Narrator Bronson Pinchot delivers this memoir with a wistful tone and dramatic timing. When the author was 3, his sociopathic Mexican-American mother reinvented herself as Running Deer Skyhorse, a Native American, and she bestowed the same fake heritage and surname on her son. Adding to the chaos of the author's childhood was a rotating crew of stepdads, his mother's phone-sex career, and a grandma who was an ex-gang-member. As others have shown, unstable, abusive childhoods sometimes make for darkly comic memoirs. Pinchot exploits this incongruity, adding pathos to the early sections of the audiobook and a shell-shocked weariness to the final sad third. The result is an engaging memoir built on an emotional roller coaster of missed opportunities.
Pub Date: June 3, 2014
Duration: 8 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781483010229
Publisher: Blackstone 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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