24 Best Women, Family & Relationships Books
Women, Family & Relationships is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Women, Family & Relationships audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 24 Women, Family & Relationships audiobooks below.
-
Aura
- By: Hillary Leftwich
- Narrator: Hillary Leftwich
- Length: 6 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
-
4.44(15 ratings)
4.44(15 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDAura is more than a memoir–it’s a spell book for survival, a powerful promise from mother to son, and an intimate examination of power, spirituality, and the abuse of both. Hillary Leftwich weaves together the stories of her life toAura is more than a memoir–it’s a spell book for survival, a powerful promise from mother to son, and an intimate examination of power, spirituality, and the abuse of both.
Hillary Leftwich weaves together the stories of her life to create startlingly raw memories that are both personal and profoundly universal. She explores the devastating impact of patriarchy in her own life while searching for answers in witchcraft, womanhood, and motherhood. Urgently portrayed and deeply felt, Aura is a complex tapestry of letters, spells, and memories. Her story is a vivid confrontation against an unforgiving world that traps women and children in the systems meant to save them. This is a story for seekers, searchers, and anyone in the process of saving themselves and their loved ones.
... Read more -
Beyond the High Blue Air
- By: Lu Spinney
- Narrator: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 8 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
-
4.37(38 ratings)
4.37(38 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDWhen Lu Spinney’s twenty-nine-year-old son, Miles, flies up on his snowboard, “he knows he is not in control as he is taken by force up the ramp,” writes his mother, “skewing sideways as his board clips the edge and then heWhen Lu Spinney’s twenty-nine-year-old son, Miles, flies up on his snowboard, “he knows he is not in control as he is taken by force up the ramp,” writes his mother, “skewing sideways as his board clips the edge and then he is hurtling, spinning up, up into the free blue sky ahead…” He lands hard on the ice and falls into a coma.
Thus begins the erratic loss–Miles first in a coma and then trapped in a fluctuating state of minimal consciousness–that unravels over the next five years. Spinney, her husband, and three other children put their lives on hold to tend to Miles at various hospitals and finally in a care home, holding out hope that he will be returned to them. With blunt precision, Spinney chronicles her family’s intimate experience.
And yet, as personal a book as this is, it offers universal meaning, presenting an eloquent and piercing description of what it feels to witness an intimate become unfamiliar. This is a story about ambiguous loss: the disappearance of someone who is still there. Three quarters of the way through, however, Spinney’s story takes a turn. The family and, to the degree that he can communicate, Miles himself come to view ending his life as the only possible release from the prison of his body and mind. Cutting her last thread of hope, Spinney wishes for her son to die, and yet even as she allows this difficult revelation to settle, she learns that this is not her decision to make. Because Miles is diagnosed as being in a “minimally conscious state” rather than a “persistent vegetative state,” there is no legal way to bring about his death–a bewildering paradox that Spinney navigates with compassion and wisdom.
This profound book encompasses the lyrical revelations of a memoir like Jean-Dominique Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly as well as the crucial medical and moral insights of a book like Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.
... Read more -
Dancing in the Mosque
- By: Homeira Qaderi
- Narrator: Ariana Delawari
- Length: 6 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: December 01, 2020
- Language: English
-
4.33(2264 ratings)
4.33(2264 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.99 USDAn exquisite and inspiring memoir about one mother’s unimaginable choice in the face of oppression and abuse in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. In the days before Homeira Qaderi gave birth to her son, Siawash, the road to the hospital in KabulAn exquisite and inspiring memoir about one mother’s unimaginable choice in the face of oppression and abuse in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
In the days before Homeira Qaderi gave birth to her son, Siawash, the road to the hospital in Kabul would often be barricaded because of the frequent suicide explosions. With the city and the military on edge, it was not uncommon for an armed soldier to point his gun at the pregnant woman’s bulging stomach, terrified that she was hiding a bomb. Frightened and in pain, she was once forced to make her way on foot. Propelled by the love she held for her soon-to-be-born child, Homeira walked through blood and wreckage to reach the hospital doors. But the joy of her beautiful son’s birth was soon overshadowed by other dangers that would threaten her life.
No ordinary Afghan woman, Homeira refused to cower under the strictures of a misogynistic social order. Defying the law, she risked her freedom to teach children reading and writing and fought for women’s rights in her theocratic and patriarchal society.
Devastating in its power, Dancing in the Mosque is a mother’s searing letter to a son she was forced to leave behind. In telling her story–and that of Afghan women–Homeira challenges you to reconsider the meaning of motherhood, sacrifice, and survival. Her story asks you to consider the lengths you would go to protect yourself, your family, and your dignity.
... Read more -
B.F.F.
