When you first hear Alexandra Styron’s monotone reading of her memoir about growing up the youngest child of the towering novelist William Styron, you might inwardly groan about another non-professional reader. But quickly you realize that the studied detachment in her delivery is no deficiency on her part but an exact auditory counterpart to the emotional pitch she sets for herself as writer of this brave book. Styron the daughter never succumbs to sentimentality; she wants to understand this gigantic, deeply troubled man whose moodiness, indifference, and casual cruelties dominated and cowed his household even as he wrote some of the twentieth century’s most luminous novels. By the end, you recognize that the detachment has been a conceit necessary to enable the daughter to look clear-eyed and compassionately at the father she loved despite all.
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2011
Duration: 10 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781611745009
Publisher: HighBridge Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
James Michener tells the real stories behind the man and his books. The recording is read with skill and consistency although the reader does little to enhance the robust, larger-than-life incidents related in the book. Due to the first-person narrative format, there is no opportunity for the narrator to change his voice. This makes some chapters monotonous as they go on and on in the typical Michener style. The listener may also become confused because the stories are not told chronologically. This is not a great choice for the audio format, but Michener fans may stick with it to the end.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 22 hrs
Publisher: Books on Tape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
In a quest for a sense of inner contentment and self-worth, Gloria Steinem brings the reader on a journey of investigation and discovery. Steinem reads the text herself in a straightforward and friendly, but not intimate, presentation which is so easy to listen to it invites repetition--thus ensuring the painless relearning of the lessons of the book. It's difficult to tell from the reading that this audiobook is abridged; each section can stand alone. Nonetheless, the listener wished the book were unabridged. Steinem left me wanting to learn more.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Dove Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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