Real American
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Julie Lythcott-Haims
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
A fearless debut audiobook memoir in which beloved and bestselling How to Raise an Adult author Julie Lythcott-Haims pulls no punches in her recollections of growing up a biracial black woman in America.
Bringing a poetic sensibility to her prose to stunning effect, Lythcott-Haims briskly and stirringly evokes her personal battle with the low self-esteem that American racism routinely inflicts on people of color. The only child of a marriage between an African-American father and a white British mother, she shows indelibly how so-called "micro" aggressions in addition to blunt force insults can puncture a person's inner life with a thousand sharp cuts. Real American expresses also, through Lythcott-Haims’s path to self-acceptance, the healing power of community in overcoming the hurtful isolation of being incessantly considered "the other."
The author of the New York Times bestselling anti-helicopter parenting manifesto How to Raise an Adult, Lythcott-Haims offers listeners a different kind of story this time out, but one that will nevertheless resonate with the legions of students, educators and parents to whom she is now well known, by whom she is beloved, and to whom she has always provided wise and necessary counsel about how to embrace and nurture their best selves. Real American is an affecting memoir, an unforgettable cri de coeur, and a clarion call to all of us to live more wisely, generously and fully.
“Courageous, achingly honest."
—Michelle Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
“A compelling, incisive and thoughtful examination of race, origin and what it means to be called an American. Engaging, heartfelt and beautifully written, Lythcott-Haims explores the American spectrum of identity with refreshing courage and compassion.”
—Bryan Stevenson, New York Times bestselling author of Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
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Critic reviews
"Lythcott-Haims is not a tragic figure. From the first chapter, she jabs a finger at the listener while issuing an invitation to listen. This is a growth story, one only the writer can deliver. She knows where to place the emotion--in the pride and love she feels for her father and in the pain of what her Midwestern neighbors really thought of the family. This academic has heart." —AudioFile
“A bold, impassioned memoir that . . . riveting[ly] and deeply . . . sheds fresh light on race and discrimination in American society.” —Publishers Weekly
“Breaks the silence on what it means to grow up mixed-race in America. Her spare but powerful prose has an emotional rawness that will profoundly resonate with all readers and help many feel a little less alone.” —Heidi W. Durrow, New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
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Story
Tracy K. Smith has a fairly typical upbringing in suburban California: the youngest in a family of five children raised with limitless affection and a firm belief in God by a stay-at-home mother and an engineer father. But after spending a summer in Alabama at her grandmother's home, she returns to California with a new sense of what it means for her to be Black: from her mother's memories of picking cotton as a girl in her father's field for pennies a bushel to her parents' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.
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Simply spoken - poetic
- By CarolynneRHarris on 04-27-15
By: Tracy K. Smith
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Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
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Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
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Accident of Birth
- By: Heather Neff
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Reba Freeman has loved two men in her life. Her current husband, Carl, has supported her through their 20-year marriage and given her all the material wealth a suburban wife could hope for. Reba is comfortable, if not necessarily content, in her life with Carl and their blossoming teenage daughter, Marisa, until she learns that her first love and first husband, Joseph Thomas, has been detained by the World Court of Human Rights.
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Good Listen
- By Tricia on 02-24-08
By: Heather Neff
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Born Bright
- A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America
- By: C. Nicole Mason
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Born Bright, C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, is a story of reconciliation, constrained choices, and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful but volatile 16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds.
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Solid Book
- By Daryl on 11-06-16
By: C. Nicole Mason
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A Mighty Long Way
- My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School
- By: Carlotta Walls LaNier, Lisa Frazier Page, Bill Clinton - foreword
- Narrated by: Carlotta Walls LaNier
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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When 14-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other Black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the “Little Rock Nine”, as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America.
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Disappointing
- By SWF in Minneapolis on 04-27-24
By: Carlotta Walls LaNier, and others
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The Longest Trip Home
- By: John Grogan
- Narrated by: John Grogan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In the highly anticipated follow-up to Marley & Me, John Grogan again works his magic, bringing us the story of what came first. Before there was Marley, there was a gleefully mischievous boy growing up in a devout Catholic home outside Detroit in the 1960s and '70s. Despite his loving parents' best efforts, John's attempts to meet their expectations failed spectacularly.
