Audiobooks discussion

Hello. I did not see a topic for favorite narrators, so I thought I would add one. My favorite narrators right now are Jim Dale from Harry Potter, Jenna Lamia from The Help and Secret Life of Bees and more, Stina Nielsen from Airhead series and the Georgia Nicholson books, Simon Vance from the Millenium Trilogy, Katherine Kellgren from the Bloody Jack series, and Rebecca Macauley from On the Jellicoe Road/Saving Francesca.

I agree with you about Jim Dale, Jenna Lamia, Simon Vance & Katherine Kellgren.

I would add Davina Porter for theOutlander Series.

I wanted mention Alyssa Bresnahan, who does a terrific job reading The Lovely Bones, among other work.

John wrote: "I wanted mention Alyssa Bresnahan, who does a terrific job reading The Lovely Bones, among other work."

I just listened to that last month. She did a really wonderful job.

I'm a fan of the late Anna Fields, who died a few years back in a freak accident; Bresnahan would seem to me a worthy successor to take on many of what would've been Anna's future projects.

John I really wish I was able to listen to that version of Lovely Bones instead of the one my library had with the author as the narrator. I really think it would have improved my star rating of the book.

Carolyn F. wrote: "John wrote: "I wanted mention Alyssa Bresnahan, who does a terrific job reading The Lovely Bones, among other work."

I just listened to that last month. She did a really wonderful job."

Bresnahan has become one of my favorite narrators. I first heard her onSmilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg; she did a great job, and I have listened to her voice on several different titles since, including The Lovely Bones

Jim Dale is wonderful. If I am not mistaken, I believe he won an award or two for his narration of the Potter books. I love Davina Porter and Barbara Rosenblatt as well. The latter's reading of the Mrs. Polifax series is good fun. Gerard Doyle narrates the Septimus Heap series and I look forward to listening to that too. I like Alyssa Bresnahan too- she does young voices so well.

BTW, I have the latest Dexter book on my listening queue and I notice that this one is narrated by the author, Jeff Lindsay. Has anyone listened to it yet? I am so used to Dexter sounding like Nick Landrum. I don't want the author to ruin the illusion for me (LOL).

I also really like Gerard Doyle he narrates The Looking Glass Wars by,Frank bedore and he did a wonderful job!

George Guidall is my favorite. He really brings any book to life.

I agree about Alyssa Bresnahan -- she made The Lovely Bones an ethereal experience. Listening to it was much much better than "reading" the book.

Ugh! You people are really making me sad about the Lovely Bones I listened to :(

Heidi -- sorry to hear that.

Mary -- Guidall is a perfect fit for Tony Hillerman's Chee/Leaphorn mysteries, as though they were written for him to read!

Oh I 'll look for that on audio Catie. Sounds like my thing.

I've been into audio-lit for 25 years, my list is long but in no particular order of preference.

Jim Dale-1st found in-Potter of course
Alyssa Bresnahan-1st found-Harper Connelly Series
Johanna Parker-1st found-Sooki Stackhouse Series
Tavia Gilbert-1st found-Night Huntress Series
Phil Gigante-1st found-Highlander Series
Nick Landrum-only heard in Dexter Series
Eric Dove does a great job on the Fallen Angel Series

ahh, life interrupts..to be continued

Laurel Merlington-Merry Gentry Series by L.K. Hamilton
Margarite Gavin-The Hollows Seriers by Kim Harrison
Lorelie King-like her best in the Mercy Thompson Series by Patrcia Briggs

damn reality!...tbc

C. J. Critt does a good job with Margaret Maron's series featuring N. C. Judge Deborah Knott.

Julia Gibson is another worth checking out in Mary Stanton's "Beaufort & Co." paranormal cozy series - the third one isn't out in audio yet, and I really don't want to read it in print if I can avoid it!

I love Julia Gibson and I enjoyed the first in that Stanton series- I'll have to look for the second.

Sasha the dog is my favorite character ... maybe the landlady, too!

I usually like Laural Merlington, but her narration of Ghost Hunter, she did one couple like Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell, III from Gilligan's Island. Ugh!

Alice I like Johanna Parker as well. She narrates Meg Cabot's Mediator series.

Mary wrote: "George Guidall is my favorite. He really brings any book to life.

Love the Walt Longmire series narrated by him, would MUCH rather listen than read because of his narration!

I blew through I Know This Much Is True because of George Guidall. It was something like 8 billion CDs long but Guidall made it fly.

