recommend audiobooks please

sisterjanet · January 2014

Friday I'm going to be doing a lot of driving, and I just finished the audiobook I was reading. I'm totally fine with genre books, just no horror. I've been listening to the In Death series by J. D. Robb, but the next one is checked out so I probably won't have that in time. I've listened to the first dozen or so Amelia Peabody books, the Spellman files series two or three times, the Harry Potter series at least twice through, and (flame if you want) Twilight maybe twice. (It's fun to scold her for twit decisions.) The one I just finished was Liar and Spy, a kid book. I've also listened to When You Reach Me by the same author, Rebecca Stead. (I'd recommend either if you're looking for some good middle school books.) There have been several random romance novels I've listened to as well, and a few good nonfiction titles. (The Long Tail was surprisingly engaging, and I liked Quiet and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as well.)

The audiobook just needs to be at least four hours, and I prefer one narrator since I have trouble telling the difference between people's voices in full cast recordings. Also, unabridged please. I guess there are a lot of abridged audiobooks, and the narrators are different sometimes between the abridged and the full length books.

julesf817 · January 2014

I LOVE audiobook! audible is probably my favorite app. I tend to listen to "fluff" type books, or books i've already read, because if it's something really good i'd rather actually read it. so that does affect my choices for audio.

For chick lit type books, i really enjoyed the audio versions of Emily Giffin's books. especially Heart of the Matter and Where We Belong.

i loved The Good House by Ann Leary. it's about an older woman with a drinking problem, but something about it really struck a chord with me and i really enjoyed it.

for historical fiction, i listened to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It's 40 hours long, but FANTASTIC if you like historical fiction. in fact, all his books are good, but since listening to that one i've read the rest so i don't know how the audio versions are.

for non fiction i recently listened to Elizabeth Smart's book My Story. It was really fascinating. also, i listened to "The Witness Wore Red" which is about the FLDS and i liked that a lot too. she self narrated and was nice to listen to.

right now i'm listening to Divergent, since i keep hearing about the series. it's YA. i like it so far though!

RachelCA29 · January 2014

I have been listening to "Gone Girl" while I crochet. It's a really well told story, kind of mystery, kind of drama. It is 2 readers though, since the story is told from the perceptive of a husband and wife, so every other chapter is a man or woman reading (but it's pretty easy to tell who is who because it's male/female).

danabsd · January 2014

I love a good series and I've listened to almost the entire Kinsey Millhone Mystery series by Sue Grafton. They are a little suspenseful and easy to follow along with while your doing something else.

spacepotatoes · January 2014

My first book of this year was When You Reach Me and I really liked it

How do you feel about nonfiction, specifically memoirs? Those are my favourites to listen to as audiobooks, especially when they are read by their authors. I really enjoyed Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Little Princes by Conor Grennan. Bossypants by Tina Fey is also good but not sure if it will last 4 hours, I remember it being on the shorter side. Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose is one of my favourites.

spacepotatoes · January 2014

Oh! One more, since you seem to like YA. The audio version of The Book Thief is great.

sisterjanet · January 2014

spacepotatoes said:

My first book of this year was When You Reach Me and I really liked it

How do you feel about nonfiction, specifically memoirs? Those are my favourites to listen to as audiobooks, especially when they are read by their authors. I really enjoyed Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Little Princes by Conor Grennan. Bossypants by Tina Fey is also good but not sure if it will last 4 hours, I remember it being on the shorter side. Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose is one of my favourites.

Holy cow Bossypants was so good. I think it was five discs (because my memory holds on to the randomest things...) so it must've been at least 5 1/2 hours. My son seemed to find Tina Fey's narration completely soothing, which made for an extra happy car ride. Craig Ferguson is funny on Youtube (never awake long enough to actually see a late late show) so I'm interested to check out his book.

sisterjanet · January 2014

Recommending books in general is hard and audiobook recommendations are even harder in case the narrator isn't any good, so thank you so much for all these suggestions ladies.

sisterjanet · January 2014

@Jules51814 I would totally recommend the Spellman Files series to you since you mentioned fluffiness as a thing you like. The first one is a little odd compared to the rest (as happens so often in a series) and I haven't read the latest one yet, but Christina Moore is such an excellent narrator and keeps the voices very consistent from one book to the next. It's a mystery series, but not murder mystery, and a lot of the story is taken up with Izzy Spellman and her family. They're all private investigators, and they're all constantly spying on each other and invading each other's privacy. Izzy is really poorly socialized, to put it politely, and the series follows her on a long character arc of becoming a grownup.

