Pop + Culture + Monday: Audiobooks in My Earholes

I am by far the slowest and least prolific reader in our home. My spouse is a veracious reader, so it is not difficult to see where they picked up the cues, but my gawd, the aggressively competitive nature of the Goodreads book tracking can get a little ridiculous at times :-)

It’s not that I don’t read. I simply do most of my reading via audiobooks through my earholes. Along with a bunch of podcasts and a heavy rotation of Debbie Gibson, TuPac, New Edition, Black Pink, Showtunes, and 80s R&B slow jam playlists, I listen to audiobooks as most folks do: while driving, taking walks, doing chores, etc. I also listen to more than one book at a time, depending on my mood. The best ones make me look forward to the next chance to pop in my earbuds and pick up where I left off.

As I ramp up Pop-Culture Monday, I will pop back in on occasion with more in-depth audiobook reviews and thoughts, but for this first post, here are many audio titles that I have enjoyed over time.

Novels: I am currently listing to Babel or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang and am about 25% of the way through. It is about an orphan from Canton who is thrust into the Oxford Royal Institute of Translation and how he navigates the strange London world. I would also suggest the Veronica Speedwell Series by Deanna Raybourn about an English female detective in the 1800’s; so very good with great writing and an even better narrator in Angele Masters. And for a more modern twist about culture, church, and adulting, The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwan is an excellent listen.

Mysteries: If you want some bibingka with your mystery, the Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery series by Mia P. Manansala might be for you. You don’t need to be Filipino to appreciate the food and relationships, but if you are, it is right on. It is light, fun, and well-narrated. There are three already out, with the fourth, Murder and Mamon due out September 2023. And speaking of light fun, the Finley Donovan Series is about as light fun mystery as it gets; brain candy at its finest :-)

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Fantasy and Sci-Fi: If you are into some fantasy, I did love the Wil Wheaton narrated Ready Player One and Ready Play Two both by Ernest Cline. I would also highly suggest Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Severance by Ling Ma, Version Zero by David Yoon, and The Resisters by Gish Gen.

Non-Fiction: I loved How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith and How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr. Also listened to Wilmington's Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy and it was a good regional listen. If you like history as told in novel form, anything by Erik Larson is a good listen, as is River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard.

Okay, there are many more, but that’s probably enough to get started.

Feel free to leave titles of books that you have loved to listen to.

*In an attempt to not give all my money to Amazon via Audible, I use Libro.fm, where each purchase goes to support a local bookstore of your choosing. If you want to join Libro.fm feel free to use my referral code [lfm370410] or click here to join. All of the book versions of these titles are listed on my Bookshop.