June is Audiobook Appreciation Month. Many people like to listen to audiobooks since it is a great way to multitask. You can listen to audiobooks while cooking, driving or walking. You may like to listen to biographies or memoirs to gain insight into how successful people handle crises and solve problems. 

Let’s explore some best-selling and newly released biographies & memoirs on audiobook from the Livingston Public Library’s collection. You can also download digital audiobooks from our digital collections Libby and Hoopla, and listen to over one thousand biography & memoir audiobooks from your cell phone. 

The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama

There may be no tidy solutions or pithy answers to life’s big challenges, but Michelle Obama believes that we can all locate and lean on a set of tools to help us better navigate change and remain steady within flux. Here, she opens a frank and honest dialogue with listeners, considering the questions many of us wrestle with: How do we build enduring and honest relationships? How can we discover strength and community inside our differences? What tools do we use to address feelings of self-doubt or helplessness? What do we do when it all starts to feel like too much?

Finding Me by Viola Davis

In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever.

This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.

Spare by Harry

It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow and horror. As Diana, Princess of Wales, was laid to rest, billions wondered what the princes must be thinking and feeling, and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. With its raw, unflinching honesty, Prince Harry shares a landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief. 

And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham

Jon Meacham chronicles the life and moral evolution of Abraham Lincoln and explores why and how Lincoln confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery in order to expand the possibilities of America. This book tells the story of Lincoln from his birth on the Kentucky frontier in 1809 to his leadership during the Civil War to his tragic assassination at Ford’s Theater on Good Friday 1865: his rise, his self-education through reading, his loves, his bouts of depression, his political failures, his deepening faith, and his persistent conviction that slavery must end.

Just As I Am: A Memoir by Cicely Tyson

‘In her long and extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson has not only succeeded as an actor, she has shaped the course of history.’ –President Barack Obama, 2016 Presidential Medal of Honor ceremony. “Just As I Am is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades.”

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of An American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper

New York Times best-selling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times best-selling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty – his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.

Walk the Blue Line by James Patterson

They risk their lives every day to protect and serve our homes, families and communities. Here are their most dramatic true stories, in their own unforgettable words. These men and women are our eyes. Our ears. Our protectors. hose who wear a badge, doing their best to help people. These cops serve their communities. They serve their country. They’re in the business of saving lives, even at the risk of their own. 

The Revolutionary Samuel Adams by Stacy Schiff

Thomas Jefferson once asserted that “for depth of purpose, zeal, and sagacity, no man in Congress exceeded, if any equaled, Sam Adams.” John Adams called him “the most elegant writer, the most sagacious politician, and celebrated patriot perhaps of all.” But in spite of his celebrated status among America’s founding fathers as a revolutionary leader, Samuel Adams’ life and achievements have been largely overshadowed in the history books.

River of the Gods : Genius, Courage and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile by Candice Millard

For millennia the location of the Nile River’s headwaters was shrouded in mystery. In the 19th century, there was  a frenzy of interest in ancient Egypt. At the same time, European powers sent off waves of explorations intended to map the unknown corners of the globe—and extend their colonial empires.   

The House of Kennedy by James Patterson

The Kennedys have always been a family of charismatic adventurers, raised to take risks and excel, living by the dual family mottos: “To whom much is given, much is expected” and “Win at all costs.” And they do–but at a price. Across decades and generations, the Kennedys have occupied a unique place in the American imagination: charmed, cursed, at once familiar and unknowable.

Dinners with Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina Totenberg

Celebrated NPR correspondent Nina Totenberg delivers an extraordinary memoir of her personal successes, struggles, and life-affirming relationships, including her beautiful friendship of nearly fifty years with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Last Days of John Lennon by James Patterson

John Lennon was one of the world’s most influential people. Mark David Chapman was one of the most invisible. By the end of 1980, the Beatles had been broken up for a decade, a decade John Lennon had spent in search of his true identity: singer, songwriter, activist, burn out. “It’s the perfect time to be coming back, ” he declared. Except that Lennon was a marked man. As early as the Beatles’ controversial 1966 American tour, the band had feared for their safety. “You might as well put a target on me, ” Lennon said, and the Nixon administration complied by opening an FBI file. 

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson

The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how the pioneering scientist Jennifer Doudna, along with her colleagues and rivals, launched a revolution that will allow scientists to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and enhance children.

Rage by Bob Woodward

An unprecedented and intimate tour de force of original reporting on the Trump presidency from Bob Woodward. Rage goes behind the scenes like never before, with stunning new details about early national security decisions and operations and Trump’s moves as he faces a global pandemic, economic disaster and racial unrest. Woodward, the #1 internationally bestselling author of 13 #1 bestsellers, including Fear: Trump in the White House, shows Trump up close in his entirety before the 2020 presidential election. President Trump has said publicly that Woodward has interviewed him.

Diana, William, and Harry by James Patterson

As Diana fell in love, first with Prince Charles and then with her sons, William and Harry, the world fell in love with the young royal family, and with Diana most of all. “From the moments William and Harry are born into the House of Windsor, they become their young mother’s whole world. ‘I’ve got two very healthy, strong boys. I realize how incredibly lucky I am,’ Diana reminds herself every morning. But even the Princess of Wales questions, ‘Am I a good mother?’ Diana is faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: one son destined to be King of England and another determined to find his own way.

Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick

Anna Kendrick’s autobiographical collection of essays amusingly recounts memorable moments throughout her life, from her middle class upbringing in New England to the blockbuster movies that have made her one of Hollywood’s most popular actresses today. Expanding upon the witty and ironic dispatches for which she is known, Anna Kendrick’s essays offer her one of a kind commentary on the absurdities she’s experienced on her way to and from the heart of pop culture.

— Hongmei, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian