Listen to Top 100 Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

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Title: Same Kind of Different as Me

Author: Ron Hall, Denver Moore, Lynn Vincent

Narrator: Dan Butler, Barry Scott

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-20-08

Publisher: Thomas Nelson Publishers

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 946 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Listen to the critically acclaimed New York Times best seller with more than one million copies in print. Same Kind of Different as Me was a major motion picture by Paramount in fall 2017.

Gritty with pain and betrayal and brutality, this true story also shines with an unexpected, life-changing love.

Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the "Man" - in the 1960s - by hopping a train. Non-trusting, uneducated, and violent, he spent another 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth.

Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high priced art deals - concerned with fast cars, beautiful women, and fancy clothes.

And the woman who changed their lives - Miss Debbie: "The skinniest, nosiest, pushiest, woman I ever met, black or white." She helped the homeless and gave of herself to all of "God's People", and had a way of knowing how to listen and helping others talk and be found - until cancer strikes.

Same Kind of Different as Me is a tale told in two unique voices - Ron Hall & Denver Moore - weaving two completely different life experiences into one common journey where both men learn "whether we is rich or poor or something in between this earth ain't no final restin' place. So in a way, we is all homeless - just workin' our way toward home."

The story takes a devastating twist when Deborah discovers she has cancer. Will Deborah live or die? Will Denver learn to trust a white man? Will Ron embrace his dying wife's vision to rescue Denver? Or will Denver be the one rescuing Ron? There's pain and laughter, doubt and tears, and in the end a triumphal story that listeners will never forget.

Continue this story of friendship in What Difference Do It Make?: Stories of Hope and Healing, available now. Same Kind of Different as Me also is available in Spanish.

Members Reviews:

Buy the printed book on this one...

I try to stay away from abridged editions and should have with this one. This book was a selection by my bookclub...it's an easy listen, mostly because there is A LOT cut out of this abridged version. There were references to people that were never mentioned earlier and had me asking "who are they referring to?" I had to go out and actually buy the print edition and skimmed through to catch up on what I missed...which was quite a bit. Inspirational story (enjoyed even more by the religious members of our group.)

What a bittersweet story!

What a bittersweet story. I was enthralled from the get-go, my favorite way to start a book. This true story is told from two points of view. One, a 20th century "slave" in the deep south; the other, an affluent art dealer. After years working for "the man," the black man just walked off the plantation sometime in the 1960s. He did not know how to read or write. He did not know the US had been involved in several wars during his lifetime, including two world wars. He did not know he could have enlisted with the service, that he could have received an education, or anything else. To him, it was still slave times. He thought he was doing well when he lived in a two-room shack without heat or running water or electricity because he was at least able to provide for himself. However he never received a paycheck.

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Title: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Subtitle: A Memoir of Life in Death

Author: Jean-Dominique Bauby

Narrator: René Auberjonois

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-20-07

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 168 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Almost miraculously, he was soon able to express himself in the richest detail, dictating a word at a time, blinking to select each letter as the alphabet was recited to him slowly, over and over again. In the same way, he was able, eventually, to compose this extraordinary book.

By turns wistful, mischievous, angry, and witty, Bauby bears witness to his determination to live as fully in his mind as he had been able to do in his body. He explains the joy and deep sadness of seeing his children and of hearing his aged father's voice on the phone. In magical sequences, he imagines traveling to other places and times and of lying next to the woman he loves. Fed only intravenously, he imagines preparing and tasting the full flavor of delectable dishes. Again and again, he returns to an "inexhaustible reservoir of sensations", keeping in touch with himself and the life around him.

Jean-Dominique Bauby died two days after the French publication of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

This book is a lasting testament to his life.

Critic Reviews:

"[A] warm, sad, and extraordinary memoir....Actor Rene Auberjonois's narration adds to the poignancy of the story." (Library Journal)

"As eloquent as Bauby's phrases is Rene Auberjonois's performance of them....Auberjonois also relays Bauby's somber emotions and memories, switching tone effortlessly to express the witty anecdotal reflections that make this an inspiring audio production." (AudioFile)

Members Reviews:

Short but well written

I've been meaning to read this book since it came out in the late 90's. I'm glad I finally got to it. What an interesting perspective on a condition that none of us could imagine enduring. I love reading books that can make us see out of the eyes of people for whom we would give no thought otherwise. (Thinking in Pictures and Middlesex come to mind.) Jean-Dominique Bauby tells of his loneliness and degradation of locked-in syndrome with grace and dreaminess. I am truly amazed at the effort it took to write this book. I wish he could have lived to see his story reach people.

