How Audiobooks Can Help You Fall Asleep Faster and Stay Asleep Longer

Introduction: What is an Audiobook, and How Does it Impact Sleep?

Audiobooks have become increasingly popular in recent years as a way to relax and unwind after a long day. But did you know audiobooks can also help you get better quality sleep? Studies have shown that listening to audiobooks before bedtime can help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Follow along with us today as we explore the impact of audiobooks on sleep and how they can be used to improve your sleep quality.

How Listening to an Audiobook Can Help You Combat Sleepless Nights

We all know how difficult it can be to fall asleep at night, especially when your mind is racing with thoughts you can’t control. Listening to an audiobook before bed can be a great way to help you relax and ease into sleep. Not only does it give you something else to focus on instead of worrying about the day ahead, but audiobooks also have the potential to help you fall asleep faster and avoid the temptation of endless social media scrolling before bed.

If you’re looking for an audiobook to carry you off to Dreamland, we recommend Mythos by Stephen Fry.

Benefits of Listening to a Story Before Bedtime That Will Help You Sleep Deeper and Longer

Listening to stories before bedtime can help you sleep better and longer. Audiobooks are a great way to relax and unwind before going to sleep. The soothing sound of the narrator’s voice, especially when you don’t have to pay close attention to the story, creates a lullaby effect that can help you drift off into a deep sleep. Listening to stories can also help reduce stress levels, which is important for getting quality sleep.

What are the Best Types of Audiobooks For Sleep?

Okay, so you’re ready to try it out and listen to an audiobook as you fall asleep, but where do you begin? Not all audiobooks are created equal when it comes to helping you drift off into a peaceful sleep. The best types of audiobooks for sleep include soothing soundscapes, calming stories, and narrators with relaxing voices. Whether you prefer the sound of rain falling on a lake or the gentle whispers of an audio drama, there’s an audiobook out there that can help you drift off into dreamland.

We’ve put together a list of our recommendations to get you started:

Bedtime Stories for Grown-Ups by Ben Holden, narrated by Ben Holden, Esther Wane, Luke Thompson, Sandra Duncan, Gareth Armstrong

Deep Sleep Music by Yella A. Deeken, narrated by Ian Brennan

Nothing Much Happens by Kathryn Nicolai, narrated by Kathryn Nicolai

Sleep Well by Sue Fuller, narrated by Sue Fuller


    Looking for Book Recommendations?

    • Here are the audiobooks our members have been loving, along with our staff picks that we’ve been championing.

    • Looking to share your love of books? Our handy Book Clubbin’ questions make it super easy to start a book club. Or, Netflix n’ buddy-read with this year’s book-to-screen adaptations (just be prepared for the perennial debate: is the book better than the movie/show?).

    • If you’re looking for something extra, we’ve got author and narrator interviews to give you a gleam inside their worlds.

    • For the curious-minded, audiobooks can teach you a thing or two, from nature therapy to personal finance. It can even keep the little ones busy so you can steal some time back for yourself.


    New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!

    Audiobooks to Help You Celebrate Pride Month: Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Listens for Littles

    This year, for Pride Month, some areas are easing back into normal life while other places are still in lockdown. So if you’re looking for a safe way to celebrate this month, why not pick up a new LGBTQIA+ audiobook! Keep reading to see some of the best listens to press play on for Pride or check out our full lists by clicking the applicable link: The Best LGBTQ+ Fiction, The Best LGBTQ+ Non-Fiction, LGBTQ+ Must-Listens for Kids and Teens.


    Fiction

    Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters, narrated by Renata Friedman

    Publisher Summary:

    Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn’t hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.

    Ames isn’t happy either. He thought detransitioning to live as a man would make life easier, but that decision cost him his relationship with Reese—and losing her meant losing his only family. Even though their romance is over, he longs to find a way back to her. When Ames’s boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she’s pregnant with his baby—and that she’s not sure whether she wants to keep it—Ames wonders if this is the chance he’s been waiting for. Could the three of them form some kind of unconventional family—and raise the baby together?

