Best of 2021

Crying in H Mart

A Memoir

By: Michelle Zauner
Narrated by: Michelle Zauner
Length: 7 hours 22 minutes

“This is a beautiful memoir and it totally lives up to the hype! Zauner offers an honest account of her struggle with her Korean American upbringing and her relationship with her dying mother, and what the loss of her meant in the end. The shared experience of cooking and enjoying Korean food was central to their relationship, and her vivid... Read more

Afterparties

Stories

By: Anthony Veasna So
Narrated by: Jason Sean
Length: 6 hours 56 minutes

“These stories of the members of a compact Cambodian-American community, from the refugees to the business owners to the gay teenagers, seamlessly balance humor with hardships. Read more

A Little Devil in America

Notes in Praise of Black Performance

By: Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: JD Jackson
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“I loved Hanif Abdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America. This essential book explores a handful of Black performers—some world-famous, others everyday people—across a wide variety of disciplines, seamlessly woven into snippets and stories from Hanif’s own life about Black culture and the performance of Blackness. JD Jackson’s low and easy narration... Read more

The Memoirs of Stockholm Sven

By: Nathaniel Ian Miller
Narrated by: Olafur Darri Olafsson
Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

“Poor misanthropic Sven, his great Arctic adventures tend toward the bumbling and catastrophic, but he persists in his dream to be alone in the great north - only to find that the few friends (including a very shaggy dog) he has made in his travels are what he needs most. It's a lovely, wry and insightful novel, and Olafur Dari Olafsson's deep... Read more

Cloud Cuckoo Land

A Novel

By: Anthony Doerr
Narrated by: Marin Ireland & Simon Jones
Length: 14 hours 51 minutes

“Anthony Doerr's masterful epic weaves the fine threads of several storylines into an extraordinary tapestry. This book isn't just a celebratory ode to the power of words and books, it is a heartbreakingly beautiful lament for our threatened planet, like a sad song that you want to keep playing because you kind of like the bittersweet feeling it... Read more

Exhalation

Stories

By: Ted Chiang
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, Amy Landon & Ted Chiang
Length: 11 hours 21 minutes

“A spectacular collection, with too many standout stories for me to pick a favorite. The title story is perhaps the best exploration I've ever read of the nature of consciousness and the search for meaning. Chiang's writing is at once dizzyingly cerebral and profoundly heartbreaking, rooted in an unrestrained passion for scientific speculation... Read more

Harlem Shuffle

A Novel

By: Colson Whitehead
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 10 hours 35 minutes

“A wonderful evocation of a time and place, which is not to say it doesn't have the tension of a crime thriller. It's fun to ride along with Ray, who may be more than a little bent, but will likely become your favorite furniture salesman, nevertheless. Read more

Razorblade Tears

A Novel

By: S. A. Cosby
Narrated by: Adam Lazarre-White
Length: 12 hours 22 minutes

“This was just riveting. Two fathers, one black and one white, come together to avenge the murders of their married sons. What was sad, and gratifying, is that these two homophobic dads, realized, too late, that their love for their boys, should have transcended their own hateful beliefs. And, it was hard to read their regret bc they could never... Read more

Bewilderment

A Novel

By: Richard Powers
Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

“An homage to the heartbreaking Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, this intimate story of a grieving father and his troubled son is an intelligent and touching story of tragedy and hope. Read more

The Darkness Knows

A Novel

Detective Konrad: Book #1

By: Arnaldur Indridason
Narrated by: Sean Barrett
Length: 8 hours 48 minutes

"Fans of Nordic noir will enjoy this performance. For those new to the genre and looking for an easy start, Barrett offers an expert entry into a world of danger and intrigue." –AudioFile Magazine

Retired detective Konrad returns to a haunting cold case in The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indridason, the "undisputed King of the Icelandic thriller."... Read more

Velvet Was the Night

By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Narrated by: Gisela Chípe
Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

