February Genre CAT BIOGRAPHY

BIOGRAPHY!

If you scan the best seller lists over a period of time you will see that readers continually read biographies and memoirs. In 2020 three biographies were in the top 20 nonfiction books sold on Amazon for the year (does not include Kindle sales). They were A Promised Land by Barack Obana, Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey, and Becoming by Michelle Obama. Out of 52 weeks on the New York Time Best Seller list (includes both hardback and ebooks) for 24 weeks the number one position was held by a biography.

If you're not sure of the definitions of the genes here they are: Biographies are written by a person about someone else, autobiographies are written by a person about themselves and covers their lifetime, and memoir is by a person writing about themselves covering just a portion of their life.

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/GenreCAT_2021

Please remember to post to the WIKI!



Are you interested in reading one of the earliest biographers? If so, you might consider Plutarch, Samuel Johnson or Cornelius Nepos.



If you want some laughs with your biography you could choose from these:

Bossypants by Tina Fey
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
Life Itself by Roger Ebert
Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson
Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres



If you want a chance to read an award winner, these titles won the Pulitzer Prize for biography:

2020 - Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser
2018 - Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
2008 - Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father John Matteson



Interested in other books by notable current biographers?

Amanda Foreman, Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and more titles.
Antonia Fraser, Mary, Queen of Scots and others including a memoir My History.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals and others.
Jon Meacham, His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope and others.
Ginger Wadsworth, primarily biographies for children.

Maybe you'd like to read about a contemporary musician.

Mariah Carey, The Meaning of Mariah Carey
Stevie Nicks, Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks
Alan Paul, Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughn

And I'll let Willie sum it up:



Willie Nelson, It's a Long Story.

Let us know what you're reading and good luck finding something you enjoy!

When I first wrote this all Touchstones were showing. Now they aren't and I don't know what happened

I've got several appealing biographies on my shelves, but right now I'm leaning toward Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice by Paula Byrne. I've read and liked some of Byrne's other books in the past.

I've wondered what the difference was between autobiography and memoir and now I know.

I'm going to read A Life by Design by Siobhan O'Brien which I "received" as a book bullet last year from JayneCM.

I'm hoping to read The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love by Kristin Kimball and Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker. Oh yeah - maybe I'll finally finish Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

I am thinking of reading My Husband and I which is about Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip. I also have Tea by the Nursery Fire which I received as a Christmas gift from my sister.

I am hoping to get to Below Stairs by Margaret Powell. This is a memoir of the author's time in domestic service during the 1920s.

I hope to get to Harriet Jacobs: A Life.

If my library hold for Memorial Drive comes in, I'll read that, I also have my eye on Coming of Age in Mississippi.

I'm eyeing somewhat warily Cromwell: Our Chief of Men by Antonia Fraser. She does write tomes which I need to nerve myself for, though I always enjoy them once I've worked myself up to them.

I've picked up The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III, Father of the English Nation (by Ian Mortimer) as the supplemental piece to William Shakespeare's History play, The Reign of King Edward the Third.

Looks like I have over 100 to choose from! LOL! I knew there would be lots, but didn't realize quite that many.

Two that stand out to me as being particularly appealing right now:
The Real James Herriot / James Wight
Madame Tussaud: a Life in Wax / Kate Berridge

It would be really nice if I could get to both of them, but we'll see.

I've set aside Roger Moore's My Word is My Bond for this challenge.

I will probably read Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill.

I've got When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit which fits nicely for this and HistoryCAT.

I may finish it in January, but I'm reading Black in Selma, about J.L. Chestnut. Interesting Selma insider's view of the civil rights movement and ongoing struggle in Selma, Alabama.

I also have Sometimes you have to lie (about the author of Harriet the spy) on hold at the library.

>11 LibraryCin: I liked The Real James Herriot. But a biography of Madame Tussaud sounds fun, too!

I got Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now by Evan Osnos as a surprise Christmas gift by my in-laws, and I think I will read it for this cat.

And I already know that there will so many BBs for me in this thread!!! Love everyone's interesting choices.

