audiobook recommendations, anyone?

[ysobel]

So I have dabbled around a bit in Audible and am 99% sure that I want to get a subscription; audiobooks are great for a) listening to while knitting, and b) something to do when I get headaches of the "lie in dark room with eyes closed" variety, or otherwise can't entertain myself with anything other than sound.

I have been collecting a wishlist, based on either stories I like (including the complete unabridged collection of sherlock holmes stories) or narrators that I like (*cough* benedict cumberbatch, among others), but I'm also looking for recommendations. Things that work well as audiobooks, or people who are good at reading.

Any suggestions? For those of you that use Audible, or listen to audiobooks on a (semi)regular basis, what sort of thing do you go for?

Comments

[jadelennox]

On the Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta, is gorgeously narrated.

[fleurrochard]

Well, I mostly listen to podfic, so if that is a possibility, I could give you some recs for those?

[ysobel]

That works! :D

[fleurrochard]

Ok - pretty much everything read by pandarus and pennyplainknits - they are fantastic readers. I can look for more specific recs tomorrow. :)
(If you want you can also try some of mine. /shameless selfrec)

Just be aware that the audiofic archive has been compromised by hackers (with malware, so don't go there) right now and unfortunately most podfics by them are uploaded there. The site owner is looking into it and it is hopefully fixed soon, but right now you shouldn't download from there.
I can look though if there are some alternative links. :)

[sneezer222]

I love the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. I think as long as you get the unabridged versions you will like it, though the lady that reads the ones I am familiar with I particularly love. Next time I check one out at the library I will see who the reader is.

I also like listening to some of the Cat Who books by Lilian Jackson Braun, although those can get sort of silly as the series went along. But they are best read by George Guidall and are fun for just mindless listening.

[sneezer222]

And I found the reader I liked for the Amelia Peabody stories, Barbara Rosenblat.

[ailelie]

www.podiobooks.com

http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/search.php?keyword=The+Terrible+Business+of+Salmon+%26+Dusk

http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/search.php?keyword=Tanyth+Fairport+Adventure

http://www.podiobooks.com/podiobooks/search.php?keyword=Elanore+and+Gurt+Tale

http://www.podiobooks.com/title/the-best-laid-plans

http://www.podiobooks.com/title/billibub-baddings-and-the-case-of-the-singing-sword

http://www.podiobooks.com/title/space-casey

http://www.podiobooks.com/title/playing-for-keeps

To start you off. :) I love ebooks. PodioBooks is awesome, filled with enjoyable novels, and free.

[darchildre]

My favorite readers in general are George Guidall and Simon Vance - I would trust them to read just about anything. I generally stay away from anything that says "Read by the author" because writing and reading are very different skill sets. YMMV.

More specific things I have liked a lot:

- I love the Nero Wolfe books as read by Michael Pritchard.

- There are two readers for Terry Pratchett's Discworld (Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs) and they're both really quite good, though I slightly prefer Mr Briggs.

- Derek Jacobi's reading of Sherlock Holmes is lovely.

- Also, if you like audio drama as well as unabridged readings of books, I heartily recommend the BBC radio Sherlock Holmes series, with Clive Merrison and Michael Williams, all of which is available on audible. Clive Merrison is really high on my list of favorite Holmeses.

- I don't remember the name of the reader for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell but he was really excellent and the footnotes were handled really well.

- The audiobook for The True Meaning of Smekday is completely awesome.

- I'm currently listening to a recording of Dracula that has a different reader for all the different journals and letters and things and it works really well. It has Alan Cumming and Tim Curry in it, also, which is a lot of fun.

[0jack]

If you enjoy romance & queer romance & spicy stuff, Carina Press (Harlequin) sends a handful of their books to Audiobook every quarter. Rather less classy than some of your other suggestions but delightful porny goodness is out there.

[minim_calibre]

The Winnie the Pooh with Stephen Fry and Judi Dench is a must-have.

[ysobel]

!!!!!!

WHERE IS THIS I MUST HAVE IT NOWNOWNOW GIMME /grabbyhands/

/pause/

/owns/

WHEE YAY THANK YOU

</capslockglee>

[highlander_ii]

The only audiobooks I have are read by James Marsters - if the Dresden Files are your cup of tea, he does a lovely job.

I *think* the Codex Alera books are on audio too, but I haven't checked them recently and don't know who might be reading them.

The other stuff I have is stuff someone sent me of Hugh Laurie reading things. I can find what they are if you'd like to know those. XD

[firecat]

AUDIBLE HAS BOOKS NARRATED BY BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH?!! *runs to see*

I've read hundreds of audiobooks so if you tell me what kinds of books you usually like I'll recommend some.

