Audio only
America the Beautiful?
One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most TravelledBy Blythe RobersonNarrated by Kendra HoffmanLength8h 39m
About this audiobook
Selected by New York Times Book Review as one of their “Great Road Trip Books”
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
Best Book of the Year —NPR, Vulture, Book Riot, B&N
"America the Beautiful? is so funny and special and illuminating that it makes even me, a person who cannot tolerate trees or weather, wish I could've tagged along in the back seat." — Samantha Irby, author of Wow, No Thank You. and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life.
The author of How to Date Men When You Hate Men examines Americans’ obsession with freedom, travel, and the open road in this funny, entertaining travelogue that blends the humorous observations of Bill Bryson with the piercing cultural commentary of Jia Tolentino.
For writer and comedian Blythe Roberson, there are only so many Mary Oliver poems you can read about being free, and only so many times you can listen to Joni Mitchell’s travel album Hejira, before you too, are itching to take off. Canonical American travel writers have long celebrated the road trip as the epitome of freedom. But why does it seem like all those canonical travel narratives are written by white men who have no problems, who only decide to go the desert to see what having problems feels like?
To fill in the literary gaps and quench her own sense of adventure, Roberson quits her day job and sets off on a Great American Road Trip to visit America’s national parks.
America the Beautiful? is a hilarious trip into the mind of one of the Millennial generation’s funniest writers. Borrowing her Midwestern stepfather’s Prius, she heads west to the Loop of mega-popular parks, over to the ocean and down the Pacific Coast Highway, and, in a feat of spectacularly bad timing, through the southwestern desert in the middle of July. Along the way she meets new friends on their own personal quests, learns to cope with abstinence while missing the comforts of home, and comes to understand the limits—and possibilities—of going to nature to prove to yourself and your Instagram followers that you are, in fact, free.
The result is a laugh-out-loud-while-occasionally-raging-inside travelogue, filled with meditations and many, many jokes on ecotourism, conservation, freedom, traffic, climate change, and the structural and financial inequalities that limit so many Americans’ movement. Ultimately, Roberson ponders the question: Is quitting society and going on the road about enlightenment and liberty—or is it just selfish escapism?
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (4.2K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon
GenreBiography and Memoir, Travel, Psychology
Length8 hrs 39 mins
Narrated byKendra Hoffman
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateApr 18, 2023
LanguageEnglish
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (384)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
My Bondage and My Freedom (Annotated)Frederick Douglass15h 30m4.6 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
A Cook's TourAnthony Bourdain5h 50m4.2 (38.2K)$28 · $0.00
Around the World in 60 SecondsNuseir Yassin7h 48m4.4 (836)$26 · $0.00
The Midwest Survival GuideCharlie Berens6h 6m4.3 (4.9K)$24 · $0.00
The Home of the Blizzard (Annotated)Sir Douglas Mawson19h 2m4.3 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Local WondersTed Kooser6h 21m4.4 (978)$14 · $0.00
Over the Edge of the WorldLaurence Bergreen6h 14m4.3 (23.2K)$24 · $0.00
What Really Happened In WuhanSharri Markson16h 28m4.3 (4.8K)$40 · $0.00
American RambleNeil King10h 58m4.3 (2.8K)$29 · $0.00
In The Footsteps Of RamaVikrant Pande, Neelesh Kulkarni9h 45m4.3 (778)$16 · $0.00
Never Leave the Dogs BehindBrianna Madia5h 37m4.2 (7.8K)$24 · $0.00
Touch the Top of the WorldErik Weihenmayer11h 18m4.3 (2.9K)$20 · $0.00
Mud, Sweat, and TearsBear Grylls9h 25m4.2 (20K)$29 · $0.00
NorthboundNaomi Arnold7h 21m4.3 (669)$24 · $0.00
China RoadRob Gifford10h 35m4.2 (4.7K)$20 · $0.00
Love, AfricaJeffrey Gettleman11h 55m4.2 (3.1K)$29 · $0.00
Pasta, Pane, VinoMatt Goulding9h 9m4.3 (985)$29 · $0.00
StraysBritt Collins6h 44m4.2 (1.4K)$20 · $0.00
Seven League BootsRichard Halliburton11h 53m4.3 (303)$2 · $0.00
Tiny MoonsNina Mingya Powles2h 36m4.2 (3.3K)$16 · $0.00
Ten Thousand Miles with a Dog SledHudson Stuck8h 7m4.3 (258)$1.99 · $0.00
What to Make of a LifeJim Collins13h 31m4.4 (793)$33 · $0.00
TerraformPropaganda5h 39m4.7 (594)$24 · $0.00
Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (Annotated)Ida B. Wells-Barnett2h 44m4.6 (1.3K)$2 · $0.00
Hour of the HeartIrvin D. Yalom, Benjamin Yalom8h 19m4.6 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
Level UpRob Dial7h 42m4.6 (3.3K)$26 · $0.00
As a JewSarah Hurwitz8h 36m4.6 (1.2K)$26 · $0.00
Burn the HaystackJennie Young, PhD9h 30m4.6 (543)$29 · $0.00
Woman and the New Race (Annotated)Margaret Sanger6h 30m4.6 (1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Good InsideBecky Kennedy9h 55m4.5 (59.3K)$29 · $0.00
Du Bois: EssaysW.E.B. Du Bois6h 22m4.6 (1.5K)$1 · $0.00
The North American Indian (Illustrated Edition)Edward S. Curtis, Frederick Webb Hodge5h 59m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Valley of the BirdtailAndrew Stobo Sniderman, Douglas Sanderson10h 1m4.6 (2.4K)$29 · $0.00
Lies My Therapist Told MeGreg E. Gifford9h 3m4.6 (503)$29 · $0.00
Disturbed in Their NestsAlephonsion Deng, Judy A. Bernstein11h 22m4.6 (595)$23 · $0.00
No Name in the StreetJames Baldwin5h4.5 (8.5K)$20 · $0.00
Magic SeasonWade Rouse6h 41m4.6 (855)$24 · $0.00
Consent Laid BareChanel Contos7h 11m4.5 (1.7K)$24 · $0.00
The Big RevealSasha Velour6h 15m4.5 (2.1K)$24 · $0.00
Pastoral SongJames Rebanks8h 35m4.5 (12K)$26 · $0.00
You may also like
NorthboundNaomi Arnold7h 21m4.3 (669)$24 · $0.00
Trespassing across AmericaKen Ilgunas7h 44m4.0 (3K)$20 · $0.00
The Cruise of the SnarkJack London8h 22m3.9 (2.4K)$2.30
Above the CloudsKilian Jornet6h 4m4.0 (2.3K)$24 · $0.00
Old-Fashioned on PurposeJill Winger8h 57m4.5 (1.5K)$29 · $0.00
Open Mic Night in MoscowAudrey Murray12h 47m4.1 (502)$33 · $0.00
North on the WingBruce M. Beehler8h 33m4.1 (392)$20
The Way of the HermitKen Smith, Will Millard9h 49m4.3 (4.1K)$29 · $0.00
The Tao of TravelPaul Theroux9h 50m3.8 (2.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Tent DwellersAlbert Bigelow Paine5h 41m4.2 (303)$1 · $0.00
Journeys NorthBarney Scout Mann11h 55m4.5 (2.9K)$23
A Lady's Life in the Rocky MountainsIsabella L. Bird7h 27m4.1 (7.9K)$1 · $0.00
WaldenHenry David Thoreau11h4.0 (239.9K)$4 · $0.00
Walking Henry David Thoreau1h 15m4.0 (15.1K)Free
The Way HomeMark Boyle8h 36m4.1 (6.7K)$20
A Lady's Life in the Rocky MountainsIsabella Bird8h 19m4.1 (6.9K)$2 · $0.00
Hunting with the Bow & ArrowSaxton T. Pope7h 14m4.3 (750)$1 · $0.00
Learning to BreatheAlison Wright7h 4m4.2 (1.1K)$17 · $0.00
The Call of the Wild + White Fang + The Son of the WolfJack London17h 23m4.3 (3K)$2 · $0.00
Lonesome TravelerJack Kerouac5h 53m3.9 (9.7K)$20