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Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/561927 to listen full audiobooks. Title: No Shame: How to drop the guilt … from some who’s learned the f**king hard way Author: Laura Belbin Narrator: Laura Belbin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 13 minutes Release date: July 21, 2022 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 1 of Total 1 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. Shame, shame we know your name Do we own it? Being a woman that is. Do we fuck! We live in fear of how we look, what we eat, how we age and what we do. Wow, it's 2022 and we're still churning out that same old shit. I've been told as you get older you care less. Fucking great. I can't wait to be menopausal with skunk-like grey track lines in my hair, saggier tits, and miserable as shit. I don't know about you, but I'd quite like to have that experience - the no-fucks-experience that is - now, before that all happens. To have the confidence to believe in who I am. It's a push we all have to make - whether it be in our confidence over our bodies, who we are as people, or what goes on inside our mind - and we all have to work at it. It's baby steps. So let's take it back to those tiny steps, because all mountains that are climbed don't happen without practice, perseverance, self-belief and a fuck ton of work. © Laura Belbin 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/557005 to listen full audiobooks. Title: A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing Author: Amanda Held Opelt Narrator: Amanda Held Opelt Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 10 minutes Release date: July 19, 2022 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: In a raw and inspiring reflection on grief, a mourning sister processes her personal story of loss by exploring the history of bereavement customs. When Amanda Held Opelt suffered a season of loss—including three miscarriages and the death of her grandmother and culminating in the unexpected death of her sister, New York Times bestselling writer Rachel Held Evans—she was confronted with sorrow she didn't know to how face. And through her career as an international aid worker, she traveled to some of the world's most troubled regions, devastated by war, natural disasters, and disease. In the wake of these losses and exposure to trauma, Opelt struggled to process her grief and accept the reality of her pain and the pain in the world. She also wrestled with some unexpectedly difficult questions: What does it mean to truly grieve and to grieve well? Why is it so hard to move on? Why didn't my faith prepare me for this kind of pain? Does the Bible really speak to the heart of sorrow? What am I supposed to do now? Her search for a way to process her grief led her to seek wisdom about how other people have made it through, and she found that generations past embraced rituals that served as vessels for pain and aided in the process of grieving and healing. Today, many of these traditions have been lost as religious practice declines, cultures amalgamate, death is sanitized, and pain is averted. In this raw and authentic memoir of bereavement, Opelt explores the history of human grief practices and how previous generations have journeyed through periods of suffering. She explores grief rituals and customs from various cultures, including: - • the Irish tradition of keening, or wailing in grief, which teaches her that healing can only begin when we dive headfirst into our grief - • the Victorian tradition of post-mortem photographs and how we struggle to recall a loved one as they were - • the Jewish tradition of sitting shiva, which reminds her to rest in the strength of her community even when God feels absent - • the tradition of mourning clothing, which set the bereaved apart in society for a time, allowing them space to honor their grief As Opelt explores each bereavement practice, it allows her to utilize these rituals as a framework for processing her own pain. She shares how, in spite of her doubt and anger, God met her in the midst of sorrow and grieved along with her. This book is a testament to the idea that when we carefully and honestly attend to our losses, we are able to expand our capacity for love, faith, and healing.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/564709 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Split Decision: Life Stories Author: Spike, Ice-T, Douglas Century Narrator: Spike, Ice-T, Douglas Century Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 53 minutes Release date: July 19, 2022 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.1 of Total 10 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 3 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Ice-T unveils a compelling memoir of his early life robbing jewelry stores until he found fame and fortune—while a handful of bad choices sent his former crime partner down an incredibly different path. Ice-T rose to fame in the late 1980s, earning acclaim for his music before going on to enthrall television audiences as Odafin “Fin” Tutuola in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. But it could have gone much differently. In this “poignant and powerful” (Library Journal, starred review) memoir, Ice-T and Spike, his former crime partner—collaborating with New York Times bestselling author Douglas Century—relate the shocking stories of their shared pasts, and how just a handful of decisions led to their incredibly different lives. Both grew up in violent, gang-controlled Los Angeles neighborhoods and worked together to orchestrate a series of jewelry heists. But while Ice-T was discovered rapping in a club and got his first record deal, Spike was caught for a jewelry robbery and did three years in prison. As his music career began to take off, Ice made the decision to abandon the criminal life; Spike continued to plan increasingly ingenious and risky jewel heists. And in 1992, after one of Spike’s robberies ended tragically, he was sentenced to thirty-five years to life. While he sat behind bars, he watched his former partner rise to fame in music, movies, and television. “Propulsive” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), timely, and thoughtful, two men with two very different lives reveal how their paths might have very well been reversed if they made different choices. All it took was a split decision. Featuring an exclusive conversation with Ice-T, Spike, and Douglas Century!

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/568516 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Inland Island Author: Josephine Johnson Narrator: Madeleine Maby Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 8 minutes Release date: July 19, 2022 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: “A beautiful book...about nature the way Walden was a book about nature. It should be read by everyone who still retains the capacity to feel anything” (The New York Times). Stunningly written and fiercely observed, a new edition of a classic work of nature writing about a year on an Ohio farm, by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Josephine Johnson. Originally published in 1969, The Inland Island is Josephine W. Johnson’s startling and brilliant chronicle of nature and the seasons at her rambling thirty-seven-acre farm in Ohio, which she and her husband reverted to wilderness with the help of a state forester. Over the course of twelve months, she observes the changing landscape with a naturalist’s precision and a poet’s evocative language. Readers will marvel at the way she brings to life flashes of beauty, the inexorable cycle of growth and decay, and the creatures who live alongside her, great and small. A forerunner of iconic American women nature writers and a champion of civil rights who marched in Washington against the Vietnam war, Johnson intersperses these “delicate marvels” (The New York Times) with profound reflections about racial inequality, urbanization, social justice, and environmental destruction that speak powerfully to our time. Ready to be rediscovered by a new generation, The Inland Island is a vital and relevant meditation on nature and time, capturing the wonder, beauty, hope—and flaws—of our turbulent world.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/558727 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Last Days: A memoir of faith, desire and freedom Author: Ali Millar Narrator: Ali Millar Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 45 minutes Release date: July 14, 2022 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. A Scotsman Book to Watch for 2022 It is 1982 and in the Kingdom Hall we are Jehovah's Witnesses. The state of the world shows us the end is close, and Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking to devour us. Ali Millar is waiting for Armageddon. Born into the Jehovah's Witnesses in a town in the Scottish Borders, her childhood revolves around regular meetings in the Kingdom Hall, where she is haunted by vivid images of the Second Coming, her mind populated by the bodies that will litter the earth upon Jehovah's return. In this frightening, cloistered world Ali grows older. As she does, she starts to question the ways of the Witnesses, and their control over the most intimate aspects of her life. As she marries and has a daughter within the religion, she finds herself pulled deeper and deeper into its dark undertow, her mind tormented by one question: is it possible to escape the life you are born into? A tale of love and darkness, of faith and absolution, The Last Days is an unforgettable memoir of one woman's courageous journey to freedom. 'A coming-of-age story like no other' Lily Dunn, author of Sins of My Father 'Ali Millar pulls you heart first through an extraordinary life, somehow making sense of an experience that should make no sense at all. A sublime talent' David Whitehouse, author of About A Son © Ali Millar 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/556987 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings Author: Chrysta Bilton Narrator: Chrysta Bilton Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 2 minutes Release date: July 12, 2022 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.5 of Total 4 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: This riveting, nuanced memoir about unforgettable individuals thrown together by chance and DNA tells a story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one's true inheritance. What is a “normal family,” and how do you go about making one? Chrysta Bilton’s magnetic, larger-than-life mother, Debra, yearned to have a child, but as a single gay woman in 1980s California, she had few options. Until one day, while getting her hair done in a Beverly Hills salon, she met a man and instantly knew he was the one she’d been looking for. Beautiful, athletic, artistic, and from a well-to-do family, Jeffrey Harrison appeared to be Debra’s ideal sperm donor.    A verbal agreement, a couple of thousand in cash, and a few squirts of a turkey baster later, and Chrysta was conceived. Over the years, Jeffrey would make regular appearances at the family home, which grew to include Chrysta’s baby sister. But how much did Debra really know about the man she’d chosen to father her daughters? And as a single mother torn between ferocious independence and abject dependence—on other women, alcohol, drugs, and the adrenaline of get-rich-quick schemes—what secrets of her own was she keeping?   It wasn’t until Chrysta was a young adult that she discovered just how much her parents had hidden from their daughters—and each other—including a shocking revelation with far-reaching consequences not only for Debra, Chrysta, and her sister, but for dozens and possibly hundreds of unsuspecting families across the country. After a lifetime of longing for a “normal family,” can Chrysta face the reality of her own, in all its complexity?  Bringing us into the fold of a deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving clan that is anything but “normal,” this emotional roller coaster of a memoir will make you cry, laugh, and rethink the meaning of family.   Named a 'Best Book of the Summer' by LA Times, People, USA Today, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, Amazon, Apple, Cup of Jo, Kirkus, Parade, & Today

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/556995 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Illegally Yours: A Memoir Author: Rafael Agustin Narrator: Rafael Agustin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 38 minutes Release date: July 12, 2022 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 3 Ratings of Narrator: 4.67 of Total 3 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A funny and poignant memoir about how as a teenager, TV writer Rafael Agustin (Jane The Virgin) accidentally discovered he was undocumented and how that revelation turned everything he thought he knew about himself and his family upside down. Growing up, Rafa’s parents didn't want him to feel different because, as his mom told him: "Dreams should not have borders." But when he tried to get his driver's license during his junior year of high school, his parents were forced to reveal his immigration status. Suddenly, the kid who modeled his entire high school career after American TV shows had no idea what to do -- there was no episode of Saved by the Bell where Zack gets deported! While his parents were relieved to no longer live a lie in front of their son, Rafa found himself completely unraveling in the face of his uncertain future.   Illegally Yours is a heartwarming, comical look at how this struggling Ecuadorian immigrant family bonded together to navigate Rafa's school life, his parents' work lives, and their shared secret life as undocumented Americans, determined to make the best of their always turbulent and sometimes dangerous American existence. From using the Ricky Martin/Jennifer Lopez “Latin Explosion” to his social advantage in the ‘90s to how his parents—doctors in their home country of Ecuador—were reduced to working menial jobs in the US, the family's secret became their struggle, and their struggle became their hustle. An alternatingly hilarious and touching exploration of belonging and identity, Illegally Yours revolves around one very simple question: What does it mean to be American?

