Top Website For Audiobooks in Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs and Many More

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Title: Why Marines Fight

Author: James Brady

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-09-07

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

For more than two centuries, U.S. Marines have been among the world's fiercest and most admired of warriors. This pounding look into the U.S. Marines is magnificent in scope and is written by an author that some marines consider to be the unofficial poet laureate of their corps. Brady interviews combat marines from wars ranging from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan, and records their responses in their own unique and powerful voices. These he crafts into an authentically American story of a country at war, as seen through the eyes of its warriors. Americans who experience Brady's chronicle of this part of a soldier's life and its lasting effect may find it impossible to forget.

Critic Reviews:

"For anyone who wants to know how the U.S. Marine team works in war and peace, this book is indispensable." (

Booklist) "These inspirational tales cover as many Marine experiences as Brady can pack in." (

Kirkus) "Vivid....Unusually personal and revealing." (

Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Why Marines Don't Like Brady's Book

Essentially, James Brady has a bone to pick with the Bush administration, and has draped his argument with an American flag and esprit de corps.

He is of course entitled to his opinion, but such work should be appropriately presented. Instead Brady has drawn on the mystique of the Marine Corps and their vaunted courage and honor in order to create a vehicle for his own political opinions.

I thought I was buying a book about my beloved Marine Corps. Instead I received Brady's very narrow political opinion disguised as narrative.

Ray Gardner

Corporal of Marines

1988 - 1992

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Title: Tennis Whites and Teacakes

Author: John Betjeman

Narrator: Charles Collingwood

Format: Abridged

Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-09-07

Publisher: John Murray

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

What does it mean to be English? What is Englishness? For 50 years, at a time when other people were becoming more internationally aware, John Betjeman immersed himself in the glories of English culture: its places, its writings, its heroes. Seaside architecture, national poets, the great cathedrals, our ancient townscapes, all were hard-won achievements, he pleaded, with pleasures and delights that we threw away at our peril.

Tennis Whites and Teacakes brings together the best of Betjeman's poetry, private letters, journalism, and musings to present a fully rounded picture of what he stood for. From his arguments for new steel buildings to his amusement about the etiquette of village teashops, it reveals Betjeman not just as a sentimentalist but as a passionate observer with a wonderful sense of humour and an acute eye.

Members Reviews:

the way we lived then

Would you listen to Tennis Whites and Teacakes again? Why?

i shall be listening to it again tonight and only bought it yesterday. such a joy.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Tennis Whites and Teacakes?

it was pretty much all delightful.

What does Charles Collingwood bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you had only read the book?

CC does an exceptional job in his narration.

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

I did.

Any additional comments?

wish it had been twice the length. Will be listening to it again tonight.

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Title: The Wilderness Family

Author: Kobie Kruger

Narrator: Nicolette McKenzie

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-03-07

Publisher: ISIS Audio Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

In The Wilderness Family, Kobie recounts their enchanting adventures and extraordinary experiences in this vast reserve, a place where, bathed in golden sunlight, hippos basked in the glittering waters of the Letaba River, storks and herons perched along the shoreline, and fruit bats hung in the sausage trees. But nothing prepared the Krügers for their greatest adventure of all, the raising of an orphaned prince: a lion cub who, when they found him, was only a few days old and on the verge of death.

Members Reviews:

Not well written

Good quality narration but story a fantasy for my taste started out ok but seriously an experienced game warden taking children on a walk in territory with dangerousness animals around and letting them run on ahead and not bothering to take his rifle out of the car with him ?? not remotely believable I lost interest in the book and couldn't finish it shame the author didn't research the subject better could have been good

Interesting, enjoyable, emotional, educational

Any additional comments?

So well read with accent and pronounciations. We listened to this in the car for a few weeks before travelling to South Africa and my 7yr old daughter loved it as much as I did. What an amazing woman, family and life. Thoroughly recommend.

A superb story of wildlife

I thoroughly enjoyed this very special story, the Kruger family lead an enviable existence.

