Our Favorite Audiobooks
Do you listen to books? I do! Mostly when I exercise. I don’t love to exercise, but I DO love books, so audiobooks bring a little joy into my yucky exercise time. I’ll walk a little further, row a little longer if I’m listening to a good book!
The tricky bit is that the narrator of the book (the one who reads it for the recording) can either make it or break it. Seriously. If a narrator smacks or has a whiny voice, I’m out of there. I choose to not listen.
But a GOOD narrator! Ahhhhh! Now there’s a beautiful thing! A good narration plus a great book? Pure magic!
My daughter and I just put our heads together and quickly came up with our top three favorite audiobooks. Here they are, in random order! (We’d never be able to rank them!)
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll let you know that we lived in England for three years, and we love all things British! Give us a book set in London and read by the incredible Stephen Frye?!? Yes, please! This is a beautiful, sweet story that the whole family can enjoy. Yes, adults too! ESPECIALLY adults!
This hysterically funny book is also set in England and is read by Englishman Neil Gaiman (sense a trend here?) who also happens to be the author of the book. Great book plus great narrator who is also the author of the book?!? Even more magicer than magic! This book will make you laugh out loud, we promise! Another book for the whole family. (Click here to read more about what my daughter thinks about Neil Gaiman!)
This is Book Three in The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry. You may have read The Giver, but did you know there are three more books in the series?!? I didn’t until recently! I’ve read The Giver multiple times, and now I’m listening to the other three books. I’m currently listening to Messenger, and the narrator, David Morse, is just blowing me away! He’s amazing. Please, please don’t jump in with this book! Start with The Giver and work your way through the series! It’s crucial to plot development that you read/listen to these in order! The themes of these books are best understood by teens and adults, in my opinion, but there’s nothing “bad” in them for younger children.
So what are YOUR favorite audiobooks? When do you listen to them? (I MUST have a good audiobook when I’m driving around town or making a road trip!) Please comment below!
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7 thoughts on “Our Favorite Audiobooks”
I love audio books! If you ever see me with earbuds you can pretty much know it’s an audio book not music. My favorite is hands down, the Miss Julia series by Ann B. Ross narrated by Cynthia Barlow. If you don’t know Miss Julia you are in for a treat!
Thanks for the recommendations. I’m already planning my listening agenda for our moving trip thus weekend.
Oh, wow, Karla! I’ve read the Miss Julia series, but I haven’t thought about listening to them! The narrator doesn’t smack, does she?!?
No smacking. Cynthia Darlow has spoiled me to reading the Miss Julia books myself. And that’s saying something!
I’ve been introduced to the Miss Julia books by Karla! I’ve listened to them too and I love them that way! I just finished listening to Brown Girl Dreaming and I enjoyed it! Probably better than if I had read it myself. I also love to listen to E. Nesbit books (although it’s probably been close to a decade since my last one). Another book I enjoyed on audio has been All the Light We Cannot See. The narrator really does make a difference. Have you heard Cheaper by the Dozen? It fantastic on audio! They narrator does all 14 voices so well!!!
All the Light is just stunning, isn’t it! I started listening to it (it’s gorgeously done) and then bought the book because I knew that would be one I’d want to read as well and savor individual sentences at my own pace.
That’s some good writing there!
Thanks for the suggestions, Sheila!