Biography & Memoir Audiobooks

Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir

"A transformative 300-mile walk along Japan's ancient pilgrimage routes and through depopulating villages inspires a heartrending remembrance of a long-lost friend, documented in poignant, imaginative prose and remarkable photography. "An epic, exquisitely detailed journey, on foot, through a rural Japan few of us are likely to experience. Uniquely unforgettable."-William Gibson, New York Times bestselling author of Neuromancer Photographer and essayist Craig Mod is a veteran of long solo walks. But in 2021, during the pandemic shutdown of Japan's borders, one particular walk around the Kumano Kodō routes-the ancient pilgrimage paths of Japan's southern Kii Peninsula-took on an unexpectedly personal new significance. Mod found himself reflecting on his own childhood in a post-industrial American town, his experiences as an adoptee, his unlikely relocation to Japan at nineteen, and his relationship with one lost friend, whose life was tragically cut short after their paths diverged. For Mod, the walk became a tool to bear witness to a quiet grace visible only when "you're bored out of your skull and the miles left are long." Tracing a 300-mile-long journey, Things Become Other Things folds together history, literature, poetry, Shinto and Buddhist spirituality, and contemporary rural life in Japan via dozens of conversations with aging fishermen, multi-generational inn owners, farmers, and kissaten cafe "mamas." Along the way, Mod communes with mountain fauna, marvels over evidence of bears and boars, and hopscotches around leeches. He encounters whispering priests and foul-mouthed little kids who ask him, "Just what the heck are you, anyway?" Through sharp prose and his curious archive of photographs, he records evidence of floods and tsunamis, the disappearance of village life on the peninsula, and the capricious fecundity of nature. Things Become Other Things blends memoir and travel writing at their best, transporting readers to an otherwise inaccessible Japan, one made visible only through Mod's unique bicultural lens. * This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF containing photographs by the author."

Craig Mod (Author), Craig Mod (Narrator)

Audiobook

Maybe This Will Save Me: A Memoir of Art, Addiction and Transformation

""I'm determined to get to know the real Tommy, to trace the shape of my scars." For years, Tommy Dorfman turned her back on her thoughts and emotions, hoping they'd simply go away. After a lifetime of confusion, she finally gained clarity around her gender and began to transition. But there were still parts of herself she'd locked away, elements of her story that she needed, for the first time, to fully confront. She sought guidance in a tarot deck. Maybe This Will Save Me is structured through the cards of that tarot pull. The youngest of five children, she grappled with her own identity from an early age and spent her teenage years numbed by drugs and alcohol. At the same time, she harbored dreams of creative stardom and a desire to make herself seen. Charting her early struggles in theater, her rise to fame in 13 Reasons Why, her hard-fought journey to sobriety, and the relationships that shaped her, Maybe This Will Save Me is a luminously written, bracingly honest, and structurally audacious memoir of an artist whose vision transcends mediums."

Tommy Dorfman (Author), Tommy Dorfman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Who Knew

"Barry Diller, one of America's most successful businessmen, reveals himself here—his successes, failures, and struggles—with surprising candor and intimacy in a memoir rich in Hollywood lore and filled with business acumen. Writing in his singular voice, Barry Diller delivers an astute business memoir, an unvarnished look at Hollywood, a primer on media, and a surprisingly frank coming-of-age story. "I want to work in the mail room at William Morris." So begins Diller's show business life. Diller did not aspire to be an agent, nor was he a glove fit for William Morris, the legendary talent agency he describes as resembling a "Jewish Vatican." But he was a good assistant and student and took it all in. Before long, Diller was offered a job at ABC. His ascent was meteoric, launching ABC TV's Movie of the Week at age twenty-seven, becoming CEO of Paramount Pictures at age thirty-two, and launching the Fox TV network at age forty-four. Along the way, Diller oversaw the production of classic films such as Saturday Night Fever, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Home Alone (a film he credits with saving Rupert Murdoch's career) and hit TV shows such as The Simpsons, Married…with Children, and Cops. He programmed and developed by instinct—not by research or data. Diller's media savvy changed the course of American culture. His championing of Alex Haley's Roots put long-form miniseries on the map. He was never cowed by the talent—actors, directors, and producers—and worked with them all. Indeed, throughout his career, Diller championed "creative conflict," encouraging argument in every business he managed ("I've never thought decision-making should be peaceful," he writes). Diller also recognized our digital future, founding IAC and growing it into a billion-dollar constellation of brands, including Match, Tinder, and Expedia. Moving beyond business, Diller recounts his family life, personal struggles, and regrets, his joyful marriage to Diane von Furstenburg, and where he has found fulfillment. Intimate, candid, and moving, Who Knew is a different kind of business memoir, one that holds nothing back."

Barry Diller (Author), Barry Diller (Narrator)

Audiobook

How to Save the Amazon: A journalist's deadly quest for answers

"'Ultimately as inspiring and devastating as the Amazon itself' The Guardian 'Bold, pacy, bursting with optimism and filled with vivid descriptions, this is the work of an indomitable soul' - Guy Shrubsole 'A defiant triumph of a book' - Gaia Vince 'An important book which we should all read' - Andrea Wulf An urgent work of reportage which takes the reader deep inside the Amazon rainforest, and shows that even if you kill a journalist, you cannot silence a story. RECIPIENT OF A WHITING FOUNDATION AWARD On 5 June 2022, award-winning journalist Dom Phillips was working on this book, alongside the indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, when they were both shot. They are believed to have been assassinated by one of the criminal networks whose ecological exploitation they were working to expose. As the world becomes more aware of the significance of the Amazon, home to nearly 400 billion trees, working in this vast region has become ever more dangerous for activists and journalists. Fires, land grabs, and the invasion of reserves have all spiked over recent decades, pushing the world's biggest forest ever closer to a point of no return. The last few years have seen efforts to reduce deforestation, but the question remains; can we save this globally essential ecosystem before it is too late? A group of expert writers took up his partially completed manuscript, committed to his mission of uncovering the truth about deforestation and searching for solutions. Blending in-depth reporting and encounters with indigenous activists, ecologists, farmers, and political figures, How to Save The Amazon is a dazzling account of how we can fight ecological destruction and stand in solidarity with the Earth's environmental defenders."

Dom Phillips (Author), Colin Mace, Thalissa Teixeira (Narrator)

Audiobook

Theater Kid

"A coming-of-age tale from one of the most successful American producers of our time, Jeffrey Seller, who is the only producer to have mounted two Pulitzer Prize–winning musicals—Hamilton and Rent. Read by the author and a full cast of Broadway and Off-Broadway actors! The star-studded cast includes: Annaleigh Ashford, Kyle Beltran, Steven Boyer, Danny Burstein, Darren Criss, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sas Goldberg, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Lindsay Mendez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alex Newell, Andrew Rannells, Conrad Ricamora, Jonathan Marc Sherman, and Christopher Sieber. The program also features original music composed by Tony and Pulitzer Prize Award winner Tom Kitt. Before he was producing the musical hits of our generation, Jeffrey was just a kid coming to terms with his adoption, trying to understand his sexuality, and determined to escape his dysfunctional household in a poor neighborhood just outside Detroit. We see him find his voice through musical theater and move to New York, where he is determined to shed his past and make a name for himself on Broadway. But moving to the big city is never easy—especially not at the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis—and Jeffrey learns to survive and thrive in the colorful and cutthroat world of commercial theatre. From his early days as an office assistant, to meeting Jonathan Larson and experiencing the triumph and tragedy of Rent, to working with Lin-Manuel Miranda on In the Heights and Hamilton, Jeffrey completely pulls back the curtain on the joyous and gut-wrenching process of making new musicals, finding new audiences, and winning a Tony Award—all the while finding himself. Told with Jeffrey's candid and captivating voice, Theater Kid is a gripping memoir about fighting through a hardscrabble childhood to make art on one's own terms, chasing a dream against many odds, and finding acceptance and community."

Jeffrey Seller (Author), Alex Newell, Andrew Rannells, Annaleigh Ashford, Christopher Sieber, Conrad Ricamora, Danny Burstein, Darren Criss, Jeffrey Seller, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Kyle Beltran, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lindsay Mendez, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sas Goldberg, Steven Boyer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Dirty Kitchen: A Memoir of Food and Family

"In the style of Crying in H Mart and Minor Feelings, filmmaker Jill Damatac blends memoir, food writing, and colonial history as she cooks her way through recipes from her native-born Philippines and shares stories of her undocumented family in America. Jill Damatac left the United States in 2015 after living there as an undocumented immigrant with her family for twenty-two years. America was the only home she knew, where invisibility had become her identity and where poverty, domestic violence, ill health, and xenophobia were everyday experiences. First traveling to her native Philippines, Damatac eventually settled in London, England, where she was free to pursue an education at the University of Cambridge, fully investigate her roots, and process what happened to her and her family. After nine years, she was granted British citizenship, and returned to the United States, for the first time without fear of deportation or retribution. Damatac weaves together forgotten colonial history and long-buried Indigenous tradition, taking us through her time in America, and cooking her way through Filipino recipes in her kitchen as she searches for a sense of self and renewed possibility. With emotional intelligence, clarity, and grace, Dirty Kitchen explores fractured memories to ask questions of identity, colonialism, immigration, and belonging, and to find ways in which the ritual, tradition, and comfort of food can answer them."

