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Title: No Excuses

Subtitle: Growing Up Deaf and Achieving My Super Bowl Dreams

Author: Marcus Brotherton, Derrick Coleman, Jr.

Narrator: Sean Crisden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-15

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In this inspirational memoir, Derrick Coleman, Jr., the Seattle Seahawks fullback who won the 2014 Super Bowl with the Seahawks in his second year in the NFL, relates his inspirational story of hard work and determination in his own words. Showcasing his unlikely and challenging journey to become the first deaf athlete to play offense in the NFL, he talks about overcoming internal and external obstacles in the course of reaching your true potential.

Members Reviews:

Inspirational & honest!

I love Derrick's personal message. He is a role model for anyone, not just the deaf or hearing impaired. I am an ASL student and listened to this story for a book report but I'm surprised how Derrick's story has inspired me to be a fan of Seattle.

I just wish this had been narrated by Derrick himself.

Keep inspiring Derrick Coleman Jr.! We need more role models like you for our youth!

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Title: Muscle

Subtitle: Confessions of an Unlikely Body Builder

Author: Samuel Wilson Fussell

Narrator: L. J. Ganser

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-09-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

A hilarious and harrowing firsthand account of the eccentric world of hardcore bodybuilding.

When blue-blooded, storklike Samuel Wilson Fussell arrived in New York City fresh from the University of Oxford, the ethereal young graduate seemed like the last person on Earth who would be interested in bodybuilding. But he was intimidated by the dangers of the city and decided to do something about it. At 26, Fussell walked into the YMCA gym. Four solid years of intensive training, protein powders, and steroid injections later, he had gained 80 pounds of pure muscle and was competing for bodybuilding titles.

And yet, with forearms like bowling pins and calves like watermelons, Fussell felt weaker than ever before. His punishing regimen of workouts, drugs, and diet had reduced him to near infantlike helplessness and immobility. He was hungry, nauseated, and prone to outbursts of 'roid rage. But he had come to succeed, and there was no backing down now.

Alternately funny and fascinating, Muscle is the true story of one man's obsession with the pursuit of perfection. With insight, wit, and refreshing candor, Fussell ushers listeners into the wild world of juicers and gym rats who sacrifice their lives, minds, bodies, and souls to their dreams of glory in Southern California's so-called iron mecca.

Members Reviews:

I am a bodybuilder

has a bodybuilder this takes an in-depth look at some of the things we go through on a day-to-day basis scary thought maybe I relate strongly to Sam in this book although I do not ever want to quit bodybuilding as he does I see the negative effects you can have on the body he calls it a disease I I call it my passion and my will to keep pressing on

To the point.

wow! we all knew it was going on but to an amateur lifter reading the BS in magazines promoting bro science this is a revelation to the uninisiated. Muscles need CONSTANT use or they recede rapidally. Whether you plateau without steroids or go on with them there is no getting away from the fact that muscle building HAS to take over your life.

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Title: Life Is Trichy

Subtitle: Memoir of a Mental Health Therapist with a Mental Health Disorder

Author: Lindsey M. Muller

Narrator: Dana Domenick

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-03-15

Publisher: Mindful Publishing Co.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Life Is Trichy is the true story, a psychology memoir, of a 29-year-old lifelong perfectionist who struggled with the mental health disorders of skin picking, nail biting, and hair pulling. Starting from a young age, this resulted in years of hiding her body-focused repetitive behaviors from everyone she knew while simultaneously pursuing a professional career in psychology to treat others with the same exact challenges. She tactfully weaves actions, feelings, and thoughts from years of sitting in the patient's seat with her professional psychological knowledge in the clinician's seat. Lindsey's personal struggle mixes with factual information to elucidate the tricky and unspoken truth about a classification of disorders affecting approximately 5 percent of the population.

Life is Trichy is appropriate for clinicians, patients, family and friends of hair pullers and for curious minds.

Members Reviews:

Personal story provided me helpful insights

A great personal example of life with Truck. It gave me new insights to help my daughter.

Thank you

really enjoyed this right to the finish a pleasure to listen to thank you

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Title: Under the Same Sky

Subtitle: From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America

Author: Joseph Kim, Stephan Talty

Narrator: Raymond Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-02-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 86 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

A searing story of starvation and survival in North Korea, followed by a dramatic escape, rescue by activists and Christian missionaries, and success in the United States thanks to newfound faith and courage.

Inside the hidden and mysterious world of North Korea, Joseph Kim lived a young boy's normal life until he was five. Then disaster struck: the first wave of the Great Famine, a long, terrible ordeal that killed millions, including his father, and sent others, like his mother and only sister, on desperate escape routes into China.

Alone on the streets, Joseph learned to beg and steal. He had nothing but a street-hardened survival instinct. Finally, in desperation, he, too, crossed a frozen river to escape to China. There a kindly Christian woman took him in, kept him hidden from the authorities, and gave him hope. Soon, through an underground network of activists, he was spirited to the American consulate and became one of just a handful of North Koreans to be brought to the US as refugees.

Joseph knew no English and had never been a good student. Yet the kindness of his foster family changed his life. He turned a new leaf, became a dedicated student, mastered English, and made it to college, where he is now thriving thanks to his faith and inner strength.

Under the Same Sky is an unforgettable story of suffering and redemption.

Members Reviews:

Tugs at the heart strings

Not only was is a great book but the reader really invokes the emotions of Joseph.

All about survival.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would for the history if the friend wants to know more about North Korea.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Under the Same Sky?

The scene in the prologue where the main character has to fight off his prison guard, and he manages to win, and takes his place.

What about Raymond Lees performance did you like?

It was well done, but at times the accent was rather thick where I couldn't understand some parts.

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

Yes

Any additional comments?

A must-have for people wanting to know more about North Korea.

Amazing!

Its so inspiring to hear this. This book really puts in perspective the things we take for granted as Americans, but more importantly the difference we can make with as little as a chicken wing.

A pretty interesting read

I enjoyed reading this story, though after awhile it blends in with the many other stories of escaping North Korea. Still, it is a touching story filled with sorrow and hope.

North Korea refugee stories: Skip this one

Seems like he just wrote a generic story to cash in. Pretty much a run of the mill scenario of events repeated over and over. There are much better books out there about escaping North Korea.

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Title: After Perfect

Subtitle: A Daughter's Memoir

Author: Christina McDowell

Narrator: Christina McDowell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-02-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 408 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In the tradition of New York Times best sellers What Remains by Carole Radziwill and Oh the Glory of It All by Sean Wilsey, Christina McDowell's unflinching memoir is a brutally honest, cautionary tale about one family's destruction in the wake of the Wall Street implosion.

Christina McDowell was born Christina Prousalis. She had to change her name to be legally extricated from the trail of chaos her father, Tom Prousalis, left in the wake of his arrest and subsequent imprisonment as one of the guilty players sucked into the collateral fallout of Jordan Belfort (the "Wolf of Wall Street"). Christina worshipped her father and the seemingly perfect life they lived...a life she finds out was built on lies. Christina's family, as is typically the case, had no idea what was going on.

Nineteen-year-old Christina drove her father to jail while her mother dissolved in denial. Since then Christina's life has been decimated. As her family floundered in rehab, depression, homelessness, and loss, Christina succumbed to the grip of alcohol, drugs, and promiscuity before finding catharsis in the most unlikely of places. From the bucolic affluence of suburban Washington, DC, to the A-list clubs and seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, this provocative memoir unflinchingly describes the harsh realities of a fall from grace. Full of '90s nostalgia and access to the inner circles of the Washingtonian societal elite, Christina McDowell's beautiful memoir is a Blue Jasmine story from a daughter's perspective.

Members Reviews:

Mixed reaction

This memoir details the loss of extreme privilege. But, by the end, I wasn't sure that the writer was missing wealth/father/childhood privilege as much as basic common sense/intelligence. Frustrating. I'm glad I listened to it, but I'm not sure I recommend it. If anything, it's a cautionary tale of the extensive damage that can be done to children when money takes the place of love in a "perfect" childhood that was built on greed and being better than the neighbors. Hmph.

