"Saturday Night Live" star Cecily Strong narrates appealingly, often with raw emotion that fits the harrowing losses she experienced last year--the death of a favorite cousin to cancer, a new boyfriend stricken with COVID, and an SNL friend succumbing to the virus. Her pacing and comedic timing make listening easy, even when compact stories and vignettes appear in rapid succession like comedy one-liners. Her New York City street smarts provide an interesting contrast to the richness of her emotional life and her connection with her cousin, Owen. Memories of her formative years and path to comedy fame are also fun to hear, but it's her resilience and hope that are featured in this remarkable audio. Drawing on what she gained from Owen's love and support, her touching reflections will continue inspiring long after this absorbing audio is finished.
Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2021
Duration: 5 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781797129907
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Moving from deeply despairing to wildly successful, only West could do his own poignant story justice.
Fans of voice actor West may have difficulty reconciling his disturbing childhood with the numerous joyful characters he’s best known for. In this revealing, painfully honest memoir, West recalls life before, during, and after animated series The Ren & Stimpy Show and Futurama, in which he voiced multiple characters. Occasionally reverting to his comic voices to illustrate a point or an anecdote, West details his experiences with his brutal, psychotic father; his early efforts to disassociate himself from beatings and abuse; and the profoundly positive effects TV comics like Sid Caesar and Danny Kaye had on him. Late-in-life diagnoses of ADHD and OCD also gave West some comfort.
Moving from deeply despairing to wildly successful, only West could do his own poignant story justice.Pub Date: July 14, 2026
Duration: 7 hrs, 1 min
DD ISBN: 9798898850111
Publisher: Recorded Books Inc.
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
Cox delivers both the searing pain and deep beauty imbued in her life journey.
The cudgel of gender conformity has never felt more visceral and brutal, more omnipresent and inescapable than in actor and activist Cox’s spellbinding memoir. Listeners will not be left unchanged by Cox’s courage in speaking her whole truth for the very first time. As narrator, Cox’s voice sometimes sounds armored, because this isn't Cox the performer, but Cox as a fiercely analytical intellectual as she examines how her life story embodies the intersection of gender, race, colonization, and patriarchy. Yes, listeners will hear about her fun rise to fame, which included working with film idols like Jodie Foster, but it is her relationship with feminist icon and scholar bell hooks that informs the backbone of this intelligent, remarkable memoir.
Cox delivers both the searing pain and deep beauty imbued in her life journey.Pub Date: June 9, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs, 56 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668135860
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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