29 Best Biographical Books
Biographical is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Biographical audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 Biographical audiobooks below.
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Martin Eden
- By: Jack London
- Narrator: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.47(27218 ratings)
4.47(27218 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDMartin Eden is living in California at the beginning of the 1900s where he struggles to rise above his destitute, proletarian circumstances through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literaryMartin Eden is living in California at the beginning of the 1900s where he struggles to rise above his destitute, proletarian circumstances through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite. His principal motivation is his love for Ruth Morse, a member of a bourgeois family. But as Eden is a rough, uneducated sailor from a working-class background, a marriage between them would be impossible, unless he reached their level of wealth and status.
Eden promises Ruth that success will come. Although an impoverished seaman, he obsessively and aggressively pursues dreams of education and literary fame. But Ruth loses her patience and rejects him in a letter.
By the time Eden gains success with publishers and the bourgeoisie who had shunned him, he has developed a grudge against them and become jaded by toil and unrequited love. His success fails to satisfy him, and he comes to believe that people did not value him for himself or for his work but only for his fame.
Martin Eden is considered a semiautobiographical novel in which Jack London expressed his critique of individualism.
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Igifu
- By: Scholastique Mukasonga
- Narrator: Virtic Emil Brown
- Length: 3 hours 24 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.42(349 ratings)
4.42(349 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDThe stories in Igifu summon phantom memories of Rwanda and radiate with the fierce ache of a survivor. Scholastique Mukasonga’s five autobiographical stories rend a glorious Rwanda from the obliterating force of recent history, conjuring theThe stories in Igifu summon phantom memories of Rwanda and radiate with the fierce ache of a survivor.
Scholastique Mukasonga’s five autobiographical stories rend a glorious Rwanda from the obliterating force of recent history, conjuring the noble cows of her home or the dew-swollen grass they graze on.
In the title story, five-year-old Colomba tells of a merciless overlord, hunger or “igifu,” gnawing away at her belly. She searches for sap at the bud of a flower, scraps of sweet potato at the foot of her parent’s bed, or a few grains of sorghum in the floor sweepings. Igifu becomes a dizzying hole in her stomach, a plunging abyss into which she falls. In a desperate act of preservation, Colomba’s mother gathers enough sorghum to whip up a nourishing porridge, bringing Colomba back to life. This elixir courses through each story, a balm to soothe the pains of those so ferociously fighting for survival.
The writing eclipses the great gaps of time and memory; in one scene she is a child sitting squat with a jug of sweet, frothy milk, and in another she is an exiled teacher, writing down lists of her dead. As in all her work, Mukasonga sits up with them, her witty and beaming beloved.
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The Mirror & the Light
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrator: Ben Miles
- Length: 38 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 10, 2020
- Language: English
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4.39(5287 ratings)
4.39(5287 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0049.99 USD“The many listeners enthralled by the earlier two volumes in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy will find all their expectations met in this final installment… Here is a narrative achievement of the highest order.” —“The many listeners enthralled by the earlier two volumes in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy will find all their expectations met in this final installment… Here is a narrative achievement of the highest order.” — AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner
This program is read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies
*This program includes a bonus conversation between Ben Miles and Hilary Mantel*“If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?“
With The Mirror & the Light, Hilary Mantel brings to a triumphant close the trilogy she began with her peerless, Booker Prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. She traces the final years of Thomas Cromwell, the boy from nowhere who climbs to the heights of power, offering a defining portrait of predator and prey, of a ferocious contest between present and past, between royal will and a common man’s vision: of a modern nation making itself through conflict, passion and courage.
The story begins in May 1536: Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith’s son from Putney emerges from the spring’s bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour.
Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to the breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?
