Get Most Popular Full Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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Title: Letter from Birmingham Jail

Author: Martin Luther King Jr.

Narrator: Dion Graham

Format: Unabridged

Length: 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-15-13

Publisher: Mission Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 239 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Audie Award Finalist, Original Work, 2013

April 16th, the year is 1963. Birmingham, Alabama, has had a spring of nonviolent protests known as the Birmingham Campaign, seeking to draw attention to the segregation against blacks by the city government and downtown retailers. The organizers longed to create a nonviolent tension so severe that the powers that be would be forced to address the rampant racism head on. Recently arrested was Martin Luther King, Jr....

It is there in that jail cell that he writes this letter; on the margins of a newspaper he pens this defense of nonviolence against segregation. His accusers, though many, in this case were not the white racist leaders or retailers he protested against, but eight black men who saw him as "other" and as too extreme. To them and to the world he defended the notion that "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".

Members Reviews:

Great audio of historical document

It is hard to rate this since Letter is an important document in civil rights history. My 6th grader had to read it for school and so we decided to listen to this audio. I was glad we did. The audio performance was quite good and it was, as a result, a much more compelling experience than just reading it.

Educate yourself!

One only need to take out references to segregation to realize that too many things remain the same. With the single exception to segregation, and especially when it comes to law enforcement and the justice system, this letter is as relevant today as it was in 1963. That is not ok. We can and must do better.

In Letter from Birmingham Jail, MLK lays out the problem of inequality in a beautiful, powerful, and extremely clear open letter. He reminds the reader that injustice anywhere in a threat to injustice everywhere. In very direct language, he describes how poorly black citizens are treated in Birmingham courts and is not at all ambiguous in stating that the Negro had no other option but to revolt. It is amazing to hear, in his own words, how he collaborated with others to see if they might be able to construct a non-violent revolt that would cause enough "tension" and "crisis" to force society to change what it would not otherwise change. He questioned, with those who helped him construct a movement, if they could "take it." Could they take being jailed and still not react in a violent way? Could they achieve equality by enduring even worse treatment than they have already suffered? Would it make a real change? It is hard to imagine anyone reading this pre-civil rights letter and not being extremely moved.

MLK clearly defines just and unjust laws. Just laws are those laws that the minorities are forced to follow only when the majority follow them as well. This includes *application of the law*. If laws are disproportionately enforced on minorities, according to MLK, they are unjust. MLK makes no secret of his disdain for the white moderate who refuses to engage in extremist direct action. After all, according to MLK, any worthwhile change realized throughout history was the result of extremists like Jesus, Paul, Martin Luther, etc. He is proud to be considered an extremist and uses his extremism to engage in direct but non-violent action to affect social change.

Excellent reading

Wonderfully simple reading of a work that should be required reading for anyone who calls themselves a Christian.

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Title: Conversations with Gandhi

Author: Mark Whitaker

Narrator: Mark Whitaker

Format: Original Recording

Length: 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-11-13

Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

For most of the time between 1906 and 1914 a young Englishwoman by the name of Millie Graham Polak, together with her husband, shared the same house in South Africa as Mahatma Gandhi and his family; she and Gandhi talked about everything under the sun, and Millie wrote down their conversations, later publishing them in a small book. This programme recreates those revealing exchanges.

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Title: Brain on Fire

Subtitle: My Month of Madness

Author: Susannah Cahalan

Narrator: Heather Henderson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-13-12

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4255 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In 2009, Susannah Cahalan woke up in a strange hospital room strapped to a bed, under guard, and unable to move or speak. Her medical records - from a month-long hospital stay of which she had no memory - reported psychosis, violence, and dangerous instability. Yet, only weeks earlier she had been a healthy, ambitious twenty-four-year-old, six months into her first serious relationship and a sparkling career as a cub reporter.

Susannahs astonishing memoir chronicles the swift path of her illness and the lucky, last-minute intervention led by one of the few doctors capable of saving her life. Weeks ticked by and Susannah moved inexplicably from violence to catatonia. Over one million dollars worth of blood tests and brain scans revealed nothing. The exhausted doctors were ready to commit her to the psychiatric ward, until the celebrated neurologist, Dr. Souhel Najjar, joined her team. With the use of a simple - yet ingenious - test, he was able to make a lifesaving diagnosis - revealing a newly discovered autoimmune disorder in which the body attacks the brain.

