Audio book suggestions, please!
August 30, 2011 6:58 PM   Subscribe

Audiobook suggestions! Looking for action or any other genre that are well-paced (fiction or non) audiobooks for regular 8 hour road trips.

Asking for a friend who is just starting out on audiobooks. He has liked a couple by John Grisham and the Da Vinci Code. He is not interested in stories that are although good or great stories, a bit too narrative/descriptive in many places (i.e., Stephen King quickly comes to mind).

A few that I've pulled from past, similar questions that I'm wondering about include (and feel free to give me your opinion if you've tried these):

- Into thin Air
- Blink
- Outliers
- Moneyball
- Thunderstruck - Eric Larsen

Thanks so much for your suggestions!
posted by foxhat10 to Media & Arts (14 answers total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
The Harry Potter series is awesome in audio book form.
posted by TooFewShoes at 7:17 PM on August 30, 2011 [2 favorites]


Pretty much anything by Elmore Leonard. I enjoyed Be Cool.
posted by mattbucher at 7:25 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Jeeves and Wooster.

Anything by David Sedaris. Also Sarah Vowell, but her voice can get a little annoying after a while.

Shopgirl by Steve Martin.
posted by ambrosia at 7:44 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


This might be the exact opposite of what you want, but the 31 hour version of Don Delillo's Underworld was easily the most engrossing audiobook I've ever listened to. It's really an incredible performance by the reader.

Mary Roach's books are what I'd consider well paced and interesting (Stiff, most of all), and Sarah Vowell's books often have guest readers for the male-voiced quotations.
posted by activitystory at 7:46 PM on August 30, 2011


You can get the delightful Amelia Peabody books (Indiana Jones-meets-Agatha Christie) in audio format from Audible.
posted by goblinbox at 7:53 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


Murder mysteries by Agatha Christie (e.g. Murder on the Orient Express). Short stories by Stephen King (they are less descriptive than his novels and they are very entertaining).
posted by shivohum at 7:54 PM on August 30, 2011


I have been listening to audio books for years. I can't be sure mine will fall within your guidelines, so just take them with a grain of salt:
- as mentioned above, the Harry Potter series
- books by J. D. Robb (the "... in Death" series)
- books by Jonathan Kellerman
- books by David Baldacci (I especially liked the Camel Club)
- books by Christopher Paolini (the Eragon series, the movies bear little similarity)
- the Forever War by Joe Haldeman
- books by Larry Niven
- books by Neal Stephenson
- Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (!!!)
- Robert Ludlum books (Bourne series)
- Walter Miller (Canticle for Liebowitz)
FWIW.
posted by forthright at 7:55 PM on August 30, 2011


I have just finished listing to the Artemis Fowl audiobooks and have really enjoyed them. They're young adult books, and they tend to clip right along action-wise.
posted by not that girl at 7:57 PM on August 30, 2011


World War Z was a great book, and an even better audiobook -- abridged, but with an all-star cast led by the author.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:06 PM on August 30, 2011 [1 favorite]


I was blown away by The Lies of Locke Lamora on audiobook.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:53 PM on August 30, 2011


Following on what not that girl said, I think the YA stuff translates really well to audiobook. I can't get into dense audiobooks, I feel like I need to read them, but the exciting, plot-driven YA stuff I've enjoyed. The Hunger Games in particular.
posted by lillygog at 5:13 AM on August 31, 2011


The Anna Pigeon series by Nevada Barr are fabulous in audiobook form - the woman who reads them, Barbara Rosenblatt really nails the dry personality of Anna without going over the top. Her intonations are hilarious. There are a million books in the series - 16 I think - but they are all standalone mysteries, so don't feel compelled to listen to them in any particular order.
I'm listening to Flip by Martyn Bedford at the moment, the story is interesting and reader is very good.
It's almost more important to have a great reader than it is to have a good story. I just tried to listen to The Poisonwood Bible, a longtime favorite of mine, and the reader was just SO bland and toneless. She really just flattened the story, and fast. I found another version with a different reader, and the difference really was like night and day.
posted by 8dot3 at 6:43 AM on August 31, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks, all, so far! Keep 'em coming!
posted by foxhat10 at 6:55 AM on August 31, 2011


I just finished listening to Mary Roach's Stiff, and it was so good that I think her books are going to become go-to listening for the car.
posted by MeiraV at 10:53 AM on September 2, 2011


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