Eagerly awaited and eight years in the making, The Mirror & the Light completes Cromwell’s journey from self-made man to one of the most feared, influential figures of his time. Portrayed by Mantel with pathos and terrific energy, Cromwell is as complex as he is unforgettable: a politician and a fixer, a husband and a father, a man who both defied and defined his age.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
“Miles’ familiarity with Mantel’s portrayal of Cromwell pervades his performance of The Mirror & the Light, which traces Cromwell’s fall from greatness, beginning with the aftermath of Anne Boleyn’s beheading and ending with his own.Miles’ voice carries the power-hungry statesman’s monumental final act with ease and a delicate nuance, as only someone with a deep understanding of the story could.” – BookPage
“Ben Miles — Group Captain Peter Townsend in “The Crown” — has, in addition to narrating this final volume, taken on the massive task of delivering “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies,” as well. He also played Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of “Wolf Hall Parts One & Two,” and captures again the man’s voice, its taint of baseness, its ups and downs and quiet ruthlessness.” — Washington Post
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Once Upon a Wardrobe
- By: Patti Callahan
- Length: 7 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Harper Muse
- Publish date: October 19, 2021
- Language: English
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4.38(11587 ratings)
4.38(11587 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDMegs Devonshire sets out to fulfill her younger brother George’s last wish by uncovering the truth behind his favorite story.¬†The answer provides hope and healing and a magical journey for anyone whose life has ever been changed by aMegs Devonshire sets out to fulfill her younger brother George’s last wish by uncovering the truth behind his favorite story.¬†The answer provides hope and healing and a magical journey for anyone whose life has ever been changed by a book.
1950: Margaret Devonshire (Megs) is a seventeen-year-old student of mathematics and physics at Oxford University. When her beloved eight-year-old brother asks Megs if Narnia is real, logical Megs tells him it’s just a book for children, and certainly not true. Homebound due to his illness, and remaining fixated on his favorite books, George presses her to ask the author of the recently released novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a question: “Where did Narnia come from?”
Despite her fear about approaching the famous author, who is a professor at her school, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with C.S. Lewis and his own brother Warnie, begging them for answers.
Rather than directly telling her where Narnia came from, Lewis encourages Megs to form her own conclusion as he slowly tells her the little-known stories from his own life that led to his inspiration. As she takes these stories home to George, the little boy travels farther in his imagination than he ever could in real life.
Lewis’s answers will reveal to Megs and her family many truths that science and math cannot, and the gift she thought she was giving to her brother—the story behind Narnia—turns out to be his gift to her, instead: hope.
- A captivating, standalone historical novel combining fact and fiction
- An emotional journey into the books and stories that make us who we are
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Walking on Water
- By: Richard Paul Evans
- Narrator: Richard Paul Evans
- Length: 5 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.33(7647 ratings)
4.33(7647 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDWith this New York Times bestseller, the beloved Walk series ends as Alan Christoffersen reaches his destination and the beginning of a new life: “Definitely a journey worth taking” (Booklist).After the death of his beloved wife, afterWith this New York Times bestseller, the beloved Walk series ends as Alan Christoffersen reaches his destination and the beginning of a new life: “Definitely a journey worth taking” (Booklist).
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After the death of his beloved wife, after the loss of his advertising business to his once-trusted partner, after bankruptcy forced him from his home, Alan Christoffersen embarked on a daring cross-country journey–a walk across America, from Seattle to Key West, with only the pack on his back. Through it all he learned life-changing lessons about love, forgiveness, and most of all, hope.
Now Alan must again return west to face yet another crisis, one that threatens to upend his world just as he had begun to heal from so much loss, leaving him unsure of whether he can reach the end his journey. It will take the love of a new friend, and the wisdom of an old friend, to help him to finally leave the past behind and find the strength and hope to live again.
Walking on Water is a beautiful story of one man’s search for a new beginning, of “humorous moments, heartwarming moments, moments of self-discovery, and moments of profound wisdom” (Deseret Morning News). -
The Lost Daughter
- By: Gill Paul
- Narrator: Helen Duff
- Length: 14 hours 25 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: August 27, 2019
- Language: English
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4.32(1105 ratings)
4.32(1105 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDIf you loved I AM ANASTASIA by Ariel Lawhon you won’t want to miss this novel about her sister, Grand Duchess Maria. What really happened to this lost Romanov daughter? A new novel perfect for anyone curious about Anastasia, Maria, and theIf you loved I AM ANASTASIA by Ariel Lawhon you won’t want to miss this novel about her sister, Grand Duchess Maria. What really happened to this lost Romanov daughter? A new novel perfect for anyone curious about Anastasia, Maria, and the other lost Romanov daughters, by the author of THE SECRET WIFE.
