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Title: Just Like Us

Subtitle: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America

Author: Helen Thorpe

Narrator: Paula Christensen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-05-11

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 41 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Just Like Us tells the story of four high-school students whose parents entered this country illegally from Mexico. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, and all four want to live the American dream, but only two have documents. As the girls attempt to make it into college, they discover that only the legal pair see a clear path forward.

A coming-of-age story about girlhood and friendship, as well as the resilience required to transcend poverty, Just Like Us is also a book about identity. The girls, their families, and the critics who object to their presence allow the reader to watch one of the most complicated social issues of our times unfurl in a major American city.

Critic Reviews:

"An excellent, in-depth study of immigration policies gone amok." (Library Journal)

"Just Like Us beautifully and powerfully reminds us of the individuals whose lives lie at the center of the chaos that is our approach to immigration. Helen Thorpe has taken policy and turned it in to literature." (Malcolm Gladwell)

"With a gaze that is tender and ever alert, Helen Thorpe follows the lives of four young women - Mexican and American - so alike in their coming-of-age, but separated by the ironies of geography, the border that cuts through the heart." (Richard Rodriguez, author of Brown: The Last Discovery of America)

Members Reviews:

I wanted to listen but...

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If I could bear the narrator I could have heard the story.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Just Like Us?

The realization that I couldn't listen to it one more moment.

How could the performance have been better?

A different narrator.

What character would you cut from Just Like Us?

The author.

Any additional comments?

Unfortunately, since Amazon took over Audible, the reviews don't reflect the audio experience, the reviews are mostly about "reading" experiences. This was a book group choice. I wanted to listen it, very much, but the narrator was so awful that I couldn't.

It is ok

jumped around a bit because I lost interest at times. but a very good and relevant story.

Timely, poignant biography

Would you consider the audio edition of Just Like Us to be better than the print version?

Probably. I don't know what audiobook another reviewer read, but I thoroughly loved this narration. Paula Christensen did a fantastic job with her characters, and thoroughly owned this personal book. Her pronunciation was wonderful, and the only weak spot was her dialogue portions, which were difficult to differentiate between the characters at points.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I would have to say Clara or Yadira - good girls, bookish, who (in Yadira's case) keep themselves squirreled away and not letting others get too close. I found them complex and likable.

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

There were many that moved me. I found myself asking many questions during the course of this book, not many of which have answers that will assist the girls in this book, and those like them - children who, through no fault of their own, are in the USA or Canada illegally - or the countries that struggle to find a place for them.

Any additional comments?

Fantastic and timely book.

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Title: The Long Goodbye

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Meghan O'Rourke

Narrator: Meghan O'Rourke

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-14-11

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 68 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

From one of America's foremost young literary voices, a transcendent portrait of the unbearable anguish of grief and the enduring power of familial love.

What does it mean to mourn today, in a culture that has largely set aside rituals that acknowledge grief? After her mother died of cancer at the age of 55, Meghan O'Rourke found that nothing had prepared her for the intensity of her sorrow. In the first anguished days, she began to create a record of her interior life as a mourner, trying to capture the paradox of grief - its monumental agony and microscopic intimacies - an endeavor that ultimately bloomed into a profound look at how caring for her mother during her illness changed and strengthened their bond.

O'Rourke's story is one of a life gone off the rails, of how watching her mother's illness - and separating from her husband - left her fundamentally altered. But it is also one of resilience, as she observes her family persevere even in the face of immeasurable loss.

With lyricism and unswerving candor, The Long Goodbye conveys the fleeting moments of joy that make up a life, and the way memory can lead us out of the jagged darkness of loss. Effortlessly blending research and reflection, the personal and the universal, it is not only an exceptional memoir, but a necessary one.

