As a music alternative, try listening to an audiobook

Above : Emily St. John Mandel’s novel “Sea of Tranquility” is recommended by AudioFile editors. (Photo/NPR)

Once upon a time … is how most fairy tales begin. But, too, it’s an easy way to address past real-life events.

Example: Once upon a time, I used to listen to the radio while driving in my car. First that involved AM radio and all the rock ’n’ roll hits of the day. Then came FM radio, with its better sound quality and practice of playing whole albums at once.

The use of audiotape and then CD players filled in the gaps that radio play increasingly lacked. As the years passed, and musical styles changed, that lacking seemed to grow more and more.

These days the only radio I typically listen to is any one of the three FM choices offered by Spokane Public Radio : KPBZ 90.3 (the Public Radio Exchange), KPBS 91.1 (which offers a slate of classical music and various PBS shows) and KSFC 91.9 (which focuses on news from around the world).

But I when I’m not engaged in any of the above, I listen to audiobooks. In fact, I just finished listening to Erik Larson’s nonfiction book “The Splendid and the Vile,” his look at how England weathered the German threat of invasion in the year before the United States entered World War II.

Read by John Lee , whose sonorous voice gives Larson’s book – which centers on the character of then-English Prime Minister Winston Churchill – all the gravity it requires. And then some.

You can find audiobooks pretty much anywhere. You can even stream them for free if you hold an account with either Spokane Public Library or Spokane County Library .

I, however, also have an AudioFile account, which is the subscription service through which I listened to Larson’s book. And AudioFile just published on its blog “Most Anticipated Listens of Spring 2022, Forecasted By Our Editors.”

Some selections by category:

History: “The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures: A True Tale of Obsession, Murder, and the Movies.” Emily Ellet reads Paul Fischer’s book about Louis Le Prince, who in 1888 claimed to have invented a process a motion-picture device – but shortly before unveiling disappeared. Forever.

Science fiction: “Sea of Tranquility.” A quartet of readers, John Lee, Dylan Moore, Arthur Morey and Kirsten Potter, reads “Station Eleven” author Emily St. John Mandel’s latest novel. Combining time travel with metaphysics, Mandel’s story spans from 1912 Canada to a moon colony some five centuries later.

Mystery & Thriller: “Say Her Name.” Ajoda Andoh reads the mystery by Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter about an adopted biracial woman who, while seeking information about her biological parents, soon learns that someone doesn’t want her to succeed.

Those are just a few of the suggestions the AudioFile editors recommend. One or three of them may be among my next listening choices.

Hey, I have to listen to something while driving around town.