June is National Audiobook Appreciation Month – and we are happy to celebrate it with you! Whether you’re lounging by the pool, taking off on a fun summer road trip, or even finishing up your chores around the house, audiobooks are a great way to take your reading with you wherever you go!
Check out some of the titles below for suggestions on highly rated Adult, YA, Junior, and Audiobooks for the whole family!
Audiobooks For The Whole Family
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller and read by Greta Jung
Would you make a deal with a magical tiger? When Lily finds out her Halmoni’s (grandmother’s) health is failing, she is ready to do anything it takes to save her. Inspired by Korean folklore, this story follows Lily as she navigates difficult choices and magical beings, and as she finds the courage to face the tigers and find her voice.
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart and read by Khristine Hvam
audiobook on CD, e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby, e-audiobook – Hoopla
Five years. That’s how long Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have lived on the road in an old school bus, criss-crossing the nation. It’s also how long ago Coyote lost her mom and two sisters in a car crash. Coyote hasn’t been home in all that time, but when she learns that the park in her old neighborhood is being demolished — the same park where she, her mom, and her sisters buried a treasured memory box — she devises an elaborate plan to get her dad to drive 3,600 miles back to Washington state in four days…without him realizing it. Along the way, they’ll meet new friends who will teach them important lessons about life.
The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty and read by Ana Isabel
Lucy Callahan was struck by lightning. She doesn’t remember it, but it changed her life forever. The zap gave her genius-level math skills, and ever since, Lucy has been homeschooled. Now, at 12 years old, she’s technically ready for college. She just has to pass 1 more test—middle school!
Caterpillar Summer by Gillian Mcdunn and read by Cassandra Lee Morris
Since their mom has had to work double-hard to keep their family afloat after their father passed away, Cat is the glue holding her family together. When a summer trip doesn’t go as planned, Cat and her brother Chicken end up spending three weeks with grandparents they’ve never met and the journey she takes shows that even the most broken relationships can be healed if people take the time to walk in one another’s shoes.
The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Told from separate viewpoints, Chess, Emma, and Finn Greystone, ages twelve, ten, and eight, investigate why their mother went missing and uncover their ties to an alternate world.
Audiobooks for Adults
The Chief Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny and read by Ralph Cosham and Robert Bathurst
audiobook on CD, e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby
With narration that makes you feel as if you are having a conversation at Olivier’s Bistro with Armand Gamache himself, Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series is as wonderful to listen to as it is to read! In anticipation of the 17th installment in this popular Canadian Crime Fiction series, The Madness of Crowds (out this August), get caught up this summer by listening to the earlier thrilling mysteries solved by Chief Inspector Gamache. Start with: Still Life audiobook on CD, e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari and read by Derek Perkins
An engaging perspective of humanity’s evolution that also implores us to look to the future of our species, Dr. Harari’s book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, is a Summer Reading Pick from President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. If, by the end, you find yourself thoroughly intrigued, try Dr. Harari’s follow-up title: Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow (audiobook on CD) (e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby).
The Friendship List by Susan Mallery and read by Tanya Eby
If you’re looking for a summer read you won’t soon forget, try listening to New York Times Bestselling author Susan Mallery’s The Friendship List! Single best friends Unity and Ellen, both struggling with grief in their own lives, challenge one another to live life to the fullest in this heartwarming novel about a life-changing summer.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah and read by Julia Whelan
audiobook on CD, e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby, e-audiobook – Hoopla
Alaska, 1974. Unpredictable. Unforgiving. Untamed. Thirteen-year-old Leni, a girl coming of age in a tumultuous time, caught in the riptide of her parents’ passionate, stormy relationship, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family.
The Road Trip by Beth O’Leary and read by Josh Dylan
Awkwardness and humor abound in this novel written by the international bestseller of The Flatshare when two exes are forced to take a road trip together. When Addie and Dylan crash cars at the beginning of the journey to their mutual friend’s wedding, they are forced to share a ride the rest of the way – forcing the two exes to speak for the first time in two years – and to confront the decisions that tore them apart.
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell and read by Helen Duff
She was days away from an idyllic summer vacation with her whole life ahead of her and then her fifteen-year-old daughter, Ellie, was gone. It’s been ten years and her mother, Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a cafe whose youngest is unnervingly like her missing daughter. And now, the unanswered questions she has tried so hard to put to rest haunt her anew…
Greenlights by Matthew McConaghey and read by the author
audiobook on CD, e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby
McConaghey tells us about his book: “This is fifty years of my sights and seens, felts and figured-outs, cools and shamefuls. Graces, truths, and beauties of brutality. Getting away withs, getting caughts, and getting wets while trying to dance between the raindrops. A love letter…to life.” If you’re a fan of the man behind the starpower, you might enjoy learning more about the ups and downs that McConaghey has experienced along the way, and how to, as he calls it, “catch greenlights.”
Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber and read by Bethany Anne Lind, Nicholas Techosky, Stephanie Willis
It was supposed to be a quick trip to close the café and settle her grandmother’s estate, but despite her best intentions to avoid forming ties or even getting to know her father’s side of the family, Anna Kate finds herself inexplicably drawn to the quirky Southern town her mother ran away from so many years ago, and the mysterious blackbird pie everybody can’t stop talking about. Heather Webber’s Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe is a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town Southern charm.
Young Adult Audiobooks
The Sands of Arawiya Duology by Hafsah Faizal and read by Fiona Hardingham and Steve West
audiobook on CD, e-audiobook – Hoopla
This lush Arabian- inspired duology written by Hafsah Faizal is the perfect blend of fantasy and romance for a summer read you won’t forget! Zafira, a young woman masquerading as a man to hunt for her people, seeks to prove a woman’s worth and bring magic back to Arawiya. Nasir, a hardened assassin and the Crown Prince of Arawiya, has been ordered to follow The Hunter, steal the magic, and kill anyone who gets in his way. Hardingham and West’s narration brings Faizal’s characters to vivid life, and draws you into all of the drama, intrigue, political machinations, and danger that threatens the world of Arawiya, and the magic at its source. Start with: We Hunt the Flame (audiobook on CD) (e-audio – Hoopla).
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo and read by Elizabeth Acevedo and Melania-Luisa Marte
When half-sisters Camino and Yahaira learn of their father’s death in a devastating plane crash, they each struggle to come to terms with the man they knew as their father and the double-life he lived.
From the award-winning author of The Poet X and With the Fire On High comes a story written in verse about sudden tragedy, secrets, and how those left behind are often left to pick up the pieces.
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon and read by Bahni Turpin
High school senior Evie used to believe in love, and romance novels were her favorite genre. But ever since she caught her father with another woman, she’s given up on love in real life as well as in books. When she goes to donate these novels to a Little Free Library, she winds up with a book called Instructions for Dancing . This book leads her to a ballroom dance studio, and to an intriguing boy named X. Evie is guarded and careful while X is passionate and intrepid; both are likable characters whom readers will instantly love.
American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott and read by Luis Moreno
e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby, e-audiobook – Hoopla
A heart wrenching YA coming of age story about three siblings on a roadtrip in search of healing. With a strong family, the best friend a guy could ask for, and a budding romance with the girl of his dreams, life shows promise for Teodoro “T” Avila. But he takes some hard hits the summer before senior year when his nearly perfect brother, Manny, returns from a tour in Iraq with a devastating case of PTSD. In a desperate effort to save Manny from himself and pull their family back together, T’s fiery sister, Xochitl, hoodwinks her brothers into a cathartic road trip. Told through T’s honest voice, this is a candid exploration of mental illness, socioeconomic pressures, and the many inescapable highs and lows that come with growing up, including falling in love.
Junior Audiobooks
We Belong by Cookie Hiponia Everman and read by the author
An extraordinarily beautiful novel-in-verse, this important debut weaves a dramatic immigrant story together with Philippine mythology to create something wholly new. As Elsie’s three children prepare for bedtime, they beg her for a story—Elsie’s own story. She instead tells them about Mayari, the moon goddess, who journeys with her siblings from one land to another. Mayari’s story parallels Elsie’s, as well as how her family fled the Philippines and came to America. Glorious and layered, this is a portrait of family and strength for the ages.
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly and read by Ramon De Ocampo
e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby, e-audio Hoopla
Newbery Medalist and New York Times–bestselling author Erin Entrada Kelly transports readers to 1986 and introduces them to the unforgettable Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas in this pitch-perfect novel about family, friendship, science, and exploration. Told in three alternating points of view, We Dream of Space is an unforgettable and thematically rich novel for middle grade readers.
The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson and read by Cherise Boothe
e-audiobook – Overdrive/Libby, e-audiobook – Hoopla
The letter waits in a book, in a box, in an attic, in an old house in Lambert, South Carolina. It’s waiting for Candice Miller. When Candice finds the letter, she isn’t sure she should read it. It’s addressed to her grandmother, after all, who left Lambert in a cloud of shame. But, there’s a mystery enfolding the letter-writer – and the fortune that awaits the person who solves the puzzle. Grandma tried and failed, but now Candice has another chance.
The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars by Shivaun Plozza and read by Kirby Heyborne
Twelve-year-old Bo, who was abandoned in the forest as an infant, has always been shunned by local villagers, who believe that he’s tainted by the Shadow Creatures that roam the Dark at night. When his guardian, acerbic woodcutter Mads, is killed by an enormous magical wolf , Bo is tasked with a seemingly impossible quest: find the three keys needed to release the wish-granting Stars and return magic to the land. Accompanied by his fox, Nix; a magic-wielding girl; and a Korakhu—half woman, half bird—Bo must journey far and wide to solve the three riddles that unlock each step of the quest as ruthless foes seek to find the Stars before him.
We hope your summer is full of sun, fun and good books! Happy Listening!
English