Discover Most Popular Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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Title: Spies in the Family

Subtitle: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship That Helped End the Cold War

Author: Eva Dillon

Narrator: Gabra Zackman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-09-17

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 39 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

A riveting true-life thriller and revealing memoir from the daughter of an American intelligence officer - the astonishing true story of two spies and their families on opposite sides of the Cold War.

In the summer of 1975, 17-year-old Eva Dillon's family was living in New Delhi when her father was exposed as a CIA spy. Eva had long believed that her father was a US State Department employee. She had no idea that he was handling the CIA's highest ranking double agent - Dmitri Fedorovich Polyakov, a Soviet general whose code name was TOPHAT. Dillon's father and Polyakov had a close friendship that went back years, to their first meeting in Burma in the mid-1960s. At the height of the Cold War, the Russian offered the CIA an unfiltered view into the vault of Soviet intelligence. His collaboration helped ensure that tensions between the two nuclear superpowers did not escalate into a shooting war.

Spanning 50 years and three continents, Spies in the Family is a deeply researched account of two families on opposite sides of the lethal espionage campaigns of the Cold War and two men whose devoted friendship lasted a lifetime, until the devastating final days of their lives. With impeccable insider access to both families as well as knowledgeable CIA and FBI officers, Dillon goes beyond the fog of secrecy to craft an unforgettable story of friendship and betrayal, double agents and clandestine lives, exposing the commonality between peoples of opposing political economic systems.

Both a gripping tale of spy craft and a moving personal story, Spies in the Family is an invaluable and heart-rending work.

Members Reviews:

Very pertinent book to today's news.

This book should be required reading for all history students and anyone interested in today's politics. This book gives background to the Cold War like never before. The performance only gets 4 stars because the reader needs to learn how to pronounce words correctly. Otherwise well done.

LOVED it!

The best book club book in over two years! There's nothing better than gaining an amazing education while being thoroughly entertained! I have such a better understanding of the Cold War after reading this book. Highly recommend it!

Interesting characters; story unfolds slowly

I have the utmost respect for the people in this true story, and their lives are very interesting. I could not shake the feeling, however, that the story is being told in a rather slow fashion, and it was a bit difficult to keep listening at times.

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Title: A Stitch of Time

Subtitle: The Year a Brain Injury Changed My Language and Life

Author: Lauren Marks

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-02-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Lauren Marks was 27 when an aneurysm ruptured in her brain and left her fighting for her life. She woke up in a hospital soon after with serious deficiencies to her reading, speaking, and writing abilities, and an unfamiliar diagnosis: aphasia. This would be shocking news for anyone, but Lauren was a voracious reader, an actress, director, dramaturg, and pursuing her PhD. At any other period of her life, this diagnosis would have been a devastating blow. But she woke up...different. She returned to her childhood home to recover, grappling with a muted inner monologue and fractured sense of self.

Soon after, Lauren began a journal to chronicle her year following the rupture. A Stitch of Time is the remarkable result, an Oliver Sacks-like case study of a brain slowly piecing itself back together, featuring clinical research interwoven with Lauren's personal narrative and actual journal entries that marked her progress. Alternating between fascination and frustration, she relearns and re-experiences many of the things we take for granted. Deeply personal and powerful, A Stitch of Time is an unforgettable journey of self-discovery, resilience, and hope.

Critic Reviews:

"Engrossing...A story of hope...Marks gives an inside account of a brain in the act of healing-including all the ups, downs, and complications - and also supplies useful information for those suffering from aphasia." (

Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

A World of Enlightening Surprises

True confession: In the early days of this book, I worked with Lauren Marks as she was finding her way back to language. Afterwards I watched and listened and paid close attention as her recovery unfolded. And still, I wasn't prepared for the impact of her memoir. The story is moving--yes. And learning of the ways in which the author discovered the connection between language, memory and identity is powerful and inspiring. But most of all, the I was amazed by the number of surprises in A Stitch of Time. I can honestly say this is one of those books you cannot put down, one you won't soon forget, and one that will change and deepen your understanding not only of language and memory and the nature of will, love, friendship and family, but it will change the way you see yourself.

