Large Library of Full Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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Title: My Face is Black is True

Subtitle: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations

Author: Mary Frances Berry

Narrator: Sharon Washington

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-31-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Award-winning Civil Rights advocate Mary Frances Berry sheds new light on the fight for reparations. Callie House, an ex-slave who led the fight, founded the Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty, and Pension Association in 1899. Defying conventions of race, class, and gender, Callie led the organization in an attempt to petition the government for the pension promised them as freedmen.

©2005 Mary Frances Berry; (P)2006 Recorded Books,LLC

Critic Reviews:

"Callie House and her historic role deserve to be brought out of the shadows, and Berry achieves that superbly." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

The origins of the reparations movement.

A well told story about the largest African American protest movement you've never heard about. Seriously, black history of the post reconstruction era is typically about Jim Crow, black schools and colleges, black clubwomen, sharecropping, or Ida B Wells and the anti-lynching movement if you're looking for something to alleviate the grimness. Callie House should be recognized as Wells' comrade, though they never met and House's Ex-Slave Pension and Bounty movement was largely illiterate formerly enslaved Southern blacks who believed they should be paid something for their uncompensated centuries of labor. This was the origin of the reparations movement.

I highly recommend it for reading for all Americans

Very informative. Dr. Berry cleared-up many questions lurking in my mind as to what happened to the freed slaves after the emancipation, esp. how did they survive and many more. Besides being informative, the book is very-well written in a style that holds the reader's interest; that is, it is not monotonous. I highly recommend it for reading for all Americans.

ORIGINAL CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST!

COURAGE! STRONG! INTEGRITY! These are the words that come to mind after reading about Callie House. A women who challenge the system, IN THE 1800s!! Asking for what was only right, Reparations for ex-slaves, a subject that is still more alive today, but not the priority it should be!

This should be a Text Book in all The Historic Black Colleges and Schools through out America, this Women needs to be studied more!! ...Peace.

Addition to Black History Collection

Collectors item

Five Stars

A gift for a friend.

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Title: Things I've Been Silent About

Author: Azar Nafisi

Narrator: Azar Nafisi

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-30-08

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Azar Nafisi, author of the beloved international best-seller Reading Lolita in Tehran, now gives us a stunning personal story of growing up in Iran, memories of her life lived in thrall to a powerful and complex mother, against the background of a country's political revolution. A girl's pain over family secrets; a young woman's discovery of the power of sensuality in literature; the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by political upheaval.

Nafisi's intelligent and complicated mother, disappointed in her dreams of leading an important and romantic life, created mesmerizing fictions about herself, her family, and her past. But her daughter soon learned that these narratives of triumph hid as much as they revealed. Nafisi's father escaped into narratives of another kind, enchanting his children with the classic tales like the Shahnamah, the Persian Book of Kings. When her father started seeing other women, young Azar began to keep his secrets from her mother. Nafisi's complicity in these childhood dramas ultimately led her to resist remaining silent about other personal, as well as political, cultural, and social, injustices.

Reaching back in time to reflect on other generations in the Nafisi family, Things I've Been Silent About is also a powerful historical portrait of a family that spans many periods of change leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79, which turned Azar Nafisi's beloved Iran into a religious dictatorship. Writing of her...

Critic Reviews:

"These and other threads are woven together in this beautiful memoir, as a gifted storyteller once again transforms the way we see the world and reminds us of why we read in the first place." (Newsday).

Members Reviews:

Memoir would be better told my another, or listened to her editor.

Being a memoir of a woman who grew up in the Mid-Eastern culture, and tumultuous times, I had anticipated an interesting story.

It "drags"--hard to get into the life and times of the young girl--she needs a "ghost writer"--perhaps she is too close emotionally to the circumstances to keep the story "moving" and holding the reader's interest.

True story of an Iranian woman

Azi's story begins when she is a child and continues though her life to end with her parents' deaths. It gives an idea of what life was like for an educated female in Iran. Slow to read in some places but interesting enough to finish.

Iranian struggles.

