Free Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, Memoirs

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/700622 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Never Say You've Had a Lucky Life: Especially If You've Had a Lucky Life Author: Joseph Epstein Narrator: Fred Sanders Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 39 minutes Release date: April 16, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A rich and comic portrait of the radical changes in American life and the literary world over the last eighty years. An autobiography usually requires a justification. The great autobiographies—those by Benvenuto Cellini, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Benjamin Franklin, and Henry Brooks Adams—were justified by their authors living in interesting times, harboring radically new ideas, or participating in great events. Joseph Epstein qualifies on none of these counts. His life has been quiet, lucky in numerous ways, and far from dramatic. But it has also been emblematic of the great changes in our country since World War II. He grew up in a petit-bourgeois, Midwestern milieu, and the city of Chicago looms large in his life. He drew a lucky ticket in the parent lottery and his was a happy boyhood spent on playgrounds and hanging around drug stores. At high school dances, he was the rhumba king and at drive-in movies he was never allowed to go as far with girls as he so ardently desired. At twenty-six, after two years in the army, he found himself married, the father or stepfather of four children, and living in New York on the meager salary of a magazine subeditor. He was ablaze with ambition and fettered by frustration. He broke out by moving to Little Rock, Arkansas, to direct the city’s anti-poverty program at the height of the Civil Rights movement. His writing career blossomed, he began teaching at Northwestern University, and, for twenty-five years, edited one of great intellectual magazines. Never Say You’ve Had a Lucky Life is an intimate look at one life steeped in radical change: from a traditionally moral culture to a therapeutic one, from an era when the extended family was strong to its current diminished status, from print to digital life featuring the war of pixel on print, and on. But for all the seriousness of Epstein’s themes, this book is memorable for its comic point of view and the constant reminder of how unpredictable, various, and wondrously rich life can be.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/699585 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Love, Mom: Inspiring Stories Celebrating Motherhood Author: Nicole Saphier Narrator: Carley Shimkus, Jennifer Griffin, Sandra Smith, Ainsley Earhardt, Janice Dean, Rachel Campos-Duffy, Nicole Saphier, Marguerite Gavin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 18 minutes Release date: April 16, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.5 of Total 2 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: From Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier, comes an inspiring collection of powerful first-person stories celebrating motherhood, from Fox News personalities and extraordinary moms around America.  Unmatched and unwavering, mothers are the embodiment of selfless, pure, and unconditional love. But so often, the sacrifices and triumphs of motherhood go unrecognized. Now, in Love, Mom, Fox News medical contributor and mom of three, Dr. Nicole Saphier, shines a light on the power of a mother’s love, with inspiring first-person stories from moms in the Fox News family.  For Dr. Saphier—who was just a teenager when she gave birth to her first son—motherhood was a transformative responsibility. Her story, like so many moms featured in this book, is an inspiration for what it means to be there for your child, no matter where you are in life. Alongside Dr. Saphier’s account are deeply personal contributions from FOX News anchors and personalities, such as:  Ainsley Earhardt, on the precious bond between mother and daughter, the loss of her own mom, and the power of her faith.  Rachel Campos-Duffy, on raising nine children, unexpected blessings, and dedicating her life to advocating for education and awareness about children with Down Syndrome.  Kayleigh McEnany, on embracing motherhood despite health challenges, and the delicate balance between career aspirations and the profound gift of raising children.   Janice Dean, on navigating the heartbreak of miscarriage, living with an autoimmune disease, and finding joy in raising boys.  Martha MacCallum, on the challenges of juggling career and family, the myth of perfection, and the importance of being kind to yourself.   Sandra Smith, on how motherhood truly takes a village, and the value of a strong support system as a working mom.  Carley Shimkus, on being a new mom, and balancing new responsibilities with grace and determination.  In Love, Mom, these mothers share their powerful stories, greatest challenges, and insightful reflections about young motherhood, miscarriage, ovarian cancer, mixed race children, postpartum depression, domestic violence, adoption, blended families, and more. Ultimately, Love, Mom is a celebration of motherhood and reminds us that a mother’s strength and love is an extraordinary gift.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/704648 to listen full audiobooks. Title: An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s Author: Doris Kearns Goodwin Narrator: Doris Kearns Goodwin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 17 hours 38 minutes Release date: April 16, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.57 of Total 30 Ratings of Narrator: 4.7 of Total 10 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Narrated by Doris Kearns Goodwin with the star of Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston! The audio edition also includes archival recordings of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy. The #1 New York Times bestseller from “America’s historian-in-chief” (New York magazine). An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of America’s most beloved historians, artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history. She takes you along on the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life. Dick and Doris Goodwin were married for forty-two years and married to American history even longer. In his twenties, Dick was one of the brilliant young men of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier. In his thirties he both named and helped design Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and was a speechwriter and close advisor to Robert Kennedy. Doris Kearns was a twenty-four-year-old graduate student when selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Lyndon Johnson and later assisted on his memoir. Over the years, with humor, anger, frustration, and in the end, a growing understanding, Dick and Doris had argued over the achievements and failings of the leaders they served and observed, debating the progress and unfinished promises of the country they both loved. The Goodwins’ last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested. Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time—John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/702329 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time; A Memoir Author: Jane Bertch Narrator: Barrie Kreinik Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 22 minutes Release date: April 9, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: The inspiring and delicious memoir of an American woman who had the gall to open a cooking school in Paris—a true story of triumphing over French naysayers and falling in love with a city along the way “An engaging, multilayered story of a woman navigating innumerable cultural differences to build a life in Paris and create her dream: to establish a French cooking school.”—David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen When Jane Bertch was seventeen, her mother took her on a graduation trip to Paris. Thrilled to use her high school French, Jane found her halting attempts greeted with withering condescension by every waiter and shopkeeper she encountered. At the end of the trip, she vowed she would never return. Yet a decade later she found herself back in Paris, transferred there by the American bank she worked for. She became fluent in the language and excelled in her new position. But she had a different dream: to start a cooking school for foreigners like her, who wanted to take a few classes in French cuisine in a friendly setting, then bring their new skills to their kitchens back home. Predictably, Jane faced the skeptical French—how dare an American banker start a cooking school in Paris?—as well as real-estate nightmares, and a long struggle to find and attract clients. Thanks to Jane’s perseverance, La Cuisine Paris opened in 2009. Now the school is thriving, welcoming international visitors to come in and knead dough, whisk bechamel, whip meringue, and learn the care, precision, patience, and beauty involved in French cooking. The French Ingredient is the story of a young female entrepreneur building a life in a city and culture she grew to love. As she established her school, Jane learned how to charm, how to project confidence, and how to give it right back to rude waiters. Having finally made peace with the city she swore to never revisit, she now offers a love letter to France, and a master class in Parisian cooking—and living.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/708838 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality Author: Amanda Montell Narrator: Amanda Montell Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 5 minutes Release date: April 9, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 9 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases and the power, disadvantages, and highlights of magical thinking. Utilizing the linguistic insights of her “witty and brilliant” (Blyth Roberson, author of America the Beautiful?) first book Wordslut and the sociological explorations of her breakout hit Cultish, Amanda Montell now turns her erudite eye to the inner workings of the human mind and its biases in her most personal and electrifying work yet. “Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world: think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches, or transform an unhealthy relationship to a glorious one with loyalty alone. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but in The Age of Magical Overthinking, Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to an eleven. In a series of razor sharp, deeply funny chapters, Montell delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “halo effect” cultivates worship (and hatred) of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the “sunk cost fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless. To crack open a window in our minds, and let a warm breeze in. To help quiet the cacophony for a while, or even hear a melody in it.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/703304 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians: Their stories are better than the bestsellers Author: Matt Eversmann, James Patterson Narrator: Amy Jensen, Jennifer Pickens, Jenn Lee, Jane Oppenheimer, Nancy Peterson, Susan Hanfield, Deanna Anthony, Rob Reider, Marni Penning, Tom Force, Daniel Henning Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 55 minutes Release date: April 8, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: This “celebration of the world of books” (Kirkus) from New York Times bestselling author James Patterson is a collection of riveting stories celebrating the heroic efforts of the people who are on the front lines getting our books into the world.​ To be a bookseller or librarian…   You have to play detective.    Be a treasure hunter. A matchmaker. An advocate. A visionary.    A person who creates “book joy” by pulling a book from a shelf, handing it to someone and saying, “You’ve got to read this. You’re going to love it.”   “When the pandemic started, Patterson launched a movement, #SaveIndieBookstores [and] pledged half a million dollars, and, with the support of the American Booksellers Association and the Book Industry Charitable Foundation, the campaign ended up raising $1,239,595 from more than eighteen hundred donors...Somehow, the bookstore outlived the pandemic. Why? The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, compiled by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, suggests a few reasons." – New Yorker

