Discover the Best Audio Stories in Biography & Memoir

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/735921 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century Author: Simon Kuper Narrator: Tim Frances Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 38 minutes Release date: June 4, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: An entertaining and openhearted tale of a naïf eventually getting to understand a complex, glittering, beautiful and often cruel society - at least a little. When Simon Kuper left London for Paris in his early thirties, he wasn't planning to make a permanent move. Paris, however, had other plans. Kuper has grown middle-aged there, eaten the croissants, seen his American wife through life-threatening cancer, taken his children to countless football matches on freezing Saturday mornings in the city's notorious banlieues, and in 2015 lived through two terrorist attacks on their neighborhood. Over two decades of becoming something of a cantankerous Parisian himself, Kuper has watched the city change. This century, it has globalized, gentrified, and been shocked into realizing its role as the crucible of civilizational conflict. Sometimes it's a multicultural paradise, and sometimes it isn't. This decade, Parisians have lived through a sequence of shocks: terrorist attacks, record floods and heatwaves, the burning of Notre Dame, the storming of the city by gilets jaunes, and then the pandemic. Now, as the Olympics come to town, France is busy executing the "Grand Paris" project: the most serious attempt yet to knit together the bejewelled city with its neglected suburbs. This is a captivating memoir of the Paris of today, without the Parisian clichés.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/738550 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Which Way Is Up?: Finding Heart in the Hardest of Times Author: Susan Gillis Chapman Narrator: Dina Pearlman Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 36 minutes Release date: June 4, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A heartfelt guide for meeting difficult times with mindfulness, compassion, and courage—from a psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner who learned from her own crisis. Using personal examples from her own recent bardo crisis—undergoing cancer treatment during the pandemic—and offering contemplative prompts for inner-reflection and a meditation practice in each chapter, psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner Susan Chapman demystifies the three main types of fear people experience (frozen, awake, and core), and how to meet each with love. This heartfelt guide from someone who's been there and done the work will help us get through life's challenges and restore our equilibrium, while also inviting a valuable opportunity for personal growth. Which Way Is Up? draws from traditional Buddhist teachings on the bardo, a Tibetan word most often associated with the period between death and rebirth. Chapman likens the bardo to abrupt episodes in our lives when things seem to turn upside down and we can't find our footing. In such times of not-knowing, our fearful mind tends to panic trying to make sense out of our experience. Instead, Chapman meets the listener in their groundlessness to show how these turning points can force us to let go of our assumptions about the future and allow something new to be reborn.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/729536 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Question 7 Author: Richard Flanagan Narrator: Richard Flanagan Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 47 minutes Release date: May 30, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. Beginning at a love hotel by Japan’s Inland Sea and ending by a river in Tasmania, Question 7 is about the choices we make about love and the chain reaction that follows. By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair through 1930s nuclear physics to Flanagan's father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when Flanagan as a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river not knowing if he is to live or to die. At once a love song to his island home and to his parents, this hypnotic melding of dream, history, place and memory is about how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves. ©2024 Richard Flanagan (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/721289 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Way of the Hermit: My Incredible 40 Years Living in the Wilderness Author: Will Millard, Ken Smith Narrator: Dean Williamson Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 49 minutes Release date: May 28, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Subconsciously, I pressed myself into the loch's banks as that summer inched forward. We'd got off to a rocky beginning, but I started to see Treig in a different way. There was something about this land that told me just to hold on a while longer. It might've been just a whisper at the time, but I knew it was definitely worth heeding. I just knew that was it. This was the place. Seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as "the lonely loch," where he lives off the land. He fishes for his supper, chops his own wood and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit. From his working-class origins in Derbyshire, Ken always sensed that there was more ot life than an empty nine to five. Then one day in 1974, an attack from a group of drunken men left him for dead. Determined to change his prospects, Ken quit his job and spent his formative years traveling in the Yukon. It was here, in the vast wilderness of northwestern Canada, that he honed his survival skills and grew closer to nature. Returning to Britain, he continued his nomadic lifestyle, wandering north and living in huts until he finally reached Loch Treig. Ken decided to lay his roots amongst the dense woodland and Highland air, and has lived there ever since. In The Way of the Hermit, Ken shares the remarkable story of his life for the very first time. Told with humor and compassion, his unique insights allow us to glimpse the awe and wonder of a life lived in nature and offer wisdom on how each of us can escape the pressures and stresses of modern life.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/736071 to listen full audiobooks. Title: You Deserve Good Gelato: Reasons to Travel the World, Embrace Failure, and Do the Sh*t That Scares You Author: Kacie Rose Narrator: Kacie Rose Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 20 minutes Release date: May 28, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this funny and honest feel-good memoir, social media star Kacie Rose offers a refreshingly honest take on navigating a new life abroad. In 2021, Kacie decided to leave her life as a pro dancer in New York City and move to Italy – and she never looked back. Okay, that isn't strictly true… In You Deserve Good Gelato, Kacie reflects on everything from travel fails and homesickness to the joy of culture shocks and the power of doing the s*** that scares you. Because life is too short not to. In this joyful memoir, you will find: - Personal essays that tell Kacie’s story and empower you to challenge yourself - A candid outlook on life as an expat, covering everything from the terror of driving on Italian roads to the trials of speaking a new language and the genuine beauty of a slower pace of life - Inspirational quotes that encourage you to step out of your comfort zone By sharing her personal stories of life under the Tuscan sun, Kacie explains how travel is a privilege, why cultural differences are the coolest things in the world, and how there's a positive you can take away from literally any situation. You Deserve Good Gelato will have you taking the leap and embracing this big beautiful world that we call home. Kacie Rose is a travel content creator living in Florence, Italy. After a life-changing solo trip and her own little 'under the Tuscan sun moment,' she made the official move to Italy in January 2021. Through positivity, authenticity, and humour, she began sharing culture shocks, travel tips, and life abroad across her social media, where her following quickly grew to a community of over 1.5 million people. From explaining why you won't find 'pepperoni pizza' and 'lattes' in Italy, to sharing how to order a coffee, figure out the train system, and find authentic gelato, Kacie's goal is to encourage and help her community travel abroad by showing them the beauty of cultural differences, all the while reminding them that they are strong, deserving, and so much more capable than they think they are. ©2024 Kacie Rose(P)2024 DK Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/720332 to listen full audiobooks. Title: One Ukrainian Summer: A memoir about falling in love and coming of age in the former USSR Author: Viv Groskop Narrator: Viv Groskop Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 47 minutes Release date: May 23, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: 'A memoir that captivates and delights. Fabulous' - Nina Stibbe Autumn 1993. The former USSR. Viv is about to turn 21 and is on a study year abroad, supposedly immersed in the language, history and politics of a world that has just ceased to exist: the Soviet Union. Instead, she finds herself immersed in Bogdan Bogdanovich - the lead guitarist of a Ukrainian punk rock band. As the temperature drops, he promises that if she can get through the freezing Russian winter, he will give her 'one Ukrainian summer.' But is he serious about her? Or is she just another groupie? At parties, gigs and dive bars, Viv and her new friends argue over whose turn it is to buy cigarettes, the best places to find Levi's jeans and whether beer counts as a soft drink. No-one debates the merits of speaking Ukrainian over Russian, the precise location of the border or the undeniable brightness of the future. Of course good times are here to stay. Because the Soviet Union is finished. Isn't it? A poignant and often comical account of coming-of-age in the time after the Cold War and before Putin, One Ukrainian Summer is a love letter to a unique moment in history. ALL AUTHOR EARNINGS FROM THIS BOOK WILL BE DONATED TO PEN INTERNATIONAL

