Download the Top 100 Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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Title: Church of Lies

Author: Paul T. Brown, Flora Jessop

Narrator: Eve Bianco

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-16-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 294 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

"My name is Flora Jessop. I've been called apostate, vigilante, and crazy bitch, and maybe I am. But some people call me a hero, and I'd like to think they're right too. If I am a hero, maybe it's because every time I can play a part in saving a child or a woman from a life of servitude and degradation, I'm saving a little piece of me, too.

I was one of twenty-eight children born to my dad and his three wives. Indoctrinated to believe that the outside world was evil, and that I resided among the righteous, I was destined to marry a man chosen for me by the Prophet. I would then live in harmony with my sister-wives, bear many children, and obey and serve my future husband in this life and throughout eternity. But my innocence didn't last long. While still a child, I understood that the church of the righteous was nothing but a church of lies.

When I was eight years old my father sexually molested me for the first time, raping me when I was twelve. I tried to kill myself. Beaten, molested, taunted, and abused by family members alleging they only wanted to save my soul became a daily routine, I ran from this abuse more than once in my early teens--even attempting to cross the desert on foot. My family hunted me down. I thought government agencies would provide me safety if I reported my father. Instead, police and social services colluded with the FLDS to return me to my family and I ended up back inside polygamy, right where I started."

Flora goes on from there to tell the dramatic true story of how she ultimately escaped and has been fighting against frustrating obstacles with hard fought successes in rescuing women and children from the FLDS. It's a story you can't put down.

Members Reviews:

Unique & raw story, best FLDS memoir

What other book might you compare Church of Lies to and why?

I have read many other FLDS memoirs (Escape, The Witness Wore Red, Stolen Innocence, etc) and this one is by far the best. Flora's rebellious spirit and her unusual path make her story fascinating -- she went from FLDS wife to drug-addled stripper to child advocate. The story is raw, real, authentic and fearless in a way that the other books are not.

Which character as performed by Eve Bianco was your favorite?

great performance by Eve Bianco as usual...she can even voice men and little kids in a way that doesn't sound silly. She is a great storyteller without being annoying or overly dramatic. She definitely does the story justice.

Get past the narrator and the book is fantastic

Any additional comments?

The narration of this book is awful. The drama and the different voices ruins the very nature and essence of this story. Flora tells a tale full of painful abuse and the narrator seems to trivialize it with her intense dramatic flairs. I often wonder how these narrators are chosen. But you must continue because this story will wrap you up inside of it and spit you out, leaving you wanting to know why and how these things could happen while the law and other authorities turn a blind eye.

Beginning was good, end was dragged out a little

Her story was interesting.

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Title: Call the Nurse

Subtitle: True Stories of a Country Nurse in Scotland's Western Isles

Author: Mary J. MacLeod

Narrator: Gwen Hughes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 266 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Recalling the classic works by James Herriot and the new British hit Call the Midwife, a nurses heartwarming adventures with her family while practicing in rural Scotland.

Tired of the pace and noise of life near London and longing for a better place to raise their young children, Mary J. MacLeod and her husband, George, encountered their dream while vacationing on a remote island in the Scottish Hebrides. Enthralled by its windswept beauty, they soon were the proud and startled owners of a near-derelict croft house - a farmers stone cottage - on a small acre of land. Mary assumed duties as the islands district nurse. Call the Nurse is her account of the enchanted years she and her family spent there, coming to know its folk as both patients and friends.

In anecdotes that are by turns funny, sad, moving, and tragic, she recalls them all, the crofters and their laird, the boatmen and tradesmen, young lovers and forbidding churchmen. Against the old-fashioned island culture and the grandeur of mountain and sea unfold indelible stories: a young woman carried through snow for airlift to the hospital; a rescue by boat; the marriage of a gentle giant and the island beauty; a ghostly encounter; the shocking discovery of a woman in chains; the flames of a heather fire at night; an unexploded bomb from World War II; and the joyful, tipsy celebration of a ceilidh. Gaelic fortitude meets a nurses compassion in these wonderful true stories from rural Scotland.

Editorial Reviews:

Mary J. MacLeod's line of work allows her a uniquely intimate window into the lives of the insular rural community she left London for in the 1970s. Gwen Hughes' conversational tone suits MacLeod's frank style and closes the gap to allow each listener to feel as though the nurse is personally sharing her stories on a house call.

