Narrator Emily Woo Zeller delivers one gut punch after another as she beautifully expresses the author's emotions while confronting her mortality. Yip-Williams cheated death as an infant when her grandmother ordered her parents to visit an herbalist to have her poisoned (he refused) and again when her family escaped North Vietnam on an overcrowded boat, but she can't beat aggressive colon cancer diagnosed at age 37. Zeller flawlessly voices Yip-Williams's fury at purveyors of false hope, grief at the prospect of leaving her beloved family, and even amusement at the idea of the "slutty second wife." Josh Williams, the late author's husband, delivers his own heartbreaking afterword in which he confesses the strain that disease brought to his marriage and the difficulty of carrying on without his beloved wife.
Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
Duration: 11 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9781984840974
Publisher: Random House 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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