Audiobooks

[psychoticstate]

I am currently listening to "Other Side of the Night" which is a recounting of the roles the Carpathia and the Californian played during and in the aftermath of the Titanic's sinking.  The story is interesting - - why on earth the captain of the Californian, which was less than 10 miles from the faltering Titanic, elected to ignore her distress calls and go to sleep makes me beyond angry and so, so frustrated, versus the captain of the Carpathia, which was further away and also dealing with ice and yet he pushed his ship and crew to race to the Titanic's location as quickly as possible to save as many persons as they could - - and delivered in a well thought out way, which is not preachy nor overly academic.  Hands down, it's one of the best audiobooks I've ever listened to.

Be forewarned though - - this is also the first and only audiobook that I have ever cried to.  It's an emotional listen.

[psychoticstate]

Recently listed to "Game of Crowns" and "The Diana Chronicles."  I was obviously on a British royal family kick.  Both interesting listens.  The first makes Charles and Camilla both sound like roaring assholes, especially Camilla.  Clearly the author is no fan.  Reportedly also not a fan was the Queen Mother, who the author said despised Camilla.  The book reported how not only did Prince Harry smoke (cigarettes) but also Prince William, which I did not know.  

The second book was an interesting look at Princess Diana from her birth until her death, with tidbits about the royal family and quite a few extramarital relationships she partook in.  No judgment - - I think the book was a bit more unbiased than some others.

I am currently listening to Michael Crichton's "Jurassic Park", mainly due to Scott Brick who is my favorite narrator of all time (he did a stupendous job with "Helter Skelter.")  Actually quite a good listen, whether you've seen the movie or not.   My only complaint is that one of the child characters, the little girl, is so obnoxious and tiring (whining about being hungry/tired/bored; screaming that she hates the T-Rex; screaming and making noise when it's imperative that she be quiet) that I keep hoping someone will simply throw her to the dinosaurs.  I have caught myself actually saying aloud "Will you STFU??" in the car and am amazed that the characters in the book don't tell her the same.  That's the only negative though - - otherwise, well worth the time.

[ALenore]

I have started listening to Louise Penny's Inspector Ganache novels after I heard them recommended in a podcast. I've read the first three and think they are very well written  I like the narrator, Ralph Cosham, he helps me understand the French-speaking aspects of the books.   I have had to check a print version a few times to get the spelling of some character names straight, since they are pronounced differently in French and English (Jean, Guy, etc).  

[Glory]

Bumping this thread because I recently started listening to more Audiobooks and have a couple recommendations. 

The Princes Diarist by Carrie Fischer and read by Carrie Fischer is amazing. She was so funny and the book is so wonderful. 

Landline by Rainbow Rowell. OMG. This book had me hooked. The narrator's wistful voice fits the tone of the book perfectly and I just wanted more. 

I just started Ready Player One read by Wil Wheaton and I'm enjoying that too. I've already read the book, but I like Wheaton's narration a lot. 

[OtterMommy]

1 hour ago, Glory said:

Bumping this thread because I recently started listening to more Audiobooks and have a couple recommendations. 

The Princes Diarist by Carrie Fischer and read by Carrie Fischer is amazing. She was so funny and the book is so wonderful. 

Landline by Rainbow Rowell. OMG. This book had me hooked. The narrator's wistful voice fits the tone of the book perfectly and I just wanted more. 

I just started Ready Player One read by Wil Wheaton and I'm enjoying that too. I've already read the book, but I like Wheaton's narration a lot. 

I agree with you on Fisher's books, although I've found that with some of her books, I have to bump the speed up to 1.5x.  I haven't listened to Landline (I read the book and wasn't impressed), but the audio of Eleanor and Park is abso-freakin'-amazing.  

[DearEvette]

I can't wait for Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson to come out next month.  It is the third in his Way of Kings series and the previous two books were read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading who are both superb.  The previous two books in the series clocked in at 45 and 48 hours each of listening time respectively.  But the story is so cracking good, the time really just slips by.

One I just recently finished was A Song For Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay.  The narrator is Euan Morton who not only does a great job with the performance, but also sings (the story is a fantasy about two warring kingdoms where one of them has a strong bardic tradition).