- By: Christie Tate
- Narrator: Christie Tate
- Length: 9 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2023
- Language: English
-
4.33(18 ratings)
4.33(18 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDFrom the author of Group, a New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick, comes a moving, heartwarming, and powerful memoir about Christie Tate’s lifelong struggle to sustain female friendship, and the friend who helps her findFrom the author of Group, a New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club Pick, comes a moving, heartwarming, and powerful memoir about Christie Tate’s lifelong struggle to sustain female friendship, and the friend who helps her find the human connection she seeks.
... Read more
After more than a decade of dead-end dates and dysfunctional relationships, Christie Tate has reclaimed her voice and settled down. Her days of agonizing in group therapy over guys who won’t commit are over, the grueling emotional work required to attach to another person tucked neatly into the past.
Or so she thought. Weeks after giddily sharing stories of her new boyfriend at Saturday morning recovery meetings, Christie receives a gift from a friend. Meredith, twenty years older and always impeccably accessorized, gives Christie a box of holiday-themed scarves as well as a gentle suggestion: maybe now is the perfect time to examine why friendships give her trouble. “The work never ends, right?” she says with a wink.
Christie isn’t so sure, but she soon realizes that the feeling of “apartness” that has plagued her since childhood isn’t magically going away now that she’s in a healthy romantic relationship. With Meredith by her side, she embarks on a brutally honest exploration of her friendships past and present, sorting through the ways that debilitating shame and jealousy have kept the lasting bonds she craves out of reach–and how she can overcome a history of letting go too soon. But when Meredith becomes ill and Christie’s baggage threatens to muddy their final days, she’s forced to face her deepest fears in honor of the woman who finally showed her how to be a friend.
Poignant, laugh-out-loud funny, and emotionally satisfying, B.F.F. explores what happens when we finally break the habits that impair our ability to connect with others, and the ways that one life–however messy and imperfect–can change another. -
We Share the Same Sky
- By: Rachael Cerrotti
- Narrator: Rachael Cerrotti
- Length: 6 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
-
4.3(216 ratings)
4.3(216 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIn 2009, Rachael Cerrotti, a college student pursuing a career in photojournalism, asked her grandmother, Hana, if she could record her story. Rachael knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the endIn 2009, Rachael Cerrotti, a college student pursuing a career in photojournalism, asked her grandmother, Hana, if she could record her story. Rachael knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the end of the war. Rachael also knew that she survived because of the kindness of strangers. It wasn’t a secret. Hana spoke about her history publicly and regularly. But, Rachael wanted to document it as only a granddaughter could. So, that’s what they did: Hana talked and Rachael wrote.
Upon Hana’s passing in 2010, Rachael discovered an incredible archive of her life. There were preserved albums and hundreds of photographs dating back to the 1920s. There were letters waiting to be translated, journals, diaries, deportation and immigration papers as well as creative writings from various stages of Hana’s life.
Rachael digitized and organized it all, plucking it from the past and placing it into her present. Then, she began retracing her grandmother’s story, following her through Central Europe, Scandinavia, and across the United States. She tracked down the descendants of those who helped save her grandmother’s life during the war. Rachael went in pursuit of her grandmother’s memory to explore how the retelling of family stories becomes the history itself.
We Share the Same Sky weaves together the stories of these two young women–Hana as a refugee who remains one step ahead of the Nazis at every turn, and Rachael, whose insatiable curiosity to touch the past guides her into the lives of countless strangers, bringing her love and tragic loss. Throughout the course of her twenties, Hana’s history becomes a guidebook for Rachael in how to live a life empowered by grief.
... Read more -
Ain’t That A Mother
- By: Adiba Nelson
- Narrator: Adiba Nelson
- Length: 9 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
-
4.24(72 ratings)
4.24(72 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFrom pasties to postpartum and everything in between No one said motherhood would be easy. For Adiba Nelson, the journey to parenthood started with a big bang and continues with a breakdown (or two) and several “why?” questions forFrom pasties to postpartum and everything in between
No one said motherhood would be easy. For Adiba Nelson, the journey to parenthood started with a big bang and continues with a breakdown (or two) and several “why?” questions for God.
Witty and bold, Afro-Latina Adiba grew up in survival mode. Her sometimes complicated relationship with her strong-willed, vibrant, religious mother marked her views of mothering and love. When a chance encounter with a tall-ish, brown-skinned brotha at Ruby Tuesday’s right before closing time collided with a Jill Scott song and the right time of the month, Adiba found herself unexpectedly pregnant. She also found herself unexpectedly falling into the same relationship patterns of the matriarchs before her–the ones she swore she’d never end up in.
