Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite audiobook narrators. This is a reprise from 2019 when I selected this topic for a TTT Freebie week. (If you don't like listening to audiobooks, give these readers a try and see if they help change your mind.)
1. Tom Hanks. I've listened twice to The Dutch House by Ann Patchett, read by Hanks. His narration mades the listening experience wonderful. Here is a list of books and samples of his narration on audiobooks.
2. Stephen Fry. A humorous reader. Fry is a perfect narrators for funny books. One of my favorites is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Here is a list and samples of his books.
3. Bill Bryson. Bryson writes nonfiction. If he narrates his own audiobooks expect to be entertained. He has comedic timing which makes the experience quite humorous. Note the books on the list that are narrated by Bryson. My favorites: In a Sunburned Country; A Walk in the Woods; Shakespeare; A Short History of Nearly Everything.
4. Jayne Entwistle. Entwistle has a unique voice, though she is an adult her voice makes her sound younger so she is a perfect narrator for teen characters. I first heard her reading the Flavia Du Luce series by Alan Bradley. I also enjoyed her narration of The Lovely War. Here is a list of her body of work.
5. Tim Curry. I fell in love with Tim Curry when he acted in Rocky Horror Picture Show but that love was renewed when I heard him read the Abhorsen/Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix. He was too ill to read the last book in that series and I missed his narration a lot. Here is his a list of his body of work.
6. Jim Dale. The award-winning narrator of The Harry Potter series. Another favorite narrated by Dale is The Night Circus. His work is mesmerizing. Here is a list of his other works.
7. Bahni Turpin. Ms. Turpin has recently become one of my favorite narrators after I listened to The Underground Railroad by Whitehead; Children of the Blood and Bone by Adeyemi; and The Hate U Give by Thomas. Turpin is very versatile. Check out her list of narrations.
8. Will Patton. Will Patton is perhaps by favorite of all favorites. His voice is so deep and growl-y. He has a large catalog of works but my favorite of these is his narration on The Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. Be sure to listen to a sample here.
9. Julia Whelan. Whelan has recently come to my attention through her work on Educated; Far From the Tree; and The Great Alone. She has a large body of work to choose from.
10. Adjoa Andoh. I first became aware of her through her narration of The Girl with the Louding Voice. Here is a sample.
11. Bill Homewood. Homewood narrated the 52+ hours of the audiobook of The Count of Monte Cristo. His mastery of French made the experience so realistic. Here is a short sample.
12. Edward Herrman. He narrated two of my favorite nonfiction books: Unbroken and The Boys in the Boat. Sadly he is no longer with us so he will no longer be able to thrill us with hew material. (See more here.)
Bonus. Narrators who clearly have mastery of English and one or many world languages: Morven Christie (Burial Rites, Icelandic); Bahni Turpin (The Children of Blood and Bone, Nigerian accent); Zach Appelman (All the Light We Cannot See, German and French); and Ilyana Kadushin (Disappearing Earth, Russian).
