Narrator Abby Craden's vocal gravitas works well with this sobering audiobook about preparing children for 21st-century adulthood. Beyond her intuitive connection with every phrase and sentence, Craden's performance expresses Madeline Levine's altruism as faithfully as her desire to wake up parents who have fallen into bad habits or are unsure about what good parenting is. A psychologist and educator best known for her arguments against overparenting, Levine offers big-picture observations and suggestions that may seem overly intellectual at first. But Craden's performance softens the writing and helps listeners absorb the core message: Children benefit when parents are less anxious, less quick to protect them, and more accepting of their child's priorities.
Pub Date: 2020
Duration: 7 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780062984692
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Griffiths narrates her poetic memoir, marked by two traumatic life events, with precision. Griffiths' emotive narration takes measure of the joys and sorrows she experiences in tender moments spent with her best friend, Kamilah Aisha Moon, a talented poet, as they share a deep connection and support each other's work. Despair comes on "the best and worst day" of her life, when Aisha dies on the same day that Griffiths weds author Salman Rushdie. Despite her own marital bliss, Griffiths is consumed by an overwhelming grief, and it has only begun to subside a year later when Rushdie is stabbed, nearly fatally. Again, Griffiths is plunged into depression. This story of love and loss is as strong in emotion as it is in poignant imagery and lyricism.
Pub Date: 2026
Duration: 8 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217176441
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Chef and author Gabrielle Hamilton expertly narrates her memoir about her family of origin. The youngest of five children, she grew up with an aloof mother and a charming but absent father. Now middle-aged, Hamilton has been estranged from her mother for roughly 30 years. The suicide of her oldest brother, Jeffrey, prompted her to reconnect with her mother in hopes of understanding that desperate act. Hamilton doesn't hold back even on herself: She confesses to an affair with her sister's husband. Overall, she projects her emotions as she narrates. Listeners can hear her smile at childhood antics and her regret as she speaks about painful subjects. While Tolstoy wrote that all happy families are alike, Hamilton's memoir shows that some families are complicated.
Pub Date: 2025
Duration: 7 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593150146
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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