General Audiobooks | Science & Technology

A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story About Schizophrenia

Dazzlingly, daringly written, marrying the thoughtful originality of Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts with the revelatory power of Neurotribes and The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, this propulsive, stunning book illuminates the experience of living with schizophrenia like never before. Sandra Allen did not know her uncle Bob very well. As a child, she had been told he was "crazy," that he had spent time in mental hospitals while growing up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s. But Bob had lived a hermetic life in a remote part of California for longer than she had been alive, and what little she knew of him came from rare family reunions or odd, infrequent phone calls. Then in 2009 Bob mailed her his autobiography. Typewritten in all caps, a stream of error-riddled sentences over sixty, single-spaced pages, the often incomprehensible manuscript proclaimed to be a "true story" about being "labeled a psychotic paranoid schizophrenic," and arrived with a plea to help him get his story out to the world. In A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise, Allen translates her uncle's autobiography, artfully creating a gripping coming-of-age story while sticking faithfully to the facts as he shared them. Lacing Bob's narrative with chapters providing greater contextualization, Allen also shares background information about her family, the culturally explosive time and place of her uncle's formative years, and the vitally important questions surrounding schizophrenia and mental healthcare in America more broadly. The result is a heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious portrait of a young man striving for stability in his life as well as his mind, and an utterly unique lens into an experience that, to most people, remains unimaginable.

Sandra Allen (Author), Pete Simonelli, Sandra Allen (Narrator)

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A House in the Sky: A Memoir

A House in the Sky is the superbly-written and intensely moving memoir of Amanda Lindhout, a 31-year-old Canadian woman who was kidnapped in Somalia and held for a harrowing 460 days. Even prior to the 2008 morning when her captors abducted her on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Lindhout’s story is an unusual one: After finishing high school in hard-scrabble Alberta, she moved to the big city—Calgary—and became a cocktail waitress, saving her tips from customers flush with oil-boom cash. At the age of 20, with her newfound income, Lindhout boarded her first international flight. As a child, she had escaped a house governed by chaos and violence, her mother often beaten in the room next door, by paging through copies of National Geographic and imagining herself in its exotic locales. Now she would see those places for real. She traveled through Latin America, then Laos, then Bangladesh and India. When money ran out, she returned home to save for the next adventure, launching herself each time deeper into the world—backpacking solo across Sudan, Syria, Pakistan—and closer to some sort of edge. In Afghanistan in 2006 she developed an interest in journalism, ultimately carving out a fledgling career as a TV reporter. Following the lead of war correspondents she’d encountered, all of whom had planted themselves in the heart of the 21st century’s hottest conflicts, Lindhout based herself in Kabul and then Baghdad. In August 2008, she traveled to Mogadishu, Somalia— “the most dangerous place on earth”— to report on an impending famine. Three days into her visit—along with Nigel Brennan, an Australian photojournalist and ex-boyfriend—she was abducted. As much as it is an adventure story charting a young woman’s search to find herself in a big world, A House in the Sky tells an astoundingly intimate story of Lindhout’s 15 months as a captive, including a revealing look at fundamental Islam as practiced by the young men guarding her. As her mother in Canada attempts to negotiate impossible ransom demands, Lindhout focuses on staying alive—converting to Islam, receiving “wife lessons” from an amorous militia leader, and plotting a risky escape that has devastating consequences. She is kept in chains, nearly starved, and endures escalating abuse from her captors. One of her survival techniques is to imagine herself in a “house in the sky,” looking down at the woman shackled in the dark room. Amanda Lindhout’s story is a wrenching testament to the capacity of the human spirit to overcome unspeakable adversity and find a deeper resolve to live—in this case, through memory, imagination, and an essential, heart-stopping discovery about the power of compassion and forgiveness.

Amanda Lindhout (Author), Sarah Corbett (Narrator)

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A House Full of Daughters

***As read on BBC Radio 4*** All families have their myths and legends. For many years Juliet Nicolson accepted hers - the dangerous beauty of her flamenco dancing great-great-grandmother Pepita, the flirty manipulation of her great-grandmother Victoria, the infamous eccentricity of her grandmother Vita, her mother's Tory-conventional background. But then Juliet, a renowned historian, started to question. As she did so, she sifted fact from fiction, uncovering details and secrets long held just out of sight. A House Full of Daughters takes us through seven generations of women. In the nineteenth-century slums of Malaga, the salons of fin-de-siècle Washington DC, an English boarding school during the Second World War, Chelsea in the 1960s, the knife-edge that was New York City in the 1980s, these women emerge for Juliet as people in their own right, but also as part of who she is and where she has come from. A House Full of Daughters is one woman's investigation into the nature of family, memory, the past - and, above all, love. It brings with it messages of truth and hope for us all.

Juliet Nicolson (Author), Julie Teal (Narrator)

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A Homemade Life

Molly Wizenberg (Author), Mia Barron (Narrator)

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A Home for Min Soo

Orphaned at birth in South Korea, challenged with medical and developmental complications, and unadopted by age three, Min Soo’s hope of finding a home seems lost. But God chooses a family on the other side of the world who opens their home to this whirlwind of a child. Although Min Soo is dearly loved, his constant challenges tax his adoptive parents to the core. When he’s old enough to understand, Min Soo wonders if God has a purpose for “a child in a man’s body.” He comes to grips with the multiple obstacles he faces—except one. Then a devastating diagnosis hits! How will Min Soo overcome the impossible? Does God still have a purpose for his broken life? And will God grant him the “most desire” of his heart? Despite his many struggles, Min Soo has accomplished an amazing feat by writing his story. And his unique sense of humor shines throughout the pages of A Home for Min Soo: Putting Together the Pieces of My Life, bringing laughter as he and his family relay his numerous antics. Yet you’ll be moved by the deep truths he shares. Min Soo hopes—through reading his story—you’ll discover it’s possible to survive insurmountable odds and find purpose in the pieces of your life.

Min Soo Kim Hampshire (Author), Jim Hodges (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, Celine 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. **Please Contact Customer Service for Additional Document**

Kara DioGuardi (Author), Kara DioGuardi (Narrator)

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A Handful of Raisins in an Otherwise Empty Room: A Journey from Tragedy to Joy

A Handful of Raisins is a heart-stirring memoir about survival, strength and courage. For Michèle Misino de Luca, life began as a series of dark, traumatic episodes and continued as deeply challenging events beset her incessantly throughout her youth. Yet somehow, she rises to value life, viewing it as a miracle. She was five years old when she first felt completely on her own, and although food, clothing and a warm bed were provided, it seemed her survival was not ensured. Every night, when she was handed those raisins, there was a moment of intimacy in her soul. She ate those raisins ever so slowly, savoring not just their sweetness, but the sweetness of a few moments when everything was alright. Imagine being a child seemingly dropped into a dark hole. Nothing around you but strangers. Nothing familiar. Throughout this memoir, readers will gain a true understanding of loneliness and despair, while receiving the gratifying reminder that you do not have to succumb and be formed by your painful experiences. You can become who you say you are, and who you say you are can be based on what you value most. Our author declares herself fully alive and becomes so alive with dignity, wonder and joy. In her groundbreaking and raw story, Michèle Misino de Luca had the tenacity not only to survive, but to thrive. Unwilling to surrender to victimhood, she had to change. She had to find joy. It certainly was not easy, but in a world by herself, she created her own silver lining. This is a memoir about celebrating the fullness of life, written by a truly extraordinary person. This is a story about seeking and accepting the handful of raisins in an otherwise empty room.

Michele Misino De Luca, Michèle Misino De Luca (Author), Michele Misino De Luca, Michèle Misino De Luca (Narrator)

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A Hand Book For My Lover

I wish I had never met you. You've been nothing but an inconvenience. Guised as an instructive manual, A Handbook For My Lover chronicles six years in the life of an unconventional affair between a young writer and her older lover, a photographer. This sensuous epistle documents the woman's demands and desires, her fantasies and eccentricities as she negotiates the minefield that is their relationship in the absence of any destination. A Handbook For My Lover is an erotic memoir that revels in the ephemeral pleasures of everyday moments. Feisty and provocative, it is an examination of the shifting equations of power and vulnerability within the intimacies of love and lovemaking.

Rosalyn D'mello (Author), Alka Sharma (Narrator)

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A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain

Edward I is familiar to millions as "Longshanks," conqueror of Scotland and nemesis of Sir William Wallace (in Braveheart). Yet this story forms only the final chapter of the king's action-packed life. Earlier, Edward had defeated and killed the famous Simon de Montfort, traveled to the Holy Land, and conquered Wales. He raised the greatest armies of the Middle Ages and summoned the largest parliaments. Notoriously, he expelled all the Jews from his kingdom. In this book, Marc Morris examines afresh the forces that drove Edward throughout his relentless career: his character, his Christian faith, and his sense of England's destiny—a sense shaped in particular by the tales of the legendary King Arthur. He also explores the competing reasons that led Edward's opponents (including Robert Bruce) to resist him.

Marc Morris (Author), Ralph Lister (Narrator)

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A Girl Named Zippy

In this warm and witty memoir, Haven Kimmel takes us back to a small-town America where people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards. When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of 300 people. Nicknamed 'Zippy' for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. She lived in a world filled with a loving family, peculiar neighbors, and multitudes of animals, and she remembered everything: sick birds, a new bike, the mean old lady down the street, the loud old man at the drugstore. Laced with fine storytelling, sharp wit, dead-on observations, and moments of sheer joy, Kimmel's straight-shooting memoir gives us a heroine who is wonderfully sweet and sly.

Haven Kimmel (Author), Haven Kimmel (Narrator)

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A Girl Called Renee

Terrified after her father's arrest by the Nazis, Ruth flees to Belgium. This is the unbelievable autobiographical story of Ruth Uzrad, a Jewish teenager whose life was turned upside down by the Nazi regime. After her father was arrested one night from their Berlin apartment by the Gestapo, Ruth's mother sends thirteen-year-old Ruth and her two younger sisters out on their escape route across Europe by train to the safety of Belgium. But then the Nazis also reach Belgium, driving Ruth into the French Jewish underground . . . Later, when the Nazis conquer Belgium, Ruth and one of her sisters escape to France, leaving the youngest sister behind to be taken in by a Belgian foster family. Later, Ruth joins the Jewish underground movement in France and takes on a false identity and a new name, Renee. As an underground fighter, she participates in special operations aimed at rescuing Jews in danger. When the German police set out to arrest her, she manages to cross the border into Spain and eventually makes her way to Israel, where she makes her home and spends the rest of her life.

Ruth Uzrad (Author), Suzanne Toren (Narrator)

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A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being

This absorbing account of Mark Felt's FBI career, from the end of the great American crime wave through World War II, the culture wars of the 1960s, and his conviction for his role in penetrating the Weather Underground, provides a rich historical and personal context to the "Deep Throat" chapter of his life. It also provides Felt's personal recollections of the Watergate scandal, which he wrote in 1982 and kept secret, in which he explains how he came to feel that the FBI needed a "Lone Ranger" to protect it from White House corruption.

John O'Connor, Mark Felt (Author), Michael Prichard (Narrator)

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General Audiobooks in Science & Technology