Discover Most Popular Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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Title: Radical

Subtitle: My Journey out of Islamist Extremism

Author: Maajid Nawaz

Narrator: David Linski

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-08-16

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 466 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

An insightful account of one man's drastic evolution from religious fervor to enlightened peace.

Maajid Nawaz spent his teenage years listening to American hip-hop and learning about the radical Islamist movement spreading throughout Europe and Asia in the 1980s and '90s. At 16, he was already a ranking member in Hizb ut-Tahrir, a London-based Islamist group. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a top recruiter, a charismatic spokesman for the cause of uniting Islam's political power across the world.

Nawaz was setting up satellite groups in Pakistan, Denmark, and Egypt when he was rounded up in the aftermath of 9/11 along with many other radical Muslims. He was sent to an Egyptian prison where he was, fortuitously, jailed along with the assassins of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. Twenty years in prison had changed the assassins' views on Islam and violence; Maajid went into prison preaching to them about the Islamist cause, but the lessons ended up going the other way.

He came out of prison four years later completely changed, convinced that his entire belief system had been wrong and determined to do something about it. He met with activists and heads of state, built a network, and started a foundation, Quilliam, to combat the rising Islamist tide in Europe and elsewhere, using his intimate knowledge of recruitment tactics in order to reverse extremism and persuade Muslims that the narrative used to recruit them - that the West is evil and the cause of all Muslim suffering - is false.

Radical is a fascinating and important look into one man's journey out of extremism and into something else entirely.

Members Reviews:

Insightful and Enlightening. Blown Away by Radical

What made the experience of listening to Radical the most enjoyable?

I am obsessed with understanding the path towards (and away from) political radicalism. Nawaz deftly explains what motivated his turn towards Islamism and how, through intense experiences and self-reflection, he moved away from it. Though I was never as radical as he was, and was certainly not an Islamist, his story speaks to me. He really shows how youthful pain and idealism can quickly morph into extremism. More importantly, he shows how sober-minded reflection, honesty and humility leads us back towards humanity.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Radical?

The analysis of Sayyid Qutb and how his 2 years at Stanford led indirectly to the likes of Osama bin Laden was beyond fascinating. The observation that the radical - Islamist and otherwise - is involved in a kind of co-dependent relationship with the object of its hatred (i.e. America) is an unusually insightful one.

What does David Linski bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

The reading of the book is quite eloquent and far less dry than most audio books.

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

I could definitely have listed to the entire book in one sitting. My life is far too busy for that so I listened to it whenever I had a free moment.

Any additional comments?

It is rare to hear someone with such obvious qualifications weigh in on the subject of Islamism and deradicalization. We need this kind of depth, familiarity, bravery and objectivity in order to help wrap our heads around this very important issue. Thank you.

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Title: Negroland

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Margo Jefferson

Narrator: Robin Miles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-19-15

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 166 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

At once incendiary and icy, mischievous and provocative, celebratory and elegiac - here is a deeply felt meditation on race, sex, and American culture through the prism of Margo Jefferson's rarefied upbringing and education among a black elite concerned with distancing itself from whites and the black generality while tirelessly measuring itself against both.

Born in upper-crust black Chicago - her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at the time the nation's oldest black hospital; her mother was a socialite - Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the 19th century, they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, "a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty". Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial historical moments - the Civil Rights Movement, the dawn of feminism, the fallacy of postracial America - Margo Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life informed by psychological and moral contradictions. Aware as it is of heart-wrenching despair and depression, this book is a triumphant paean to the grace of perseverance.

Members Reviews:

ARE YOU BLACK ENOUGH

Are you black enough? Are you white enough? Are you female enough? Are you male enough? Are you American enough? Margo Jeffersons memoir is a perspective on growing up in America. Jefferson is born in 1947. She is raised in Chicago by two professional middle class parents; i.e. one is a doctor; the other a teacher. What makes Jeffersons memoir interesting is her middle class upbringing. It sharply defines answers to many questions rarely asked by Americans.