1918: Pretty, vivacious Grand Duchess Maria Romanov, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the fallen Tsar Nicholas II, lives with her family in suffocating isolation, a far cry from their once-glittering royal household. Her days are a combination of endless boredom and paralyzing fear; her only respite are clandestine flirtations with a few of the guards imprisoning the family–never realizing her innocent actions could mean the difference between life and death.
1973: When Val Doyle hears her father’s end-of-life confession, “I didn’t want to kill her,” she’s stunned. So, she begins a search for the truth–about his words and her past. The clues she discovers are baffling–a jewel-encrusted box that won’t open and a camera with its film intact. What she finds out pulls Val into one of the world’s greatest mysteries–what truly happened to the Grand Duchess Maria?
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Mumbet’s Declaration of Independence
- By: Gretchen Woelfle
- Narrator: Susie Berneis
- Length: 15 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: February 10, 2015
- Language: English
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4.27(233 ratings)
4.27(233 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.99 USDEverybody knows about the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But the founders weren’t the only ones who believed that everyone had a right to freedom. Mumbet, a Massachusetts slave, believed it too. She longed to beEverybody knows about the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. But the founders weren’t the only ones who believed that everyone had a right to freedom. Mumbet, a Massachusetts slave, believed it too. She longed to be free, but how? Would anyone help her in her fight for freedom? Could she win against her owner, the richest man in town? Mumbet was determined to try.
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Bring Up the Bodies
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrator: Ben Miles
- Length: 16 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: June 16, 2020
- Language: English
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4.27(69754 ratings)
4.27(69754 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0032.99 USDThis program is read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies WINNER OF THE 2012 MAN BOOKER PRIZE The sequel to Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker PrizeThis program is read by Ben Miles, who played Thomas Cromwell in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies
WINNER OF THE 2012 MAN BOOKER PRIZE
The sequel to Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Bring Up the Bodies delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn.
Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.
At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne’s head?
Bring Up the Bodies is one of The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2012, one of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Best Books of 2012 and one of The Washington Post’s 10 Best Books of 2012
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Bring Up the Bodies
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrator: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hours 34 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: May 08, 2012
- Language: English
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4.27(69755 ratings)
4.27(69755 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0032.99 USDThe sequel to Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchantedThe sequel to Hilary Mantel’s 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times bestseller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn
Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice.
At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down. Over three terrifying weeks, Anne is ensnared in a web of conspiracy, while the demure Jane Seymour stands waiting her turn for the poisoned wedding ring. But Anne and her powerful family will not yield without a ferocious struggle. Hilary Mantel’s Bring Up the Bodies follows the dramatic trial of the queen and her suitors for adultery and treason. To defeat the Boleyns, Cromwell must ally with his natural enemies, the papist aristocracy. What price will he pay for Anne’s head?
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Bring Up the Bodies is the winner of the 2012 Man Booker Prize
Bring Up the Bodies is one of Publishers Weekly‘s Top 10 Best Books of 2012 and one of The Washington Post‘s 10 Best Books of 2012 -
Angels of the Pacific
- By: Elise Hooper
- Narrator: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 10 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: March 08, 2022
- Language: English
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4.25(1518 ratings)
4.25(1518 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USD“Absolutely riveting. A stay-up-all night read about two very different women who discover just how strong they can be–and just how much they’ll dare–during the brutal Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II.“Absolutely riveting. A stay-up-all night read about two very different women who discover just how strong they can be–and just how much they’ll dare–during the brutal Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II. This story of endurance and sisterhood will have you turning pages late into the night.” –Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author
If you loved Beantown Girls by Jane Healey and Hazel Gaynor’s When We Were Young & Brave, then you won’t want to miss critically acclaimed author Elise Hooper’s powerful new novel of the Angels of Bataan, nurses held as prisoners during the occupation of the Philippines in World War II.
Their survival would depend on sisterhood and service.
Inspired by the extraordinary true stories of World War II’s American Army nurses famously known as the Angels of Bataan and the unsung contributions of Filipinas of the resistance, this novel transports us to a remarkable era of hope, bravery, perseverance, and ultimately–victory.
The Philippines, 1941: Tess Abbott, an American Army nurse, has fled the hardships of the Great Depression at home for the glamour and adventure of Manila, one of the most desirable postings in the world. But everything changes when the Japanese Imperial Army invades with lightning speed and devastating results. Tess and her band of nurses serve on the front lines until they are captured as prisoners of war and held behind the high stone walls of Manila’s Santo Tomas Internment Camp.
When the Japanese occupation of her beloved homeland commences, Flor Dalisay, a Filipina university student, will be drawn into the underground network of resistance, discovering within herself reserves of courage, resilience, and leadership she never knew she possessed.
As the war continues, Tess and Flor face danger, deprivation, and terror, leading them into a web of danger as they unexpectedly work together to save lives and win their freedom.
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The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr
- By: Susan Holloway Scott
- Narrator: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.24(2150 ratings)
4.24(2150 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDEug+(r)nie Bearhani (1760-1835) was born in Calcutta, raised in Haiti, and brought as a servant–a free woman of color–to America by an English officer on the eve of the American Revolution. Yet none of that prepared Eug+(r)nie for herEug+(r)nie Bearhani (1760-1835) was born in Calcutta, raised in Haiti, and brought as a servant–a free woman of color–to America by an English officer on the eve of the American Revolution. Yet none of that prepared Eug+(r)nie for her next employer: Colonel Aaron Burr, a man some whispered had made a pact with the devil.
The lines between master and servant soon tangle and blur, and first attraction becomes dangerous obsession. Many historians deny she even existed, but Eug+(r)nie and the children she bore to Burr were very real–and so was her little-known marriage to America’s first true villain.
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Sympathy for the Devil
- By: Kent Anderson
- Narrator: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 12 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: July 30, 2019
- Language: English
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4.23(552 ratings)
4.23(552 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDKent Anderson’s stunning debut novel is a modern classic, a harrowing, authentic picture of one American soldier’s experience of the Vietnam War–“unlike anything else in war literature” (Los Angeles Review ofKent Anderson’s stunning debut novel is a modern classic, a harrowing, authentic picture of one American soldier’s experience of the Vietnam War–“unlike anything else in war literature” (Los Angeles Review of Books).... Read moreHanson joins the Green Berets fresh out of college. Carrying a volume of Yeats’s poems in his uniform pocket, he has no idea of what he’s about to face in Vietnam–from the enemy, from his fellow soldiers, or within himself. In vivid, nightmarish, and finely etched prose, Kent Anderson takes us through Hanson’s two tours of duty and a bitter, ill-fated return to civilian life in-between, capturing the day-to-day process of war like no writer before or since. -
A ValueTales Treasury
- By: Spencer Johnson
- Narrator: Daniel Burstein
- Length: 1 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2010
- Language: English
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4.21(32 ratings)
4.21(32 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.005.95 USD#1 New York Times bestselling author Spencer Johnson’s NEW ValueTales(r) is now available on audio! Before #1 New York Times megabestselling author Spencer Johnson wrote Who Moved My Cheese and Peaks and Valleys, he created ValueTales(r),#1 New York Times bestselling author Spencer Johnson’s NEW ValueTales(r) is now available on audio!
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Before #1 New York Times megabestselling author Spencer Johnson wrote Who Moved My Cheese and Peaks and Valleys, he created ValueTales(r), a series of storybooks that encouraged children to grasp important lessons told through the lives of famous figures. Most importantly, he did it in a way that children found irresistible.
Now, Dr. Johnson has teamed with Simon & Schuster to re-imagine these classic tales in a new format for today’s children. He’s even coined a new term to describe them–to describe them–Imaginographies! The people are real, the events are real, but the stories are told in a fun and fantastic way that lets kids get right inside the minds and hearts of famous historical figures to experience firsthand the basic values that helped make them happier, more successful people. Dr. Johnson has collected five of his favorite ValueTales(r) and edited them to appeal to today’s children. Now, today’s parents can share them anew with their own children, helping them to grow into good people, too–one story at a time! -
Gone but Still Here
- By: Jennifer Dance
- Narrator: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 11 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.2(42 ratings)
4.2(42 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAs her recent memories fade, Mary lives increasingly in the past–returning to the secrets of her turbulent interracial love story. Coming to terms with advancing dementia, Mary has no choice other than to move into her daughter’s home.As her recent memories fade, Mary lives increasingly in the past–returning to the secrets of her turbulent interracial love story.
