15 Best Audiobooks for Your First Listen

If you are completely new to audiobooks, the entire Harry Potter series is an incredible place to start.

1. You're probably already familiar with the plot, so if your mind wanders you won't miss crucial details.
2. Jim Dale is an AMAZING narrator. His accent and character voices bring the stories to life.

"Orphaned as an infant, young Harry Potter has been living a less-than-fortunate life. Belittled by his pompous uncle and sniveling aunt (not to mention his absolute terror of a cousin, Dudley), Harry has resigned himself to a mediocre existence in the cupboard under the stairs. But then the letters start dropping on the doormat at Number Four, Privet Drive..."

One of the wonderful things about Yes, Please is that the book is written in short stand-alone chapters.

You can easily pick the book up for a listen and then take a break and have no trouble picking back up again wherever you left off.

Funny and inspirational at the same time, it is a pleasure to listen to Amy and her friends narrate the book together.

"Amy Poehler is hosting a dinner party and you're invited!...

While listening to Yes Please, you'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll become convinced that your phone is trying to kill you. Don't miss this collection of stories, thoughts, ideas, lists, and haikus from the mind of one of our most beloved entertainers."

The infamous Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon features books that all run 700+ pages. They are an investment in time and can be a little tricky to get into.

I strongly encourage the audiobooks narrated by Davina Porter who continually amazes me with her ability to voice such a long list of characters so well.

Porter highlights the humor and romance of the novels in a way that can be hard to pick up on with just a straight read of the book.

"In 1945, former combat nurse Claire Randall returns from World War II and joins her husband for a second honeymoon. Their blissful reunion is shattered when she touches a boulder in an ancient stone ruin and is instantly transported to 1743 Scotland, a place torn by war and raiding border clans. Will Claire find her way back to her own time, or is her destiny forever linked with Clan MacKenzie and the gallant James Fraser?"

I couldn't stop listening to the cast of Daisy Jones & The Six, this audiobook is like listening to a VH1 special.

It is so much easier to keep the characters straight with the varied voices of Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, and more.

The plot is easy to follow and listen to in shorter bursts.

"A gripping novel about the whirlwind rise of an iconic 1970s rock group and their beautiful lead singer, revealing the mystery behind their infamous breakup.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in LA in the late '60s, 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 20, 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."

This is my husband's favorite audiobook of all time. He insists that the read by Wil Wheaton is utterly captivating.

I read the book on my Kindle and keep meaning to go back and give it a listen to see if he's right. No matter how you enjoy this book, make sure it is on your To Read List for the year!

"At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, Ready Player One is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut - part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.

It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of 10,000 planets.

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune - and remarkable power - to whoever can unlock them."

It's hard to put into words just how satisfying The Dutch House is to listen to but I'm sure the narration by Tom Hanks doesn't hurt.

This is an example of a book I likely would not have enjoyed had I read it on my own. Tom Hanks somehow managed to make a book that some have described as "slow and boring" one that I couldn't wait to listen to every time I got into my car.

The book has a slower pace and is a very soothing listen.

"At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves." 

This Stephen King book quickly jumped to the list of my favorite books of all time after I finished listening to the audiobook version.

Even if you think you're not a Stephen King fan, this is more a historical fiction with a bit of time travel fantasy thrown in.

It is perhaps the single most romantic book I have ever read and it made me tear up over the beauty of humanity more than once.

"On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a 35-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away: a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life - like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963 - turning on a dime.

Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession - to prevent the Kennedy assassination."

If you've struggled listening to audiobooks in the past, I strongly recommend trying a non-fiction book.

Atomic Habits was another of my favorite reads from last year. Listening to non-fiction can be a lot easier than trying to manage a fiction plotline.

You'll end up with solid takeaway bits of inspiration from this short and punchy book.

"No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results."

This is one of my favorite books from last year. My husband and I read it at the same time: me on my Kindle, him on Audible.

It is a middle grade children's novel, but we did not read it with our kids. We enjoyed it ourselves and it is one of the best written stories I've read in a very long time.

My husband said the audiobook had to have been better than the Kindle version because they included bits of music when the story required. I'd love to go back and give it a listen.

"Lost and alone in the forbidden Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each becomes interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives, binding them by an invisible thread of destiny.

All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. How their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo will resound in your heart long after the last note has been struck."

RIP Betty White, how lovely that her amazing humor and voice live on in the narration of her unabridged autobiography.

I have not personally read this book but it came strongly recommended as a great sample from the members of the Peanut Blossom Book Club.

"It-girl Betty White delivers a hilarious, slyly profound take on love, life, celebrity, and everything in between.

Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White's wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories from a seven- decade career in Hollywood."

This is another audiobook recommended by the Peanut Blossom Book Club members that I enjoyed on my Kindle.

I'm told the voice brings crotchety old Ove to life and makes him even more sympathetic of a character.

"Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon - the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him “the bitter neighbor from hell”. But must Ove be bitter just because he doesn’t walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?"

Members of the Peanut Blossom Book Club are often looking for recommendations for books they can enjoy reading with their husbands.

Many women have mentioned how much they love this audiobook of The Martian and it makes me think it would be the perfect book to listen to in the car together with your guy on a long road trip.

"Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first."

I've got this audiobook queued up in my Audible phone app right now. It came strongly recommended by the Peanut Blossom Book Club for women who love time travel and historical fiction.

"France, 1714: In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever - and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets.

Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world."

Looking for a bit of intrigue and suspense?

One way to get your brain engaged with an audiobook is to listen to a thriller. It's the audio version of a page turner.

"In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie's works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea.

At first Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: The cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can describe only as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard.

The problem? All passengers remain accounted for - and so the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo's desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong."

Described as "Laugh out loud funny" by the members of the Peanut Blossom Book Club, this book was also strongly recommended as a great option for a first time audiobook listener.

"Lillian and Madison were unlikely roommates and yet inseparable friends at their elite boarding school. But then, Lillian had to leave the school unexpectedly in the wake of a scandal, and they’ve barely spoken since. Until now, when Lillian gets a letter from Madison pleading for her help.

Madison’s twin stepkids are moving in with her family, and she wants Lillian to be their caretaker. However, there’s a catch: The twins spontaneously combust when they get agitated, flames igniting from their skin in a startling but beautiful way. Lillian is convinced Madison is pulling her leg, but it’s the truth."