Updated July 01, 2014.

As a caregiver, it might feel like you’re already listening to a lot. Advice from professionals. Advice from other family members. Advice from friends. And all that is true. But in my hardest caregiving moments, listening to audio books really made some bad days better. Audio books (what our parents called “books on tape”) are perfect for caregiving because they are:

• Portable, especially with the advent of ubiquitous smart phones; you can download a book in a few minutes or stream it if you don’t have the space on your phone. 

• Positive distractions. You can’t read and do the laundry at the same time, but you can listen to an audiobook while you fold sheets, etc.
• Great for blocking out unpleasant conversations, beeping etc, that are often part of both the inpatient and outpatient healthcare environment.

This is the first installment in a series of audio book for caregivers recommendations. This piece is focusing on light-hearted books that will make you laugh. I’ve chosen the books based on having a good personal experience listening to the book, lack of triggering content (ie no cancer books) and general availability. I’m mostly focusing on books that were released more than three months ago, as you are more likely to be able to borrow these free from your local library.

Recommendation #1: David Sedaris Live From Carnegie Hall (2003, Time Warner Audiobooks)While Live from Carnegie Hall isn’t, I suppose, technically an audiobook in that it is not just the reading of a book, I’ve included it at the top of this list because it is everything you want in a humorous audiobook.

First and foremost, it is really really funny: laughing out loud funny in the literal rather than internet slang sense.  Sedaris’ comic timing is really best experienced in front of a live audience and is comedy most times is witty and deadpan rather than being mean. I also like this better than other examples of Sedaris’ work because he more often makes himself the butt of the joke. If you’re new to Sedaris and like this audiobook, the next one to listen to is Me Talk Pretty One Day,

Recommendation #2: The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, read by Julia Roberts (2002 Random House Audiobooks) There is a lot to like about this audiobook, and a lot specifically for an embattled caregiver to like. It’s funny yes, listening to the first person nanny descriptions of the difficulty of taking care of a overprivileged child with an overprivileged mom who has nothing to do and no time to do it is hilarious, even as it is a little heartbreaking.  But it also makes you glad at least you’re not a nanny to the wealthy ladies on the Upper East Side, and a reminder that all the money in the world can’t make you sane. I’m also a sucker for Julia Roberts in anything, but her comic timing is particularly good here.

Recommendation #3: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, read by the author (1998, Bantam Doubleday Audio) This is the story of the author’s hilarious and somewhat misguided attempt to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Bryson is a native Iowan who returns to small town in New England after twenty years living in Britain, and his “walk in the woods” is partly an attempt to re-acquaint himself with his country of origin. I’m not a big fan of hiking or even being outdoors at all (isn’t camping intentional homelessness?) but this book was a great companion to my hours doing housework while my partner was very ill. There’s nothing that will take you out of your own attempt to get rid of germs that will make your loved one with no white cells horribly ill faster than a hilarious man with a weird hybrid Midwest-English accent, sharing with you his stories of getting lost, then found, then worried about bears, then not.