Mom to a new baby with high medical needs and with a slew of hardships that just won’t quit, she set out on a reckoning that was just as generational as it was personal. Along the way, Adiba never loses her heart or her humor. This is a true love story, but the kind about a woman loving herself enough to change the course of her life for herself, her child, and the women after her as well as before. From pasties to postpartum depression, Ain’t That A Mother is not your average motherhood memoir–and Adiba is not your average mother.
The in-between moments and the self-revelations are where this bold and brilliant story of love, family secrets, and lots of “what the…?” really shines. Just like parenting, the story is messy, but the reward is incredibly satisfying.
... Read more -
American Daughter
- By: Stephanie Thornton Plymale
- Narrator: Mozhan Marno
- Length: 9 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: January 12, 2021
- Language: English
-
4.22(1410 ratings)
4.22(1410 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDThe sharp and surprising true story of a woman who finally sets out to understand her past, and the mother she had one day hoped to forget. Full of unexpected twists and unbelievable revelations, American Daughter is an immersive memoir that willThe sharp and surprising true story of a woman who finally sets out to understand her past, and the mother she had one day hoped to forget. Full of unexpected twists and unbelievable revelations, American Daughter is an immersive memoir that will have you on the edge of your seat to the very last page.
For years, Stephanie Plymale, successful CEO and interior designer, kept her past a fiercely guarded secret. Only her husband knew that her childhood was fraught with every imaginable hardship: neglect, hunger, poverty, homelessness, truancy, foster homes, a harrowing lack of medical care, and worse. Stephanie, in turn, knew very little about the past of her mother, who was in and out of jails and psych wards for most of Stephanie’s formative years. All this changed when a series of shocking revelations forced Stephanie to revisit her tortured past and revise the meaning of every aspect of her compromised childhood.
American Daughter is the extraordinary true story of a young girl growing up on the wrong side of the American Dream. Stephanie has slept in blankets on the floor of crowded apartments, lived in the back seat of a car with her siblings, and spent decades looking over her shoulder at a mother who might just as easily hug or harm her. American Daughter is at once a moving account of a troubled mother-daughter relationship and a meditation on resilience, transcendence, and ultimately, redemption.
... Read more -
The Big Hurt
- By: Erika Schickel
- Narrator: Erika Schickel
- Length: 10 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 10, 2021
- Language: English
-
4.18(196 ratings)
4.18(196 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDThis complex memoir shows what it was like growing up in the shadow of a literary father and a neglectful mother, getting thrown out of boarding school after being seduced by a teacher, and all of the later-life consequences that ensue.In 1982,This complex memoir shows what it was like growing up in the shadow of a literary father and a neglectful mother, getting thrown out of boarding school after being seduced by a teacher, and all of the later-life consequences that ensue.... Read more
In 1982, Erika Schickel was expelled from her East Coast prep school for sleeping with a teacher. She was that girl–rebellious, precocious, and macking for love. Seduced, caught, and then whisked away in the night to avoid scandal, Schickel’s provocative, searing, and darkly funny memoir, The Big Hurt, explores the question, How did that girl turn out?
Schickel came of age in the 1970s, the progeny of two writers: Richard Schickel, the prominent film critic for TIME magazine, and Julia Whedon, a melancholy mid-list novelist. In the wake of her parents’ ugly divorce, Erika was packed off to a bohemian boarding school in the Berkshires.
The Big Hurt tells two coming-of-age stories: one of a lost girl in a predatory world, and the other of that girl grown up, who in reckoning with her past ends up recreating it with a notorious LA crime novelist, blowing up her marriage and casting herself into the second exile of her life.
The Big Hurt looks at a legacy of shame handed down through a maternal bloodline and the cost of epigenetic trauma. It shines a light on the haute culture of 1970s Manhattan that made girls grow up too fast. It looks at the long shadow cast by great, monstrously self-absorbed literary lives and the ways in which women pin themselves like beautiful butterflies to the spreading board of male ego. -
Hunger
- By: Roxane Gay
- Narrator: Roxane Gay
- Length: 5 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 13, 2017
- Language: English
-
4.18(99249 ratings)
4.18(99249 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.005.99 USDFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself. “I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myselfFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Bad Feminist: a searingly honest memoir of food, weight, self-image, and learning how to feed your hunger while taking care of yourself.
“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.”
In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as “wildly undisciplined,” Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care. In Hunger, she explores her past–including the devastating act of violence that acted as a turning point in her young life–and brings readers along on her journey to understand and ultimately save herself.
With the bracing candor, vulnerability, and power that have made her one of the most admired writers of her generation, Roxane explores what it means to learn to take care of yourself: how to feed your hungers for delicious and satisfying food, a smaller and safer body, and a body that can love and be loved–in a time when the bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.
