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Audiobooks

The StoryGraph Adds a New Feature to Track Audiobook Listening!

This past weekend, the world watched Trumpet the Bloodhound win Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog show! Of course, being a Corgi household, we were disappointed that neither of the Corgi breeds won, but we had a good time cheering them on anyway.

When I wasn’t cheering for the Corgis at Westminster, my spouse and I have been watching our way through Psych like it’s 2008. Not only has the fashion from our college years made a comeback, but it seems like the TV shows have too. For whatever reason, Sam and I both missed out on the Psych craze, so we’ve been enjoying this low-stakes mystery series. Of course, Only Murders in the Building is back with season two, so we had to drop everything to watch it. If you haven’t seen the first season yet, be sure to hop onto Hulu and check it out!

Watching both of these series has made me in the mood for a mystery novel on audio, but I’m not sure what to pick up. In recent years, I’ve enjoyed Jane Harper, Sujata Massey and Attica Locke. But what mystery novels would you recommend? Feel free to email your recommendations to me at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com.

A photo of Gwen, a black and white Cardigan Welsh Corgi, sitting in a patch of golden sunlight while holding a purple elephant toy in her paws.
A graphic of Storygraph's Logo

The StoryGraph‘s New Audiobook Feature

With over one million users, The StoryGraph is a reading tracker that allows bookworms to record their reading habits in a wide range of ways. The StoryGraph will then take this date and create easy to understand graphs and charts. I love how easy StoryGraph is to use!

Just in time for this year’s Audiobook Appreciation Month in June, The StoryGraph released its new audiobook feature that allows users to track their listening. You can track your audiobook listening using several different data points, allowing audiobook lovers to customize their experience.

When I asked Nadia, The StoryGraph’s Founder, what challenges they ran into when creating the feature, she said that they had to consider the different ways that The StoryGraph’s users wanted to track their audiobooks and what data users wanted to see. This led them to use a more customizable approach to give their users the best experience possible.

In the future, keep your eye out for new updates from The StoryGraph, like their upcoming book club feature. Plus, they have a new dark mode and a new book scanning feature in the works too!

New Releases

A graphic of the cover of In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo

In the Beautiful Country by Jane Kuo | Narrated by Sura Siu

A family moves from Taiwan to America where the entire family lives in one tiny apartment. Anna thought that moving to “the beautiful” (what they call America in Chinese) would be like a dream. But so far, it’s just been disappointing. Anna can’t help but wonder, is all of her family’s sacrifice really worth it?

A graphic of the cover of Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin

Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin | Narrated by Ell Potter

Perfect for fairytale lovers, Elsewhere is set in a town where it’s just accepted that some mothers disappear. Vera grows up knowing that for her, motherhood is inevitable. But when the time comes, she has nothing but questions for what her own experience with motherhood will bring.

A graphic of the cover of Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert | Narrated by Chloe Cannon and Emma Galvin

Set in two time periods, Our Crooked Hearts possesses that creepy magical vibe Melissa Albert is known for. In the present day, Ivy is spending her summer break in the suburbs running into creepy figures and disturbing ruins with strangers. In the past, Dana is a city girl looking to connect with the supernatural with the help of her two friends. These two stories come together in the darkest, most delightfully sinister way possible.

A graphic of the cover of The Scent of Burnt Flowers by Blitz Bazawule

The Scent of Burnt Flowers by Blitz Bazawule | Narrated by Dion Graham

Bernadette and Melvin are a Black couple just trying to make a life for themselves in America in the 1960s. But after being attacked, the couple moves to Ghana in hopes of escaping the racial violence. There they meet Kwesi, a charming man who seems to rule the night life in their new city. When Bernadette experiences an immediate attraction to Kwesi, Melvin begins to worry that he might lose the woman he loves most.

A graphic of the cover of Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia

Katzenjammer by Francesca Zappia | Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

Cat lives in her high school. In fact, she and several other students are trapped. As time passes, they begin to slowly transform into something else. None of them remember why exactly they are there. They just know that if they don’t figure out how to leave, they may lose what’s left of their memories.

For a more comprehensive list, check out our New Books newsletter.

Over on Book Riot

Listen Up: 8 Incredible Queer Audiobook Narrators” by Laura Sackton – Want to support more LGBTQ+ audiobook narrators? Check out this list!

15 of the Best Fantasy Lesbian Audiobooks to Listen to Right Now” by Addison Rizer –  Women loving women fantasy novels are having a real moment right now—here is a round up of 15 of them!

The Bane of My Bookish Existence: I Can’t Read Nonfiction in Print” by Carina Pereira – I love hearing about another audiobook lover’s approach to listening. 

Get the 10 Best Audiobook Narrators in Your Ears” by Nusrah Javed – Why haven’t we had a quick round of excellent audiobook narrators in a hot minute? Nusrah Javad has given us an excellent updated list!

What Makes a Great Audiobooks Narrator” by Arvyn Cerézo – I LOVE this piece from Arvyn Cerézo. They really get to the core of what makes an audiobook tick.

Around the Web

Top 20 Most Recommended Nonfiction Audiobooks of All Time(Libro.fm)

Top 20 Most Recommended Fiction Audiobooks of All Time” (Libro.fm)

The Best of the Year (So Far) 2022” (Audible)

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!


That’s it for this week! You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE audiobook content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.

Happy listening, bookish friends!

~ Kendra