The holiday season is upon us, and finding the perfect gift for everyone on your list can be daunting. Why not give the gift of stories this year? Audiobooks are a thoughtful and versatile present, offering immersive entertainment for any occasion – whether it’s during a winter stroll, wrapping presents, or cosying up by the fire. Here’s our handpicked list of the Top 10 Audiobooks to Gift This Holiday Season, featuring something for every taste and interest.
Fiction
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (read by Nicola Walker).
From The #1 Bestselling Author Of The Thursday Murder Club
A brand new series.An iconic new detective duo.And a thrilling new murder to solve . . .
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favourite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she doesn’t stay still long enough for habits or routines. She’s currently on a remote island keeping world-famous author Rosie D’Antonio alive. Which was meant to be an easy job . . .
Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. A breakneck race around the world begins, but can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?
Gift We Solve Murders here.
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (read by Éanna Hardwicke)
‘If a perfect Sally Rooney novel exists, this might just be it . Her best novel yet.’
Evening Standard
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.
Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties – successful, competent and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women – his enduring first love Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.
Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.
For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude – a period of desire, despair and possibility – a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
Gift Intermezzo here.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas (read by Jennifer Ikeda)
The global bestselling series with its very own acronym: ACOTAR.
When Feyre kills a wolf, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a magical land Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae.
But an ancient shadow is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it…
Gift A Court Of Thorns And Roses here.
James by Percival Everett (read by Dominic Hoffman)
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024
James is a profound and ferociously funny reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, told from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. From Percival Everett, award-winning author of The Trees and Erasure, adapted into the Oscar-winning film American Fiction.
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he flees to nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town.
So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all
Gift James here.
Non-Fiction
Want by Gillian Anderson (read by Anonymous & Gillian Anderson)
“What do you want when no one is watching?“
When we talk about sex, we talk about womanhood and motherhood, infidelity and exploitation, consent and respect, fairness and egalitarianism, love and hate, pleasure and pain. And yet so many of us don’t talk about it at all.
In this ground-breaking book, Gillian Anderson collects and introduces the anonymous sexual fantasies of hundreds of women from around the world (along with her own anonymous fantasy). The fantasies are extraordinary: they are full of desire, fear, intimacy, shame, satisfaction and, ultimately, liberation. From fantasising about someone off-limits to conjuring a scene with multiple partners, from sex that is gentle and tender to passionate and playful, from women who have never had sex to women who have had more sex than they can remember, these letters provide a window into the most secret part of our minds.
Want reveals how women feel about sex when they have the freedom to be totally themselves.The cast includes Georgina Sadler, Jessica Hayles, Amina Zia, Nicolette Chin, Beatriz Do O, Rachel Schwab, Kit Griffiths, Nicolette McKenzie and others who wished to remain anonymous. Please note: This audiobook contains graphic adult content.
Gift Want here.
From Here to the Great Unknown: A Memoir by Lisa Marie Presley and Riley Keough (read by Julia Roberts, Riley Keough)
Including the never-before-heard tape recordings of Lisa Marie Presley, this audiobook is movingly read by her daughter, Riley Keough, and multi award-winning actress Julia Roberts.
Born to an American myth and raised in the wilds of Graceland, Lisa Marie Presley tells her whole story for the first time in this raw, riveting, one-of-a-kind memoir faithfully completed by her daughter, Riley Keough.
In 2022, Lisa Marie Presley asked her daughter to help finally finish her long-conceived memoir. A month later, Lisa Marie was dead, and the world would never know her story in her own words; never know the passionate, joyful, caring, and complicated woman that Riley loved and grieved. Riley got the tapes that her mother had recorded for the book, lay in her bed, and listened as Lisa Marie told story after story: about smashing golf carts together in the yards of Graceland; about the unconditional love she felt from her father, Elvis; about being upstairs, just the two of them. About getting dragged screaming out of the bathroom as she ran towards his body on the floor. About living in Los Angeles with her mother, getting sent to school after school, always kicked out, always in trouble. About her singular, lifelong relationship with Danny Keough, and about being married to Michael Jackson, and what they had in common. About motherhood. About deep addiction. About ever-present grief.
Riley knew she had to fulfill her mother’s wish to reveal these memories, incandescent and painful, to the world. To make her mother known. This extraordinary book is composed of both Lisa Marie’s and Riley’s voices, a mother and daughter communicating across the chasm of life and death as they try to heal each other.
Profoundly moving and deeply revealing, From Here to the Great Unknown is a book like no other – the last words of the only child of a true legend
Gift From Here To The Great Unknown here.
