Discover the Best Audio Stories in Biography & Memoir, Memoirs

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/757709 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Animals I Want To See: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Projects and Defying the Odds Author: Tom Seeman Narrator: Brian Hutchison Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 29 minutes Release date: June 18, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A lyrical coming-of-age story set in the projects of Toledo, Ohio, Animals I Want To See explores themes of identity, ambition, religion, and friendship—often across racial and social lines—as it spotlights a family of fourteen and tracks a boy’s journey from a child janitor with big dreams to a teenage petty criminal to a student at Yale and Harvard.On Bronson Street, in the projects of Toledo, Ohio, in a crowded house occupied by a family of fourteen, Tom Seeman starts a very important list. Just as the trashstrewn field in his backyard is home to a treasure-trove of wild animals, Tom’s list, “Animals I Want To See One Day,” is home to dreams of adventure in places far away from the downtrodden neighborhood where he lives. But for all its hardship and crime, Bronson Street is also something of a mythical street, populated by unforgettable people who share food, protect each other, and give surprising gifts of beauty and merriment, proving that the bonds of community and friendship (often across racial and social lines) can bridge any divide and transcend what many of us are taught to believe about each other.A luminous coming-of-age memoir that shimmers with countless marvels, Animals I Want To See tracks Tom Seeman’s journey from a child janitor with big ambitions to a teenage petty criminal to a student at Yale and Harvard. At once a meditation on finding wonder in unlikely places, an ode to a heroic mother who makes the seemingly impossible possible, and an exploration of what it means to create ourown identities, this is a heartwarming, thought-provoking, ultimately uplifting book for all readers.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/764041 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Fifty-Seven Fridays: Losing Our Daughter, Finding Our Way Author: Myra Sack Narrator: Myra Sack Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 32 minutes Release date: June 18, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: 'A wondrous, hopeful, heartbreaking witness to one of the darkest journeys imaginable . . . This will be one of those rare books that people reread, think about, and encourage others to read.” —Bruce D. Perry, MD, Ph.D, author, with Oprah Winfrey, of What Happened to You 'I love this book. I absolutely could not put it down. It is beautifully written and cuts to the very heart of life and love: The story of Havi's short, beautiful life and early death from Tay-Sachs is harrowing, heartbreaking, uplifting, profound, and sometimes funny. Havi will charm the socks off you.' —Anne Lamott Life is unfolding as planned for Myra Sack and her husband Matt until their beautiful year-old daughter Havi is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, and given only a year to live. Myra and Matt decide to celebrate Havi's short life and vow to show her as much of the world as they can, surrounded by friends and family who relocate to be in Havi's orbit. Tapping their Judaism, they transform Friday night Shabbats into birthday parties—'Shabbirthdays'—to replace the birthdays Havi will never have.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/769125 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Three Years on the Great Mountain: A Memoir of Zen and Fearlessness Author: Cristina Moon Narrator: Cristina Moon Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 17 minutes Release date: June 18, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: At twenty-five, activist Cristina Moon faced an impossible task: preparing for the possibility of arrest and torture inside military-ruled Myanmar. Her response? Learning Buddhist meditation. So began what would become a decades-long spiritual path—eventually leading her to a Zen temple and martial arts dojo in Hawai'i with a timeless method of warrior Zen training. Offering a bracing account of three years of mind-body-spirit training at Daihonzan Chozen-ji, a Rinzai Zen temple and martial arts dojo, Moon powerfully captures the rigors and realizations that finally shaped her into a Zen priest whose highest directive is to give fearlessness. Told with immersive detail and an unique Asian American female perspective, Three Years on the Great Mountain chronicles Moon's straight-up-the-mountain training regimen at Chozen-ji, conducted every day and often through the nights. Through the spiritual forging of daily Zen meditation, manual labor, swordsmanship, and Japanese tea ceremony, she discovers a newfound conviction that self mastery and spiritual growth can take fierce form. Embraced by local Hawai'i and Japanese culture, and a community of discipline, respect, and discovery, she discovers a profound sense of home.