Audiobooks: Some thoughts and recommendations.
Audiobooks have become such a huge part of my reading life that I wanted to talk about why I love them so much and recommend some of my personal favorites.
I began listening to books when I lived in NY and commuted to work. There was no librofm or Audible yet - I would search library’s CD collection every weekend and then listen all week and it actually made me look forward to getting in the car!
Fast forward to joining the Bookstagram community when we moved to Texas in 2016 and the advent of services like Libro and Audible, and now many others. Listening to a book allows me to read where and whenever I want. I still drive a lot, and I cannot even begin my ride without turning on a book. I usually have multiple audios downloaded at once and pick what I’m in the mood for depending on the day, or drive. Because I get advanced listening copies from publishers, I also try to work my way through those in addition to my own selections. I personally use Librofm and Audible (and the library) so I spread my listening business around as best I can.
I’ve seen some debates about whether listening to a book is really reading and this honestly blows my mind, especially as a mom who read to my daughters all the time. If I read my child Harry Potter, did she not take in the story? What if someone is visually impaired? Does reading via your ears not count? Of course it does! I used to read to elderly residents at a nursing home in Vermont and I can’t tell you how these people looked forward to our time together. They could no longer read visually but missed books in their lives and this validated for me not only how important books are, but also that it doesn’t matter how we read them.
I think that when narration is good, it can elevate a readers connection to the text - I often feel I know the characters in my audiobooks better because I can hear their voices. I have also found that when I’ve struggled to get into a book, sometimes hearing it changes my feelings. This happened with A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I could not find a rhythm with it and after setting aside, I tried the audio and it was a 5 star read.
Classics fall into the same realm. I love classic novels, and many readers want to embrace them but antiquated prose can be tough - hearing them can be a game changer. And last but not least, lots of readers prefer non-fiction and memoir in audio format. I am not a big non fiction reader, but adore memoir and I love nothing more than hearing an author deliver their own writing.
Here are some of my favorites!
Non fiction and memoir:
What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About
Michele Filgate
Four Seasons in Rome
Anthony Doerr
Finding Me
Viola Davis
Bomb Shelter, Love, Time and Other Explosives
Mary Laura Philpott
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Ann Patchett
Know My Name
Chanel Miller
My Southern Journey:
True Stories from the Heart of the South
Rick Bragg
Fiction:
A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara
The Mutual Friend
Carter Bays
This Time Tomorrow
Emma Straub
Unlikely Animals
Annie Hartnett
All the Lonely People
Mike Gayle
The Other’s Gold
Elizabeth Ames
City of Girls
Elizabeth Gilbert
The Secret History
Donna Tartt
This is actually read by Tartt herself. The Secret History is one of my all time favorite novels and I revisited it recently via the audio and it was pretty amazing to hear it in her voice.
Classics:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Betty Smith
Pride & Prejudice (choose Rosamunde Pike as narrator - there are so many options for this via audio)
Jane Austen
Sense & Sensibility (Rosamunde Pike narrator)
Middlemarch
George Eliot
Reviews for all of these can be found on my Goodreads page! I’m under LoneStarWords.
Happy Listening!
