Every month, AudioFile Magazine reviewers and editors select the best new audiobooks for BookTrib’s readers. Get ready for trips to the beach with these award-winning June audiobooks.
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
Read by Dion Graham | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Macmillan Audio | 20.75 hrs.]
Dion Graham superbly narrates this riveting audiobook, emulating the majestic cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, speeches. He captures the Civil Rights leader’s deep, resonant tone; deliberate ministerial intonation; and, during offstage moments, his world-weariness. The author has made use of recently released tapes and reams of documents from the FBI; he did hundreds of interviews and had access to other hitherto unseen papers, including the unpublished memoir of Dr. King’s father. The result is a monumental biography performed exquisitely by a Golden Voice narrator.
![Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Reese Witherspoon [Foreward]](https://booktrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Honey-Baby-Mine.jpeg "Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Reese Witherspoon [Foreward]")
Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Reese Witherspoon [Foreward]
Read by Laura Dern, Diane Ladd, Reese Witherspoon [Foreward] | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Hachette Audio | 7.75 hrs.]
This genre-bending collection of searingly intimate real-life conversations exemplifies everything that is exciting about audio as a medium. When actor Diane Ladd is diagnosed with lung scarring from pesticide exposure, she’s given six months to live and told that exercise is her only chance for improvement. Ladd’s daughter, actor Laura Dern, proposes daily walks, with nothing between the two left unsaid. Recording their conversations ignites the storyteller and performer in Ladd, whose breath and spirit audibly improve as the audiobook progresses. A phenomenally crafted audio experience unlike any other.
Homecoming by Kate Morton
Read by Claire Foy | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Bolinda Audio | 17.5 hrs.]
Claire Foy gives listeners a remarkable performance of Kate Morton’s sweeping new novel. On Christmas Day, 1959, a bizarre tragedy strikes the Turner family of South Australia. In 2018, Jess Turner, a London-based journalist, is summoned back to Sydney, where her grandmother lies gravely ill. There, she stumbles across the decades-old mystery. As she digs into the story, Jess wrestles with the stunning truth. Foy varies her intonation, pace, and pitch to create indelible audio portraits. She heightens the verisimilitude, pulling us in as the truth is uncovered.
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Read by Abraham Verghese | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Recorded Books | 31.25 hrs.]
Abraham Verghese is a gifted writer and a dramatic narrator. Once you listen to his nuanced, emotionally charged performance, you’ll be convinced that no one else could have better captured the dialects, tones, and cadences of his mostly Indian characters. The novel is a monumental work of fiction that benefits from the author’s fine ear, medical knowledge, and remarkable ability to make complex medical procedures and diagnoses central to this multigenerational story, set in the watery environs of India’s southern coast. This audiobook is a tour de force.
![The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle [Transl.]](https://booktrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/The-Wind-Knows-my-Name-Allende.jpg "The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle [Transl.]")
The Wind Knows My Name by Isabel Allende, Frances Riddle [Transl.]
Read by Edoardo Ballerini, Maria Liatis | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Random House Audio | 8 hrs.]
Narrators Edoardo Ballerini and Maria Liatis couldn’t be better in Isabel Allende’s intricate, heartrending novel. From 1938 Europe to 2019 America, numerous upended lives are woven into a fascinating tapestry. Samuel Adler must leave Nazi Germany via the Kindertransport; because of the Trump government’s heartless immigration policy, 7-year-old partially blind Anita is left alone in a detention center. Ballerini is simply outstanding. Every voice he delivers is believable; every emotion feels authentic. As Anita, Liatis sounds like a displaced and afraid child. Allende’s poignant storytelling and sharp criticism of unfeeling bureaucracies are made even better by two remarkable performances.
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
Read by Adam Lazarre-White | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Macmillan Audio | 13 hrs.]
Narrator Adam Lazarre-White draws listeners into the thought-provoking story of Titus Crowne, the first Black sheriff in the small Virginia county of Charon. As listeners enter Titus’s world, he is faced with a shooter at the high school, a neo-Confederate group on the march, and a serial killer terrifying the town. Lazarre-White delivers reflections on family, grief, and faith with genuine introspection and without distracting from the tense plotlines. This is a gripping, timely tale — beautifully told.
Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming by Ava Chin
Read by Ava Chin | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 11.5 hrs.]
Listeners will be fascinated by professor and journalist Ava Chin’s extensive examination of her Chinese American family’s history. Chin inserts herself into the narrative, detailing her visits to archives throughout the U.S. and her ancestral home in China. In an impassioned and insistent tone, Chin investigates the prejudices and marginalization her relatives endured once they arrived in the U.S. in the nineteenth century. This winning history, which is both personal and expansive, is expertly told and narrated.
Mortal Follies: Mortal Follies, Book 1 by Alexis Hall
Read by Nneka Okoye | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Random House Audio | 11.75 hrs.]
Nneka Okoye’s Shakespearian-style narration works well in this English story of society and curses in the year 1814. Our hobgoblin bard, Robin, invisibly follows 19-year-old Miss Maelys Mitchelmore to compile a story of comedy, tragedy, and romance. Miss Mitchelmore is rescued from mortification at a ball by the brooding Lady Georgianna Landrake. Miss Mitchelmore discovers she is under a curse that becomes increasingly more dangerous, and the two women’s mutual love becomes harder to resist. Okoye’s voice for Robin, the storyteller, is exquisitely caressing and devilish. Okoye’s theatrical credentials do her credit, as the listener can easily envision all these characters onstage.
Horse Barbie: A Memoir by Geena Rocero
Read by Geena Rocero | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Random House Audio | 11.25 hrs.]
Model and activist Geena Rocero shares her story in this poignant and powerful memoir. Her narration is sometimes buoyantly joyous, sometimes breathless with tension, sometimes playful and tinged with laughter. She recounts her teen years as a pageant queen in the Philippines, immigrating to the U.S., the years she spent closeted, and her eventual coming out and career as an advocate. Her outstanding narration is supported by a top-notch audio production that makes for an immersive experience highlighting both the transphobia Rocero has faced and the joy she has found in art, trans and Filipino community activism, and family.
Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood
Read by Thérèse Plummer | AudioFile Earphones Award
[Penguin Audio | 12.5 hrs.]
Thérèse Plummer delivers a dazzling performance, taking listeners into the world of theoretical physics at MIT. Dr. Elsie Hannaway is a miserable adjunct professor who is dreaming of tenure. To make ends meet, she also poses as a fake girlfriend, which is where she meets an infamous experimentalist, Jack Smith. As she fully embodies Elsie, Plummer’s portrayal is memorable and genuine. Her upbeat delivery of hilarious banter and heartfelt swoony moments between Elsie and Jack will leave listeners feeling every bit a part of their tension-filled enemies-to-lovers romance.
This story appears through BookTrib’s partnership with AudioFile and contains material originating from the AudioFile website.
