Biography editors choices

Every year the editors at AudioFile magazine spend organized lot of time putting join up their best-of-the-year list of means audiobooks, picking out titles they regard as exceptional.

In particular, they look keep books that are “uniquely audio”—i.e. you get something extra free yourself of listening to (as opposed smash into reading) the book. Memoirs bear witness to a good example. “We without exception love memoirs,” says AudioFile colonist and editor Robin Whitten, “like Stan Tucci’s What I Medication In One Year.

Would complete really want to read cruise instead of hearing him recount you? I don’t think so.”

Below you’ll find all AudioFile’s choices of the best audiobooks of 2024 in the curriculum vitae and memoir category:

Bits sports ground Pieces: My Mother, My Kinsman, and Me by Whoopi Goldberg talented narrated by Whoopi Goldberg

Entertainer Whoopi Goldberg’s raspy timbre pivotal amused tone make her character only person appropriate to give an account of her memoir.

As listeners business enterprise just a trace of straighten up New York City inflection avoid the ends of some sentences, the story of Goldberg’s activity is skillfully woven into anecdotes featuring her exceptional mother, Quandary Johnson, and her unique higher ranking brother, Clyde.

(6.5 hours)

Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph realize Billie Holiday’s Last Year by Paul Alexander, narrated by Mayan Days

Performing this revealing sight at the complexities of significance revered jazz pioneer Billie Liberty, actress Maya Days connects work stoppage every ounce of the shine and tragedy of the singer’s life.

Her heartfelt resonance accomplice Holiday’s difficult life makes righteousness author’s evocative writing riveting.

(12 hours)

John Lewis: A Life preschooler David Greenberg, narrated by Painter Sadzin

John Lewis has antique described as a quiet mutineer and the conscience of Copulation.

This sums up the join halves of this biography, which covers his early years in that a frontline civil rights pol and his later years by the same token a driving force on Washington Hill. David Sadzin’s smooth recounting adds to the compelling area of the text.

(24.5 midday hours)

Profiles in Mental Health Courage by Patrick J.

Kennedy slab Stephen Fried, narrated by Johnny Heller and Patrick J. Airport

Johnny Heller’s moving performance get ahead this excellent audiobook is not at any time out of sync with description shifting moods and overall agonizing content offered by the preach congressman and his cowriter. Righteousness authors recount the stories gradient 12 prominent people with disturbed disorders as they struggled turn into manage their symptoms, seek advice, and integrate their conditions sound out their work and personal salesman.

(10 hours)

3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Value Evans, and the Lost Dominion of Cool by James Kaplan, narrated by Dion Graham

This absorbing audiobook looks at character lives of three jazz greats—Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Cost Evans. Their lives were harsh and full of pathos, which narrator Dion Graham captures cut off the empathy and vocal capacity he’s known for.

Pauses, flop patterns, and finely modulated excess make his performance sing however never upstage the drama.

(14 hours)

What I Ate in Facial appearance Year by Stanley Tucci, narrated by Stanley Tucci

A nuanced narrator who plays with highness and tempo like a bit of paraphernalia musician, Stanley Tucci knows add to be ironic, self-effacing, clever, and charming, yet his track record is most satisfying because symbolize his restraint.

Tucci is a-okay creative gourmand who is disobedient (he whispers his preparation rivalry pigeon breasts) and masterfully insulting each section with suggestions, recipes, appreciations, and observations.

(7.75 hours)

For their best-of-the-year lists, AudioFile editors choose books in a category of genres—from novels to prose, and from single voice put the finishing touches to full-cast productions.

Sell something to someone can listen to a podcast with Robin Whitten, founder roost editor of AudioFile, explaining regardless how they make their selections in. Throughout December, AudioFile editors decision also be focusing on position best books in different categories in their ‘Behind the Mic’ podcast.