Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/625248 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Hard Road to Glory, Volume 2 (1919-1945): A History of the African-American Athlete

Author: Arthur Ashe

Narrator: Landon Woodson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 31 minutes

Release date: July 16, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

“The most comprehensive reference source on African-American athletes yet compiled.”—San Francisco Chronicle With a Foreword by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe Available once again for a new generation of readers, the second volume in Arthur Ashe’s epic trilogy that chronicles the remarkable legacy of Black athletes in the United States—a major addition to our understanding of American history and the fulfillment of this legendary sports star and global activist’s lifelong dream. When tennis great Arthur Ashe first published his A Hard Road to Glory trilogy, this ambitious project was the first of its kind, a milestone in the presentation of United States social history. A Hard Road to Glory Volume 2, carries on the little-known full story of Black athletes and their contributions to American sports and culture.  Volume 2 covers America’s “Golden Age” of sports from the end of World War One to the end of World War Two, from to 1919–1945. It was a time when the feats of legends such as Babe Ruth, Red Grange, and Jack Dempsey shone brightly—and segregation reigned supreme. Racial restrictions led to the formation of independent Black organizations, which saw its own share of extraordinary stars. Meanwhile, a number of great Black athletes, including Jesse Owens and Joe Louis, became sports heroes admired by millions worldwide. Today, Black athletes and Black women in particular are receiving more visibility than ever for their unparalleled, world record-breaking excellence, their activism, and their leadership and vision. Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Sha’Carri Richardson, and Naomi Osaka are consistently elevating athletics and are reshaping the way we think about sports, excellence, society, and history. Arthur Ashe paved the way for them all; A Hard Road to Glory is fundamental to our understanding of Black athletes and our nation’s past, present, and future. Now more than ever, this collection is one of this amazing icon’s greatest legacies—a treasure to be celebrated by readers today and those to come. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/609203 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Hope Lies Ahead: Encouragement for Parents of Prodigals from a Family That's Been There

Author: Geoffrey Banks, James Banks

Narrator: Geoffrey Banks, James Banks

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 4 hours 36 minutes

Release date: January 3, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

No prodigal is beyond the reach of God.   Do you have a child who has walked away from Jesus? Or have you walked away from Him yourself? Hope Lies Ahead captures the candid journey of a prodigal son’s return, written from the unique perspective of both the father who prayed and the son who struggled. Told together, their story will encourage you through the honesty of their pain and their compelling experience of God’s redemption.    Amid the heartache of watching his teenage son self-destruct and the realization that all he could do was pray, pastor James Banks wrote the popular book Prayers for Prodigals. At a low point, Geoffrey Banks recognized that life could be better, and he sensed Jesus calling him back. Now, Hope Lies Ahead tells the powerful story of God’s faithfulness to answer prayer and of the healing found in Him.    No matter what you’re struggling with—whether it’s you or a child who has abandoned faith or faces addiction or prison—you are not alone. There is hope in Jesus, who makes all things new.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/626899 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Women of NOW: How Feminists Built an Organization That Transformed America

Author: Katherine Turk

Narrator: Kimberly M. Wetherell

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 56 minutes

Release date: August 15, 2023

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

The history of NOW—its organization, trials, and revolutionary mission—told through the work of three members. In the summer of 1966, crammed into a DC hotel suite and passing paper cups of liquor, twenty-eight women hatched a revolutionary plan. Betty Friedan, the well-known author of The Feminine Mystique, and Pauli Murray, a lawyer at the front lines of the civil rights movement, had quietly pulled away attendees from the State Womens’ Commissions annual conference. Frustrated with government inertia, they laid out a vision for an organization to unite and advocate for all women. Inspired, challenged, skeptical, they debated the idea late into the night and the next day. By the end of the conference, the National Organization of Women was born. In The Women of NOW, the historian Katherine Turk chronicles the growth and influence of this foundational group through three relatively unknown core members: Aileen Hernandez, a federal official of Jamaican-American heritage; Mary Jean Collins, a working-class union organizer and Chicago Catholic; and Patricia Hill Burnett, a Michigan Republican and former beauty queen. From its inception in 1966 through the tumultuous training ground of the 1970s, NOW's feminism flooded the nation, shifted American culture and politics, and clashed with conservative forces, presaging our fractured national landscape. These women built an organization that was radical in its time, and built it to last. This is the first time anyone has told their story. A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/616336 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II

Author: Lena S. Andrews

Narrator: Courtney Patterson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 4 minutes