Jefferson wrestles with many of the same baby to teenage insecurities all Americans face in their generation. However, there is an extra layer of complexity for Jefferson because of her color. Jefferson lightly touches on the history of slavery and its societal consequence but she personalizes that history in explaining how she became Margo Jefferson, an accomplished theatre critic, and professor.

Wilmore is unfairly criticized for his tart-tongued stand-up when thought of in light of Jeffersons memoir. The last part of Wilmores presentation seriously praises Obamas accomplishment and then uses a pejorative word for black Americans to categorize Obama. Wilmores comment seems badly interpreted. Wilmore is saying Obama is great enough to be both the President of the United States (in the sense of acceptance by all Americans) and black (in the sense of being accepted by blacks). Jeffersons memoir, and Wilmores routine show that being American enough, black enough, white enough, male or female enough, is just being a part of the human race.

More than one way to be Black

I started this memoir thinking it would be a shallow read full of pretension. Not so. This author was able to illustrate a life some blacks don't believe exists but does. I see now that while the author was raised with advantages most blacks didn't have at the time, but some of the disadvantages that can come with being black are also visited upon her. Respectability doesn't save her from the same prejudices and obstacles other blacks face. Especially if others see that not all blacks behave the way you've been taught.

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Title: Tough as They Come

Author: Travis Mills, Marcus Brotherton, Gary Sinise - foreword

Narrator: Travis Mills

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-15

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 179 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Thousands have been wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Five have survived quadruple-amputee injuries. This is one soldier's story.

Thousands of soldiers die every year to defend their country. United States Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills was sure that he would become another statistic when, during his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, he was caught in an IED blast four days before his 25th birthday. Against the odds, he lived, but at a severe cost - Travis became one of only five soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to survive a quadruple amputation.

Suddenly forced to reconcile with the fact that he no longer had arms or legs, Travis was faced with a future drastically different from the one he had imagined for himself. He would never again be able to lead his squad, stroke his fingers against his wife's cheek, or pick up his infant daughter.

Travis struggled through the painful and anxious days of rehabilitation so that he could regain the strength to live his life to the fullest. With enormous willpower and endurance, the unconditional love of his family, and a generous amount of faith, Travis shocked everyone with his remarkable recovery. Even without limbs, he still swims, dances with his wife, rides mountain bikes, and drives his daughter to school.

Travis inspires thousands every day with his remarkable journey. He doesn't want to be thought of as wounded. "I'm just a man with scars," he says, "living life to the fullest and best I know how."

Critic Reviews:

"A story of hope and resilience, and a reminder that no matter what life may throw at us, as Travis says, as long as we 'Never Give Up, Never Quit', we can achieve anything we set our hearts and minds to. He is quite simply a great American and an example for us all." (Gary Sinise, actor, director, veterans advocate, and founder of the Gary Sinise Foundation)

"This book exemplifies the qualities that made Travis an outstanding soldier: It is gutsy and honest, filled with humor even in the darkest moments, and always driven by a love for both family and country." (Troy Aikman, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback)

"The problem with guys like Travis, is they make guys like me look like lazy whiners. What this man did for our country is heroic. What he sacrificed is unimaginable. And what he's written is simply unforgettable. Read it. I promise you'll feel better about whatever ails you." (Mike Rowe, TV host, writer, narrator, producer, and actor)

Members Reviews:

Amazing

Truly an inspiration. It's incredible what a positive attitude and determination can achieve. Travis, thank you for all you have done and continue to do for this great country.

An amazing personal story

What made the experience of listening to Tough as They Come the most enjoyable?

It was great to hear Travis Mills tell his story in such detail and from the perspective also from those close to him. His story of enduring the pain and hardship and overcoming them is such an empowering inspiration. I usually can only listen to an audio book in 30 minute segments but I listened to this whole book straight through during my drive from FL to NY.

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

The depressing feeling when Travis woke up and realized what had happened.

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Title: The Game Changer

Subtitle: A Memoir of Disruptive Love

Author: Franklin Veaux

Narrator: Joe Fulgham, Sasja Towe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-14-15

Publisher: Thorntree Press

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 92 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

To make an open marriage work, Franklin and Celeste knew they needed to make sure no one else ever came between them. That meant there had to be rules. No overnights, no falling in love, and either one of them could ask the other to end an outside relationship if it became too much to deal with. It worked for nearly two decades, and their relentless focus on their own relationship let them turn a blind eye to the emotional wreckage they were leaving behind them.

The rules did not prepare them for Amber.

"I have a question," Amber would say. And whatever came next would send a wrecking ball through Franklin and Celeste's comforting illusions. Amber was the first of Franklin s polyamorous secondary partners to insist on being treated like a person, and the first to peel back the layers of insecurity and fear that surrounded their relationship. Amber was a game changer.

A game-changing relationship is one that uproots and redirects your life. It overthrows your assumptions about who you are and why. It awakens you to possibilities you'd never conceived of. It disrupts. And it is the unspoken elephant in the attractive showroom of polyamorous relationships.

This book is the true story of a game-changing relationship that changed not only Franklin and Celeste's lives, but the face of the modern polyamory movement.

A game-changing relationship can happen to anyone. How will you handle it when it happens to you?

Members Reviews:

Made me uncomfortable

This is one tough book to read. I cringed as it reminded me of painful episodes in my own life. Yet the book is one amazing story. It makes me wonder a lot more about my own terms and how I want to live my life.

Maybe better than More Than Two?

What made the experience of listening to The Game Changer the most enjoyable?

As much as I enjoyed More Than Two, it often read like a textbook for new polys. That's not a bad thing, of course. But, it was awesome to hear a story that was 100% from the lived experience of the author. I'm biased in that I learn more from real occurrences (my own and that of others) than theory. Either way, this book is incredibly valuable and should be recommended to anyone who insists on having rules-based polyamory. In some cases, rules can be important to enforce personal boundaries. In other cases, rules are just used to hide away from insecurities and fears you never intend on confronting or processing through.

Polyamory understanding at a different level

I enjoyed the book very much. I related in various occasions. Moments in which he tells his story when he is involved with his other lovers reflected on me as an example of how it can be. The struggles that you have to endured to be able to love others equally is what I take from Franklin's story.

Informative

This book took me through what could be in polyamory and what might go wrong. I loved this book!

An emotional and captivating account of life

This book is so well written that you would not even notice the narration after the initial pages. It is a truely heart touching memoir filled with raw emotions and profound soul searching.

This book moved me beyond words.

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Title: Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

Subtitle: The World as Home

Author: Janisse Ray

Narrator: Janisse Ray

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-12-15

Publisher: ListenUp Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 32 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Janisse Ray grew up in a junkyard along US Highway 1, hidden from Florida-bound vacationers by the hedge at the edge of the road and by hulks of old cars and stacks of blown-out tires. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood tells how a childhood spent in rural isolation and steeped in religious fundamentalism grew into a passion to save the almost vanished longleaf pine ecosystem that once covered the South. In language at once colloquial, elegiac, and informative, Ray redeems two Souths.

Members Reviews:

I identified with Janisse

I'm a woman in my 30s who grew up working class in rural Montana, and Ray's stories and knowledge were so familiar to me. I loved how she wove her childhood around naturalist expositions about the Georgian landscape. Only a few times were the environmental descriptions unengaging.

Her reading was sweet and easily understood. You will want to be her friend after listening to this audiobook. She and her family--though troubled at times--seemed like salt-of-the-earth people. Great listen.

Amazing

I think this book is best read by listening to Janisse Ray speaking from her heart. Best book narration I have heard thus far.