Coming to terms with advancing dementia, Mary has no choice other than to move into her daughter’s home. Her daughter, Kayla, caught between her cognitively impaired mother and her belligerent teenage son, soon finds caregiving is more challenging than she imagined. Sage, the family’s golden retriever, offers comfort and unconditional love, but she has her own problems, especially when it comes to dealing with Mary’s cat.
Throughout it all, Mary struggles to complete her final book–a memoir, the untold story of the love of her life, who died more than forty years earlier. Her confused and tangled tales span Trinidad, England, and Canada, revealing the secrets of a tragic interracial love story in the 1960s and ’70s. But with her writing skills slipping away, it’s a race against time.
Heartwarming, funny, and hopeful, Gone but Still Here is an honest, open look at the struggles of one family as they journey into the unknown.
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Smarty Girl
- By: Honor Molloy
- Narrator: Honor Molloy
- Length: 7 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.19(38 ratings)
4.19(38 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.95 USDA Simon & Schuster audiobook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener. -
Becoming Muhammad Ali
- By: James Patterson
- Narrator: Kwame Alexander
- Length: 2 hours 34 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 05, 2020
- Language: English
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4.19(3692 ratings)
4.19(3692 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USDTwo heavy-hitters in children’s literature deliver a critically acclaimed, bestselling biographical novel of cultural icon Muhammad Ali. “This utterly delightful story about Ali’s childhood is a smash hit.”–SchoolTwo heavy-hitters in children’s literature deliver a critically acclaimed, bestselling biographical novel of cultural icon Muhammad Ali.
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“This utterly delightful story about Ali’s childhood is a smash hit.”–School Library Journal (starred review)
Before he was a household name, Cassius Clay was a kid with struggles like any other. Kwame Alexander and James Patterson join forces to vividly depict his life up to age seventeen in both prose and verse, including his childhood friends, struggles in school, the racism he faced, and his discovery of boxing. Readers will learn about Cassius’ family and neighbors in Louisville, Kentucky, and how, after a thief stole his bike, Cassius began training as an amateur boxer at age twelve. Before long, he won his first Golden Gloves bout and began his transformation into the unrivaled Muhammad Ali.
Fully authorized by and written in cooperation with the Muhammad Ali estate, and vividly brought to life by Dawud Anyabwile’s dynamic artwork, Becoming Muhammad Ali captures the budding charisma and youthful personality of one of the greatest sports heroes of all time.
Longlisted for the 2022-2023 Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award, and nominated for the 2021-2022 Black Eyed Susan Book Award! -
Riding Freedom
- By: Pam Munoz Ryan
- Narrator: Melissa Hughes
- Length: 2 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.18(6901 ratings)
4.18(6901 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDCharlotte Parkhurst was raised in an orphanage for boys, which suited her just fine. She didn’t like playing with dolls, she could hold her own in a fight, and she loved to work in the stable. Charlotte had a special way with horses and wantedCharlotte Parkhurst was raised in an orphanage for boys, which suited her just fine. She didn’t like playing with dolls, she could hold her own in a fight, and she loved to work in the stable. Charlotte had a special way with horses and wanted to spend her life training and riding them on a ranch of her own. The problem was, as a girl in the mid-1800s, Charlotte was expected to live a much different life–one without the freedoms she dreamed of. But Charlotte was smart and determined, and she figured out a way to live her life the way she wanted. Charlotte became an expert horse rider, a legendary stagecoach driver, and the first woman ever to vote. And she did these things at a time when they were outlawed for women. How? With a plan so clever and so secret–almost no one figured it out.
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Notes from a Dead House
- By: Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 13 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.18(74643 ratings)
4.18(74643 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFrom renowned translators Richard Pevear and Lindsay Volokhonsky comes a new translation–certain to become the definitive version–of the first great prison memoir, a fictionalized account of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s life-changing penalFrom renowned translators Richard Pevear and Lindsay Volokhonsky comes a new translation–certain to become the definitive version–of the first great prison memoir, a fictionalized account of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s life-changing penal servitude in Siberia.
