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

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Masked Man

Subtitle: A Memoir and Fantasy of Hollywood

Author: Tom Wilson

Narrator: Tom Wilson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-18-14

Publisher: Dusty Tuba Entertainment, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Tom Wilson, the actor, comedian, and writer best known for playing "Biff" in the classic movie "Back to the Future," goes on an unplanned adventure after meeting fellow actor Clayton Moore, the man who played The Lone Ranger on T.V., experienced the pitfalls of pop celebrity, and most notably, died over a decade ago. In stories of the past that careen from Ethel Merman on Broadway to John Belushi on his last night on earth, to fantastic tales of the present, including a showdown on horseback on Steven Spielberg's driveway, two somewhat reluctant icons form a memorable bond, and a remarkable listen.

Members Reviews:

Everything You Think, But Completely Different

If you could sum up The Masked Man in three words, what would they be?

Unusual, funny, satisfying

What did you like best about this story?

I really enjoyed the self-deprecating humor, the complete truth telling, as well as the unusual literary device of the "One Ranger." Well written, creatively presented, and if none of that matters to you, he also offers up the conventional "real story" of the "behind the scenes" that we all salivate for.

Which character as performed by Tom Wilson was your favorite?

The "One Ranger", but all of his characterizations are spot-on and really liven up the audio experience.

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

I appreciated the ending. I was skeptical following him through the journey and wondered how it would all get resolved. A great finish and I think fans of the movie, of the actor, and of good memoirs will really enjoy this.

What a fantastic book

Tom Wilson has written a wonderful account of his time as an actor with some fun fantasy as he realizes what he has really been searching for....

Tom is so much more than "Hey Butthead".

What made the experience of listening to The Masked Man the most enjoyable?

I especially loved all of the personal stories of encounters with famous hollywood types and comedians. Tom's recollection of "incidents" and how they occurred is outstanding and interesting. The Sam Kinison stuff is quite amusing.

What other book might you compare The Masked Man to and why?

None that I have read, or listened to. I'm not familiar with any other book that weaves a fantasy story with actual life events like this book does.

What does Tom Wilson bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

Hearing the author tell the stories and how they intended the inflections and/or emphasis is something you just can't get by reading it yourself.

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

It was very easy to listen to this book in long sessions and I looked forward to the times when I could do so.

Any additional comments?

Tom is a very interesting person, and you will learn so much more about him and what made him the man he is today. When you figure out that he's pretty much the complete opposite of his meat-headed most famous character, Biff, you will see that he is a caring, talented and intellectual family man, comedian, voice actor and all around nice person.

Entertaining and whimsical

Fans of Back to the Future will enjoy the occasional behind-the-scenes insights.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Living Up There

Author: Jane Wodening

Narrator: Jane Wodening

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-20-13

Publisher: Boneworthy Publishing LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Living Up There is a memoir of time lived mostly at 10,000 feet in the Colorado Rocky Mountains in a home-made cabin. Inimitably personal, it is written with the sensibility of a loving field biologist and human wonderer.

This audiobook holds obvious relations with two literary-cultural traditions: first, that of journal memoirs of days spent intentionally removed from the speed and ease and at least some of the understood contracts of "civilization," two of whose best known for bears are Henry David Thoreau's Walden and Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek; and second, that of retreat to the natural basis of the world following the attainment of certain age and completion of responsibility cycles of family and livelihood.

A guiding metaphor for the audiobook's overall spirit comes from Wodening's contemplation of deep connections operating between apparently individual existences. While working as a tour guide in Mojave Desert, she learns of creosote as an underground system of progressively radiating sucker plants so that, "like mushrooms, it is not really what shows above ground that is the individual. What shows above ground is reaching out to sun and air and produces viable seed but it is feeding the root, and it's the root that carries on, spreads, [as] in the case of the aspen, across a mountainside for, yes, millennia, if nothing stops it."

Members Reviews:

Great read!!!!

I looked forward to curling up every night with this book. Hopefully one year I will make this a reality. I especially liked how she transitioned out of Living Up There.

