Sci-Fi16h 10m
Project Hail Mary
The single best argument for listening rather than reading. Ray Porter turns a problem-solving novel into a performance.
4.8 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
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Every review, in one place.
Each title below was listened to in full before we wrote a word. We score the writing and the narration separately in our notes, because a great book can still be a difficult listen.
Memoir12h 10m
Educated
Westover's memoir of leaving a survivalist family for Cambridge, read by Julia Whelan with remarkable restraint.
4.7 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Fiction12h 08m
Circe
Greek myth retold from the witch's side, in a narration that sounds like it is being remembered rather than performed.
4.6 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Memoir8h 44m
Born a Crime
The rare memoir that is better in audio than in print, because the author reads it himself — accents, languages and all.
4.9 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Fiction12h 10m
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
An old Hollywood star tells her real story to a junior journalist. The multi-narrator framing is what makes it work.
4.6 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Fiction9h 03m
Daisy Jones & The Six
A novel written as an oral history, performed by a full cast. This is the format doing something print simply cannot.
4.7 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Mystery12h 12m
Where the Crawdads Sing
Part coming-of-age story, part courtroom mystery, held together by Cassandra Campbell's Southern narration.
4.3 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Mystery8h 43m
The Silent Patient
A tight psychological thriller with a twist you either see coming or absolutely do not. Two narrators, cleanly split.
4.2 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Mystery19h 11m
Gone Girl
The two-narrator structure was built for audio, and Julia Whelan's diary sections are a masterclass in unreliable narration.
4.4 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Self-Help5h 35m
Atomic Habits
The clearest habit book in print, read by its author in five and a half hours. Efficient rather than inspiring.
4.4 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Memoir19h 03m
Becoming
Nineteen hours in the author's own voice, and the South Side chapters are the best part — not the White House ones.
4.8 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Fiction13h 39m
The Night Circus
Jim Dale narrating a circus that appears without warning. A production more concerned with atmosphere than plot.
4.5 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Sci-Fi21h 02m
Dune
Twenty-one hours of politics, ecology and prophecy, in a hybrid production that switches between solo narration and a cast.
4.4 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Sci-Fi10h 53m
The Martian
An astronaut stranded on Mars, narrated with exactly the dry sarcasm the log entries need.
4.7 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
History15h 18m
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Big-history storytelling read by one of the clearest narrators in nonfiction audio.
4.5 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan
Fiction10h 16m
Klara and the Sun
A solar-powered android narrates a story she does not fully understand. The narration is the entire experience.
4.3 / 5by Ahmad Raza Hassan