Nearly all of the best parts summer involve getting outside: going to the beach, picnicking in the park, catching a concert at a bandshell. But while there are so many fun places to go and things to do, don’t overlook the joy in simply getting those feet moving in your very own neighborhood.
You knew daily jaunts are great for your mind and body, but did you know they can also help you through that ever-growing to-be-read pile?
Browse our recommendations to find your next audio companion for your turn about the town, whether you’re a stroller, a jogger, or a sidewalk sprinter.
Listen while you stroll
Pretend you’re in the Victorian era taking your daily constitutional with a sweet, slow romance or amble along while you zero in to learn something new.
They say you can never go home again, and for Persephone Fraser that has felt too true. Until she receives the call that sends her racing back to Barry’s Bay and into the orbit of Sam Florek—the man she spent six summers with, falling into friendship and then more, who she never thought she’d have to live without. Every Summer After is a big, sweeping nostalgic story of love and the people and choices that mark us forever.
Bittersweetness is a tendency to states of longÂing, poignancy, and sorrow. In Bittersweet, Susan Cain shows how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. If we don’t acknowledge our own heartache, she says, we can end up inflicting it on others. But if we realize that all humans know loss and suffering, we can turn toward one another.
Listen while you jog
Pick up the pace with high-flying fantasy or a fast-paced conversation with your new audio best friend.
Jani has dreamed of elsewhere while she’s barely scraping by with her job and caring for her younger sister Zosa. That is until the Hotel Magnifique comes to town. While the sisters can’t afford the costs of a guest’s stay, they interview to join the staff and are soon whisked away on the greatest adventure of their lives. But once inside Jani quickly discovers their contracts are unbreakable and that beneath the glamour, the hotel is hiding dangerous secrets.
In Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay, Phoebe Robinson tackles a wide range of topics like giving feminism a tough-love talk on intersectionality and telling society’s beauty standards to kick rocks. She’s struggled with being a woman with a political mind and a woman with an ever-changing jeans size. She knows about trash because she sees it every day.
Listen while you run
Are you sweating because of: (A) your run, (B) the spice level in this romance novel, (C) the stress level in this thriller, or (D) all of the above?
Clara is the over-achieving, well-mannered, predictable daughter of the otherwise impulsive Wheaton family. But every Wheaton has their weakness. When Clara’s childhood crush invites her to move in, the offer is too tempting to resist. But after a bait-and-switch, Clara finds herself sharing a lease with charming stranger, Josh. Once Clara looks Josh up online and learns how he’s made a name for himself, Clara realizes living with him might make her the most scandalous Wheaton yet.
Jeremy Logan has grown to rely on his incredible new virtual reality device made by Chrysalis, the global multibillion dollar tech company. And yet, when Logan is summoned by Chrysalis to investigate a disturbing anomaly in the new product rollout, Logan is shocked to see the true scope of the massive company. He also quickly realizes that something in Chrysalis’s technology is very wrong, and could be potentially devastating.