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/771444 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Rottenkid: A Succulent Story of Survival Author: Brigit Binns Narrator: Brigit Binns Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 15 minutes Release date: June 18, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A memoir sauteed in Hollywood stories, world travel, and always, the need to belong Prolific cookbook author Brigit Binns's coming-of-age memoir—costarring her alcoholic actor father Edward Binns and glamorous but viciously smart narcissistic mother—reveals how simultaneous privilege and profound neglect lead Brigit to seek comfort in the kitchen, eventually allowing her to find some sense of self-worth. In the old Hollywood of her childhood, Brigit seems to live in an elite world. But when her parents eventually divorce—her father flees and her mother sends her off to boarding school so she can more easily conduct her decades-long romance with a married California governor—Brigit racks up seven schools and a host of bad decisions before the age of sixteen. Marriage to an Englishman takes her across the pond and to professional cooking school. But when that life comes crashing down, she returns heartbroken and alone to Los Angeles eighteen years after vowing never to return. Here she thrives, cold pitching herself to top chefs as coauthor for their cookbooks. Peppered with humor and seasoned with optimism, Brigit's story is an entertaining tribute to female resilience.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/769733 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Only Way Through Is Out Author: Suzette Mullen Narrator: Shawna Wolf Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 7 minutes Release date: June 18, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: “With candor and deep vulnerability, Mullen offers a compelling, honest, and hopeful memoir that examines the hidden truths involved in accepting our deepest wants and desires. The Only Way Through Is Out is a lesson to all of us on what great things can happen when we act with authenticity.”—Jessi Hempel, author of The Family Outing “I could not put this book down. Mullen shows us the search for one’s authentic self has no expiration date and is worth whatever it takes. This book is a glorious tale of tenacious courage that anyone searching for their own path in life will love.”—Jennifer Louden, national bestselling author of Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next Suzette Mullen had been raised to play it safe—and she hated causing others pain. With college and law degrees, a kind and successful husband, two thriving adult sons, and an ocean-view vacation home, she lived a life many people would envy. But beneath the happy facade was a woman who watched her friends walk boldly through their lives and wondered what was holding her back from doing the same. Digging into her past, Suzette uncovered a deeply buried truth: she’d been in love with her best friend—a woman—for nearly two decades—and still was. Leaning into these “unspeakable” feelings would put Suzette’s identity, relationships, and life of privilege at risk—but she knew taking this leap might also provide her only chance to feel fully alive. Introspective, bittersweet, and empowering, The Only Way Through Is Out is both a coming-out and coming-of-age story, as well as a call to action for every human who is longing to live authentically but is afraid of the cost.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/769008 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Hypochondria: What's Behind the Hidden Costs of Healthcare in America Author: Hal Rosenbluth, Marnie Hall Narrator: Stephen Graybill, Erin Bennett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 25 minutes Release date: June 18, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A brutally honest but humorous account of the journey through the labyrinth of health care, including an eye-opening exploration of the skyrocketing costs—both personal and systemic—inflicted by hypochondria and the cost to the nation’s health-care system, and how consumers eventually pay for this precipitous rise in costs Hal Rosenbluth, the maverick executive behind Take Care Health Systems, former president of Walgreens Health and Wellness and now chairman and CEO of New Ocean Health Solutions, offers an unfiltered exposé of his 227 medical claims in just two years—exposing the underbelly that illness anxiety may be costing the average sufferer and the health system as a whole. Hypochondria: What’s Behind the Hidden Costs Healthcare Costs in America is a bold exploration and a call to action to address the broader impact that each stakeholder—health plans, providers, health systems and big pharma—have on the nation’s overstressed health-care system. The book also offers a well-rounded guide to the traditional and not so typical solutions that can help people manage illness anxiety. While the book is serious in nature, Rosenbluth and Marnie Hall spin you through an amusement ride of anecdotes. From the evolution of Rosenbluth’s global management firm to his onset of Type 2 diabetes, a tale woven with sleeping meds, nocturnal PB&J sandwiches, and anti-anxiety drugs; to founding a company with the youngest Johnson & Johnson president, and his most recent entry to digital health care, Hypchondria is an unfiltered, no-holds-barred saga that enlightens and entertains and opens a new dialogue about how the United States can get better at managing health and arresting costs of care. Hypochondria is not just a memoir but a call for greater discussion among patients, families, providers, employers, and health-care executives. It’s a beacon for change by unraveling the commercialization of health care, dissecting big pharma’s role in America’s pill-popping culture, and proposing alternative, disruptive solutions.