My Favorite Audiobooks of 2022 (Premium)

This was another banner year for audiobooks, with several excellent new titles and then some favorites from the past.

Here are my favorite audiobooks from 2021. (And here’s my list from 2021.)

Control Freak: My Epic Adventure Making Video Games
By: Cliff Bleszinski
Narrated by: Kurt Kanazawa

Excellent history of Epic Games by the designer behind the original Gears of War trilogy.

Like a Rolling Stone: A Memoir
By: Jann S. Wenner
Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

An incredible autobiography by a man who led an incredible life and was somehow heavily influential in music, news, and politics. (I thought that narrator sounded familiar: Boutsikaris also narrated Set the Night on Fire: Living, Dying, and Playing Guitar with the Doors, which I had listened to last year.)

Fairy Tale
By: Stephen King
Narrated by: Seth Numrich

Kind of a modern take on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which l liked quite a bit overall. But the first third/half of the book, before the main character enters the fantasy land, is better.

Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
By: Tony Fadell
Narrated by: Roger Wayne

I listened to this book for the history, which is interesting---Fadell played a key role in several important tech products---but some of it is just about making things in general, which I found less compelling.

After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul
By: Tripp Mickle
Narrated by: Will Damron

A fantastic and well-researched look at what Apple really lost in the wake of the death of Steve Jobs. A must-read, and one I will revisit soon.

Unchained: The Eddie Van Halen Story
By: Paul Brannigan
Narrated by: Mike Lenz

As a huge Van Halen fan, I was hit hard by the death of Eddie Van Halen in 2020. This book hits on the highs and the lows.

Project Hail Mary
By: Andy Weir
Narrated by: Ray Porter

I’m not sure why I waited so long for this one, but this title from the author of The Martian is just as good. Basically, there’s one survivor on a deep space mission who befriends an alien and saves humanity. It’s way better than it sounds.

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America
By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: Scott Brick

I had purchased this when it was new and never finished it. But now I have: it’s a history of both the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 and of serial killer Henry H. Holmes, both equally fascinating.

Fletch
By: Gregory Mcdonald
Narrated by: Dan John Miller

I had purchased this on Kindle years ago and never finished it, but I took it up again on Audible this year when I heard there was a new Fletch movie, Confess, Fletch, with Mad Men’s John Hamm in the title role (it’s great). The story will be familiar to anyone who saw the original Fletch movie with Chevy Chase---I’m a huge fan, and have rewatched it many, many times---but with some stark differences. It’s good, no...