Michelle Obama, Rick Rubin, and Senator Bernie Sanders are GRAMMY® Award nominees

By Jennifer Rubins | November 15 2023 | Audiobook News

Looking to recommend an award-worthy author-read audiobook to your patrons? Check your holds on these three inspiring and thought-provoking audiobooks featuring some very recognizable voices. We celebrate the 2024 GRAMMY® Award nominations for each of their audiobooks: The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times written and read by Former First Lady Michelle Obama; The Creative Act: A Way of Being written and read by legendary music producer Rick Rubin; and It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism written and read by Senator Bernie Sanders. Winners will be announced on February 4, 2024! Click on the covers to listen to an audiobook clip. [UPDATE 2/4/2024: The Light We Carry won Best Audio Book, Narration and Storytelling Recording GRAMMY® Award! Read more here.]

Overcoming in Uncertain Times

GRAMMY® Winner!

“Listeners will feel a familiarity in Obama’s voice and cadence; it’s like hearing from a trusted friend.”—Booklist starred review

Mrs. Obama won a GRAMMY® in 2020 for her narration of Becoming, and her book about the White House Kitchen Garden, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America, was a Best Spoken Word Album nominee in 2013.


A Way of Being

“It’s a highly personal audiobook, one in which the ideas and worldview expressed can’t be separated from the author, so it’s fitting that his performance was captured close-microphone and sounds intimate.”—AudioFile

This is Rubin’s 19th GRAMMY® nomination; he has nine previous wins. In 2016, Rubin was honored with the Recording Academy®‘s President’s Merit Award during the Producers & Engineers Wing’s annual GRAMMY® Week event in recognition of his creative and sonic excellence and ongoing support for the art and craft of recorded music.


“His gentle delivery of these progressive ideas allows listeners to think about a society in which the needs of ordinary citizens can be prioritized over corporate profits. Tightly organized and articulate throughout, this audiobook is also a plea for more citizen activism. The Senator’s fervor can still be heard, but intelligent writing and his calm performance allow his ideas to have more prominence than his passion.”—AudioFile

This is Senator Sanders’ second GRAMMY® nomination; his book Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In was a Best Spoken Word Album nominee in 2018.