25+ Must Read Audiobooks

June is Audiobook month and even if you think they are not for you I beg you to hear me out. I wrote a whole big long posts for why you should give audio books a try but in short audiobooks are awesome. Audiobooks and Summer are the perfect match since they are great for road trips, keeping yourself distracted while you tend to house or yard work or even while working out. But really if you like reading I encourage you this June to try an audiobook. I have to this day only met ONE person who after actually trying to listen to audiobooks said they weren’t for her and even since that she’s enjoyed listening to audiobooks of books she’s already read! Lots of people won’t even try but I think if you give them a chance you just might fall in love. After all I too was an extreme naysayer.

If you’re an audiobook newbie I encourage you to try two things this June: listen to the audio version of a book that you have already read and loved. Listen to an audiobook that’s completely new to you.

I’ve listened to A LOT of audiobooks but just for you I’m narrowing it down to my top 25ish. You can click on the title of each to read the synopsis of each of these book. I have personally listened to all of these and loved both the stories and performances for each of these titles. Also a lot of these are series so if you like them you can continue the stories!

Books for the Whole Family

This first group of books are great for young and old so they would be good candidates for family road trips. They have varying degrees of maturity but if you’re wondering about something specific just ask me and I’ll do my best to give you my opinion. But I would think most Middle Schoolers should be fine with the content.

Harry Potter (Harry Potter Series ;) but really the reader is so good!)
Etiquette and Espionage (Finishing School Series)
Legend (Legend Series)
Insignia (Insignia Series)
The Goose Girl (Books of Bayern)
Inkheart (Inkheart Series)
The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy)

YA Dystopian, Sci-Fi and Fantasy

All of these have some magical or fantastical element. They are still all Young Adult appropriate but if listening to them with kids I’d use discretion.

Ender’s Game (and I adore the audiobooks in the Shadow spin off series of Ender’s Game)
Divergent (Divergent Series)
Ready Player One (this is an adult book with some more mature content and pop-culture references that kids won’t get)
Clockwork Angel (The Infernal Devices Series)
Graceling (Graceling Series)
The Adoration of Jenna Fox
The Demon King (Seven Realms Series)

Contemporary and Historical Fiction

These are all books with stories and characters that could actually happen. No magic or powers. Some of these have historical settings. Some have characters in odd situations but they are all more realistic than the two groups of books so far.

Anna and the French Kiss (there are companion books if you like this!)
Between Shades of Gray
A Mad, Wicked Folly
The Beginning of Everything
Say What You Will
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
The Sky Is Everywhere
If I Stay (I like the sequel Where She Went even better)
The Book Thief
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce books)

Non-Fiction

Unfortunately years of grad school burned me out on non-fiction so I don’t read a ton but here are a few that I really enjoyed. Sorry if you are into entrepreneurial life and getting kids to eat well haha.

It’s true that some books don’t translate the best to the audio format (like those that flip through time or that you find yourself having to flip back and forth while reading to remember who is who or what is going on) but in my experience there are only a handful of books that I thought were good but just didn’t work listening.