Rock Needs River
A Memoir About a Very Open Adoption
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 $20.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Vanessa McGrady
-
By:
-
Vanessa McGrady
About this listen
From a story first told in the popular New York Times parenting blog comes a funny, touching memoir about a mother who welcomes more than a new daughter into her home.
After two years of waiting to adopt - slogging through paperwork and bouncing between hope and despair - a miracle finally happened for Vanessa McGrady. Her sweet baby, Grace, was a dream come true. Then Vanessa made a highly uncommon gesture: when Grace’s biological parents became homeless, Vanessa invited them to stay.
Without a blueprint for navigating the practical basics of an open adoption or any discussion of expectations or boundaries, the unusual living arrangement became a bottomless well of conflicting emotions and increasingly difficult decisions complicated by missed opportunities, regret, social chaos, and broken hearts.
Written with wit, candor, and compassion, Rock Needs River is, ultimately, Vanessa’s love letter to her daughter, one that illuminates the universal need for connection and the heroine’s journey to find her tribe.
©2019 Vanessa McGrady. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Unsafe
- By: Cathy Glass
- Narrated by: DeNica Fairman
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Damian is just seven when he is taken in by foster carer Cathy Glass. His mother, Rachel, loves her three young children dearly, but she is vulnerable, naïve and unable to cope on her own. Cathy sets about helping Damian overcome his eating issues, with the hope that he will eventually return home. But when Rachel’s new boyfriend, Troy, arrives on the scene, Cathy becomes deeply concerned. She soon realises that Damian and his siblings are in great danger.
-
-
absolutely amazing
- By Amanda Norman on 07-29-24
By: Cathy Glass
-
Unwanted
- By: Cathy Glass
- Narrated by: DeNica Fairman
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lara was seven when her birth mother died from a drug overdose. With no extended family to look after her, she was put into foster care. The care system failed Lara and now she is failing her son. Lara and her one-year-old son, Arthur, are brought to experienced foster carer, Cathy Glass, by their social worker. Lara has fled an abusive relationship and Arthur has suspected non-accidental injuries. Cathy must monitor Lara whenever she is with her son, day and night. She cannot let them out of her sight for a minute.
-
-
great, except
- By jocelyn ackerman on 02-20-23
By: Cathy Glass
-
I Am, I Am, I Am
- Seventeen Brushes with Death
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter - for whom this book was written - from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers.
-
-
Her prose is beautiful!
- By Judy on 03-25-18
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
Wall of Silence
- A Forest Grove Suspense
- By: Tracy Buchanan
- Narrated by: Moira Quirk
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melissa Byatt’s life in Forest Grove seems as perfect as can be: a doting husband, three loving children and a beautiful house in a close-knit community. But appearances can be deceiving. One evening, Melissa arrives home to the unimaginable: her husband lies stabbed on the kitchen floor, their children standing calmly around him.... With horror, she realises that one of them is to blame. But which one? And why would they attack their own father?
-
-
Don’t waste your time
- By Eileen on 04-03-20
By: Tracy Buchanan
-
The Less People Know About Us
- A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity
- By: Axton Betz-Hamilton
- Narrated by: Laurie Winkel
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this powerful true crime memoir, an award-winning identity theft expert tells the shocking story of the duplicity and betrayal that inspired her career and nearly destroyed her family. Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up in small-town Indiana in the early '90s. When she was 11 years old, her parents both had their identities stolen. Their credit ratings were ruined, and they were constantly fighting over money. This was before the age of the Internet, when identity theft became more commonplace, so authorities and banks were clueless and reluctant to help Axton's parents.
-
-
Holy Shit
- By Jason Wiking on 02-19-20
-
Her Perfect Family
- By: Teresa Driscoll
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s their daughter’s graduation and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days. But when she stumbles and falls on stage during the ceremony, a beautiful moment turns to chaos: Gemma has been shot, and just like that, she’s fighting for her life. PI Matthew Hill is one of the first on the scene. A cryptic message Gemma received earlier in the day suggests someone close to her was about to be exposed. But who?
