I have a love/hate relationships with audiobooks; mostly I just want to read books, as opposed to listen. Because of this, I tend to only download things like memoirs, fluffy fiction or mysteries, self-help, or books related to travel or science. Here are some of my favorite from this year:
One of my favorites was The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy, who presents an honest memoir about her time as a writer and the struggles she had in her marriage. It was a heavy listen that I remember devouring as Sawyer slept in the car on our trip to Yosemite last spring. I know some people find her pretty despicable, which I can't argue with, necessarily, but aren't we all on some level?
In terms of mysteries, The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn kept my interest and I appreciated the twist at the end. While we're on fiction, Us Against You by Fredrik Backman was a nice followup to Beartown.
Sick by Porochista Khakpour's memoir about her struggle with Lyme Disease was fascinating and often sad, as was Tragedy Plus Time, comedian Adam Cayton-Holland's recount of his sister's suicide. I just recently finished Busy Phillips This Will Only Hurt a Little, and while the beginning didn't immediately suck me in, I found it pretty entertaining after it picked up a little momentum. She's slightly annoying to listen to, but she definitely made me laugh more than once. Leslie Jamison's The Recovering was probably the most well-written memoir/essay collection I listened to, and I've since then read one of her other collections.
And while I appreciated a lot of what Rachel Hollis had to say about taking responsibility for our own decisions in Girl, Wash Your Face, some of the follow-up articles about her privilege has sort of taken away some of the appeal to me. I will still listen to her next book, but I will definitely take into consideration how limited her scope is in many ways.
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