The damage that dictators do to their countries and to the world is bad enough. What they do to their families is also criminal. This audiobook, an exhaustively researched historical account, tells the story of Stalin’s daughter. Karen Cass narrates with skill, clarity, and verve. While Alliluyeva herself was protected by Communist Party elitism as a girl, her father exiled her mother, two brothers, and her lover to Siberia. In 1967, she left her children behind and defected to the U.S. Cass’s lively British accent makes the story less a litany of danger and terror and more a story of a woman who slowly but surely learns the truth and has to carry it with her for the rest of her life.
Pub Date: June 2, 2015
Duration: 19 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9780062417596
Publisher: Harper 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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