Memoir Audiobooks | Biography & Memoir

Every Contact Leaves a Trace: My Life as a Crime Scenes Investigator

Enter the fascinating world of crime scene investigation with this chilling memoir from a senior investigator. For most people, dead bodies are horrifying. They are the physical representation of everything we're afraid of - our own mortality, the unknown, the inevitability, and lack of dignity of the end. But for Jo Ward, a dead body is absolutely fascinating… For Jo, a normal day's work involves getting up-close and personal with the dead - generally the murdered dead - exploring every inch of their battered and bloody bodies and finding the clues that will lead the police to their killers. Every scene teaches her something new. Every murder is a chance to obtain justice for the dead. Because every contact leaves a trace… Jo Ward is part of a generation of pioneering women who lead forensic investigation around the world. She investigates high-profile crimes - murder, domestic killings, infanticide, and rape. If you're a fan of Sue Black and Patricia Wiltshire, Every Contact Leaves a Trace is for you. It's a rare glimpse into a formidable woman and the world of forensics, chronicling some of Jo's toughest and most groundbreaking cases, and offering insight into how she copes despite seeing the most shocking excesses of humanity.

Jo Ward (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Heart of the Woods

Just as a parent leaves a legacy to their child, a tree leaves a legacy to its surroundings. A deep and explorative companion piece to the Roger Deakin Award-winning The Draw of The Sea. Throughout history, trees have determined the tools we use, the boats we build, the stories we tell about the world and ourselves, the songs we sing, and some of our most important rituals. As such, our lives are intertwined with those of the trees and woodlands around us. In this journey deep into the woods, Wyl Menmuir travels the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland to meet the people who plant trees, the ecologists who study them, those who shape beautiful objects and tools from wood, and those who use them to help others. Wyl also explores how our relationship with trees is enduring, now and in the future - what we get out of spending time around trees, the ways in which our relationship with them has changed over time, and the ways in which our future is interconnected with theirs. Written in close collaboration with makers, crafters, bodgers, and woodsmen and women in order to better understand the woods they know so well, the joys and frustrations of working with a living material, and the stories of their craft and skills, The Heart of The Woods will delight anyone who enjoys walking among the trees, and anyone who, when lost, has found themselves in the woods. Chapters include: WOODLAND PLANTER: A woodland in becoming and an ancient yew grove on the border of North Wales and England RITUAL WEAVER: Willow coffin making in Cornwall WOODLORE GATHERER: Science among the trees at Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire HEARTWOOD CARVER: Among the bodgers in a field outside Cambridge BOAT BUILDER: A woodland community in the heart of Glasgow's former docklands LANDSCAPE SHAPER: Re-wilding the Scottish Highlands and an organised trespass in Devon WISH WEARER: The clootie well at Munlochy on The Black Isle, Scottish Highlands, a family tree on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, and the tree at Sycamore Gap, Northumbria FOREST BATHER: Swimming at Swallowship Pool, Devil's Water, and Letah Woods Northumberland MYTH WALKER: Walks in the fictional woods at Wenlock Edge, Shropshire WAY FOLLOWER: Traditional carpentry in Takayama, Japan FIRE LIGHTER: The stories we find among the flames and embers, Ennistymon, Ireland SOUND CREATOR: A pub on Ireland's west coast and a guitar-builder in North Wales APPLE WAILER: Wassailing in Cornwall TREE WORSHIPPER: An ancient yew grove in North Wales

Wyl Menmuir (Author), Wyl Menmuir (Narrator)

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Safe Space

A collection of essays and advice about navigating racism in modern Australia, and creating your own safe space, from writer and activist Alyssa Huynh. I've played the role of the quiet and embarrassed Asian girl who shyly laughs along more than I should have in my lifetime. Enough is enough. Alyssa has always found comfort in writing, but she never expected her thoughts on racial discrimination to resonate with so many people. Unfortunately, they were also divisive. First, she called out the problematic fox eye style of makeup that was ironically trending at the same time as anti-Asian hate in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also told a restaurant that naming a burger the 'honey fried cat' was perpetuating a harmful stereotype. Every commentary resulted in racist backlash, but the hate only spurred Alyssa on - here was more proof that the work was necessary. In Safe Space, Alyssa offers new insight into the complexities of growing up Asian in Australia and shares the experiences that have made her the advocate she is today. She offers advice to those wanting to add their voice to the discourse and fosters the safe space she always wished she had. Honest and heartfelt, Safe Space is at once unapologetically angry and sincerely hopeful. This is a book for anyone who believes that racism has no place in Australia's future and is ready to take action.

