Articles by Laura Sackton

What does it mean to pay attention? These days, it sometimes feels like paying close attention to anything or anyone is almost impossible. It’s hard to escape the endless...

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...

Everyone has a different interpretation of what a beach read is. I like to think of beach reads as “anything you’re reading at the beach.” But there’s...

One of my favorite genres of nonfiction is what I like to call “start here, end there” nonfiction. Put another way: “13 Ways of Looking at [X]”...

In my corner of New England, March is often the drabest month. Winter isn’t over, but spring hasn’t arrived, either. Sometimes it feels like everything is stuck in a...

While the new year can be a fantastic reading reset, all the goal-setting can sometimes get overwhelming. I personally love setting new reading goals each year, but I also...

AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of the Year includes an exciting new category in 2023: Audio Originals. These productions, some created specifically for audio and some with...

There’s nothing I love more than a funny book with substance. Give me a rom-com that thoughtfully explores trauma. Give me a nonfiction deep dive that tackles complicated...

Fall has always felt like a season of beginnings to me. There’s the beginning of the academic year, and there’s Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which is one of...

I often tell people that family sagas are my favorite kind of novel. I have read hundreds, probably, and I haven’t gotten sick of them yet. There are so many different...

As I approach my forties, I find myself drawn to books that explore all of life’s continual surprises and disappointments. My favorite books from the last few months are...

It’s always a pleasure when I listen to three audiobooks close together that happen to riff on similar ideas and themes. I was thinking about transformation and all the...

June is always an exciting month at AudioFile, because it’s when we introduce the year’s new Golden Voices narrators! This year’s three inductees are all...

I don’t know anyone who has a simple, straightforward, easy relationship with the places and people they come from. Going home is almost always complicated, whether...

A truly amazing thing happened on the bookish internet in March: the Trans Rights Readathon. During this decentralized fundraiser, organized by author Sim Kerns, more than 2,500...

It’s always a pleasure, as a book lover, to come across books about books. But what I’ve come to love even more are books that creatively incorporate other books...

Sometimes I’m in the mood for books that hit me with a bang—lots of plot twists, non-stop action, intricate and creative world-building that makes me gasp. And...

I often struggled to find myself reflected in books when I was younger—an experience that so many people share, for so many different reasons. These days, as I listen my...

It’s December, and that means it’s finally "Best Of" season in the book world! Everyone’s best lists are a little different, which means I always...

I first read Alejandro Varela’s National Book Award finalist debut, THE TOWN OF BABYLON, back in March. When I reread it on audio a few weeks ago, I was struck by how...

In his newest book, AN IMMENSE WORLD, science writer Ed Yong delves joyfully into the fascinating world of animal senses. He explores scent, touch, smell, hearing, and sight, as...

I love books that put setting front and center. Some of my favorite novels are the ones that are as much about a particular city or stretch of coastline as they are about...

Sometimes I’m in the mood for a breezy, lighthearted listen that will make me laugh out loud. Other times I’m in the mood for something more challenging, an...

While trying to articulate what I loved so much about one of my favorite audiobooks of the year so far, GREENLAND by David Santos Donaldson, I realized that part of what makes...

Happy Pride Month, audiophiles! It’s a great time of year for lovers of LGBTQ+ lit—there are so many incredible new and upcoming queer books to get excited about. If...

There are so many ways to tell a ghost story. Stories about ghosts can be terrifying, funny, poignant, absurd, serious. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with classic scary...

Vengeance is a complicated motivator that makes for great storytelling. I may not be big on revenge in real life, but I sure do enjoy a good revenge plot. Revenge stories often...

I’ve lived in New England my whole life, and even though my dad grew up in Texas, I don’t have much of a personal connection to the South. Perhaps this is why...

There are so many wonderful books featuring immigrant stories that picking only three for this month’s column felt nearly impossible. These three are all fantastic...

While it’s easy to find audiobooks featuring romances, books that center friendship can be harder to come by. But relationships between friends are just as complicated and...

One of my favorite December traditions is my annual cookie-baking marathon, which I affectionately call Cookie Extravaganza. Every year I clear my December schedule so that I...

There are few relationships in life as ripe for storytelling as sibling relationships. Siblings know each other in specific ways. They share experiences that friends, and even...

I must admit that I’m not particularly drawn to the traditional Western classics canon. There are certainly a few classics I love, but finally getting around to WAR AND...

What makes someone a monster? What does it mean to be a monster? Is a monster something to fear or something to celebrate? I recently listened to Maria Dahvana Headley’s...

This month, I’m excited to highlight three recent audiobooks that explore relationships between children and adults that are not as simple as biological parent +...

Before diving into this month’s article, I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Laura Sackton, and I’m a freelance writer and book reviewer, and listening to...