Booklist Magazine

Spotlight on Biography & Memoir

Adult

Devout: A Memoir of Doubt.

By Anna Gazmarian. Read by Rachel LeBlang.

2024. 5hr. Simon & Schuster Audio, DD (9781797175164).

Gazmarian reflects on the harmful religious dogma that acted as a framework for her Evangelical Christian upbringing and ultimately caused her to challenge her faith. Documenting her diagnosis and challenges with bipolar disorder from age 18 into her early thirties, Gazmarian explores deepseeded religious trauma. Devout lays bare the emotional wounds that church culture can perpetuate and highlights the specific stigmatization facing Christians who struggle with their mental health. This is a great book for anyone who wants to think critically about faith from someone who has, despite her challenges, not renounced hers. Rachel Leblang’s calming voice is clear and measured, recounting the head-shaking hypocrisies and judgment from Evangelicals who ascribed Gazmarian’s mental health struggles to her not having enough faith in God. —Tracy D. F. Resonance

Did I Ever Tell You?

By Genevieve Kingston. Read by the author.

2024. 7hr. Simon & Schuster Audio, DD (9781797170688).

Author, actor, and educator Kingston shares how her memories were developed. From a very young age, on each birthday she unwrapped gifts that had been prepared

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