    This provocative debut is about what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can’t reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, narrated by Ocean Vuong

    Publisher Summary:

    On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born—a history whose epicenter is rooted in Vietnam—and serves as a doorway into parts of his life his mother has never known, all of it leading to an unforgettable revelation. At once a witness to the fraught yet undeniable love between a single mother and her son, it is also a brutally honest exploration of race, class, and masculinity. Asking questions central to our American moment, immersed as we are in addiction, violence, and trauma, but undergirded by compassion and tenderness, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is as much about the power of telling one’s own story as it is about the obliterating silence of not being heard.

    With stunning urgency and grace, Ocean Vuong writes of people caught between disparate worlds, and asks how we heal and rescue one another without forsaking who we are. The question of how to survive, and how to make of it a kind of joy, powers the most important debut novel of many years.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, narrated by Ramon De Ocampo

    Publisher Summary:

    When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius-his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There’s only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.

    Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn’t always diplomatic.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, narrated by Moira Quirk

    Publisher Summary:

    Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy.

    Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon’s sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Non-Fiction

    The Pink Line by Mark Gevisser, narrated by Vikas Adam, Mark Gevisser

    Publisher Summary:

    More than five years in the making, Mark Gevisser’s The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers is a globetrotting exploration of how the human rights frontier around sexual orientation and gender identity has come to divide—and describe—the world in an entirely new way over the first two decades of the twenty-first century. No social movement has brought change so quickly and with such dramatically mixed results. While same-sex marriage and gender transition is celebrated in some parts of the world, laws are being strengthened to criminalize homosexuality and gender nonconformity in others. A new Pink Line, Gevisser argues, has been drawn across the world, and he takes readers to its frontiers.

    In between sharp analytical chapters about culture wars, folklore, gender ideology, and geopolitics, Gevisser provides sensitive and sometimes startling profiles of the queer folk he’s encountered on the Pink Line’s frontiers across nine countries. They include a trans Malawian refugee granted asylum in South Africa and a gay Ugandan refugee stuck in Nairobi; a lesbian couple who started a gay café in Cairo after the Arab Spring, a trans woman fighting for custody of her child in Moscow, and a community of kothis—“women’s hearts in men’s bodies”—who run a temple in an Indian fishing village.

    Eye-opening, moving, and crafted with expert research, compelling narrative, and unprecedented scope, The Pink Line is a monumental—and vital—journey through the border posts of the world’s new LGBTQ+ frontiers.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    The Other Mothers by Jennifer Berney, narrated by Xe Sands

    Publisher Summary:

    Jenn Berney was one of those people who knew she was destined for motherhood-it wasn’t a question of if, but when. So when she and her wife Kelly decided to start building their family, they took the next logical step: they went to a fertility clinic. But they soon found themselves entrenched in a medical establishment that didn’t know what to do with people like them. With no man factoring into their relationship, doctors were at best embarrassed and at worst disparaging of the couple.

    Soon Jenn found herself stepping outside of the system determined to disregard her. Looking into the history of fertility and the LGBTQ+ community, she saw echoes of her own struggle. For decades queer people have defied the patriarchy and redefined the nuclear family-and Jenn was walking in their footsteps.

    Through the ups-and-downs of her own journey, Jenn reflects on a turbulent past that has led her to this point and a bright future worth fighting for. With clarity, determination, and hope, The Other Mothers gives us a wonderful glimpse into the many ways we can become family

    Read more and sample the audio →


    The Bold World by Jodie Patterson, narrated by Jodie Patterson

    Publisher Summary:

    In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, “Mama, I’m not a girl. I am a boy.” The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope’s revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn’t wide enough for her child’s needs.
     
    In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. Patterson finds that the fight for racial equality in which her ancestors were so prominent helped pave the way for the current gender revolution.
     
    From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer—and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron’s prophecy that the revolution will not be televised. It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us. Transition, we learn, doesn’t just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones, narrated by Saeed Jones

    Publisher Summary:

    Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir about a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.

    An award-winning poet, Jones has developed a style that’s as beautiful as it is powerful—a voice that’s by turns a river, a blues, and a nightscape set ablaze. How We Fight for Our Lives is a one-of-a-kind memoir and a book that cements Saeed Jones as an essential writer for our time.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Kids and Teens

    She’s Too Pretty to Burn by Wendy Heard, narrated by Frankie CorzoBailey CarrStephen Dexter

    Publisher Summary:

    The summer is winding down in San Diego. Veronica is bored, caustically charismatic, and uninspired in her photography. Nico is insatiable, subversive, and obsessed with chaotic performance art. They’re artists first, best friends second. But that was before Mick. Delicate, lonely, magnetic Mick: the perfect subject, and Veronica’s dream girl. The days are long and hot—full of adventure—and soon they are falling in love. Falling so hard, they never imagine what comes next. One fire. Two murders. Three drowning bodies. One suspect… one stalker. This is a summer they won’t survive. Inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, this sexy psychological thriller explores the intersections of love, art, danger, and power.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Baby & Solo by Lisabeth Posthuma, narrated by Nick Walther

    Publisher Summary:

    Seventeen-year-old Joel Teague has a new prescription from his therapist: a part-time job, the first step toward the elusive Normal life he’s been so desperate to live ever since The Bad Thing happened. Lucky for Joel, ROYO Video is hiring. It’s the perfect fresh start-he even gets a new name. Dubbed “Solo” after his favorite Star Wars character, Joel works his way up the not-so-corporate ladder without anyone suspecting What Was Wrong With Him. That is, until he befriends Nicole “Baby” Palmer, a smart-mouthed coworker with a chip on her shoulder about… well, everything, and the two quickly develop the kind of friendship movie montages are made of. However, when Joel’s past inevitably catches up with him, he’s forced to choose between preserving his new blank slate persona and coming clean-and either way, he risks losing the first real friend he’s ever had. Set in a pop-culture-rich 1990s, this remarkable story tackles challenging and timely themes with huge doses of wit, power, and heart.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson, narrated by Alaska Jackson

    Publisher Summary:

    Liz Lighty has always believed she’s too black, too poor, too awkward to shine in her small, rich, prom-obsessed midwestern town. But it’s okay—Liz has a plan that will get her out of Campbell, Indiana, forever: attend the uber-elite Pennington College, play in their world-famous orchestra, and become a doctor.
    But when the financial aid she was counting on unexpectedly falls through, Liz’s plans come crashing down… until she’s reminded of her school’s scholarship for prom king and queen. There’s nothing Liz wants to do less than endure a gauntlet of social media trolls, catty competitors, and humiliating public events, but despite her devastating fear of the spotlight she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get to Pennington. The only thing that makes it halfway bearable is the new girl in school, Mack. She’s smart, funny, and just as much of an outsider as Liz. But Mack is also in the running for queen. Will falling for the competition keep Liz from her dreams… or make them come true?

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Between Perfect & Real by Ray Stoeve, narrated by Mw Cartozian Wilson

    Publisher Summary:

    Dean Foster knows he’s a trans guy. He’s watched enough YouTube videos and done enough questioning to be sure. But everyone at his high school thinks he’s a lesbian—including his girlfriend Zoe, and his theater director, who just cast him as a “nontraditional” Romeo. He wonders if maybe it would be easier to wait until college to come out. But as he plays Romeo every day in rehearsals, Dean realizes he wants everyone to see him as he really is now—not just on the stage, but everywhere in his life. Dean knows what he needs to do. Can playing a role help Dean be his true self?

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Related Articles

    • 9 LGBTQ+ Memoirs For Pride Month

    • 13 #OwnVoices Audiobooks to Diversify Your Shelf

    • Interview with ‘Soar, Adam, Soar’ author, Rick Prashaw and narrator, John Dickhout


    New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!

