Reviewed by Olga Markova for Readers' Favorite

Voices Within: Family Chronicles by Lana Stasek tells the author’s life story, reconstructing her memories and ancestral tree from the 1960s. The book starts with her family history before her birth and spans all five decades of her life. The book describes the milestones that defined the author’s life, from childhood fears and corporal punishments to failed and successful marriages, parenting, emigration from Ukraine to the USA, the lessons the author learned, and reflections about topical social issues, such as depression, suicide, and social media privacy violations. Originally intending this book for herself, the author eventually saw a wider purpose to help others see their own lives differently and even brought this story to an English-speaking audience. What will you learn from Lana’s life story?

Voices Within: Family Chronicles deserves so much praise! As a contemporary with a shared ex-Soviet and divergent background, I appreciated the walk down memory lane and admired Lana Stasek's direct, detailed, and accurate portrayal of life in the USSR and post-Soviet wild West, including the challenges of public transport, housing, law enforcement, education, passion-or-paycheck career choices, and even death. The author’s animal-loving, kind, and defiant personality appealed to me, and I shared in the horror of the suffocating predictability of life’s blueprint loop that drove Lana - and me – out of the post-Soviet space. I also admired Lana for recovering the long-lost relationships with her extended family and friends and reassessing what she would do differently now. In addition, I liked Lana’s defiant, witty humor, especially in ridiculing the stance of fairy tales on man-woman relationships. But most of all, I enjoyed Lana’s take on neuro-linguistic programming and reincarnation.

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Megan Tusing, a talented and experienced voice actress with many audiobooks to her credit. The hours the audiobook lasted passed in a flash and left me wishing for more. I liked Megan’s dynamic, confident, and direct narration style – it interplayed perfectly with the author’s vibrant character and storytelling honesty, and captured every tonality of the author’s messages. The clear diction and flawless sound recording made this audio production praiseworthy. All in all, this admirable memoir will resonate with adults interested in family relationships and anyone curious about life in the Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine. In addition, young adults and older couples will discover an abundance of inspirational wisdom in this touching, introspective, and thought-provoking story.