I’m currently working >70 hours a week, so almost all of my reading time is in the form of audiobooks during my commute and at home. The problem is that I’m so tired I find it almost impossible to follow a story, so my usual brick fantasy and sci fi books aren’t working. For some reason, non fiction has been easier to keep track of. I just finished Valley of Forgetting by Jennie Erin Smith, and really enjoyed it. Any suggestions for non-fiction audiobooks with a good narrator?
by WoodsyAspen
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Educated by Tara Westover, read by Julia Whelan
I’m usually also a sci-fi and fantasy reader, but I’ve been trying to branch out into non fiction! Let me share some I’ve enjoyed recently:
The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times by Doug Abrams and Jane Goodall
The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet by Jeff Goodell
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Say Nothing
Check out these titles
– Endurance
– Unruly
– Into Thin Air
– The Boys
– I’m Glad My Mom Died
– A Short History of Nearly Everything
– A Walk in the Woods
– Empire of Pain
– Educated
I agree non-fiction is easier to listen to when doing other things.
Oliver Sacks wrote books similar to Valley of Forgetting – The Island of the Colorblind for instance. Most of his books are great, his most famous is The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenigs. Hallucinations was particularly good.
Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
Lady of the Army: The Life of Mrs. George S. Patton has a great narrator and a compelling story.
“Creep” by Myriam Gurba is a collection of essays, some about her life experiences and some about other people/famous creeps.
“The Tiger” by John Vaillant is about a man eating tiger in eastern Russia in the 90’s. Much like his “Fire Weather” (about the McMurray fire in Alberta), it situates the event in the broader historical context, but the digressions are interesting (“Fire Weather” goes a little overboard IMO. “the Tiger” is more focused.
“How to Say Babylon” by Safiya Sinclair is a memoir about how she survived extreme poverty and an extreme Rastafarian father to become a well respected Jamaican poet.
“One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of this Will Matter” by Scaachi Koul is a collection of personal essays/memoir.
“Savor” by Fatima Ali is a memoir of her/her mom’s life in the Pakistani upper class and how she went to culinary school and became a chef (and got cancer and died).
(Edited to remove one not available as audiobook.)