Recommendations for audio books?

kaighintze thought this was worth mentioning said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 1:02am ET

We like cozy mysteries (ex: the Cat Who mysteries) and light fantasy or SF (Mercedes Lackey, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, most Brandon Sanderson)–nothing too dark or gritty. We like Patricia Briggs, but she sits at the edge of too dark. Jim Butcher goes over the line. Like I said, light fantasy. Most of all, we like a good reader. We used to take turns, one of us working on a project while the other read, but lately we have been both busy. So we checked some books on CD out of the library, with so-so results. Some were good stories, but the reader was poor. Others, we liked the reader, but were not impressed by the story. What audio books have you liked–story AND reader?

17 comments, 13 replies
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f00l said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 1:06am ET:
You want professional narrators if you want to live Audubon.
Audible has these. Worth checking the library, nookaudiobooks.com, e-stories, google audiobooks, iTunes, Kobo, etc.

Light. Sometimes a bit silly in a good way.

The series:
Her Royal Spyness
By Rhys Bowen.

Do them in order.
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- @f00l Do I want to live Audubon? I’m not sure.
  
  sammydog01 said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 10:18am ET
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- @sammydog01
  
  Typo. Was in a hurry.
  
  Sigh.
  
  f00l said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 7:38pm ET
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ruouttaurmind said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 1:42am ET:

The Agatha Raisin cozys are available on Audible, Audiobooks.com, estories.com, Google audiobooks and probably Nook audiobooks also. The series is well read by Penelope Keith, a perfect fit for this type of mystery.

If new to the series, listen to them sequentially.

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- @ruouttaurmind I love those- I get them from the library for long drives.
  
  sammydog01 said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 10:15am ET
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- @sammydog01 Who would have guessed that I, a hot rod building, drone flying, gun toting, wilderness trekking guy would follow Agatha Raisin. LOL!
  
  Makes you want to move to the Cotswolds, innit?
  
  ruouttaurmind said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 11:42am ET
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- @ruouttaurmind Except for that awful Agatha Raisin it sound wonderful. I feel for the vicar. I love her but wouldn’t want to live next to her. Plus everyone she meets dies.
  
  sammydog01 said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 10:03am ET
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- @ruouttaurmind Thanks, that’s precisely the sort of recommendation I was hoping for
  
  kaighintze said Thu, Feb 22nd 2018 at 10:24pm ET
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transplant said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 10:05am ET:

A suggestion from the cheap seats… Your library probably has audiobooks you can download and put on your iPod (or Zune).

As far as recommendations - In SciFi, The Expanse series is a winner for me. (Maybe too dark?)
The Gatehouse by Nelson Demille. The main character made me laugh through the whole thing.

My current favorite non-fiction is The Gatekeepers by Chris Whipple. It’s about the job of the Chief of Staff for the President and starts with Eisenhower through Obama. A good listen (or read).

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- @transplant You can buy the crappiest Amazon Fire for forty bucks or so and put the Overdrive app on it. That’s what I do.
  
  sammydog01 said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 10:16am ET
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- @sammydog01 Good suggestion on the Fire!
  yeah, the Overdrive app is good…
  I drank the Apple Kool-Ade in the 80’s so have iPods hanging around. (Still have my firewire iPod.) One is in the car loaded with books for my cross country trips, one is sitting in a Sherwood speaker dock in the living room (dock was in a Fuko!) playing music right now. An old iphone is used with my flight controller for my DJI Spark.
  
  transplant said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 10:42am ET
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arielleslie said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 10:27am ET:
- The Name of the Wind, Wise Man’s Fear, The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Patrick Rothfuss
- Neverwhere, Stardust, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens - Neil Gaiman
- The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman
If you like Patricia Briggs, you should check out Kelley Armstrong. Her adult stuff might be “too dark”, but she also has books for teens and even a series for middle-readers co-authored with Marissa Marr (which I still enjoyed).
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ELUNO said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 10:44am ET:

This:
https://www.amazon.com/Go-the-F-k-to-Sleep/dp/B0055QAEVE/ref=sr_1_2_twi_audd_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1519141466&sr=1-2&keywords=go+the+f+to+sleep

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PhysAssist said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 12:24pm ET:

https://www.smashwords.com/

and Baen Books website has a lot of free E-books, [not audio- but ? if text to speech might work with them?] in both Scf-Fi and Fantasy genres.

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ruouttaurmind said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 4:49pm ET:

There are a ton of cozys and kitty cozys discounted in Audible’s “first in the series” sale.

Honestly, I had no idea there were so many cat mystery series out there.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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sammydog01 said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 5:02pm ET:

I have listened to some of the Diane Mott Davidson mysteries in the car. I like her stuff.

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f00l said Tue, Feb 20th 2018 at 7:41pm ET:

The Aurora Teagarden series by Charlaine Harris is wonderful when you want “not too dark”.

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DaveInSoCal said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 12:03am ET:

The Martian was great on audiobook.

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Pamela said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 12:59am ET:

I think Scott Brick is a great narrator. He’s read a lot of books including the Fox and O’Hare series by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. The first book in the series is The Heist. The books are light and entertaining. They feature art heists.

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- @Pamela I agree, he’s pretty good. I really like Cassandra Campbell too.
  
  moonhat said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 2:16am ET
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- @Pamela Looks like I bought Jurassic Park narrated by him. Thanks!
  
  sammydog01 said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 9:57am ET
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- @Pamela Cool, thanks!
  
  kaighintze said Thu, Feb 22nd 2018 at 10:26pm ET
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moonhat said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 2:26am ET:

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch was great! And I also use the Overdrive app from my local library (or two) and listen to them on my iPhone.

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Bassoonatic said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 6:42am ET:

The Flavia DeLuce series by Alan Bradley. The narrator, Jane Entwistle, is perfect for the books and the books are great.

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- @Bassoonatic I’ll check them out, thanks
  
  kaighintze said Thu, Feb 22nd 2018 at 10:28pm ET
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Fuzzalini said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 12:38pm ET:

If you ever feel like an amazing autobiography, Born with Teeth by Kate Mulgrew is tremendous. She’s a great writer and having her tell it is the icing on the cake.

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- @Fuzzalini If it’s the Kate Mulgrew I’m familiar with that should be good, thanks
  
  kaighintze said Thu, Feb 22nd 2018 at 10:30pm ET
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f00l said Wed, Feb 21st 2018 at 7:39pm ET:

This one is on my to-do do list. Supposed to be very interesting.

Written by an intelligence participant in the PDB.

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Pamela said Thu, Feb 22nd 2018 at 11:08pm ET:

I just remembered another audiobook I would recommend. It’s comedic SF and it’s narrated by John Hodgeman. The title is Year Zero.

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moonhat said Thu, Feb 22nd 2018 at 11:39pm ET:

I recently listened to these, which were pretty fun. Actually the last one I read the ebook but it’s such a sweet story I recommend it no matter.

~Unqualified, by Anna Faris
~I can’t Make This Up, by Kevin Hart
~Craig and Fred, by Craig Grossi (the book that came out of this super sweet little video from the dodo: )

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