Biography & Memoir Audiobooks

Wendy Conklin (Author), Teacher Created Materials (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tyrone Power: The Life and Legacy of One of Hollywood’s Most Famous Swashbucklers

Hollywood has never lacked leading men who could captivate viewers with dramatic performances that depict them as suave romantics or dashing heroes, especially during the Golden Age of Hollywood, when stars like Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, and Cary Grant graced screens. But in the mid-20th century, one of the most popular stars was a man who’s been frequently overlooked. Some actors were recruited based on their appearance alone, signing contracts before taking screen tests or ever having been on a stage or set. Others became overnight sensations, darlings of the public for decades. Only a few of these turned out to be excellent actors, but one of them was certainly Tyrone Power, one of Hollywood’s leading men from the 1930s into the 1950s. With a career spanning over 50 films, Power did not have to work through the system, rising to the top almost immediately at the age of 22. Power was named “King of the Movies” for three straight years (1939 -1941) by fans, and while critics claimed that his success came from his good looks, today he is acknowledged as a good actor, among the most underestimated of this era. Power starred in a variety of film genres, and at least some contemporaries made note of his “remarkable acting range.” This included several musicals such as Alexander’s Ragtime Band, Second Fiddle, Rose of Washington Square, and The Eddy Duchin Story. He also made appearances in several dramas, including Johnny Apollo, Witness for the Prosecution, Crash Drive, and The Razor’s Edge. Power was even known for a good comedic sense in films like The Luck of the Irish, That Wonderful Urge, and Love is News.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

Audiobook

Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War

New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Honor recipient Steve Sheinkin gives young listeners the causes and curses that divided America into Union and Confederate nations in Two Miserable Presidents: The Amazing, Terrible, and Totally True Story of the Civil War. A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year A Beacon of Freedom Award Winner Get the feeling something big is about to happen? Welcome to the Civil War―one of the scariest, saddest, and occasionally wackiest stories in American History. 1856: Northern and Southern settlers attack each other in Kansas. 1858: Congressmen start sneaking guns and knives into the Senate chamber. 1860: President James Buchanan is heard wailing, "I am the last president of the United States!" Unraveling a very complicated string of events--the small things, the personal ones, the big issues--Steve Sheinkin takes readers behind the scenes that led to The Civil War. It is a time and a war that threatened America's very existence, revealed in the surprising true stories of the soldiers and statesmen who battled it out. "Chatty and accessible, this book does double duty: it introduces Civil War history for readers who don't know much about it and supplies browsable commentary for those familiar with the big picture...Beginning with a look at the role cotton played in the history, his fast-paced narrative is broken into short, tersely titled vignettes...The horrors of slavery and battlefield slaughter are clear, as are achievements of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and many more." ―Booklist

Steve Sheinkin (Author), Steve Sheinkin, Vikas Adam (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines

Nic Sheff was drunk for the first time at age eleven. In the years that followed, he would regularly smoke pot, do cocaine and ecstasy, and develop addictions to crystal meth and heroin. Even so, he felt like he would always be able to quit and put his life together whenever he needed to. It took a violent relapse one summer in California to convince him otherwise. In writing that is raw and honest, Nic spares no detail in telling us the compelling, heartbreaking, and true story of his relapse and the road to recovery. As we watch Nic plunge the mental and physical depths of drug addiction, he paints a picture of a person at odds with his past, with his family, with his substances, and with himself.

Nic Sheff (Author), Paul Michael Garcia, Paul Michael Garcia, Richard Powers (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tutankhamun: The Mystery of the Boy King

Mysterious boy king Tutankhamun returns to the U.S. in 2008, bringing rare treasures never before seen outside Egypt. For the millions of fans wanting a keepsake and chronicle of this magnificent new exhibition, this book will delight. Created by world-renowned art historians under the guidance of Zahi Hawass-director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and a well-known media personality-it surveys 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history by focusing on the lives and lifestyles of great pharaohs. Master photographer Sandro Vannini spotlights every dazzling artifact, using an innovative technique that makes the image jump off the page. The book's design echoes the exhibition, grouping objects representing family life, religious practices, funerary rituals, and gold. In each artifact-a queen's eye makeup container, a likeness of a princess eating duck, a sarcophagus made for a prince's cat-we glimpse the life of ancient Egyptian royalty: exotic and fascinating, yet so human. Gold gleams in a leopard-mask of gilded wood, a brilliant pendant bearing tiny goddesses, even the golden finger and toe covers of Tutankhamun himself, meant to protect his extremities in the afterlife. Featuring more than 120 treasures, a dozen evocative landscape and archaeology photos, and illuminating text, this book makes palpable the excitement, riches, and mysteries of ancient Egypt. It will be prominently displayed in all exhibition venues, and its contents will interest visitors to the show as well as Tut enthusiasts across the country.

