Listen to Latest Full Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, Women

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/702942 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker

Author: Amy Reading

Narrator: Christa Lewis

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 20 hours 59 minutes

Release date: September 3, 2024

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

A lively and intimate biography of trailblazing and era-defining New Yorker editor Katharine S. White, who helped build the magazine’s prestigious legacy and transform the 20th century literary landscape for women. In the summer of 1925, Katharine Sergeant Angell White walked into The New Yorker’s midtown office and left with a job as an editor. The magazine was only a few months old. Over the next thirty-six years, White would transform the publication into a literary powerhouse. This exquisite biography brings to life the remarkable relationships White fostered with her writers and how these relationships nurtured an astonishing array of literary talent. She edited a young John Updike, to whom she sent seventeen rejections before a single acceptance, as well as Vladimir Nabokov, with whom she fought incessantly, urging that he drop needlessly obscure, confusing words. White’s biggest contribution, however, was her cultivation of women writers whose careers were made at The New Yorker—Janet Flanner, Mary McCarthy, Elizabeth Bishop, Jean Stafford, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Taylor, Emily Hahn, Kay Boyle, and more. She cleared their mental and financial obstacles, introduced them to each other, and helped them create now classic stories and essays. She propelled these women to great literary heights and, in the process, reinvented the role of the editor, transforming the relationship to be not just a way to improve a writer’s work but also their life. Based on years of scrupulous research, acclaimed author Amy Reading creates a rare and deeply intimate portrait of a prolific editor—through both her incredible tenure at The New Yorker, and her famous marriage to E.B. White—and reveals how she transformed our understanding of literary culture and community.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/696197 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Girl from Busan: A Mother's Prayer

Author: Okhui Lee

Narrator: Jin Thompson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 56 minutes

Release date: June 18, 2024

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

A Girl from Busan is an epic generational tale of resilience, where unwavering faith and the unbreakable bond of a mother’s love transcend devastating personal trials in a foreign culture. Amidst the tumult of the Korean War, young Okhui wandered the streets of Busan, seeking solace in the flickering shadows of the Munhwa theater. There, surrounded by the glamourous billboards of Hollywood cinema, she dreamt of gliding across the silver screen like Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. Holding these dreams close to her heart, she ventured to America as a young bride, bearing the burden of a child born out of wedlock and escaping the harsh scrutiny of a conservative Korean society. Despite these formidable challenges, she carved a path of resilience and grace, ultimately rising to prominence as a celebrated burlesque dancer in the vibrant heart of Hollywood. Her journey continued with relentless resolve to the tropical shores of Hawaii, where she established a Korean hostess bar that swiftly rose to legendary status. This establishment became a magnetic hub for celebrities, political dignitaries, and even the enigmatic Hawaiian syndicate. Her resilience profoundly impacted her eldest son, whose early successes significantly contributed to the emergence of the Korean Hallyu entertainment wave in the United States. He played a key role in producing one of the most successful Korean films ever made. However, his battle with addiction eventually overtook him, leading to homelessness on the streets of Los Angeles. Okhui’s faith was truly tested. The profound spiritual wisdom imparted by her mother served as a cornerstone, urging her to embrace prayer and seek divine assistance to save her son. As she navigated the tumultuous peaks and valleys of their shared journey, prayer became her steadfast refuge. Okhui’s story embodies the relentless power of a mother’s love.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/630742 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Scandal of the Century

Author: Lisa Hilton

Narrator: Emma Gregory

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

Release date: May 9, 2024

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

Brought to you by Penguin. A CLANDESTINE AFFAIR. AN OUTRAGEOUS ELOPEMENT. STOLEN LETTERS. SCHEMING SERVANTS. SEX. SENSATION. CELEBRITY. THIS IS THE SCANDAL OF THE CENTURY. There are few labels not attached to Aphra Behn - playwright, poet, a spy, a scarlet woman condemned for loose morals. And yet, for all her notoriety Aphra Behn is an enigma. Born in around 1640, her early life isn't well recorded and facts about her are continually disputed. Her birth name may have been Eaffrey Johnson and she could have been the daughter of a Canterbury barber, although neither fact is certain. And, just after the Restoration she probably briefly lived in the English colony of Surinam in South America, where she was perhaps embroiled in political espionage. Whatever the truth, Behn was in London by 1664 and six years later was writing for the stage. For a decade, Behn's work dominated the London stage. Then, suddenly in 1682, she was charged with libel. Her plays could not be produced and by the time of the trial of the century Behn was broke. She decided that writing would be her way out and began to write a novel based on the most notorious adultress of a notoriously adulterous age - Lady Henrietta Berkeley. ©2024 Lisa Hilton (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/688237 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other

Author: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau

Narrator: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Maggie Huculak, Tess Degenstein, Jonathan Watton, Richard Clarkin

