Mystery, Drugs, Unstoppable Sex & Rachel Maddow: Nine Audio Books You Should Listen To

As we head into holiday season, many readers are gearing up for road trips. Best way to get through one? Audio books — they can be downloaded on your iPod or MP3 player or bought as CDs from several companies including the powerhouse Audible.com (which works with Amazon and offers a variety of price plans including one book a month for $14.95) and the fiesty newcomer AudioBooks.com (which lets you stream as many books as you like for a flat monthly fee of $29.95). Here are just nine of our fave audio books with LGBT content.

BY Diane Anderson-Minshall

October 25 2012 7:07 PM ET

Society’s Child by Janis Ian ($24.95, Audible.com)

Lesbian musician Janis Ian came to fame at 14, when she wrote "Society's Child,” a song about an interracial couple she first performed at Greenwich Village’s Gaslight Café. It got her boos on stage and a racist hate mail and death threats at what was then a taboo topic. She followed up with the feminist classic "Seventeen" (both songs have been have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame) and continued writing and singing for decades. Now her autobiography, which includes everything from her financial catastrophe, near fatal health issues, failed relationships (with both men and women), an abusive marriage, coming out, is available as an audio book for the first time. Produced by Grammy Award winner Stefan Rudnicki, and read by the author herself, Society's Child is a must read for music buffs and anyone interested in LGBT history and it's so much better than the print book because when Ian is talking about particular songs she actually sings them so it's like an album and book all in one. Two factoids from a prolific up-and-down life: Ian performed on the very first broadcast of Saturday Night Live and she did drugs with Jimi Hendrix. (Audible.com)

Watch this video of Ian performing in 1976