[Glory]

On 10/23/2017 at 8:07 PM, DearEvette said:

I can't wait for Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson to come out next month.  It is the third in his Way of Kings series and the previous two books were read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading who are both superb.  The previous two books in the series clocked in at 45 and 48 hours each of listening time respectively.  But the story is so cracking good, the time really just slips by.

YES! I just listened to both audiobooks of the first two Stormlight books to get prepped for the new one. I'll read it first, but I'll eventually pick up that audiobook too. The narration is SO GOOD. There were times I was driving in my car just tears rolling down my eyes as I listened. So good! 

Although - I may have to wait until after NANO to start reading, otherwise I'll be in trouble. 

[RealityCheck]

Why George Guidall Is the Undisputed King of Audiobooks

[Audpaud]

I am addicted to Audio books! Mysteries are my favorites.

[BlackberryJam]

I use my Libby app and listen to audiobooks as I fall asleep at night and on my work drives. So I rarely want a book that requires strict listening.

I was loving the MC Beaton books but then they switched narrators to Graeme Malcolm (I think that's the spelling) and he has this habit of never emphasizing the last word in Hamish's sentences, which totally change the purpose of the sentence. Even when Hamish is supposedly outraged, he still falls off at the end of the sentence. It's terrible. I can no longer listen to these books.

I love anything Hugh Fraser reads.

[Gray Gray]

What do you think about automatically voiced books? Do they have a right to exist?

Also browser Edge can play texts...

Edited February 20, 2019 by Gray Gray

[ALenore]

Automatically voiced books have a right to exist, but only as a last resort.  They make me appreciate professionally voiced books. I don't listen to them myself, but my husband does when he has to read a manuscript in order to be able to do a book cover illustration.   When he's listening to the manuscript over the speaker, I can hear it sometimes and it's usually terrible.  There was a series of books he did in which there were a line of 7 or 8 asterisks printed to indicate a change of scenery or time.  A human reader would just skip this and perhaps allow a few seconds of silence.  The computer voice read "asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk asterisk".    It also frequently couldn't distinguish between the past and present tense of "read", or between different pronunciations of "live,"  "wind," "wound," and "tear".     

He does still use it frequently because he doesn't have the time to read a manuscript unless he's also working on another painting at the same time.

[RealityCheck]

Audiobooks: The Past, Present, and Future of Another Way to Read

[biakbiak]

I am loving listening to memoirs in audio format? Any good recs? Recent listens Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, Yearbook (Seth Rogen), Open (Andre Aggasi). Any good recs?

[blackwing]

4 hours ago, biakbiak said:

I am loving listening to memoirs in audio format? Any good recs? Recent listens Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, Yearbook (Seth Rogen), Open (Andre Aggasi). Any good recs?

I fully understand that she may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I absolutely loved Tiffany Haddish's "The Last Black Unicorn".  She narrates it herself and she is hilarious.  As a bonus, at the very end she sings a short song she made up called, not surprisingly, "The Last Black Unicorn", which had me in complete stitches.  I rewound and listened to the song many times.

On 10/3/2016 at 12:50 PM, ALenore said:

I have started listening to Louise Penny's Inspector Ganache novels after I heard them recommended in a podcast. I've read the first three and think they are very well written  I like the narrator, Ralph Cosham, he helps me understand the French-speaking aspects of the books.   I have had to check a print version a few times to get the spelling of some character names straight, since they are pronounced differently in French and English (Jean, Guy, etc).  

On 10/21/2018 at 3:55 PM, RealityCheck said:

Why George Guidall Is the Undisputed King of Audiobooks

Bumping up these very old posts... there are certain authors that I prefer listening to the audiobooks.  Louise Penny is one of them.  I really liked Ralph Cosham's narration, he did such a great job with them.  Unfortunately he died suddenly so the more recent books are narrated by Robert Bathurst.  After listening to so many Cosham narrations, I didn't think I was going to like Bathurst, but Bathurst does just as good of a job.