I have previously read a book by this author and she is an excellent writer. This book is about a woman's place in Iran and how she handled it.

Every Family Has a Story

NO SPOILER ALERT NEEDED. THIS IS A SYNOPSIS, NOT A REVIEW.

Every Family has a story. Sometimes though, it's one shrouded in drama, self-deception, and lies. Azar Nafisi's family is like that.

This former Iranian professor now resides in the US, having left her country for political reasons. Silent no longer, she speaks of her past or, more specifically, her mother's first marriage. She finds troubling inconsistencies in family history her mother told her.

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Title: It's All About Cats

Author: Donald Davis

Narrator: Donald Davis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr

Language: English

Release date: 12-03-08

Publisher: August House

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Employing his trademark Carolina drawl, droll wit, and sharp observations, Davis is in top form here as he pays homage to these two remarkable women and their devotion to their feline families.

Editorial Reviews:

Storyteller Donald Davis charms listeners with offbeat tales of cat owners. With a voice as rich as the North Carolina culture he depicts, Davis demonstrates that eccentricity is memorable. Picture Irma, his mother-in-law, showering with ducklings or frugal Miss Morton paying the vet three dollars to neuter over 30 cats. Davis treats listeners like longtime acquaintances with his natural language and casual style. His live storytelling has some advantages over this audio recording. He sounds more rehearsed on audio than he does in person. Despite these challenges, the larger-than-life characters emerge vividly through detailed narration. Warmly human, the stories present life's universality in Davis's rolling Southern accent.

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

Love his story-telling!

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Title: Letters of a Woman Homesteader

Author: Elinore Pruitt Stewart

Narrator: Rebecca Burns

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-21-08

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The basis for the acclaimed movie Heartland, this charming chronicle is part of our vanished past. Stewart's courage and her delight in the world around her cannot fail to capture the hearts of her listeners.

Editorial Reviews:

Letters of a Woman Homesteader is a collection of first-person letters, many originally published in the Atlantic Monthly, written by Elinore Pruitt Stewart, that engrossingly describe life running a ranch as a woman in Arkansas in the early 20th century.

Narrated with durable clarity by Rebecca Burns, these tales sweep the listener into the edifying and often difficult world of frontier life. Visually rich descriptions of prairies and streams, red cliffs and canyons, sagebrush and pine, vistas and big stars abound in this remarkable account of human perseverance. This will certainly appeal to fans of Out of Africa by Isaek Dinesen.

Members Reviews:

Just as good the second time around

This is one of my most favorite audiobooks. However, I liek the original audiobook I listened to 15 years ago read by Flo Gibson more. Rebecca Burns' reading sounds like a computer generated voice. No feeling

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Title: A Few Seconds of Panic

Subtitle: A 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL

Author: Stefan Fatsis

Narrator: Stefan Fatsis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-03-08

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 112 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Over three months in 2006, he became a Denver Bronco. He trained with the team and lived with the players. He was given a locker and uniforms emblazoned with the number 9. He was expected to perform all the drills and regimens required of other kickers. He was unlike his teammates in some ways -most notably, his livelihood was not on the line as was theirs. But he became remarkably like them in many ways: he risked crippling injury just as they did, endured the hazing that befalls all rookies, daily gorged on 4,000 calories, and slogged through two-a-day practices in blistering heat.

Not since George Plimpton's stint as a Detroit Lion more than 40 years ago has a writer tunneled so deeply into the NFL.

At first, the players tolerated Fatsis or treated him like a mascot, but over time, they began to think of him as one of them. And he began to think like one of them. Like the other Broncos - like all elite athletes - he learned to perfect a motion through thousands of repetitions, to play through pain, to silence the crowd's roar, and to banish self-doubt.

Members Reviews:

Living a dream.

Stefan Fatsis provides a look into every football fans fantasy, life in the NFL. Life in an NFL training camp as a kicker Stefan Fatsis gives us an insight not as an NFL player, but that of a fan living a dream. The book evolves around the pressures of kicking, but does an excellent job of how fragile NFL careers are and the ups and downs of players living on the edge. I enjoyed this book very much.

