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Looking for some of the best audiobooks to listen to? This is a list of my top 7 favorites!
Psst! Be sure to check out how I listen to audiobooks for free. And don’t forget to sign up to get 3 FREE audiobooks from Audiobooks.com right now!
Reading every day is a big priority of mine. But on really full days, fitting in reading time can be a challenge. Which is why I’m so grateful for audiobooks! They are the perfect solution to making reading a priority — even when I’m not able to physically sit down and read a book.
How to Get Free Audiobooks
I discovered the Libby app a couple years ago, and I love that I can listen to just about any audiobook I want completely for FREE! I highly, highly recommend it!
That being said, right now there is a really high demand for audiobooks since more people are at home, so it’s a little harder than usual to get access to specific titles and the wait times are a lot longer than usual.
If you’re looking for another way to grab a few FREE audiobooks, you can currently sign up for an Audiobooks.com trial and get 3 FREE audiobooks during your first month! You’ll get access to over 150,000 audiobooks! (Just remember to cancel your subscription before your free trial is up so that you don’t get charged!)
Psst! If you like eBooks, you might want to take advantage of this FREE two-month Kindle Unlimited Trial that’s available for just a few more days, too! It includes not just eBooks but thousands of audiobooks, as well!
My Top 7 Favorite Audiobooks
Every time I talk about how much I love listening to audiobooks, I get a lot of requests for my recommendation of the best audiobooks to listen to. So I figured it was about time I put a list together of some of my top favorites.
These are some of my favorite audiobooks that I’ve read over the past year or two:
I loved hearing this in the author’s voice. I felt like it made the book come alive and seem so much more authentic.
The author, Melissa Radke, has gone through so much in her life from weight struggles, to infertility, to infidelity, to losing a child, to rejection. I think almost all women will be able to relate in some way to her story and her bravery will inspire you.
I found myself wanting to jump up and down and yell “preach it” as I was listening… and I’m not even a very charismatic sort of person. I loved the book so much that I ended up buying a copy from Amazon after I finished listening to it, since I wanted to have it in my library to re-read parts of it and loan it out to others.
Note: I was honored to have Melissa Radke on my podcast. You can listen to our interview here.
At the advice of my readers, I started reading this one and immediately couldn’t stop talking about it.
It’s the tragic and true story of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society Orphanage scandals and how they played out in the lives of the children who actually went through this horrific experience.
Truth be told, I had never heard of these scandals before listening to this book — and I live in Tennessee! I have asked multiple people who live here and they haven’t heard of it either.
It’s heart-wrenching and horrible and I think a powerful reminder of how money can cause people to make terrible decisions that can hurt people in devastating ways.
The book is well-written and engaging and appears to be very well-researched historical fiction. It is also the beautiful story of sibling love and how trauma and devastation doesn’t have to define your future.
Note: There are a lot of situations in the book when it comes to abuse that could be very triggering to people, depending upon your life experience and trauma. The book doesn’t give nitty-gritty details, but it’s enough that it could be very triggering.
I read this book a number of years ago and loved it. Then, I watched the Netflix movie they did based upon the book.
Well, after watching the movie and enjoying it, I realized I couldn’t remember enough about the book to compare the movie and the book. So, in an uncharacteristic move, I decided to read the book again.
Only this time, I listened to it (thanks to getting the audiobook for free from the Libby app). This is one of the best audiobooks, because it’s SO well done and I loved that the audiobook is narrated by multiple voices!
I began listening to this book at the recommendation of my sister and a few others. I almost didn’t keep listening because I had trouble getting into it at first. I’m so glad I stuck with it and finished it because it was a truly beautiful and heart-wrenching story… and it’s TRUE!
While it’s tagged as a “novel”, it’s actually based on interviews that were conducted with Holocaust survivor and Auschwitz-Birkenau tattooist Ludwig (Lale) Sokolov. It’s both sickening and heart-warming, and I felt the author did a good job of bringing both tensions into the book.
It made me think a lot about what it would be like to live in the conditions that those who were in the concentration camps went through. While I can never imagine the horrors, I still found myself pondering what I would do. Would I be willing to risk my life for others? What kinds of choices would I make if my life 100% depended upon those choices?
Note: As expected in this sort of book, there is some crass language and some sections that might be triggering to some people.
I really loved this book… which shocked me considering I never once would have thought of myself as someone who would find a book of letters about visiting National Parks to be something I wouldn’t just tolerate but would enjoy.
Matt and Karen are a couple who set a goal to visit every single one of the US National Parks. I found their wit and sarcasm to be laugh out loud funny and their letters to be very interesting. Also, their teasing and poking fun at one another reminded me a lot of me and Jesse.
And guess what? They inspired me to want to visit all the National Parks, too. Or at least start visiting some of them — something I haven’t done in years (we visited some of them growing up but it’s not been on my priority list for vacations since Jesse and I got married).
I told Jesse that after we finish our goals to visit all 7 continents and 50 states, maybe we can set another goal to visit all the US National Parks! 🙂
I decided to list these all together, since they’re all written by the same author and are very similar.
What I love about these books is that they really bring history to life! I learned so many intriguing details about these historical events that I never knew before. Plus, having more historical context made the stories so much more compelling.
From what I could tell, they were all very well-researched and historically accurate. I also appreciated that they didn’t seem politically motivated/biased but just very facts-based. If you enjoy history, these are definitely must-listens!
Note: Killing Kennedy did have some details that were definitely not appropriate for young ears. (Jesse and I were listening to it while on a road trip and had to turn it off since the kids were in the car!)
I read this book back in 2011. I remember it being a worthwhile read, so when I saw that it was available to download on the Libby app, I was excited to listen to it again.
It’s a quick read, but it packs a punch. If you are looking for some actionable tips and suggestions for how to get more done and enjoy your life more, I definitely recommend this book.
One of the key takeaways is if you start the day out by doing the things you like least first, you’ll get them out of the way so you can enjoy your day more and be more productive and fulfilled.
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What do you recommend as some of the best audiobooks to listen to? I’d love to hear!