Sentenced to death for advocating socialism in 1849, Dostoevsky served a commuted sentence of four years of hard labor. The account he wrote afterward (sometimes translated as The House of the Dead) is filled with vivid details of brutal punishments, shocking conditions, and the psychological effects of the loss of freedom and hope but also of the feuds and betrayals, the moments of comedy, and the acts of kindness he observed.
As a nobleman and a political prisoner, Dostoevsky was despised by most of his fellow convicts, and his first-person narrator–a nobleman who has killed his wife–experiences a similar struggle to adapt. He also undergoes a transformation over the course of his ordeal, as he discovers that even among the most debased criminals there are strong and beautiful souls. Notes from a Dead House reveals the prison as a tragedy both for the inmates and for Russia. It endures as a monumental meditation on freedom.
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Diary of a Dead Man on Leave
- By: David Downing
- Length: 9 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: April 02, 2019
- Language: English
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4.18(578 ratings)
4.18(578 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDFrom bestselling author David Downing, master of historical espionage, comes a heart-wrenching depiction of Germany in the days leading up to World War II and the difficult choices of one man of conviction. In April 1938, a man calling himself JosefFrom bestselling author David Downing, master of historical espionage, comes a heart-wrenching depiction of Germany in the days leading up to World War II and the difficult choices of one man of conviction. In April 1938, a man calling himself Josef Hofmann arrives at a boarding house in Hamm, Germany, and lets a room from the widow who owns it. Fifty years later, Walter Gersdorff, the widow’s son, who was eleven years old in the spring of 1938, discovers the carefully hidden diary the boarder had kept during his stay, even though he should never have written any of its contents down. What Walter finds is a scathing chronicle of one the most tumultuous years in German history, narrated by a secret agent on a deadly mission. Josef Hofmann was not the returned Argentinian immigrant he’d said he was-he was a communist spy under Moscow’s command to try to reconnect with any remnants of Germany’s suppressed communist party. Hofmann’s bosses believe the common workers are the only way to stop the German war machine from within. Posing as a railroad man, Hofmann sets out on his game of “Russian roulette,” approaching Hamm’s ex-party members one at a time and delicately feeling out their allegiances. He always knew his mission would most likely end in his death, and he was satisfied to make that sacrifice for the revolution if it could help stop Hitler and his abominable ideology. But as he grows close to the Gersdorffs, accidentally stepping into the role of the father Walter never had, Hofmann begins to wish for another kind of hope in his life.
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Never Fall Down
- By: Patricia McCormick
- Narrator: Ramon de Ocampo
- Length: 6 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Balzer + Bray
- Publish date: May 08, 2012
- Language: English
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4.16(9952 ratings)
4.16(9952 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDThis National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge. Based on the trueThis National Book Award nominee from two-time finalist Patricia McCormick is the unforgettable story of Arn Chorn-Pond, who defied the odds to survive the Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979 and the labor camps of the Khmer Rouge.
Based on the true story of Cambodian advocate Arn Chorn-Pond, and authentically told from his point of view as a young boy, this is an achingly raw and powerful historical novel about a child of war who becomes a man of peace. It includes an author’s note and acknowledgments from Arn Chorn-Pond himself.
When soldiers arrive in his hometown, Arn is just a normal little boy. But after the soldiers march the entire population into the countryside, his life is changed forever.
Arn is separated from his family and assigned to a labor camp: working in the rice paddies under a blazing sun, he sees the other children dying before his eyes. One day, the soldiers ask if any of the kids can play an instrument. Arn’s never played a note in his life, but he volunteers.
This decision will save his life, but it will pull him into the very center of what we know today as the Killing Fields. And just as the country is about to be liberated, Arn is handed a gun and forced to become a soldier.
Supports the Common Core State Standards.
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Miguel’s Brave Knight
- By: Margarita Engle
- Length: 44 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: June 05, 2018
- Language: English
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4.15(185 ratings)
4.15(185 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis fictionalized first-person biography-in-verse of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra follows the early years of the child who grew up to pen Don Quixote, the first modern novel. The son of a gambling, vagabond barber-surgeon, Miguel looks to his ownThis fictionalized first-person biography-in-verse of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra follows the early years of the child who grew up to pen Don Quixote, the first modern novel. The son of a gambling, vagabond barber-surgeon, Miguel looks to his own imagination for an escape from his family’s troubles and finds comfort in his colorful daydreams. At a time when access to books was limited and imaginative books were considered evil, Miguel is inspired by storytellers and wandering actors who perform during festivals. He longs to tell stories of his own. When he is nineteen, four of his poems are published, launching the career of one of the greatest writers in the Spanish language.
