There’s little I love more than settling down to listen to an audiobook with a strong sense of place. Books with vivid settings are often even better on audio, as narrators bring these places to life with accents and descriptions. This month I’m highlighting three recent audiobooks I’ve loved with unforgettable settings: a family-run funeral home in Providence, Rhode Island, and the various landmarks important to the city’s queer and Jewish communities; a trailer park outside of Tucson, Arizona; and a small Cotswolds village and the home and garden of a lesbian couple who live—and get into mischief—there.

Part romance, part family drama, and part ghost story, Shelley Jay Shore’s debut RULES FOR GHOSTING is a perfect fall listen. Petey Gibson narrates with charm, real emotion, and loads of spirit; his voice, much like the flawed but charming cast of characters, is irresistible. Ezra is a twenty-something trans man who’s always acted as the “fixer” in his close-knit and sometimes dysfunctional family. Even though he still lives close to his family’s Jewish funeral home in Providence, RI, he doesn’t want anything to do with it: he’s had the uncanny ability to see ghosts ever since his zaide died when he was a child, and the funeral home is always full of ghosts. But when his mom announces she’s in love with the rabbi’s wife, he agrees to help out in the chaos that follows. To make matters worse, Ezra is falling for his neighbor, Jonathan—but the ghost of Jonathan’s dead husband will not leave him alone. Gibson captures the novel’s magic with his voice, narrating the sibling banter with dry sarcasm and the scenes of Jewish death rites with quiet reverence. He reads with the perfect blend of lighthearted wit and real emotion. This debut is a true gift: If there’s a ghost story packed with more heart, humor, and warmth, I haven’t found it yet.

Listeners in the mood for a place-based memoir will want to look out for Zoë Bossiere’s CACTUS COUNTRY, a story about their trans boyhood in a trailer park in Arizona. Bossiere’s ability to conjure up a specific place—the wide expanse of desert, the wind and the cacti, the various trailers and their quirks, from front porches to patches of garden—is extraordinary. They describe roaming the park with a group of boys, where they were immediately accepted, and where they found belonging, but also learned a particularly rigid version of masculinity rooted in strength and bravado. Their narration is wistful and a bit melancholy but overflowing with compassion for their younger self, as well as their friends, neighbors, mentors, and parents—even when these people didn’t always see or understand them. This is a thoughtful book about one person’s non-linear journey through gender, and a love letter to a place— not only the trailer park, but the streets of Tucson and the classrooms of the University of Arizona.

First published in 1986, John Bowen’s witty and macabre queer village mystery THE GIRLS is finally available on audio—and what a treat. Christine Rendel gives a marvelous performance, capturing Bowen’s varied tones, a range of accents, and the humorous but dark tone that makes the story so unforgettable. Set in a small Cotswolds village in the 1970s, it follows Jan and Sue, a lesbian couple living a quiet life. They own a quaint gift shop which they stock with homemade jams, potted meats, goat cheese, produce from their garden, and various crafts. When Jan gets pregnant unexpectedly, the women dive headfirst into motherhood. But when the father arrives, his visit sets off a series of increasingly disturbing events. Rendel brings Jan and Sue—as well as all the supporting characters—to life with her delicate but emotional narration. Sometimes it feels like she’s winking at the listener; other times, she sinks deep into the internal musings of the women, ratcheting up the tension. This novel is at once a nuanced and fascinating portrait of queer partnership and parenthood in rural England in the 1970s and a delightfully engaging mystery.