    Staff Pick: Hunt, Gather, Parent by Michaeleen Doucleff

    Title: Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans

    Author: Michaeleen Doucleff

    Narrator: Michaeleen Doucleff

    Imagine: you’ve just turned 16 and are about to get behind the wheel of a car for the first time. You’re excited and nervous in equal measure, but optimistic about the outcome because you won’t be left alone until you’ve mastered certain skills under careful mentorship. Then, surprise! You’re tossed the keys, told to drive yourself to some isolated area and figure it out for yourself no matter how dangerous or damaging the consequences. You can call a friend or try to Google your way out, but the intense support system that is essential to creating competent and confident new drivers is non-existent. That’s basically new motherhood in Western culture. 

    If it sounds like the wrong way of doing things, well, that’s exactly what Michaeleen Doucleff would say. She’s a correspondent for NPR’s Science Desk with a doctorate in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. She’s also a mother. Her travels around the world and through the fields of psychology, anthropology and neuroscience have lead her realize that everything from the nuclear family structure to the bulk of parenting guidance and societal norms for new parents in North America aren’t based on tradition or science, and are actually unusual on the world stage.

    To find out how the rest of the globe parents, Doucleff focused on three communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She brought her three-year-old daughter with her and spent time living with families descendent from these ancient cultures who showed her how to be a parent. She was taught their strategies and techniques that raise happy and helpful children, and then distilled that knowledge down into this book so that it’s possible for all parents from Western cultures to do the same. 

    In narrating her own book, Doucleff brings the personal inflection and emotion to the text that only an author can bring. Her career in radio journalism also means that the performance is high-caliber and artfully told – easy to listen to and consistently captivating.

    Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans has renewed my sense of optimism around parenting. It does not need to be the lonely, exhausting venture our culture has made it out to be, centered around behavioral control. It should be the relaxed, village-based approach founded on gentle principles that has worked for millennia, and continues to work all around the world.

    Publisher Summary:

    The oldest cultures in the world have mastered the art of raising happy, well-adjusted children. What can we learn from them?

    When Dr. Michaeleen Doucleff becomes a mother, she examines the studies behind modern parenting guidance and finds the evidence frustratingly limited and the conclusions often ineffective. Curious to learn about more effective parenting approaches, she visits a Maya village in the Yucatán Peninsula. There she encounters moms and dads who parent in a totally different way than we do—and raise extraordinarily kind, generous, and helpful children without yelling, nagging, or issuing timeouts. What else, Doucleff wonders, are Western parents missing out on?

    In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Doucleff sets out with her three-year-old daughter in tow to learn and practice parenting strategies from families in three of the world’s most venerable communities: Maya families in Mexico, Inuit families above the Arctic Circle, and Hadzabe families in Tanzania. She sees that these cultures don’t have the same problems with children that Western parents do. Most strikingly, parents build a relationship with young children that is vastly different from the one many Western parents develop—it’s built on cooperation instead of control, trust instead of fear, and personalized needs instead of standardized development milestones.

    Maya parents are masters at raising cooperative children. Without resorting to bribes, threats, or chore charts, Maya parents rear loyal helpers by including kids in household tasks from the time they can walk. Inuit parents have developed a remarkably effective approach for teaching children emotional intelligence. When kids cry, hit, or act out, Inuit parents respond with a calm, gentle demeanor that teaches children how to settle themselves down and think before acting. Hadzabe parents are world experts on raising confident, self-driven kids with a simple tool that protects children from stress and anxiety, so common now among American kids.

    Not only does Doucleff live with families and observe their techniques firsthand, she also applies them with her own daughter, with striking results. She learns to discipline without yelling. She talks to psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, and sociologists and explains how these strategies can impact children’s mental health and development. Filled with practical takeaways that parents can implement immediately, Hunt, Gather, Parent helps us rethink the ways we relate to our children, and reveals a universal parenting paradigm adapted for American families.

