Help me find a non depressing audiobook please.

[Iwontlethtesungodownonme]

I have started to really enjoy listening to audiobooks on my walk to work but I’m struggling to find new ones. The narrator is a really big issue for me. If I don’t like the voice I can’t buy the book.
I love listening to Stephen Fry reading the Harry Potter’s as an example.

I have recently gone back to the Shardlake series and have enjoyed them all over again and at the moment am sort of enjoying The Wrong Sister but these books are quite relentlessly miserable. Nothing good ever happens to the main characters. I am quite low at the moment and need something a little less depressing I think.

Any ideas?

The Wolf Hall trilogy read by Ben Miles. Not my normal sort of audiobook but utterly compelling.

I’ve recently loved How to Stop Time by Matt Haig and all of the Thursday Murder Club on audible!!

Also I loved Sherlock Holmes read by Dereck Jacobi honestly he is brilliant. He makes the relationship between Holmes and Watson very believable.
And there are the odd occasions when he clearly struggles to take some of the more ludicrous situations seriously which is just charming.
I'm off to listen to Arthur Lowes version of Diary of a Nobody.

The Rivers of London series is one of my all time favourites in audio book format. It's read by a brilliant narrator and is about a magical branch of the London police, the books are engaging and funny. I love them.

I also return to the Harry Potter series over and over again, Stephen Fry is such a great narrator.

Oh, and if you want a series that's absorbing but not heavy, Elly Griffiths' Norfolk mysteries are brilliant.

I love this thread, thank you. I've got 5 Audible credits and I'm going to use a couple today to try some of these recommendations. (Plus the latest Jodi Taylor, which came out on Thursday)

I'm listening to the Bridgerton series. Not one for in the car with kids though!
Have also enjoyed Cormoran Strike narrated by Robert Glenister but a lot of blood and gore!

I really enjoyed the Thursday Murder Club books, quite gentle & funny with excellent narration.

I’m loving *A Voyage Around the Queen - Craig Brown *read by Harriet Walter. It’s quite amusing.

Matt Haig's 'Midnight Library' is great on audiobook.

The Northern Lights series by Philip Pullman is read beautifully, I really enjoyed those although I'd say they were absorbing rather than uplifting!

Taking some of these recommendations to download too!

I loved the Hawthorne series by Anthony Horowitz, I think the first one is The Word is Murder. Despite the murder theme it’s lighthearted.

I’m listening to Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh at the moment if you like a US legal/psychological murder mystery type thing.

AI is always noticeable and has strange pacing and mispronunciation
It’s awful
Sadly many Librivox recordings are bad as well.

There is a reason why good narrators are paid.
It’s a skill to read aloud well.

Sticky mouth sounds and slow delivery is irritating to listen to.

Rumpole of Bailey recordings I love ( on you tube - Robert Powell reading MR James was find appealing, too.

Well, this afternoon has not gone according to plan and I don’t have time to myself this evening but I am determined to spend time tomorrow going through all these suggestions. Thank you so much.

On my long commute I started with older comedy like Jeeves and Wooster, and now I'm onto well written but light and comedic contemporary women's fiction comedy such as Marian Keyes, Jodie Taylor, Claire McCauley. I've got a Lucy Score to try next.

I’m trying very hard not to race through this too quickly today!
much better than the latest Time Police offering IMO

Ashes to Admin by Evie King. She manages to make a sad subject surprisingly uplifting!

I really enjoy Graham Norton narrating his own books. They are very enjoyable yarns, and he narrates them very well.

I enjoyed the Count of Monte Cristo, the Three musketeers, BBC adaptation of Falco by Lindsey Davis and the older Rumpole of the Bailey ( not Benedict Cumberbatch).

Gervais Phinn, really nice, unassuming, entertaining listening, feel good, life as a school inspector.

Sorry for the long link.

www.google.com/search?q=gervase+phinn+audio+books&client=ms-android-samsung-rvo1&sca_esv=3aa2bf76aa7305d0&sca_upv=1&source=android-browser&ei=Yc_lZrXHK5-2hbIPh9Ks-QU&oq=gervase+phinn+audi&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIhJnZXJ2YXNlIHBoaW5uIGF1ZGkqAggAMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAhGKABMgUQIRigATIFECEYoAFIqx9QxAtY6RdwAXgBkAEAmAFdoAGUA6oBATW4AQHIAQD4AQGYAgagAuwDwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICDRAAGIAEGLADGEMYigXCAhMQLhiABBiwAxhDGMgDGIoF2AEBwgIKEAAYgAQYQxiKBcICBRAuGIAEwgIGEAAYFhgewgILEAAYgAQYhgMYigWYAwCIBgGQBhG6BgQIARgIkgcDNC4yoAeDHQ&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp

PG Wodehouse Jeeves and Wooster. An absolute delight and Stephen Fry to boot!

He used to come to my school, we loved him! He's such a nice man. He always read stories to us.

The BBC Falco adaptation is wonderful!

@ThursdayLastWeek yes to Jodi Taylor. Anything by Jodi Taylor. And Zara ramm js chefs kiss brilliant as a narrator

Just as an aside OP, you should consider the library apps for audiobooks. You just need to be a member of a library. I'm in NI and we have both Libby and BorrowBox. I don't know how I'd function without them! They are free, so no risk involved if you realise you hate something after a couple of chapters.

I love The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield read by Georgia Sutton, comforting and funny. There are 4 books in total.

Also Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D E Stevenson read by Christine Rendel which has a similar feel, very comforting.

I also like Barbara Pym, especially Excellent Women read by Jonathan Keeble and Gerry Halligan but they are a bit more poignant.