How I Learned to Drive
by Paula Vogel
★ Top 25 book of 1997 · #18 on Best Books of 1997
This play follows Li'l Bit as she looks back on her past, set to 1950s pop music. Memories of driving lessons with her beloved uncle mingle with darker truths, as she weighs family demands against her own morals.
Best for: Theatre lovers interested in memory play drama about family and difficult moral choices
How I Learned to Drive is #18 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar.
What How I Learned to Drive is about
Paula Vogel's play follows Li'l Bit as she looks back on her life, with 1950s pop music setting the mood. Her memories center on driving with her beloved uncle, and the lessons behind the wheel mix with other lessons about the darker side of life. As she remembers, Li'l Bit weighs what her family expects of her against her own sense of what is right. The play is about memory and about how danger can sit underneath something that looks sweet, and it will speak to readers drawn to thoughtful, emotionally complicated drama.
How I Learned to Drive on the Best Books of 1997
How I Learned to Drive came out in 1997. Of the 27 books first published in 1997 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #18 on our Best Books of 1997 list.
Why it made the list: 183 readers have shelved it on Open Library. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 1997 list
- Cat & Mouse James Patterson, #16
- The Partner John Grisham, #17
- The Perfect Storm Sebastian Junger, #19
- Ella Enchanted Gail Carson Levine, #20
See all Best Books of 1997 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 1996 Best Books of 1998.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 163 want to read it, 7 are reading it now and 13 have read it, according to Open Library.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 30 | 55% |
| Reader love | 44 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 33 | 20% |
Questions about How I Learned to Drive
When was How I Learned to Drive published?
How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel was first published in 1997.
Was How I Learned to Drive one of the best books of 1997?
How I Learned to Drive is #18 on BookWard's Best Books of 1997, out of 27 1997 books that cleared our data bar. 183 readers have shelved it on Open Library.
Why is How I Learned to Drive on the Best Books of 1997 list?
183 readers have shelved it on Open Library.
More of the best books of 1997
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling, #1
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad Robert T. Kiyosaki, #2
- Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond, #3
- The Adventures of Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey, #4
- The Power of Now Eckhart Tolle, #5
- Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer, #6
See the full Best Books of 1997, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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