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Title: Kiss Tomorrow Hello

Subtitle: Notes from the Midlife Underground by Twenty-Five Women over Forty

Author: Kim Barnes, Claire Davis

Narrator: A Full Cast

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-30-07

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 14 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Kiss Tomorrow Hello brings together the experiences and reflections of women as they embark on a new stage of life. The 25 stellar writers gathered here explore a wide range of concerns, including keeping love and sex alive, discovering family secrets, negotiating the demands of illness and infertility, letting children go, making peace with parents, and contemplating plastic surgery. The tales are true, the confessions candid, and the humor infectious.

©2006 Kim Barnes and Claire Davis; (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"Countering the popular wisdom that a woman's life ends at 35, this volume insists that your 40s and 50s are fabulous....like a visit with very honest, very smart friends." (Kirkus Reviews)

"[A] diverse and satisfying mixture of midlife stories....What unites these new essays is their vivid honesty, capturing universal truths and personal experiences in sparkling prose." (Library Journal)

Members Reviews:

tiresome

I'm having a hard time wading thru this. It's just tiresome.

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Title: At Home with My Daddy's Stories

Author: Kathryn Tucker Windham

Narrator: Kathryn Tucker Windham

Format: Abridged

Length: 1 hr and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-05-06

Publisher: August House

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

She is a living icon of the family storytelling renaissance in America. And to hear her tell it, Kathryn Tucker Windham owes it all to her father, the small-town banker, school-board chairman, and Sunday school superintendent who always came home with a story. These stories celebrate the father he was and the stories that are his legacy. Moving from vignette to story, Mrs. Windham remembers:

Lovingly, her father instilled in his daughter the gifts of keen observation and a facility for language that reward Ms. Windham's listeners with a unique story experience.

Editorial Reviews:

Award-winning storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham shares a look back at her beginnings as a yarn-spinner. It all began with her father, an Alabama banker, who entertained her with his own tales. Windham's natural style and charming accent carry the listener back in time for an endearing glimpse at small-town life in the early twentieth century. She re-creates the Old South with memories of her family and friends, delights with tales of her teenaged adventures, and warms the heart with recollections of a special Christmas. Whether listeners grew up in small towns or just wish they did, all will treasure Windham's yarns.

Members Reviews:

Just lovely!

I heard Kathryn Tucker Windham on NPR's All Things Considered and was immediately hooked. This is a great CD with wonderful stories about her father and stories he told. I listen to books in the car on my commute to and from work and this one made the time and the traffic seem like a trip back to the country and memories of yesteryear were floating around my car. Well worth the money!

What a sweetheart she is.

Kathryn Tucker Windham tells stories of growing up in the south, of her family, and of her friends. This is one very delightful CD. You will love it! In my book, she is a wonderful story teller. She makes me laugh and she makes me sit back and think a bit.

Love Kathryn Tucker Windham

If you have not heard this lady tell/read her own stories, you need to! Her stories are funny and heartwarming tales from Alabama, and she speaks with all of the charm and drawl you expect from the deep South. I have listened to many of her books. They are all wonderful!

Delightful! Gifted storyteller!

I loved her "ghost" books as a child, would listen to her on NPR & read some of her other books too. I was blessed to hear her at the Athens Storytelling Festival, which is where I picked this up. I could have sat an listened to her for hours on end. I just loved the way she would tell a tale laced with humor and her wonderful accent, which sounded, to my ear at least, quite different that my North Alabama one. Lol!

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Title: The Secret Language of Dolphins

Author: Patricia St. John

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-26-06

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Said the author: "When I left the pool that first day, I had no way of knowing I was taking the first steps toward breaking the barriers of dolphin-human communication...[or that] I would go on to find a way to use what I'd learned to improve the condition of other humans. At that first meeting, I had no idea how this information would enable me eventually to free autistic children to communicate with those who cared for them and about them."

