New Free Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, Memoirs

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/684905 to listen full audiobooks. Title: A Purposeful Life: What I’ve Learned About Breaking Barriers and Inspiring Change Author: Dawn Butler Narrator: Dawn Butler Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 26 minutes Release date: August 24, 2023 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. Dawn Butler is the trailblazing Labour MP for Brent Central, best known for speaking truth to power. In 2021, she was famously ejected from the House of Commons and threatened with police for calling Boris Johnson a liar. Her tireless campaigning to eradicate injustice, from the Met Police to the NHS, has changed lives, but until now, she's never talked openly about what has inspired and motivated her to persevere in the face of oppression. Drawing from lessons from her own life, Dawn shows how traditional routes to success and power are outdated, and reveals that it's easier than we think to disrupt a broken system. She shares the values, people, places and beliefs that have helped her forge her own authentic path to power, including celebrating the strength of diverse communities, looking at an issue from all angles, and embracing intersectionality to drive real change. As the third Black woman ever to be elected as an MP, Dawn is a true pioneer, and now she wants to give others the courage and conviction to dream big and improve the world around them. Ultimately, A Purposeful Life is uplifting and hopeful, showing how anybody can make positive change, even when our systems and structures feel irrevocably broken. ©2023 Dawn Butler (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/676232 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Like Every Form of Love: A Memoir of Friendship and True Crime Author: Padma Viswanathan Narrator: Padma Viswanathan Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 54 minutes Release date: August 22, 2023 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: From the Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist, a gripping exploration of class, race, friendship, sexuality, what an author owes her subject and what it means to be a good person—all wrapped up in a riveting Canadian true crime story. Padma Viswanathan was staying on a houseboat on Vancouver Island when she struck up a friendship with a warm-hearted, working-class queer man named Phillip. Their lives were so different it seemed unlikely to Padma that their relationship would last after she returned to her usual life. But, that week, Phillip told her a story from his childhood that kept them connected for more than twenty years. Phillip was the son of a severe, abusive man named Harvey, a miner, farmer and communist. After Phillip’s mother left the family, Harvey advertised for a housekeeper-with-benefits. And so Del, the most glamorous and loving of stepmothers, stepped into Phillip's life. Del had hung out with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in Mexico City before the Cuban revolution; she was also a convicted bank robber who had violated her parole and was suspected in her ex-husband’s murder. Phillip had long since lost track of Del, but when Padma said she’d like to write about her and about his own young life, he eagerly agreed. Quickly, though, Padma’s research uncovered hidden truths about these larger-than-real-life characters. Watching the effects on Phillip as these secrets, evasions and traumas came to light, she increasingly feared that when it came to the book or the friendship, only one of them would get out of this process alive.  In this unforgettable memoir, Padma reflects on the joys and frictions of this strange journey with grace, humour and poetry, including original readings of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales and other stories that beautifully echo her characters’ adventures and her own. Like Every Form of Love is that rare thing: an irresistible literary page-turner that twists and turns, delivering powerful revelations, right to the very end.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/674916 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Abandoned Child: From the No.1 bestselling author, a new true story of abuse and survival for fans of Cathy Glass Author: Toni Maguire Narrator: Katy Sobey Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 9 minutes Release date: August 17, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 1 of Total 1 Ratings of Narrator: 1 of Total 1 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: From the million-copy bestselling author Toni Maguire comes a new true story of neglect, abuse and survival. Amy had a happy childhood until the sudden death of her mother when she was ten years old. Eventually abandoned by her father, she found herself falling prey to the evil that lurked in her school and on the streets. Addicted to heroin by the age of twelve, Amy attempted to get clean in the hopes of reconciling with her father and his new wife. But unable to rid herself of her addiction, she fell into a world of hard drug use, homelessness, imprisonment and abusive relationships. At Amy's lowest ebb, she found the strength to turn her life around. Abandoned Child is her incredible story of survival, and how finding self-worth and love from the right person changed her future. EditBuild

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/674912 to listen full audiobooks. Title: What's That Lady Doing?: Guilt, Shame, Blame and Other Funny Stories Author: Lou Sanders Narrator: Lou Sanders Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 4 hours 38 minutes Release date: August 17, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: For fans of Really Good Actually and I'm Glad My Mom Died 'A deftness that catches your breath' - Fern Brady 'An incredible piece of writing' - Brett Goldstein 'Interrogates moments of trauma with insight, kindness and humanity' - John Robins This is a book about mistakes. And why we should de-flower shame in all its messy, complicated glory... Hello! It's Lou here... I've poured my heart and guts on to the page and shared my soul in this book. This won't be for everyone but I hope it helps the people it does connect with. We all have stories and I think its useful to share them, I think it helps unite us and in some ways it helps us release some shame. I've been alarmingly truthful and sincere, because I think society would be better if we could all be honest. I've of course used humour too, not as a way to cope (I've processed the darker things that have happened to me), but as a change in pace, some gorgeous light relief, because life is light and dark dancing together in the wind. And I love jokes. If this is the sort of thing you're after, please pick me up and take me to bed (that's the book speaking so a little joke there).

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/675593 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Bones of Belonging: Finding Wholeness in a White World Author: Annahid Dashtgard Narrator: Samara Naeymi Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 5 hours 55 minutes Release date: August 15, 2023 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: In this exceptional book, inclusion leader Annahid Dashtgard shares her experiences looking for and teaching about belonging in our divided world. Through moving and deft interlocking stories, Dashtgard examines what it means to belong—to a country, in a marriage, and in our skin—and the price we pay when that belonging is absent.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/691585 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Transelectric: My Life as a Cosmic Rock Star Author: Cidny Bullens Narrator: Calum Maccoll, Cidny Bullens Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 20 minutes Release date: August 15, 2023 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: An androgynous gender-bending musician from the get-go, Cidny Bullens toured extensively with Sir Elton John and performed with Bob Dylan, undergoing a complete immersion in the drug-fueled excesses of 1970s rock 'n' roll. Despite getting sober, climbing the charts with the Grammy-nominated Survivor, as well as a Grammy nomination for his lead vocals in the soundtrack for the movie Grease, Bullens was unable to break out as a solo star in a world that allowed its artists to cross the gender line, but had much more narrow expectations about how women could behave and perform. Retreating into the conventional lifestyle of a suburban mom, Bullens felt like she was living in an alternate universe. Then whatever world she had was shattered by the tragic death of her younger daughter from cancer. Out of the ashes of despair, Bullens brought forth an award-winning album, Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth, that relaunched the musician's career. Finally, nine years ago, Cidny claimed his own healing and transitioned from female to male—finding unexpected love, becoming a new stepfather, and a grandfather. What he found, too, was his true voice and true power as a performer.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/692752 to listen full audiobooks. Title: From Princess To Porn Star: A Real-Life Cinderella Story Author: Tasha Reign Narrator: Tasha Reign Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 45 minutes Release date: August 15, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 4 of Total 3 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Once upon a time in the beautiful land of Laguna Beach, California, lived a girl named Rachel. She was curious, clever, and like any hopeful heroine, committed to forging her own path in life. She yearned for more than an ordinary existence and a boring nine to five, so she joined the world of adult entertainment, where she finally felt fulfilled. However, her fairy tale began to crumble when at the mere age of twenty, her father passed away, leaving her evil step-mother in charge of his estate, and Rachel disowned. Despite being down on her luck, she poured her heart and soul into her work, eventually alchemizing into her erotic royal highness, Tasha Reign. But like all the princesses in fairy tales past, she experienced some tempestuous twists and turns amidst her journey. From Princess To Porn Star: A Real-Life Cinderella Story will satiate any unanswered questions one might have about the adult entertainment business. In this remarkable memoir, Reign dives into the many aspects of the patriarchal industry from racism and misogyny that porn perpetuates to the empowering attributes it has to offer. Embark on a lively adventure into the mind of one of porn's most popular, yet controversial actresses and find out how she found her happily ever after in the real world. Contains mature themes.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/694994 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Whatever Happened to Margo? Author: Margaret Durrell Narrator: Roy Mcmillan, Polly Edsell Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 48 minutes Release date: August 10, 2023 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. *With a foreword from Gerald Durrell* In 1947, returning to the UK with two young children to support, Margaret Durrell starts a boarding house in Bournemouth. But any hopes of respectability are dashed as the tenants reveal themselves to be a host of eccentrics: from a painter of nudes to a pair of glamorous young nurses whose late-night shifts combined with an ever-revolving roster of gentleman callers leading to a neighbourhood rumour that Margo is running a brothel. Margo's own two sons, Gerry and Nicholas, prove to be every bit as mischievous as their famous Uncle Gerald - and he himself returns periodically with weird and wonderful animals, from marmosets to monkeys, that are quite unsuitable for life in a Bournemouth garden. ©1995 Margaret Durrell (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/684150 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Disequilibria: Meditations on Missingness Author: Robert Lunday Narrator: Charles Constant Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 32 minutes Release date: August 8, 2023 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: Disequilibria: Meditations on Missingness is a hybrid memoir that recounts the 1982 disappearance of the author's stepfather, James Edward Lewis, a pilot and Vietnam veteran. Recounting his family's experiences in searching for answers, Lunday interrogates the broader cultural and conceptual responses to the phenomenon of missingness by connecting his stepfather's case to other true-life disappearances as well as those portrayed in fiction, poetry, and film. In doing so Disequilibria explores the transience in modern life, considering the military-dependent experience, the corrosive effects of war, and the struggle to find closure and comfort as time goes by without answers.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/678240 to listen full audiobooks. Title: When Your Back's Against the Wall: Fame, Football, and Lessons Learned through a Lifetime of Adversity Author: Michael Oher, Don Yaeger Narrator: Michael Oher, Cary Hite Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 21 minutes Release date: August 8, 2023 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 3 Ratings of Narrator: 5 of Total 2 Genres: Memoirs Publisher's Summary: The NFL champion whose life inspired the hit movie The Blind Side is back with an inspiring and motivating book on overcoming any obstacle, no matter how tough the odds Millions of people became part of Michael Oher’s story when they watched a version of him on the big screen; read his memoir, I Beat the Odds; or cheered him on from the stands. After speaking to so many of them over the years, Oher knows that more than anything, people want to believe great things can happen, even when the situation looks bleak. His story of overcoming the toughest of odds serves as their hope.     Oher’s life has had a lot of unexpected highs: a college degree; four beautiful, healthy children and a happy marriage; drafted in the first round; a Super Bowl victory; and a second chance to play in the “big game.” He’s also run up against quite a few walls: poverty, hunger, homelessness, struggles in school, bullying, job loss, brain injury, anxiety, and depression. What he knows now is that your wall can be your opportunity. In When Your Back’s Against the Wall, he offers encouragement and shows readers how to get back up—again, and again, and again.