With more than 400,000 titles to choose from on Audible, we’ve scoured from a great choice books to listen to and picked the best ones for dads, mum and kids.
Top 10 listens for him/dads
Jay Shetty, social media superstar and host of the number one podcast ‘On Purpose’, distils the timeless wisdom he learned as a practising monk into practical steps anyone can take every day to live a less anxious, more meaningful life.
From the best-selling author of Boy Swallows Universe, All Our Shimmering Skies is a story about gifts that fall from the sky, curses we dig from the earth, and the secrets we bury inside ourselves – an odyssey of true love and grave danger, of darkness and light, of bones and blue skies.
From the Academy Award-winning actor, Greenlights is an unconventional memoir from Matthew McConaughey, filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction, narrated by the actor.
In Let Love Rule, Lenny Kravitz looks back at his life with candor, self-scrutiny and humour, covering a vast canvas stretching from Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, Los Angeles’s Baldwin Hills, Beverly Hills, and finally to France, England and Germany. It’s the story of a wildly creative kid who, despite tough struggles at school and extreme tension at home, finds salvation in music.
The highly anticipated sequel to the beloved worldwide best seller Ready Player One, the “ridiculously fun and large-hearted” (NPR) near-future adventure that inspired the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film.
The first book in twenty-five years from Jerry Seinfeld features his best work across five decades in comedy. For this book, Jerry Seinfeld has selected his favourite material, organised decade by decade. In page after hilarious page, one brilliantly crafted observation after another, readers will witness the evolution of one of the great comedians of our time and gain new insights into the thrilling but unforgiving art of writing stand-up comedy.
A powerhouse cast helps translate this epic graphic novel masterwork into a sonic experience worthy of its legacy, including Riz Ahmed, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, Samantha Morton, Bebe Neuwirth, Andy Serkis, and more. Fans will especially revel in a new twist for the audio adaptation: Neil Gaiman himself serves as thenarrator. Follow him as he leads listeners along a winding path of myths, imagination and, often, terror. Even in your wildest dreams, you’ve never heard anything like this.
With strange, mystical forces gathering in the shadows and pursued not only by the Stercza brothers bent on vengeance, but also by the Holy Inquisition, Reynevan finds himself in the Narrenturm, the Tower of Fools, a medieval asylum for the mad, or for those who dare to think differently and challenge the prevailing order.
The epic story of the Boer War and Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet – murderer or hero? With his trademark brilliant command of story, Peter FitzSimons unravels the many myths and fictions that surround the life of Harry Morant. The truths FitzSimons uncovers about ‘The Breaker’ and the part he played in the Boer War are astonishing – and, in the hands of this master storyteller, make compelling listening.
Outrageous, witty, warm and wise, Killing Time shares more than 40 yarns reflecting an epic life – from an encounter with a soul legend in Memphis, a night in a haunted studio in upstate New York, and a doomed haircut in Thailand to a madcap misunderstanding in a Japanese ski resort, a family feud on a remote coral atoll, and an all-too-revealing appearance for a Sydney charity.
Top 10 listens for her/mums
1. The Meaning of Mariah, by Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey’s memoir, performed by none other than the queen herself: This book is composed of my memories, my mishaps, my struggles, my survival, and my songs. Unfiltered. I went deep into my childhood and gave the scared little girl inside of me a big voice. I let the abandoned and ambitious adolescent have her say, and the betrayed and triumphant woman I became tell her side.
In this book, with her characteristic humour and gutsy intelligence, Turia Pitt goes on a quest to answer thequestion, Is it possible to be happier? What does she discover on her journey? It entails, among other things, practising gratitude, working on kindness, self-love, strengthening your relationships and accepting the hard times and bad days.
3. The Survivors, by Jane Harper
Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home.
4. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama
In the stirring, highly anticipated first volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama tells the story of his improbable odyssey from young man searching for his identity to leader of the free world, describing in strikingly personal detail both his political education and the landmark moments of the first term of his historic presidency – a time of dramatic transformation and turmoil.
5. The Space Between, by Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews, hosts of Shameless podcast
There’s this weird gap in life that’s fueled by cheap tacos and even cheaper tequila – also known as our 20s. It’s a specific limbo of being suspended between being a teenager and a ‘Proper Adult’, and though it’s wildly confusing, often lonely, sometimes embarrassing and frequently daunting, there’s also a whole lot of magic to be found in the chaos. It’s a time when we’re finding our own voices, cementing our relationships and starting to fulfil our big ambitions (or simply just working out what they are).
6. Clean Slate, by Zoe Foster Blake
Zoe Foster Blake’s first audio novella, Clean Slate, asks the question: if you both cheat, does that cancel theinfidelity out altogether? Can you just wipe the slate clean? Cam and Holly have a picture-perfect marriage and life: a beautiful house in the suburbs and two adorable little boys. Cam has sold his successful marketing agency to look after the boys while Holly goes full throttle on her career post-maternity leave, and everything’s peachy. ‘Til Cam discovers Holly has been having an affair with a colleague.
