Listen List: Extraordinary Audiobook Listening Experiences

Couple listening to headphones. Photography. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.
quest.eb.com/search/154_2884787/1/154_2884787/cite. Accessed 9 Nov 2017.

It's almost time for the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to announce the 2018 picks for their Listen List: Outstanding Audiobook Narration! What is the Listen List, you ask? It's an award which  "highlights extraordinary narrators and listening experiences that merit special attention by a general adult audience and the librarians who advise them." Since 2010, a committee has convened annually to listen to over 1,000 hours of audiobooks, over 200 titles, to find 12 winners. All the titles under consideration must be available to purchase for public libraries; winners are chosen "because the narration creates a new experience with an outstanding performance in terms of voice, accents, pitch, tone, inflection, rhythm and pace, offering listeners something they could not create by their own visual reading." Handily, each of the 12 titles also comes with three recommended listenalikes "not appearing on previous Listen Lists, which mirror the appeal, tone, or production style of the winners."

The 2017 Listen List included:

Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson [Playaway & eAudiobook]

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories by Stephen King [book on CD & eAudiobook]

Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn [eAudiobook]

The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper by Phaedra Patrick [eAudiobook]

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond [eAudiobook]

Julian Fellowes's Belgravia by Julian Fellowes [eAudiobook]

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley [book on CD & eAudiobook]

News of the World by Paulette Jiles [book on CD]

Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen [book on CD, Playaway, & eAudiobook]

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel [eAudiobook]

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead [book on CD & eAudiobook]

You can find the full list with listenalikes on the RUSA website.


Because we love being read to, we'd like to suggest other recent audiobooks of note, focusing specifically on those read by the author:

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie [book on CD & eAudiobook]

The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat [eAudiobook & book on CD]

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay [eAudiobook]

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy [book on CD & eAudiobook]

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard [eAudiobook]

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid [eAudiobook]

4321 by Paul Auster [eAudiobook & Playaway]

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference In My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman [eAudiobook & book on CD]