Discover the New Releases Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs Top 100

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Title: Letters from Lee's Army

Subtitle: Or Memoirs of Life in and out of the Army in Virginia During the War Between the States

Author: Charles Minor Blackford, Susan Leigh Blackford

Narrator: Matthew Steward, Susie Berneis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-15-13

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Charles Minor Blackford, an aristocrat from Virginia, enlisted in the Second Virginia Cavalry at the start of the American Civil War. During his tour of duty, Captain Blackford kept constant correspondence with his wife, Susan Leigh Blackford. Captain Blackford wrote frequently about the horrible conditions in his camp, while Susan detailed her own struggles, including the loss of her home and the death of three children. This collection of letters highlights the misery of war - from the violence on the battlefield to the hardships of the home front - and offers a firsthand account of how the Civil War affected families.

Members Reviews:

A Family Endures the War

A better bargain than this smashing little paperback will be hard to find. The blended letters of Susan and Charles Blackford, two erudite, observant members of the Virginian gentry, tell the story of one family's Civil War struggle in the frontlines and on the homefront beautifully. Susan describes the loss of children, the battle to feed family, and the "impression" she made in front of her husband's unit plunging headfirst into a mudpile. Charles observes the war from the vantages of both the line and the staff, and supplies some incredible character studies ranging from Jeff Davis to Lee and Jackson, down to the private soldier (with the impudence of a town cow). A collection of letters from someone who wrote on a warmed frying pan to keep his hand from freezing probably deserves reading regardless! My third reading...

Letter's from Lee's Army

My Uncle Minor was the author of this book. It was first published 40 years ago.We would sit on his front porch and he would talk about his work. He told me how proud he was that when it went out of print and became a library issue that he would get a phone call about once a year from a college student challenging him on one General he misquoted the name. My Uncle is deceased now but going through the house after his death I accidently found a stack of unpublished manuscripts that would headed for the dumpster as no one knew about them. I salveged them and working on getting them in print as they are wonderful cival war historical novels. The first one is named Cry Liberty as is centered around Lychburg and Col Lynch and the war. I am sure he would be proud that I saved his work so many can enjoy it in print.

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Title: Direct Red

Author: Gabriel Weston

Narrator: Claire Wille

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-30-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

How does it feel to hold someone's life in your hands? What is it like to cut into someone else's body? What is it like to stand by, powerless, while someone dies because of the incompetence of your seniors? How do you tell a beautiful young man who seems perfectly fit that he has only a few days left to live?

Gabriel Weston worked in the big-city hospitals of the 21st century; a woman in a place dominated by Alpha males. Her world was one of disease, suffering and extraordinary pressure where a certain moral ambiguity and clinical detachment were necessary tools for survival. Startling and honest, her account combines a fierce sense of human dignity with compassion and insight, illuminating scenes of life and death the rest of us rarely glimpse.

Critic Reviews:

"Hard to imagine a better book, or a more original one.... [Weston] writes at least as well as many good novelists...funny, and honest, and beautifully done." (Claire Tomalin )

"A valuable and unflinching account, for all its gruesomeness, since it so clearly tells us the truth." (Sunday Times)

"Direct Red is Gabriel Weston's memoir of the years she spent pursuing a surgical career.... She examines these with an honesty that is both brave and uncomfortable." (Guardian)

"Her wisdom, empathy, morality and self-awareness are very revealing.... Her writing is as incisive, precise and clean as keyhole surgery." (The Times)

"Anyone remotely interested in medicine should read this book...bringing us a front-line report from an often alien territory." (Daily Telegraph)

Members Reviews:

Riveting

This is a book that calls to you. It is hard to put down, and even harder still to find that you have reached the end - there is no more.

As a professional woman during the 50's to the 90's, I empathize with her inner conflicts regarding family and career.

Required reading for Pre-Med

So you want to be a surgeon? Immerse yourself in the quieter truths that were never taught in textbooks. I always knew surgery required good coordination, but clearly it allows the survival of only the fiercest competitors.

A good read

With touch of emotions; but brings in a new perspective of the surgeon which you can never have worked out on your own. I recommend this surgeon story.

A Shockingly necessary read!

Great insight into the everyday life of a surgeon...and in general the exposures our doctors have during and after their training.

Nice

Great book. Very interesting.

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Title: Never a Dull Moment

Subtitle: The Hartner Family in America

Author: Mike Hartner

Narrator: Dan McGowan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-19-13

Publisher: Mike Hartner

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Lost! Hidden quietly away in the dark attic, and waiting for discovery. The story of a young man, and his friend as they discover hidden gems of his family's history.

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Title: Run, Brother, Run

Subtitle: A Memoir of a Murder in My Family

Author: David Berg

Narrator: Geoffrey Alan Berg

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-11-13

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 62 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

As William Faulkner said, The past is not dead, its not even past. This observation seems especially true in matters of family, when the fury between generations is often never resolved and instead secretly carried, a wound that cannot heal. For David Berg, this is truer than for most, and once you listen to the story of his family, you will understand why he held it privately for so long and why the betrayals between parent and child can be the most wrenching of all.

In 1968 David Bergs brother, Alan, was murdered by Charles Harrelson, a notorious hit man and father of actor Woody Harrelson. Alan was only thirty-one when he disappeared; six months later his remains were found in a ditch in Texas.

Run, Brother, Run is Bergs story of the murder. But it is also his account of the psychic destruction of the Berg family by the authors father, who allowed a grievous blunder at the age of twenty-three to define his life. The event changed the fate of a clan and fell most heavily on Alan, the firstborn son, who tried to both redeem and escape his father yet could not.

This achingly painful family history is also a portrait of an iconic American place, playing out in the shady bars of Houston, in small-town law offices and courtrooms, and in remote ranch lands where bad things happen - a true-crime murder drama, all perfectly calibrated. Writing with cold-eyed grief and a wild, lacerating humor, Berg tells us first about the striving Jewish family that created Alan Berg and set him on a course for self-destruction and then about the gross miscarriage of justice that followed.

As with the best and most powerfully written memoirs, the author has kept this horrific story to himself for a long time. A scrappy and pugnacious narrator, Berg takes his account into the darkest human behaviors: the epic battles between father and son, marital destruction, reckless gambling, crooked legal practices, extortion, and, of course, cold-blooded murder. Run, Brother, Run is a raw, furious, bawdy, and scathing testimonial about love, hate, and pain - and utterly unforgettable.

Members Reviews:

Top Ten ouf of 7,000

Would you consider the audio edition of Run, Brother, Run to be better than the print version?

Is is read by a member of the family.

What did you like best about this story?

David Berg is one of the best attorneys in American history. From being the youngest attorney to win at the U.S. Supreme Court to battling the Texas trial of the Century in Wyatt v. Sakowitz his career is a never ending trail of unlikely victories. This book is the ultimate inside story on how a poor Jewish kid in 1970 redneck Houston, Texas can survive a grossly dysfunctional family, murder of his best friend (and brother), and countless other challenges to emerge as one of the wealthiest and most respected trial lawyers in the world.

Berg is now in his late 60s - a time where all of us realize that the sand of the hour glass is running very fast. He not only makes peace with his brother, he makes peace with himself and the other members of his family.

I have seven thousand books in two audible libraries (since I gave up years ago on getting any assistance in merging them). This is only the second that has demanded that I stop (from my own bizarre schedule) to write a review.

This is one of the ten best books available on Audible.

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Title: That's What She Said

Author: Mara Altman

Narrator: Mara Altman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-07-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The hirsute heroine of last year's hit Kindle Single Bearded Lady has found herself on the precipice of failure. A rejected novel has sent newly-married Mara Altman into a tailspin of questioning and self-doubt. Should she stop racing forward, and settle down to start a family? Or should she give her quest for success another shot? With a gimlet eye trained directly on herself, Altman recounts her wild experience of becoming a standup comedian. By turns comic and cosmic, the 31-year-old Altman's search for a new path and fresh answers yields a joke-filled journey towards an unexpected and life-affirming finish line.