Jill Damatac (Author), Jill Damatac (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon's Enduring Impact on America

"Published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of his birth, the first major study of Malcolm X's influence in the sixty years since his assassination, exploring his enduring impact on culture, politics, and civil rights. Malcolm X has become as much of an American icon as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, or Martin Luther King. But when he was murdered in 1965, he was still seen as a dangerous outsider. White America found him alienating, mainstream African Americans found him divisive, and even his admirers found him bravely radical. Although Ossie Davis famously eulogized Malcolm X as "our own Black shining prince," he never received the mainstream acceptance toward which he seemed to be striving in his final year. It is more in death than his life that Malcolm's influence has blossomed and come to leave a deep imprint on the cultural landscape of America. With impeccable research and original reporting, Mark Whitaker tells the story of Malcolm X's far-reaching posthumous legacy. It stretches from founders of the Black Power Movement such as Stokely Carmichael and Huey Newton to hip-hop pioneers such as Public Enemy and Tupac Shakur. Leaders of the Black Arts and Free Jazz movements from Amiri Baraka to Maya Angelou, August Wilson, and John Coltrane credited their political awakening to Malcolm, as did some of the most influential athletes of our time, from Muhammad Ali to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and beyond. Spike's movie biopic and the Black Lives Matter movement reintroduced Malcolm to subsequent generations. Across the political spectrum, he has been cited as a formative influence by both Barack Obama—who venerated Malcolm's "unadorned insistence on respect"—and Clarence Thomas, who was drawn to Malcolm's messages of self-improvement and economic self-help. In compelling new detail, Whitaker also retraces the long road to exoneration for two men wrongfully convicted of Malcolm's murder, making The Afterlife of Malcolm X essential reading for anyone interested in true crime, American politics, culture, and history."

Mark Whitaker (Author), David Sadzin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tearing Down the Orange Curtain: How Punk Rock Brought Orange County to the World

"The untold story of OC punk-the loud, rebellious force behind the '90s explosion of the Orange County music scene, featuring stories about legendary bands. When it comes to punk communities across the world, the Orange County punk scene stands out as an undeniable trendsetter that helped define the sound and style of the rapidly evolving genre. From hard luck storytellers Social Distortion and multi-platinum sellers like The Offspring to cult heroes like The Adolescents and T.S.O.L., there's much insight to gain from the story of this popular though often misunderstood music scene. In Tearing Down the Orange Curtain, journalists Nate Jackson and Daniel Kohn explore the trajectory of punk and ska from their humble beginnings to their peak popularity years, where their cultural impact could be felt in music around the world. Delving deep into the personal and professional lives of bands like Social Distortion, The Adolescents, The Offspring, and their ska counterparts No Doubt, Sublime, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, and more, this book gives readers a deeper look into the very human stories of these musicians, many of whom struggled with acceptance, addiction, and brutal teenage years in suburbia. Through exclusive first-hand interviews, Tearing Down the Orange Curtain brings the 20-year period of OC punk and third-wave ska (1978-2000) to life, focusing specifically on the historical and musical roots of this creative explosion. Thought-provoking, meticulously researched, and refreshingly candid, this book presents a compelling narrative of how a suburban wasteland turned into a hub for rock-n roll culture, just over 30 miles away from the bright lights of LA. "

Daniel Kohn, Nate Jackson (Author), Marc Worden (Narrator)

Audiobook

We All Want to Change the World: My Journey Through Social Justice Movements from the 1960s to Today

"A sweeping look back at the protest movements that changed America from activist and NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with personal and historical insights into lessons they can teach us today "A compelling case for standing up for justice at a time when everything, it seems, is on the line."-Henry Louis Gates, Jr. For many, it can feel like change takes too long, and it might seem that we have not moved very far. But political activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar believes that public protest is a vital part of affecting change, even if that change doesn't come "right now." In We All Want to Change the World, he examines the activism of people of all ages, ethnicities, and socio-economic backgrounds that helped change America, documenting events from the Free Speech Movement through the movement for civil rights, the fight for women's and LGBTQ rights, and, of course, the protests against the Vietnam War. At a time in our history when we are witnessing protests across campuses, within the labor movement, and following the killing of George Floyd, Abdul-Jabbar reminds us that protests are a lifeblood of our history: "Protest movements, even peaceful ones, are never popular at first. . . . But there is a reason protest gatherings have been so frequent throughout history: They are effective. The United States exists because of them." Part history lesson and part personal reminiscences of his own activism, We All Want to Change the World will resonate with anyone who recognizes the need for social change and is willing to do the work to make it happen."

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Raymond Obstfeld (Author), JD Jackson (Narrator)

Audiobook

No Daylight in That Face: Adventures in Film Noir

"For a tour of noir cinema, No Daylight in That Face is the perfect companion, and Barry Gifford is an ideal guide. His choice selection of films exposes the menacing, moody, and oftentimes violent underbelly of this dark movie genre that occupies a favorite niche in American popular culture. Some are classics, some are little known and seldom seen, but all, once viewed, are deeply remembered by aficionados of noir. Gifford's roll call of unforgettables includes these, and more: The Asphalt Jungle, Body and Soul, Body Heat, Charley Varrick, Chinatown, The Devil Thumbs a Ride, D.O.A., Double Indemnity, High Sierra, Key Largo, Kiss of Death, Mean Streets, Mildred Pierce, Mr. Majestyk, Out of the Past, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Strangers on a Train, and White Heat. Gifford identifies the directors and names the many noir stars, the greats and not-so-greats who were cast in the indelible roles of hoods, B-girls, psychopaths, grifters, gumshoes, waifs, tarts, femme fatales, mobsters, molls, and ex-cons. With a connoisseur's insight and an offbeat sensitivity perfectly tailored to his subjects, Gifford's brief essays cover a hundred of the noir buff's favorites. His highly polished impressions take the listener through five decades of noir to find both the heart and the art of the plotline."

Barry Gifford (Author), Paul Boehmer (Narrator)

Audiobook

You Are Not Your Limits: Introduction by Ben Shephard

"'His joy from changing people's lives is so inspiring' DAVINA MCCALL On a summer's day in 2023, Javeno Mclean was about to train a young girl called Kiera who was recovering from a brain tumour. After chemotherapy damaged her nerves, Kiera was unsure if she would ever be able to walk again. With a good feeling about Kiera's progress, Javeno decided to record her arrival... She gets out of the front passenger seat of a car without any help. She puts one hand on top of the door and one on the frame before pulling herself up. I'm encouraging her: 'Go on, K-Boogie!' Kiera steadies herself, gets her balance and walks across the pavement to J7. I'm next to her, but I didn't need to support her. She puts her hand on the door ... and opens it. The video has since been watched over 23 million times. After leaving professional sports to run fitness classes in the local community, Javeno realised he wanted to be a different kind of trainer. He envisioned a truly inclusive health centre: one where anybody could come and be empowered to soar, no matter what challenges they may be facing in life. This book is the story of how that vision became a reality, what it's taught Javeno about love, community and resilience. But mostly it's about the people who came through the door. Who, with their positivity, strength and determination to not to accept any limits placed on them, have made the health centre the magical place it is today and inspired millions around the globe."

Javeno McLean (Author), Ben Shephard, Javeno Mclean, Lauren Steadman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tina: The Dog Who Changed the World

"THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. _ Hope taught me the meaning of life, Tina taught me the meaning of love. It's not everyday you meet a golden retriever in Thailand. When Niall came across a dog shackled to a short chain and in a poor state of health something reminded him of his personal battle with addiction. He knew he had to rescue her immediately – golden retrievers are rare in Thailand – but there was just something about this dog in particular that told him she was destined for more. He named her Tina, and what she did next is an incredible tale of survival, hope and love. Despite her terrible treatment at the hands of humans, she refused to distrust them or feel sorry for herself, and only opened her heart wider – always with a grin (yes dogs can smile) and a reassuring wag of her shaggy yellow tail. From the minute Tina was free of her chains, she got on with what needed to be done, inspiring a dog hospital to be built and named after her and helping dogs from all over the world – whether they're street dogs from Thailand or rescue pups in Montana. The movement behind Tina has not stopped. This is her story."

Niall Harbison (Author), Niall Harbison (Narrator)

Audiobook