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    Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir
    Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir
    Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir
    Audiobook8 hours

    Somebody's Daughter: A Memoir

    Written by Ashley C. Ford

    Narrated by Ashley C. Ford

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    "Ashley C. Ford brings listeners into her life in this outstanding coming-of-age story...Listeners will cheer as Ford attends college and weep as she visits her father in prison, and when he is finally released." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner

    This program is read by the author, and includes a bonus conversation between the author and Clint Smith.

    One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.

    Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates. When the relationship turns sour, he assaults her. Still reeling from the rape, which she keeps secret from her family, Ashley desperately searches for meaning in the chaos. Then, her grandmother reveals the truth about her father’s incarceration . . . and Ashley’s entire world is turned upside down.

    Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor, Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.

    A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books

    "Ashley Ford's prose is glass—so clear, sharp and smooth that the reader sees, in vivid focus, her complicated childhood, brilliant mind, and golden heart. The gravity and urgency of Somebody’s Daughter anchored me to my chair and slowed my heartbeat—like no book has since Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. Ashley Ford is a writer for the ages, and Somebody’s Daughter will be a book of the year." -- Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Untamed and founder of Together Rising

    "This remarkable, heart-wrenching story of loss, hardship, and self-acceptance astounds." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

    “Ford’s wrenchingly brilliant memoir is truly a classic in the making. The writing is so richly observed and so suffused with love and yearning that I kept forgetting to breathe while reading it.” -- John Green, #1 New York Times bestselling author

    Editor's Note

    Sublime…

    Roxane Gay chose this “sublime” memoir as the August pick for her Audacious Book Club, calling it “beautifully written, searingly honest, and deeply affecting.” Podcaster Ashley Ford (“Lovecraft Country Radio,” “The Chronicles of Now”) shares her story of growing up without her father, who was in prison most of her childhood, and her complicated relationship with her mother. “‘Somebody’s Daughter’ is the heart-wrenching yet equally witty and wondrous story of how Ford came through the fire and emerged triumphant, as her own unapologetic, Black-girl self,” writes The New York Times.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJun 1, 2021
    ISBN9781250804105
    Author

    Ashley C. Ford

    Ashley C. Ford is a writer, host, and educator who lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio, seasons one & three of MasterCard’s Fortune Favors The Bold, as well as the video interview series PROFILE by BuzzFeed News, and Brooklyn-based news & culture TV show, 112BK. She was also the host of the first season of Audible's literary interview series, Authorized. She has been named among Forbes Magazine's 30 Under 30 in Media (2017), Brooklyn Magazine's Brooklyn 100 (2016), Time Out New York's New Yorkers of The Year (2017), and Variety’s New Power of New York (2019).

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    Reviews for Somebody's Daughter

    4.5/5

    313 ratings19 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      I loved this so much. There were parts in it that strongly resonated with me and helped me put to words experiences of my own and what it felt like to go through it and feel the aftermath of it all after. I love how abundantly full of love this book and her words are, it makes my heart flutter with happiness.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book showed a rawness of emotion and experience that it made me reflect upon my own life experiences. Ashley is a great storyteller and I'll be thinking about this book and how I have approached my relationships with my own daughters and how I can do better.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Rich, generous, witty, loving, heartful, devastating and hopeful. Thank you Ashley for this gift.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Very honest autobiography and I loved that the author narrated
    • 5/5
      Amazed by her honesty and vulnerability. Will touch anyone who's ever loved anyone who's incarcerated, anyone who's had to reconcile a less than ideal childhood and have struggled to love their parents as they are, and not as we wish they were.
    • 5/5
      This was a gorgeous book from beginning to end, I highly recommend.
    • 5/5
      An excellent autobiography, so honestly and beautifully written. A joy to read!
    • 5/5
      LOVED this book! Especially the interview with the author post the audio book. I love how Ashley shared the importance of telling your story, your truth, and letting others after you feel it’s ok to tell their story and truth. Deep thoughts, great stories, and great work Ashley ! Thanks for inspiring me to continue my own work personally and professionally.
    • 5/5
      I love memoirs, and this was a beautiful book. Ashley Ford is an amazing writer.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book. Yeah for you Ashley this was amazing and you told your truth ! Y’all get this book and page turning book
    • 4/5
      Gave the book 3.75 and I’m giving the audio version 4 because it made it easier to read.
    • 4/5
      Ashley C. Ford gives us a glimpse into her life growing up with a single mother and incarcerated father. This book is tough and raw, with so much vulnerability being left on the page. I’ve been a fan of Ashley for a while but had no idea that she had experienced so much trauma from such an early age. This book is a journey and I’m glad I read it, but just know there is a lot of trauma that could be triggering for SA survivors.

      Reading this on audio also made the experience even more intense because I was listening to Ashley tells these stories of verbal and physical abuse from her childhood. And knowing these types of things are more common than you realize is really heartbreaking.
    • 5/5
      Really makes you think about how your own kids perceive you and the nature and meaning of family. Short but dense this memoir needs to be taken in slow and savored. The audiobook on 1x speed is perfect for this!
    • 5/5
      I just gobble this book up whole! 10/10 would recommend!
    • 3/5
      Maybe my expectations were too high. Maybe if I followed Ashley, or knew who she was before reading this, I would have enjoyed it more.

      Don't get me wrong. It's an interesting, heartfelt story and is beautifully written, if you just want to read about someone else's hardships. For me, Ashley has yet to live an extraordinary life. Her story is very relatable and made me reflect on my own. Yes, she struggled, and her journey is one of self awareness, dealing with self esteem and body dysphoria issues. It's good, but I missed the wow factor.

      If I read this in a book club or with a friend, it would perhaps lead to a good therapy session. I think it was therapeutic for Ashley.
      (Note:Despite the description there is relatively little in it about Ashley's father).

      Maybe I just didn't get it. I'll follow Ashley's life a bit closer and I'll come back and edit my review if I discover what I missed. Maybe memoirs don't need a wow factor?
    • 5/5
      I first heard about it from the back of the month club, And I debated about receiving this one as my first one. I decided to listen to it as an audiobook on here and enjoyed it so so much. I have already recommended this book to many of my coworkers and friends and family. This is definitely one that I will remember for a long long time.
    • 5/5
      Ashley C. Ford has a voice that at once draws you in and sets you at ease. What she brings into this world with who she is, how she lives, loves and writes is a gift to the rest of us. Hearing her story was an honour as it was intimate and somehow universal. Listen to this beautiful memoir!
    • 5/5
      Ashley C. Ford’s voice is fierce! Must listen & buying a physical copy too!
    • 5/5
      this book made me feel things i didn't know i had in me. i love Ashley and listening to her narrate her book was so soothing and very important to hear her truth.