New Reviews: Biography & Memoir

Listeners hear Nancy Pelosi describe herself as a dedicated patriot with an unwavering code of ethics demonstrated by years of focus on the American people, especially their children, and a fierce protection of the Constitution. As described in her own words, Pelosi's tenacity spans decades of maneuvering through political ups and downs, especially as the first Lady Speaker of... Read More

Adam Barr is particularly effective narrating military histories and biographies of celebrated commanders. Barr brings the proper spit and shine to this abbreviated biography of a general whose public remarks as president often seemed fumbling and impenetrable--perhaps deliberately. Barr tracks the steady path of Dwight Eisenhower's rise in the military establishment. While he... Read More

Bill Zehme began his Carson biography in 2005, and with Zehme's death last year, friend Mike Thomas completed the final third. Johnny Heller delivers a consistently solid, dry, yet folksy newscaster performance of the audiobook. Heller's style is nasal and gravelly, exerting sporadic underplayed enthusiasm. The work contains facts aplenty associated with the Nebraska boy who... Read More

Oscar-winning actor, respected singer, and self-declared icon whose comebacks and reinventions have had their own comebacks and reinventions, Cher offers the first volume of her memoir. She alternates narrating with actor and friend Stephanie J. Block--who portrayed Cher in a short-lived Broadway musical biography. Both narrators are charming, effective, and pleasing to the... Read More

The end of a presidency doesn't mean the end of a productive life. That's the primary lesson from this autobiography about Bill Clinton's career after leaving the White House. The former president reads the introduction and then turns the narration over to Steven Weber. He narrates the book in a straightforward, professional style. Any attempt at mimicry would have been... Read More

Anne Marie Lewis takes listeners on an emotional journey of resilience and courage in a memoir that reads like historical fiction. Near the end of WWII, a Japanese girl becomes an orphan at the age of 6 in the Philippines. Forced to work as a servant, she is passed from one family to another and is eventually given the name Diamond. Throughout her life, Diamond struggles with... Read More

Actor-singer Bethany Joy Lenz's vulnerability and resiliency radiate as she narrates her memoir, which is focused on her decade in a religious cult. That period of her life overlapped with the period in which she starred in the television drama "One Tree Hill." Lenz recalls building an emotional wall between herself and her co-stars because she needed to center her religious... Read More

Novelist Richard Powers calls narrator Edoardo Ballerini the very best, and many listeners would agree. Ballerini's range is impressive, but he excels with the difficult, the literary, the opaque, and the autobiographical. He brings particular ease and purposefulness to this memoir by NEW YORK TIMES style critic Guy Trebay portraying his early years in Manhattan in the 1970s.... Read More

Patricia Rodriguez wisely takes her time performing this biography of physicist and chemist Marie Curie. Curie's life was chock-full of scientific breakthroughs, tragedy, sexism, and dozens of female scientists who worked with her. It's a lot to keep straight. Most of Curie's life was spent in Paris, so Rodriguez's skill with French enhances this audiobook. Curie was the first... Read More

The son of a film composer, Randy Newman used his lineage and extraordinary musical talent to write popular songs, as well as scores for movies and the theater. Occasionally controversial or snarky, his songs frequently called out injustices and moral hypocrisy in American life. In this rich biography, LOS ANGELES TIMES music critic Robert Hilburn makes sense of Newman's life... Read More

Julia Roberts narrates the late Lisa Marie Presley's writing, and Presley's daughter, the actor Riley Keough, shares her own memories of her mother. Clips of interviews with Presley are interspersed throughout this incredible listening experience. Elvis Presley's only child enlisted her daughter to help tell her story just one month before she died. Keough's voice is... Read More

It would be an understatement to call actor Josh Brolin's candid and honest memoir bizarre and epically confusing. He narrates the content artfully and understandably, with solid enunciation. However, the content takes the form of what sounds like brief diary entries that discuss his films, his parents--actor James Brolin and former casting director Jane Cameron Agee--and his... Read More

Glory Edim, founder of the Well-Read Black Girl book club, performs her eloquent new memoir with charm and enthusiasm. The memoir is structured around the books that have been significant in her life, particularly those written by Black authors: Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, and more. Growing up in Arlington, Virginia, the child of Nigerian... Read More

Rob Sheffield, a rock journalist for ROLLING STONE, is a huge fan of Taylor Swift and doesn't mind who knows it. Sheffield is middle-aged and so tall that he has to scrunch down at Swift's concerts so as not to block the view of the girls behind him. As author and narrator, Sheffield comes off as both nerdy and cool, which is a charming and infectious combination. He sounds... Read More

This somewhat tongue-in-cheek memoir of a boy's coming of age in Britain before, during, and after WWII is splendidly narrated by Gerard Doyle. Rendel, who was born in 1926 and died in 2014, describes his life with humor and insight. His service as a coder on HMS CAVENDISH in the Pacific is interesting as it presents a common sailor's remembrance of the British contribution to... Read More

Fiction writer Charles Bock turns to memoir as he tells the story of his adored wife's death and the task of raising their 3-year-old daughter, Lily, solo. Bock narrates with such rhythm that you almost visualize the text's line breaks. His delivery illuminates the beauty of his writing and the harsh reality of his struggles with grief, trying to maintain a career despite... Read More

Youngmi Mayer is a Korean American woman who lived in Saipan and South Korea before moving to America. Here she narrates her memoir of growing up between cultures and encountering a rough start to life in the U.S. Mayer's sense of humor is self-deprecating, sometimes veering into self-abusive. She is alternately funny yet, at the same time, extremely critical to the point of... Read More

In this touching memoir, author Paul Weigel describes surviving an emotionally cold childhood by persevering with his schoolwork and entering athletic competitions. Later, as a dad, he describes the importance of his devotion to his daughter. Being a father is a source of peace and inspiration for the author, whose love for his daughter was essential to his overcoming cancer... Read More

Dr. Sacks was a prodigious researcher, tireless clinician, voracious reader, indefatigable traveler, influential neurologist, and long-winded correspondent. The talented James Langton pays close attention to Sacks's English accent and British point of view. He seems to inhabit the great man's extraordinary mind. These revealing and erudite letters testify to Sacks's appetite... Read More

Award-winning actor and singer Keke Palmer weaves personal stories and valuable advice into her inspirational self-help memoir. Authentic and deep, she draws listeners in with her signature voice, which has the ability to be energetic, sincere, and playful all at once. Palmer candidly speaks of moments in her life that have had significant impacts on her self-improvement and... Read More

Patty Nieman's pleasing voice and steady pace keep this biography of painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) interesting. Nieman provides the right amount of expression and manages Dutch and French names with a convincing accent as Mondrian moves from the Netherlands to Paris and London. Mondrian evolved from painting profitable landscapes, portraits, and flowers to his deceptively... Read More

Narrator Janina Edwards gives an exceptional presentation of this biographical examination of Harriet Tubman. This audiobook compares the work of Tubman and other known civil rights activists in the pre-Civil War period. Edwards effectively delivers the vignettes of Tubman's life, complete with Southern accents and the local vernacular of the era. Tubman endured more physical... Read More

Sarah LaBrie, a successful television writer based in Los Angeles, narrates her gripping memoir of family trauma in a calm, sweet voice that keeps listeners engaged. Throughout LaBrie's childhood her mother ricocheted from one psychiatric episode to another, terrifying and caring ineptly for the girl. With hard work and luck, LaBrie made it to an Ivy League college. There, a... Read More

In 1963, Tove Jansson built a cabin on Klovharun, a tiny, rugged island in the Gulf of Finland, with the help of a fisherman named Brunstrom. Narrator Orlagh Cassidy takes a minimalist approach to her narration, enunciating precisely and adopting a slow pace as she recounts Brunstrom's notes on building the cabin, the island's weather, and Jansson's and her partner Tuuti's... Read More

Matthew Goode's amiable narration sets the right tone for this memoir by the late Russian anti-corruption activist. With Alexei Navalny's ghost hovering over the recording studio, Goode does an outstanding job of channeling the activist's humanity and warmth. Avoiding sanctimony, he dryly delivers Navalny's gallows humor--of which there is plenty. Amid the terror and confusion... Read More

If you find Emmy Award-winning actor Uzo Aduba's on-screen performances captivating ("Orange Is the New Black"), wait until you hear her narrate her life story. Aduba's lifelong habit of journaling produces a memoir sizzling with ambiance-enhancing details, beginning with descriptions of her '90s pop-culture-filled childhood in small-town Massachusetts. The daughter of Nigerian... Read More

Narrator Edoardo Ballerini captures the listener's heart with this new audiobook memoir following a family that was forced to move to Rome after being expelled from their home in Egypt during political unrest. In his adolescence, André Aciman, his brother, and his deaf mother find themselves in a city where they don't speak the language. As the year progresses, André must find... Read More

Cassandra Campbell's outstanding narration makes this history of Nazi efforts to eliminate Jewish and female academic opportunities in Germany an accessible and completely absorbing listen. While this subject is challenging, Campbell's investment in relaying the historical details of Nazi actions to eradicate women's roles in public professions and, indeed, in all aspects of... Read More

Listening to artist Maira Kalman narrate her work is akin to sitting next to a beloved friend. The artist recounts stories of her parents and grandparents going from Belarus to Israel to the U.S. Kalman recounts episodes in her and her family's lives that resulted in remorse. She also reflects on remorseful instances in the lives of painters, musicians, and philosophers. Kalman... Read More

Author and lifelong scientist Alan Townsend offers a moving account of how he learned to draw on a healing faith rooted in science to sustain himself amid catastrophe. Townsend shares how his family was asked to imagine the unimaginable: First, his young daughter and then his brilliant wife developed unrelated, life-threatening brain tumors. Listeners will be touched by the... Read More

In this biography of Henry VIII's second wife, Anne Boleyn, British actor Anna Wilson-Jones brings a clipped tone to the complex story of the King's efforts to divorce his first wife, Catherine, so he can marry Anne. Though Henry succeeds, the repercussions eventually result in England's break with the Vatican. Soon, Henry, tiring of his wife, has her beheaded so he can marry... Read More

Food writer, television personality, and memoirist Nigel Slater writes stylishly. His fine performance is the happy surprise of this audiobook. It may be the exactitude of his British pronunciation or that few travelers are as comfortable and perceptive abroad as he is. The text is packed--maybe overstuffed--with short chronicles of his experiences dining, cooking, traveling,... Read More

Swedish musician and citizen of the world Neneh Cherry narrates this memoir of her colorful and unconventional upbringing, as well as the punk rock scene she belonged to. Neneh Cherry was born to a free spirit of a mother; her stepfather was experimental jazz musician Don Cherry, who was from Sierra Leone. The family bounced from country to country, home to home, always... Read More

Listeners will marvel at the extraordinary experiences Shirley MacLaine, now 90, has packed into one lifetime. Her delivery is intimate and chatty--as if her listeners were sitting in her living room. She delivers surprises about Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, the Dalai Lama, and even Mikhail Baryshnikov--to name a few of her friends. It's a list of the most famous... Read More

Narrator Christine Anne-Roche uses impressive vocal agility, infusing her voice with strong emotion that matches the powerful message of this audiobook. Nemonte Nenquimo, a member of the Waorani people of Amazonian Ecuador, recounts her path from her childhood in the forest to her present work as a tenacious environmental activist. Listeners follow Nenquimo on her journey from... Read More

This audiobook captures multiple sides of Nikola Jokic, one of the NBA's greatest stars. His story ranges from his upbringing as an unfocused, aloof teen to his focus on the court. Narrator Roger Wayne offers the right amount of emotion for the many folks quoted in this well-researched biography written by a former news reporter who covered Jokic's team, the Denver Nuggets.... Read More

Like a subset of other actors who are so comfortable in front of the camera or a professional microphone, Tom Selleck presents an entirely relaxed, conversational, and professional memoir that may also serve as a primer on what the ascent of a performer's career resembles--brick by brick. Selleck has a somewhat halting delivery, which may be a function of age or style.... Read More