Audiobook Recommendations!
March 15, 2021 5:45 PM Subscribe
Yes it's another audiobook recommendation question! I mostly have been listening to a lot of sci-fi and fantasy and would like to expand out into other genres. Can you give me your favorite genre fiction audiobooks?
-Mystery
-Thriller
-Suspense
-Historical Fiction
-Adventure
-Will obviously take sci-fi and fantasy recommendations but I've picked those threads pretty clean
Bonus points if you can recommend a narrator who crosses a lot of genres. (I know they all also do romance).
I use this for background when I'm drafting so flowery metaphorical language is not preferred as it's had to follow.
Stuff I've liked:
-The Night Circus
The Rook
-Genieve Cogmans library series
-Chares Stross' laundry files
-Mystery
-Thriller
-Suspense
-Historical Fiction
-Adventure
-Will obviously take sci-fi and fantasy recommendations but I've picked those threads pretty clean
Bonus points if you can recommend a narrator who crosses a lot of genres. (I know they all also do romance).
I use this for background when I'm drafting so flowery metaphorical language is not preferred as it's had to follow.
Stuff I've liked:
-The Night Circus
The Rook
-Genieve Cogmans library series
-Chares Stross' laundry files
Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle ticks a lot of those boxes.
posted by Schielisque at 6:40 PM on March 15, 2021
posted by Schielisque at 6:40 PM on March 15, 2021
A few mystery (at least -ish) series with very good book/narrator combinations...
- Millennium trilogy, by Stieg Larsson (only the 3 by Larsson)
- Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaronovitch
- Department Q series, by Jussi Adler-Olsen
posted by ClingClang at 6:40 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]
- Millennium trilogy, by Stieg Larsson (only the 3 by Larsson)
- Rivers of London series, by Ben Aaronovitch
- Department Q series, by Jussi Adler-Olsen
posted by ClingClang at 6:40 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]
Murderbot!
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:40 PM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 6:40 PM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant novels about magical policemen in modern London are great and the narrator, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, is amaaaaazing.
They are police procedurals and funny and have great characters.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:20 PM on March 15, 2021 [5 favorites]
They are police procedurals and funny and have great characters.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:20 PM on March 15, 2021 [5 favorites]
These are sci-fi and fantasy recs but they're not MeFi Faves so maybe they're new? The audiobook for Burn by Patrick Ness is FANTASTIC. I also really liked Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson--little bit of a slow start, but gets SO good with an amazing narrator. Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw is a lot of fun because it's narrated by the author though do be warned there's some distasteful sexist jokes, but it's mostly lampooned?
I got good vibes from Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass (if you read his early Dresden work and hated it, don't worry, he's improved a lot) but I confess I was unmedicated through most of the audiobook and remember almost none of it. My partner liked it enough to listen to all 22 hours twice, though.
posted by brook horse at 8:02 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
I got good vibes from Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass (if you read his early Dresden work and hated it, don't worry, he's improved a lot) but I confess I was unmedicated through most of the audiobook and remember almost none of it. My partner liked it enough to listen to all 22 hours twice, though.
posted by brook horse at 8:02 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
These are all books I've enjoyed both because of the story and because of the narrators:
Mystery:
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:07 PM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
Mystery:
- Perfect Little Children, by Sophie Hannah. Narrator: Laura Kirman. A woman catches a glimpse of her estranged former best friend and her children, whom she hasn't seen for twelve years. Although her friend has aged appropriately, her children still seem to be the same age... preschoolers, not the teenagers they should be. She decides to investigate.
- Broken Harbour, by Tana French. Narrator: Steven Hogan. Dublin police detectives investigate the murder of a family.
- The Holdout, by Graham Moore. Narrator: Abby Craden. A jury for a notorious murder case are called back together for a reality TV reunion; one of the jurors ends up dead.
- City of Girls, by Elizabeth Gilbert. Narrator: Blair Brown. An elderly woman looks back on her heady days in the WWII-era New York theatre scene.
- The Boston Girl, by Anita Diamant. Narrator: Linda Lavin. An elderly woman tells her granddaughter about growing up in Boston around the turn of the 20th century in (naturally) Boston.
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. Narrators: Paul Boehmer, Susan Duerden (she narrated the audiobook of The Rook that I listened to), Rosalyn Landor, John Lee, Juliet Mills. Through letters, we learn about the lives of a group of friends on the island of Guernsey both during and shortly after WWII. A caveat with this one: I feel like the marketing for the book (and later the movie) made it out to be a lighthearted romantic comedy, but although there are elements of romance and some funny bits, it also contains a fairly harrowing story of life under Nazi occupation on Guernsey.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:07 PM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]
The Automatic Detective is a fun sci-fi-adjacent hard boiled detective story. The narrator is pretty good.
posted by porpoise at 8:11 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by porpoise at 8:11 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
Just in case you've missed them, these are well-done audiobooks that were a great listen:
- Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard sequence, starts with The Lies of Locke Lamora
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (I haven't listened to Ready Player Two yet, but I'm hopeful it's good, too)
I've been told that the audiobooks for the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford are worth listening to. A friend just caught up to the last book last year and has been through the entire series on audio, and I just finished a re-read / new read of it a couple months ago. For such a lengthy series, it's held up pretty well. There's a few relatively minor off-notes in the early books for a modern reader; just keep in mind they were written literal decades ago. (The first one's 1989. It amused me to no end the way cell phones were dealt with over the years - I KNOW people who behaved exactly like that!)
posted by stormyteal at 9:10 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
- Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastard sequence, starts with The Lies of Locke Lamora
- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (I haven't listened to Ready Player Two yet, but I'm hopeful it's good, too)
I've been told that the audiobooks for the Lucas Davenport series by John Sandford are worth listening to. A friend just caught up to the last book last year and has been through the entire series on audio, and I just finished a re-read / new read of it a couple months ago. For such a lengthy series, it's held up pretty well. There's a few relatively minor off-notes in the early books for a modern reader; just keep in mind they were written literal decades ago. (The first one's 1989. It amused me to no end the way cell phones were dealt with over the years - I KNOW people who behaved exactly like that!)
posted by stormyteal at 9:10 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]
As a former mystery novelist, I went old school, and recently listened to all 47 Nero Wolfe (by Rex Stout) audiobooks. This was during the height of the lockdown, and it was wonderful to have Nero and Archie be my companions at the time.
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 2:13 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 2:13 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
The other Tana French books are good (I'm partial to The Likeness).
If you like police procedurals, the Harry Bosch series is consistent and will let you experience a number of good narrators.
posted by slidell at 2:20 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
If you like police procedurals, the Harry Bosch series is consistent and will let you experience a number of good narrators.
posted by slidell at 2:20 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Thanks for asking this question! I'm taking notes...
Seconding the recommendation for the Peter Grant series read by Kobna Holbrook Smith. He's the best narrator I've come across so far. The books are amusing and thrilling, with a lot of fascinating plot points involving art, the London music scene, modern architecture, etc. Excellent.
So this is Fantasy too, but maybe you haven't tried it yet, the "Lockwood & Co" series by Jonathan Stroud. Funny and touching with excellent characters. Teenage ghost hunters, emotionally compelling and wry humor.
posted by Zumbador at 2:51 AM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
Seconding the recommendation for the Peter Grant series read by Kobna Holbrook Smith. He's the best narrator I've come across so far. The books are amusing and thrilling, with a lot of fascinating plot points involving art, the London music scene, modern architecture, etc. Excellent.
So this is Fantasy too, but maybe you haven't tried it yet, the "Lockwood & Co" series by Jonathan Stroud. Funny and touching with excellent characters. Teenage ghost hunters, emotionally compelling and wry humor.
posted by Zumbador at 2:51 AM on March 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
I listen to a lot of audiobooks, mostly mysteries and nonfiction.
I love the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley. (Also seconding Rivers of London suggestions above.)
Beat the Reaper, by Josh Bazell, is an absolute bullet train of an action story. Great audiobook.
If you like Veronica Mars, I highly recommend the audiobook of The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, the first VM novel. Kristin Bell reads the audiobook and she does all the characters and it is priceless.
posted by gideonfrog at 4:32 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
I love the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley. (Also seconding Rivers of London suggestions above.)
Beat the Reaper, by Josh Bazell, is an absolute bullet train of an action story. Great audiobook.
If you like Veronica Mars, I highly recommend the audiobook of The Thousand Dollar Tan Line, the first VM novel. Kristin Bell reads the audiobook and she does all the characters and it is priceless.
posted by gideonfrog at 4:32 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
"City of Thieves" by David Benioff, narrated by Ron Perlman. (historical fiction)
"Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty
"There There" by Tommy Orange - it has several narrators, which is not always a thing I like, but this book was so good that I just stood in my laundry room listening to it for several minutes a few times, because I didn't want to go upstairs and be interrupted!
recently really enjoyed "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid, looked up other books read by Nicole Lewis because her performance was great.
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter (I'd say CW for all karin slaughter's books in general, depending on your tolerance for gore and violence against women - I like them and they're generally entertaining audiobooks but I have a decent threshold for that kind of thing, and pretty girls still shocked me a few times.)
posted by euphoria066 at 8:05 PM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
"Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty
"There There" by Tommy Orange - it has several narrators, which is not always a thing I like, but this book was so good that I just stood in my laundry room listening to it for several minutes a few times, because I didn't want to go upstairs and be interrupted!
recently really enjoyed "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid, looked up other books read by Nicole Lewis because her performance was great.
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter (I'd say CW for all karin slaughter's books in general, depending on your tolerance for gore and violence against women - I like them and they're generally entertaining audiobooks but I have a decent threshold for that kind of thing, and pretty girls still shocked me a few times.)
posted by euphoria066 at 8:05 PM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Adventure: the audiobook of Claire Danes reading Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey is amazing. I don't usually like that sort of thing -- I'm more of a page-turner, genre reader -- but this was great.
> I use this for background when I'm drafting so flowery metaphorical language is not preferred as it's had to follow.
I promise, it isn't hard to follow. I couldn't follow the book but the audiobook just plain works.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:20 AM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
> I use this for background when I'm drafting so flowery metaphorical language is not preferred as it's had to follow.
I promise, it isn't hard to follow. I couldn't follow the book but the audiobook just plain works.
posted by The corpse in the library at 11:20 AM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Two recent favorites are both novels by Alex Harrow: Ten Thousand Doors of January, and The Once and Future Witches. Two different narrators, both wonderful. Light fantasy would be my best description.
posted by smb0626 at 5:19 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by smb0626 at 5:19 PM on March 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone for these great suggestions. I do have a lot of the Rivers of London books already, that narrator is fantastic, but this is a good reminder to see what else he's done or if I'm behind.
posted by edbles at 12:15 PM on April 8, 2021
posted by edbles at 12:15 PM on April 8, 2021
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