The anecdotes in Call the Nurse range from tragedy to humor but are always handled with the love MacLeod clearly feels toward the island's residents, their foibles, old-fashioned way of life, and the mythically beautiful landscape that left her enchanted.

Members Reviews:

A 1970's Visiting Nurse on Rural Scottish Island

This is a fun, engaging, and often poignant story of a family that moves to a remote Scottish island, renovates a croft and sets out to live a much simpler life. The stories center on quirky island folk and old traditions. This hardy nurse sees it all. Rising to every occasion with tremendous aplomb.

However, the narration was an issue for me. The accents were off and varied with a great deal of inconsistency. What was worse was the slow speaking mode the narrator used. I remedied the problem by, for the first time ever, increasing my play back speed. I found that 1.25 speed was perfect and made the reader sound almost normal. I did not want to give up on the story-- so this was a quick fix that made the book tolerable.

Narration aside it was a good story and worth the effort. If you enjoyed Call the Midwife, the Irish country Doctor series or even the James Herriot books you might enjoy this visit to the Outer Hebrides.

Superb Writing and a Great Memoir

If you could sum up Call the Nurse in three words, what would they be?

Sorry it ended!

What other book might you compare Call the Nurse to and why?

Dr.

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Title: My Inventions

Subtitle: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

Author: Nikola Tesla

Narrator: Jason McCoy

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-22-13

Publisher: BN Publishing

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 222 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system, the successful system in the "War of Currents" and the Tesla coil. Nikolas Tesla's patents and theoretical work helped form the basis of wireless communication and radio. He is also known for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments in New York and Colorado Springs, experiments in X-rays, and his ill-fated attempt at intercontinental wireless transmission in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project.

Tesla's achievements and his abilities as a showman demonstrating his seemingly miraculous inventions made him world famous. He made a great deal of money from his patents, but he also spent a lot on numerous experiments over the years. In the last few decades of his life, he ended up living in diminished circumstances as a recluse in a series of New York City hotel rooms, occasionally issuing unusual statements to the press. Because of his pronouncements and the nature of his work over the years, Tesla gained a reputation in popular culture as the archetypal "mad scientist". He died penniless and in debt on 7 January 1943.

Members Reviews:

Interesting

When I was in high school Albert Einstein was my hero and I read all I could find about him. When I got to University it changed to Nikola Tesla. I am always surprised at how few people know about Tesla and how important he is to our daily life. This is a very short book telling about Tesla early life in Serbia and his relationship with his family. His mother was a well known inventor as was all her family. Tesla attended university in Germany and Czechoslovakia, he obtained an engineer degree and a degree as a physicist he spoke 5 languages. He went to work for Thomas Edison when he came to the U.S. but Edison did not get along with him because of Tesla education. The story gives some basic information about Tesla but the book is just too short. For those interested in more information read books by Marc Seifer or Margaret Cheney for starters. He was a man at least one hundred year ahead of his time. Many things you use today he is the inventor, fax machines, wireless communication, a.c. electrical current and so on. He also worked in France for Alexander Bell and he had many inventions to the telephone and its transmission. This is a good book for a brief introduction into the life of Tesla.

Not the best account of Tesla's life & inventions

Nikola Tesla was a genius inventor. But a terrible writer.

This is his autobiography, written directly by him, by a crazy scientist who changed the world, whose mind ran a million miles per hour. It's disorganized, lacks context, lacks a story. I love biographies and science, this was a bad book.

Further, the narrator makes the problem worse. It's like NIkola invented a reading robot and gave him his unfinished manuscript. There is no emotion, no emphasis. Worse, there are no pauses. It goes from one though to the next, soundling like it's the same sentence.It makes this it much harder to follow the audiobook and harder to get any value from it.

Skip this one.

i may be bias

It is a good story of a true inventor.

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Title: Alone on the Ice

Subtitle: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration

Author: David Roberts

Narrator: Matthew Brenher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-28-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 260 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

His two companions were dead, his food and supplies had vanished in a crevasse, and Douglas Mawson was still 100 miles from camp.

On January 17, 1913, alone and near starvation, Mawson, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, was hauling a sledge to get back to base camp. The dogs were gone. Now Mawson himself plunged through a snow bridge, dangling over an abyss by the sledge harness. A line of poetry gave him the will to haul himself back to the surface.