A Few Hours of Pleasure

Fatsis is one of my favorite sports journalists. His writing for the WSJ and his commentaries for NPR about the industry of sports are always smart and informative. I loved his last book, Word Freak, which even got me to play scrabble again. In his latest book Fatsis tells the story of joining the Denver Broncos as "rookie" field goal kicker during training camp. We get an insider account of the often brutal business of the NFL, a sub-culture largely closed to outsiders despite the fact that teams play in front of millions each Sunday.

An Everyman's Dream Into Action

I'd had this in my wish list for a while, and honestly dove into it only because it seemed to be of modest length, and it's currently football season. I remember hearing the book review on NPR a long time ago when the book was released and thinking, "Oh, he's just cribbing from Plimpton!" I was pleasantly surprised and engaged at Fatsis' narrative of his quixotic attempt to mold himself into something approaching an NFL kicker. Fatsis sucks you in with his candid, eye-opening picture of an NFL locker room and its players. After a short time, by suffering alongside the players with two-a-days, rigid dawn to dusk schedules, and the constant physical demands, Fatsis managed to blend in with all the other eager rookies and hired hands trying to win a spot on the roster in camp. Moreover, he earned the respect of many veterans on the team. As he says in an epiphinous moment, he became a Bronco - not just some journalist hanging out in the locker room. Through his own determination (and the cooperation of the Broncos coaching staff), Fatsis not only gives you a terrific look at the inner workings of a modern NFL franchise, but what it is like to be (or aspire to be) a real NFL player.

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Title: Warrior King

Subtitle: The Triumph and Betrayal of an American Commander in Iraq

Author: Nathan Sassaman, Joe Layden

Narrator: Eric Conger

Format: Abridged

Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-11-08

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Yet Sassaman will always be known for a fateful decision to cover up the alleged drowning of an Iraqi by his men, in which they forced two detainees to jump into the Tigris River. Sassaman's decision led to the downfall of his impressive career and sent shockwaves through the American military.

Warrior King is the explosive memoir of one of the most deeply involved members of the U.S. military in Iraq. This is the first audiobook to take listeners from the overnight brutality of combat to the daunting daytime humanitarian tasks of rebuilding Iraq to the upper echelons of the Pentagon to show how and why the war has gone horribly wrong.

Members Reviews:

WHINNY

I hate I almost listened to all of this. I have listened to almost every book that has come out of OEF/ OIF and this was not even comparable.

This was a Lt. Col sounding like a groveling E1 kicked out of basic for not being a good boy.

Great book!

My son served under LTC Sassaman and had great respect for him. After reading this book I can see that respect was well placed. LTC Sassaman was instrumental in seeing that my son and all the other mothers sons we brought home safely. For that I am eternally grateful.

LTC Sassaman...out front in action and thought

As an Army officer, this book is a breath of fresh air. His West Point background notwithstanding, LTC Sassaman had the fortitude and conviction to make his own decisions, based on HIS observations. Thank God that this man chose not to subscribe to the politics associated with the zero defect officer corps...just do your time and don't make the boss mad, etc. This dynamic may be ok for garrison, but it is NOT a good policy in combat. He was the Battalion Commander....who in the world would be better situated to make the decisions he had to make? No one...not even his Brigade commander!! Rules and procedures that work well in one part of the battlespace do not necessarily work elsewhere---no more than an Alaska winter is the same as a Florida winter. He lost two Soldiers, as an INFANTRY battalion Commander who took the fight to the enemy. Field artillery battalions have lost many more---in LTC Sassaman's AOR...he was doing something right, and I like the odds associated with his style of leadership!

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Title: Saving Graces

Author: Elizabeth Edwards

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-05-07

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Edwards writes about growing up in a military family, where she learned how to make friends easily in dozens of new schools and neighborhoods around the world and came to appreciate the unstinting help and comfort naval families shared. Edwards' reminiscences of her years as a mother focus on the support she and other parents offered one another, from everyday favors to the ultimate test of her own community's strength: their compassionate response to the death of the Edwards' teenage son. Her descriptions of her husband's campaigns for Senate, president, and vice president offer a fascinating perspective on the groups, great and small, that sustain our democracy. Her fight with breast cancer, which stirred an outpouring of support from women across the country, has once again affirmed Edwards' belief in the power of community to make our lives better and richer.

