It took me awhile to get into a good grove with audiobooks, but now that I’m there, they’ve been such a great addition to my reading life. I had to figure out what type of books worked best for me (lighter nonfiction) and the right times to listen (not while I’m exercising). But, I’ve figured it out and incorporating audiobooks enables me to fit in so much more reading than I’d be able to otherwise! Plus, audiobooks are where I fit in lots of backlist books that it’s hard to make time for. So, I’m excited to share the best audiobooks I’ve listened to in 2018 so far…
June is Audiobook Month (#loveaudiobooks) and incorporating audiobooks into my reading life has enabled me to read 20-30 more books per year, so I’m thrilled to participate in the Audio Publishers Association’s “June is Audiobook Month” blog tour (#loveaudiobooks)!
Giveaway
And good news for you…as part of the blog tour, I get to offer you a giveaway of 8 audiobooks from Blackstone Publishing, High Bridge Audio, Hachette Audio, LA Theatre Works, Macmillan Audio, Post Hypnotic Press Audiobooks, Scholastic and Tantor Audio. The books will be available on Audiobooks.com, and you will get a promo code to access all 8 audiobooks. Let me know in the comments section if you’d like to be entered into the giveaway…
*Limited to U.S. residents only.
This post contains affiliate links (plus: here’s your Amazon Smile-specific affiliate link
The Best Audiobooks I’ve Listened to in 2018 So Far
Bored and Brilliant
The host of the Note to Self podcast (which is awesome, by the way!) explores the connection between boredom (aka the opportunity for your mind to wander) and creativity. Hint: it involves unplugging from your phone and social media for periods of time. The science she shares about what excessive smartphone use is doing to our brains is fascinating and scary. And, she includes easy tips to help manage your smartphone use.
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
Endurance
It took me the entire month of February to listen to this 12 hour audiobook! It’s Astronaut Scott Kelly’s (Former Congresswoman Gabby Gifford‘s brother-in-law) story of his year on the International Space Station. Hearing about what it’s like to live on the Space Station was mostly really interesting, though the book could have been shorter.
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
Glitter and Glue
I absolutely adored Corrigan’s latest memoir, Tell Me More, so I was excited to delve into her backlist. While Glitter and Glue didn’t blow me away quite as much as Tell Me More, I still relished sinking back into Corrigan’s signature brand of heartfelt, relatable, and sometimes irreverent observations about life and motherhood. Corrigan hadn’t given much thought to what it’s like to mother someone or quite appreciated her mother until she stepped into the role of surrogate caring for two children who had lost their own. If you like women’s life observations-type writing (think Anna Quindlen, Cheryl Strayed), Kelly Corrigan should be next on your list!
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
The Mockingbird Next Door
Chicago Tribune journalist Marja Mills was improbably accepted by famously private Harper and Alice Lee when she visited Monroeville, AL for a story and ended up living next door to Harper. The story is as much about Mills’ journey to friendship with the Lees as it as about Lee herself. As I was listening, I almost felt like I was in To Kill A Mockingbird. For a real treat, pair with Episode 172 of From the Front Porch podcast about Annie Jones’ visit to Monroeville and a breakdown of what’s happened with Harper Lee’s estate since she passed away.
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give
This collection of essays flips wedding toasts on their heads…focusing on real talk about marriage with all its joys and challenges. Not the gushy platitudes that fill many actual wedding toasts. It’s contemplative, a bit sad, but also real and honest. If you prefer things less sugarcoated, this collection is for you.
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian (March 27, 2018)
You’ve probably heard much of the scoop in this book before (especially if you’re a golf fan), but mostly in little snippets over the course of his whole career. Benedict and Keteyian put all this together to paint a complete picture of Tiger as a person and an athlete. It’s a cautionary tale of the pitfalls of an elite athlete in the limelight who has been trained as a machine…and sorely under-trained as a whole person. PS – Bill Simmons, one of my favorite sports writers/podcasters, loved this book and read it in a few sittings.