©2013 Mara Altman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Editorial Reviews:

Rejection is one of our most feared outcomes in life. Rejection, however, can also catapult us onto new paths. This is exactly what happens in Mara Altman's That's What She Said. After her editor trashes her newest novel, Altman gets crushed with self-doubt. Should she can the writing life? Should she start a family? With a playful and frank performance, listeners follow Altman as she sets on her latest journey, which, thanks to a few cocktails and friendly encouragement, is a funny and wild enterprise in stand-up comedy.

Members Reviews:

not too shabby

Less shabby than my efforts so who am I to judge? I enjoyed it. She holds little back and let's the open, unabashed discussion of things personal speak for herself -- er, more for herself than what she was saying about herself.

There are asides from her comedy routine but they aren't any funnier than the rest of her prose. It's all amusing and charming in an occasionally vulgar way. She's funny. She's a good writer.

Quit reading my review and buy the book already.

enjoyable but not a stand out

Perhaps that sounds a bit brutal with 4 stars, but I really did enjoy it, I'm just not rushing to grab another. It was kind of like drinking with really good friends and enjoying your time together but when you wake up with a monster hang over the next day you swear off the booze....for a while. It was enjoyable when I read it but I'm just not going back there for a while

A Worthy Read

Not a coming-of-age story; rather, a story of someone who came of age, was successful by any reasonable standard, and yet still found herself racked with self-doubt, disappointment, and that nagging feeling that something is missing. Sound familiar? It's the story of many thirty-somethings--and even more memoirs. But what makes Altman's work stand out among a crowded field is how it drops Millennial self-indulgence and pretension in favor of endearing self-deprecation, honesty, perspective, and most of all, laugh-out-loud humor.

"TWSS" is interspersed with text of Altman's stand-up bits, and the Amazon review nailed it: she "is really [bleeping] funny...raunchy and sweet, [hysterical] and wise." Per Burroughs, afraid if you leap at this stage in life, the net won't appear? Altman's book will give you hope, because it happened for her--not that she's sold out Carnegie Hall (yet), but because she shows there's no substitute in life for following your passion... paychecks, rejection, and criticism be damned.

RECOMMENDED

I very much enjoyed reading this short book. Fascinating to see how an introvert girl decided that she would become a stand up comedian and did so. Funny, with a message and enjoyable.

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Title: Geography of the Heart

Author: Fenton Johnson

Narrator: Fenton Johnson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-01-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of the award-winning novels Crossing the River and Scissors, Paper, Rock comes a powerful book about the transformative power of love.

Fenton Johnson recounts the history of "how I feel in love how I came to be with someone else, how he came to death and how I helped." Johnson interweaves two stories: his own upbringing as the youngest of a Kentucky whiskey maker's nine children, and that of his lover Larry Rose, the only child of German Jews. survivors of the Holocaust.

Members Reviews:

Vulnerability

I'd recommend this book far and wide. It is a tale of love in face of fatal disease, and it is told with poignancy and great affection. I really admire the two men central to the narrative, and the way that they lived and loved. Further, the way that Johnson writes about Larry the teacher is just awe inspiring, and I much appreciated his reflection on nobility, virtue, and grace in the face of death.

I only gig the performance because Fenton Johnson has the voice of a Mormon general authority... and that evokes memories I don't care for. But the story was strong enough to overcome my aversion, so I have to give my ungrudging respect and admiration.

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Title: After Visiting Friends

Subtitle: A Son's Story

Author: Michael Hainey

Narrator: Dan John Miller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-20-13

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 72 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Michael Hainey had just turned six when his uncle knocked on his family's back door one morning with the tragic news: Bob Hainey, Michael's father, was found alone near his car on Chicago's North Side, dead, of an apparent heart attack. Thirty-five years old, a young assistant copy desk chief at the Chicago Sun-Times, Bob was a bright and shining star in the competitive, hard-living world of newspapers, one that involved booze-soaked nights that bled into dawn. And then suddenly he was gone, leaving behind a young widow, two sons, a fractured family - and questions surrounding the mysterious nature of his death that would obsess Michael throughout adolescence and long into adulthood.

