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Title: The Sugar Girls

Subtitle: Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyles East End

Author: Duncan Barrett, Nuala Calvi

Narrator: Penny McDonald

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-29-12

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 16 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

Tales of Hardship, Love and Happiness in Tate & Lyles East End Factories. On an autumn day in 1944, Ethel Alleyne walked the short distance from her house to Tate & Lyles refinery on the shining curve of the Thames. Looking up at the giant gates, Ethel felt like she had been preparing for this moment all her life. She smoothed down her frizzy hair, scraped a bit of dirt off the corner of her shoe and strode through. She was quite unprepared for the sight that met her eyes In the years leading up to and after the Second World War thousands of women left school at fourteen to work in the bustling factories of Londons East End.

Despite long hours, hard and often hazardous work, factory life afforded exciting opportunities for independence, friendship and romance. Of all the factories that lined the docks, it was at Tate and Lyles where you could earn the most generous wages and enjoy the best social life, and it was here where The Sugar Girls worked. Through the Blitz and on through the years of rationing The Sugar Girls kept Britain sweet. The work was back-breakingly hard, but Tate & Lyle was more than just a factory, it was a community, a calling, a place of love and support and an uproarious, tribal part of the East End. From young Ethel to love-worn Lillian, irrepressible Gladys to Miss Smith who tries to keep a workforce of flirtatious young men and women on the straight and narrow, this is an evocative, moving story of hunger, hardship and happiness. Tales of adversity, resilience and youthful high spirits are woven together to provide a moving insight into a lost way of life, as well as a timeless testament to the experience of being young and female.

Members Reviews:

An ifascinating snaoshot

A snapshot of a lifestyle now gone. The individual stories snd characters are lifelike and make you feel as if you have stepped into another time and really experienced their joys snd troubles both at work and in their personal life. I found the details about the running of the factory one of the best parts of the book - so different from the way things are done now.

Authentic and true to life escapism

The Sugar Girls transports you, while listening, to what is now a forgotten world. Lots of little incidents from the factory floor and from the 'sugar girls' lives outside the factory pepper this real life account. It is sometimes touching, at other times leaning towards the mind boggling, sometimes colourful and at other times almost bland; making this a true mix of story and facts. The stories of different girls all intertwine and the book flits from girl to girl and back again, making it a challenge to always remember who was who; so at the end I'm left with a vague impression of the whole, as individual characters merge. Although it's a good bit of escapism and has an authentic feel of true life stories, from the past. My only small gripe is that the narrator has a sing song voice making it hard to get into, in spite of this I persevered until I did and made it to the end!

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Title: Some Assembly Required

Subtitle: A Journal of My Son's First Son

Author: Anne Lamott, Sam Lamott

Narrator: Anne Lamott, Sam Lamott

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-20-12

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 104 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

In Some Assembly Required, Anne Lamott enters a new and unexpected chapter of her own life: grandmotherhood.

Stunned to learn that her son, Sam, is about to become a father at 19, Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson, Jax's, life.

In careful and often hilarious detail, Lamott and Sam - about whom she first wrote so movingly in Operating Instructions - struggle to balance their changing roles with the demands of college and work, as they both forge new relationships with Jax's mother, who has her own ideas about how to raise a child. Lamott writes about the complex feelings that Jax fosters in her, recalling her own experiences with Sam when she was a single mother. Over the course of the year, the rhythms of life, death, family, and friends unfold in surprising and joyful ways.

By turns poignant and funny, honest and touching, Some Assembly Required is the true story of how the birth of a baby changes a family - as this book will change everyone who listens to it.

Members Reviews:

Not her best work

This book wasnt for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I'm a huge Anne Lamott fan, loved

What could Anne Lamott and Sam Lamott have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

There just wasn't much to the story. Her son got a woman pregnant, they fought all the time, Anne loved the baby so much and worries all the time. And, she is so very involved in her church. And, she goes on vacation, which sounds like filler for the book. It would have been more interesting to have some short stories, each of which focused on one topic, like the trip to India, or the baby's birth, or her son becoming a father, allowing for more story development.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Anne Lamott and Sam Lamott ?

Sam was a pretty good narrator, but Anne was not. She simply sounded like she was reading from a text.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I did come to care about Amy, Sam, and Jax, and wished there had been an epilog to tell me what happened next. Did they stay together? I also found the words and advice of her spiritual leaders delightful to hear.

Anne speaks to moms, grandmothers, and dads alike.

Honest, funny, poignant, sad, and always a tiny control issue or two: Anne speaks what we all feel but are afraid often to admit.

Lowest rating I've ever given on Audible!

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

Better story and different narrator. So basically, this would have had to be a totally different book :)

What could Anne Lamott and Sam Lamott have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

For starters I thought the material was terrible. Anne and Sam sure are self righteous! I didn't "like" any of the people in the book and I thought they all thought too highly of themselves. Even the self-deprecation was like "humble-bragging." Not appealing.

Sorry Anne but you are a terrible narrator. Flat and emotionless. Maybe a different narrator would have made this more palatable... but I doubt it.

Would you be willing to try another one of Anne Lamott and Sam Lamott s performances?

No, never.

I love this book!

Where does Some Assembly Required rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

One of the best books yet.

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Title: I Wonder as I Wander

Subtitle: An Autobiographical Journey

Author: Arnold Rampersad, Langston Hughes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-26-11

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 35 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

In I Wonder as I Wander, Langston Hughes vividly recalls the most dramatic and intimate moments of his life in the turbulent 1930s.

His wanderlust leads him to Cuba, Haiti, Russia, Soviet Central Asia, Japan, Spain (during its Civil War), through dictatorships, wars, revolutions. He meets and brings to life the famous and the humble, from Arthur Koestler to Emma, the Black Mammy of Moscow. It is the continuously amusing, wise revelation of an American writer journeying around the often strange and always exciting world he loves.

Members Reviews:

The Writer

Would you consider the audio edition of I Wonder as I Wander to be better than the print version?

Cannot say, didn't read the print version. But, I can say that the Narrator was the book most enjoyable to listen to. His voice never wavered and, though I've read several books, his narrating, by far, was excellent.

What was one of the most memorable moments of I Wonder as I Wander?

The incredible journey throughout Russia and beyond.

Which scene was your favorite?

There were several scenes that were moving - i.e., leaving home for Florida and Haiti, traveling abroad, returning to Mexico, home and returning, once again, across the water to Paris - all were moving. Though he had little money, he had fun and met so many wonderful and gracious people along the way. The last chapter made an excellent notation: Mr. Hugest stated he wanted to be a professional writer, travel, meet people and view main events. I felt like I witnessed and viewed them with him.

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

I think it was the timeline. My mother often shared stories of the 30s; and hearing this fabulous book, made me feel like I was living it with the author.

Any additional comments?

I had heard of Mr. Langston Hughes and his fabulous poetry; this book, however, was beyond anything I'd ever thought or read. It should be a must read for all.

Great, GrEaT BOOK!!

Love this book!

I felt like I was in the places written about by Mr. Langston Hughes. It should be required reading in school. Being in my 50's and being a product of a Southern education, I was deprived of the vast amount of African American literature available. Thank God for historically black colleges like Southern University. That is where I first became aware of people like Langston Hughes, Weldon Johnson and many others.

Should be on everyone's must read list!

This is a fascinating memoir of Mr. Hughes' journey(s) around the globe during the 1930's. From the Americas through Europe, the Soviet Union, Shanghai, Japan, Spain and back. Mr. Hughes seemed to be near the center of most of the major events of that decade.

Very listenable

Where does I Wonder as I Wander rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

I like non-fiction. This audiobook ranks in the top 10 I have heard. The narration is excellent, and the story moves from one interesting story to another.

What other book might you compare I Wonder as I Wander to and why?

I was reminded of my recent listen, Winston Churchill. The time frame was similar, which is to me a worthy era of history. I did not know anything about Langston Hughes.

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Title: Holler If You Hear Me

Subtitle: Searching for Tupac Shakur

Author: Michael Eric Dyson

Narrator: Cary Hite

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-29-11

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 46 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

Tupac Amaru Shakur (19711996) was an American rap artist, actor, and social activist. More than seventy-five million of his albums have sold worldwide, making him one of the bestselling music artists in the world. Rolling Stone magazine named him the 86th Greatest Artist of All Time.

Shakur also gained notoriety for his conflicts with the law and time spent in prison.

Most of Tupacs songs are about growing up amid violence and hardship in ghettos, racism, other social problems, and conflicts with other rappers during the East CoastWest Coast hip-hop rivalry.

In September 1996, after attending a boxing match in Las Vegas, Shakur was shot four times and died several days later.

