We Picked Our Most Life Changing Memoir Audiobooks

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girls Journey to Freedom Audiobook, by Yeonmi Park

Narrator: Eji Kim

Audio Length: @1x speed 9.50 hours
@1.5x speed 6.33 hours
@2x speed 4.75 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom Audiobook

“I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.”

Yeonmi Park has told the harrowing story of her escape from North Korea as a child many times, but never before has she revealed the most intimate and devastating details of the repressive society she was raised in and the enormous price she paid to escape.

Park’s family was loving and close-knit, but life in North Korea was brutal, practically medieval. Park would regularly go without food and was made to believe that, Kim Jong Il, the country’s dictator, could read her mind. After her father was imprisoned and tortured by the regime for trading on the black-market, a risk he took in order to provide for his wife and two young daughters, Yeonmi and her family were branded as criminals and forced to the cruel margins of North Korean society. With thirteen-year-old Park suffering from a botched appendectomy and weighing a mere sixty pounds, she and her mother were smuggled across the border into China.

I wasn’t dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. I didn’t even know what it meant to be free. All I knew was that if my family stayed behind, we would probably die—from starvation, from disease, from the inhuman conditions of a prison labor camp. The hunger had become unbearable; I was willing to risk my life for the promise of a bowl of rice. But there was more to our journey than our own survival. My mother and I were searching for my older sister, Eunmi, who had left for China a few days earlier and had not been heard from since.

Park knew the journey would be difficult, but could not have imagined the extent of the hardship to come. Those years in China cost Park her childhood, and nearly her life. By the time she and her mother made their way to South Korea two years later, her father was dead and her sister was still missing. Before now, only her mother knew what really happened between the time they crossed the Yalu river into China and when they followed the stars through the frigid Gobi Desert to freedom. As she writes, “I convinced myself that a lot of what I had experienced never happened. I taught myself to forget the rest.”

In In Order to Live, Park shines a light not just into the darkest corners of life in North Korea, describing the deprivation and deception she endured and which millions of North Korean people continue to endure to this day, but also onto her own most painful and difficult memories. She tells with bravery and dignity for the first time the story of how she and her mother were betrayed and sold into sexual slavery in China and forced to suffer terrible psychological and physical hardship before they finally made their way to Seoul, South Korea—and to freedom.

Still in her early twenties, Yeonmi Park has lived through experiences that few people of any age will ever know—and most people would never recover from. Park confronts her past with a startling resilience, refusing to be defeated or defined by the circumstances of her former life in North Korea and China. In spite of everything, she has never stopped being proud of where she is from, and never stopped striving for a better life. Indeed, today she is a human rights activist working determinedly to bring attention to the oppression taking place in her home country.

Park’s testimony is rare, edifying, and terribly important, and the story she tells in In Order to Live is heartbreaking and unimaginable, but never without hope. Her voice is riveting and dignified. This is the human spirit at its most indomitable.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“I first heard Yeonmi’s story on a podcast. I was so intrigued that I chose her book for my book club to read. As difficult as her story is, she is educating us about a horrific regime that runs North Korea. None of us would know about this weight the courage of people like her.”

— Tara

Greenlights Audiobook, by Matthew McConaughey

Author: Matthew McConaughey

Narrator: Matthew McConaughey

Audio Length: @1x speed 6.75 hours
@1.5x speed 4.50 hours
@2x speed 3.38 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

Greenlights Audiobook

If you're looking for an entertaining audiobook that will make you laugh, cry, and think, then you should check out Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey. Not only does he narrate the book himself, but he also includes a number of original songs and spoken word pieces that bring the book to life. The audiobook chronicles McConaughey's interesting life, from his childhood in Texas to his Hollywood career. He shares stories about his famous movies, including how he prepared for his role in Dallas Buyers Club and what it was like working with Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. But Greenlights is more than just a memoir; it's also a collection of wisdom and advice that will inspire listeners to chase their dreams and live their best lives. So if you're looking for a motivation boost, be sure to give Greenlights a listen.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“I loved this book. It's now my most favorite read of all time. McConaughey is a distinctive and unique narrator, so much so I felt that I knew him personally. His ideas and insight to the drama we call life, is certainly a road map to finding the "Greenlights" and moving along with our own journey. I bought the hardcopy so I could see for myself the bumper stickers!!! Don't miss this book. It's an inspiration...”

