Listen free for 30 days
-
What My Mother and I Don't Talk About
- Fifteen Writers Break the Silence
- Narrated by: Michele Filgate, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Roger Casey, Janina Edwards, Emily Ellet, Cynthia Farrell, Soneela Nankani, David Sadzin
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Essays
People who bought this also bought...
-
How Do We Know We're Doing It Right
- Essays on Modern Life
- By: Pandora Sykes
- Narrated by: Pandora Sykes
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Incisive, wide-ranging and witty, it explores the questions, anxieties and agendas that consume our lives. Pandora Sykes interrogates the stories we’ve been sold and the ones we tell ourselves - from happiness to wellness, womanhood to consumerism - in ways that are both surprising and reassuring.
-
-
Accent too posh but damn good book
- By Amazon Customer on 20-08-20
-
Stay with Me
- By: Ayobami Adebayo
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yejide is hoping for a miracle, for a child. When her in-laws insist upon a new wife, it is too much for Yejide to bear. It will lead to jealousy, betrayal and despair. Unravelling against the social and political turbulence of '80s Nigeria, Stay with Me sings with the voices, colours, joys and fears of its surroundings. Ayobami Adebayo weaves a devastating story of the fragility of married love, the undoing of family, the wretchedness of grief and the all-consuming bonds of motherhood.
-
-
Beautiful realism
- By Linn Davies on 13-03-17
-
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
- By: Lori Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever wonder what your therapist is really thinking? Now you can find out...a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world. Meet Lori Gottlieb, an insightful and compassionate therapist whose clients present with all kinds of problems. There’s the struggling new parents; the older woman who feels she has nothing to live for; the self-destructive young alcoholic; and the terminally ill 35-year-old newlywed.
-
-
Insightful, powerful, normal and highly enjoyable
- By Jane on 08-09-19
-
The Vanishing Half
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white and her white husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
An Important Read
- By Stephanie on 23-06-20
-
Hidden Valley Road
- By: Robert Kolker
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the air force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins - aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony - and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse.
-
-
Poignant, unbelievable and incredibly well written!
- By miss potter on 25-04-20
-
Notes to Self
- By: Emilie Pine
- Narrated by: Emilie Pine
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this vivid and powerful collection of essays, Emilie Pine boldly confronts the past to better understand herself, her relationships and her role in society. She speaks to the business of living as a woman in the 21st century - its extraordinary pain and its extraordinary joy. Tackling subjects like addiction, fertility, feminism and sexual violence, and where these subjects intersect with legislation, these beautifully written essays are at one fascinating and funny, intimate and searingly honest.
-
-
Just another white woman...
- By Mrs. I Fox on 09-11-19
-
How Do We Know We're Doing It Right
- Essays on Modern Life
- By: Pandora Sykes
- Narrated by: Pandora Sykes
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Incisive, wide-ranging and witty, it explores the questions, anxieties and agendas that consume our lives. Pandora Sykes interrogates the stories we’ve been sold and the ones we tell ourselves - from happiness to wellness, womanhood to consumerism - in ways that are both surprising and reassuring.
-
-
Accent too posh but damn good book
- By Amazon Customer on 20-08-20
-
Stay with Me
- By: Ayobami Adebayo
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Yejide is hoping for a miracle, for a child. When her in-laws insist upon a new wife, it is too much for Yejide to bear. It will lead to jealousy, betrayal and despair. Unravelling against the social and political turbulence of '80s Nigeria, Stay with Me sings with the voices, colours, joys and fears of its surroundings. Ayobami Adebayo weaves a devastating story of the fragility of married love, the undoing of family, the wretchedness of grief and the all-consuming bonds of motherhood.
-
-
Beautiful realism
- By Linn Davies on 13-03-17
-
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
- By: Lori Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever wonder what your therapist is really thinking? Now you can find out...a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist's world. Meet Lori Gottlieb, an insightful and compassionate therapist whose clients present with all kinds of problems. There’s the struggling new parents; the older woman who feels she has nothing to live for; the self-destructive young alcoholic; and the terminally ill 35-year-old newlywed.
-
-
Insightful, powerful, normal and highly enjoyable
- By Jane on 08-09-19
-
The Vanishing Half
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white and her white husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
An Important Read
- By Stephanie on 23-06-20
-
Hidden Valley Road
- By: Robert Kolker
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the air force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins - aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony - and they worked hard to play their parts. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse.