7. Tame Your Inner Critic, by Clare Bowditch
Using her experience as a storyteller, broadcaster, and (undercover) life-coach, Clare Bowditch collaborates with neuroscientist Dr Charlotte Keating to detail useful Cognitive Behavioural Therapy concepts that will help you tame your inner critic. With practical steps and Clare’s trademark humour and intimate storytelling style, Tame Your Inner Critic will teach you the skills to retrain your brain and achieve your big, fat dreams.
8. Songteller, by Dolly Parton
As told by Dolly Parton in her own inimitable words, explore the songs that have defined her journey. Mining over 60 years of songwriting, Dolly Parton highlights 150 of her songs and brings readers behind the lyrics.
9. You are the Guru, by Gabrielle Bernstein
Whether you’re having a moment of minor overwhelm or find yourself in a state of panic, you can turn to this Audible Original for solutions and support. These six messages are simple, reliable, spiritual solutions that will free you from fear and inner turmoil. In order to show up for life and all its challenges, we must be able to regulate our nervous system, calm our mind, and trust our inner wisdom to give us clear direction. This Audible Original will teach you how to guide yourself back to peace at any moment.
10. The Searcher, by Tana French
Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a remote Irish village would be the perfect escape. After 25 years in theChicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But then a local kid comes looking for his help. His brother has gone missing and no one, least of all the police, seems to care. Cal wants nothing to do with any kind of investigation, but somehow he can’t make himself walk away.
Top 10 listens for kids/family
Morrigan Crow and her friends have survived their first year as proud scholars of the elite Wundrous Society, helped bring down the nefarious Ghastly Market and proven themselves loyal to Unit 919. Now Morrigan faces a new, exciting challenge: to master the mysterious Wretched Arts of the Accomplished Wundersmit and control the power that threatens to consume her.
In the audiobook edition of Matilda by Roald Dahl, read by Kate Winslet, Matilda is the world’s most famous bookworm, no thanks to her ghastly parents. Her father thinks she’s a little scab. Her mother spends all afternoon playing bingo. And her headmistress, Miss Trunchbull? She’s the worst of all. Despite these beastly grownups trying to push her down, Matilda is an extraordinary girl with a magical mind. So all the terrible adults had better watch out, because she’s going to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget!
Think your teachers are bad? Wait till you meet this lot. These 10 tales of the world’s most splendidly sinister teachers will have you running for the school gates. Dr Dread teaches science and is half man, half monster. Watch out for the ghastly Miss Seethe. She is always furious and she’s on a detention rampage. And as for Pent, he’s a teacher with a real difference. He is bone-shakingly terrified of children!
Set in a parallel world very similar to our own, Northern Lights tells the compelling story of 12-year-old Lyra’s quest to rescue her friend and find her father, aided by her daemon, an armoured bear, and a witch-queen.
In Coraline’s family’s new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks thedoor to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own. Only it’s different…
The story of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III rise to fame, through his dragon-training exploits, told in Hiccup’s own words by David Tennant. Hiccup was a truly extraordinary Viking Hero, Warrior chieftain, awesome sword-fighter and amateur naturalist. He was known throughout Vikingdom as ‘the Dragon Whisperer’ on account of his power over these terrifying beasts. But it wasn’t always like that….
After losing her parents, young Mary Lennox is sent from India to live in her uncle’s gloomy mansion on thewild English moors. She is lonely and has no one to play with, but one day she learns of a secret garden somewhere in the grounds that no one is allowed to enter. Then Mary uncovers an old key in a flowerbed – and a gust of magic leads her to the hidden door. Slowly she turns the key and enters a world she could never have imagined.
This is the story of a young boy Wizard and a young girl Warrior who have been taught since birth to hate each other like poison; and the thrilling tale of what happens when their two worlds collide. Xar is a Wizard boy who has no Magic, and will do anything to get it. Wish is a Warrior girl, but she owns a banned Magical Object, and she will do anything to conceal it.
The beloved modern classic released as an unabridged audiobook for the first time in 2019. In the land of Ingary, where seven league boots and invisibility cloaks exist, young Sophie Hatter catches the unwelcome attention of the Witch of the Waste and is put under a spell….
When a lion cub named Simba is born, his father, King Mufasa, introduces him to the beautiful Pride Lands he will one day rule. But when Mufasa is killed unexpectedly, young Simba blames himself. Unable to face his family, he runs away, leaving the Pride Lands under the rule of his evil uncle, Scar. Years later, the young prince must make a choice. Will he reclaim his homeland or turn his back on the kingdom in its darkest hour?