... Read more -
Growing Up Biden
- By: Valerie Biden Owens
- Narrator: Valerie Biden Owens
- Length: 8 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: April 12, 2022
- Language: English
-
4.18(332 ratings)
4.18(332 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDThis program is read by the author. A memoir from Valerie Biden Owens, Joe Biden’s younger sister, trusted confidante and lifelong campaign manager. Valerie, one of the first female campaign managers in United States history, writes of theThis program is read by the author.
A memoir from Valerie Biden Owens, Joe Biden’s younger sister, trusted confidante and lifelong campaign manager. Valerie, one of the first female campaign managers in United States history, writes of the role of family, faith, and fate in shaping her life, and the power of empathy and kindness in the face of turmoil and division.
Growing Up Biden details Valerie’s decades-long professional career in politics, and the central role she played in her brother’s life as an insightful adviser, an ever-loyal advocate and best friend.
This memoir, full of candor and warmth, brings readers into the Biden home and shares stories from growing up in Delaware as the only daughter of the close-knit Irish Catholic family. Valerie writes in a compelling, relatable way about the challenges she faced breaking through gender barriers, the elusive nature of confidence, and navigating professional responsibilities while raising children.
... Read more -
Happily Grey
- By: Mary Lawless Lee
- Length: 4 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Harper Horizon
- Publish date: November 15, 2022
- Language: English
-
4.16(56 ratings)
4.16(56 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USDRead by the author. Open yourself to the thrill of curiosity in every moment. In this audiobook, Mary Lawless Lee shares how her childhood in a small Texas town taught her to look deeper, reach farther, and love harder, whether she’s baiting aRead by the author.
Open yourself to the thrill of curiosity in every moment. In this audiobook, Mary Lawless Lee shares how her childhood in a small Texas town taught her to look deeper, reach farther, and love harder, whether she’s baiting a fishing hook or choosing shoes for a fashion shoot. Through her stunning writing and delightful stories, Mary invites you to
- say yes to adventure with equal parts planning and spontaneity
- relish the food and drink that nourishes your spirit–with recipes for Sunday pot roast, butternut squash taquitos, mint mojitos, and more
- create a playlist for the places life takes you and the people you meet
- remember the feel of dirt on your toes or the first days of falling in love
- discover how outdoor pursuits cultivate mindfulness and how to pamper your overworked self at home
 
Living the¬†Happily Grey¬†life means protecting your time, preserving your energy, and–most of all–loving your people. It means remembering that sometimes less than perfect is exactly enough, and that life is best when we dive deep into the wildness and wonder of this world.
Photos, recipes, and lifestyle pieces are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.
... Read more -
The House on Beartown Road
- By: Elizabeth Cohen
- Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
-
4.11(378 ratings)
4.11(378 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIn this beautiful book, Elizabeth Cohen gives us a true and moving portrait of the love and courage of a family. Elizabeth is a member of the “sandwich generation”–people caught in the middle of simultaneously caring for theirIn this beautiful book, Elizabeth Cohen gives us a true and moving portrait of the love and courage of a family.
Elizabeth is a member of the “sandwich generation”–people caught in the middle of simultaneously caring for their children and for their aging parents. She is the mother of Ava and the daughter of Daddy, and she’s responsible for both of them. Hers is the story of a woman’s struggle to keep her family whole, to raise her child in a house of laughter and love, and to keep her father from hiding the house keys in his slippers.
In this story full of everyday triumphs, Elizabeth–a suddenly single mother with a career, a mortgage, and a hamper of laundry–finds her world spiraling out of control yet full of beauty. Faced with mounting disasters, she chooses to confront life head on.
... Read more -
Normal Family
- By: Chrysta Bilton
- Narrator: Chrysta Bilton
- Length: 9 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: July 12, 2022
- Language: English
-
4.1(2249 ratings)
4.1(2249 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDA riveting, nuanced portrait of unforgettable characters thrown together by chance and DNA, this is a story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one’s true inheritance. What is a “normal family,” and how do you go aboutA riveting, nuanced portrait of unforgettable characters thrown together by chance and DNA, this is a story of nature, nurture, and coming to terms with one’s true inheritance.
What is a “normal family,” and how do you go about making one? Chrysta Bilton’s magnetic, larger-than-life mother, Debra, yearned to have a child, but as a single gay woman in 1980s California, she had few options. Until one day, while getting her hair done in a Beverly Hills salon, she met a man and instantly knew he was the one she’d been looking for. Beautiful, athletic, artistic, and from a well-to-do family, Jeffrey Harrison appeared to be Debra’s ideal sperm donor.
A verbal agreement, a couple of thousand in cash, and a few squirts of a turkey baster later, and Chrysta was conceived. Over the years, Jeffrey would make regular appearances at the family home, which grew to include Chrysta’s baby sister. But how much did Debra really know about the man she’d chosen to father her daughters? And as a single mother torn between ferocious independence and abject dependence–on other women, alcohol, drugs, and the adrenaline of get-rich-quick schemes–what secrets of her own was she keeping?
It wasn’t until Chrysta was a young adult that she discovered just how much her parents had hidden from their daughters–and each other–including a shocking revelation with far-reaching consequences not only for Debra, Chrysta, and her sister, but for dozens and possibly hundreds of unsuspecting families across the country. After a lifetime of longing for a “normal family,” can Chrysta face the reality of her own, in all its complexity?
Bringing us into the fold of a deeply dysfunctional yet fiercely loving clan that is anything but “normal,” this emotional roller coaster of a memoir will make you cry, laugh, and rethink the meaning of family. ... Read more -
Breathe Cry Breathe
- By: Catherine Gourdier
- Narrator: Petrea Burchard
- Length: 8 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publish date: May 11, 2021
- Language: English
-
4(22 ratings)
4(22 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDOne accident. Two victims. Three deaths. A moving account of grief and its aftermath. In the fall of 2009, Catherine Gourdier and the other members of her family were happily gathering for a surprise horror-themed birthday party for their youngestOne accident. Two victims. Three deaths. A moving account of grief and its aftermath.
In the fall of 2009, Catherine Gourdier and the other members of her family were happily gathering for a surprise horror-themed birthday party for their youngest member, Julie, when the unthinkable happened.
As Julie and her parents were walking home from church, they were hit by a car driven by an eighty-four-year-old woman. While Catherine’s father somehow escaped without harm, Julie and her mother were rushed to hospital, where they succumbed to their injuries. The family was still reeling from the tragedy when, several weeks later, Catherine’s father died suddenly, most likely from a broken heart.
Breathe Cry Breathe is the story of Catherine’s journey through grief, as she tries to come to terms with the traumatic loss of three close family members. In the ensuing weeks, months and years, Catherine realizes that “grief doesn’t vanish so quickly. It packs a suitcase and moves into your heart and head.”
To help overcome and accept her loss, Catherine seeks alternative healing therapies and throws herself into practical diversions–trying to get a crosswalk installed at the site of the accident; advocating for organ donation and mandatory road tests for elderly drivers; and hosting fundraisers for Special Olympics. After years of struggle, it is these pursuits that finally help her to move beyond her devastating grief.
... Read more -
The Little Way of Ruthie Leming
- By: Rod Dreher
- Narrator: Rod Dreher
- Length: 8 hours 49 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 09, 2013
- Language: English
-
3.9(2184 ratings)
3.9(2184 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.98 USDThe Little Way of Ruthie Leming follows Rod Dreher, a Philadelphia journalist, back to his hometown of St. Francisville, Louisiana (pop. 1,700) in the wake of his younger sister Ruthie’s death. When she was diagnosed at age 40 with a virulentThe Little Way of Ruthie Leming follows Rod Dreher, a Philadelphia journalist, back to his hometown of St. Francisville, Louisiana (pop. 1,700) in the wake of his younger sister Ruthie’s death. When she was diagnosed at age 40 with a virulent form of cancer in 2010, Dreher was moved by the way the community he had left behind rallied around his dying sister, a schoolteacher. He was also struck by the grace and courage with which his sister dealt with the disease that eventually took her life. In Louisiana for Ruthie’s funeral in the fall of 2011, Dreher began to wonder whether the ordinary life Ruthie led in their country town was in fact a path of hidden grandeur, even spiritual greatness, concealed within the modest life of a mother and teacher. In order to explore this revelation, Dreher and his wife decided to leave Philadelphia, move home to help with family responsibilities and have their three children grow up amidst the rituals that had defined his family for five generations-Mardi Gras, L.S.U. football games, and deer hunting.
... Read more
As David Brooks poignantly described Dreher’s journey homeward in a recent New York Times column, Dreher and his wife Julie “decided to accept the limitations of small-town life in exchange for the privilege of being part of a community.” -
Mother Noise
- By: Cindy House
- Narrator: Cindy House
- Length: 5 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
-
3.86(614 ratings)
3.86(614 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDA poignant, “raw[,] and tender” (The New York Times Book Review) memoir told in essays and graphic shorts about what life looks like twenty years after recovery from addiction–and how to live with the past as a parent, writer, andA poignant, “raw[,] and tender” (The New York Times Book Review) memoir told in essays and graphic shorts about what life looks like twenty years after recovery from addiction–and how to live with the past as a parent, writer, and sober person–from a regular opener for David Sedaris.