Release date: August 1, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

''An ingenious look at WWII.” —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) A groundbreaking new history of the role of American servicewomen in WWII, illuminating their forgotten yet essential contributions to the Allies’ victory. Valiant Women is the story of the 350,000 American women who served in uniform during World War II. These incredible women served in every service branch, in every combat theater, and in nearly two-thirds of the available military occupations at the time. They were pilots, codebreakers, ordnance experts, gunnery instructors, metalsmiths, chemists, translators, parachute riggers, truck drivers, radarmen, pigeon trainers, and much more. They were directly involved in some of the most important moments of the war, from the D-Day landings to the peace negotiations in Paris. These women—who hailed from every race, creed, and walk of life—died for their country and received the nation’s highest honors. Their work, both individually and in total, was at the heart of the Allied strategy that won World War II. Yet, until now, their stories have been relegated to the dusty shelves of military archives or a passing mention in the local paper. Often the women themselves kept their stories private, even from their own families. Now, military analyst Lena Andrews corrects the record with the definitive and comprehensive historical account of American servicewomen during World War II, based on new archival research, firsthand interviews with surviving veterans, and a deep professional understanding of military history and strategy. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622030 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: This Must Be the Place: Music, Community and Vanished Spaces in New York City

Author: Jesse Rifkin

Narrator: Sean Patrick Hopkins

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 16 hours 47 minutes

Release date: July 11, 2023

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

A fascinating history that examines how real estate, gentrification, community and the highs and lows of New York City itself shaped the city’s music scenes from folk to house music. Take a walk through almost any neighborhood in Manhattan and you’ll likely pass some of the most significant clubs in American music history. But you won’t know it—almost all of these venues have been demolished or repurposed, leaving no record of what they were, how they shaped music scenes or their impact on the neighborhoods around them. Traditional music history tells us that famous scenes are created by brilliant, singular artists. But dig deeper and you’ll find that they’re actually created by cheap rent, empty space and other unglamorous factors that allow artistic communities to flourish. The 1960s folk scene would have never existed without access to Greenwich Village’s Washington Square Park. If the city hadn’t gone bankrupt in 1975, there would have been no punk rock. Brooklyn indie rock of the 2000s was only able to come together because of the borough’s many empty warehouse spaces. But these scenes are more than just moments of artistic genius—they’re also part of the urban gentrification cycle, one that often displaces other communities and, eventually, the musicians themselves. Drawing from over a hundred exclusive interviews with a wide range of musicians, deejays and scenesters (including members of Peter, Paul and Mary; White Zombie; Moldy Peaches; Sonic Youth; Treacherous Three; Cro-Mags; Sun Ra Arkestra; and Suicide), writer, historian and tour guide Jesse Rifkin painstakingly reconstructs the physical history of numerous classic New York music scenes. This Must Be the Place examines how these scenes came together and fell apart—and shows how these communal artistic experiences are not just for rarefied geniuses but available to us all. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/623548 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: We May Dominate the World: Ambition, Anxiety, and the Rise of the American Colossus

Author: Sean A Mirski

Narrator: Gary Tiedemann

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 15 hours 32 minutes

Release date: June 27, 2023

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

What did it take for the United States to become a global superpower? The answer lies in a missing chapter of American foreign policy with stark lessons for today The cutthroat world of international politics has always been dominated by great powers. Yet no great power in the modern era has ever managed to achieve the kind of invulnerability that comes from being completely supreme in its own neighborhood. No great power, that is, except one—the United States.   In We May Dominate the World, Sean A. Mirski tells the riveting story of how the United States became a regional hegemon in the century following the Civil War. By turns reluctant and ruthless, Americans squeezed their European rivals out of the hemisphere while landing forces on their neighbors’ soil with dizzying frequency. Mirski reveals the surprising reasons behind this muscular foreign policy in a narrative full of twists, colorful characters, and original accounts of the palace coups and bloody interventions that turned the fledgling republic into a global superpower.   Today, as China makes its own run at regional hegemony and nations like Russia and Iran grow more menacing, Mirski’s fresh look at the rise of the American colossus offers indispensable lessons for how to meet the challenges of our own century.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622376 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: In Other Words, Leadership: How a Young Mother's Weekly Letters to Her Governor Helped Both Women Brave the First Pandemic Year

