The holidays are a hugely important time for bookstores—they make or break their year. When you purchase or gift Libro.fm audiobooks, you help deliver revenue to local bookstores, as profits from Libro.fm sales are split with partner stores. Join the movement and gift audiobooks this holiday season.
Whether you’re looking for your next great listen or a gift idea for that hard-to-shop-for person in your life, start with Libro.fm’s Top 10 Audiobooks of 2019. Based on sales through our 850+ independent bookstore partners and recommendations from expert booksellers, this list has a listen for everybody.
Daisy Jones & The Six
By Taylor Jenkins Reid
“Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll. If you were a concert goer in the 70’s or listen to the classic rock station you will love this. It reads or listens like a tell-all documentary. I loved the non-traditional narration, the raw intensity and the imperfect characters. The audio is outstanding and addictive!”
Karin, Bookworm of Edwards
The Silent Patient
By Alex Michaelides
“The Silent Patient is an outstanding thriller centered on a spellbinding mystery with a shocking twist; in other words, you are going to love this book. Alicia was a talented painter and devoted wife until the night she was discovered still as a statue and covered in blood, having apparently killed her husband. The answer as to why has remained locked inside of Alicia, who stops speaking following the murder. Six years later, Theo, a young psychologist, is determined to get the mysterious Alicia to spill all of her secrets. The final surprise will have you rethinking every riveting scene in this brilliant debut.”
Luisa, Book Passage
The Dutch House
By Ann Patchett
“Meeting the Conroy family and stepping into their elaborate Dutch house—part museum, part home, with all its secrets and charm, comfort and sadness—enthralled me as the mystery unfolded like a gentle call to arms. From poverty to wealth and from wealth to poverty, we see through Danny’s eyes the struggle to hold the family together against grief, greed, and the heartbreak of losing all that once bound them. Patchett paints a masterpiece here; there’s no looking away. It lingers in your imagination long after the story has been told.”
Diane, Valley Bookseller
The Testaments
By Margaret Atwood
“Margaret Atwood has returned at last to the world of Gilead to answer our most burning questions from The Handmaid’s Tale: What fate awaits June; will Baby Nicole remain free; and can the cruel reign of patriarchal theocracy be toppled for good? Atwood’s prophetic vision is a gift — and a warning. We are all called to heed it.”
Mary, Powells Books
Talking to Strangers
By Malcolm Gladwell
“Fascinating! How and why we so frequently misinterpret the words, intentions, and sincerity of strangers. Computers, analyzing only information, are far better at judging someone’s guilt or innocence (and future behavior) than judges, psychologists, and witnesses. Based on our preconceptions of how people should behave in certain situations, the guilty often appear innocent and the innocent look like cold-hearted liars. They’re mismatched. Their outer reactions, facial expressions, and behavior don’t match our socially biased expectations. But wait, how do culture, alcohol, or surroundings further muck up our interactions? That’s just the tip of this Gladwellian iceberg.”
Robin, Watermark Books
Catch and Kill
By Ronan Farrow
“A timely, incredibly important account of the difficulties Farrow faced at NBC while working on the Weinstein expose, which he took to the New Yorker and subsequently won a Pulitzer for. The audiobook is grippingly read by Farrow (though the accents he attempts are… let’s go with ‘confusing’). It’s upsetting, sure, but heartening to see the exhaustive research and the very clearly laid-out account of how Farrow had to work against the very powerful high-profile members of the media establishment–including his own bosses–not only because of Weinstein’s well-oiled intimidation machine but also as part of those figures attempting to cover up their own histories of being harassers. Highly recommend this important piece of current events journalism, which reads like a thriller novel.”
Gretchen, A Room of One’s Own Bookstore
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered
By Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
“Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark bring the breeziness of their popular podcast My Favorite Murder to print in this collection of life hacks and true confessions. Alternately hilarious and wise, the two play off each other with the abandon of old college buddies. Fans of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck will find much to enjoy here. While the book will leave you in stitches, the advice the pair doles out is solid and bankable. The book should be in every college freshman’s backpack as they leave for school.”
Grace, Mac’s Back-Books
Three Women
By Lisa Taddeo
“I can’t recall the last time I’ve been reading a work of nonfiction and woken up excited purely by the fact that, today, I would get to read more. Compulsive and psychologically riveting, Three Women reads like a novel. I couldn’t keep from dog-earing its pages each time Taddeo perfectly expressed something I’d felt but never had the words for. In Sloane, Maggie, and Lina, I recognized aspects of myself — namely the desire for connection and for love. When three women tell their uncensored truth, they can liberate a nation. I feel deeply grateful to Lisa Taddeo for giving us this gift of raw authenticity.”
Michaela, Peregrine Book Company
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
By Ocean Vuong
“Alright 2019, this is the novel to beat. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is the rare novel that makes you experience reading in a slightly different way and shows you that, no matter how many books you’ve read, something new and uniquely beautiful can still be found. The novel takes the form of a letter written by the main character, Little Dog, to his mother — an immigrant from Vietnam who cannot read. The power of Vuong’s poetic writing shimmers with every paragraph, and each phrase is a carefully considered, emotional journey. Grappling with themes of identity, sexuality, addiction, violence, and finding your place in a world where you feel you don’t belong, this book already feels like a modern classic, destined to be read and talked about for years to come.”
Caleb, Bookmarks
The Nickel Boys
By Colson Whitehead
“A brilliant black boy, in the wrong car, meets the wrong cop. A for-profit penal system puts him in a reform school run by abusers, with a suspicious graveyard out back. What happens next is… a powerful arc bending toward justice? Colson Whitehead delivers a book about suffering that does not revel in suffering, a book about keeping soul in a broken world, a book that leaves the reader wanting the hero to embrace the person he has become.”
Nialle, The Haunted Bookshop
Really nice