Recommend light, fun audiobooks

[jon bones]

Looking for books to listen to while cleaning after putting the kids to bed.

No 8-book epics, no non-fiction - just something in the middle (genre fiction) with good production values.

Was looking at the new Light of the Jedi book - not sure if it's good but something along those lines if not that one.

 

[Fat4all]

are you much into podcasts?

i started listening to a few recently that are more narrative-based and they've been a lot of fun

 

[Rosebud]

A Series of Unfortunate Events is pretty funny.

 

[jon bones]

are you much into podcasts?

i started listening to a few recently that are more narrative-based and they've been a lot of fun

Click to shrink...

yeah, i love podcasts and listened to a lot of narrative ones over the years

 

[The Albatross]

ANything by Bill Bryson, I'd recommend starting with "One Summer America 1927"

Oh sorry you said fiction? Bryson is non-fiction but his books are just like a total joy, light hearted with terrific narrative, really pithy funny prose. He's a terrific humorist and most of his books fall into some sort of pop-culture, pop-history, pop-science. All really fun.

My favorite fiction book from the last 5 years is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I read it, I didn't do the audio, but it's a wonderful, wonderful book. Fiction, the premise might sound serious but it's ... a pretty light-hearted, yet really moving book. There's a dandy quality to it, following the main character.

The audiobook for Cloud Atlas was great. Again a mostly adventurous book, some serious parts, but it's not a heavy book. It's good in audio too especiazlly because some of the book is challenging reading (IMO).

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

Good Omens might fit the bill. Great book, and the audio book production is really nice. It's how I first "read" it.

 

[DrForester]

Complete Sherlock Holmes collection, read by Stephen Fry.

Sherlock Holmes

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. "Fry's Holmes is crisp and high-handed, his Watson enthusiastic and bemused, and the rest of the narration colorful without being mannered. Have fun. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award." (AudioFile magazine) "...it was reading the Sherloc...

www.audible.com

Has the longer books, but it's mostly the short story collections which makes for quick small-serving stories.

Stephen Fry is also an amazing narrator.

 

[Fat4all]

Complete Sherlock Holmes collection, read by Stephen Fry.

Sherlock Holmes

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. "Fry's Holmes is crisp and high-handed, his Watson enthusiastic and bemused, and the rest of the narration colorful without being mannered. Have fun. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award." (AudioFile magazine) "...it was reading the Sherloc...

www.audible.com

Has the longer books, but it's mostly the short story collections which makes for quick small-serving stories.

Stephen Fry is also an amazing narrator.

Click to shrink...

in the same vein, there's a fun Hercule Poirot collection of short mysteries narrated by David Suchet himself, Poirot Investigates



Agatha Christie | Poirot Investigates (1924) Full Audiobook - YouTube

anyone who's a fan of the ITV show will dig it

not super long, but a nice light listen

03. Poirot Investigates (1924) - Suchet : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

 

[Forerunner]

 

[Veelk]

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson is the right amount of light while still being reasonably substantial and a lot of fun

 

[MDSVeritas]

This is a fun romp through a sort of purposefully twisted Grimm's Fairytale world. It centers on three mercenaries (based off different fairytaile characters I won't spoil) who's whole schtick is that they are *not* the fairytale heroes princesses and distressed kings actually hoped for, but for a price they can still save the day for someone with some unconventional and decidedly unheroic and underhanded tactics. This book won't blow any minds but it's also incredibly digestible and nicely paced, with some wonderful production values as each of the main characters is voiced by a separate actor in the audiobook, with a fourth actor serving as the narrator and voice of other characters. The book chronicles several jobs the team does, so you get some entertaining and twist-filled short stories, that also serve to slowly unravel each of their backstories.

It's fun, well produced, and with enough of a heart to it that you want these characters to succeed through this fucked-up fairytale world.

 

[iosefe]

Click to shrink...

Came to recommend this. His other series are also good.

 

[Balma]

Cabin Pressure

It probably shouldn't be on archive.org but enjoy it anyway.

 

[Dalek]

Good Omens might fit the bill. Great book, and the audio book production is really nice. It's how I first "read" it.

Click to shrink...

I highly recommend this. I just listened to it 2 years ago.

 

[FaceHugger]

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Check out this great listen on Audible.com. Audie Award Nominee, Solo Narration - Female, 2013 One of the best-known stories in American culture, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz has stirred the imagination of young and old alike for over 100 years. Academy Award-winning actress Anne Hathaway (Rachel...

www.audible.com

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Read by an enthusiastic Anne Hathaway. It's like being read the greatest bedtime story.

 

[The Albatross]

News of the World was also really good and now it's a movie on HBO or w/e with Tom Hanks