Finally, roughly his father's age when he died, and a seasoned reporter himself, Michael set out to learn what happened that night. Died "after visiting friends," the obituaries said. But the details beyond that were inconsistent. What friends? Where? At the heart of his quest is Michael's all-too-silent, opaque mother, a woman of great courage and tenacity - and a steely determination not to look back. Prodding and cajoling his relatives, and working through a network of his father's buddies who abide by an honor code of silence and secrecy, Michael sees beyond the long-held myths and ultimately reconciles the father he'd imagined with the one he comes to know - and in the journey discovers new truths about his mother.

A stirring portrait of a family and its legacy of secrets, After Visiting Friends is the story of a son who goes in search of the truth and finds not only his father, but a rare window into a world of men and newspapers and fierce loyalties that no longer exists.

Members Reviews:

Wrong Turn Down Memory Lane

Im certain of 3 things after reading this book: (1) the search for information about his father was a critical and fulfilling journey in the personal development of the author; (2) the author is a skilled writer capable of both telling a story and setting a scene; and (3) I just do not care. The problem here is that the search is deeply personal for the author, but there no effort expended in developing why the reader should really care about this father or this son. As a result, the reader does not really share in the fulfillment of the author, and at the end of the day, the question I really want answered is why I just spent 8 hours listening to this book.

I echo the comments of other reviewers in saying that the book is just too long and contains too much filler. Its a mildly interesting story that would be better told in an article. As it is, its a book that should be skimmed in a couple hours on an airplane. Its not a story in which you can get immersed.

Two stars.

Son's Search for Father Brings on Self-knowledge

What made the experience of listening to After Visiting Friends the most enjoyable?

The writing is amazing.

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Title: Bearded Lady

Author: Mara Altman

Narrator: Mara Altman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-24-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 23 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Mara Altman, author of the best-selling Kindle Single Sparkle, returns to top comic form to address the problem every woman faces but no woman wants to acknowledge: facial and body hair. Her brave, witty memoir gives readers a rare, honest glimpse into the hidden world of lasers and razors. It begins in childhood, when Altman discovers that hair sometimes grows in unexpected places - and that it's best to remove it immediately, or risk ridicule from 8th-grade girls. It continues into early adulthood, when romantically inclined men make offhand remarks about her fine coating of fur. From there it's a hilarious, heartfelt journey from Barcelona to Bangkok in search of a cure, an explanation, and the perfect pair of tweezers.

Members Reviews:

Emergency. Tweezers.

Mara Altman deftly tackles the extremely taboo first world problem of hair removal in modern America.

Of COURSE I don't want you to know about my unmentionable hairs. It's obvious I have arm hair, and sometimes I give up on my pits and legs for a few months at time because lalala I can wear tights and longsleeves, and I am Staunchly Feminist about my lower region. But I have parts you don't know about. Emergency tweezers in my purse.

We don't talk about this. EVER. We never talk about emergency tweezers, and Mara Altman WANTS TO TALK ABOUT IT. And it's a beautiful thing.

I wish we lived in a society where this was not a big deal. But if we did, then I wouldn't be able to listen to Mara's hilarious exploration of our culture, how it came to be, and the terrifying billion-dollar industry that now stands because of it.

In short, if you're a person who grooms, listen to this. Now. It'll take you like an hour. And you'll laugh and commiserate the whole way through.

Hilarious pursuit to be less hirsuit

Would you consider the audio edition of Bearded Lady to be better than the print version?

I have not read the print version, but I think I would have preferred to listen. I like Mara's voice, and I wish she would narrate other works as well!

Have you listened to any of Mara Altmans other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not yet, but intend to do so!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed at parts, and all in all related to her anxiety and struggle with hairiness. As a woman of eastern European descent myself, I've had my fair share of mortifying and memorable moments in my effort to remove unwanted hair.

Any additional comments?

This book was an enjoyable listen, and I definitely recommend it. It tackled the sensitive issue of women's body image in a clever and funny way, without being preachy.

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Title: This Is Not About Me

Author: Janice Galloway

Narrator: Janice Galloway

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-21-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

From her earliest years with a boozy, accident-prone father and a reluctantly pragmatic mother, Janice Galloway grew up as a watcher careful and vigilant. Then her parents marriage broke up and mother and daughter moved to an attic above a doctors surgery. When her big sister Cora returned home, with a steady stream of boyfriends, snappy dress sense and matching temper, evasion became a way of life.

This is a funny and telling book about the routine dependencies and confusions, hopes and triumphs of childhood; it is also a book about emergence, as, slowly, the beginnings of unsuspected rage pushed the silent girl towards her voice.

Janice Galloway is the author of five critically celebrated works of fiction and two memoirs. Her first novel, The Trick is it Keep Breathing, is now widely regarded as a Scottish contemporary classic, with a stage adaptation performed in Glasgow, Toronto and London; while her second book, Blood, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. In August 2012 All Made Up, the sequel to This is not About Me, won Scottish Book of the Year award at Edinburgh Festival.

Critic Reviews:

Sublime prose and fierce honesty set it apart - part of Galloway's skill in This is Not About Me is how she keeps a child's sense of bewilderment and secret understanding (Daily Telegraph)

Blistering, terrifying, always moving (Independent on Sunday)

Galloway provides sentences blazing with light, a gorgeous draft of terror (Observer)

Members Reviews:

brilliant

What made the experience of listening to This Is Not About Me the most enjoyable?

The tender brutality and supremely poetic imagery of this book stays with you long after you put it down.

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Title: Shepherd Girl

Subtitle: A Dog Story

Author: Cat L. Needham

Narrator: Christine Driscoll

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-08-13

Publisher: Shepherd Girl LLC

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 14 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In the style of James Thurber's The Dog Department meets Marley and Me, Shepherd Girl: A Dog Story chronicles the exploits of Athena, a silly long-coated German shepherd. Athena is goofy, clumsy, and vain, and although she successfully foils a stranger's abduction of the author in a dark parking lot, she also finds time to chase lawn gnomes, strip the author topless at the Dog Park, and play-bow to stuffed toys at an age when she should know better.

Athena is at times exasperating and certainly no perfect replica of Rin Tin Tin, but the underlying love and devotion between dog and author are undeniable. For all who have loved a dog, Shepherd Girl: A Dog Story will remind them why.

Critic Reviews:

"If you've ever considered bringing home the spunky little German shepherd puppy that caught your eye, you might think again after reading Cat Needham's hilarious recount of one frenzied moment after another with Athena." (Bob Tarte, author of Enslaved by Ducks, Fowl Weather, and Kitty Cornered)

Members Reviews:

This book captured me from the get go

Yes, I have a crazy German Shepherd too. I feel as though I have found a new friend in the author. She writes. I read. And I feel as though she is telling me about her Shepherd girl, Athena, as I sit with them squished together on their couch in the living room. I laugh, cry and listen to their adventures together. My own dog is sleeping on my bed on my feet. Go figure ... I feel relieved as I read. We have made some crazy mistakes too, my dog and I. He's so Big and ungainly. He doesn't realize how Big and heavy he is. He's just a loveable and happy Hulk. And its ok because I have read about Athena and her owner. I now always have a bag of

Mixed treats with me in my pocket when I go out with my dog. He gets a sample before going out. As a result, he looks like a kangaroo beside me rather than a German Shepherd. But it works! He's totally zoned in on me during our walks. I loved reading about Athena. The story is so genuine, filled with so much love and humor. Yes, you have to have a big sense of humor when you have a German Shepherd. And you develop a lot of extra strength and sense of balance thanks to your dog. I am almost 70yrs old and I am grateful to my dog for this. No gym ... just my dog. And the cat, Kashi ... I have just read about his passing. A beautiful description of a proud and very special being. The tears were rolling down my face. We are considering to get a rescue cat for our dog and for us. My husband has had cats before. Your dog and your cat are so blessed to have you as their family member. Your insight and honesty and great love for them has a place in my heart always. I will cherish my time with you all through your book. If you want to laugh, cry, feel all fuzzy and warm inside and find respect for dogs and cats, please take the time to read this book. You will have moments of happiness and love ... And deep respect for living beings be they human, canine or cats. I know there is a better term for cats too. But bear with me, it's late at night here now in Sweden and I have 3 languages rattling around in my tired brain!!! Thank you so much for your Dog Story, Cat :-)

Great book for any dog owner

Great book for any dog owner. The author has a great sense of humor and a rather typical GSD.