<p>Looking for recommendations for a great audio book for a long car ride for my husband and college age daughter. My daughter liked Gone Girl and my husband liked Bossy Pants last year.</p>
<p>I really liked the audio version of “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.” It’s pretty long.</p>
<p>For somewhat lighter fare, the audio versions of Alexander McCall Smith’s Ma Ramotswe books are very well done. The audios for Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books are well performed, too. Probably the best one I ever heard was “The Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield, read by Derek Jacobi.</p>
<p>My friend really enjoyed 11/22/63 and Under the Dome, both by Stephen King, for his solo road trip.</p>
<p>The Harry Potter books on tapes are supposed to be brilliant - read by Jim Dale</p>
<p>I hated “Under the Dome,” and I like some King books. Tastes vary, of course.</p>
<p>The Harry Potter books read by Jim Dale are excellent. Apparently the British recordings were done by Stephen Fry–I’d like to hear one of those some time.</p>
<p>I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and my all time favorite, with the perfect match of narrator to book, is:</p>
<p>American Pastoral by Philip Roth</p>
<p>It is a gripping book, but might be a little heavy for what you are looking for.</p>
<p>I could give dozens of suggestions. How long is your trip? What would be the ideal length? Are you open to classics? Dickens is great on audio, because the books are so plot driven. Are you looking for lighter fare, or are heavier books of interest, too? </p>
<p>Agree with the Harry Potter rec, even if you don’t think you will like it, the narrator is incredible and the story is wonderful.<br>
. These would be the #1 Ladies Detective series. </p>
<p>Tara Road by Maeve Binchy was enjoyable, but kind of chick lit. </p>
<p>oh, a scifi series that was fun to listen to was the Harry Dresden Series by Jim Butcher. I am not a scifi fan, but the story line grabbed me anyway.</p>
<p>The Harry Potter series is truly the best. I imagine my husband and daughter would not want anything too heavy and science fiction/fantasy is most definitely not a good match. The trip is about 13 hours.</p>
<p>Any of the Agatha Christie books read by David Suchet - My favorites "Death on the Nile " and “Evil under the Sun”
For something funny (but short) “Sleepwalk with me” by Mike Birbiglia
For Intense and a bit sad -“Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer</p>
<p>I know that if my husband saw that the author was Stephen King he would not listen, I bet my daughter would though.</p>
<p>Keep the suggestions coming….please</p>
<p>Are you folks buying these or getting them from the library or some other service? My SIL recently had a stroke that impacted her vision and she’s heartbroken that she can no longer read. We’re looking into audio books and I saw that Amazon has a monthly membership service but we’re trying to keep her costs down. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Library, library, library</p>
<p>sseamom, I listen to audiobooks all the time, and I always get them from the library. There are quite a few books available on CD, and some are available in digital form (to play on phones or MP3 players). </p>
<p>chinablue, I’ve listened to all the Louise Penny books on CD or my phone. They are very well-written, complex, mysteries that take place in Canada. I also like the Maisie Dobbs series, which take place in England between WW1 and WW2. </p>
<p>sseamom, look into Audible, too. Or is that the one that Amazon now owns? It’s the one my H uses and the selection is excellent.</p>
<p>On a 13 hour trip, you should be able to get an unabridged book. They tend to be somewhere around 11 hours long, and are much better than the abridged versions. </p>
<p>If you husband liked Bossy Pants - maybe David Sedaris? I love him -but sometimes he pushes it a bit. If you are not familiar with him her writes “true” stories about his family, relationships etc… Frank conversations about his mother, learning new languages, being gay, alcoholism, smoking etc… Very funny and a little sad sometimes. </p>
<p>Being nitpicky, but Dresden isn’t sci-fi, it’s fantasy. Carl Hiassen makes a good road read, funny suspenseful mysteries, sometimes a little raunchy. (At least Skinny Dip was which my oldest and I listed to on a college road trip.) I love David Sedaris, but he’s better one at a time - if you listen to a whole book it just gets to be too much. At least that was my experience with audiobooks. I listened to Cane River on audio and liked it a lot, it’s based on the true story of the authors Creole ancestors. It was an Oprah selection. <a href=“Lalita Tademy - Cane River”>http://www.lalitatademy.com/caneriver.html</a></p>
<p>Think what would your husband like? My husband will be driving back alone, so I have to think of him.</p>
<p>You might want to get several different things, just in case you don’t all like the first thing you put in. You don’t want to spend 13 hours listening to something you don’t like. I agree that the library is the way to go.</p>
<p>There are also a lot of good nonfiction books, including biographies.</p>
<p>Audible is part of Amazon and has a monthly fee. For the library, we’d need to arrange someone to to her to pick up the tapes. Or can they be streamed to a computer now? She could do that, but she can’t go out on her own anymore, like to the library.</p>