Every month, AudioFile Magazine reviewers and editors select the best new audiobooks for BookTrib’s readers. From July and now into August, the sun is out and the pools are a welcome respite from the summer heat. Grab your headphones and sit back on a deck chair with these award-winning audiobooks from the past month.
Mickey Chambers Shakes It Up by Charish Reid
Read by Marissa Hampton | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Harlequin Audio | 8 hrs.]
Marissa Hampton narrates this sweet and spicy romance with perfection. Mickey Chambers is an adjunct professor with a chronic illness. Because she doesn’t earn enough to pay for her prescriptions, she gets a second job at The Saloon. Diego, the owner, who is a widower, is also struggling, so he’s decided to go back to college. Over time, his new, quirky waitress has him experiencing new feelings. Hampton does a phenomenal job bending her voice to express Mickey’s upbeat personality, quick banter and smooth, sultry tones.
Queen of Exiles by Vanessa Riley
Read by Robin Miles | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Harper Audio | 17.75 hrs.]
Robin Miles expertly delivers Vanessa Riley’s novel based on Marie-Louise Christophe, wife of King Henry I of Haiti. Haiti’s only Black queen, Marie-Louise was crowned in 1810 and ruled for 10 years amid political unrest and social strife. When Haiti is overthrown and her husband dies by suicide, Louise moves to England. Miles’s luxurious voice and attitude are perfect for Marie-Louise, a strong, self-assured woman, fiercely protective of her daughters. Miles enlivens the posh parties, elegant balls, romances and intrigues the Black women experience in a white, male-dominated world.
The Last Lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor
Read by Billie Fulford-Brown | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 10.5 hrs.]
Billie Fulford-Brown’s performance is heartbreaking and deft. In 1940, as Nazi forces bomb London, the government offers children refuge via passage to several countries. Lily, young and working class, elects to send her son and daughter to Canada. When a U-boat attacks the ship and they escape into a lifeboat, they soon discover help is not on the way. Fulford-Brown demonstrates mastery of the emotional depth and impact of the characters.
The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller
Read by Genevieve Gaunt | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Audible, Inc. | 9.75 hrs.]
Genevieve Gaunt performs this compelling audiobook about a near-future pandemic. Gaunt portrays Neffy, one of the few people to take the vaccine and survive, in a vulnerable tone and youthful timbre. Gaunt’s crisp English accent works well with this London-based story. The post-apocalyptic plot follows Neffy and four other 20-somethings who are surviving in a “biopharm” facility as they come to terms with the ghastly reality outside their doors. This is an engaging and immersive listen.
Late Bloomers by Deepa Varadarajan
Read by Vikas Adam, Deepa Samuel, Shahjehan Khan, Mehr Dudeja | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Random House Audio | 12.25 hrs.]
This perfectly titled audiobook will immerse listeners in the misadventures of an Indian American family. Vikas Adam sprinkles a dash of humor into his expressive tones to portray the overbearing but oddly sympathetic father, Suresh. Deepa Samuel captures ex-wife Lata’s resentment over her lengthy arranged marriage, while conveying her joy at her new life. Their adult daughter Priya’s affair with a married man is depicted with nuance by Mehr Dudeja. Shahjehan Khan’s easygoing intonations help listeners invest in son Nikesh’s struggle to settle his relationship with the mother of his son.
Beware the Woman by Megan Abbott
Read by Brittany Pressley | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 9.25 hrs.]
Brittany Pressley captures a young woman’s fear as her world closes in on her. Newly married Jacy and Jed are traveling to meet his parents who, on arrival, are excited to learn of Jacy’s pregnancy. But soon things start to feel off. Jacy struggles to maintain control of her medical history, while Jed appears too willing to excuse his doctor father’s increasingly controlling behavior. Pressley creates a progressively suffocating environment that makes for a very satisfying listening experience.
August Blue by Deborah Levy
Read by Alix Dunmore | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Macmillan Audio | 4.25 hrs.]
Alix Dunmore’s lilting voice and English accent capture the musicality of this audiobook. The cadence of her narration and her tones mimic the interior conflicts of Elsa, a virtuoso pianist whose career is at a standstill. In response, she dyes her hair blue and sets about inventing a new persona. Elsa’s quest is aided by a doppelganger who appears sometimes as a person, sometimes as a figment of Elsa’s imagination. Levy expertly creates scenes packed with meaning as Elsa comes to understand her provenance, passion, and place in the world.
Flags on the Bayou by James Lee Burke
Read by MacLeod Andrews, Michael Crouch, Dana Gourrier, Marin Ireland, January LaVoy, Ray Porter, James Lee Burke [Epilogue] | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Simon & Schuster Audio | 9 hrs.]
A series of introspective monologues is brought vividly to life in six stellar performances. The setting is Louisiana during the late days of the Civil War. The narrators deliver deeply felt first-person stories that neatly intertwine, portraying all manner of humanity, including a ragtag collection of Union and Rebel soldiers, slave owners and slave catchers, free and enslaved women and a deranged colonel and his band of marauding Confederate killers. The unique narrations and Burke’s poetry weave a dreamscape of beauty, love, hatred and horror.
Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History by Rebecca Struthers
Read by Anna Ploszajski | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Harper Audio | 8 hrs.]
Narrator Anna Ploszajski exudes the passion of master watchmaker and author Rebecca Struthers, who expounds upon horology, the study and measurement of time and the art of making clocks and watches. Listeners will learn about gears, springs and all the things that make watches tick from someone who crafts the devices by hand. Ploszajski’s crisp, polished tones are perfect for this history of chronometers from their very beginnings to their uses for organizing work and social time, and as essential fashion accessories.
Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens
Read by Elena Rey | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Random House Audio | 11.5 hrs.]
Hitch a ride on the grand Western adventure of an ambitious young woman, narrated by Elena Rey. Bridget begins work in a brothel after leaving town to get away from her alcoholic father. As she’s learning the ropes of her new life, Spartan Lee, a female gunslinger, enters the scene and captures Bridget’s attention. Rey’s rich performance offers so much: romance, betrayal, friendship and self-discovery. Highly recommended for a romance fan looking for something unique.
This story appears through BookTrib’s partnership with AudioFile and contains material originating from the AudioFile website.
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