Musical sensation Billie Eilish narrates this quick memoir about her extraordinary rise to fame. Her signature rasp permeates her delivery. There are only a few chapters, and these race by via Eilish's casual delivery. In addition to talking about her music and her brother, musician Finneas O'Connell, Eliish is joined by her parents, Maggie Baird and Patrick O'Connell, at... Read More

Narrator James Cameron Stewart's precise diction and cool tone illuminate Ross King's detailed introduction to bookmaking, ink production, parchment and papermaking, and the various methods for distributing books in Renaissance Florence in this engrossing biography of Vespasiano da Bisticci. Fifteenth-century Florence was a city in political turmoil. Vespasiano, born in 1422,... Read More

Cambodian-American actor François Chau seems to inhabit the anonymous narrator of this novel--a young man of Vietnamese and French parentage who flees Vietnam at the fall of Saigon and heads to California and France. Chau's narration is so stellar that the listener sees the action through the narrator's eyes, yet Chau's soft voice remains unobtrusive. The writing in this novel... Read More

This is perhaps Igbo and Tamil writer Akwaeke Emezi's most vulnerable--and groundbreaking--book. In a series of letters to the people in their life, Emezi explores their experience as an embodied spirit, a nonhuman living in human flesh. Their writing is bold and absolutely unapologetic. So is their narration. Even while describing the most painful moments, their narration... Read More

Lippman's ingenious, allusive, and daring new thriller makes for a massively entertaining audiobook. It nods to REAR WINDOW, MISERY, and a host of other iconic suspense fictions, even including a brief appearance by Lippman's own trademark PI Tess Monaghan, but Lippman spins them all. Narrator Jason Culp creates vivid characters and delivers emotion, color, humor, and momentum... Read More

Louis Ozawa narrates this true story about Japanese-Americans at home and abroad during WWII. There is little dialogue; thus, Ozawa narrates in a slightly different tone, depending on where and when the story is taking place. He modulates between hope and despair with the deftness of a film composer. Furthermore, when words are spoken, Ozawa slips into a Hawaiian, Japanese, or... Read More

Author Steven Rowley brings humor, whimsy, and heart to his narration of his charming novel about a transformative summer. Patrick is a middle-aged gay man and retired actor who has retreated from the world to avoid facing his fears and past heartbreaks. When his sister-in-law dies and his brother checks himself into rehab, it falls upon him to look after his niece and nephew... Read More

Although she was born in a rural town in Japan, the author moved to Hawaii with her mother and older brother in 1951, when she was a young child. She says of her mother, who single-handedly supported her children: "She had a heart of fire and would always pick herself up and try something else, seek another way forward." That grit is displayed by her daughter, now the junior... Read More

Poet and journalist Clint Smith's debut work of nonfiction captivates as he explores the ways that we Americans confront and reckon with the legacy of slavery in the United States. His resonant voice moves with a poet's rhythm as he takes listeners to former plantations, on historical tours, and to Angola Prison. Many sites are in the American South, though he also includes... Read More

With a heartfelt performance, Bahni Turpin puts listeners in the head of Evie, an L.A. high school senior who doesn't believe in happily ever after anymore--not after she caught her father cheating and her parents got divorced. When she starts seeing visions of how and when couples' relationships will end, Evie's search for answers leads her to a dance studio where she meets... Read More

Fans of the celebrated musician Rickie Lee Jones will be delighted to hear her narrate her autobiography, which is focused on family memories and making music. Jones is as giving with her delivery as she is with her story. She reaches back through the years--all the way back to her mother's childhood--in a revealing, raspy voice laced with a country twang. Listeners will sink... Read More

Rebecca Lowman's methodical performance will hook listeners until the very end of this contemporary mystery. Hannah wakes up one day to find her husband of one year, Owen, has vanished, leaving her a puzzling note: "Protect her." Hannah assumes that "her" refers to Owen's teenage daughter, Bailey, who has despised Hannah from day one. While this is a typical story of two... Read More

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini's clear and evocative delivery of Evison's novel works splendidly. The story exists on several planes. The inner and outer lives of an Iraq War vet and former star football player named Dave Cartwright comprise one plane. The other focuses on a legend of long ago involving a native woman named S'tka who is cast out by her clan and survives on the edge... Read More

Between the three of them, author Alex Michaelides and narrators Louise Brealey and Kobna Holdbrick-Smith cast a spell that will have listeners glued to this suspenseful novel every chance they get. Michaelides, author of the bestselling thriller THE SILENT PATIENT, introduces us to group therapist Mariana, who returns to Cambridge University to comfort her niece after the... Read More

The movie HIDDEN FIGURES portrayed the brilliant Black female mathematicians who made NASA's Mercury program a success. Even listeners familiar with the movie will find this audiobook memoir a revelation. Mathematician Katherine Johnson tells her own inspiring life story, including her battles against racial barriers and her intellectual triumphs. Narrator Robin Miles's... Read More