Alyssa Huynh (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Which Way Is Up?: Finding Heart in the Hardest of Times

A heartfelt guide for meeting difficult times with mindfulness, compassion, and courage-from a psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner who learned from her own crisis. Using personal examples from her own recent bardo crisis-undergoing cancer treatment during the pandemic-and offering contemplative prompts for inner-reflection and a meditation practice in each chapter, psychotherapist and Buddhist practitioner Susan Chapman demystifies the three main types of fear people experience (frozen, awake, and core), and how to meet each with love. This heartfelt guide from someone who's been there and done the work will help us get through life's challenges and restore our equilibrium, while also inviting a valuable opportunity for personal growth. Which Way Is Up? draws from traditional Buddhist teachings on the bardo, a Tibetan word most often associated with the period between death and rebirth. Chapman likens the bardo to abrupt episodes in our lives when things seem to turn upside down and we can't find our footing. In such times of not-knowing, our fearful mind tends to panic trying to make sense out of our experience. Instead, Chapman meets the listener in their groundlessness to show how these turning points can force us to let go of our assumptions about the future and allow something new to be reborn.

Susan Gillis Chapman (Author), Dina Pearlman (Narrator)

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Kissing Girls on Shabbat: A Memoir

A moving coming-of-age memoir in the vein of Unorthodox and Educated, about one young woman's desperate attempt to protect her children and family while also embracing her queer identity in a controlling Hasidic community. Growing up in the Hasidic community of Brooklyn's Borough Park, Sara Glass knew one painful truth: what was expected of her and what she desperately wanted were impossibly opposed. Tormented by her attraction to women and trapped in a loveless arranged marriage, she found herself unable to conform to her religious upbringing and soon, she made the difficult decision to walk away from the world she knew. Sara's journey to self-acceptance began with the challenging battle for a divorce and custody of her children, an act that left her on the verge of estrangement from her family and community. Controlled by the fear of losing custody of her two children, she forced herself to remain loyal to the compulsory heteronormativity baked into Hasidic Judaism and married again. But after suffering profound loss and a shocking sexual assault, Sara decided to finally be completely true to herself. Kissing Girls on Shabbat is not only a love letter to Glass's children, herself, and her family—it is an unflinching window into the world of ultra-conservative Orthodox Jewish communities and an inspiring celebration of learning to love yourself.

Sara Glass (Author), Sara Glass, TBD (Narrator)

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The Life of Dai

A profound and inspirational account of dealing with adversity and finding daily meaning and happiness in our lives. 'Part memoir and part masterclass in finding hope and joy in the face of unthinkable challenges. This isn't a book about cancer, it's a book about living.' - Jaquie Brown Dai Henwood wanted to be a comedian even before he knew what a comedian was. He always knew there was something special in being able to make people laugh - even when the world goes dark. In January 2023 Dai shared publicly that three years earlier he had been diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer. Perhaps the ultimate teacher for what really matters, his incurable cancer has shown him a new way of living that embraces small moments of perfection and cherishes things we often overlook. As well as showing us how laughter can be a wonderful medicine - and there are many laughs in his book - he teaches us that often the gifts we've been searching for are right in front of us, if only we could see them.

Dai Henwood (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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The Grief Cure: Looking for the End of Loss

“A wise and perceptive journey into grief and the ways we seek to assuage it. Incredibly powerful reading for all who have known, or who will inevitably know, loss.” —Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters In this lyrical and moving story of the world of Prolonged Grief, journalist Cody Delistraty reflects on his experience with loss and explores what modern science, history, and literature reveal about the nature of our relationship to grief and our changing attitudes toward its cure. When Cody Delistraty lost his mother to cancer in his early 20s, he found himself unsure how to move forward. The typical advice was to move through the five stages, achieve closure, get back to work, go back to normal. So begins a journey into the new frontiers of grief, where Delistraty seeks out the researchers, technologists, therapists, marketers, and communities around the world who may be able to cure the pain of loss in novel ways. From the neuroscience of memory deletion to book prescriptions, laughter therapy, psilocybin, and Breakup Bootcamp, what ultimately emerges is not so much a cure as a fresh understanding of what living with grief truly means. As Delistraty created his own ad hoc treatment plan, the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization gave extended, disruptive grief an official name: Prolonged Grief Disorder. A diagnosis, based on meeting several symptoms and contingencies, has opened innovative avenues of treatment and an important conversation about a debilitating form of grief, but it has also opened a debate as to whether this form of grief, no matter how severe and unrelenting, is best approached medically at all. Braiding deep, emotional resonance with sharp research and historical insight, Delistraty places his own experience in dialogue with great writers and thinkers throughout history who have puzzled over this eternal question: how might we best face loss?

Cody Delistraty (Author), Sean Pratt, TBD (Narrator)

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The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy

Living with Dad was like living with a stranger—as a kid I often had trouble connecting and relating to him. But I was always proud of him. Even before Star Trek, I’d see him popping up in bit roles on some of my favorite TV shows like Get Smart, Sea Hunt, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. And then one night he brought home Polaroids of himself in makeup and wardrobe for a pilot he was working on. It was December 1964 and nobody had heard of Star Trek. Still, the eight-year-old me had watched enough Outer Limits and My Favorite Martian to understand exactly what I was looking at. Spock’s popularity happened quickly, and soon the fan magazines were writing about dad’s personal life, characterizing us as a “close family.” But the awkwardness that defined our early relationship blossomed into conflict, sometimes smoldering, sometimes open and intense. There were occasional flashes of warmth between the arguments and hurt feelings—even something akin to love—especially when we were celebrating my father’s many successes. The rest of the time, things between us were often strained. My resentment towards my father kept building through the years until we were estranged. I wanted things to be different for my children. I wanted to be the father I never had, so I did all the things dads are supposed to do. And then I got Dad's letter. That marked a turning point in our lives, a moment that cleared the way for a new relationship between us.

Adam Nimoy (Author), TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tony Benn at the BBC: The Benn Tapes, Free at Last! and more

A collection of Tony Benn’s private audio diaries, documentaries and archive interviews Tony Benn was the patriarch of the Labour left, a radical statesman, orator and anti-war campaigner who spent over 50 years as an MP, serving in the Cabinet under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. A prolific diarist, his political memoirs have been compared to Pepys in their detail, scope and accuracy. Three volumes are included here, read by Benn himself, together with four fascinating programmes focussing on the man behind the diaries. Part I: Tony Benn’s Diaries The Benn Tapes 1 – For over 25 years, Tony Benn sat late into the night dictating his personal account of the daily happenings at the heart of government. In this unique series, he shares his remarkable recordings from history’s front line, recalling events such as Harold Wilson’s surprise 1976 resignation; the miners’ strike of 1984-1985 and the 1992 general election. The Benn Tapes 2 – This second series of behind-the-scenes revelations sees Benn recounting why he believes nuclear power is unsafe, disclosing what went on during Cabinet reshuffles and tracing the split in the party following its 1979 defeat, the emergence of the Social Democratic Party, and his challenge to deputy leader Denis Healy. Free at Last!: The Diaries 1991-2001 – Spanning Tony Benn’s final decade as an MP, this third volume covers the Gulf War, the rise of New Labour, the death of Diana Princess of Wales and peace in Northern Ireland. Mixing political observations with a moving account of family life, it is full of humour, insight, joy and sadness. Part 2: Tony Benn’s Life In the Psychiatrist’s Chair: Tony Benn – Dr Anthony Clare talks to the legendary parliamentarian about his life, his career and how his guiding principles were influenced by his parents’ social and political convictions. Sentimental Journey: Tony Benn – Arthur Smith accompanies Tony Benn on a trip back to the place where he was born, grew up, and spent most of his political life – the City of Westminster. With Great Pleasure: Tony Benn – The veteran politician presents a selection of the prose and poetry that has shaped his personal philosophy, including the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Dwight D Eisenhower, Oscar Wilde and John Bunyan. Night Waves: Tony Benn – In an event from the 2008 Free Thinking festival, Tony Benn talks about the value of experience and discusses his own life experience with presenter Susan Hitch and the audience. Cast and credits The Benn Tapes Read by Tony Benn Produced by Keith Jones First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 21 Jul-8 Sep 1993 (Series 1), 17 Oct- 5 Dec 1994 (Series 2) Free at Last!: The Diaries 1991-2001 Read by Tony Benn Produced by Jane Ray First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 13-17 Oct 2003 In the Psychiatrist’s Chair: Tony Benn Presented by Dr Anthony Clare A Michael Ember production First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 13 Aug 1995 Sentimental Journey: Tony Benn With Arthur Smith and Tony Benn Produced by Dilly Barlow First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 Jul 2006 With Great Pleasure: Tony Benn Presented by Tony Benn Readers: Saffron Burrows, Jim Findley and Carl Prekopp Produced by Christine Hall First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 26 Jul 2007 Night Waves: Tony Benn Presented by Susan Hitch With Tony Benn Produced by Allegra McIlroy First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 11 Dec 2008 © 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Tony Benn (Author), Tony Benn (Narrator)

