Women Audiobooks | Biography & Memoir

Breaking Through My Limits: An Olympian Uncovered

"Alexandra Orlando is an Olympic athlete who dedicated seventeen years of her life to the sport of rhythmic gymnastics, winning almost two hundred medals. Despite injury, she competed at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, and retired from the sport at the age of twenty-one as one of the top ten gymnasts in the world. Her incredible story is one of struggle and strength. Through it all, her family and friends watched the sport consume her; and every person that came into her life was affected by the constant fight for perfection, and the mental and physical exhaustion. Those who had the strength never left her side. And when the dust settled, a woman emerged who was stronger than she ever thought she could be. Reflecting back on her life as 'Alex the Gymnast,' Alexandra takes a deeper look on who she was during her career, who she had to be, and how this made her the person she is today."

Alexandra Orlando (Author), Alexandra Orlando (Narrator)

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Love Times Three: The True Story of a Polygamous Marriage

"From a familythat inspired Big Love’s story of Bill Henricksonand his three wives, this first-ever memoir of a polygamous family captures theextraordinary workings of a unique family dynamic, and argues forthe acceptance of plural marriage as an alternative lifestyle. Readers ofCarolyn Jessop’s Escape, Elissa Wall’s StolenInnocence, and James McGreevey’s Confession,as well as fans of shows like Big Love and Sister Wives, will beenthralled by the first groundbreaking book in praise of polygamy."

Alina Darger, Joe Darger, Valerie Darger, Vicki Darger (Author), Eliza Foss, James Lurie, Karla Hendrick, Kathleen McInerney (Narrator)

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My First Ladies: Twenty-Five Years as the White House Chief Floral Designer

"In My First Ladies, Nancy Clarke reveals the touching, funny, and illuminating story of what it was like to serve under six administrations and to help each first lady find her own personal style when it came to planning flower designs, state dinners, and holiday festivities in the White House. Learn how Nancy gave comfort to Nancy Reagan when she discovered she had cancer and how she helped Laura Bush to gain the confidence to select bright, bold flower arrangements over the more conservative palettes she used in her first years as first lady. See the deep bond that developed between Nancy and Barbara Bush and feel what it was like to be standing in a bunker right next to President Bush in the days following 9/11. Only Nancy can reveal the inside story of what it was like to work for more than thirty years in the White House she called her second home."

Christie Matheson, Nancy Clarke (Author), Nancy Clarke (Narrator)

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Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War; A Memoir

"Leymah Gbowee was one of three women to receive the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize As a young woman growing up in Africa, seventeen-year-old Leymah Gbowee was crushed by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee's bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized that women bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts. Passionate and charismatic, Gbowee was instrumental in galvanizing hundreds, if not thousands of women in Liberia in 2002 to force a peace in the region after twelve years of war. She began organizing Christian and Muslim women to demonstrate together, founding Liberian Mass Action for Peace, launching protests and even a sex strike. Gbowee's memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, chronicles the unthinkable violence she's faced throughout her life and the peace she has helped broker by empowering hundreds of her countrywomen and others around the world to take action and takes listeners along on her continuing journey as she harnesses the power of women to bring her country peace, saves herself, and changes history."

Leymah Gbowee (Author), Kimberly Scott (Narrator)

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Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West

"From the author of The Agitators, the acclaimed and captivating true story of two restless society girls who left their affluent lives to "rough it" as teachers in the wilds of Colorado in 1916. In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, bored by society luncheons, charity work, and the effete men who courted them, left their families in Auburn, New York, to teach school in the wilds of northwestern Colorado. They lived with a family of homesteaders in the Elkhead Mountains and rode to school on horseback, often in blinding blizzards. Their students walked or skied, in tattered clothes and shoes tied together with string. The young cattle rancher who had lured them west, Ferry Carpenter, had promised them the adventure of a lifetime. He hadn’t let on that they would be considered dazzling prospective brides for the locals. Nearly a hundred years later, Dorothy Wickenden, the granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff, found the teachers’ buoyant letters home, which captured the voices of the pioneer women, the children, and other unforgettable people the women got to know. In reconstructing their journey, Wickenden has created an exhilarating saga about two intrepid women and the “settling up” of the West."

Dorothy Wickenden (Author), Dorothy Wickenden, Margaret Nichols (Narrator)

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[Spanish] - Rompiendo El Silencio

"oNo hay escritoras jovenes en Colombia? oSolo tenemos muchas y buenas poetas? Las preguntas vienen al caso porque en las antologias de relatos ellas no aparecen y escasean las novelas de mujeres menores de 40 anos. Sin embargo, pensamos que aqui, como en muchas partes, tenia que haber jovenes narradoras. Las buscamos durante meses, las desenterramos aqui y en otros paises, les insistimos, las alentamos a romper su silencio, y llegamos a esta seleccion. Fuimos los primeros sorprendidos. Nos encontramos con unas jovenes que vienen trabajando con tenacidad sus escritos. Y creemos que dentro de estas catorce cuentistas hay mas que autenticas promesas."

Andrea Cheer, Juliana Borrero, Maria Acosta, Maria Castilla, Melissa Diaz (Author), Irma Bello (Narrator)

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Looking Through a Keyhole: A Memoir

"Julia Spencer takes the listener into her dreams, her fears, her hopes, her deepest private thoughts, and her most candid responses to her shrinking visual world. With humor and a feisty yet surprisingly gentle attitude, she begins to accept vision loss, welcoming her guide dog, Irene, into her life and discovering through that keyhole-sized remnant of vision a deeper understanding of her husband and family and world. The confines of her vision loss cannot restrain the vibrant energy and independence of this remarkable woman. Anyone struggling with a life altering condition will find this story inspiring and motivating."

Julia Spencer (Author), Diana Andrade (Narrator)

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Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far

"In this personal memoir, Bristol Palin opens up for the first time ever, taking readers behind the scenes in her life, from growing up in Alaska to coming of age amid the media and political frenzy surrounding her mother’s political rise; from becoming a single mother while still a teenager to coping as her relationship with the baby’s father crumbled publicly. Through all of these ups and downs, Bristol learned how to face her challenges head-on with courage and grace. In Not Afraid of Life, Bristol speaks candidly of her aspirations and of the deep religious faith that gives her strength and inspiration. Plainspoken and disarmingly down-to-earth, Bristol offers new insight and understanding of who she is and what she values most."

Bristol Palin (Author), Bristol Palin (Narrator)

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First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

"One of seven children of a high-ranking government official, Loung Ung lived a privileged life in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh until the age of five. Then, in April 1975, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into the city, forcing Ung's family to flee and, eventually, to disperse. Loung was trained as a child soldier in a work camp for orphans, her siblings were sent to labor camps, and those who survived the horrors would not be reunited until the Khmer Rouge was destroyed. Harrowing yet hopeful, Loung's powerful story is an unforgettable account of a family shaken and shattered, yet miraculously sustained by courage and love in the face of unspeakable brutality."

Loung Ung (Author), Tavia Gilbert (Narrator)

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Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank

"Barbara Sinatra's first public love letter to the husband she adored, she celebrates the sensational singer, possessive mate, sexy heartthrob, and devoted friend that she found in Frank in Lady Blue Eyes. For more than two decades, Barbara was always by Frank Sinatra's side, traveling the globe and hosting glittering events for their famous friends, including presidents, kings, queens, Hollywood royalty, and musical legends. Among them were Sammy Davis, Jr., Princess Grace of Monaco, Bob Dylan, and Ronald Reagan. Each night, as Frank publicly wooed his bride with love songs from a concert stage, she'd fall in love with him all over again. From her own humble beginnings in a small town in Missouri to her time as a fashion model and her marriage to Zeppo Marx, Barbara Sinatra reveals a life lived with passion, conviction, and grace. A founder of the Miss Universe pageant and a onetime Vegas showgirl, she raised her only son almost single-handedly in often dire circumstances until, after five years of tempestuous courtship, she and Frank committed to each other wholeheartedly. In stories that leap off the page, she takes us behind the scenes of her iconic husband's legendary career and paints an intimate portrait of a man who was variously generous, jealous, witty, and wicked. Coupled with revealing insights about many of Frank's celebrated songs, this is much more than the story of a showbiz marriage. It is a story of passion and of a deep and lifelong love."

Barbara Sinatra (Author), Lorna Raver (Narrator)

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A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother

"A major publishing event: an unprecedented look into the life of the woman who most singularly shaped Barack Obama-his mother. Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, 'what is best in me.' Here is the missing piece of the story. Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this woman's inspiring and untraditional life, and to show the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today. Dunham's story moves from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. It begins in a time when interracial marriage was still a felony in much of the United States, and culminates in the present, with her son as our president- something she never got to see. It is a poignant look at how character is passed from parent to child, and offers insight into how Obama's destiny was created early, by his mother's extraordinary faith in his gifts, and by her unconventional mothering. Finally, it is a heartbreaking story of a woman who died at age fifty-two, before her son would go on to his greatest accomplishments and reflections of what she taught him."

Janny Scott (Author), January LaVoy (Narrator)

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A Helluva High Note: Surviving Life, Love, and American Idol

"Kara DioGuardi is an award-winning hitmaker, a savvy record executive, and a successful music publisher whose songs have been recorded by such superstars as Pink, Carrie Underwood, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Gwen Stefani, Santana, Steven Tyler, Céline Dion, and so many others. She was also the feisty fourth judge on American Idol. But success wouldn’t have happened for this songwriter, artist, and producer without the dark times of defeat. Filled with the grace, raw honesty, and haunting emotion of her hit songs, A Helluva High Note is the soundtrack to Kara’s life—an intimate anthem about living, creating, loving, stumbling, picking herself up again, and ultimately succeeding. It is a moving chronicle of the experiences that have inspired her songs and given her the resilience and perspective to become the confidant, accomplished, adventurous warrior she is today. Kara not only writes about what it was like to collaborate with some of our favorite performing artists, she also opens up about everything from her struggles with debilitating stage fright and an equally paralyzing eating disorder, to the most devastating yet profoundly life-altering experience—caring for her mother during her fatal battle with cancer. And, of course, she shares behind-the-scenes stories from her years on American Idol and the real truth about her departure from the show. A Helluva High Note is filled with memorable and inspirational tales from the heart and trenches of life, business, and the world of entertainment. Passionate, wise, funny, and down-to-earth, it proves that finding, cultivating, and following your own true voice really is possible."

Kara DioGuardi (Author), Kara DioGuardi (Narrator)

Audiobook

Women Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir

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