Audiobook recommendations- shall we share our highlights & duds??

[Movingonmymind]

So far, I have loved The Paying Guests, Christmas Carol (narrated by Tom Baker), Pompeii by Robert Harris. Also non-fiction Pompeii by Mary Beard and Born to Run. HATED Harry Quebert affair as badly-written, sexist tripe and also a cheapy Northanger Abbey download with a really clangy narration- should have forked out for the Juliet Stevenson narration. Wondering what next and any alternative sites to Amazon/audible?

Shall check out AA. Have enjoyed Jane Shilling's Stranger in the Mirror form R4 podcast. A very spare, moving account of ageing, dealing with change and living with a stroppy teen. It was abridged, but done well, I thought. And free!

Ok I've taken the plunge and subscribed to Audible as a result of this inspiring thread! Just about to browse for my first download.

The best value for money is yearly subscription of 24 downloads for £109

A few recommendations from Neil Gaiman
www.harpercollins.com/thelist/neilgaiman

Thanks, like his reviewing style. Though not committed to the full 37 hours of Bleak house unabridged. Might go for the 11hr Sean Barrett version.

Things I've really enjoyed (most are from Audible, but a few are from the library):

The Help - Kathryn Stockett, read by multiple narrators
All My Puny Sorrows - Miriam Toews
Unabridged Fry Chronicles - Stephen Fry
Dickens biography - Clare Tomalin
Ghost stories of MR James read by Derek Jacobi
Love, Nina - written and read by Nina Stibbe
The Paris Wife - Paula McLain
Night by Elie Wiesel - it also includes his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
The Silver Dark Sea by Susan Fletcher
Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? - written and read by Jeanette Winterson
The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd
Keep the Aspidistra Flying - Orwell, read by Richard E Grant
A dramatisation of South Riding by Winifred Holtby with Sarah Lancshire in the lead role.
H is for Hawk - Helen McDonald
The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey
Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey
Apple Tree Yard - Louise Doughty, read by Juliet Stephenson
Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, read by Stephen Pacey
This is How, written and read by Augusten Burroughs
My Year of Reading Dangerously written and read by Andy Miller
Middlemarch read by Juliet Stephenson

Children/YA stuff (we often listen in the car on long journeys)

Tomorrow When The War Began by John Marsden
Alone on a Wide Wide Sea - Michael Morpurgo
Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, read by Sir Ian McKellan
The Wombles by Elisabeth Beresford, read by Bernard Cribbins
How To Be a Pirate by Cressida Cowell, read by David Tennant
Five Children and It by E Nesbit, read by Lynda Bellingham
Matilda by Roald Dahl, read brilliantly by Kate Winslet
Awful Auntie - written and read by David Walliams
Cosmic - Frank Cottrell Boyce (brilliant!)
Millions - Frank Cottrell Boyce

Thanks, great list!

I can add a couple of recent ones- David Tennant brilliantly narrating My sister lives on the mantelpiece a very warm, concise read from a 10 year old's perspective so YA or good for adults too.

Also Meera Syal (author and narrator)'s House of Hidden Mothers'about the surrogate industry in India but so much more, friendship, kinship, identify, changing face of London. Very perceptive snd warm, though hate her occasional sniff (fussy emoticon), can't they edit such things out?

Great thread! I love audiobooks; it keeps me occupied on a very annoying car commute.

I also love Adjoa Andoh's narrating - so natural, great accents (mostly) and evocative. Both Americanah and Half a Yellow Sun are excellent. On audiobook I have thoroughly enjoyed:
Brave New World
The First Fifteen lives of Harry August
Life of Pi
The Book of Strange New Things
Grapes of Wrath
Wolf Hall

I agree with Quog, I have yet to listen to a good abridged version of a book.

Does anyone have any recommendations for laugh out loud audiobooks?

I have really enjoyed :

The Girl On The Train
Sleep tight (not the greatest narration, but a good story)
Little Lies
Sex, lies and chocolate cake
I Partridge, we need to talk about Alan.

Currently listening to The Husbands Secret.