John wrote: "C. J. Critt does a good job with Margaret Maron's series featuring N. C. Judge Deborah Knott.

Julia Gibson is another worth checking out in Mary Stanton's "Beaufort & Co." paranormal cozy series -..."

I loved C.J. Critt on the 1st 5 Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich, but not so much on other books. I'll have to try your recs.

Kaaren wrote: "Mary wrote: "George Guidall is my favorite. He really brings any book to life.

Love the Walt Longmire series narrated by him, would MUCH rather listen than read because of his narration!"

Back in the days before CD's, my life line was Books on Tape. I went to bed with George Guidall many many nights. I'm pretty sure I thought some of those books were good just because he read them.

This year is when I've really started to listening to audiobooks. I think I have to say Katherine Kellgren for the Bloody Jack series is my favorite. I'm currently having a love affair with those audiobooks...

Cassi wrote: "This year is when I've really started to listening to audiobooks. I think I have to say Katherine Kellgren for the Bloody Jack series is my favorite. I'm currently having a love affair with those..."

Yes definitely!

John wrote: "I'm a fan of the late Anna Fields, who died a few years back in a freak accident; Bresnahan would seem to me a worthy successor to take on many of what would've been Anna's future projects."

Susie wrote: "I agree with you about Jim Dale, Jenna Lamia, Simon Vance & Katherine Kellgren.

I would add Davina Porter for theOutlander Series."

Davina Porter is fabulous. Anna Fields was the best reader ever.

Davina Porter was a terrific fit for Muriel Spark's novel Aiding and Abetting.

I loved William Hope reading Michael Tolliver Lives. Mark Bramhall made Revolutionary Road for me, and I just noticed he's one of the narrators on Everything That Rises Must Converge, so I have added that to my wishlist (to feed my appetite for short stories).

I really like Simon Vance and Alan Rickman, but dislike Christian Rhodska!

I like Rhodska, but can see how others might not.

Chris, has Alan Rickman read audiobooks other than The Return of the Native?

I love Lloyd James as a narrator. He made listening to The Curse of Chalion heaven. I desperately want to hear his voice again, but I've read most the other fantasy books he narrates.

Michael Kramer (Narrator) and Kate Reading are also very very good, and narrate a lot of fantasy novels.

Stef wrote: "Chris, has Alan Rickman read audiobooks other than The Return of the Native?"

I was convinced there were two more Thomas Hardy titles (copies I think I got from the library so no longer on my ipod), but since reading your question, I cannot work out which they were - I cannot trace them at all. It's possible I'm mistaken! I hope not, maybe I need to look for my marbles instead! I'll post here if I find anything.

There are a few Rickmans on Audible.

I'm listening to Cathedral of the Sea which is narrated by Paul Michael. This is the second novel I've listened to. The first was The Historian. I really enjoy his performance and would listen to other books he's narrated.

For Simon Vance lovers, he also narrates under the monikers Robert Whitfield and Scott Brick. I only recently found this out. Also Nadia May and Davinia Porter are the same person!

I don't have a clue why narrators decide to go by multiple names. In the case of the two I have mentioned, maybe it is because they are such prolific narrators.

I don't believe Simon Vance and Scott Brick are the same person, nor Nadia May and Davina Porter.

Nadia has read under the names Donada Peters and Wanda McCaddon.

Scott Brick amd Simon Vance are definetly not the same person unless he can really do amazing things with his voice(because if you've listened to them they have very different voices) and that he tweets under both names because I follow them both on twitter.

Holter Graham, Jim Dale, and Fred Berman are my faves.

Simon Vance for every book he has narrated, including all of Trollope's Chronicles of Barset and the Stieg Larsson mysteries. Simon Slater for his brilliant narration of Wolf Hall. John Lee for The White Tiger, Orhan Pamuk's books, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and Kerr's Berlin Noir Series. Nadia May for Ngaio Marsh mysteries. Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Bea wrote: "For Simon Vance lovers, he also narrates under the monikers Robert Whitfield and Scott Brick. I only recently found this out. Also Nadia May and Davinia Porter are the same person!

I don't h..."

About Scott Brick
Actor, screenwriter, and audiobook narrator Scott Brick definitely gives new meaning to a hyphenate career with credits in film, television, stage, and radio. Born on January 30, 1966, in Santa Barbara, Brick studied both acting and writing at UCLA, and joined the ranks of working professionals upon leaving school in 1989. He then spent 10 years with the LA-based Will and Company, a traveling Shakespearean company that performed for schools throughout California.

Brick went on to become a freelance writer and in 2000 was hired by Morgan Freeman and Revelations Entertainment to adapt Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama for the ...
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About Simon Vance
A British actor with a long time love of audiobook narrating, Simon lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.

He began his 'vocal' career in the UK as a producer/presenter at one of the BBC's first local radio stations, Radio Brighton. From there he moved to London where he joined the select band of announcers/newsreaders for Radio 4, the BBC's national speech-based network. At that time he 'cut his teeth' as an audiobook narrator by donating time to the Royal National Institute for the Blind's Talking Book Service. In the early '90s he left radio to become a ...
A British actor with a long time love of audiobook narrating, Simon lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.

He began his 'vocal' career in the UK as a producer/presenter at one of the BBC's first local radio stations, Radio Brighton. From there he moved to London where he joined the select band of announcers/newsreaders for Radio 4, the BBC's national speech-based network. At that time he 'cut his teeth' as an audiobook narrator by donating time to the Royal National Institute for the Blind's Talking Book Service. In the early '90s he left radio to become a full time actor when he moved to Northern California. It's at this time that he began to record audiobooks commercially.

Within a couple of years, "Library Journal" described Simon as "one of the best narrators in the business". Since then, while recording more than 300 books, Simon has won an Audie award (2006), earned eight Audie nominations, and collected nine Earphone Awards from "AudioFile" magazine.

In the past 15 years he has performed as an actor on a variety of stages in and around the San Francisco Bay Area (winning several Bay Area awards) as well as appearing on TV in a number of episodes of Don Johnson's locally filmed CBS series Nash Bridges and ABC's The Evidence. He also voices commercials and has appeared in many industrial videos

If you go to audible and featured narrators and you'll see they are not the same person.

Narrators that I like:

Johanna Parker - Sookie Stackhouse series, Waking The Witch
Marguerite Gavin - Kitty Norville series, The Hollows series, The Iron Hunt
Lorelei King - Mercy Thompson series, Stephanie Plum series, Wicked Appetite, Full series, The Scarpetta Factor
Max Bellmore - Lords of the Underworld series
Jim Frangione - Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Fallen Angels series
Scott Brick - the Bourne series.

My apologies about getting the names of the aliases mixed up.

However, Simon Vance does record under the names Robert Whitfield and Richard Matthews. See Audiofile article here:

http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/gvpa...

Wanda McCaddon records as Nadia May, Donada Peters, Margaret McKay, Ann Miles and Leonarda Stafford.

See article here:

http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/gvpa...

I think Cassandra Campbell - http://www.randomhouse.com/author/res... - did an outstanding job with "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot, one of my favorite books of the year. It was a pleasure to listen to it on audio.

Bea wrote: "My apologies about getting the names of the aliases mixed up.

However, Simon Vance does record under the names Robert Whitfield and Richard Matthews. See Audiofile article here:

http://www.a..."

No problem Bea it just made me giggle I mentioned it to Simon Vance on twitter and here is his response
@simvan Ha! That makes me laugh too, I'm so much better-looking. Wait, sorry, was that out loud? I meant a better narrator. Ha!

Thought you'd get a giggle out of it too!

Oh these two are too funny here's the conversation going on between Scott Brick & Simon Vance

Scott Brick-@simvan Ha! That makes me laugh too, I'm so much better-looking. Wait, sorry, was that out loud? I meant a better narrator. Ha!
Simon Vance-I should point out that @ScottBrick is wrong on both counts - but I'm far too modest to make a big thing of it...
Scott Brick-@SimVan @MissSusie66 I don't know what you mean, I'm far more modest than you...! Ok, enough, I'm making even ME sick now

I'm glad that my foolishness led to some laughs!

I don't know that I've ever listened to a book read by Scott Brick (probably how I made such an error). Anyway, I adore Simon Vance whether in his own name or reading as Robert Whitfield. I've spent many hours with both names and my beloved Charles Dickens.

Ya its funny to follow the narrators on twitter they are always harrassing each other!

Simon has talked alot about how much he enjoyed narrating theose Charles Dickens audiobooks!

Oliver Wyman - I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to his narration of several of Christopher Moore's books - he's able to skillfully adapt his voice to Moore's wacky characters. Such fun!

Also, I like Cynthia Holloway from Chicagoland Vampires series.