— Linda

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Audiobook, by Matthew Perry

Author: Matthew Perry

Narrator: Matthew Perry

Audio Length: @1x speed 8.75 hours
@1.5x speed 5.83 hours
@2x speed 4.38 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Audiobook

"Going into his "why," Perry's audiobook is a fascinating listen."- AudioFile This program is read by the author. A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK BY TIME, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, GOODREADS, USA TODAY, AND MORE! The beloved star of Friends takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this candid, funny, and revelatory memoir that delivers a powerful message of hope and persistence. “Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.” So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who traveled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more. In an extraordinary story that only he could tell—and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it—Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humor, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fueled it despite seemingly having it all. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening—as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the audiobook fans have been waiting for. A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“I'm a huge fan of Matthew Perry and Friends, so I was really excited to listen to his memoir. After listening to it, I was truly amazed! The memoir itself is incredibly moving. It speaks of both love and heartache in equal measure. His reflections on relationships are honest and heartfelt, filled with colorful stories that span his entire life. He is open about both his successes and failures in an accessible manner, sharing practical advice for how to navigate the complex waters of family, friendship, and romance. I am thankful for Matthew's courage in opening up about such personal topics - it certainly gives us insight into him as an individual. This insightful memoir is filled with emotion that will stay with you long after you've finished listening. Highly recommended!”

— TerrenceY1988

Spare Audiobook, by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex

Author: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex

Narrator: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex

Audio Length: @1x speed 15.75 hours
@1.5x speed 10.50 hours
@2x speed 7.88 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

Spare Audiobook

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow—and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling—and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. Before losing his mother, twelve-year-old Prince Harry was known as the carefree one, the happy-go-lucky Spare to the more serious Heir. Grief changed everything. He struggled at school, struggled with anger, with loneliness—and, because he blamed the press for his mother’s death, he struggled to accept life in the spotlight. At twenty-one, he joined the British Army. The discipline gave him structure, and two combat tours made him a hero at home. But he soon felt more lost than ever, suffering from post-traumatic stress and prone to crippling panic attacks. Above all, he couldn’t find true love. Then he met Meghan. The world was swept away by the couple’s cinematic romance and rejoiced in their fairy-tale wedding. But from the beginning, Harry and Meghan were preyed upon by the press, subjected to waves of abuse, racism, and lies. Watching his wife suffer, their safety and mental health at risk, Harry saw no other way to prevent the tragedy of history repeating itself but to flee his mother country. Over the centuries, leaving the Royal Family was an act few had dared. The last to try, in fact, had been his mother. . . . For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“This is the best book I've read in a long time. It is well written, well narrated & provides a personal glimpse into the world of a real-life Prince. He seems to be sincere, authentic, relatable and normal. Along with his life as a royal, he shares in detail about his military service, humanitarian work and of course how the devastating loss of his "mummy" has impacted and seemingly continues to impact every aspect of his life. I have followed the Royal Family for years and I thoroughly enjoyed Harry's (or Henry's or Harold's or Darling Boy's) book. Good for him for telling his own story - in his own way - on his own terms. I highly recommend this book.”

— JM

When Breath Becomes Air Audiobook, by Paul Kalanithi

Author: Paul Kalanithi

Narrator: Sunil Malhotra, Cassandra Campbell

Audio Length: @1x speed 5.50 hours
@1.5x speed 3.67 hours
@2x speed 2.75 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

When Breath Becomes Air Audiobook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living?

NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage

Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir

At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality.

What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.

Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“A profoundly moving memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis attempts to answer - before his time is up - what makes life worth living. It's a short book, with a little about dying and a lot more about being alive. Its heavy on descriptions of neurosurgery and neuroscience, and his medical rotations. I really enjoyed it,even though listening to his wife's epilogue had me in tears.”

— Julie

Author: Michelle Obama

Narrator: Michelle Obama

Audio Length: @1x speed 19.00 hours
@1.5x speed 12.67 hours
@2x speed 9.50 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

Becoming Audiobook

An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America—the first African American to serve in that role—she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it—in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations—and whose story inspires us to do the same.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“BECOMING was an amazing memoir by an amazing woman living through unprecedented experiences. It was so fascinating to hear her perspective from her childhood, to meeting Barack Obama, to embarking on the path to politics and the hugeness of what they took on. Bonus that Michelle Obama narrated it herself.”

— PenEllis

Educated: A Memoir Audiobook, by Tara Westover

Author: Tara Westover

Narrator: Julia Whelan

Audio Length: @1x speed 12.25 hours
@1.5x speed 8.17 hours
@2x speed 6.13 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

Educated: A Memoir Audiobook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • One of the most acclaimed books of our time: an unforgettable memoir about a young woman who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University “Extraordinary . . . an act of courage and self-invention.”—The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • BILL GATES’S HOLIDAY READING LIST • FINALIST: National Book Critics Circle’s Award In Autobiography and John Leonard Prize For Best First Book • PEN/Jean Stein Book Award • Los Angeles Times Book Prize Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home. “Beautiful and propulsive . . . Despite the singularity of [Westover’s] childhood, the questions her book poses are universal: How much of ourselves should we give to those we love? And how much must we betray them to grow up?”—Vogue NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • O: The Oprah Magazine • Time • NPR • Good Morning America • San Francisco Chronicle • The Guardian • The Economist • Financial Times • Newsday • New York Post • theSkimm • Refinery29 • Bloomberg • Self • Real Simple • Town & Country • Bustle • Paste • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • LibraryReads • Book Riot • Pamela Paul, KQED • New York Public Library