... Read more
In the opening of this “unexpectedly uplifting…masterfully crafted memoir” (Shelf Awareness, starred review) Cindy, twenty years into recovery after a heroin addiction, grapples with how to tell her nine-year-old son about her past. She wants him to learn this history from her, not anyone else; but she worries about the effect this truth may have on him. Told in essays and graphic narrative shorts, Mother Noise is a stunning memoir that delves deep into our responsibilities as parents while celebrating the moments of grace and generosity that mark a true friendship–in this case, her benefactor and champion through the years, David Sedaris.
This is a powerful memoir about addiction, motherhood, and Cindy’s ongoing effort to reconcile the two. Are we required to share with our children the painful details of our past, or do we owe them protection from the harsh truth of who we were before?
With dark humor and brutal, clear-eyed honesty, Mother Noise is “a full-throated anthem of hope, [that] lends light to a dark issue” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). -
Mother Is a Verb
- By: Sarah Knott
- Narrator: Rachel Bavidge
- Length: 11 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: April 02, 2019
- Language: English
-
3.86(226 ratings)
3.86(226 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDWelcome to a work of history unlike any other. Mothering is as old as human existence. But how has this most essential experience changed over time and cultures? What is the history of maternity–the history of pregnancy, birth, the encounterWelcome to a work of history unlike any other.
Mothering is as old as human existence. But how has this most essential experience changed over time and cultures? What is the history of maternity–the history of pregnancy, birth, the encounter with an infant? Can one capture the historical trail of mothers? How?
In Mother Is a Verb, the historian Sarah Knott creates a genre all her own in order to craft a new kind of historical interpretation. Blending memoir and history and building from anecdote, her audiobook brings the past and the present viscerally alive. It is at once intimate and expansive, lyrical and precise.
As a history, Mother Is a Verb draws on the terrain of Britain and North America from the seventeenth century to the close of the twentieth. Knott searches among a range of past societies, from those of Cree and Ojibwe women to tenant farmers in Appalachia; from enslaved people on South Carolina rice plantations to tenement dwellers in New York City and London’s East End. She pores over diaries, letters, court records, medical manuals, items of clothing. And she explores and documents her own experiences.
As a memoir, Mother Is a Verb becomes a method of asking new questions and probing lost pasts in order to historicize the smallest, even the most mundane of human experiences. Is there a history to interruption, to the sound of an infant’s cry, to sleeplessness? Knott finds answers not through the telling of grand narratives, but through the painstaking accumulation of a trellis of anecdotes. And all the while, we can feel the child on her hip.
... Read more -
The Wild Truth
- By: Carine McCandless
- Narrator: Carine McCandless
- Length: 8 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: November 11, 2014
- Language: English
-
3.8(8289 ratings)
3.8(8289 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDThe spellbinding story of Chris McCandless, who gave away his savings, hitchhiked to Alaska, walked into the wilderness alone, and starved to death in 1992, fascinated not just New York Times bestselling author Jon Krakauer, but also the rest of theThe spellbinding story of Chris McCandless, who gave away his savings, hitchhiked to Alaska, walked into the wilderness alone, and starved to death in 1992, fascinated not just New York Times bestselling author Jon Krakauer, but also the rest of the nation. Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, became an international bestseller, translated into thirty-one languages, and Sean Penn’s inspirational film by the same name further skyrocketed Chris McCandless to global fame. But the real story of Chris’s life and his journey has not yet been told – until now. The missing pieces are finally revealed in The Wild Truth, written by Carine McCandless, Chris’s beloved and trusted sister. Featured in both the book and film, Carine has wrestled for more than twenty years with the legacy of her brother’s journey to self-discovery, and now tells her own story while filling in the blanks of his. Carine was Chris’s best friend, the person with whom he had the closest bond, and who witnessed firsthand the dysfunctional and violent family dynamic that made Chris willing to embrace the harsh wilderness of Alaska. Growing up in the same troubled household, Carine speaks candidly about the deeper reality of life in the McCandless family. In the many years since the tragedy of Chris’s death, Carine has searched for some kind of redemption. In this touching and deeply personal memoir, she reveals how she has learned that real redemption can only come from speaking the truth.
... Read more -
Frontier Follies
- By: Ree Drummond
- Narrator: Ree Drummond
- Length: 7 hours 27 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: November 17, 2020
- Language: English
-
3.78(9477 ratings)
3.78(9477 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.007.99 USDA down-to-earth, hilarious collection of stories and musings on marriage, motherhood, and country life from the #1 New York Times bestselling author and star of the Food Network show The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. In this relatable, charming book,A down-to-earth, hilarious collection of stories and musings on marriage, motherhood, and country life from the #1 New York Times bestselling author and star of the Food Network show The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond.
