Women Audiobooks | Biography & Memoir

First Love: Essays on Friendship Audiobook

A bold, poignant essay collection that treats women's friendships as the love stories they truly are, from the critically acclaimed author of Negative Space Lilly Dancyger always thought of her closest friendships as great loves, complex and profound as any romance. When her beloved cousin was murdered just as both girls were entering adulthood, Dancyger felt a new urgency in her devotion to the women in her life-a desire to hold her friends close while she still could. In First Love, this urgency runs through a striking exploration of the bonds between women, from the intensity of adolescent best friendship and fluid sexuality to mothering and chosen family. Each essay in this incisive collection is grounded in a close female friendship in Dancyger's life, reaching outward to dissect cultural assumptions about identity and desire, and the many ways women create space for each other in a world that wants us small. Seamlessly weaving personal experience with literature and pop culture-ranging from fairytales to true crime, from Anaïs Nin and Sylvia Plath to Heavenly Creatures and the "sad girls" of Tumblr-Dancyger's essays form a kaleidoscopic story of a life told through friendships, and an expansive interrogation of what it means to love each other. Though friendship will never be enough to keep us safe from the dangers of the world, Dancyger reminds us that love is always worth the risk, and that when tragedy strikes, it's our friends who will help us survive. In First Love, these essential bonds get their due.

Lilly Dancyger (Author), Lilly Dancyger, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Naked Portrait: A memoir of Lucian Freud

Rose Boyt (Author), Rose Boyt, TBD (Narrator)

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The Paris Trilogy: A Life in Three Stories

'This is valuable writing. It has immense vitality. You will encounter a female narrator whose direct and bright-eyed stare at the world, and her self, is without shame or faux modesty. At the same time, it is also a deep study of existence, at various ages and stages in life.' - Deborah Levy 'Swimming is a dreamy, bruised, and carnal book that pretty much no American would write and pretty much every American will thrill to read. Schneck's "discovery of her body, at the age of fifty" is our encounter with an entrancing mind.' - Lauren Collins From celebrated author Colombe Schneck, in her first translation into English, The Paris Trilogy is three semi-autobiographical takes on a woman's life, starting with Seventeen, progressing with Friendship, and then Swimming: A Love Story. Exploring questions of sexuality, bodily autonomy, femininity, friendship and loss, The Paris Trilogy is a moving meditation on a lifelong journey to reclaim the female body, accepting it for all its faults and learning to celebrate its strength. The Paris Trilogy is translated into English by award-winning translators Natasha Lehrer and Lauren Elkin.

Colombe Schneck (Author), Hillary Huber, TBD (Narrator)

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It Wasn't Roaring, It Was Weeping: Interpreting the Language of Our Fathers Without Repeating Their

An honest and lyrical coming-of-age memoir of growing up in South Africa at the height of apartheid, and an invitation to recognize and refuse to repeat the sins of our fathers-from the bestselling author of Never Unfriended Born White in the heart of Zululand during the racial apartheid, Lisa-Jo Baker longed to write a new future for her children-a longing that set her on a journey to understand where she fit into a story of violence and faith, history and race. Before marriage and motherhood, she came to the United States to study to become a human rights advocate. When she naïvely walked right into America's own turbulent racial landscape, Baker experienced the kind of painful awakening that is both individual and universal, personal and social. Yet years would go by before she traced this American trauma back to her own South African past. Baker was a teenager when her mother died of cancer, leaving her with her father. Though they shared a language of faith and justice, she often feared him, unaware that his fierce temper had deep roots in a family's and a nation's pain. Decades later, old wounds reopened when she found herself spiraling into a terrifying version of her father, screaming herself hoarse at her son. Only then did Baker realize that to go forward-to refuse to repeat the sins of our fathers-we must first go back. With a story that stretches from South Africa's outback to Washington, D.C., It Wasn't Roaring, It Was Weeping is a courageous look at inherited hurts and prejudices, and a hope-filled example for all who feel lost in life or worried that they're too off course to make the necessary corrections. Baker's story shows that it's never too late to be free.

Lisa-Jo Baker (Author), Lisa-Jo Baker, TBD (Narrator)

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The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America

Legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century—including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath—finally gets her due in this intimate biography. When twenty-five-year-old Judith Jones began working as a secretary at Doubleday's newly opened Paris office in 1949, she was tasked with wading through manuscripts in the slush pile until one caught her eye. She read the book in one sitting, then begged her boss to consider publishing it. A year later, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl became a bestseller. It was the start of a culture defining career in publishing. Over more than half a century as an editor at Knopf, Jones became a legend, nurturing future literary icons such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Tyler, and John Updike. At the forefront of the cookbook revolution, she published the who's who of food writing: Edna Lewis, M.F.K. Fisher, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, James Beard, and, most famously, Julia Child. Jones celebrated the art and pleasures of cooking and culinary diversity, forever changing the way Americans think about food. Her work spanned the decades of America's most dramatic cultural change. From the end of World War II through the Cold War; from the civil rights movement to the fight for women's equality, Jones's work questioned convention, using books as a tool of quiet resistance. Now, her astonishing career is explored for the first time. Based on exclusive interviews, never-before-seen personal papers, and years of research, The Editor tells the riveting behind-the-scenes narrative of how stories are made, finally bringing to light the audacious life of one of our most influential tastemakers.

