The Best Audiobooks of 2019
From riveting fiction to the best true stories out there, with sound advice and insightful guides along the way, it's been an incredible 12 months of listening. Join us as we celebrate a fabulous year for your ears!Great Entertainers
All-star casts, grand adventures, belly laughs, and more than a hint of spice make for truly absorbing audio.Daisy Jones and the Six
For many of us here at Audible, this is the year's best listen. And with Reese Witherspoon producing the TV adaptation, the excitement continues. Taylor Jenkins Reid's 'tell-all account' of the rise and fall of a 1970s rock band is so intricately drawn - and brilliantly performed by stars including Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt and Judy Greer - you’ll have a hard time believing it's fiction. Like a good riff, you just have to hear it.
488 Rules For Life
In a rapidly changing world, it's hard to know the best way to behave in every situation - lucky for us, Kitty Flanagan is here with the rules. All of them. From the office (don't insert 'yay' into 'Friday') to language (don't use 'yummy' to describe non-food objects) and public transport (don't sit next to someone unless there is no alternative), you'll never put a foot wrong again. As one member so perfectly put it: 'Kitty never disappoints.'
It Burns
It was our first homegrown Audible Original, and it continues to shine - with accolades including a Rose D'Or Award nomination. Marc Fennell investigates the fiery subculture of competitive chilli breeding and eating, where friendships dissolve, scandals rage, and hospitals are visited. If you’re expecting Fennell to get through burn-free, think again.
Stay Sexy and Don't Get Murdered
In their signature hilarious and candid style, My Favorite Murder hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark take you on their journey from living room podcast to worldwide phenomenon. An absolute must-listen for murderinos everywhere.
Other Captivating 2019 Listens We've Loved
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The Binding
- By: Bridget Collins
- Narrated by: Carl Prekopp
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
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Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a letter arrives summoning him to begin an apprenticeship. He will work for a Bookbinder, a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice - but one neither he nor his parents can afford to refuse. He will learn to handcraft beautiful volumes, and within each he will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. If there’s something you want to forget, he can help. If there’s something you need to erase, he can assist. Your past will be stored safely in a book and you will never remember your secret, however terrible.
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One of the best love stories, ever.
- By Susan on 22-01-2019
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John Safran vs The Occult
- By: John Safran
- Length: 3 hrs
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John Safran has fallen in with the wrong crowd, again. He has spent months among sorcerers, satanists, and exorcists and he's spilling the beans in a new podcast. Forget gentle white witches and tarot card readers. John packs his bag and fearlessly heads off to places where black magic leads not only to exorcisms but... murder. He flies to the US and investigates a gang who murdered a teenage girl for disturbing their satanic shrine. He sails to remote islands in Vanuatu, where laws have been passed to quash witchcraft and contravening them can lead to a public hanging or exile.
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Hail Satan and Murder Teenagers!
- By Wise Owl on 22-11-2019
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City of Girls
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Blair Brown
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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It is the summer of 1940. Nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris arrives in New York with her suitcase and sewing machine, exiled by her despairing parents. Although her quicksilver talents with a needle and commitment to mastering the perfect hair roll have been deemed insufficient for her to pass into her sophomore year of Vassar, she soon finds gainful employment as the self-appointed seamstress at the Lily Playhouse, her unconventional Aunt Peg's charmingly disreputable Manhattan revue theatre.
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Really? This got rave reviews?
- By shelley on 02-08-2019
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Whisper
- Whisper, Book 1
- By: Lynette Noni
- Narrated by: Tamala Shelton
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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For two years, six months, fourteen days, eleven hours and sixteen minutes, Subject Six-Eight-Four - ‘Jane Doe’ - has been locked away and experimented on, without uttering a single word. As Jane’s resolve begins to crack under the influence of her new - and unexpectedly kind - evaluator, she uncovers the truth about Lengard’s mysterious ‘program’, discovering that her own secret is at the heart of a sinister plot...and one wrong move, one wrong word, could change the world.
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What a surprise!
- By Rani on 06-11-2019
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Our Harlem
- Seven Days of Cooking, Music and Soul at the Red Rooster
- By: Marcus Samuelsson
- Narrated by: Marcus Samuelsson
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
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To hear Ethiopian and Swedish chef, TV personality, and restauranteur Marcus Samuelsson cook with special guests at the Red Rooster restaurant is to make an audio pilgrimage to Harlem. Listeners will get to know the iconic neighborhood, Marcus’ home, through its food, its history, and - most importantly - its people.
