Do you ever outgrow the delight of suffer a tale read to you ? Not if you ’re listen to these Good Book . From A - list celebrity to talented phonation actors with multiple pseudonyms , these voices will make you fuck lit , even if you ’re heed to it instead of translate it .
The arguing over Harper Lee ’s new book has overshadow the literary achievement of her original book . If you ’re look to reconnect with the storage of that book , listening to Spacek ’s soft , slightly flimsy voice narrate it is the perfect way to do it . Spacek ’s phonation is plain , ego - assured , and serene , and , unlike the voices of many narrators , wield a southern accent without sound constrained or absurd .
Chester Himes is not as well screw as Raymond Chandler , but should be . He was an award - pull ahead hardboiled detective writer who had a expressive style and a sense of humor — although not a satisfying sense of humor . A passion in Harlem is the first in a series of nine books that explore the method of Harlem investigator Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones . Samuel L. Jackson has one of the most recognisable voices in the English - speaking populace , and he ’s become America ’s Cool Dad , so hearing him read this story of ill-omened sexual love , betrayal , con - artistry , and murder is bizarrely comforting . ( If that ’s not your style , he ’s also the vocalism of God inThe Bible Experience : New Testament . )

Fantasy books are usually the domain of booming - voiced man , which fix Karen Archer ’s variation of A Wizard of Earthsea so special . Her story finagle to make the storey of immature Ged grow into his power both heroic and personal , something that we can all link to . There are spate of audiobook renditions of A Wizard of Earthsea , but this is the one that make you finger like Ursula K. Le Guin herself is read it to you .
The Hids , as we call him , has done quite a few audiobooks , include a collection of James Bond stories and an audio translation of J. G. Ballard’sHigh Rise , which inspired the movie that Hiddleston is about to asterisk in . For my money , though , I ’d go with The Red Necklace , a floor about various waifs and villains making their way through the French Revolution . Why ? The villain . Hiddleston made his name in Hollywood playing the villain , so it ’s natural that the adept part is the cartoonishly malign Count Kalliovski , who has people defeat and leaves the eponymous “ red necklace ” of silk and garnets as his calling placard .
Audiobooks , specially older audiobooks , have been narrated by multiple hoi polloi over the years . Most of the time it ’s possible to see the merits of each narrator ; one has upright amusing timing , the other is able to signalise the character more easily , and a third has a more soothing look . Other book storyteller are like the voice of Kevin Conroy in Batman : The Animate Series — they bankrupt you for every other reading .

While the 2nd script in the Wolf Hall serial was still being recorded , little thickets of consumer consternationsprang up about the fact that Simon Slater was n’t the narrator . He ’s that effective ! The prissy , theatrical interpreter of Cardinal Wolsey , the ego - lenient whining part of Henry VIII , the ostentatious , work out , whip - smart voice of Anne Boleyn , and Thomas Cromwell ’s immovable deadpan ; they ’re all in this carrying into action . It wo n’t just spoil you for listening to any other book — it will spoil you for translate the record book instead of listening to it .
Here is an audiobook so good that Roger Ebert could n’t resist mentioning it when he look back the movie . Hewrote , “ The audiobook , read by Sean Barrett , is the best audio performance I have ever heard ; he snuffles and sniffles his agency to greatness and you almost conceive he is inhaling bliss , or the essence of a stone . I once almost destroyed a dinner party by putting it on for five minute , after which nobody wanted to blockade mind . ” That may have been the most unkind inspection of any movie ever , since after that every unmarried sentence he writes about the movie is only damning it with dim praise , but it ’s an exact review of the book .
Here ’s a combining that should n’t forge . Keaton is make out , at least on covert , for her warmth , liveliness , and good - nature . Joan Didion is known for herstylishly come off contempt . surely , they both seem very intelligent , but in footing of way they should never work together . And yet they do . This audiobook is the literary eq of put sea salt on candy , it ’s dazed until you see how well it works , and then you understand why so many people try ( ordinarily unsuccessfully ) to imitate it . Keaton warm the book up . Didion keep open Keaton ’s articulation from sound too much like a Nora Ephron heroine , and the integral thing is enthralling .

Here ’s another star who narrate the audiobook and asterisk in a movie adaptation of the leger . The audiobook is the far more successful , artistically , of the two . From the designedly stuffy , pompous prologue to Humbert Humbert ’s pensive , lyrical description of “ nymphet ” to the dark horrible intimation of reality we on occasion see through the narrator ’s cover of fantasy , the narration hook us now .
Irons has done drama and comedies , so he live how to make the book ’s ridiculous moments without making us laugh at the ledger tragic or repulsive moments .
The book , a look at the various societal military group in shimmer leading up to the First World War is not as dry as it sound . It ’s beautiful and sad , as it yield us a term of enlistment of the closing of an era — or rather , many eras at once . We await at the end of the Anarchists , half - crushed by repressive regimen , half - oppress by their own refusal to organize . We look at the end of the idealism of the socialists , who believed that once the working people accredit their international fraternity they would never — could never — dart each other . The Quran also gives us a garbled pang of rue as we observe the ruination of the nonconcentric and splendid patrician class in England , and the isolationist but liberty - roll in the hay American politico .

And it ’s carried along byWanda McCaddon , who also recount under the names Nadia May and Donada Peters , and may add a hundred more aliases as long as she keep working . This is a hotshot in the audiobook world , who started wreak in the 1980s and has donehundreds of audiobooks . Stumbling on even one of her books is like finding an actor or author entirely young to you but with a huge trove of piece of work . You just feel lucky that you’re able to keep getting their stuff . She ’s one of the masters of dialect and accent , able-bodied to give us everything from fussy French authors to Spanish anarchists to Russian intellectual . More than that , this is one of those hoi polloi whose voice everyone naturally turns towards at parties . How she manages to pilot regular life without people sit at her feet is beyond me .
Well , for crying out loud , what did you expect ? What else could top this list ?
I was verbalize withtwo formerio9 editorsrecently , neither could get into the Harry Potter serial until they started listening to Stephen Fry ’s audiobook version . Because this is n’t just a Word that ’s bring to life by representative talent , it ’s a leger that ’s meant to be read out aloud . The alliterative name , the fruitcake situation , the rhymes and puzzles , are all a way for a storyteller to run with and a attender to enjoy . The oversize graphic symbol , like Moaning Myrtle , are meant to be ordain for a somebody by a talented actor . Unlucky minor will have to listen to their parents read to them . ( The poor waif . ) Grown - up people , with money , can take heed to a practiced player engage with the stuff and give us the childhood experience we were meant to have .

AudiobooksBooks
Daily Newsletter
Get the skillful tech , science , and culture news in your inbox day by day .
word from the future , rescue to your present tense .
You May Also Like










![]()