Critic Reviews:

"Meghan O'Rourke, a celebrated poet and critic, writes prose as if she was born to it first. Her memoir The Long Goodbye is emotionally acute, strikingly empathetic, thorough and unstinting intellectually, and of course elegantly wrought. But it's above all a useful book, for life - the good bits and the sad ones, too." (Richard Ford)

"Meghan O'Rourke has written a beautiful memoir about her loss of a truly irreplaceable mother - yes, it is sad, it is in fact heartrending, but it is many things more: courageous, inspiring, wonderfully intelligent and informed, and an intimate portrait of an American family as well." (Joyce Carol Oates)

"Meghan O'Rourke is an extraordinary writer, and she offers precious gifts to readers in this powerful memoir. There is the gift of entering her family, with its vibrant characters and culture. There is the gift of her profound insights into the experience of grief, its grip and the diverse ways we struggle to reenter a world where joy is felt. But most of all, there is her gift of showing us how love prevails after even the most devastating loss." (Jerome Groopman, M.D., Recanati Professor, Harvard Medical School, and author of The Anatomy of Hope and How Doctors Think)

Members Reviews:

Really great. Loved it.

O'Rourke writes with meticulous detail and creates a vivid emotional presence in this book. It could easily have been longer; every paragraph seemed worthy of expansion, and the book's not so much about loss, or about remembering the past, as it is about living in each moment and savoring the gifts contained in the present.

Beautiful memoir

This was a beautifully written book about the author's journey though living with and then coming to terms with her mother's illness and subsequent death. It was not depressing to me, rather, it was eloquent and honest and gave insight into the roller coaster ride a family goes through when a loved one gets terminal cancer. Having gone through cancer with my child I could relate to so much of what she described.

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Title: Mr. Funny Pants

Author: Michael Showalter

Narrator: Michael Showalter

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-22-11

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 64 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

"I was at my wit's end. I'd had enough of this job, this life, and my relationship had broken up. Should I eat chocolate, or go to India, or fall in love? Then I had a revelation: Why not do all three, in that order?

"And so it was that I embarked on a journey that was segmented into three parts and was then made into a major motion picture. Later, I woke up on an airplane with a hole in my face and a really bad hangover. I was ushered brusquely off the plane by my parents, who took me to a rehab where I tested positive for coke, classic coke, special k (the drug), Special K (the cereal), mushrooms, pepperoni, and Restless Leg Syndrome. It was there that I first began painting with my feet.

"But rewind.... The year was 1914. I was just a young German soldier serving in the trenches while simultaneously trying to destroy an evil ring with some help from an elf, a troll, and a giant sorcerer, all while cooking every recipe out of a Julia Child cookbook. What I'm trying to say is that there was a secret code hidden in a painting and I was looking for it with this girl who had a tattoo of a dragon!

"Let me clarify, it was the 1930s and a bunch of us were migrating out of Oklahoma, and I was this teenage wizard/CIA operative, okay? And, um then I floated off into the meta-verse as a ball of invisible energy that had no outer edge....

"Ugh, okay. None of this is true. I'm just kind of a normal guy from New Jersey who moved to New York, got into comedy, wrote this book about trying to write this book, and then moved to Alaska, became the mayor of a small town, spent $30,000 on underwear, and now I'm going to rule the world!!!"

Critic Reviews:

"Showalter, Michael has written a very clever book. And he has written about writing a book, cleverly. Showalter, Michael asked me to write a blurb. It was easy to do-here it is: 'I very much really really liked this Mr. Funny Pants-a book so enjoyable that blurbing about it is so very easy.'" (Zach Galifianakis)

Members Reviews:

Must be listened to!

I'm not saying the print version wouldn't be funny, but Showalter's delivery is exquisite. I really did laugh out loud in public, and when I wasn't laughing, I was walking around smiling, snorting, and hooting. A clever, literate, and oh so funny look at everything from publishing to being dumped to restless leg syndrome.

One of My All-Time Favorite Humor Books

Brilliant. Strange. Hilarious. Twisted. What more could you possibly want in a humor book? And nobody else could narrate this audiobook -- the author knows exactly how to emphasize and pace his quirky meanderings for the greatest possible humorous impact. Step into this guy's world for a few days - you may not want to live there, but he makes it an awful lot of fun to visit. One of my favorite audio experiences of the year.

