<p>Any good ideas for a book rated G, no sex, no language so 80+ year old grandma is happy, but will also interest DH & DD? We have about 15-20 hours of driving coming up soon.</p>
<p>We have listened many times to the Harry Potter series in the car. If it’s a round trip, check out your local library for audio books. If it’s a one-way directional trip, if you are traveling where Cracker Barrel stores are located, you can get audio books from one location and return to another. We’ve also enjoyed murder mysteries (maybe Miss Marple would be fun?) although have sat in the car in a parking lot listening after we’ve reached our destination in order to find out “who done it.”</p>
<p>I borrow audio books from the local library. We enjoyed “Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates” and “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” (children’s book about civil rights movement in the South). Garrison Keillor’s “Tales from Lake Woebegone” (read by Keillor) is absolutely wonderful.</p>
<p>For 15-20 hours, you might think about several shorter books instead of one big magnum opus.</p>
<p>Any of Bill Bryson’s books.</p>
<p>One surprising hit when our boys were around twelve and fourteen was [The</a> Travels of Jaimie McPheeters - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Travels_of_Jaimie_McPheeters]The”>The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters - Wikipedia). It won the Pulitzer in 1959. Another was “Twenty Thousand Leagues …”. (I see on Google page that today is Jules Verne’s BD.)</p>
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<p>Especially enjoyed Walk in the Woods by Bryson on audio.</p>
<p>Can highly recommend Cheaper by the Dozen by the Gilbreth Family</p>
<p>[Cheaper</a> By the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey - Unabridged Audiobook Download - Random House](<a href=“http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400085767]Cheaper”>http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781400085767)</p>
<p>I always recommend</p>
<p>To Kill a Mockingbird read by Sissy Spacek. Good!!!</p>
<p>I’m currently listening to The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society:</p>
<p>From Publishers Weekly
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<p>Anne of Green Gables</p>
<p>Growing Up (by Russell Baker)</p>
<p>The Secret Life of Bees</p>
<p>Peace Like a River</p>
<p>somemom, I thought about this a little more after I realized you have DD, not a DS. One newish book that my 82 year old mom and I both enjoyed was THe Help, by Kathryn Stockett. I think a husband could enjoy it, too. Edgar Sawtelle is another good, long book that might appeal to multiple generations and both sexes.</p>
<p>I am also a Bill Bryson fan, but would not recommend his latest, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, for a road rip. It is the sort of book that is a pleasure to pick up and read a little at a time, but not the sort of page-turner you want to help the miles pass quickly.</p>
<p>We always did some kind of mystery or thriller like a John Grisham or whatever that was simply impossible to turn off once you get into the story. If I recall, one time we listened to the DaVinci Code. A collection of Sherlock Holmes. The miles fly by because you are eager to find out what happened next and who done it.</p>
<p>Kite Runner</p>
<p>I thought of John Grisham, too, but couldn’t remember if some were a little “racy”. I listened to the newest one, The Confession, when I was driving last week and did not find it particularly compelling. The Rainmaker and Runaway Jury were a couple that I liked.</p>
<p>Agatha Christie is another author that DH and I both enjoy when we’re traveling together.</p>
<p>Went through this recently. I ended up making a couple of trips to the library. It is hard when you have a reader in the car who has read everything. I came home with a huge stack. They ended up not listening as much as they thought they would. The big hit was a collection of short stories. They also liked a fantasy book that was written for children. If you head to the library you should check the children and young adult section.
My D found it frustrating to listen to a complicated book in the car with her Dad. She said she kept having to answer his questions about which character was which.</p>
<p>Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller is one of the funniest audio books I’ve ever heard.</p>
<p>Endurance by Alfred Lansing. The story of Shackleton’s failed attempt to cross Antarctica, which turned into an astounding story of self-rescue. Everyone survives, yet you will be absolutely convinced at times listening to the narrative that surely historical record is in error, because clearly someone is about to die.</p>
<p>The Kalahari Typing School series by Alexander McCall Smith is very enjoyable. I’ve also really enjoyed the audio versions of “The World To Come” and “All Other Nights” by Dara Horn, but I don’t know that they’d be enjoyed by a wide range of listeners.</p>
<p>Doesn’t sound like you have any younger riders. However, I still want to tell you about an audiobook I listened to with my son when he was around 10. The book is Raptor Red, a novel written by paleontologist Robert T. Bakker. It is a realistic story written about a dinosaur’s life, written as a third-person novel.</p>
<p>I was fascinated, and so was my son. I would recommend this to anyone, but especially if you have a mix of younger and adult listeners.</p>
<p>I took a road trip with a few girl friends last summer and one brought Mary Higgins Clark’s autobiography. I had never listened to a audio book before and enjoyed it. Given there weren’t many characters to keep track of, it was easy to start/stop it.</p>
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<p>Since my Dad died and we have been including Grandma in more & more activities, we are surprised how many things were racy and we just plain didn’t notice. We’ve made some real bloopers at times, and later laughed together.</p>
<p>No one wants to offend her and no one wants to get her started on a rant about the trash in the media nowadays ;)</p>
<p>How about The Lord of the Rings series or The Hobbit? Hard to go wrong with classics.</p>
<p>Kajon suggested The Kite Runner, and while it is one of my favorite books, there is at least one scene in the book that might pose a problem (gang rape of a young boy).</p>
<p>I love Bill Bryson’s books, but if your grandma is sensitive, she may not like the snide tone. He does make fun of fat people, rubes, etc. with an acid pen, as well as describe his own bodily functions and over-drinking on occasion.</p>
<p>My parents and I loved listening to original Sherlock Holmes stories on audiobook during road trips. They are suspenseful enough to hold everyone’s interest, but have no sex or R-rated language. I also think that short stories are preferable to novels for this format, because if you fall asleep or zone out during one installment, you won’t be confused during the next. I think Harry Potter would be a nightmare for this reason unless all the listeners had read the books before: “Wait a minute, why is Hermione in the hospital? Who’s Collin?”</p>