Hello I need a middlebrow audiobook suggestion. Not too dark, not romantic, no children in harm’s way, no deep familial trauma. Something bouncy to get me through a bunch of traveling.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Reading "middlebrow" as "crushable":
- The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet
- The Arrest
- The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue
- Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson is definitely bouncy though admittedly is, at heart, a take on loving children in trouble and familial trauma
The BBC did a whole series of Terry Pratchett disc world books as radio drama that you can get as audiobooks. That might hit the spot. That or The Barchester Chronicles (also gentle satire, this time of victorian England)
Amber Ruffin’s books were great on audio. The Glass & Steele mysteries were good on audio. There was romance in them but not the focus. I also liked the Inspector Gamache on audio but those can be a little murdery.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. Cozy sci-fi novella that checks all those boxes. It's a short audio book but has an equally charming sequel.
Elle Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan series is great, if you’re feeling author-turned-accidental hit woman.
Delicious! (Ruth Reichl) is a detective(ish) story set at a food magazine - searching archives! excellent food descriptions! James Beard epistolary cameos!
And I know you said no romance, but My Lady Jane is just a really fun time, and apparently my whole Bluesky existence is grounded in evangelizing about this Tudor Animorphs story. Let's be silly about history in a context where that feels fun.
Comments
A Deadly Education
Magic boarding school but it’s deadly. (Teens in harms way but not suspenseful)
Gideon the Ninth
Lesbian necromancers in space.
Can’t recommend enough.
The Space Between Worlds
A multiple universe sci fi story
The Vanishing Half
A story about two Black sisters and their separate lives after one chooses to pass as a white woman.
Circe
The story of the witch from The Odyssey from the witch’s perspective.
Death in the Haymarket
Non fiction on 1880’s Chicago and labor uprisings.
I've been reading a lot of Murderbot Diaries. Babel by R.F. Kuang was amazing, Dreadnaught by April Daniels was fantastic.
OH. You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo is PHENOMENAL. Somewhere between Farscape and The Great British Bake-Off.
Text to Speech w AIReader
The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/20727
Badge of Infamy by Lester Del Rey
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/19471
The Fourth R (1959) by George O. Smith
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/18602
Omnilingual by H Beam Piper
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/19445
- The Long Way To a Small Angry Planet
- The Arrest
- The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue
- Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson is definitely bouncy though admittedly is, at heart, a take on loving children in trouble and familial trauma
A farewell to arms, Hemingway
Atonement, Ian McEwan
(Alternately, “Making Money”, the previous in the series)
Kids are in danger briefly in one scene as they play on railroad tracks just before the hero saves them a paragraph later.
If you’re feeling cynical, then the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells is a repeat listen for me.
Delicious! (Ruth Reichl) is a detective(ish) story set at a food magazine - searching archives! excellent food descriptions! James Beard epistolary cameos!