9780063017757
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My Life as a Villainess audiobook

  • By: Laura Lippman
  • Narrator: Laura Lippman
  • Category: Aging, Family & Relationships
  • Length: 5 hours 50 minutes
  • Publisher: HarperAudio
  • Publish date: August 04, 2020
  • Language: English
  • (917 ratings)
(917 ratings)
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My Life as a Villainess Audiobook Summary

New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman, a journalist for many years, collects here her recent essays exploring motherhood as an older mom, her life as a reader, her relationships with her parents, friendship, and other topics that will resonate with a large audience. Her voice is wry and relatable, her takes often surprising.

Meet the Woman Behind the Books…

In this collection of new and previously published essays, New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippman offers her take on a woman’s life across the decades. Her childhood and school years, her newspaper career, her experiences as a novelist–Lippman finds universal touchstones in an unusual life that has as many twists as her award-winning crime fiction.

Essays include:

* Men Explain The Wire to Me

* Game of Crones

* My Life as a Villainess

* My Father’s Bar

* The 31st Stocking

These candid essays offer long-time readers insight into the experiences that helped Lippman become one of the most successful crime novelists of her generation.

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My Life as a Villainess Audiobook Narrator

Laura Lippman is the narrator of My Life as a Villainess audiobook that was written by Laura Lippman

Since Laura Lippman’s debut in 1997, she has been recognized as a distinctive voice in mystery fiction and named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. Her books have won most of the major awards in her field and been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans with her daughter.

About the Author(s) of My Life as a Villainess

Laura Lippman is the author of My Life as a Villainess

My Life as a Villainess Full Details

Narrator Laura Lippman
Length 5 hours 50 minutes
Author Laura Lippman
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date August 04, 2020
ISBN 9780063017757

Subjects

The publisher of the My Life as a Villainess is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Aging, Family & Relationships

Additional info

The publisher of the My Life as a Villainess is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780063017757.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

karen

September 02, 2020

WINNER WINNER GOODREADS GIVEAWAY DINNER! review to come!

Kemper

September 14, 2020

Did I once meet Laura Lippman and try to mansplain one of her own characters to her?Yeah, I did. Sort of. But I swear it was an accident!More on that in a moment…Here we’ve got a novelist doing a series of essays, and the topics include family, marriage, motherhood, friendships, aging, accomplishments, tragedies, regrets, sexism, and social media. While those subjects are universal, Ms. Lippman’s perspective on them is unique. After all, I don’t think there are that many former reporters turned award winning crime writers who married the guy who created The Wire.The most impressive thing about this is by focusing in on her specific circumstances Ms. Lippman can then provide insights that apply to a lot of us. For example, her and her husband had become acquainted with chef Anthony Bourdain, and his death was a hard blow for them. People all over the world mourned Bourdain, yet it’s her personal connection to him that leads to a touching examination of not just losing a friend, but also grieving celebrities we never met. In Game of Crones Ms. Lippman talks about becoming a mother. Obviously, motherhood is something that many women experience, but she had her child in her fifties so she’s outside the traditional model. She fully admits that doing this was maybe the ultimate example of white privilege. Yet by explaining why she chose to do it and how she balances her writing with raising her daughter even as her husband is absent for months at a time as part of his work, she once again highlights something that many people can relate to even if her specific circumstances are different than most people.That brings up another interesting aspect which is that despite being well off and telling stories about meeting famous people and traveling the world, Ms. Lippman still comes across as down to earth and not an entitled jerk. It helps that she goes into her middle class background, and how she struggled to find work as a low paid reporter at the start of her career while eventually writing her first books in the early mornings before work. There’s a sense of having paid her dues as well as self-awareness and gratitude about how things worked out that make you happy for her instead of jealous. (OK, I was a little jealous when she talks about being friends with several crime writers I admire.)The thing that struck me most is that even though a large part of this discusses her fears and what she thinks are her shortcomings is just how remarkably self-assured Ms. Lippman comes across. While she can mock herself and find no shortage of flaws with her own character, she’s a woman who set out to become the very person she is now, and she is pretty pleased with the results. She doesn’t think she has all the answers, and she has the same self-doubts that any sane person does. Yet, while she’ll acknowledge them, they don't paralyze her, and she doesn't let herself be stopped by other people's opinions. This gives her a distinct perspective as someone who has thought a lot about what really matters to her, and that's an oddly rare trait.Despite this confidence the one observation I might have made before I met her is that Ms. Lippman seems overly harsh in her self-criticism. The title essay about being a villainess comes from a story she tells about how she divorced her first husband, who had supported her novel writing from the start, just as she was about to hit the big time as an author. She admits to ruthlessly exploiting what she knew about him during the divorce as well as not being fully honest about her feelings that the marriage was over when they separated. She also goes on at length about her failings as a friend as well as tendency to hold grudges.I might have once argued these are just the same kind of things that a lot of people struggle with in their lives, and that doesn’t make her a villain. However, it’s thinking that Ms. Lippman was being needlessly hard on herself that led me to the incident in which I found myself mansplaining her own character to her….I went to the 2019 Bouchercon in Dallas, and one of the authors I was hoping to meet was Ms. Lippman because I’d just finished her two most recent books and absolutely loved them. I saw her and some other writers on panel about unlikable characters, and the lead from Lady in the Lake came up. The book is set in the ‘60s and involves a woman named Maddie suddenly divorcing her husband and leaving her child with him. She finds work as a reporter and begins to dig into the recent murder of a woman. Over the course of the story Maddie shows a streak of ruthless ambition and willingness to screw anybody over to get what she wants.As I recall, during the panel Ms. Lippman was the only writer to declare that she thought her character was ‘unlikable’. I found that interesting because I had very mixed feelings about Maddie and went back and forth as to whether she was sympathetic or not. Yes, she does questionable things, but she’s also a woman trying to make it on her own in a time when that was even harder than it is today.After the panel I went to a signing session, and as Ms. Lippman autographed my books, I told her I was a new fan, and how much I loved her writing. She thanked me, and I had happened to catch her a moment when no one else was in line so we started chatting for a moment. I mentioned that I had heard what she said about Maddie on the panel, and that I was a little surprised that her opinion about the character was so much tougher than my own.She noted a couple of the specific things that Maddie did in the book that she felt weren’t forgivable, and this is where I went off the rails. I wasn’t trying to be the guy who argues with the woman who created the character. I wasn’t trying to argue at all. I was nervous and excited to have the opportunity to talk to Ms. Lippman, and what I was trying to say was that I thought she had done such a great job in making Maddie a real and complex character that despite her flaws, I still felt real empathy for her. Almost a year later, I can articulate that pretty well as I write this review. What I did in the moment was to come across as insistent that Maddie wasn’t as bad as her creator was saying, and when I realized I was botching it, I panicked. And dear reader, that’s when it happened.I interrupted Laura Lippman and started talking over her, and it very much sounded like I was saying that she was wrong. The only saving grace was that I saw the look in her eyes, realized what I was doing, and I managed to shut my big stupid mouth and say, “I’m sorry, please go on.” She was incredibly polite, and she finished the thought I’d so rudely tried to talk over. Then another fan came up to get her books signed, and so I thanked Ms. Lippman again. Then I fled in shame. I looked for an opportunity to see her again that weekend so that I could apologize, but unfortunately, I never got a chance. Now I had to read her essay Men Explain The Wire To Me with my fingers crossed hoping that there wasn’t a brief mention of the idiot in Dallas who tried to tell her about her own character. *whew* So that’s why if Laura Lippman declares that she’s a villainess, I’m just going to nod and agree.

Katie

September 12, 2020

4.5 starsWhile I often read nonfiction, it is usually memoirs or biographies. Pretty rare for me to pick up a collection of essays like this one. I enjoyed a fiction book by Laura Lippman awhile back and that's what gave me the motivation to take a chance on this one. I have to say this book exceeded my expectations and I had a great time reading it.Laura Lippman got her start as a newspaper reporter. She then transitioned into a full time career as a crime fiction writer. In this collection of essays, some of which have been previously published, she covers many areas of her life including work, friendships, becoming a mother in her early 50s, and her two marriages. By the time I finished this book I felt like I had a good sense of who she was as a person but respect the fact she held back a bit. In the introduction she mentions this book shouldn't be considered a memoir as it doesn't cover every aspect of her life. But she covered enough to make it interesting and I loved the sense of humor present throughout the book.I'm not going to lie, I squealed with delight when Laura mentioned she is married to David Simon, creator of The Wire and author of the book which led to the tv show Homicide. (Note to self, read that book because you bought it for your Kindle over 10 years ago and it's embarrassing it is still on your tbr list despite having loved the show) Granted I don't know either one personally but they seem like a great match given their love for the city of Baltimore, and their newspaper backgrounds to name a few things. And since they have been a couple for a few decades I think my assumption is right on the money. I loved the essays about The Wire as I am a big fan of that show as well and it was like getting the cherry on top of what was already a pretty awesome ice cream sundae.Definitely recommend reading if you enjoy fiction books by this author and/or if you like essays that are reflective but with a good touch of humor thrown in as well.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher. All thoughts expressed are my honest opinion.

