Audiobook recommendations

[inthedoghouse2]

I'm not a very good reader of books. I like buying them but never get around to starting or finishing them.

I want to give audio books a go and see this as a Segway to getting more into reading books.

Can anyone recommend a book that is good to listen to, well narrated.

I don't really know what my genre is. Easy read if that's a thing.

I was thinking of starting with the Richard osman books.

I like the idea of a historical fiction novel too but would have to get me interested from the start.

The Strike Novels. Robert Galbraith aka JK Rowling. These are read by Robert Glenister and he's spoiled most other audiobooks for me as he narrates so well.

The books are so much better than the TV series which I do like but misses half the plot,

Also DCI Jack Logan series by JD Kirk. Very well narrated and quite compelling. I discovered these on Mumsnet when someone criticised the author's lack of research regarding Mumsnet when it was mentioned in one of the books. The author came on and took some good natured ribbing, and I was intrigued- now I'm on book 7.

The Richard Osman books are well narrated. I enjoyed them very much, as light reading.

Sarah Waters' novels work well on audiobook too. Try Fingersmith. The twist is one you won't see coming. And The Paying Guests - just brilliant.

Stephen Fry reading P. G. Wodehouse or Sherlock Holmes. Laying in a hot bath listening to one of these is as close to Heaven as I'm ever likely to get.

Certain writers are perfect for audiobook. Others, less so. Dickens is great, because his novels are full of voices, and a good actor can really bring them alive. Whereas Virginia Woolf's The Waves (for example) works less well.

The greatest audiobook I have ever listened to is Michael Maloney reading Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall. Quite literally the funniest thing I have ever heard.

I'm also a huge fan of children's books. The best are fantastic on audio, and just as enjoyable for adults as kids. I'd massively recommend anything by Roald Dahl, particularly his two autobiographies, Boy and Going Solo. Tolkien's Hobbit is wonderful on audio as well, and so are Lewis' Narnia books and Philip Pullman's stuff.

Miriam Margolyes narrating Dickens is amazing. I'm convinced he meant his books to be heard that way, read aloud in instalments rather than as an intimidating doorstop like Bleak House in paperback.

I always struggled with Trollope as well, but on audible Barchester Towers became a hilarious satire that quickly became one of my favourites.

The Heart's Invisible Furies is the best audiobook I have listened to. So well narrated and a beautiful, funny, brilliant story.

The Thursday Murder Club is a great audio book.

Lessons in Chemistry is brilliant as is Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson.

I’ve dug out this thread to post about a great book I’ve just listened to.
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith. Narrated by Kate Forbes. Set in the Appalachian mountains so that is the accent used.
Ivy Rowes life from early 1900s to about 1960s.
Living in a poor mining area in W Virginia.
I think published 1982 -has been a play and possibly a film. Which suggests a good story.