Audiobook recs

[abs]

My husband has a super long commute to and from work (one hour plus each way) and gets tired of listening to the radio. I thought an audiobook might be a good option for him. He is not really a fan of fiction...when he reads he pretty much goes straight to history books.  Sometimes historical fiction.  Does anyone have a good recommendation in this genre?  Something informative but engaging?  I am thinking of getting him one or two for Christmas.

Thanks!

[mrspez07]

John Adams by David McCullough! It’s long but I learned so much. I wouldn’t have made it through reading it in print.
Anything by David McCullough is a good history read.
I read it instead of listen, but I also really liked Ireland by Frank Delany, it’s a novel but it reads like a cultural history.

You could do a subscription to audible as a gift as well and preload a book or two. Also, check your local library, they may have good resources for audiobooks. So far I have used hoopla and axis360 (our library switched away from overdrive)

[monkeyfeet]

I just finished The Wright Brothers and thought it was fantastic.
If he hasn't read Seabiscuit or Unbroken, both of those would be great.

[kelliebeans104]

I second the audible subscription. You can do a month or two to see if he'll like it and you get a book credit each month. I also use the library for audiobooks a lot too.

As far as recommendations, I would suggest the following:

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon was really good on audio
Eiffel's Tower: The Thrilling Story Behind Paris's Beloved Monument and the Extraordinary World's Fair That Introduced It by Jill Jonnes

Erik Larson books might interest him too. He wrote The Devil in the White City, Dead Wake and In the Garden of Beasts.

[ufcasey]

I definitely recommend Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand too!

Ones I haven't read yet that my library has an audiobook for, is non-fiction, I think a guy would potentially like, and are highly rated on GR:

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West by Dee Brown
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

[abs]

Thanks for all the suggestions!! I think some of these will be right up his alley.

kelliebeans104, he loves Erik Larson. So do I, actually, and I am more a fiction kind of girl. Isaac's Storm is his favorite Larson book.

[aurora]

I really enjoyed the audiobook versions of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert and Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly in this category. (Sixth Extinction is science as much as history.)

[secretlyevil]

American Gods
Once We Were Brothers

Both were so engrossing!

[jmliongrrrl]

I like Bill Bryson's books on audio. A Walk in the Woods was particularly well narrated. I don't miss my long commute but I do miss my dedicated audiobook and podcast time

[dorothyinAus]

I love the Nero Wolfe books read by Michael Prichard and the Hercule Poirot books read by Hugh Fraser and David Suchet. I listened to both series on my commutes when I was working.