    Read more and sample the audio →


    Related Articles:

    Staff Pick: #IMOMSOHARD by Jen Smedley and Kristin Hensley

    Book Clubbin’: 10 Discussion Questions for ‘Group’ by Christie Tate

    Staff Pick: Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White


    New to Audiobooks.com? Get your first book free, PLUS a bonus book from our VIP selection when you sign up for our one-month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking, and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobooks!

    March’s Top 10 Audiobooks.com Member Downloads

    Listen to last month’s roundup of the top fiction and non-fiction titles downloaded by Audiobooks.com members.

    Fiction:

    The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, narrated by Jack HawkinsLouise Brealey

    Publisher Summary:

    Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

    Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

    Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations-a search for the truth that threatens to consume him.

    Read more and sample the audio →

    The Lost Girls Of Paris by Pam Jenoff, narrated by Candace ThaxtonHenrietta MeireElizabeth Knowelden

    Publisher Summary:

    One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

    Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.

    Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.

    Read more and sample the audio

    Cemetery Road by Greg Iles, narrated by Scott Brick

    Publisher Summary:

    When Marshall McEwan left his hometown at age eighteen, he vowed never to return. The trauma that drove him away ultimately spurred him to become one of the most successful journalists in Washington D.C. But just as the political chaos in the nation’s capital lifts him to new heights, Marshall is forced to return home in spite of his boyhood vow.

    His father is dying, his mother is struggling to keep the family newspaper from failing, and the town is in the midst of an economic rebirth that might be built upon crimes that reach into the state capitol—and perhaps even to Washington. More disturbing still, Marshall’s high school sweetheart, Jet, has married into the family of Max Matheson, patriarch of one of the families that rule Bienville through a shadow organization called the Bienville Poker Club.

    When archeologist Buck McKibben is murdered at a construction site, Bienville is thrown into chaos. The ensuing homicide investigation is soon derailed by a second crime that rocks the community to its core. Power broker Max Matheson’s wife has been shot dead in her own bed, and the only other person in it at the time was her husband, Max. Stranger still, Max demands that his daughter-on-law, Jet, defend him in court.

    As a journalist, Marshall knows all too well how the corrosive power of money and politics can sabotage investigations. Without telling a soul, he joins forces with Jet, who has lived for fifteen years at the heart of Max Matheson’s family, and begins digging into both murders. With Jet walking the dangerous road of an inside informer, they soon uncover a web of criminal schemes that undergird the town’s recent success. But these crimes pale in comparison to the secret at the heart of the Matheson family. When those who have remained silent for years dare to speak to Marshall, pressure begins to build like water against a crumbling dam.

    Marshall loses friends, family members, and finally even Jet, for no one in Bienville seems willing to endure the reckoning that the Poker Club has long deserved. And by the time Marshall grasps the long-buried truth, he would give almost anything not to have to face it.

    Read more and sample the audio

    Run Away by Harlan Coben, narrated by Steven Weber

    Publisher Summary:

    You’ve lost your daughter.

    She’s addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to be found.

    Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she’s not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble.

    You don’t stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home.

    She runs.

    And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.

    Read more and sample the audio

    Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, narrated by Jennifer BealsJudy GreerBenjamin BrattPablo Schreiber

    Publisher Summary:

    Everyone knows DAISY JONES & THE SIX, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity…until now.

    Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock ’n’ roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
    Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

    Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

    The making of that legend is chronicled in this riveting and unforgettable novel, written as an oral history of one of the biggest bands of the seventies. Taylor Jenkins Reid is a talented writer who takes her work to a new level with Daisy Jones & The Six, brilliantly capturing a place and time in an utterly distinctive voice.

    Read more and sample the audio

    Non-Fiction:

    Becoming by Michelle Obama, narrated by Michelle Obama

    Publisher Summary:

    An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States. Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms.

    Read more and sample the audio →

    Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis, narrated by Rachel Hollis

    Publisher Summary:

    Rachel Hollis has seen it too often: women not living into their full potential. They feel a tugging on their hearts for something more, but they’re afraid of embarrassment, of falling short of perfection, of not being enough.

