-
The Beak in the Heart: True Tales of Misfit Southern Women
- Narrated by: Julie Niblett
- Length: 4 hrs and 21 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Beak in the Heart: True Tales of Misfit Southern Women
Buy for $19.46
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
While You Were Out
- An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
- By: Meg Kissinger
- Narrated by: Meg Kissinger
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 190
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 175
Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger’s family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard. But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful memoir
- By Maureen Shannon O'Leary on 09-12-23
By: Meg Kissinger
-
Hello Beautiful
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Maura Tierney
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,301
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,727
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,725
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Book was great, performance terrible
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
What My Mother and I Don't Talk About
- Fifteen Writers Break the Silence
- By: Michele Filgate
- Narrated by: Michele Filgate, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Roger Casey, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 269
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 216
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize that she was actually trying to write about how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. This gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Now I’m healing
- By wonderwoman0414 on 08-24-21
By: Michele Filgate
-
The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,178
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,013
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
-
Memorial Drive
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Natasha Trethewey
- Narrated by: Natasha Trethewey
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,602
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,412
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,401
At age 19, Natasha Trethewey had her world turned upside down when her former stepfather shot and killed her mother. Grieving and still new to adulthood, she confronted the twin pulls of life and death in the aftermath of unimaginable trauma and now explores the way this experience lastingly shaped the artist she became. With penetrating insight and a searing voice that moves from the wrenching to the elegiac, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey explores this profound experience of pain, loss, and grief.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
poetic
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-20
-
Malaya
- Essays on Freedom
- By: Cinelle Barnes
- Narrated by: Cinelle Barnes
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18
Out of a harrowing childhood in the Philippines, Cinelle Barnes emerged triumphant. But as an undocumented teenager living in New York, her journey of self-discovery was just beginning. Because she couldn’t get a driver’s license or file taxes, Cinelle worked as a cleaning lady and a nanny and took other odd jobs - and learned to look over her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t get caught.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Captivating and powerful
- By Megan on 12-18-19
By: Cinelle Barnes
-
While You Were Out
- An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
- By: Meg Kissinger
- Narrated by: Meg Kissinger
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 190
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 175
Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger’s family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard. But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful memoir
- By Maureen Shannon O'Leary on 09-12-23
By: Meg Kissinger
-
Hello Beautiful
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Maura Tierney
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,301
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,727
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,725
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Book was great, performance terrible
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
What My Mother and I Don't Talk About
- Fifteen Writers Break the Silence
- By: Michele Filgate
- Narrated by: Michele Filgate, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Roger Casey, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 269
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 216
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize that she was actually trying to write about how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. This gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Now I’m healing
- By wonderwoman0414 on 08-24-21
By: Michele Filgate
-
The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,178
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,013
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
-
Memorial Drive
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Natasha Trethewey
- Narrated by: Natasha Trethewey
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,602
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,412
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,401
At age 19, Natasha Trethewey had her world turned upside down when her former stepfather shot and killed her mother. Grieving and still new to adulthood, she confronted the twin pulls of life and death in the aftermath of unimaginable trauma and now explores the way this experience lastingly shaped the artist she became. With penetrating insight and a searing voice that moves from the wrenching to the elegiac, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey explores this profound experience of pain, loss, and grief.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
poetic
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-20
-
Malaya
- Essays on Freedom
- By: Cinelle Barnes
- Narrated by: Cinelle Barnes
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18
Out of a harrowing childhood in the Philippines, Cinelle Barnes emerged triumphant. But as an undocumented teenager living in New York, her journey of self-discovery was just beginning. Because she couldn’t get a driver’s license or file taxes, Cinelle worked as a cleaning lady and a nanny and took other odd jobs - and learned to look over her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t get caught.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Captivating and powerful
- By Megan on 12-18-19
By: Cinelle Barnes
-
The Less People Know About Us
- A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity
- By: Axton Betz-Hamilton
- Narrated by: Laurie Winkel
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,393
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,225
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,222
In this powerful true crime memoir, an award-winning identity theft expert tells the shocking story of the duplicity and betrayal that inspired her career and nearly destroyed her family. Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up in small-town Indiana in the early '90s. When she was 11 years old, her parents both had their identities stolen. Their credit ratings were ruined, and they were constantly fighting over money. This was before the age of the Internet, when identity theft became more commonplace, so authorities and banks were clueless and reluctant to help Axton's parents.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Holy Shit
- By Jason Wiking on 02-19-20
-
American Baby
- A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
- By: Gabrielle Glaser
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Gabrielle Glaser, Margaret Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 173
The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I felt the love of my birth mom...