Four stars

One minute she was on stage in Edinburgh singing karaoke with her friend. Then an aneurysm in her brain she didn't know she had ruptured, and she woke in a Scottish hospital, unable to speak, read, or write. This time of her life, which she refers to as The Quiet, had a nameâaphasia. She struggles to regain her speaking ability and succeeds over the following months.

The most interesting thing in her account is the change in her personality. Her boyfriend expects her to return to the girl she was, but that woman is gone forever. She is a new creation and struggles to learn who she has become.

A fascinating account of how the brain works, and what it is like when it doesn't.

A great read!

I took a writing class with Lauren years ago and knew, when I first heard her read, that any book she wrote would be published. We didn't really stay in touch but I watched the progress with her memoir on Facebook and having read it, I can say it was even better than what I'd imagined.

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Title: Lucky

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Alice Sebold

Narrator: Alice Sebold

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-02-17

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 489 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In a memoir hailed for its searing candor and wit, Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones) reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as an 18-year-old college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in a park near campus. What propels this chronicle of her recovery is Sebold's indomitable spirit - as she struggles for understanding; as her dazed family and friends sometimes bungle their efforts to provide comfort and support; and as, ultimately, she triumphs, managing through grit and coincidence to help secure her attacker's arrest and conviction.

In a narrative by turns disturbing, thrilling, and inspiring, Alice Sebold illuminates the experience of a trauma victim even as she imparts wisdom profoundly hard won: "You save yourself or you remain unsaved".

Critic Reviews:

"A rueful, razor-sharp memoir...funnier than you'd think was possible...Sebold tells what it's like to go through a particular kind of nightmare in order to tell what it's like - slowly, boldly, triumphantly - to heal." (Vogue)

"Sebold's wit is as powerful as her searing candor." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Very raw

This was so completely real. Make sure you are ready for such a raw description of this type of horror. In a way I wish I hadn't read it. I completely went into victim mode.Great read if not so close to home.

GREAT BOOK! Really bad narrating.

This is one of the most powerful books I have ever read as a woman. Well, I haven't read any as a man.. but you get what I'm saying :-) This book is a must read for all women. It's also a must read for anyone that is close to someone that has been raped. It's incredibly insightful. It took my breath away.

Having said all of that... the book is 5 stars.. the narration, which I feel a little bit bad saying since it's the author that narrated the book, is just awful. She may as well have been reading out of the dictionary. She put zero emotion into this... well... that's what it sounded like.

I think it's a great idea for her to have read a prologue or epilogue, but not the whole book. I also understand why she wanted to narrate it... but the reason I listen to audiobooks is for the experience the narrator brings to it when I listen. The way the narrater brings a book to life is SO important. Someone should have let the author know she is a wonderful writer, but terrible narrator.

I would recommend READING this book... but I can't recommend the audio version. I will say the book itself is incredible!

Not for the faint of heart

This is a truly intense and heart wrenching experiance in the form of an audiobook. I think the fact that it is read by the author gives it all the more intensity. You really fall right into her experiances as she retells them in this wonderfully written and powerful biography. It is graphic and honest and does not hold any punches. Be ready for a book that is hard to hear, but well worth it.

A frank account of rape

I had to pause to come up for breath several times in the first few minutes of this book. But once started there was no way to put it down.

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Title: Hourglass

Subtitle: Time, Memory, Marriage

Author: Dani Shapiro

Narrator: Dani Shapiro

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-11-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 120 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The best-selling novelist and memoirist delivers her most intimate and powerful work: a piercing, life-affirming memoir about marriage and memory, about the frailty and elasticity of our most essential bonds, and about the accretion, over time, of both sorrow and love.

Hourglass is an inquiry into how marriage is transformed by time - abraded, strengthened, shaped in miraculous and sometimes terrifying ways by accident and experience. With courage and relentless honesty, Dani Shapiro opens the door to her house, her marriage, and her heart and invites us to witness her own marital reckoning - a reckoning in which she confronts both the life she dreamed of and the life she made and struggles to reconcile the girl she was with the woman she has become.

What are the forces that shape our most elemental bonds? How do we make lifelong commitments in the face of identities that are continuously shifting and commit ourselves for all time when the self is so often in flux? What happens to love in the face of the unexpected, in the face of disappointment and compromise - how do we wrest beauty from imperfection, find grace in the ordinary, desire what we have rather than what we lack? Drawing on literature, poetry, philosophy, and theology, Shapiro writes gloriously of the joys and challenges of matrimonial life in a luminous narrative that unfurls with urgent immediacy and sharp intelligence. Artful, intensely emotional work from one of our finest writers.

Critic Reviews:

"In this touching and intimate memoir...Shapiro beautifully weaves together her own moving language and a commonplace book's worth of perfect quotes from others." (

Publishers Weekly)

"To write openly about an enduring intimate relationship requires courage and tact...In this compelling account of her 18-year marriage, Shapiro carefully exposes the vulnerabilities that have subtly begun to surface within the relationship.... The narrative demonstrates Shapiro's finely tuned, poetic skills as a writer.... A sharply observed and frequently moving memoir of marriage." (

Kirkus Reviews)

"Writer Dani Shapiro performs her memoir with a meditative understated tone... As a narrator and a writer, Shapiro approaches sorrows, joys, and everyday life as equals--examining them for threads of meaning and connection rather than playing for easy emotional payoffs. Honest and engaging, this literary memoir will resonate with many listeners." (

AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

A little disappointed...

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

No, unfortunately. There were a few parts that were okay, but where was the story? I wanted more truth, more reality. I know what it's like to be married, and I think she would have revealed more about her marriage. The reality of the sex, the realness of feeling like shit and having sex anyway, the real feelings. Did she want more kids? Did she not? What else might she have wanted to be in life? I want to hear more about Dani, the woman. I think she would have been more real if she knew her husband wouldn't have read it. IMHO, I think she should have written it in anyway.

Would you ever listen to anything by Dani Shapiro again?

Yes, I like her work. This one didn't do it for me though. When it ended, I thought.

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Title: Shoot Like a Girl

Subtitle: One Woman's Dramatic Fight in Afghanistan and on the Home Front

Author: Major Mary Jennings Hegar

Narrator: Cynthia Farrell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-07-17

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 180 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

On June 29, 2009, Air National Guard major Mary Jennings "MJ" Hegar was shot down while on a medevac mission on her third tour in Afghanistan. Despite being wounded, she fought the enemy and saved the lives of her crew and their patients. But soon she would face a new battle: to give women who serve on the front lines the credit they deserve....

After being commissioned into the US Air Force, MJ Hegar was selected for pilot training by the Air National Guard, finished at the top of her class, then served three tours in Afghanistan flying combat search and rescue missions, culminating in a harrowing rescue attempt that would earn MJ the Purple Heart as well as the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor Device.

But it was on American soil that Hegar would embark on her greatest challenge - to eliminate the military's Ground Combat Exclusion Policy, which kept female armed service members from officially serving in combat roles despite their longstanding record of doing so with honor.

In Shoot Like a Girl, MJ takes the listener on a dramatic journey through her military career: an inspiring, humorous, and thrilling true story of a brave, high-spirited, and unforgettable woman who has spent much of her life ready to sacrifice everything for her country, her fellow man, and her sense of justice.

Members Reviews:

You will laugh, cry, and be amazed.

Would you consider the audio edition of Shoot Like a Girl to be better than the print version?

I did not read the print version.

What did you like best about this story?

MJ did not hold back, she put her story out there for all to see, and experience. It took a lot of guts to cover the subjects she did. I loved the story about Jager, sometimes when humanity fails you, your pet (fur-baby) can keep you on track.

What does Cynthia Farrell bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

Her tone and inflection at stressful parts vs times when MJ was being self reflective helped keep me in the moment.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The part about MJs father, not the biological one. The part about Jager. The parts about Zerk.