-
-
Poignant, unbelievable and incredibly well written!
- By miss potter on 25-04-20
-
Notes to Self
- By: Emilie Pine
- Narrated by: Emilie Pine
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this vivid and powerful collection of essays, Emilie Pine boldly confronts the past to better understand herself, her relationships and her role in society. She speaks to the business of living as a woman in the 21st century - its extraordinary pain and its extraordinary joy. Tackling subjects like addiction, fertility, feminism and sexual violence, and where these subjects intersect with legislation, these beautifully written essays are at one fascinating and funny, intimate and searingly honest.
-
-
Just another white woman...
- By Mrs. I Fox on 09-11-19
-
Women Don't Owe You Pretty
- By: Florence Given
- Narrated by: Florence Given
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Women Don't Owe You Pretty is the ultimate audiobook for anyone who wants to challenge the out-dated narratives supplied to us by the patriarchy. Through Florence's story you will learn how to protect your energy, discover that you are the love of your own life and realise that today is a wonderful day to dump them.
-
-
It's okay
- By Slashwood on 11-07-20
-
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo, Julia Whelan, Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one in the journalism community is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now? Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband, David, has left her, and her career has stagnated.
-
-
Great story and superb narration
- By Sigrin on 13-03-20
-
Thick
- And Other Essays
- By: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Narrated by: Tressie McMillan Cottom
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Smart, humorous, and strikingly original essays by one of “America’s most bracing thinkers on race, gender, and capitalism of our time.” (Rebecca Traister) In these eight piercing explorations on beauty, media, money, and more, Tressie McMillan Cottom - award-winning professor and acclaimed author of Lower Ed - embraces her venerated role as a purveyor of wit, wisdom, and Black Twitter snark about all that is right and much that is wrong with this thing we call society.
-
-
actually mindblowing
- By Maz on 03-10-19
-
I Am Not Your Baby Mother
- By: Candice Brathwaite
- Narrated by: Candice Brathwaite
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's about time we made motherhood more diverse.... When Candice fell pregnant and stepped into the motherhood playing field, she found her experience bore little resemblance to the glossy magazine photos of women in horizontal stripe tops and the pinned discussions on Mumsnet about what pushchair to buy. Leafing through the piles of prenatal paraphernalia, she found herself wondering: "Where are all the black mothers?".
-
-
Disappointing
- By caroline on 10-06-20
-
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1982 Murakami began running to keep fit. Here he reflects on his running experiences. Equal parts travelogue, training log, and reminiscence, this revealing memoir covers his preparation for the 2005 New York City Marathon. By turns funny and sobering, playful and philosophical, this is a must-listen for fans of this masterful author and for the increasing number of people who find a similar satisfaction in running.
-
-
Surprising little gem
- By Suswati on 05-04-17
-
Period Power
- By: Maisie Hill
- Narrated by: Maisie Hill
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Period Power is a profound but practical blueprint for aligning daily life with the menstrual cycle, to give all menstruators a no-nonsense explanation of what the hell happens to us every month and how we can use each phase to its full advantage. Ninety per cent of people who have periods experience symptoms of PMS, a syndrome which features a wide range of signs and symptoms, and yet there's an enduring lack of understanding about what it actually is and a disappointingly meagre range of treatment options.
-
-
All Over the Place
- By AnnaLouise Brunton on 31-05-20
-
Untamed
- Stop Pleasing, Start Living
- By: Glennon Doyle
- Narrated by: Glennon Doyle
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For many years, Glennon Doyle denied her discontent. Then, while speaking at a conference, she looked at a woman across the room and fell instantly in love. Three words flooded her mind: There. She. Is. At first, Glennon assumed these words came to her from on high but soon she realised they had come to her from within. This was the voice she had buried beneath decades of numbing addictions and social conditioning. Glennon decided to let go of the world’s expectations of her and reclaim her true untamed self.
-
-
Repetitive & Obvious
- By Amazon Customer on 08-06-20
-
How to Fail: Everything I’ve Ever Learned from Things Going Wrong
- By: Elizabeth Day
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Day
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part memoir, part manifesto, and including chapters on dating, work, sport, babies, families, anger and friendship, it is based on the simple premise that understanding why we fail ultimately makes us stronger. It's an audiobook about learning from our mistakes and about not being afraid. Uplifting, inspiring and rich in stories from Elizabeth’s own life, How to Fail reveals that failure is not what defines us; rather it is how we respond to it that shapes us as individuals.
