
Permission
The New Memoirist and the Courage to Create
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $27.29
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Elissa Altman
-
By:
-
Elissa Altman
About this listen
Who am I to tell my story? And how can we grant ourselves permission to write the stories we’re compelled to tell when we've been told we shouldn't?
Without fail, almost every writer—new or experienced—has faced dire questions of permission and story ownership: there is something that they want to write about, that they need to write about. Yet: they can’t. They have been warned not to. They might be paralyzed with shame, threatened with shunning, chastened into silence. Even if what they need to write about has defined them and their worldviews.
But what if they did? What if you did?
After writing three critically acclaimed memoirs and a decade of teaching memoir workshops at every level, Elissa Altman has helped students face the elephant in every writer’s room: how to craft the stories that are most vital to them despite the voices that have told them not to. Permission is a master course, not only on how to craft memoir, but how to begin and keep going when you’ve been told you can’t, and how to how to give yourself permission to transcend the fear that keeps vital stories from being written.
We are the storytelling species; this book will inspire and guide all creatives to a place of transformation, of freedom from the constraints of shame and fear in all their forms, and to the understanding and recognition of the ethics of story-making, art-making, truth-telling, and creative soul-saving.
©2025 Elissa Altman (P)2025 Dreamscape MediaListeners also enjoyed...
-
Dear Writer
- Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
- By: Maggie Smith
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.
By: Maggie Smith
-
Motherland
- A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After surviving a traumatic childhood in 1970s New York and young adulthood living in the shadow of her flamboyant mother, Rita, a makeup-addicted former television singer, Elissa Altman has managed to build a very different life, settling in Connecticut with her wife of nearly 20 years. After much time, therapy, and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place, still orbiting around her mother but keeping far enough away to preserve the stable, independent world she has built as a writer and editor. Then Elissa is confronted with the unthinkable.
-
-
One of the best memoirs of 2021
- By NMwritergal on 11-17-21
By: Elissa Altman
-
Notes to John
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Julianne Moore
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had “a rough few years.” She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, guilt, and the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. The subjects evolved to include her work, which she was finding difficult to maintain for sustained periods.
-
-
This autobiography discusses notes from therapy regarding Joan’s daughter’s addiction. Very insightful!
- By Laura Borealis on 04-24-25
By: Joan Didion
-
Holy Hurt
- Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing
- By: Hillary L. McBride PhD
- Narrated by: Hillary L. McBride
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clinical psychologist Hillary L. McBride sends a sincere and profound message: spiritual trauma is real and impacts us all. She also reassures us that we can remake ourselves and heal in its aftermath. McBride expertly and compassionately shows that acknowledging the impact of spiritual trauma in our lives allows us to begin to repair our wounds individually and collectively, experiencing reconnection with ourselves and others.
-
-
Dandelion like courage for healing journey
- By Sero on 04-16-25
-
Reading the Waves
- A Memoir
- By: Lidia Yuknavitch
- Narrated by: Lidia Yuknavitch
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on her background—her father's abuse, her complicated dynamic with her disabled mother, the death of her child, her sexual relationships with men and women—and her creative life as an author and teacher, Yuknavitch has come to understand that by using the power of literature and storytelling to reframe her memories, she can loosen the bonds that have enslaved her emotional growth. Armed with this insight, she allows herself to look with the eye of an artist at the wounds she suffered and come to understand the transformational power this has to restore her soul.
-
-
Lyrical prose that stirs and startles.
- By Noelle on 04-20-25
By: Lidia Yuknavitch
-
The Glass Castle
- A Memoir
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family; she called herself an "excitement addict."
-
-
What's normal?
- By Kmrsy on 11-30-13
By: Jeannette Walls
-
Dear Writer
- Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
- By: Maggie Smith
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.
By: Maggie Smith
-
Motherland
- A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After surviving a traumatic childhood in 1970s New York and young adulthood living in the shadow of her flamboyant mother, Rita, a makeup-addicted former television singer, Elissa Altman has managed to build a very different life, settling in Connecticut with her wife of nearly 20 years. After much time, therapy, and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place, still orbiting around her mother but keeping far enough away to preserve the stable, independent world she has built as a writer and editor. Then Elissa is confronted with the unthinkable.