I've listed briefly the moments, i don't want to spoil the story for others, if you've read the book you'll know.

Any additional comments?

This is one of the best books i listed to in a while.

Absorbing

This is the memoir of Air Force Major Mary Jennings Hegar. She was a rescue helicopter pilot. She had successfully rescued hundreds of men and women off the battlefield. Hegar had served three tours in Afghanistan. The author briefly covers her time in high school and ROTC in college. Most of the book is about her time in military service.

Hegar tells of being shot down during a rescue mission. She was also shot by the Taliban. She fought through her injuries to save the three Americans that were the target of the rescue mission and her own team. Their ordeal culminated in a daring escape hanging onto the skids of a Kiowa helicopter. Major Hegar was awarded the Purple Heart. She was the sixth women to receive The Distinguished Flying Cross and only the second women ever to receive it with the Valor Device.

As exciting and interesting the combat part of the book was, the real story happened when she returned to the States.

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Title: The Big Fix

Subtitle: Hope After Heroin

Author: Tracey Helton Mitchell

Narrator: Tracey Helton Mitchell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-07-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

After surviving nearly a decade of heroin abuse and hard living on the streets of San Francisco's Tenderloin District, Tracey Helton Mitchell decided to get clean for good.

With raw honesty and a poignant perspective on life that comes only from starting at rock bottom, The Big Fix tells her story of transformation from homeless heroin addict to stable mother of three - and the hard work and hard lessons that got her there.

Rather than dwelling on the pain of addiction, Tracey focuses on her journey of recovery and rebuilding her life while exposing the failings of the American rehab system and laying out a path for change. Starting with the first step in her recovery, Tracey relearns how to interact with men, build new friendships, handle money, and rekindle her relationship with her mother, all while staying sober, sharp, and dedicated to her future.

A decidedly female story of addiction, The Big Fix describes the unique challenges faced by women caught in the grip of substance abuse, such as the toxic connection between drug addiction and prostitution. Tracey's story of hope, hard work, and rehabilitation will inspire anyone who has been affected by substance abuse while offering hope for a better future.

Members Reviews:

Excellent book on recovery

Here is a great book supporting the need for Syringe exchange program, medication assisted therapy, psychological services, and policy change. All the familiar players, such as National Drug Alliance and Harm Reduction Coalition, are mentioned.

Just what I needed. Hope.

What did you like best about this story?

The hope I now have for my loved one who has just begun rehab. Thank you for telling me how it really is. Without the fluff. Without the useless jargon. There is no 'take a nice bath and a long walk' crap in this book.

What three words best describe Tracey Helton Mitchells voice?

I would recommend, for future books- (and I hope there are future books) that they be told as it happened. In the telling of it. Not just very carefully pronounced reading. To read it in your own voice such as the way you say..."sooooooo much" ! That's all you. I love that. I can relate to a person telling me how it was.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Almost all of it. I was so engrossed that Saturday in my easy chair was seemingly over very quickly.

Any additional comments?

When Grandma called Katie....I burst into tears. It was such a personal and tender moment shared. I don't know where the tears came from as I'm not a crier. Maybe the relief of childbirth and the long life's struggles beforehand, but I heard the catch in the author's voice also.

I stopped the book after a few chapters to watch the documentary, then went back to the book. It made it so much more personal in that I saw the author 'in person'.

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Title: Year of No Clutter

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Eve O. Schaub

Narrator: Callie Beaulieu

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-01-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 24 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Eve has a problem with clutter. Too much stuff and too easily acquired, it confronts her in every corner and on every surface in her house. When she pledges to tackle the worst offender, her horror of a "hell room", she anticipates finally being able to throw away all of the unnecessary things she can't bring herself to part with: her fifth-grade report card, dried-up art supplies, an old vinyl raincoat. But what Eve discovers isn't just old CDs and outdated clothing, but a fierce desire within herself to hold on to her identity. Our things represent our memories, our history, a million tiny reference points in our lives. If we throw our stuff in the trash, where does that leave us? And if we don't...how do we know what's really important? Everyone has their own hell room, and Eve's battle with her clutter, along with her eventual self-clarity, encourages everyone to dig into their past to declutter their future. Year of No Clutter is a deeply inspiring - and frequently hilarious - examination of why we keep stuff in the first place, and how to let it all go.

Members Reviews:

The Author Channeled ME!

I have come out of the closet in the past year and have declared that I am a hoarder. I wouldn't become champion on "All-Star Hoarders," but I do my share. I called myself a saver or a recycler, but I had to finally come clean with myself and admit the truth. While I have "come out" as a hoarder to some people, I still do not have the candor that Eve Schaub has in this book. I love her so much.

I do have to admit a bit of jealousy knowing that she has that huge room and most of her clutter was confined there. Mine is not. But my house is much smaller.

The main thing I loved about this is that she honestly and rationally explained why she is the way she is. I, too, save things for sentimental reasons. As she said about her father, he didn't want to give things up because he might forget the memory that the item evoked.

Something that has prompted me to let go is the thought that my adult children will be burdened by my "legacy" if I don't cut it down.

I so appreciated taking this journey with Eve in making her Hell Room usable again. I'm not sure if I'm ready to get rid of that fifth grade report card (yes, I do have it!) but I hope to channel a little of Eve O. Schaub as I sort through the souvenirs of my life.

Great book, just okay narration

Lovely, lively writing but I struggled with the narrator's sometimes monotone performance. It just didn't seem like a good fit. The story really resonated with me though and I'd happily listen to it again. As someone who struggles with both clutter and mental illness herself I really appreciate the author's frank, funny, and poignant story.

Clutterers can relate!

Eve wrote my story! I could relate to all of it! You have to be a clutterer/collector to understand, or live with one. I loved it! It's always nice to know that I am not alone in my struggles!

A Story most people can relate to

What did you like best about this story?

I really liked how real the story was and Eve's process to get her 'hell room' and in general, her life sorted.

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Title: Finding Family

Subtitle: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA

Author: Richard Hill

Narrator: David Colacci

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 44 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA was a Global Ebook Awards gold medal winner and a Next Generation Indie Book Awards finalist. It is Richard Hill's true and intensely personal story of how he pieced together the long-kept secret of his own origins. This highly suspenseful book is a compelling saga of personal detective work that will appeal to anyone who loves a good mystery. But this isn't fiction. It's an engrossing account of an adoptee trying to reclaim the biological family denied him by sealed birth records. This fascinating quest, including the author's landmark use of DNA testing, takes listeners on an exhilarating roller-coaster ride and concludes with a twist that rivals anything Hollywood has to offer.

Members Reviews:

But Who's My Real Dad?

Join Richard Hill in his search for his long lost family, a family he didn't know he even had til his family's doctor spilled the beans when Richard came in for a medical appointment as a young adult. Despite the shock of what he learned, Richard kept his knowledge secret from his adoptive parents for much of their lives to honor their desires. His search and what he came to learn never diminished his love for his adoptive parents. However, respecting their wishes to not acknowledge this adoption to him did not prevent him from searching for any and all information he could find.

It is fascinating to see the techniques Richard came to employ before the advent of the computer age and the easy availability of DNA testing. Over a period of many years he kept searching, on and off, from early adulthood til retirement age, in a quest to learn his family secrets. Sometimes he would give up in utter frustration and years would pass. Then something would happen to spark his curiosity, and he would be off and running again.

Richard explains his motivations. You can't help but wonder why this information can be kept from adult adoptees whom, it seems, should have the right to know their biological origins. Can you imagine if someone told you that you don't have the right to know who your biological parents are?

The most important takeaway from this book is the importance of the use of DNA testing to identify family members. This new field of "Genetic Genealogy" is being used more and more in the process of finding the members of one's family tree and identifying the missing links in one's past. It is of particular importance to adoptees but can benefit almost anyone who is searching for their ancestry. DNA testing plays a major role in Richard's quest. His answers would not have been attainable without it.

