them all before the month is over
Thoroughly enjoyed Ina Garten and the Road of Tender Hearts.
I just finished listening to Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone, narrated by January LaVoy. I listen to audiobooks to fall asleep at night. Usually 30 to 40 minutes will do it but I just couldn’t stop listening to this one. Note to self: perhaps thrillers are not the best audiobooks to listen to at night.
When I can’t sleep I put my ear pods on and listen. The next day I have to go back and find out where I dozed off. It’s the best insomnia cure I have found.
A Gentleman in Moscow was excellent in print, but on Audio it’s a masterpiece!!
Also recommend The Dutch House read by Tom Hanks. He makes it.
Wonderful list! When I am lucky enough to find an audiobook like this, I tag them as a #fivespongeaudiobook in my IG review (and add it to my GoodReads shelf with the same name) because they’re books so good you’re willing to clean to keep listening! Also, thanks for including HISTORY OF SOUND. That one blew my doors off, and it’s not receiving the love it deserves. I’ve read it twice so far, and have lined up a third read with my community book club.
I would love to see a post on the best auidobook non-fiction/memoir. I can listen to non-fiction/narrative non-fiction/memoir but for some reason I lose my focus with fiction!
Some I have loved include:
Ina Garten
Rob Lowe
Patrick Radden Keefe (anything!)
Ronan Farrow Capture and Kill
I was enthralled by the audio of The Unmaking of June Farrow. Listened twice in a row!
My all time favorite – The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson narrated by the author is one of the best books I have listened to. Rifgt now I am listening to Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead which, I’m surprised to say, I can’t stop listening to.
My fav audiobooks are:
~Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
~All of the books written by Fannie Flagg. She narrates them all!
~That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo (I listen to it every summer)
~ The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
I think the narrator makes or breaks the book. I have tried to listen to some of my fav books on audio but the narration ruined it.
While I liked The Eighth Life, and was happy to see a book about Georgia, I was very surprised that there was not more focus on correct pronunciation of names of people and places. For example, Giorgi is the most common Georgian name for males and it was pronounced incorrectly throughout the entire audiobook.
I loved Daisy Jones and the Six on audio, and just finished the audiobook of The Favorites by Layne Fargo, which is similar in structure to Daisy Jones, set in the cutthroat world of elite figure skating. It was excellent, and the full cast really brought the various characters to life!
I would like to add Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune!
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