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As real as it gets
- By bclmb on 12-06-08
By: John Grogan
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Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin
- A Memoir
- By: Nicole Hardy
- Narrated by: Nicole Hardy
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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When Nicole Hardy’s eye-opening "Modern Love" column appeared in the New York Times, the response from readers was overwhelming. Hardy’s essay, which exposed the conflict between being true to herself as a woman and remaining true to her Mormon faith, struck a chord with women coast-to-coast. Now in her funny, intimate, and thoughtful memoir, Nicole Hardy explores how she came, at the age of 35, to a crossroads regarding her faith and her identity.
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This Book Spoke to Me
- By Allison on 04-08-14
By: Nicole Hardy
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Finding Fish
- A Memoir
- By: Antwone Q. Fisher
- Narrated by: Thomas Penny
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Baby Boy Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. He ultimately came to live with a foster family, where he endured near-constant verbal and physical abuse. In his midteens he escaped and enlisted in the navy, where he became a man of the world, raised by the family he created for himself. Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born.
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This book will not disappoint you.
- By Joseph on 10-16-16
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Saving Alex
- When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began
- By: Alex Cooper
- Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Days after Alex Cooper told her parents she was gay, they drove Alex from their home in Southern California to Utah, where they signed over guardianship to fellow Mormons who promised to save Alex from her homosexuality. For eight harrowing months, Alex was held captive in an unlicensed "residential treatment program" modeled on the many "therapeutic" boot camps scattered across Utah.
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I'm a Christian straight, divorced man, with 2 kids that lives in the heart of the Bible Belt.... Alabama
- By Ronald on 03-30-16
By: Alex Cooper
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A Hope in The Unseen
- An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League
- By: Ron Suskind
- Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling investigative journalist Ron Suskind based this book on his Pulitzer Prize winning articles about Cedric Jennings, a Black youth struggling to survive one of D.C.'s toughest school districts. A moving portrait of inner city life, A Hope in the Unseen offers a view of life through the eyes of someone trying desperately to make his way up from the bottom.
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Great Story
- By Adam Evans on 12-25-10
By: Ron Suskind
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Daring
- My Passages - A Memoir
- By: Gail Sheehy
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Candid, insightful, and powerful, Daring: My Passages is the story of the unconventional life of a writer who dared - to walk New York City streets with hookers and pimps to expose violent prostitution; to march with civil rights protesters in Northern Ireland as British paratroopers opened fire; to seek out Egypt's president Anwar Sadat when he was targeted for death after making peace with Israel.
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Enjoyed unexpectedly
- By Corinne O'Rourke on 09-06-23
By: Gail Sheehy
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Native Country of the Heart
- A Memoir
- By: Cherríe Moraga
- Narrated by: Cherríe Moraga
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Native Country of the Heart is the writer and activist Cherrie Moraga's love letter to her "unlettered" mother. It begins with her mother, Elvira Isabel Moraga, who as a child, along with her siblings, was hired out by her own father to pick cotton in California's Imperial Valley. The lives of Cherrie and her mother, and of their people, are woven together in a story of critical reflection and deep personal revelation as Moraga charts her own coming to consciousness alongside the heartbreaking story of her mother's decline.
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a must read for all chicanx
- By Rachel Barnett on 04-28-19
By: Cherríe Moraga
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Life in Motion
- An Unlikely Ballerina
- By: Misty Copeland
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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As the only African-American soloist dancing with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland has made history. But when she first placed her hands on the barre at an after-school community center, no one expected the undersized, anxious 13-year-old to become a groundbreaking ballerina. Life in Motion is a story of passion and grace for anyone who has dared to dream of a different life.
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Has Copeland heard this narration? Has Audible?
- By Debbie on 08-02-15
By: Misty Copeland
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Greetings from Utopia Park
- Surviving a Transcendent Childhood
- By: Claire Hoffman
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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When Claire Hoffman's alcoholic father abandons his family, his desperate wife, Liz, tells five-year-old Claire and her seven-year-old brother, Stacey, that they are going to heaven - Iowa - to live in Maharishi's national headquarters for Heaven on Earth. For Claire's mother, Transcendental Meditation - the Maharishi's method of meditation and his approach to living the fullest possible life - was a salvo that promised world peace and enlightenment just as their family fell apart.
