Read Women discussion

Hi everyone. I'm just trying out audiobook subscriptions from a few different providers and wondering if anyone has any recommendations. I'm avoiding audible and my public library has a very limited selection.

I'm also looking for recommendations for actual books. I'm trying to expand my horizons with non-fiction, memoirs and nature/environment themed books mostly (although I'm open to suggestions). Perhaps the odd literary fiction if they are very well read. I thought this could spark an interesting conversation and I thought we already had a thread on this but I couldn't find it so...

What are your favourite audiobooks everyone?

Hi Hannah. I listen to most things on audiobook. Have you checked to see whether your library subscribes to any digital services that offer audiobooks? Two common ones are Libby (formerly called Overdrive) and Hoopla, but I’ve run across (though not used) one or two others.
Failing that, are you eligible for any other library cards? For instance, as a resident of Pennsylvania I am able to have a card at the main library in both Phila. and Pgh. even though I don’t live in either city. You might look into whether your region has anything like that.

There is libro.fm, which offers many of the same titles as Audible. I believe it benefits local indie bookstores, in a manner similar tonhoe Bookshop.org works.

Also, there’s LibriVox it’s free, but it only offers titles that are out of copyright. Their books are read by volunteers. Some of the volunteers are pretty good, and some are just awful, and trial and error is the only way to fimd the good readers. One advantage is that thee are a lot of books there that were never commercially recorded. I haven’t used it for a while because I have access to plenty of titles through my library.

I used to keep a list of audiobooks that were exceptional, but it hasn’t been maintained well. One of the first audiobooks I listened to that helped turn me on to them was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and it’s ALSO a non-fiction - which I found hard to believe because it was so entertaining! I’ve found that after a while I look for books narrated by the same people because they tend to lean towards genres or authors as well. I would recommend anything narrated by Robin Miles and she will get you a great variety of fiction, non-fiction, and women of color authors.

Memoirs read by the author tend to be very good, a couple I might recommend would be Dolly Parton Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, Finding Me by Viola Davis, We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union.

I also think Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid and The Final Revival of Opal & Nev worked very well as audiobooks. I get mine off of Libby from my library.

G wrote: "Also, there’s LibriVox it’s free, but it only offers titles that are out of copyright. Their books are read by volunteers. Some of the volunteers are pretty good, and some are just awful, and trial..."

Hi G. I'm in the UK and I've been using my local digital library (borrow box) for a while now. That's great that you can access multiple libraries in different areas. Here it's very restrictive and budget obsessed 🙄 you actually get locked out of everything every 3 years just in case you've moved away without telling them. Without warning all of a sudden you have to reapply. It's very annoying!
Libro.fm is one of the ones I've been looking into so it's good to have a vouch. I hadn't heard of Livrivox. What an interesting idea! I'm looking into it now, I do have access in the UK so that's great.ncan you remember any of the good readers off the top of your head?!

Anita wrote: "I used to keep a list of audiobooks that were exceptional, but it hasn’t been maintained well. One of the first audiobooks I listened to that helped turn me on to them was [book:Midnight in the Gar..."

Thanks for the recs Anita! I'm adding and adding! I forgot to mention feminism as a topic I'd like to try again, in the past I've just gotten too angry listening to lists of awful statistics. But we're going to need more wine looks really interesting. I'd not thought of looking by reader, I have listened to something by robin miles in the past but I can't remember what now. She has a very long list, I'm going to be here a while!

Audios I've listened to in the last few years and recommend:

Automatic Noodle - cozy sci-fi
Bright Young Women
Consolata
Eleanor and Park
Evidence of the Affair
Famous Last Words
Glory Be - delightful series
Have a Nice Day
How to Seal Your Own Fate - mystery series that I really like
Intimations - great way to get a sense of Zadie Smith's voice
Just an Ordinary Day
Life Impossible -fantasy, magical realism.
Long Bright River
My Conversation with Canadians
My Name is Lucy Barton (Amgash #1) - I would have completely misread this story had I read the book and not listened to it
Playing with Myself - you have to hear Randy Rainbow to get the full effect
Remarkably Bright Creatures - absolute delight. Marcellus the octopus is the perfect mix of snarky with a heart.
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays The Rent - I adore Judi Dench
Shrill: notes from a loud woman
Ten Steps to Nanette
The Living Mountain
Tom Lake
Wedding People
What Strange Paradise
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - I best understand books about race when the voice isn't the voice in my head. I often give the words wrong intonations. I always expect that the narrator is providing the full sense of what the author wants.

I'll share a list later this week. I've listened to a ton of great audiobooks in the last year, but the ones that aren't can take the wind out of your sales, too, especially if you pay for them. One thing I've learned from my daughter is that my local library system is super weak in terms of audio offerings. She has library "cards" at multiple systems across the US and when she's searching for something in Libby or Hoopla (I think), it's virtually never available at my library system. Moral of the story, if you can join multiple systems at no charge, do it. it might expand your free offerings greatly.

Some books that were fantastic for me on audio:

Fagin the Thief
Haven
The Glorious Heresies

Audiobooks I most enjoyed last year-

-Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (funny, light "read")
-parts 1 and 2 of Cash Blackbear series by Marcie Rendon (Native American/detective)
-How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa (Lao Canadian, short stories and very short overall listen)
-Western Lane by Chetna Maroo (South Asian lit fic novella)

Most memorable audio memoirs-
-When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones - not a woman author but my top fav I think
-Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock
-We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib

Thank you everyone for your recommendations, I am slowly going through them all :)

In terms of specific audiobook recommendations, I've listened to 3 in the last 18 months that are at the top of my all-time list:

Milkman
Learwife
Fagin the Thief

Milkman is my all time favorite.

I also will listen to almost anything read by Juliet Stevenson. I think she could wow me with the phone book. (At the moment I'm listening to Stevenson's reading of Emma, in fact. Stevenson has recorded quite a few of the classics, but she also has done some contemporary books.) Bahni Turpin does a good job too--I've listened to a couple of novels simply because Turpin was the reader.

I'm afraid I haven't used LIbriVox in several years, because my library's digital offerings have sufficed, so I can't recall any longer which readers I heard and liked. There are hundreds, probably thousands, there because basically everyone with the capacity to record and upload can contribute. Some of the recordings have truly dreadful sound quality, while others are really clear. When I was using the app, I'd download a fair number, listen to a little bit, then delete the ones I didn't like. Since it was free, and had no limit on what I could download, that wasn't a problem.

G wrote: "In terms of specific audiobook recommendations, I've listened to 3 in the last 18 months that are at the top of my all-time list:

Milkman
Learwife
[book:Fagin the..."

G, when I saw your top 3 audiobooks I had to double check that I didn't write it! I think we are audiobook soul mates ;)

I third the recommendation of Milkman on audio. That narrator made a good book phenomenal.

Excellent! My tbr is bulging! Gutted that Fagin isn't available in the UK, even on audible, I don't understand why this happens sometimes. A few of these aren't the kind of books I'd normally read but I'm excited to try new things and I've been able to listen even when I have low pain levels so thank you everyone. I've added at least 1 from everybody's lists 😊

I forgot to mention Once Upon a River. Not quite in the same tier for me as the 3 titles I mentioned earlier, but still quite good. Read by Juliet Stevenson