Shakurs double album, All Eyez on Me, is one of the highest-selling rap albums of all time, with more than five million copies of the album sold in the United States alone. A Vibe magazine poll in 2004 rated Shakur the greatest rapper of all time as voted by fans. In 2010, he was inducted to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

More than a decade after his murder, Tupac Shakur is even more loved, contested, and celebrated than he was in life. His posthumously released albums, poetry, and motion pictures have catapulted him into the upper echelon of American cultural icons. In Holler If You Hear Me, hip-hop intellectual Michael Eric Dyson, acclaimed author of the best-selling Is Bill Cosby Right?, offers a wholly original way of looking at Tupac that will thrill those who already love the artist and enlighten those who want to understand him.

Critic Reviews:

Among the young black intellectuals to emerge since the demise of the civil rights movement[Dyson is] undoubtedly the most insightful and thought-provoking. (Manning Marable, author of

Malcolm X)

Members Reviews:

WORST PRODUCTION ON AUDIBLE!

I've listened to hundreds of books and this is the worst! This is a good book, but the producer or whoever is in charge of the recorded version really ruined this book! If you can get past the hundreds of times the narrator says "quote, unquote," you'll enjoy the book. Tupac was a complex man with good life lessons to be heard. I couldn't continue because of the annoying narrative. The narrator is very good though.

Narration makes this unlistenable

The narrator's voice is fine, but stating "quote" and "unquote" at the beginning and end of EVERY quote, no matter how minor, disrupts any flow and is extremely distracting, especially in a book that is extremely reliant on quotes. I wanted to finish this, but after 2 hours, gave up because of this peculiar and irritating style.

An Audio Book That Makes Me Want to Read More

What made the experience of listening to Holler If You Hear Me the most enjoyable?

Learning more of Tupac's background and how he influenced and touched those around him.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Holler If You Hear Me?

Hard to pick just one.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

"Quote." Something someone says. "Unquote." It's terrible. Listen, I know it's a quote. You do not have to keep saying it.

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Title: My Bass and Other Animals

Author: Guy Pratt

Narrator: Guy Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-23-11

Publisher: Mike Leigh Associates

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

Guy Pratt came of age just as bass playing became sexy. Having dallied with punk legend Sylvain Sylvain, Pratt suddenly found himself on Top of the Pops and supporting David Bowie with smooth Australian outfit Icehouse. He became bass player to the stars, crawling from studio to bar and hotel to stadium Portakabin with the likes of Pink Floyd, Robert Palmer, Womack &Womack and Bryan Ferry. Guy has recorded with everyone from Madonna and Michael Jackson to McFly. He was in The Smiths for a week, and has travelled through customs in a wheelchair after a flight with Jimmy Page. Following the success of his live show at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival and the subsequent sell out tour of Australia, Guy Pratts narrates his bestselling book, My Bass and Other Animals, a witty, revealing but heartfelt memoir of life at the pointy end of the music business. When not playing with David Gilmour or Bryan Ferry, he continues to take the show around the world.

Critic Reviews:

Wonderfully indiscreet Pratts self deprecating wit is irresistible (Mojo)

Bass players are ten a penny but a good wit is hard to find, so we hired him (David Gilmour)

Hilarious Much recommended (The Word)

Members Reviews:

Best book on Audible by a bass player!

Would you consider the audio edition of My Bass and Other Animals to be better than the print version?

Yes I guess so because it has some additional information that the written edition does not have (I think)

What did you like best about this story?

Funny stories from the music bussiness

What does Guy Pratt bring to the story that you wouldn???t experience if you just read the book?

The author does a good job reading the book

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

Everything to do with basses, I'm a bass player myself

Any additional comments?

I've been looking for stories about (and by) bass players and this is very entertaining book, and it's only 5.95! Buy it if you like music.

Should be names Guy Pratt's rock and roll stories

Excellent stories, great renditions (hilarious imitations of rock celebs. I loved the Madonna impersonation). This book is a riot!

It's not what you know....

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed this, Guy Pratt comes over as a bit of a winker but at the end of the day, he's played bass for Pink Floyd and you haven't, so, fair play! You'll enjoy this if you like Rick Wakeman's style and humour - certainly doesn't take itself too seriously and Guy has some good stories that hit the right balance between being funny and honest without being sensationalist. Worth a listen for classic rock fans.

Enchanting

A rip roaring full energy romp through the life of one of the worlds most prolific and respected bassists. Well written, well read and quite the most entertaining 7 hours I've spent in a long time. The perfect blend of irreverent recollection and blindingly accurate observations. With so much drink and drugs involved, it's amazing Guy remembers any of it, but the stories are full bodied and for anyone interested in music who lived through the 80s and 90s, this is a must! Heff.

