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Favorite Audio Books of 2021

Audio books really changed my life last year. Prior to 2021, I was reading maybe 2-3 books a year — usually on planes or vacation. And then I discovered Libby (library app for downloading audio books for free) and traded in podcasts for audio books. I still listen to podcasts in between books but not nearly as much as I used to. Now, I usually blow through 1-2 books a week on 1.5 speed while I’m running errands, doing chores around the house, cooking dinner, cleaning the kitchen, folding laundry, taking a bath and sometimes I even pop my AirPods in during the middle of the night if I wake up and can’t go back to sleep.

The only downside of using the library app is you have to wait a while to get new releases. I’ve waited more than 12 weeks for some books last year. So when I saw a holiday deal on audible subscriptions I purchased a membership so I could access new releases that either aren’t available in audio format from the library yet or the wait is too long.

So in 2021 I listened to more than 39 books! The number is actually a bit higher because there were a handful of books I either stopped halfway or I finished and didn’t like the book enough to even write a review. Or I waited too long to write a review and then forgot most of the book. In fact, I read so many books (and have such a bad memory) that most of the time I can’t remember what a book was about months later unless it really stood out to me.

I went back through all of my book reviews and rounded up my 14 favorite books (4.5 or 5 stars) from 2021. Most of these books were reader recommendations so THANK YOU for sharing your favorites with me! And speaking of reader recommendations, I added 30’ish books to my library list from my “favorite book read in 2021” poll on Instagram and cannot wait to dive in!

Alright, here were my favorite books (in no particular order):

5 Stars Books

I’m a pretty tough critic and out of 39 books, I only rated 6 of them with 5 stars. I was going to try and pick one of these to declare as my “favorite book of 2021,” but I honestly loved all of these equally.

Oh, and while I cannot narrow down a favorite book, I can definitely narrow down my favorite authors to Karin Slaughter and Colleen Hoover. Both of them are incredibly talented.

 

4.5 Star Books

In hindsight, I probably should have bumped a few of these to 5 stars. All of them are amazing and I would highly recommend reading or listening to if you haven’t already!

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Jaylene

Tuesday 18th of October 2022

"The couple next door" is an amazing novel! I couldn’t put it down. I like reading so much and I even have my little library. I'm also passing some quizzes here https://quizzes.studymoose.com/flashcards/literature/ after reading something to keep it in my memory for a longer time. Sometimes brainstorming might be nice!