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Title: Operation Overflight

Subtitle: A Memoir of the U-2 Incident

Author: Francis Gary Powers, Curt Gentry

Narrator: Jon Lindstrom

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-15-15

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 165 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers is a central character in the movie Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks. In his classic 1970 memoir, Powers reveals the full story behind what happened in the most sensational espionage case in Cold War history. After his U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down, Powers was captured on May 1, 1960 and endured 61 days of rigorous interrogation by the KGB, a public trial, a conviction for espionage, and the start of a 10-year sentence. After nearly two years, the US government obtained his release from prison in a dramatic exchange for convicted Soviet spy Rudolph Abel.

The narrative is a tremendously exciting suspense story about a man who was labeled a traitor by many of his countrymen but who emerged a Cold War hero.

Members Reviews:

Astonding

This is brilliant brilliant book. And the epilogue by his son is a must read.

A Hero.

A good book with a sad story. Book to be read to know the history

very fulfilling story!

I enjoy how they pay tribute to Kelly Johnson (Skunk Works) with the over fly and also Francis Gary Powers with the U-2.

Fascinating account

This is a fascinating account of the U2 incident. As someone quite familiar with the event, the insiders perspective this book provides is a real treat. Unexpectedly well written and structured book. I dont have any particular dislikes other than some sensitive information being withheld as during the time of writing some items that have since been declassified were still classified at the time. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in cold war history or insights into prison life in Russia.

enjoyed out

very good piece of history. an incident that changed the world in a time of a changing world

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Title: The Unbreakable Child

Author: Kim Michele Richardson

Narrator: Dara Brown

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-08-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 115 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The Unbreakable Child, a story about forgiving the unforgivable, is a riveting journey inside the secretive underbelly of the St. Thomas / St. Vincent Orphan Asylum in rural Kentucky. It is the first book in the United States to confront the institutionalized physical and emotional abuse suffered by countless orphans at the hands of Catholic clergy over these last decades. It also documents the historic United States lawsuit and first-ever settlement paid by Roman Catholic nuns in the United States as recompense for decades of brutal institutional abuse of the author, her sisters and 42 other children.

Members Reviews:

Hard to Imagine

Any additional comments?

Kim Richardson went through some horrible things at the hands of the Catholic church. I find it so horrific when a religion uses its power in the name of God to cause such harm. I believe this woman did a service to all to share this story. The reason I gave it a lower rating is the over acting by the narrator. She is over the top on some of the vicious abuse scenes, and makes this story unbelievable. I would still recomend the story, it just could have been so much better.

incredible story, poorly written

The history of this woman's abuse is harrowing, and she tells that part of her story so well. On the other hand, the more recent events involved in the lawsuit are difficult to get through. Whether due to anti-disclosure agreements or the author's unwillingness to share certain aspects of the process, the proceedings of her case are disjointed and vague. She alludes to topics but avoids clarifying her meaning. In the listening, I had to check multiple times to be sure my app hadn't skipped over something. I didn't care for this particular writing technique, if it could be called that.

Heartbreaking story

This story is heartbreaking but touching. Thank you for writing it. Hearing this perspective from a person who has been involved in something so horrific who has survived and gone on to live such a beautiful life is inspiring. Thanks again!

Captured me!

Heartbreaking and infuriating! Felt myself questioning why don't the faithful rebel??? For the ages to debate!

wow

I can't understand how you could send your own children to ANY religious school. with ur past as proof religion is, always has been and will always be fake

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Title: Avenue of Spies

Subtitle: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris

Author: Alex Kershaw

Narrator: Mark Deakins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-04-15

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 158 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The best-selling author of The Liberator brings to life the incredible true story of an American doctor in Paris and his heroic espionage efforts during the Second World War.