-
-
One of the best memoirs of 2021
- By NMwritergal on 11-17-21
By: Elissa Altman
-
Notes to John
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Julianne Moore
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In November 1999, Joan Didion began seeing a psychiatrist because, as she wrote to a friend, her family had had “a rough few years.” She described the sessions in a journal she created for her husband, John Gregory Dunne. For several months, Didion recorded conversations with the psychiatrist in meticulous detail. The initial sessions focused on alcoholism, adoption, depression, anxiety, guilt, and the heartbreaking complexities of her relationship with her daughter, Quintana. The subjects evolved to include her work, which she was finding difficult to maintain for sustained periods.
-
-
This autobiography discusses notes from therapy regarding Joan’s daughter’s addiction. Very insightful!
- By Laura Borealis on 04-24-25
By: Joan Didion
-
Holy Hurt
- Understanding Spiritual Trauma and the Process of Healing
- By: Hillary L. McBride PhD
- Narrated by: Hillary L. McBride
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clinical psychologist Hillary L. McBride sends a sincere and profound message: spiritual trauma is real and impacts us all. She also reassures us that we can remake ourselves and heal in its aftermath. McBride expertly and compassionately shows that acknowledging the impact of spiritual trauma in our lives allows us to begin to repair our wounds individually and collectively, experiencing reconnection with ourselves and others.
-
-
Dandelion like courage for healing journey
- By Sero on 04-16-25
-
Reading the Waves
- A Memoir
- By: Lidia Yuknavitch
- Narrated by: Lidia Yuknavitch
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on her background—her father's abuse, her complicated dynamic with her disabled mother, the death of her child, her sexual relationships with men and women—and her creative life as an author and teacher, Yuknavitch has come to understand that by using the power of literature and storytelling to reframe her memories, she can loosen the bonds that have enslaved her emotional growth. Armed with this insight, she allows herself to look with the eye of an artist at the wounds she suffered and come to understand the transformational power this has to restore her soul.
-
-
Lyrical prose that stirs and startles.
- By Noelle on 04-20-25
By: Lidia Yuknavitch
-
The Glass Castle
- A Memoir
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family; she called herself an "excitement addict."
-
-
What's normal?
- By Kmrsy on 11-30-13
By: Jeannette Walls
-
The Art of Memoir
- By: Mary Karr
- Narrated by: Mary Karr
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anchored by excerpts from her favorite memoirs and anecdotes from fellow writers' experience, The Art of Memoir lays bare Karr's own process. (Plus all those inside stories about how she dealt with family and friends get told - and the dark spaces in her own skull probed in depth.)
-
-
Brilliant!
- By A. Potter on 01-18-16
By: Mary Karr
-
The Tell
- A Memoir
- By: Amy Griffin
- Narrated by: Amy Griffin
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For decades, Amy ran. Through the dirt roads of Amarillo, Texas, where she grew up; to the campus of the University of Virginia, as a student athlete; on the streets of New York, where she built her adult life; through marriage, motherhood, and a thriving career. To outsiders, it all looked, in many ways, perfect. But Amy was running from something—a secret she was keeping not only from her family and friends, but unconsciously from herself. “You’re here, but you’re not here,” her daughter said to her one night. “Where are you, Mom?”
-
-
Audiobook Redundant Wording
- By Sheryl's Review on 03-15-25
By: Amy Griffin
-
The Book of Alchemy
- A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life
- By: Suleika Jaouad
- Narrated by: Suleika Jaouad, Vidish Athavale, Fabian Cook Jr., and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the time she was young, Suleika Jaouad has kept a journal. She’s used it to mark life's biggest occasions and to weather its most ferocious storms. Journaling has buoyed her through illness, heartbreak, and the deepest uncertainty. And she is not alone: for so many people, keeping a journal is an essential tool for navigating both the personal peaks and valleys and the collective challenges of modern life. More than ever, we need a space for puzzling through.
