This week’s Audiobooks! Newsletter is sponsored by TryAudiobooks.com/cooking.
Listen while you cook! While spending hours in the kitchen prepping meals for the holidays, put on a good audiobook and let the story help you along. Cooking for Picasso and The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living are great cooking memoirs or you can listen to Where Am I Now? read by Mara Wilson herself! Let audiobooks be your secret ingredient this holiday season. Visit TryAudiobooks.com/cooking for a free download and get started!
Dear audio-bookworms, please excuse me while I sweep the broken pieces of my heart up off the floor. I just finished the most amazing audiobook, and it was totally by accident. You know when you finish one audiobook but you haven’t queued up the next one yet? (Gasp, the horror.) Well, that just happened to me! I had no choice but to pray for an old forgotten audiobook on my phone.
I asked, and the universe answered.
The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez has already gotten heaps of love and praise. But what we still need to talk about is how fantastic it is on audio. Performed by six actors, we meet a striking teenager whose family has left behind their comfortable life in Mexico in hopes of getting treatment for her traumatic brain injury in the US. Some of their new neighbors are great (like the boy from Panama who’s got a little crush), and some are… not great. Ultimately, their new life sets in motion a chain of events that is at turns beautiful, at turns tragic.
I especially loved the cool little vignettes between the main chapters that tell the stories of immigrants from all over the Americas. The narrators breathe so much texture into these stories, and the simple, beautiful language works perfectly on audio. Here’s hoping you’ve fallen in love with some great listens lately, too!
10 Amazing YA Books That Are Even Better on Audio
When it comes to taste in YA books, librarian extraordinaire Molly Wetta is just about flawless. While she didn’t always love audiobooks, she’s now a total convert. Don’t miss her list on Book Riot of all-time favorite YA audiobooks. Yep, these books are amazing in print, but she swears they’re even BETTER on audio!
Meet the Voice of Brit Bennett’s The Mothers
The Mothers by Brit Bennett is just about the hottest new release this fall. I think literally every Book Riot contributor is reading it right now — including me! Naturally, we were beyond honored to have guest contributor Robin Whitten, founding editor of AudioFile Magazine, chat with narrator Adenrele Ojo about what it was like to record The Mothers, the one author she’d especially love to voice, what her special recording session rituals are, and more!
Ron Swanson or Tom Sawyer: Who Said It?
I’ve already mentioned the joyful news that Nick Offerman is the voice of Tom Sawyer on a new audiobook. But why is this pairing so magical — is it the visual of his Parks and Rec character Ron Swanson whitewashing a fence in his big beautiful mustache? Fortunately, Book Riot contributor Deepali Agarwal was willing to roll up her sleeves and do some research. You know, for science.
Take a look at these pics of Ron Swanson and the quotes they’re paired up with, and see if you can tell who said it: Swanson or Sawyer?