Hearing his first words, listeners will realize why Pat Conroy is the best—possibly the only—narrator for his emotional memoir. He begins with the origins of his lifelong affair with literature—his self-educated mother gave her son a passion for reading and learning. What Conroy and his mother read together would make most avid readers blush in humility. The author is now 66, and his voice has a patina suggested by its seasoned timbre and his soothing reluctance to hurry. Conroy enhances his memoir with a fiction writer’s techniques. In his advocacy of fiction, he shares his mother’s strong attachment to Margaret Mitchell’s GONE WITH THE WIND, a novel that taught him how powerful a fictional work could be when from a master’s pen.
Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2010
Duration: 8 hrs
DD ISBN: 9780307749215
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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