-
-
Suleika is a gift
- By Amazon Customer on 05-17-25
By: Suleika Jaouad
-
Poor Man's Feast
- A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born and raised in New York to a food-phobic mother and food-fanatical father, Elissa was trained early on that fancy is always best. After a childhood spent dining everywhere from Le Pavillion to La Grenouille, she devoted her life to all things gastronomical, from the rare game birds she served at elaborate dinner parties in an apartment so tiny that guests couldn’t turn around to the eight timbale molds she bought while working at Dean & DeLuca, just so she could make tall food.
-
-
Any Elissa Altman book is good!
- By NMwritergal on 02-22-25
By: Elissa Altman
-
The Next Day
- Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
- By: Melinda French Gates
- Narrated by: Melinda French Gates
- Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a rare window into some of her life’s pivotal moments, Melinda French Gates draws from previously untold stories to offer a new perspective on encountering transitions. Melinda will reflect on some of the most significant transitions in her own life, including becoming a parent, the death of a dear friend, and her departure from the Gates Foundation. The stories she tells illuminate universal lessons about loosening the bonds of perfectionism, helping friends navigate times of crisis, embracing uncertainty, and more.
-
-
So much wisdom
- By Michelle Hicks on 04-16-25
-
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- A Memoir
- By: Maggie Smith
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself in lyrical vignettes that shine, hard and clear as jewels. The book begins with one woman’s personal, particular heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes.
-
-
Beautiful, relatable, profound
- By Betty Blue on 04-16-23
By: Maggie Smith
-
Ambition Monster
- A Memoir
- By: Jennifer Romolini
- Narrated by: Jennifer Romolini
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After years of relentlessly racing up the professional ladder, Jennifer Romolini reached the kind of success many crave: a high-profile, C-suite dream job, a book well-received enough that reporters wanted to know the secrets to her success, and a gig traveling around the country giving speeches on “making it.” She had a handsome and clever husband, a precocious child. But beneath this polished surface was a powder keg of unresolved trauma and chronic overwork. It was all about to blow.
-
-
Love love love
- By James on 06-07-24
-
Bird by Bird
- Some Instructions on Writing and Life
- By: Anne Lamott
- Narrated by: Anne Lamott
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a quarter century, more than a million readers and listeners—scribes and scribblers of all ages and abilities—have been inspired by Anne Lamott’s hilarious, big-hearted, homespun advice. Advice that begins with the simple words of wisdom passed down from Anne’s father—also a writer—in the iconic passage that gives the book its title.
-
-
Why oh why did she narrate this?!
- By Amor Fati on 01-02-23
By: Anne Lamott
-
All the Beauty in the World
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me
- By: Patrick Bringley
- Narrated by: Patrick Bringley
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamourous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought that he’d be one of them.
-
-
Gallery 771
- By Jonathan Hurst on 06-10-23
By: Patrick Bringley
-
The Liars' Club
- A Memoir
- By: Mary Karr
- Narrated by: Mary Karr
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing 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 age twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all.
-
-
Awful narration
- By JG, Shreveport, LA on 12-10-23
By: Mary Karr
-
Beyond Anxiety
- Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose
- By: Martha Beck
- Narrated by: Martha Beck, Maria Shriver
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in an epidemic of anxiety. Most of us assume that the key to overcoming it is to think our way out. And for a while it works. But there is always something that sends us back into the anxious spiral we’ve been trying to climb out of. In Beyond Anxiety, Dr. Martha Beck explains why anxiety is skyrocketing around you, and likely within you. She also tells you how to not only reduce your anxiety but use it to propel you into a life filled with peace, meaning, and joy.
-
-
Good tips on dealing with anxiety
- By andrea l vu on 02-18-25
By: Martha Beck
-
Enchantment
- Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age
- By: Katherine May
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lee
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many of us feel trapped in a grind of constant change: rolling news cycles, the chatter of social media, our families split along partisan lines. We feel fearful and tired, on edge in our bodies, not quite knowing what has us perpetually depleted. For Katherine May, this low hum of fatigue and anxiety made her wonder what she was missing. Could there be a different way to relate to the world, one that would allow her to feel more rested and at ease, even as seismic changes unfold on the planet?
-
-
But what is she trying to say?
- By Kraig on 06-20-23
By: Katherine May
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
We Need Your Art
- Stop Messing Around and Make Something
- By: Amie McNee
- Narrated by: Amie McNee
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Amie McNee, the voice behind Inspired to Write, a manifesto on the vital, human importance of creating, with guidance for all artists in all endeavors, whether they're starting their journey or seeking a fresh perspective. In We Need Your Art, Amie McNee calls artists and aspiring artists of all kinds to do the work they’re meant to do: create.
-
-
a heartfelt a battle cry to, and for, artists.
- By Lea on 05-22-25
By: Amie McNee
-
Motherland
- A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After surviving a traumatic childhood in 1970s New York and young adulthood living in the shadow of her flamboyant mother, Rita, a makeup-addicted former television singer, Elissa Altman has managed to build a very different life, settling in Connecticut with her wife of nearly 20 years. After much time, therapy, and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place, still orbiting around her mother but keeping far enough away to preserve the stable, independent world she has built as a writer and editor. Then Elissa is confronted with the unthinkable.
-
-
One of the best memoirs of 2021
- By NMwritergal on 11-17-21
By: Elissa Altman
-
Dear Writer
- Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
- By: Maggie Smith
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.
By: Maggie Smith
-
Regrettably, I am About to Cause Trouble
- By: Amie McNee
- Narrated by: Amie McNee
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lady Maude Shaftsberry has it all sorted. She will marry the well-connected lord, ascend the ranks of the Tudor court, and be mother to a small battalion of boys. But Maude has a secret that she carries everywhere: a birthmark that stretches over her stomach and between her legs.
-
-
A truly amazing experience!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-05-25
By: Amie McNee
-
The Artist's Way Toolkit
- How to Use the Creative Practices
- By: Julia Cameron
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dive into the genius behind The Artist’s Way with exclusive, never-before-published Q&A’s, instruction manuals, and an Artist’s Way glossary. In this streamlined edition, Julia Cameron lays out the essential foundation of her Artist’s Way philosophy for anyone looking to get to the heart of her practice and begin immediately applying it to their own creative processes.
-
-
Concise refresher on the Artist way!
- By Edna Irene on 01-31-25
By: Julia Cameron
-
Treyf
- My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fans of Augusten Burroughs and Jo Ann Beard will enjoy this kaleidoscopic, universal memoir in which Elissa Altman explores the tradition, religion, family expectations, and the forbidden that were the fixed points in her Queens, New York, childhood. Spanning from 1940s wartime Brooklyn to 1970s Queens to present-day rural New England, Treyf captures the collision of youthful cravings and grown-up identities. It is a vivid tale of what it means to come to yourself both in spite and in honor to your past.
By: Elissa Altman
-
We Need Your Art
- Stop Messing Around and Make Something
- By: Amie McNee
- Narrated by: Amie McNee
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Amie McNee, the voice behind Inspired to Write, a manifesto on the vital, human importance of creating, with guidance for all artists in all endeavors, whether they're starting their journey or seeking a fresh perspective. In We Need Your Art, Amie McNee calls artists and aspiring artists of all kinds to do the work they’re meant to do: create.
-
-
a heartfelt a battle cry to, and for, artists.
- By Lea on 05-22-25
By: Amie McNee
-
Motherland
- A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After surviving a traumatic childhood in 1970s New York and young adulthood living in the shadow of her flamboyant mother, Rita, a makeup-addicted former television singer, Elissa Altman has managed to build a very different life, settling in Connecticut with her wife of nearly 20 years. After much time, therapy, and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place, still orbiting around her mother but keeping far enough away to preserve the stable, independent world she has built as a writer and editor. Then Elissa is confronted with the unthinkable.
-
-
One of the best memoirs of 2021
- By NMwritergal on 11-17-21
By: Elissa Altman
-
Dear Writer
- Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life
- By: Maggie Smith
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.