Audiobook

Us, After: A Memoir of Love and Suicide

When a state trooper appeared at Rachel Zimmerman’s door to report that her husband had jumped to his death off a nearby bridge, she fell to her knees, unable to fully absorb the news. How could the man she married, a devoted father and robotics professor at MIT, have committed such a violent act? How would she explain this to her young daughters? And could she have stopped him? A longtime journalist, she probed obsessively, believing answers would help her survive. She interviewed doctors, suicide researchers and a man who jumped off the same bridge and lived. Us, After examines domestic devastation and resurgence, digging into the struggle between public and private selves, life’s shifting perspectives, the work of motherhood, and the secrets we keep. In this memoir, Zimmerman confronts the unimaginable and discovers the good in what remains.

Rachel Zimmerman (Author), Rachel Zimmerman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Straight Up

This is Ruby Tui. An open, raw and honest account of her journey from a troubled and unstable childhood, searching for a better option in life, to Olympic champion and the world's best rugby sevens player. After a childhood filled with neglect Ruby yearned for another path. Determined not to let her upbringing limit her, she survived abuse, drugs and tragedy to become one of the most successful women's rugby players in the world. The explosion of women's rugby on the global stage has matched the rise of Ruby's stellar career, as she has grown with the game from amateur to professional. In Straight Up Ruby looks herself in the eye, understanding that she can turn pain into purpose. It's time to be straight up.

Ruby Tui (Author), Ruby Tui, TBD (Narrator)

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Air and Love: A Story of Food, Family and Belonging

A gorgeous, evocative memoir of family, food and migration. As a child, Or Rosenboim's knowledge of her family history came mainly through the food her grandmothers cooked for her - bright orange carrots tzimes in buttery caramel sauce, round kneidlach balls in hot chicken broth, cinnamon-scented noodle kugel, stuffed vine leaves, Oshi-bahsh (herby green rice with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice), a 'Turkish salad' of red peppers and aubergine in tomato sauce or a slice of rich buttery almond and walnut cake. Or always knew that her family had a complex past, but it was not until both of her grandmothers died in 2017 that she reopened their recipe books and began to seriously explore the facts of their history - her history - for the first time. In Air and Love, Or follows the migration routes of her ancestors, conjuring the journeys they took and lives they forged in the turbulent and ever-shifting Europe of the twentieth century. This family history, of displacement and escape, is not an unusual one, but it is one often overshadowed by the massive political shifts and conflicts of the period. Opening in Samarkand and concluding in London, Or retraces a network of journeys via which her ancestors travelled to the Middle East and back, always in search of safety and a better life, and always cooking along the way. The paths they took were long established migrant routes whose existence paved the way for the Europe we recognise today - and yet these journeys, and this long tradition of migration, would now be largely impossible. The result is a beguiling mixture of history, memoir, travel and food, offering a fresh and deeply human retelling of some of the major stories of the twentieth century.

Or Rosenboim (Author), Or Rosenboim, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Memoir Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir