Listen up! Why 2024 was the year of the audiobook
With download figures at a high, all-star Hollywood voice casts and Spotify’s entry into the audiobook streaming business, the format is enjoying a surge in popularity
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie audiobook review – a starry whodunnit
Peter Dinklage’s resonant turn as Hercule Poirot gives the beloved writer’s debut a charismatic reboot
Bleak House by Charles Dickens audiobook review – Sam Mendes’s all-star adaptation
Ambika Mod, Thandiwe Newton and Mackenzie Crook are among the lineup in this cinematic telling of Dickens’s classic
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead audiobook review – a dark chapter in America’s past
A pair of boys try to survive the horrors of a US reform school during the segregated 60s in this Pulitzer-winning novel
The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins review – a tense thriller from The Girl on the Train author
A human bone is discovered in a London gallery sculpture in this mystery narrated by actor Gemma Whelan
The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh by Ingrid Persaud audiobook review – portrait of a dangerous charmer
The charisma and brutality of the real-life Trinidadian gangster is seen through the eyes of four women who knew him
A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry audiobook review – love, chaos and creativity
The singer-songwriter’s atmospheric memoir reveals many musical adventures and doesn’t shy away from exploring her challenging times
Long Island by Colm Tóibín review – Jessie Buckley shines voicing the sequel to Brooklyn
The Irish actor’s nuanced narration captures the conflicting emotions in Tóibín’s tale of infidelity, homecoming and the roads not taken
Hip-hop Is History by Questlove review – the story of rap
The musician reflects on the ever-evolving art form, drawing on the front-row seat he had at key events such as the notorious 1995 Source awards
How to put your phone down and get back into habit of reading books
After an English academic at Oxford complained about students’ attention spans, we get experts’ tips on enjoying the written word
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman audiobook review – a mesmerising reading by Ruth Wilson
The actor narrates the first book in the author’s beloved His Dark Materials trilogy, giving a richly textured performance
My Friends by Hisham Matar audiobook review – life in exile
Three Libyan friends navigate life in London, separated from their families, in a meditative book steeped in the author’s own experience
American Mother by Colum McCann with Diane Foley audiobook review – grit in the face of unspeakable cruelty
Foley’s powerful memoir, narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, details the life and death of her son, James Foley, who was beheaded by Islamic State terrorists
Audiobook of the week: On Women by Susan Sontag – clear-eyed wisdom
A polemical collection of the writer’s 70s journalism on feminism read by the voice actor Laurel Lefkow is just as relevant today
Other Women by Emma Flint review – a gripping dissection of an affair
A love triangle culminates in tragedy in this cleverly constructed thriller, based on real-life events