Amy's Favorite Audiobook Narrations of 2023

In 2023, I listened to 49 audiobooks. I love listening to audiobooks while I drive, clean, and craft. But most of my book-listening time is during my daily 4-mile walks.

I’ve already posted my Favorite Books of 2023 post which included my FAVORITE AUDIOBOOK NARRATION OF 2023, Emily Woo Zeller’s narration of The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang.  The novel earned a 3-1/2 star rating from me and did not make my Top Ten but Zeller was phenomenal! She had to voice so many characters and each one had their own voice. She was even terrific with male voices! Her repertoire was truly amazing! And her voice acting was perfection. When a character was out of the story for a while and later re-appeared, I knew exactly who they were, even before the story announced their name, based on her voice for that character.

There were a few more audiobook narrations which received A+ ratings from me this year. These novels weren’t necessarily in my Top Ten but I still loved them and the audiobook narration and production were so great they deserve recognition. I’d love to hear more audiobooks from these people!

To get an A+ from me, narrators have to be excellent voice actors, have a large repertoire of voices, and have no glaring sound production issues. I’m listing these audiobooks in the order in which I liked the novels and including the rating I gave each novel as well as my comments about the narration (which all sound very similar, of course!). To read my full review of the books below, click on the titles.

Marin Ireland/Michael Urie narrating Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (5 stars), magical realism. The narrators of my Favorite Book of 2023 were absolutely stellar! Ireland is always awesome and this audiobook was no exception. She displayed terrific vocal acting and a nice variety of voices and accents for different characters. But, oh, Urie was absolutely perfect for the role of Marcellus. I’m quite sure that Urie’s voice acting made me love Marcellus even mor than I would have if I’d read the book. He didn’t have to voice any other characters in this limited role but he completely crushed it.

Jack Garrett narrating Elantris by Brandon Sanderson (4 stars), fantasy. Garrett was fantastic with a large range of voices, particularly very distinct voices for the main characters. He was also a marvelous voice actor! I thought he was perfect for this novel.

Barrie Kreinik narrating Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy (4 stars), fiction. Kreinik was spectacular with wonderful voice acting and an astounding vocal repertoire including a ton of accents!

Tim Gerard Reynolds narrating Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan (4 stars), fantasy. Reynolds was absolutely amazing! His vocal repertoire was humongous—each character had his own unique voice! And his voice acting was superb. He was very entertaining.

Christine Lakin narrating The Miniscule Mansion of Myra Malone by Audrey Burges (4 stars), fantasy. Lakin was really terrific with multiple voices for various characters including male voices. Her acting was spot on!

Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey

Amy  

science fiction

Told in first person, the protagonist’s name is never provided. But he is the solitary inhabitant of Beacon 23, a "space lighthouse” in a galaxy which is at war.  He’s on a 2-year mission servicing this beacon and dealing with spaceships that come to his corner of the galaxy.  He’s lonely, has a troubled past, and is going a little crazy. He’s an unreliable narrator.

Beacon 23 is actually a compilation of five novellas which serve as chapters in the resulting novel. This is similar to how Hugh Howey structured his Wool Omnibus (now referred to as Silo #1 since the TV show’s success). However, Beacon 23 was nowhere near as compelling as the Wool Omnibus. The chapters held little nuggets of fun but failed to make me care very much about the character or his situation. The final chapters were the most exciting. I felt like many of the stories were too quickly ended.  The situation was set up, described in detail, and then it closed quickly and without much impact. 

There is a general story arc centered around the protagonist’s mental health, but it’s not gripping in and of itself. In fact, I almost stopped reading but decided to stick with it because of the audiobook narrator. (See below.) I did appreciate the humor Howey injected into his story. But Beacon 23 really never grabbed me.

There is a very small part of this novel that is extremely similar to a major aspect of Andy Wier’s Project Hail Mary. Looking into it, Beacon 23 was published six years before Project Hail Mary. It's plausible that both authors organically came to very similar ideas (and the character name of Rocky!) but who knows?

