Memoirs Audiobooks | Biography & Memoir

On the Big Blackfoot: Readings, Interviews and Reflections

Norman Maclean (Author), John Maclean, Norman Maclean (Narrator)

Audiobook

"Hallelujah! The Sweet Potato Queens are back! In 1999, Jill Conner Browne, royal boss of Jackson, Mississippi's own glorious Sweet Potato Queens, introduced them to the world in the hilarious bestseller The Sweet Potato Queen's Book of Love (which contained everything you ever need to know about Love, Life, Men, Marriage, and the importance of Being Prepared). But, fortunately for us, that was not the final chapter in the Queens' splendid saga. The Sweet Potato Queens still have plenty of stuff to say and valuable wisdom to impart about how they went from being Cute Girls to Fabulous Women, including: • Dating for the Advanced, or Advancing • The Joys of Marriage-if you must • More Delicious, Death-Defying Recipes • The Promise for Men-six little words that will make any woman swoon • Lolling About-the official activity of the Sweet Potato Queens • The All-True Story of the Two Most Wonderful Men in the World • Reader Mail-honoring the adventures of brand-new Wannabes and Honorary Queens from around the world If you haven't met the Sweet Potato Queens yet, this is the introduction you've been waiting for. If you already know the joys of Queendom, this is your official welcome-back party."

Jill Conner Browne (Author), Jill Conner Browne (Narrator)

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A Long Way From Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland

"Reflections on America and the American experience as he has lived and observed it, by the bestselling author of The Greatest Generation. In this beautiful memoir, Tom Brokaw writes of America and of the American experience. From his parents' life in the 1930s, on to his boyhood along the Missouri River and on the prairies of South Dakota in the '40s, into his early journalism career in the '50s and the tumultuous '60s, up to the present, this personal story is a reflection on America in our time. Tom Brokaw writes about growing up and coming of age in the heartland, and of the family, the people, the culture and the values that shaped him then and still do today. His father, Red Brokaw, a genius with machines, followed the instincts of Tom's mother Jean, and took the risk of moving his small family from an Army base to Pickstown, South Dakota, where Red got a job as a heavy equipment operator in the Army Corps of Engineers' project building the Ft. Randall dam along the Missouri River. Tom Brokaw describes how this move became the pivotal decision in their lives, as the Brokaw family, along with others after World War II, began to live out the American Dream: community, relative prosperity, middle-class pleasures, and good educations for their children. "Along the river and in the surrounding hills, I had a Tom Sawyer boyhood," Brokaw writes. As he describes his own pilgrimage as it unfolded-from childhood to love, marriage, the early days in broadcast journalism, and beyond-he also reflects on what brought him and so many Americans of his generation to lead lives a long way from home, yet forever affected by it."

Tom Brokaw (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Let's Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage

"2003 ECPA Gold Medallion Award winner! Lisa Beamer, wife of September 11 hero Todd Beamer, reveals what really happened on the ill-fated United Flight 93, and shares poignant glimpses of a genuine American hero. She talks candidly about her life with Todd and the devastating day her children learned their daddy had died, the mix of grief and joy when she gave birth to the daughter she was pregnant with at the time, and how she found the confidence to go on in the face of such tragedy and loss."

Lisa Beamer (Author), Lisa Helm (Narrator)

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Worth the Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick, and the Heroes Who Inspired Him

"NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Senator John McCain tells the story of his great American journey, from the U.S. Navy to his electrifying campaign for the presidency in 2000, interwoven with heartfelt portraits of the mavericks who have inspired him through the years. After five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, naval aviator John McCain returned home a changed man. Regaining his health and flight-eligibility status, he resumed his military career, commanding carrier pilots and serving as the navy's liaison to what is sometimes ironically called the world's most exclusive club, the United States Senate. Accompanying Senators John Tower and Henry "Scoop" Jackson on international trips, McCain began his political education in the company of two masters, leaders whose standards he would strive to maintain upon his election to the U.S. Congress. There, he learned valuable lessons in cooperation from a good-humored congressman from the other party, Morris Udall. In 1986, McCain was elected to the U.S. Senate, inheriting the seat of another role model, Barry Goldwater. During his time in public office, McCain has seen acts of principle and acts of craven self-interest. He describes both extremes in these pages, with his characteristic straight talk and humor. He writes honestly of the lowest point in his career, the Keating Five savings and loan debacle, as well as his triumphant moments-his return to Vietnam and his efforts to normalize relations between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments; his fight for campaign finance reform; and his galvanizing bid for the presidency in 2000. Writes McCain: "A rebel without a cause is just a punk. Whatever you're called-rebel, unorthodox, nonconformist, radical-it's all self-indulgence without a good cause to give your life meaning." This is the story of McCain's causes, the people who made him do it, and the meaning he found. Worth the Fighting For reminds us of what's best in America, and in ourselves. Praise for Worth the Fighting For "When [John] McCain writes of people and patriotism, his pages shine with a devotion, a loving awe, that makes Worth the Fighting For worth the shelling out for. . . . McCain the man remains one of the most inspiring public figures of his generation."-Jonathan Raunch, The Washington Post "[An] unpredictable, outspoken memoir . . . a testimonial to heroism from someone who has first-hand knowledge of what it takes."-The New York Times"

John McCain, Mark Salter (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

Audiobook

An Unfinished Marriage

"In A Year by the Sea, Joan Anderson documented her brave decision to take a year of solitude away from her marriage. Her frank assessment of herself in midlife and openness in sharing her fears struck a chord with thousands. In this moving sequel, Anderson gives fresh hope for all women and men negotiating their own marital passages. Using the same very personal approach, she explores the challenges of rebuilding and renewing a marriage with her trademark candor, compassion, and insight. Anderson shows us her own rocky path to renewing a marriage gone stale and charts the new journey that she and her husband began together, seasoned by their years of marriage but awakened to the possibilities for their future."