OK this will sound crazy but Anthony Heald's reading of Moby Dick is the best thing ever.

The version of Dune with a multi-narrator cast is superb:
http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B002V1OF70

Narrators are a personal taste (I can't stand George Guidall, frex, but many people love him) but other narrators I like and books I liked them in:

Barbara Rosenblat (Elizabeth Peters books)
David Ian Davies
David Case/Frederick Davidson
Frank Muller (Motherless Brooklyn)
Gabrielle De Cuir (sf&f)
Grover Gardner (aka Alexander Adams and Tom Parker) (Montalbano series)
Hugh Fraser
Jennifer Wiltsie (Diamond Age)
Joyce Irvine (Sun of Suns)
Katherin Borowitz (Grave Secrets)
Lenny Henry (Anansi Boys)
Lizan Mitchell (Joplins Ghost)
Michael Jayston (The Constant Gardener)
Michael Page (Lies of Locke Lamora)
Michael Prichard (Nero Wolfe)
Ossie Davis (47)
Patrick Tull (Master & Commander)
Peter Jay Fernandez (Brown Girl in the Ring)
Ralph Cosham (Watership Down)
Richard Poe (the Simon R. Green novella in Mean Streets)
Robert Forster (Hit Man)
Robert Whitfield
Ron McLarty
Rosalyn Landor (Never Let Me Go)
Sam Dastor
Scott Brick (good on some things, annoying on others)
Simon Prebble (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell)
Stephen Thorne (brother cadfael series)
Tavia Gilbert (Halfway to the Grave)
Todd McLaren (Altered Carbon)
Tony Britton
Wanda McCaddon

[0jack]

Lenny Henry + Anansi Boys?! *headasplode* I hate audio books but I am going to get that one anyway.

[ysobel]

They dooooo! Sadly a lot of them are abridged, and one of the unabridged is a Sherlock Holmes written-by-another-person that apparently is fairly mediocre and also is a slight bit of a headtilty thing because you have Sherlock Cumberbatch reading something from the pov of Watson, but which I may acquire for pure shallowness anyway, because I totally adore his voice.

/is totally shameless/

And thanks for the recs! Have flagged some of them as definite wants. :D

(Book preferences tend towards mystery and sff. And urban fantasy type stuff. Which is a very vague and broad category, but oh well.)

[firecat]

Here are some mystery and sff and urban fantasy Audible audiobooks I've liked:
--various by Agatha Christie
--Arthur C. Clark, Childhood's End
--C.S. Lewis, Narnia series
--Dorothy Sayers, Murder Must Advertise
--John Crowley, Aegypt
--most of the John Le Carre books (I especially like Case/Davidson as a narrator of these)
--Ishiguro, Never Let Me go
--Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
--Stephenson, The Diamond Age
--several by Octavia E. Butler
--Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly
--Pullman, The Golden Compass (but I was less impressed with the other two in the trilogy)
--Richard K. Morgan, the first two of the Kovacs series, but not the third (they changed narrators)
--if you want your head to explode, try Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea read by Harlan Ellison
--Vonda N. McIntyre, Dreamsnake
--anything by Walter Mosley
--Camilleri's Inspector Montalbano series, if you don't mind the sexism$fail
--Anne Perry, The Face of a Stranger (historical, mystery)
--Charlaine Harris, the Harper Connelly series (urban fantasy)
--Carrie Vaughn, Kitty and the Midnight Hour (urban fantasy)
--Gail Carriger, the Alexia Tarabotti series (alternate history urban fantasy)
--the first book in any Jasper Fforde series (funny British SFF)
--Jeaniene Frost, Night Huntress series (urban fantasy)
--Joan Slonczewski, A Door Into Ocean (feminist SFF)
--Rusch, the Retrieval Artist series (SF)
--Marjorie M. Liu, A Taste of Crimson (urban fantasy)
--anything narrated by Neil Gaiman, if you like his stuff. He narrates really well.
--Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series (mystery/police procedural)
--Scott Lynch, Gentleman Bastard series (swashbuckling SFF)

More here:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/267223?shelf=audiobook

Sorry for overwhelming you...

[we_are_spc]

George fucking Guidell >.> )Minus the "fucking," of course but...aye, we be likin' him.

Trausio/Phoenix (Whatever the fuck ye know her by( like JD Robb's stuff, and Susan Ericson (Girl who be readin' tha' shite) not be too bad. xd

Se...we do audio books as a rule, 'cause braille be a bit too bu,lky sometimes for us like. One downside is we not ge the spellin' an' thin's, an' that be irritatin' sometimes.

~*~*~*Craimar*~*~*~