Because I follow him on social media, I know that Howey spent a few years on a sailboat, often by himself. I wonder if some of this novel was autobiographical—feeling alone in a big world. Was Howey trying to escape his past ghosts like his character? Did Howey have trouble accepting his feelings like his character?  I’m guessing yes on both counts. They both were central aspects of the character’s situation.

Now, about the audiobook narrator, Peter Ganim was fantastic! He had a great vocal repertoire and excellent voice acting. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have finished this book!  A+!  

Amy’s Favorite Books of 2023

Here are the best books I read in 2023. (These are not books that were necessarily released in 2023.) So far, I’ve read 61 books (46 of which were audiobooks) this year. I started but decided not finish another 5 books. To read my full review of any books listed below, click on the title.

I’ve named my favorite audiobook narration of the year at the bottom of this post but I'll make a separate post later listing all my favorite narrations from this year.

MY FAVORITE NOVEL OF 2023

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (5 stars!), fiction/magical realism: Tova, a 70-year-old widow, is working as a janitor at the aquarium, has survived her share of tragedy, and is contemplating changes. Cameron, 30 years old, has never quite managed to grow up and accept responsibility for…anything…and is on a search for family. Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus in the aquarium and he has thoughts and goals. This creative and well-crafted novel was so engaging, surprising, delightful, charming, heartwarming, funny, and refreshing! It speaks to the importance of having friends in your life, even unlikely ones!

FAVORITE FANTASY

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab (4-1/2 stars), fantasy: This first novel of a spinoff series was even better than the original series. In a magical universe where there are four different versions of London, there are a few people who are able to travel between those Londons. As the magical power within those worlds has been drying up, there are people trying to make power plays and wreak havoc. Meanwhile, there are others trying to stop the trouble. The story was full of surprises, adventures, and very fun magic. (However, I am not sure if readers who are unfamiliar with the original series would enjoy it as much as I did. Therefore, I recommend reading the Shades of Magic series first.)

FAVORITE FICTION

Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes (4-1/2 stars), women’s fiction: Sam is, literally, forced to wear someone else’s shoes when she accidentally grabs the wrong bag from the gym locker room and has no time to return before her business meeting. The shoes in the bag she grabbed are Louboutins, neither fitting her style nor her bank account. But she finds that she is treated differently while wearing them and they make her feel more powerful. Meanwhile, the owner of the Louboutins, Nisha, discovers her bag is gone at the same time that her uber-wealthy husband abruptly throws her out of his life, leaving her with no way to purchase new clothing and nowhere to stay. This crazy story centered around female friendship, support, and encouragement. 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (4 stars), fiction: Damon Fields was born to an 18-year old unwed mother in a rural Virginia trailer park. As a child, he was given the nickname Demon Copperhead (due to the wordplay on his first name and the color of his hair). This is his childhood survival story. He faced neglect, poverty, grief, fostering, and drug addiction. But despite the serious troubles in Demon’s life, he always remained upbeat and hopeful. He was a fantastic character who shed light on very real American problems. This book made me feel a lot and had me thinking about Demon when I wasn’t reading the book. It’s no wonder it won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. 

FAVORITE YOUNG ADULT

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (4-1/2 stars), young adult/fiction: Sal and Noor are high school seniors who have known each other their whole lives, their families being among the very small Pakistani population in their small California town. Both are facing pretty serious difficulties, dealing with more than the average high school senior. The two had become distant but, when Sal’s mother dies of kidney disease, they find comfort from each other and begin to rebuild their friendship, perhaps becoming even closer than ever. But then things fall apart in spectacular fashion. I was rooting for them and had to know how things would turn out for them, especially after everything got out of control in the middle of this novel which won both the 2022 Award for Young People’s Literature and the Michael L. Printz Award.


FAVORITE MYSTERY 

The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb (4-1/2 stars), mystery: Ray is about to compete at the International Tchaikovsky Competition when his prized Stradivarius violin is stolen and offered for ransom. This is the story of a kid who loves playing the violin coming from an underprivileged, unsupportive family, overcoming obstacles and racism to emerge as a top musician, only to have his prized instrument stolen out from under him. I loved this relatable, yet original, mystery with great characters who sucked me in completely.   

A Curious Beginning, A Perilous Undertaking, ATreacherous Curse, A Dangerous Collaboration (Veronica Speedwell #1 - #4) by Deanna Raybourn (4 stars), mystery: I’ve only read four of the nine novels (so far) in this series but I love the characters so much as well as the setting in late 19^th century England and will definitely read more. Veronica is a very precocious, intelligent, high-spirited young woman who has found herself in the company of Stoker, a prickly natural historian who generally dislikes people. Together, they end up on exciting adventures in pursuit of solving mysteries. There is a lot of sexual tension, sort of like a Victorian version of Moonlighting. The pacing is always perfect and the story continually moves forward. Plus, the characters' banter often makes me laugh out loud. 

FAVORITE HISTORICAL FICTION

A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon (4 stars), historical fiction: Deborah Samson is a young girl in the 1760s when her mother, who cannot afford to take care of her children, sends Deborah away to be an indentured servant. Eventually, Deborah is sent to work for a family with ten boys, helping their mother with the housework. Alas, the Revolutionary War is upon them and Deborah, with her adventurous spirit, a changed set of circumstances, and the need to break free, decides to join the war effort by pretending to be a boy. The author did a fabulous job describing life in the 18^th century and I was riveted to find out what would happen. Amazingly, this novel is based on a real person!

Go As a River by Shelley Read (4 stars), historical fiction: Victoria was raised on a small-town Colorado farm in the 1930s and 1940s. When she was 11 years old, she lost her mother and her aunt (the only women in her life) and the cousin who was her best friend. She spent the next six years fulfilling all the typical women's duties around the house and farm without much affection or joy in her world. Her life experiences were extremely limited when she met Will, a young drifter. From that point on, her life was changed forever. This compelling story of despair, acceptance, determination, desperation, strength, resilience, and fortitude won me over. I had to know how things would turn out for Victoria.

FAVORITE ROMANCE

The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary (4 stars), romance: Last year, Izzy put her heart on her sleeve and Lucas rejected her. Since they work together at a crumbling estate hotel, Izzy has been getting back at him by making his work life difficult. But when their enduring mutual attraction becomes unavoidable, they agree to have a strictly physical relationship founded on a set of rules. Izzy figures she can get Lucas out of her system and then she will be over him and can move on. This was a very fun romance with an extremely satisfying conclusion after a long, slow burn. And this romance felt more authentic than most of the others I’ve read in the last few years.

FAVORITE AUDIOBOOK NARRATION

Emily Woo Zeller reading The Poppy War (R. F. Kuang): This fantasy did not make my Top Ten (3-1/2 stars) but Zeller was phenomenal! She had to voice so many characters and did an excellent job with the multitude including several male voices! Truly, an amazing repertoire! And her voice acting was perfection. Even when a character was out of the story for a while and later re-appeared, I knew exactly who they were, even before the story announced their name, based on her voice for that character. 

If you’re looking for more book recommendations, here are my favorites of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Also, don’t miss Lynnie’s favorites of 2023! We have four books in common on our lists of favorites this year, so those are VERY highly recommended. :D 

Lynnie's Favorite Books of 2023

2023 feels like a blink-and-you-missed-it kind of year. It has gone so quickly and I can barely believe it is already December! 

I read fewer books this year than I normally do. Only 38 so far, but I have overwhelmingly enjoyed most of them with only five rated lower than three hearts. Two of those books never made it to this blog because I didn't even finish them (we don't think it's fair to review books we don't finish). Four books appear on both my list and Amy's this year, which means if you haven't read those four yet, you absolutely should!

I didn't read any nonfiction books or any cookbooks this year. I did read several crochet pattern books but I loved them all so I'm not going to pick a favorite. As always, this list is not in any order, but these are the books I've been recommending to people when asked. Be sure to click on the title to get the full blog review. 

 

Favorite Fiction:

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

An absolutely delightful novel, filled with charming, interesting characters, I was drawn in to the story from the first page. There is a mystery to solve, connections to be made, friendships and family to discover. The cast of side characters, each with their own stories and subplots, add to the dynamics of this fascinating tale. Sure, there are plenty of predictable elements in this novel, and it's clear their lives will come together somehow but it is a pleasure to watch it unfold. I read the book and listened to the audiobook of this novel at the same time and it could also be a candidate for favorite audiobook because the narrators were wonderful. This is also on Amy's favorites list for a reason — it's a great book!

Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes 

A book about female friendship, believing in your own worth, and the power of a good shoe. What more could a woman want? After a gym bag mix-up, two women must figure out if they are more than the clothes that they wear. Another book that I listened to and read in print, I would also add this to my list of favorite audiobooks of the year as Daisy Riddle's narration was spectacular. It was Moyes' story of female friendship, however, that really held my attention throughout.

Favorite Young Adult:

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir

Rage. Rage is not the only emotion in this amazing novel, but rage courses through every page, infusing itself into every other emotion as it plays out. Rage at the hardships that immigrants face as they try to fight their way toward fulfilling their own American dream. Rage at the power of addiction to blow apart lives and families and how powerless it can make loved ones feel. Rage at how difficult it can be to escape an abusive home, how hard it is to get help. Rage at the loss of loved ones gone too soon. So. Much. Rage. And yet, that rage is also paired with love and friendship and family. All My Rage was a gripping story from beginning to end and I found myself compelled to finish it and find out what would happen to Noor and Salahudin.

 

Favorite Graphic Novel:

 

Eight Billion Genies by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne

What if every single human on earth instantly got a genie and one wish. The world would be changed forever as wishes and desires transform the world and the people on it. Soule and Browne have created a thought-provoking series that explores the ways humanity changes when anything a person wants is possible — once. How these wishes help, harm, collide, and cancel one another plays out across the pages.

 

Favorite Audiobook: 

 

I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb (narrated by Marc Thompson)

Oliver is a middle school moron. At least, that's what he wants everyone around him to believe. The truth is, Oliver is the third richest person on earth with a devoted
and well-paid staff of minions at his disposal. He just has to make sure that his parents, teachers, and the other kids at school continue to believe in his incompetence. When his father waxes poetic about his own history as class president, however, Oliver sees it as a challenge and plots to prove that any moron can become class president... even him.

I can't recommend the audiobook highly enough, because Marc Thompson's voice repertoire is an absolute delight- especially when differentiating between Oliver's public voice and his evil inner monologue!

 

Favorite Vacation Book:

 

The Wake-up Call by Beth O'Leary

 

I loved every minute of O'Leary's adorably infuriating characters. Once again, O'Leary has created a fun rom-com setting with lovely characters, a silly misunderstanding that could be easily solved if the characters would have a conversation, and then just allows the tension to build like Augustus Gloop stuck in the chocolate room's pipe. In other words, the perfect, fun vacation book!

 

Here's to another great year of reading ahead in 2024. In case you're curious and looking for more reading ideas, here's a link to my favorites lists from 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Also don't forget to check out Amy's Favorite Books of 2023, too, which will be posted tomorrow!

Weyward by Emilia Hart

Amy   

fantasy, historical fiction

Weyward is a story about three witches. Altha lives in 1619 and has been accused of witchcraft, Violet feels invisible to her unloving father in 1942 and desires an education and freedom like her younger brother is afforded, and Kate has just escaped her abusive partner by running to a country home she inherited without his knowledge in 2019.

Just this week, Weyward by Emilia Hart won two categories in the 2023 Goodreads Choice Awards--Best Historical Fiction and Best Debut Novel. It looks like my review has bad timing because I didn't think it was extraordinary.

It’s not that I don’t enjoy witch stories—I have enjoyed many of them. It’s just that they’re all sort of the same.  Clever women are treated badly because powerful men fear them. The women eventually get some revenge and, hopefully, use their brains and power to rise above the oppression they’ve survived.  Weyward was no different. The three different stories were each compelling so I enjoyed my time with this novel. But it felt like I’d already read the stories before. I appreciated the family lineage and the idea of witchy inheritance.  But there isn’t really much else to say about this one. If you enjoy witch stories, by all means, go for it.  However, there are better witch stories out there.

The audiobook was read by three narrators. Aysha Kala reads Altha’s sections, Nell Barlow reads Violet’s, and Helen Keeley reads Kate’s.  They were all good voice actors and did a fine job with this novel.  I’ll say that Barlow is one of those people who sounds like they have hard candy in their cheek while they’re talking so that was annoying. None of the roles required a large vocal repertoire but, overall, I’ll give the cast an A-.  

   

The Fragile Threads of Power (Threads of Power #1) by V. E. Schwab

Amy   


fantasy

What a fun first installment of the spinoff series from V. E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series! My favorite characters are back along with a cast of new characters seven years after the last novel left off. In this fantasy world, there are four Londons—black London which is a burnt out shell of the magical source city it once was, white London which has had a string of imperfect, chaotic leadership causing the magic to disappear, red London where magic still thrives although it seems to be slowly disappearing and there are those who blame the unmagical new king, and gray London which is without magic. A new magical queen, Kosika, has emerged in white London and a talented girl named Tes seems to have fallen into the middle of trouble in red London. Gears begin to turn in their worlds which could mean significant changes are coming and these two young women are going to be involved.

The Fragile Threads of Power gave the readers all the updates we hadn’t realized we’d needed about our beloved characters since we last left them. Meanwhile, it introduced a bunch of new characters who fit into Kell and Lila’s worlds perfectly. I thought Schwab’s writing was brilliant on this one. I had to know what would happen and truly enjoyed every minute. This was better than the Shades of Magic books! This is the only other book of Schwab’s that has filled me with as much enjoyment as The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. While I’ve enjoyed the other novels of hers that I’ve read, they definitely weren’t as good as Addie. But this one was magnificent! While I knew where some of the storylines would go, it was still full of surprises and adventures and discoveries and very fun magic! However, I do think readers would benefit from reading the Shades of Magic series first. Schwab does include background information but the reader will miss understanding the personalities of Kell, Lila, Rhy, and Alucard.

The worst thing I can say about this book is that the cover art is awful. It looks like something designed on one of the original graphics programs from the 1980s. There are so few covers I dislike on books—frankly, I don’t normally pay much attention to the covers unless they are spectacular. But every time I saw the cover of this book it annoyed me and made me feel badly for Schwab. As an author, she is certainly worthy of higher quality cover art.  This just has a ridiculously simple gradient background and an overly shadowed purple image of a girl pasted onto that background. And the colors clash. I truly can’t say a nice thing about it. However, I won’t let this impact my rating of the book itself. I just had to mention how terrible it is. That’s probably a first for me.

The audiobook was a bit of a letdown. I had forgotten that Kate Reading and Michael Kramer had read the audiobooks for Books 2 and 3 of the Shades of Magic series. In fact, I specifically avoided those audiobooks because these two were narrating them. I’ve enjoyed them in several Brandon Sanderson audiobooks (well, Reading always bugged me but I got used to her eventually) and their voices are so type-cast in my mind as belonging with those worlds and characters that I couldn’t get past that fact while listening to them read this different author’s series. But I decided to forge ahead because the audiobook came available at the library and I didn’t want to wait. Sadly, it was so distracting listening to these two narrators. Also, I don’t feel they were the right talent for this novel’s protagonists who are all young. Kramer and Reading are not young and they definitely don’t sound young. Plus, they often didn’t speak with British accents when voicing these British characters! They both have great vocal repertoires, especially Kramer, so I'm not sure why they didn't use the accents more. Thankfully, however, this novel had a third narrator, Marisa Calin. She voiced Tes’ sections and she was marvelous. I loved her voice acting and vocal repertoire. However, she did tend to speak too quickly at times when Tes was frantic (which was actually fairly often). I’ll give Calin an A- but I have to give Kramer and Reading Cs for this one. Mind you, I’ve given them As for the other author’s novels.  They just weren’t right for this one. And this is now the third book of Schwab’s they’ve narrated of which I'm aware. Sigh. If they are involved in future audiobooks for this series, I’ll likely select the Kindle version instead.