The leafy Avenue de Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris' hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers, and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson, who lived with his wife and young son, Phillip, at Number 11, found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high. Just down the road at Number 31 was the "mad sadist" Theodor Dannecker, an Eichmann protégé charged with deporting French Jews to concentration camps. And Number 84 housed the Parisian headquarters of the Gestapo, run by the most effective spy hunter in Nazi Germany.

From his office at the American Hospital, itself an epicenter of Allied and Axis intrigue, Jackson smuggled fallen Allied fighter pilots safely out of France, a job complicated by the hospital director's close ties to collaborationist Vichy. After witnessing the brutal round-up of his Jewish friends, Jackson invited Liberation to officially operate out of his home at Number 11 - but the noose soon began to tighten. When his secret life was discovered by his Nazi neighbors, he and his family were forced to undertake a journey into the dark heart of the war-torn continent from which there was little chance of return.

Drawing upon a wealth of primary source material and extensive interviews with Phillip Jackson, Alex Kershaw recreates the City of Light during its darkest days. The untold story of the Jackson family anchors the suspenseful narrative, and Kershaw dazzles listeners with the vivid immediacy of the best spy thrillers. Awash with the tense atmosphere of World War II's Europe, Avenue of Spies introduces us to the brave doctor who risked everything to defy Hitler.

Critic Reviews:

"A spellbinding tale of triumph and tragedy. Intimate and terrifying, Avenue of Spies is impossible to put down. This is Alex Kershaw at his best." (Annie Jacobsen, best-selling author of Operation Paperclip)

"Avenue of Spies delivers a crisp, pulse-pounding narrative. Kershaw recreates the drama and suspense of war-torn occupied Paris. A taut thriller, the book is centered on an intrepid American family and is filled with a cast of unforgettable characters. Avenue of Spies is like sipping a fine wine: sublime!" (Patrick K. O'Donnell, best-selling author of First SEALs: the Untold Story of the Forging of America's Most Elite Unit)

Members Reviews:

Gripping, inspirational, and informative!!

At the risk of sounding too 'Jerry Maguire', Alex Kershaw had me at 'The Bedford Boys' and I've been of huge fan of his ever since! 'Avenue of Spies' tells the story of an American doctor and his family (wife and son) who, living just steps away from the center of Nazi evil in Paris, became part of the French Resistance. The story is told mainly through the eyes of a 16 year old, now an old man, who loved and worshipped his father and all the good that he stood for.

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Title: Undocumented

Subtitle: A Dominican Boys Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League

Author: Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Narrator: Dan-el Padilla Peralta

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-28-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 292 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Dan-el Padilla Peralta has lived the American dream. As a boy he came here legally with his family. Together they left Santo Domingo behind, but life in New York City was harder than they imagined. Their visas lapsed, and Dan-el's father returned home. But Dan-el's courageous mother was determined to make a better life for her bright sons. Without papers she faced tremendous obstacles. While Dan-el was only in grade school, the family joined the ranks of the city's homeless. Dan-el, his mother, and his brother lived in a downtown shelter, where Dan-el's only refuge was the meager library. There he met Jeff, a young volunteer from a wealthy family. Jeff was immediately struck by Dan-el's passion for books and learning. With Jeff's help, Dan-el was accepted, on scholarship, to Collegiate, the oldest private school in the country. There Dan-el thrived. Throughout his youth Dan-el navigated these two worlds: the rough streets of East Harlem, where he lived with his brother and his mother and tried to make friends, and the ultra-elite halls of a Manhattan private school, where he could immerse himself in a world of books and where he soon rose to the top of his class. From Collegiate Dan-el went to Princeton, where he thrived and where he made the momentous decision to come out as an undocumented student in a Wall Street Journal profile a few months before he gave the salutatorian's traditional address, in Latin, at his commencement. Undocumented is a classic story of the triumph of the human spirit. It also is the perfect cri de coeur for the debate on comprehensive immigration reform.