-
-
One of the narrators was too breathy
- By Melissa M on 11-16-21
By: Teresa Driscoll
-
Unsafe
- By: Cathy Glass
- Narrated by: DeNica Fairman
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Damian is just seven when he is taken in by foster carer Cathy Glass. His mother, Rachel, loves her three young children dearly, but she is vulnerable, naïve and unable to cope on her own. Cathy sets about helping Damian overcome his eating issues, with the hope that he will eventually return home. But when Rachel’s new boyfriend, Troy, arrives on the scene, Cathy becomes deeply concerned. She soon realises that Damian and his siblings are in great danger.
-
-
absolutely amazing
- By Amanda Norman on 07-29-24
By: Cathy Glass
-
Unwanted
- By: Cathy Glass
- Narrated by: DeNica Fairman
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lara was seven when her birth mother died from a drug overdose. With no extended family to look after her, she was put into foster care. The care system failed Lara and now she is failing her son. Lara and her one-year-old son, Arthur, are brought to experienced foster carer, Cathy Glass, by their social worker. Lara has fled an abusive relationship and Arthur has suspected non-accidental injuries. Cathy must monitor Lara whenever she is with her son, day and night. She cannot let them out of her sight for a minute.
-
-
great, except
- By jocelyn ackerman on 02-20-23
By: Cathy Glass
-
I Am, I Am, I Am
- Seventeen Brushes with Death
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter - for whom this book was written - from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers.
-
-
Her prose is beautiful!
- By Judy on 03-25-18
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
Wall of Silence
- A Forest Grove Suspense
- By: Tracy Buchanan
- Narrated by: Moira Quirk
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melissa Byatt’s life in Forest Grove seems as perfect as can be: a doting husband, three loving children and a beautiful house in a close-knit community. But appearances can be deceiving. One evening, Melissa arrives home to the unimaginable: her husband lies stabbed on the kitchen floor, their children standing calmly around him.... With horror, she realises that one of them is to blame. But which one? And why would they attack their own father?
-
-
Don’t waste your time
- By Eileen on 04-03-20
By: Tracy Buchanan
-
The Less People Know About Us
- A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity
- By: Axton Betz-Hamilton
- Narrated by: Laurie Winkel
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this powerful true crime memoir, an award-winning identity theft expert tells the shocking story of the duplicity and betrayal that inspired her career and nearly destroyed her family. Axton Betz-Hamilton grew up in small-town Indiana in the early '90s. When she was 11 years old, her parents both had their identities stolen. Their credit ratings were ruined, and they were constantly fighting over money. This was before the age of the Internet, when identity theft became more commonplace, so authorities and banks were clueless and reluctant to help Axton's parents.
-
-
Holy Shit
- By Jason Wiking on 02-19-20
-
Her Perfect Family
- By: Teresa Driscoll
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Steve West
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s their daughter’s graduation and Rachel and Ed Hartley are expecting it to be one of their family’s happiest days. But when she stumbles and falls on stage during the ceremony, a beautiful moment turns to chaos: Gemma has been shot, and just like that, she’s fighting for her life. PI Matthew Hill is one of the first on the scene. A cryptic message Gemma received earlier in the day suggests someone close to her was about to be exposed. But who?
-
-
One of the narrators was too breathy
- By Melissa M on 11-16-21
By: Teresa Driscoll
-
Stella's Story
- Thrown Away Children, Book 1
- By: Louise Allen
- Narrated by: Melanie Crawley
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Named after the lager that christened her at birth, Stella's life is characterised instability and neglect. Her teenage mother abandons her in the first few weeks of her life, and left in the 'care' of her father, she ends up lying deserted in a house with no food, no water, no clothes and no warmth. She eventually lands in the care of foster carer Louise, who is determined to change her life for the better.
-
-
Heartbreaking but so wonderful to see a happy ending
- By Amazon Customer on 11-14-24
By: Louise Allen
-
The 57 Bus
- A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives
- By: Dashka Slater
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But, one afternoon, on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned.
-
-
An Unusual True-Crime Event...Beautifully Written.