Jonathan Todd Ross is an expert narrator who keeps listeners engaged throughout this densely researched book about how we make decisions and, in doing so, sometimes make mistakes. He sets a measured pace that helps listeners keep track of the many complex ideas, anecdotes, and data explored. Ross has the delivery style of a gifted professor. He is steady, consistent, and clear... Read More

Narrator Natalie Naudus brings a quiet intensity to this genre-crossing audiobook featuring August, a prickly loner who tries to lose herself in New York City but instead finds purpose, community, and unconventional romance. The latter involves kindhearted, butch Jane, who overrides August's emotional barriers while facing a more serious hitch: Jane's from the 1970s, trapped on... Read More

Isolation and microaggressions are themes throughout this audiobook about the sole Black woman working in the white-collar offices of a major publisher in New York City. Nella, well voiced by Aja Naomi King, suffers the indignities and self-doubts of being an "only." Then Hazel, also a Black woman, joins the staff. But the good feeling her new co-worker inspires in Nella... Read More

Nicola Barber and Cassandra Campbell share the narration of this spy story set primarily during the Cold War. Twins Iris and Ruth have not spoken in years, not since Iris and her family defected to Russia when her husband was revealed to be a Soviet mole. In 1952, Ruth agrees to travel to Moscow with a U.S. diplomat to try to extract her sister from the USSR. Barber performs... Read More

Narrator Kirby Heyborne maintains the brisk pace and firm tension of what promises to be one of the summer's most talked about suspense novels. When failing novelist Jake Bonner hears that one of his MFA students has died, he steals the plot from the student's novel in progress and enjoys momentous success. But he soon finds himself threatened with exposure--or something... Read More

Through tone and pacing, narrator Ray Porter makes Andy Weir's fantastical space opera seem plausible. Porter captures the panic and semi-hysterical self-deprecation of an amnesiac who is the sole survivor on a spacecraft cruising through space. As the protagonist's memories return, Porter is called upon to deliver a United Nations of accents for characters ranging from Dutch... Read More

Saskia Maarleveld is the perfect narrator for this actually thrilling novel set at Bletchley Park in WWII among the women and men who broke codes and worked the Bombe and Enigma machines. Maarleveld's graceful way with accents, her deep understanding of her characters, and, above all, her intensely responsive pacing as the story of three heroines whipsaws from the mundane to... Read More

Machelle Williams skillfully narrates this sprawling story of generational secrets in antebellum Louisiana. La Petite Cottage plantation is home to three generations of Guilberts, as well as the enslaved people who make their lifestyle possible. The family matriarch's decision to sit for her portrait begins a chain of events that will upend everyone's fortunes. Williams weaves... Read More

This fantasy audiobook benefits from the storytelling talents of narrator Korey Jackson. He takes listeners on a magic-infused journey with a compelling cast of characters as they challenge the status quo in an ancient city called Bassa, which is reminiscent of early cultures in West Africa. Danso, an academic, has a thirst for knowledge that leads him beyond Bassa's borders,... Read More

John Grisham jumps back into the sports world with this wonderful portrait of a basketball prodigy from South Sudan. As narrator, the excellent Dion Graham is at his best shaping this story, which alternates between the player's life in the U.S. and in his turbulent homeland. Graham has to use multiple African accents, all of which are done deftly and vary widely. The title... Read More

Narrator Karen Chilton gives a riveting performance in this genre-defying masterpiece. Vern, a young Black woman, escapes the religious compound where she was raised and gives birth to twins. In the outside world, she encounters monsters within and outside herself that raise questions about her past and the legacy of American violence. Solomon's prose is lush and alive;... Read More

How better to communicate this vital history of racism in America to its young audience than to have the audiobook narrated by a peer? Nine-year-old Pe'Tehn Raighn-Kem Jackson hits it out of the park with her lively and engaging reading. Her voice and delivery are unmistakably that of a kid--and she's an inspired casting choice. Short chapters, ideal for listening to one at a... Read More

Narrator January LaVoy performs this audiobook, set primarily in the Martha's Vineyard Oak Bluffs community, the summer home for Black America's elite. For years, Ama's three unrelated goddaughters summered with her on the island, where they enjoyed advantages they couldn't get at home. Ama, now ready to retire, asks the girls to spend one last summer with her at the beach... Read More

Kevin R. Free and Vyvy Nguyen narrate this work of speculative fiction, which asks listeners to consider whether the world would be better off without the Internet in general and social media specifically. Nguyen narrates the first and last chapters, which are in the first person, leaving Free to do the majority of the third-person narration. His strength as a narrator comes... Read More

Sammie, the protagonist of this audiobook about motherhood and marriage, is deeply unhappy. Narrator Kristen Sieh pours all of that malaise into her voice, which makes for an unforgettable, though often infuriating, character. Listeners get a front-row seat as Sammie's relationships with her wife, Monika, and son, Samson, become increasingly strained. In every scene, Sieh's... Read More