With sharp reporting drawn from hospital records, scientific research, and interviews with doctors and family, Brain on Fire is a crackling mystery and an unflinching, gripping personal story that marks the debut of an extraordinary writer.

Critic Reviews:

"Engrossing.... Unquestionably, an important book on both a human and a medical level. Cahalans elegantly-written memoir of her dramatic descent into madness opens up discussion of the cutting-edge neuroscience behind a disease that may affect thousands of people around the world, and it offers powerful insight into the subjective workings of our minds." (Mehmet Oz, MD, Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Surgery, New York Presbyterian-Columbia Medical Center)

"Brain on Fire reads like a scientific thriller, but with a profound and moving philosophy at its heart." (David B. Agus, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Engineering, University of Southern California, and author of The End of Illness)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Author: Joan Didion

Narrator: Diane Keaton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-04-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 662 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Audie Award Nominee, Short Stories/Collections, 2013

Universally acclaimed from the time it was first published in 1968, Slouching Towards Bethlehem has been admired for decades as a stylistic masterpiece. Academy Award-winning actress Diane Keaton (Annie Hall, The Family Stone) performs these classic essays, including the title piece, which will transport the listener back to a unique time and place: the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco during the neighborhoods heyday as a countercultural center.

This is Joan Didions first work of nonfiction, offering an incisive look at the mood of 1960s America and providing an essential portrait of the Californian counterculture. She explores the influences of John Wayne and Howard Hughes, and offers ruminations on the nature of good and evil in a Death Valley motel room. Taking its title from W.B. Yeats poem "The Second Coming", the essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem all reflect, in one way or another, that "the center cannot hold."

Critic Reviews:

"Diane Keaton does an outstanding job of conveying an era and a place. Her narration is clear, well timed, and wonderfully consistent with the author's voice. Her ability to convey Didion's musings and gentle skepticism add much. Didion's style remains extraordinary." (

AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Narrator ruins it beyond repair

I wish I had read the other reviews before purchasing. Who would guess that Diane Keaton would be such a horrible narrator? Between her wooden amateurish performance and her mispronunciation I had to quit listening, even though the stories are well written.

Didion deserves better.

Joan Didion's writing is fabulous, insightful, spare. She deserves much better treatment than she gets from Diane Keaton, whom I love as an actress, but who is NOT a good reader. Her mispronunciations are legion, and it is painfully obvious that she is doing this reading cold. But frankly, I blame Audible's obvious desire to whip through these recordings rather than taking the time to produce something flawless--which both the author and the reader deserve. Would it kill them to go back and dub a few mistakes? Didion deserves better.

Still worth a listen, though, because even though Keaton's not so hot, Didion is that good.

Dammit Diane!

Diane Keaton's intonation is exhausting at best. Her pauses are poorly placed and she doesn't seem to respect sentence structure. The book and Joan Didion are perfect and timeless.

Diane Keaton doesn't read this book very well

what can I say. I was as surprised as anyone. There's an underlying childish drawl and she mispronounces words (turns out Joan Didion uses "desultory" quite a bit).

Who'd have guessed Diane Keaton can't read?

Wonderfully wrought essays took me back to the 60's, thanks to Didion's sharp eyed portraits and ear for dialogue. However, what is Diane Keaton's excuse?? She mispronounces so many words so consistently it's as if she has a speech impediment (maybe she does). She omits any interior syllable with an "er" sound: "San Berdino;" "vetinarian." This happened so often it was distracting. I actually had to check to see if all these years I had misread San Bernardino CA and it really didn't have that interior "nar" syllable.

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Title: No Easy Day

Subtitle: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden

Author: Mark Owen, Kevin Maurer

Narrator: Holter Graham

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-04-12

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6396 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

For the first time anywhere, the first-person account of the planning and execution of the Bin Laden raid from a Navy Seal who confronted the terrorist mastermind and witnessed his final moments....