Pure Nonsense.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I've always been a Michael Showalter fan. He's very talented, smart, and funny. Those qualities do not come out in this book. While you can expect a little nonsense in his work, this was all nonsense. Well, I actually didn't finish it. So the first half of his book is pretty much all nonsense.

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Title: Je t'aime à La Folie

Author: Michael Wright

Narrator: Michael Wright

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-26-11

Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

Three years into his solo adventure in rural France, Michael Wright believes he has everything he ever wanted: a ramshackle house, several manly power tools, a cat, a grand piano, and a vintage aircraft. Three unfulfilled wishes from his childhood begin to haunt him. He wants to grow one perfect potato. He wants to know how it feels to fly a Spitfire. And, more than anything, he wants to meet his soul mate.

Michael Wrights heart-warming new book reveals how a solitary man can learn to accept being single. Or so he thinks, until a magic alligator, a bumptious American Labrador, and the perils of landing a light aircraft conspire to offer a glimpse of a romance that promises to turn his whole world upside-down.

Members Reviews:

Beautiful listening, could listen again easily.

If you could sum up Je t'aime à La Folie in three words, what would they be?

Colourful, deep and exciting.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Je t'aime à La Folie?

For me, when the author approached the organist, in the small French village and asked to be able to play the organ at services. The church was Catholic and Michael being Anglican, new to France, showed his braveness for putting his hand up here, was so well written. Michael was willing to step-up in so many ways in rural France, with language and cultural differences between his previous English/urban life and this new country life. I can see so many of the characters he wrote of, so clearly in my minds eye.

Have you listened to any of Michael Wrights other performances? How does this one compare?

No I have not, can't wait to listen to more.

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

His care and love of his tiny sheep!

Any additional comments?

I could not recommend a book more than this one. Thanks.

An excellent and honest account

I really enjoyed this. He really draws you into his world and makes you feel like you're out there with him on his isolated hill. The downside of that is that you can get quite frustrated by his little foibles - more than once I found myself wanting to shout "get a grip of yourself, it's only a bloody chicken" at my ipod, but I suppose that's part and parcel of an honest account of life. Another slightly annoying tendency is the way he often leaves a story hanging and returns to it only in passing. Even if it's only an insignificant event, you want to know how it concludes. But overall a very good and engaging listen

Lots of sentimental animal tales

Enjoyed the first book, but this had too many sentimental animal tales for my liking.

Great follow up to the first book.

I loved the first book and really enjoyed this as a continuation. Again, well written and a pleasure to listen to throughout.

Interesting, pleasing and funny.

C'est magnifique

I was rather underwhelmed by Michael Wright's prequel to this book because I simply thought he'd written it a little too prematurely and hence had very little to say. What this sequel does is continue the quality writing but adds the content that was previously lacking. Ably read by Michael himself, Je t'aime a la folie is filled with all of life's important stuff, love, laughter and friendship. It was a pleasure listening to this book and you can't help thinking that Michael Wright is an incredibly lucky man to lead the life he leads.

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Title: The Kid Jensen Story

Author: Alexander Jensen

Narrator: David Jensen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-19-11

Publisher: Create Digital Publishing

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

The true story of David 'Kid' Jensen, the DJ from Canada who launched his career on Radio Luxembourg and went on to conquer Radio 1, Capital Radio, and Heart. Hear how he started his own motor-racing team, became a passionate Crystal Palace supporter, and along the way won five Sony Gold Radio Awards.

Get behind-the-scenes stories from DJ colleagues, including Paul Burnett and Chris Tarrant. David also shares his personal experiences of Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, and explains why his father played such a crucial part in his career. Researched by his son, Alexander Jensen, and presented by 'The Kid' himself and produced by Steve Campen, this biography is one not to miss.

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Title: Lost and Found

Author: Lynda Bellingham

Narrator: Lynda Bellingham

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-10

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

Lynda Bellingham is much-loved as the warm and quick-witted panellist on Loose Women. In Lost and Found, Lynda tells the story of how she recovered from two destructive marriages, and many other challenging experiences. Yet her sense of humour has never left her, and along with the darker moments, she recalls hilarious anecdotes from stage and screen. This is the inspiring story of a survivor.

Members Reviews:

amazing

loved very minute of this book a true story of life at its worst and best thankyou for sharing Linda

Lost and Found

I started listening to this with high expectations because I have liked this actress in most of the things I have seen her in over the years, especially the Oxo adverts and All Creatures Great and Small.

Her early life was very interesting, then it became quite painful and boring listening to the sometimes cringe-worthy details of her sex life and disastrous marriages. I almost gave up, but when she embarked on finding her birth mother my interest picked up, as it was a good story. Her narration was good. I couldn't help feeling, at times, that she didn't realise this was real life (her real life) not a soap opera with her in the starring role.

When it returned to her very very painful marriage with her second husband. I couldn't help having periods of disbelief that she continued in this mentally abusive relationship for so long.

Credit must go to her family and friends for being so supportive. In the end I am glad her life has turned out so well, but I would only recommend listening with caution.

Excellent bio from a loveable and sadly missed act

If you could sum up Lost and Found in three words, what would they be?

honest delightful enlightening

Who was your favorite character and why?

Linda Bellingham shows herself as a product of the 60's who had good and bad times but came through with a smile

Which character as performed by Lynda Bellingham was your favourite?

herself of course

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The family isn't always about blood relations

Any additional comments?

Linda's description of being an abused wife made me realise that these things do go on in every social class. She deserves credit for discussing her response so openly and honestly so people can understand the complex feelings when it happened

Loved it

Honest, moving, witty.. So glad I bought this.. A wonderfully well written autobiography performed beautifully - so sad Lynda didn't get to spend long enough with the love of her life

Life however hard, is always to be treasured

Read Lyndas final book, theres something I've been dying to tell you' before this one and I found Lost and Found so sad as it showed a clear picture of the fact that she was in a perfect place in her life and was so full of hope for the future. Lovely lady and such an honest biography. May she rest in peace.

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Title: Walking on Water

Subtitle: A Voyage Around Britain and Through Life

Author: Geoff Holt

Narrator: Geoff Holt (introduction), Nick Pomfret

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-01-10

Publisher: Personal Everst Ltd

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

On 5 September 1984, 18-year-old Geoff Holt dived into an idyllic tropical sea and his life changed forever. A broken neck cut short a promising career as a yachtsman and left him paralysed, with his horizons reduced to an uncertain future in a wheelchair. On 5 September 2007, after a journey of 109 days and 1,445 miles, Geoff Holt crossed the finish line in the Solent and reached the summit of his Personal Everest: the first quadriplegic yachtsman to sail single-handed around Great Britain.

Walking on Water is Geoffs very personal story of his life before and after the accident: how he learned to live with his disability, how he achieved remarkable success in spite of it and, in particular, how he rediscovered the sea and helped to promote sailing opportunities for disabled people. It is also the story of how he conceived, organised and completed the dangerous and demanding Personal Everest voyage. Moving, uplifting and written with humour, it is above all a journey through a remarkable life a powerful affirmation of the potential of the human spirit.

This audio edition includes a very special introduction by the author Geoff Holt.

Critic Reviews:

"We are humans we push at limits ... This is a story that will excite admiration from all sailors, disabled or otherwise." (Sir Robin Knox-Johnston)

"Beautifully written and honest" (Dame Ellen MacArthur)

Members Reviews:

Inspirational

One of the best autobiographies I have ever read.

His voyage was an incredible feat of determination not only to complete but in his determination to overcome his disability and lead a normal life. It deserves to be a bestseller.