A heart-wrenching and uplifting tale

This was a compelling book. At times quite sad and occasionally rather humorous, Bauby takes the reader on a journey through a life that is irrevocably changed in the space of seconds. This book challenged me to reassess the things I find important in my life and realize that every moment is precious and should be lived fully.

I thought Rene Auberjonois did a fantastic job narrating the story and achieved the perfect tone in communicating Bauby's struggle.

enjoyable

the story was melancholy,but the narrator gave it a happy feel.I will listen again soon

Not read exactly

It was really disappointing that a lot of the words and phrases were changed from the original text.

A Touching Story

I chose this book out of a selection of books for a Speech Therapy class. I enjoyed listening to Bauby's vivid story telling as he learns to adjust to his physical state and the hospital environment.

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Title: The Wolf of Wall Street

Author: Jordan Belfort

Narrator: Bobby Cannavale

Format: Abridged

Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-11-07

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 357 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Soon to be a major motion picture directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

By day he made thousands of dollars a minute. By night he spent it as fast as he could, on drugs, sex, and international globe-trotting. From the binge that sank a 170-foot motor yacht, crashed a Gulfstream jet, and ran up a $700,000 hotel tab, to the wife and kids who waited for him at home, and the fast-talking, hard-partying young stockbrokers who called him king and did his bidding, here, in his own inimitable words, is the story of the ill-fated genius they called...

The Wolf of Wall Street

In the 1990s Jordan Belfort, former kingpin of the notorious investment firm Stratton Oakmont, became one of the most infamous names in American finance: a brilliant, conniving stock-chopper who led his merry mob on a wild ride out of the canyons of Wall Street and into a massive office on Long Island. Now, in this astounding and hilarious tell-all autobiography, Belfort narrates a story of greed, power, and excess no one could invent.

Stratton Oakmont turned microcap investing into a wickedly lucrative game as Belforts hyped-up, coked-out brokers browbeat clients into stock buys that were guaranteed to earn obscene profits - for the house. But an insatiable appetite for debauchery, questionable tactics, and a fateful partnership with a breakout shoe designer named Steve Madden would land Belfort on both sides of the law and into a harrowing darkness all his own.

From the stormy relationship Belfort shared with his model-wife as they ran a madcap household that included two young children, a full-time staff of 22, a pair of bodyguards, and hidden cameras everywhere - even as the SEC and FBI zeroed in on them - to the unbridled hedonism of his office life, here is the extraordinary story of an ordinary guy who went from hustling Italian ices at 16 to making hundreds of millions. Until it all came crashing down.

Critic Reviews:

"A cocky bad boy of finance recalls...[his] career as a master of his own universe....A hell of a read." (Kirkus Reviews)

Members Reviews:

THIS VERSION IS ABRIDGED.

Any additional comments?

When I downloaded this in April 2013, it was the only version available on Audible. I did not realize that it was abridged until I was discussing the book with a friend. We realized that there seemed to be a lot that I was missing. There now is an unabridged version available (that they released just before the movie)...get that one! There was a lot missing from this one.

Way too Abridged!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I find this subject fascinating, but this book was way way way too abridged. The story jumps around, and it's obvious that major pieces are missing. I feel like I read five random chapters. It was not abridged well.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

What Belfort was able to accomplish in so little time is amazing. And the hazardous way he lived his life is quite entertaining.

Some of the characters blended together for me. So many new people were being introduced that it was hard to keep track of them. Perhaps if the book hadn't been so condensed, these characters would have stuck around longer and made more of an impact.

Which character as performed by Bobby Cannavale was your favorite?

Probably Belfort.

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Title: Lone Survivor

Subtitle: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Author: Marcus Luttrell, Patrick Robinson

Narrator: Kevin T. Collins

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-22-07

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2086 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

This is the story of team leader Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of Operation Redwing and the desperate battle that led to the largest loss of life in Navy SEAL history. More than anything, this is the story of how his teammates stood beside him until he was the last one left - blasted unconscious by a rocket grenade, blown over a cliff, but still armed and breathing.

Over the next four days, badly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell fought off six al Qaeda assassins who were sent to finish him, then crawled for seven miles through the mountains before he was taken in by a Pashtun tribe that risked everything to protect him from the Taliban.

In this moving chronicle of courage, Marcus Luttrell offers one of the most powerful narratives ever written about modern warfare.

Members Reviews:

Great listen

The story flew by with great anticipation for what would happen next. Great insight into the story of a SEAL.

god and country

There is not enough ways to thank Marcus and all the others that put their lives on the line for the American people. I admire them greatly and tell that to every soldier in uniform that I meet. I have several family members serving in Iraq, all with tremendous stories of heroism and survival that they tell.

But this book is more than just a heroic war story. It revealed the intense moral conflict Marcus struggled with over whether to execute the goat herders for his own safety or to do the Christian thing and release them. I cannot imagine having to make this kind of decision. For that reason alone, that he faced that dilemma and made a decision, I consider him a hero. And I am certainly not one that believes I could judge him no matter which way he decided. I will recommend this book to all my college students in hopes they will get a glimpse of what it really means to be on the front line.

But I do have one discomforting issue with the way this story is told. This writer sometimes comes off to me as a mindless parrot spouting off silly military and Christian propaganda slogans. I understand in every war each side portrays the other as heartless, pagan, warmongers. We dehumanize them and they do it to us. That way were not killing people, just inhuman scum. Some of the naive comments about the atrocities of the enemy and the syrupy God and Country speeches read like WW2 American propaganda stories. Surely Vietnam taught us that the American public can handle the tough moral issues that are interwoven into any conflict. Surely we know this conflict, this war, is not going to be won by trying to kill all the bad guys and argue over whose god is the strongest. As we kill the terrorists we need to come to grips with the causes of this conflict and try not to let history repeat itself. Sure, thatll happen!

Lone Survior

Lone Survivor is a fascinating story about a little-known arena of

the war on terrorism. As Americans,we should all be better-informed

about such things, if only to be more supportive to the soldiers who

are willing to make such horrendous sacrifices so that we can continue to enjoy our freedoms.

Kevin T. Collins' narration was absolutely superb, and exactly the voice one

would have expected Luttrell to have.

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Title: The Long Road Home

Subtitle: A Story of War and Family

Author: Martha Raddatz

Narrator: Joyce Bean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-23-07

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 109 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In April 2004, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division were on a routine patrol in Sadr City, Iraq, when they came under surprise attack. Over the course of the next 48 hours, eight Americans would be killed and more than 70 wounded. Back home, as news of the attack began filtering in, the families of these same men - neighbors in Fort Hood, Texas - feared the worst. In time, some of the women in their circle would receive "the call": the notification that a husband or brother had been killed in action. So the families banded together in anticipation of the heartbreak that was certain to come.

The firefight in Sadr City marked the beginning of the Iraqi insurgency, and Martha Raddatz has written perhaps the most riveting account of hand-to-hand combat to emerge from the war in Iraq. This intimate portrait of the close-knit community of families Stateside, the unsung heroes of the military, distinguishes The Long Road Home from other stories of modern warfare, showing the horror, terror, bravery, and fortitude not just of the soldiers who were wounded and killed but also of the wives and children whose lives are now forever changed.

Editorial Reviews:

The war, both in Iraq and at home, is ably painted by news correspondent Raddatz. The specific incident depicted is the Sadr City ambush of a platoon from "A" Troop, 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment of the First Cavalry Division. In the ensuing fight and rescue of the platoon, 8 Americans were killed and close to 60 wounded while hundreds of Iraqis were killed. One of the Americans who perished was Specialist Casey Sheehan, son of antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. Raddatz does well in portraying the sacrifices of the soldiers and those who are left at home. Joyce Bean's delivery of the narrative sections of this work is expressive and easy to understand. When performing dialogue, however, her renditions of men in combat can feel somewhat flat.

Critic Reviews:

"A masterpiece of literary nonfiction that rivals any war-related classic that has preceded it." (

Washington Post)

Members Reviews:

Narrator spoils this one

I liked the book a lot but hated the narrator. I agree with the last reviewer than a male reader would have been better. But in addition, this reader dragged on--I wished I had a control to speed her up. I will not choose this reader again.

Great story, horrible narrating

Having a female narrator try to mimic male voices sounded so absurd that it nearly ruined this phenomenal story and absolutely took away from its seriousness. It was so annoying, I could only listen to 20-30 minutes at a time. Read the book, but don't listen to it on Audible.

Narrator ruined the book

What did you like about this audiobook?

I'm sure this story was great but the narrator killed it

What did you find wrong about the narrator's performance?

Trying to speak with a man's voice

Do you have any additional comments?

It was difficult to get past the first 3 chapters...I gave up. Probably a great read but listening was brutal!

Well Done Martha!

I have a personal relationship to this story... my son was there. He was in Charlie Company until just prior to deployment, when he transferred to the HHC as a sniper. In Sadr City, he was in the group responding to assist Hines. Both Hines and Reynolds (Big Country) attended my son's Ranger graduation, after which we spent an evening together.

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Title: Goodbye, Darkness

Subtitle: A Memoir of the Pacific War

Author: William Manchester

Narrator: Barrett Whitener

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-26-07

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 207 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

This memoir offers an unrivaled firsthand account of World War II in the Pacific - what it looked like, sounded like, smelled like, and most of all, what it felt like to one who underwent all but the ultimate of its experiences.

Critic Reviews:

"It belongs with the best war memoirs ever written." (Los Angeles Times)

"A strong and honest account." (The New York Times Book Review)

"When Manchester speaks of the awesome heroism and hideous suffering of the Marines he lived with and fought with, he is reverent before the mystery of individual courage and gallantry." (Baltimore Sun)

Members Reviews:

The best war memoir ever

Manchester fought as a marine in the Pacific in WWII, and he returned there to visit and to drive out the demons of black memory in 1978. His memoir of the trip and of the gruesome horrific events of the 1940's island warfare is the best war memoir I have read in 50 years of reading. The oral presentation in this audiobook is equally well done. The listener begins to think that the speaker himself experienced what Manchester wrote about. Surperlative, simply superlative.

Essential

What did you like best about this story?

William Manchester sounds to be the source of much of today's ambivalent confusion about war, and is writing a fact filled, yet soppy emotional memoir / history of compelling stuff. Writing in 1978 or thereabouts, he illustrates perfectly a Me Generation dream sequence which is absent the conviction of necessity. Manchester writes as if, and clearly you can hear it in his articulation, the war was a great revelation to him and thus to everyone. In this regard he displays a kind of shocked naiveté, as if the two World Wars were something just invented for his father and himself, custom-made to drive him to madness. So he deals with repressed memories, and the shock of being amidst the random chaos and violence, and the amazement of how empty such places were after the war.

Manchester plays the role of the callow youth experiencing war, trying to deal with cowardice and bravado, and how neither of these simple expressions of manhood seem to have much to do with who dies and who survives the brutalities of the Pacific theater. A sergeant trying to lead men, who develops through sheer luck, an ability to survive the horrors of jungle warfare on extremely remote inhospitable islands.

The book serves as my first look into the complexities and the battles of the Pacific. Ask me yesterday and I might have said, Iwo Jima, Midway and Pearl, but now my understanding has been extended a great deal. Recognizing how close the Japanese came to Australia was a great revelation of the book, as well as the parallel drives northward of McArthur and Nimitz. The change in tactics by the Japanese and their all-consuming drive for victory as Dai Nippon has given me a new appreciation for why they were so hated by the Chinese. The devotion of many Pacific island natives to the Americans was something you never hear about, nor the primitive manner in which they lived and how Dai Nippon forced them into labor. The Solomons, the Marianas.

It may be because he also wrote extensively about McArthur and Churchill that his own experience as recounted in this book seems to define so well many of the anti-war sentiments of the a man who clearly absorbed the import of the counterculture in American life.

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Title: Miracle in the Andes

Subtitle: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home

Author: Nando Parrado, Vince Rause

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-03-06

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 474 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Nando Parrado was unconscious for three days before he woke to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as their family members and supporters, to an exhibition game in Chile had crashed somewhere deep in the Andes. He soon learned that many were dead or dying, among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a lifeless glacier at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search for them had been called off.

As time passed and Nando's thoughts turned increasingly to his father, who he knew must be consumed with grief, Nando resolved that he must get home or die trying. He would challenge the Andes, even though he was certain the effort would kill him, telling himself that even if he failed he would die that much closer to his father. It was a desperate decision, but it was also his only chance. So Nando, an ordinary young man with no disposition for leadership or heroism, led an expedition up the treacherous slopes of a snow-capped mountain and across 45 miles of frozen wilderness in an attempt to find help.

Thirty years after the disaster Nando tells his story with remarkable candor and depth of feeling. Miracle in the Andes, a first person account of the crash and its aftermath, is more than a riveting tale of true-life adventure: it is a revealing look at life at the edge of death and a meditation on the limitless redemptive power of love.

