Best Audiobooks of May 2026  

As Memorial Day weekend approaches, it’s the perfect time to choose your next listen and boy, do we have some great audiobooks coming this month. We have an embarrassment of riches from Golden Voice and multi-award-winning narrator January LaVoy along with a healthy dose of fan-favorite celebrities reading their stories. It MAY (get it, because it's the month) be hard to choose, but we would suggest adding everything to your digital library. We promise you won't be disappointed. 

The Four Winds meets Hang the Moon in this deeply engaging story of community and survival set in 1933 Mississippi. This conversation-starting second novel from the bestselling author of The Help was fifteen years in the making. We couldn't be more thrilled to have Jenna Lamia back on Kathryn Stockett's newest book after Lamia's participation on The Help. And January LaVoy narrating sharp-tongued Birdie Calhoun is the cherry on top. 

Freida McFadden is back with more thrills in The Divorce, a new story of happily never after. After her perfect family falls apart, one woman heads down a dark path of revenge in this tale of betrayal and vengeance. And to take us down that path are some of the best narrators in the business: Edoardo Ballerini, January LaVoy and Marin Ireland. 

 

Everybody’s favorite snarky, hyper-aware, murderous security android, and legendary narrator Kevin R. Free, returns in the new Murderbot installment from Martha Wells. "Free employs subtle accents to distinguish the human characters; Nanna Naja especially is a hoot. But it’s his Murderbot, who has grown and changed over eight installments, that will have listeners rapt."-Kirkus Audiobook Reviews 

 

After a dangerous encounter with an obsessed fan, a writer retreats to a small town where she moves on with her life. Until…her stalker returns. And Golden Voice narrator January LaVoy again graces our May list with another stellar performance. 

 

Her wedding might be off, but the honeymoon is just beginning. Frankie sets off to paradise with her complicated best friend George, but when their bond begins to shift, friendship may no longer suffice. And back to share another Carley Fortune story is long-running narrator AJ Bridel, along with the introduction of Canadian actor Jack Copland. 

Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung team up in this action-packed thriller about a mother and daughter entangled in a dangerous web of corruption. Multi-award-winning narrator Eunice Wong takes us on this pulse-pounding journey across the globe in sharp style. 

 

Billy Eichner is ready to tell his story, and he's telling it on his own terms: as an audiobook memoir original. Eichner has spent a lifetime building a career of speaking (or the Billy scream, if you will) at his fans, and the only way to truly enjoy his story is to hear it directly from him. We dare you not to laugh out loud at the antics you're about to encounter.

 

 

The beloved author Mac Barnett pens a tale for adults that celebrates the power of storytelling in children’s literature and encourages imagination at any age. Read Barnett's blog post about this very topic on our B&N Reads blog here.

 

 

If you think her novels are gripping, listen to the bestselling crime author’s real life, including the traumatic experiences that shaped and inspired her Kay Scarpetta series and her previous work as a forensic researcher. This is a fascinating life told in a straightforward but conversational tone by Cornwell. 

 

 

From the author of beloved story collections like Me Talk Pretty One Day and Holidays on Ice comes another round of quirky, bittersweet and delightful essays about the roles we play for the people in our lives, in this place we call home.

 

Explore more audiobooks here.