Articulately written and precisely voiced by Laural Merlington, this is a delight and a wonderful treat for the ears. Westheimer offers a memoir that is entertaining, touching, positive, and sensitive despite her many life challenges. Best of all, it offers frequent flashes of tasteful humor. Although the introduction is voiced by Westheimer herself, the rest of the audiobook is narrated by Merlington. Her mature, appropriately paced narration provides context by nature of its sensitivity. Few may know of Westheimer’s losing her entire family in the Holocaust and her serious injuries in a bombing at the time of modern Israel’s creation. Thankfully, Merlington doesn’t attempt to imitate the inimitable Westheimer—yet she quite skillfully weaves the words into rhythms that are unmistakably Westheimer.
Pub Date: June 2, 2015
Duration: 6 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781501249143
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners looking to examine joy from a faith-based perspective will find much to reflect on.
In this audiobook, Bowler poses the question, "What is joy?" Narrating her own work, she muses on this theme, discussing finding joy in the ordinary, the role of emotions, recapturing past joy, and the way her faith has shaped her interpretation and experience of joy. Bowler’s narration is down to earth as she talks about her experience battling Stage 4 cancer shortly after her mother's death. She also tackles big ideas about duty and obligation, shared emotion, toxic positivity, how to convert faith into something concretely good, the secret of miracles, and taking risks to achieve joy.
Listeners looking to examine joy from a faith-based perspective will find much to reflect on.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
Duration: 5 hrs, 58 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217176564
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
This author-narrated audiobook blends memories and poems with some mind-bending moments--as Elizabeth Gilbert talks with her late lover and converses with God. A practiced speaker, Gilbert performs this excruciatingly honest work with passion and restraint. The memoir is about addiction and how Gilbert healed after the death of her friend, lover, global-traveling companion, and one-time hairdresser, Rayya, a "badass," streetwise recovering addict until not long before her death from cancer. Composed in fragments--stories, recollections, poems, aphorisms--that are connected by guitar bridges, it ends in the present. Gilbert describes herself as a "sex and love addict," and much of the text reveals her struggles. She's been in a 12-step program for five years, stayed celibate, stopped drinking and drugs, and has buzz cut her hair.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2025
Duration: 10 hrs, 15 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217156726
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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