What cookbook author and TV personality Lidia Bastianich lacks in professional vocal skills she more than makes up for with her warm, honest delivery. Bastianich highlights a life filled with love, family, and the food of Italy. Just months after she was born in northern Italy, her small village became part of Communist Yugoslavia. Despite political turmoil, Lidia had a secure life within a caring family, in which food was another name for love. When the family was threatened by the Communist regime, they fled, first to a refugee camp in Trieste, and, eventually, to Manhattan. This audiobook is an immigrant story that reminds each new generation of the sacrifices made by their predecessors so that their lives would be better. Bastianich's remembrances are wholly satisfying.
Pub Date: April 3, 2018
Duration: 12 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780525588757
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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