NPR's Ari Shapiro has real verbal skills. Not surprisingly, he narrates his memoir with practiced professionalism. His confident tone, lyrical cadence, and timbre all hint at his background as an a cappella singer while he was at Yale. He still sings with the Pink Martini and has performed cabaret with Alan Cummings. Happily, he occasionally croons a bar or two here. His... Read More

Natalie Naudus delivers a dynamic performance of this romantic fantasy. Elle has a lot of potential careerwise, yet she slaves away at a fairy temp agency, performing subpar magical tasks. One day she agrees to help Luc, a highly regarded half-elf, with a complex task-- despite the risk of being found out by his vengeful brother. As their adventure brings Elle and Luc together,... Read More

Joniece Abbott-Pratt and Zeno Robinson capture the voices of Cristina and Clement Trudeau, Black teenage twins who are growing up in a New Orleans family that practices magic. A year after their father's death, their mother is sick, and they fear she'll succumb to her mysterious illness. Then they discover she's actually cursed--and they're targets, too. As Cris and Clem set... Read More

Narrator Karen Ziemba brings a matter-of-fact tone to this Ali Reynolds mystery. Ziemba lets listeners into the minds of its many characters on both sides of the law, starting with an ex-cop who's planning revenge on the people who helped send him to prison. Ziemba's delivery also illuminates the contributions of the law enforcement figures who prevent the contract killings the... Read More

Kristen Sieh's bright, expressive tones enliven this quirky audiobook, set in 2019. Twenty-nine-year-old Darcy takes a leave from her actuary position and returns to her parents' home in small-town Massachusetts after her husband leaves her. Darcy is surprised to discover that her parents have moved to Arizona without telling her, so as not to upset her. She hunkers down in her... Read More

Marin Ireland navigates an ever-expanding world of characters and details. In a mysterious city recently devastated by conflict, museums and universities have been turned to rubble. Dora finds work as a curator at the last remaining museum, where she seeks her long-lost brother. In the city, cats are highly revered. King's audiobook unfolds in a dreamlike fashion, with much... Read More

A talented cast of narrators performs a horror story involving the survivor of a small-town massacre. Four years after Proofrock, Idaho, was devastated by the horrific murders, Jade attempts to put her traumatic past behind her. When a serial killer escapes during a prison transfer in a blinding storm, another massacre may be on the horizon--unless Jade and her friends can stop... Read More

With her pleasant British accent, Rebecca Lee narrates this meditation on wonder in our everyday lives. Lee's voice is an apt stand-in for the author's as May grapples with pleasures she has lost and attempts to recapture the joy in them. Much of ENCHANTMENT is a snapshot of a particular place in a particular moment in time--England during strict Covid lockdowns--but many... Read More

Natalie Naudus throws herself wholeheartedly into Gigi Rutherford's fantasy that the narrator of her favorite audiobook is her soulmate. Naudus plays up Gigi's longing, both for narrator Zane and for his connection to her late parents. After Gigi's friends at her romance bookstore chip in to send her on a ten-day tour of England, she is thrust into the drama of a bus tour that... Read More

Katie Porter, representative from California, presents her memoir, which begins with her Iowa childhood and takes listeners through her 2018 election and subsequent work in Congress. Porter's Midwestern accent aligns with her straightforward approaches to consumer protection, anti-corruption, and corporate accountability. Her earnest and even presentation reflects her sincerity... Read More

Harlan Coben could not ask for a better person than narrator Steven Weber to portray a man wrongly accused of killing his own son. Weber, known for his movies, television shows (like the long-running "Wings"), and top-notch audiobook performances, including several other works by Coben, has a natural ease and an ability to transport the listener into a world of panic,... Read More

Jennifer Kim movingly narrates this raw and relatable memoir about loss and grief. Told through a collection of memories, Chung's audiobook recounts the racial trauma she experienced while growing up the Korean child of adoptive white parents in Oregon. After moving away for college and later starting her own family, Chung suffers the heartbreaking loss of both her parents... Read More

Magic flows as Joniece Abbott-Pratt brings to life Nic Blake's 12th birthday. It's the day her father promised to instruct her in using her Manifestor gift. Abbott-Pratt's rich narration shows Nic's frustration at having to hide her magical ability in a world of Unremarkables. Abbott-Pratt expresses Nic's sassy brilliance, the closeness and humor she shares with her father, and... Read More

Dion Graham is a master of nonfiction narration. He knows exactly when to pause, sets off quotations flawlessly, and brings exquisite emotion to the text. Here, Graham varies his pacing to complement the flow of Matthew Desmond's writing, whether he's describing the depth of American poverty, the history of why poverty exists in such a wealthy country, or the heartrending... Read More

Marisa Calin gives a breathy and breathless performance of this rollicking YA fantasy set in 1983 England. Art student Susan Arkshaw longs to live a normal life, but she keeps getting drawn into a world of magic and danger. Calin ramps up the action as Susan and her dashing boyfriend, Merlin St. Jacques, face a murderous enemy who can animate marble sculptures. Merlin is part... Read More

Natalie Haynes energizes the melodrama of ancient Greek gods with a divine level of storyteller's flair. Amid a roiling sea of eternal backbiting and scheming are the devoted Gorgon sisters--Sthenno, Euryale, and Medusa--who become drawn into the gods' petty squabbles and the petulant "hero" Perseus's quest for Medusa's head. Haynes's vibrant portrayals of the pantheon of gods,... Read More

Will Patton uses a gentle Southern accent to embody Val Welch, and he maintains that soft approach even through some fairly graphic violence. The story involves many questions about what is actually going on with the rest of the characters. Val is in Wyoming to paint a WPA mural in a post office. He falls into a maelstrom created by a wealthy rancher; his wife, a former hobo;... Read More

Eunice Wong's brisk performance perfectly suits this humorous yet poignant cozy mystery as she distinctively voices a variety of characters. The lonely existence of 60-year-old Chinese immigrant Vera Wong takes a wild turn when she discovers a dead body in her rundown San Francisco tea shop. Vera is a woman of strong opinions and decisive actions, and Wong's crisp, accented... Read More

Rushdie's latest novel defies easy description. It is magical realism and myth, historical fiction and fable, all centered around the life story of Pampa Kampana, queen of Vijayanagar--Victory City--in southern India. Narrator Sid Sagar embraces the tone of this audiobook; within moments of its opening, his performance invites listeners to suspend disbelief and step into an... Read More

This enthralling audiobook is performed by a master narrator. Dion Graham commands the listener's attention with this true story of HMS WAGER, an English warship that sailed in the 1740s. Graham delivers the nautical adventures at a strong pace with a mesmerizing cadence and impeccable timing. The excitement and peril of the high seas are captured through author Grann's... Read More

With her keen talent for British accents, narrator Orlagh Cassidy masterfully delivers this stand-alone from Jacqueline Winspear, which introduces powerful, brave heroine Elinor White. The story moves around in time from White's current life in Britain in 1947 to her recruitment in the Belgian Resistance as an adolescent during WWI and her work as an SOE agent during WWII.... Read More

Gail Shalan narrates this psychological suspense featuring five aspiring authors who are participating in a writing retreat held at an isolated mansion in the Adirondacks. The five attendees are all women under 30, though they seem younger. The leader of the retreat is Roza Vallo, a renowned feminist horror writer much admired by the young writers. Shalan gives Roza, who is... Read More