Discover the Top 100 Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

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: My Twentieth Century Evening and Other Small Breakthroughs

Subtitle: The Nobel Lecture

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Narrator: Kazuo Ishiguro

Format: Unabridged

Length: 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-26-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

The Nobel Lecture in Literature, delivered by Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day and When We Were Orphans) at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, on December 7, 2017.

In their announcement of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy recognized the emotional force of Kazuo Ishiguro's fiction and his mastery at uncovering our illusory sense of connection with the world. In the eloquent and candid lecture he delivered upon accepting the award, Ishiguro reflects on the way he was shaped by his upbringing, and on the turning points in his career - "small scruffy moments...quiet, private sparks of revelation" - that made him the writer he is today.

With the same generous humanity that has graced his novels, Ishiguro here looks beyond himself, to the world that new generations of writers are taking on, and what it will mean - what it will demand of us - to make certain that literature remains not just alive, but essential.

An enduring work on writing and becoming a writer, by one of the most accomplished novelists of our generation.

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: Analysis of Walter Isaacsons Leonardo da Vinci

Author: Milkyway Media

Narrator: Marnye Young

Format: Unabridged

Length: 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-18-17

Publisher: Milkyway Media

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Walter Isaacson's Leonardo da Vinci (2017) is a biography of the Italian Renaissance artist, researcher, and inventor. Isaacson traces Leonardo's life and scientific pursuits and provides history and criticism for each of his important works....

Listen to this in-depth analysis to learn more.

Members Reviews:

19 pages.....

19 pages????

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: Afterglow

Subtitle: A Dog Memoir

Author: Eileen Myles

Narrator: Eileen Myles

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 12-05-17

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Prolific and widely renowned, Eileen Myles is a trailblazer whose decades of literary and artistic work "set a bar for openness, frankness, and variability few lives could ever match" (New York Review of Books). This newest book paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of a beloved confidant: the pit bull called Rosie.

In 1990, Myles chose Rosie from a litter on the street, and their connection instantly became central to the writer's life and work. During the course of their 16 years together, Myles was madly devoted to the dog's well-being, especially in her final days. Starting from the emptiness following Rosie's death, Afterglow launches a heartfelt and fabulist investigation into the true nature of the bond between pet and pet owner. Through this lens, we witness Myles' experiences with intimacy and spirituality, celebrity and politics, alcoholism and recovery, fathers and family history, as well as the fantastical myths we spin to get to the heart of grief.

Moving from an imaginary talk show where Rosie is interviewed by Myles' childhood puppet to a critical reenactment of the night Rosie mated with another pit bull, from lyrical transcriptions of their walks to Rosie's enlightened narration from the afterlife, Afterglow illuminates all that it can mean when we dedicate our existence to a dog.

Elle magazine's pick of best books to read this fall. BuzzFeed's Books Pick of exciting new books you need to read.

Members Reviews:

"There must be a pony (or a dog) in here somewhere..."

Eileen Myles deserves her reputation as a startling frank and forthright poet, but I found her effort here to be too haphazard to rate more than two stars. While some parts of the book offer honest and heartfelt insight into the human and animal bond, one has to wade through far too much pretentious stream of consciousness crap to fully relax into the author's voice with any regularity.

Myles is most effective when she is writing directly about her beloved pit bull, Rosie, or when she is channeling her pup's voice from the after life. In those moments her writing voice rings true and clear, her insights appear effortlessly, and her honesty is so rewarding. At other moments, for example when Myles has her childhood sock puppet interview Rosie about her abuse by the author, I could respect that Myles was experimenting with narrative in a creative way, even if I did not get much from it. I also flipped my way through a number of wasted pages of conversation that were too confusing to pay much attention to. Who is speaking? What are they talking about? As a reader I felt excluded from whatever experience Myles was trying to offer here & fI wound up feeling quite annoyed by the coyness of it all.

I really reached my limit though with the core of the book, which was consumed by a rambling, over intellectualized spasm of free association that spoke about foam but came across like being hit on the head with a verbal bat. I admit to a certain petty annoyance with writers that I feel stray too far into forms of mental masturbation that seems to wish to punish the reader for not understanding the greatness of the author when the author is obviously making every effort to be unattainable--think Borges, Pound, Nietzsche, et al--but I don't know that Myles was really trying to be obtuse here.

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: Running in the Family

Author: Michael Ondaatje

Narrator: Michael Ondaatje

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-28-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

In the late 1970s Ondaatje returned to his native island of Sri Lanka. As he records his journey through the drug-like heat and intoxicating fragrances of that "pendant off the ear of India", Ondaatje simultaneously retraces the baroque mythology of his Dutch-Ceylonese family. An inspired travel narrative and family memoir by an exceptional writer.

