A good audiobook can ease the pain of travel, a bad commute or a boring workout, but a great one is worth listening to purely for its own sake. Here are some recent favorites.

‘The Third Wife’ by Lisa Jewell

Adrian’s third wife, Maya, has just been hit by a bus, possibly an act of suicide. Thus Adrian’s self-justifying view of his life begins to disintegrate. Wives, past and present, and their children have spent vacations together, but was it all really sweetness and light? Adrian finds ugly emails on Maya’s laptop, clearly the work of someone with intimate knowledge of the family. Jewell slowly excavates the true state of affairs, and the result is a masterful exposure of the undercurrents of a supposedly happy family. Read by Joe Jameson. (Dreamscape Media, 9 hours and 22 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers

‘There There’ by Tommy Orange

This debut novel set in Oakland, Calif., is told through the perspectives of 12 different native characters, all heading toward the Big Oakland Powwow. One is an aspiring documentary filmmaker. One is a boy who has taught himself traditional dance by watching YouTube. Two young men are planning to rob the powwow to pay their off their debt to a drug dealer. Several characters are searching for lost parents, children or grandchildren, and as the narrative unfolds, the listener begins to figure out all the connections among them. The growing sense that something terrible is going to happen at the powwow will keep you glued your audioplayer. Read by Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Cuervo and Kyla Garcia. (Random House Audio, 8 hours) — Marion Winik

‘The Great Believers’ by Rebecca Makkai

In 1985, Yale Tischman and his boyfriend, Charlie, are the center of a circle of gay friends in Chicago, both flying high in their careers. But they have just buried their first friend to die of AIDS and now are eyeing one another, wondering who will be next. A second narrative, set in 2015, focuses on the younger sister of that first lost friend. She is in Paris, searching for her estranged daughter, staying with one of the few survivors of the Chicago group. Makkai gets the AIDS material right down to the smallest detail, and brings her intertwined stories to a devastating, painfully beautiful end. Read by Michael Crouch. (Penguin Audio, 18 hours and 17 minutes) — Marion Winik

‘Martin Chuzzlewit’ by Charles Dickens

There are at least five unabridged audio versions of Dickens’ exuberantly comic tale of selfishness, greed and exploitation, but this one stands out for its brilliant narration by Derek Jacobi. Novelist William Boyd reads his own introduction, noting that although the book has its faults, it is still “the most sheerly funny of all Dickens’s novels.” Not the least of its joys are two of Dickens’ most inspired scoundrels, the self-styled friend to mankind, Seth Pecksniff, and the ghoulish, bibulous Mrs. Gamp (“Leave the bottle on the chimley piece, and . . . let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged.”) (Audible Studios, 41 hours, and 33 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers

‘A Well-Behaved Woman’ by Therese Anne Fowler

Set in New York’s Gilded Age, this is a fictional account of the life of Alva Smith, daughter of old but impoverished Southern gentry. It is Alva’s duty to repair the family’s fortunes through marriage to money; thus she nabs William Vanderbilt, grandson of the commodore. Shunned as war profiteers by the Knickerbocker elite, the Vanderbilts hope the alliance will redeem them. Much hard-nosed social intrigue follows, after which the novel turns its attention to Alva’s unfulfilling marriage to her playboy husband, her scandalous insistence on a divorce, a subsequent love affair and her eventual campaign for women’s rights. Read by Barrie Kreinik. (Macmillan Audio, 14 hours and 20 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers

‘The Boys in the Boat’ by Daniel James Brown

This true story follows a boy named Joe Rantz from a miserable Depression-era childhood to the rowing team at University of Washington, where he and his teammates — all working-class kids from around the state — fought their way to the national championship, then went on to Berlin to compete in the Olympics against the team rowing for Hitler. In Brown’s stirring account, the boys, their coach and the British boat builder who fashioned their shells are unforgettable characters and true heroes. The sport of rowing is evoked in all its physical and metaphysical elegance, the embodiment of all for one and one for all. Read by Edward Herrmann. (Penguin Audio, 14 hours and 24 minutes) — Marion Winik

‘Crazy Rich Asians’ by Kevin Kwan

The first audiobook in Kevin Kwan’s trilogy, a hit in print and at the movies, is a whirling lazy Susan buffet of delights. Kwan’s hilariously detailed studies of the lifestyles and peccadilloes of Singapore billionaires are even better in audio, with gifted narrator Lynn Chen doing all the different American, English and Chinese accents. Kwan is Jane Austen meets Bret Easton Ellis meets Ruth Reichl — he knows his love and money, he knows his designers, and Alamak! (something like “Damn!” in Malay), can he write about food. You end up desperate to fly to Singapore and hit an open-air food market, then move on to Shanghai for six courses in a private dining room. All the brand names finally became a distraction, but for less fancy readers, there’s an addictive plot development every minute. The series continues with “China Rich Girlfriend” and “Rich People Problems,” both available in audiobooks read by Lydia Look. (Random House Audio, 13 hours 53 minutes) — Marion Winik

‘Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl’ by Carrie Brownstein

A memoir is the ultimate type of book to hear read by the author because, of course, it is the writer’s own true story. Of Sleater-Kinney and “Portlandia” fame, Brownstein is a guitarist and songwriter who came up as a fan and fiercely co-opted rock’s all-male “archetypes, stage moves and representations of rebellion and debauchery.” She has insightful things to say not just about rock but about growing up with a closeted gay father and an anorexic mother, about how the creative process works, about the “performance” of the audience at a concert, about the punk aesthetic, even about the value of Christmas ornaments. (Read by the author. Penguin Audio, 7 hours and 4 minutes) — Marion Winik

‘True Grit’ by Charles Portis

2018 marked the 50th anniversary of Portis’ most famous novel. Set in the 1870s, it tells the action-filled story of iron-willed, hard-bargaining Mattie Ross of Yell County, Arkansas, who, at 14, sets off into Indian Territory to avenge her father’s murder. With her are Marshall Rooster Cogburn, “an old one-eyed jasper,” and LaBoeuf, a foppish Texas Ranger. Mattie describes events from a distance of some 50 years on, and her manner is that of the strict Presbyterian spinster she has become. Tartt’s solemn voice and Portis’ genius combine to deliver an impeccably deadpan style, one filled with as much inadvertent humor as high adventure. (Read by read by Donna Tartt. Recorded Books, 6 hours and 19 minutes) — Katherine A. Powers

‘This Could Hurt’ by Jillian Medoff

This savvy slice of corporate life finds heart and humor in a human resources bureaucracy. When HR chief Rosalita Guerrero has a stroke, the co-workers she has mentored rally around to protect her health benefits and retirement. While some at the company jockey for advancement, others find themselves out on the street. Readers of “This Could Hurt” in print raved about the humorous org charts that precede each section; these are supplied in PDF format to audio listeners because they don’t work when read aloud. On the plus side, the round robin of narrators makes Medoff’s expertly developed characters even more real. (Read by the author and others. Harper Audio, 12 hours and 52 minutes) — Marion Winik