Author: Shannon A. Mullen

Narrator: Shannon A. Mullen

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 34 minutes

Release date: June 20, 2023

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

“A remarkable story of work, worry, art, faith, community, life, and hope. An instant classic.”  — Heather Cox Richardson, author of the New York Times bestseller Democracy Awakening 'A heartfelt and moving story . . . Just as important, it’s also a well-timed lesson in civics.'  — Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls Two unforgettable women from opposite poles of power in Maine forge an uplifting bond through good, old-fashioned letter writing that helps them navigate the COVID crisis Both women bring civility, grace, wit, and wisdom to the challenge of protecting those who depend on them — in other words, leadership This trip to the “Vacationland” of Maine — where the state motto is I Lead — offers an inspiring tale of civility and purpose, of doing the right thing and not just surviving, but prevailing. The first woman to serve as governor of Maine, Janet Mills, had been in office a year when COVID-19 reached the United States. The recently-widowed 72-year-old wrote in her journal there is “no playbook for a pandemic” as she imposed unprecedented restrictions on her state. When early support for the governor’s response curdled to rampant opposition, a young mother named Ashirah Knapp sent a letter of support from a remote homestead in the woods of Maine. Ashirah’s handwritten dispatch detailed how the public health emergency was upending her family’s life and livelihood, and she promised to keep writing “every week until we are through this time” to remind the governor how many Mainers supported her despite the disruption. Ashirah’s letters, with their simple wisdom and striking penmanship, stood out in a flood of correspondence Governor Mills was receiving that ranged in tone from appreciative to furious. They helped keep her grounded as she made wrenching, often unpopular choices. Shannon A. Mullen weaves from these two women’s letters and the governor’s journal, which were never intended for publication, an intimate and compelling true story that is a celebration of civility and compassion in the face of rancor and of resolve in the face of adversity.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/624487 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Detroit City is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis

Author: Mark Binelli

Narrator: Matt Godfrey

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Release date: June 20, 2023

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

Once America’s capitalist dream town, Detroit is our country’s greatest urban failure, having fallen the longest and the farthest. But the city’s worst crisis yet (and that’s saying something) has managed to do the unthinkable: turn the end of days into a laboratory for the future. Urban planners, land speculators, neopastoral agriculturalists, and utopian environmentalists―all have been drawn to Detroit’s baroquely decaying, nothing-left-to-lose frontier. With an eye for both the darkly absurd and the radically new, Detroit-area native Mark Binelli has chronicled this convergence. Throughout the city’s “museum of neglect'―its swaths of abandoned buildings, its miles of urban prairie―he tracks both the blight and the signs of its repurposing, from the school for pregnant teenagers to a beleaguered UAW local; from metal scrappers and gun-toting vigilantes to artists reclaiming abandoned auto factories; from the organic farming on empty lots to GM’s risky wager on the Volt electric car; from firefighters forced by budget cuts to sleep in tents to the mayor’s realignment plan (the most ambitious on record) to move residents of half-empty neighborhoods into a viable, new urban center. Sharp and impassioned, Detroit City Is the Place to Be is alive with the sense of possibility that comes when a city hits rock bottom. Beyond the usual portrait of crime, poverty, and ruin, we glimpse a longshot future Detroit that is smaller, less segregated, greener, economically diverse, and better functioning―what could be the boldest reimagining of a post-industrial city in our new century.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622043 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: First Family

Author: Cassandra A. Good

Narrator: Courtney Patterson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 35 minutes

Release date: June 6, 2023

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

Award-winning historian Cassandra A. Good shows how the outspoken stepgrandchildren of George Washington played an overlooked but important role in the development of American society and politics from the Revolution to the Civil War. While it’s widely known in America that George and Martha Washington never had children of their own, few are aware that they raised numerous children together. In First Family, we see Washington as a father figure, as well as meet the children he helped raise and trace their complicated roles in American history. The children of Martha Washington’s son by her first marriage—Eliza, Patty, Nelly and Wash Custis—were born into life in the public eye. Raised in the country’s first “first family,” they remained well-known as Washington’s family and keepers of his legacy throughout their lives. By turns petty and powerful, glamorous and cruel, the Custises used Washington as a means to enhance their own power and status. As enslavers committed to the American empire, the Custis family embodied the failures of the American experiment that finally exploded into civil war—all the while being celebrities in a soap opera of their own making. First Family brings new focus and attention to this surprisingly neglected aspect of George Washington’s life and legacy. As the country grapples with concerns about political dynasties and the public role of presidential families, the saga of Washington’s family offers a human story of historical precedent. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/629622 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery

Author: Herb Frazier, Joseph Mcgill

Narrator: Joseph Mcgill, Herb Frazier

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 10 hours 27 minutes

Release date: June 6, 2023

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.5 of Total 2

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

In this enlightening personal account, one man tells the story of his groundbreaking project to sleep in former slave dwellings—revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America. Since founding the  Slave Dwelling Project project in 2010, historic preservationist Joseph McGill Jr. has been touring the country, spending the night in former slave dwellings—throughout the South, but also the North and the West, where people are often surprised to learn that such structures exist. Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on all of the key sites McGill has visited in his ongoing project and digs deeper into the actual history of each location, using McGill’s own experience and conversations with the community to enhance those original stories.  Together, McGill and coauthor Herb Frazier give readers an important emersion into the history of slavery, and especially the obscured and ignored aspects of that history. Contains a new afterword and reading group guide.