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Struggled to be interested
- By Anonymous User on 12-02-2020
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Heads Will Roll
- By: Kate McKinnon, Emily Lynne
- Narrated by: Kate McKinnon, Emily Lynne, Tim Gunn, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
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Heads Will Roll is an Audible Original from Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon and her cocreator/costar (and real-life sister) Emily Lynne. Produced by Broadway Video, this is not an audiobook - it’s a 10-episode, star-studded audio comedy that features performances from Meryl Streep, Tim Gunn, Peter Dinklage, Queer Eye’s Fab Five, and so many more. Please note: This content is not for kids.
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More like this please
- By Anonymous User on 19-01-2020
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The Rosie Result
- Don Tillman, Book 3
- By: Graeme Simsion
- Narrated by: Dan O'Grady
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back in Australia after a decade in New York, and they’re about to face their most important challenge. Their son, Hudson, is struggling at school: he’s socially awkward and not fitting in. Don’s spent a lifetime trying to fit in - so who better to teach Hudson the skills he needs? The Hudson Project will require the help of friends old and new, force Don to decide how much to guide Hudson and how much to let him be himself, and raise some significant questions about his own identity.
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Engrossing, emotional and hilarious
- By Jay on 12-09-2019
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Repeat
- By: Kylie Scott
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
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When a vicious attack leaves 25-year-old Clementine Johns with no memory, she’s forced to start over. Now she has figure out who she was and why she made the choices she did - which includes leaving the supposed love of her life, tattoo artist Ed Larsen, only a month before. Ed can hardly believe it when his ex shows up at his tattoo parlor with no memory of their past, asking about the breakup that nearly destroyed him. The last thing he needs is more heartache, but he can’t seem to let her go again. Should they walk away for good, or does their love deserve a repeat performance?
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Naive and shallow
- By Christiana on 30-11-2019
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Dear Girls
- Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life
- By: Ali Wong
- Narrated by: Ali Wong
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so strongly that she even became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women and why you never see new mum comics onstage but you sure see plenty of new dads. The sharp insights and humour are even more personal in this completely original collection.
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I loved this book!
- By Jasmine Lunan on 10-01-2020
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Riot Act
- By: Kacie Anning, Mark Humphries, Dan Ilic, and others
- Narrated by: Mark Humphries, Anjali Rao, Liv Hewson, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 5 mins
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Campbell Parkes may be an idiot but he still has his own radio show, broadcast every day at midnight to a dwindling audience. His long-suffering producer Michelle longs to pursue real journalism but instead must listen to Campbell's on-air rants about expensive cinema tickets and reusable coffee cups every night. When an opportunity to grab the station's hallowed breakfast slot develops, it's time to raise their game and make the biggest splash possible - no matter how outrageous. It's a win-win situation: supporters tune in to cheer you on, and detractors tune in just to hate you.
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An absolute BALLTEARER! So many rewindable moments
- By Anonymous User on 08-12-2019
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Pachinko
- By: Min Jin Lee
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
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Yeongdo, Korea - 1911. In a small fishing village on the banks of the East Sea, a club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a 15-year-old girl. The couple have one child: their beloved daughter, Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then, Isak, a Christian minister, offers her a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife. Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country in which she has no friends and no home, and whose language she cannot speak, Sunja's salvation is just the beginning of her story.
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An Insight into Koreans living in Japan
- By Blissful9 on 15-05-2019
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A Dream About Lightning Bugs
- A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons
- By: Ben Folds
- Narrated by: Ben Folds
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
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Ben Folds is an internationally celebrated musician, singer-songwriter and former frontman of the alternative rock band, Ben Folds Five, beloved for songs such as ‘Brick’, ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘Rockin’ the Suburbs’ and ‘The Luckiest’. In A Dream About Lightning Bugs, Folds looks back at his life so far in a charming, funny and wise chronicle of his artistic coming of age, infused with the wry observations of a natural storyteller. He opens up about finding his voice as a musician, becoming a rock anti-hero, and hauling a baby grand piano on and off stage for every performance.
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Phone in the pool
- By Emily Martin on 19-08-2019
Live Your Best Life
It was a bumper year for straight-talking, accessible self-improvement guides. Draw some inspo from these.Everything Is F*cked
It's a title that's resonated with listeners all year - and many would argue that we live, as the ancient curse goes, 'in interesting times'. Mark Manson's follow-up to The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck takes an unsurprisingly sugar-free look at life, and emerges with a surprisingly optimistic view.
The Resilience Project
Melbourne teacher Hugh van Cuylenburg has created a practical guide to building an invaluable life skill: resilience. It's been used in education and industry - and in down-to-earth audio form, our members have called it 'simply life changing' and 'exceptionally effective'.
The Fast 800
Michael Mosley, the friendly TV doctor who made intermittent fasting a 'thing', is back with a snappy, accessible follow-up to The 5:2 Diet. If you're looking for a new approach to eating, this is one that our members have sworn by.
Take Control of Your Life
Pacy and pragmatic, Mel Robbins gives sound advice that's fun to listen to. Her mission? To help you silence the fear that holds you back. This one made us feel ready to take on the world. Whether it's personal or professional, fear be gone!
More Listens We Love in Health and Wellbeing
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Digital Minimalism
- Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 7 hrs
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In this timely and enlightening audiobook, Cal Newport introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives. Digital minimalists are all around us. They're the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without furtive glances at their phones. They can have fun with friends and family and eat out at restaurants without the obsessive urge to document the experience...Now, Newport gives us a name for this quiet movement and makes a case for its urgency in our tech-saturated world.
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Read Deep Work
- By Anonymous User on 07-08-2019
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Never Split the Difference
- Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It
- By: Chris Voss, Tahl Raz
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
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After a stint policing the rough streets of Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Voss joined the FBI, where his career as a kidnapping negotiator brought him face-to-face with bank robbers, gang leaders and terrorists. Never Split the Difference takes you inside his world of high-stakes negotiations, revealing the nine key principles that helped Voss and his colleagues succeed when it mattered the most - when people’s lives were at stake.
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Great Info. shit voice
- By Anonymous User on 27-09-2019
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Lifespan
- Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To
- By: Dr David A. Sinclair, Matthew D. LaPlante
- Narrated by: Dr David A. Sinclair
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
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For decades, the medical community has looked to a variety of reasons for why we age, and the consensus is that no-one dies of old age; they die of age-related diseases. That's because ageing is not a disease - it is inevitable. But what if everything you think you know about ageing is wrong? What if ageing is a disease? And that disease is curable. In Lifespan, Dr David Sinclair, one of the world’s foremost authorities on genetics and ageing, argues just that.
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Good book but disagree with some conclusions
- By Tristam Reeves on 27-09-2019
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The World's Fittest Book
- By: Ross Edgley
- Narrated by: Ross Edgley
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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How to train for anything and everything, anywhere and everywhere.The World's Fittest Book is set to become every fitness enthusiast's bible. Dubbed the body's complete user guide, it will become the go-to resource for learning all you need to know about building muscle, losing fat, eating (healthy) cake and unlocking your superhuman physical potential. Packed with workouts the author tried and tested in the pursuit of multiple world records, it's more than a book, it's the greatest training tool ever written!
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Very disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 14-10-2019
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Girl, Stop Apologizing (Audible Exclusive Edition)
- A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals
- By: Rachel Hollis
- Narrated by: Rachel Hollis
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
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Rachel Hollis has seen it too often: women not living into their full potential. They feel a tugging on their hearts for something more, but they’re afraid of embarrassment, of falling short of perfection, of not being enough. In Girl, Stop Apologizing, number-one New York Times best-selling author and founder of a multimillion-dollar media company, Rachel Hollis sounds a wake-up call. She knows that many women have been taught to define themselves in light of other people - whether as wife, mother, daughter, or employee....
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I just can't listen to her
- By Megan on 17-03-2019
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The Path Made Clear
- Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose
- By: Oprah Winfrey
- Narrated by: Oprah Winfrey, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In her latest book, The Path Made Clear, Oprah shares what she sees as a guide for activating your deepest vision of yourself, offering the framework for creating not just a life of success but one of significance. The book’s 10 chapters are organised to help you recognize the important milestones along the road to self-discovery, laying out what you really need in order to achieve personal contentment and what life’s detours are there to teach us.
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bit too religious for my liking
- By Anonymous User on 24-04-2019
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Chillpreneur
- The New Rules for Creating Success, Freedom, and Abundance on Your Terms
- By: Denise Duffield-Thomas
- Narrated by: Denise Duffield-Thomas
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
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Feeling burned out by your business? Sick of the "hustle and grind" culture of your industry? There's a better way! Get over your perfectionism and embrace the flow of the chillpreneur. Denise Duffield-Thomas, money mindset coach and best-selling author, will show you how with her trademark humor and down-to-earth wisdom. In this book, she shares invaluable business advice and counter-intuitive millionaire mindset lessons (no blood, sweat, or tears necessary) which will set you on the path of abundance - without all the hard work.
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Good ideas with a close-minded sexist view
- By Anonymous User on 19-06-2019
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The Whole Brain Child
- 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind
- By: Tina Payne Bryson PhD, Daniel j. Siegel MD
- Narrated by: Daniel J. Siegel MD, Tina Payne Bryson PhD
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
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Your toddler throws a tantrum in the middle of a store. Your preschooler refuses to get dressed. Your 11-year-old sulks on the bench instead of playing on the field. Do children conspire to make their parents’ lives endlessly challenging? No - it’s just their developing brains calling the shots. In this pioneering, practical book, Daniel J. Siegel - neuropsychiatrist and author of the best-selling Mindsight - and parenting expert Tina Payne Bryson demystify the meltdowns and aggravation, explaining the new science of how a child’s brain is wired and how it matures.
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i can not believe this book as such good review
- By Anonymous User on 12-01-2020
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Mentors
- How to Help and Be Helped
- By: Russell Brand
- Narrated by: Russell Brand
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Could happiness lie in helping others and being open to accepting help yourself? Mentors: How to Help and Be Helped describes the impact that a series of significant people have had on the author - from the wayward youths he tried to emulate growing up in Essex, through the first ex-junkie sage, to the people he turns to today to help him be a better father. It explores how we all - consciously and unconsciously - choose guides, mentors and heroes throughout our lives and examines the new perspectives they can bring.
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Little underwhelmed with this.
- By Justin on 02-03-2019
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LOVE!
- An Enthusiastic and Modern Perspective on Matters of the Heart
- By: Zoë Foster Blake
- Narrated by: Zoë Foster Blake
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Most of us mosey between single, dating and committed in a half-rapturous, half-tortured loop for a large portion of our lives.There's no right or wrong when it comes to love, life and relationships. There are no rules, and there is no normal when it comes to the heart; it's different for each of us, every single time.But a fresh perspective never hurts, especially if the same shit keeps happening again and again. Thankfully, this audiobook lovingly serves up a few for you to consider.
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life changing words of wisdom! Xx
- By Sophie Mexted on 07-04-2019
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In the Habit: Introduction to Changing our Behaviour
- By: Ash Ranpura, Alice Fraser
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
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How can we change our behaviours? The first step is understanding our habits. For better or worse, habits are the invisible building blocks of daily life. Research suggests that about 40% of what we do is repeated almost daily and yet most of the time we aren’t really aware of what’s happening. In this series, neuroscientist Ash Ranpura and comedian Alice Fraser deep dive into the science of behaviour change. They want to find out how we can make good habits and how we can break bad ones.
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Wow. so much behind seeing habits
- By Ms Tracey C Hemley on 23-06-2019
The Best of Real Life
There have been plenty of rich, beautifully told true stories to enjoy in 2019. Learn and grow with these listens.Your Own Kind of Girl
In this courageously frank memoir, Aussie songstress Clare Bowditch shares her storytelling prowess and beautiful voice both in words and song. Like us, Bowditch’s fellow musos have been raving - Missy Higgins calls it 'a celebration of the human struggle', while Bernard Fanning says it’s 'brutal at times but funny as f**k'.
Talking to Strangers
Entertaining and informative as ever, Malcolm Gladwell is back with more insights on the human condition. Here he delves into what it means for us to truly understand each other - or, in so many cases, not. The audio version is enhanced with interview recordings and underscoring, making it an especially engaging experience.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Did you know...? Therapists are people too! Lori Gottlieb's audiobook, with incredibly engaging narration by Brittany Pressley, pulls back the curtain to show you what ran through her mind during her most challenging sessions. Part science, part self-help, part memoir, this story is told with compassion, honesty, and humour.
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?
Written and narrated with warmth by Caitlin Doughty - an actual funeral director - this is everything you wanted to know about death but were too afraid to even think about. And guess who's asked all the questions? Kids. From mummification to what your pets might do when you shuffle off, this weird and wonderful audiobook isn't afraid to go there.
Other Riveting True Stories from 2019
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The End is Always Near
- Apocalyptic Moments from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
- By: Dan Carlin
- Narrated by: Dan Carlin
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
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In The End Is Always Near, Dan Carlin connects the past and future in fascinating and colourful ways, exploring a question that has hung over humanity like the sword of Damocles from the collapse of the Bronze Age to the nuclear era - that of human survival. Combining his trademark mix of storytelling, history and thought experiments, Carlin forces us to consider what sounds like fantasy: that we might suffer the same fate as all previous civilisations. Will our world ever become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore?
