Audiobooks Like The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Laurence Fishburne narrates Malcolm X and Alex Haley's autobiography with a controlled intensity that matches the subject's own rhetorical force — his voice doesn't imitate Malcolm X so much as inhabit the seriousness of what he was saying, across 17 hours that move from childhood poverty through transformation to prophecy. The recommendations pull toward the most highly rated memoirs in the catalog, all of them lives told with the kind of moral urgency that makes personal history feel like argument.

10 audiobooks for fans of The Autobiography of Malcolm X

  1. 1
    Becoming cover

    Becoming

    by Michelle Obama

    Narrated by Michelle Obama

    4.93 ABR Score (1.4M ratings)
    ★ 4.43 Goodreads (1.2M) ★ 4.89 Audible (183.2K)
    19h 3m listening time • Released 2018

    Michelle Obama reading her own story is the rare case where the narrator's voice becomes inseparable from the intimacy of the memoir—you're getting her reflections in her own cadence, which hits different over 19 hours.

  2. 2
    Know My Name cover

    Know My Name

    by Chanel Miller

    Narrated by Chanel Miller

    4.81 ABR Score (271.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.68 Goodreads (262.6K) ★ 4.82 Audible (9.3K)
    15h 24m listening time • Released 2019
  3. 3
    Unbroken cover

    Unbroken

    by Laura Hillenbrand

    Narrated by Edward Herrmann

    4.75 ABR Score (1.1M ratings)
    ★ 4.39 Goodreads (1.0M) ★ 4.78 Audible (51.5K)
    13h 56m listening time • Released 2010
  4. 4
    Nobody's Girl cover

    Nobody's Girl

    by Virginia Roberts Giuffre

    Narrated by Thérèse Plummer, Gabra Zackman

    4.73 ABR Score (78.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.55 Goodreads (70.8K) ★ 4.85 Audible (7.4K)
    13h 39m listening time • Released 2025

    The dual narration cuts between Giuffre's voice and Plummer's, creating an intimate testament that demands to be heard rather than read—a survivor's reckoning told with devastating clarity.

  5. 5
    Open cover

    Open

    by Andre Agassi, J.R. Moehringer

    Narrated by Erik Davies

    4.55 ABR Score (157.5K ratings)
    ★ 4.32 Goodreads (149.2K) ★ 4.74 Audible (8.3K)
    18h 4m listening time • Released 2009
  6. 6
    The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz cover

    The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

    by Erik Larson

    Narrated by John Lee, Erik Larson

    4.49 ABR Score (151.6K ratings)
    ★ 4.3 Goodreads (139.3K) ★ 4.66 Audible (12.3K)
    17h 49m listening time • Released 2020
  7. 7
    Will cover

    Will

    by Will Smith, Mark Manson

    Narrated by Will Smith

    4.70 ABR Score (134.8K ratings)
    ★ 4.24 Goodreads (75.6K) ★ 4.87 Audible (59.1K)
    16h 16m listening time • Released 2021
  8. 8
    Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 cover

    Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13

    by Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger, Fred Sanders

    Narrated by Fred Sanders

    4.53 ABR Score (11.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.4 Goodreads (10.5K) ★ 4.87 Audible (1.5K)
    16h 15m listening time • Released 2019
  9. 9
    Master of the Senate cover

    Master of the Senate

    The Years of Lyndon Johnson • Book 3

    by Robert A. Caro

    Narrated by Grover Gardner

    4.52 ABR Score (25.9K ratings)
    ★ 4.43 Goodreads (24.3K) ★ 4.81 Audible (1.6K)
    18h 29m listening time • Released 2005

    Grover Gardner's steady, commanding voice transforms Caro's dense political narrative into riveting storytelling—18 hours that feel essential once you grasp how Johnson actually bended the Senate to his will.

  10. 10
    Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha cover

    Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha

    by Thich Nhat Hanh

    Narrated by Edoardo Ballerini

    4.49 ABR Score (8.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.43 Goodreads (7.1K) ★ 4.87 Audible (1.0K)
    16h 39m listening time • Released 2016

    Ballerini's unhurried narration transforms Thich Nhat Hanh's retelling into something meditative rather than distant—you don't just learn Buddha's life, you inhabit it alongside him across 16 immersive hours.

How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

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