Inspirational

I wanted to write a two word review but it wouldn't let me but this is inspirational brilliance. Perhaps I did it after all

A really inspiring listening

The mind boggles at how challenging life might be for Geoff Holt. And yet, Geoff is living proof of just how much you can achieve when you set your mind to it. A really inspiring listen, one to give you a great big kick up the backside and enjoy the life we have!

This was so good I listened to it in one day.

Geeoff Holt's attitude to his quadriplegia is amazing. This book is extremely well-written and I would unreservedly recommend it to anyone as a very inspiring and excellent listen.

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Title: Johnners' It's Been a Lot of Fun

Author: Brian Johnston

Narrator: Brian Johnston

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-01-10

Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

Brian Johnston covered cricket for BBC Radio and Television, at home and abroad, beginning in 1946. After Eton, Oxford, and The Guards, he joined the BBC only by chance. In this reading from his book, he covers his career and family life from the start.

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Title: The Last Boy

Subtitle: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood

Author: Jane Leavy

Narrator: Jane Leavy, John Bedford Lloyd

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-19-10

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 131 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

Jane Leavy, the acclaimed author of the New York Times best seller Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, returns with a biography of an American original: number 7, Mickey Mantle. Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.

Meticulously reported and elegantly written, The Last Boy is a baseball tapestry that weaves together episodes from the author's weekend with The Mick in Atlantic City, where she interviewed her hero in 1983, after he was banned from baseball, with reminiscences from friends and family of the boy from Commerce, Oklahoma, who would lead the Yankees to seven world championships, be voted the American League's Most Valuable Player three times, win the Triple Crown in 1956, and duel teammate Roger Maris for Babe Ruth's home run crown in the summer of 1961 - the same boy who would never grow up.

As she did so memorably in her biography of Sandy Koufax, Jane Leavy transcends the hyperbole of hero worship to reveal the man behind the coast-to-coast smile, who grappled with a wrenching childhood, crippling injuries, and a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. In The Last Boy she chronicles her search to find out more about the person he was and, given what she discovers, to explain his mystifying hold on a generation of baseball fans, who were seduced by that lopsided, gap-toothed grin. It is an uncommon biography, with literary overtones: not only a portrait of an icon, but an investigation of memory itself.

"I believe in memory, not memorabilia," Leavy writes in her preface. But in The Last Boy, she discovers that what we remember of our heroes - and even what they remember of themselves - is only where the story begins.

Members Reviews:

Exceptional - a real must read for baseball fans

And a real must read for those of us who came of age in the era of "The Micks" pivotal years. I appreciate that Jane Leavy didn't glorify Mantle in her book-she wrote the truth-both the good and the terrible, the heartbreak of a man who's body was worn down by the sport he loved and who finally found himself - the real Mickey Mantle.

I grew up in a Dodger family..my parents were from New York, transplants to Los Angeles in the 40s....we listened to baseball all spring and summer-didn't matter who was playing-our big multi band radio was tuned in to a baseball game. When the Yankees played USC pre season in 1951, my dad had 2 tickets and I got to go..I saw the home run that was the start of Mantles baseball life and I got an autograph in my pink autograph book..and as an awkward 11 year old girl with her own mitt, I never forgot the way he smiled at me and said "Girls can't play baseball!". I developed my first crush...Mickey was it for me.

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Title: The Last Matchmaker

Author: Willie Daly, Philip Dodd

Narrator: Gerry O'Brien

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-06-10

Publisher: Isis Publishing Ltd

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Celebrities

Publisher's Summary:

For centuries, Irish matchmakers have performed a vital service, bringing people together in love and marriage. Willie Daly, whose father and grandfather were matchmakers before him, is the most celebrated of them all. Each year his tiny home town of Lisdoonvarna (population 800) hosts a matchmaking festival that attracts 40,000 visitors from around the world. They all hope to meet Willie with his unique blend of intuition, quiet wisdom and a small drop of cunning, Willie has brought together hundreds of couples over the years. In The Last Matchmaker he recounts some of the best stories along with his own. The path to love can be heart-warming, hilarious, sometimes hair-raising and Willie is the perfect guide.