7 Audiobooks to Listen to Before the Movies and TV Shows Come Out

Commuting · Audiobooks · Book to Screen Adaptations

Hollywood is having a moment with books, and your commute is the perfect way to get ahead of it. This year and next, some of the most anticipated films and series hitting theaters and streaming are based on novels you can listen to right now. Read the book before everyone else is talking about the movie. Here are seven audiobooks worth queuing up on your way to work.

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1. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins - In theaters November 20, 2026

The fifth Hunger Games film is coming, and this time the story centers on a young Haymitch Abernathy competing in the brutal 50th Games — the Second Quarter Quell — 24 years before Katniss Everdeen ever volunteered as tribute. Collins published the novel in March 2025, and Lionsgate already has a trailer out starring Joseph Zada as Haymitch, alongside Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, and Elle Fanning as a young Effie Trinket. Listening to this one now means you will walk into the theater already knowing exactly what is at stake.

2. Verity by Colleen Hoover - In theaters October 2, 2026

One of the most talked-about thrillers of the past few years is finally getting its film adaptation, and the cast alone has people paying attention. Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson star as the two women at the center of a deeply unsettling secret, with Josh Hartnett rounding out the trio. The story follows a struggling writer hired to ghostwrite for a famous author, who discovers a manuscript that changes everything she thought she understood about the family she has moved in with. Verity is one of those audiobooks that is genuinely hard to pause, which makes it ideal for a long commute.

3. The Odyssey by Homer - In theaters July 17, 2026

Christopher Nolan is bringing Homer's epic to the big screen with a cast that includes Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland, Zendaya, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron, and Lupita Nyong'o. The film is expected to be one of the biggest releases of 2026. Before you see it in IMAX, consider listening to the source material on your commute. The Odyssey was always meant to be heard out loud — it predates the written word — and a strong narrator brings the gods, monsters, and long journey home to life in a way that reading off a page never quite captures. If you are going to spend $20 on a movie ticket, it is worth knowing the story first.

4. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller - In theaters August 28, 2026

Ridley Scott is directing this post-apocalyptic story, with Jacob Elordi as Hig, a pilot surviving on a Colorado airbase with his dog and a hardened ex-marine played by Josh Brolin, after a pandemic has wiped out most of humanity. Margaret Qualley also stars. Heller's prose is spare and beautiful in a way that translates remarkably well to audio — there is a stillness to it that suits a commute. The novel is not a typical survival thriller; it is quieter and more emotional than that, which is probably why Ridley Scott wanted it.

5. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - In theaters February 12, 2027

Real-life sisters Dakota and Elle Fanning will play fictional sisters in German-occupied France during World War II, in what is shaping up to be one of the most emotional films of next year. Mark Rylance and Shira Haas also join the cast, which is currently filming in Budapest. Hannah's novel has sold over 11 million copies worldwide and spent more than 165 combined weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It is the kind of story that leaves a mark, and the audiobook format gives it room to breathe. Highly recommended for any commute where you do not mind arriving at work with your feelings slightly rattled.

6. The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman - In theaters September 11, 2026

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are back as the Owens sisters in Practical Magic 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 1998 cult classic, which is adapting Hoffman's 2021 novel The Book of Magic. The film also brings back Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest, with new additions including Joey King and Maisie Williams. If you loved the original movie, The Book of Magic is the audiobook to listen to before this one comes out. It is the fourth and final chapter in the Owens family saga, bringing three generations together to finally break the curse that has haunted the family for centuries.

7. Carrie by Stephen King - Premieres on Prime Video, October 2026

Mike Flanagan, the director behind The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher, has created an eight-episode adaptation of King's debut novel for Prime Video. Stephen King himself chose Flanagan for this one, and the series is already generating serious buzz heading into an October 2026 premiere. Summer H. Howell stars as Carrie White, with Samantha Sloyan, Matthew Lillard, and Katee Sackhoff in supporting roles. King's original novel is compact and devastating — exactly the kind of audiobook you can finish in three or four commutes — and it makes for essential listening before Flanagan's expanded take on the story arrives just in time for Halloween.

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Every one of these audiobooks gives you something the movie cannot: the full story, at your own pace, in your own imagination. Start one of these on your commute this week, and by the time the trailers start running you will already be the person in the room who knows what happens next.

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