Zahi Hawass (Author), Firdous Bamji (Narrator)

Audiobook

True Stories of Famous Americans

The Young Listeners Collection Bring history back to life through Jim Hodges' historically accurate, exciting, and edifying audio recordings. If you want facts about our forefathers, get any history text; this book is more interested in the personalities and character traits and family histories that contributed to the development of the great men who built our nation. It's a phenomenal addition to the audio library of any who would like to hear stories that honor the founders and shapers of the great United States of America. Written in the 1800's, the Young Listeners Collection features children's stories from yesterday's classics. Learn from our nation's founders whose Christian faith was lived out in the lives of the characters in these stories.

Elbridge Streeter Brooks (Author), Jim Hodges (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tru and Nelle

Long before they became famous writers, Truman Capote (In Cold Blood) and Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird) were childhood friends in Monroeville, Alabama. This fictionalized account of their time together opens at the beginning of the Great Depression, when Tru is seven and Nelle is six. They love playing pirates, but they like playing Sherlock and Watson-style detectives even more. It's their pursuit of a case of drugstore theft that lands the daring duo in real trouble. Humor and heartache intermingle in this lively look at two budding writers in the 1930s South.

G. Neri (Author), Catherine Taber (Narrator)

Audiobook

Trombone Shorty

Troy 'trombone Shorty' Andrews (Author), Dion Graham (Narrator)

Audiobook

Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of 'The Children's Ship'

From award-winning author Deborah Heiligman comes Torpedoed, a true account of the attack and sinking of the passenger ship SS City of Benares, which was evacuating children from England during WWII. Amid the constant rain of German bombs and the escalating violence of World War II, British parents by the thousands chose to send their children out of the country: the wealthy, independently; the poor, through a government relocation program called CORB. In September 1940, passenger liner SS City of Benares set out in a convoy of nineteen ships sailing for Canada. On board were ninety CORB children, chaperones, and crew, along with paying passengers. When the war ships escorting the Benares to safe waters peeled off and the way forward seemed certain, a German submarine attacked and torpedoed the Benares. What followed is an amazing example of all that people are capable of-the worst, and the best.

Deborah Heiligman (Author), Marisa Calin (Narrator)

Audiobook

To Fly Among the Stars:A True Story of the Women and Men Who Tested to Become America's First Astro

A searing look at the birth of America's space program, and the men and women aviators who set its course. In the 1960s, locked in a heated race to launch the first human into space, the United States selected seven superstar test pilots and former military air fighters to NASA's astronaut class--the Mercury 7. The men endured grueling training and constant media attention for the honor of becoming America's first space heroes. But a group of 13 women--accomplished air racers, test pilots, and flight instructors--were enduring those same astronaut tests in secret, hoping to defy social norms and earn a spot among the stars. With thrilling stories of aviation feats, frustrating tales of the fight against sexism, and historical photos, To Fly Among the Stars recounts an incredible era of US innovation, and the audacious hope of the women who took their fight for spaceflight all the way to Washington, DC.

Rebecca Siegel (Author), Saskia Maarleveld (Narrator)

Audiobook

Titanic: Voices From the Disaster

EARLY MORNING ON APRIL 15, 1912, the RMS Titanic, on her glorious maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, sank after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic. Thus the ship declared to be unsinkable was lost in one of the most infamous tragedies in history. Even now, a century later, the events surrounding the Titanic continue to haunt and intrigue us. Critically acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson weaves together the voices of Titanic survivors and witnesses to the disaster to bring the horrors of that terrible night to life. There's nine-year-old Frankie Goldsmith; Violet Jessop, a young stewardess; Jack Thayer, an American high school senior; Colonel Archibald Gracie, a well-to-do gentleman; William Murdoch, a brave seaman; Charlotte Collyer, a young mother on her way to start a new life; and many others. Their recollections are filled with heart-stopping action, devastating drama, and fascinating historical details.

Deborah Hopkinson (Author), , Mark Bramhall, Peter Altschuler, Various, Various Readers (Narrator)

Audiobook

Thurgood Marshall

When Thurgood Marshall-the great-grandson of a slave-was born, African Americans were denied equal rights in America. Segregation was legal. Lynching was common. In some places, African Americans were entirely excluded from public life; they were forbidden to enter public parks and museums or use public swimming pools and restrooms.After being denied admission to the University of Maryland Law School because of his race, Marshall enrolled at Howard University. He graduated first in his class and set out as a young lawyer determined to achieve equality for all Americans. Here is the story of how he did it-how he devised his legal strategy for expanding "we the people" to include all people.Thurgood Marshall explores his life, from his childhood in Baltimore to his trailblazing career as a civil-rights lawyer and, finally, to his years as a United States Supreme Court justice.

Teri Kanefield (Author), David Sadzin (Narrator)

Audiobook