A Great Listen!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, I almost did!

Any additional comments?

I know someone who has worked with Guy Pratt who assures me he is every bit as entertaining in the flesh as he is in his book!.

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Title: The Greater Journey

Subtitle: Americans in Paris, 1830-1900

Author: David McCullough

Narrator: Edward Herrmann

Format: Abridged

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-27-11

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 44 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

The Greater Journey is the enthralling, inspiring - and until now, untold - story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, architects, and others of high aspiration who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, ambitious to excel in their work.

After risking the hazardous journey across the Atlantic, these Americans embarked on a greater journey in the City of Light. Most had never left home, never experienced a different culture. None had any guarantee of success. That they achieved so much for themselves and their country profoundly altered American history.

As David McCullough writes, "Not all pioneers went west."

Nearly all of the Americans profiled here - including Elizabeth Blackwell, James Fenimore Cooper, Mark Twain, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Harriet Beecher Stowe - whatever their troubles learning French, their spells of homesickness, and their suffering in the raw cold winters by the Seine, spent many of the happiest days and nights of their lives in Paris. McCullough tells this sweeping, fascinating story with power and intimacy, bringing us into the lives of remarkable men and women who, in Saint-Gaudens's phrase, longed "to soar into the blue". The Greater Journey is itself a masterpiece.

Members Reviews:

Terrific book, terrible abridgement

I purchased the abridged version in error. I loved what text there was (about half of the unabridged), but the ending was so mysteriously abrupt and unfulfilling that I had to call a friend who had the hard copy and ask him to recite the last four sentences just to make sure that an error in my download was not the problem. He asked me whether I meant for him to read from the last chapter or the epilogue. Epilogue? What epilogue? Apparently there was even more left out than I had realized. Fortunately, the chopped version did not dampen my enthusiasm for this book. In fact, I cannot wait to purchase the unabridged version and listen, this time, to the whole work.

Excellent narrator. Struggled to finish .

Glad I persevered despite the dryness of the subject matter. Edward Herrmann was an excellent narrator.

Superb Preparation for Historical Visit To Paris

For those of us not familiar with French, audible translation of conversations would have been helpful

Narrator made listening painful

Would you try another book from David McCullough and/or Edward Herrmann?

By the author, yes we will.

Would you be willing to try another one of Edward Herrmanns performances?

Never. My husband and I tried to listen on a car trip but had to stop for fear of being put to sleep while driving. Tried speeding up to 1.25 - still no good - even to 1.5 speed, then gave up and am returning the audible book.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

We'll be reading it ourselves, as the narration was so bad that even speeding it up didn't make listening bearable.

Any additional comments?

Neither of us can understand why, with so many talented narrators available, a good book was ruined by a truly bad narrator choice. I'm returning it as we couldn't make it past the first 15 minutes.

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Title: Townie

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Andre Dubus III

Narrator: Andre Dubus III

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-11

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 268 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

Andre Dubus III, author of theNational Book AwardnominatedHouse of Sand and FogandThe Garden of Last Days, reflects on his violent past and a lifestyle that threatened to destroy himuntil he was saved by writing.

After their parents divorced in the 1970s, Andre Dubus III and his three siblings grew up with their exhausted working mother in a depressed Massachusetts mill town saturated with drugs and crime. To protect himself and those he loved from street violence, Andre learned to use his fists so well that he was even scared of himself. He was on a fast track to getting killedor killing someone elseor to beatings-for-pay as a boxer.

Nearby, his father, an eminent author, taught on a college campus and took the kids outon Sundays. The clash of worlds couldnt have been more starkor more difficult for a son to communicate to a father. Only bybecoming a writerhimself could Andre begin to bridge the abyss and save himself. His memoir is a riveting, visceral, profound meditation on physical violence and the failures and triumphs of love.

Editorial Reviews:

Andre Dubus III begins his memoir, Townie, with a Bruce Springsteen lyric about boys trying to look tough. The quotation ultimately sets the tone for the book, which tackles the grit, drugs and street fights that accounted for much of the author's experience growing up in a small New England town in the 70s. It also focuses on his ascension out of a potential future that feels almost predetermined, as well as his sometimes tumultuous relationship with his famous father.

Dubus, whose first book, The House of Sand and Fog, was a finalist for The National Book Award, writes prose that is precise, deliberate, and meticulously crafted. This style is matched word for word by his own narration. Having the author perform a piece of work that is as raw and personal as this one makes for an incredible listening experience. The narration is slow and intimate there's a feeling of being drawn into Dubus' turbulent boyhood, of being alongside him as he comes of age in a strange time and in a strange family situation.

The family situation, in which his father leaves him and his siblings with a hardworking if somewhat financially destitute mother, might as well be another character in the story. Dubus is put in the position of basically having a child for a father. The fact that this father also happens to be a famous writer is rightly relegated to the sidelines most of the time. Pop, as he is lovingly referred to, turns a blind eye to his ailing family. He drinks and parties with his children. He philanders. He can never stay with one woman for very long. And yet, it's obvious that he has an immense amount of wisdom, commands great respect, and truly loves his family. He just has a weird, somewhat aloof way of showing it.

One of the triumphs of the narrative is that Dubus does rise above his situation, first through an interest in weightlifting and later through his own career as a writer. What starts as an endless loop of bar brawls, rundown cars, cheap beers, and neighborhood characters ends in a kind of Zen-like state that yields forgiveness and personal success.

Townie is also about two very different worlds. Dubus' life is laid out as a kind of double exposure, growing up with one foot on each side of the invisible fence that is class and education.

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Title: Poetry in Person

Subtitle: Twenty-five Years of Conversation with America's Poets

Author: Lucille Clifton, Eamon Grennan, Edward Hirsch, William Matthews, James Merrill, Paul Muldoon, Robert Pinsky, Alexander Neubauer (editor)

Narrator: Alexander Neubauer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-16-11

Publisher: Alexander Neubauer

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 24 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

This first audio edition of Poetry in Person: 25 Years of Conversation with Americas Poets (Knopf, 2010), invites listeners into an intimate classroom with eight acclaimed poets: Robert Pinsky, James Merrill, Lucille Clifton, Edward Hirsch, Paul Muldoon, Muriel Rukeyser, Eamon Grennan, and William Matthews. Full of compelling, in-depth conversation about manuscripts and drafts by the poets themselves, plus readings of the finished poems, these historic recordings offer one of the most detailed portraits ever produced of how poems are actually made.

Based on one of the ten best nonfiction books of 2010, this audio version of Poetry in Person opens the door to a class run by Pearl London between 1973 and 1998, at the New School in Manhattans Greenwich Village. London invited scores of poets to bring with them notes jotted down on the back of an envelope, or worksheets of any sort, even doodles, for a course she said was concerned essentially with the making of the poem, with the work in progress as process - with both the vision and the revision.

Poets accepted her invitation one after another, word of mouth spread, and for 25 years her class become home for Nobel Laureates, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winners, U.S. Poets Laureate, and dozens of poets at the cusp of their emergence in letters.

After London died in 2003, three boxes of cassette tapes were discovered in a closet in her home, containing recordings of a hundred conversations with poets. Eight of those conversations can now be heard as they happened in this first audio edition of Poetry in Person.

Audio Production: Jonathan Binzen.

Members Reviews:

Fascinating

I feel like I've gotten to be adult on the wall to sone fabulous discussions - some from before I was born. What a wonderful opportunity!

Through a glass darkly

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

The glimpse into the view of these poets is worth it.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

The quality is poor and requires a determination to listen to a conversation in another room.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

It felt intimate, voyeuristic.

Any additional comments?

Listening, straining through the poor quality is a pilgrimage fit only for a pilgrim willing to suffer for understanding.

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Title: A Widow's Story

Subtitle: A Memoir

Author: Joyce Carol Oates

Narrator: Ellen Parker

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-15-11

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 189 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

In a work unlike anything she's written before, National Book Award-winner Joyce Carol Oates unveils a poignant, intimate memoir about the unexpected death of her husband of 46 years and its wrenching, surprising aftermath.

"My husband died, my life collapsed." On a February morning in 2008, Joyce Carol Oates drove her ailing husband, Raymond Smith, to the emergency room of the Princeton Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with pneumonia. Both Joyce and Ray expected him to be released in a day or two. But in less than a week, even as Joyce was preparing for his discharge, Ray died from a virulent hospital-acquired infection, and Joyce was suddenly faced - totally unprepared - with the stunning reality of widowhood.

A Widow's Story illuminates one woman's struggle to comprehend a life without the partnership that had sustained and defined her for nearly half a century. As never before, Joyce Carol Oates shares the derangement of denial, the anguish of loss, the disorientation of the survivor amid a nightmare of "death-duties", and the solace of friendship. She writes unflinchingly of the experience of grief - the almost unbearable suspense of the hospital vigil, the treacherous "pools" of memory that surround us, the vocabulary of illness, the absurdities of commercialized forms of mourning. Here is a frank acknowledgment of the widow's desperation, only gradually yielding to the recognition that "this is my life now."

Enlivened by the piercing vision, acute perception, and mordant humor that are the hallmarks of the work of Joyce Carol Oates, this moving tale of life and death, love and grief, offers a candid, never-before-glimpsed view of the acclaimed author and fiercely private woman.

Members Reviews:

Breathless!

Talk about not wanting to turn the car audio player off...this is a minute-by-minute account, not only of a bereavement and of a death, but of a life as lived in each present moment. I'll never know why it is that some writers, and well-known, respected ones at that, can snooze me off with their painstaking detail (oh just get on with it will you?), and someone like Oates can mesmerize me, stun me with literary pleasure with her delicately nuanced accounts of the huge range of emotions encountered by one person, as they happen, moment by moment.

I am equally amazed at this "warts and all" presentation of Oates' self-doubts and insecurities, her lack of self-belief, and the meaninglessness to her of all her considerable accomplishments compared to the loss of her husband and soul-mate. That she can get this all down without appearing even mildly self-absorbed is another feat that impresses me.

Brava!

Very moving book, VERY well read, hopeful end

Sometimes I get into weird moods and can't move on to a new book. That happened to me recently, and I had an instinct that the raw emotions of Joyce Carol Oates' memoir of her experience of losing her husband would stun me out of my own self absorption. I was right. The book is very painful to hear but the reader is excellent and portrays well the voice of Joyce Carol Oates as I imagine her to be. The book is very good at communicating the abrupt end of a comfortable and happy life without any sticky sentimentalism or self pity. It is very moving and yet has not caused even weepy me any tears.

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Title: The Autobiography of Mark Twain

Author: Mark Twain, Charles Neider (editor)

Narrator: Michael Anthony

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-27-11

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 42 votes

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

Publisher's Summary:

Mark Twains daughter Susy wrote: Papadoesnt like to go to church at all, why I never understood, until just now, he told us the other day that he couldnt bear to hear any one talk but himself, but that he could listen to himself talk for hours without getting tired, of course he said this in joke, but Ive no dought [sic] it was founded on truth."

Here is one of the great autobiographies of the English language - exuberant, wonderfully contemporary in spirit, by a man twice as large as life whohe said so himselfhad no trouble remembering everything that had ever happened to him and a lot of things besides.

Nothing ever happened to Mark Twain in a small way. His adventures were invariably fraught with drama. Success and failure for him were equally spectacular. And so he roared down the years, feuding with publishers, being a sucker for inventors, always learning wisdom at the point of ruin, and always relishing the absurd spectacle of humankind, which he regarded with a blend of vitriol and affection.

Critic Reviews:

It is worth reading because the man is in it. (Saturday Review)

A book filled with richnesses of humor and tragedy of disappointment and triumph, of sweetness and bitterness, and all in that unsurpassed American prose." (New York Herald Tribune Book Review)

"Magnificently alive." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

The story of a man centuries ahead of his time.

Not only is Mark Twain one of the most entertaining men of his time, this book made me realize how exceptional he truly was. He understood people so well that he was immune to the racism of his time, and he possessed such a skeptical (almost scientific) mindset that he'd have been even more at home today as back in his time. Truly a remarkable man and life story.

Hours and hours of delight

This long book would have been the endless meanderings of a bizarre mind except for his amazing words. The book is filled with eternal phrases, ("There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.") And his discriptions of people and places are brilliant ("His hair hung like curtains around his face.") I laughed continuously.

Heartbreaking and introspective

It was interesting peeking inside this great mind. He was upfront about his business failings and you understand why he wanted a century to make sure everyone was long dead when he told the whole story. The losses in his life were painful to read. Very insightful.

a great book to keep company with

excellent narration for an iconic voice in literature. sometimes dry but often entertaining and touching.

Not what you expect from Twain or a biography

Any additional comments?

This is not at all what you would expect from an autobiography by anyone, and not at all what you might expect from Mark Twain. There are times when it meanders and it certainly has weak moments, but overall it's a refreshing read that makes sense as Twain's autobiographical venture. I loved it.