Full Trial Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, History & Culture

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/697162 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Royal Audience: 70 Years, 13 Presidents--One Queen's Special Relationship with America Author: David Charter Narrator: Mark Meadows Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 36 minutes Release date: March 5, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: 70 years on the throne. 13 American presidents. One extraordinary queen. From the moment she first enchanted the world as a youthful princess, Queen Elizabeth II found a unique place in American hearts—and she also played an unprecedented role in forging transatlantic ties. Over her seventy-year reign, she developed extraordinary and varied personal bonds with thirteen U.S. presidents—Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, both Bush Sr. and Jr., Clinton, Obama, Trump, and Biden—that other diplomats and leaders could only dream of. A fascinating, in-depth look at international relations and interpersonal intrigue, Royal Audience peels back the curtain on the “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K. as embodied by the Queen herself—charting Elizabeth II’s distinctive brand of one-to-one diplomacy through the eyes of those who experienced it firsthand. From horse-riding with Ronald Reagan, to sharing her recipe for scones with Dwight D. Eisenhower, to striking up a kinship with the Bushes and the Obamas, the Queen’s interactions with her U.S. counterparts often acted as a restorative tonic for relations between two nations, even when political tensions ran high. Not all royal encounters with U.S. presidents went smoothly, though. Between Jackie Kennedy’s complaints about Elizabeth and the Queen Mother’s shock at being kissed on the lips by Jimmy Carter, there was never a dull moment. Throughout the years, Queen Elizabeth II’s sense of duty and service remained steadfast, and her iconic legacy is unlikely to be repeated.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/690814 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Whiskey Tender: A Memoir Author: Deborah Taffa Narrator: Charley Flyte Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 38 minutes Release date: February 27, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 3 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Finalist for the National Book Award Longlisted for a Carnegie Medal for Excellence An Oprah Daily ''Best New Book'' and ''Riveting Nonfiction and Memoir You Need to Read'' * A New York Times ''New Book to Read'' * An Esquire ''Best Nonfiction Book'' * A Washington Post ''Book to read this summer'' * An Elle ''Best Book'' * A Zibby Mag ''Most Anticipated Book'' * A San Francisco Chronicle ''New Book to Cozy Up With'' * The Millions ''Most Anticipated'' * An Electric Lit “Books By Women of Color to Read'' * An Amazon Editors ''Best Book of the Month'' * Publishers Weekly ''Best Book of the Year'' “We have more Native stories now, but we have not heard one like this. Whiskey Tender is unexpected and propulsive, indeed tender, but also bold, and beautifully told, like a drink you didn’t know you were thirsty for. This book, never anything less than mesmerizing, is full of family stories and vital Native history. It pulses and it aches, and it lifts, consistently. It threads together so much truth by the time we are done, what has been woven together equals a kind of completeness from brokenness, and a hope from knowing love and loss and love again by naming it so.”  — Tommy Orange, National Bestselling Author of There There  Reminiscent of the works of Mary Karr and Terese Marie Mailhot, a memoir of family and survival, coming-of-age on and off the reservation, and of the frictions between mainstream American culture and Native inheritance; assimilation and reverence for tradition. Deborah Jackson Taffa was raised to believe that some sacrifices were necessary to achieve a better life. Her grandparents—citizens of the Quechan Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe—were sent to Indian boarding schools run by white missionaries, while her parents were encouraged to take part in governmental job training off the reservation. Assimilation meant relocation, but as Taffa matured into adulthood, she began to question the promise handed down by her elders and by American society: that if she gave up her culture, her land, and her traditions, she would not only be accepted, but would be able to achieve the “American Dream.” Whiskey Tender traces how a mixed tribe native girl—born on the California Yuma reservation and raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico—comes to her own interpretation of identity, despite her parent’s desires for her to transcend the class and “Indian” status of her birth through education, and despite the Quechan tribe’s particular traditions and beliefs regarding oral and recorded histories. Taffa’s childhood memories unspool into meditations on tribal identity, the rampant criminalization of Native men, governmental assimilation policies, the Red Power movement, and the negotiation between belonging and resisting systemic oppression. Pan-Indian, as well as specific tribal histories and myths, blend with stories of a 1970s and 1980s childhood spent on and off the reservation. Taffa offers a sharp and thought-provoking historical analysis laced with humor and heart. As she reflects on her past and present—the promise of assimilation and the many betrayals her family has suffered, both personal and historical; trauma passed down through generations—she reminds us of how the cultural narratives of her ancestors have been excluded from the central mythologies and structures of the “melting pot” of America, revealing all that is sacrificed for the promise of acceptance.