I often listen to audiobooks during the commute and was curious which ones people find as favorites. I'm not looking for "the best novel" in spoken form, but rather an engaging narrator or perhaps even a cast (as done in mid grade and ya) that deliver a performance that will hold my ADD-leaning attention span.
 

It all started with the Harry Potter series, which is read by Jim Dale who is, in my opinion, the best voice talent on the face of this earth. Beautiful reading, great inflection, fantastic ability to give slight vocal quirks to characters so you believe in them, etc.

I also highly recommend the Prydain Chronicles books by Lloyd Alexander. The voice talent (warning, the copies we listened to from our library included a short piece by Lloyd himself at the beginning, and I was really fearful that the whole story would be read by a quavering older voice that sounded just a little congested. I was wrong to fear) is also phenomenal, though I can't recall the name of the actor.

We mostly listen to middle-grade and YA science fiction and fantasy, so I can't recommend much outside that, but if you'd like more ideas within those boundaries, let me know. I think we listened to 17-20 audio books last year alone (I log them...)

My library only has book 5 of the Prydain Chronicles. I may go thru Harry Potter again sometime soon- haven't done the audio versions.

I just put on hold three audio books:
1. Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghosts. I've read his 2 novels, but not any of his short stories.
2. Star Wars Radio Broadcasts- full cast with an elaborate screen(?)play expounds in greater detail the Star Wars (IV-VI) trilogy. How did I miss this one? I am a total Star Wars nut/nerd/fanatic.
3. Thomas Sowell's new book- what can I say? The man is a genius and can explain economics in a way idiots like me can understand.
 

I don't read very much midgrade/ya (just the uber popular ones), but for audiobooks they are perfect. Simpler to understand, often have narrative casts -what's not to love?

If you have any other fav's, I'd be curious to know.
 

I highly recommend The Golden Compass, Phillip Pullman. Great cast, the voice talent that plays the main girl character just *is* Lyra to me. Excellent.

We've listened to a number of Shannon Hale audiobooks, all done by Full Cast Audio. They're a treat. Goose Girl is my primary recommendation, Princess Academy is second. I know they sound girly, but trust me - Shannon Hale is one of the best writers of our generation in terms of putting words into beautiful sentences. Love her stuff. Great fantasy with a spin.

Two of my favorite books of all time - Robin McKinley's Hero and the Crown, and The Blue Sword, are good audiobooks.

A Wrinkle In Time is read by Madeline L'Engle herself, which is neat (though her voice isn't my preferred tone for an audio talent - she was clearly older when she recorded the books, there's something special about hearing an author of her caliber reading their work, the inflections are perfect, you know what she meant to convey with the words exactly.)

Can you borrow the Prydain books from another library? Ours does a great inter-library loan, totally worth the extra waiting time to get a book/audio from another town.

We've listened to the Septimus Heap books (First one is called Magyk I think) - maybe we've done three or four of them. They are pretty good, but I don't love the storytelling (it's good, but just not my preference. Can't put a finger on what it is i don't prefer. The stories have been wildly popular.)

I do not recommend the second book in the Mysterious Benedict Society, voice talent was a gravelly voiced older male and I hated it - kept wanting him to clear his throat! He is a famous actor but I just didn't like it.

I also don't recommend the Enchanted Forest Chrnoicles in Audio - the first book being Dealing With Dragons - because the full cast used for the recording is clearly a stage cast - they projected their way right out the back speakers of the minivan. We didn't care for the style, but LOVED the books.

I've recently gushed about how much we enjoyed Howl's Moving Castle and anything else by Diana Wynne Jones. We've listened to at least 3 books of hers on audio and they're all excellent - Howl's is one of our favorites of all time.

The Percy Jackson books are pretty good in audio - narrated by a young male actor, so they feel appropriate (since they're first person stories and the boy is 12 at the start of the first book.) The first book is called The Lightning Thief. I really loved the stories, others complain that they're too predictable/overdone/etc. I think it's just a backlash, they have been insanely popular with school children for a number of years just like Harry Potter (slightly smaller scale.) The movie that was made from the first wasn't a very good reflection of the content of the book - the book is much funnier, very wry sense of humor, excellent (high) pacing. I read and listened to them all and enjoyed listening quite a lot.

I'm currently listening to Incarceron, which is a YA scifi/fantasy blend. English narrator (I know what you mean about it taking a few minutes to "tune" your ears to that particular accent) It's a very good book and has been widely talked about in YA circles. It's a bit challenging to listen to when I'm running, though, as I find my attention wanders because I'm new to running and have to focus on silly things like not falling off the treadmill. I think the book premise (an "alive" prison) and storytelling is excellent.

That should get you started.

To give you just three - go:
1) Howl's Moving Castle
2) The Goose Girl
3) Prydain Chronicles (only because you're having a hard time finding them. They're worth a #1 slot, too.)

All fantasy. Not much out there in scifi in YA (or I've been able to read those as books and not audio.) I've put down a few - The Seams being the most recent audiobook I abandoned. Just didn't get enthralled, didn't want to keep listening.

Ever since I was a kid, I loved listening to William Dufris. He read the Aliens Ate My Homework series by Bruce Coville, and it was awesome. I recently rediscovered him when he read the newest books by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. I am also a huge fan of the voice of Robert Inglis, who read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Barbara Rosenblat also had done some wonderful audiobooks, such as the Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gilman.

I've also enjoyed most of the narrators of OSC's books, such as Ender's Game and Wurms. I wasn't a huge fan of the entire cast for Ender in Exile, but the main guy that read's Ender's parts is good.

Glancing through the previous posts, I recall how much I used to enjoy Lloyd Alexander, and if the audiobooks are good, I might have to check them out. I agree that the Harry Potter narrator is great. Pity about Dealing with Dragons. I enjoyed those books. I just checked out Eragon. I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet though...
 

The voice for Lyra is perfect.

I will get an inter-library loan to get the lloyd novel when I finish my current queue.

I actually enjoy rush hour traffic now!
 

For instance, when the first movie came out my friend told me their catholic school sent home a note saying something about how in the movie/books, the main characters (children) "kill God." That's not how the narration happens at all. They free somebody who might be considered "God" (but it's left pretty vague/up to the reader to decide), and her parents cause the death of someone who was co-opting the "God"-like role in their world. But nothing so clear-cut as the note home to my friend seemed to indicate. I feel it's worth a read and each person can make their own judgments. At the time I felt the second and third books were a bit too heavy and dark for my kids (who were maybe only 4 and 6 or 5 and 7 at the time) so I read them on my own and didn't do the audio, but they were excellent books.

@Fahrion - it could be that others wouldn't mind the Dealing with Dragons cast, we just found it overwhelming (might be our listening environment of the car versus a headphone set.) Just too much. The books are excellent, though, and worth a read. Just maybe in paper/ebook form not audio. Sounds like you're already familiar with them - I recommend them to loads of tween girls because they're so great at having a different take on princesses and standard fairy tale tropes.