21 Audiobooks for Running
Have I mentioned that I am a slow runner? If you’ve ever struggled to stay motivated while running, you know the mental battle is real. The physical struggle I face when hitting the track is nothing to the mental one. Once I hit two miles, my mind says, “okay, we’re done here,” and it takes every trick in the book to keep me going. They say that the mental struggle gets quieter the more you do it, but after two years of running regularly, it hasn’t backed down for me.
Of all the tricks I’ve tried to fight through the noise, listening to an audiobook has proven to be the best one for me. Not only does it keep my mind occupied, I use the audiobook as a way to keep me on track throughout the week. If I can only listen when I am running, and the book is really good, then I am more likely to stay committed to my running plan. Like I said, I have to trick myself for this whole thing to work.
So here are 21 audiobooks, some that have kept me lacing up my running shoes week after week and some that are queued up for my next run. They are fast-paced, suspenseful, well-performed, and intriguing. When one of these is my libro.fm queue, I can’t wait to get to the next chapter.
Julie Chan Is Dead by Liann Zhang
Description: Julie Chan, a supermarket cashier with nothing to lose, finds herself thrust into the glamorous yet perilous world of her late twin sister, Chloe VanHuusen, a popular influencer. Separated at a young age, the identical twins were polar opposites and rarely spoke. When Julie discovers Chloe’s lifeless body under mysterious circumstances, she seized the chance to live the life she’s always envied.
Recommended Narrator: Yu-Li Alice Shen
My Review: A fun, thrilling ride into a world I know nothing about, but am fascinated by. The second half really leaned into the thriller genre in a way that turned the story on its head while still feeling aligned with what came before it. This really was a perfect listen to keep me engaged with my running plan.
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Fast
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Description: With an iconic opening line, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten, a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife—the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.
Recommended Narrator: Anna Massey
My Review: This book is a classic for a reason. I loved it far more than I expected. The writing, the story, the suspense, all perfectly composed to create a strong, addictive tale. From the famous opening line to the last, I was obsessed.
Genre: Classic/mystery
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Description: After receiving a frantic letter from her newlywed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemi Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find—her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemi knows little about the region.
Recommended Narrator: Frankie Corzo
My Review: One of my first forays into modern mystery books, I think this was a great place to start. Highly recommended by my friends at Overdue Podcast, the book was a great read as a follow-up to Rebecca.
Genre: Mystery/horror
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers
Description: The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder—especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath.
Recommended Narrator: Mark Meadows
Genre: Crime/mystery
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: TBR
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Description: Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.
Recommended Narrator: Penn Badgley
My Review: I don’t know how I missed this one in high school. It was a fast, enticing read. One of those classics whose themes remain prescient. With four runs a week, I finished this one quickly, but its impact on me endures.
Genre: Dystopian
Pacing: Fast
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Description: Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit. Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.
Recommended Narrator: Adepero Oduye
My Review: Depending on how often or how long you run, you could finish this in a few weeks. It is short and fast, but captivating. Such an interesting take on what makes a serial killer and how it impacts those around them.
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Fast
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A Terribly Nasty Business by Julia Seales
Description: London provides fabulously deadly opportunities for a fledgling inspector in the twisty follow-up to Julia Seales’s bestselling debut, A Most Agreeable Murder, hailed by People as “delightful cocktail…of wit, hilarity, and suspense!”
Recommended Narrator: Fiona Hampton
My Review: TBR
Genre: Mystery/comedy
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: TBR
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Description: Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can't escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching...
Recommended Narrator: Simon Prebble
My Review: Another one I can’t believe I missed in high school. Though the jargon of this book has been integrated into modern language and used often, the story was wholly new to me. A story that everyone should be familiar with, the audiobook is a quick, interesting way to consume the classic tale.
Genre: Dystopian
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
My Murder by Katie Williams
Description: Lou is a happily married mother of an adorable toddler. She’s also the victim of a local serial killer. Recently brought back to life and returned to her grieving family by a government project, she is grateful for this second chance. But as the new Lou re-adapts to her old routines, and as she bonds with other female victims, she realizes that disturbing questions remain about what exactly preceded her death and how much she can really trust those around her.
Recommended Narrator: Rebecca Lowman
My Review: An interesting take on the detective story, you can tell Williams is having fun with the genre. Of course, there are twists and turns that keep the reader guessing and kept me sticking to my running plan.
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Durian
Description: Meet Chloe Sevre. Freshman honor student. Average-seeming, legging-wearing, hot girl next door…and diagnosed psychopath with an IQ of 135. Her hobbies include yogalates, frat parties, and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her. Now Chloe and six other students at John Adams College are part of an unusual clinical study that includes smartwatches to track their moods and movements, in exchange for free tuition. The study, led by a renowned psychiatrist, has inadvertently brought together some of the most dangerous minds who feel no guilt or fear. When one of the participants is found murdered, it becomes obvious they’re all in danger. Chloe goes from hunter to prey, and joins forces with two other psychopaths in the program to discover why they’re being targeted – if they could only trust each other.
Recommended Narrator: Brittany Pressley
My Review: TBR
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: TBR
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Description: Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe's new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.
Recommended Narrator: Toni Morrison
My Review: One of the greatest books of all time, listening to the audiobook was a new and compelling way to experience an old favorite. Morrison’s narration brought the text to life far beyond my own reading. Though the story is slower paced than most other books on this list, the content is no less magnetic and will certainly inspire consistency.
Genre: Literary
Pacing: Slow
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
Description: Cain's first novel - the subject of an obscenity trial in Boston and the inspiration for Camus's The Stranger - is the fever-pitched tale of a drifter who stumbles into a job, into an erotic obsession, and into a murder.
Recommended Narrator: Stanley Tucci
My Review: TBR
Genre: Mystery
Pacing: Fast
My Rating: TBR
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Description: Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up--and definitely not the infantry. But now that he's in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn't kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job...
Recommended Narrator: R. C. Bray
My Review: My husband started this audiobook one day when we were on a road trip and I was immediately hooked. In Heinlein’s hands, I’m convinced I would love anything. Combat against giant bugs, while not a topic I would have picked for myself, became enthralling! I highly recommend.
Genre: Sci-fi
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Description: Kilburn, 1873. The 'Tichborne Trial' has captivated the widowed Scottish housekeeper Mrs Eliza Touchet and all of England. Readers are at odds over whether the defendant is who he claims to be - or an imposter. Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her novelist cousin and his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects England of being a land of façades, in which nothing is quite what it seems. Andrew Bogle meanwhile finds himself the star witness, his future depending on telling the right story. Growing up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica, he knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize.
Recommended Narrator: Zadie Smith
My Review: Although historical fiction is not a genre I am typically drawn to, Smith is an author whose writing always draws me in. In her hands, this story (which I did not realize was based on true historical events until after I finished it), comes to life with such vivacity that I could not help but become obsessed.
Genre: Historical fiction
Pacing: Slow
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney
Description: Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared. A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Recommended Narrator: Richard Armitage and Tuppence Middleton
My Review: TBR
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: TBR
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Description: Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate
Recommended Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
My Review: A masterclass in storytelling, Jackson’s tale of a family shrouded in isolation and mistrust remains impressive on every read. It unfolds with perfect pacing and keeps the reader invested in the characters’ history and the past mysteries that have shaped their plight.
Genre: Horror
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
Description: A traditional American woman, a “tradwife” influencer, suddenly awakens in the brutal reality of 1855, where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.
Recommended Narrator: Rebecca Lowman
My Review: TBR
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: TBR
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
Description: Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo's desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Recommended Narrator: Imogen Church
My Review: A great example of don’t judge a book by its movie. The book tells a much fuller story and probes into trauma, addiction, self-trust, and determination in a subtle yet thoughtful way.
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Description: One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well-traveled and well-read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn't felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind--and Patricia has already invited him in.
Recommended Narrator: Bahni Turpin
My Review: The best-loved book to date in my book club. Though I read this one in hand, I have no doubt it would translate perfectly as a running audiobook pick. Hendrix perfectly pits a southern mama against a blood-sucker, a pairing that certainly has its own humor. It was a little more graphic than I expected, so be forewarned, this one is rated R.
Genre: Thriller/Horror
Pacing: Fast
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Triptych by Karin Slaughter
Description: From Atlanta’s wealthiest suburbs to its stark inner-city housing projects, a killer has crossed the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries, too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread—and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael’s lover before she became his enemy. But unbeknownst to both of them, another player has entered the game: a loser ex-con who has stumbled upon the killer’s trail in the most coincidental of ways—and who may be the key to breaking the case wide open.
Recommended Narrator: Kathleen Early
My Review: TBR
Genre: Thriller
Pacing: Medium
My Rating: TBR
Brideshead revisited by evelyn waugh
Description: Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder’s infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian Flyte at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize his spiritual and social distance from them.
Recommended Narrator: Jeremy Irons
My Review: If you like classics, this one is great. The combination of Waugh’s beautiful writing and Iron’s dynamic narration makes this audiobook one of my favorites.
Genre: Literary
Pacing: Slow
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Give some of these a try on your next run and keep me posted how they work for you. And if I missed one of your favorites, let me know in the comments which audiobooks help keep you consistent with your walking and running goals. I only included fiction selections on this list, and though I lean mystery/thriller for this purpose, I am open to anything addictive.
May your runs, walks, and everything in between be filled with great, fun, and inspiring books to keep you company.
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