On the Road Again: Your 2023 Summer Audiobook Guide

For many, summer is all about the road trip – loading up the car and driving to another state to stay for a while, zipping in the car to a nearby lake or seashore, or making the journey the vacation itself and exploring America along the way by camper or van. Whatever your plans, I suggest an audiobook or two to break up the drive. I am organizing my top 10 picks in order by length, so you can plan your trip. Readers will see from my list that I am a big fan of the memoir in the audio format, but I did try to include some fun fiction as well. Happy travels!

Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote is iconic, and you can’t read or listen to the book without seeing Audrey Hepburn in her black dress, pearls, and big sunglasses. I had read this years ago and seen the movie a few times, but when I came across this recording by the talented Michael C. Hall of Dexter and Six Feet Under Fame, I knew I needed to give it a listen. He’s a perfect narrator for this book, and I felt like I was meeting Holly Golightly all over again. This is a terrific listen and perfect for a short trip clocking in at 2 hours and 50 minutes.

Nobody Will Tell You This but Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb is funny and touching in the way you want a memoir to be. The author saved all the voicemail messages her grandmother ever left her, and she pulled those together along with her own memories to tell this story of her own life and the life of her glamorous, fiercely doting, and irreverent grandmother. I laughed, I missed my own amazing grandmother, and I felt all the feels. Clocking in at 4 hours and 21 minutes, this is also perfect for shorter trips.  

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy has a bit of that rubbernecking feeling to it where you feel like you should stop listening, but you just can’t. This is the heartbreaking story of the child TV star from Nickelodeon shows, iCarly and Sam & Cat, who was subjected to child abuse and suffered from eating disorders throughout her childhood and early adulthood. This is also her story of healing. She’s a talented storyteller, and while the subject matter is very intense, she tells this in an at times humorous and always heartfelt manner. I think this is a book that will appeal more to women readers, and I would listen away from tiny ears because of the subject matter. This is a nice length at 6 hours and 26 minutes.

Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey is probably a book I wouldn’t have picked up if it wasn’t in an audible format, but I couldn’t resist 6 hours and 42 minutes of McConaughey’s voice. This is filled with McConaughey’s own brand of insights and the crazy stories of his roller coaster career and his time on the road. It’s sheer fun.

Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci is another celebrity memoir clocking in at 6 hours and 50 minutes. Full disclosure, I literally drooled while listening to this because of the food descriptions and would have loved to see the hard copy book to check out some of his recipes, but I wouldn’t have wanted to missed Tucci reading this himself. This is terrific both as a celebrity memoir with a trajectory that has been totally different than McConaughey’s story, but it’s also the story of an immigrant family and the power of food in bringing people together and defining our traditions.  

Emma: An Audible Original Drama is the Audible adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Emma narrated by Emma Thompson with a supporting cast of terrific voice actors. This is a bit like listening to a play, and the story of Emma will be familiar to those who have read the book or watched the movie. Hearing it in this format was terrific and would also be a perfect introduction for teen family members who may be new to (and intimidated by) classic literature. This is a fun listen and is great for slightly longer trips at 8 hours and 21 minutes in length.

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah was one of the first memoirs I listened to and was the book that really turned me on to memoirs in audible format. This one really checks all the boxes – great voice (I mean who doesn’t enjoy a South African accent), a little bit of humor, and a fascinating life that teaches you something. This engaging story taught me something (actually a lot) about South African political history and about apartheid in general. This is really interesting and probably something both men and women can agree on and enjoy. This is 8 hours and 44 minutes in length.  

Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys is WWII historical fiction featuring three refugees and a Nazi soldier on board a German ship that sank during the War with more than 10,500 passengers on board. The story follows Joana, a Lithuanian refugee studying to be a nurse; Florian, a Prussian soldier with a secret; Emilia, a Polish girl nearing the end of a pregnancy; and Albert, a Nazi underling with delusions of superiority. It’s an engaging story with rich characters, and each of the four characters is played by a different voice actor, which makes it an excellent listen. This is 8 hours and 47 minutes long.    

If you have been loving the Amazon show and want some more, Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid is great in audible format. I have noticed that friends who read this in hard copy were fairly mixed on the book, but everyone I know who listened to it uniformly seemed to enjoy it. The faux-documentary style of the book is perfect for the audio format, and this is another one that uses multiple character actors to tell the story. At 9 hours and 3 minutes this is ideal for a longer trip.

My last pick is a whopping 20 hours and 25 minutes, but if you are a U2 fan, this should be on your summer listening list. Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono tells the story of the band, mixes in a fair amount of singing, and features Bono doing an embarrassingly bad Bill Clinton impersonation. Bono is so utterly likeable, and this story of one of the biggest bands in recent music history is engaging and full of factoids you will want to share. I wish I had listened to this with my husband because we are both big U2 fans, but I couldn’t wait and listened to this in record speed.