I think audio books could possibly be the greatest invention since sliced bread!  Now don’t get me wrong, I love printed books, & if I can’t find what I want on audio that is where I will go.  But I have found that since we bought the ranch & I am on the go all day long, once I get in to my nice comfy bed, I can’t stay awake long enough to read a book.  But give me an audio book and I am good to go.  A well read book to me is the equivalent of having my mom or dad read me to sleep & what could be better than that?

The 5 books I have chosen span a wide range of genres but the one thing they all have in common is an excellent narrator & this one thing is what I feel can make or break an audio book. So without further ado, here is my list.

Atlas Shrugged was written by Ayn Rand in 1957, & is still as relevant today as it was then, possibly more so. It is a story of Men of the Mind vs The Looters, those who believe in reason and those who try to rule by emotion.  The country is in an economic downfall & the leading industrialists are disappearing without a trace.  The heroine of the story, Dagny Taggert, is the VP of Operations for her family’s railroad and is intelligent, rational and driven. The characters are complex & compelling, & the story twists & turns.
The narrator, Scott Brick does an absolutely amazing job of bringing the characters to life with both his skill at how he reads but even more so, the individual voices he uses for the characters.
I have listened to this book 3 times over the years and have no doubt I will listen to it again, it is that good.

Titan, by Ron Chernow, is the story of John D Rockefeller, Sr, as well as his family & the lasting legacy he left behind.
A complex & brilliant man, Rockefeller helped to change the face of America both with his Standard Oil Company & with his monumental philanthropy.
What I enjoyed about this book was the very human story of this man who has been reviled as a “robber baron”, but in truth, contributed a great deal to society along with his contemporaries Carnegie, Morgan & Vanderbilt to name a few.
If you enjoy history, which I do, then you will find this book chock full of it.
Grover Gardner is the narrator & does a very good job reading a very long book.

I am a disaster movie junkie.  I can’t tell you why, but give me something with an apocalyptic story line & I am hooked.
The Johnstown Flood fits that bill for me, but rather then being fiction, it is the true story of the devastating flood that all but destroyed Johnstown PA in 1889.  David McCullough, the author as well as the narrator, is a very gifted writer & historian & has a unique talent for bringing the past to life. An amazing story not to be missed.

What an amazing book this is!  It is the story of the space race, starting with the test pilots of the 1950’s, most notably Chuck Yeager, who was the first man to break the sound barrier & incredibly is still alive at the age of 95, & moving on from there to John Glenn and his historic orbiting of the earth.  It is full of action & realism and brings to life a time that was amazing.  Think about it, in 1903 the Wright Brothers took flight for the first time in history & 58 years later, in 1961, Astronaut Alan Shepard blasted in to space. Think about the technology of the day, rotary phones, typewriters, no seat belts in cars (how did we ever survive that), if you needed cash you had to wait for a bank to open – OMG, no ATMS!!!
Tom Wolff is an excellent story teller with what I consider a rather gritty style of writing & Dennis Quaid, who narrates & played Gordon Cooper in the movie version, matches that gritty style perfectly.

Of all the books on my list, this is the one I love the most for how it made me feel. The Hearts of Horses is the story of a young woman, Martha, in 1917 Oregon who hires herself out not as a horse breaker, but a horse gentler.  Molly Gloss’s tale of Martha’s life & the ranchers & their families that she comes to know, is full of hope & sorrow & happiness. Renee Raudman who narrates has a sweet, gentle voice that is a pleasure to listen to.  Now, I can’t say if men would enjoy this book, but if you were a horse crazy girl when you were growing up as I was, you will want to spend time with this book.

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