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Jane Two
- By: Sean Patrick Flanery
- Narrator: Sean Patrick Flanery
- Length: 8 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 05, 2016
- Language: English
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4.15(460 ratings)
4.15(460 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDA coming of age debut audiobook from accomplished actor, director, and writer Sean Patrick Flanery explores that powerful first taste of love that sets the bar for something that we’ll chase, usually unsuccessfully, for the rest of our lives.... Read moreA coming of age debut audiobook from accomplished actor, director, and writer Sean Patrick Flanery explores that powerful first taste of love that sets the bar for something that we’ll chase, usually unsuccessfully, for the rest of our lives.A young Mickey navigates through the dense Texas humidity of the 70’s and out onto the porch every single time his Granddaddy calls him, where he’s presented with the heirloom recipe for life, love, and manhood. But all the logic and insight in the world cannot prepare him to operate correctly in the presence of a wonderfully beautiful little girl who moves in just behind his rear fence. How will this magical moment divide Mickey’s life into a “before and after” and permanently change his motion and direct it down the unpaved road to which only a lucky few are granted access? -
What Is the What
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrator: Dion Graham
- Length: 20 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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4.14(75148 ratings)
4.14(75148 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – The epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children –the so-called Lost Boys–was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trekNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER – The epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children –the so-called Lost Boys–was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom.
When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the What is an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.
“A testament to the triumph of hope over experience, human resilience over tragedy and disaster.” –Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times”An absolute classic. . . . Compelling, important, and vital to the understanding of the politics and emotional consequences of oppression.” –People
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The Sea Hawk
- By: Manohar Malgonkar
- Narrator: Adwait Karambelkar
- Length: 11 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: HarperCollins India
- Publish date: October 27, 2022
- Language: English
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4.14(7 ratings)
4.14(7 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDSeventeenth-century India. Chhatrapati Shivaji’s dominion has been firmly established over the Deccan peninsula. Troubled by the mounting European threat along the Konkan coast, the Maratha empire turns to Kanhoji Angrey, master mariner,Seventeenth-century India. Chhatrapati Shivaji’s dominion has been firmly established over the Deccan peninsula. Troubled by the mounting European threat along the Konkan coast, the Maratha empire turns to Kanhoji Angrey, master mariner, excellent swordsman and astute strategist, to lead its navy. For the next few decades, until his death in 1729, no matter who rules the land or lords over the trading settlements, none can defy Kanhoji’s hold over the waters of the Konkan coast.
Join Kanhoji on his many adventures and naval campaigns as he courts danger and evades capture. Manohar Malgonkar’s thrilling storytelling in The Sea Hawk brings to life this ‘Lord of the Konkan’.
Long out of print, this Indian classic is once again available in a stunning new edition!
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Captains and the Kings
- By: Taylor Caldwell
- Narrator: Susie Berneis
- Length: 36 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: October 25, 2016
- Language: English
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4.14(17123 ratings)
4.14(17123 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDJoseph Armagh was 13 when he first saw America through a dirty porthole on the steerage deck of The Irish Queen. It was the early 1850’s and he was a penniless orphan cast on a hostile shore to make a home for himself and his younger brotherJoseph Armagh was 13 when he first saw America through a dirty porthole on the steerage deck of The Irish Queen. It was the early 1850’s and he was a penniless orphan cast on a hostile shore to make a home for himself and his younger brother and infant sister. Some seventy years later, from his deathbed, Joseph Armagh last glimpsed his adopted land from the gleaming windows of a palatial estate. A multi-millionaire, one of the most powerful and feared men, Joseph Armagh had indeed found a home. Captains and the Kings is the story of the price that was paid for it in the consuming, single-minded determination of a man clawing his way to the top.