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/721167 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Nefarious: A life in crime – my life with Joey Pyle, the Krays and other faces Author: Ronnie Field Narrator: Moray Treadwell Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 1 minute Release date: May 23, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A Daily Mail Book of the Week Prolific armed robber. Close ally of Joey Pyle. Friend and fellow inmate of the Kray twins. Last man to stand trial with a Kray brother. First prisoner in the notorious Belmarsh Unit … Welcome to Ronnie Field's world. From his abusive childhood, his inevitable journey into crime and his role in the dangerous underworld of south London’s gangland through to his eventful spells in many of Britain’s most secure jails, Ronnie Field is ready to recount his incredible story for the very first time. It’s a new take on the criminal fraternity of the 1970s and 80s from one of the last men standing. A raw, honest and sometimes humorous portrayal of a life in the fast lane of organised crime, Nefarious is a reflection on a bygone era from which there are few regrets. Though some things are best laid to rest…

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/727344 to listen full audiobooks. Title: In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife Author: Sebastian Junger Narrator: Sebastian Junger Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 4 hours 21 minutes Release date: May 21, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: 'Mind blowingly brilliant' PHILIPPA PERRY 'Few other writers have such passion for granular detail, intellectual heft and boundless curiosity' THE TIMES 'As suspenseful and pacy as an episode of peak-era ER' GUARDIAN A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on death—and what might follow—by the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm. For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger travelled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. “It’s okay,” his father said. “There’s nothing to be scared of. I’ll take care of you.” That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived. This experience spurred Junger—a confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empirical—to undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day? How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain? And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when we are forced to reckon with such existential questions? In My Time of Dying is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery. 'Moving, compact, philosophically ambitious … A humbling volume' OBSERVER ‘Stunning … A powerful book that comes as close as anything I’ve read in explaining what it means to be human’ JAMES PATTERSON 'An instant classic that filled me with wonder, gratitude and awe' WILL SCHWALBE 'A stunning account I didn’t so much read as inhale, awed and riveted and forever changed' MICHAEL FINKEL

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/732630 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Where Two Worlds Touch: An Outsider's Memoir in England Author: River Faire Narrator: River Faire Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 19 minutes Release date: May 17, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: After the fairy tale of Happily Ever After ends in heartbreak, what then? From multi-award-winning author River Faire comes an inspiring account of second chances, healing, inexplicable magic, and following the soul's compass. River, an alternative healer and Paris-trained chef--a decidedly reluctant mystic-returns to England from America to help his ex-partner, back from the brink of death. Stepping into a London life he left behind, haunted by ghosts, he finds himself on an unanticipated journey of the heart. When the two men relocate to the English countryside, he discovers more than a charming pastoral landscape, he unexpectedly glimpses the fabric of life itself. With disarming honesty and a searching, lyrical voice, WHERE TWO WORLDS TOUCH is a transcendent narrative about navigating the intricacies of the human heart, no matter whom we love. An invitation to say yes to uncertainty and vulnerability, to trust the unknowable mystery, while seeking the place we belong and what is uniquely ours to bring. A genre-defying memoir-one part love story, one part celebration of the table, one part ode to nature, and one part soul guide woven as an indelible offering that lingers long past the final page. Winner, 2024 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award Editor's Pick, BookLife Reviews by Publishers Weekly Indie Books We Love selection from LoveReading, The UK's Leading Book Recommendation Website

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/734348 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Both Not Half: 'Few people write about identity with such fluency and sincerity' SATHNAM SANGHERA Author: Jassa Ahluwalia Narrator: Jassa Ahluwalia Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 31 minutes Release date: May 16, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: SHORTLISTED FOR BEST NARRATOR AT THE PRESTIGIOUS AUDIO PRODUCTION AWARDS. 'This guy has better Punjabi than both of us and he's only half Punjabi.' Only. Half. I stared at those words. The intent behind the comment was in no way malicious, but it hurt. I felt diminished. I felt like I was being robbed of something essential to me. And as I stared at my screen, realisation dawned. '#bothnothalf' I replied. For over twenty-five years, actor Jassa Ahluwalia described himself as 'half Indian, half English'. His fluent Punjabi always prompted bewilderment, medical staff questioned the legitimacy of his name, and the world of casting taught him he wasn't 'the right kind of mixed-race'. Feeling caught between two worlds, it wasn't long before Jassa embarked on a call to action: we need to change how we think and talk about mixed identity. By delving into the media we grew up consuming and the legacies of empire we have been taught, Ahluwalia asks: is there anything to be learnt from Rudyard Kipling? Why were movie stars urged to hide their mixed identities? To what extent did colonialism encourage or hinder mixed marriages? Is nationalism outdated? How can the politics of class and queer liberation inform our understanding of mixed identity? Both Not Half is a rallying cry for a new and inclusive future. It's a journey of self-discovery that unearths the historical roots of modern mixed identity as we know it, braving to deconstruct the binaries we have inherited and the narratives we passively accept. Part-memoir, part-manifesto: this is a campaign for belonging in a divided world. This immersive audiobook includes exclusive audio clips from Jassa 's Ted Talk, original audio from self-tapes, a bonus conversation with his sister Ramanique Ahluwalia, and much more.