Critic Reviews:

"This memoir is disarmingly moving." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Not Exactly a Spiritual Journey

I thought this was going to be more about Edwards' experience with breast cancer but it was more of a tabloid account of the campaign. Edwards' health was just a backdrop and not much "ink" was devoted to it.

Still it does show the consequences of neglecting yearly mammograms.

Bor

I bought this book with hopes of understanding something about the Edwards family, in view of his apparent philandering and lying to both his loved ones and his political supporters. A bit voyeuristic?? Yes...no excuses offered. Elizabeth Edward's paints a picture of an immensely caring and attentive husband, who physically and emotionally supports her and their children in every way possible. Hard to believe under the circumstances. Is she the epitome of a political wife, protecting her ambitious spouse, or was he able to deceive her so completely?

Although no one can argue her love and great pain at the death of her 16 year old son, which was told with heartfelt prose. But I both dozed and figeted as I listened to Mrs. Edwards lengthy

thank-you's to myriads of people, from staff, to friends, aquaintences, and finally even people who sent her get-well notes and small gifts. Again, her gratitude was heart felt, but listening to lists of names, both first and last, of countless people was tedious and boring.

I know this may sound harsh, but if you're not a friend of the Edwards family, who will probably be named in this book, save your money.

Saving Graces

This is an outstanding book. Elizabeth Edwards is an excellent author.

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Title: Let Me Go

Author: Helga Schneider

Narrator: Barbara Rosenblat

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-22-06

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 88 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Nearly 30 more years would pass before their second and final reunion, an emotional encounter in Vienna, where her ailing mother, then 87 and unrepentant about her past, was living in a nursing home. Let Me Go is the extraordinary account of that meeting and of their conversation, which powerfully evokes the misery of obligation colliding with inescapable horror.

Critic Reviews:

"Rosenblat's narration captures the boastful, pitiable, and unrepentant mother in a matter-of-fact style that is both chilling and disturbing." (Booklist) "The story will bring tears to most listeners' eyes....Barbara Rosenblat's reading is astounding....the listener is chilled by the evil in her voice, and when she reads Schneider's words, the listener feels the anger and confusion that permeate the book." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Excellent...

This is a chilling story... mostly because it is true. This would be a very difficult thing to live with. A story of forgiveness. If only we could all be so forgiving. I highly recommend.

Stunning, Annoying, Haunting

I found this book because I was looking for books narrated by the great Barbara Rosenblatt. She's a national treasure.

This is one of the most profound books I've ever encountered. The balance of hatred and love. The longing for love. The unremitting digging by Helga at a mother who is both helpless and sadistic. As Helga is, too. I said "irritating," because I got really annoyed at the "why didn't you love me, mother?" repeated over and over in different ways. I wanted to say, "Oh, get a life." There was a certain amount of melodrama I got tired of. But the honesty was stunning and the ambiguity totally captivating. The descriptions of the people and places are marvelous.

Helga provides endless details and digs for more. Her obsessive research is one of the best things about this book. The factual info, in this context, is somehow even more horrible.

This is a picture, closeup, of a woman whose life lacked meaning (the mother) until she found a belief and a home in the SS and somebody to hate -- the Jews. It gives new meaning to the idea of a woman's leaving home to "find herself." She found herself quite contentedly in hell. And her daughter deals with it all both intellectually and emotionally with amazing insight.

Wow. This book is going to haunt me for a long time.

Can't beat Rosenblat!

I found myself pulled into this book from the start. Barbara Rosenblat is a first class actress when it comes to reading. I think she has an amazing facility with nuance and emotion. The story is engaging, and all through the story, I felt that I was watching a play unfold on stage.