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/699000 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Our Fight Author: Ronda Rousey Narrator: Ronda Rousey Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 20 minutes Release date: April 4, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. From Sunday Times bestselling author, British Sports Book of the Year Award winner, and trailblazing athlete Ronda Rousey, an unfiltered and entertaining chronicle of her last decade, tackling not only UFC and WWE but also parenthood, overcoming adversity, and finding meaning in life’s journey. 'Gripping and, at its best, offers a raw personal history of concussion.' Donald McRae, Guardian From the moment she burst onto the MMA scene, Ronda Rousey was unbeatable. She repeatedly strung together back-to-back flawless victories, racking up a collection of records and forever changing the face of sports as the UFC’s first female champion. A superstar in her sport, she transcended athletics, appearing in blockbuster films and becoming a role model for women everywhere. Then, on November 15, 2015, it all came crashing down. In OUR FIGHT, Rousey explores the greatest challenge of her life and, ultimately, how she rebuilt her career into something better in the aftermath. She recounts how she replaced her pursuit of perfection with the pursuit of happiness and found a blessing in disguise amongst the wreckage. Following Rousey’s relatable journey, OUR FIGHT is a courageous narrative of career changes, marriage, motherhood, and facing your fears. © Ronda Rousey 2024 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/697331 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Never Leave the Dogs Behind: A Memoir Author: Brianna Madia Narrator: Brianna Madia Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 36 minutes Release date: April 2, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.53 of Total 19 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 5 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The author of Nowhere for Very Long continues her story with this deeply honest, moving account of a woman walking the line between independence and isolation when she moves to the Southwest desert with nothing and no one but her four dogs. In her debut memoir, Nowhere for Very Long, Brianna Madia reflected on her life as a nomad, free to roam some of the most beautiful land in America. Now, in Never Leave the Dogs Behind, the van life adherent faces the unfathomable darkness that comes from a life blown apart, her only solace the support of her dogs. In the wake of a painful, public divorce and the ensuing fallout, Brianna moves from a pared-down van into a pared-down trailer. She reckons with her decision to be alone in the desert, living on a nine-acre plot of undeveloped land on the dusty outskirts of a small town in Utah, accompanied only by her four precious dogs: Bucket, Dagwood, Birdie, and Banjo. As she grapples with the anger, despair, and delicious freedom that comes from being wholly on her own, Brianna wonders where, exactly, the road less traveled has led her. A powerful and poignant portrait of rebuilding and surviving, Never Leave the Dogs Behind is about finding the courage to start over when the dream life you thought you were living collapses around your feet.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/703310 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Wrestlemania Author: Brad Balukjian Narrator: Brad Balukjian Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 23 minutes Release date: April 2, 2024 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: From the bestselling author of The Wax Pack, comes another eye‑opening road trip adventure into a pocket of iconic pop culture—professional wrestling—starring the Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, Tito Santana, and many more larger‑than‑life characters of the WWF of the 1980s.  In 2005, Brad Balukjian left his position as a magazine fact-checker to pursue a dream job: partner with his childhood hero, The Iron Sheik (whose real name was Khosrow Vaziri), to write his biography. Things quickly went south, culminating in the Sheik threatening Balukjian’s life. Now seventeen years later, Balukjian returns to the road in search of not only a reunion with the Sheik, but something much bigger: truth in a world built on illusion. Balukjian seeks out six of the Sheik’s contemporaries, fellow witnesses to the World Wrestling Federation’s (WWF) explosion in the mid-‘80s, to unearth their true identities. As Balukjian drives 12,525 miles around the country, we revisit the heady days when these avatars of strength, villainy, and heroism first found fame and see where their journeys took them. From working out with Tony Atlas (Tony White) to visiting Hulk Hogan’s (Terry Bollea) karaoke bar, we see where these men are now and how they have navigated the cliffs of fame. The Six Pack combines the spirit of a fan with the rigor of an investigative reporter, tracking down former WWF employees, childhood friends, and mutually curious archivists. Wrestling is perceived as a subculture without a cultural home, somewhere between sport and theater—often dismissed as silly and low‑brow. But what makes this book so compelling is the humanity beneath each wrestler. The Iron Sheik, Hulk Hogan, and the rest of the cast were not characters in a comic book movie. They were real people, with families and feelings and bodies that could break. Most of them did, in fact, break; some have been repaired, but none of them will ever be the same.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/704647 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Rebel Rising: A Memoir Author: Rebel Wilson Narrator: Rebel Wilson Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 48 minutes Release date: April 2, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4.4 of Total 5 Ratings of Narrator: 4.5 of Total 2 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: From the scene-stealing star of Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids comes a refreshingly candid, hilarious, and inspiring book about her unconventional journey to Hollywood success and loving herself. This “beautiful, brave book,” (Jenna Bush Hager, the Today show) is the story of Rebel Wilson’s remarkable personal transformation, from a painfully shy child in Australia who literally had to be dragged to drama classes and achieved break-out success in the US through iconic roles in Pitch Perfect, Bridesmaids, and Isn’t It Romantic. Through “stunningly personal revelations” (The New York Times), Rebel shares the extraordinary experiences that shaped her life. A malaria-induced hallucination? An all-style martial arts fighting tournament? Junior handling at dog shows? And this was all BEFORE she moved to Hollywood! From her painful relationship with her father, weight gain and loss, a late-in-life sexual awakening and fertility issues, Rebel shares her incredible journey to self-love in writing that is “frank and fun” (CBS Sunday Morning). Rebel leads you through her hard-fought path to “making it,” constantly questioning, “Am I good enough? Will I ever find love? Will I ever change and become healthy?” This extraordinarily entertaining memoir shows us how to love ourselves while making us laugh uncontrollably.