New Full Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir, History & Culture

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/760669 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Klansman's Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism Author: R. Derek Black Narrator: R. Derek Black Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 13 hours 3 minutes Release date: May 14, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: From the former heir apparent to White nationalism, an astonishing memoir of a childhood built on fear, and of breaking from a community of hateDerek Black was raised to take over the White nationalist movement in the United States. Derek’s father, Don Black, was a former Grand Wizard in the Ku Klux Klan and started Stormfront, the internet’s first White supremacist website—Derek built the kids’ page—and David Duke was a mentor. Racist hatred, though often wrapped up in respectability and American history, was all Derek knew. It was their inheritance, their community, their identity. Then, while in college in 2013, Derek publicly renounced White nationalism and apologized for their actions and the suffering that they had caused. The majority of their family stopped speaking to Derek, and they disappeared into academia, convinced that they had done so much harm that there was no place for them in public life. But in 2016, as Derek watched the rise of Donald Trump, they recognized language and arguments they had once helped cultivate—and they knew that they couldn’t stay silent. The Klansman’s Son is a thoughtful, insightful, and moving account of a singular life, with important lessons for our contentious times. The place where Derek’s world turned upside down—New College of Florida—has become a prominent battleground in the fight over race, gender, and education, and few understand the ideology, motivations, or tactics of the White nationalist movement likeDerek. As coded language and creeping authoritarianism spread the ideas of White nationalists, this is an essential book from a powerful voice.“Your family or your soul? That is what the choice finally came down to for Derek Black, whose searching memoir has much to teach us all. Surprises and insights abound in this page-turner composed with candor and grace. For instance, why do White power recruiters focus on those who say, ‘I’m not a racist, but … ’? The Klansman’s Son is a must-read for all who hunger for hope in these cruel times.”—Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America and Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/721171 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Stars Will Still Be There: What my daughter taught me about love, life and loss Author: Nicola Nuttall Narrator: Melanie Crawley Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 12 minutes Release date: May 9, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: The inspiring, life-affirming memoir from Nicola Nuttall about her incredible daughter Laura When Nicola Nuttall was told that her 18-year-old daughter Laura had only 12 months to live, following a diagnosis of the most aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma multiforme, she couldn’t begin to process her emotions. It was her greatest fear come true. But while her mother struggled to adjust and searched for new treatments, Laura made a decision: she would live her life to the full and embark on an extraordinary bucket list. Meeting Michelle Obama, piloting a Royal Navy ship, sky diving, going on safari in South Africa, driving monster trucks, taking tea at the Ritz, dancing on stage in front of thousands and graduating from university were just some of the many adventures Laura undertook. The Stars Will Still Be There is Nicola’s raw but beautifully written account of helping her daughter make the most of her remaining time, while dealing with her own pain along with that of her younger daughter Gracie and husband, Mark. This is a heartbreaking, life-changing memoir that reveals the fragility of humans, the power of love and why we should all ‘Be More Laura’ every single day.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/759619 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Guest Privileges: Queer Lives and Finding Home in the Middle East Author: Gaar Adams Narrator: Gaar Adams Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 31 minutes Release date: May 9, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. An intimate and illuminating account of queer lives and migration, homemaking and community in the Gulf, from a brilliant new voice in narrative non-fiction Upon moving to the Gulf States – where penalties for queer acts include deportation, imprisonment, torture and death – Gaar Adams wants to understand why LGBTQ+ migrants might choose to live amid such peril. From the UAE to Bahrain and Oman to Saudi Arabia – a region where four out of five residents are noncitizens – he begins riskily gathering interviews outside the tightly controlled state media, leading with what he thinks is a simple question: Isn't it harder for you to make a life here? But as unforgettable residents share a kaleidoscope of stories – from uproarious Filipino salon workers throwing secret drag parties to a courageous Pakistani farmhand helping his compatriots smuggle themselves across borders – cracks emerge in the framing of his enquiry, revealing disquieting assumptions about the motivations, places and identities of others. As Gaar begins his own clandestine queer relationship, fault lines and deeper questions begin to emerge: about what we perpetuate and refuse to examine, and how we balance opportunity, risk, subversion and assimilation. Weaving revealing memoir with unprecedented reportage, Guest Privileges is a decade-long journey of dislocation not just through the Gulf States – one of the most maligned and misunderstood regions in the world – but into the very nature of home, belonging and how we form a life and community. ©2024 Gaar Adams (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/738454 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Alcatraz: The Last Escape Author: Mike Lynch, Ken Widner Narrator: Christopher Grove Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 18 minutes Release date: May 7, 2024 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: When Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin boldly escaped from Alcatraz prison on June 11, 1962, it is widely believed that they succumbed to the waters of San Francisco Bay, though no trace of the men has ever been found, only their makeshift raft. In this reexamination of the escape and its aftermath, the Anglin brothers' nephew presents compelling evidence that his uncles did, in fact, survive and eventually made their way to Brazil, where they married and had children. Using official, government documents showing how mobster Mickey Cohen may have been involved in the escape, some revealing letters from fellow inmate Whitey Bulger, and recorded testimony from the person who facilitated their escape to Brazil, the authors make a strong case for the Anglin brothers' survival. In addition, a 1975 photograph of the brothers in Brazil has overcome all challenges to its authenticity by skeptics. This book provides a plausible outcome to one of America's enduring mysteries.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/733578 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Birds That Audubon Missed: Discovery and Desire in the American Wilderness Author: Kenn Kaufman Narrator: Mack Sanderson Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 12 hours 6 minutes Release date: May 7, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Renowned naturalist Kenn Kaufman examines the scientific discoveries of John James Audubon and his artistic and ornithologist peers in this fascinating “blend of history, science, art, biography, and memoir” (Booklist, starred review) that is “a bird lovers’ delight” (Kirkus Reviews). Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science. The most famous name in the bird world was John James Audubon, who painted spectacular portraits of birds. But although his images were beautiful, creating great art was not his main goal. Instead, he aimed to illustrate (and write about) as many different species as possible, obsessed with trying to outdo his rival, Alexander Wilson. George Ord, a fan and protégé of Wilson, held a bitter grudge against Audubon for years, claiming he had faked much of his information and his scientific claims. A few of Audubon’s birds were pure fiction, and some of his writing was invented or plagiarized. Other naturalists of the era, including Charles Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon), John Townsend, and Thomas Nuttall, also became entangled in the scientific derby, as they stumbled toward an understanding of the natural world—an endeavor that continues to this day. Despite this intense competition, a few species—including some surprisingly common songbirds, hawks, sandpipers, and more—managed to evade discovery for years. Here, renowned bird expert and artist Kenn Kaufman explores this period in history from a new angle, by considering the birds these people discovered and, especially, the ones they missed. Kaufman has created portraits of the birds that Audubon never saw, attempting to paint them in that artist’s own stunning style, showing how our understanding of birds continues to gain clarity, even as some mysteries persist from Audubon’s time until ours.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/721169 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Demon of Unrest: Abraham Lincoln & America’s Road to Civil War Author: Erik Larson Narrator: Will Patton Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 17 hours 18 minutes Release date: April 30, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War in this 'riveting reexamination of a nation in tumult' (Los Angeles Times). On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fuelled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter. Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter – a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were ‘so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them’. At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardour at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between both. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous Secretary of State, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable – one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans. Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink – a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/757767 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Julian: Rome's Last Pagan Emperor Series: Part of Ancient Lives Author: Philip Freeman Narrator: Jonathan Johns Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 4 hours 11 minutes Release date: April 30, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: 'When we think of ancient Rome, it's impossible not to think of Christianity, one of its most notable exports—but what if it hadn't been? This is the question provoked by classicist Philip Freeman in Julian, an appealing new entry in Yale's Ancient Lives series, which tells the story of the old faith's last imperial torchbearer.'—Anna Heyward, New York Times Book Review Flavius Claudius Julianus, or Julian the Apostate, ruled Rome as sole emperor for just a year and a half, from 361 to 363, but during that time he turned the world upside down. Although a nephew of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome, Julian fought to return Rome to the old gods who had led his ancestors to build their vast empire. As emperor, Julian set about reforming the administration, conquering new territories, and reviving ancient religions. He was scorned in his time for repudiating Christianity and demonized as an apostate for willfully rejecting Christ. Through the centuries, Julian has been viewed by many as a tragic figure who sought to save Rome from its enemies and the corrupting influence of Christianity. Christian writers and historians have seen Julian much differently: as a traitor to God and violent oppressor of Christians. Had Julian not been killed by a random Persian spear, he might well have changed all of history.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/736814 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Tale of a Wall: Reflections on Hope and Freedom Author: Nasser Abu Srour Narrator: Nezar Alderazi Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 29 minutes Release date: April 30, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Brought to you by Penguin. A Palestinian prisoner’s memoir of thirty years’ captivity, and a love letter to the wall that encircles and comforts him This is the story of a wall that somehow chose me as the witness of what it said and did Nasser Abu Srour grew up in a refugee camp in the West Bank, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. As a child, he played in its shadow and explored the little world within the camp. As he grew older, he began questioning the boundaries that limited his existence. Later, sentenced to life in prison, with no hope of parole, he found himself surrounded by a physical wall. This is the story of how, over thirty years in captivity, he crafted a new definition of freedom. Turning to writings by philosophers as varied as Derrida, Kirkegaard and Freud, he begins to let go of freedom as a question that demanded an answer, in order to preserve it as a dream. The wall becomes his stable point of reference, his anchor, both physically and psychologically. As each year brings with it new waves of releases of prisoners, he dares to hope, and seeks refuge in the wall when these hopes are dashed. And, in a small miracle, he finds love with a lawyer from the outside – while in her absence, the wall is his solace and his curse. A testimony of how the most difficult of circumstances can build a person up instead of tearing them down, The Tale of a Wall is an extraordinary record of the vast confinement and power of the mind. ©2024 Nasser Abu Srour (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/764048 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis Author: Greg Wrenn Narrator: Greg Wrenn Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 7 hours 44 minutes Release date: April 30, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: Professor Greg Wrenn likes to tell his nature-writing students, 'The ecological is personal, and the personal is ecological.' What he's never told them is how he's lived out those correspondences to heal from childhood abuse at the hands of his mother. Weaving together memoir and cutting-edge science, Mothership is not just a queer coming-of-age story. It's a deeply researched account of how coral reefs and a psychedelic tea called ayahuasca helped Greg heal from complex PTSD—a disorder of trust, which makes the very act of bonding with someone else panic-inducing. From the tide pools in Florida where he grew up, to Indonesia's Raja Ampat archipelago and the Amazon rainforest, this is his search for wholeness when talk therapy and pharmaceuticals did little to help. Along the way, as his ecological conscience wakes up, he takes listeners underwater to the last pristine reefs on earth, and into the psyche. Written with prophetic urgency, Mothership ultimately asks if doses of nature will be enough to save us before it's too late.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/765957 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Beacon Bike: Around England and Wales in 327 Lighthouses Author: Edward Peppett Narrator: Edward Peppitt Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 0 minutes Release date: April 25, 2024 Genres: History & Culture Publisher's Summary: The Beacon Bike is the inspirational tale of one man's quest to fulfil the promise he made to himself as a small child, nestled in the bed of an attic room while the glow of Dungeness lighthouse flashed past his window - a comforting, ever-present companion. It is also a loving tribute to the coast; not only its beautiful landscape, but also the communities that make it so special. It celebrates the generosity of spirit found in people around the the country, as well as the history of the iconic lights that brighten their world. This journey is a testament to the joy of life's simple pleasures. A warm welcome at the end of a long day. The fire of a child's imagination, rekindled in later life. The power of a light that pierces the darkness.