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/559029 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Pretty Baby: A Memoir Author: Chris Belcher Narrator: Chris Belcher Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 50 minutes Release date: July 12, 2022 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: “Absolutely not to be missed.” —Vogue “A muscular, canny memoir about labor and power and gender…I couldn’t put it down. What a fucking gorgeous book.” —Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House A queer teen rebel escapes small-town Appalachia and becomes Los Angeles’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix in this searing and darkly funny memoir that upends our ideas about desire, class, and power. The dominatrix is the id of American femininity. She says the words that we all wish we could say when we find ourselves frozen in the presence of men. No is principal among them. So writes Chris Belcher, who appeared destined for a life of conventional femininity after she took first place in an infant beauty contest—a minor glory that followed her around a working-class town of 1,600 people in rural West Virginia. But when she came out as queer, the conservative community that had once celebrated its prettiest baby turned on her. A decade later, living in Los Angeles and trying to stay afloat in the early years of a PhD program, Belcher plunges into the work of a pro domme. Branding herself as Los Angeles’s Renowned Lesbian Dominatrix, she specializes in male clients who want a domme to make them feel worthless, shameful, and weak—all the abuse regularly heaped upon women for free. A queer woman whom men can trust with the unorthodox sides of their sexualities, Belcher is paid to be the keeper of the fantasies that they can’t enact in their everyday relationships. But moonlighting as a sex worker also carries risks, like the not-so-submissive who tries to turn the tables and the jealous client out for revenge. As Belcher moves between the embodied world of the pro domme and the abstract realm of academia, she discovers how lessons from the classroom apply to the dungeon, and vice versa. Still, fear that her doctoral program won’t approve burdens her with a double life. Pretty Baby is her second coming out. In this sharp and discerning memoir, we see through Belcher’s eyes how power and desire can be renegotiated—or reinforced.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/558728 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Redemption of Bobby Love: The Humans of New York Instagram Sensation Author: Bobby Love, Cheryl Love Narrator: Harvey Reaves, Cheri Vandenheuvel Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 12 minutes Release date: July 7, 2022 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. A Humans of New York Instagram sensation, this is the inspiring, dramatic and heart-warming true story of family, justice and how we all deserve a second chance. The young Walter Miller was a product of his time. Growing up Black in the Jim Crow American South, he was in trouble with the police before his fourteenth birthday. And, like so many young Black men, once he'd landed in the criminal justice system it was hard to find a way out. Soon enough, he was facing a thirty-year prison sentence. But Walter was smarter than his jailers. He escaped prison and fled to New York with a hundred dollars in his pocket. He changed his name to Bobby Love, and began again - living a crime-free life for nearly forty years, with a steady job, a loving wife, a church-going family. And a big secret. Until the FBI came knocking one cold winter morning, and it all came crashing down. The Redemption of Bobby Love is an incredible true story that illuminates some of the enduring themes of being Black in America. Fuelled by the drama of a jailbreak and the suspense of a man on the run, at its heart is a remarkable tale about breaking free from society's prejudices and making the most of a precious second chance. A compelling story for underdogs everywhere, it's proof that transformation is possible and redemption is real. © Bobby Love 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/562940 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Approaching Fire Author: Michelle Porter Narrator: Michelle Porter Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 2 hours 57 minutes Release date: June 28, 2022 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: In Approaching Fire, Michelle Porter embarks on a quest to find her great-grandfather, the Métis fiddler and performer Léon Robert Goulet. Through musicology, jigs and reels, poetry, photographs, and the ecology of fire, Porter invests biography with the power of reflective ingenuity, creating a portrait which expands beyond documentation into a private realm where truth meets metaphor. Weaving through multiple genres and traditions, Approaching Fire fashions a textual documentary of rescue and insight, and a glowing contemplation of the ways in which loss can generate unbridled renewal.