Narrator Yareli Arizmendi offers listeners this timely exploration of a once undocumented Latina's coming of age. She tells us the intensely personal details of Reyna Grande's childhood and teen years in a clear, sensitive voice. Grande came to the U.S. at the age of 9 in search of her parents, who had left her in Mexico when they came to Los Angeles for better lives. What she finds is not what she expects. Arizmendi helps us feel the child's pain at her parents' divorce and her father's abandonment, as well as her fear of moving away as the first college attendee in her family. Through love, loss, ambitions raised, and then thwarted, we hang on through every chapter, secure that we are in the hands of a confident, unflinching narrator, well suited for this gritty story of eventual triumph.
Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
Duration: 9 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781508268116
Publisher: Simon & Schuster 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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