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Best audiobook? I’ll start.


madteaparty
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Looking for captivating audiobooks to get me through commutes and stress! Ones I’ve liked in my absent minded state are The Way we live now which was like a soap opera👍, The Dutch House,  Kate Atkinson’s entire Brodie series, Fleishman is in Trouble.

and you? 

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1 hour ago, chiguirre said:

Based on what you've liked, I'd try The Sentence by Louise Erdrich and Our Country Friends by Gary Shteyngart.

Oh I loved Shteyngart’s Absurdistan five million years ago but none of his later stuff. Will give this a whirl.

ETA that his latest might be literally way, way too close to home in a different way than the first one 😉 

🙏

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The Hobbit

Lord of the Rings series

Gentlemen in Moscow

God's Smuggler

A Wrinkle in Time

Golden Goblet

Anne of Green Gables series

Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools (hilarious and true) series

Peace Child

Pride and Prejudice

Sense and Sensibility

Fahrenheit 451

To Kill A Mockingbird

Edited by Lisa
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The best book I've read recently was an audiobook. Was it so wonderful because of the amazing accents of the narrator, or was it the beautiful language of the author, or was it both? I'm guessing both! Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. I highly recommend this.

 

But for something a little lighter reading, I also enjoyed Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. Serious topic, just easier if you're looking for something for your "absent minded state".

 

Oh, and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is just fun to listen to.

Edited by Amethyst
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  • 5 weeks later...

We are listening to The Dutch House now - so good!!! 

We also enjoyed Born a Crime by Trevor Noah 

And Gentlemen in Moscow and The Last Thing He Told Me 

some we did not like... but still a great way to pass the time on a long car ride. 

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2 hours ago, madteaparty said:

Just finished Our Country Friends, was good. Thanks again. 

In that same vein, but more slapstick, give The Netanyahus a try. It just won the Pulitzer for fiction and it is laugh out loud funny with a similar voice to Our Country Friends.

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Just now, chiguirre said:

In that same vein, but more slapstick, give The Netanyahus a try. It just won the Pulitzer for fiction and it is laugh out loud funny with a similar voice to Our Country Friends.

Thanks. Just started Ladder of Years but will look this one up next 🙏

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On 5/3/2022 at 11:24 AM, Lady Florida. said:

If you're up for nonfiction, Trevor Noah's Born a Crime and Betty White's If You Ask Me are both worth a listen.

Born a Crime is actually better on audiobook than ink and paper! I rarely say that but Noah himself is the reader and that makes it special. 

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There is no way I could pick a single favorite.  But if you like historic fiction, I just finished this not long ago and really liked it.  It's about women in Germany during WW2.  Covers the story of the only American woman executed by the third reich.  If you like stuff like this, there is a lot of great options out there.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Resistance-Women-Audiobook/0062933167?qid=1654133926&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=WZS3SYAF05WHPECKJZDF

If you do like women's history in general, I HIGHLY recommend the History Chicks podcast.  Hours and hours and hours available on that!  I download through google podcasts, I imagine it's available on lots of platforms.  This is done by two women (and moms) and just very easy and enjoyable to listen to, conversational in tone.  And I've actually really learned so much too!  

http://thehistorychicks.com/

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I wish I could get into audiobooks-I love to read and it would be so nice to be able to read and be productive at the same time. The only (adult) audiobook I have finished is You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey. I really enjoyed it. 
 

One of my goals for this year was to learn to like audiobooks and 5 months in, I still haven’t finished one (other than Doll Bones, which I listened to with DS12).

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On 5/3/2022 at 6:29 AM, Hilltopmom said:

The Night Circus 
read by Jim Dale who did the Harry Potter series 

Was coming here to say this too!

Also The Secret History of Witches and Age of Witches, narrated by Polly Lee. 

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A fun one: If you like Star Wars and you like Shakespeare, try William Shakespeare's Star Wars.  The Star Wars story re-told in iambic pentameter.  The audio version is fantastic - all the character voices are just right, including R2D2's poetic meep-sqeak, meep-beeps.  And Yoda speaks in haiku.

 

 

 

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The audio version of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is excellent.

It's a semi-true-ish story about something that happened in Savannah, GA decades back.

The audio is so good because the narrator does the various Southern voices so well.. I listened to it three times which is something I never do.

Highly recommended. ♥♥♥

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I've listened to a ton of audiobooks.  I started back when I'd listen behind my dad back when you had to prove a major vision problem in order to check out unabridged books on tape.  I also dislike the whole zombie genre.    So it should be impressive when I say that World War Z was the best produced audiobook.     What I love is that the voice of the different characters was written with particular actors in mind.   When you are Max Brooks you know the big actors.   The writing really nailed what those actors would have really said if they were in that situation.   Then the audiobook has those actors reading their parts.   I think I remember that only one of the actors said No.  

You mentioned "like a soap opera", have you ever read Vanity Fair?    It was soap opera in book form before there were soap operas.    The chapters are all very short.   Lots and lots of non-PG stuff happens, but you don't actually see any of it happening.  Lots of scheming.  Maybe get an audiobook of it if you haven't read it already.  

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't usually listen to audiobooks because, for me, it's pretty hard to focus on the plot. But some time ago, I started listening to "Pride and Prejudice", and I don't know why, but I like it, and it's easy for me to follow everything that happens in the book. Maybe, it's because Jane Austen is one of my favorite writers. 

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I am less than 2 hours into the book but Doctors and Friends is awesome.   I can’t believe it was written before COVID….but it was

 

trigger warning for anyone who has lost someone due to COVID.

 

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Boys in the Boat read by Edward Hermann.  Such a cool story. Kept me engaged the entire trip.

It isn't an audio book exactly, but Focus on the Family's Chronicles of Narnia radio theater is so good.  I also loved their production of Screwtape Letters with Andy Serkis.  So good!

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