AudioFile Reviews

Cecile Richards, longtime president of Planned Parenthood, delivers a terrific performance of her inspiring new memoir. While not a professional narrator, Richards is a practiced public speaker who reads with energy, enunciation, excellent pacing, and emotion as she tracks her career in rabble-rousing from its start at home in Waco, Texas. The child of political activists--her father, a lawyer, often represented unions, and her mother famously became a left-leaning governor of Texas--Richards began her own trouble-making career by getting kicked out of school for protesting the Vietnam War. What a ride it's been since. Richards is fierce, funny, and pulls no punches, which will offend some and motivate many for whom this stirring audiobook will serve as a call to action. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Library Journal Reviews

From protesting the Vietnam War in seventh grade to her years as the president of Planned Parenthood, Richards recounts how she became an activist fighting for women's rights and social justice. She credits her progressive parents, who raised her to question authority and fight to make a difference in people's lives. To some extent, the memoir serves as an ode to her mother—Texas governor the late Ann Richards, whose influence is woven throughout the chapters of her daughter's story. Richards writes unapologetically about her beliefs and politics, catering to her progressive audience. She entertains and inspires with stories about her testimony before a congressional committee reviewing taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood to various moving accounts of the champions of the women's rights movement, including a murdered doctor in Wichita, KS, who supported the pro-choice movement. VERDICT Richards's reading pulls listeners deeper into the narrative. The tempo and emotion in her delivery give them front-row seats to key events in recent history and will inspire them to stand up, speak out, and lead. ["Documenting an inspiring life and offering a call to action, this timely volume is for all readers": LJ 4/15/18 review of the Touchstone hc.]—Gladys Alcedo, Wallingford, CT

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