After arguing about what music or podcast to listen to for the hundredth time, as what feels like hour 47 of your lengthy road trip comes and goes, you may be wishing you had downloaded an audiobook for your trek.
Not to fear. The following books will make time fly and keep you on the edge of your seat, even when cornfields are the only thing you see for miles and miles. Here are the eight best audiobooks for your next roadtrip.
The 8 best audiobooks for road trips
‘My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry’ by Fredrik Backman
When 7-year-old Elsa’s grandmother dies, she finds a box of apology cards written to various people, containing instructions. These instructions “lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other,” per Goodreads.
Backman also wrote “A Man Called Ove,” which was made into a film in 2015. Both are available on Audible.
Notable quotation: “I want someone to remember I existed. I want someone to know I was here.”
‘The Dutch House’ by Ann Patchett
Narrated by Tom Hanks, this novel spans over the lifetime of siblings Maeve and Danny Conroy. Book critic Heller McAlpin called “The Dutch House” a novel about “obsessive nostalgia.”
She continued, “Patchett’s eighth novel is a paradise lost tale dusted with a sprinkling of ‘Cinderella,’ ‘The Little Princess’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel.’”
Notable quotation: “But we overlay the present onto the past. We look back through the lens of what we know now, so we’re not seeing it as the people we were, we’re seeing it as the people we are, and that means the past has been radically altered.”
‘Greenlights’ by Matthew McConaughey
Read by McConaughey himself, this book is a combination of diary extracts and commentary. Many readers and critics have praised McConaughey for the honesty in his writing.
One librarian described McConaughey as a “natural story teller,” saying the book is “up front, honest and visceral in the details of his life.” She continued, “He brings the ugly, the perfect, the funny, the shameful and the unbelievable of his life into vivid detail.”
Notable quotation: “I have a lot of proof that the world is conspiring to make me happy.”
‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ by Edmond Rostand
Cyrano’s nose is so enormous, but it doesn’t stop him from fighting for love. This play, based off the real Cyrano de Bergerac’s life in 1600s France, tells the story of a man who wins over his love despite his lack of appealing features.
Notable quotation: “You blessed my life! Never on me had rested woman’s love. My mother even could not find me fair: I had no sister; and, when grown a man, I feared the mistress who would mock at me. But I have had your friendship — grace to you. A woman’s charm has passed across my path.”
‘The Good Sister’ by Sally Hepworth
Hepworth’s novel is a murder mystery that switches points of view between two twin sisters, Fern and Rose. Fern is unmarried and experiences frequent sensory overload.
Since Rose is infertile, Fern believes she should act as a surrogate, since her sister has done so much for her. The narration switches between Fern’s present day and Rose’s childhood journal.
Notable quotation: “The library belongs to everyone. The library, Janet used to say, is one of only a few places in the world that one doesn’t need to believe anything or buy anything to come inside.”
‘Schindler’s List’ by Thomas Keneally
Adapted into a Steven Spielberg film in 1994, Keneally’s story follows a man named Oskar Schindler, a German, who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust by employing and housing them in his metal-item factory, per History.
After its 1982 publication, The New York Times reviewed the book, praising Keneally’s storytelling.
Columnist Paul Zweig wrote, “He leaves us with the remarkable story of a man who saved lives when every sinew of civilization was devoted to destroying them.”
Notable quotation: “The principle was, death should not be entered like some snug harbor. It should be an unambiguous refusal to surrender.”
‘The Boys in the Boat’ by Daniel James Brown
With research conducted from the journals of the boys on the team, “The Boys in the Boat” tells the true story of how an eight-man rowing team at the University of Washington took a gold medal at the the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, right before the start of World War II.
Brown’s website describes, the “heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world.”
Notable quotation: “All were merged into one smoothly working machine; they were, in fact, a poem of motion, a symphony of swinging blades.”
‘Piranesi’ by Susanna Clarke
“Piranesi” is a fantasy/mystery, told through Piranesi’s journal entries. He’s been stuck in an seemingly endless house, and he is visited weekly by someone called the “other.”
Irish book reviewer Adrian Rose described, “Piranesi has no memories from his earlier life, and he’s happy in this world, until a few strange occurrences cause him to start asking questions.”
Notable quotation: “Perhaps that is what it is like being with other people. Perhaps even people you like and admire immensely can make you see the World in ways you would rather not.”