The best audiobooks to listen to right now

Few issues are higher than settling down with ebook, however typically the settling is simpler stated than performed. Between an extended commute, making dinner, or simply getting some recent air exterior, there are some occasions {that a} conventional ebook (and even an e-reader) simply gained’t reduce it. For all these occasions, there’s no higher place to show than audiobooks.

However not all audiobooks are created equal. Some have a narrator you simply can’t stand, a solid that’s a little bit too filled with power, or a plot and construction that’s far too complicated to comply with simply by listening. All these choices making selecting your subsequent audiobook a little bit of a chore, however don’t fear, we’ve received you coated.

Whether or not you’re a seasoned audiobook listener who’s in search of a hidden gem, or a busy traveler seeking to maintain compensate for some fashionable classics, listed below are just a few of Polygon’s favourite audiobooks assembled to your enjoyment.

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Ramón de Ocampo, Emily Ellet, Sisi Aisha Johnson, Adam Verner

There are 62 books within the sci-fi younger grownup sequence Animorphs, a surprisingly darkish sequence a couple of group of children who acquire the flexibility to show into animals and should use their powers to battle an ongoing alien invasion. And since 2020, each single ebook within the sequence has slowly been popping out on audiobook, all the way in which as much as the 54th ebook within the sequence, titled The Starting. Though I’m unsure when the complete sequence will probably be recorded, it’s completely definitely worth the journey — and the look forward to the previous couple of books to complete recording. Totally different actors learn every ebook within the sequence, since every ebook is narrated by a unique child within the group of super-powered pals; the identical actors play the identical children throughout the complete run up to now, and all of their performances are implausible. —Maddy Myers

Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick, Bronson Pinchot, Xe Sands

Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Attain trilogy blossomed into the world over a decade in the past, seeding itself throughout the literary panorama and propagating a wave of ecological horror fiction in its wake. Printed all through 2014, the sequence facilities on a trio of characters, although most notably a biologist who embarks on an expedition into Space X — an anomalous, abandoned wilderness the place the boundary between the surreal and actual, the human and the unfathomable, has been rendered porous, if not outright obliterated. This defiance of categorization applies to the tone and substance of the novels themselves; shifting seamless backwards and forwards between apocalyptic sci-fi, pulp thriller, psychological horror, and ecological treatise. The Space X audiobook compilation collects all three installments of the unique trilogy — Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance — every learn by a terrific solid who seize the eerie, haunting tenor of VanderMeer’s prose. When you’re in search of an audiobook expertise that’ll sink its roots into you (or if you wish to re-familiarize your self with the sequence earlier than diving into Absolution), the Space X trilogy is an ideal selection. —Toussaint Egan

Narrated by: Quentin Tarantino and Edoardo Ballerini

Quentin Tarantino’s essay assortment — loosely centered on the style cinema of the Seventies — glides between movie criticism, criticism of movie criticism, and self-criticism. One second, Tarantino’s sharing an in depth account of his childhood journeys to finances theaters along with his mother’s boyfriend, the following he’s chronicling the careers of the LA movie critic scene, after which, along with his iconic spitfire tempo, he whips collectively a five-course meal from a largely forgotten neo-noir.

Whereas it’s good to study extra about Tarantino, he can’t shake his career-long behavior of self-mythologization. The ebook’s most memorable sections permit the director to rave (or shred) the flicks that contributed instruments to his cinematic equipment. Tarantino himself offers narration for a portion of the ebook. Whereas it could be good to have had the author/director/writer’s narration for the complete essay assortment, his VO companion is certainly one of my favourite audiobook voices: Edoardo Ballerini, a two-time winner of the Audie Award. (Sure, audiobooks have awards too!) —Chris Plante

Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda and Stina Nielsen

Listening to faerie smut like this received me into working, as a result of I’d relatively run one other 100 yards than cease mid-chapter. The dramatized audiobooks for A Courtroom of Thorns and Roses are most likely the most well-liked choice — they’re solid with completely different voice actors for every character, and the audio-engineered foley sounds provide help to envision the scenes as they occur. Personally, I like common, single-narrator variations, significantly A Courtroom of Silver Flames, narrated by Stina Nielsen — her husky voice is ideal for Nesta’s perspective. —Zoë Hannah

Narrated by: Scott Brick, Orlagh Cassidy, Euan Morton, Simon Vance, Ilyana Kadushin, Byron Jennings, David R. Gordon, Jason Culp, Kent Broadhurst, Oliver Wyman, Patricia Kilgarriff, Scott Sowers

After studying Dune in hardback as a teen, I needed a unique expertise once I joined a ebook membership in 2013 and agreed to reread Frank Herbert’s trippy sci-fi tome. I went with an unabridged audiobook model that has not one, not two, however 12 readers switching off between the entire main characters within the story, including attractive vocal coloration to its complexity with every of their performances. It’s a implausible technique to expertise a ebook that has a variety of completely different individuals and views. —MM

Narrated by: Simon Templeman, Anthony Heald, Stefan Rudnicki

There are three narrators in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and due to this fact three readers for this audiobook, every with a pitch-perfect voice for the creepy story. I listened to Victor Frankenstein’s shaky, nervous tremor whereas shoveling my automobile out throughout a snowstorm, and I’ll all the time keep in mind that completely lonely and unsettling audiobook expertise. It’s a scrumptious hear even in case you don’t have the precise setting, in fact. —MM

Hell Is a World With out You is the debut novel of journalist Jason Kirk, my former boss and a pal. That disclosure would possibly lead you to take my advice with a grain of salt, however I urge you: don’t. What Kirk has performed here’s a marvel, making a bracingly humorous and deeply felt coming-of-age story about post-9/11 America, advised from the very particular perspective of a teen raised in an evangelical family who breaks from the restrictive mildew his church needs to include him in.