    In Girl, Stop Apologizing, #1 New York Times bestselling author and founder of a multimillion-dollar media company, Rachel Hollis sounds a wake-up call. She knows that many women have been taught to define themselves in light of other people—whether as wife, mother, daughter, or employee—instead of learning how to own who they are and what they want. With a challenge to women everywhere to stop talking themselves out of their dreams, Hollis identifies the excuses to let go of, the behaviors to adopt, and the skills to acquire on the path to growth, confidence, and believing in yourself.

    Read more and sample the audio →

    Educated by Tara Westover, narrated by Julia Whelan

    Publisher Summary:

    An unforgettable memoir about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.

    Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

    Read more and sample the audio →

    The Morning Mind by Kirti Salwe Carter MBBS MPH, Dr. Robert Carter III, narrated by Wayne Campbell

    Publisher Summary:

    Unleash positive thinking and productive imagination, and flip negative thoughts and behaviors into a lifetime to improve every aspect of your life—each morning, one day at a time.

    Bad habits. Bad feelings. Bad mornings that turn into regrettable days.
    Banish them all with simple brain hacks that flip negative thoughts and behaviors into positive, productive ones. Instead of dragging through your day, learn to wake up refreshed, recharge regularly, and live better than ever.
    The Morning Mind makes it easy. Based on findings from neuroscience and medicine, the book helps you tamp down on the fear-driven reptile brain and tap into the part linked to thinking and imagination.

    Read more and sample the audio →

    Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, narrated by Derek Perkins

    Publisher Summary:

    One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?

    Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.

    Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?

    Read more and sample the audio →


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    Work Out Your Funny Bone With These Comedian Memoirs

    What’s better than having a good laugh?

    In honor of April Fools’ Day, we thought it would be fun to round up some side-splitting comedian memoirs that are sure to have you laughing out loud. For the full list, take a look at our Comedian Memoirs book list.

    Bossypants by Tina Fey, narrated by Tina Fey

    Publisher Summary:
    Before Liz Lemon, before ‘Weekend Update,’ before ‘Sarah Palin,’ Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV.

    She has seen both these dreams come true.

    At last, Tina Fey‘s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoonfrom the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence.

    Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

    (Includes Special, Never-Before-Solicited Opinions on Breastfeeding, Princesses, Photoshop, the Electoral Process, and Italian Rum Cake!)

    Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson, narrated by Phoebe Robinson

    Publisher Summary:

    New York Times bestselling author and star of 2 Dope Queens Phoebe Robinson is back with a new, hilarious, and timely essay collection on gender, race, dating, and the dumpster fire that is our world.

    Written in her trademark unfiltered and witty style, Robinson‘s latest collection is a call to arms. Outfitted with on-point pop culture references, these essays tackle a wide range of topics: giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality, telling society’s beauty standards to kick rocks, and calling foul on our culture’s obsession with work. Robinson also gets personal, exploring money problems she’s hidden from her parents, how dating is mainly a warmed-over bowl of hot mess, and, definitely most important, meeting Bono not once, but twice. She’s struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every dayand because she’s seen roughly one hundred thousand hours of reality TV and zero hours of Schindler’s List.

    With the intimate voice of a new best friend, Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay is a candid perspective for a generation that has had the rug pulled out from under it too many times to count.

    Read more and sample the audio →

    David Mitchell: Back Story by David Mitchell, narrated by David Mitchell

    Publisher Summary:

    David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look, has written a book about his life.

    As well as giving a specific account of every single time he’s scored some smack, this disgusting memoir also details:

    • the singular, pitbull-infested charm of the FRP (‘Flat Roofed Pub’)
    • the curious French habit of injecting everyone in the arse rather than the arm
    • why, by the time he got to Cambridge, he really, really needed a drink
    • the pain of being denied a childhood birthday party at McDonalds
    • the satisfaction of writing jokes about suicide
    • how doing quite a lot of walking around London helps with his sciatica
    • trying to pretend he isn’t a total **** at Robert Webb’s wedding
    • that he has fallen in love at LOT, but rarely done anything about it
    • why it would be worse to bump into Michael Palin than Hitler on holiday
    • that he’s not David Mitchell the novelist. Despite what David Miliband might think

    Read more and sample the audio →

    Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick, narrated by Anna Kendrick

    Publisher Summary:

    A collection of humorous autobiographical essays by the Academy Award-nominated actress and star of Up in the Air and Pitch Perfect.