Members Reviews:

Three Stars

GautamiPutra Satakarni

A Sri Lankan family and engaging eccentricities!

An engaging insight into Ondaatje's family background. With the backdrop of Sri Lanka and two generations of his family and their engaging eccentricities to draw on, it is written with great warmth and humour.

Five Stars

excellent book! believe me I know what I am talking about

Five Stars

good book. ordered for school.

Five Stars

As listed...Thx

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: A Circle of Quiet

Subtitle: The Crosswicks Journals, Book 1

Author: Madeleine L'Engle

Narrator: Pamela Almand

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-17

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

The beloved author of A Wrinkle in Time takes an introspective look at her life and muses on creativity in this memoir, the first of her Crosswicks Journals.

Every so often I need OUT.... My special place is a small brook in a green glade, a circle of quiet from which there is no visible sign of human beings.... I sit there, dangling my legs and looking through the foliage at the sky reflected in the water, and things slowly come back into perspective.

Set against the lush backdrop of Crosswicks, her family's farmhouse in rural Connecticut, this deeply personal memoir details Madeleine L'Engle's journey to find balance between her career as a Newbery Medal-winning author and her responsibilities as a wife, mother, teacher, and Christian.

As she considers the roles that creativity, family, citizenship, and faith play in her life, L'Engle reveals the complexities behind the author whose works - honored with the National Book Award, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and countless other prizes - have long been cherished by children and adults alike. Written in simple, profound, and often humorous prose, A Circle of Quiet is an insightful woman's elegant search for the meaning and purpose of her life.

Members Reviews:

Good writing, but too stream- of- consciousness

There didn't seem to be any real chronology to the book. Just snippets from her journal peppered with insights about life and the writing process. Some good nuggets of wisdom, but not enough to recommend it.

A circle of quiet

Written as many random thoughts and beliefs. She tried to blend in with the Crosswick years but most of the information felt disjointed. A few parts were quite interesting to me and she displayed a sound belief system about life. She would have been an interesting person to be around.

Excellent reading for fans of LâEngle

I loved reading LâEngleâs thoughts on writing, literature, Christianity, the state of society, and the mysterious. She is warm and engaging throughout with personal anecdotes and honest writing. My only reason for marking 4 stars instead of 5 is that the entries get a little disjointed toward the end, as if they needed to extend the book by a few chapters and threw those in. But overall, I loved it. Iâll definitely be reading the other Crosswicks Journals.

A breath of fresh air

A wonderful book! Uplifting, full of interesting insights as a woman of great faith moves through her days. L'Engel always reassures and inspires.

Honest and Courageous

L'Engle's writing is so conversational in style, one is immediately drawn in and transformed from reader to participant. It made me want to be just as honest in my own writing and sharing of my life. I will read it again at a later date, I am quite sure.

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: Phish

Subtitle: The Biography

Author: Parke Puterbaugh

Narrator: John Glouchevitch

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Drawing upon nearly 15 years of exclusive interviews with the members of Phish, veteran music journalist Parke Puterbaugh examines the colorful chemistry that inspired the wildly popular rock group to push their four-man experiment to the limit. An intimate and fascinating portrait, Phish: The Biography is the definitive story of these Vermont jam-band legends.

Members Reviews:

lazy book

As little as I knew about this band before reading the book, I know not much more after reading it. Random internet surfing got me half of what's in here before I read it. Especially hilarious is the appendix -- pre-retirement setlists which did not make it into the taper's compendium in 2004! Thanks a bundle, PP, I thought I would have to look for these in my paper copy of Deadbase X! Would anybody look these up in print form after the year 2000? DId the author have a page quota to meet or something?

There are probably a lot of interesting stories to be told about the band's formative years, before they descend into behind-the-music sadness and routine. Those stories really are not here. There are some stories told by Amy Skelton(?), OK, but those 200-odd people who saw Phish in VT in the 80s and early 90s must want to talk. The guy named Nancy, who wrote Halley's Comet, was interviewed elsewhere, and he is interesting. I heard about the Boston Paradise gig in (89?) in much more interesting detail from a RS interview years ago.

Worse than this, it reads like an authorized biography -- a bit too respectful where the principals would rather not go into detail about their conflicts or sins. I cannot blame them, but I blame the author: who is the book for, the band or the readers?

The author needed to do some more research, some more interviews -- some more work. This book adds a little but not really enough for the price.

Somewhat entertaining light read

This book was somewhat entertaining, but if you've done any poking around the internet or know a friend of a friend of the band, you're not going to learn much you don't already know. The part I enjoyed the most and that filled in the most holes for me was the early stuff, i.e. some of their back stories, how they met, context around some of the things/people mentioned in the early songs, and their early grind to reach popularity. Once the story gets to the early 90s or so (the watershed period for the band), the book seems to speed up and gloss over a lot of things, which is somewhat surprising since that when the author supposedly jumped into the scene. It feels like the author researched pretty hard the period for which he had no direct experience, then skates through at a surface level the part he was there for. Either way, I don't regret reading it, but it's nothing groundbreaking.

Easy Read for Any Phish Fan

I'd consider myself a "seasoned" Phish fan and I really enjoyed this book. If you've followed the band for a good amount of time a lot of the information presented here will be familiar, but there was also plenty of new information that made this a quick and fun read. Most notably was some behind the scenes details regarding the 2004 breakup and the situations that surrounded that time.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the commentary from Phish inner-circle folks like John Paluska, Chris Kuroda, Tom Marshall, Amy Skelton and others.

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: Tom Petty: A Biography

Author: Anthony Jones

Narrator: Gary Fearon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-17

Publisher: Combray Media

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Great legend Tom Petty was an American rock musician, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Petty served as the lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He was also a member and co-founder of the late-1980s super-group, the Traveling Wilburys, and his early band, Mudcrutch. Enjoy this informative biography of the great legend!

Members Reviews:

Loved loved loved it

Loved loved loved it!!! My favorite rocker of all times He is so missed I cry every time I hear him on the radio because I can't believe he's gone. RIP

Skip this one...

I could have written a paper in high school that would read much better than this. If you have Kindle Unlimited it's not such a waste. Still not great but not a few bucks, either. Save your money, there are better books out there like Warren Zane's biography (among others). Very disappointed, it's a good thing it's only forty pages long. I would say it was poorly thrown together to make a buck or two after his passing, and I find that rather sad on top of losing him. If I didn't have Unlimited I'd never have bothered. Bought a softcover edition of Zane's book which is truly good. Just keep moving away from this and don't pay good money for it.

Look further

This book has around 20 pages and the print is for a first grader. Quality is not good at all. Look further for other books not this one

One Star

Not what I expected.

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: Growing Up

Author: Russell Baker

Narrator: Corey M. Snow

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

In this heartfelt memoir by the Masterpiece Theatre host, Pulitzer Prize winner, and groundbreaking New York Times columnist, Russell Baker traces his youth in the mountains of rural Virginia. When Baker was only five, his father died. His mother, strong-willed and matriarchal, never looked back. After all, she had three children to raise.

These were Depression years, and Mrs. Baker moved her fledgling family to Baltimore. Baker's mother was determined her children would succeed, and we know her regimen worked for Russell. He did everything from delivering papers to hustling subscriptions for the Saturday Evening Post. As is often the case, early hardships made the man.

Members Reviews:

My favorite book

I first read this Pulitzer Prize winner when my son was growing up. I would read a page outloud, and then he would read a page. A line from the book is, "Make something of yourself." When I told my son, with a wink, "Make something of yourself," he would laugh; and he did make something of himself. The story of Mr. Baker's life is one I will never forget, and the time that my son and I spent reading together was a special time, made even more so by this book. Of all of the books we read together, this was our favorite book.

Now that my husband and I are retired, we are reading this book to each other. The other day I read to my husband the part of the book that talks about Mr. Baker's wife when he didn't know he was going to marry her. He thought that he would just be a playboy until he saw his future wife kissing another guy . . .

More than a wonderful story about a wonderful man who made something of himself. Well written and well deserving of the Pulitzer Prize. This is a book that will be enjoyed 100 years from now. Today, Mr. Baker is in his eighties. He has left for us this gift of telling us about his life.

Excellent read for story telling

So many stories when you are growing up that it is hard to tell them so that they make sense of those growing up years. Baker knows how to tell his stories, not in a linear methodology but it makes his world come alive. This book demonstrates different methods of telling stories to get where you want the reader to be...in your life and feeling it.

Interesting autobiography!

Russell's story was engaging and told about a difficult childhood in a hard time. His characterizations were descriptive and helped tell the story. Much detail was included in many aspects whether it was describing a street, or the contents of a room, sometimes more than seemed necessary. You commiserated with the young Russell as he battled life, home, family, and his own demons. A very decent read!

Three Stars

Enjoyable story, sort of a review of how my generation grew up.