Mawson was sometimes reduced to crawling, and one night he discovered that the soles of his feet had completely detached from the flesh beneath. On February 8, when he staggered back to base, his features unrecognizably skeletal, the first teammate to reach him blurted out, Which one are you?

This thrilling and almost unbelievable account establishes Mawson in his rightful place as one of the greatest polar explorers and expedition leaders.

Critic Reviews:

"Painting a realistic portrait of Aussie explorer Douglas Mawson and his arduous trek through some of the most treacherous icy Antarctic terrain, Roberts gives the reader a very close look at the huge risks and preparations of the nearly impossible featHarrowing, exciting and brutally real, Roberts provides a chilling backstory to polar explorer Mawsons bold solitary survival tale." (

Publishers Weekly)

"Mountaineer and prolific author Roberts returns with a vivid history of Australian explorer Douglas Mawson and his 1912 exploration of Antarctica. Roberts creates a full portrait of Mawson and does justice to what famed mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary would later call 'the greatest survival story in the history of exploration.'" (

Kirkus Reviews)

"Douglas Mawson is not as well-known as Amundsen, Scott, or Shackleton, but as this intense and thrilling epic shows, he deserves a place on the pedestal next to these other great explorers of the Antarctic. This fast-moving account earns for Mawson and his team a well-deserved place of honor in the so-called heroic age of Antarctic exploration." (

Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Historic Death-defying Antarctic Expedition

Australian Douglas Mawson set out on a journey in 1912 to explore the Antarctic, with a goal of scientific observations and specimen gathering. It was a year long undertaking with three other members of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Mertz. Both of these men died during the expedition, one falling into a crevasse, and the other succumbed to spoiled meat. Mawson continues on alone and encounters extreme situations as he tries to find his way back to camp.

The story is comprised from journals kept by Mawson and the two other men from that perilous journey. It is definitely a raw, chilling account of the hardships they went through. Their supplies were insufficient, their clothing not warm enough, and the food scarce. As they trekked through the ice and blistering winds, most of their dogs were lost as they became too weak or sick to continue. The animals definitely did not fare well from the very beginning-and met with unpleasant ends- as a warning to tender-hearted readers.

Overal it is a good book for those who enjoy this kind of historical adventure.

So why did I only give it three stars? I didn't care for the narration, as it was too much the same type of monotone throughout.

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Title: Blue Highways

Subtitle: A Journey into America

Author: William Least Heat-Moon

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-08-13

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 302 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

Members Reviews:

A new Mark Twain... this is a great book

I loved this book. The title intrigued me but with a new author you never know, especially with no ratings. The book grabbed me right from the beginning and never let go. It is very well written. It is funny, interesting, quirky, just an overall good experience. If you want to go on a road adventure through the back roads of America and into local peoples homes and lives try this book. I do not think you will be disappointed.

A Journey into the Heart of America

What did you love best about Blue Highways?

The people William Least Heat Moon met. They made this book, without them the book would be lacking.

What did you like best about this story?

A man sets out across America with a few gas cards, little money and a van to live in. He's searching for something, maybe himself, what America is to him, history, peace of mind, adventure? He doesn't fully understand it himself. Recently divorced, out of work and generally down on his luck, Least Heat Moon is taking a stab at a long time dream to drive across America on the back roads, avoiding mainstream everything. He does it and this book documents his journey.

Have you listened to any of Joe Barretts other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but the performance is excellent. The voice changes and inflection capture the essence of the words and make you feel as if you are there.

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

The encounter with the guy in the desert. The guy is depressed and a bit strange. I can't really describe it here, but somehow the whole incident becomes a metaphor for two different ways to solve your problems or to look at the world.

Any additional comments?

What is this book? It's part local lore and history of various places in America, part travel adventure, part introspective and all excellent writing. America is a different place than it was in 1978 when the journey was made, but I think the basic fabric of America that Least Heat Moon discovered is still there.

A wonderful book made better by Joe Barrett

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes.

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Title: The Elephant Whisperer

Subtitle: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild

Author: Graham Spence, Lawrence Anthony

Narrator: Simon Vance

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-24-12

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 4566 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Audie Award Winner, Biography/Memoir, 2014

When South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of "rogue" wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, his common sense told him to refuse. But he was the herd's last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn't take them. In order to save their lives, Anthony took them in. In the years that followed he became a part of their family. And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realize that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom.