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/682950 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Darkest White: A Mountain Legend and the Avalanche That Took Him Author: Eric Blehm Narrator: Dan Bittner Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 27 minutes Release date: February 27, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: “Eric Blehm offers an insightful perspective on how Craig Kelly became the effortless icon that we all revered as well as sobering details of how his heroic journey tragically ended. The Darkest White is a must read, not just for fans of snowboarding, but for anyone looking for inspiration from an unlikely hero.”—Tony Hawk From Eric Blehm, the bestselling author of The Last Season and Fearless, comes an extraordinary new book in the vein of Into the Wild, the story of the legendary snowboarder Craig Kelly and his death in the 2003 Durrand Glacier Avalanche—a devastating and controversial tragedy that claimed the lives of seven people. On January 20, 2003, a thunderous crack rang out and a 100-foot-wide tide of snow barreled down the Northern Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia, Canada. More than a dozen skiers and snowboarders were thrust down the mountain, buried beneath several tons of rock-hard snow and ice in the Durrand Glacier Avalanche. A heroic search and rescue ensued. Among those buried was Craig Kelly—“the Michael Jordan of snowboarding”—a man who had propelled the sport into the mainstream before walking away from competitions, to rekindle his passion in the untamed alpine wilds of North America The Darkest White is the story of Craig Kelly’s life, a heartbreaking but extraordinary and inspiring odyssey of a latchkey kid whose athletic prowess and innovations would revolutionize winter sports, take him around the globe, and push him into ever more extreme environments that would ultimately take his life. It is also a definitive, immersive account of snowboarding and the cultural movement that exploded around it, growing the sport from minor Gen X cult hobby to Olympic centerpiece and a billion-dollar business full of feuds and rivalries. Finally, The Darkest White is a mesmerizing, cautionary portrait of the mountains, of the allure and the glory they offer, and of the avalanches they unleash with unforgiving fury. “Eric Blehm took on this biography as I imagine Craig Kelly took on the halfpipe. He studied it, chose his line, and pulled everything off—even tough parts—with grace and style. It’s not just a terrific story of an amazing life, not just the origin story of an entire sport, but a riveting disaster narrative that builds tension masterfully. The Darkest White grabbed me and didn’t let go.''—Jack Carr, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Terminal List series

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/701045 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Trailblazer: The First Feminist to Change Our World Author: Jane Robinson Narrator: Jane Robinson Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 21 minutes Release date: February 22, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. You have probably not heard of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon but you certainly should have done. Name any 'modern' human rights movement, and she was a pioneer: feminism, equal opportunities, diversity, inclusion, mental health awareness, Black Lives Matter. While her name has been omitted from too many history books, it was Barbara that opened the doors for more famous names to walk through. And her influence owed as much to who she was as to what she did: people loved her for her robust sense of humour, cheerfulness and indiscriminate acts of kindness. This is a celebration of the life of the founder of Britain's suffrage movement: campaigner for equal opportunity in the workplace, the law, at home and beyond. Founder of Girton, the first university college for women, a committed activist for human rights, fervently anti-slavery, she was also one of Victorian England's finest female painters. Jane Robinson's brilliant new book shines a light on a remarkable woman who lived on her own terms and to whom we owe a huge debt. ©2024 Jane Robinson (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/684412 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Great Wave: The Era of Radical Disruption and the Rise of the Outsider Author: Michiko Kakutani Narrator: Tavia Gilbert Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 32 minutes Release date: February 20, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: An urgent examination of how disruptive politics, technology, and art are capsizing old assumptions in a great wave of change breaking over today’s world, creating both opportunity and peril—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning critic and author of the New York Times bestseller The Death of Truth.   “In this dazzling and brilliant book, Michiko Kakutani explains the cascading chaos of our era and points to ways that we can regain some stability.”—Walter Isaacson, author of Elon Musk The twenty-first century is experiencing a watershed moment defined by chaos and uncertainty, as one emergency cascades into another, underscoring the larger dynamics of change that are fueling instability across the world.   Since the global financial crisis of 2008, people have increasingly lost trust in institutions and elites, while seizing upon new digital tools to sidestep traditional gatekeepers. As a result, powerful new voices—once regarded as radical, unorthodox, or marginal—are disrupting the status quo in politics, business, and culture. Meanwhile, social and economic inequalities are stoking populist rage across the world, toxic partisanship is undermining democratic ideals, and the internet and AI have become high-speed vectors for the spread of misinformation.   