Affiliate Link: Buy from Amazon
What are the best audiobooks you’ve listened to in 2018 so far?
I’d love to win audio books! Trying to find my groove too and have some blocks of car time coming up!! Thanks for the recommendations!!
Car time is perfect for audiobooks…especially kidless car rides!
Nonfiction works best for me as well. When I listen to fiction, it works best if it’s told from the first person point of view. People think I listen to audiobooks when I run but I can’t concentrate on them then. I think the very best audiobook I’ve listened to this year is Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Thanks for the giveaway!
I can’t listen when I run either – and I thought that would be a great time to listen! I first tried audiobooks while training for a half marathon and had to switch to podcasts.
I d love to win the audio books. I am wanting to read more audio but ha be not found the right mix for me. Thanks for the opportunity.
Audiobooks have been amazing for my reading numbers, too. Love them! You’ve given me a couple new ones to consider. I felt like I was really jiving with nonfiction on audio last year, but lately my nonfiction choices have been duds. Right now lighter fiction is working for me, but I really want to get back to nonfiction. I may try Glitter and Glue and The Mockingbird Next Door sounds interesting, too.
I have been listening to audiobooks for over twenty years. I cannot imagine my life (and my daily household drudgery tasks) without them. I will listen to any genre on audio as long as I like the narrator. Sometimes, a narrator’s voice bothers me, and I’ve learned to abandon ship if that’s the case.
Best Listens of 2018: Calypso by Davis Sedaris, The Dry by Jane Harper, Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles, A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, Educated by Tara Westover, Walking Home by Clare Balding, The Actor’s Life by Jenna Fischer, and a couple titles in the Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series. I re-listen to Pride and Prejudice once a year and then alternate other Jane Austen titles for repeat listening (this year was Persuasion, last year Sense and Sensibility).
I neglect my blog all the time, but I do try to share how I spend my Audible monthly credits each month.
I forgot to mention that I’d like to be entered in the giveaway!
I know, right?! Laundry has never been so entertaining! I’m reading Calypso now and I’d planned to listen to it, but then it turned up as a BOTM selection, so I got the hardcover.
What a great audiobook giveaway that I’d totally love to win! I’ve gotten into audiobooks far more in the last two years, and you’re right that you have to find what works for you. For me, it is most often memoirs or thrillers (which are very different so I’m not sure why those work the best). They have also way increased my book completion rate the last two years!
I love memoirs on audio too!
I would love to be considered in this giveaway! I love audiobooks and use them as a way to make my work commute easier. I also listen to them when I paint. I love re-visiting series I have read and loved in the past in audio form; I just recently listened to all of the Harry Potter series and the His Dark Material series while painting a mural in my daughter’s nursery.
I know lots of people use audio to re-read old favorites. I haven’t tried that yet, but need to soon!
My favorites so far this year are “Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders and a non-fiction book called “Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Shuttle and Her Crew” by Michael Leinbach. The Lincoln audiobook was an interesting multi-voice performance. The Columbia audiobook had a great story of Americans coming together to deal with disaster. Please enter me in your contest!
I’ve heard Lincoln in the Bardo on audio is something!
I was just thinking I need to start a new audiobook, especially because a few of my favorite podcasts are recording less frequently over the summer. Thanks for the great list–I’m off to see which ones my library has. I would love to be entered in the giveaway!
I tried listening to audiobooks in previous years, but gave up in 2014 because I couldn’t get into them. Then in January of this year I decided to give them another try and something just clicked. Now I love them! Thanks for such a great giveaway, I’d love to be entered.
Two of my favorite non-fiction audiobooks so far this year are Bare Bones by Bobby Bones & I Hate Green Beans by Lincee Ray.
Interesting list–I already had the Mockingbird on my TBR, but the Bored and Brilliant will be added now. The best audiobook I’ve listened to this year was Every Note Played by Lisa Genova. My website link below goes to the review.
The same thing happened to me! Tried, didn’t work great, took a break, then something clicked.
