Best Audiobooks to Listen To (My Top 7 Favorites!)

Reading every day is my top priority. But on really productive days, it can be hard to find time to read. That’s why I’m so grateful for great audiobooks. These are the perfect solution for making reading a priority even if you can’t physically sit down and read a book.

A good audiobook can help you clean the bathroom, wait in the carpool line, or fold that pile of laundry. And sometimes monotonous work becomes really fun. Do you want to accomplish something while getting lost in the story? That’s a big win!

There’s also something really special about hearing an author or narrator bring a story to life with their own voice. Adds a whole new layer to the best audiobook reading experience.

Damn it! Check out how to listen to audiobooks for free. Don’t forget to sign up today to get 3 free audiobooks from Audiobooks.com.

How to get free audiobooks

Before we get into the list, I would like to share how you can get free audiobooks. Otherwise, listening to audiobooks can quickly become expensive.

I discovered the Libby app many years ago. I love that I can listen to almost any audiobook I want for free. Highly, highly recommended!

That said, Libby audiobooks can sometimes have long holds or short loan periods, and you may need to return the book before you finish reading it.

If you’re looking for another way to get some free audiobooks, the following are currently available: Sign up for a trial at Audiobooks.com and get 3 free audiobooks For the first month! Access over 150,000 audiobooks. (Be sure to cancel your subscription before the free trial ends to avoid being charged.)

Another option is Audible. This gives you access to a streaming library of books and allows you to keep one book per membership period, even after canceling your subscription. Check out current Audible discounts and sales here.

Damn it! If you like e-books, please use it. 1 month free trial of Kindle Unlimited That’s also available! It includes not only ebooks but also thousands of audiobooks.

7 Best Audiobooks I Highly Recommend

If you’re ready to press play on your next favorite audiobook, here are the top 7 audiobooks I can’t resist recommending.

1. before we are yours

At the advice of a reader, I started reading this and soon couldn’t stop talking about it.

This is the tragic true story of the Tennessee Children’s and Home Association Orphanage Scandal and how it affected the lives of the real children who went through this horrific experience.

To tell you the truth, I had never heard of these scandals before reading this book. And I live in Tennessee. I’ve asked multiple people who live here and they’ve never heard of it either.

I think it’s heartbreaking and frightening and a powerful reminder of how money can lead to terrible decisions that hurt people in terrible ways.

This book is well written and engaging, and appears to be a very well researched historical novel. It’s also a beautiful story of brotherhood and how trauma and devastation don’t have to define your future.

Note: There are many abuse situations in this book that can be very irritating to people, depending on your life experiences and traumas. This book lacks nitty-gritty details, but it’s enough to be very stimulating.

2. Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

I read this book many years ago and loved it. Then I saw Netflix movies They acted on the book.

Now, after watching the movie and enjoying it, I realized that I don’t remember the book well enough to compare the movie and the book. So, in an unlikely move, I decided to read the book again.

Only this time, I listened to it (thank goodness I got the audiobook for free from the Libby app). This is one of the best audiobooks. Very well done and I liked that the audiobook was narrated by multiple voices.

3. we were lucky

This was my favorite audiobook of 2021! It’s based on the true story of how a Jewish family, separated around the world, survived and eventually reunited during World War II. It is deeply moving, gripping, and heartbreaking. But it’s also a story of love, family, and perseverance in the face of all adversity.

One thing I noticed was how creative each member of my family was, determined to overcome challenges, come up with outside-the-box ideas, and never give up. When everything around them seemed to be falling apart and hopeless, they chose to move forward and maintain their will to live.

Of all the parts of this book, I think the part that had the most impact on me was the part where I was thinking about what it was like to have a young child during the Holocaust, and how extremely difficult it was to try to care for and protect babies and children in the midst of so much fear, uncertainty, and utter disregard for human life. I can’t even imagine it, but this book gave me a glimpse of how terrifying it is.

Note: There is some language and, as you might expect, some intense and graphic topics are touched upon. However, I felt the book did a good job of staying true to the story and experience without going into unnecessary graphic details.

4. Amazingly bright creatures

So, this is a book I didn’t expect to make it onto my list of favorites. But I was totally surprised by how much I loved it and the quirky characters, including the octopus.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I actually bought a copy to finish reading it instead of listening to it. You can tell I loved this book because that rarely happens to me.

This is a book with multiple unique characters telling the story from their perspectives, and how they all weave together in the end is beautiful and endearing. If you enjoy good fiction stories told from a variety of perspectives, spanning a wide range of ages and interests, you should definitely check this book out.

Note: This is not a Christian book, and it does contain some vulgar language, but it’s a well-written and engaging story…and because it was fascinating and I learned so much just from the part about octopuses in the book, I wanted to learn more about octopuses.

5. what we can’t say

This book was not at all what I expected and I was so disappointed in the first few chapters that I could hardly keep listening…but I’m really glad I did because it turned out to be such a beautiful story.

I was so happy to be able to walk in the shoes of a mother with a child on the autism spectrum and empathize with what she is going through and going through. Also, reading this book made me think about how many burdens we all carry, and how many people walk around with secrets, burdens, and conflicts that we don’t know about.

Note: This book contains some vulgar language.

6. The book “The Woman of Troublesome Creek”

This is a book I would never have picked up on my own, but it was highly recommended by several people, so I decided to give it a try since it was available for free on Libby. I’m really happy because it’s one of the books that has stayed with me for a long time.

This book not only explores the Pack Horse Librarian Project initiated by President Roosevelt’s New Deal, a project dedicated to bringing literature to people living in remote areas without access to libraries, but also delves deeply into the Blue People.

I had never heard of the Pack Horse Librarian Project or Blue People, but this book inspired me to dig deeper into both. It was fascinating and heartbreaking to learn about it.

If you like well-researched historical fiction about lesser-known/under-discussed (at least I’ve never heard of either!) important parts of history, this would be a good read. There’s a bit of language and a few sections for adults, but overall it was well worth the time.

Although the story felt slow and skipped a bit in parts, it was still moving and drew me in. I learned a lot from it and have talked about it many times with multiple people since hearing it. That always shows that the book resonated with me.

7. the great one

This was an interesting glimpse into what life is like in Alaska. My sister-in-law, brother-in-law, and nephew live in Alaska. This gave me a whole new appreciation for their lives.

The audiobook felt very sad and dark in parts…and it opened my eyes to how difficult it is to live in a place that is so dark and cold for most of the year. I never really thought about how much sunlight and warmth can affect our overall mood and take away a person’s joy and motivation.

The Great Alone did a great job of giving us a deeper understanding of the challenges Alaskans face, how harsh and harsh the winters are, and how lonely it can be. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered what life is like in Alaska or is looking for a well-written, engaging, and unique novel the great one.

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What would you recommend as the best audiobooks to listen to? I’d love to hear it!