Audiobook Review: Free: My Search for Meaning by Amanda Knox
Free: My Search for Meaning
Author: Amanda Knox
Narrator: Amanda Knox
Published: March 25, 2025
Audiobook: 10 hours 18 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: April 21-27, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
Amanda Knox reflects on her world-famous confinement in an Italian prison—and her return to an “ordinary” life—to reveal hard-won truths about purpose and fulfillment that will resonate with anyone who has ever felt trapped in their own circumstances.
Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didn’t commit—and became a notorious tabloid story in the process. Though she was exonerated, it’s taken more than a decade for her to reclaim her identity and truly feel free.
Free recounts how Knox survived incarceration, the mistakes she made and misadventures she had reintegrating into society, and culminates in the as-yet-untold story of her return to Italy and the extraordinary relationship she went on to build with the man who sent her to prison. It is the moving saga of how she wrests back her own life from the grip of her story’s notoriety and returns to the quiet matters of a normal life—seeking a life partner, finding a job, or even just going out in public.
In harrowing (and sometimes hilarious) detail, Amanda reveals her personal growth and hard-fought wisdom, recasting her public reckoning as a private reflection on the search for meaning and purpose that will speak to everyone who has persevered through hardship.
Jessica’s Review:
Amanda Knox: Hers is a name we all know and think we know the story, but we don’t. There is so much more to her story and after her eventual acquittal. Free: My Search for Meaning gives us her story of moving on and becoming the strong woman that she is.
Free does mention some of her time in prison, but the main focus is her life afterwards. She works to persevere and rise above her past challenges to become whom she now is. She is herself without apology, take it or leave it, and like her or don’t.
I learned more about her and her story. I was not aware that she eventually married and has children. She also developed a relationship with her former prosecutor Giuliano Mignini, eventually writing him and shockingly becoming friends! She is a stronger woman that I am. I could never see myself reaching out to the man who believed I killed my roommate and who was determined to see me be in prison for as long as possible.
Knox is very eloquent in both her writing and narration. She has definitely become Free and has moved on in her life. Thank you for bringing your story to us Amanda.
Audiobook Review: My Time to Stand by Gypsy-Rose Blanchard
My Time to Stand
Authors:
Gypsy-Rose Blancard
Melissa Moore
Michele Matrisciani
Narrator: Gypsy-Rose Blancard
Published: December 10, 2024
Audiobook: 6 hours 35 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 19-23, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
A victim of her mother’s Munchausen by proxy and child abuse survivor, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard’s unique and controversial case made headlines across the world.
Now, she’s finally free to start living her life on her terms—and to tell her own story as only she can.
Forced to use a wheelchair in public and endure a lifetime of faux illness, fraud, and exploitation, Gypsy was subjected not only to her mother’s medical, physical, and emotional abuse, but deprived of childhood milestones. Prevented from attending school or socializing, Gypsy’s formative years were defined by pain and isolation.
After serving eight years in prison for the role she played in her mother Dee Dee’s murder, Gypsy is embracing her fresh start—and reminding all of us that it’s never too late.
In this revelatory, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful memoir, Gypsy shares the painful realities she grew up with and the details of her life that only she knows, including:
The abusive cycle that began with Dee Dee’s abuse by her father
Gypsy’s fear that continued unnecessary surgery would leave her truly disabled
How she coped with guilt and accepted responsibility for her mother’s death
Memories of her final days in prison
What she learned upon reviewing her own medical records for the first time
How it felt to finally see her family again as her authentic self.
Featuring new facts about Gypsy’s life that she previously kept private, My Time to Stand offers an unprecedented look at the real Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, proudly embarking on her ongoing journey to recovery and self-discovery.
Jessica’s Review:
I will admit I had never heard of Gypsy-Rose until she was getting out of prison. All of a sudden, her name was popping up everywhere I was thinking “Who is this Gypsy person?” How I missed the news of what happened I have no idea. While listening to this audiobook, I did become fascinated and researched the case, and I even watched some crime television to not just have Gypsy’s side of the case.
Ultimately, My Time to Stand is not a true crime book, but a memoir of Gypsy’s life that she is telling from her memory. Yes, her mother’s murder is detailed in the book along with graphic sexual encounters Gypsy had. This is Gypsy’s life from her memory and her version of events, accurate or not due to her memory or lies as people will say.
Blanchard had two co-writer to assist her with telling her version of her life. The book does have some issues with inconsistencies throughout, which could be again from Blanchard’s memory. The reader/ listener does pick up on those inconsistencies.
Gypsy-Rose also narrates My Time to Stand. I had no issue with her voice and give her kudos for being able to narrate this book, despite what people may believe or not.
In the short time since this book has been released, Gypsy-Rose has given birth to her daughter with boyfriend Ken one year to the day of her release from prison. I can only hope that she will decide to eventually live as ‘normal’ a life as possible and disappear from the limelight.
Would I have bought this book on my own? No, and if I had not been granted a copy to listen to by the publisher, I would have at some point gotten the audiobook from my library to listen to for curiosity’s sake. Many thanks to the publisher for giving me a chance to listen to and review this memoir.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
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Memoir Review: That Bird Has My Wings by Jarvis Jay Masters
That Bird Has My Wings: The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row
Author: Jarvis Jay Masters
Narrator: Korey Jackson
Published: September 22, 2009
Audiobook: 9 hours 48 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: March 18-23, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars
Audiobook Description:
That Bird Has My Wings is the astounding memoir of death row inmate Jarvis Masters and a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit and the talent of a fine writer. Offering scenes from his life that are at times poignant, revelatory, frightening, soul-stirring, painful, funny, and uplifting, That Bird Has My Wings tells the story of the author’s childhood with parents addicted to heroin, an abusive foster family, a life of crime and imprisonment, and the eventual embracing of Buddhism.
Jessica’s Review:
This was our book club read for March and I think I went in expecting another The Sun Does Shine, which it wasn’t. This was just a depressing book for me. It wasn’t uplifting at all. So many examples of Masters life which was always negative and only a few chapters focused on when he went to prison. He is still on death row for the murder of a prison guard. Is he an innocent man? No, he actually did commit assault and theft. But he is also a casualty of his family upbringing and a broken foster care system.I can’t say much more than this, because this is someone’s actual life, but it was just too much for me. Masters can write well for someone with limited schooling and can tell his story in his own way. His memoir just was not for me.
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK