Much to the delight of many listeners, Anne Lamott's essay collections about life, love, religion, and writing, including the well-loved OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS and BIRD BY BIRD, have appeared frequently over the years. She is a friendly, wise, and wry commentator who only occasionally drifts into self-pity about life's many pitfalls. She is always worth one's attention. The same cannot be said of her narration of her newest collection, a worthwhile consideration of hope and despair. Lamott's quavering nasal voice comes close to whining, she ends most sentences on a vocal up-pitch, and often rushes right by the full-stop period that she herself wrote. The result is choppy and headlong. This time, stick with the print edition.
Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
Duration: 3 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780525640523
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
This author-narrated audiobook blends memories and poems with some mind-bending moments--as Elizabeth Gilbert talks with her late lover and converses with God. A practiced speaker, Gilbert performs this excruciatingly honest work with passion and restraint. The memoir is about addiction and how Gilbert healed after the death of her friend, lover, global-traveling companion, and one-time hairdresser, Rayya, a "badass," streetwise recovering addict until not long before her death from cancer. Composed in fragments--stories, recollections, poems, aphorisms--that are connected by guitar bridges, it ends in the present. Gilbert describes herself as a "sex and love addict," and much of the text reveals her struggles. She's been in a 12-step program for five years, stayed celibate, stopped drinking and drugs, and has buzz cut her hair.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
Duration: 10 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217156726
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Former FBI Agent Robert Hilland and world-famous psychic John Edward narrate the story of their longstanding collaboration in solving cold cases. Their partnership--first distrusting and then blossoming into a true brotherhood--spanned two-and-a-half decades. Most of the story focuses on the famous John Smith murders, but it covers other fascinating cases, as well. Hilland narrates the bulk of the story, taking listeners from his skepticism toward John Edward to his developing awareness of his own psychic energy and spirit guides. Edward narrates dialogue so naturally that listeners will hear his conviction and picture his thoughtful gaze as he directs Hilland's focus. Hilland becomes a strong believer, and listeners will as well.
Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
Duration: 11 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781250381569
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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