Stephen Fry narrates the complete works of Sherlock Holmes in a single collection, with nine introductions he wrote and recorded just for Audible. It won an AudioFile Earphones Award and holds a 4.8 on Audible from nearly 22,000 ratings.

Robert Caro’s landmark biography of Robert Moses, the most powerful man in New York City and State for decades, and how he shaped, and misshaped, the city. The Modern Library counts it among the hundred greatest books of the twentieth century.

Ayn Rand’s best-known novel tells a story of industrialists and visionaries to explore her philosophy. It is divisive, but nearly 63 hours is a lot of listening for a single credit, and Scott Brick keeps the pace moving.

Jean Valjean spent nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving family. After a priest’s kindness changes him, he builds a new life under a new name in Hugo’s vast portrait of nineteenth-century France.

William Shirer’s history of Hitler’s Germany, first published in 1960, is still treated as a definitive account. Grover Gardner reads it with a steady authority that holds up over nearly 57 hours.

As Napoleon’s invasion looms, Pierre, Andrew and Natasha find their lives pulled apart and back together. Edoardo Ballerini reads the AmazonClassics edition, which Audible listeners rate at 4.6.

On the eve of his wedding, young sailor Edmond Dantès is arrested on a trumped-up charge of treason. Years later, he plots his escape and a meticulous revenge. Bill Homewood’s version holds a 4.8 from more than 21,000 ratings.

Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler in Margaret Mitchell’s novel of the South, one of the best-selling books ever written. Linda Stephens’ performance has a 4.8 on Audible.

A sign outside reads No killing Goblins. Erin Solstice, who comes from our world, finds herself transported to a fantasy one and ends up running a small inn. This is the revised edition of book one, rewritten and re-recorded, and it holds a 4.4 on Audible from more than 14,000 ratings.

Ron Chernow’s portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, often caricatured as a chronic loser or an inept businessman, shows the general and president as a far more compelling figure. It was one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2017 and has a 4.9 on Audible.

A computer error in a Defense Department lab unleashes a plague that wipes out 99 percent of the population. The survivors are drawn to the 108-year-old Mother Abagail or to a darker force.

Roshar is a world of stone and storms, where cities are built only where the land offers shelter from the tempests. It is the most-rated book here, with more than 114,000 ratings and a 4.8 on Audible.

Dickens’s 1852 novel built around a legal case that drags on for generations. Miriam Margolyes performs it with a new introduction she wrote and recorded, and the Audible Exclusive recording won a 2019 Audie Award.

An escaped convict with a false passport flees to Bombay and is pulled into the city’s underworld. Gregory David Roberts based it on his own life, and it became an Apple TV series starring Charlie Hunnam.

In 1942, mathematician Lawrence Waterhouse is assigned to a Navy unit so secret that only a handful of people know it exists, among them Churchill and Roosevelt. The story moves between World War II codebreaking and the present day.

Doris Kearns Goodwin tells the story of how Lincoln brought his political enemies into his cabinet and led the country through the Civil War. It won the Lincoln Prize and inspired the film Lincoln.

Follett’s historical epic about the building of a cathedral in the fictional English town of Kingsbridge in the twelfth century, with ambition, love and politics around it. John Lee reads it with plenty of drama.

A secret government experiment goes wrong and unleashes a plague of vampire-like creatures. Justin Cronin’s novel follows the survivors across the years that follow. Stephen King called it the start of a trilogy that will stand as one of the great achievements in American fantasy fiction.

Ron Chernow’s biography of the immigrant who became a founding father and shaped the new nation, the book that inspired the Broadway musical Hamilton. It holds a 4.8 on Audible from more than 25,000 ratings.

Two aging Texas Rangers drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Montana in McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning western. Will Patton’s reading was a 2026 Audie Award finalist.

The idealistic Dorothea Brooke marries the cold scholar Casaubon, while the artist Will Ladislaw sees who she really is. Eliot widens the story to take in politics, money and reform in a small English town. Juliet Stevenson’s reading earns a 4.6 on Audible.

Tolstoy’s novel of love and society in nineteenth-century Russia, centered on Anna’s affair with Count Vronsky. Maggie Gyllenhaal says she fell in love with the book while recording it, and Audible named it a Best of 2016 classic.

In a land where summers last decades and winters a lifetime, the Starks of Winterfell are caught in a struggle for power while dark forces gather beyond the Wall. Roy Dotrice’s version has a 4.8 from nearly 150,000 ratings.

Read my full A Game of Thrones review.

The first book of The Wheel of Time sends young villagers fleeing across a vast world. Rosamund Pike’s recording won the 2023 Audie Award for Best Female Narrator.

In 1945, former combat nurse Claire Randall is on a second honeymoon in Scotland when her life is shattered and she is torn between past and present. Davina Porter’s voices carry the series, and the first book has a 4.6 from more than 80,000 ratings.

In 1806, as the Napoleonic Wars rage, the reclusive Mr Norrell reveals he can do magic, and a second magician soon appears. It won the Hugo Award and was adapted into a BBC miniseries.

Thirteen-year-old Theo Decker survives an accident that kills his mother and ends up in a world of art and wealth. David Pittu gives each character a distinct voice over its 32 hours.

The moon explodes, and the world has two years to launch a plan to keep humanity alive in space. The story spans five thousand years, and two narrators handle its technical detail and its big emotions.

A multigenerational saga of love, faith and medicine set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family that carries a strange secret. The author reads it himself.

What if you could go back and stop the assassination of President Kennedy? Jake Epping gets the chance in this Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner. It is the shortest book on the list and has a 4.7 on Audible from more than 75,000 ratings.