Best Books of 2023

Fourth Wing

Empyrean: Book #1

By: Rebecca Yarros
Narrated by: Rebecca Soler & Teddy Hamilton
Length: 21 hours 22 minutes

“This narration has turned this first time fantasy bookseller into a Dragon loving, fantasy reader for life! I was literally gripping my steering wheel crying out 'pull up, pull up' during the fight scenes. What a fun, gritty, sexy book this gem has turned out to be. There is something for everyone in here. Read more

Tom Lake

A Novel

By: Ann Patchett
Narrated by: Meryl Streep
Length: 11 hours 22 minutes

“I finished listening to Tom Lake. I can see why it’s at the top of the best seller list. Ann Patchett has a way of weaving so much into a straightforward story. Set during the pandemic, Lara’s three adult daughters have returned to the family’s cherry orchard in Michigan to quarantine and harvest the fruit. Lara entertains them by sharing the... Read more

Tress of the Emerald Sea

A Cosmere Novel

Secret Projects: Book #1

By: Brandon Sanderson
Narrated by: Michael Kramer
Length: 12 hours 26 minutes

“This cozy, quirky, clever fantasy lives up to its inspiration - what if in The Princess Bride, Buttercup was the one who went after Westley? In the course of attempting to save her noble true love from the evil Sorceress, a window washer runs away from home, dares life and death at sea, joins a dangerous crew, and unlearns a whole lot about... Read more

Happy Place

By: Emily Henry
Narrated by: Julia Whelan
Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

“Are you looking for a book that will take you directly to YOUR 'happy place'? Emily Henry’s Happy Place absolutely will! Written in Henry’s signature brand of humor and heartbreak, Happy Place introduces Wyn and Harriet; a couple who have broken up after ten years together and decide to keep it a secret so they can visit the summer house... Read more

The Covenant of Water

By: Abraham Verghese
Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
Length: 31 hours 16 minutes

“An engrossing tale of three generations of an Indian family plagued by family drownings - this medical mystery and vivid characters propelled me through this epic tale. Read more

Chain Gang All Stars: A Read with Jenna Pick

National Book Award Finalist

By: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Narrated by: Shayna Small, Aaron Goodson, Michael Crouch & Lee Osorio
Length: 13 hours 38 minutes

“Imagine a world very like ours, the prison systems have been privatized (capitalism) and prisoners are offered small perks to fight on television. This is gritty and uncomfortable to read (violence), but so necessary. This is about our country, its values, our values, and whose lives are valued more and whose lives are valued less. So very well... Read more

The Postcard

By: Anne Berest
Narrated by: Barrie Kealoha
Length: 13 hours 5 minutes

“A powerful personal account of a family’s history over multiple generations with a stunning ending that resolves the mystery of the postcard’s sender! The author launches her family research and investigation of who could have written the anonymous, unsigned postcard a decade earlier when her daughter experiences an anti-semitic incident at... Read more

Lone Women

A Novel

By: Victor LaValle
Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Length: 9 hours 10 minutes

“Small historic details and sweeping descriptive vistas place this unusual novel among the most interesting we've read in historical fiction this year. The hell-for-leather plot combined with deeply realized characters make it one of the best, period, and Joniece Abbott-Pratt's unsettlingly calm reading of even the most fantastical elements does... Read more

Let Us Descend

A Novel

By: Jesmyn Ward
Narrated by: Jesmyn Ward
Length: 8 hours 12 minutes

“This magical novel illustrates the cruelties of slavery and the indomitable spirit of its protagonist in a descent into the hell of a pre-Civil War Louisiana sugar cane plantation. Read more

The Wager

A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

By: David Grann
Narrated by: Dion Graham & David Grann
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

“David Grann's The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder is the shocking true story of the wreck of the ship, the Wager, and how that crew survived, separated from their home country for years. The lengths that these castaways were pushed to is shocking, and makes for a captivating story of adventure and survival. A shocking story from... Read more

Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“Matthew Desmond, best selling author of Evicted, is back to examine the causes of poverty in America. Since the Johnson Administration in the 1960s, the American government has waged war on poverty. Vast amounts of money are spent annually fighting poverty, but poverty seems to be an entrenched part of American society. Desmond argues and... Read more

Quietly Hostile

Essays

By: Samantha Irby
Narrated by: Samantha Irby
Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

“The audiobook is absolutely stellar. Hearing the book in Irby's literal voice is a delightful way to enjoy her authorial voice. Funny, relatable, engaging, and rewarding. Read more

Soil

The Story of a Black Mother's Garden

By: Camille T Dungy
Narrated by: Camille T Dungy
Length: 10 hours 16 minutes

“Having had the honor of attending one of the release events and getting to listen author herself read, I can confidently say this audiobook comes as a close second. I’ve also read the print edition and enjoy the map and photography. Soil is a magnificent meditation on the interconnections of life all around us, starting from the beautiful and... Read more

How to Say Babylon

A Memoir

By: Safiya Sinclair
Narrated by: Safiya Sinclair
Length: 16 hours 46 minutes

“The author's growing understanding of her childhood isolation and the world around her helped turn her pain into poetry as she broke free. After reading this memoir I am now interested in reading some of her award winning poetry. Read more

The Best Strangers in the World

Stories from a Life Spent Listening

By: Ari Shapiro
Narrated by: Ari Shapiro
Length: 8 hours 15 minutes

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“The Best Strangers in the World is a witty, poignant book that captures Ari Shapiro’s love for the unusual, his pursuit of the unexpected, and his delight at connection against the odds.”—Ronan Farrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and New York Times-bestselling author of Catch and Kill and War... Read more

Rocky Mountain High

A Tale of Boom and Bust in the New Wild West

By: Finn Murphy
Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey
Length: 6 hours 22 minutes

The best-selling author of The Long Haul returns with the story of ditching his truck to seek his fortune … in hemp.

After decades as a long-haul trucker, Finn Murphy left the road and settled in Boulder County, Colorado. Before long he noticed that many of his neighbors were captivated by the prospect of vast riches in “the Hemp Space.” When... Read more

This Is What It Sounds Like

What the Music You Love Says About You

By: Susan Rogers & Ogi Ogas
Narrated by: Susan Rogers
Length: 8 hours 34 minutes

“This book felt like a crash course in music—the industry, the production, and above all, the science of why we like what we like. If you’ve ever tried to explain to a friend just why sea shanties tickle you so, or why Lizzo is a force of nature, Rodgers and Ogas give you the language and understanding of how your personal taste intersects with... Read more

Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club)

A Novel

By: Ann Napolitano
Narrated by: Maura Tierney
Length: 15 hours 6 minutes

“Napolitano did such a beautiful job with this book! Though seemingly a story about a boy and a girl, it is actually so much more than that - it's a novel about love, despair, identity, and redemption. I felt like Napolitano captured the essence of what it means to struggle with mental illness so well in her prose and how we all deserve to be... Read more

The Last Animal

A Novel

By: Ramona Ausubel
Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Whip-smart and compulsively readable. . . both a wildly entertaining adventure story and a meditation on what it means to love your children—fiercely and imperfectly.”—Oprah Daily

“Springs alive to explore questions that stump scientists and families, problems of the head and the heart.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“A... Read more

A Fever in the Heartland

The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

By: Timothy Egan
Narrated by: Timothy Egan
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

“Some pride themselves on knowing historical facts and hidden histories, and yet, Egan, with his horror story about the KKK, will stop you in your tracks. Wasn't this just a 19th century Southern phenomenon? Who knew American Terror happened literally in our own backyard. Read more