Do love a good humorous book, so am eagerly awaiting funny recommendations.

I've just finished Half a Yellow Sun. It was excellent, actually gutted it finished.

Just downloaded A Brief History of Seven Killings. I've not got into Wolf Hall, had to pause it. I couldn't follow it on my commute. Also abandoned the Goldfinch. Couldn't stand the narrator and just didn't care about the character.

I'm a massive audible fan and have been for several years. I spend more on audiobooks than I do on clothes...

I also discovered an app called BORROW BOX which enables you to download unabridged audio books for FREE (swoon) from your local library. That might trim my audible spend. A bit.

Re: recommendations, just finished Dark Corners, the last Ruth Rendell. Brilliant! Also the Thomas Harris Hannibal books.

Mini, you've made my day 😄 Just wish I could remember my damn library PIN, but great freebie from the library services. And yes to saving on audible- fab range, but it is overpriced, imho. Sometimes vastly so.

Audible isn't overpriced.
If you have monthly subscription it works at £7.99 per book, if you have yearly subscription - £4.99. There are events every 2-3 months where you can get 3 books for 2 credits, or 2 for 1. Or use 3 credits and get £10 voucher. Also daily offers.

If you buy your own books you would be paying similar prices in bookshops/online/kindle.

Agree with Antimatter. Audible can be good value when you have the annual subscription, and take advantage of their 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 deals. They sometimes have up to 80% off sales too. And they also have daily deals, where I have picked up quite few good audio books for £2.99 or less.

DS is a Lovecraft enthusiast and has just downloaded Necronomicon from Audible: he is raving about the reader!

For the poster who wanted comic recommendations, several of the Anne Fine novels are hilarious, and your children will love them. Sadly our discs were destroyed through use.

I listened to "The Testament of Mary" by Colm Toibin, read by Meryl Streep. It was brilliant, especially because I love Meryl and thought she did such a good job of 'being' Mary. It's an interesting take on the story of Jesus through the eyes of a very normal woman - his mother. I'm not religious at all but I found it really interesting to get this perspective (albeit a fictitious one)

I looked at that purely because of the narrator/author combo but thought it might be too heavy. Did you find it so?

I'm a few chapters into "A Brief History of seven killings" and I'm finding it quite hard. The dialect/patois is so strong sometimes I am finding it hard to understand what is going on. Does it get better, should I persevere? It's a really interesting time period and topic, I do want to keep reading, but I keep forgetting who is talking and where we are in the story.

Sorry, I really don't know, not read it. That's the beauty and occasional downside of audiobooks, I guess- narrators can make or break a book and less easy to flick back even with a rewind button. I'm struggling with a few different heavy tomes and can't quite finish any one of them, yet have just abandoned them and zipped through Meera Syal's immensely readable and perceptive House of Hidden Mothers in just a few days.

Just got all the Harry potters on audible. Steven fry narrration is just "comfort food" !

(got the 3 credits for £18 offer to buy them with !)

My co favourite author is Anton Lester ( shard lake especially)

Yes, Fry is a truly eomdeful narrator, don't like his stuff on TV anymore but he comes into his own when it's just his voice and a story.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is today's Audible daily deal, at £2.99. I've bought it - had been planning a re-read this year, so now I can make it a listen instead. Can't wait to get started :)

Thanks for that, prompted me to get it 😊
They also have an audio version of e current stage play of Les Lisaisons Dangereuses for free!

www.audible.co.uk/sp/2for1/ref=a_hp_tft_travNav?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_r=0877EQAYJYSQS8RX3GNJ&pf_rd_m=A2YHV2RYTDNFG3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=5000&pf_rd_p=807780667&pf_rd_s=top-ftx

Above link is another audible deal for account holders, got a couple of bargains that way.

I am listening to War and Peace on Audible narrated by Neville Jason.
I can see why people love this book! It's so far been enormous pleasure listening to it and I am looking forward to many more hours with all 500 characters. I am 10% through and really love long amazing books like this one - 60 hours of listening in total!
2 credits for this edition though.