The best audiobooks we have reviewed
Updated September 2026 · Every title listened to in full
The short answer
Born a Crime, read by Trevor Noah himself, is the best audiobook we have reviewed — a memoir that is genuinely better heard than read. Project Hail Mary is the best argument for the format overall thanks to Ray Porter's narration, and Becoming and Educated lead the rest of the non-fiction.
This is not a list of books we think you should have read. It is a list of audiobooks — productions, performances, running times — assembled from titles we listened to in full and scored on the narration as well as the writing.
A great book can be a poor listen and a middling book can be a superb one. Where those two come apart, we say so.
1Best overallBorn a Crime
Trevor Noah · Narrated by Trevor Noah · 8h 44m · 4.9 / 5
Trevor Noah reads his own memoir and performs every voice, accent and language in it, which no other narrator could have done. At 8h 44m it is also short enough to finish in a week. The rare audiobook that is unambiguously better than the printed book.
Read the full review
2Best first audiobookProject Hail Mary
Andy Weir · Narrated by Ray Porter · 16h 10m · 4.8 / 5
Ray Porter's performance turns a problem-solving novel into something genuinely gripping, and the book's second major character is one of the great audio-only pleasures. The title we hand to anyone who says they cannot get into audiobooks.
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3Best non-fictionBecoming
Michelle Obama · Narrated by Michelle Obama · 19h 03m · 4.8 / 5
Michelle Obama reading her own life at 19h 03m. Long, but the author-narration does something a professional reading could not, and the pacing never sags the way most celebrity memoirs do in the second half.
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4Best memoir narrationEducated
Tara Westover · Narrated by Julia Whelan · 12h 10m · 4.7 / 5
Julia Whelan reads Westover's account of leaving a survivalist family with complete restraint, and the flatness is exactly why the hardest passages land. Difficult listening in stretches, and worth it.
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5Best full-cast productionDaisy Jones & The Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid · Narrated by Full cast, including Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt and Judy Greer · 9h 03m · 4.7 / 5
An oral-history novel given an actual cast, including Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt and Judy Greer. The format and the medium fit so well that the print edition feels like a transcript of this rather than the other way round.
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6Best for long drivesThe Martian
Andy Weir · Narrated by R. C. Bray · 10h 53m · 4.7 / 5
R. C. Bray's narration is funny and propulsive across 10h 53m, and the log-entry structure means you can lose ten minutes to traffic and pick the thread straight back up. Close to the ideal road-trip listen.
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7Best literary fictionCirce
Madeline Miller · Narrated by Perdita Weeks · 12h 08m · 4.6 / 5
Perdita Weeks reads Miller's sentences slowly enough to let the images land one at a time. The centuries on the island test some listeners; the final third repays staying with it.
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8Best thrillerGone Girl
Gillian Flynn · Narrated by Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne · 19h 11m · 4.4 / 5
Two narrators for two unreliable accounts is the correct structural choice, and Julia Whelan and Kirby Heyborne both play it straight enough that the mid-book turn genuinely lands. At 19h 11m it is a commitment.
Read the full review
Also reviewed in this category
Titles we have listened to in full that did not make the ranked list above.
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.
Where the Crawdads Sing
Part coming-of-age story, part courtroom mystery, held together by Cassandra Campbell's Southern narration.
The Silent Patient
A tight psychological thriller with a twist you either see coming or absolutely do not. Two narrators, cleanly split.
Atomic Habits
The clearest habit book in print, read by its author in five and a half hours. Efficient rather than inspiring.
The Night Circus
Jim Dale narrating a circus that appears without warning. A production more concerned with atmosphere than plot.
Dune
Twenty-one hours of politics, ecology and prophecy, in a hybrid production that switches between solo narration and a cast.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Big-history storytelling read by one of the clearest narrators in nonfiction audio.
Klara and the Sun
A solar-powered android narrates a story she does not fully understand. The narration is the entire experience.
How we chose
Every title here was listened to in full — not sampled, not skimmed, not summarised from reviews — before it was written about.
We score the writing and the narration separately in our notes, because they fail independently. A book with a five-star text and a two-star reader is a bad audiobook, and we say so rather than averaging it into something respectable.
Running times are for the editions we actually listened to and are stated on every review, because length is the single most useful fact when choosing what to start next.
Nobody pays for a placement on this list. One audiobook service we link to, Audiobooks.com, is an affiliate partner; publishers and authors are not.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the best audiobook to start with?
- Project Hail Mary, narrated by Ray Porter, or Born a Crime, read by Trevor Noah. Both are performances rather than readings, both are easy to follow while doing something else, and Born a Crime is under nine hours, which is short enough to finish before enthusiasm fades.
- What makes a good audiobook, as opposed to a good book?
- Narration you can listen to for ten hours without irritation, a structure that survives interruption, and prose that works by ear. Dense footnotes, complex timelines and large casts of similarly named characters all make excellent books into difficult listens.
- How long is an average audiobook?
- Most sit between 8 and 13 hours. Our shortest reviewed title is Atomic Habits at 5h 35m and the longest is Dune at 21h 02m. Anything over 15 hours needs a plan — those books fall apart in ten-minute fragments.