In this relatable, charming book, Ree unveils real goings-on in the Drummond house and around the ranch. In stories brimming with the lively wit and humor found in her cookbooks and her bestselling love story, The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, Ree pulls back the curtain and shares her experiences with childbirth, wildlife, isolation, teenagers, in-laws, and a twenty-five-year marriage to a cowboy/rancher.
A celebration of family life, love, and (mostly) laughter, Frontier Follies is a keepsake to curl up with, have a good laugh, and remember all that’s wonderful (and funny) about family.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
... Read more -
The Little Locksmith
- By: Katharine Butler Hathaway
- Narrator: Julia Atwood
- Length: 8 hours 26 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
-
3.68(1051 ratings)
3.68(1051 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDIn 1895, a specialist straps five-year-old Katharine Hathaway, then suffering from spinal tuberculosis, to a board with halters and pulleys in a failed attempt to prevent her from becoming a “hunchback” like the “littleIn 1895, a specialist straps five-year-old Katharine Hathaway, then suffering from spinal tuberculosis, to a board with halters and pulleys in a failed attempt to prevent her from becoming a “hunchback” like the “little locksmith” who does odd jobs at her family’s home. Forced to endure her confinement for ten years, Katharine remains immobile until age fifteen, only to find that none of it has prevented her from developing a deformity of her own.
The Little Locksmith charts Katharine’s struggle to transcend physical limitations and embrace her life, her body, and herself. Her spirit and courage prevail as she expands her world far beyond the boundaries prescribed by her family and society: she attends Radcliffe College, forms deep friendships, begins to write, and in 1921 purchases a house of her own that she fashions into a space for guests, lovers, and artists. Revealing and inspirational, The Little Locksmith stands as a testimony to Katharine’s aspirations and desires–for independence, love, and the pursuit of her art.
... Read more -
Love, Nina
- By: Nina Stibbe
- Narrator: Nina Stibbe
- Length: 8 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 22, 2014
- Language: English
-
3.64(4734 ratings)
3.64(4734 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USD“Breezy, sophisticated, hilarious, rude and aching with sweetness: Love, Nina might be the most charming book I’ve ever read.” — Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette In 1982, 20-year-old Nina Stibbe moved“Breezy, sophisticated, hilarious, rude and aching with sweetness: Love, Nina might be the most charming book I’ve ever read.” — Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette... Read moreIn 1982, 20-year-old Nina Stibbe moved to London to work as a nanny to two opinionated and lively young boys. In frequent letters home to her sister, Nina described her trials and triumphs: there’s a cat nobody likes, suppertime visits from a famous local playwright, a mysteriously unpaid milk bill, and repeated misadventures parking the family car.
Dinner table discussions cover the gamut, from the greats of English literature, to swearing in German, to sexually transmitted diseases. There’s no end to what Nina can learn from these boys (rude words) and their broad-minded mother (the who’s who of literary London). A charming, hilarious, sweetly inspiring celebration of bad food and good company, Love, Nina makes a young woman’s adventures in a new world come alive.
-
Epilogue
- By: Anne Roiphe
- Narrator: Lorna Raver
- Length: 7 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
-
3.52(662 ratings)
3.52(662 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDBestselling author Anne Roiphe offers a poignant memoir of a journey that no one is prepared for: widowhood. Weaving between heartbreaking memories of her marriage and the pressing needs of her new day-to-day routine, Roiphe constructs an elegantBestselling author Anne Roiphe offers a poignant memoir of a journey that no one is prepared for: widowhood. Weaving between heartbreaking memories of her marriage and the pressing needs of her new day-to-day routine, Roiphe constructs an elegant literary pastiche, not of grief but of renewal. She begins her memoir just as the shock of her husband’s death has begun to wear off and writes her way into the then unknown world of life after love. In beautifully wrought vignettes, Roiphe captures the infinite number of “firsts” that lie ahead, from hailing a cab to locking and unlocking the door, to answering responses to a singles ad placed by her daughter.
... Read more -
Old in Art School
- By: Nell Painter
- Narrator: Nell Painter
- Length: 11 hours 0 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
-
3.49(1429 ratings)
3.49(1429 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDFollowing her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school–in her sixties–to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travelsFollowing her retirement from Princeton University, celebrated historian Dr. Nell Irvin Painter surprised everyone in her life by returning to school–in her sixties–to earn a BFA and MFA in painting. In Old in Art School, she travels from her beloved Newark to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design; finds meaning in the artists she loves, even as she comes to understand how they may be undervalued; and struggles with the unstable balance between the pursuit of art and the inevitable, sometimes painful demands of a life fully lived.
How are women and artists seen and judged by their age, looks, and race? What does it mean when someone says, “You will never be an artist?” Who defines what “an artist” is and all that goes with such an identity, and how are these ideas tied to our shared conceptions of beauty, value, and difference?
Old in Art School is Nell Painter’s ongoing exploration of those crucial questions. Bringing to bear incisive insights from two careers, Painter weaves a frank, funny, and often surprising tale of her move from academia to art.
... Read more -
She Matters
- By: Susanna Sonnenberg
- Narrator: Susanna Sonnenberg
- Length: 8 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
-
3.07(957 ratings)
3.07(957 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.95 USDFrom the bestselling “immensely gifted” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) author of Her Last Death comes a fearless, compulsively readable, intensely provocative book about female friendships.THE BEST FRIEND WHO BROKE UP WITH YOU.From the bestselling “immensely gifted” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) author of Her Last Death comes a fearless, compulsively readable, intensely provocative book about female friendships.
... Read more
THE BEST FRIEND WHO BROKE UP WITH YOU. The older girl at school you worshipped. The friend who betrayed you. The friend you betrayed. Companions in travel, in discovery, in motherhood, in grief; the mentor, the model, the rescuer, the guide, the little sister. These have been the friends in Susanna Sonnenberg’s life, women tender, dominant, and crucial.
Searing and superbly written, Sonnenberg’s She Matters: A Life in Friendships illuminates the friendships that have influenced, nourished, inspired, and haunted her–and sometimes torn her apart. Each has its own lessons that Sonnenberg seeks to understand. Her method is investigative and ruminative; her result, fearlessly observed portraits of friendships that will inspire all readers to consider the complexities of their own relationships. This electric book is testimony to the emotional bonds between women, whether shattered, shaky, or unbreakable.
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.
Recent Blogs
-
July 06, 2023
Which books are available on Spotify?
-
July 06, 2023
Are audiobooks free on Spotify with membership?
-
June 25, 2023
Top Destinations for Free eBooks and Audiobooks Online
-
June 25, 2023
Best Alternative to Barnes & Noble Online
-
June 25, 2023
The Best Places to Buy eBooks: Beyond the Kindle Ecosystem
-
June 25, 2023
What are the best places to find free ebooks?
-
June 25, 2023
Best Independent Companies to Buy eBooks from
-
April 19, 2023
How many Game of Thrones books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
Where to buy cheap books: A comprehensive guide
-
April 19, 2023
How many Jack Reacher books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many FNAF books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many Warrior Cats books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
How many Wheel of Time books are there?
-
April 19, 2023
The best Vampire Survivors powerups in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read the Robert Galbraith books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read the Artemis Fowl books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Craig Johnson’s books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Cassandra Clare’s books in order
-
April 19, 2023
How to read Lee Child’s books in order
-
April 18, 2023
How to read the In Death book series in order
-
April 18, 2023
Best book quotes
-
April 18, 2023
A tale of two cities reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
All the President’s Men reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
Tintin reviewed
-
April 18, 2023
What are adult coloring books?
-
April 18, 2023
How to read the Percy Jackson books in order
-
April 11, 2023
How to find charities for the blind
-
April 11, 2023
What is the best Bible app
-
April 11, 2023
Where to find free audio Bible downloads
-
April 11, 2023
What is the best free Bible app
More in this series
- 29 Best General, Poetry Books
- 29 Best Women, Social Science Books
- 16 Best Infants & Toddlers, Family & Relationships Books
- Best books by Dr. Joe Dispenza
- 11 Best Nationalism & Patriotism Books
- 28 Best France Books
- 29 Best Inspiration & Personal Growth Books
- 29 Best General, Business & Economics Books
- 17 Best Law & Crime Books
- 10 Best Essays & Narratives, Biography & Autobiography Books
- 29 Best Relationships Books
- The best books by Harper Lee
- 29 Best Education Books
- 16 Best Political Advocacy Books
- 25 Best Presidents & Heads of State, Political Science Books
- 29 Best Cultural Heritage, Fiction Books
- 29 Best Radio Books
- 29 Best Mice, Hamsters, Guinea Pigs, etc., Juvenile Fiction Books
- Best books recommended by Jesse Williams
- 29 Best Personal Success, Self-Help Books
- 29 Best Biblical Reference Books
- 29 Best Humorous Stories Books
- 29 Best Spiritual, Body, Mind & Spirit Books
- Best books by Linda Evans
- 12 Best New Baby, Juvenile Fiction Books
- 13 Best Vietnam War Books
- 29 Best Political, Biography & Autobiography Books
- 29 Best Motivational & Inspirational, Self-Help Books
- 18 Best Autism Spectrum Disorders Books
- 13 Best West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY), History Books