Writing with a critic’s understanding of cultural trends and a journalist’s eye for historical detail, Michiko Kakutani looks at the consequences of these new asymmetries of power. She maps the migration of ideas from the margins to the mainstream and explores the growing influence of outsiders—those who have sown chaos and fear (like Donald Trump), and those who have provided inspirational leadership (like Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky). At the same time, she situates today’s multiplying crises in context with those that defined earlier hinge moments in history, from the waning of the Middle Ages to the transition between the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era at the end of the nineteenth century.   Kakutani argues that today’s crises are not only signs of an interconnected globe’s profound vulnerabilities, but also stress tests pointing to the essential changes needed to survive this tumultuous era and build a more sustainable future.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/690816 to listen full audiobooks. Title: All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today Author: Elizabeth Comen Narrator: Anna Caputo Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 13 hours 25 minutes Release date: February 13, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: USA Today Bestseller A surprising, groundbreaking, and fiercely entertaining medical history that is both a collective narrative of women’s bodies and a call to action for a new conversation around women’s health. For as long as medicine has been a practice, women's bodies have been treated like objects to be practiced on: examined and ignored, idealized and sexualized, shamed, subjugated, mutilated, and dismissed. The history of women’s healthcare is a story in which women themselves have too often been voiceless—a narrative instead written from the perspective of men who styled themselves as authorities on the female of the species, yet uninformed by women’s own voices, thoughts, fears, pain and experiences. The result is a cultural and societal leg­acy that continues to shape the (mis)treatment and care of women. While the modern age has seen significant advancements in the medical field, the notion that female bodies are flawed inversions of the male ideal lingers on—as do the pervasive societal stigmas and lingering ignorance that shape women’s health and relationships with their own bodies. Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist and medical historian Dr. Elizabeth Comen draws back the curtain on the collective medical history of women to reintroduce us to our whole bodies—how they work, the actual doctors and patients whose perspectives and experiences laid the foundation for today’s medical thought, and the many oversights that still remain unaddressed. With a physician’s knowledge and empathy, Dr. Comen follows the road map of the eleven organ systems to share unique and untold stories, drawing upon medical texts and journals, interviews with expert physicians, as well as her own  experience treating thousands of women. Empowering women to better understand ourselves and advocate for care that prioritizes healthy and joyful lives— for us and generations to come—All in Her Head is written with humor, wisdom, and deep scientific and cultural insight. Eye-opening, sometimes enraging, yet always captivating, this shared memoir of women’s medical history is an essential contribution to a holistic understanding and much-needed reclaiming of women’s history and bodies.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/695224 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America Author: Jeffrey Rosen Narrator: Sean Patrick Hopkins Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 51 minutes Release date: February 13, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: A New York Times bestseller and an “enriching…brilliant” (David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frederick Douglass) examination of what “the pursuit of happiness” meant to our nation’s Founders and how that famous phrase defined their lives and became the foundation of our democracy. The Declaration of Independence identified “the pursuit of happiness” as one of our unalienable rights, along with life and liberty. Jeffrey Rosen, the president of the National Constitution Center, profiles six of the most influential founders—Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton—to show what pursuing happiness meant in their lives, and to give us the “best and most readable introduction to the ideas of the Founders that we have” (Gordon Wood, author of Power and Liberty). By reading the classical Greek and Roman moral philosophers who inspired the Founders, Rosen shows us how they understood the pursuit of happiness as a quest for being good, not feeling good—the pursuit of lifelong virtue, not short-term pleasure. Among those virtues were the habits of industry, temperance, moderation, and sincerity, which the Founders viewed as part of a daily struggle for self-improvement, character development, and calm self-mastery. They believed that political self-government required personal self-government. For all six Founders, the pursuit of virtue was incompatible with enslavement of African Americans, although the Virginians betrayed their own principles. “Immensely readable and thoughtful” (Ken Burns), The Pursuit of Happiness is more than an elucidation of the Declaration’s famous phrase; it is a revelatory journey into the minds of the Founders, and a deep, rich, and fresh understanding of the foundation of our democracy.