The best audiobook recommendations come from real people, not algorithms.
A few weeks ago, I found myself on a train to Barrow-in-Furness, packed with Arsenal fans (like me) basking in the glow of a day full of sunshine and a Championship parade in Islington.
I got chatting to the man next sitting next to me. He was wearing an Arsenal shirt, down from Preston to meet his son (down from Edinburgh!) for the weekend celebration. We quickly realised we had more in common than the seat we were sharing. He was ex-forces and knew plenty of people in Barrow.
I’m always pitching xigxag and always recommending books to people. I handed him a xigxag audiobook gift card for The Accidental Soldier by Owain Mulligan, a memoir about the author’s time serving in Basra. It was one of my favourite audiobooks from last year.
This week, his review appeared on xigxag:
He and the author had been in the same place at the same time, which made it all the more relevant to him. That’s what a good audiobook recommendation does. It connects people, and not through an algorithm or a ‘listeners also enjoyed’ carousel, but through a real conversation about a real book.
Big thanks to Brian for the chat, and for a review that made our week!
The Accidental Soldier by Owain Mulligan
If Brian’s review has piqued your interest, here’s a bit more about the book that started it all.
The Accidental Soldier is Owain Mulligan’s memoir of his time as a Territorial Army officer unexpectedly deployed to Basra during one of the most volatile periods of the Iraq War. It’s been described as a non-fiction Catch-22: bleakly funny, compulsive, and deeply human.
Mulligan narrates the audiobook himself, bringing a wry sense of humour and perfect comic timing that no AI narrator could replicate. It’s the kind of audiobook that makes the case for human narration all by itself. It was named a Times Best Audiobook of the Year, and Marina Hyde recommended it on The Rest Is Entertainment.
You’ll find it here and in our Top Picks.
What We’re Recommending This Week
Brian’s story is a reminder that the best audiobook recommendations come from real people. In that spirit, here’s what the xigxag team is recommending right now.
Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer, read by Edoardo Ballerini
Andrew Sean Greer won the Pulitzer Prize for Less, and Villa Coco is cut from the same cloth — warm, funny, and deceptively moving. A young archivist takes a job as assistant to Coco, a wealthy, formidable woman who is entirely her own invention. He expects to catalogue a crumbling Tuscan villa. Instead, he gets swept up in eccentric guests, a brazen funeral heist, and Coco’s grand final mission: to reunite with the love of her life before it’s too late.
Sarah Winman called it “an absolute joy,” and David Sedaris said no one writing in English is funnier or more charming than Andrew Greer. If you’re looking for a summer audiobook that feels like sunshine in your ears, this is it.
The Divorce by Freida McFadden, read by January LaVoy, Edoardo Ballerini, Marin Ireland
If you’ve read any Freida McFadden, you know the drill: you think you know where it’s going, and then the floor drops out. The Divorce is a razor-sharp thriller about a woman whose husband throws her out, hires the sharpest lawyers in the city, empties their accounts, and replaces her with someone twenty years younger. She’s supposed to accept it. She doesn’t.
What starts as bitter curiosity hardens into obsession, and then into something she can no longer control. The full-cast narration from LaVoy, Ballerini and Ireland makes this one of the best thriller audiobooks of 2026. If you like your audiobooks with a racing pulse and a twist you didn’t see coming, start here.
Tonight the Music Seems So Loud by Sathnam Sanghera, read by Homer Todiwala
Ten years after his death, George Michael is still everywhere. Sathnam Sanghera, bestselling author of Empireland, goes beyond the standard biography to ask bigger questions: what does secrecy do to a person? What does fame? And how did one pop star, flawed and brilliant and contradictory, manage to challenge British society on politics, identity, and sexuality in ways that still echo today?
This is part cultural history, part love letter, part portrait of a strange and turbulent chapter in British life. If you grew up with George Michael’s music, or if you’re curious about what he meant to a generation, this audiobook is essential listening.
Five-Star Audiobooks From Our Listeners
We don’t curate our reviews and we don’t filter them. These are the audiobooks xigxag listeners rated five stars this week:
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi (read by Allen Levi and David Morse)
The Correspondent audiobook by Virginia Evans (read by Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Mark Bramhall, Petrea Burchard, Robert Petkoff, Kimberly Farr, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, Peter Ganim, Jade Wheeler, Jim Seybert et al)
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney (read by Stephanie Racine)
The House of Boleyn by Tracy Borman (read by Tania Rodrigues)
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie (read by Steven Pacey)
Honey by Imani Thompson (read by Chloe Sommer
How to Find Your Next Audiobook
If Brian’s story proves anything, it’s that the best audiobook recommendations don’t come from an algorithm. They come from people who’ve actually listened and can tell you exactly why a book matters.
At xigxag, that’s how we think about everything. Our team recommends books because they love them. Our listeners leave reviews because they want to share something good. And our app is designed to make the listening experience better.
No subscription. No monthly credits. Just audiobooks, from £7.99, with prices that improve the more you listen.
If you’re looking for your next great listen, browse our collections, read what other listeners are saying, or just ask a stranger on a train.