Critic Reviews:

"Dan-el Padilla Peraltas story is as compulsively readable as a novel.... From homeless shelter to Princeton, Oxford, and Stanford...he documents the America we should still aspire to be." (Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of the New America Foundation)

Members Reviews:

this genuine memoir kept my interest

The author writes and reads his story, from inner city homelessness to an Ivy League College. I had loved The Short of Tragic Life of Robert Peace, which prompted me to try this, too. This, Peralta's book, is so different. While Dan-el is a brilliant scholar, he is just a regular guy in so many ways. This is not a riveting book, but it is an authentic glimpse into another person's life, a life I was curious about. I teach some students like Dan-el, and felt this book would be valuable to me as a teacher. It was. The beginning of this book was a little slow, but picked up when Dan-el got to high school and college. He did need to deal with his race, and the fact that he had no legal papers. He had to deal with safety issues of living "in the hood." But he also had to deal with so many other normal issues of growing up - finding yourself and finding your comfort zone. Even had he not been an illegal, black immigrant, being a nerdy, intellectual boy is tough when you are growing up! The author is both ordinary and extraordinary, and to me, that was the appeal of this author's life story. I am glad I got to know him through his memoir.

A Very Likable Young Man

Any additional comments?

This book was engaging and captivating. It made me root for Dan-el an his family throughout and even tear up a few times.

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Title: Smokejumper

Subtitle: A Memoir by One of America's Most Select Airborne Firefighters

Author: Jason A. Ramos, Julian Smith

Narrator: Ned Vaughn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-14-15

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 143 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

A rare inside look at the thrilling world of smokejumpers, the airborne firefighters who parachute into the most remote and rugged areas of the United States, confronting the growing threat of nature's blazes.

Forest and wildland fires are growing larger, more numerous, and deadlier every year - record drought conditions, decades of forestry mismanagement, and the increasing encroachment of residential housing into the wilderness have combined to create a powder keg that threatens millions of acres and thousands of lives every year. One select group of men and women are part of America's front-line defense: smokejumpers. The smokejumper program operates through both the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Though they are tremendously skilled, and only highly experienced and able wildland firefighters are accepted into the training program, being a smokejumper remains an art that can be learned only on the job. Forest fires often behave in unpredictable ways: spreading almost instantaneously, shooting downhill behind a stiff tailwind, or even flowing like a liquid.

In this extraordinarily rare memoir by an active-duty jumper, Jason Ramos takes listeners into his exhilarating and dangerous world, explores smokejumping's remarkable history, and explains why their services are more essential than ever before.

Members Reviews:

About damn time a book on wildland firefighting was written!!!

As an individual who spent eight years of his life working for the same agency (USFS) as Ramos, out of Southern California though, I can attest to the accuracy of this book. Doesn't get much more real than this. Excellent book.

tougher than it looks

Mr. Ramos takes us through pieces of his personal journey in firefighting. The book weighs toward relationships more than the art and science of firefighting. Nonetheless, a nicely paced and informative listen.

started strong, ended in politics and advertising

narration is excellent! As for the book, it started out strong, with a mix of life story, training and hands on events and a history of smoke jumping and some very damaging fires. Its well written. But at the end it morphed into an add for gear and the authors own company; plus some political opions, that I guess are to be expected from a biography. But I could have done without the ads for gear and the like.

So very interesting

I enjoyed this audio book. Ned Vaughn's voice is so well suited to this story that I kept forgetting he was just reading and not telling his own story.

This is such an interesting memoir, full of drama, history, amazing and breathtaking accounts, all perfectly narrated.

Thank you Smokejumper Ramos!

Inspirational and informative! As a chaplain who has been honored to serve on several wildland conflags in the Pacific Northwest, I wanted to learn more about the firefighters I am privileged to serve on occasion. I learned much more about smokejumpers, and wildland firefighters in general, from this book than any class I have attended. Thank you Jason, for putting out the fires yet not forgetting to pass the torch.