Mela Lee's steadily flowing narration includes the expected variations in pitch, tone, and pace for quotations and documentation throughout this long sweep of history on Black rights from the mid-1700s through the present. Topics range from Voting Rights Amendments 15 and 19 to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and on to current events. Lee adopts a slow, stately pace that allows listeners to absorb the lengthy and sometimes disturbing events in the fight for political equity. A host of key figures includes Phyllis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Susan B. Anthony, Mary Bethune, Maria Stewart, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Rosa Parks. Lee's unfailing performance ensures that listeners can focus on the topic and its crucial details.
Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
Duration: 10 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549190155
Publisher: Hachette 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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