Biography & Memoir Audiobooks

Choose some amazing biography and memoir audiobooks that inspire, fascinate and change lives. Our diverse selection of biography and memoir audiobooks narrate the captivating stories of both famous figures and everyday people who triumph over life’s adversities. Put in your earbuds for intimate access to real-life stories of some of the world’s most impressive subjects.

Choose some amazing biography and memoir audiobooks that inspire, fascinate and change lives. Our diverse selection of biography and memoir audiobooks narrate the captivating stories of both famous figures and everyday people who triumph over life’s adversities. Put in your earbuds for intimate access to real-life stories of some of the world’s most impressive subjects.

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We're shining a light on the hottest new releases and binge-worthy audiobooks you don't want to miss.
The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind
The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind
The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind
The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind
Audiobook

The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind

byJodi M. Savage

Reminiscent of The Year of Magical Thinking and Somebody’s Daughter, a deeply empathetic and often humorous collection of essays that explore the author’s ever-changing relationships with her grandmother and mother, through sickness and health, as they experience the joys and challenges of Black American womanhood. Jodi M. Savage was raised in Brooklyn, New York, by her maternal grandmother. Her whip-smart, charismatic mother struggled with addiction and was unable to care for her. Granny—a fiery Pentecostal preacher who had a way with words—was Jodi’s rock, until Alzheimer’s disease turned the tables, and a 28-year-old Jodi stepped into the role of caretaker. It was up to Jodi to get them both through the devastations of a deteriorating mind. After Granny passed away, Jodi spent years trying to reckon with her grief. Jodi and her mother were both diagnosed with breast cancer nearly a decade later, and then Jodi lost her too. In this searing, candid collection of essays, Jodi illuminates the roles that identity and memory play in preserving those we love. Jodi explores the lives of modern Black women and communities through the prism of her personal experiences. With grace, creativity, and insight, she looks at femininity, family, race, mental illness, grief, healthcare, and faith. Jodi deftly portrays how trauma is inherited, and how the struggle to break a generational curse can last a lifetime. The Death of a Jaybird is a thoughtful examination of complicated family love, loss, and the liberating power of claiming our stories.

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About Biography & Memoir

The biography and memoir genre casts a light on the inner workings of real people’s lives, thoughts, and feelings. Though grouped together, biography and memoir do diverge. Although they share common themes — both are nonfiction accounts of someone’s life — memoir relies on a writer’s personal experiences, documented in their own words, while biography is an account of a person’s life as written by someone else. Both biographies and memoirs have long histories, as our societal desire to document our lives and the lives of those around us is seemingly innate. Memoir and biography can grapple with a wide variety of people, themes, settings, and ideas. The genre is far-reaching, encompassing the memoirs of celebrities alongside deeply moving personal accounts of war or illness; Anne Frank’s diary is just as much a memoir as Anthony Bourdain’s travels across the world. David Sedaris, Frank McCourt, Roxane Gay, Joan Didion, and many other voices have shaped the genre, while others have worked to expand the definition, like Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel takes on the form. Adventure, family, sexuality, art, history, LGBTQIA+ experience, medical struggles, sports, the military — all of these topics and more find home in the biography and memoir audiobook genre.

The biography and memoir genre casts a light on the inner workings of real people’s lives, thoughts, and feelings. Though grouped together, biography and memoir do diverge. Although they share common themes — both are nonfiction accounts of someone’s life — memoir relies on a writer’s personal experiences, documented in their own words, while biography is an account of a person’s life as written by someone else. Both biographies and memoirs have long histories, as our societal desire to document our lives and the lives of those around us is seemingly innate. Memoir and biography can grapple with a wide variety of people, themes, settings, and ideas. The genre is far-reaching, encompassing the memoirs of celebrities alongside deeply moving personal accounts of war or illness; Anne Frank’s diary is just as much a memoir as Anthony Bourdain’s travels across the world. David Sedaris, Frank McCourt, Roxane Gay, Joan Didion, and many other voices have shaped the genre, while others have worked to expand the definition, like Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel takes on the form. Adventure, family, sexuality, art, history, LGBTQIA+ experience, medical struggles, sports, the military — all of these topics and more find home in the biography and memoir audiobook genre.