Eleanor Roosevelt’s life–from her birth in 1884 to her death in 1962–is read in the steady voice of Tavia Gilbert. Being the niece of Theodore Roosevelt and fifth cousin of her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Eleanor was in the unique position to experience life from inside the New York governor’s house and the White House…
Tavia Gilbert’s voice is lovely and full of sensitivity, enthusiasm, and ruefulness—the perfect choice to convey Kate Christensen’s eventful life. Christensen vividly remembers both the shock and the breakfast of soft-boiled eggs and toast that she was eating when her hippie father was beating up her mother because her mother asked for help. Food features…
Olympic Medalist Amanda Beard shares her journey as a celebrity athlete who struggled between stardom and her private life. The swimmer candidly shares her story, addressing her parents’ divorce, her boyfriend problems, and her struggle with dyslexia and bulimia, along with other unhealthy habits she had throughout her early career. Narrator Tavia Gilbert sounds totally…
Loung Ung was 5 years old in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The next four years were a desperate struggle to survive starvation, labor camps, and the loss of both parents. Ung relates her experience in the present tense, and Tavia Gilbert takes us on that journey with a superb…
This audiobook clearly has two minds: one is focused on a biography of the author of Little Women and other American classics, and the other connects Cheever’s feelings and reactions to Alcott’s writing. The effect is a distinctly personal book full of digressions and literary analysis. These might distract listeners who are looking for a…
Overwhelmed and burned out by the grind of her copywriting career and daily life in Los Angeles, and tired of being single, Janice MacLeod decides to take a leap of faith by quitting her job and setting off for Europe for several months of travel. Narrator Tavia Gilbert offers a youthful and enthusiastic reading of…
Narrator Tavia Gilbert expresses the frustration and courage shared in Rebecca Alexander’s motivational memoir. Alexander recounts the story of her arduous journey, which started with symptoms of diminished sight and hearing and eventually led to being diagnosed with Usher syndrome, which would take her sight completely as a young adult. Gilbert’s voice captures Alexander’s determination…
A jaw-dropping story of how a girl from the suburbs ends up in a prince’s harem, and emerges from the secret Xanadu both richer and wiser. At 18, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout with a tip about an upcoming audition. The “casting director” told her that a rich businessman in Singapore…