HAndrews25 · January 2014

I am currently addicted to the Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. They are awesome and I have been downloading them free from my Library website on to my iPod. I would say start with Relic and go from there!

https://www.prestonchild.com/books/chronology/

jesstellina · January 2014

I've listened to a couple by Elin Hilderbrand, Castaways and Silver Girl, and loved them both. I also liked listening to some of Jane Green's novels, specifically The Other Woman and Babyville.

julesf817 · January 2014

sisterjanet said:

spacepotatoes said:

My first book of this year was When You Reach Me and I really liked it

How do you feel about nonfiction, specifically memoirs? Those are my favourites to listen to as audiobooks, especially when they are read by their authors. I really enjoyed Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Little Princes by Conor Grennan. Bossypants by Tina Fey is also good but not sure if it will last 4 hours, I remember it being on the shorter side. Craig Ferguson's American on Purpose is one of my favourites.
Holy cow Bossypants was so good. I think it was five discs (because my memory holds on to the randomest things...) so it must've been at least 5 1/2 hours. My son seemed to find Tina Fey's narration completely soothing, which made for an extra happy car ride. Craig Ferguson is funny on Youtube (never awake long enough to actually see a late late show) so I'm interested to check out his book.

If you are actually buying books, do you have a smart phone? if you listen to a lot of audio books, the audible.com app is SO awesome. it's like $15 per month, and for that you get two credits. most books are 1 credit. for me it ends up being way cheaper than buying audiobooks and they have everything. i find them way too pricey!

spacepotatoes · January 2014

@Jules51814 My public library has mp3 audiobooks so I download them and just listen on my iPod.

megmegs · January 2014

I've been listening to Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which I highly recommend. It's a historical fiction/ adventure/ romance novel.

The good : The narrator is freaking fantastic, so you get really wrapped up in the story.

The bad:The narrator is freaking fantastic, so you get really wrapped up in the story, to the point that sometimes you arrive at your destination and don't remember any of the drive.

julesf817 · January 2014

megmegs said:

I've been listening to Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which I highly recommend. It's a historical fiction/ adventure/ romance novel.

The good : The narrator is freaking fantastic, so you get really wrapped up in the story.

The bad:The narrator is freaking fantastic, so you get really wrapped up in the story, to the point that sometimes you arrive at your destination and don't remember any of the drive.

I read all the Outlander books!

did you know they are making a series for Starz?? i hope it's going to be good. and she's working on another book!

spacepotatoes · January 2014

megmegs said:

I've been listening to Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, which I highly recommend. It's a historical fiction/ adventure/ romance novel.

The good : The narrator is freaking fantastic, so you get really wrapped up in the story.
The bad:The narrator is freaking fantastic, so you get really wrapped up in the story, to the point that sometimes you arrive at your destination and don't remember any of the drive.

The Outlander books are so entertaining! I've only read the first two so far but I don't think I could handle them as audiobooks. There would have been days that I'd have shown up at work unable to look anyone in the eye. Or concentrate for the rest of the day.

sisterjanet · January 2014

@Jules51814 I actually have seriously outdated technology, so I get the books on cd from the library. I've had good luck getting pretty much anything I wanted as long as I'm willing to wait, since sometimes I have to resort to interlibrary loan. My library is starting to make the transition to fewer physical audio books and more e-download audio books. From what I've seen, you're right that buying them is crazy expensive.

britab · January 2014

DH and I liked The Bone Collector by Ted Dekker.

yepyepsms · January 2014

Fifty shades of gray - listened to this summer when I would run. Not the best books ever but entertaining and an easy listen. I loved The Help in audio form. Middlesex was also good. I downloaded all of these version from audible.

Lindseykaz · January 2014

I do 1 audio a month basically! My favs of the year were, The Seamstress (memoir) very good. The Handmaids Tale read by Claire Danes. Sisterland, the Fault in Our Stars

sisterjanet · January 2014

@smdukes I read the Fifty Shades trilogy in paper, but for the audiobook all I can think of is the fake commercial with Gilbert Gottfried narrating.

ckandi007 · January 2014

The Help and The Siren both got me through my 8-9 hour drives with my toddler when is drive from DC to MA. I'm currently listening to The Dome by Stephen King.

ThereBeDragons · January 2014

The Dresden Files has an awesome narrator! Highly recommend

ajsweeton · January 2014

I just finished the Society of S kind of twilight-y, but better and an awesome narrator. I also liked the host and the hex hall series of books. Mostly YA type. Have you tried Charlaine Harris? I like the Sookie Stackhouse series and her mysteries are really good too. I'd stay away from A secret Rage which portrays a very disturbing rape scene which can still give me nightmares. I listened to it on audiobook and I honestly felt scarred afterward. It was very realistic. I love audiobooks and I often download them to my phone for listening whenever I drive.

sisterjanet · January 2014

@ajsweeton I read the first Sookie Stackhouse book and wasn't into it enough to continue the series, but thanks for the recommendations.

megmegs · January 2014

@Jules51814 and @spacepotatoes - My husband calls the Outlander series my "smut books" because I listen to them when I'm cooking and he just happens to walk into the kitchen every time that there's any kind of steamy scene.

I'm currently on The Fiery Cross, but my commute recently changed from 1 hour each way to about 15 minutes each way, so it's really slow going. I envy you that you can get through the books themselves - with the Gaelic phrases and some of the spellings of the names, I gave up after a couple chapters and went back to the audio books before I started massacring the pronunciations of all of the characters.

Can't wait to see who they cast in the TV series, but no matter who they cast it's probably going to tick me off...I have very strong feelings about what the characters should look like, lol.

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recommend audiobooks please

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