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Release date: April 23, 2024

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

INSTANT #1 TORONTO STAR and GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER Sophie Grégoire Trudeau invites readers on a deeply personal journey toward self-knowledge, acceptance, and empowerment, drawing on the expertise of top psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, and thought leaders. As a passionate advocate for mental health, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau believes that in order to know and accept ourselves fully, we need to understand why we think and feel the way we do, and recognize the experiences, attitudes, and patterns that may be holding us back. And yet, all of us are capable of growth and positive change, if we're willing to stay open and curious throughout our lives. In Closer Together, Sophie shares moments from her own journey: from her childhood, through her struggles with an eating disorder in her teens and early adulthood; from a career as a speaker and television host to de facto 'first lady' and mother of three. Above all, Sophie is a warm and empathetic connector, and her book is enriched by exclusive interviews with experts such as Gabor Maté, Liz Plank, Terrence Real, Catherine Price, Harville Hendrix, and Helen LaKelly Hunt—to name just a few—as she delves into the science behind brain health and our unique emotional signatures. She explores the questions that matter the most for our individual and collective growth, and in how we interact with others: - How does the way we were raised contribute to our sense of self? - How can we better prepare ourselves to deal with big emotions? - What do we need from our relationships, and what can we contribute to them? - What role do physical activity and creative pursuits play in mental health? - How can we let go of what doesn’t serve us and nurture what does? Drawing on her own mindfulness and yoga practices, Sophie also offers journalling prompts and other tools that will guide readers as they explore these questions in their own lives. In creating a space for openness, playfulness, and creativity, Sophie inspires us to see that there are more things that bring us together than separate us, allowing us to stand in the light of our true potential.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/702334 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Between Two Trailers: A Memoir

Author: J. Dana Trent

Narrator: J. Dana Trent

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 27 minutes

Release date: April 16, 2024

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

A powerful, unforgettable memoir about a girl who escapes her childhood as a preschool drug dealer in rural Indiana—only to find that no one can really “make it out” until they make peace with where their story began: home Home, it turns out, is where the war is. It’s also where the healing begins. Dana Trent is only a preschooler the first time she uses a razor blade to cut up weed and fill dime bags for her schizophrenic father, King. While King struggles with his unmedicated psychosis, Dana’s mother, the Lady, a cold and self-absorbed woman whose personality disorders rule the home, guards large bricks of drugs from the safety of their squalid trailer. But when the Lady impulsively plucks Dana from the Midwest and moves the two of them south, their fresh start results in homelessness and bankruptcy. In North Carolina, Dana becomes torn between her gritty midwestern past and her newfound desire to be a polite southern girl, struggling to reconcile her shame with an ache to figure out who she is, and where she belongs. But the past is never far behind. After persevering through childhood and eventually graduating from Duke University, Dana imagines that her hidden Indiana life is finally behind her, only to realize that running from her upbringing has kept her from making peace with the people and places that shaped her. Ultimately, Dana finds that though love for family is universally complicated, there is no shame in survival, and for those who want it, there is always a path home.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/693916 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Did I Ever Tell You?: A Memoir

Author: Genevieve Kingston

Narrator: Genevieve Kingston

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 10 minutes

Release date: April 16, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3.5 of Total 2

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

The most “profound” (Booklist, starred review) memoir you will ever read about the power of love. Did I Ever Tell You? reads like a novel but is an unforgettable true story. Genevieve (Gwen) Kingston was just eleven years old when her mother passed away, leaving behind a chest filled with gifts and letters to celebrate the milestones of Gwen’s life and each of her birthdays until age thirty. When Did I Ever Tell You? opens, just three packages remain: engagement, marriage, and first baby. Tracing Gwen’s coming-of-age, the book reveals a treasure hunt, with each gift and letter unveiling more about her mother, her family, and—ultimately—herself. This transformative memoir is a moving coming-of age story and an “extraordinary testament to the power of love over death” (Sarah Ruhl, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Smile). Like Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, Did I Ever Tell You? is a life-changing story that “has a scope and power that will take your breath away” (Ann Napolitano, New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful and Dear Edward).

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/703070 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Bound Feet & Western Dress: A Memoir

Author: Pang-Mei Natasha Chang

Narrator: Nancy Wu

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 7 hours 44 minutes

Release date: April 9, 2024

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

A harrowing dual memoir that braids the story of a Chinese-American woman’s search for identity with the dramatic tale of her great-aunt, who was born at the turn of the century in tradition-bound China and went on to become Vice President of China’s first women’s bank. 'In China, a woman is nothing.' Thus begins the saga of a woman born at the turn of the century to a well-to-do, highly respected Chinese family, a woman who continually defied the expectations of her family and the traditions of her culture. Growing up in the perilous years between the fall of the last emperor and the Communist Revolution, Chang Yu-i's life is marked by a series of rebellions: her refusal as a child to let her mother bind her feet, her scandalous divorce, and her rise to Vice President of China's first women's bank in her later years. In the alternating voices of two generations, this literary debut brings together a deeply textured portrait of a woman's life in China with the very American story of Yu-i's brilliant and assimilated grandniece, struggling with her own search for identity and belonging. Written in pitch-perfect prose and alive with detail, Bound Feet and Western Dress is the story of independent women struggling to emerge from centuries of customs and duty.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/693905 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Wives: A Memoir

Author: Simone Gorrindo

Narrator: Simone Gorrindo

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

Release date: April 9, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 3 of Total 4

Ratings of Narrator: 4.5 of Total 2

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

“[Simone] Gorrindo’s prose is inviting and fluid, and her storytelling is intimate and vivid...[an] engaging, evocative memoir.” —The New York Times Book Review “A hopeful, unifying memoir.” —People This profoundly intimate memoir about marriage, friendship, and the power of human connection tells the story of one woman’s experience of joining a community of army wives after leaving her New York City job. When her new husband joins an elite Army unit, Simone Gorrindo is uprooted from New York City and dropped into Columbus, Georgia. With her husband frequently deployed, Simone is left to find her place in this new world, alone—until she meets the wives. Gorrindo gives us an intimate look into the inner lives of a remarkable group of women and a tender, unflinching portrait of a marriage. A love story, an unforgettable coming-of-age tale, and a bracing tour of the intractable divisions that plague our country today, The Wives offers a rare and powerful gift: a hopeful stitch in the fabric of a torn America.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/695277 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner

Author: Natalie Dykstra

Narrator: Maggie-Meg Reed

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 15 hours 58 minutes

Release date: March 26, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 3

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

The vivid and masterful story of Isabella Stewart Gardner—creator of one of America’s most stunning museums—an American original whose own life was remade by art. Isabella Stewart Gardner’s museum, with its plain exterior enfolding an astonishing four-story Italian palazzo, rose from Boston’s Fens at the turn of the twentieth century. Its treasures encompassed not only masterwork paintings but tapestries, rare books, prints, porcelains, and fine furniture. An extraordinary achievement of storytelling and scholarship, Chasing Beauty illuminates the fascinating ways the museum and its holdings can be seen as a kind of memoir, dazzling and haunting, created with objects instead of words and displayed per Isabella’s wishes in the exact placements she initially curated. Born in 1840 to a privileged New York family, Isabella Stewart married Boston Brahmin Jack Gardner as she turned twenty. She was misunderstood by Boston’s insular society and suffered the death of her only child, a beloved boy, not yet two years old. But in time came friendships, glittering and bohemian; awe-inspiring world travels; and collecting beautiful things with a keen eye and competitive pace—all these were balm for loss. Henry James and John Singer Sargent—whose portrait of Isabella was a masterpiece and a scandal—came to recognize her originality. Bernard Berenson, leading connoisseur of the Italian Renaissance, was her art dealer. From award-winning author Natalie Dykstra, Chasing Beauty is the story of the complex and singular woman behind one of the most fascinating museums in the nation and the world—a tale of beauty and loss, grit and American self-invention. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/693925 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Where Rivers Part: A Story of My Mother's Life

Author: Kao Kalia Yang

Narrator: Pamela Xiong, Kao Kalia Yang

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

Release date: March 19, 2024

Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1

Genres: Women

Publisher's Summary:

This powerful memoir about a Hmong family’s epic journey to safety is a profound “testament to the miraculous strength of women and the indomitable resolve of the human spirit” (Cristina Henríquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans). Born in 1961 in war-torn Laos, Tswb’s childhood was marked by the violence of America’s Secret War and the CIA recruitment of the Hmong and other ethnic minorities into the lost cause. By the time Tswb was a teenager, the US had completely vacated Laos, and the country erupted into genocidal attacks on the Hmong people, who were labeled as traitors. Fearing for their lives, Tswb and her family left everything they knew behind and fled their village for the jungle. Perpetually on the run and on the brink of starvation, Tswb eventually crossed paths with the man who would become her future husband. Leaving her own mother behind, she joined his family at a refugee camp, a choice that would haunt her for the rest of her life. Eventually becoming a mother herself, Tswb raised her daughters in a state of constant fear and hunger until they were able to emigrate to the US, where the determined couple enrolled in high school even though they were both nearly thirty and worked grueling jobs to provide for their children. Now, her daughter, Kao Kalia Yang, reveals her mother’s astonishing saga with tenderness and clarity, giving voice to the countless resilient refugees who are often overlooked as one of the essential foundations of this country. “Haunting and painfully relevant” (Booklist), Where Rivers Part is destined to become a classic.