- By Mary Burnight on 02-21-18
By: Dashka Slater
-
Everything Is Fine
- A Memoir
- By: Vince Granata
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vince Granata remembers standing in front of his suburban home in Connecticut the day his mother and father returned from the hospital with his three new siblings in tow. He had just finished scrawling their names in orange chalk on the driveway: Christopher, Timothy, and Elizabeth. Twenty-three years later, Vince was a thousand miles away when he received the news that would change his life - his younger brother, Tim, propelled by unchecked schizophrenia, had killed their mother in their childhood home.
-
-
Brutal and Beautiful
- By 3dogknits on 07-14-21
By: Vince Granata
-
Brave Girl, Quiet Girl
- A Novel
- By: Catherine Ryan Hyde
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd, Jess Nahikian
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brooke is a divorced single mom, financially strapped, living with her mother, and holding tight to the one thing that matters most: her two-year-old daughter, Etta. Then, in a matter of seconds, Brooke’s life is shattered when she’s carjacked. Helpless and terrified, all Brooke can do is watch as Etta, still strapped in her seat, disappears into the Los Angeles night. Miles away, Etta is found by Molly, a homeless teen who is all too used to darkness. Thrown away by her parents, and with a future as stable as the wooden crate she calls home, Molly survives day to day by her wits.
-
-
Great book if you can get past...
- By Kelly on 05-24-20
-
A Feather on the Water
- A Novel
- By: Lindsay Jayne Ashford
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just weeks after World War II ends, three women from different corners of the world arrive in Germany to run a Displaced Persons camp. They long to help rebuild shattered lives—including their own… For Martha, going to Germany provides an opportunity to escape Brooklyn and a violent marriage. Arriving from England is orphaned Kitty. She hopes working at the camp will bring her closer to her parents, last seen before the war began. For Delphine, Paris has been a city of ghosts after her husband and son died in Dachau.
-
-
#1 in 2022 for me!!!!!
- By Patrizia Clerico on 10-19-22
-
Nobody Loves Me
- Bobby’s True Story of Neglect, Secrets and Abuse
- By: Maggie Hartley
- Narrated by: Penny McDonald
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three siblings arrive at Maggie's door after being taken into care. Teachers of eight-year-old Bobby spotted bruises while he was getting changed for PE and his dad, Lee, and stepmother, Brianna, have been uncooperative and hostile to Social Services. While they investigate, Bobby, as well as Brianna's daughters, Melodie and Poppy, are all placed in Maggie's care. But as the children settle in, a thought won't let Maggie go. While Melodie and Poppy are clean, well-fed and immaculately dressed, Bobby is pale, severely underweight and crawling with lice.
-
-
loved the narrator
- By Amazon Customer on 06-28-24
By: Maggie Hartley
-
The Storyteller's Secret
- A Novel
- By: Sejal Badani
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi - her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant - who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation.
-
-
Nope
- By rmp on 11-06-20
By: Sejal Badani
-
How to Be Better at Almost Everything
- Learn Anything Quickly, Stack Your Skills, Dominate
- By: Pat Flynn
- Narrated by: Pat Flynn
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In How to Be Better at Almost Everything, best-selling author, fitness expert, entrepreneur, and professional business coach Pat Flynn shares the secrets to learning (almost) every skill, from marketing to music to martial arts to writing and relationships, teaching how to combine interests to achieve greatness in any field. His direct, “Generalist” approach to self-improvement gives you the tools you need to make your mark on the world and make buckets of money - without losing your soul.
-
-
Way too much religion
- By Litbovely on 02-08-19
By: Pat Flynn
-
Mad Honey
- A Novel
- By: Jodi Picoult, Jennifer Finney Boylan
- Narrated by: Carrie Coon, Key Taw, Jodi Picoult, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business. Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.
-
-
Good writing but...
- By Suzanna on 10-08-22
By: Jodi Picoult, and others
-
Hello Beautiful
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Maura Tierney
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all.
-
-
Book was great, performance terrible
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
It's Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too)
- By: Nora McInerny Purmort
- Narrated by: Nora McInerny Purmort
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twentysomething Nora McInerny Purmort bounced from boyfriend to boyfriend and job to job. Then she met Aaron, a charismatic art director and her kindred spirit. They made mixtapes (and pancakes) into the wee hours of the morning. They finished each other's sentences. They just knew. When Aaron was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer, they refused to let it limit their love. They got engaged on Aaron's hospital bed and married after his first surgery. They had a baby when he was on chemo.
