FAVOURITE AUDIOBOOKS FROM THE PROS

Looking for some sound book advice? We asked the experts to recommend some of the best books they’ve heard recently.

The Actor

Sarah Mennell had significant experience narrating audiobooks before reading Michael Redhill’s Bellevue Square, having recorded roughly a dozen productions when she lived in the U.K. (“I did a lot of trashy romance novels,” she concedes). She mainly listens to non-fiction audiobooks but she finds it difficult to engage unless she likes the narrator. “I haven’t listened to a lot, and you know why? It’s because I’m very particular about who reads me the story,” she said. “And if I’m not drawn to the voice, I can’t listen to it.”

The Agent

Denise Bukowski typically prefers the audiobook format for nonfiction — with fiction, “I find you stop listening to it after a while and your mind drifts and you realize you’re not paying attention” — but the widely heralded production of George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo is an exception. “It’s like listening to a radio play.”

The Author

Wayne Johnston doesn’t have extensive experience as an audiobooks listener, aside from recently his own First Snow, Last Light and feeling a sort of “hyper self-consciousness.” Otherwise, he does recall cherishing the audiobook version of Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business, a book he’s memorized: “I remember thinking then that I would really love to have one of my books made into an audiobook.”

The Producer

As you might expect, Ann Jansen has no shortage of favourites, including Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed (read by R.H. Thomson), Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, Sylvain Neuvel’s Sleeping Giants (and the rest of the trilogy), Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (read by Cassandra Campbell and Bahni Turpin) and “everything written and read by David Sedaris.” Of course, she notes, she’s mainly occupied with the titles she’s producing. “I’m not a very good multitasker,” she sighed.