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“This book was inspirational to me. It really put in perspective what it means to educate yourself, normalising the process of learning, the amount of work it requires and the roadblocks along the way. I felt educated about a culture that I had little contact with and about determination and pushing through natural processes of development. The way the author talks about her feelings provided words about similar situations that I had been through. I recomend this book. It's a testament of resilience and the power of growing and changing, and the heartache and joys it brings.”

— Madalina

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Audiobook, by Rebecca Skloot

Author: Rebecca Skloot

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell, Bahni Turpin

Audio Length: @1x speed 12.50 hours
@1.5x speed 8.33 hours
@2x speed 6.25 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Audiobook

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a riveting account of a life that combines elements of racial issues, medicine and medical ethics as well as questions about the meaning of immortality and a family struggling to understand their mother's legacy.

Unbeknownst to her, Henrietta Lacks (1920-1951) changed the world through her contributions to biomedical research. Lacks was a poor African-American woman who was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital beginning in 1951 for cervical cancer. She died that same year, but prior to her death her doctor removed two samples of Henrietta's cervix, a healthy part and a cancerous part, without her permission or even her knowledge.

Her doctor gave the cells to Dr. George Otto Gey, a biomedical researcher. These cells eventually became the HeLa (Henrietta Lacks) Immortal cell line. Prior to the use of Lacks' cells, cell lines used for research would die out within a few days and had to continuously be replaced. Henrietta Lacks' cells were the first that scientists could keep alive and grow. The HeLa cells are the most commonly used cells in research, and are still being used today.

According to author Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta Lacks' cells were vital to the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping and in vitro fertilization. Her cells have been bought and sold millions of times the world over, and yet her children remain in poverty and cannot afford health insurance.

Skloot learned about the HeLa cells in a high school science class and her interest was piqued. After completing college, she spent the next decade researching Henrietta Lacks and in the process became close to the surviving members of the Lacks family, particularly Henrietta's eldest daughter, Deborah. The Lacks family remained impoverished and uneducated, and had trouble understanding the meaning of their mother's immortality, while also feeling that the doctors had stolen from them, in more ways than one.

Rebecca Skloot has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She has taught creative writing and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University, and has been published in several scientific journals and mainstream magazines. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is her first book, has won several awards and has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for two years. In 2011, the book won the Audie Award for Best Non-Fiction Audiobook.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“Fascinating book about the woman who made it possible for scientists to study the behavior of cancer cells and find treatments for common and not so common illnesses. Rebecca Skloot takes us into this woman's life through her children, her doctors, and the institutions and mindsets of a generation long past. She makes it easy to follow the back and forth of the story with a timeline at the beginning of each chapter. I found this book to be interesting, heart breaking, uplifting, and educational. It's a bit of a look at the best, and worst, of mankind. If you enjoyed it I'd recommend "The Emperor of All Maladies" by Siddhartha Mukherjee.”

— Dee

Angelas Ashes: A Memoir Audiobook, by Frank McCourt

Author: Frank McCourt

Narrator: Frank McCourt

Audio Length: @1x speed 15.25 hours
@1.5x speed 10.17 hours
@2x speed 7.63 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir Audiobook

Angela's Ashes is a memoir written by Frank McCourt. The author also narrates this unabridged audio version. Pulitzer Prize winner for Autobiography, Angela's Ashes tells a saga spanning an ocean. Though some think of this book as sorrowful, many who have heard McCourt tell his story can hear the joy he felt over the smallest victory of finding a meal and can understand the sense of humor that he developed in order to bear these blows of life. This is thought of as a classic in memoir literature, and was adapted for a film. Living in poverty as a child, McCourt reveals those days into his adult years in the cities of Limerick, Ireland and Brooklyn, New York. He struggled with his father's alcoholism and with his mother's rescuing nature, which preserved their family unit for a time.

He was born in the thirties in New York to Irish immigrants, and later returned with them to the desolate slumhouses of Limerick, Ireland. The name Angela is his mother's, and she scrounged with what little money she had left over from his father's alcohol binges. His dad didn't work much in the first place. Though sometimes Frank had to wear soles on his shoe from rubber of a tire, and though sometimes he had to beg for pork head for holiday meals, and though he had to look for his dad in pubs, he is still able to tell us these stories with hope, grace, and humanity.

Frank McCourt was a teacher for years, and originally got himself into college without a high school degree by talking his way into New York University and promising to maintain an average grade of a B+. He died from cancer in 2009.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“This is my all time favorite book. It made me laugh and cry and parts of it reminded me so much of my own family. The humor in it is not for everyone but, in my opinion, the humor (though mostly a depressing humor) was the best part of the book. Loved it.”

— Pepper

The Glass Castle: A Memoir Audiobook, by Jeannette Walls

Author: Jeannette Walls

Narrator: Jeannette Walls

Audio Length: @1x speed 10.50 hours
@1.5x speed 7.00 hours
@2x speed 5.25 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

The Glass Castle: A Memoir Audiobook

Now a major motion picture from Lionsgate starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts.

MORE THAN SEVEN YEARS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST

The perennially bestselling, extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, “nothing short of spectacular” (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world’s most gifted storytellers.

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing—a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“So, this is one of those books that you just love to love and hate to love! It is a memoir so I have to believe that it is fact, but I was really irritated with what went on in the book. The system and those that knew this family seriously failed these kids and despite, they persisted. The facts of the book aside, it is very well written and hearing it read by the author made it really poignant and heartfelt. I heard all of the hype, my daughter kept telling me to read it, so . . . I finally did and I am not sorry. Total recommend! Just be prepared to hate her parents! EEK!”

— Tina

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Audiobook, by Maya Angelou

Author: Maya Angelou

Narrator: Maya Angelou

Audio Length: @1x speed 10.25 hours
@1.5x speed 6.83 hours
@2x speed 5.13 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Audiobook

Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Her life story is told in the documentary film And Still I Rise, as seen on PBS’s American Masters. Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“I thinnk this book was fantastic. Mya included so many real life situations and true facts about what went on during that time.Mya also added great detail which made me wanting to keep reading more and more which i will continue to do.”

— Brandonford

The Liars Club (Abridged): A Memoir Audiobook, by Mary Karr

Author: Mary Karr

Narrator: Mary Karr

Audio Length: @1x speed 4.00 hours
@1.5x speed 2.67 hours
@2x speed 2.00 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

The Liars' Club (Abridged): A Memoir Audiobook

The dazzling, prizewinning, wickedly funny tale of Mary Karr’s hardscrabble Texas childhood—the book that sparked a renaissance in memoir. When it was published in 1995, Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, as well as brought about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger’s—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at 12, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all. This unsentimental and profoundly moving account of an apocalyptic childhood is as “funny, lively, and un-put-downable” (USA Today) today as it ever was.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“I'm reading this for the second time. That's why I can already give it a five-start review! I'm in wonder of her excellent writing skills. And the characters are fascinating. I love how if she doesn't remember something she says so. Now, I'm suspect of all childhood memoirs--I don't see how people can remember enough details to write a really good story of their early childhood. I know I couldn't. But I no longer see it as terrible to make up the little details like what color shirt Uncle Riley was wearing or what brand chew tobacco he used--though I would deem it dishonest if authors made up events.”

— Karol

The Year of Magical Thinking Audiobook, by Joan Didion

Author: Joan Didion

Narrator: Barbara Caruso

Audio Length: @1x speed 5.25 hours
@1.5x speed 3.50 hours
@2x speed 2.63 hours

Overall Rating:

Narrator Rating:

Story Rating:

The Year of Magical Thinking Audiobook

Didion's journalistic skills are displayed as never before in this story of a year in her life that began with her daughter in a medically induced coma and her husband unexpectedly dead due to a heart attack.

This powerful and moving work is Didion's "attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness, about marriage and children and memory, about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself."

With vulnerability and passion, Joan Didion explores an intensely personal yet universal experience of love and loss. The Year Of Magical Thinking will speak directly to anyone who has ever loved a husband, wife, or child.

View Details More by Author Similar Audiobooks

“You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends.Very tough to read, and I am sure, very tough to write. This book made me think about my own mortality and that of my family and friends. Joan made it through!”

— Erica

Have You Listened To Any Of These Memoir Audiobooks? They Should Be At The Top Of Your List Too!

Memoir Audiobooks Statistics

Total Audiobooks in this Category:

Total Authors in this Category:

Average Audiobook Length:

Average Audiobook Rating:

Audiobooks in the Top 50:

In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom Audiobook

Greenlights Audiobook

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Audiobook

Spare Audiobook

When Breath Becomes Air Audiobook

Becoming Audiobook

Educated: A Memoir Audiobook

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Audiobook

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir Audiobook

The Glass Castle: A Memoir Audiobook

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Audiobook

The Liars' Club (Abridged): A Memoir Audiobook

The Year of Magical Thinking Audiobook

Browse our entire catalog of 31,929 Memoir audiobooks now!