We’ve been telling one another stories for at least since we started drawing on cave walls, if not sooner. That may be a big fat cliché, but it’s a satisfying explanation why the best audiobooks can lay such permanent tracks in our memories. So this year, when you’re looking for the right gift for that mom who never has time to curl up with a book, or the friend with the long commute, or even the relative who traveled the farthest to celebrate the holidays, audiobooks are a great idea. This year offered a bounty of excellent selections. Here are just a few.
Amy Falls Down by Jincy Willett (Narrated by Amy McFadden, Brilliance, $14.99)
Forget Dave Barry. Put down that David Sedaris. No book made me laugh more in 2014 than “Amy Falls Down.” Novelist Amy Gallup has given up writing as well as meaningful contact with the outside world. Her closest friend is her basset hound, who changes her life when he distracts her as she moves a heavy potted plant. She loses her balance and strikes her head on a birdbath. Moments later, the addled Amy answers the door to a reporter whom she had intended to send packing. Instead, in her semi-conscious state, she gives an interview that, through the magic of the Internet, transforms her into a celebrity — a very outspoken one. Narrator Amy McFadden displays perfect comic timing, creating a solid and believable Amy, making clear that this is more than a comic novel. It is the story of a woman coming back to life.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer (Narrated by Bernard Setaro Clark, Hachette, $25.98
Leila, Leo and Mark are the unlikely trio of 30-somethings destined to thwart a madman’s plot to hold us hostage to our own data. “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” bursts with clever dialogue and memorable characters. When Leila is sent to Myanmar to help a disorganized NGO, she wonders, “Was it called Burma or Myanmar, which sounded like a name cats would give their country?” In rehab, Leo meets Al, who wears a brace that looks like a “plastic ceiling fan had flung itself out of orbit and embraced him.” Leila and Leo recruit morally compromised Mark to help save the world. Actor Bernard Setaro Clark keeps up with the madness with a wellspring of voices, from sandpaper grit to silky smooth.
The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence (narrated by Simon Vance, Tantor, $39.99)
Narrating nonfiction is undoubtedly the most difficult job for any performer. There is little chance to create character. There is no obvious opportunity to show off, and, all too often, nonfiction narrators fall just slightly this side of monotonous, perfect listening for an insomniac. The subtle and moving narration of Simon Vance puts him in another category altogether, one richly deserved by this story of the late Lawrence Anthony’s decision to adopt a herd of rogue elephants on his South African game reserve. With co-author Graham Spence, Anthony relates how he found a way to forge a bond with animals that had ample reason to mistrust humans. How he does it is the best argument yet for viewing elephants as complex creatures with rich emotional lives, worthy of respect and protection.
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody (narrated by Lisa Reneé Pitts, Tantor, $44.99)
Pop culture is awash in sentimental stories about the civil rights movement. Anne Moody’s 1968 memoir of growing up in Mississippi and her work as an activist is the antidote. Moody is unsparing in her descriptions of her family’s poverty and fear as well as the mistreatment she faced at the hands of white neighbors for whom she kept house. In college, she joins the civil rights movement, putting her at odds not just with white Southerners, but with her own mother. With forthright simplicity, Lisa Reneé Pitts conveys the heft of this book.
Shotgun Lovesongs by Nickolas Butler (narrated by Scott Shepherd, Ari Fliakos, Maggie Hoffman, Scott Sowers and Gary Wilmes, Macmillan, $39.99)
I love ensemble casts, and the group assembled for Nickolas Butler’s debut novel might be my favorite. Scott Shepherd and Ari Fliakos are the pillars: Shepherd as Leland Sutton, the rock star longing for his Wisconsin home, and Fliakos as Henry, the friend who stayed in Little Wing to farm and raise a family. Leland is the catalyst in the lives of his Little Wing friends, his every visit tugging at their life stories just a little. Fliakos is perfect as Henry, capturing both the solidity and vulnerability that make him so appealing. These complex relationships and the performers who bring them to life can make anyone homesick for Little Wing.
The Rise & Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman (narrated by Penelope Rawlins, Random House, $45)
In almost 15 hours, Penelope Rawlins portrays Tooly Zylberberg as a 10-year-old a young adult, and a 30-something bookstore owner. She’s also a self-styled Russian philosopher with a gift for hilarious malapropisms. She’s a young Welshman who works for Tooly in the bookstore. She’s Tooly’s boyfriend, and later, the man he grew up to be. In short, Rawlins creates a sizable cast of unusual and convincing characters all by herself. Rachman’s intricate plot, peopled with these fascinating personalities, lets readers learn the secret of Tooly’s life only as Tooly learns herself.
Jenni Laidman covers audiobooks for Printers Row Journal.