Best audiobooks?

[susiebw]

We have probably done this before, but I can't find a thread.  The Book Club board is always slow lately so I figured I'd ask here.

What are some of the best audiobooks you've listened to?

I'm not real picky about genre or length, if it's worth it, though I don't often go for chick lit/romance/sappy stuff.  Lately, I've mostly been listening to non-fiction/autobiographies and classics.  Yesterday I finished Educated by Tara Westover (which I didn't love), and before that was Becoming by Michelle Obama (which I really loved).

Thanks in advance!

[Deleted]

Daisy Jones and the Six — great story, but also VERY well done as an audio book with great voice actors.

[StrawberryBlondie]

A few of my book club members pretty much exclusively do audiobooks and they all really loved Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley. They say that sometimes the narrator can really break the experience and everyone loved this particular narrator.

I didn't do audio so I can't personally offer an opinion on the audio specifically, but the book is pretty incredible.

[Bad Dingo]

@@@@

I listen w/the teen in the car so most of the audiobooks are ones we'll both enjoy.

I'd recommend anything by Kelly Barnhill, my favorite was The Girl who Drank the Moon. We just started When Women Were Dragons and I am loving it - "Newbery award winner Kelly Barnhill’s first novel for adults, “When Women Were Dragons,” opens with a brief but fiery blast. Tucked between title page and epigraph, the dedication reads, “For Christine Blasey Ford, whose testimony triggered this narrative.”"

@@@@@

I enjoyed I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are by Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex Girlfriend). It was funny and sad and kind of weird.

[Bad Dingo]

I just took a quick look at my audible library and remembered that the Princess Bride book - As You Wish - was fantastic:
www.audible.com/pd/As-You-Wish-Audiobook/B00NLEVIRG?ref=a_library_t_c5_libItem_&pf_rd_p=80765e81-b10a-4f33-b1d3-ffb87793d047&pf_rd_r=QYP0WBH9GYWNJJK8Y08S

The Akata Witch series is also really well done.

[InBetweenDays]

The Dutch House read by Tom Hanks is great.

World War Z is also really good. The story in the book is VERY different (much better) than the movie. The book takes place after the zombie pandemic and is about a researcher who's going around the world trying to document what happened. The different parts are read by different people, and I think the audio book won some kind of award.

[InBetweenDays]

Oh, and Greenlights - Matthew McConaughey's memoir.

[susiebw]

Oct 28, 2022 8:58:09 GMT -5 @villainv said:

Daisy Jones and the Six — great story, but also VERY well done as an audio book with great voice actors.

This has been on my list for a while, and I just requested it, but there's a wait.  Good to know the audio is well done.  Thanks!

[susiebw]

I read Firekeeper's Daughter recently (and loved it). I read WWZ a while back too.

I listened to Greenlights when it first came out and loved everything about it. I could listen to him talk forever.

A bunch of these others are adding to my list now, and hopefully I will be able to find a few of them available from my library! And OMG, I had no idea that Princess Bride book existed! I'm excited for that one!

Thanks for all of the recs!

[susiebw]

The Girl Who Drank the Moon sounds like a good read-along with my 11 year old daughter. I'm going to try and get it for us both. Thanks!

[InBetweenDays]

If you like Roald Dahl, Kate Winslet does a great job reading Matilda.

[Jalapeñomel]

House on the Cerulean Sea was fantastic. 

I'm currently listening to Beartown, and I really like the reader for that one too. 

[wesleycrusher]

I really like memoirs that are read by the author, too many to list. Julie Andrews, Trevor Noah, Leah Remini, Carol Burnett, Andre Agassi, Kal Penn, Colin Jost. Also more obscure- Adam Kay, Ed Viesturs, Kevin Mitnick, David Litt, Susanah Cahalan

For fiction: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, which was read by Wil Wheaton; Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Non-fiction: The Feather Thief by Kirk Johnson

[wesleycrusher]

@@@@@@
Also- my whole family enjoyed listening to the Percy Jackson series.

[pixy0stix]

The Vine Witch series is such a treat to listen to. The author is Luanne Smith.

[neverfstop]

some of my recent favorites, both fiction, thought I NEVER used to do fiction.