Critic Reviews:

"An amazing story of bravery and courage." (Booklist)

"This is a fresh, gripping page-turner that will satisfy adventure readers, and a complex reflection on camaraderie, family, and love." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

A Must Listen

Retold by the survivor most responsible for the group's rescue, this excellent book not only provides a spellbinding rendition of one of the great survival stories of all time, but also provides a unique view into the feelings and thoughts of the people who were there, and a perspective from three decades later on what it means to have survived. This is one audio book you will not want turn off or even pause. The epilogue spoken by the author himself, together with an interview by the publisher, provides added interest. I've listened to maybe 40 different Audible books, and none more enjoyable or thought provoking than this one. Highest recommendation.

one of my favorite all time books

Would you listen to Miracle in the Andes again? Why?

yes- inspirational

What other book might you compare Miracle in the Andes to and why?

unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Any additional comments?

this is a such an incredible story. to hear about such testing of the human spirit yet it was a challenge met with grace. yes it was hard to hear at some points, but well worth the investment of one's time. what a remarkable man.

Must buy! Amazing human survival

Story: excellent description

Narrator: great and clear, he sounds like and Americanized Nando.

This is an amazing story of human survival. I bought it to learn about human strength and leadership when man is pushed to the edge.

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Title: For Laci

Subtitle: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Justice

Author: Sharon Rocha

Narrator: Staci Snell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-19-06

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 274 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

At the time of her disappearance, Laci was 27 years old, seven and a half months pregnant, and a vibrant presence in the lives of everyone who knew her. How, Sharon wondered, could Laci so suddenly become a missing person? That very word missing seemed premature, somehow suspect. From that first moment, Sharon knew with a mother's instinct that something, beyond the alarming news itself, was terribly wrong. As the world now knows, she was right. Nearly two years after that night, a jury in the State of California found Scott Peterson guilty of the murder of his wife and their unborn son, Conner.

Until now, the world has not had an answer to a question that held countless millions in its grip. Through all the relentless media coverage of this unspeakable crime and subsequent trial, we all wondered: What would it be like to experience such a horror involving your own child and grandchild? What, indeed, was Sharon Rocha feeling?

Members Reviews:

OMG!!!THE BEST BOOK I'VE LISTENED TO THUS FAR!!!

This was the most raw, engaging , emotional, honest story I've heard since I have started my membership with Audible. I find that with most books I've purchased , there may be 1 for every 10 I buy that actually hold my interest long enough to finish it. Well this one by far, WILL NOT disappoint and if someone like me who needs instant and constant stimulation to hold my interest for 11 hours, no break because I couldn't stop listening, then believe me that says a lot! It's a must read!!! Period!

Raw Emotion

This book centers on one thing, raw emotion. Ms. Rocha tells her story from the depths of her soul. She tells of her desperate search for Laci - while her husband is calling his girlfriend, selling Laci's SUV and trying to sell the house.

No man who has one ounce of compassion would act the way Scott Peterson did. I have the sense that he would have looked harder for his dog then he did looking for Laci and his unborn child.

I see websites proclaiming Scott's innocence. Most cases are settled on evidence - only the original people involved really know what happened. Scott had the most important things against him when he went to trial; motive and opportunity. His defense was weak, because he has no explaination for his whereabouts when Laci disappeared - and the inconsistencies in his story are enormous.

His scheme backfired - unfortunately when it came crashing down, it took numerous people with him. And good has come out of this, but in the end it is just truely a deeply sad story. My heart goes out to Laci's family for their tremendous loss.

Courage to seek justice for her daughter.

I remembered the Laci Peterson case, but didn't know a lot about it. After listening to For Laci I sought out more books about this tragedy. I cried listening to Sharon Rocha's heartbreak. I am the mother of a beautiful daughter (only child) and know the powerful love between a mother and daughter. Listening to Laci's excitement about becoming a mother makes it all the more horrible. I was appalled by Scott, Jackie and Lee Peterson's cruelty to Laci's family. This book is about the love of a mother & daughter and the fight for justice.

Leave not KILL!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate to give this book a 5 all around cause it's not a happy story or happy ending but I did cause it shows how much a mother loves her daughter.

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Title: Jawbreaker

Subtitle: The Attack on bin Laden and al-Qaeda

Author: Gary Berntsen, Ralph Pezzullo

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-22-05

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 167 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

With his unique mix of clandestine knowledge and paramilitary training, Berntsen represents the new face of counterterrorism. Recognized within the agency for his aggressiveness, Berntsen, when dispatched to Afghanistan, made annihilating the enemy his job description.