I also prefer the audiobooks versions of Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series.  George Guidall has narrated about the past 10 or so of them, and I loved his voice and how he brought out the personalities of the characters.  However, I just started listening to Silva's new book that just came out, "The Cellist", and apparently there is a new narrator.  Not sure what happened to George Guidall?  I'm going to have to keep an open mind on this new guy and give him a chance, but already I don't like his Gabriel Allon voice.  It just doesn't sound like Allon to me!  I suppose I will have to get used to it.

Someone upthread mentioned Scott Brick.  I actually really dislike Scott Brick, for some reason I just don't like his tone.  Unfortunately he seems to narrate many of my chosen authors in what I generally call the "men's adventure" theme, like Clive Cussler, Nelson DeMille, and others, so I am stuck with him if I want to listen to the audiobook while commuting.

 

[biakbiak]

12 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I fully understand that she may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I absolutely loved Tiffany Haddish's "The Last Black Unicorn".  She narrates it herself and she is hilarious.  As a bonus, at the very end she sings a short song she made up called, not surprisingly, "The Last Black Unicorn", which had me in complete stitches.  I rewound and listened to the song many times.

Downloaded!
My brain can’t do fiction or most non fiction in audiobooks. Memoirs I can treat as “podcasts” that I can listen in the background. But thanks for the recommendation! I legit meant to add that as a caveat when I resurrected this thread!

But great recs for readers and listeners!

Edited July 22, 2021 by biakbiak

[DearEvette]

6 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I fully understand that she may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I absolutely loved Tiffany Haddish's "The Last Black Unicorn".  She narrates it herself and she is hilarious.  As a bonus, at the very end she sings a short song she made up called, not surprisingly, "The Last Black Unicorn", which had me in complete stitches.  I rewound and listened to the song many times.

I generally like Tiffany in small bites because yeah, she is ....a lot.  But my respect for her ratched waaay up after seeing her on David Letterman's My Next Guest Needs No introduction.  She tells her own story so engagingly and unflinchingly,  giving you time to absorb the horrific parts of her upbringing and then lightening it up with humor really deftly.   It made me realize that a lot of time when we see her she in 'on.' But when she was just hanging with Dave in her backyard doing gardening she was much more down to earth.  I can understand why her audiobook would work so well.  As a matter of fact it made me want to read her book after seeing her on his show. 

 

12 minutes ago, blackwing said:

Someone upthread mentioned Scott Brick.  I actually really dislike Scott Brick, for some reason I just don't like his tone.  Unfortunately he seems to narrate many of my chosen authors in what I generally call the "men's adventure" theme, like Clive Cussler, Nelson DeMille, and others, so I am stuck with him if I want to listen to the audiobook while commuting.

 

I've only ever listened to him on Janet Evanovich/Lee Goldberg's Fox and O'Hare thief series.  The books are basically long con/heist books punctuated with lots of humor.  I enjoy listening to the audio because he imbues Nick (the main male lead) the sexy international thief thing but he also manages to lean into the funny parts as well. 

I've had narrators that I think marry well with some material and so I enjoy them immensely while listening to that but they are not great to listen on other works.  For instance, Jennifer Van Dyck is a major go to narrator for Sharon Shinn who writes fantasy/romances.  She had narrated almost exclusively two of Shinn's major series.  And I will go back and revisit them once in awhile because they are practically comfort listens.  But I listened to her on something else and just couldn't get through it. She was not great for it. 

Same deal with Renee Raudmann who narrated a lot of Illona Andrews' Urban fantasy work, especially her Kate Daniels series and her Hidden Legacy series.  I am a firm proponent of these two series in audio and Renee does the tough girl-killer and action fantasy stuff great.  Also she is great with distinguishing voices.  But sweet baby Moses in a basket,  she is abysmal with accents.  Just horrific.  I tried to listen to her narrate a Nora Roberts book that took place in England and had to return it to audible and get my credit back.  Her version of what I think she thought was working class Liverpool accent was just... almost insulting. 

[blackwing]

23 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I've only ever listened to him on Janet Evanovich/Lee Goldberg's Fox and O'Hare thief series.  The books are basically long con/heist books punctuated with lots of humor.  I enjoy listening to the audio because he imbues Nick (the main male lead) the sexy international thief thing but he also manages to lean into the funny parts as well. 

I can't really put a finger on why I don't like him.  Not sure when I last listened to an audiobook read by him, but my general sense is that he doesn't do a good job distinguishing the voices of different characters.  And I really don't like his tone, he always seems so very pleased with himself when reading.

I also don't think he does a good job with male vs. female character voices.  I don't think narrators should go full-on falsetto, but there should at least be a noticeable difference. 

I think the producers for the David Baldacci audiobooks gave up long ago to the point where they hire a woman specifically just to read the female dialogue lines.  It's kind of jarring... it'll be a male doing all the reading and then a woman's voice will just speak the female character lines and nothing else.

Something like [male narrator] "...he opened the door and approached the clerk, a woman who looked about 25.  'Excuse me...' " [female narrator] " 'Yeeessss?' "  [male narrator] "...she said.  'Do you have Mountain Dew?' he asked."  [female narrator] " 'Over there.' " [male narrator] "... she replied and pointed to the case across the room."

It's a bit of a strange approach.

[WritinMan]

I've been listening to The Expanse series from Audible. I don't really care for the TV show, but the books are great. The narrator, Jefferson Mays, is one of Audible's best, I think.

[blackwing]

I can't stand when narrators can't even be bothered to learn how to pronounce non-American/British names correctly.  I'm currently listening to the audiobook of the latest Brad Thor book, Black Ice.  There is a brief mention of a character named Jiang Shi, who was also a major character in a previous book.  Never mind that "Shi" would probably be better properly spelled as "Xi" like the Chinese president Xi Jinping, or that it drove me batty that if it was written properly, the surname of this character would be Jiang and not Shi.

But my beef is with this audiobook narrator and how he mangled the name yet again.  In the earlier book, Thor seemed to take the approach that "Shi" was the characters surname, so there were many narrations of this name.  The narrator kept saying something that sounded like "sure" or "shurr".  Drove me nuts, because no Chinese name sounds like that.  After finishing the audiobook I remember getting the actual book from the library to look up how the name was actually spelled.  I would have pronounced it as something like "zhahng shee" with a long E or maybe "zhahng shih" with a short I.  Instead, this guy, who got paid to narrate this book, said "jang shurr" (rhymes with "rang sir") and I couldn't believe the laziness.  Don't these book publishing companies have language consultants they could have utilised?

On another note, how do people feel about accents in audiobooks?  Unless the author actually describes someone as speaking in broken English, I tend to find narrators using the stereotypical Asian-accented broken English for an Asian character to be a bit offensive.  I listen to a fair number of spy thrillers and there are always a lot of Russian accents, which I also tend to find overexaggerated in the narration.

[Ailianna]

On 8/2/2021 at 12:00 AM, WritinMan said:

I've been listening to The Expanse series from Audible. I don't really care for the TV show, but the books are great. The narrator, Jefferson Mays, is one of Audible's best, I think.

Jefferson Mays is one of theatre's great talents. I didn't know he does audio books; I might check them out just for him.

[lasu]

On 8/11/2021 at 9:30 AM, blackwing said:

On another note, how do people feel about accents in audiobooks?  Unless the author actually describes someone as speaking in broken English, I tend to find narrators using the stereotypical Asian-accented broken English for an Asian character to be a bit offensive.  I listen to a fair number of spy thrillers and there are always a lot of Russian accents, which I also tend to find overexaggerated in the narration.

I'm a bit late to your question, but I actually was coming here on a very similar topic.  For audiobooks, if the print is written in dialect, it should be spoken in dialect.  But for print books, I think you need to be careful writing dialect.  There's a huge difference in the dialects used in Huck Finn and the ones in The Help.

But, I just finished My Sister, The Serial Killer, and it is set in Nigeria.  They hired an American actress for the reading, which I don't have a problem with, but...she voiced the protagonist and her sister with American accents!  Everyone else had a Nigerian dialect, but these two had American accents!  I know there is no reason for the "standard default generic accent" to be English, except it always is.  It really, really through me off to hear words like "bonnet" and "lift" and it took me a while to figure out WHERE the book was set.  It's a good book and good reading, just I couldn't get used to the American accent on just the two characters.