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/708839 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making?: Letters of Love and Lust from the White House Author: Dorothy Hoobler Narrator: Gibson Frazier, Lisa Larsen, Leon Nixon, Danny Campbell, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Eunice Wong Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 33 minutes Release date: February 6, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: An “irresistibly readable” (David Michaelis, New York Times bestselling author of Eleanor) collection of love letters by American presidents to their wives—and lovers—revealing an intimate and deeply personal side of our leaders. Our presidents loom so large in history that we often forget they are human. Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making? is a collection of handwritten love letters that offers a surprising and intimate portrait of the men who occupied the White House. From George Washington to Barack Obama, these are not the presidents we see in history books. “In this varied (and variously entertaining) assortment of excerpted letters…a careful reader will see in the decorous prose of…George Washington and Thomas Jefferson that the hearts of real men beat beneath their stiff frock coats, too.” (The Wall Street Journal) Some of the letters are incredibly romantic—and surprisingly so. It took Richard Nixon years to convince Pat Ryan to marry him: “Someday let me see you again? In September? Maybe?” Others will make you blush. Staid-looking Woodrow Wilson, about to return home from a trip, warned his wife of ten years: “Do you think you can stand the unnumerable kisses and the passionate embraces you will receive? Are you prepared for the storm of lovemaking with which you will be assailed?” In letters to one of his mistresses, Warren G. Harding referred to his penis as “Jerry”—letters which would later be used to blackmail him. All the letters show the writer at his most vulnerable. We see letters of sorrow written about the death of a child or during a time of separation while the president was away on the battlefield. This “lovely book, stuffed with romantic details…[is] a helpful reminder that historical figures are also human beings: petty, sappy, and flawed” (The New York Times Book Review), revealing a never-before-seen side of the men we still honor today.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/714440 to listen full audiobooks. Title: John Lewis: In Search of the Beloved Community Author: Raymond Arsenault Narrator: Jaime Lincoln Smith Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 17 hours 57 minutes Release date: January 30, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: For six decades John Robert Lewis was a towering figure in the U.S. struggle for civil rights. As an activist and progressive congressman, he was renowned for his unshakable integrity, indomitable courage, and determination to get into 'good trouble.' In this biography of Lewis, Raymond Arsenault traces Lewis's upbringing in rural Alabama, his activism, his championing of voting rights and anti-poverty initiatives, and his decades of service as the 'conscience of Congress.' Both in the streets and in Congress, Lewis promoted a philosophy of nonviolence to bring about change. He helped the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders plan the 1963 March on Washington, where he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial. He was instrumental in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and he advocated for racial and economic justice, immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, and national health care. Arsenault recounts Lewis's lifetime of work toward one overarching goal: realizing the 'beloved community,' an ideal society based in equity and inclusion. Lewis never wavered in this pursuit, and even in death his influence endures, inspiring resistance in the fight for social justice.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/683671 to listen full audiobooks. Title: We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience Author: Lyndsey Stonebridge Narrator: Cosima Shaw Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 13 minutes Release date: January 25, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. This bold new take on the life and ideas of political philosopher Hannah Arendt explores her lessons for living in an age of uncertainty The violent unease of today's world would have been all too familiar to Hannah Arendt. Tyranny, occupation, disenchantment, post-truth politics, conspiracy theories, racism, mass migration, the banality of evil: she had lived through them all. Born in the first decade of the last century, Arendt escaped fascist Europe to make a new life for herself in America, where she became one of the world's most influential - and controversial - public intellectuals. She wrote about power and terror, exile and love, and above all about freedom. Questioning - thinking - was her first defence against tyranny. In place of the forces of darkness and insanity, she pitched a politics of plurality, spontaneity and defiance. Loving the world, Arendt taught, meant finding the courage to protect it. Written with passion and authority, Lyndsey Stonebridge's We Are Free to Change the World illuminates Arendt's life and work and its urgent dialogue with our troubled present. It is a call for each of us to think our way, as Hannah Arendt did-unflinchingly, lovingly, and defiantly-through our own unpredictable times. 'Exhilarating, brilliant and utterly original' PHILIPPE SANDS 'Witty, moving and inspiring. An extraordinary book' SARAH CHURCHWELL ©2024 Lyndsey Stonebridge (P)2024 Penguin Audio