Audible users - recs please

[AliasGrape]

I have an audible subscription and a few credits to use. I find I do much better with audiobooks these days, have them on when I’m driving/ walking and for half an hour through headphones before bed.

Yesterday finished The Hallmarked Man the most recent Strike one and I feel a bit bereft. I found this one really good on audio (the one before last just did not work at all) and I really was drawn in and looking forward to my next chance to listen each day.

Looking for my next listen but nothing is grabbing me.

Have very wide tastes, not particularly fantasy though not ruling it out 100%. Nothing too bleak or depressing - I did skip forward a couple of gruesome passages in the Strike one. But what’s important is it has to really work in the audible format and have a great narrator (I really enjoyed the Richard Osman books in this format for example, suspect I wouldn’t have enjoyed them as much had I read them ‘properly’).

I also don’t particularly like the ones that are more like plays, with all the different character voices and sound effects - I really do just want to be told a story. Don’t mind if there’s 2 narrators but not more.

Other things I’ve loved in this format - memoirs eg Educated, and a few years back remember really enjoying both Americanah and An American Marriage as audiobooks. I also loved the audible version of David Copperfield that Richard Armitage read.

Anything seasonal/ Christmassy would be good, but also recs for next year too.

Thank you.

The love songs of WE du bois is spectacular!!!

Lots more ideas thank you! I’ve got 5 credits stacked up so going to spend some time choosing today.

There's a 2 for 1 deal on too!

The Names by Florence Knapp. My book of 2025.
Read beautifully by Dervla Kirwan.

I have really enjoyed a bit of Christmas romance on audible this year 🤣

Just finished Christmas at Tillingford Hall by flora Dunn and The Christmas Star by Kate Forster which I think was a free one.

Typical of their genre and gently predictable but I thoroughly enjoyed a bit of Christmas cheese!

I’ve just got through the Slough House series so third that recommendation.

I have also really enjoyed the Rebus books on audible, love the narrator’s voice.

I’m also partial to a bit of Jilly Cooper as well - I’m up to the Man Who Made Husband’s Jealous in the Rutshire chronicles. Pure escapism.

I like Anthony Horowitz and have several of the audio books.

Came in to suggest this. I'm 1/2 way through and it's beautifully read and a very thought provoking story.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett read by Meryl Streep is one of my favourite audios, although it's not that plot driven so more of a gentle listen.

I've just finished Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V E Schwab which was good, I quite like a book with different narrators.

The Dutch house Ann Patchett- narrated by tom hanks is gorgeous

Agatha Raisin private detective stories read by Penelope Keith. I like a chapter each night before bed.

This week I've gone back to one of James Herriots books read by Chrstopher Timothy.

Really quite lovely with little musical interludes and individual stories - good for picking up and putting down. Having watched both tv series I recognised some of them that were adapted in both series.

Go back to The Cuckoos Calling and listen to the whole Strike series again on repeat - these are books/audiobooks that just get better and better with each listedn IMO.

Mind you Robert Glenister does such a fabulous job narrating them that it makes other audio books difficult to listen too - I'm picky about the narrator.

I'm working my way through all the works of Jane Austen and I'm not too keen on the narrator but I persist. You can get massive bundles of classics (ie complete works of Austen) for one credit.

I love Americanah on audiobook & it has a fab narrator.

Seconding the Rivers of London series and adding the Ellie Griffiths Ruth Galloway series. Great narrators and enthralling stories.

I second the Bob Mortimer books for light listening, also Rob Rinder's novels.

I also enjoyed Remarkably Bright Creatures and Lessons in Chemistry.

Get Ben Miles reading the unabridged Hilary Mantel Wolf Hall trilogy - it is a masterpiece. Ben Miles played Cromwell in the RSC stage version of the books, including collaborating with Mantel on the development of Cromwell so it's hard to imagine anyone doing it better justice, and his reading is incredible.

www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/10/obituaries-2022-hilary-mantel-remembered-by-ben-miles

Seconding Hamnet and The Names as audiobooks, both superbly narrated!

This is a very useful thread, thanks. I'll add Hamnet and The Names to my list following what's been said here. They are both on my list of books to read this year anyway.

@DuvetCaterpillar Can I check, does Ben Miles manage to differentiate the cast of characters in the trilogy ok? I sometimes find it hard keeping on top of big casts if I'm listening to audio rather than reading the physical book and I envisage a very large cast in these.

Yes, he definitely does. I found the written version of Wolf Hall hard going at first and had a couple of false starts, mainly because everyone seemed to be called Thomas, but Miles is terrific at creating distinct voices and personas for them all. I didn't realise at first that it was a single narrator, he created such a wide and compelling series of voices and characters!

The Most Fun We Ever Had - Claire Lombardo
Wellness- Nathan Hill
Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls
The Watchers - AM Shine
The Sea The Sea - Iris Murdoch
We Live Here Now - Sarah Pinborough
Midnight Feast - Lucy Foley
Sun Damage - Sabine Durrant
Middle England - Jonathan Coe
Grown Ups - Marian Keyes

And non-fiction:
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone - Lori Gottlieb
This Is Not A Pity Memoir - Abi Morgan
It's So Easy - Duff McKagan
Elizabeth Jane Howard (biography) - Artemis Cooper
You Don't Have To Be Mad To Work Here - Benji Waterhouse

These are my all-time 'couldn't put it down' Audible highlights. (Along with Americanah, and the Strike novels, which you have enjoyed already.)

Thanks. I've had false starts with the book for similar reasons and that had put me off even trying with an audio version but you've convinced me. I love it when narrators are so good you forget they are one person.