Members Reviews:

Really Really Awful

I have never written a review before, but this book prompted the first. This author shares her insights which are not based on any science and frankly just thoughts that anyone might have. Don't waste your time or money on this book.

very good, it's about non-verbal communication

This book is about non-verbal communication, the world of dolphins & autistic kids, and being a passive, empathetic, open-minded "listener" is the key to understanding them. I think the other reviews are unfair and contained to their own left brain limits looking for some techie translator; That just doesn't work with Buddha, love, sex, dance, etc.

complete waste of time

This is 9 hours of dribble about this author's totally mundane daily activities and minute by minutes ruminations. The content has absolutely nothing to do with the language of dolphins or how that might be related to the language and thought of autistic children. A total and complete waste of time to listen to.

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Title: Leaving the Saints

Subtitle: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith

Author: Martha Beck

Narrator: Martha Beck

Format: Abridged

Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-11-05

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 49 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

However, soon after Martha began teaching at Brigham Young University, she began to see firsthand the Church's ruthlessness as it silenced dissidents and masked truths that contradicted its published beliefs. Most troubling of all, she was forced to face her history of sexual abuse by one of the Church's most prominent authorities. This book chronicles her difficult decision to sever her relationship with the faith that had cradled her for so long and to confront and forgive the person who betrayed her so deeply.

This beautifully written, inspiring memoir explores the powerful yearning toward faith. It offers a rare glimpse inside one of the world's most secretive religions while telling a profoundly moving story of personal courage, survival, and the transformative power of spirituality.

Critic Reviews:

"The book is full of Beck's laugh-out-loud hyperbolic wit and exquisitely written insights." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Read it and decide for yourself

I found this to be a riveting story and as a third generation Utah Mormon I found her depiction of Mormon culture to be right on. I was raised in Utah, graduated from BYU and served a mission for the LDS Church, and in my opinion, Martha Beck is just telling it like it is. Anyone wanting a glimpse inside the faith will find her account interesting and perhaps disturbing, but just because you don't like the message why shoot the messenger? I found her personal revelations believable and backed up with strong physical evidence despite family denials. I think people should listen to her well written story and decide for themselves.

Not very good

I don't have much to say. I thought that the reader was great, and I love Martha Beck--but this book was not written at the standard of "Expecting Adam." In fact, I kind of got the impression that her story was a little bit on the bogus side. I was quite disappointed.

What a pile of tripe

Biased, bitter, bigoted and totally misleading. If you want listen to someone's self-absorbed whines, go for it.

What does her family think of this one?

A quick search at google for "Martha Beck's family" will retrieve her 7 siblings response to her book. They all seem to disagree about this being classified as non-fiction.

Terrible

Martha Back has a flair for the dramatic and cares nothing about the truth! I read her book, and her personal life details aside (who knows what the truth is about that stuff) it is filled with lies about the Mormon church to make it look ridiculous. Her whole tale about "leaving the saints" is a bunch of baloney because she never believed in God most of her life anyway. You might read this book for the entertaining aspects as a pure work of fiction. It is full of lies and is just ridiculous!

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Title: Long March to Freedom

Author: Thomas R. Hargrove

Narrator: Alan Sklar

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-10-05

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 34 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Thomas Hargrove's Long March to Freedom is a record of his 11 months as a hostage of Colombian guerillas and was the basis for the movie Proof of Life that starred Meg Ryan, Russell Crowe, and David Morse.

While the movie invented a fictitious romantic angle, Long March to Freedom is the actual journal Hargrove kept in captivity, and the listener gets a sense of the intense emotions and the tension caused by bouts of monotony broken by sudden brutality, as well as the strength, wit, and personality through which Hargrove kept himself alive.

Members Reviews:

B-O-R-I-N-G

I'm really sorry that Mr. Hargrove was taken captive in Columbia for almost a year....but if what he suffered was as bad as it got.....well gee whiz....seems he was out of touch with society and didn't have enough blankets at night....I got really tired of his "diary" notes which kept telling us the time of day....fifteen-forty hours...ten-thirty hours...oh twenty two hours....oh well you get the picture....and his constant telling us of his daily meals which consisted of pasta, rice and beans...sometimes a piece of fish....boring...boring...boring....

TMI

If you enjoy hearing about what this guy had for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 11 months, how much he cried, and loneliness this is for you. Was so glad when his and my ordeal as a reader was over.

18 hours, 1 word - boring

The story is the same thing over and over. I appreciate that this fact is part of the struggle of the story, but it is just too much for audio media.

Poor Tom!

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

A different author.

What was most disappointing about Thomas R. Hargroves story?

Self-pity. Me, me, me.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Long March to Freedom?

Most

Any additional comments?

Twenty-one hours of waterboarding. No, not to Tom. To those naive enough to listen to his whining. Rice and pasta, pasta and rice. Those stupid, nasty FARC child hoodlums ignoring Tom's HUMAN RIGHTS. I never thought I could empathize with FARC. Tom made me come close.

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Title: A Long Way from Home

Subtitle: Growing Up in the American Heartland

Author: Tom Brokaw

Narrator: Tom Brokaw

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 11-22-02

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

Born near Bristol, South Dakota, in 1940, Tom loved to talk from an early age. His first public performance was at the age of four: "My father stood at the back of the hall and held up a silver dollar. If he could hear my every word, he said, I would get that silver dollar." After the war, the family moved to Pickstown, a new town built on the Missouri River to house workers constructing the Fort Randall Dam. The move to Pickstown became a pivotal decision in the Brokaws' lives, as the family began to live out the American dream of community, relative economic security, middle-class pleasures, and, for the Brokaw sons, a good education, American Legion baseball teams in the summer, and a boy's life outdoors. When Tom was 15, the Brokaws moved to Yankton, and there two events occurred that were to shape Tom Brokaw's life: To earn money after school, and influenced by his mother's daily devotion to the Today show with Dave Garroway and The Huntley-Brinckley Report, Brokaw got a job at the local radio station, spinning the new rock-n-roll records; and he met Meredith Auld, a classmate at Yankton High, who would eventually become his wife.

As he describes his pilgrimage, Brokaw also reflects on what brought him and so many Americans to lead lives that are a long way from home, yet are forever affected by it.

Critic Reviews:

"The tales...that Brokaw relates here resonate with universality yet speak to his ability to express his own take on things. His book is no featherweight trip down nostalgia lane but, instead, an honest, moving testimony." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Enjoyed It

Brokaw did a great job incorporating his past with the present...I am from south dakota so it made things easy to relate too...although I do not think u would have to be from south dakota to enjoy it...it is for all readers who enjoy biography type reads

A Clear View Of Tom Brokaw's Rear View Window

When one hears this story from the voice of the teller, Tom Brokaw's life is appreciated even better. With an autobiography as rich and deep as the baritone voice of its owner, the reader is transported to the shaping world and culture of South Dakota, where Brokaw's BEST was WON from the wisdom of hardscrabble circumstance.

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Title: The Coalwood Way

Author: Homer Hickam

Narrator: David Lansbury

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 01-26-01

Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Personal Memoirs

Publisher's Summary:

The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where a beleaguered Homer Sr. is resorting to a daring but risky plan to keep the mine alive, and his wife, Elsie, is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. And Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl whose dreams are as big as his, finds his own mood repeatedly darkened by an unexplainable sadness.

Eager to rally the town's spirits and make her son's final holiday season at home a memorable one, Elsie enlists Sonny and the Rocket Boys' aid in making the Coalwood Christmas Pageant the best ever. But trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider threaten to tear the community apart when it needs to come together most. And when disaster strikes at home, and Elsie's beloved pet squirrel escapes under his watch, Sonny realizes that helping his town and redeeming himself in his mother's eyes may be a bigger - and more rewarding - challenge than he has ever faced.

Members Reviews:

One for the books

This is a very well written book. The life of Homer Hickam was filled with hardships and triumps. I read the book in almost seven hours. I would recomend tho, that you read "Rockey Boys" before you read or listen to this one.