Jasper Jones

Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of 13, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Rebellious, mixed-race, and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress. Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it’s here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper’s horrible discovery.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

In the never-ending war between good and evil, The Chronicles of Narnia set the stage for battles of epic proportions. Some take place in vast fields, where the forces of light and darkness clash. But other battles occur within the small chambers of the heart and are equally decisive.

Journeys to the ends of the world, fantastic creatures, betrayals, heroic deeds, and friendships won and lost, all come together in an unforgettable world of magic. So let the adventures begin.

Long podcasts/audio books (6-8 hours) for those marathon car sessions

A Life on our Planet

As a young man, I felt I was out there in the wild, experiencing the untouched natural world – but it was an illusion. The tragedy of our time has been happening all around us, barely noticeable from day to day – the loss of our planet’s wild places, its biodiversity.

I have been witness to this decline. A Life on Our Planet contains my witness statement and my vision for the future – the story of how we came to make this, our greatest mistake, and how, if we act now, we can yet put it right.

 

The Last Thing He Told Me

Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his new wife, Hannah: protect her. Hannah knows exactly who Owen needs her to protect – his 16-year-old daughter, Bailey, who lost her mother tragically as a child. And who wants absolutely nothing to do with her new stepmother.

As her increasingly desperate calls to Owen go unanswered, his boss is arrested for fraud and the police start questioning her, Hannah realises that her husband isn’t who he said he was. And that Bailey might hold the key to discovering Owen’s true identity and why he disappeared. Together they set out to discover the truth. But as they start putting together the pieces of Owen’s past, they soon realise that their lives will never be the same again….

A beautiful and thrilling mystery, perfect for fans of Lianne Moriarty and Celeste Ng.

Deepak Chopra’s Mind Body Zone: Living Outside the Box

The surest path to self-development is through our vital connection to the world around us. That’s the lesson in Deepak Chopra’s essential new podcast, Mind Body Zone. Over 12 episodes, Chopra, the preeminent thought leader in this space, holds intimate conversations with a range of extraordinary guests to explore the challenges we each face, and reveal how they’ve worked to transcend the ordinary and redefine their lives through harnessing a mind-body connection.

To the beach and back, short series between 90-120 minutes. 

Caffeine

Michael Pollan, known for his best-selling nonfiction audio, including The Omnivores Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, conceived and wrote Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World as an Audible Original. In this controversial and exciting listen, Pollan explores caffeine’s power as the most-used drug in the world – and the only one we give to children (in soda pop) as a treat.

 

The Dispatcher

Zachary Quinto – best known for his role as the Nimoy-approved Spock in the recent Star Trek reboot and the menacing, power-stealing serial killer, Sylar, in Heroes – brings his well-earned sci-fi credentials and simmering intensity to this audio-exclusive novella from master storyteller John Scalzi.

 

The Neil Gaiman at the End of the Universe

A man awakens, adrift in deep space, with little memory of who he is – only to discover that he is the commander of a space mission; the rest of the crew is gone; and he is apparently a writer of some small renown named Neil Gaiman.

 

Beach Read

Two writers, one holiday. A romcom waiting to happen….

January is a hopeless romantic who narrates her life like she’s the lead in a blockbuster movie. Gus is a serious literary type who thinks true love is a fairy-tale. But January and Gus have more in common than you’d think: They’re both broke. They’ve got crippling writer’s block. And they need to write best sellers before summer ends. The result? A bet to swap genres and see who gets published first. The risk? In telling each other’s stories, their worlds might be changed entirely….

The Road Trip

Addie and her sister are about to embark on an epic road trip to a friend’s wedding in rural Scotland. The playlist is all planned and the snacks are packed. But, not long after setting off, a car slams into the back of theirs. The driver is none other than Addie’s ex, Dylan, who she’s avoided since their traumatic break-up two years earlier.

Dylan and his best mate are heading to the wedding too and they’ve totalled their car so Addie has no choice but to offer them a ride. The car is soon jam-packed full of luggage and secrets, and with four-hundred miles ahead of them, Dylan and Addie can’t avoid confronting the very messy history of their relationship….Will they make it to the wedding on time? And, more importantly, is this really the end of the road for Addie and Dylan?