# Can you recommend a good audiobook?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 8, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998 "2014-05-08T19:32:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/1 "2014-05-08T19:32:07Z")
I have one credit on audible for a free audiobook. I don’t know what to get.
I’m thinking something that’s a dry read, but has good information. A biography perhaps. Any suggestions?
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2014, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/2 "2014-05-08T20:35:53Z")
We’ve had “recommend an audiobook” threads before, so if you don’t get enough results in this thread, try searching or checking the book recommendations sticky thread.
Here’s one recent thread that’s somewhat similar to your query: [Recommend Me Some Narrative History](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=712973)
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/3 "2014-05-08T20:58:08Z")
I recently listened to and enjoyed “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies”. It’s the story of cancer and our fight against it from ancient times to right now. Lots of good information peppered with lots of good stories. Well written, and engaging.
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### Author:  [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2014, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/4 "2014-05-08T21:09:43Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> We’ve had “recommend an audiobook” threads before, so if you don’t get enough results in this thread, try searching or checking the book recommendations sticky thread.
>
> Here’s one recent thread that’s somewhat similar to your query: [Recommend Me Some Narrative History](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=712973)
There’s even a thread asking for recommendations for the same reason I’m asking - extra credits on audible. In my defense, there might have been some new books since the last thread.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/5 "2014-05-08T21:19:52Z")
Tastes vary considerably, but when it comes to nonfiction, I really like (and have listened repeatedly to) these audiobooks:
**Connections** and **The Day the Universe Changed** by James Burke. Lotsa facts, not dry, and told by the rapid-fire Burke.
**Hero with a Thousand Faces** by Joseph Campbell. Mythology, told well. Take some of his conclusions _cum grano salis_, though.
**Don’t Know Much About History** and **America’s Hidden History** by Kenneth C. Davis
**Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of American History** by James Schenkman (and read by Gary Owens!)
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### Author:  [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/6 "2014-05-08T21:54:49Z")
Big audiobook guy here. Some of my favorite listens are:
**The World Without Us** , Alan Weisman, about what would happen if human beings somehow vanished from planet Earth.
**A Short History of Nearly Everything** , Bill Bryson. What it says on the tin. A sort-of followup, **At Home: A Short History of Private Life** , is OK but not great, partly because Bryson reads it himself and partly because it often seems like a collection of random anecdotes rather than a focused work.
**Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers** , Mary Roach. May occasionally push your squeamish button, but it’s pretty lively (boom-tish) and interesting.
**The Omnivore’s Dilemma,** Michael Pollan. Why our diets consist of mostly corn, and why that’s bad.
**You Are Not So Smart** , David McRaney. If I were emperor of the world, this (or something very near it) would be required reading in high school.
**The Last Gunfight** , Jeff Guinn. In-depth look at the Gunfight at the OK Corral, and a nice primer on the West for a general reader (like me).
And this isn’t even getting into the fiction. 🙂
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/7 "2014-05-09T00:12:15Z")
I’m listening to _The Moonstone_, a Victorian novel by Wilkie Collins, and enjoying it very much. At 19 hours, it’s slow as molasses in January…NOT an action-packed thriller, but quite entertaining. Exquisitely written and beautifully read by a succession of actors.
A few years ago, I listened to another long one, _All the King’s Men,_ for 22 hours, and it was sublime. It is THE Great American Novel, no question in my mind.
Now I walk for an hour every evening, and back yonder, I had a long commute. I can’t imagine _reading_ either of these books.
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### Author:  [@flaming\_yawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flaming_yawn)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/8 "2014-05-09T00:47:45Z")
years ago on along car ride we listened to the story of how a shark swam up all these fresh water rivers and killed a few people along the way… cant remember the title but I thought it was good.
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### Author:  [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/9 "2014-05-09T00:59:48Z")
Seconding Stiff by Mary Roach. I get my reading almost exclusively via audiobook.
Favorites include the 30th Anniversary edition of Roots, The Help, Torpedo Juice by Tim Dorsey (or anything by Tim Dorsey), anything by Carl Hiaasen, Water for Elephants, 11-22-63 by Stephen King, and Fool and A Dirty Job both by Christopher Moore.
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### Author:  [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/10 "2014-05-09T01:13:39Z")
Everybody in America needs to read [“The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor”](http://www.audible.com/pd/History/The-Outpost-Audiobook/B009QFB2UM/ref=a_search_c4_1_1_srTtl?:=1399597621&sr=1-1) by Jake Tapper. From the book description:
“At 6:00 a.m. on the morning of October 3, 2009, Combat Outpost Keating was viciously attacked by Taliban insurgents. The 53 U.S. troops, having been stationed at the bottom of three steep mountains, were severely outmanned by nearly 400 Taliban fighters. Though the Americans ultimately prevailed, their casualties made it one of the war’s deadliest battles for U.S. forces. And after more than three years in that dangerous and vulnerable valley a mere 14 miles from the Pakistan border, the U.S. abandoned and bombed the camp.”
Incredibly well researched (Tapper spent a lot of time with these guys), well told, and very well read.
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### Author:  [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/11 "2014-05-09T02:14:58Z")
Here’s a sort of dry but very interesting biography I’m listening to right now:
> **[Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a...](https://www.amazon.com/Empty-Mansions-Mysterious-Huguette-Spending/dp/0345534530)**
>
> Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune \[Dedman, Bill, Newell Jr., Paul Clark\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and...
I listen to lots of audio books.
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### Author:  [@corvidae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corvidae)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/12 "2014-05-09T02:36:46Z")
I really enjoyed _Bossypants_ by Tina Fey, and to a lesser degree, _Shit My Dad Says_ by Justin Halpern. Right now I’m listening to _Orange is the New Black_ by Piper Kerman - so far so good.
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### Author:  [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2014, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-recommend-a-good-audiobook/687998/13 "2014-05-09T02:42:43Z")
> [@corvidae](#):
>
> . . . Right now I’m listening to _Orange is the New Black_ by Piper Kerman - so far so good.
I listened to Orange and liked it. I thought it better, or at least more thoughtful, than the TV show.