The Elephant Whisperer is a heartwarming, exciting, funny, and sometimes sad account of Anthony's experiences with these huge yet sympathetic creatures. Set against the background of life on an African game reserve, with unforgettable characters and exotic wildlife, it is a delightful book that will appeal to animal lovers and adventurous souls everywhere.

Critic Reviews:

"An inspiring, multifaceted account, Anthony's book offers fascinating insights into the lives of wild elephants in the broader context of Zulu culture in post-Apartheid South Africa." (

Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Beautiful story, beautifully written

It is a given that if you love animals or have interest in conservationism, you will enjoy this book, but I honestly doubt there are many people that would not really be delighted with this true story of a man who makes a special connection with a herd of elephants in order to save their lives. Lawrence Anthony calls up vivid images of his preserve, Thula Thula, to the point that you feel that you have been there and the combination of his efforts to save the wild animals, the adventures and misadventures of his three canine companions, and the strange political climate he must maneuver through make this narrative as action packed and fast paced as any adventure novel. The real life characters, both animal and human, that populate this book are all unique and interesting and I ached to know the rest of their stories when the book ended. Anthony works hard to try to understand the underlying motivations of the humans and the animals he works with and has some surprising insights into elephants, dogs, rhinos, snakes, plants, and people scattered throughout the narrative. This would be a fascinating tale coming from anyone, but the book is so well written with imagery that effortlessly calls up the characters and the settings in your mind and made me want to want to listen without pause.

In addition, Simon Vance gives a truly masterful performance. His voice is quite pleasant anyway, but he really takes "ownership" of this book and I felt like I was listening to the author himself tell me of his personal adventure.

I don't give many 5 stars, but I have no reservations with this book - it's first rate all the way. I would recommend it to anyone over the age of 10. (There are some scenes in the book that would be a bit traumatic for young children, but older children will love the book as much as adults.)

One Note to Animal Lovers: As an animal lover myself, I am always attracted to books about the animal kingdom and also always hesitant to read them because I hate to read about any mistreatment of animals.

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Title: Viper Pilot

Subtitle: The Autobiography of One of America's Most Decorated Combat Pilots

Author: Dan Hampton

Narrator: John Pruden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-02-12

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 778 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

151 combat missions

21 hard kills on surface-to-air-missile sites

Four Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor

One Purple Heart

Sure to rank as one of the greatest aviation memoirs ever written, Viper Pilot is an Air Force legend's thrilling eyewitness account of modern air warfare.

From 1986 to 2006, Lt. Col. Dan Hampton was a leading member of the Wild Weasels, the elite Air Force fighter squadrons whose mission is recognized as the most dangerous job in modern air combat. Weasels are the first planes sent into a war zone, flying deep behind enemy lines purposely seeking to draw fire from surface-to-air missiles and artillery. They must skillfully evade being shot down - and then return to destroy the threats, thereby making the skies safe for everyone else to follow. Today these vital missions are more hazardous than direct air-to-air engagement with enemy aircraft. Hampton's record number of strikes on high-value targets make him the most lethal F-16 Wild Weasel pilot in American history. This is his remarkable story.

Taught to fly at an early age by his father, Hampton logged twenty years and 608 combat hours in the world's most iconic fighter jet: the F-16 "Fighting Falcon", or "Viper" as its pilots call it. Hampton spearheaded the 2003 invasion of Iraq, leading the first flight of fighters over the border en route to strike Baghdad. In the war that followed, he engaged in a series of brilliantly executed missions that earned him three Distinguished Flying Crosses with Valor; he notably saved a U.S. Marine unit from certain death by taking out the surrounding enemy forces near Nasiriyah. Two years earlier, on 9/11, Hampton's father was inside the Pentagon when it was attacked; with his dad's fate unknown, Hampton was scrambled into American skies and given the unprecedented orders to shoot down any unidentified aircraft. Hampton also flew critical missions in the first Gulf War, served on the Air Combat Command staff during the Kosovo War, and was injured in the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack.

With manned missions rapidly giving way to remote-controlled UAV drones, Viper Pilot may be the last memoir by a true hero of the skies. Gripping and irreverently humorous, it is an unforgettable look into the closed world of fighter pilots and modern air combat.

Members Reviews:

FINALLY A Pilot Tells it Like it is!!

The sheer brutal, cocky honesty that Hampton writes with is a breath of fresh air. I was expecting a murky, Pentagon-redacted, boring account of his adventures, but was I wrong! Hampton pretty much looks down on everyone that's not a fighter pilot, and yet this confident honesty sucks you right in. You see the world through his point of view, and you actually start "thinking like a fighter pilot".

This no-holds-barred account of a lesser known side of the military is not only fascinating, but exciting as hell. The air combat scenes are spectacular. There aren't many books out there, where the ex-military author truly speaks his mind, without giving a crap what others think, but this is one of them.

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Title: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

Author: Harriet Jacobs

Narrator: Audio Élan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-15-12

Publisher: Cherry Hill Publishing

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 151 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Harriet Jacobs autobiography, written under the pseudonym Linda Brent, details her experiences as a slave in North Carolina, her escape to freedom in the north, and her ensuing struggles to free her children. The narrative was partly serialized in the New York Tribune, but was discontinued because Jacobs depictions of the sexual abuse of female slaves were considered too shocking. It was published in book form in 1861.

Critic Reviews:

"In such volumes as this, the true romance of American life and history is to be found. Patient suffering, heroic daring, untiring zeal, perseverance seemingly unparalleled, and growth from surroundings of degradation and ignorance to education, refinement, and power: all find in these modest pages their simple, yet affecting narrative. It is the "oft told tale" of American slavery, in another and more revolting phase than that which is generally seen. More revolting because it is of the spirit and not the flesh. In this volume, a woman tells in words of fire, yet never overstepping the bounds of the truest purity, not, how she was scourged and maimed, but that far more terrible sufferings endured by and inflicted upon woman, by a system which legalizes concubinage, and offers a premium to licentiousness. No one can read these pages without a feeling of horror, and a stronger determination arising in them to tear down the cursed system which makes such records possible. Wrath, the fiery messenger which goes flaming from the roused soul and overthrows in its divine fury the accursed tyrannies of earth; will find in these pages new fuel for the fire, and new force for the storm which shall overthrow and sweep from existence American slavery." (

Weekly Anglo-African, New York, N.Y., 13 April 1861)

Members Reviews:

Great book!

If you could sum up Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl in three words, what would they be?

Interesting, insightful, disturbing.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl?

When the narrator describes the slave woman who is tied up by her thumbs and whipped to death.

Have you listened to any of Audio Élans other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't. I didn't find her narration very interesting. It actually hurt the story rather than helped it. Eventually I finished the audio book but not without a struggle as I found her voice to be very annoying.

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

The entire book moved me.

Any additional comments?

Great read! Wish the narrator was different. But I loved the story nonetheless.

The story redeems the narration

Harriet Jacobs first hand account of her life as a slave is unforgettable. She showed a tremendous amount of courage and refused to be "broken in" by her oppressors. With remarkable determination she fights for her and children's freedom.

My only complaint is the narration. The forced southern drawl made me sick. The delects were all over the place. One moment she made the main character sound like a proper English lady, then she sounded like a white southerner. The other slaves sounded like they were from the islands and so on. Once I overcame the nauseating sound of her voice, I was able to focus on the story.

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Title: Yes, Chef

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Marcus Samuelsson

Narrator: Marcus Samuelsson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-26-12

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1115 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Audie Award Nominee, Narration by the Author or Authors, 2013

It begins with a simple ritual: Every Saturday afternoon, a boy who loves to cook walks to his grandmothers house and helps her prepare a roast chicken for dinner. The grandmother is Swedish, a retired domestic. The boy is Ethiopian and adopted, and he will grow up to become the world-renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. This book is his love letter to food and family in all its manifestations.

Marcus Samuelsson was only three years old when he, his mother, and his sister - all battling tuberculosis - walked 75 miles to a hospital in the Ethiopian capital city of Addis Adaba. Tragically, his mother succumbed to the disease shortly after she arrived, but Marcus and his sister recovered, and one year later they were welcomed into a loving middle-class white family in Göteborg, Sweden. It was there that Marcuss new grandmother, Helga, sparked in him a lifelong passion for food and cooking with her pan-fried herring, her freshly baked bread, and her signature roast chicken. From a very early age, there was little question what Marcus was going to be when he grew up.

