Audiobooks Narrated by Screen Actors
Audiobooks narrated by famous actors (and famous authors!)
June 23, 2021
Having the right narrator can make or break an audiobook! These audiobooks are narrated—and in some cases, written—by famous screen actors.
If you’ve never listened to an audiobook before, this list is a great place to start. Pick an actor you love, and start listening!
Ready By Screen Actors
Beartown
Narrated by Marin Ireland
Fredrik Backman
In the tiny forest community of Beartown, the possibility that the amateur hockey team might win a junior championship, bringing the hope of revitalization to the fading town, is shattered by the aftermath of a violent act that leaves a young girl traumatized.
The Bell Jar
Narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Sylvia Plath
A haunting American classic, The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time.
Daisy Jones & the Six
Narrated by Jennifer Beals
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Two rising 70s rock-and-roll artists are catapulted into stardom when a producer puts them together, a decision that is complicated by a pregnancy and the seductions of fame.
The Dutch House
Narrated by Tom Hanks
Ann Patchett
A tale set over the course of five decades traces a young man’s rise from poverty to wealth and back again as his prospects center around his family’s lavish Philadelphia estate.
Go Set a Watchman
Narrated by Reese Witherspoon
Harper Lee
Twenty years after the trial of Tom Robinson, Scout returns home to Maycomb to visit her father and struggles with personal and political issues as her small Alabama town adjusts to the turbulent events beginning to transform the United States in the mid-1950s.
The Great Gatsby
Narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal
F. Scott Fitzgerald
James Gatz, a self-educated nobody from North Dakota, amasses a fortune and adopts the persona of Jay Gatsby, an Oxford-educated man about town. His motive? To win back the heart of Daisy, the woman he loved in his youth. Daisy is now married to Tom Buchanan, a brutal, ignorant racist who embodies the corruption that can come with unlimited wealth.
Greenlights
Narrated by Matthew Mcconaughey
Matthew McConaughey
From the Academy Award-winning actor comes an unconventional memoir filled with raucous stories, outlaw wisdom, and lessons learned the hard way about living with greater satisfaction.
The Handmaid’s Tale
Narrated by Claire Danes
Margaret Atwood
A chilling look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.
Heartburn
Narrated by Meryl Streep
Nora Ephron
When her husband announces that he is in love with another woman, Rachel, a noted cookbook author and TV personality, returns to New York and her wacky but loving family and friends to sort out her life.
Leave the World Behind
Narrated by Marin Ireland
Rumaan Alam
Sheltering in a New York beach house with a couple that has taken refuge during a massive blackout, a family struggles for information about the power failure while wondering if the cut-off property is actually safe.
Lincoln in the Bardo
Narrated by Nick Offerman, David Sedaris, Julianne Moore, Ben Stiller, Susan Sarandon, Megan Mullally, Bill Hader, Don Cheadle
George Saunders
A long-awaited first novel by the National Book Award-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of Tenth of December traces a night of solitary mourning and reflection as experienced by the 16th President after the death of his 11-year-old son at the dawn of the Civil War.
The Lying Life of Adults
Narrated by Marisa Tomei
Elena Ferrante
Italian teenager Giovanna searches for a sense of identity and clear perspectives when she finds herself torn between the refinements and excesses of a divided Naples.
The Middlesteins
Narrated by Molly Ringwald
Jami Attenberg
Two siblings with very different personalities attempt to take control of their mother’s food obsession and massive weight gain to save her life after their father walks out and leaves her reeling in the Chicago suburbs.
The Midnight Library
Narrated by Carey Mulligan
Matt Haig
Nora Seed finds herself faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, or realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist, she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
My Name is Lucy Barton
Narrated by Kimberly Farr
Elizabeth Strout
After an appendix operation puts her in the hospital, New York writer Lucy Barton reconnects with her estranged mother as the pair reminisce about the past.
Nos4A2
Narrated by Kate Mulgrew
Joe Hill
When Charles Talent Manx, an unstoppable monster who transforms children into his own terrifying likeness, kidnaps her son, Victoria McQueen, the only person to ever escape his unmitigated evil, must engage in a life-and-death battle of wills to get her son back.
Nothing to See Here
Narrated by Marin Ireland
Kevin Wilson
Agreeing to help her former college roommate care for two stepchildren who possess the ability to spontaneously combust when agitated, Lillian endeavors to keep her young charges cool in the face of an astonishing revelation.
The Push
Narrated by Marin Ireland
Ashley Audrain
A devoted mother with a painful past gradually realizes that something is very wrong with her daughter, a fear that is complicated by her husband’s dismissive views and the birth of a healthy son.
Ready Player One
Narrated by Wil Wheaton
Ernest Cline
Immersing himself in a mid-21st-century technological virtual utopia to escape an ugly real world of famine, poverty and disease, Wade Watts joins an increasingly violent effort to solve a series of puzzles by the virtual world’s super-wealthy creator, who has promised that the winner will be his heir.
Run Away
Narrated by Steven Weber
Harlan Coben
After discovering his drug-addicted daughter Paige, who he has not seen in six months, panhandling in Central Park, Simon follows her into a dark and dangerous world he never knew existed that puts his family and his life on the line.
Slaughterhouse-Five: Or, the Children’s Crusade, a Duty-Dance With Death
Narrated by Ethan Hawke
Kurt Vonnegut
An accessible paperback edition of a popular classic is a satirical social analysis that follows the haphazard life experiences of a man who is abducted by aliens and rendered a prisoner of war during the 1945 bombing of Dresden. Reissue.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Narrated by Richard Armitage
Heather Morris
An international best-seller based on the true story of an Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor traces the experiences of a Jewish Slovakian who uses his position as a concentration-camp tattooist to secure food for his fellow prisoners.
Read By The Author
Becoming
Michelle Obama
An intimate and uplifting memoir by the former First Lady chronicles the experiences that have shaped her remarkable life, from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago through her setbacks and achievements in the White House.
Beloved
Toni Morrison
Sethe, an escaped slave living in post-Civil War Ohio with her daughter and mother-in-law, is persistently haunted by the ghost of her dead baby girl.
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates
The author presents a history of racial discrimination in the United States and a narrative of his own personal experiences of contemporary race relations, offering possible resolutions for the future.
The Body
A Guide for Occupants
Bill Bryson
The award-winning author of A Short History of Nearly Everything presents an engaging head-to-toe tour of the human body that shares anecdotal insights into its functions, ability to heal and vulnerability to disease.
Born a Crime
Stories From a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah
The compelling, inspiring, and comically sublime story of one man’s coming-of-age, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed
Bossypants
Tina Fey
From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.
Braiding Sweetgrass
Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Robin Wall Kimmerer
As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers.
Calypso
David Sedaris
A latest collection of personal essays by the best-selling author of Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls and Me Talk Pretty One Day shares even more revealing and intimate memories from his upbringing and family life.
The Clutter Corpse
Simon Brett
Stumbling upon a murdered body in a cluttered flat, professional home organizer Ellen Curtis begins to doubt suspicions that are targeting the victim’s escaped prisoner son before uncovering disturbing links between the crime and her own past.
The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
Robert Dugoni
Born with ocular albinism, small-town eye doctor Sam Hill must finally face a past tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown, and the life he’d always known—a journey that makes him realize what truly matters.
Flight Behavior
Barbara Kingsolver
Tired of living on a failing farm and suffering oppressive poverty, bored housewife Dellarobia Turnbow, on the way to meet a potential lover, is detoured by a miraculous event on the Appalachian mountainside that ignites a media and religious firestorm that changes her life forever.
Freshwater
Akwaeke Emezi
Traces the experiences of a deeply troubled young woman who alarms her devout Nigerian family as she succumbs to multiple personality disorder and begins to display increasingly dark and dangerous traits in accordance with her fractured personalities.
In the Dream House
Carmen Maria Machado
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.
Just Kids
Patti Smith
In the summer when Coltrane died, poet Patti Smith fell in love with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Eventually the two joined up with the Andy Warhol superstars and called later Hotel Chelsea home. Here Smith recounts her passionate romance and the incredible artistic atmosphere of the 1960s in this National Book Award-winning biography.
Kitchen Confidential
Anthony Bourdain
A New York City chef who is also a novelist recounts his experiences in the restaurant business, and exposes abuses of power, sexual promiscuity, drug use, and other secrets of life behind kitchen doors.
Larose
Louise Erdrich
Horrified when he accidentally kills his best friend’s five-year-old son while hunting, Landreaux Iron gives away his own young son to his friend’s family according to ancient tradition, a decision that helps both families reach a tenuous peace that is threatened by a vengeful adversary.
The Last Black Unicorn
Tiffany Haddish
The comedian and actress presents autobiographical essays that reflect on her disadvantaged youth as a foster child in South Central Los Angeles; her discovery of her talent for comedy; and her struggles with gender, race, and class boundaries in the entertainment industry.
The Library Book
Susan Orlean
Susan Orlean reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution—our libraries.
Milk Fed
Melissa Broder
Transitioning from her Jewish faith to dieting to maintain an illusion of existential control, Rachel bonds with an Orthodox woman at a frozen yogurt shop before embarking on a journey of food, desire and spiritual fulfillment.
Monogamy
Sue Miller
Derailed by the sudden passing of her husband of thirty years, an artist on the brink of a gallery opening struggles to pick up the pieces of her life before discovering harrowing evidence of her husband’s affair.
Neverwhere
Neil Gaiman
Richard Mayhew’s life is forever changed after he rescues a young girl named Door and finds himself living in a city of monsters, saints, murderers, and angels, and he must help Door on her mission to save this strange underworld kingdom from destruction.
Not My Father’s Son
Alan Cumming
In his unique and engaging voice, the acclaimed actor of stage and screen shares the emotional story of his complicated relationship with his father and the deeply buried family secrets that shaped his life and career.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong
Poet Ocean Vuong’s debut novel is a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling.
Open Book
Jessica Simpson
Jessica reveals for the first time her inner monologue and most intimate struggles. Guided by the journals she’s kept since age fifteen, and brimming with her unique humor and down-to-earth humanity, Open Book is as inspiring as it is entertaining.
Unsheltered
Barbara Kingsolver
Traces the experiences of a woman whose efforts to protect her family from sudden unemployment are shaped by the story of an ostracized nineteenth-century science teacher connected to her by their home in the community of Vineland, New Jersey.
The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop
Fannie Flagg
Taking a final visit to the ghost town where his mother Ruth’s Whistle Stop Cafe made its famous fried green tomatoes, Bud Threadgoode discovers new friends and surprises about the community’s women while triggering unexpected changes in his daughters’ lives.
Year of Yes
Shonda Rhimes
The creator of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal” details the one-year experiment with saying “yes” that transformed her life, revealing how accepting unexpected invitations she would have otherwise declined enabled powerful benefits.
Yes Please
Amy Poehler
The actress best known for her work on “Parks and Recreation” and “Saturday Night Live” reveals personal stories and offers her humorous take on such topics as love, friendship, parenthood, and her relationship with Tina Fey.