Hey, what's up, hello, my name is Emma and today
I'm going to be sharing with you guys some of my favorite audiobooks. Since 2016,
I have fallen completely in love with audiobooks.
They are so much fun, they're super convenient because I'm able to read when I'm doing things like driving and walking or working
out. They just add a
completely different experience to reading a book and I love them so much that I just had to share some of my favorites with you
guys. I get a ton of questions on how I listen to my audiobooks and it's either one of two ways. The first being
Overdrive
which is an app you can download that connects to your local library where you're able to access their collection of e-books and audiobooks.
I think a few other countries
have a similar app called BorrowBox
which is essentially the same thing but Overdrive is fantastic if you have access to it through your library,
I'd highly recommend it. And the other way
I listen to audiobooks is Audible which is a subscription service that you pay for each month, but for each audiobook
I'm gonna be talking about, I did leave a link to the Audible page in the description
because they do let you hear a sample of it so if you like what I'm saying about it and want to see if the
narrator would work for you,
you can check out a sample of it in the description as well.
But the first audiobook that is an absolute favorite of mine is the Harry Potter audiobooks narrated by Jim Dale.
Harry Potter is of course one of my all-time favorite series.
I reread it once a year and
not this past reread cuz I did get myself to read the physical ones which was really enjoyable.
But the two pastimes that I've reread Harry Potter,
I listen to them on audiobook
and I really really love them. Jim Dale does a great job at creating different voices for so many different characters
and it really brings the world of Harry Potter to life. The Harry Potter audiobooks are so easy to love, they're so much fun. If
you are someone who--like me, frequently reads Harry Potter, I would definitely recommend
changing up your reread a little bit and listening to one of the audiobooks. I do know that Jim Dale narrates the U.S.
versions of Harry Potter and Stephen Fry narrates the UK versions.
I have not listened to Stephen Fry's narration before,
but I've heard such great things that I would like to try them as well in the future. And my next favorite audio book series
is The Diviners By Libba Bray which is narrated by January Lavoie. Now
I did read the physical version of The Diviners, but I've listened to the audiobooks for
Lair of Dreams and Before the Devil Breaks You
and I am definitely planning on listening to book four on audiobook because they are so good. The Diviners is such an amazing series.
It's a paranormal YA set in 1920s
New York with a diverse cast, a bunch of different characters with supernatural abilities and ghosts, and it's just so amazing.
But January does an absolutely amazing job of bringing that atmospheric setting to life.
I don't think I've ever heard a single person say anything negative about the audiobooks for The Diviners.
It really is so amazing and while I know these books look very
intimidating and sometimes bigger books might seem a little bit more daunting listening to them.
But it's so good, so easy to get hooked by and if you haven't read The Diviners,
I'd highly recommend it, but if you're looking for good audiobooks
The Diviners is at the very top of my list. Now the next two books on this list are by the same author and they're
narrated by the same narrator.
She's one of my favorites, and that is Heartless By Marissa Meyer
which is narrated by Rebecca Soler. The reason I actually picked up the audiobook for Heartless is because I went to Marissa's event in
New York City and Rebecca Soler, the audiobook narrator was there, and she read the second chapter for us
and I was like
so blown away by her performance that I was like there is no other way that I can consume
this book unless it is through the audio. Rebecca Soler is very very talented.
I feel like most of the time when I'm gonna be talking about these narrations,
it's gonna be pretty much the same thing. That they bring the book to life,
they add a lot to the story. But the story of Heartless itself was so fun for me.
If you did not know, it is sort of like a
prequel to the story of how the Queen of Hearts became the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland
and I really really loved it. So coupled with Rebecca's fantastic narration,
it made for such a wonderful reading experience. The original world of Alice in Wonderland is very vibrant and
Marissa Meyer does an immaculate job of capturing that in Heartless and
just I don't know how to even talk about this book because it was just so fun and good and I'd really really
recommend the audio version of it. So the next book on this list is also written by Marissa Meyer and narrated by Rebecca Soler and
that is
Renegades, but there is a male narrator for one of the other main characters of this story
and his name is Dan Bittner. Renegades is so amazing, if you haven't seen rave about it in my January Wrap Up,
I was so blown away by this story.
Literally this book is so amazing, it's on my favorites of the year like I will be talking about this all throughout
2018 because it was so amazing and the audiobook was such a fantastic
format to consume this book in. I already loved Rebecca Soler,
but Dan Bittner did a fantastic job at playing Adrien. The plot and the world and the characters of Renegades are just so
intoxicating that you can't help but be addicted to them. So I loved Renegades,
I loved the audiobook and pretty much for all of these if you're gonna consume any of these books,
I totally recommend the audiobook version because they're all so so good.
The next audiobook that I love so much is actually one of the very first new-to-me
audiobooks that I tried and that is Six of Crows By Leigh Bardugo.
It is performed by a full cast so there's a lot of names. Six of Crows is narrated by
Jay Snyder, Brandon Rubin, Fred Berman, Lauren Fortgang,
Roger Clark, Elizabeth Evans and Tristan Morris. If you have been on BookTube before, I am sure you have heard the very deserving
hype of Six of Crows. I really loved the Six of Crows audiobook.
I have such
distinct memories of being so engaged with this world because someone was telling the story to me. Full cast audiobooks are so much fun because
each chapter is so distinct and this is the first one I ever listened to like that and it was a really wonderful
experience. I was a little wary of listening to the audiobook at first because not only was I new to listening to audiobooks,
but it was at the time when I had not read a lot of high fantasy,
and I didn't really love high fantasy, so I was afraid I was setting myself up for failure.
But overall, it was an amazing experience
and I really really loved the
audiobook. Six of Crows is definitely the type of book to completely and encapture you into its world
and I feel like the addition of all of these fantastic narrators just really adds to how much you feel like you're in Ketterdam
while reading this novel. The next series on here is another full cast
recording and that is The Illuminae Files By Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I did not listen to the audiobook for Illuminae, but I
did listen to the audiobook for Gemina.  And because each installment of this series does follow a completely different set of characters,
the audiobook narrators for Illuminae are different from that of Gemini, but Gemini is narrated by
Carla Corvo, P.J. Ochlan and Steve West. So I can't really speak specifically to the audiobook of Illuminae,
but I've heard fantastic things about it and because of how much I loved Gemina,
I am sure it is just as amazing.
Now Gemina was an audiobook that I was again a little wary about picking up because The Illuminae File series is very very
visual. The entire story is told through mixed media, so it is not a typical novel format.
They are all in radio transmissions and
video transcriptions and chat messages
and there's a lot of artwork that compliments the story which I obviously cannot get through the audiobook.
I will say I don't really feel like I missed out on a lot by listening to the audiobook of Gemina.
There's a lot of cool space sounds and music and with the full cast it
felt like as big of a production as it is reading,
and I mean when you flip through Gemina or
Illuminae, you realize a lot of the visual aspect of it is not that important like the chat message like I don't need to
see the chat window to know that we're talking online. Of course
there's cool pictures that you're not gonna get from listening to the audiobook.
But they're quick enough that you can just flip through them if you feel like that's something you really want for your experience.
But Gemina is definitely a big enough audio recording for you to enjoy
just as much, at least in my opinion because I loved Illuminae just as much as I loved Gemina even though
I consumed them in completely different formats. So definitely I would not let the visual aspect of this series deter
you away from trying the audiobooks
if you're really interested. The production is fantastic and I would really recommend it. If you're someone who maybe
doesn't have the time to like sit down and read this monster of a book or you just want to try out a new
exciting audiobook, The Illuminae File series is definitely a great one. The next audiobook on my list is The Gentleman's Guide to
Vice and Virtue By Mackenzie Lee which is narrated by Christian Coulson otherwise known as Tom Riddle from the Chamber of Secrets
movie. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue is an
amazing, amazing audiobook. I swear like half of the BookTubers
I know that have read this book listened to the audiobook just because there was so much
hype just around the narration. Now Monty's voice as a character independent from Chris Coulson's narration is
fantastic. He is so funny and humorous and a real pleasure to read in my opinion. But Chris Coulson again,
just really brings the story to life
and it is such an addition to the story. The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue was so much more
adventurous and exciting and suspenseful than I ever expected.
It really really took me by surprise. Again, I feel like the audiobook was just a great way to take in this story.
I'm realizing now that every single book that I have recommended in this video is a fantasy book so if you're not a big fantasy
reader, but you're looking for some great audiobooks, this historical fiction novel
really really A+ choice. I would highly highly recommend the audiobook for this one.
"Oops I did it again" -Britney Spears- Oops!...I Did It Again
I have one final audiobook to share with you guys
and I have no idea how I forgot to mention this because this book took over my life
in the month of December and that is The Afterlife of Holly Chase By Cynthia Hand which is narrated by Erin Spencer.
I don't know if y'all were here for December, but man I could not do anything but think about this book.
This is the first audiobook in history for me that ever put me in an audiobook slump.
I could not listen to a new audiobook for days after finishing it because every five seconds
I wanted to restart. Every single audiobook since, when I finish it
I literally have to convince myself that it's too soon for me to reread The Afterlife of Holly Chase and I have to wait a couple
more months. Even though I read this book in 2017,
it's going to be on my 2018 favorite books of the year because I filmed that video way too early last year
and I am not passing up any
opportunity to talk about it because it deserved a place on that list and I hate myself for it. The Afterlife of
Holly Chase is sort of like a retelling of A Christmas Carol.
Although the original work plays a huge role in this story as the Charles Dickens story
so it's not like a normal retelling. And even though this would conventionally be like a Christmasy December read,
I think about this book all the time and I literally want to reread it 24/7 because it was so good.
I picked this one off on audio just because I knew I wanted to read some Christmasy books around the season,
but I didn't know if I was gonna get the chance to read it physically and the audiobook just-- it took me by storm.
I just could not stop listening to it.
I think I listened to it in the span of like two days, which is really quick for me with an audiobook
just because I was looking for every opportunity to continue listening. The Afterlife of Holly Chase is really atmospheric.
I feel like when listening to the audiobook, I am right there next to Holly all throughout this story. It definitely is
totally brought to life by Erin Spencer, and it was a fantastic
audiobook. It is so so good
whether you want to wait until the festive holiday season or if you're one of those people that wants to celebrate Christmas in March, I
say go for it.
Read The Afterlife of Holly Chase,
listen to The Afterlife of Holly Chase and please like discuss it with me because I only know one other person that has read this book
and I am just-- I'm so obsessed with it. It's so good,
please read it. So those are just a handful of my very many favorite audiobooks
and I really hope you enjoyed this video. If you have any
audiobooks of your own that you have loved, I would love to hear them. That is it for this video,
thank you guys so much for watching, and I'll see you soon for a new one.
Bye!
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