Brandon

August 26, 2020

My Life as a Villainess is a collection of essays written by crime novelist, Laura Lippman.Over the past number of years, I’ve grown to enjoy essay collections. I admire people who can let others into their personal lives. It takes a great deal of courage to be so open about yourself, especially when you’ve done things that you may not be proud of. It isn’t a gossip thing – I don’t need to know the sordid details of the lives of every public figure (although, I have been known to watch TMZ, so sue me), but I do appreciate it when someone I admire shares the frustration behind their craft, or the moments in their lives where they were wrong.With My Life as a Villainess, Laura Lippman isn’t producing a full narrative of her life. Instead, she muses on topics like family, her early years as a newspaper reporter and becoming a mother at age fifty. She also writes about friends she has lost over the years due to her own failings. She writes about the tragic loss of her friend Rob Hiaasen, one of the many victims of the Capital Gazette shooting in June of 2018. These aren’t fluff pieces, they’re deeply personal moments in her life where she struggles with being an “old mother” and the challenges that go hand-in-hand with aging.For fans of Laura’s husband, David Simon, there is a great essay that closes the collection all about The Wire. Laura goes season-by-season discussing the show’s immense popularity and critical acclaim.My Life as a Villainess is an intimate look at Laura’s life, warts and all. If you’re a fan of her fictional work, I can see you enjoying this as well.

Kirsti

August 07, 2020

Laura Lippman is a grudge holder. This may not be a good quality—I'm trying to be less of a grudge holder myself—but it's entertaining in an essayist. (She's still mad about the secondhand Fiestaware her first husband got in the divorce.) These essays are about being a reporter, a novelist, a first-time mother at age 50, and the wife of a rich, famous "genius grant" winner, David Simon. Lippman likes her face the way it is, even though the photographers for her book covers despair over her upturned nose. She likes her body the way it is, after trying most of the fad diets out there. And she likes writing a book a year even though she (at least for now) no longer needs the money. No wonder, since she had few connections starting out and had to push and push and push and push for her commercial and creative success. Now that she has finally gotten recognition, she gets to do stuff like publishing a children's book (writing it took 20 minutes) and this collection of essays, and I for one love to see it.

Shan

April 24, 2020

This was such a treat, especially in turbulent times. Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC and to Lippman for writing smart, funny, engaging essays that actually kept me from compulsively checking the news.

Jim

April 04, 2020

Excellent collection of personal and cultural essays by the mystery writer, topped by the magnificent "Game of Crones," about being an older mother old enough to be mistaken for the grandmother.

Lori

September 10, 2020

Can’t remember the last time I devoured a book so quickly! Thank you Goodreads Giveaways for this awesome win! I’ve always loved Laura Lippman the writer and now I love the person! Thoroughly engrossing and enjoyable book of essays and what a great way to spend a relaxing vacation day by the lake! Laura shares stories of her life with unflinching honesty and humor and what an interesting life indeed! So happy to be one of the lucky giveaway winners of this fabulous book!

ShirleyS

September 05, 2020

I ran across one of these essays and it made me laugh out loud. So, I googled the author and traced the essay to this book of essays that she had written. I discovered that she was a former reporter and is now a well known crime novelist and her husband is pretty important in the television field. She is brash and outspoken which I’m sure came in handy as a reporter.Anyway, I doubt that I will read her crime novel series but if she writes more essays, count me in.

Laura

July 18, 2022

a wonderful supplement to falling into the rest of her books, this collection of essays really paints the life of a rich Baltimore writer as something way more interesting and empathetic than i imagined going in. while only one or two of these really stand out to me as complete essays on their own, so that i'd call it something more like a distinctly-chaptered memoir. (of those stand-outs, the essay about being an old mother and the titular essay.) altogether, this is really funny and lovely, but does feel a little niche in who would enjoy it -- more a behind-the-scenes of a person who writes very cool things than seeing her really turn her attention toward crafting an essay the way she crafts a crime novel. delighted to learn she's married happily to the guy who did The Wire! will now refer to The Wire as "that show by Laura Lippman's husband."

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