Sara B. Franklin (Author), Eunice Wong, TBD (Narrator)

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The Resilience Myth: New Thinking on Grit, Strength, and Growth After Trauma

The author of the "must read" (NPR) Rage Becomes Her presents a powerful manifesto for communal resilience based on in-depth investigations into history, social science, and psychology. We are often urged to rely only on ourselves for strength, mental fortitude, and positivity. But with her distinctive "skill, wit, and sharp insight" (Laura Bates, author of Girl Up), Soraya Chemaly challenges us to adapt our thinking about how we survive in a world of sustained, overlapping crises. It is interdependence and nurturing relationships that truly sustain us, she argues. Based on comprehensive research and eye-opening examples from real-life, The Resilience Myth offers alternative visions of relational hardiness by emphasizing care for others and our environments above all.

Soraya Chemaly (Author), Soraya Chemaly, TBD (Narrator)

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Coming Home

From the nine-time women's basketball icon and two-time Olympic gold medalist-a raw, revelatory account of her unfathomable detainment in Russia and her journey home. On February 17, 2022, Brittney Griner arrived in Moscow ready to spend the WNBA offseason playing for the Russian women's basketball team where she had been the centerpiece of previous championship seasons. Instead, a security checkpoint became her gateway to hell when she was arrested for mistakenly carrying under one gram of medically prescribed hash oil. Brittney's world was violently upended in a crisis she has never spoken in detail about publicly-until now. In Coming Home, Brittney finally shares the harrowing details of her sudden arrest days before Russia invaded Ukraine; her bewilderment and isolation while navigating a foreign legal system amid her trial and sentencing; her emotional and physical anguish as the first American woman ever to endure a Russian penal colony while the #WeAreBG movement rallied for her release; the chilling prisoner swap with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout; and her remarkable rise from hostage to global spokesperson on behalf of America's forgotten. In haunting and vivid detail, Brittney takes readers inside the horrors of a geopolitical nightmare spanning ten months. And yet Coming Home is more than Brittney's journey from captivity to freedom. In an account as gripping as it is poignant, she shares how her deep love for Cherelle, her college sweetheart and wife of six years, anchored her during their greatest storm; how her family's support pulled her back from the brink; and how hundreds of letters from friends and neighbors lent her resolve to keep fighting. Coming Home is both a story of survival and a testament to love-the bonds that brought Brittney home to her family, and at last, to herself.

Brittney Griner, Michelle Burford (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Duty Calls: Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service

Dr. Antonia Novello is a vanguard in the United States and Puerto Rico, whose enduring commitment to service has left an indelible mark on the world of public health. With a distinguished career including serving as the US Surgeon General and the New York State Commissioner of Health during 9/11, her story highlights an unwavering dedication to improving the well-being of individuals and communities. Dr. Novello's story is one of challenges faced and overcome and of shattering glass ceilings and opening doors for future generations of leaders. She shares her early battles with childhood illness and her desire to overcome stereotypes, while also chronicling her meteoric rise through various roles in the field of health care, leading to her service as the nation's top medical officer. In Duty Calls, listeners will learn about: - Dr. Novello's early life and her struggles with congenital megacolon - How she became the first female/first Hispanic Surgeon General of the United States - Her efforts to vaccinate and provide health care resources to her home in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria - Wisdom and insights Dr. Novello gained through her life experiences

Dr. Antonia Novello Md, Dr. Antonia Novello, M.D. (Author), Cynthia Farrell (Narrator)

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The War We Won Apart: The Untold Story of Two Elite Agents Who Became One of the Most Decorated Coup

Love, betrayal, and a secret war: the untold story of two elite agents, one Canadian, one British, who became one of the most decorated couples of WWII. On opposite sides of the pond, Sonia Butt, an adventurous young British woman, and Guy d'Artois, a French-Canadian soldier and thunderstorm of a man, are preparing for war. From different worlds, their lives first intersect during clandestine training to become agents with Winston Churchill's secret army, the Special Operations Executive. As the world's deadliest conflict to date unfolds, Sonia and Guy learn how to parachute into enemy territory, how to kill, blow up rail lines, and eventually . . . how to love each other. But not long after their hasty marriage, their love is tested by separation, by a titanic invasion-and by indiscretion. Writing in vivid, heart-stopping prose, Ayed follows Sonia as she plunges into Nazi-occupied France and slinks into black market restaurants to throw off occupying Nazi forces, while at the same time participating in sabotage operations against them; and as Guy, in another corner of France, trains hundreds into a resistance army. Reconstructed from hours of unpublished interviews and hundreds of archival and personal documents, the story Ayed tells is about the ravaging costs of war paid for disproportionately by the young. But more than anything, The War We Won Apart is a story about love: two secret agents who were supposed to land in enemy territory together, but were fated to fight the war apart.