By: Maggie Smith
-
Regrettably, I am About to Cause Trouble
- By: Amie McNee
- Narrated by: Amie McNee
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lady Maude Shaftsberry has it all sorted. She will marry the well-connected lord, ascend the ranks of the Tudor court, and be mother to a small battalion of boys. But Maude has a secret that she carries everywhere: a birthmark that stretches over her stomach and between her legs.
-
-
A truly amazing experience!
- By Amazon Customer on 04-05-25
By: Amie McNee
-
The Artist's Way Toolkit
- How to Use the Creative Practices
- By: Julia Cameron
- Narrated by: Eliza Foss
- Length: 4 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dive into the genius behind The Artist’s Way with exclusive, never-before-published Q&A’s, instruction manuals, and an Artist’s Way glossary. In this streamlined edition, Julia Cameron lays out the essential foundation of her Artist’s Way philosophy for anyone looking to get to the heart of her practice and begin immediately applying it to their own creative processes.
-
-
Concise refresher on the Artist way!
- By Edna Irene on 01-31-25
By: Julia Cameron
-
Treyf
- My Life as an Unorthodox Outlaw
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fans of Augusten Burroughs and Jo Ann Beard will enjoy this kaleidoscopic, universal memoir in which Elissa Altman explores the tradition, religion, family expectations, and the forbidden that were the fixed points in her Queens, New York, childhood. Spanning from 1940s wartime Brooklyn to 1970s Queens to present-day rural New England, Treyf captures the collision of youthful cravings and grown-up identities. It is a vivid tale of what it means to come to yourself both in spite and in honor to your past.
By: Elissa Altman
-
All the Way to the River
- Love, Loss, and Liberation
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?
-
Me, but Better
- By: Olga Khazan
- Narrated by: Olga Khazan
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In recent years, Olga Khazan had been spiraling toward an existential crisis. Though she treasured her loving, long-term relationship and her dream job, she often caught herself snatching dissatisfaction from the jaws of happiness. Her neurotic overachieving had always been a professional asset, but lately, Olga felt that her brittle disposition could shatter under the weight of just one more thing. She knew something had to give—but was it really possible to change her entire approach to life?
-
-
Great for introverts who want to be more social
- By ShawnaJ on 03-19-25
By: Olga Khazan
-
Reading the Waves
- A Memoir
- By: Lidia Yuknavitch
- Narrated by: Lidia Yuknavitch
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on her background—her father's abuse, her complicated dynamic with her disabled mother, the death of her child, her sexual relationships with men and women—and her creative life as an author and teacher, Yuknavitch has come to understand that by using the power of literature and storytelling to reframe her memories, she can loosen the bonds that have enslaved her emotional growth. Armed with this insight, she allows herself to look with the eye of an artist at the wounds she suffered and come to understand the transformational power this has to restore her soul.
-
-
Lyrical prose that stirs and startles.
- By Noelle on 04-20-25
By: Lidia Yuknavitch
-
Poor Man's Feast
- A Love Story of Comfort, Desire, and the Art of Simple Cooking
- By: Elissa Altman
- Narrated by: Elissa Altman
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born and raised in New York to a food-phobic mother and food-fanatical father, Elissa was trained early on that fancy is always best. After a childhood spent dining everywhere from Le Pavillion to La Grenouille, she devoted her life to all things gastronomical, from the rare game birds she served at elaborate dinner parties in an apartment so tiny that guests couldn’t turn around to the eight timbale molds she bought while working at Dean & DeLuca, just so she could make tall food.
-
-
Any Elissa Altman book is good!
- By NMwritergal on 02-22-25
By: Elissa Altman
-
Artpreneur
- The Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Sustainable Living from Your Creativity
- By: Miriam Schulman
- Narrated by: Miriam Schulman
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whether you're in the trenches struggling to make consistent sales or dreaming of turning your art into a full-time living, this groundbreaking guide provides the inspiration and the practical steps you need to become your own art boss. There's never been a better time to turn your creative ideas into a successful business. The internet is pushing aside art world “gatekeepers” who used to decide what was "worthy”—now anyone with a laptop and a dream can make a thriving living from their creativity.
-
-
Very informative
- By sonja swanepoel on 07-06-23
By: Miriam Schulman
-
Family Romance
- John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers
- By: Jean Strouse
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jean Strouse's Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers looks at twelve portraits of one English family painted by the expatriate American artist at the height of his career—and at the intersections of all these lives with the sparkle and strife of the Edwardian age.
By: Jean Strouse
-
Homestand
- Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America
- By: Will Bardenwerper
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Batavia, New York—between Rochester and Buffalo—hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020—along with forty-one other minor league teams—the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players.
-
-
Masterpiece - Baseball romanticism meets small town America - Field of Dreams Power
- By Timothy J on 05-21-25
-
The Next One Is for You
- A True Story of Guns, Country, and the IRA's Secret American Army
- By: Ali Watkins
- Narrated by: Jennifer Woodward
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Northern Ireland, 1975. Violence has erupted on the streets of Belfast. After years as a guerilla army, the IRA is clashing with Loyalist gangs and heavily armed British soldiers. But the Troubles have spilled beyond the island: An ocean away, in the heart of Philadelphia’s Irish enclave, a teenage girl finds a letter in her mailbox. Inside is a bullet, and the message is clear: The next one is for you or your family. As reporter Ali Watkins reveals, the conflict in Northern Ireland might have gone very differently had it not been for a small ragtag band of gunrunners in the United States.
-
-
I knew people who supported IRA from the states
- By Michael M. McMahon on 05-27-25
By: Ali Watkins
-
The Usual Desire to Kill
- A Novel
- By: Camilla Barnes
- Narrated by: Harriet Walter
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Miranda’s parents live in a dilapidated house in rural France that they share with two llamas, eight ducks, five chickens, two cats, and a freezer full of food dating back to 1983. This wry, propulsive story about a singularly eccentric family and the sibling rivalry, generational divides, and long-buried secrets that shape them, is a glorious debut novel from a seasoned playwright with immense empathy and a flair for dialogue.
-
-
The acceptance of sadness
- By Bob Whitely on 06-01-25
By: Camilla Barnes
-
Notorious
- Portraits of Stars from Hollywood, Culture, Fashion, and Tech
- By: Maureen Dowd
- Narrated by: Maureen Dowd
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shining a white-hot spotlight on America’s famous, from Hollywood legends to Broadway stars to media moguls, Notorious is a captivating assortment of columnist Maureen Dowd’s most compelling style features and profiles. Using her signature wit and incisive commentary as a scalpel, Dowd dissects influential cultural elite.
-
-
The honesty of the subjects
- By rumdok on 03-22-25
By: Maureen Dowd
-
Trespassers at the Golden Gate
- A True Account of Love, Murder, and Madness in Gilded-Age San Francisco
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboat El Capitan was pulling away from its slip into San Francisco Bay, a woman clad in black emerged from the shadows and strode across the crowded deck. Reaching under her veil, she drew a small pistol and aimed it directly at a well-dressed man sitting quietly with his wife and children. The woman fired a single bullet into his chest. “I did it and I don’t deny it,” she said when arrested shortly thereafter. “He ruined me and my daughter.”
-
-
Story of a City
- By Suzanna on 04-29-25
By: Gary Krist
-
The Energy Codes
- The 7-Step System to Awaken Your Spirit, Heal Your Body, and Live Your Best Life
- By: Dr. Sue Morter DC, Jill Bolte Taylor PhD - foreword
- Narrated by: Dr. Sue Morter DC
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Transform your life with this revolutionary and accessible seven-step guide - grounded in energy medicine, neurobiology, and quantum physics - to awaken your true health and potential through energy healing.
-
-
Great book with detailed practices
- By Trina Kelley on 04-18-19
By: Dr. Sue Morter DC, and others
Lots of great writing advice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Authenticity in Every Word
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Love this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Exceptional storytelling
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.