Mountain Woman as Literary Chronicler

This is a wonderfully written account of an extraordinary adventure taken by a strong and courageous woman. The author had already raised five children in her life with the great avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage when she decided she needed a break from "civilization." So she purchased property 10,000 feet up in the Rockies around Boulder Colorado and lived there in a tiny cabin for seven years. In the process she communed--in a very real sense--with nature and every animal or bird she encountered. Her descriptions of these interactions are so directly and lovingly presented that one comes to know an individual chickadee as well as a willful, intrusive, but ultimately charming bear. People show up occasionally too, either her sons and son in law who help her in the beginning with making her cabin livable, as well as the outhouse, food storage structure, and guest house. But Jane, often called the "mountain woman" even before she took to the mountains, is no simple nature freak. She built and stocked shelves with a thousand volumes by her favorite writers. Occasional trips to town were necessary, but often this meant walking miles in the snow to get to her car which had to be parked far below the cabin. This is not the only book Jane Wodening has written; she has a list of unusual small volumes to her credit, but this one is the richest, fullest and most inspiring--an account of life in the raw which subjects one's self to an education that only nature itself can provide. It will easily recall Thoreau's Walden for many readers.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Vow

Subtitle: A Memoir of Marriage (And Other Affairs)

Author: Wendy Plump

Narrator: Coleen Marlo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

There are so many ways to find out. From a cell phone. From a bank statement. From some weird supermarket encounter. One morning in early January 2005, Wendy Plump's friend came to tell her that her husband was having an affair. It was not a shock. Actually, it explained a lot. But what Wendy was not prepared for was the revelation that her husband also had another child, living within a mile of their family home.

Monogamy is one of the most important of the many vows we make in our marriages. Yet it is a rare spouse who does not face some level of temptation in their married life. The discovery of her husband's affair followed betrayals of Wendy's own, earlier in the marriage. The revelations of those infidelities had tested their relationship, but for Wendy, it was commitment - the sticking with it - that mattered most, and when her sons were born, she knew family had to come first. But with another woman and another family in the picture, she lost all sense of certainty.

In Vow, Wendy Plump boldly walks one relationship's fault lines, exploring infidelity from the perspective of both betrayer and betrayed. Moving fluidly from the intimate to the near-universal, she considers the patterns of adultery, the ebb and flow of passion, the undeniable allure of the illicit, the lovers and the lies. Frank, intelligent and important, Vow will forever alter your understanding of fidelity, and the meaning of the promises we make to those we love.

Members Reviews:

Brutally honest...

Would you listen to Vow again? Why?

Probably not only because I already know the story. Do people normally listen to audiobooks multiple times?

What did you like best about this story?

Honest and unapologetic.

Any additional comments?

This story is well worth the read (or in the case of the audiobook, the listen).

Vow is a very brave and honest account of a relationship that was doomed from the beginning. While many reviewers might be tempted to review the author as a person and not the book, I don't think that is fair. After all, it's no secret what this book is about. If you chose to read a book about adultery, and live vicariously through the actors in it, you can't judge them as people when reflecting on the story.

The book is very well written and effectively captures and describes the mentality of a woman who seems to have no respect for the vow of marriage until it is irreparably broken. At times, Wendy does channel her inner Frasier and use bigger words and metaphors than the scene calls for, but it's not obnoxious.

I didn't feel much (if any) sympathy for Wendy or Bill, but I don't think she tries to seek it. What I did feel was empathy. I can relate to the situation where a couple tries to continue their marriage after an affair without ever addressing the underlying issues that led to the affair in the first place. I understand what it feels like to always wonder if the other person is going to "get back" at you someday. I understand how being in a marriage where things just aren't right leads to needing to escape, and the comfort you can find in someone else.

But most of all, I can understand what it's like to want to stay together, even when there is no good reason to do so, simply because we're afraid of accepting the consequences of our actions. It's about deferring pain, and it accrues interest.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay

Subtitle: An American Family in Iran

Author: Hooman Majd

Narrator: Michael Kramer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-05-13

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 41 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

It was an annus horribilis for Iran's Supreme Leader. The Green Movement had been crushed, but the regime was on edge, anxious lest democratic protests resurge. International sanctions were dragging down the economy while talk of war with the West grew. Hooman Majd was there for all of it. A new father at age fifty, he decided to take his blonde, blue-eyed Midwestern yoga instructor wife Karri and his adorable, only-eats-organic infant son Khash from their hip Brooklyn neighborhood to spend a year in the land of his birth. It was to be a year of discovery for Majd, too, who had only lived in Iran as a child.