From the streets of Iraq to the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in the Indian Ocean, and from the mountaintops of Afghanistan to the third floor of Osama Bin Laden's compound, operator Mark Owen of the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Development Group - commonly known as SEAL Team Six - has been a part of some of the most memorable special operations in history, as well as countless missions that never made headlines.

No Easy Day puts listeners alongside Owen and the other handpicked members of the 24-man team as they train for the biggest mission of their lives. The blow-by-blow narrative of the assault, beginning with the helicopter crash that could have ended Owen's life straight through to the radio call confirming Bin Laden's death, is an essential piece of modern history. In No Easy Day, Owen also takes listeners onto the field of battle in America's ongoing War on Terror and details the selection and training process for one of the most elite units in the military.

Owen's story draws on his youth in Alaska and describes the SEALs' quest to challenge themselves at the highest levels of physical and mental endurance. With boots-on-the-ground detail, Owen describes numerous previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11.

In telling the true story of the SEALs whose talents, skills, experiences, and exceptional sacrifices led to one of the greatest victories in the War on Terror, Mark Owen honors the men who risk everything for our country, and he leaves listenres with a deep understanding of the warriors who keep America safe.

Members Reviews:

Gripping, first-hand narrative of Op Neptune Spear

If you are buying this expecting some policy debate on AFPAK, Osama Bin Laden, or al-Qaida, this is probably not your book.

If, however, you are looking for a gripping, first-hand narrative of Operation Neptune Spear, written by one of the members of the SEAL team that was on the ground, this is the book for you. 'No Easy Day' isn't a perfect book and from a strickly literary standpoint it isn't as good as 'Black Hawk Down', etc., but it does provide a nice framwork for the lay-person to understand some of the on-the-ground details of the preparation and raid and men that got Osama Bin Laden.

As a friend to several members of the Night Stalkers, and the brother of a black hawk pilot who spent considerable time during the past 10 years flying special operations teams around Afghanistan, ANY book that can grab our nation's attention and focus it (even for a minute, but let's just hope it is longer) on those brave men who sacrifice so much to carry out our nation's interests day-after-day. deserves our attention.

One further reason to read this book. If the back and forth between Owen and the Pentagon is any indication, this might be one of the last memoirs of this Calibre from SEALs or Special Operations operators that we might see for awhile.

Holter Graham does a fine job of narrating this book and doesn't slow down the energy of the books narrative.

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Title: Angela Carter's Love Affair with Radio

Author: Charlotte Crofts

Narrator: Charlotte Crofts

Format: Original Recording

Length: 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-01-12

Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Angela Carter's relationship with radio began with an accidental sound effect. She went on to write two docu-dramas, Come Unto These Yellow Sands (about the Victorian painter Richard Dadd) and A Self-Made Man (about Edwardian novelist Ronald Firbank), and re-worked two of her short stories into radio plays. Carter loved radio's technical possibilities: the opportunity to extend the power of the written word, blurring the lines of traditional narrative into 'three-dimensional story-telling'. This documentary weaves interviews with Carter's friends and colleagues Susannah Clapp, Carmen Callil, Marina Warner and Christopher Frayling, memories of the studio technicians who worked on her plays and the responses of listeners who heard them, with extracts from the plays themselves. Academic Charlotte Crofts explains why the medium suited her so well. Producer: Sara Davies.

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Title: John McCarthy's Bible Journey

Author: John McCarthy

Narrator: John McCarthy

Format: Original Recording

Length: 5 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-01-12

Publisher: BBC Worldwide Limited

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

This series, broadcast on Radio 4, is an assessment of the Bible's cultural, political, moral, social and personal impact. It is also a personal odyssey for John McCarthy as he questions the chapters he read during his time in captivity and discusses the meaning of truth and what it means to be human.