I'm planning on The Avocado Drive Zoo by Earl Hamner--because, animals :).

I'm listening to A Promised Land which will definitely take me into February. This is one of my favorite genres so I expect I'll find another one soon.

Can I just check - is this month's challenge just for biographies, or do autobiographies/memoirs count too? Thank you!

>16 cbl_tn: I think I've had the Tussaud on my tbr longer, so that's also a reason for me to try to get to it first. It would be nice to read both, though!

>20 Jackie_K: This is the second paragraph in >1 clue: "If you're not sure of the definitions of the genes here they are: Biographies are written by a person about someone else, autobiographies are written by a person about themselves and covers their lifetime, and memoir is by a person writing about themselves covering just a portion of their life."

By that, I would assume that autobiographies and memoirs would be fine.

We don't have a second month for autobiographies/memoirs, either. Plus if you look at the wiki, it mentions Memoirs/Biography as being the theme for February.

>22 LibraryCin: Thank you! I had assumed it was all 3, but then as the thread title only said Biography I started to doubt my assumption! I have a couple of memoirs I want to read, so I'm glad they can still count!

>23 Jackie_K: No worries!

I'm also hoping to get to A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley. I recently watched the movie based on the book and now I want to read the book to see what the movie left out!

>23 Jackie_K: I think you are good to go with those three categories. I am sure we all aim at flexibility!

I'll be reading Becoming. It's fitting for Black History month as well.

>11 LibraryCin: I was enjoying the Herriot book until I spilled a cup of coffee on it...aaaaand it was a library book! I offered to purchase it but the librarian just charged me for rebinding. I never wanted to check it out again, the coffee stains would have scolded me as I read.

Anyway, I liked what I read.

Even though I read it in January, I'm going to count Black in Selma: the uncommon life of J. L. Chestnut, Jr..

Chestnut was born & raised in Selma, Alabama, and became the first black lawyer in the city. He knows who the players are. It was interesting to see how things worked, what effect the civil rights movement had, and what Chestnut and the black community of Selma continued to work on. The book covers the 1950s - 1980s, with an emphasis on the 50s & 60s.

>29 markon:
I read Black in Selma: the Uncommon Life of J. L. Chestnut, Jr. a year ago for another LT challenge and thought it was really well done. I live here in Alabama and much of what he describes is very true of the way things work in this state and still work in the state. I read Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson late last year and Chestnut was mentioned in the Stevenson book for his groundbreaking defense of many of the poorly advised and poorly defended people of the state of Alabama. Chestnut's died in 2008 and his life was certainly extraordinary.

This book won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award in 1992. I enjoyed reading it and recommend it to people who are interested in the continuing struggle for Civil Rights.

>28 fuzzi: Oh, yikes!

I have a couple of hockey biographies/autobiographies/memoirs in mind. I never knew the difference between an autobiography and a memoir so now I know.

I'm considering The Face: A Time Code by Ozeki, a short memoir from a Buddhist author that someone recommended on SantaThing.

I've completed my read of Below Stairs by Margaret Powell. This was a memoir of her life in domestic service during the 1920s.

I finished Coming of Age in Mississippi. The author tells her story from being born to poor tenant farmers to being in the center of the civil rights movement.

I'm planning on reading two for this challenge - both of which also fit my nature category. Firstly Rootbound: Rewilding a Life by Alice Vincent, and then Dara McAnulty's Diary of a Young Naturalist.

I ended up reading The Crown in Crisis by Alexander Larman, which is about the abdication of King Edward VIII.

I finished Square Haunting, a set of 5 biographies of women who all loved in one Bloomsbury square between the wars. Not a conventional biography, but I think it fits.

I finished A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, about his Google Earth search for his home in India. He became lost as a small child and he wasn't able to tell the social workers enough about his home and family to make a reunion possible. He was adopted by an Australian couple, and decades later he was able to leverage technology to find the family he'd left behind in India. It's a remarkable story.

>39 cbl_tn: Oh! I thought this sounded familiar! They made this into a movie! I happened to see it a couple years ago when there was a lot of buzz about it. There were scenes that have stuck with me, like the huge and crowded train stations... I liked the movie but didn't love it-- so maybe I should put the book (since "the book is usually better!") in my TBR stacks ;-) #BB

>40 Tanya-dogearedcopy: Yes! I saw the movie first, and I think that's the right way around. The movie left me with a lot of questions, and the book filled in the details I was craving.

I just finished Michele Obama's autobiography Becoming.

COMPLETED Farewell to the East End by Jennifer Worth, the last in her trilogy of memoirs of working as a midwife in London's East End in the 1950s, extended back in time with reminiscences from her older colleagues and some social history.

Particularly harrowing in present circumstances were the chapters on TB and what a terrible scourge that was.

>44 Robertgreaves: That sounds really good. My library owns it, but there is a wait list.

I read Ruth Ozeki's The Face: A Time Code, which is a memoir centered on her face and what it says about her.

I read Do You Feel Like I Do?: A Memoir by Peter Frampton. This is a good personal accounting of his career. He barely brushes on his personal life and keeps it professional. A lot of name dropping though.

The Real James Herriot / James Wight
3.75 stars

“James Herriot” was the pseudonym of a veterinarian, James “Alf” Wight, who became an author after decades of veterinary practice in the countryside of England in the mid-20th century. This biography was written by his son. Instead of, like Herriot’s books, a focus on the animals, this book focuses on Alf and the people in his life – his family, lifelong friends, veterinary partners, and more – starting with his life in the country and his vet practice, then switching to writing books, which he also really seemed to enjoy.

I’ve only read a couple of Herriot’s books, but I’ve really enjoyed them. This biography is very good, as well, and of course, there have to be a few animal stories thrown in – not only of a few of the patients, but also of Alf’s own pets. It’s been a bit too long for me to remember the “characters” in Herriot’s books to compare them to the real life versions of those people, but I still quite liked this book.

>48 LibraryCin: glad you enjoyed it. I have read part of this biography, need to return to it at some point.

I finished Paula Byrne's Belle: The Slave Daughter and the Lord Chief Justice, which is theoretically a biography of Dido Elizabeth Belle, a biracial woman in 18th century England. But since there's not a lot of info about her in the historical record, the book is really more of a history of the British slave trade. It's an interesting book, but I wish there were more information available about Dido's life.

I read This Time Next Year We'll Be Laughing: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear, the author of the Maisie Dobbs series of mysteries. I have really enjoyed the Maisie Dobbs books which I've read, and was a bit disappointed with this memoir. The first part of the book seemed to be much more about her parents than about Jacqueline herself. The chapters in most of the rest of the memoir focused on particular topics such as Jacqueline's going to school, her interest in getting a horse, stories about her large extended family, Jacqueline's working to help support the family, etc. The title of the book, "This time next year we'll be laughing" was one of her father's favorite sayings; she felt close to her father and had problems with her mother. However, most of the book was enjoyable, and the book both started off and ended with her parents' deaths which was effective.

>48 LibraryCin: That sounds intriguing - I loved Herriot's first several books & the PBS/BBC adaptation of "All Creatures Great and Small" in the late 1970s (which inspired me to read the books). I haven't tried the new adaptation in fear of ruining my wonderful memories of the first series. Has anyone here seen both? I'd love to know how they compare.

>52 leslie.98: I love the original All Creatures Great and Small! I watched part of one episode of the reboot and found the actors too bland. They don't seem to have chemistry like the original cast did.

If you have Acorn TV, you can watch The Yorkshire Vet narrated by Christopher Timothy and later Peter Davison. Also Vintage Roads Great and Small with Christopher Timothy and Peter Davison driving vintage cars on scenic routes in various parts of Great Britain.

>52 leslie.98: I've not seen any of the tv shows, so I can't help there!

I read The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball. I think I'd like to be friends with Kristin. She was a confirmed city girl who happened to be assigned to write a story about farming in upstate New York. She fell in love with Mark, the farmer she was sent to interview. This memoir details their efforts to start their own farm. It covers the nitty and very gritty life behind a full fledged working farm - horses, cows, chickens, pigs, crops, hay, etc...

I grew up on a dairy farm so some of this I completely related to but there was still lots to learn. I'm in awe of all that they managed to accomplish. My favorite section was where she paid tribute to the beauty and character of cows. They are amazing animals.

>53 cbl_tn: ooh, ooh, I don't have Acorn TV but maybe somewhere on the internet...?

>53 cbl_tn: Thanks! I have Acorn TV through my library so I'll check that out.

I have finished a short biography of Monteverdi which was too short for my taste. I think I'll have to make do with his music until I find something more recent and more detailed.

Sometimes you have to lie by Leslie Brody.

I was underwhelmed by this biography of Louise Fitzhugh.

The good: Brody had access to papers, letters, and accounts of Fitzhugh's friends, and does give us chronoligical story of her life and relationships. Fitzhugh has escaped the careful curation of her heir Lois Morehead, and can now be acknowledged as a lesbian.

What I felt was missing was a deeper than surface analysis of what she said, did, wrote, painted. And a statement of why she is author worth writing a biography about.

My take: I get the feeling that Louise was deeply unhappy through muuch of her life from this biography, yet she obviously had many friends and lovers, and was, eventually, fiinancially and critically successful. So I'd be curious about another author's take on her.

I think Louise Fitzhugh's imporatance lies in her living as an out lesbian in the 1960s and beyond, as well as anticipating the curve in realistic children's literature with Harriet the spy's brutal honesty about people and her work ethic, as well as writing the first scene where an adolescent writes about getting her period. (Yes, before Judy Blume.)

I am reading some of Fitzhugh's other works, currently listening to an audio of The long secret. Haven't got to the menstruation scene yet.

I read Upon the Head of a Goat for this one. You can find my review here.

I've just finished Rootbound: Rewilding a Life by Alice Vincent. It's a memoir of finding solace in gardening and green space after a breakup.

The King's Speech / Mark Logue
3.5 stars

Mark Logue is the grandson of Lionel Logue, who left Australia with his wife to move to England in the early 20th century. This was after he’d started helping people with their public speaking. When he arrived in England, he continued his business there, and ended up with the future King of England as one of the people he was helping.

“Bertie” had a stutter and was terrified of public speaking (not so good when you are royalty!). Initially, he was not meant to become king, but when his older brother abdicated, Bertie (now King George VI) was next in line. Lionel was a lifeline for the king, as Lionel helped Bertie before every speech he had to make for a very long time. They became friends, as much as the king and a commoner could.

This was good. I have seen the movie, but I don’t think much time was spent on Lionel’s life. The book actually did spend more time on Lionel than the movie did. In addition to Bertie/King George’s life. Mark used many letters between the two men to write this biography.

There was a section in the middle, describing events during WWII that I lost a bit of interest in, but I quite enjoyed it before and after (and it wasn’t all the events of the war where I lost interest, so it may just have been that I was tired when I read that part!). We also get small glimpses into (now) Queen Elizabeth’s young life, as well. The book also follows both men to their deaths – though Logue was 15 years King George’s senior, Logue outlasted the king, but not by very long.

<62 I liked this movie a lot and have had the book on my TBR list for years. Just checked and the library has it so I'll read it soon, thanks for the reminder.

>63 clue: I hope you like it!

>62 LibraryCin: I really enjoyed this book as well, although I did not see the film. Maybe it is time for a reread.

I read No Time Like the Future: an optimist considers mortality by Michael J. Fox.

Because my husband has Parkinson's Disease I am interested in reading Fox's experiences. As I already know well, it's a frightening disease. In this candid book Fox is understandably less upbeat than he was in his previous notably optimistic books. His spine surgery meant he has had to learn to walk again but then suffered a devastating fall. He still falls every day, sometimes multiple times, but has come to accept this along with premature aging and all the other horrifying symptoms of Parkinson's. His optimism might have taken a beating, but it's still there. I listened to the audiobook because I wanted to hear his voice and compare it with the voice we all know, but Michael speaks so fast and it seems PD has slurred his speech a bit that some parts were indistinct. I will make a point to pick up the print book as well so that I catch every word. Fox deserves admiration for not lying down under it all but for acknowledging and appreciating the help from everyone he knows.

I read Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century. Before reading this, I had a vague understanding of Dorothy Day as being a strong woman who liked to speak truth to power, including fighting for workers’ rights. After reading the book, I understand that she was a complicated woman who is difficult to pigeonhole. She was a suffragette, but chose not to vote. She was a pacifist during WW2, an upopular time to be anti-war. She refused filthy government lucre for her housing projects, baffling her colleagues.

The book was more detailed than I needed, but I appreciated how the authors managed to capture how multi-layered she was.

Every time I see the title of this thread in the list, because it's all in caps, I keep reading "Cat Biography"!!! LOL! Sure, I'll read a cat biography...

>68 LibraryCin: I'm sure the film of the book will be a hit on social media

I've finished Dara McAnulty's Diary of a Young Naturalist, and it's my first 5* book of the year. Highly highly recommended.

March's thread is up (finally!) -

https://www.librarything.com/topic/329889

>68 LibraryCin: I just noticed that! I have a few books that would qualify as Cat Biographies.

>72 LadyoftheLodge: LOL! I do, too. :-)

Sigh, I had a lengthy biography of Edward III that I wanted to tackle this month, Edward III: The Perfect King (by Ian Mortimer) but it doesn't look like I can realistically do it. LOL, I'm not sure what I was thinking, "Hmmm super short month with lots of titles... I think I'll add in another 500+ pages?!" I might be able to squeeze in Bill Bryson's Shakespeare: The World as Stage though. We'll see! :-)

I read Daughters of the Dream: Eight Girls from Richmond Who Grew Up in the Civil Rights Era by Tamara Lucas Copeland. This is an excellent memoir of 8 upper middle class black girls/women who grew up in Richmond, VA, the former capital of the Confederate States of America. It tells their stories in three sections: their school years when they were very close (1956-1968); their college and years establishing their careers and families when they had other close friends (1969-1994), and the years they got back together and renewed their friendships and closeness (1994-2018, the year the book was published). These girls grew up in very supportive, 2-parent families who valued education and tried to protect their daughters from the racial situation. The eight women were not as protective of their children, feeling they had been too protected growing up. They became "eight successful African American women. Seventy-five percent have a graduate degree ... Most of us ended up in a helping profession. ... We have a higher rate of divorce than the national average (62% vs. 50%). ... All except one of us still live within about 100 miles of Richmond, our home" (p. 219 for all quotes). Interwoven within the whole story is what was happening racially in the United States at the time described and their feeling or their parents feeling about the events.

I read Clementine: The Life of Mrs. Winston Churchill by Sonia Purnell which was very good, I've rated it 4.5*.

I hope everyone is having a good time reading their biographies. The diversity in what we've chosen to read is fun to see and wouldn't you know it, I've picked up several BBs!

I read The Yellow House: A memoir by Sarah M. Broom. Story of Sarah, her family and their life in East New Orleans including Hurricane Katrina.

I finished Mill Town which was an excellent combination of memoir and investigative research. Mexico Maine was a company town for the Rumford paper mill. Over the decades concerns about a cancer cluster, polluted water, and other health issues plagued the town. The author grew up in Mexico and her family was greatly impacted by the Mill-positive and negative. She discusses her Arcadian ancestry and goes deeply into her roots in the area.

I finally finished my first book for this month's GenreCAT!

The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris

Finished the memoir The Avocado Drive Zoo and wrote a full review. I really expected to love this and be passing it on to my mom. Instead... enh? Someone who wants an inner sight into the man behind The Waltons, Falcon Crest, and The Man from Snowy River might enjoy this, but as a reader who was really in it for the animals, I was left a bit disappointed. Still, in depth review to explain is up now, at least.

Today I read Heinrich von Kleist - Ein preußisches Schicksal by Heinz Ohff. It's a biography of German author Heinrich von Kleist who had a very troubled life. It was a quick and easy read.

I have finished Educated, an excellent memoir. One feature I particularly liked, which I didn't address in my review, is the way Westover included notes about when her memory of certain events varies from that of one or more of her siblings or when she is not sure whether she is confusing 2 different but similar events. This aspect (a result of her education in history, I presume) made me trust this book much more than I did The Glass Castle, for example. Highly recommended, 4.5*

I read Eat a Peach by David Chang. I rated it 4 stars. It was an interesting glimpse into the celebrity resturant world.

Buses Are a Comin': Memoir of a Freedom Rider / Charles Person
5 stars

In 1961, a small group of people, both black and white and of a variety of ages from the author at 18 years old up to a retired white couple, got on a variety of buses, planning to head from Washington, DC to New Orleans. The idea was to test what would happen when they sat at various places on the bus, front or back, regardless of their colour. They also (black and white), in some cases, sat together. Supreme Court Decisions in the 1940s (before Rosa Parks) and the 1950s said that anyone should be able to sit anywhere on interstate buses, and that anyone should be able to sit anywhere, use any washroom, order from any food place, etc. inside the depots.

Wow… what an amazing group of very brave people! Granted, some of them didn’t realize how bad it would get (including Charles, though he had grown up in Georgia… but Georgia wasn’t the worst), but this was the first group of “Freedom Riders” that set off a chain of others to continue when they were unable to finish their trips. It’s crazy to me how the KKK was still alive and well in the deep South, and even police were involved. Obviously, this book includes violence (though the Riders themselves had vowed to be nonviolent), and some awful subject matter. It was heart-wrenching at times.

The first chapter tells of the climax of the trip, but then backs up to tell us about Charles’ life growing up. In May 1961 for those two weeks that the first Freedom Ride was happening, he was at the tail end of his first year of college. He had previously been involved in some protests in Atlanta with other college students regarding the segregation of blacks and whites in restaurants and cafes. But this was something else. When I finished, I “had” to check a few videos on youtube.

I read A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa - a moving and disturbing account of his time in North Korea and his escape.

This make no sense whatsoever as I read faster than I listen to audiobooks, but when I thought I couldn't fit in Edward III: The Perfect King (by Ian Mortimer, my brain said, "Go dnload the audiobook!" Well, I did listen to the audio (narrated by Alex Wyndham) and loved it! The author's scholarship is controversial (e.g. claiming that Edward II was still alive when Edward III was proclaimed King of England) but he lays out his reasoning in one of the appendices. Regardless, the biography was full of pathos, stunning military victories and, accounts of excessive riches... all told in a very engaging manner. I wouldn't call it narrative non-fiction, but it's definitely a lot less boring than pure expositional NF (OK, well, the appendices are pretty dry!) Looking forward to picking up the author's biographies of Henry IV and V.

>87 Tanya-dogearedcopy: So in a non-fiction audiobook, what happens to the notes and bibliography?

>88 Robertgreaves: I’ve heard NF audiobooks that have included footnotes in the flow of the narrative, treating them parenthetically and; others where they were omitted altogether. I don’t know of any audiobook that includes acknowledgments, endnotes or bibliographies as a rule. TBH, if they were there, I would probably fast-forward past them.

There some old recordings out there that include a dust jacket blurb, mini author bio and, even a table of contents... but I haven’t heard those in 30+ years!

I didn’t listen with the text in hand for this one so I do not know if they included footnotes or not!

Thanks to all who have participated. I love the diversity in our choices and as I said previously, my Wishlist has suffered from it.

The Tao of Martha / Jen Lancaster
3.5 stars

In this memoir of Jen’s, she looks back at 2012, when she made an effort to emulate her idol, Martha Stewart. She wanted to get organized around her house and throw great parties…

The memoir included more than Martha Stewart… it included other happenings that year, such as the loss of her beloved dog Maisie. That was the toughest part of the book, in my opinion, but it certainly hit my heart. The other memorable part, for me was her mammograms. Other bits of it were off and on funny. I’m not a Martha Stewart fan, personally, so that wasn’t a draw for me at all. I listened to the audio, narrated by Jen herself, and she did fine with the narration.