I continued to listen to audiobooks using the slower pace I employed last year. 2018 was just as pickier and choosier as 2017 when deciding what to listen to and I’ve even gone weeks without listening to any audiobooks at all. However, 2018 does have some real standouts! Thanks to new narrators and new mystery series there were some pretty big stars for me this year.
In no real particular order, here are my favourite audiobooks listened to this year:
- I’ll lump the three Cormoran Strike series into one here. Robert Glenister’s narration was amazing!! I gobbled up these three back-to-back-to-back! They were long, long audiobooks and many hours were spent listening, but there were no complaints from me at all about that! Glenister IS Strike.
2. If the Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss. Excellent audiobook! Excellent debut! The two narrators, Kate Forbes and Tom Stechschulte were great voicing the multiple character’s viewpoints. I definitely loved the narration by Forbes the most here.
3. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor. Because of The Chalk Man, I was introduced to the narration of Euan Morton. His voice was so suited to the character narrating this story and was completely perfect to capture the time and place within. I was so in love with his narration that I went out and bought another one narrated by him. Sadly, it was nowhere near as special as The Chalk Man. I think this would be because most of the story in The Chalk Man is male-centred and in the other audiobook it was definitely more female-centred. Morton unfortunately did that thing that annoys me to no end where he raises the pitch of his voice to attempt to sound like a woman, and he fails miserably at it (as most narrators do. Please stop this practice, I beg of you!) But I highly recommend listening to The Chalk Man! (C.J. Tudor also has a new book coming in 2019 that I’ll definitely be reading! Here in Canada it comes with the title, The Hiding Place, but in the UK it is known as The Taking of Annie Thorne.)
4. Malagash by Joey Comeau. I’ve already included Malagash in my Top 10 Canadian books from this year. Jenna Lamia couldn’t have been a more suited voice to narrate young Sunday’s story! Such a sweet and heartfelt story.
5. The End of the Affair, by Grahame Green. I purposely sought this one out because it was narrated by Colin Firth. You couldn’t have asked for better casting! This was another perfectly suited person to narrate this story. Firth’s narration absolutely elevated this story and was one where the enjoyment of the book was completely due to his narration. Had I only read this in paper format, it would have left me cold and distant because of the subject and story. There would not have been any connection to Maurice at all – with his obsessive and possessive behaviour – he wasn’t a character that one could warm to, but Firth changed that with the emotion and depth he gave Maurice.
The Gate Keeper, by Charles Todd. I’m just about to finish this one, I have maybe 10 minutes left. I have found a pretty close second to my beloved Ralph Cosham (narrator for Louise Penny’s Gamache series) in Simon Prebble!! I plan on listening to more of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series for sure now! Simon Prebble breathed wonderful life into Rutledge and I love his narration maybe a little more than I do Robert Glenister’s for the Cormoran Strike series.
Did you listen to audiobooks this year? What were some of your favourites?