Yes, Chef chronicles Marcus Samuelssons remarkable journey from Helgas humble kitchen to some of the most demanding and cutthroat restaurants in Switzerland and France, from his grueling stints on cruise ships to his arrival in New York City, where his outsize talent and ambition finally come together at Aquavit, earning him a coveted New York Times three-star rating at the age of 24. But Samuelssons career of chasing flavors, as he calls it, had only just begun - in the intervening years, there have been White House state dinners, career crises, reality show triumphs, and, most importantly, the opening of the beloved Red Rooster in Harlem.

At Red Rooster, Samuelsson has fufilled his dream of creating a truly diverse, multiracial dining room - a place where presidents and prime ministers rub elbows with jazz musicians, aspiring artists, bus drivers, and nurses. It is a place where an orphan from Ethiopia, raised in Sweden, living in America, can feel at home.

With disarming honesty and intimacy, Samuelsson also opens up about his failures - the price of ambition, in human terms - and recounts his emotional journey, as a grown man, to meet the father he never knew. Yes, Chef is a tale of personal discovery, unshakable determination, and the passionate, playful pursuit of flavors - one mans struggle to find a place for himself in the kitchen, and in the world.

Critic Reviews:

"The Red Rooster's arrival in Harlem brought with it a chef who has reinvigorated and reimagined what it means to be American. In his famed dishes, and now in this memoir, Marcus Samuelsson tells a story that reaches past racial and national divides to the foundations of family, hope, and downright good food." (President Bill Clinton)

"I've read a lot of chefs' books, but never anything like this one. Marcus Samuelsson has had such an interesting life, and he talks about it with touching modesty and remarkable candor. I couldn't put this book down." (Ruth Reichl, best-selling author of Tender at the Bone)

"Marcus Samuelsson has an incomparable story, a quiet bravery, and a lyrical and discreetly glittering style - in the kitchen and on the page.

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Title: Alan Turing: The Enigma

Author: Andrew Hodges

Narrator: Gordon Griffin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 30 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-23-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1457 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Listed as one of the essential 50 books of all time in The Guardian

Inspired the Academy Award-nominated film, The Imitation Game

Its only a slight exaggeration to say that the British mathematician Alan Turing (1912-1954) saved the Allies from the Nazis, invented the computer and artificial intelligence, and anticipated gay liberation by decades--all before his suicide at age forty-one. This classic biography of the founder of computer science, reissued on the centenary of his birth with a substantial new preface by the author, is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life.

A gripping story of mathematics, computers, cryptography, and homosexual persecution, Andrew Hodges's acclaimed book captures both the inner and outer drama of Turing's life.Hodges tells how Turing's revolutionary idea of 1936--the concept of a universal machine--laid the foundation for the modern computer and how Turing brought the idea to practical realization in 1945 with his electronic design. The book also tells how this work was directly related to Turing's leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph that was critical to Allied victory in the Atlantic. At the same time, this is the tragic story of a man who, despite his wartime service, was eventually arrested, stripped of his security clearance, and forced to undergo a humiliating treatment program--all for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime.

Members Reviews:

A Fantastic Biography For The Patient Listener

I really enjoyed this biography of Alan Turing. I agree with others that the book is very long with extremely complicated ideas and concepts presented. To me it could not have been made shorter without damaging the author's ability to really get the story across. We could not come to know the man, Turing, without going through all the detail of his childhood, education, books read that influenced his thinking and perceptions, and his general take on life. I agree that this occasionally felt a bit laborious at times in the reading, but it was necessary. Further, the author's insights offered great depth to the experience of life in Europe, India, Great Britain and America in the first fifty years of the 1900s. The culture, biases, prejudices and scandals of the time are brought into high relief through Turing's life and experiences.

I usually hate epistolary novels but in this case I loved hearing the letters exchanged between Turing and his family, friends and other scholars. It allowed us to hear Turing's own words and voice. This really brought the story to life for me.

I thought that the narration was gently done with great care. I did not find issue with mis-speaking or stumbles other reviewers have commented on here in reviews. Yes it was plodding and careful, but I thought it went well with the subject matter.

Recommended if you love a really good biography and want to know more about the origins of the computer and the experience of code breaking in WWII. Patience is required to let the story unfold, but I just loved it.

An insight into the birth of the modern age

While Mr.