As the CIA's key commander coordinating the fight against the Taliban forces around Kabul, and the drive toward Tora Bora, Berntsen not only led dozens of CIA and Special Operations Forces, he also raised 2,000 Afghan fighters to aid in the hunt for bin Laden.

In this first-person account of that incredible pursuit, which actually began years earlier in an East Africa bombing investigation, Berntsen describes being ferried by rickety helicopter over the towering peaks of Afghanistan, sitting by General Tommy Franks' side as heated negotiations were conducted with Northern Alliance generals, bargaining relentlessly with treacherous Afghan warlords and Taliban traitors, plotting to save hostages about to be used as pawns, calling in B-52 strikes on dug-in enemy units, and deploying a dizzying array of Special Forces teams in the pursuit of the world's most wanted terrorist. Most crucially, Berntsen tells of cornering bin Laden in the Tora Bora mountains, and what happened when Berntsen begged Washington to block the al-Qaeda leader's last avenue of escape.

As disturbingly eye-opening as it is adrenaline-charged, Jawbreaker races from CIA war rooms to diplomatic offices to mountaintop redoubts to paint a vivid portrait of a new kind of warfare, showing what can and should be done to deal a death blow to freedom's enemies.

Critic Reviews:

"Jawbreaker is both a thrilling read and a timely reminder of why America needs a clandestine service." (James Dobbins, Director of International Security and Defense Policy, Rand Corporation; Former U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan)

Members Reviews:

A great read (err - Listen)

This audio book had me rivited to my speakers - I learned so much about our actions in Afganistan and at the same time was amazed by the actions, firepower and just how close we came to capturing Bin Laden. Unfortunately, the CIA sensored REDACTED so many parts of the book - I felt teased. I am DYING for an uncencored revision.

Fasinating

I really enjoyed this book, although it would of been so much better if there had been less censorship by the CIA. The frustration of about the censorship was only heightened because there was information removed that I had already heard in other books or had already been published in the media.

Deleted

Couldn't get comfortable with this book from the start. The "deleted" and "section deleted" parts start from the beginning and just never stop. It left me feeling like I was missing something throughout. Too annoying to even finish the book. Really disappointed. Too bad because I would imagine it was a pretty good story. If you want all your book without interruption I would recommend skipping this one.

Great Audiobook

Fantastic audiobook.

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Title: The Heart of a Woman

Author: Maya Angelou

Narrator: Maya Angelou

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-15-05

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 215 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Two-time Grammy Award-winner Maya Angelou performs her memorable fourth volume of autobiography, which began so auspiciously with

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

The Heart of a Woman sings with Maya Angelou's eloquent prose and is filled with unforgettable vignettes of famous people, from Billie Holiday to Malcolm X. Even more central is Maya Angelou's chronicle of the joys and the burdens of being a black mother in America and how the son she has cherished so intensely and worked for so devotedly finally grows to be a man.

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©1997 Maya Angelou (P)1997 Random House Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"What a woman! What a heart!" (AudioFile) "Remarkable....A great lady moving right on through a great memoir." (Kirkus Reviews)

Members Reviews:

A Real Woman's point of view

She is exceptional. Direct, soft, hard, savy, resourceful, a real woman with a great point of view. Through all her pain and suffering she can still stand tall and tell her real story. Amazing woman.

Loved it.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Heart of a Woman to be better than the print version?

Yes, because to hear Ms Angelou's own voice makes it so much more interesting. If that's even possible.

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

Both!

Wonderful

What did you love best about The Heart of a Woman?

This is very good listening. The reader (Dr. Angelou) pulls you into the book as if you were their. I am looking forward in listening to other books by Dr. Angelou.

What did you like best about this story?

I like best how I feel like I can visualize what is being said.

What does Maya Angelou bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

Dr. Angelou brings the story alive

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

yes. I could not turn it off

Lovingly spoken life stories.

Vivid and entertaining reminiscences of her life in New York City and Africa lyrically told by the one and only Maya Angelou. Her deep sonorous voice carries the listener along on her adventures through dramatic political landscapes meeting interesting characters along the way. The love and tenderness she has for her teenage son, along for the journey, is very moving.

Its Maya

Theres really no other words. Its Maya. She is verbal beauty.

-soothing

-soulful

-symbolic

-stunning