Top BEST 150 audio books (5-star audio book list) to read during covid19 home stay

Posted by:Lindsay S. Nixon

After reading/listening to more than 1,000 books, here is my (growing!) list of 5-star favorites. 

I am very stingy with my ratings/stars.

If I really (really!) enjoy something, it gets 4-stars (or 4.5 stars).

 

5-stars are reserved for books I love so much I think everyone should read them ;) 

I am not linking to Amazon (or other) to avoid making any money off this post--it is a public service. I get most of my books from the library (libby app or hoopla) but also buy from Chirp and audible. 

 

If you need an "escape" right now from all the goings on, this post is your best friend.

Happy Reading! 

 

NEED MORE RECOMMENDATIONS? 

I have hundreds and hundreds of 4-star books. Read my reviews/see my ratings on Goodreads. Currently, I average about a book every other day and I try not to read too many "popular" or "main stream" books (e.g. Reese book club) because I LOVE finding the overlooked gem and giving it love. I usually include summaries with my reviews to help you decide if you're in or out! 

 

HAPPY HERBIVORE'S 5-STAR AUDIO BOOKLIST

 

TOP FAVES EVERRRR

  1. HARRY POTTER
  2. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (also a movie)
  3. Me Before You by JoJo Moyes (also a movie)
  4. The Hate You Give (also a movie)
  5. Comoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. JK Rowling) (also a TV series) 
  6. Far From the Free by Robin Benway 
  7. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green 
  8. Kindred by Octavia Butler 
  9. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover 
  10. They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera 
  11. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Reid 
  12. You Will Not Have My Hate
  13. A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum 
  14. anything by Diane Chamberlain 
  15. Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone 

Historical Fiction 

  1. Lady Hardcastle series by TE Kinsey 
  2. Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline 
  3. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Windows by Balli Jaswal 
  4. Before We Were Yours by Lusa Wingate 
  5. The House Girl by Tara Conklin 
  6. The Help 
  7. The Alice Network 
  8. Pulp by Robin Talley 
  9. Verity by Colleen Hoover 
  10. The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis-Graves 
  11. The Alice Netword by Kate Quinn 
  12. The Nightingale 

Psychological Thriller

  1. An Anonymous Girl
  2. These Hidden Things
  3. White Lies by Lucy Dawson 
  4. The Daughter by Lucy Dawson 
  5. Jane Doe by Victoria Stone
  6. The Other Woman by Sandie Jones 
  7. Then she was Gone by Lisa Jewell
  8. The Safest Lies by Megan Miranda 
  9. Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris 
  10. The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena 
  11. Jane Doe by Victoria Stone Helen
  12. The Waiting Room by Emily Bleeker 
  13. The First Time She Drowned 
  14. You & Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes (also on Netflix)
  15. What She Knew by Gilly Macmillian 
  16. The Handmaid’s Tale (also a show)
  17. The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent
  18. It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell 
  19. One of Us is Lying (YA) by Karen McManus
  20. Lies She Told by Cate Holahan 
  21. Black Eye-d Susans 
  22. I Let You Go by Clare McIntosh 
  23. The Secret Child by Kerry Fisher 
  24. The Lies We Told by Camilla Way
  25. What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman
  26. The Waiting Room by Emily Bleeker 
  27. All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker 
  28. I Let You Go by Mackintosh, Clare 
  29. The Silent Patient 

Police / Investigation

  1. Mean Streak by Sandra Brown 
  2. The Stranger by Harlan Coben 
  3. All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda 
  4. All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker 
  5. My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni 

Love Story 

  1. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner 
  2. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
  3. All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover 
  4. Hearburn by Nora Ephron 
  5. Leave me by Gayle Forman 
  6. The Hatin Game by Sally Thorne 
  7. The Rosie Project by Simsion Graeme
  8. To All the Boys I've Loved Before/Lara Jean Series (YA) by Jenny Han 
  9. Who Asked You? By Terry McMilan
  10. Meet Me at the Museum

Young Adult-contemporary

  1. Four, Three, Two, One by Courtney Stevens
  2. Janie Johnson series (5 books)
  3. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (also a movie) 
  4. Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon 
  5. Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum 
  6. If I Stay & Where She Went by Gayle Foreman  
  7. When by Victoria Laurie 
  8. Greyhound by Piper Stephen 
  9. The Line Between (#1) and A Single Light by Tosca Lee
  10. Pretties (series) by Scott Westerfield 
  11. Wayward Children (series) 

 

General Fiction

  1. If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
  2. What Alice Forgot (the only Liane Moriarty I liked)
  3. Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf 
  4. Everything I never Told You by Celeste Ng 
  5. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult 
  6. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo 
  7. If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
  8. All The Bright Places by Jenifer Niven 
  9. What She Left Behind BY Wiseman, Ellen Mari

 

Sci-Fi (lightly not heavy) or Dystopian

  1. The Dispatcher
  2. BirdBox (also a movie)
  3. Landline by Rainbow Rowell 
  4. When She Woke 
  5. The Unremarkable Heart (short stories) Karen Slaughter 
  6. Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (great social commentary)
  7. Flowers for Algernon 
  8. The One by John Marrs

 

Non-Fiction

  1. Chain of Title by David Dayen 
  2. A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold 
  3. The Brain Defense by Kevin Davis 
  4. Educated by Tara Westover
  5. Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls 
  6. Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham 
  7. The New Jim Crow 
  8. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 
  9. The Coddling of the American Mind 
  10. The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates
  11. Becoming by Michelle Obama 
  12. Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life
  13. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure

 

Non-White/POC Books That Opened My Eyes (LBGT too)

  1. Americanah 
  2. The Hate You Give 
  3. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams 
  4. I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness 
  5. So You Want to Talk about Race 
  6. Between the World and Me 
  7. Born a Crime 
  8. American Panda 
  9. I am not Your Perfect American Daughter 
  10. Love, Hate and Other Filters 
  11. Mustard Seed
  12. Bury What We Cannot Take by Kristin Chen 
  13. My Sister, the Serial Killer 
  14. 13 Hours by Deon Meyer 
  15. Internment by Samira Ahmed 
  16. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
  17. So You Wanna Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo 
  18. Ayesha at Last by Jalaluddin, Uzma 
  19. The Convenience Store Girl
  20. With the Fire on High by Acevedo, Elizabeth 
  21. If I Was Your Girl by Russo, Meredith 
  22. Pulp by Talley Robin

 

Memoir or Biography

  1. This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare 
  2. A Beautiful, Terrible Thing by Jen Waite 
  3. Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman
  4. Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea 
  5. Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist
  6. Bossypants by Tina Fey
  7. Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
  8. Fish: A memoir of a Boy in a Man’s Prison 
  9. This is Me: Chrissy Metz 
  10. Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day Black Heroes 
  11. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (also a movie) 
  12. My Horizontal Life 
  13. Rabbit: Autobiography of Ms. Pat
  14. The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russel
  15. The Sociopath Next Door 
  16. Becoming Nicole: The Transfromation of an American Family 
  17. The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
  18. The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country

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