Looking to start your year with audiobooks? We thought so! Below you’ll find five audiobooks for your 2022 TBL (that’s ‘to be listened’) list. A few are even available for request on NetGalley! Click on the cover to request and start listening in the NetGalley Shelf app. If you’re looking to end your 2021 with audiobooks, we have recs for that too.
Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez, narrated by Almarie Guerra, Armando Riesco, Inés del Castillo
Xochitl Gonzalez’s debut novel follows the Acevedo siblings as they navigate their career goals, the expectations of their activist mother, and their relationships. Olga is a 40-year-old Puerto Rican Brooklynite wedding planner, while Prieto is a closeted U.S. congressman being blackmailed by real estate developers. Buried family secrets come to light alongside their mother’s sudden return to Brooklyn and the news of Hurricane Maria striking Puerto Rico.
Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur, narrated by Lauren Sweet
Narrator Lauren Sweet returns for the third book in Alexandria Bellefleur’s Written in the Stars series—one of our most-anticipated reads of 2022. In this second chance romance, Margot is helping her friends prepare for their wedding and is shocked to discover that Olivia, her former best friend, was hired as the wedding planner. When a mishap results in Olivia needing a place to stay, Margot offers up her spare room and both start to wonder if the risk of falling is worth the chance at happiness together.
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka, narrated by Mozhan Marnò, Jim Meskimen
Danya Kukafka’s thriller opens at a Texas prison with serial killer Ansel Packer a mere 12 hours away from his execution. From there the story moves back in time to look at the events of Ansel’s life through the eyes of his mother, his wife’s twin sister, and the homicide detective determined to find justice for the women he’d killed. Mozhan Marnò brings the three women to life with her narration, while Jim Meskimen delivers a chilling performance throughout Ansel’s chapters.
Feather and Flame by Livia Blackburne, narrated by Nancy Wu
Feather and Flame is the second standalone book in the Queen’s Council series, each following a different Disney princess. Livia Blackburne’s tale finds Mulan training female warriors when Shang delivers a message from the Imperial City. The emperor has named Mulan his heir and now she must leave behind the quiet life she’s built to face enemy Huns, court politics, and untrustworthy allies.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, narrated by Julia Whelan, Brian Nishii, Keisuke Hoashi, MacLeod Andrews, Jeanne Sakata, Greg Watanabe, Kurt Kanazawa, Matthew Bridges, Kotaro Watanabe, Brianna Ishibashi, Joe Knezevitch, Micky Shiloah, Stephanie Komure, Jason Culp
Audiobook listeners who love books with a large cast of narrators will want to put this debut novel-in-stories at the top of their TBL. Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers to 2030 where the discovery of a perfectly preserved Neanderthal corpse in Antarctica unleashes a virus on the world. The interconnected stories that follow span over hundreds of years as humanity adapts to the plague’s spread, climate disaster, and eventually turns their gaze towards finding a new home among the stars.
What audiobooks are at the top of your 2022 TBL?