The audiobook solely provides to the expertise. Kirk, additionally a podcaster, is the absolute best option to translate his singular humorousness into audio kind, and the addition of sound results like AIM alert noises solely enhances one of many yr’s greatest and funniest books. Don’t simply take my phrase for it – the ebook has gotten rave opinions from Kirkus, Unbiased Ebook Evaluate, and the Columbia Every day Tribune, amongst different publications. —Pete Volk

Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Justis Bolding, Laura Knight Keating, Susan Bennett, Jasmin Walker

When you like actuality TV like The Bachelor and also you additionally like horror motion pictures — which, very similar to The Bachelor, may also finish with a remaining lady — Patricia Needs to Cuddle is the ebook for you, ideally in audiobook kind with completely different readers for every of the feminine contestants on a fictional actuality relationship present that goes horribly flawed. Since this ebook was written by pal of mine, I did count on to listen to her voice narrating the story, however as a substitute I’m thrilled to suggest the roster of readers who carry her characters to life. —MM

Narrated by: Liyah Summers

I had already learn The Priory of the Orange Tree as soon as once I picked up the audiobook, however listening to the sweeping fantasy epic as learn by Liyah Summers was a very new expertise. (And I don’t simply imply the right pronunciations of names that had been completely different from my pronunciations of these names.) The ebook is such a winding story that it lends itself simply to being learn aloud, so Summers’ narration felt like a bedtime story. When you’ve already learn this one, I like to recommend the audiobook for its standalone prequel, A Day of Fallen Evening, which is narrated by the writer, together with just a few different voice actors to characterize a wide range of factors of view. —ZH

Narrated by: George Saunders, Phylicia Rashad, Nick Offerman, Glenn Shut, Keith David, Rainn Wilson, BD Wong, and Renee Elise Goldsberry

George Saunders is that trainer who cracks open the universe and allows you to have a look at its million interconnected gears. He doesn’t clarify how the universe works (he wouldn’t fake that’s potential) however factors towards probably the most stunning, puzzling, and enlightening patches and warmly asks, “How does this make you are feeling? And why?”

I need to communicate broadly in regards to the energy of Saunders’ work as a result of I concern you’ll hear, “It is a assortment of basic quick tales by Russian authors accompanied by companion lectures,” and reply, “I solely have a lot time in life, and I’ve no plans to get a doctorate in Comp. Lit.” And sure, the ebook — constructed from Saunders’ college programs — would construct the inspiration for the budding profession of a novelist or educational. Nevertheless it’s a lot extra enjoyable and, with the chance of busting my metaphor, common.

Saunders makes use of stunning writing in regards to the which means of life to show us tips on how to write, learn, and respect stunning writing, and tips on how to dwell our most significant lives. Plus, he invited a bunch of good actors to learn the quick tales, together with Phylicia Rashad, Nick Offerman, BD Wong, Keith David, and Rainn Wilson. Have I bought you but? —CP

Narrated by: Jennifer Kim, Julian Cihi

With solely two readers, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’s solid isn’t as stacked as a number of the different audiobooks that I’ve advisable for inclusion on this record. But the light voice of Jennifer Kim (and way more occasional chapters with Julian Cihi) is a large a part of what made me love this novel a couple of group of pals who make a online game collectively and fall out and in of friendship, and love, with each other alongside the way in which. Kim and Cihi are terribly gifted at conveying the emotional weight required for this tender story. —MM

Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and Orlagh Cassidy

I hesitate to suggest Belief, co-winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, on this specific record. The problem isn’t high quality and even leisure. The ebook is a literary masterpiece and a surprisingly pleasing seashore learn. However its construction appears — at the least at first — preferrred for the web page, not the audiobook.

Belief is, on a macro degree, in regards to the nature of utmost wealth. And on a micro degree, in regards to the solitary keeper of a fortune, his inescapable gravity, and the people who get caught in orbit. Writer Hernan Diaz cut up the ebook into 4 fictional texts: a novel, an autobiography, a memoir, and a day. Some are full and polished; others, works-in-progress. All are from completely different factors of view. Consider it as The Nice Gatsby by the use of Rashomon.

Diaz makes use of formatting to seize a sure feeling for every textual content, and in principle, that’s cause sufficient to seize a bodily copy. However! (After all, there’s a “however.”) The audiobook performs its variation of this magic trick by casting 4 completely different narrators with 4 completely different kinds. Instructed to you by distinctive actors, it seems like listening to individuals plead their case for the reality as in case you’ve organized a most eloquent interrogation.

Look, in case you don’t belief me, at the least belief Dua Lipa! —CP