The story itself is interesting, giving a somewhat different view of the holocaust period. The story weaves personal tragedy with tragedy on a tremendous scale, and manages to hold its own. There are so many delicate touches and details in the story that it's easy to conjure the scene in the mind's eye, as if watching it on stage in front of you.

Highly recommended book.

Excellent narrator but uninteresting characters

This is a true story about a woman who has only seen her mother twice since the woman was a little girl. The mother is an unpleasant character. The second visit is what the book focuses on.

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Title: Women to Remember

Author: Kathryn Tucker Windham

Narrator: Kathryn Tucker Windham

Format: Abridged

Length: 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-05-06

Publisher: August House

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In these stories of her mother, her Aunt Bet, and other women who influenced her, author and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham reveals the complexity of Southern women in the days before feminism entered the common vocabulary. A legacy of independent women permeates these recollections: women who managed households, who became entrepreneurs, and who managed public facilities. The women she remembers may have been fair, but they certainly were not weak.

(P)2002 August House Publishers, Inc.

Editorial Reviews:

Recording in her Alabama home, journalist and storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham shares humorous and touching tales of the important women in her life. Her warm, natural, and charming style almost convinces the listener that Windham is sitting in the next rocking chair. As she shares her recollections in a genuine Southern accent, she isn't afraid to laugh or even to burst into song. Her memories focus on Aunt Bet, who served as postmaster and cake baker in Windham's hometown of Thomasville, Alabama. The listener won't soon forget the tombstone in Aunt Bet's kitchen or her blackberry-wine dilemma. This is a sentimental journey one wishes would never end.

Critic Reviews:

"Kathryn Tucker Windham's stories come to life in Women to Remember, recalling family interactions and stories with roots in the author's Southern heritage. These are excellent regional folk story-telling traditions which listerners will find rich in depth." (Library Bookwatch)

Members Reviews:

I Love Stories About The South

What made the experience of listening to Women to Remember the most enjoyable?

The Authors Voice and The Contents.

What about Kathryn Tucker Windhams performance did you like?

Her Voice and Her Stories.

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

It made me laugh and made me remember.

Beautiful southern stories

I've purchased all of Kathryn Tucker Windham's audiobooks that are available here at Audible. She sounds quite elderly in all of them, but she does a wonderful job telling old Southern stories of her growing up years. If you enjoy southern stories, give these a try. Each one focuses on specific topics. This one tells of some of the women in her family that she admired.

An Alabama Treasuer

I grew up listening to my grandfather's stories of his childhood in Birmingham. One of the best treats in the fall was listening to ghost stories at Sloss Furnace.

Listening to these remembrances brings back both those days and provides a look into a long forgotten time - pre computer ; )

For some the cadence may be a little slow but sit back and let it wash over you. Try to remember that sitting around the table and talking about one's past is how we share it with those coming behind us.

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Title: The Mutiny on Board H.M.S. Bounty

Author: William Bligh

Narrator: Jonathan Reese

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-17-06

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

What's the real story?

In a personal but objective narrative based on the Bounty's log, Bligh himself tells of the stormy voyage to Tahiti, his crew's insatiable attachment to the island paradise, and the incredible 3,600-mile journey to safety after the mutineers cast him, and 18 loyal crew members, adrift in a small, open boat with few supplies. Bligh's detractors say this narrative has many distortions and omissions; others judge it a remarkably dispassionate record. You can decide.

Members Reviews:

Great listen

This is a wonderful professional narration of one of the most interesting historical seafaring works ever. The description of 18th century Tahiti is fascinating, as is the description of Captain Bligh's open boat journey after the mutiny. Although written in the 18th century, it is very understandable today.

Definitely worth listening.

Loved it!

Not for the casual reader, but if you have a strong interest in the HMAV Bounty adventure you'll enjoy Bligh's narrative of his trek.

pretty slow

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

Have to like a lot of detail

Any additional comments?

this is the captains log over a long time with detail each day.

Location, Location, Location

There is only one location for this "work".... In the bin. I have several different history novels. This is the second worst I have ever delt with..... SAVE YOUR SELF the trouble