    “I’m excited to publish my first book, and because I get uncomfortable when people have high expectations, I’d like to use this opportunity to showcase my ineptitude, pettiness, and the frequency with which I embarrass myself. And while many of my female inspirations who have become authors are incredibly well-educated and accomplished comedy writers, I’m very, very funny on Twitter, according to Buzzfeed and my mom, so I feel like this is a great idea. Quick question: are run-on sentences still frowned upon? Wait, is ending a sentence with a preposition still frowned upon? I mean, upon frowned? Dammit!” —Anna Kendrick

    Anna Kendrick’s autobiographical collection of essays amusingly recounts memorable moments throughout her life, from her middle class upbringing in New England to the blockbuster movies that have made her one of Hollywood’s most popular actresses today. Expanding upon the witty and ironic dispatches for which she is known, Anna Kendrick’s essays offer her one-of-a-kind commentary on the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture

    Read more and sample the audio →

    The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish, narrated by Tiffany Haddish

    Publisher Summary:

    From stand-up comedian, actress, and breakout star of Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish, comes The Last Black Unicorn, a sidesplitting, hysterical, edgy, and unflinching collection of (extremely) personal essays, as fearless as the author herself.

    Growing up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles, Tiffany learned to survive by making people laugh. If she could do that, then her classmates would let her copy their homework, the other foster kids she lived with wouldn’t beat her up, and she might even get a boyfriend. Or at least she could make enough money—as the paid school mascot and in-demand Bar Mitzvah hype woman—to get her hair and nails done, so then she might get a boyfriend.

    None of that worked (and she’s still single), but it allowed Tiffany to imagine a place for herself where she could do something she loved for a living: comedy.

    Tiffany can’t avoid being funny—it’s just who she is, whether she’s plotting shocking, jaw-dropping revenge on an ex-boyfriend or learning how to handle her newfound fame despite still having a broke person’s mind-set. Finally poised to become a household name, she recounts with heart and humor how she came from nothing and nowhere to achieve her dreams by owning, sharing, and using her pain to heal others.

    By turns hilarious, filthy, and brutally honest, The Last Black Unicorn shows the world who Tiffany Haddish really is—humble, grateful, down-to-earth, and funny as hell. And now, she’s ready to inspire others through the power of laughter.

    Read more and sample the audio →

    New to Audiobooks.com? Get a free audiobook when you sign up for our one month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobook!

    7 Audiobooks to Listen to On Your Winter Getaway

    The holiday season is very much over, and it’s a loooongg time till spring (Boo!). So what better way to beat the winter blues than to go on a vacation, a weekend trip, or even just take some time off work to stay at home? Why not enjoy those times by bringing an audiobook or two along for the ride?

     

    Something to listen to on a road trip
    An Anonymous Girl
    by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, narrated by Julia Whelan, Barrie Kreinik

    Depending on where you are driving to, the journey can be more exciting than the destination. Make that trip even more thrilling by listening to An Anonymous Girl, which is by the authors of The Wife Between Us.

    When Jessica Farris signs up for a psychology study conducted by the mysterious Dr. Shields, she thinks all she’ll have to do is answer a few questions, collect her money, and leave. However, before long, the questions grow more and more invasive and Dr. Shields begins to get more and more controlling. The twists and turns will add some excitement to your long drive!

    Read more and sample the audio!