“Thoroughly entertaining. Once again, Silvia Moreno-Garcia does a wonderful job capturing the genre she is writing for. The plot, the pacing, the characters are all what they should be for good noir fiction. Add to that, the unique setting of Mexico City post Corpus Christi Massacre and during the Dirty War, and it's also educational! Excellent... Read more

Iron Widow (Book 1)

Iron Widow: Book #1

By: Xiran Jay Zhao
Narrated by: Rong Fu
Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

“Bloodthirsty and tender, full of power, powerlessness, and determination, I could hear Wu Zetian roaring her vengeance call long after I finished this thrilling sci-fi masterpiece. Read more

Three Girls from Bronzeville

A Uniquely American Memoir of Race, Fate, and Sisterhood

By: Dawn Turner
Narrated by: Janina Edwards
Length: 11 hours 45 minutes

A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book
A Best Book of 2021 by BuzzFeed and Real Simple

An “unmissable” (Vogue), “exceptional” (The Washington Post), and “evocative” (Chicago Tribune) memoir about three Black girls from the storied Bronzeville section of Chicago that offers a penetrating exploration of race, opportunity, friendship,... Read more

Dumb Money

The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees (Previously Published as The Antisocial Network)

By: Ben Mezrich
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Length: 7 hours 46 minutes

From the author of the book that became the iconic The Social Network movie, here is the definitive take on one of the wildest stories ever --  the David-vs.-Goliath GameStop short squeeze, a tale of fortunes won and lost overnight, marking an unforgettable event in financial history.

Bestselling author Ben Mezrich offers a gripping,... Read more

A Promised Land

By: Barack Obama
Narrated by: Barack Obama
Length: 29 hours 9 minutes

“No one really needs my blurb to help sell this book, but I wanted to give it anyway, especially for the audiobook, narrated by Barack Obama himself. If you want to know his incredible knowledge and wisdom that guided him through major decisions, and also hear him drop a few F-bombs, you need to listen to this fantastically written book. Read more

Kitchen Confidential

Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

By: Anthony Bourdain
Narrated by: Anthony Bourdain
Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

“If you want the raw, uncut version of Anthony Bourdain’s cooking life look no further! Kitchen Confidential documents the nitty gritty of the back of house - and how truly at home many cooks feel while sweating and yelling their way through 60+ hour workweeks. Anthony Bourdain is frank with his recount of his rise and fall throughout the ranks... Read more

We Keep the Dead Close

A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence

By: Becky Cooper
Narrated by: Becky Cooper
Length: 15 hours 46 minutes

“As much a journey for the writer as it is for the reader, this book solves a murder but leaves us with many unanswered questions. We Keep the Dead Close challenges us to question our assumptions as well as the paths we use to arrive at those assumptions. Delving into the academic culture of Harvard, the misogyny of the 1960s, and the burgeoning... Read more

Mexican Gothic

By: Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Length: 10 hours 39 minutes

“When her father receives a desperate plea for help from her newly-wed cousin, the stylish and spirited socialite Noemi Taboada finds herself on the case, packed off to High Place, an isolated old manor hiding a mass of secrets behind (and within) its walls. Her cousin’s letter was full of paranoia, ghosts, and poison, but far worse terrors await... Read more

Rabbits

A Novel

By: Terry Miles
Narrated by: Christine Lakin
Length: 14 hours 5 minutes

“As a book that emerged from a podcast, it almost makes MORE sense to listen to this than it would to read it. The tension and the mystery sing through the narration. You will grit your teeth and may end up losing hours of productivity to just sitting and letting this thrill ride wash over you, compelled to hold out just a little longer before... Read more

Broken Horses

A Memoir

By: Brandi Carlile
Narrated by: Brandi Carlile
Length: 10 hours 2 minutes

“First of all, I would recommend this book based on the number and quality of songs she sings throughout - Brandi Carlile has an amazing voice and it really stood out. Additionally, she is a wonderful storyteller and has some crazy adventures that she shares from her life. There is a lot of namedropping, but I feel that if I had the opportunity... Read more