Joan Anderson (Author), Joan Anderson (Narrator)

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Lucky Man: A Memoir

"Grammy Award Nominee for Best Spoken Word Album! 'If you were to rush in to this room right now and announce that you had struck a deal-with God, Allah, Buddha, Christ, Krishna, Bill Gates, whomever-in which the ten years since my diagnosis could be magically taken away, traded in for ten more years as the person I was before, I would, without a moment's hesitation, tell you to take a hike.' In September 1998, Michael J. Fox stunned the world by announcing that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease -- a degenerative neurological condition. In fact, he had been secretly fighting it for seven years. The worldwide response was staggering. Fortunately, he had accepted the diagnosis, and by the time the public started grieving for him, he had stopped grieving for himself. With the same passion, humor, and energy that he has invested in his dozens of performances over the last eighteen years, he tells the story of his life, his career, and his campaign to find a cure for Parkinson's. Combining his trademark ironic sensibility and keen sense of the absurd, he recounts his life -- from his childhood in western Canada to his meteoric rise in film and television which made him a worldwide celebrity. Most importantly, he writes of the last ten years, during which -- with the unswerving support of his wife, family, and friends -- he has dealt with his illness. He talks about what Parkinson's has given him: the chance to appreciate a wonderful life and career, and the opportunity to help search for a cure and spread public awareness of the disease. He feels as if he is a very lucky man, indeed."

Michael J. Fox (Author), Michael J. Fox (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Song Flung Up to Heaven

"The culmination of a unique achievement in modern American literature: the six volumes of autobiography that began more than thirty years ago with the appearance of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A Song Flung Up to Heaven opens as Maya Angelou returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X. But first she has to journey to California to be reunited with her mother and brother. No sooner does she arrive there than she learns that Malcolm X has been assassinated. Devastated, she tries to put her life back together, working on the stage in local theaters and even conducting a door-to-door survey in Watts. Then Watts explodes in violence, a riot she describes firsthand. Subsequently, on a trip to New York, she meets Martin Luther King, Jr., who asks her to become his coordinator in the North, and she visits black churches all over America to help support King's Poor People's March. But once again tragedy strikes. King is assassinated, and this time Angelou completely withdraws from the world, unable to deal with this horrible event. Finally, James Baldwin forces her out of isolation and insists that she accompany him to a dinner party-where the idea for writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is born. In fact, A Song Flung Up to Heaven ends as Maya Angelou begins to write the first sentences of Caged Bird."

Maya Angelou (Author), Maya Angelou (Narrator)

Audiobook

Lazy B: Growing up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest

"What was it in Sandra Day O'Connor's background and early life that helped make her the woman she is today-the first female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and one of the most powerful women in America? In this beautiful, illuminating, and unusual book, Sandra Day O'Connor, with her brother, Alan, tells the story of the Day family and of growing up on the harsh yet beautiful land of the Lazy B Ranch in Arizona. Laced throughout these stories about three generations of the Day family, and everyday life on the Lazy B, are the lessons Sandra and Alan learned about the world, about people, self-reliance, and survival, and the reader will learn how the values of the Lazy B shaped them and their lives. Sandra's grandfather first put some cattle on open grazing land in 1886, and the Lazy B developed and continued to prosper as Sandra's parents, who eloped and then lived on the Lazy B all their lives, carved out a frugal and happy life for themselves and their three children on the rugged frontier. As you read about the daily adventures, the cattle drives and roundups, the cowboys and horses, the continual praying for rain and fixing of windmills, the values instilled by a self-reliant way of life, you see how Sandra Day O'Connor grew up. This fascinating glimpse of life in the American Southwest in the last century recounts an interesting time in our history, and gives us an enduring portrait of an independent young woman on the brink of becoming one of the most prominent figures in America today."

H. Alan Day, Sandra Day O'Connor (Author), Sandra Day O'Connor (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Room of My Own

"A lot about the birthing experience has changed during the past 50 years. A lot about child psychology hasn’t. For example, sibling rivalry: sometimes, a kid just isn’t ready for some little squirt to come along and invade his space—his own room. So what if there’s an extra bed in the room…isn’t that were the stuffed animals are supposed to sleep? How could a couple of otherwise sensible parents just bring a new kid home without even consulting their very own son? Still, a younger sibling can be in need of a big brother’s guidance. And a big brother, even if not so very big, can have a lot to offer—once he gets used to the idea."

Donald Davis (Author), Donald Davis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Mama Learns to Drive

"Learning to drive occasions emotions ranging from reasonable caution to unbridled terror. Learning under the watchful eye of one's spouse is an added challenge; undertaking the task with anxious children in the back seat can only heighten the intensity. Davis recalls his mother's driving lessons through the objective eye of a patient and restrained young man of seven, in contrast with his little brother, whose oft-shouted refrain—'You're going to kill us all!'—rings still in memory."

Donald Davis (Author), Donald Davis (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Dry Divide

Ralph Moody (Author), Cameron Beierle (Narrator)

Audiobook

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