The audiobook opens ominously as Majd is stopped at the airport by intelligence officers who show him a four-inch thick security file about his books and journalism and warn him not to write about Iran during his stay. Majd brushes it off - but doesn't tell Karri - and the family soon settles in to the rituals of middle class life in Tehran: Finding an apartment (which requires many thousands of dollars, all of which, bafflingly, is returned to you when you leave), a secure internet connection (one that persuades the local censors you are in New York) and a bootlegger (self-explanatory). Karri masters the head scarf, but not before being stopped for mal-veiling, twice. They endure fasting at Ramadan and keep up with Khash in a country weirdly obsessed with children.

All the while, Majd fields calls from security officers and he and Karri eye the headlines - the arrest of an American "spy," the British embassy riots, the Arab Spring - and wonder if they are pushing their luck. The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay is a sparkling account of life under a quixotic authoritarian regime that offers rare and intimate insight into a country and its people, as well as a personal story of exile and a search for the meaning of home.

Critic Reviews:

Narrator Michael Kramer's many talents include his ability to portray a persona using only subtle accents and shadings of tone. Such skill is evident here from the opening lines as he convincingly delivers all the emotion and understated drama of author Majd's chronicle of a year spent in his native Iran with his American wife and their toddler son. Kramer perfectly hits every note--from wry amusement at the behavior of political leaders to exasperation at the living conditions and anger about what reformers have endured from the regime. Madj has written about Iran before, but listeners will find that this time it's personal. Kramer's conversational tone and pace add to the intimacy and immediacy of this timely audiobook. (AudioFile)

The Ministry of Guidance reveals an Iran far more nuanced, sophisticated and affluent than most Western readers might imagineIranians, it turns out, have a lot more in common with Americans than weve been told the past 30-some years.The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay completes a trilogy that illuminates the politics, society, and culture of modern Iran through the eyes of the decidedly hip, well-connected Majd.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Goodbye, Vietnam

Author: William Broyles Jr.

Narrator: David DeSantos

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-22-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this gripping memoir, a former marine returns to Vietnam to try to make sense of the war. Previously published as Brothers in Arms, this edition includes a new preface by the author.

When William Broyles Jr. was drafted, he was a twenty-four-year-old student at Oxford University in England, hoping to avoid military service. During his physical exam, however, he realized that he couldn't let social class or education give him special privileges. He joined the marines, and soon commanded an infantry platoon in the foothills near Da Nang. More than a decade later, Broyles found himself flooded with emotion during the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC. He decided to return to Vietnam and confront what he'd been through. Broyles was one of the very first combat veterans to return to the battlefields. No American before or since has gone so deeply into the other side of the war: the enemy side.

Broyles interviews dozens of Vietnamese, from the generals who ran the war to the men and women who fought it. He moves from the corridors of power in Hanoi - so low-tech that the plumbing didn't work - to the jungles and rice paddies where he'd fought. He meets survivors of American B-52 strikes and My Lai, and grieves with a woman whose son was killed by his own platoon. Along the way, Broyles also explores the deep bonds he shared with his own comrades, and the mystery of why men love war even as they hate it. Amidst the landscape of death, his formerly faceless enemies come to life. They had once tried to kill each other, but they are all brothers now.

Members Reviews:

Best Viet Nam Book in recent Memory

I read this recently having read the original version years ago. And what a refreshing return it was. Like Broyles I was also a soldier who returned early. What a wonderful memoir of the many journeys we have made. Fini Viet Nam--I don't think so . But thanks for this wonderful, well researched and well written book. Not DISPATCHES, but a close second

A heartfelt and honest twenty year war story

Broyles gets a few facts wrong, but what veteran doesn't when they're writing about war. Of all the books I've read about Vietnam his, I believe, was the most honest and telling. Too many of us forget that Vietnam was first and foremost a moral tragedy that will continue to haunt us until there's a generation whom it's never touched. What impressed me most was his revealing the inner conflict of being a intelligent and caring human being and asked to take part in an outrageously inhumane war effort. Like most of us who fought there -- we thought we could do both but could not and have bee being paying for it ever since.

Will G.

U.S.M.C.

Vietnam 1969-70

This is the best overall description of the Vietnam war from all perspectives

Clearly written, sticks to chronological events, intersperses detail when needed and does an incredible job of interjecting personal emotional events with historic facts. Includes the views of all individuals who were part of the war and frequently used comparisons of enemy forces and US troops. This is the best overall description of the Vietnam war from all perspectives.