Audiobooks are so hit or miss for me! Samples aren’t usually enough to tell me if I like the narrator/pacing and way too often I end up giving up. Recently though I’ve listened to Dear Fahrenheit 451 and Call Me By Your Name and LOVED them so I feel like I’m on a roll. I’m always looking for new ones to try out so will definitely be referring back to this and would love to enter the giveaway!
I’d love to be entered in the giveaway! I just started getting into audiobooks and now I’m obsessed!
Awesome giveaway, I’d love to be entered! I thought the narrator for the Tiger Woods book was excellent and I also loved the book, I thought it was fascinating although it didn’t really change my opinion of Tiger. Right now I’m listening to The Perfect Couple which has a great narrator as well. I love audiobooks but the narrator makes it or breaks it for me
I ❤️Audio books! I hate when people say listening to books doesn’t count as reading! Please add me to the list and thank you for the giveaway!
Please enter me into the book give away. I am new to audiobooks and this seems like a good opportunity to try them.
Please enter me in the giveaway! The best audio book I’ve read this year is Silver Silence by Nalini Singh
The best audio of the year so far has been The Wolves of Winter.
Would love to be entered! I struggle with audiobooks but want to figure out how to work them into my days. I generally borrow them from the library and sometimes just don’t finish them before they expire. I’d definitely like to read (or listen to) more Kelly Corrigan after reading Tell Me More.
I think Corrigan would be a great audiobook choice! And Cheryl Strayed’s Tiny Beautiful Things if you haven’t read that one yet.
And – I generally have to push myself to finish an audiobook from the library b/c I usually work podcasts in too, so it takes me awhile to get through one audiobook.
Good selection of audios! (don’t enter me, please) I listen all the dang time. I can listen when I walk, but not when I run.
Oooh!–I haven’t done audiobooks since they were on tape…and I’m intrigued by the Tiger Woods book. Please enter me in your drawing! Thank you!
You’ve given me some good ideas as always on what to add to my reading pile. I listen to audio books during my long commute. Thanks. Would love to win the 8 book access!!
I’d love to be entered in the giveaway! My favorite audiobook this year was John Hodgman’s “Vacationland”. I listen to audiobooks during my commute and occasionally while doing dishes.
Yes! Please enter me in the GiveAway.
I, too, do best with non-fiction although plot driven works for me with audio books. The Female Persuasion was my last audiobook and it worked due to some long drives I was doing. I mostly listen while walking walking–on treadmill in winter and outside in summer.
Thanks for the opportunity.
I’m impressed you did Female Persuasion on audio! Those character-driven novels are hard for me on audio.
I would love to win these audio books. I have been listening to audio books more in the past year. I listen to them when I am driving since I drive a lot. Thank you for the opportunity.
I agree about Endurance. That was a fantastic audio book! I would love to win some more audio books. I love listening to them in the car.
Several of these are on my TBR list! I’d love to be entered into your giveaway.
8 audiobooks!! Hooray!!! please enter me! I enjoyed Glitter and Glue very much. Over the past few years I’ve become a 100% audio book listener. I’ve never slept better in my life, falling asleep listening – without a book hitting me in the face is wonderful! My favs are anything by Neil Gaimen. Listening to him read you a story is magical. My favorites also include Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. We Were The Lucky One’s was a brilliantly done audio book. I just finished all seven Dark Tower books which I totally enjoyed. I’m so glad you’re reviewing audio books now too, thank you!! When I retire I’m planning to get back to holding a book as well as listening!
Please enter me in the giveaway! Thank you!
Wonderful web site. Lots of helpful information here. I am sending it to a few friends ans additionally sharing in delicious. And obviously, thank you for your sweat!
Hey Sarah,
Please enter me in the GiveAway for 2020, if you arranging it.
I am big fan of true crime audiobooks. Bad blood is one of my favourite true crime audiobook. I mostly listen while on my way for office.
Thankyou for the opportunity.