I was disappointed that I received regular sized small paperbacks

True, I requested 3 paperbacks, but as the paperback I have long owned is standard hardback size, I was disappointed that I received regular sized small paperbacks. No one's error, just a surprise on my part

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: Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell

Author: Anne Edwards

Narrator: Karen Commins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 11-08-17

Publisher: Jewel Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Margaret Mitchell was as complex and compelling as her legendary heroine, Scarlett O'Hara, and her story is as dramatic as anything out of her own imagination. Indeed, it is the basis for the legend she created. Gone with the Wind took the American reading public by storm and went on to become one of the most popular books and motion pictures of all time. The book was a phenomenon whose success has never been equaled, but it shattered Margaret Mitchell's private life. In Road to Tara, Anne Edwards tells the real story of Margaret Mitchell and the extraordinary novel that has become part of our heritage.

Members Reviews:

Interesting - but far too padded with minutiae

Listened to this in tandem with Audible's "Gone With the Wind" (highly recommend!!).

What begins as an interesting biography of Margaret Mitchell gradually bogs down into excruciating minutiae focused on the mechanics of publishing GWTW and production of the movie itself. At times - literally - it felt like events were recounted in real time. Then there were word-for-word transcripts of "Peggy" Mitchell's correspondence with obscure journalists and assorted "who-dats".

Mitchell's early life, as portrayed in this biography, was intriguing background for this fan of GWTW ... but she becomes increasingly off-putting as time goes on.

As I write this, I'm (still) listening ... this time, to quote after quote after quote of movie reviews from 1939.

Edwards is an excellent biographer, and I took a chance on this new release based on my experience. Unfortunately, this time - a skimpy biography is padded beyond recognition.

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 Bughouse

Subtitle: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound

Author: Daniel Swift

Narrator: Tom Perkins

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-07-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

In 1945, the great American poet Ezra Pound was deemed insane. He was due to stand trial for treason for his fascist broadcasts in Italy during the war. Instead, he escaped a possible death sentence and was held at St. Elizabeths Hospital for the insane for more than a decade. While there, his visitors included the stars of modern poetry: T. S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Charles Olson, and William Carlos Williams, among others. They would sit with Pound on the hospital grounds, bring him news of the outside world, and discuss everything from literary gossip to past escapades.

This was perhaps the world's most unorthodox literary salon: convened by a fascist and held in a lunatic asylum. Those who came often recorded what they saw. Pound was at his most infamous, most hated, and most followed. At St. Elizabeths he was a genius and a madman, a contrarian and a poet, and impossible to ignore.

In The Bughouse, Daniel Swift traces Pound and his legacy, walking the halls of St. Elizabeths and meeting modern-day neofascists in Rome. Unlike a traditional biography, The Bughouse sees Pound through the eyes of others at a critical moment both in Pound's own life and in 20th-century art and politics.

Critic Reviews:

"To understand an artist as compromised by circumstances - and by his own many contradictions - as Ezra Pound, we have to trace a complex path through a maze of half-truths, myth, and simplification. The Bughouse does so with supreme care, critical acumen, and humanity, shedding a whole new light not only on Pound the man, but also on the shape and character of The Cantos, one of the most seriously flawed and truly brilliant artworks of the twentieth century." (John Burnside)

Members Reviews:

How to deal with the great art of a terrible person

The Bughouse provides a new and valuable perspective on the Pound problem: the question of how to deal with the great art of a terrible person. To what extent, and in what ways, can we admire, or even love, the masterworks of the slaveowner or racist, the murderer or fascist? The problem is not as bad when the art has little or no direct relation to the artistâs reprehensible actions and/or ideas, but, in Poundâs case, the fascism and anti-Semitism is right there in the poetry.

Furthermore, the issue is complicated in Poundâs case by the vexed question of his sanity. The numerous mental-health professionals who examined him dramatically disagreed about this, and Swift acknowledges that âPoundâs madnessâor notâwill always remain an open question.â I was most intrigued to learn here that Poundâs defense attorney tried to use his poetry as evidence of his insanity!

Many books on Pound have, of course, grappled with this issue of the man and his work, and no single study can possibly settle this intractable problem, but this bookâs approachâlooking at the postwar Pound primarily through the writings of the fellow poets who visited him in St. Elizabeths Hospitalâmakes a real contribution. In this respect, it is like M. Owen Leeâs useful book Wagner: The Terrible Man & His Truthful Art.

It was with great interest that I purchased Daniel Swiftâs new account of ...

It was with great interest that I purchased Daniel Swiftâs new account of Ezra Poundâs time in St. Elizabeths Hospital.