Yesterday I shared my favorite books of 2023 and today I’m sharing my favorite audiobooks. Each list holds twelve titles, with no duplications. Please think of these as companion posts: there’s no hierarchy at play here; this is simply a format distinction that allows me to cram more favorites into my year-end wrap-up! (I will say that this year I listened to more backlist titles on audio than I read in print, so if you’re all about the not brand new, you’ll likely prefer this list.)
Choosing favorites is HARD. I share the details of my parameters (and also how I have a missing six weeks from my 2022-2023 reading records, WHAT HOW) in my favorite print books post, but I’ll repeat the essentials here: these are my favorite books, not necessarily the “best” ones I read. This list reflects the reading experiences I most enjoyed or was most struck by, not necessarily the titles the critics deemed the year’s most brilliantly written.
I listened to A LOT of audiobooks in 2023—listening at the rate of slightly more than one book per week—so I had plenty of titles to choose from! I don’t think I listened to a single one that wasn’t good. This list represents the best of the best.
When it comes to memorable audiobook experiences, the titles that stand out are those that either immerse me completely in the story or elevate the reading experience. Did a narrator bring a little something extra to the story, something I couldn’t have gotten from reading in print? In my mind, that is the mark of a truly great audiobook.
For me, an additional mark of a great listening experience—of any good book, for that matter—is that I’m still thinking about the story, even months later. Bonus points to any book that makes me want to walk another mile, fold another load of laundry, or sit in my car in the driveway so I can keep listening.
2023 was once again a great year for audiobooks; these are my very favorites. This list is representative of my listening habits: I love emotionally resonant fiction and tales of complicated families, immersive memoirs and immersive stories with big stakes. You’ll see all that and more below, including a few “wild card” titles that I suspect delighted me precisely because they were off my beaten path.
Now let’s talk favorites—and please, share YOUR favorite audiobooks in the comments section!
All books featured here were chosen because I loooove them. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. More info here.
I love a book with staying power: I read this back in the spring and find that my thoughts still turn to it often. Though I was previously unfamiliar with Dederer’s work, I queued this up pre-release because I was interested in the topic: how can we reconcile our love for art with the sometimes troubling biographies of its creators? Gone are the days when fans knew little about the real people who created the art they consumed; Dederer writes of how things are different in the internet era: “Biography used to be something you sought out, yearned for, actively pursued. Now it falls on your head all day long.” She frames her case from the jarring (and somewhat graphic) opening: she has long loved the films of Roman Polanski—Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby, The Pianist—yet Polanski committed objectively terrible crimes. What is the fan to make of this? How can the fan think about their relationship to art made by always imperfect and sometimes monstrous people? I found this a thoughtful and thought-provoking treatment, which covered questions I knew I wanted to hear more about and also topics I didn’t expect to enter the conversation, like capitalism. (So fascinating!) Dederer narrates her own audiobook; I appreciated her conversational style. 8 hrs 14 mins. More info →
Will and I listened to this together on our way to the beach, while we were actively planning our upcoming trip to Spain. That was perfect timing to listen to this real-time 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 along the way. We rarely listen to audiobooks together and enjoyed this one so much. The narration was especially good: the elder McCarthy reads the majority but son Sam frequently adds his own voice, which made for a wonderful listening experience. 6 hrs 43 mins. More info →
I think it’s fair to call this a juicy, big-hearted family novel, set in the summer of 2016 in New England. Fearing his fast-approaching 70th birthday, the brilliant patriarch who heads this blue blood family decides to go off his bipolar disorder meds, certain this will lead to a big breakthrough in his oceanography research. He adores his two adult children, though the siblings are polar opposites who don’t understand each other and don’t get along. Into this dramatic family milieu strolls an outsider who is related by blood to the Gardner clan but doesn’t want to reveal her connection until she gets to know them and can decide if she wants to be part of their lives. Long-held secrets and scandalous revelations keep trickling out all summer long, until everything comes to a head at the patriarch’s 70th birthday gala. I love a good family drama, and also appreciated the themes of arts, politics, midlife reassessment, and reinvention in this debut. The audiobook boasts a full cast narration. 11 hrs 17 mins. More info →
I happened to read a handful of very good marital distress memoirs this year; this is my favorite, which I imagine is in no small part because of the exceptional audio version. As the title indicates, this is not the tale of a marriage’s dissolution but its unlikely continuation. The story begins when the author’s wife turns to him after dinner one ordinary night and says she wants a divorce. He is stunned. Key’s voice is frank and funny, even as he relates, almost in real time, how he learned of his wife Lauren’s affair with a family friend and the chaos this revelation brought to his family, including the couple’s three young daughters. Early on, Key takes a close friend’s advice to fight for his wife, and proceeds to interrogate his own role in their problems, the past unaddressed traumas that continue to fuel present hurts, and what his Christian faith means to his life and relationship now. I’m sure my jaw dropped a time or two while listening, including when Lauren showed up to voice her own chapter in which she shares her side of what happened. I’m glad I opted for the audio: Key’s humor added levity to tough moments, and his Southern accent was a nice surprise and fitting for a story that unfolds mostly in Savannah. 8 hrs 43 mins. More info →