Goodbye Vietnam: the "Rest of the Story"

I do not give a book five stars very often, in fact this may be the first one.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters

Subtitle: Travels through Englands Football Provinces

Author: Daniel Gray

Narrator: Derek Perkins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 10-02-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Daniel Gray is about to turn 30. Like any sane person, his response is to travel to Luton, Crewe, and Hinckley. After a decade's exile in Scotland, he sets out to reacquaint himself with England via what he considers its greatest asset: soccer. Watching teams from the Championship (or Division Two, as any right-minded person calls it) to the South West Peninsula Premier, and aimlessly walking around towns from Carlisle to Newquay, Gray paints a curious landscape forgotten by many. He discovers how the provinces made the England we know, from Teesside's role in the Empire to Luton's in our mongrel DNA. Moments in the histories of his teams come together to form soccer's narrative, starting with Sheffield pioneers and ending with fan ownership at Chester, and Gray shows how the modern game unifies an England in flux and dominates the places in which it is played.

Hatters, Railwaymen, and Knitters is a wry and affectionate ramble through the wonderful towns and teams that make the country and capture its very essence. It is part soccer book, part travelogue, and part love letter to the bits of England that often get forgotten, celebrated here in all their blessed eccentricity.

Members Reviews:

If you really love real football

A temendous journey through the soul of football, a nostalgic look back at English football as it was and the part football played in society , and moreso the part the towns, cities and areas palyed in the development of clubs and their identities. Thers a yearning for the magic thats been lost to the modernisation of the game, If only we could undo how the games been hijacked by the desire to make money rather than to represent a community.

A greatlisten, I was emotional whilst listening sad when it ended.

Not just a football book!

I picked this book as I am a big football fan and spend a lot of time watching the lower leagues so the appeal football aspect of the book. This did not disappoint, but delivered on so many more fronts and has so much more to offer.

I found it a gripping insight into how the different areas of the country changed over the years and how football played a part in this. What was even more surprising is that my other half also listened and was gripped by it and she follow football, instead taking the history and the travel from this and loving the story of England within this book.

The only "downside" to this (and it's not really a downside) is that the author is early 30's however, the narrator sounds like he's a little older so sometimes it feels that there is a disconnect between the authors intended image and what is given by the narrator. Having said that, this is no reason to not listen and is probably less of an issue than not having Fergie reading his book!

Excellent football/history/travel book

Any additional comments?

This book reminded me of what I love about football. Being of a similar age as the author I found his quest to relive and revive his youth and his Englishness through the back waters of English football clubs an extremely uplifting journey.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Preemptive Love

Subtitle: Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Time

Author: Jeremy Courtney

Narrator: Jeremy Courtney

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-01-13

Publisher: Oasis Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 31 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Love first. Ask questions later.

In the middle of the Iraq War, Jeremy and Jessica Courtney found themselves with their two children caught up in the turmoil, just hoping to make a difference. After an encounter with a father whose little girl was dying from a heart defect, they began to investigate options for helping and learned that untold thousands of children across Iraq were in similar need, waiting in line for heart surgery in a country without a qualified heart surgeon.

With the help of their closest friends, they dived in to save the lives of as many as they could, but sending children abroad proved to be expensive and cumbersome, and it failed to make an impact on the systemic needs of Iraqi hospitals - the places where these children really should be saved.

Critic Reviews:

"A beautiful and inspiring book about the power of love in a time of war and the capacity of personal interactions to break through, build trust, and save lives." (Joseph Lieberman, former U.S. senator)

Members Reviews:

AMAZING!!

Preemptive Love: Pursuing Peace One Heart at a Timeis a page-turner from the beginning. I bought it on my Kindle the first day it came out, and couldn't put it down until I reached "the finish line" at the end of the book. I have a personal belief which says, "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." Jeremy, his family, and all of his team and supporters of the Preemptive Love Coalition ARE showing the power of love overcoming the love of power! Jeremy's descriptions are highly accurate. This book should be a "must-read" for anyone with an inkling to do volunteer work in another country, as it doesn't "glorify" or "down-play" the truths of showing preemptive love - it tells it like it is. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!

Life-giving and life-changing!

I read this after becoming a donor to Preemptive Love in order to better understand the organization and their leader, Jeremy. The story is riveting and an incredible testimony to God's amazing grace. This breaks through the barriers of fear that are constantly bombarding us today. Love God/love people. It really is as basic as that.

Reading Few Books Could Be So Important...

When one reads plaudits about books changing lives, impacting like atomic bombs--and similar descriptions--one can have valid reasons for doubt. Not so with this powerful book so masterfully written by Jeremy Courtney. He was--and is--"there"--and he has bared his heart.

It is a truly magnificent work, with the potential to make better Christians of us all.

Jeremy is the graduate of a small Christian university where I was president for a dozen years. Sadly, I was present there, in a post-presidential role, for but two years of his pilgrimage. I so wish I could have known him better. Despite our paths crossing only occasionally during that time, I sensed uncommon passion for Christ, unending commitment and wisdom beyond his years. How great it is that he found his life mate there. For such a powerful calling, a man must be equally yoked, and Jessica's vision and commitment to the journey are evident.

I think often of graduates of our little school who do well, perhaps in ordinary pursuits in non-descript places. They, too, serve.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Outside Passage

Subtitle: A Memoir of an Alaskan Childhood

Author: Julia Scully

Narrator: Celeste Lawson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-07-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

When Julia Scully was seven years old, her father committed suicide, and she and her sister were sent to an orphanage. Julia sought comfort in the rituals of the orphanage - learning to knit, roller-skating after dinner, listening to One Man's Family on the radio - and tried to adapt. But two years later, emotionally damaged by the isolation and brutality of the orphanage, the girls followed their mother to the near-wilderness of the gold-mining territory north of Nome, Alaska, where she had leased a roadhouse in the tiny settlement of Taylor.

Julia had no idea what to expect when she arrived, but to her surprise she found a healing power in the stark beauty of the vast tundra - the summer wildflowers and berries, the reindeer, foxes, and wolves. Later she reveled in the boisterous, chaotic boomtown atmosphere that prevailed when thousands of American troops descended on Nome at the outbreak of World War II.

A lyrical and affecting memoir of those years, Outside Passage is simultaneously an emotional account of a young girl's first steps into adulthood and a unique portrait of a vanished frontier life.

Members Reviews:

Beautiful narrative

It's quite a challenge to get an older guy like me into the mind of a teen-age girl living in orphanages and in remote sections of Alaska, wondering what will come of her life. Julia Scully's personal memoir does exactly that. Her life experiences have been so different from the usual. Reading her book provided enjoyable insight into a person, a time, and places that were new to me, and would be to most people. It's quite a story and she's quite a storyteller.

Interesting memoir

I enjoyed reading about these experiences in Alaska. Having been to Alaska and seen that particular area it gave me a 'feel' for the place again and I got caught up in the real experience it was for the author. Well done.

One Girl's Impressions of Her Childhood

This was an interesting book, as a look at Alaska, as a story of an unconventional childhood. I have to admit the revealing of the mother's secrets and possibly dishonoring things which she held dear made me a little uncomfortable. The author has every right to describe how events and decisions made her feel - perhaps less to believe that her understanding of her mother's motivations are 100% correct. All in all, it held my interest.

Sometimes bad things lead to great books...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

While the author's childhood was a bit tough to read about she survived and thrived in the end. Reading about what happened to the author and her reactions to those events gave me a lot of insight into her life, and what it means to be a child in a world of adults who rarely, if ever, explain things to kids.

After finishing the book I found myself thinking back to my own childhood. While I never when through anything close to what the author experienced there were some times when I was wondering what the hell was happening in my life.

It is tough being a kid. But sometimes bad things lead to great books. This is one of those times.

Reader

I absolutely loved this book! It is one of those books that you wish would go on for many more chapters, and when it ends you will hate to put it down.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Only War We Had

Subtitle: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam

Author: Col. Michael Lee Lanning Lt. Col. (Ret)

Narrator: Alexander MacDonald

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-04-13

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 43 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In my year in Vietnam, I walked the booby-trapped rice paddies of the Delta, searching for the elusive Viet Cong, and later macheted my way through the triple-canopy jungle, fighting the North Vietnamese RegularsI sweated, thirsted, hunted, killed. Somewhere in all my experiences, I overlapped the situations of nearly every infantryman and many others who served.

Michael Lee Lanning's journal of his first tour of duty in Vietnam provides an unvarnished daily account of life in the field. The blood, fear, camaraderie, and tedium of combat and maneuver. Fleshed out with narrative and detail years later, the pages of this memorable book, first published in 1987, show an eager young recruit growing before the reader's eyes into a proud but bloodied combat veteran.

Subsequent volumes in his Vietnam Trilogy will detail Lanning's tour as a company commander and his post-war investigation into the mind of the enemy. Through his eyes, readers see the reality of a war that did not always receive glory but was, in his words, "the only war we had."

Members Reviews:

Totally honest

What made the experience of listening to The Only War We Had the most enjoyable?

It's simply amazing to hear Lanning's books. They strike me as being completely honest, since he never pulls his punches, even when it would have been easy to leave some things out in order to make himself look better. One wonders why he didn't make full Colonel--no doubt it has something to do with his habit of answering even superior officers in his very direct manner. Seems that, unfortunately, the REMF's had the last laugh. It certainly isn't a judgment on his combat record, which is simply brilliant! I like this guy much better than, say, Larry Heinemann. Lanning doesn't indulge in cynicism and sarcasm at the expense of the men with which he served. His work makes me respect the Vietnam vets all the more.

Very well written.

Great read. Perfect narrator for story. I learned alot about Vietnam and our soldiers sacrifice.

Soporoific narration, odd cadence. Good story.

What did you like best about The Only War We Had? What did you like least?

The diary format of the book. Gave a strong sense of order and time.I liked the narration least, although I felt the book would have been improved by more quoted dialogue and talk of the actions of others - granted it is in effect an extended diary.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Not really relevant as few others are mentioned by name.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Yes. I think it would make a good film and I don't recall a film of this nature. Something like Full Metal Jacket or Born on the Fourth of July, but they both had (reasonable) agendas and following one man day by day would make a fascinating film.

Any additional comments?

I found the narrator pleasant to listen to, but his odd cadence and frequent use of a low voice was both distracting and made it difficult to concentrate on. It sounded as though he was bending his head down to read an uncomfortably placed script.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels

Author: Justin Vivian Bond

Narrator: Justin Vivian Bond

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-16-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 26 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Recently hailed as "the greatest cabaret artist of [V's] generation" in The New Yorker, Mx. Justin Vivian Bond makes a brilliant literary debut with this staggeringly candid and hilarious novella-length memoir.

With a recent diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, and news that V's first lover from childhood has been imprisoned for impersonating an undercover police officer, Bond recalls in vivid detail coming of age as a trans kid. Always haunted by the knowledge of being "different," Bond was further confused when the bully next door wanted to meet secretly. Their trysts went on for years, and made Bond acutely aware of sexual power and vulnerability. With inimitable style, Bond raises issues about LGBTQ adolescence, homophobia, parenting, and sexuality, while being utterly entertaining.

Singer, songwriter, and Tony-nominated performance artist Mx. Justin Vivian Bond is an Obie, Bessie, and Ethyl Eichelberger Award winner. As one half of the performance duo Kiki and Herb, Bond has toured the world, headlining at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and London's Queen Elizabeth Hall, and starring in a Tony nominated run on Broadway, Kiki and Herb Alive on Broadway. Film credits include a role in John Cameron Mitchell's feature Shortbus. Bond has recently released two records, Dendrophile, and Silver Wells.

Critic Reviews:

"Like Bond, the memoir is droll, pensive and filled with zingers teetering between funny and ferocious." (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

Justin Vivian Bond Knocks It Out of the Park

Cant catch one of Mx Justin Vivian Bonds celebrated cabaret performances? Well, now you'd better FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELT.

Hilton Als, theater critic for The New Yorker, calls Mx Justin Vivian Bond "The greatest cabaret artist of (v's) generation," and you can hear why. The range this story and Bond's reading of it display, from whisper sweet to tough as nails, is enthralling.

Bonds memoir concerns a childhood in the Sixties and Seventies, knowing she wasnt like the other boys. There are all sorts of details that reflect the era such as putting on his mother's "Frosted Watermelon" lipstick before schoolnot to mention the quack psychiatrist that told him as a child that his "gay-ness" was a just a passing faze.

Theres innocence lost and found, confusion, sweetness and more. Its serious, deep, and deeply entertaining.

Review

Had to read/listen to for class and I must say it was great. Funny, lighthearted, sad, a good listen. Spending 2.5 hours listening is in my opinion a lot better than spending 2.5 weeks having to read it.