15 Great New Audiobooks to Listen to This Month 

In honor of the new year, let’s start with an intricately crafted debut. This voices-driven novel is our top January audiobook pick. Cate Kay is a reclusive bestselling author who is haunted by, running from, and confronting her past. Set up as fictional memoir, the story’s 10+ believable narrators add helpful pieces to the puzzle across different timelines as they flesh out chapters from Kay’s real life. The unique documentary-style storytelling is captivating as it interweaves themes about identity, ambition, friendship, and the chance for redemption. 

This is the perfect New Year’s gift for the legions of fans waiting to learn what happens next to dragon rider Violet at Basgiath War College! Phenom author Rebecca Yarros and narrator Rebecca Soler once again merge their talents for the audiobook version of Book 3 in the Empyrean series. If you’re new to this bestselling saga, start with the first two installments of this addictive fantasy, Fourth Wing and Iron Flame, both past Barnes & Noble Books of the Year. 

Every new reading list needs a twisty dark thriller with a marriage at the center, and this is it. Is struggling author Grady Green’s missing wife dead or alive? Follow him to a small Scottish island to find out. (We know all small Scottish islands have secrets, right?) The audiobook includes realistic background sounds and is narrated with flair by Richard Armitage, best known for his role in The Hobbit film trilogy, and Tuppence Middleton, best known for Downton Abbey. 

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor brings us a book- within-a-book tale starring Zelu, a disabled Nigerian American woman who pens a wildly successful science fiction novel, which includes robots and AI. But as her fame rises, she loses control of her own narrative. Fans of R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface will notice similar themes, but they are played out in very different ways. Multiple fully-invested narrators help keep the increasingly blurred lines between fact and fiction clear.  

Popular author Grady Hendrix is back with his latest suspenseful read. Hendrix sets the scene in 1970, where fifteen-year-old Fern is part of a group of teens at a home for pregnant girls, where they endure adversity, shame and ostracization until a book of witchcraft puts the power back in their hands. Known for horror, Hendrix leans into creepiness more than standard horror here, but it’s the horrific way these vulnerable girls are treated by people they know, as well as the larger society, that will terrify and enrage you. There is a big cast of characters, which the experienced narrators handle flawlessly. 

Scott Turow fans will get exactly what they want in this “third act” in Turow’s mega-selling Presumed Innocent legal thriller series (now also a television series starring Jake Gyllenhaal). Read by Golden Voice and multi-award-winning narrator Grover Gardener, this story finds now-retired judge Rusty Sabich defending his wife’s troubled son, who’s on trial for murder (of course). Gardener is a perfect match for Rusty at this stage in his life, conveying his extreme sense of doubt that the legal system, to which he has dedicated his life and career, can ever provide true justice. 

If the dark and cold January evenings get you down, brighten and warm them up with this fun contemporary romance. Part of Sarah Adams’s When in Rome series (as in Rome, Kentucky), this plot features two schoolteachers, who are both also secret authors, who form an unlikely alliance. Narrator Brittany Pressley has been an Audie Award finalist, and it shows—she is delightful in this role, and romance pro Nelson Hobbs is a worthy sparring partner. 

Two strangers board the same plane to the same destination, sit in the same row, text their friends the same messages about the same man, and then they both disappear. Isn’t that enough to make you want to put this on your TBL list? And here’s another enticement: ten excellent narrators who bring to life all the personalities involved in this very satisfying cat-and-mouse psychological thriller. 

Most of us begin every year with resolutions and good intentions about how to improve ourselves in one or more ways in the twelve months ahead. This book can help you achieve some success with those goals by explaining how to rid our minds and bodies of haunting anxiety. Dr. Martha Beck, a sociologist who authored a Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2021, The Way of Integrity, reads her advice as a mix of college professor and personal therapist. You’ll gain scientific knowledge as well as practical tips that could be life-changing. 

Jinger Duggar Vuolo continues to seek understanding about a childhood she calls “controlling, man-centered, and legalistic” in this follow-up to her soul-searching memoir, Becoming Free Indeed. She reads her own words, which makes her core message about self-discovery with the help of God much more relatable and inspiring. 

Over 60 years later, the presidency of John F. Kennedy continues to be the subject of research, books, films, and even present-day political campaign ads. This true, little-known story about the first assassination attempt on JFK, right before his inauguration, reads like a fictional thriller, especially as voiced by Audie winner, Scott Brick. Brick is dramatic, brisk, authoritative, and un-put-downable. 

After a lifetime as a public figure, Brooke Shields shines a spotlight on growing older, especially as a “woman of a certain age.” We already know aging is hard for most people, but it’s often more difficult for women, due to society’s unrealistic expectations and gender bias. Shields is committed to trying to alter all this entrenched reality, starting a new conversation about the possibilities of women’s power and promise in mid-life and beyond. Her narration is fabulous—down to earth, conversational, funny, serious, optimistic. I think this has a good chance of remaining on my “favorites” list all year long. 

This is a good pairing with Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old. It’s a frank, humorous, and informative guide to menopause and aging by actress Naomi Watts. Watts presents it as a guide to this little-talked-about but pivotal stage in a woman’s life, offering personal anecdotes and tips as well as accessible science. This book is revelatory, even though it shouldn’t be, which makes it a much-needed addition to books on women’s health and well-being. 

“Who are we? We are a billion voices, bright and brave; we are light, standing together in the fight.” For all ages of girls, for anyone who has a young girl in their life, and for anyone/everyone who needs a mood boost, this is a powerful poem, composed and read by presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman. No matter what month of the year, week of the month, or day of the week it may be, this is sure to transform your mindset to positivity and motivate you to dream big, and it’s only four minutes long!  

Author/Narrator Bob Goff hosts a podcast, which aims to “help you discover, declare, and realize your ambitions so that you can have a fulfilling life and impact the world for good.” Catching Whimsy builds on that in the form of a 365-day devotional. Goff mixes Bible verses with stories to show (vs. tell) how to add truth, hope, and whimsy into every day. If this method of motivation is appealing to you, January is the obvious time to start listening.