-
-
Fresh, brutally raw and honest
- By ashton on 05-31-16
-
Light to the Hills
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Blaylock
- Narrated by: Shannon McManus
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The folks in the Kentucky Appalachians are scraping by. Coal mining and hardscrabble know-how are a way of life for these isolated people. But when Amanda Rye, a young widowed mother and traveling packhorse librarian, comes through a mountain community hit hard by the nation’s economic collapse, she brings with her hope, courage, and apple pie.
-
-
I love this story!
- By Robert on 12-01-22
By: Bonnie Blaylock
Critic reviews
“The love McGrady feels toward Grace, whom she has dedicated the book and her life to, is the sweet layer of frosting on top on a multilayered cake. An expressive and love-filled tale of adoption and of befriending the biological parents of the adopted child.” (Kirkus Reviews)
“Moving…McGrady’s memoir is a touching and honest adoption story.” (Publishers Weekly)
Related to this topic
-
Everything You Ever Wanted
- A Memoir
- By: Jillian Lauren
- Narrated by: Jillian Lauren
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her younger years, Jillian Lauren was a college dropout, a drug addict, and an international concubine in the Prince of Brunei's harem, an experience she immortalized in her best-selling memoir, Some Girls. In her 30s, Jillian's most radical act is learning the steadying power of love when she and her rock star husband adopt an Ethiopian child with special needs.
-
-
Great for adoptive families
- By berry bomb on 07-06-22
By: Jillian Lauren
-
If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother
- By: Julia Sweeney
- Narrated by: Julia Sweeney
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since her time on Saturday Night Live, where she created the infamous androgynous character "Pat", Julia Sweeney has gone on to establish herself as a witty, captivating performer of one-woman shows, like God Said Ha!, In the Family Way, and Letting Go of God. She gave a TED talk sharing how she explained the birds and the bees to her eight-year-old daughter, Mulan, which ignited an incredible response. Now, when it comes to talking about motherhood, people want to hear what Julia has to say.
-
-
I Love Julia Sweeney
- By Lisa on 04-05-13
By: Julia Sweeney
-
I Can Barely Take Care of Myself
- Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids
- By: Jen Kirkman
- Narrated by: Jen Kirkman
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"You'll change your mind." That's what everyone says to Jen Kirkman - and countless women like her - when she confesses she doesn't plan to have children. But you know what? It's hard enough to be an adult. You have to dress yourself and pay bills and remember to buy birthday gifts. You have to drive and get annual physicals and tip for good service. Some adults take on the added burden of caring for a tiny human being with no language skills or bladder control.
-
-
Funny. Not fall down laughing funny, but funny
- By david on 05-22-13
By: Jen Kirkman
-
The Book of Help
- A Memoir in Remedies
- By: Megan Griswold
- Narrated by: Megan Griswold
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir-in-remedies by a self-described "professional soul-searcher" that details a journey of self-discovery through more than 160 tonics, seminars, regimens, and transformative therapies. With a voice that is at once intimate and hilarious, Megan captures the openness and honesty necessary for people to take a new path in life. Listeners will open the audiobook with curiosity about all the different healing therapies that Megan tries, but leave with a new understanding of themselves.
-
-
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride has some serious competition!
- By Elisa R. Goodman on 02-15-19
By: Megan Griswold
-
Modern Loss
- Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
- By: Rebecca Soffer, Gabrielle Birkner
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain without a road map. Let's face it: Most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We're awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
-
-
Not What I Was Expecting
- By Bessie Mae on 03-01-23
By: Rebecca Soffer, and others
-
The Very Worst Missionary
- A Memoir or Whatever
- By: Jamie Wright
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After finding Jesus at a suburban megachurch, young Jamie Wright trades in the easy life on the cul-de-sac for the green fields of Costa Rica. There, along with her husband, kids, and the family cat, she intends to serve God and make converts. But she soon loses faith and falls into a funk of cynicism and despair. Fortunately, Knives the cat is there, looking on with just enough disinterest to make her laugh...and dare her to try another way. That other way turns out to be telling the truth. She launches a renegade blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, which wins a large following.
