There’s nothing like listening to a great book on a road trip! But finding a book that both you and your partner/husband/friend will like on a road trip can be tricky. One person likes thrillers, and the other likes romance. One loves a detective story, and the other likes historical fiction. We both listen to audiobooks on longer drives with our husbands, and here are some that have resonated with everyone in the car. Some of these are new, and some have been around for a while, but all are just SO GOOD!
The Many Lives of Mama Love by Lara Love Hardin
This is a terrific autobiography that my husband and I (Chrissie) both really enjoyed. It’s about the author’s life, as she went from being a soccer mom in Santa Cruz to a jailed opioid addict, to a bestselling author. It’s an amazing story and a great read. I just recommended it to a friend who listened to it on a 2-day road trip last week, and he loved it!
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
For those who haven’t yet read this bestselling book, please listen to this one! The Audible version is especially good with a great narrator. Written entirely in the form of letters, it’s about an elderly woman’s correspondence with friends, family, and others. Through these letters, we learn about her past and current life, and it’s a terrific read.
Running With Sherman by Christopher McDougall
My husband and I both loved listening to this book during a road trip together. It’s a true story about a donkey that the author, living in Pennsylvania Amish country, rescues from a hoarder. As part of its rehab, the donkey is trained for an incredibly arduous mountain trail race to give it purpose, and in the process, it impacts many lives in amazing ways. My husband would say it’s a book about a trail race, and I’d say it’s about connections and people. It’s a good one!
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
This book took book clubs by storm last year for a reason. It’s a heartwarming story about a man who shows up in a small Southern town and starts befriending people via a project he takes on at a local cafe. It’s a book about connections, listening to people’s stories, and friendship.
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown
I (Chrissie) loved this book about a girl raised by her reclusive father in the backcountry of Montana. As she learns more about her father’s backstory and the world beyond their cabin in the woods, she begins to ask more questions, and events unfold that cause her life to take a turn. Just a wonderful story/read.
My Friends: A Novel by Fredrik Backman
This award-winning book is about three childhood friends who were depicted in a painting during their youth. Years later, an aspiring artist, who’s also an orphan, is determined to find out who the three people depicted in this world-famous piece of art are. The histories of all the characters are traced, including when they all collide later in life. It’s a wonderful book of childhood friendships, adult friendships, and the power of art.
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
Investigative journalist Keefe delves into the true story of the apparent suicide of a young British man, unveiling the boy’s secret second identity, which drew him into the underworld of London’s criminals.
The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
A wonderful road trip book that’s about a wonderful road trip! A man and a rag-tag crew of family, and their cat, who can tell when someone is about to die, take a cross-country trip for the dad to reunite with his high school crush, finding out what real family means along the way.
Strangers by Belle Burden
This book has been all the rage since it came out last year, and Gwenyth Paltrow has already been tapped to star in the movie adaptation. It would be an interesting one to listen to as a couple on a road trip, as it’s a true story about the author, an upper-class woman from Manhattan with prominent socialite relatives, who finds out during COVID that her husband is cheating on her. It is the story of her journey from a storybook marriage to utter shock to divorce, and it uncovers a common story that is usually not publicly shared.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
We know most of you have read this autobiography, but if not, it’s a great road-trip book, and Trevor Noah does such a good job reading it. The book is about Noah’s life growing up during apartheid in South Africa as the son of a white Swiss man and a black mother, at a time when such a union was punishable by 5 years in prison. His story is touching, hard, and funny. He is a gifted storyteller, and the book is an amazing listen.
Stories I Only Tell My Friends by Rob Lowe
For anyone who grew up in the 60s and 70s, this is a great road trip book. It’s a trip down memory lane, with Rob Lowe talking about his life, the projects he was in that defined a lot of our childhood, and the celebrities he hung out and worked with. It’s a fun listen.
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
This is a loooooog book, so it took Jo and her husband a few drives and hikes (splitting a set of AirPods) to complete, and they enjoyed all 30+ hours of it!! Narrated by the author (who had to audition to get the reading job!), this is a sprawling, multi-generational novel set in Kerala, India, from 1900 to 1977, following a Christian family plagued by a curse in which at least one person in each generation drowns. The story explores themes of family, faith, medicine, and colonialism through the lives of its characters. So good!
Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
This was an eye-opening, jaw-dropping story that Jo and her husband listened to last summer on a road trip. It’s an explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of Facebook, the decisions that shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them. It tells the why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice—from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election.
What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci
Jo and her sister listened to this diary while driving through Italy and France, and warning – this book makes you hungry! Tucci records twelve months of eating in restaurants, kitchens, film sets, press junkets, at home, and abroad, with friends, with family, with strangers, and occasionally just by himself. Eat before listening to this book!
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Jo and her daughter listened to this while driving home from a college pick-up. Narrated by Tom Hanks, it’s the story of Cyril Conroy, who buys the Dutch House—a lavish, glass-fronted estate outside Philadelphia. Following his death, his cruel second wife, Andrea, exiles Cyril’s children, Danny and Maeve, stripping them of their wealth. Thrown back into the working-class world their parents escaped, the siblings are forced to rely solely on each other. Jo liked it so much that she listened to it again with her husband.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
This is another Ann Patchett book Jo and her husband loved, narrated by Meryl Streep. While picking cherries in their family’s orchard in Northern Michigan, three daughters beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Another book Jo and her daughter listened to on a long drive. This one details the rise and fall of Theranos, the biotech startup led by Elizabeth Holmes. The book explores the company’s fraudulent claims that one drop of blood could perform a range of lab tests. This is one of the biggest corporate frauds in history, and it reads like a thriller. We were so enthralled, we didn’t even want to stop for gas.
