Sonnenberg's memoir is filled with traumatic scenes of growing up, owing to her mother's addiction to sex, drugs, and lying. Sonnenberg is quite young, for example, when she finds her mother babbling incoherently, a needle dangling from her arm. After Sonnenberg plunges in the syringe, her mother rejoins, "Thank you, darling." Life is filled with the inappropriate. Sonnenberg's later struggles to adjust to marriage and parenting are recounted in a style that is just as frank. What's missing is a sense of resolution. Despite the author's claims that she has made her own life, choosing estrangement from her mother and sister, her reading projects tones of anger, hurt, and longing that belie her claims.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2008
Duration: 8 hrs
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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