Staff Picks: Award-Winning Audiobooks

Fri, 02/24/2023 - 2:01pm by eapearce

Along with using the Libby app to checkout ebooks and audiobooks, AADL has a wide-ranging collection of audiobooks on CD! We’re adding new titles to this collection all the time. Here are some favorite and award-winning audiobooks you might want to check out.

Finding Me, by Viola Davis | Request Now

There’s something special about hearing a book read in the author’s own voice, especially when that book is an autobiography, and especially when the author is Viola Davis. In her memoir, Davis talks about coming-of-age under challenging circumstances in Rhode Island after her sharecropper grandparents migrated there from South Carolina. Listeners follow along with her fascinating story of outrunning her past all the way to finding her true purpose of a creative life on the New York stage and beyond. Davis has said that she hopes her story inspires others to find their outlets for creative expression and not be held back by labels that the world puts on people, especially young Black women.

 

 

The Four Winds, by Kristin Hannah | Request Now

The print version of The Four Winds remains one of AADL’s most checked out items, but the audiobook is an excellent way to take in this story as well. Set in Texas during the Dust Bowl era of the Great Depression, the story centers on Elsa Martinelli who is grappling with the decision over whether to stay on the land she loves or head west in search of a better life. The sweeping story is a testament to hope and resilience during an incredibly bleak period of American history. The audiobook is read by Julia Whelan, an author herself, who truly brings the novel to life. Her emotional reading of the story transports listeners to the time period and offers a truly immersive experience.

 

 

 

The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green | Request Now

The Anthropocene is our current geological age, about which John Green hosts a well-known podcast. This book compiles podcast topics into essays, making it a particularly good fit for an audiobook. In the podcast and book, he explores how humans have irrevocably shaped the planet today, emphasizing that we are both extremely powerful and not powerful enough, the latter of which became particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. Green himself reads the audiobook and his gift for storytelling shines through in his telling. Despite covering heavier topics at times, The Anthropocene Reviewed is ultimately a celebration of the various paths we can choose to take and a celebration of our love for the world.

 

 

Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir | Request Now

The audio version of this best-selling science fiction book by the author of The Martian got rave reviews when it was released in 2021. The story centers on Ryland Grace, who wakes up on a ship in the middle of space with no idea who he is or how he got there. As he slowly regains his memories, he realizes that he is the sole survivor of a desperate mission to eliminate a threat that will render humanity extinct. Now, he has no choice but to forge ahead on his own, or doom humanity to its fate. Part sci-fi thriller and part thoughtful examination of the human mind, this is a book for die-hard science fiction fans and those who don’t usually read the genre alike. Ray Porter performs the audiobook, and his telling garnered Project Hail Mary the 2022 Audie Awards Audiobook of the Year prize.