Best audiobooks of 2023Like this list

25 items

• Killers of the Flower Moon

  Oil, Money, Murder and the Birth of the FBI

  Grann, David, 1967-

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  The terror, racism, venality, and brutality inflicted on the Osage people can hardly be stomached. But it happened, and David Grann lays it all out, with compassion and clarity. I will watch the new Scorsese movie, but it can't possibly…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Quartet

  How Four Women Changed the Musical World

  Broad, Leah, 1991-

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  The book weaves amongst the life and times of four composers - their lives and music, the milieus in which they moved. It's not only meticulously researched, it's a storytelling feat. Brava.

• Butts

  a Backstory

  Radke, Heather

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  Science, sociology, history, racism, sexism, music, and a whole more. Brilliant. The end.

• The Fraud

  Smith, Zadie, 1975-

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  The Fraud is set in Kilburn 1873 and at the time of the Tichborne Trial. It follows Mrs Touchet who starts to follow the trial with interest. She’s a sceptic and always questioning things. One of the witnesses is Andrew Bogle who grew up…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Sell a Haunted House

  Hendrix, Grady

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  I am working my way through Grady Hendrix's horrors and they are so brilliant - scary, funny, colourful and boundless entertaining. This is his latest - and intersperses emotions of grief and loss with high terror- possessed puppets! 5…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Librarianist

  deWitt, Patrick, 1975-

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  As a librarian and an introvert, this book felt tailormade for me. I loved it so much and feel a lump in my throat and tear in my eye thinking about it. The stories (and the characters) hit you in the guts and the heart, as well as the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Hungry Ghosts

  Hosein, Kevin Jared

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  I listened to the audiobook of Hungry Ghosts read (wonderfully) by actor Don Warrington. "Listened" sounds too passive. I lost myself in this story of love and death in post war colonial Trinidad, and was utterly invested in their lives…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Small Things Like These

  Keegan, Claire, 1968-

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  A small and perfect story that is both bright and sad. I listened to the audiobook and was filled with the main character Bill Furlong and the moral dilemma that stirs his soul. Beautiful like an ancient morality play.

• Everybody Hertz

  the Amazing World of Frequency, From Bad Vibes to Good Vibrations

  Mainwaring, Richard

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  This worked well as an audiobook - with samples of sounds and music to illustrate the frequencies. Lots of brilliant stories to illustrate the science and the sound - including the spooky story of a lab where low freqency possibly causes…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Entangled Life

  How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

  Sheldrake, Merlin

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  This book is a brilliant - and rather trippy - listen. I discovered that lichen are the most hardcore thing on earth. Would never have known, or guessed. Entangled Life is both a great work of science and storytelling, and both information…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Walking With Ghosts

  a Memoir

  Byrne, Gabriel, 1950-

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  As read by Gabriel himself, in his wonderful Irish accent. This is more lyrical and less chronological than your average memoir. He remembers a lot of his childhood and adult years, but is quite discreet about his own relationships. He…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Strange Sally Diamond

  Nugent, Liz, 1967-

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  It was the cover that attracted me to this. It was a real ride - with the eponymous Sally who gets unwanted attention when she puts her dead dad in the rubbish, just like he asked. We are with her as she is now, but also travel back and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Eileen

  Moshfegh, Ottessa

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  Eileen is gritty, creepy, and a bit twisted. Am I talking about the book or the titular character. Both, for sure - both.

• Miss Memory Lane

  a Memoir

  Haynes, Colton, 1988-

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  Having someone read to you - it's great. And that's what you get with an audiobook. Having a memoir read by the person who wrote it brings a whole new level of intimacy to the proceedings. Listening to Miss Memory Lane by Colton Haynes you…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Really Good, Actually

  Heisey, Monica

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  Excruciating, funny, sad, and messy, so messy. It's about Maggie's life post-marriage breakup, all the various things she tries, and how she tries to find herself. And it's a lot about friendship - and late capitalism. This would make a…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Shy

  Porter, Max

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  Actor Joe Gaminara does a stellar job bringing Max Porter's powerful work to life. This audiobook is more like a radio play really, in that it makes good use of trippy sounds and mood, more that just reading the words on the page. It's an…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Invasion

  Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival

  Harding, Luke, 1968-

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  A richly detailed and compelling of the invasion, by Guardian correspondent Luke Harding who has a lot of knowledge of both Russia and Ukraine

• 1989

  McDermid, Val, 1955-

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  I enjoyed revisiting Allie Burns and her glamorous partner Rona. 1989 has a lot happening - with a few stories happening at once. One involves a sort of Robert Maxwell media baron character (with a daughter in the publishing world -…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Ejaculate Responsibly

  a Whole New Way to Think About Abortion

  Blair, Gabrielle Stanley,

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  A brief but compelling argument that responsibility for prevention of unwanted pregnancies should sit with those who are fertile 24 hours a day, every day.

• Who They Was

  Krauze, Gabriel

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  WORD Christchurch' guest Gabriel's gritty story works well as an audiobook - his voice, in his voice. It is a compelling story. What surprised me about it was the ego and vulnerability within it - he's tough, but is very proud of talking…Read moreRead more of this annotation