FAR too much name-dropping

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

Not really. I thought I would read about introspection, but it was all about the glitzy perfect life with celebrities that poor Christina and her family had to give up. She portrays herself at completely naive, while still portraying the good life and all the name brands she can fit into the book.

Any additional comments?

I hoped for MUCH more from this book. Perhaps the Amazon reviews made it out to be better than it was, but I wasultimately disappointed.

Interesting, honest story

The story was very interesting and well written. I did not care for Chistina McDowell's voice as she read it- it came off a little whiny and was at times irritating to listen to. But I finished the whole thing and I'm glad I did.

Puts a Face to the Headlines

I always asked myself what family members of those involved in seedy Wall Street dealings did and how they felt after the news broke - this book is an absolutely splendid description of one family's struggle to find happiness, after perfect.

Easy listen

This is a great real life account of searching for purpose and meaning, and realizing that sex, alcohol and drugs won't bring those things.

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Title: No Better Friend

Subtitle: One Man, One Dog, and Their Incredible Story of Courage and Survival in WWII

Author: Robert Weintraub

Narrator: Dan Woren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-05-15

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 97 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The extraordinary tale of survival and friendship between a man and a dog in war.

Flight technician Frank Williams and Judy, a purebred pointer, met in the most unlikely of places: a World War II internment camp in the Pacific. Judy was a fiercely loyal dog, with a keen sense for who was friend and who was foe, and the pair's relationship deepened throughout their captivity. When the prisoners suffered beatings, Judy would repeatedly risk her life to intervene. She survived bombings and other near-death experiences and became a beacon not only for Frank but for all the men, who saw in her survival a flicker of hope for their own.

Judy's devotion to those she was interned with was matched by their love for her, which helped keep the men and their dog alive despite the ever-present threat of death by disease or the rifles of the guards. At one point, deep in despair and starvation, Frank contemplated killing himself and the dog to prevent either from watching the other die. But both were rescued, and Judy spent the rest of her life with Frank. She became the war's only official canine POW, and after she died at age 14, Frank couldn't bring himself to ever have another dog. Their story - of an unbreakable bond forged in the worst circumstances - is one of the great undiscovered sagas of World War II.

Critic Reviews:

"No Better Friend personifies the relationship we all aspire to have with our dogs, and takes us on a harrowing journey to a place and time lost in the history books. A must read for every dog or animal lover." (Robin Hutton, author of Sgt. Reckless: America's War Horse)

Members Reviews:

Opinion, No Better Friend

I had read a recommendation for this book, a brief one, and my being a dog lover, was looking forward to listening to the tales of this English Pointer. I was so surprised that this far exceeded the story of a resilient, intelligent dog. The history of this part of the world during WWII I wasn't aware of existing. The Bridge Over The River Kwai everyone from my generation is familiar with, but the POW's utilized, and tortured as slave labor building the railroad across Sumatra I was not. It is clear this book has been meticulously researched, and the reading of it was excellent. The trials and tribulations of this remarkable dog, and all of the humans she so positively impacted, is story for any generation. I could not recommend this audio or printed book more.

Sincerely,

Sam Thompson

More of a History lesson than story

Would you try another book from Robert Weintraub and/or Dan Woren?

I don't think so. i bought the book because I love stories about dogs. Of the 14 or so hours of this book, probably not more than two are about the dog and owner. I have not finished the book yet but I am well into the second portion and have finally got to the point where the owner and dog meet up. It has been a struggle to get this far.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Waiting for Robert Crais new book.

What about Dan Worens performance did you like?

The book was performed well.

You didnt love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I think I might have liked an abridged version better.

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Title: Bread or Death

Subtitle: Memories of My Childhood During and After the Holocaust

Author: Milton Mendel Kleinberg

Narrator: Hershel Kleinberg

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-15

Publisher: Fifth Generation Books LLC

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

This audiobook is narrated by Milton Mendel Kleinberg's son, Hershel Kleinberg.

The war brought about scarcities of just about everything... except misery.

"Alle raise," (everybody out), the German soldiers screamed as they pounded on our door with the butts of their rifles. And thus began a 4,500-mile journey from Poland through Russia and Siberia and eventually to Uzbekistan in Central Asia, as the author's family used bribery and darkness of night to flee as the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939.

Young Mendel, from age four to 14, tells in vivid detail the wretched journey in cramped cattle cars through frigid Russia, the indignities of being forced labor, the shame of begging for bread just to survive, and death of those closest to him. The family's plight includes abandonment, hunger, and separation (and later remarkable twists of fate and reunion) quite unlike other Holocaust stories.

This coming-of-age Holocaust memoir is the author's personal account of how - through great sacrifices by his mother - he managed to survive the worst atrocities in human history and his uncertain days in a Polish Children's Home, scrabbling for fallen fruit, and surviving kidnapping and murder on the Black Road, and return to German Displaced Persons camps at war's end. But to what fate?

Originally written as a memoir just for his grandchildren, Milton Kleinberg gives a moving account of his family's hardships and eventual immigration with a lump-in-the-throat passage to America past the Statue of Liberty and into a land of opportunity tinged with bigotry yet with a promise to future generations.

This audiobook for young adults has been reviewed by the Institute for Holocaust Education and includes a glossary, a book club discussion guide, a timeline, and a Teacher's Guide.

Members Reviews:

Remembering so we will never forget

I had the distinct honor to assist with the editing of this Holocaust memoir. Mr. Kleinberg is a remarkable man who carries with him an unbelievable story of survival and resilience. He has chronicled his childhood interrupted at age 4 when the Nazis threw him and his family into the street of Pabianice, Poland, and thus began their tortuous flight through Russia. This story has a happy and surprising ending, but no one could ever be prepared to experience the horror this child endured that included murder, abandonment, kidnapping, death, profound hunger, and hardship. When this generation of child survivors is gone, these stories will be forever gone. Thanks to Mr. Kleinberg for remembering so none of us will ever forget.

I highly recommend this book!

What an amazing story! I am in awe of the things this author and his mother endured and survived. I have so much respect for people who are persecuted for their faith. The Holocaust was a horrible, horrible thing. While I was reading this book, much has been going on in the news about the persecution of Christians in Iraq. Persecution for one's race or beliefs is beyond understanding. There are no words for how terribly tragic it is. But hatred and evil always go hand-in-hand. We are blessed to live in America, the land of the free. We have never had to experience this kind of evil. With all our faults, we are still the greatest country in the world.

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Title: Great Buddha Gym for All Mens and Womens

Subtitle: A Travel Memoir

Author: Sallie Tisdale

Narrator: Tiffany Morgan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-28-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In Great Buddha Gym for All Mens and Womens, author Sallie Tisdale so richly evokes her pilgrimage to the four vital sites related to Buddha Shakyamuni's life and enlightenment that the listener feels as if she's tripping alongside Tisdale every crowded, colorful, and sensuous step of the way. The challenges of travel in modern India are daunting. The ancient sites are overrun with tourists and seekers. Merchants hawking spiritual goods are everywhere. And yet, miraculously, despite the chaos, the great teachings of the Buddha come shining through.

Sallie Tisdale is the author of seven books, including Talk Dirty to Me and The Best Thing I Ever Tasted, a finalist for a James Beard Award. Her memoir Stepping Westward was one of the 100 Notable Books of the West. Tisdale's essays have appeared in such publications as Harper's, Threepenny Review, The New Yorker, and Esquire. She is the 2013 recipient of the Regional Arts and Culture Council Literary Fellowship. She has received an NEA Fellowship in Belle Lettres, a Pushcart Prize, the James Phelan Literary Award, the American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year award, and a Pope Foundation Award and was a Dorothy and Arthur Shoenfeldt Distinguished Writer of the Year. Her work has been reprinted in many anthologies, including Best American Spiritual Writing, Best Buddhist Writing, and Best American Science Writing.

This is a short audiobook published by Shebooks - high quality fiction, memoir, and journalism for women, by women.

