When I say that I love a good audiobook, I’m not exaggerating. While I’ve been an Audible subscriber on and off for decades at this point, I’ve been reading a lot more in the last few years and I can’t tell you how nice it is to be able to have a good book in my ears when I’m multi-tasking and can’t curl up with my Kindle or an actual book.
As you may have heard, an Amazon Music Unlimited subscription now includes one audiobook per month from Audible’s massive library. This new inclusion is available to subscribers on an individual plan or who are the primary account holder to a family plan. With that in mind, and in partnership with Amazon Music Unlimited, I wanted to share a few of my favorite audiobook reads (or rereads) in recent years, all of which are set to be adapted to film or television.
Project Hail Mary
Author: Andy Weir
Genre: Sci-fi/Adventure
Length of the Audiobook: 16+ hours
How It’s Being Adapted: Feature Film
What it’s about: As an apocalyptic event is playing out on earth, school teacher Ryland Grace comes out of a coma to find himself on a spacecraft, and he has no memory of how he got there (at first.) It’s best not to say much more than that, as part of the story is him figuring out what’s going on, but if you like Weir’s The Martian, then you’ll surely love his 2021 novel, Project Hail Mary.
Why the audiobook is a must-listen: Even if you’ve already read Project Hail Mary, if you haven’t checked out the audiobook, I highly recommend it. Heck, even if you've already listened to it, I recommend listening to it again (I listened to it for a second time earlier this year and enjoyed it even more than the first). The mystery of Ryland’s circumstances unfolds in an exciting and truly entertaining way, and Ray Porter’s narration is great. Ryan Gosling will play the lead character in the movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary, which is expected to hit theaters in 2026.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Author: J.K. Rowling
Genre: Fantasy
Length of the Audiobooks: 8+ hours (for the first book)
How It’s Being Adapted: TV Series
What it’s about: When he turns 11 years old, a boy learns he’s actually a wizard and is invited to study magic with other witches and wizards at Hogwarts. And that’s just the beginning of this epic tale, as we see Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione grow up more each year, as the books progress. Beyond learning the ropes to excel at magic, they’re also regularly fending off the efforts of dark wizard Voldemort and his supporters to regain power.
Why the audiobook is a must-listen: Two words: Jim, Dale. The Harry Potter audiobooks are an experience in and of themselves, even if you’ve read the books already. Jim Dale’s narration sets the standard for what a great audiobook can be. As narrator to all seven audiobooks, Dale shifts voices (and sometimes accents) among characters to great effect, and brings the story to life at a perfect pace. While we wait for the planned Harry Potter TV series, you could always watch the original Harry Potter movie adaptations, but I suggest you check out the audiobooks for the beloved magical series.
A Court Of Thorns And Roses (2015)
Author: Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Fantasy/Romance/Romantasy
Length of the Audiobook: 16+ hours (for the first book)
How It’s Being Adapted: TV Series
What it’s about: A Court of Thorns and Roses is the first book in an ongoing series by Sarah J. Maas, which centers on a young human woman named Feyre who finds herself drawn into the world of the fae as she’s forced to leave her village and live in Prythian as punishment for killing a wolf in the woods. While the first book has notes of Beauty and the Beast worked into the tale, the full story that plays out in the books that follow takes on an amazing life of its own. Expect great characters, big adventure and an epic romance (the spicy kind) throughout this series.
Why the audiobook is a must-listen: The audiobooks for this series are great. In fact, it seems only fair to warn you that if you do fall hard for this series, buckle up and clear your schedule. Some of Maas’ books are long (A Court of Wings and Ruin crosses the 700-page mark, and the 25-hour mark for the audiobook). Narrated by Jennifer Ikeda, Amanda Leigh Cobb, and most recently Stina Nielsen, the audiobooks' lengths vary. But if your experience is anything like mine, you won’t want them to end. And you probably do have time to listen through all of the released book in the series so far, as it might be a while before we see the planned Court of Thorns and Roses TV adaptation happen.
Verity (2018)
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Romance
Length of the Audiobook: 8+ hours
How It’s Being Adapted: Feature Film
What it’s about: Verity centers on a writer who’s hired by the husband of a famous author to ghost-write the remaining books in her series after she’s incapacitated. When Lowen (the hired writer) comes across an autobiography that Verity (the famous author) had hidden away, she reads some disturbing confessions about the woman whose work she’s taking over.
Why the audiobook is a must-listen: Ok, in all honesty, I still have mixed feelings about this book, so I’m not going to tell you that I loved it. But I will say two things — The first is that, mixed feelings or not, I couldn’t put Verity down (or whatever the audiobook equivalent of that phrasing is) once I started it. The second thing is that I think there’s solid potential for the Verity movie to work, especially if the script is solid (also, Anne Hathaway playing Verity is fantastic casting). So if you want to see what all the fuss is about, give the audiobook a spin. The narration — handled by Vanessa Johansson and Amy Landon — is excellent, and I’d say this is a quick read you may like if you’re into thrillers that keep you guessing.
The Testaments (2019)
Author: Margaret Atwood
Genre: Dystopian/Fiction
Length of the Audiobook: 13+ hours
How It’s Being Adapted: TV show
What it’s about: Decades after she published The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood followed it up with The Testaments, a story set in the same dystopian world that picks up in the years following the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. The story is split between three perspectives, Aunt Lydia's, as well as two young women's, one living in Canada and the other in Gilead. I’ll leave it at that and let you discover the specifics if you decide to check this one out.
Why the audiobook is a must-listen: To be clear, you definitely want to read The Handmaid’s Tale before checking out The Testaments, but since we’re focusing on upcoming adaptations, and there's a TV series planned, I want to talk about The Testaments audiobook. I’m not automatically enticed by audiobooks narrated by famous actors, but I absolutely love the narration on this one, and that’s a credit to the three primary narrators. Ann Dowd, who plays Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid’s Tale, is obviously a perfect fit to voice Aunt Lydia’s perspective, and Bryce Dallas Howard and Mae Whitman are equally outstanding as the other two main narrators.
Fairy Tale (2022)
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Fantasy/Supernatural
Length of the Audiobook: 24+ hours
How It’s Being Adapted: TV Show
What It’s About: Stephen King shifts away from horror with this exciting adventure about a teen who vows to look after his aging neighbor, and comes to learn about a portal to a fantastical world hidden inside his shed. To say that adventure ensues would be an understatement. This is a thrilling tale and will surely make for a great adaptation once the Fairy Tale TV show happens.
Why the audiobook is a must-listen: I wanted to close the list out with something from Stephen King since there are always exciting adaptations of his works on the horizon, and since I crossed Fairy Tale off of my TBR list earlier this year, it’s top of mind. But it isn’t just recency that has it standing out for me. This story felt like an incredible journey from start to finish, and it’s the perfect kind of tale that lends itself well to a listening experience. Seth Numrich is the main narrator for the audiobook, and listeners will also be treated to Stephen King’s voice at a key point in the story. It’s a great touch to an already great audiobook.
How long will we be waiting to see these book adaptations? That's to be determined in most cases, but it'll be exciting to hear the updates about them. In the meantime, these are just a handful of audiobooks I've enjoyed from Audible (and now available to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers), and I can't wait to see each of these stories hit the big or small screen.
