32 Audiobooks for your Summer Vacation

Posted by Cybil on May 22, 2017

Summer Reading is sponsored by Audible.

Whether you're navigating your way through a road trip or getting some sun by the pool, the perfect book paired with a great narrator can make your summer downtime even better. With that in mind, we pulled together 32 audiobooks to download before your next vacation (even your next staycation).

Have a great audiobook suggestion that's perfect for summer? Share it with us in the comments!

All-Ages Classics:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

Peter Pan

Anne of Green Gables

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Suspenseful Mysteries
A Great Reckoning

Murder on the Orient Express

The Dry

Her Royal Spyness

Fascinating Science Fiction & Fantasy
American Gods

The Gunslinger

Ready Player One

The Collapsing Empire

Riveting Young Adult Books
Eleanor & Park

Six of Crows

Salt to the Sea

The Hate U Give

Enthralling History
Unbroken

Assassination Vacation

Killers of the Flower Moon

The Devil in the White City

Captivating Memoirs
Priestdaddy

This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare

Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe

You Don't Look Your Age: And Other Fairy Tales


Side-Splitting Comedy
Theft by Finding

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl

Dad Is Fat


Terrific Travel & Adventure
Into the Wild

In the Heart of the Sea

Wild

Pirate Hunters




Be sure to check out more of our summer reading coverage here.

Audible

Comments Showing 1-32 of 32 (32 new)

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message 1: by Sage (new)

Sage Collins Always looking for audiobook recs


message 2: by Colleen (last edited May 23, 2017 06:28PM) (new)

Colleen Me too - and now I've doubled my reading powers!

Ordinary Grace
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Two of my favorites so far this year.


message 3: by Sandra (new)

Sandra The Shoemaker's Wife is beautiful on audio


message 4: by Elyse (new)

Elyse Most of these are already in my TBR! Only added 2 more. A lot I've already read/listened to as well.


message 5: by Amber (new)

Amber I enjoyed It's Superman. That was a pretty awesome audiobook with Ready Player One and Girl with All the Gifts!


message 6: by Zohal (new)

Zohal I loved listening to The Dry on audiobook! So good!


message 7: by Melliott (new)

Melliott Recently listened to Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, about growing up half-black half-white during apartheid in South Africa. So good. Normally I don't listen to books (too slow), but he does all the languages, the accents, the characters, and it added such depth and verisimilitude to his story.


message 8: by John (new)

John Pellow Good to listen this audiobook. Very good.


message 9: by Raiann (new)

Raiann Neil Gaiman is the perfect narrator for his own books! Let's see if we can get him to read the Cheesecake Factory menu...

https://www.crowdrise.com/neil-gaiman...


message 10: by Carla (last edited May 26, 2017 05:56PM) (new)

Carla Ugh I haaaaated Eleanor and Park on audio. The narrator's voice for Eleanor was soo whiny and obnoxious. Buyer beware, I suppose.


message 11: by Tyler Leigh (new)

Tyler Leigh American Gods is honestly the best audiobook I have ever listened too.


message 12: by Hazel Bee (new)

Hazel Bee The number one Ladies Detective Series by Alexander McCall Smith
read by Lessett Lacat.


message 13: by N.E.C.C. (new)

N.E.C.C. Ready Payer One is really good, American Gods is amazing.


message 14: by Amy the book-bat (new)

Amy the book-bat I listened to In the Heart of the Sea yesterday and it was pretty good.


message 15: by Colleen (new)

Colleen Lol now I wish I didn't already own a print copy of American Gods.


message 16: by Ellis (new)

Ellis Moore I'm lucky enough to work within the audiobook industry and there are so MANY good audiobooks out there. My favourites so far are:

The Natural Way of Things
Only Ever Yours
The Summer that Melted Everything
Girls on Fire
The Dry

I'm so lucky that I get to work on these books, and I know so many already know how great audiobooks are, but seriously give them a try!


message 17: by Colleen (new)

Colleen @Ellis - Now that they're available on digital, I feel they are only going to get more popular. I'll check out your titles.


message 18: by Ellis (new)

Ellis Moore Colleen wrote: "@Ellis - Now that they're available on digital, I feel they are only going to get more popular. I'll check out your titles."

This is so true - from working in the industry audio is absolutely booming, especially here in the UK and the US. If you ever need any audio recommendations feel free to contact me! :)


message 19: by Joannemarie (new)

Joannemarie O'Donnell I just finished listening to Homegoing and it was amazing. So was the audio of Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad.


message 20: by Diana (new)

Diana The Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. Especially the ones read by James Marsters.


message 21: by Joannemarie (new)

Joannemarie O'Donnell The incorrigible children of Ashton Place by Mary Rose Wood series is wonderful on audio!


message 22: by Joannemarie (new)

Joannemarie O'Donnell Melliott wrote: "Recently listened to Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, about growing up half-black half-white during apartheid in South Africa. So good. Normally I don't listen to books (too slow), but he does all the ..."

If audiobooks tend to be too slow for you, Audible and Overdrive both offer the option of speeding up the narration.


message 23: by Helen (new)

Helen The audiobook of "Unmeasured Strength" by Lauren Manning was excellent. It's about the wonderful recovery of a woman who was badly burned at Tower 1 on September 11th.


message 24: by Ramona (new)

Ramona Sage wrote: "Always looking for audiobook recs" my first venture into audio books included, Anne McCaffrey's Dragon of Pern series; The Cat who... series by Lillian Jackson Braun, a female Egyptologist in the early 1900s who solves mysteries by Elizabeth Peters, and Alexander McCall Smith's humorous life of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency, set in Botswana. Recently I enjoyed, " A gentleman in Moscow", and "Z", about F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda.


Girlwiththeglasses I really want to get into audio books this summer, so this is just what I need.


message 26: by Helen (new)

Helen OK, folks--THE book to listen to this summer is: "Between the World and Me," written and read by Ta-Nehisi Coates!! (Random House audio, unabridged) Yesterday I listened to 2/5 of the book while I colored, and I only stopped to rest my arm for today! Wow! A powerful book, which gave me a clarity about the lot of the African-American male in the USA, which I had not had before!! It is much more powerful, up-to-date, and understandable than even the best of the previous books of its type!!


message 27: by Ramona (new)

Ramona Helen wrote: "OK, folks--THE book to listen to this summer is: "Between the World and Me," written and read by Ta-Nehisi Coates!! (Random House audio, unabridged) Yesterday I listened to 2/5 of the book while I ..."
There are several on-line book sites that offer free audio books. BookBub is one of my favorites. They offer older books free and others at reasonable prices. I "purchase" through Amazon and it is sent to an account you set up. I have 12 waiting for me right now, and adding more every week!


message 28: by Helen (new)

Helen Thanks, Ramona, for the info!


message 29: by Ramona (new)

Ramona you are welcome. "Rebecca at Riffle" and "Read it forward" are two sites I check often, also.


message 30: by Joannemarie (new)

Joannemarie O'Donnell At least the spam guys are polite! And, in pertinent news, I subscribe to email notices from AudioFile which are filled with new releases and featured selections of audiobooks with reviews of the text and the performance. They also have a program called "Sync" where they offer two free audiobooks a week during the summer. I highly recommend checking them out.


message 31: by Robert (new)

Robert Sheard Melliott wrote: "Recently listened to Born A Crime by Trevor Noah, about growing up half-black half-white during apartheid in South Africa. So good. Normally I don't listen to books (too slow), but he does all the ..."

Agreed... so good.


message 32: by Rhett (new)

Rhett Nyx The audiobook for The Children of Blood and Bone is AMAZING.


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