What are your favorite audiobooks?

[momtolgd]

I'd like to make a list of audiobooks to look for through our library to listen to through my mp3 player. What have been your favorites to listen to, and please share something about the book and why you liked it? :001_smile:

Thanks for sharing!

[Lizzie in Ma]

Enthralling. That is all.

[momtolgd]

Thank you...anyone else?

[Jenny in Atl]

Anything read by Tim Curry (Series of Unfortunate Events, Abhorsen Trilogy, Peter Pan, Peter Pan in Scarlet, Foucault's Pendulum), Morris Gleitzman's bks (Toad Rage, Toad Heaven, Toad Away, Once, Wicked, Totally Wicked, Aristotle's Nostril, and many more), The Bartimaeus Trilogy, His Dark Materials, The Book Thief, I Am the Messenger, Coraline, Keys to the Kingdom (Garth Nix/also author to Abhorsen Trilogy), Kafka on the Shore, Mirror Mask, Pirates, Princess Academy, Twilight (Ok, she still needs and editor but all three were fun), The Whale Rider, A Wrinkle in Time, How I Live Now, Octavian Nothing, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, The Uglies Trilogy, Kira Kira, and many more...


((disclaimer)), some of these are a bit scary to little ones or have adult themes. My two are odd, not easily frightened and I'm comfortable sharing adult themes with them.

[Lizzie in Ma]

The unabridged Swiss Family Robinson was a family treat. If I am knitting like crazy with my dd we pop in Hakim cds, Diana Waring is also a favorite.
Libraries often carry the Joy Hakim on audio.
For pure fun, I am an Elizabeth Peters addict but I have never heard the audio versions.

[HollyDay]

We've enjoyed:

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island


Misty
Stormy, Misty's Foal

Adventures in Odyssey Mysteries

James Herriott Dog and Cat Stories

Nancy Drew

Dee Henderson stories


BF Science and History Adventures

[Mamabegood]

Definitely my favorites are the Harry Potter books.

I would say that any book/author you enjoy reading, you will very likely enjoy listening to as well.

If you have certain hobbies or interests, there are probably podcasts that you can download that would be fun to listen to. Just google the subject plus podcast. I like the Cindy Rushton website for homeschooling podcasts. I also listen to Focus on the Family podcasts.

You can check and see if your library offers downloads for your mp3--mine does, and it's really nice to just download it directly without having to rip all of the cd's.

Try librivox for free downloads--they have Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, and others in the public domain.

[Hen Jen]

we loved The tale of Desperaux, one of the best audios we've ever listened to, the accents were awesome.

Boston Jane was another funny one, we also really enjoyed Pollyana- even hubby liked that one. We also really liked Ella Enchanted- much better than the movie, very different, and it was read really well.

we also really love Hank the Cowdog.

[Laurie4b]

We love Trumpet of the Swan read by EB White. It's great for all ages. We've also enjoyed the Narnia books put out by Focus on the Family.

My kids love SOTW on CD!

[Dana in OR]

and there are some that I listen to with the kids on trips.

For myself, my favorites on audio are
The Thirteenth Tale
and
Memoirs of a Geisha

Both are excellent books, and the readers make the books a unique experience. I have listened to them many times.

Another favorite is "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. Hilarious. I have also listened to this one several times.

I also enjoyed "Lonesome Dove" but I'll tell you, it was loooong. About 36 hours of listening. I did like it though. Not a family audio.

Another "not for the family" audio that I liked was "Middlesex" - although I have not found myself able to "re-listen" to this one as I have with the others.

For the family,

Cheaper By the Dozen read by George Guidall
The Bagthorpes: Ordinary Jack
Because of Winn Dixie
Winnie the Pooh
The Thief Lord
A Single Shard
A Wrinkle in Time
The Indian in the Cupboard
The Witch of Blackbird Pond

Hope this helps; I have listened to many others but these are the standouts.

[3lilreds in NC]

I will second the recommendation for the Lord of the Rings trilogy - it was outstanding. I cannot stand to read it, but I love to listen to it.

I will also second the Harry Potter books. These have probably been my most enjoyable audio book experience, and that says a lot, because I LOVE listening to books! Jim Dale is an amazing narrator. Anything he narrates would be worth listening to, IMO. His website is http://www.jim-dale.com/ and has a list of everything he's done.

Another favorite is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. It's a great read, and even more fun when you can hear all the wordplay out loud.

I have really enjoyed listening to James Herriot's books on audio too. If you like animals, they're wonderful, and I giggled my way through them. I love reading them, too, and the audios we highly enjoyable.

The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke, is great, and so are her other books on audio: Inkeart, Inkspell, Dragon Rider.

I loved listening to Roald Dahl's The Witches. The narrator I heard was Ron Keith, and he was excellent. The only version I can find on Amazon is one narrated by Lynne Redgrave, and I'm sure she's good, too. [Edited to say that the Ron Keith version is by Recorded Books - http://www.recordedbooks.com]

The Chronicles of Narnia (http://www.amazon.com/Chronicles-Narnia-Complete-Box-Unabridged/dp/0694524751) are excellent, too. I know lots of people like the Focus on the Family dramatized version; I haven't heard those. I like the ones I've linked. There are some fabulous narrators - Patrick Stewart, Kenneth Brannagh, Lynne Redgave, Michael Crawford.

My girls and I have really enjoyed A Bear Called Paddington and Winnie the Pooh. Another one I love is Pippi Longstocking. Oh, and E. Nesbit's books are fun too!

I've gotten lots of books from Audible.com. They are great because you can listen to samples.

I also really like Stephen Lawhead and have several of his books on audio.

[BritAnnia]

Can I ask a piggyback question? Which mp3 player do you have for audiobooks? I'm thinking of getting one for myself and as far as I can tell from surfing online for info, I should avoid iPod because the format audiobooks and libraries use is different (?).

[gandpsmommy]

[quote=Hen Jen;309680]we loved The tale of Desperaux, one of the best audios we've ever listened to, the accents were awesome.
quote]

We really liked this one, too!