All in all, a great listen--heartwarming, surprising, informative, sensitive, well-written. A perfect narration adds to the listening experience!

Fantastic !!

Read like a novel. I couldn't put it down! Full of fantastic tips and guidance !!

Very engaging!!

I'm on the same search and the story is very familiar! I don't have a name for my father...I'm about to check laws and write letters! Thank you for encouraging and guiding me, Richard! Fabulous outcome!

Listened In One Day

As an avid genealogical nut and big ole softy, I loved this story and learned a lot about genealogy before I got started in the mid 1990s.

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Title: A Midwifes Tale

Subtitle: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Author: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Narrator: Susan Ericksen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-14-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 22 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Drawing on the diaries of one woman in 18th-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.

Between 1785 and 1812, a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife's Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale.

Critic Reviews:

"A truly talented historian unravels the fascinating life of a community that is so foreign, and yet so similar to our own." (New York Times)

Members Reviews:

drew me in

It was slow going at first, but grabbed me a couple chapters in and didn't let go. Great narration, fascinating history, and I absolutely fell in love with Martha. Will probably listen again in a couple years.

slow story

very slow story line, I didn't get past chapter two. This was not for me and I love mother baby.

Insightful and Surprising

A revealing and intimate look at the past that gets away from the back rooms and battlefields of most works of history.

Dissertation

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

This book appears to be the writer's dissertation. It is slow and boring. I wish I could have returned it.

Has A Midwifes Tale turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

What didnt you like about Susan Ericksens performance?

I actually don't enjoy her voice at all.

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Title: Insomniac City

Subtitle: New York, Oliver, and Me

Author: Bill Hayes

Narrator: Stephen Bel Davies

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-14-17

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 75 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at 48 years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change.

Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.

And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance - 'I don't so much fear death as I do wasting life,' he tells Hayes early on - is captured in funny and touching vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age 75 to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015).

Insomniac City is both a meditation on grief and a celebration of life, a love song to the New York City and to all who have felt the particular magic and solace it offers.

Members Reviews:

Addicting

I grew up in New York City, Lower East Side primarily, but also Greenwich Village and Staten Island. Insomuch as I have been transient most of my post college graduate years, I no longer call the Big Apple or any patch of land my home. Though the City author Bill Hayes describes is no longer the same one in which I spent my formative, prepubescent, young adult years, it is undoubtedly the place I currently frequent and readily recognize right down to the shoutout to Russ and Daughters Deli on Orchard Street. Hoyt captures in equal measure a definite sense of place (NYC, but also any locale that one holds dear), time (the present now, more or less), and mood (joy, grief, and a complete array of experiences in-between), making the book relevant and relatable and entertaining. The work is as much an ode to the ever mutating and always addicting Manhattan as it is an expression of gratitude for the imperceptible spark of life that, out of nowhere it seems, sparks to full fire and gives us a boost just as we are about to give up or already have given up.

I liked the way Hoyt was able to connect with nearly every walk of life padding across Manhattan's terrain. I'm sure my NY bred cynism is coloring the feel that perhaps some more "realistic" experiences were either figuratively "photoshopped" or otherwise eliminated. Thus the drop in points. Maybe I would have felt different if I had grown up familiar with the inimitable personality of neurologist Oliver Sacks. Instead, I was inundated with Archie Bunker pop culture (I hope to goodness I am not dating myself!). Despite my spiky take on Hoyt's what... syrupy??... take, Ill likely be reading this again.

Narrator Stephen Bel Davies left no lines between himself and Hoyt (sans the saccharine).

Required Reading for Any Sacks Fan

If you're a fan of Olivar Sacks, then you'll enjoy this book. Hayes provides a perspective of the man that only he could have known. It's wistful and dreamy, but not without intention. Expect to find all the humor and beauty you would from anything Sacks touched. But expect more.

moving, funny, perceptive

there's a lot to this story to make it come alive.