My Favorite Audiobooks(The Backlog!)

I've read a few books this year.

I've listened to A LOT.

I've thought about writing reviews for the audiobooks I've listened to on Audible, but if I don't have time to keep up the blog when would I have time for that?

This is my current list of favorite audiobooks on Audible.

A few disclaimers.

Not included: I have to view the tale as an audiobook first. For example: The Hobbit. I've read it. Multiple times. I read it aloud myself to Shane when he was younger. I love The Hobbit and the whole LOTR series, but hearing the poetry and songs versus reading them makes for a long production. I view them as books first. Harry Potter falls in a similar vein. We've read, listened, and watched up to Book 5 as a family. I don't view the series as books made into movies. Some other great books like Roald Dahls are a lot of fun, but too short. My Side of the Mountain is one of my childhood favorites (5th grade!). We started listening to it twice. Never finished. So I can't include it on the list. 

HON CD Mentions - Bunnicula and Holes. I was trying to remember CD Audiobooks we checked out from the library way back when. Aside from Hank the Cowdog, Bunnicula and Holes were the two I remember as being the best. 

HON Non-Fiction Mentions - I've really enjoyed some Great Course audiobooks. In particular, The Late Middle Ages sticks out. But that was interesting, not riveting. I'd listen to it in between fiction books or when the mood struck. I normally crank up the play rate to cover material faster, too. I did the same for The Girl Who Smashed Code. The material was fascinating, but it was written closer to a textbook. I cranked up the playback speed to 1.4x or something and it helped me push through the boring parts.

Sorry, I'm wordy. On to the Top 10!

Mike's Top 10 Audible Audiobooks

10 Zero G by Dan Wells. Read aloud by Emily Woo Zeller, Margaret Ying Drake....a full cast!

Picked this up by chance to listen to with Shane. There was a full cast! That was new to me. Akin to a Home Alone in space. The opening scene has spit in zero-gravity and that was enough to pull me in. It was short, but it was free with Audible Plus and we listened to the next book in the series shortly thereafter!

9 Navajos Wear Nikes by and read aloud by Jim Krostofic. 

Rough childhood on reservations. Struck a chord for me, probably because of all the years I've worked with at-risk kids. There were parts I didn't agree with decisions or philosophy, but that's life. Most of it was still an interesting story from an interesting life teaching my about a culture I was less aware of. In general, memoirs and autobiographies fit well with the auidobook format. Especially those done by comedians! Honorable mentions to I Cant Make This Up by Kevin Hart and History of Sketch Comedy read by Michael Key

8 Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell and read aloud by David Tennant (Carrie actually listened!)

Carrie is anti-audiobooks. Which sucks. Shane and I both like to listen to them on long car rides and Carrie shuts it down half the time. Sometimes I can convince (or force) the issue. This one, she was open to because of David Tennant. "Look! It's How to Train Your Dragon Lady and your favorite Dr Who!" We listened to it on a car ride and it was a fun, unique romp. I would've rated the story under Zero G, but the fact that Carrie listened to it ups the value.

7 Redwall by Brian Jacques and read aloud by Brian Jacques and a full cast

Was it 9th grade I discovered Brian Jacques? I've read multiple books of his and with Shane's interest in animals this was a no-brainer. While I read this first, the full casting made the audiobook distinct in my mind. It's like reading a play versus seeing a play. I still like the book, but when I quote from it I now hear voices from the audiobook instead of the ones I made up in my head long, long ago.

6 Hank the Cowdog series read aloud by John Erickson

There's no way Hank wasn't going to be on this list. Hank existed as a book first, but he's always been something to listen to rather than read for me. When I read the book, I hear John Erickson's voices in my head. That said, it was really hard to place these books in one spot. I loved them as a kid, most of the time. Sometimes they provoked too much embarrassment humor and I couldn't keep contained in my own skin! I found them again as an adult to listen to with Shane. There have been hilarious laugh out loud moments and then there have been some books where it felt like I already knew all the jokes. They still made me smile, but maybe if I'd heard that book before another I'd have loved it more. There are some developments over time (Birth of baby Molly, Hank moving in with Slim, etc), but largely things stay the same. They're short, easy, fun romps, much like a sitcom. My favorite might be The Case of the Hooking Bull, The Big Question, or The Case of the Midnight Rustler.

5 Second Hand Curses by Drew Hayes and read aloud by Scott Aiello, Marc Vietor, and Tavia Gilbert

This has traded places with Hank the Cowdog a couple of times, but I'm going to leave it here. I've discovered I really like books where I can instantly recognize different characters by their voices. I don't need or want tons of music or sound effects like the old radio dramas. Good voice acting is amazing, though. This book took some familiar things and turned them on their head in a good way. I don't think it would have rated this high without the excellent acting, though. This book was not as epic as Redwall or as funny as Hank, but it had chapters written like episodes. They episodes linked together to form a bigger picture, but I could put on an chapter, go out and take care of barn chores, and then if there was a little left I'd walk the dogs or find an excuse to finish it. I don't know if I'll listen to it again, but I remember looking forward to listening to it. In some ways, it feels like I'm partially enamored to the format of the book and how it fit my listening style, so it may be replaced a year or two in the future. I bought another book from the author because of this one and it was fun, but the magic wasn't the same.

4 Spy School series by Stuart Gibbs and read aloud by Gibson Frazier

Spy School was a fun book that Shane and I BOTH liked. I looked for excuses to hop in the car, so that we could hear what happened next! There were times we'd park and sit to let a chapter finish before getting out. There was action, humor, and it felt like a thriller/espionage movie aimed at young teens. We've listened to four books in the series. While the formula doesn't overly change, there are some developments between characters and it doesn't feel like an eternal sitcom. Is it moving fast enough we'll listen to book 5? Maybe. I honestly could see this one being made into a movie. 

3 Terrible 2 series by Jory John and Mac Barnett and read aloud by Adam Verner

Following the Spy School series, if Shane and I can both get excited AND both laugh out loud then it's even better. I quote from this book in the voices used by Adam Verner. Sometimes I use a voice or two, because they're just fun! Stupid nimbus! We listened to the entire series (4 books). Each book had a plot, but the characters changed, the world changed, and it had a conclusion. I would've been happy for it to have continued, but I appreciate the fact it ended well. 

2 Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and read aloud by Kevin Free

The first book in this series made me take an interest in adult audiobooks. It caught me from the first paragraph on! I listened to it on the way to pick up Shane from Nana and Pop's in the COVID shutdown days and laughed out loud in the car by myself. It's definitely not kid appropriate, but it's a wonderful example of how a good voice actor and a good story told in the 1st person perspective can be greater than the sum of their parts. I have bought and listened to them all. The first four are all short (3 hours each). They were great introductory books to listening to audiobooks. I look for longer books now, but in the beginning when I wasn't sure when I'd have time to listen to anything for myself this series hooked me. Getting Audible on my phone came as a result of me realizing I liked to listen to these types of stories for myself and if they were portable I could listen while doing chores and not just driving.

1 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and read aloud by RC Bray

You may have noticed my #4, #3, and #2 were all series. I LOVE a good series. This book stood all on it's own and made it to the top. Well, mostly on it's own. RC Bray really helped here. Murderbot is amazing and almost took #1, but I listened to this single, cohesive story for 16 hours and I was hooked from beginning to end. There was a lot of science and math and I even understood most of it! The fact that it was so....educational only lifts it higher in my esteem.  I kept this downloaded on my phone to show Carrie, but she got mad when I kept trying to turn it on one car ride. I haven't given up hope, though! 

RC Bray's my favorite narrator so far on Audible. He has such a range of voices by himself and while I can recognize him as a narrator he hasn't typecast himself into a single role or genre. Kevin Free is Murderbot so much that it feels wrong to hear him as someone else to me. In this book, RC Bray is perfect for the role he plays. While I'm normally not a fan of sound effects, the effects used in this book were spot on for me and really helped my immersion into the story. So many things went right, it elevated the novel to the point this is an audiobook only for me. I'll probably never read a physical copy.

And those are my favorites! Audiobooks have helped me listen to a wide variety of books including ones I may not have been able to finish if I was reading them physically. I'll listen to some classics like Agatha Christie, I went through the Three Body Problem trilogy, and have re-listened to some old books from long ago like Decision at Thunder Rift (side note - This doesn't always work. I got The Crystal Shard and the name Crenshinibon sounds like Cinnabon in my head! I can't take it seriously). It's been fun enough I made a post about them (and a much longer one than I originally intended!)

So what's Shane's favorite?

I asked what his favorite was and he said We're Going to Mars. That's the book we're currently listening to! Maybe he picked it because it's so fresh in his mind. It's been a really good book, but I expected him to say The Warriors, Terrible Two, Spy School, Hank or even Redwall. He's been asking me to get more books in The Warriors, because he likes them more than I do. 

But I was wrong. If I ask him a year later and We're Going to Mars is still the favorite it will have earned the right not to be questioned for it's place!