The Best Books About Road Trips to Read Now

This heartwarming and humorous novel traces the unexpected bond between a college dropout and an octogenarian woman who hit the road and are now on the run from the law.

Tanner observes some peculiarities about Louise as she begins her role as her caretaker, including a locked shed and a news segment featuring a woman that looks just like her in an unsolved jewelry heist case. 

When Louise suddenly appears in Tanner's room at 1 a.m. with a packed bag, insisting they leave town immediately, the two embark on an adventure of a lifetime. 

Jessica and Emily Burnstein embark on a college tour with very different expectations. For Emily, it's a chance to explore her newfound freedom and the possibility of an exciting future. But for Jessica, it's an opportunity to reconnect with her estranged daughter and salvage their relationship. 

As this mother-daughter duo travels along the East Coast, Waxman rounds out the story with a bus full of well-written characters and fun side plots that make this a great little summer adventure story.

Moms of teens will adore this laugh-out-loud story.

If you're looking for a heartwarming book to enjoy with your family, look no further! Colleen highly recommends this middle-grade road trip adventure that she shared with her own children. It's a story that will have you both laughing and crying as you join the characters on their delightful journey.

Coyote has been on the road with her dad, Rodeo, in an old school bus for five years now, traveling across the country. It's also been that long since she lost her mom and two sisters in a car accident.

Coyote hasn't been back home since then, but when she finds out that the park in her old neighborhood, where she and her family buried a memory box, is about to be demolished, she comes up with a plan to convince her dad to drive back to Washington state in just four days.

Child narrators can be tricky, but Starla Claudelle's spunky spitfire voice has become one of my most beloved in historical fiction. This coming-of-age story is about a nine-year-old girl who runs away from her Mississippi home in 1963 and befriends a lonely woman, embarking on a life-changing road trip. 

As Starla journeys to Nashville to reunite with her mother, who abandoned her when she was three, she discovers more about what it means to be family.

If you love the found family trope, you'll love these beautiful discoveries that go beyond racial and societal barriers between these two characters. Please take advantage of my interview with the author when you finish.

If you are preparing for AAPI Month, don't miss this debut selection for your stack, and be sure to check out this list of Asian American authors to celebrate in May.

Grace Johnson's life seems to be on autopilot when her husband drops a bombshell that he wants a divorce. Grace is left with a choice; either to wallow in self-pity or to join her eccentric mother on a road trip to Graceland to celebrate her seventieth birthday. 

Through this journey, she begins to understand her mother's fixation on Elvis and the fractures in their relationship.

You can hear more about Chase's experience writing this story and the unexpected ways it brought her and her mother together through this fictional journey on this Book Gang episode- More Asian American Authors to Read Now.

Colleen described this book as quirky, funny, and beautiful- a combination only Jojo Moyes could pull off. Therefore, I co-sign this endorsement and also offer my 5-star review on this beloved adventure story.

Moyes weaves an endearing story of a mother who is down on her luck and can barely make ends meet when her daughter is offered the chance of a lifetime to receive a scholarship for her excellence in mathematics that will cover 90% of her daughter's education.

Coming up with the other ten percent seems impossible, but she is determined to make this happen for her daughter.

When she hears of a math contest in Scotland that offers a cash prize, she must do everything she can to get her there, including hitching a ride with the most unlikely man who could ultimately change their entire world.

Nicole is an excellent writer for your book stack if you love family-friendly dramas with mystery. Baart’s family traveling story inspired this fictional tale of unexpected mother-daughter travel influencers documenting their travels for their social media fans. 

In this suspenseful mystery, Charlie and Eva never intended to become social media celebrities, but fame finds them after a photo of Eva goes viral.

After two years of documenting their adventures in a vintage Airstream trailer, they settle temporarily on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Eva is finishing her senior year of high school and applying to college while her mother longs for their old life on the road.

But when Eva goes missing just days before her graduation, Charlie becomes the prime suspect due to their growing tension. 

This book would be fantastic for a book club as it grapples with privacy around social media and some surprisingly timely elements that plague our world and rob us of deeper connections with those around us.

This 2020 book club book was a hit with fans of 11/22/63!

Amidst the chaos of JFK's assassination, Frank Guidry, a loyal member of the New Orleans mob, finds himself in a precarious position. With knowledge of the President's murder, Guidry knows he's next on the mob’s hit list. 

Desperate to evade his fate, he flees to Las Vegas, seeking refuge from an old enemy of his boss. But when he meets Charlotte, a stranded housewife with two daughters and a dog, he sees an opportunity to cover his tracks by posing as an insurance man and offering to help her reach California. 

Maben & her young daughter are trying to escape their difficult life, and the mother must use her last dollars to provide shelter for them through the night at a hotel.

However, to earn money to get them through the next day, Maben finds herself involved in the murder of a police deputy, and they must flee before she is caught.

She pulls over Russell, a man who has spent eleven years in Parchman Penitentiary and finally served his sentence. However, when he picks up Mabel & her daughter, he finds he is now involved in a crime he did not commit.

When Joy Evers embarks on a cross-country road trip with her deceased sister's Route 66 bucket list in hand, she expects it will be an uneventful drive across the country, checking the list along the way.

The last thing she expects is to meet singer-songwriter Dylan Westfield. But, with a broken-down car, he's desperate for a ride to his next gig.

When Joy offers to drive him to New York in her brand-new convertible, a deal is struck. As they journey across America, they agree to three rules: no exchanging last names, what happens on the road stays on the road, and if one of them wants to take a side trip, they both must agree.

Over a decade, this Sliding Doors story follows Joy and Dylan's slow-burn love story, exploring the what-ifs along the way.

This deeply profound and meditative examination of a young life interrupted by illness showcases a wise woman beyond her years as she navigates her unusual life's pause while acknowledging that the world around her continues to spin.

Throughout this journey, she begins to chronicle her experience through a newspaper column that brings connection with unlikely people. These letters that sustained her through treatment later inspired her to take a road trip to meet them. 

Throughout a 100-day, 15,000-mile road trip across the country with her dog, she meets these strangers and finds a deeper connection to their stories and her own. 

Although I am sure many of you have read this book, I only read it this month after our fascinating Celebrity Book Club Deep Dive podcast and thought it fit today’s prompt perfectly.

In the wake of her mother's death, and after her marriage fell apart, twenty-two-year-old Cheryl Strayed set out on a daunting adventure to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a trek spanning over a thousand miles through the wilderness of California, Oregon, and Washington State.

This story is heart-poundingly WILD, and I have found myself breathless as she has set out on this adventure without the knowledge or preparation required to make this trek. We hike trails with Strayed and hitchhike to different destinations as she makes her way along the west coast.

Readers may experience significant anxiety knowing that she faces exceptionally challenging conditions while hiking alone on these trails without adequate equipment.

If you love this book, watch the movie adaptation starring Reese Witherspoon, currently streaming on HBO Max or available through Prime.

Are you looking for the best Reese Witherspoon book club recommendations? Then, take advantage of my book list with my favorite books from celebrity book clubs.