Members Reviews:

well done ....but some key words mispronounced

Sallie Tisdale does a wonderful job capturing the Indian experience. The book is a pleasure. unfortunately the narrator mis pronounced the word Varanasi .. a word that is used frequently in the book. I currently live in India and her version of the word is unlike any have heard before.

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Title: The Folded Clock

Author: Heidi Julavits

Narrator: Tavia Gilbert

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-21-15

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 44 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Like many young people, Heidi Julavits kept a diary. Decades later she found her old diaries in a storage bin and hoped to discover the early evidence of the person (and writer) she'd since become. Instead, "The actual diaries revealed me to possess the mind of a paranoid tax auditor." The entries are daily chronicles of anxieties about grades, looks, boys, and popularity. After reading the confessions of her past self, writes Julavits, "I want to good-naturedly laugh at this person. I want to but I can't. What she wanted then is scarcely different from what I want today."

Thus was born a desire to try again, to chronicle her daily life as a 40-something woman, wife, mother, and writer. The dazzling result is The Folded Clock, in which the diary form becomes a meditation on time and self.

Members Reviews:

No

The author of this book is so not-as-cute as she would like to be. Her narcissism and self-conscious efforts to seem weird are a bummer. Plus, the narrator's falseness and over-enunciation will make you want to end it all. Sorry, but I feel like it's important to be honest, since this is something someone might potentially spend money on. I'm sure she's a very nice person.

New narrator please!

Really, if I can drop my bias against the unnecessarily dramatic, "un-modern" narrator, the material is wonderful. Modern and carefully observant, Julavits has a wonderful mind and her writing translates these thoughts, her life into a entertaining read.

Disappointing

My favorite part of this book is the title. The narration is painful to listen to....very overdramatic or something. The narrator is probably good for other books, but the combo of narration plus writing is painful. The book is supposed to be a diary format, but it feels forced. Like the author writes a sentence or two about her day, the proceeds to tell a story from her past that she tries to tie to the initial sentence, but it's a thin thread. The writing feels forced. Like she's trying to be clever. Or trying to show off how neurotic she is. It was painful.

Not Very Interesting Neuroses

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A more interesting memoir and a narrator who doesn't over enunciate.

Would you ever listen to anything by Heidi Julavits again?

No. Maybe. I might check out a novel by her from the library so I could see what it is like before I waste money on another audible book by Ms. Julavits.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator was trying too hard to enunciate. It was annoying to listen to her.

What character would you cut from The Folded Clock?

It's a memoir. The narrator who is the author. Too many neuroses that were not that interesting. Did she ever pee on the plane? She didn't finish that story. Just because you live in New York, use the F word a few times and worry irrationally does not mean you have an engaging memoir. I couldn't finish the book. I tried several times then finally deleted it from my phone. The title sounded so intriguing. I was very disappointed especially since it was recommended by someone I know who is also a writer and knows the author.

Pure art in text form

if "I take you " is the funniest read this year, This is written Perfection.

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Title: How I Shed My Skin

Subtitle: A Memoir of Integration

Author: Grimsley Jim

Narrator: Henry Leyva

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-14-15

Publisher: HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In August of 1966, Jim Grimsley entered the sixth grade in the same public school he had attended for the five previous years, in his small eastern North Carolina hometown. But he knew that the first day of this school year was going to be different: For the first time he'd be in a classroom with black children. That was the year federally mandated integration of the schools went into effect, at first allowing students to change schools through "freedom of choice", replaced two years later by forced integration.

For Jim, going to one of the private schools that almost immediately sprang up was not an option: His family was too poor to consider paying tuition, and while they shared the community's dismay over the mixing of the races, they had bigger, more immediate problems to contend with. Now, over 40 years later, Grimsley, a critically acclaimed novelist, revisits that school and those times, remembering his own personal reaction to his first real exposure to black children and to their culture, and to his growing awareness of his own mostly unrecognized racist attitudes. How I Shed My Skin is both true and deeply moving, an important work that takes listeners inside those classrooms and onto the playing fields as, ever so tentatively, alliances were forged and friendships established.

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]