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/766266 to listen full audiobooks. Title: My Vietnam, Your Vietnam: A Father Flees. A Daughter Returns. A Duel Memoir. Author: Christina Vo, Nghia M. Vo Narrator: Quyen Ngo Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 4 minutes Release date: June 11, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A chronicle of the divergent journeys of a father, who fled post-war Vietnam on a small boat to find refuge in the United States, and his American-born daughter, who ventures to Vietnam as an adult, capturing the stark contrast between their perspectives on their shared homeland, as they search for common ground and a path toward mutual healing.“Combines the fraught tension of Ava Chin’s Mott Street and the tenderness of Elliot Tiber’s Taking Woodstock.'—Kirkus Reviews

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/767026 to listen full audiobooks. Title: What Kind of Bird Can't Fly: A Memoir of Resilience and Resurrection Author: Dorsey Nunn Narrator: Jeremy (midnite) Michael Durm Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 34 minutes Release date: June 11, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A decade behind bars spurs fifty powerful years of political and legal battles for freedom and human rights. When Dorsey Nunn shuffled, shackled like a slave, into the California State carceral system at age nineteen, he could barely read. While caged he received an education he never could have anticipated. His first lesson: Prison had a color scheme, and it didn't match the larger society. On the inside, guards stoked racial warfare among prisoners while on the outside the machinery of the criminal legal system increasingly targeted poor Black and Brown communities with offenses, real or contrived. Nunn emerged from San Quentin after ten years behind bars, radicalized by his experience and emboldened by the militant wisdom of the men he met there. He poured his heart and mind into liberating all those he left behind, building a nationwide movement to restore justice to millions of system-impacted Americans. In this poignant, wry, and powerful memoir, Nunn links the politics of Black Power to the movements for Black lives and dignified reentry today. His story underscores the power of coalition building, persistence in the face of backlash, and the importance of centering the voices of experience in the fight for freedom—and proves, once and for all, that jailbirds can fly.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/757493 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Soulmate Dog Author: Michelle B. Slater, Phd Narrator: Alison Larkin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 47 minutes Release date: June 10, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Soulmate Dog tells the brave, moving story of Michelle Slater’s extraordinary relationship with her German Shepherd, Brady. Narrated by Alison Larkin in an easy-to-listen-to, conversational style, it “charts the nature of love and the inevitability of loss that accompanies it,” while showcasing the telepathic language that can exist between dogs and humans. In this brave, beautiful book, the author also sheds light on the important field of integrative veterinary medicine. A portion of the profits from the sale of this audiobook will go to The Brady Scholarship, supporting training and wider availability for holistic veterinary care.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/768377 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Notes from an Island Author: Tove Jansson Narrator: Sandi Toksvig Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 1 hour 25 minutes Release date: June 6, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Set against the rugged backdrop of Klovharun, a barren skerry in the Gulf of Finland, ´Notes from an Island´ invites you into the intimate world of Tove Jansson and her partner, graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä, known affectionately as 'Tooti.' Aided by Brunstroem, an unconventional fisherman, Jansson races against time and the elements to build a cabin that would serve as their sanctuary for thirty summers. A declaration of the beauty of solitude, ´Notes from an Island´ is a touching homage to a mature love nurtured by the raw beauty of shifting seascapes. © 2024 Tove Jansson, Moomin Characters™ Published in the English language by arrangement with Rights & Brands Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is globally cherished for creating the Moomin universe. Born in Helsinki, her tales of the Moomins captivated readers worldwide. Beyond Moominvalley, she penned profound adult novels, most notably 'The Summer Book'.