-
-
Based on partial listen - couldn't finish.
- By dot_stockport on 31-07-19
-
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
- By: C. G. Jung
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1957, four years before his death, Carl Gustav Jung, psychiatrist and psychologist, began writing his life story. But what started as an exercise in autobiography soon morphed into an altogether more profound undertaking.
-
-
'Two souls in his breast'
- By Rachel Redford on 06-06-16
-
Wolf Hall
- The Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Ben Miles
- Length: 25 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk and later his successor. Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events.
-
-
Great story but too many saliva sounds
- By K. Patel on 17-07-20
-
Such a Fun Age
- By: Kiley Reid
- Narrated by: Nicole Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Emira is apprehended at a supermarket for ‘kidnapping’ the white child she’s actually babysitting, it sets off an explosive chain of events. Her employer Alix, a feminist blogger with the best of intentions, resolves to make things right. But Emira herself is aimless, broke and wary of Alix’s desire to help. When a surprising connection emerges between the two women, it sends them on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know – about themselves, each other and the messy dynamics of privilege.
-
-
doesn't live up to the hype
- By Tsundoko and Tea on 10-01-20
-
Me and White Supremacy
- How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World
- By: Layla Saad
- Narrated by: Layla Saad
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
White supremacy is a violent system of oppression that harms Black, Indigenous and People of Colour, and if you are a person who holds white privilege, then you are complicit in upholding that harm, whether you realise it or not. And if you are person who holds white privilege, the question you should be asking isn't whether or not this is true, but rather, what are you going to do about it?
-
-
Race baiting rubbish
- By Amazon Customer on 08-06-20
Summary
“You will devour these beautifully written - and very important - tales of honesty, pain, and resilience” (Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times best-selling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls) from 15 brilliant writers who explore how what we don’t talk about with our mothers affects us, for better or for worse.
As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize that she was actually trying to write about how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. This gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers.
Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything.
As Filgate writes, “Our mothers are our first homes, and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.” There’s relief in acknowledging how what we couldn’t say for so long is a way to heal our relationships with others and, perhaps most important, with ourselves.
Contributions by Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.
The complete list of narrators includes: Michele Filgate, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Roger Casey, Janina Edwards, Emily Ellet, Cynthia Farrell, Soneela Nankani, David Sadzin, Keong Sim, and Candace Thaxton.
What listeners say about What My Mother and I Don't Talk About
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- khulud khamis
- 19-07-19
exceptional and brave
I listened to this on Audible over the past month. The reading was excellent. These are brave, personal essays, touching on various issues, most of which we don't talk about as a society. It takes courage to open up one's heart and so publicly talk about what goes on behind closed doors. The essays show how complex, delicate, and fragile are relationships between children and parents. The essays also made me think about all what I didn't have time to talk with my mother about, who passed away six months ago.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- cheryl
- 11-08-20
A daunting task
Looking into one's life after 66 years can be a dauting task...Thanks for showing me it is possible and maybe!!! required.
-
Overall

- Amazon Customer
- 04-05-20
will probably make you feel grateful
I expected the book to have deep stories with complicated relationships, but oh my lanta... it would have been nice to sprinkle happy/funny/in hindsight tales of a mother daughter relationship. Every story, had a deep dark take. I expected some laughs and tears, it was just tears and "oh mys" I barely finished it.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Heather
- 26-04-20
Worth a listen.
Amazing stories! As an audiobook it was sometimes hard to discern who the reader was talking about, but the stories were well developed and filled with emotion. Recommend for anyone with a interesting or difficult relationship with their mother.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Miss G
- 18-09-19
One sided stories
Some of the stories were valid. Some were a bit windy and only from one point of view
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Rachel F Bale
- 30-08-19
Must read- stunning writing.
This book was captivating, heartfelt and moving. I found myself relating to characters, crying with them, feeling what they felt. I was sucked in completely, and have rewritten my own thoughts on my mother. This book is great for anyone who doesn’t understand their maternal relationship, or needs a new way to define it. Thank you- to all 15 writers. You have helped me understand the notion of maternal love.