Commuting and audio books

julieanne912

If you like historical not-quite-fiction novels, I enjoyed audio books by Phillippa Gregory (The Other Boleyn Girl etc).  Also, on a long cross country trip, I listened to "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".  I never read the book and while it might be considered a children's book, the woman who read it had a nice voice and it was a good story to listen to because it didn't require too much thought.  The reader's name was Kate Burton, she's done a ton of audio books.  I listened to a few others of hers when I used to commute 60 miles each way and they were all good.

JennyColada

FiancB said:

So I just started listening to Stiff by Mary Roach. The voice doesn't drive me nuts, yay! If you have a morbid curiosity, you aren't grossed out easily, and it doesn't need to be fiction, do recommend (I think. Only on chapter 3 so far).

I've never done an audiobook, but I've read most of her books and love them. I love her writing style, and she picks very interesting subjects to research.

FiancB

Yeah, all I'd read of hers were little short things in Reader's Digest. I agree her writing style is pretty awesome. 

JennyColada

Oh man, she has like 6 books now! I have Gulp on my nightstand and I can't wait to get it started. Spooked was kinda meh (that subject didn't really strike my fancy). I think she has one about sex too.

Viczaesar

I've found I can't listen to audiobooks of books that I haven't read before - I get frustrated and annoyed by how slow they read!  I can listen to books that I've read however.  I'm not as anxious to find out what happens next and I can enjoy the journey more, if it's well-read at least.  By the way, the audiobook for The Help is absolutely fantastic - it's read by 3 people, one of which is the actual actress from the movie (Octavia Spencer, who played Minnie), and it's actually acted vocally.  Just fantastic.  (On Audible 23,505 people have given it a 5 star rating, so I'm not alone in my opinion!)

artbyallie

A.J. Hartley has a couple books I'd recommend. They're retellings of Macbeth (read by Alan Cummings) and Hamlet (read by Richard Armitage). I read the former in book form so I'm not sure how the audio is, but Richard Armitage is a lot of fun to listen to. My one complaint is that he sucks at doing women's voices so Ophelia and Hamlet's mom sound dumb but then they're also the only women really in the story and don't get a tone of 'screen time.' His variety of accents on the other characters more than makes up for it IMO.

ChemFanatic25

So I started listening to Welcome to Night Vale but I was at work and for me I realized this was a podcast that would demand my full attention. So it is on my list to listen to. I am loving these recommendations though!

 

@kikilamp, I started listening to Serial on Saturday. OMG! It is so enrapturing. I binge listened up to Ep. 8 before I finished up my work and went home. It was easy to listen and get stuff down. What a great recommendation! I can't wait to listen to Welcome to Night Vale and This American Life.

 

Actually with everyone's recommendations I'm really expanding my repertoire. I want to listen to the book Stiff and I cannot wait to listen to the Help. I have had that on my list of books to read for a while. I also want to listen to 12 years a Slave. I heard it was an AMAZING movie and I want to read the book before watching it.

amelisha

ChemFanatic25 said:

So I started listening to Welcome to Night Vale but I was at work and for me I realized this was a podcast that would demand my full attention. So it is on my list to listen to. I am loving these recommendations though!

 

@kikilamp, I started listening to Serial on Saturday. OMG! It is so enrapturing. I binge listened up to Ep. 8 before I finished up my work and went home. It was easy to listen and get stuff down. What a great recommendation! I can't wait to listen to Welcome to Night Vale and This American Life.

 

Actually with everyone's recommendations I'm really expanding my repertoire. I want to listen to the book Stiff and I cannot wait to listen to the Help. I have had that on my list of books to read for a while. I also want to listen to 12 years a Slave. I heard it was an AMAZING movie and I want to read the book before watching it.

I listened to The Help a while ago and I really, really enjoyed it. Having the different women all reading "their" sections was great and I think all the voices were good (although I don't know anything about southern accents so I can't tell you if those are okay or not.)