     

    Something to listen to at the ski lodge
    Bite the Biscuit: A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery by Linda O. Johnston, narrated by Carla Mercer-Meyer

    You’ve been skiing all day, now you’re nice and snug, curled up with a boozy hot chocolate and wrapped up in a nice warm blanket. What better to listen to than a cozy mystery?

    Carrie Kennersly is a veterinary technician and owner of “The Barkery” where she sells dog cookies and treats. Myra and Harris Ethman, who own a rival store selling pet products, publicly badmouth Carrie and her business. Suddenly, Myra is found dead with a Barkery cookie beside her, and Carrie, with help from her dog, Biscuit, must prove she wasn’t involved in the crime.

    Read more and sample the audio!

     

    Something for your cruise
    Embrace Yourself by Taryn Brumfitt, narrated by Taryn Brumfitt

    Is there anything better than being on a cruise, sitting in the sunshine, eating delicious food, and being safe in the knowledge that everyone else you know is at home in the snow, rain, and cold? I don’t think so. 

    While you’re working on your tan, why not work on your wellness and self-esteem? Taryn Brumfitt, the director of the award-winning documentary Embrace has helped people all over the world embrace their bodies and reject the destructive images we are bombarded with every day. Taryn Brumfitt narrates the book herself, which means it feels like a friend is telling you how great you are. So start now — love your body, and be an all-round more “sparkly” person. 

    Read more and sample the audio!

     

    Something for your tropical beach getaway
    The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson, narrated by Marisa Calin

    Ah, when you’re relaxing on that beach, you finally have time to sit and listen to a really good book. If you’re a fan of The Crown, you’ll love this. While there have been a number of novels set in the 40s and 50s, this takes a fresh angle — written from the perspective of the dressmakers of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding dress. Jennifer Robson balances behind-the-scenes details with an in-depth portrait of British post-war society and introduces readers to three unforgettable heroines: embroiderers Ann and Miriam, and Ann’s granddaughter, Heather. 

    Read more and sample the audio!

     

    Something for your staycation
    The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller

    Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last month or so, you’ve heard about Marie Kondo, her Netflix series, and her amazing techniques for decluttering and organizing. My husband and I have already managed to watch the show and read the book, but the bit where we have to actually declutter hasn’t really happened yet. We are all about the KonMari Method…once we get off the couch.

    If you’ve decided to take some time off work to hang out at home, what better way to take advantage of your time off than to start cleaning and tidying! With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy,” this international bestseller will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home.

    Read more and sample the audio!

     

    Something for your boys’ weekend
    Positively Unstoppable: The Art of Owning It by Diamond Dallas Page, narrated by Joe Barrett, Diamond Dallas Page

    Gearing up for a boys’ weekend? Do you need some motivation to get you ready for your trip? World-renowned WWE Hall of Famer turned fitness guru Diamond Dallas Page will totally get you pumped! 

    In Positively Unstoppable, he breaks down his understanding of what really motivates people to change their lives. Full of tips, goal setting guides, and more, there’s a whole lot of humor and fun that’ll keep you listening.  

    Read more and sample the audio!

     

    Something for your girls’ weekend
    Love Me Tinder by Nicola May, narrated by Penny Scott Andrews

    Off with the ladies for parties and prosecco? This is a fun, bawdy listen that you’ll enjoy from the start. I was initially attracted to this book because there’s a foul-mouthed (or should I say fowl-mouthed — hahaha) parrot called Lady P, and since I have my own overly vocal parrot, I thought this would be a fun listen. I was not disappointed!

    With her marriage in pieces, Cali Summers hits the world of fast love on an internet dating app. With a charming F1 engineer, a handsome army officer, and her adulterous ex all on the scene, a predictable love match is far from on the cards!

    Read more and sample the audio!

     

    New to Audiobooks.com? Get a free audiobook when you sign up for our one month free trial. Digital audiobooks make audible stories come to life when you’re commuting, working out, cleaning, cooking and more! Listening is easy with our top-rated free audiobook apps for iOS and Android, which let you download & listen to bestselling audiobooks on the go, wherever you are. Click here to get your free audiobook!