Award-Winning Audiobooks to Get Lost In

Vera Wong is a lonely old lady – or rather, a lady of a certain age – who takes it upon herself to solve a murder in the most peculiar way in this captivating mystery by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Set in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown, this 2024 Audie Award Winner for Mystery is read by Eunice Wong and follows a suspicious Chinese mother who discovers a dead man with a flash drive in his outstretched hand in the middle of her tea shop.

In this inspiring memoir, former First Lady Michelle Obama shares practical wisdom and powerful strategies for staying hopeful and balanced in today’s highly uncertain world. Read by the author herself, this book won the 2024 Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording.

In George Saunders’s first novel, he blends historical and supernatural elements to craft a moving and original father-son story of grief. In the first year of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s son dies. Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns, alone, to the crypt of his son several times to hold his boy’s body. From that seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of its realistic, historical framework into a supernatural realm both hilarious and terrifying. Read by George Saunders and a talented cast of performers that include Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, Carrie Brownstein, Don Cheadle, Lena Dunham, Bill Hader, Kirby Heyborne, Keegan-Michael Key, Julianne Moore, Megan Mullally, Susan Sarandon, Ben Stiller, and various others, this astonishing feat of imagination won the 2018 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year.

Narrated by the author and a winner of the 2024 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year, Surrender is an intimate, immersive listening experience, telling stories from Bono’s early days in Dublin, to joining a band and playing sold-out stadiums around the world with U2, plus his more than 20 years of activism. Both honest and irreverent, Surrender also exclusively features clips of newly recorded reimagined versions of U2 songs including “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “With Or Without You,” “One,” “Beautiful Day,” and more, glimpsed for the first time on Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.

The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Writer Matthew Desmond pursues this question in this urgent book that offers a provocative and compelling answer about why it persists in America: Because it benefits us all. Narrated by Dion Graham, this audiobook won the 2024 Audie Award for Nonfiction.

In 2010, the term “earthquake swarm” emerged in Oklahoma, while Michael Jackson memorabilia sold for over $1 million, and Ukrainian revolutionaries uncovered a lavish zoo. Rachel Maddow links these events to the corrupt oil and gas industry, revealing its global impact. Her book Blowout exposes how oil wealth has weakened democracies, damaged the environment, and fueled authoritarian regimes. Maddow calls for urgent action to curb this industry’s power, stressing that democracy’s future depends on addressing these issues. Narrated by Rachel Maddow herself, this book won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.

In her searing debut, Kiley Reid tells the story of Alix Chamberlain, a confident brand-builder who is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is accused of kidnapping her child at a high-end supermarket. The security guard mistakes Emira, a young Black woman, for a kidnapper simply because she is with a white child. Alix is determined to make this right. While Emira, humiliated and struggling with personal issues, is wary of Alix’s attempts to help. As the incident and a revealing video affect both women’s lives, Such a Fun Age explores their evolving relationship and the broader implications of identity and privilege. Narrated by Nicole Lewis, this audiobook won the 2021 Audie Award for Fiction.

Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves. Written by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, this audiobook is narrated by the authors along with Carrie Coon and Key Taw and won the 2023 Audie Award for Fiction.

Writer John Grisham is the acknowledged master of the legal thriller. In his first collection of novellas, the law is a common thread, but America’s favorite storyteller has several surprises in store. Read by an all-star cast that includes Jeff Daniels, Ethan Hawke, January LaVoy and John Grisham himself this audiobook won the 2023 Audie Award for Multi-Voiced Performance.

A clever and steamy queer romantic comedy written by Ashley Herring Blake, Delilah Green returns to her small hometown for her estranged stepsister’s wedding. While reconnecting with old friends and facing past tensions, she meets Claire, a single mother, and sparks fly. Will either of them take the chance on accepting love – with all its complications? Read by Kristen DiMercurio, this audiobook won the 2023 Audie Award for Romance.