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Dan Carlin Conquers the audio book
- By Kindle Customer on 04-11-2019
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Ghosthunter
- An Audible Original Podcast
- By: Rebecca Bennett, Ben Lawrence
- Narrated by: Ben Lawrence
- Length: 3 hrs
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The first ghost Jason King ever saw was his brother’s. And when the spectre told Jason that he needed to find their estranged father, who disappeared during their childhood, his life was changed forever. When documentarian Ben Lawrence reads an article about Jason, now a western Sydney security guard and part-time ghost hunter, he embarks on a seven year journey into a gothic world of suburban graveyards and broken souls. Paranormal activity, a family’s terrible forgotten secret and a police investigation converge in Ghosthunter, a part family memoir and part true crime podcast.
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Ghosts come in many forms
- By Naedrax17 on 27-07-2019
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The Body
- A Guide for Occupants
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In the best-selling, prize-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson achieved the seemingly impossible by making the science of our world both understandable and entertaining to millions of people around the globe. Now he turns his attention inwards to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts and astonishing stories, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological makeup.
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Not Bryson’s best
- By Chelsea on 08-10-2019
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Everything Is Figureoutable
- How One Simple Belief Can Help Us Overcome Any Obstacle and Create Unstoppable Success
- By: Marie Forleo
- Narrated by: Marie Forleo
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether you want to leave a dead-end job, heal a relationship, grow a business, master your money, or just find two free hours in your day, Everything is Figureoutable will train your brain to think more positively and help you break down any dream into manageable steps.
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simply brilliant!
- By Brenda on 25-10-2019
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The Infinite Game
- How Great Businesses Achieve Long-lasting Success
- By: Simon Sinek
- Narrated by: Simon Sinek
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Infinite Game, Sinek applies game theory to explore how great businesses achieve long-lasting success. He finds that building long-term value and healthy, enduring growth - that playing the infinite game - is the only thing that matters to your business.
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could have been a 20 minute paper
- By Many Caps Consulting on 16-01-2020
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Gotta Get Theroux This
- My Life and Strange Times in Television
- By: Louis Theroux
- Narrated by: Louis Theroux
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In Gotta Get Theroux This, Louis takes the reader on a joyous journey from his anxiety-prone childhood to his unexpectedly successful career. Nervously accepting the BBC’s offer of his own series, he went on to create an award-winning documentary style that has seen him immersed in the weird worlds of paranoid US militias and secretive pro-wrestlers, get under the skin of celebrities like Max Clifford and Chris Eubank and tackle gang culture in San Quentin prison, all the time wondering whether the same qualities that make him good at documentaries might also make him bad at life.
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Louis Theroux: Everythings weird
- By Joseph Ryan on 28-09-2019
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Range
- How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- By: David Epstein
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In this landmark audiobook, David Epstein shows that the way to excel is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests - in other words, by developing range. Studying the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, Epstein discovered that in most fields - especially those that are complex and unpredictable - generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. They are also more creative, more agile and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see.
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A compelling fantasy novel
- By David on 13-07-2020
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See What You Made Me Do
- Power, Control and Domestic Abuse
- By: Jess Hill
- Narrated by: Jess Hill
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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At the office of Safe Steps, Victoria's dedicated 24/7 family violence response call centre, phone counsellors receive a call every three minutes. Many women are repeat callers - on average, they will go back to an abusive partner eight times before leaving for good. 'You must get so frustrated when you think a woman's ready to leave and then she decides to go back,' I say. 'No,' replies one phone counsellor, pointedly. 'I'm frustrated that even though he promised to stop, he chose to abuse her again.'
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Important read but bias
- By Anonymous User on 14-11-2020
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Cardinal
- The Rise and Fall of George Pell
- By: Louise Milligan
- Narrated by: Louise Milligan, Thomas Keneally
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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George Pell was a Ballarat boy who studied at Oxford and rose through the Catholic Church ranks to become adviser to Pope Francis and Vatican treasurer. He has been expelled from the Pope's inner circle of trusted cardinals. As an outspoken defender of church orthodoxy, supported and championed by the powerful, Pell's ascendancy was remarkable and seemingly unstoppable.
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Insightful must listen to audiobook
- By M. Andrew on 14-10-2019
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Trick Mirror
- Reflections on Self-Delusion
- By: Jia Tolentino
- Narrated by: Jia Tolentino
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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We are living in the era of the self, in an era of malleable truth and widespread personal and political delusion. In these nine interlinked essays, Jia Tolentino, the New Yorker’s brightest young talent, explores her own coming of age in this warped and confusing landscape.
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Interesting insights but slow going
- By Anonymous User on 07-01-2020
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A Grown-Up Guide to Dinosaurs
- By: Ellie Sans, Clare Chadburn
- Narrated by: Professor Ben Garrod
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Original Recording
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We're living through a golden age of paleontological research that, in the last couple of decades, has radically changed our understanding of dinosaurs. Through candid interviews with the world’s top paleontologists, Professor Ben Garrod reveals new dinosaur facts from cutting edge research into the greatest animals ever to walk the planet.
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interesting for both adult and child
- By Julie on 31-10-2019
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Me
- Elton John Official Autobiography
- By: Elton John
- Narrated by: Elton John, Taron Egerton
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In Me Elton writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, by a living legend.
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Absolutely fabulous
- By Cherie on 08-11-2019
Chills, Thrills... and Kills
Crime never takes a holiday and modern detectives have had their work cut out for them this year.The Wife and the Widow
Christian White's taut psychological thriller is written with wit and flair... and diabolical plotting. On a chilly (fictional) island off the coast of Victoria, two characters tell a story of murder and deceit - their perspectives cleverly weaving together, excellently portrayed by narrator Caz Prescott.
The Guilty Ones
You're always in good hands with Joy Ellis, especially when paired with a resonant Richard Armitage performance. It's a killer combo. This is the fourth Jackman and Evans investigation, and it's compelling as ever. We didn’t want it to end, but it was over before we knew it, and left us desperate for more.
Blood Territory
Set against a sizzling Darwin backdrop, this is true crime 'Territory Style'. Brought to you by a Walkley Award-winning journo, the investigation has it all: murder, vigilantism, and allegations as wild as its landscape. Intriguing and edgy.
The Scholar
Relax – the sequel to Dervla McTiernan's hit debut, The Ruin, delivers the goods and then some. Except you can't actually relax because it's another enthralling, tense, twisty-turny tale. And this time, Cormac might be just a little too close to the case. The mellifluous narration by Aoife McMahon took us right back to Galway again.
More 2019 Picks for Killer Crime and Thrillers
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No Gangsters in Paradise
- By: Mahmood Fazal
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Original Recording
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At the turn of the millennium, Western Sydney was a terrifying gangland. At the heart of the frenzy was the Darwiche-Razzak family conflict – a Romeo-and-Juliet style tragedy complicated by honour codes, politics and drive-by shootings. Journalist Mahmood Fazal draws on his own experiences as a gang member to tell the inside story of Sydney’s Lebanese gang wars, to pinpoint why young Muslims just like him commit their lives to violence.
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A fantastic podcast with some minor bias flaws
- By Shaun The CHB on 23-11-2019
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The Killer Across the Table
- By: Mark Olshaker, John E. Douglas
- Narrated by: Jonathan Groff
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Killer Across the Table, legendary FBI criminal profiler and number one best-selling author John Douglas delves deep into the lives and crimes of four of the most disturbing and complex predatory killers he’s encountered, offering never-before-revealed details about his profiling process and divulging the strategies used to crack some of his most challenging cases.
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Truly insightful
- By Natalie Fennell on 02-07-2019
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Good Girl, Bad Girl
- By: Michael Robotham
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Six years ago, Evie Cormac was discovered, filthy and half starved, hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a shocking crime. Now approaching adulthood, Evie is damaged and self-destructive and has never revealed her true identity. Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven, a man haunted by his own past, is investigating the death of champion figure skater Jodie Sheehan. When Cyrus is called upon to assess Evie, she threatens to disrupt the case and destroy his ordered life.
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Mediocre
- By Joshua Bowman on 27-09-2019
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Silver
- By: Chris Hammer
- Narrated by: Dorje Swallow
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping. He'd vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won't come again. Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days brutally murdered, and Mandy the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer. And finds the past waiting for him.
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Perfect follow on from Scrublands
- By Anonymous User on 23-08-2020
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Poison Orchids
- By: Sarah A. Denzil, Anni Taylor
- Narrated by: Aimee Horne
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A dark, compelling new thriller from best-selling authors Sarah A. Denzil and Anni Taylor. Young backpackers Gemma and Hayley arrive at a remote fruit farm in Australia’s Northern Territory, out of money and desperate for work. The weeks go on, a blur of fruit picking, parties, campfires and wading beneath waterfalls in the nearby hot springs. Until the night the girls find themselves on a dark highway, bruised and bloodied. Senior Detective Bronwen McKay and psychologist Megan Arlotti question the terrified girls.
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Outback Australia, feel the heat and humidity
- By Amazon Customer on 08-05-2020
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The Silent Patient
- By: Alex Michaelides
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey, Jack Hawkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman's act of violence against her husband - and of the man obsessed with uncovering her motive.... Famous artist Alicia Berenson shoots her husband in the head five times and then never speaks again. Five years later, forensic psychotherapist Theo Faber must find a way to get Alicia to talk if he wants to treat her. Only then can he unravel the shocking events of that tragic night five years before....
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Highly recommend
- By Jo howard on 31-03-2019
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The Suspect
- By: Fiona Barton
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Mark Meadows, Sian Thomas, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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When two 18-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth - and this time is no exception. But she can't help but think of her own son, whom she hasn't seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling.
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Cultural insensitivity.
- By laura wood on 15-05-2019
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Redemption
- Amos Decker, Book 5
- By: David Baldacci
- Narrated by: Kyf Brewer, Orlagh Cassidy
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Amos Decker and his FBI partner Alex Jamison are visiting his hometown of Burlington, Ohio, when he’s approached by an unfamiliar man. But he instantly recognizes the man’s name: Meryl Hawkins. He’s the first person Decker ever arrested for murder back when he was a young detective. Though a dozen years in prison have left Hawkins unrecognizably aged and terminally ill, one thing hasn’t changed: he maintains he never committed the murders. Could it be possible that Decker made a mistake all those years ago?
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So many twists and turns.
- By Kevin Bray on 24-08-2024
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Mission Critical
- By: Mark Greaney
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Court Gentry's flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley. When they land in an isolated airbase in the UK, they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins?
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Another well researched, enjoyable book to listen
- By J on 08-07-2019
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My Lovely Wife
- By: Samantha Downing
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Every marriage has secrets. Everyone has flaws. Your wife isn't perfect - you know that - but then again nor are you. But now a serial killer is on the loose in your small town, preying on young women. Fear is driving your well-behaved young daughter off the rails, and you find yourself in bed late at night, looking at the woman who lies asleep beside you. Because you thought you knew the worst about her. The truth is you know nothing at all.
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Took My Breath Away - A MUST READ
- By Bonnie B on 11-06-2019
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My Sister, the Serial Killer
- By: Oyinkan Braithwaite
- Narrated by: Weruche Opia
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her 'missing' boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
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Enjoyable on a number levels
- By Hannah, Australia on 25-01-2019
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The Last Days of August
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins
- Original Recording
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In December 2017 the famous porn star August Ames committed suicide in a park in the Conejo Valley. It happened a day after she’d been the victim of a pile-on, via Twitter, by fellow porn professionals - punishment for her tweeting something deemed homophobic. A month later, August’s husband, Kevin, connected with Jon Ronson to tell the story of how Twitter bullying killed his wife. What neither Kevin nor Ronson realized was that Ronson would soon hear rumors and secrets hinting at a very different story - something mysterious and unexpected and terrible.
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excellent
- By Donna on 15-02-2019
Swords, Spaceships, Speculation
Lean into the dystopian, harness your magic, or grab your rocket ride outta here with some of the best storytelling on offer.Alien III
If there's such a thing as alternate sci-fi history, here's a piece of it: Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson's unproduced screenplay for the third instalment of the iconic film series, resurrected in stunning audio drama form. Comes complete with thrilling sound design and a stellar voice cast - the legendary Lance Henriksen among them.
Zero Day Code
Every city on the planet is a week away from collapse. Cut off the food supply, and the city will die. In this near-future thriller, Australian author John Birmingham takes us on a thrilling ride through 'global mayhem and societal collapse', as one listener calls it - expertly narrated by member favourite Rupert Degas.
Holy Sister
This is the gripping conclusion to Mark Laurence's Book of the Ancestor trilogy – and what a world he's built along the way. It is so rich with magic and fantastical science and epic battle scenes… what a ride! We're especially big fans of the protagonist, Nona Grey, who is a total badass.
Tiamat's Wrath
Sci-fi listeners, readers, and viewers alike (and those of us who sit in the middle of that nerdy venn diagram) cannot get enough of The Expanse. And this, the eighth(-ish) instalment in the amazing adventures of the protomolecule and friends, is another cracking good story.
More Spec Fic We Loved This Year
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The Testaments
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Bryce Dallas Howard, Ann Dowd, Mae Whitman, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
More than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results. Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.
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Ultimately disappointing
- By Cristina on 16-09-2019
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The Institute
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Santino Fontana
- Length: 18 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Deep in the woods of Maine, there is a dark state facility where kids, abducted from across the United States, are incarcerated. In the Institute they are subjected to a series of tests and procedures meant to combine their exceptional gifts - telepathy, telekinesis - for concentrated effect. Luke Ellis is the latest recruit. He's just a regular 12-year-old, except he's not just smart, he's super-smart. And he has another gift which the Institute wants to use....
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awesome read
- By Sonja on 20-09-2019
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H.G. Wells: The Science Fiction Collection
- By: H. G. Wells
- Narrated by: Hugh Bonneville, Jason Isaacs, Sophie Okonedo, and others
- Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Known as ‘The Father of Science Fiction’, Herbert George Wells’ writing career spanned over 60 years. He was a writer of novels, short stories, nonfiction books and articles. As a young man, Wells won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in London, sparking his infamous vocation as a science fiction writer. Introduced by film director and H. G. Wells fanboy Eli Roth, this collection features unabridged recordings of the novels performed by Hugh Bonneville, Jason Isaacs, Sophie Okonedo, David Tennant and Alexander Vlahos.
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Wells’ writing holds up across the years
- By Rod on 23-12-2019
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Deathtrap
- Expeditionary Force Mavericks, Book 1
- By: Craig Alanson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The human soldiers stranded on the planet Paradise have been recruited into an alien legion to do the dirty jobs that the high-tech species won't do. Their first mission is to kick the enemy off a backwater planet no one cares about. It's a simple assignment, except everyone has a hidden agenda, and the planet could become a deathtrap.
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Chapter 18
- By Pete on 20-05-2019
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On the Shoulders of Titans
- Arcane Ascension, Book 2
- By: Andrew Rowe
- Narrated by: Nick Podehl
- Length: 24 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Corin Cadence finally has a firm reason to believe his brother, Tristan, is still alive. Unfortunately, finding more information isn’t going to be easy. Tristan appears to be entangled with a clandestine organization that calls themselves Whispers. And Corin’s last brush with the Whispers didn’t exactly end well. As much as he wants to follow that lead, Corin has more pressing problems to deal with.
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Disappointing
- By john on 18-01-2019
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The Burning White
- Book Five of Lightbringer
- By: Brent Weeks
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 39 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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As the White King springs his great trap, and the Chromeria itself is threatened by treason and siege, Kip Guile and his companions will scramble to return for one impossible final stand. In the darkest hour, will the Lightbringer come?
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Best damb audiobook ever
- By Carl on 30-10-2019
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The Secret Commonwealth
- The Book of Dust, Volume Two
- By: Philip Pullman
- Narrated by: Michael Sheen
- Length: 19 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The second volume of Sir Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust sees Lyra, now 20 years old, and her daemon Pantalaimon, forced to navigate their relationship in a way they could never have imagined, and drawn into the complex and dangerous factions of a world that they had no idea existed. Pulled along on his own journey too is Malcolm: once a boy with a boat and a mission to save a baby from the flood, now a man with a strong sense of duty and a desire to do what is right.
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Download error
- By Melanie on 04-10-2019
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The Priory of the Orange Tree
- By: Samantha Shannon
- Narrated by: Liyah Summers
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction - but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic.
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Mispronunciation strikes again!
- By Adrianne on 05-03-2020
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A Little Hatred
- The First in the Epic Sunday Times Bestselling Series
- By: Joe Abercrombie
- Narrated by: Steven Pacey
- Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal's son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specialises in disappointments. Savine dan Glokta - socialite, investor and daughter of the most feared man in the Union - plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control.
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Fantastic book. A must listen.
- By Michael Q on 20-09-2019
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Starsight
- Skyward, Book 2
- By: Brandon Sanderson
- Narrated by: Sophie Aldred
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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All her life, Spensa has dreamed of becoming a pilot. Of proving she's a hero like her father. She made it to the sky, but the truths she learned about her father were crushing. The rumours of his cowardice are true - he deserted his flight during battle against the Krell. Worse, though, he turned against his team and attacked them. Spensa is sure there's more to the story. And she's sure that whatever happened to her father in his starship could happen to her. When she made it outside the protective shell of her planet, she heard the stars - and it was terrifying.
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Better than the first one
- By Toni on 15-12-2019
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Mockingjay
- The Hunger Games, Book 3
- By: Suzanne Collins
- Narrated by: Tatiana Maslany
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding. It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel and haunting Quarter Quell, and it is by design that she has long been part of the revolution without knowing it. District 13 has come out of the shadows and is plotting to overthrow the Capitol. Everyone, it seems, has had a hand in the carefully laid plans - except Katniss.
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Riveting
- By Julie A. Darcy on 18-11-2019
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Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash
- By: Yahtzee Croshaw
- Narrated by: Yahtzee Croshaw
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Original Recording
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With the age of heroic star pilots and galactic villains completely killed by quantum teleportation, the ex-star pilot currently named Dashford Pierce is struggling to find his identity in a changing universe. Then, a face from his past returns and makes him an offer he can't refuse: take part in just one teeny weeny, slightly illegal, daring heist, and not only will he have the means to start the new life he craves, but also save his childhood hero from certain death.
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Excellent sequel
- By Timothy on 23-02-2020