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Andre
- By: Lew Dietz
- Narrator: Rachel Sieben
- Length: 1 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.13(99 ratings)
4.13(99 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0012.95 USDToni Goodridge raised a harbor seal with her father Harry Goodridge, Harbormaster of Rockport, Maine. The antics of Andre made national news more than once and this is the complete story of his life with the Goodridges. His love for the GoodridgeToni Goodridge raised a harbor seal with her father Harry Goodridge, Harbormaster of Rockport, Maine. The antics of Andre made national news more than once and this is the complete story of his life with the Goodridges. His love for the Goodridge family was so strong that he swam from Connecticut to Maine every spring to be with them again. The personal introduction and afterword by Toni Goodridge adds a unique flavor to the recording.
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!Vamos! Let’s Cross the Bridge
- By: Raul The Third
- Narrator: Gary Tiedemann
- Length: 17 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: October 12, 2021
- Language: English
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4.12(362 ratings)
4.12(362 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.99 USDPeople are always crossing the bridge for work, to visit family, or for play. Some going this way; others going that way. Back and forth they go. With friends on foot and in bicycles, in cars and trucks, the bridge is an incredibly busy place withPeople are always crossing the bridge for work, to visit family, or for play. Some going this way; others going that way. Back and forth they go. With friends on foot and in bicycles, in cars and trucks, the bridge is an incredibly busy place with many different types of vehicles. Little Lobo and his dog Bernabe have a new truck and they are using it to carry party supplies over the bridge with their pals El Toro and La Oink Oink. The line is long and everyone on the bridge is stuck. How will they pass the time? Eventually, everyone comes together for an epic party on the bridge between two different countries. Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go gets a Mexican-American makeover in this joyful story about coming together.
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Thurgood Marshall
- By: Teri Kanefield
- Narrator: David Sadzin
- Length: 4 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: April 14, 2020
- Language: English
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4.11(30 ratings)
4.11(30 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDWhen Thurgood Marshall–the great-grandson of a slave–was born, African Americans were denied equal rights in America. Segregation was legal. Lynching was common. In some places, African Americans were entirely excluded from public life;When Thurgood Marshall–the great-grandson of a slave–was born, African Americans were denied equal rights in America. Segregation was legal. Lynching was common. In some places, African Americans were entirely excluded from public life; they were forbidden to enter public parks and museums or use public swimming pools and restrooms.
After being denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because of his race, Marshall enrolled at Howard University. He graduated first in his class and set out as a young lawyer determined to achieve equality for all Americans. Here is the story of how he did it–how he devised his legal strategy for expanding “we the people” to include all people.
Thurgood Marshall explores his life, from his childhood in Baltimore to his trailblazing career as a civil-rights lawyer and, finally, to his years as a United States Supreme Court justice.
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The Women of the Copper Country
- By: Mary Doria Russell
- Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.11(5356 ratings)
4.11(5356 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDFrom the bestselling and award-winning author of The Sparrow comes “historical fiction that feels uncomfortably relevant today” (Kirkus Reviews) about “America’s Joan of Arc”–the courageous woman who started aFrom the bestselling and award-winning author of The Sparrow comes “historical fiction that feels uncomfortably relevant today” (Kirkus Reviews) about “America’s Joan of Arc”–the courageous woman who started a rebellion by leading a strike against the largest copper mining company in the world.
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In July 1913, twenty-five-year-old Annie Clements has seen enough of the world to know that it’s unfair. She’s spent her whole life in the mining town of Calumet, Michigan, where men risk their lives for meager salaries–and have barely enough to put food on the table for their families. The women labor in the houses of the elite, and send their husbands and sons deep underground each day, dreading the fateful call of the company man telling them their loved ones aren’t coming home. So, when Annie decides to stand up for the entire town of Calumet, nearly everyone believes she may have taken on more than she is prepared to handle.
Yet as Annie struggles to improve the future of her town, her husband becomes increasingly frustrated with her growing independence. She faces the threat of prison while also discovering a forbidden love. On her fierce quest for justice, Annie will see just how much she is willing to sacrifice for the families of Calumet.
From one of the most versatile writers in contemporary fiction, this novel is an authentic and moving historical portrait of the lives of the crucial men and women of the early labor movement “with an important message that will resonate with contemporary readers” (Booklist).
Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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