Nahlah Ayed (Author), Nahlah Ayed (Narrator)

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Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau invites readers on a deeply personal journey toward self-knowledge, acceptance, and empowerment, drawing on the expertise of top psychologists, psychiatrists, scientists, and thought leaders. As a passionate advocate for mental health, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau believes that in order to know and accept ourselves fully, we need to understand why we think and feel the way we do, and recognize the experiences, attitudes, and patterns that may be holding us back. And yet, all of us are capable of growth and positive change, if we're willing to stay open and curious throughout our lives. In Closer Together, Sophie shares moments from her own journey: from her childhood, through her struggles with an eating disorder in her teens and early adulthood; from a career as a speaker and television host to de facto 'first lady' and mother of three. Above all, Sophie is a warm and empathetic connector, and her book is enriched by exclusive interviews with experts such as Gabor Maté, Liz Plank, Terrence Real, Catherine Price, Harville Hendrix, and Helen LaKelly Hunt-to name just a few-as she delves into the science behind brain health and our unique emotional signatures. She explores the questions that matter the most for our individual and collective growth, and in how we interact with others: - How does the way we were raised contribute to our sense of self? - How can we better prepare ourselves to deal with big emotions? - What do we need from our relationships, and what can we contribute to them? - What role do physical activity and creative pursuits play in mental health? - How can we let go of what doesn't serve us and nurture what does? Drawing on her own mindfulness and yoga practices, Sophie also offers journalling prompts and other tools that will guide readers as they explore these questions in their own lives. In creating a space for openness, playfulness, and creativity, Sophie inspires us to see that there are more things that bring us together than separate us, allowing us to stand in the light of our true potential.

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau (Author), Jonathan Watton, Maggie Huculak, Richard Clarkin, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, TBD, Tess Degenstein (Narrator)

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The Wives: A Memoir

A powerful, intimate memoir of marriage and friendship that traces one woman's experience joining a tightknit community of fellow army wives after leaving her New York City job to follow her enlisted husband. When her new husband joins an elite Army unit, Simone Gorrindo is uprooted from New York City and dropped into Columbus, Georgia—a town so foreign she might as well have landed on the moon. With her husband frequently deployed, Simone is left to find her place in this new world, alone—until she meets the wives. Gorrindo gives us an intimate look into the inner lives of a remarkable group of women and a tender, unflinching portrait of a marriage. A love story, an unforgettable coming-of-age tale, and a bracing tour of the intractable divisions that plague our country today, The Wives offers a rare and powerful gift: a hopeful stitch in the fabric of a torn America.

Simone Gorrindo (Author), Simone Gorrindo, TBD (Narrator)

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Between Two Trailers: A Memoir

An unforgettable memoir about a girl who escapes her childhood as a preschool drug dealer to earn a divinity degree from Duke University-and then realizes she must confront her past to truly find her way home "Home, it turns out, is where the war is. It's also where the healing begins." Born to drug-dealing parents in rural Indiana, Dana Trent is a preschooler the first time she uses a razor blade to cut up weed and fill dime bags for her schizophrenic father, King. While King struggles with his unmedicated psychosis, Dana's mother, the Lady, a cold and self-absorbed woman whose personality disorders rule the home, guards large bricks of drugs from the safety of their squalid trailer, where she watches TV evangelist Tammy Faye on repeat. Growing up, Dana tries to be the daughter each of her parents wants: a drug lord's heir and a debutante minister. But when the Lady impulsively plucks Dana from the Midwest and moves the two of them south, their fresh start results in homelessness and bankruptcy. In North Carolina, Dana becomes torn between her gritty midwestern past and her desire to be a polite southern girl, hiding her homelife of drugs and parents whose severe mental illnesses have left them debilitated. Dana imagines that her hidden Indiana life is finally behind her after she graduates from Duke University and becomes a professor and an ambivalent female Southern Baptist minister. But Dana was a child of the drug trade. Though she escapes flyover country, she realizes that she will never be able to escape her father's legacy, and that her childhood secrets have kept her from making peace with the people and places that shaped her. Ultimately, Dana finds that no one can really "make it" until they return to where their story began: home.

J. Dana Trent (Author), J. Dana Trent, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Women Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir