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Recently, a friend of mine has gotten really into audiobooks. He spends a lot of time driving for his job, and he’s switched his hours of podcast listening to audiobook listening. It’s been great to talk books with him, and it has me thinking about my favourite audiobooks. There’s something magical about the perfect combination of book and narrator that elevates the experience. Some books are just better on audio, and others I need to read as text to follow.
The very stale debate about whether audiobooks “count” (of course they do) has always been strange to me, because I usually don’t remember if I read a book in print or on audio. Once it’s in my brain, there is no difference between the two. So, I had to scour through my reading tracker to find these.
In case you’re also looking for some queer audiobooks to add to your queue, here are five of my favorites. They range from nonfiction to sci-fi, romance, and literary fiction. I’m always looking for more, so let me know which queer audiobooks you love in the comments!
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Dear Prudence: Liberating Lessons from Slate.com’s Beloved Advice Column by Daniel M. Lavery, narrated by the author
My microgenre I want to see more of is advice columns as audiobooks, and one of the best is Daniel M. Lavery’s selections from his time as Prudence. I already loved the podcast, so it was a treat to be able to hear him narrate the audiobook version, too. Alongside giving advice, he also discusses his transition while writing at Prudence. Another great queer audiobook in this microgenre is Care Of by Ivan Coyote, who is one of my favourite storytellers.
Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert, narrated by Ione Butler
This romance audiobook with a bisexual woman main character may be singlehandedly responsible for getting me into the genre. I had never been very interested in romance novels, but I heard such good things about this one, and it’s queer, and the audiobook was available. Talia Hibbert showed me how fun and engrossing romances could be, and the rest is history.
The Very Nice Box by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman, narrated by Rebecca Lowman
The beginning of this story is pretty slow-paced. It follows a woman whose girlfriend died in a car crash years ago. Ava has isolated herself since, escaping into her work designing furniture for an Ikea-like store. Then a new guy starts working at the company, and she begins to consider the possibility of opening herself up to romance again. I was listening to this audiobook before I went to sleep to wind down—and then it took a turn. I literally bolted upright in bed when I heard it. If you like litfic and satire, I highly recommend this one.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green, narrated by Kristen Sieh
This duology is such a romp. It has interesting things to say about fame, ambition, and what it means to be human, but it’s also just so fun. There are puzzles to be solved, strange alien antics, and plenty of jokes. This about April, but it’s her on-again-off-again girlfriend, Maya, who steals the show.
Sister Snake by Amanda Lee Koe, narrated by
Zoë Chao
I loved listening to this literary speculative story about two sisters who began their lives together as snakes in Tang Dynasty China. Now, they couldn’t be more different: Su is a conservative politician’s wife in Singapore while Emerald scrapes by as a queer sugar baby living in New York City with an artist friend. It’s a beautiful and bruising story about racism, assimilation, and the complexities of found family.
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