The Overstory by Richard Power, incredible love story about the trees and various families linked through decades & their relationships with trees....won a Pulitzer
www.amazon.com/The-Overstory-Richard-Powers-audiobook/dp/B078PJ4Q9D


The Ministry for the Future- it's a big sci-fi, which I never used to like, but it's like waving a wand and thinking about how/what changes we could make to change the global course of our environmental disasters. How far could governments go? How bad could our climate disasters get? What would re-aligning the world in a non-capitalist's way look like? it was very thought- provoking.
www.amazon.com/Ministry-Future-Novel/dp/B08K1YZBYN/

[wanderingback]

I don’t have specific recs for audio books, but wanted to chime in about using Libro.fm to purchase. You can support local book stores with your purchases and you can get monthly credits as well.

[lust2hart]

I really loved More Than Enough by Elaine Welteroth, the first woman of color to be editor in chief at Teen Vogue.
Leave Only Footprints by Conor Knighton, about his year of visiting every US national park.
Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling

[whatnext]

Black cake
Remarkably bright creatures
Still Life
Somebody's daughter

[BicycleBride]

I’ve listened to David McCullough’s biography of the Wright brothers several times in the past few years and it captivated me every time.

[Michelle]

My absolute favorite audiobook is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.

I just went through my library and these are reads I really enjoyed, not necessarily in this order:

The Bluest Eye by (and read by) Toni Morrison
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
All Boys Aren't Blue by (and read by) George M Johnson
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector's Story by Kyeonseo Lee and David John. Gets flack because the reader has a British accent but I enjoyed it.
Run, Rose, Run by James Patterson and Dolly Parton
The Storyteller by (and read by) Dave Grohl
The Handmaid's Tale and Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Hunger Games Trilogy and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
The Great Alone by Kirstin Hannah
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (this one really resonates in my heart)
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (really loved this one too)
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (as a recently diagnosed neurodivergent person, this really spoke to me)
If You Tell by Gregg Olsen - Trigger Warnings on this one for violence against women, DV, child abuse
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (this is one of my favorite all time books ever so of course i love it on audio too).
The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon, read by Davina Porter, an amazing narrator (9 of 10 books are complete and available - these are historical fiction and do have romance and some explicit sex so might not be your thing, but i adore them and re-read them multiple times - they are an epic commitment though).


In my queue:
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
I am Mine by Eddie Vedder

Starting for Book Club - The Hate You Give

[scout8]

Born a Crime is also my favorite audiobook.

[BlondeSpiders]

We recently finished two newer ones by TJ Klune, Under the Whispering Door and House in the Cerulean Sea. HitCS is much more light-hearted, and the narrator does great voices for the different characters.

UtWD was beautiful and very moving. Dark, and upsetting at times. This was the first audiobook that made me cry.

If you want really light-hearted and like stories about rich white women, I really recommend the Lady Hardcastle mysteries. They're set in 1900s and 1910s and are about a wealthy and sassy widow and her bodyguard/lady's maid who solve murders. Really fun, and the narration is top notch.

[sugarbear1]

Remarkably Bright Creatures was absolutely delightful.

[susiebw]

Thank you all so much for all of these recommendations! My library hold list is full, and my wish list is bursting.

I'm listening to As You Wish right now and loving it. It reminds me that it's been a while since we watched Princess Bride as a family, and now I'm planning on that for this weekend.

Also, Trevor Noah's audiobook is one of my favorites as well. DH bought it for me in hard copy a while ago, and I'm so glad I listened to it instead!

[fortnightlily]

I don't usually listen to audio books, but I enjoyed "As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride" by Cary Elwes because he narrates it himself and also has a few guests give their own anecdotes.

The audiobook versions of my favorite book series, The Locked Tomb by Tamsyn Muir, also get high praise due to Moira Quirk's performances.

[woowoo]

Another recommendation for Daisy Jones and the Six - very well done.

[followyourarrow]

Ones that haven't already been mentioned:
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Fairy Tale
Hillbilly Elegy - read by the author

[glw]

I love listening to David Sedaris's books. Me Talk Pretty One Day is my favorite.
I also loved the audio version of Lincoln in the Bardo.

[neverfstop]

Oct 31, 2022 12:18:53 GMT -5 followyourarrow said:

Ones that haven't already been mentioned:
A Prayer for Owen Meany
Fairy Tale
Hillbilly Elegy - read by the author

I admit to reading Hillbilly Elegy when it came out & enjoyed it, but since then JD Vance is Trump troll & there has been a lot of blowback after the recent movie

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/hillbilly-elegy-doesnt-reflect-the-appalachia-i-know/617228/ 

www.citybeat.com/news/opinion-5-terrible-things-to-remember-about-middletown-native-jd-vance-trumps-new-darling-13008463