-
-
Didn’t like the book
- By Jonathan on 04-17-20
By: Jamie Wright
-
Everything You Ever Wanted
- A Memoir
- By: Jillian Lauren
- Narrated by: Jillian Lauren
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her younger years, Jillian Lauren was a college dropout, a drug addict, and an international concubine in the Prince of Brunei's harem, an experience she immortalized in her best-selling memoir, Some Girls. In her 30s, Jillian's most radical act is learning the steadying power of love when she and her rock star husband adopt an Ethiopian child with special needs.
-
-
Great for adoptive families
- By berry bomb on 07-06-22
By: Jillian Lauren
-
If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother
- By: Julia Sweeney
- Narrated by: Julia Sweeney
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since her time on Saturday Night Live, where she created the infamous androgynous character "Pat", Julia Sweeney has gone on to establish herself as a witty, captivating performer of one-woman shows, like God Said Ha!, In the Family Way, and Letting Go of God. She gave a TED talk sharing how she explained the birds and the bees to her eight-year-old daughter, Mulan, which ignited an incredible response. Now, when it comes to talking about motherhood, people want to hear what Julia has to say.
-
-
I Love Julia Sweeney
- By Lisa on 04-05-13
By: Julia Sweeney
-
I Can Barely Take Care of Myself
- Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids
- By: Jen Kirkman
- Narrated by: Jen Kirkman
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"You'll change your mind." That's what everyone says to Jen Kirkman - and countless women like her - when she confesses she doesn't plan to have children. But you know what? It's hard enough to be an adult. You have to dress yourself and pay bills and remember to buy birthday gifts. You have to drive and get annual physicals and tip for good service. Some adults take on the added burden of caring for a tiny human being with no language skills or bladder control.
-
-
Funny. Not fall down laughing funny, but funny
- By david on 05-22-13
By: Jen Kirkman
-
The Book of Help
- A Memoir in Remedies
- By: Megan Griswold
- Narrated by: Megan Griswold
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A hilarious and heartbreaking memoir-in-remedies by a self-described "professional soul-searcher" that details a journey of self-discovery through more than 160 tonics, seminars, regimens, and transformative therapies. With a voice that is at once intimate and hilarious, Megan captures the openness and honesty necessary for people to take a new path in life. Listeners will open the audiobook with curiosity about all the different healing therapies that Megan tries, but leave with a new understanding of themselves.
-
-
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride has some serious competition!
- By Elisa R. Goodman on 02-15-19
By: Megan Griswold
-
Modern Loss
- Candid Conversation About Grief. Beginners Welcome.
- By: Rebecca Soffer, Gabrielle Birkner
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when we mourn public figures and national tragedies with hashtags, where intimate posts about loss go viral and we receive automated birthday reminders for dead friends, it's clear we are navigating new terrain without a road map. Let's face it: Most of us have always had a difficult time talking about death and sharing our grief. We're awkward and uncertain; we avoid, ignore, or even deny feelings of sadness; we offer platitudes; we send sympathy bouquets whittled out of fruit.
-
-
Not What I Was Expecting
- By Bessie Mae on 03-01-23
By: Rebecca Soffer, and others
-
The Very Worst Missionary
- A Memoir or Whatever
- By: Jamie Wright
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After finding Jesus at a suburban megachurch, young Jamie Wright trades in the easy life on the cul-de-sac for the green fields of Costa Rica. There, along with her husband, kids, and the family cat, she intends to serve God and make converts. But she soon loses faith and falls into a funk of cynicism and despair. Fortunately, Knives the cat is there, looking on with just enough disinterest to make her laugh...and dare her to try another way. That other way turns out to be telling the truth. She launches a renegade blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, which wins a large following.
-
-
Didn’t like the book
- By Jonathan on 04-17-20
By: Jamie Wright
-
The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
-
-
Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
-
Wildflower
- By: Drew Barrymore
- Narrated by: Drew Barrymore
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences of her earlier years. It includes tales of living on her own at 14 (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck in a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.
-
-
Hold the shrieking !
- By Dawne on 11-27-15
By: Drew Barrymore
-
Miss Fortune
- Fresh Perspectives on Having It All from Someone Who Is Not Okay
- By: Lauren Weedman
- Narrated by: Lauren Weedman
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lauren Weedman is not okay. She's living what should be the good life in sunny Los Angeles. After a gig as a correspondent with The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, she scored parts in blockbuster movies, which led to memorable recurring roles on HBO's Hung and Looking. She had a loving husband and an adorable baby boy. In these comedic essays, she turns a piercingly observant, darkly funny lens on the ways her life is actually not okay.
-
-
Good
- By Ajules29 on 04-02-16
By: Lauren Weedman
-
Until I Say Good-Bye
- My Year of Living with Joy
- By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, Bret Witter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Susan Spencer-Wendel's Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy is a moving and inspirational memoir by a woman who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). After Spencer-Wendel, a celebrated journalist at the Palm Beach Post, learns of her diagnosis of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she embarks on several adventures, traveling to several countries and sharing special experiences with loved ones.
-
-
Until I Say Good-Bye is a paradox for me.
- By Bonny on 03-19-13
By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, and others
-
What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding
- A Memoir
- By: Kristin Newman
- Narrated by: Kristin Newman
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kristin Newman spent her 20s and 30s dealing with the stresses of her high-pressure job as a television comedy writer, and the anxieties of watching most of her friends get married and start families while she wrestled with her own fear of both. Not ready to settle down and yet loathe to become a sad-sack single girl, Kristin instead started traveling the world, often alone, for a few months each year, falling madly in love with attractive locals who provided moments of the love she wanted without the cost of the freedom she needed.
-
-
Struggled to Finish
- By YITBOS on 11-21-15
By: Kristin Newman
-
Bloom
- Finding Beauty in the Unexpected - A Memoir
- By: Kelle Hampton
- Narrated by: Kelle Hampton
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Kelle Hampton's new daughter was placed in her arms in the delivery room, she knew instantly that something was wrong. As her friends and family celebrated, a terrified Kelle was certain that Nella had Down syndrome - a fear her pediatrician soon confirmed. Yet gradually Kelle embraced the realization that she had been chosen to experience an extraordinary and special gift. With lyrical prose and gorgeous photography, Bloom takes listeners on a wondrous journey through Nella's first year of life.
-
-
Beautiful Story
- By Janelle on 03-10-24
By: Kelle Hampton
-
Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight?
- Confessions of a Gay Dad
- By: Dan Bucatinsky
- Narrated by: Dan Bucatinsky
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2005, Dan Bucatinsky and his partner, Don Roos, found themselves in an L.A. delivery room, decked out in disposable scrubs from shower cap to booties, to welcome their adopted baby girl - launching their frantic yet memorable adventures into fatherhood. Two and a half years later, the same birth mother - a heroically generous, pack-a-day teen with a passion for Bridezilla marathons and Mountain Dew - delivered a son into the couple’s arms.
-
-
A Parenting Book with Humor and Heart
- By The Reading Date on 02-05-14
By: Dan Bucatinsky
-
Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
-
-
This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
-
All of This
- A Memoir of Death and Desire
- By: Rebecca Woolf
- Narrated by: Rebecca Woolf
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After years of struggling in a tumultuous marriage, writer Rebecca Woolf was finally ready to leave her husband. Two weeks after telling him she wanted a divorce, he was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Four months later, at the age of forty-four, he died. In All of This, Woolf chronicles the months before her husband’s death—and her rebirth after he was gone. With rigorous honesty and incredible awareness, she reflects on the end of her marriage: how her husband’s illness finally gave her the space to make peace with his humanity and her own.
-
-
excellentt!
- By S. DAWN HANSCOM on 11-26-22
By: Rebecca Woolf
-
Instant Mom
- By: Nia Vardalos
- Narrated by: Nia Vardalos
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some families are created in different ways but are still, in every way, a family. Writer and star of My Big Fat Greek Wedding Nia Vardalos firmly believed she was supposed to be a mom, but Mother Nature and modern medicine had put her in a headlock. So she made a choice that shocked friends, family, and even herself: with only 14 hours' notice, she adopted a preschooler.
-
-
Witty and Heartfelt
- By Beth M. Honeycutt on 07-03-24
By: Nia Vardalos
-
Mother Daughter Me
- A Memoir
- By: Katie Hafner
- Narrated by: Katie Hafner
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The complex, deeply binding relationship between mothers and daughters is brought vividly to life in Katie Hafner's remarkable memoir, an exploration of the year she and her mother, Helen, spent working through, and triumphing over, a lifetime of unresolved emotions. Dreaming of a "year in Provence" with her mother, Katie urges Helen to move to San Francisco to live with her and Zoe, Katie's teenage daughter. Katie and Zoe had become a mother-daughter team, strong enough, Katie thought, to absorb the arrival of a 77-year-old woman set in her ways....
-
-
Listen and be swept away!
- By Barbara Quick on 06-02-22
By: Katie Hafner
-
The Pursuit of Happyness (Abridged)
- By: Chris Gardner
- Narrated by: Andre Blake
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of 20, Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. However, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him part of the city's working homeless with his toddler son.
-
-
Very Good Story!
- By Lito Da Critic on 06-02-06
By: Chris Gardner
What listeners say about Rock Needs River
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michelle
- 04-04-22
Wonderful!!
Really enjoyed the authors complete openness, vulnerability & Clear descriptions. Very enjoyable story, even if I did cry I couple of times 😊
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- E. Robinson
- 06-17-19
Well Written
In ”Rock Needs River”, Vanessa McGrady describes her experiences surrounding their adoption of Grace. Had no idea the complexities of adoption!
Her story is compelling. I recommend it for anyone who was adopted, contemplates adoption, wants to put a child up for adoption, or knows anyone like that.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Beth Newman
- 04-13-19
An adoption story
The book for focused more on the author’s early life than I would’ve preferred but it still ended well and I’m glad that I read it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SG
- 04-04-23
Thank you.
My husband and I are entering into an open adoption with the greatest little couple. We’re overjoyed they have chosen us. We fully intend to keep the lines of communication open. We want an absolutely OPEN adoption.
Thank you for writing this book and sharing your experiences. I believe open adoptions are best for everyone, especially the child. Your book helped to assure me we’re on the right path.
Thank you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 03-02-19
Beautiful story, beautifully written
I’m currently facing the challenges related to infertility and while I like the general idea of adoption I’ve always had reservations about the specifics. While Vanessa’s story is by no means sugar coated and perfect, she helped me reframe a lot of the apprehensions I’ve had about perusing adoption (and specifically open adoption). Thank you!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lindsay
- 01-17-20
Informative, touching, beautifully written!
This is a worthwhile listen for anyone interested in adoption or parenthood in general. The author’s warm, maternal voice made me feel like I was listening to a good friend’s story about their complicated journey to becoming a parent. She brought all the characters vividly to life. And, like any great true story, there are surprising twists that prove once again that the truth can be stranger than fiction. I cried at the end.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- TVaddicted
- 02-15-19
Adopting Grace and Orienting Birth Parents
Vanessa adopts Gracie who becomes the love of her life. Her birth parents who don't want the responsibility of a permanent residence or to go thru the process to obtain one, become a problem in her parenting of Grace, her husband Peter also throw some problems in the process. Parenting is never easy, but Vanessa faces some real challenges head on to help Grace become a well adjusted child.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Elizabeth Dondero
- 03-06-24
Honest
Very open and honest story about an open adoption. I really did enjoy this. I am planning to adopt a child myself and wanted to hear someone else’s experience. I am so glad I chose this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gail M. Johnson
- 05-04-20
Not what I expected
A rather mundane and somewhat lethargic story. The narrator was not engaging and it seemed that she was reading the story under duress.
There was more of a story about the adoptive mother prior to the actual adoption than there was about the the whole adoption itself. Do not waste you time on this book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kindle Customer
- 03-24-19
Excellent!
This book is wonderful! As an adopted person and a writer myself, I feel that McGrady has accurately, compassionately, and beautifully crafted this story of the adoption constellation she lives within. Brava!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!