Members Reviews:

Very informative and interesting

Very informative and interesting. Even better than I'd hoped for. Not preaching or persuading but thought provoking. Cleverly scripted and audio adds to the story with interviews, songs and sounds

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Title: Finding Ultra

Subtitle: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the Worlds Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself

Author: Rich Roll

Narrator: Rich Roll

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-22-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2732 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

An incredible but true account of achieving one of the most awe-inspiring midlife physical transformations ever

In October 2006, the night before he was to turn forty, Rich experienced a chilling glimpse of his future. Nearly fifty pounds overweight and unable to climb the stairs without stopping, he saw where his sedentary lifestyle was taking him. Most of us look the other way when granted such a moment of clarity, but not Rich. Plunging into a new way of eating that made processed foods off limits and prioritized plant nutrition and daily training, Rich morphedin mere monthsfrom out-of-shape midlifer to endurance machine. Ninety days into his physical overhaul, Rich left the house for a light jog and found himself running a near marathon. It was time to scale up his goals.

How many of us take up a sport at age forty and compete for the title of the worlds best within two years?Finding Ultrarecounts Richs remarkable journey to the starting line of the elite Ultraman World Championship competition, which pits the worlds fittest humans against each other in a 320-mile ordeal of swimming, biking, and running. Following that test, Rich conquered an even greater one: the Epic5 Challengefive Ironman-distance triathlons, each on a different Hawaiian island, all completed in less than a week.

Thisis more than an inside look at a series of jaw-dropping athletic feats or a practical training manual for those who would attempt a similar transformation. Yes, Richs account rivets and instructs, providing information that will be invaluable to anyone who wants to change their physique; but this book is most notable as a powerful testament to human resiliency, for as we learn early on, Richs life has posed numerous physical and social challenges, including a fierce battle with alcoholism.

UltimatelyFinding Ultrais a beautifully written portrait of what willpower can accomplish. It challenges us to rethink what were capable of and urges us, implicitly and explicitly, to go for it.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

Critic Reviews:

You walk away from reading this book knowing you have the total power to transform your life on every levelRoll is immensely likeable, a most compelling storyteller, and a true shaman of health and fitness! (Kathy Freston,New York Timesbest-selling author)

Rich RollsFinding Ultrais a testament to the power of the human spirit to overcome any obstacle, break down walls, and redefine what's possible. (John Brenkus, creator and host of ESPNsSport ScienceandNew York Timesbest-selling author)

I loved this. A rare book, unusual for its honesty and willingness to bare all, that really does deserve such superlatives as riveting and compelling.I was moved by watching Roll conquer his demons and felt privileged to share in his eventual enlightenment.By laying it on the line, Roll absolutely wins us over. (Rip Esselstyn,New York Timesbest-selling author)

Members Reviews:

Two Different Books

The first half (first file of the download) focuses on the authors struggles with alcohol. The real story of the ultraman begins in the second half. It is a fantastic story of what a person can accomplish and endure at any age. I was inspired to workout harder and eat different.

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Title: Fearless

Subtitle: The Undaunted Courage and Ultimate Sacrifice of Navy SEAL Team SIX Operator Adam Brown

Author: Eric Blehm

Narrator: Paul Michael

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-22-12

Publisher: christianaudio.com

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3198 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Audie Award Nominee, Inspirational Nonfiction, 2013

Fearless takes you deep into SEAL Team SIX and straight to the heart of one of its most legendary operators.

When Navy SEAL Adam Brown woke up on March 17, 2010, he didnt know he would die that night in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan - but he was ready: In a letter to his children, not meant to be seen unless the worst happened, he wrote, Im not afraid of anything that might happen to me on this earth, because I know no matter what, nothing can take my spirit from me.

Long before Adam Brown became a member of the elite SEAL Team SIX - the counterterrorism unit that took down Osama bin Laden - he was a fun-loving country boy from Hot Springs, Arkansas, whose greatest goal had been to wear his high schools football jersey. An undersized daredevil, prone to jumping off roofs into trees and off bridges into lakes, Adam was a kid who broke his own bones but would never break a promise to his parents.

But after high school, Adam fell in with the wrong crowd, and his family watched as his appetite for risk dragged him into a downward spiral that eventually landed him in jail. Battling his inner demons on a last-chance road to redemption, Adam had one goal: to become the best of the best - a US Navy SEAL.