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Very good book
- By Amazon Customer on 06-15-16
By: Claire Hoffman
What listeners say about Real American
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- josh haselkorn
- 05-19-20
Beautiful, vulnerable, real
This is my first time writing a book review for Audible, despite going through dozens of books a year. This is also the first time I have ever read a book that reflected back to me so much of my own experience and inner life as a Black American woman who is also of mixed parentage and who was raised in relative privilege in white spaces in this country, now married to a white Jewish man. This memoir filled a need I didn’t realize I still had to see that I’m not alone in my experiences, or pain, or shame, or hope, or my continued desire and effort to connect more deeply with the broader Black community in America, and to love myself and us in the face of history and so much ongoing hatred. Lythcott-Haims writes beautifully, with courageous vulnerability and honesty, and I was frequently moved to tears by her words and her reading delivery. I am eternally thankful to the author for sharing her life story, and cannot recommend this book highly enough.
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- Jenn
- 06-17-20
first audible
I loved it. The story line is great and the delivery was even better.
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1 person found this helpful
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- K. Tricarico
- 04-28-19
I'm a better American for having listened to this.
It was particularly moving to hear her powerful words spoken by her own captivating voice. So much heart, vulnerability and strength in her story.
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- Ronell
- 10-01-18
Insightful
Great memoir that gets at the heart of the challenges we have with inclusion in this country.
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- Suzanne McFadden
- 12-21-20
Powerful, well told & worth every minute and dollar
I deeply appreciate this exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in America. The author’s own voice telling the story makes it especially intimate - you hear her voice crack at some painful moments and she tries to rush through others. She is doing this for all of us, so we can better understand ourselves and those around us. I’ll be giving this book as a holiday gift.
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- Pam Wilkinson
- 05-05-23
Defining what it takes to be
Well written expressed thoughts and dreams of an individual at the forefront of historical and antidotal events.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-16-18
Must read
Lythcott-Haims really opened my eyes and heart to the essential meaning of “Black Lives Matter,”. This should be required reading for all Americans, especially white - like me. As a hospice volunteer I also thought her writing about end-of -life at the end of the book was among the most beautiful I have read.
Ms Lythcott-Haims Thank you for writing and reading your story.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Born2serve
- 01-03-20
Audacious introspective journey that turns a light on for many!
Some may understand and it will click, some may refuse to, but either way Julie Lyncott-Haims tells several truths. Some being her own from the depths of a dark subconsciousness. Others being truths not readily admitted by a US society that has refused to fully acknowledge the deep looming wrongs of the past that have now taunted our present. This book lured me in and took me through a range of emotions. Some forced me to look at concepts or ideals my eyes were unable to perceive. Even about myself. So thank you for being brave, naked and taking the lid off and pouring out your reality so that it saturates deeply into us. Thanks for using your voice. Literally and figuratively.
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- Stephanie M. Bryan
- 10-13-18
Should be on the reading list for every high school student.
A compelling story about what it means to grow up as a minority in the United States. Any thinking person who does not understand what it means to be a minority in our country would benefit from being educated by this book.
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- Ronald A. Lester
- 08-27-18
Bravo!
This was a deep dive into the emotional insecurities of a black woman born out of place. Surrounded by people who didn't look like her or understand her but carrying around her neck the yolk of the inhuman treatment that we people of color have known since slavery. In this, I see her come out the other side finally knowing beyond a shadow of doubt, she is black and proud even with all the baggage and future fights destined to come. She reminds me of my 16 year old daughter, born from a Nigerian mother and me, a black man born in Macon, GA. I too can track my ancestors into the depths of slavery: From a slave plantation in Haddock, Georgia to me, the famly's first Doctor. And now I see my daughter who, unlike me, is raised in a neighborhood filled with nationalities and races different from hers. She is overflowing with talent and with a brilliant mind but not entirely sure where she fits in. Yes, she is in Jack and Jill. But even with the advantage of two black parents, she struggles to relate at times to many of the shades of blackness she is now exposed to. She is finally coming into her own. I see her finally claiming her space in our diaspora and I am both proud and afraid. Man, I feel this book! I brought my daughter a copy. I know she will feel it too. Bravo.
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