Unbroken by Katarina Johnson-Thompson (read by Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Melissa Vaughan)
“Kat is a warrior, both on the track and off it. This book is a stunning testimony to the power of believing in yourself” – Sir Chris Hoy
Katarina Johnson-Thompson has never had it easy. Born a child of two worlds – her mum’s working-class Liverpool, and her dad’s idyllic Bahamas – she was never supposed to be a world champion. Her early childhood wasn’t easy. She was raised by a single mother, and at times it was a struggle for her to keep up with other athletes who had more funding around them. But she persevered.
Now, in her intimate, heartfelt autobiography, she tells her story as she never has before. She opens up about the pressures of representing Britain at the London Olympics while just sixteen years of age, and about her complex relationship with mentor-turned-rival Jessica Ennis-Hill.
Unbroken is a rare insight into the inner workings of a champion’s mind: the rigorous discipline, the undying passion for sport, and the unshakable belief in one’s self despite the odds.
Johnson-Thompson’s journey has been a remarkable one. Her upbringing and her career, both rich with challenges overcome and dreams pursued with relentless determination, serve as a powerful reminder that the human spirit is capable of extraordinary feats. But this is more than a story of triumph-against-the-odds. It’s a testament to the sweat, tears and laughter that pave the road to success, and to the unyielding spirit of a true champion.
Gift Unbroken here.
Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera (read by Homer Todiwala)
Empireland examined imperialism’s lasting impact on Britain.
Empireworld traces the legacies of British empire across the globe.
2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. The empire’s influence upon the quarter of the planet it occupied, and its gravitational influence upon the world outside it, has been profound: from the spread of Christianity by missionaries to nearly 1 in 3 driving on the left side of the road, and even shaping the origins of international law. Yet Britain’s idea of its imperial history and the world’s experience of it are two very different things.
In Empireworld, award-winning author and journalist, Sathnam Sanghera extends his examination of British imperial legacies beyond Britain. Travelling the globe to trace its international legacies – from Barbados and Mauritius to India and Nigeria and beyond – Sanghera demonstrates just how deeply British imperialism is baked into our world.
Gift Empireworld by Sathnam Sanghera here.
Lost Wonders by Tom Lathan (read by Tom Lathan)
In Lost Wonders author and journalist Tom Lathan tells the powerful stories of ten species that have lived, died out and been declared extinct since the turn of the twenty-first century.
Many scientists believe that we are currently living through the Earth’s sixth mass extinction, with species disappearing at a rate not seen for tens of millions of years – a trend that will only accelerate as climate change and other pressures intensify. What does it mean to live in such a time? And what exactly do we lose when a species goes extinct?
In a series of fascinating encounters with subjects that are now nowhere to be found on Earth – from giant tortoises to minuscule snails the size of sesame seeds, from ocean-hopping trees to fish that wag their tails like puppies – Lathan brings these lost wonders briefly back to life and gives us a tantalising glimpse of what we have lost within our own lifetime.
Drawing on the personal recollections of the people who studied these species, as well as those who tried but ultimately failed to save them, Lost Wonders is an intimate portrait of the species that have only recently vanished from our world and an urgent warning to hold on all the more tightly to those now slipping from our grasp.
Gift Lost Wonders here.
Half-Arse Human by Leena Norms (read by Leena Norms)
“This is the only self-help book that will tell you to give up. Except . . . you don’t need to give up, do you? Because you didn’t start. Me either.”
Leena Norms is a half-arser. A shave-one-legger. A rinse-the-plates-and-tell-herself-any-residual-dirt-will-improve-her-immune-system-er. And yet, she is determined to live better, build a career, strengthen her relationships, be good to her body, sort out her wardrobe, find meaningful hobbies, act on her ethics, and live a full, passionate, varied life.
And it’s possible.
Half-Arse Human will show you to harness the power of considered chaos and upgrade the parts of your life that really matter, without expending more than you have to give. Trying to be superhuman is out – being a half-arse human is in.
Find out why living a life of slap-dash isn’t as shameful as it seems; in fact, it might be the key to living the life you’ve always wanted. In a world of high-flyers, let’s at least get you in the air.
Gift Half Arse Human here from the 19th December.
Why Audiobooks Make the Perfect Gift
Audiobooks are more than just a story—they’re an experience. They’re perfect for multitaskers, frequent travellers, and even those who “don’t have time to read.” Plus, gifting an audiobook is simple and sustainable! Log in with your xigxag account today to send any of these titles as audiobooks gifts on a date of your choosing. Don’t have a xigxag account yet? Sign up on the app, or check out our other gifting options including a digital gift card.
This holiday season, spread joy through the magic of storytelling. Which audiobook will you gift first? ?
