lirazel | (no subject)

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I am once again asking for audiobook recs! I'm looking for nonfiction, read by the author, preferably not too dense. Audiobooks are not my normal medium, so I'm picky. As for what kind of nonfiction, I like history, cultural criticism, psychology, etc.

Audiobooks I've actually enjoyed listening to:

The Anthropocene Reviewed and Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
Girl On Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves by Sophie Gilbert
How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question by Michael Schur
Unruly by David Mitchell
Roctogenarians: Late in Life Debuts, Comebacks, and Triumphs by Mo Rocca

I think all of these people except Gilbert have experience on TV/podcasts, which probably contributes to them being good at reading their own stuff.

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I have no recs for you, but thanks for giving me the wording "not my normal medium" :D

Ha! I have many "not my normal" media--animation, short stories, memoirs, etc.

Ooh, ooh, Sofia Samatar's The White Mosque! I gave it a full review last year here. This book has stuck with me so hard, right up to the present day, and I actually think you might connect even more with the Weird Protestantisms of it all than I was able to.

(Also, this does not fit your request, I am sorry, but I am compelled to recommend M.T. Anderson's Symphony for the City of the Dead to everyone over and over again, and I mean, it is about the Siege of Leningrad, but it's meant for the YA market, so it's not THAT heavy [right???], and mostly it's about Shostakovich surviving under Stalinism through the power of art, community, and dogged hope! And the audiobook has snippets of the music so you can actually hear what is being described! It's a genuinely incredible book and a worthy use of the audiobook format! It has history and cultural criticism?)

Oh, and the extremely low-hanging fruit are of course Robin Wall-Kimmerer's two books, Gathering Moss and Braiding Sweetgrass, of which the second has the better audio engineer and the status as a modern lefty classic, but the first has imo more simply gorgeous nature writing and a greater focus on What Moss Does and Why It's Cool.

Oh nice! These have been on my reading list For Forever, but it might be easier to do it via audiobook. Thanks!

Oh, yes, I remember you telling me I should read it, but I didn't realize there was an audiobook!

When I said "heavy", I mostly meant dense-prose-wise? There are some forms of writing that I simply MUST read and cannot keep up with aurally. But this sounds like it would be, even if the subject matter is not. I loooove the idea of them incorporating the music into it!

Recently I loved listening to Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney! I found the author/narrator's voice a little dull at first, but as I got used to it and the book went on, it became very soothing and enjoyable to me. And the content is fascinating!

Oooh! I definitely do want to get to that one--I'll have to give it a try to see if it's an audiobook or regular book for me!

The BBC one of Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising is really good. They have voice actors and everything.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvp7

Oh nice! Thanks!

John Green's Everything is Tuberculosis is fascinating, and saddening and enraging.

And Christopher Scaife's The Ravenmaster might interest you - about the Tower of London and the ravens. Listen to a sample to see if you like his reading.

John Green's Everything is Tuberculosis is fascinating, and saddening and enraging.
Isn't it? I wish it had been longer, but it's so good.

And Christopher Scaife's The Ravenmaster might interest you - about the Tower of London and the ravens.

That sounds fun! Thank you!

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