- By Mary H. on 02-03-21
By: Gabrielle Glaser
-
Sunshine Girl
- An Unexpected Life
- By: Julianna Margulies
- Narrated by: Julianna Margulies
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,066
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 935
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 927
As an apple-cheeked bubbly child, Julianna was bestowed with the family nickname “Sunshine Girl”. Shuttled back and forth between her divorced parents, often on different continents, she quickly learned how to be of value to her eccentric mother and her absent father.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Cringe-y at times, but entertaining
- By Jeannette L. on 06-21-21
-
Everything Beautiful in Its Time
- Seasons of Love and Loss
- By: Jenna Bush Hager
- Narrated by: Jenna Bush Hager
- Length: 5 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,104
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 976
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 971
Now the mother of three young children, Jenna pays homage to her grandparents in this collection of heartwarming, intimate personal essays. Filled with love, laughter, and unforgettable stories, Everything Beautiful in Its Time captures the joyous and bittersweet nature of life itself. Jenna reflects on the single year in which she and her family lost Barbara and George H. W. Bush, and Jenna Welch. Jenna reveals how they navigated this difficult period with grace, faith, and nostalgic humor, uplifted by their grandparents' sage advice and incomparable spirits.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A True Love Story
- By Unglaza on 09-12-20
By: Jenna Bush Hager
-
Women We Buried, Women We Burned
- A Memoir
- By: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Narrated by: Rachel Louise Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
Snyder was eight years old when her mother died, and her distraught father thrust the family into an evangelical, cult-like existence halfway across the country. Furiously rebellious, she was expelled from school and home at age sixteen. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college, and eventually traveling the globe.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent!
- By mindovermatter65 on 06-18-23
-
American Daughter
- A Memoir
- By: Stephanie Thornton Plymale, Elissa Wald
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marno
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 791
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 699
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 699
The sharp and surprising true story of a woman who finally sets out to understand her past, and the mother she had one day hoped to forget. Full of unexpected twists and unbelievable revelations, American Daughter is an immersive memoir that will have you on the edge of your seat to the very last minute.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing memoir
- By talltower4 on 09-02-21
By: Stephanie Thornton Plymale, and others
-
We Have Always Been Here
- A Queer Muslim Memoir
- By: Samra Habib
- Narrated by: Parmida Vand
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 168
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 141
Samra Habib has spent most of their life searching for the safety to be themself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, they faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From their parents, they internalized the lesson that revealing their identity could put them in grave danger.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Wow.
- By Lannah E. on 05-19-21
By: Samra Habib
-
Modern Love, Revised and Updated (Media Tie-In)
- True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption
- By: Daniel Jones, Andrew Rannells, Ayelet Waldman, and others
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett, Will Brill, Michael Crouch, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 133
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
These are just a few of the people who tell their stories in Modern Love, Revised and Updated, featuring dozens of the most memorable essays to run in The New York Times “Modern Love” column since its debut in 2004. Some of the stories are unconventional, while others hit close to home. Some reveal the way technology has changed dating forever; others explore the timeless struggles experienced by anyone who has ever searched for love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
loved
- By Amazon Customer on 10-24-20
By: Daniel Jones, and others
-
Stray
- A Memoir
- By: Stephanie Danler
- Narrated by: Alex McKenna
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 130
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 110
After selling her first novel - a dream she'd worked long and hard for - Stephanie Danler knew she should be happy. Instead, she found herself driven to face the difficult past she'd left behind a decade ago: a mother disabled by years of alcoholism, further handicapped by a tragic brain aneurysm; a father who abandoned the family when she was three, now a meth addict in and out of recovery.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Not for me
- By JBird Cook on 09-27-20
By: Stephanie Danler
-
Good Morning, Destroyer of Men's Souls
- A Memoir of Women, Addiction, and Love
- By: Nina Renata Aron
- Narrated by: Nina Renata Aron
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 103
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 103
A scorching memoir of a love affair with an addict, weaving personal reckoning with psychology and history to understand the nature of addiction, codependency, and our appetite for obsessive love. "The disease he has is addiction," Nina Renata Aron writes of her boyfriend, K. "The disease I have is loving him."
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
when does the story begin?
- By Lisa Hartline on 06-07-20
By: Nina Renata Aron
-
Seeing Ghosts
- A Memoir
- By: Kat Chow
- Narrated by: Kat Chow
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 74
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 73
Kat Chow has always been unusually fixated on death. She worried constantly about her parents dying---especially her mother. A vivacious and mischievous woman, Kat's mother made a morbid joke that would haunt her for years to come: when she died, she'd like to be stuffed and displayed in Kat's future apartment in order to always watch over her. After her mother dies unexpectedly from cancer, Kat, her sisters, and their father are plunged into a debilitating, lonely grief.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Real
- By C Williams on 02-06-22
By: Kat Chow
-
The Big Hurt
- A Memoir
- By: Erika Schickel
- Narrated by: Erika Schickel
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 108
This complex memoir shows what it was like growing up in the shadow of a literary father and a neglectful mother, getting thrown out of boarding school after being seduced by a teacher, and all of the later-life consequences that ensue.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
It’s ok
- By Gracie Miller on 09-10-21
By: Erika Schickel
Publisher's summary
Vivid, dramatic portraits of the author’s “misfit” female ancestors and a candid, intimate memoir about family secrets and breaking free from the narrow confines of a “proper Southern woman”.
The Beak in the Heart is a memoir of growing up “Southern”. Betina Enzminger shares the poignant tales of women who preceded her - misfit women who defied authority and suffered the consequences in the repressive South Carolina of the 19th and 20th centuries.
Entzminger links several generations of women from pre-Civil War years to the present, including Victoria, a former slave and concubine to her third great uncle; Rosalee, a great aunt committed to the state hospital for 40 years; and Louise, an aunt who unwittingly married a gay man at a time when divorce was not legal in South Carolina. She also shares candid details of her rebellious youth and her own struggles with marriage and parenthood.
In exploring the lives of her spirited female relatives, Entzminger - their educated, rebellious, and misfit 21st-century descendant - restores their voices and finds inspiration in their courage and integrity.
The Beak in the Heart speaks to all women, regardless of region of birth, who have felt that society has curbed their freedoms or silenced their voices.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Say I'm Dead
- A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love
- By: E. Dolores Johnson
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Fearful of prison time - or lynching - for violating Indiana’s anti-miscegenation laws in the 1940s, E. Dolores Johnson's Black father and White mother fled Indianapolis to secretly marry in Buffalo. Her mother simply vanished, evading an FBI and police search that ended with the declaration to her family that she was the victim of foul play, either dead or sold into white slavery.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Deeply meaningful important read
- By A.M.Rousseau on 12-21-21
-
In the Shadow of the Valley
- A Memoir
- By: Bobi Conn
- Narrated by: Bobi Conn
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 295
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 249
Bobi Conn was raised in a remote Kentucky holler in 1980s Appalachia. She remembers her tin-roofed house tucked away in a vast forest paradise; the sparkling creeks, with their frogs and crawdads; the sweet blackberries growing along the road to her granny’s; and her abusive father. An elegiac account of survival despite being born poor, female, and cloistered, Bobi’s testament is one of hope for all vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls caught in the cycle of poverty and abuse.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Hard Pass
- By Kathryn Liggett on 06-13-20
By: Bobi Conn
-
The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,178
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,013
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
-
Reclamation
- Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant's Search for Her Family's Lasting Legacy
- By: Gayle Jessup White
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
A Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ family explores America’s racial reckoning through the prism of her ancestors - both the enslaver and the enslaved.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Slow start, eventually a worthwhile story
- By ChocolateDweller on 12-17-21
-
The Sum of Our Days
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Blair Brown, Isabel Allende
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her own life in the wake of the tragic death of her daughter, Paula. Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, this remarkable memoir is as exuberant and as full of life as its creator. Allende bares her soul while sharing her thoughts on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory - and recounts stories of the wildly eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe she gathers around her and lovingly embraces as a new kind of family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
She does not disappoint
- By ChiChi's Rule on 06-01-22
By: Isabel Allende
-
American Baby
- A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
- By: Gabrielle Glaser
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Gabrielle Glaser, Margaret Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 173
The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I felt the love of my birth mom...
- By Mary H. on 02-03-21
By: Gabrielle Glaser
-
Say I'm Dead
- A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love
- By: E. Dolores Johnson
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Fearful of prison time - or lynching - for violating Indiana’s anti-miscegenation laws in the 1940s, E. Dolores Johnson's Black father and White mother fled Indianapolis to secretly marry in Buffalo. Her mother simply vanished, evading an FBI and police search that ended with the declaration to her family that she was the victim of foul play, either dead or sold into white slavery.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Deeply meaningful important read
- By A.M.Rousseau on 12-21-21
-
In the Shadow of the Valley
- A Memoir
- By: Bobi Conn
- Narrated by: Bobi Conn
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 295
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 249
Bobi Conn was raised in a remote Kentucky holler in 1980s Appalachia. She remembers her tin-roofed house tucked away in a vast forest paradise; the sparkling creeks, with their frogs and crawdads; the sweet blackberries growing along the road to her granny’s; and her abusive father. An elegiac account of survival despite being born poor, female, and cloistered, Bobi’s testament is one of hope for all vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls caught in the cycle of poverty and abuse.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Hard Pass
- By Kathryn Liggett on 06-13-20
By: Bobi Conn
-
The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,178
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,013
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
-
Reclamation
- Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant's Search for Her Family's Lasting Legacy
- By: Gayle Jessup White
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
A Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ family explores America’s racial reckoning through the prism of her ancestors - both the enslaver and the enslaved.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Slow start, eventually a worthwhile story
- By ChocolateDweller on 12-17-21
-
The Sum of Our Days
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Blair Brown, Isabel Allende
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
Isabel Allende reconstructs the painful reality of her own life in the wake of the tragic death of her daughter, Paula. Narrated with warmth, humor, exceptional candor, and wisdom, this remarkable memoir is as exuberant and as full of life as its creator. Allende bares her soul while sharing her thoughts on love, marriage, motherhood, spirituality and religion, infidelity, addiction, and memory - and recounts stories of the wildly eccentric, strong-minded, and eclectic tribe she gathers around her and lovingly embraces as a new kind of family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
She does not disappoint
- By ChiChi's Rule on 06-01-22
By: Isabel Allende
-
American Baby
- A Mother, a Child, and the Shadow History of Adoption
- By: Gabrielle Glaser
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur, Gabrielle Glaser, Margaret Katz
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 211
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 175
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 173
The adoption business was founded on secrecy and lies. American Baby lays out how a lucrative and exploitative industry removed children from their birth mothers and placed them with hopeful families, fabricating stories about infants' origins and destinations, then closing the door firmly between the parties forever. Adoption agencies and other organizations that purported to help pregnant women struck unethical deals with doctors and researchers for pseudoscientific "assessments," and shamed millions of women into surrendering their children.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I felt the love of my birth mom...
- By Mary H. on 02-03-21
By: Gabrielle Glaser
-
In the Time of Our History
- By: Susanne Pari
- Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 41
Twelve months after her younger sister Anahita's death, Mitra Jahani reluctantly returns to her parents' home in suburban New Jersey to observe the Iranian custom of "The One Year." Ana is always in Mitra's heart, though they chose very different paths. While Ana, sweet and dutiful, bowed to their domineering father's demands and married, Mitra rebelled, and was banished.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Enjoyable
- By J. E. Jordan on 05-23-23
By: Susanne Pari
-
A Wild and Precious Life
- A Memoir
- By: Edie Windsor, Joshua Lyon
- Narrated by: Donna Postel, Joshua Lyon
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 86
In this memoir, which she began before passing away in 2017 and completed by her co-writer, Edie recounts her childhood in Philadelphia, her realization that she was a lesbian, and her active social life in Greenwich Village's electrifying underground gay scene during the 1950s. Edie was also one of a select group of trailblazing women in computing, working her way up the ladder at IBM and achieving their highest technical ranking while developing software.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
🏳️🌈 Wow! 🏳️🌈
- By Natalia Zimnoch on 10-15-19
By: Edie Windsor, and others
-
Native Country of the Heart
- A Memoir
- By: Cherríe Moraga
- Narrated by: Cherríe Moraga
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 52
Native Country of the Heart is the writer and activist Cherrie Moraga's love letter to her "unlettered" mother. It begins with her mother, Elvira Isabel Moraga, who as a child, along with her siblings, was hired out by her own father to pick cotton in California's Imperial Valley. The lives of Cherrie and her mother, and of their people, are woven together in a story of critical reflection and deep personal revelation as Moraga charts her own coming to consciousness alongside the heartbreaking story of her mother's decline.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
a must read for all chicanx
- By Rachel Barnett on 04-28-19
By: Cherríe Moraga
-
Shanda
- A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy
- By: Letty Cottin Pogrebin
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
The word "shanda" is defined as shame or disgrace in Yiddish. This book, Shanda, tells the story of three generations of complicated, intense twentieth-century Jews for whom the desire to fit in and the fear of public humiliation either drove their aspirations or crushed their spirit. In her deeply engaging, astonishingly candid memoir, author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes the fiercely-guarded lies and intricate cover-ups woven by dozens of members of her extended family.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautifully Written!
- By Adele Aron Greenspun on 01-12-23
-
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
- A Novel
- By: Juliet Grames
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 680
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 593
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 593
For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents - moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and her sister, Tina, must come of age side by side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Misogyny at its worst
- By brenda on 01-15-20
By: Juliet Grames
-
Modern Loss
- Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
- By: Rebecca Soffer, Gabrielle Birkner
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain without a road map. Let's face it: Most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We're awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not What I Was Expecting
- By Bessie Mae on 03-01-23
By: Rebecca Soffer, and others
-
Falling Apart in One Piece
- One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce
- By: Stacy Morrison
- Narrated by: Stacy Morrison
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 103
Just when Stacy Morrison thought she had it all, her husband of 10 years announced that he wanted a divorce. She was left alone with a new house that needed lots of work, a new baby who needed lots of attention, and a new job in the high-pressure world of New York publishing. Morrison had never been one to believe in fairy tales. As far as she was concerned, happy endings were the product of the kind of ambition and hard work that had propelled her to the top of her profession.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
so helpful
- By jessica ball on 11-10-15
By: Stacy Morrison
-
Before and After
- The Incredible Real-Life Stories of Orphans Who Survived the Tennessee Children's Home Society
- By: Judy Christie, Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,688
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,462
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,448
From the 1920s to 1950, Georgia Tann ran a black-market baby business at the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis. The publication of Lisa Wingate’s novel Before We Were Yours brought new awareness of Tann’s lucrative career in child trafficking. Adoptees who knew little about their pasts gained insight into the startling facts behind their family histories. Encouraged by their contact with Wingate and award-winning journalist Judy Christie, who documented the stories of 15 adoptees in this book, many determined Tann survivors set out to trace their roots.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Badly written
- By Stacie on 02-25-20
By: Judy Christie, and others
-
Pregnant Girl
- A Story of Teen Motherhood, College, and Creating a Better Future for Young Families
- By: Nicole Lynn Lewis
- Narrated by: Nicky Sunshine
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
An activist calls for better support of young families so they can thrive and reflects on her experiences as a Black mother and college student fighting for opportunities for herself and her child. Pregnant Girl presents the possibility of a different future for young mothers - one of success and stability - in the midst of the dismal statistics that dominate the national conversation.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Political
- By Amazon Customer on 01-16-23
-
Mother Daughter Me
- A Memoir
- By: Katie Hafner
- Narrated by: Katie Hafner
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 63
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
The complex, deeply binding relationship between mothers and daughters is brought vividly to life in Katie Hafner's remarkable memoir, an exploration of the year she and her mother, Helen, spent working through, and triumphing over, a lifetime of unresolved emotions. Dreaming of a "year in Provence" with her mother, Katie urges Helen to move to San Francisco to live with her and Zoe, Katie's teenage daughter. Katie and Zoe had become a mother-daughter team, strong enough, Katie thought, to absorb the arrival of a 77-year-old woman set in her ways....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Listen and be swept away!
- By Barbara Quick on 06-02-22
By: Katie Hafner
-
After the Last Border
- Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America
- By: Jessica Goudeau
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 67
The welcoming and acceptance of immigrants and refugees have been central to America's identity for centuries - yet America has periodically turned its back in times of the greatest humanitarian need. After the Last Border is an intimate look at the lives of two women as they struggle for the 21st-century American dream, having won the "golden ticket" to settle as refugees in Austin, Texas.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Great Content. Odd Structure.
- By Susan Stillings on 02-10-21
By: Jessica Goudeau
-
The Survivors
- A Story of War, Inheritance, and Healing
- By: Adam Frankel
- Narrated by: Adam Frankel, Rob Shapiro
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 129
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 116
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 114
Adam Frankel’s maternal grandparents survived the Holocaust and built new lives, with new names, in Connecticut. Though they tried to leave the horrors of their past behind, the pain they suffered crossed generational lines - a fact most apparent in the mental health of Adam’s mother. When Adam sat down with her to examine their family history in detail, he learned another shocking secret, this time one that unraveled Adam’s entire understanding of who he is.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing story
- By Alissa on 12-26-19
By: Adam Frankel