My five favourite audiobooks of the year

My final collection of books of the year for 2023 is a list of my favourite audiobooks. There are only five of these as I read many fewer books on audio than on paper/kindle. All of these titles would have been excellent had I read them on paper but the audio added something extra to my enjoyment.

If you want to read my post giving my ten favourite novels of the year then it is here or my favourite non-fiction then it is here.

These are in no particular order but my favourite audiobook of the year is listed at the bottom. Click on the title to find the original review.

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• Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen and read by Juliet Stevenson – Very much an old favourite of mine but I found that the audio version made me appreciate it slightly differently and the way that it was read helped me to identify with Elinor even more than usual.

• Farewell My Lovely by Raymond Chandler and read by Scott Brick – A brilliantly world weary performance of this novel (possibly channelling Humphrey Bogart). The narration made me feel like he was talking directly to me.

• A Murder of Quality by John Le Carre and read by Michael Jayston – A book about a murder in a British public school which is actually about class differences in 1950s Britain. A great standalone story enhanced by the narration which manages to convey the characters of individuals by using different voices and inflections brilliantly.

• Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann (the only author to appear twice on my lists this year) and read by Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee and Danny Campbell – Three narrators share this audiobook and stand for three parts of the narrative which works very well. The book is an excellent examination of injustice and murder in 1920s America.

• House of Cards by Michael Dobbs and read by Samuel West. MY AUDIOBOOK OF THE YEAR. Brilliant political thriller which has aged well and seems pertinent even today. The narrator conveys Francis Urquart in patrician tones which suit this main character brilliantly. The performance really enhances the enjoyment of the book for me.