An absorbing chronicle of heroism and humanity, Fearless presents an indelible portrait of a highly trained warrior who would enter a village with weapons in hand to hunt terrorists, only to come back the next day with an armload of shoes and meals for local children. It is a deeply personal, revealing glimpse inside the SEAL Team SIX brotherhood that also shows how these elite operators live out the rest of their lives, away from danger, as husbands, fathers and friends.

Fearless is the story of a man of extremes, whose courage and determination was fueled by faith, family, and the love of a woman. Its about a man who waged a war against his own worst impulses and persevered to reach the top tier of the US military. Always the first to volunteer for the most dangerous assignments, Adams final act of bravery led to the ultimate sacrifice.

Adam Brown was a devoted man who was an unlikely hero but a true warrior, described by all who knew him as fearless.

Members Reviews:

touching. very touching.

Any additional comments?

you'll get lost in this book. set aside some time for this one. you'll learn about a drug addict, an american, a hero. this book reminded me of all my short-comings and failures, and urges me to shoot as high as i can.

These heros and their families give so much

I will admit I cried many times and never wanted this book to end. I wish there was a way to thank Adam and his wife and children for their sacrifises! They gave so much for all of us to be free. I will never forget this story

The most fantastic biography I've read!

This is a biography of a young man whose life was dedicated to the USA, and all that it stands for. His remarkable life, with its downs and ups, are a testament to faith in a loving God!

Truly the story of a Hero

I was asked by my cousin from Hot Springs to read this story. I bought it immediately on Audible and started listening that evening and couldn't stop listening.

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Title: Dying to Be Me

Subtitle: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing

Author: Anita Moorjani

Narrator: Anita Moorjani

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-14-12

Publisher: Hay House

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2297 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this truly inspirational audio book, Anita Moorjani relates how, after fighting cancer for almost four years, her body began shutting down - overwhelmed by the malignant cells spreading throughout her system. As her organs failed, she entered into an extraordinary near-death experience (NDE) where she realized her inherent worth... and the actual cause of her disease. Upon regaining consciousness, Anita found that her condition had improved so rapidly that she was released from the hospital within weeks - without a trace of cancer in her body!

Anita had been pushed and pulled by cultural and religious customs since she was a little girl. After years of struggling to forge her own path while trying to meet everyone elses expectations, she had the realization, as a result of her epiphany on the other side, that she had the power to heal herself... and that there are miracles in the Universe that shed never even imagined.

In Dying to Be Me, Anita freely shares all she has learned about illness, healing, fear, being love, and the true magnificence of each and every human being!

Members Reviews:

SImply Amazing

I attended a Wayne Dyer lecture last year and he spent alot of time talking about Anita's story. I got home and watched her youtube interviews and couldn't wait to get the book. I purchased the Kindle edition and read it while waiting for an audiobook. I do not write reviews on books, but I feel this is some of the most important work to come out in a long time. Anyone wanting to understand and discover who and what we really are, and the root cause of our problems need to read this book. Anita simplifies a very complex concept, and masterfully tells of the pain and discovery she experienced in her life. Her explanation of parallel lives and the reason we think in successive lives is masterfully done. I have read this and now listened 3 times. This has become a staple of my collection.

Inspiring And Comforting Account Of Death

Would you listen to Dying to Be Me again? Why?

Yes, but only the part about her description of her near death experience. I found the rest of the book to be preachy and full of platitudes.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Anita was pretty much the only character.

Have you listened to any of Anita Moorjanis other performances before? How does this one compare?

No I haven't.

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

No.

Any additional comments?

Overall this is well worth getting. Anita's beautiful description of her near death experience alone is worth buying it for. I thought it was weird that so many reviews mentioned her exception command of the English language, but as I listened I found myself appreciating it as well. Her description of the event is incredible. The rest of the book was too vague, new age, and full of platitudes for me, but the first half more than made up for that. This is well worth getting.

What if......?

I listened to this book twice. There is a vast cavern of insight and once just wasn't enough to process it all. There are other books out there describing 'Near Death Experience' , but this one can be verified - - including an ultimate cancer recovery from the brink of death - - and the awareness of events happening beyond the body's resting place. I found this author to be credible and articulate.