This was such a fun change of pace for me! I raced through the audiobook, narrated by Suzy Jackson, and while my app clearly shows it’s 15 1/2 hours long the reading time sped by. This 2018 series opener for the Skyward series introduces us to Spensa, a 16-year-old girl who has long dreamed of following in her father’s footsteps as a pilot for the Defiant Defense Force. It’s not easy to land a coveted pilot position, but Spensa’s way is made much harder because of that same father: years ago, he was branded as a coward during an important battle, and the powers that be fear that if allowed to fly, Spensa will turn coward as well. Despite these obstacles, Spensa manages to clinch a position with Defiant, where she makes friends, excels in the air, and discovers that Defiant’s leaders seem to be hiding key information about her father’s last battle from the people. I really enjoyed this, and am considering finishing the series: my 13-year-old tells me it’s great! 15 hrs 28 mins. More info →
This is the book I can’t stop recommending this month! I picked this up on a whim and am so glad I did: the novel reads like a warmer, wittier Sally Rooney, perfect for fans of introspective first-person literary fiction. When the novel begins, Rachel is living in London, happily married and pregnant, when she hears the news that one of her old long-ago college professors is in a coma. (This beginning reminds me of one of my favorite novels, This Must Be the Place.) This discovery prompts her to recall a pivotal year in her early twenties, when she met her best friend James working at the bookstore and their lives soon became enmeshed with those of the professor and his wife. A provocative novel with an enticing plot that thoughtfully interrogates themes of power, class, art, and the queer experience; I adored the Irish accents in Tara Flynn’s excellent narration. 9 hrs 22 mins. More info →
This was a blast! I’m so glad our What Should I Read Next patreon community gave me the push I needed to finally read this. As You Wish is very much a celebration of The Princess Bride, as I expected. But even more than that, it’s a celebration of the creative process, and what that process specifically looked like in the making of this one particular film. In the particular is found the universal; the universal themes that grabbed me in this story were the challenge to pull off something that many said could never be done (in this case, to adapt William Goldman’s novel to the screen), the timeless struggle of the creator to make something great, and the joy that comes with the stars exactly aligning to bring the right people to the right place at the right time to make something special. Of course now I need to watch the movie again.
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I’ve often heard this 2022 novel described as a romance but it read more like a family drama with a strong (open door) love story component. However you want to categorize it, Wesleigh Siobhan and Jakobi Diem’s dual narration sucked me right in on audio! Yasmen and Josiah met and married young and have always been #couplegoals to their friends. But several years ago, after Si’s beloved aunt died and their third child is delivered stillborn, they plunged into grief and Yas struggled with clinical depression. They divorced in the aftermath of their terrible losses, but now that they’ve found some measure of stability as coparents and as business partners, circumstances (mainly in the form of Si’s attractive new love interest) have Yas questioning if they might have a shot after all. This was such a good (and emotional) ride on audio: I loved the Atlanta locale, all the restaurant details, and the emotional promise of two thirtysomethings finding a second chance at true love. I burned through this story because I needed to hear them get their happy ending. 13 hrs 45 mins. More info →
I so enjoyed revisiting this 2018 Summer Reading Guide selection, this time on audio as narrated by Rebecca Lowman. In the 1990s, four promising young musicians decide to forego the usual soloist paths and bind their professional (and personal) lives together to form a string quartet. Jana is driven, Henry a prodigy, Daniel a success through dogged determination, and Brit a bit of a wild card. With the feel of a dysfunctional family novel, the characters aren’t always likable but always ring true, and Gabel nails a wide range of human emotions—joy and pain, envy and fear, frustration and near-despair—as she portrays the group’s turbulent eighteen years together. This utterly believable and emotionally compelling submersion into the competitive world of classical music was perfect for this family drama fan, and was even better than I remembered on my re-read. 11 hrs 37 mins. More info →
This January 2022 release was a delight on audio! It felt like hanging out with friends I look forward to spending time with. Blackburn’s debut is based on her own experience as a Nigerian woman whose mother desperately wants her to find love and happiness—which means, of course, that she must find a husband. Yinka is 31, a British-Nigerian woman in possession of a degree from Oxford, a good job, and loads of friends, and yet she can’t help but be bothered by her aunties’ fervent prayers that she find romance. Driven by this insecurity, she tells a little white lie, which soon enough lands her in a heap of trouble with those who love her most. I enjoyed cheering Yinka on as she attempts to put things to rights and find love, happiness, and—most crucially—self-acceptance. Narrated by Ronke Adékoluejo. 11 hrs 17 mins. More info →
When I first shared this 2022 time travel mystery in March Quick Lit I said it may end up on my best of the year list and will certainly be one of my most enjoyable reading experiences—and here we are! I’ve been recommending this brain bender all year long. In the opening pages, 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 →
Another book I find myself recommending all the time, and one that’s representing the 2023 MMD Minimalist Summer Reading Guide. This first spirited installment of a planned trilogy tells the tale of a renegade pirate captain who happens to be a middle-aged mother simply trying to enjoy her retirement. But after a former crewmate’s daughter is kidnapped, Amina reluctantly accepts one last job and pulls her long-retired crew together again to help. The historical fantasy unfolds on the high seas of the twelfth-century Indian Ocean and bursts with period detail and magical adventures. From the book’s touching dedication to the detailed author’s note and acknowledgments, I found this imaginative tale and irresistible protagonist unique, exciting, and just plain fun. The audio narration by Lameece Issaq and Amin El Gamal is superb and also incredibly thoughtful; listen to the very end and you’ll see what I mean. 16 hrs 59 mins. More info →
What are your favorite audiobooks of the year? What did you love to listen to this year?
P.S. My favorite audiobooks of 2022, my favorite audiobooks and listening experiences of 2021,my favorite listening experiences of 2020, and my favorite audiobooks of 2019. New to audiobooks? Try these 7 ways to discover your audiobook style.
