Biography & Memoir Audiobooks

Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood

'If you did not think that gallium and iridium could move you, this superb book will change your mind' The Times In Uncle Tungsten, Oliver Sacks evokes, with warmth and wit, his upbringing in wartime England. He tells of the large science-steeped family who fostered his early fascination with chemistry. There follow his years at boarding school where, though unhappy, he developed the intellectual curiosity that would shape his later life. And we hear of his return to London, an emotionally bereft ten-year-old who found solace in his passion for learning. Uncle Tungsten radiates all the delight and wonder of a boy's adventures, and is an unforgettable portrait of an extraordinary young mind.

Oliver Sacks (Author), Jonathan Davis (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Anti-Cool Girl

Brutal, brave, hilarious -- a full-frontal memoir about surviving the very worst that life can throw at you. Rosie Waterland has never been cool. Growing up in housing commission, Rosie was cursed with a near perfect, beautiful older sister who dressed like Mariah Carey on a Best & Less budget while Rosie was still struggling with various toilet mishaps. She soon realised that she was the Doug Pitt to her sister's Brad, and that cool was not going to be her currency in this life. But that was only one of the problems Rosie faced. With two addicts for parents, she grew up amidst rehab stays, AA meetings, overdoses, narrow escapes from drug dealers and a merry-go-round of dodgy boyfriends in her mother's life. Rosie watched as her dad passed out/was arrested/vomited, and had to talk her mum out of killing herself. As an adult, trying to come to grips with her less than conventional childhood, Rosie navigated her way through eating disorders, nude acting roles, mental health issues and awkward Tinder dates. Then she had an epiphany: to stop pretending to be who she wasn't and embrace her true self -- a girl who loved drinking wine in her underpants on Sunday nights -- and become an Anti-Cool Girl. An irrepressible, blackly comic memoir, Rosie Waterland's story is a clarion call for Anti-Cool Girls everywhere. 'Individual, wounded, brilliant and hilarious' Sydney Morning Herald 'If Augusten Burroughs and Lena Dunham abandoned their child in an Australian housing estate, she'd write this heartbreaking, hilarious book. It made me laugh uproariously, then feel terrible for her, then laugh all over again. Sorry, Rosie.' Dominic Knight, The Chaser 'Hilarious, wise, gutsy, clear-eyed, devastating and uplifting. It's a marvel.' Richard Glover The Anti Cool Girl was shortlisted for the 2016 Indie Book Awards and for the 2016 ABIA Awards for Biography of the Year, and also shortlisted for the 2017 Russell Prize for Humour Writing. She was also the Winner of the 2016 ABIA Awards People's Choice for the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year

Rosie Waterland (Author), Caroline Lee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hasse Brontén - Live at Gröna Lundsteatern

Komikern Hasse Brontén gör upp med sitt polisförflutna. Hasse, en av poliserna som grep Jackie Arklöv, som senare hoppade av kanonjobbet på Säpo och blev en av Sveriges mest omtyckta komiker! Han har uppträtt från allt från niondeklassare till tusentals jublande kvinnor i Ladies Night och självaste statsministern. I "Hasse Brontén Live at Gröna Landsteatern" har han samlat sina bästa skämt och förpackat dem till en fantastiskt rolig föreställning som nu finns att lyssna på som ljudbok! Mycket nöje! I "Hasse Brontén Live at Gröna Landsteatern" har han samlat sina bästa skämt och förpackat dem till en fantastiskt rolig föreställning som nu finns att lyssna på som ljudbok! Mycket nöje!

Hasse Brontén (Author), Hasse Brontén (Narrator)

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Chasing the Demon: A Secret History of the Quest for the Sound Barrier, and the Band of American Ace

The New York Times bestselling author of Viper Pilot chronicles another thrilling chapter in American aviation history: the race to break the sound barrier. In the aftermath of World War II, the United States accelerated the development of technologies that would give it an advantage over the Soviet Union. Airpower, combined with nuclear weapons, offered a formidable check on Soviet aggression. In 1947, the United States Air Force was established. Meanwhile, scientists and engineers were pioneering a revolutionary new type of aircraft which could do what no other machine had ever done: reach mach 1—a speed faster than the movement of sound—which pilots called 'the demon.' Chasing the Demon recreates an era of excitement and danger, adventure and innovation, when the future of the free world was at stake and American ingenuity took the world from the postwar years to the space age. While the pressure to succeed was high, it was unknown whether man or machine could survive such tremendous speeds. A decorated military pilot with years of experience flying supersonic fighter jets, Dan Hampton reveals in-depth the numerous potential hazards that emerged with the Air Force’s test flights: controls broke down, engines flamed out, wings snapped, and planes and pilots disintegrated as they crashed into the desert floor. He also introduces the men who pushed the envelope taking the cockpits of these jets, including World War II ace Major Dick Bong and twenty-four-year-old Captain Chuck Yeager, who made history flying the Bell X-1 plane faster than the speed of sound on October 14, 1947. Chasing the Demon recalls this period of the emerging Cold War and the brave adventurers pursing the final frontier in aviation.

Dan Hampton (Author), John Pruden (Narrator)

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Ladhood: The Complete Series 1 and 2: A BBC Radio 4 comedy

From Liam Williams, a two-time Edinburgh Festival Award Nominated comedian, comes a rich storytelling series about Liam's teenage misadventures in the Yorkshire suburbs. The first series delves into Liam's memories of his first fight, virginity loss, the best house party ever organised, and his marvellous outwitting of an entire teaching staff. This is the New Labour, post-mining, aspirational heartland, meeting 50 Cent and Generation Y ennui, represented in a bourgeois radio format - by one of Britain's most exciting comedians. Series two sees Liam anxiously awaiting A-Level results before trying to find his feet in a most alien of new environments, Cambridge University. There, he searches for hedonism, torn between the laddish drinking societies and the artsy intelligentsia of Cambridge University. Liam Williams is a critically acclaimed comedian, known for his wry poetic presentation style. He was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2013 Edinburgh Fridge Comedy Awards, and for Best Show at the 2014 awards. He has appeared as a guest stand up on Russell Howard's Good News, and on Channel 4's Drunk History. His successful mockumentary series on BBC Three in 2017 was called Pls Like, about a man trying to become a YouTube star. The series was recorded in Leeds and stars teens from Yorkshire as the young Liam and his mates. Ladhood received a commendation for Best Scripted Comedy at the BBC Audio Drama Awards 2018. Produced by Arnab Chanda (Series 1) and Joseph Nunnery (Series 2).

Liam Williams (Author), , Full Cast, Liam Williams (Narrator)

Audiobook

Danuta Szaflarska: Jej czas (Her Time)

First biography of the great actress in a brilliant interpretation of Danuta Stenka. 102 years of fascinating life, turbulent career, and dramatic turns in history. Gabriel Michalik paints a subtle portrait of the legend of the theatre and cinema, the people she met, and the era through which she lived with natural elegance, grace, and unusual cheerfulness, in spite of dramatic obstacles.

Gabriel Michalik (Author), Danuta Stenka (Narrator)

Audiobook

Like She Owns the Place: Unlock the Secret of Lasting Confidence

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Like She Owns the Place written and read by Cara Alwill Leyba. Can you imagine what your life would be like if you abandoned the idea of perfection and decided to embrace your whole self - and even better - love yourself? Imagine if you stopped putting your happiness in the hands of others. Imagine you stopped waiting for validation from external forces and learnt how to be intimate with failure, cellulite, success, wrinkles, imperfection, mistakes, vulnerability. Imagine what life would be like if you just decided to feel good now. In Like She Owns the Place, master life coach and motivational speaker Cara Alwill Leyba teaches you that confidence is all about knowing yourself. Leyba lays down the foundations to help you build confidence from the ground up which include ditching the idea of winning, editing toxic people and habits from your life and embracing the achievements of other women. Follow Cara's advice and you'll be walking into every room like you own the place.

Cara Alwill Leyba (Author), Cara Alwill Leyba (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Course Called Scotland: Searching the Home of Golf for the Secret to Its Game

From Tom Coyne-the author of the New York Times bestselling A Course Called Ireland, hailed as "a joy from start to finish" by The Wall Street Journal-comes the heartfelt and humorous celebration of his quest to play golf on every links course in Scotland, the birthplace of the game he loves. For much of his adult life, bestselling author Tom Coyne has been chasing a golf ball around the globe. When he was in college, studying abroad in London, he entered the lottery for a prized tee time in Scotland, grabbing his clubs and jumping the train to St. Andrews as his friends partied in Amsterdam; later, he golfed the entirety of Ireland's coastline, chased pros through the mini-tours, and attended grueling Qualifying Schools in Australia, Canada, and Latin America. Yet, as he watched the greats compete, he felt something was missing. Then one day a friend suggested he attempt to play every links course in Scotland, and qualify for the greatest championship in golf. The result is A Course Called Scotland, a hilarious golf and travel adventure throughout the birthplace of the sport and home to some of the oldest and most beloved courses in the world, including St. Andrews, Turnberry, Dornoch, Prestwick, Troon, and Carnoustie. With his signature blend of storytelling, humor, history, and insight, Coyne weaves together his journey to more than 100 legendary links courses in Scotland with compelling threads of golf history and witty insights into the contemporary home of golf. As he journeys Scotland in search of the game's secrets, he discovers new and old friends, rediscovers the peace and power of the sport, and, most importantly, reaffirms the ultimate connection between the game and the soul. It is a rollicking love letter to Scotland and golf as no one has attempted it before.

Tom Coyne (Author), Jacques Roy (Narrator)

Audiobook

I Can't Date Jesus: Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I've Put My Faith in Beyoncé

Featured as one of Summer 2018's most anticipated reads by the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Vulture, Entertainment Weekly, ELLE, Buzzfeed, and Bitch Media. In the style of New York Times bestsellers You Can't Touch My Hair, Bad Feminist, and I'm Judging You, a timely collection of alternately hysterical and soul‑searching essays about what it is like to grow up as a creative, sensitive black man in a world that constantly tries to deride and diminish your humanity. It hasn't been easy being Michael Arceneaux. Equality for LGBTQ people has come a long way and all, but voices of persons of color within the community are still often silenced, and being Black in America is…well, have you watched the news? With the characteristic wit and candor that have made him one of today's boldest writers on social issues, I Can't Date Jesus is Michael Arceneaux's impassioned, forthright, and refreshing look at minority life in today's America. Leaving no bigoted or ignorant stone unturned, he describes his journey in learning to embrace his identity when the world told him to do the opposite. He eloquently writes about coming out to his mother; growing up in Houston, Texas; being approached for the priesthood; his obstacles in embracing intimacy that occasionally led to unfortunate fights with fire ants and maybe fleas; and the persistent challenges of young people who feel marginalized and denied the chance to pursue their dreams. Perfect for fans of David Sedaris, Samantha Irby, and Phoebe Robinson, I Can't Date Jesus tells us—without apologies—what it's like to be outspoken and brave in a divisive world.

Michael Arceneaux (Author), Michael Arceneaux (Narrator)

Audiobook

Don't Make Me Pull Over!: An Informal History of the Family Road Trip

Part pop history and part whimsical memoir in the spirit of National Lampoon's Vacation-Don't Make Me Pull Over! is a nostalgic look at the golden age of family road trips-a halcyon era that culminated in the latter part of the twentieth century, before portable DVD players, iPods, and Google Maps. In the days before cheap air travel, families didn't so much take vacations as survive them. Between home and destination lay thousands of miles and dozens of annoyances, and with his family Richard Ratay experienced all of them-from being crowded into the backseat with noogie-happy older brothers, to picking out a souvenir only to find that a better one might have been had at the next attraction, to dealing with a dad who didn't believe in bathroom breaks. The birth of America's first interstate highways in the 1950s hit the gas pedal on the road trip phenomenon and families were soon streaming-sans seatbelts!-to a range of sometimes stirring, sometimes wacky locations. Frequently, what was remembered the longest wasn't Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, or Disney World, but such roadside attractions as "The Thing" in Texas Canyon, Arizona, or "The Mystery Spot" in Santa Cruz, California. In this road tourism-crazy era that stretched through the 1970's, national parks attendance swelled to 165 million, and a whopping 2.2 million people visited Gettysburg each year, thirteen times the number of soldiers who fought in the battle. Now, decades later, Ratay offers a paean to what was lost, showing how family togetherness was eventually sacrificed to electronic distractions and the urge to "get there now." In hundreds of amusing ways, he reminds us of what once made the Great American Family Road Trip so great, including twenty-foot "land yachts," oasis-like Holiday Inn "Holidomes," "Smokey"-spotting Fuzzbusters, 28 glorious flavors of Howard Johnson's ice cream, and the thrill of finding a "good buddy" on the CB radio. A rousing Ratay family ride-along, Don't Make Me Pull Over! reveals how the family road trip came to be, how its evolution mirrored the country's, and why those magical journeys that once brought families together-for better and worse-have largely disappeared.

Richard Ratay (Author), Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator)

Audiobook

Okay Fine Whatever: The Year I Went from Being Afraid of Everything to Only Being Afraid of Most Thi

The "hilarious and poignant" story of one chronically anxious woman's year-long quest to become braver by seeking out the kinds of experiences she's spent her life avoiding. (Cheryl Strayed) For most of her life (and even during her years as the host of a popular radio show), Courtenay Hameister lived in a state of near-constant dread and anxiety. She fretted about everything. Her age. Her size. Her romantic prospects. How likely it was that she would get hit by a bus on the way home. Until a couple years ago, when, in her mid-forties, she decided to fight back against her debilitating anxieties by spending a year doing little things that scared her--things that the average person might consider doing for a half second before deciding: "nope." Things like: attending a fellatio class. She did that. She also spent an afternoon in a sensory deprivation tank, got (legally) high in the middle of a workday, had a session with a professional cuddler, braved twenty-eight first dates, and (perhaps scariest of all) actually met someone who might possibly appreciate her for who she is.Refreshing, relatable, and pee-your-pants funny, Okay Fine Whatever is Courtenay's hold-nothing-back account of her adventures on the front lines of Mere Human Woman vs. Fear, reminding us that even the tiniest amount of bravery is still bravery, and that no matter who you are, it's possible to fight complacency and become bold, or at least bold-ish, a little at a time.

Courtenay Hameister (Author), Courtenay Hameister (Narrator)

Audiobook

Kristoffer Appelquist är död

Komikern Kristoffer Appelquists show har tema döden. Döden i allmänhet och hans egen dödlighet i synnerhet. Han avslöjar vad han vill lägga resten av sitt liv på, till exempel att tillverka tipspromenader och grunda en pannacottaorganisation. Kristoffer har ni sett i tv-program som Parlamentet och Starke Man, i hans show ”Drömmen om Amerika” i Kanal 5 eller på någon av landets alla ståuppklubbar. En mångsysslare som nu åter gör det han är allra bäst på – stå rakt upp och ner och prata med sin publik och få dom att skratta åt både roligheter och oroligheter. Namnet på föreställningen har fått såväl familj som okända att reagera. För Kristoffer är det ett sätt att sätta fokus på det som man faktiskt ska göra medan man kan så varför inte passa på att lyssna på stand up-showen som ljudbok!

Kristoffer Appelquist (Author), Kristoffer Appelquist (Narrator)

Audiobook