
Michael Duke
I Can't Wait to Listen These Books
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The Plotters
- A Novel
- By: Un-su Kim
- Narrated by: Arthur Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Behind every assassination, there is an anonymous mastermind - a plotter - working in the shadows. Plotters quietly dictate the moves of the city's most dangerous criminals, but their existence is little more than legend. Reseng is an assassin. Raised by a cantankerous killer named Old Raccoon in the crime headquarters "The Library", Reseng never questioned anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read. But one day, Reseng steps out of line on a job, toppling a set of carefully calibrated plans.
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Not for multi-tasking
- By Possum Bean on 06-26-19
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Gnomon
- By: Nick Harkaway
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 29 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the world of Gnomon, citizens are constantly observed and democracy has reached a pinnacle of "transparency". Every action is seen, every word is recorded, and the System has access to its citizens' thoughts and memories - all in the name of providing the safest society in history. When suspected dissident Diana Hunter dies in government custody, it marks the first time a citizen has been killed during an interrogation. The System doesn't make mistakes, but something isn't right about the circumstances surrounding Hunter's death.
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Excellent, challenging, not a “beach read”
- By Mark Hancock on 12-09-18
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Gingerbread
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Helen Oyeyemi
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories, beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites listeners into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.
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Beautiful, Evocative Experience
- By purplebrain on 04-07-19
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Your Duck Is My Duck
- Stories
- By: Deborah Eisenberg
- Narrated by: Deborah Eisenberg, Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
At times raucously hilarious, at times charming and delightful, at times as solemn and mysterious as a pond at midnight, Deborah Eisenberg’s stories gently compel us to confront the most disturbing truths about ourselves - from our intimate lives as lovers, parents, and children, to our equally troubling roles as citizens on a violent, terrifying planet.
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Dazzling
- By Terry Pirate on 10-15-18
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The Infinite Game
- By: Simon Sinek
- Narrated by: Simon Sinek
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite game are changeable, while infinite games have no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers - only ahead and behind. The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we’re in? In this revelatory new audiobook, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset.
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Just go watch his TED Talks on the subject
- By F. J. Deyeso on 11-20-19
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Queenie
- By: Candice Carty-Williams
- Narrated by: Shvorne Marks
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her White long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
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The Black Womans Burden
- By LATOYA LEWIS on 05-20-19
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The Plotters
- A Novel
- By: Un-su Kim
- Narrated by: Arthur Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Behind every assassination, there is an anonymous mastermind - a plotter - working in the shadows. Plotters quietly dictate the moves of the city's most dangerous criminals, but their existence is little more than legend. Reseng is an assassin. Raised by a cantankerous killer named Old Raccoon in the crime headquarters "The Library", Reseng never questioned anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read. But one day, Reseng steps out of line on a job, toppling a set of carefully calibrated plans.
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Not for multi-tasking
- By Possum Bean on 06-26-19
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Gnomon
- By: Nick Harkaway
- Narrated by: Ben Onwukwe
- Length: 29 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the world of Gnomon, citizens are constantly observed and democracy has reached a pinnacle of "transparency". Every action is seen, every word is recorded, and the System has access to its citizens' thoughts and memories - all in the name of providing the safest society in history. When suspected dissident Diana Hunter dies in government custody, it marks the first time a citizen has been killed during an interrogation. The System doesn't make mistakes, but something isn't right about the circumstances surrounding Hunter's death.
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Excellent, challenging, not a “beach read”
- By Mark Hancock on 12-09-18
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Gingerbread
- A Novel
- By: Helen Oyeyemi
- Narrated by: Helen Oyeyemi
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories, beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites listeners into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.
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Beautiful, Evocative Experience
- By purplebrain on 04-07-19
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Your Duck Is My Duck
- Stories
- By: Deborah Eisenberg
- Narrated by: Deborah Eisenberg, Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At times raucously hilarious, at times charming and delightful, at times as solemn and mysterious as a pond at midnight, Deborah Eisenberg’s stories gently compel us to confront the most disturbing truths about ourselves - from our intimate lives as lovers, parents, and children, to our equally troubling roles as citizens on a violent, terrifying planet.
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Dazzling
- By Terry Pirate on 10-15-18
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The Infinite Game
- By: Simon Sinek
- Narrated by: Simon Sinek
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Finite games, like football or chess, have known players, fixed rules, and a clear endpoint. The winners and losers are easily identified. Infinite games, games with no finish line, like business or politics, or life itself, have players who come and go. The rules of an infinite game are changeable, while infinite games have no defined endpoint. There are no winners or losers - only ahead and behind. The question is, how do we play to succeed in the game we’re in? In this revelatory new audiobook, Simon Sinek offers a framework for leading with an infinite mindset.
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Just go watch his TED Talks on the subject
- By F. J. Deyeso on 11-20-19
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Queenie
- By: Candice Carty-Williams
- Narrated by: Shvorne Marks
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her White long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places...including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
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The Black Womans Burden
- By LATOYA LEWIS on 05-20-19
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The Old Drift
- A Novel
- By: Namwali Serpell
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Richard E. Grant, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 24 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The year 1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond.
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Brilliant, Literate, Fun, and Deep
- By Zu-Zu on 02-21-20
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Sing to It
- By: Amy Hempel
- Narrated by: Amy Hempel
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From award-winning author Amy Hempel, one of the most celebrated and original voices in American short fiction: a stellar new story collection - her first in more than a decade - about people finding meaning and connection in the idiosyncratic lives they lead.
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interesting
- By Anonymous User on 01-27-20
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How to Be Better at Almost Everything
- Learn Anything Quickly, Stack Your Skills, Dominate
- By: Pat Flynn
- Narrated by: Pat Flynn
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In How to Be Better at Almost Everything, best-selling author, fitness expert, entrepreneur, and professional business coach Pat Flynn shares the secrets to learning (almost) every skill, from marketing to music to martial arts to writing and relationships, teaching how to combine interests to achieve greatness in any field. His direct, “Generalist” approach to self-improvement gives you the tools you need to make your mark on the world and make buckets of money - without losing your soul.
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All you need for a fullfiled and productive life!
- By JC on 02-13-19
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"Cat Person" and Other Stories
- By: Kristen Roupenian
- Narrated by: Aubrey Plaza, Jayme Mattler, Molly Pope, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This collection brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying, as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Spanning a range of genres and topics - from the mundane to the murderous and supernatural - these are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortable.
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Enthralling
- By jason short on 01-19-19
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The Alter Ego Effect
- Defeat the Enemy, Unlock Your Heroic Self, and Start Kicking Ass
- By: Todd Herman
- Narrated by: Todd Herman
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A top performance expert reveals the secret behind many top athletes and executives: creating a heroic alter ego to activate when the chips are down.
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Incredible
- By C. Mattiola on 02-20-19
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Your Money or Your Life
- 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence: Fully Revised and Updated for 2018
- By: Vicki Robin, Joe Dominguez, Mr. Money Mustache - foreword
- Narrated by: Vicki Robin
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For more than 25 years, Your Money or Your Life has been considered the go-to book for taking back your life by changing your relationship with money. Hundreds of thousands of people have followed this nine-step program, learning to live more deliberately and meaningfully with Vicki Robin’s guidance. This fully revised and updated edition with a foreword by Mr. Money Mustache is the ultimate makeover of this best-selling classic, ensuring that its time-tested wisdom applies to people of all ages.
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Not A Book About Finances
- By Tristan on 09-24-18
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Circe
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child - not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring, like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power - the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
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Not worth the hype but still good
- By Yvonne den Besten on 06-21-19
My Favorite Book of 2018
Circe is more than mythology, allegory, or a strong female POV. It's a story that delivers literature’s greatest gift: To see, to live inside the mind of another human being. Madeline Miller’s sense of voice and character is so refined and diligently crafted that it feels neither fabricated nor refined—just organic. And there is no overacting from narrator Perdita Weeks, either. She is Circe. Circe the woman, Circe the god, Circe the story. All of it is so intimate and real in style and delivery that it feels like a direct transcription of human experience. The mythological underpinnings serve their purpose beautifully; keeping the contemplative, somewhat literary style aloft—safe from drowning in the murky depths of introspection, with healthy doses of action, tragedy, and unadulterated joy.
The Best Books I've Listened to Recently
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Stories of Your Life and Others
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection.
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Odd stories except for the Arrival
- By Mark on 07-15-17
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Half Gods
- By: Akil Kumarasamy
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Priya Ayyar
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Following the fractured origins and destinies of two brothers named after demigods from the ancient epic the Mahabharata, we meet a family struggling with the reverberations of the past in their lives. These ten interlinked stories redraw the map of our world in surprising ways: following an act of violence, a baby girl is renamed after a Hindu goddess but raised as a Muslim; a lonely butcher from Angola finds solace in a family of refugees in New Jersey; a gentle entomologist, in Sri Lanka, discovers unexpected reserves of courage while searching for his missing son.
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Freshwater
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side". Unsettling, heart-wrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities. Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family.
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Garbage - Don't waste money or time!
- By Brenda on 08-18-18
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The Laws of Human Nature
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Paul Michael, Robert Greene
- Length: 28 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of listeners, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding, and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all - understanding people's drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves. Whether at work, in relationships, or in shaping the world around you, The Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defense.
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Interesting mix of biography and thoughts
- By Tintin on 12-13-18
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Stories of Your Life and Others
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection.
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Odd stories except for the Arrival
- By Mark on 07-15-17
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Half Gods
- By: Akil Kumarasamy
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam, Priya Ayyar
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Following the fractured origins and destinies of two brothers named after demigods from the ancient epic the Mahabharata, we meet a family struggling with the reverberations of the past in their lives. These ten interlinked stories redraw the map of our world in surprising ways: following an act of violence, a baby girl is renamed after a Hindu goddess but raised as a Muslim; a lonely butcher from Angola finds solace in a family of refugees in New Jersey; a gentle entomologist, in Sri Lanka, discovers unexpected reserves of courage while searching for his missing son.
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Freshwater
- By: Akwaeke Emezi
- Narrated by: Akwaeke Emezi
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An extraordinary debut novel, Freshwater explores the surreal experience of having a fractured self. It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side". Unsettling, heart-wrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities. Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family.
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Garbage - Don't waste money or time!
- By Brenda on 08-18-18
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The Laws of Human Nature
- By: Robert Greene
- Narrated by: Paul Michael, Robert Greene
- Length: 28 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of listeners, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding, and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all - understanding people's drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves. Whether at work, in relationships, or in shaping the world around you, The Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defense.
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Interesting mix of biography and thoughts
- By Tintin on 12-13-18
Michael's Recent Reviews
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Black Leopard, Red Wolf
- The Dark Star Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Marlon James
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 24 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the stunning first novel in Marlon James' Dark Star trilogy, myth, fantasy, and history come together to explore what happens when a mercenary is hired to find a missing child....
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The most difficult book I've read recently
- By Carey Nelson on 05-03-19
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Black Leopard, Red Wolf
- The Dark Star Trilogy, Book 1
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Series: The Dark Star Trilogy, Book 1
- Length: 24 hrs and 2 mins
- Release date: 02-05-19
- Language: English
- You will hear more about this series
- I’m not claiming any credit for finding this one, as it has already become something of a movement, but I am definitely swept up in the transcendent force that is Marlon James and Dion Graham. I saw Neil Gaiman described the setting as "hallucinatory," and I haven’t heard a more apt description, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is an aimless, vague, or overly literary effort. It is absolutely riveting: My "listening hours per day" have more than tripled since I started listening to Black Leopard, Red Wolf. Word is Marlon James spent a long time researching African languages as well, and Dion Graham just nails all of the different accents. But the merits of Graham’s performance aren’t limited to language or accents. In every minute there is a new threat, a new scheme, and a new astoundingly unique voice; be it beast, witch, demi-god, or amorphous liquid assassin. I can only imagine Graham took a good break after this performance because the sheer number of different voices would put any narrator to the test, and he aced it.
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I Used to Be a Miserable F*ck
- An Everyman’s Guide to a Meaningful Life
- By: John Kim
- Narrated by: John Kim
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In I Used to Be a Miserable F*ck, Kim delivers the dos and don’ts for stepping up and into manhood, which he defines by transparency and strength of character, not six-pack abs or a corner office....
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Self hating male feminists manifesto
- By Amazon Customer on 04-04-20
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I Used to Be a Miserable F*ck
- An Everyman’s Guide to a Meaningful Life
- Narrated by: John Kim
- Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
- Release date: 01-29-19
- Language: English
- Bromotional intelligence
- I don’t think I’d describe myself as ever having been a miserable f*ck, but I was a teenager until around the age of 26. I also used to work in a really bad high school, and I’ve witnessed (and displayed) firsthand the epidemic deficit of emotional intelligence on the male end of the spectrum. I didn’t really come to terms with it either before listening to Brené Brown’s The Power of Vulnerability a few years ago, and that’s why I’m excited about I Used to Be a Miserable F*ck. It shows that the issue is gaining momentum, with the attention and mentorship it deserves. John Kim’s approach to the topic is definitely "dude-lier" than Brené Brown’s—his narration is gruff and serious, but he knows how to crack a joke—and I think that will appeal to some of the people who would benefit from this book the most.
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Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
- By: Arwen Elys Dayton
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Karissa Vacker, Brittany Pressley, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Today, our bodies define us. We color our hair; tattoo our skin; pierce our ears, brows, noses. Tomorrow has different rules. The future is no longer about who we are - it's about who we want to be. If you can dream it, you can be it....
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Separate Stories that Do Not Connect
- By Watters in Wyoming on 01-07-19
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Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Karissa Vacker, Brittany Pressley, Full Cast
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Release date: 12-04-18
- Language: English
- A youthful future
- On the spectrum from young adult to old adult my taste in books lies squarely in the geriatric, but Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful checked too many of my boxes otherwise to pass up. It is decidedly crafted for a younger audience, but that surprisingly didn’t distract me one bit from enjoying the sophisticated technological and emotional worlds that Arwen Elys Dayton deftly ties together between stories. These are real people struggling with the unforeseen complications of technology’s rabid acceleration. To my ears, the narrators do a fine job imbuing their performances with just a hint of adolescence, and as it turns out: a touch of naivety is precisely what makes each of these whole new worlds so captivating.
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The Lonesome Bodybuilder
- Stories
- By: Yukiko Motoya
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus, Brian Nishii, Erin Bennett, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In these 11 stories, the individuals who lift the curtains of their orderly homes and workplaces are confronted with the bizarre, the grotesque, the fantastic, the alien - and through it, find a way to liberation....
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Surreal Sad Lady Stories
- By Amazon Customer on 04-29-19
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The Lonesome Bodybuilder
- Stories
- Narrated by: Natalie Naudus, Brian Nishii, Erin Bennett, Richard Powers, Tanya Eby, Kate Mulligan
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Release date: 11-06-18
- Language: English
- Super strong short stories
- I love short stories because their brevity often makes them more bewildering and more stimulating than longer form writing. Yukiko Motoya’s debut collection is a great example of just how shocking great short stories can be. Taken on their own, the stories in this collection are beyond baffling, but cumulatively they offer an intimate perspective of the deeply personal irrationalities we all wrestle with on a daily basis. With each new character, I felt I had fallen in on a subterranean well of emotion. And with each new narrator, even though I knew I was hearing a new voice, I felt a unifying urgency that kept me absorbed and for some reason, comfortable. Even when it got real weird.
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Esther Perel's Where Should We Begin?: The Arc of Love
- By: Esther Perel
- Narrated by: Esther Perel
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Original Recording
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Performance
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Story
For her latest Audible Original, Where Should We Begin?: The Arc of Love, Esther Perel invites you to listen to private and intimate conversations exploring the evolution of relationships....
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Honest, Emotional and Raw
- By Lia on 03-18-19
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Esther Perel's Where Should We Begin?: The Arc of Love
- Narrated by: Esther Perel
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Release date: 10-04-18
- Language: English
- A relationship wizard works her magic
- Esther Perel’s book Mating in Captivity was a bible for me when I first moved in with my girlfriend a year and a half ago. And I kept coming back to it in those first few months (first…16 months?) as my girlfriend and I have worked on ironing out our different…perceptions of reality. Perel immediately established herself as someone with a next-level understanding of relationships in my mind, as I’m sure she will in yours. Nowhere is that on better display than when we get the chance to listen to her council couples through their complicated relationship issues, as she does in Arc of Love. It’s amazing to see how quickly she grasps the core issue each time, and how assertive she is in getting her patients to confront those issues in a productive way. And really, to be frank: it’s just a lot of fun to compare those core issues with ones I, for one, have experienced a few too many times.
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The Silence of the Girls
- By: Pat Barker
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton, Michael Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
From the Booker Prize-winning author comes a monumental new masterpiece. Pat Barker turns her attention to the timeless legend of The Iliad, as experienced by the captured women living in the Greek camp in the final weeks of the Trojan War....
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This Narrator Is A Spoken Word Goddess.
- By Texastential on 12-31-18
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The Silence of the Girls
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton, Michael Fox
- Series: The Women of Troy, Book 1
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Release date: 09-04-18
- Language: English
- The women of the Trojan War
- Mythological retellings are definitely trending right now, and we’ve seen some truly excellent examples recently (Circe remains my favorite audiobook of 2018). Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls is no exception. Barker focuses on The Illiad as experienced by the captured women, and the perspective shift is a perfect opportunity for audio; Kristin Atherton and Michael Fox’s intimate narration mirrors and reinforces the severely personal nature of this book. As a whole, The Silence of the Girls creates an experience that brings you so much closer emotionally to a story that continues to have profound influence.
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Flights
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the incomparably original Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk, Flights interweaves reflections on travel with an in-depth exploration of the human body, broaching life, death, motion, and migration....
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hard to follow
- By john on 10-24-18
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Flights
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Release date: 08-14-18
- Language: English
- Delightfully Disorienting Vignettes
- Olga Tokarczuk is apparently a very well known author in Poland, and while I’d never heard of her before she certainly has proven herself in awards, among them The Man Booker International Prize. Super weird short stories are also totally my thing, and when I saw the narrator was veteran Julia Whelan I was sold. Flights definitely falls into the super weird category. Its structure, content, and style all vary wildly between quirky and imaginative, to assertive and analytical. But it is extremely clear that Tokarczuk has a finger on exactly what bothers us most deeply. Her stories are inexplicably unsettling, and I can’t wait to test the knot that they tie themselves in, as I’ve heard the ending is particularly strong.
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Florida
- By: Lauren Groff
- Narrated by: Lauren Groff
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida - its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind - becomes its gravitational center....
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Terrible narration
- By Annie on 01-07-19
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Florida
- Narrated by: Lauren Groff
- Length: 8 hrs
- Release date: 06-05-18
- Language: English
- Exploring Florida as a state of mind
- As an almost lifelong New Jerseyian, Florida has always seemed a mystifying place—one that caters to extremes—and Lauren Groff’s new aptly titled book never loses sight of that dynamism. Her characters, like their vibrant settings, are entropic, overgrown, and saturated with the small dissatisfactions that make for great drama. The short story cycle format works too. To listen to her perform this collection is to meet many different people, see many different states, all in one.
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Artificial Condition
- By: Martha Wells
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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It has a dark past - one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself "Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more....
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Fun, short, overpriced.
- By AmazonCustomer on 12-15-18
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Artificial Condition
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Series: Murderbot Diaries, Book 2
- Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
- Release date: 05-08-18
- Language: English
- Punchy and fun Hugo finalist
- The first book in Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries series, All Systems Red, was recently named a 2018 Hugo Award finalist. It’s an excellent story and a great place to start if sarcastic quick-witted robots are your thing. With Artificial Condition, Wells has seized the opportunity to flush out Murderbot’s background and delivered another punchy and super fun addition to what is quickly becoming one of my favorite series. Kevin R. Free has a great approach to the performance as well; with his emphasis on Murderbot’s laid-back sardonic voice and perspective, never has a robot sounded so human.
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Speak No Evil
- A Novel
- By: Uzodinma Iweala
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Julia Whelan
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In this novel from the author of Beasts of No Nation, a revelation shared between two privileged teenagers from very different backgrounds sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences....
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So incredibly sad
- By Amazon Kunde on 02-08-20
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Speak No Evil
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Julia Whelan
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Release date: 03-06-18
- Language: English
- Lyrical and emotional
- I’ve never seen nor read Beasts of No Nation, so Speak No Evil is my first experience with author Uzodinma Iweala. His writing is sublime. Clean, precise, evocative, whatever you want to call it, I am constantly impressed by how well he mirrors his character’s emotions with their physical environment. For example, the moment before Niru comes out as gay to his potential girlfriend (very early in the story), he is wandering through her unheated parents' house, in the dark, and half naked. Iweala’s imagery and style is surprising in this way. It’s lyrical but not prosaic, and sparse as a means of conveying honesty and reality, without feeling brusque or truncated. Narrators Prentice Oneyemi and Julia Whelan are really the reason I picked this one though, because they are two seasoned veterans who complement each other, and Iweala’s aesthetic immaculately.
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The House of Impossible Beauties
- By: Joseph Cassara
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and '90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza....
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Cry Baby
- By Rita Lyons on 07-23-18
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The House of Impossible Beauties
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Release date: 02-06-18
- Language: English
- Brutal. Unflinching. Beautiful.
- The House of Impossible Beauties absolutely threw me into a world I knew close to nothing about. The Harlem Ball scene of the 80s and 90s was a culture born of intense, largely unrecognized struggle, and Joseph Cassara’s fictional ode to the time is likewise chock full of character. Pure, undiluted, super-concentrated character. This book is brutal. It is unflinching, and it is as real as it gets. Like have you ever seen Requiem for a Dream? It’s on the same page of, “Wow, I can’t believe anyone could endure this,” type emotional shock. But where that movie follows a drug addict's bleak downward spiral, Cassara’s characters never fail to demonstrate a life-affirming and indomitable strength that is, simply put, beautiful. Joseph Cassara clearly vetted narrator Christian Barillas super closely, as this is a book that demands fluidity between languages, genders, and class all at once—I think it would have been an impossible task for nearly anyone else, but Barillas nails it.
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The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
- Stories
- By: Denis Johnson
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman, Michael Shannon, Dermot Mulroney, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The Largesse of the Sea Maiden is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation....
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RIP Denis Johnson
- By Thomas B. Houghton on 01-19-18
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The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
- Stories
- Narrated by: Nick Offerman, Michael Shannon, Dermot Mulroney, Will Patton
- Length: 5 hrs and 17 mins
- Release date: 01-16-18
- Language: English
- A master of short fiction—an all-star cast of narrators
- Denis Johnson passed last year, but left us with this one last beautiful example of his wonderful writing. His stories are so refined, and transition so effortlessly, that there is often no noticeable distinction between the emotions they elicit. You might find yourself laughing at death, or worried for one of Johnson’s characters' untimely success. In this subtle way Johnson shocks his listeners into what I would guess is awareness, or clarity. At the very least, you can tell a book is good when it gets this many all-star narrators (Nick Offerman, Michael Shannon, Dermot Mulroney, Will Patton, and Liev Schreiber). They leave no stone of Johnson’s lyrical prowess unturned or unpolished.
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The Dark Dark
- Stories
- By: Samantha Hunt
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In these marvelously inventive stories, Samantha Hunt imagines numerous ways in which human lives might be altered by the otherworldly....
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A Total Trip
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 12-01-17
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The Dark Dark
- Stories
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Release date: 07-18-17
- Language: English
- A Total Trip
- When you first read about The Dark Dark the inventive concepts draw you in. A woman who cheats on her husband after she turns into a deer? Sounds funky, you think to yourself. What keeps you listening is Hunt's incredible sense of aesthetic. In many ways, as weird as these stories are, they are all about the same thing: a woman struggling with her many internal identities, motherhood, and wrestling with herself and her relationships in general. That's where I think the underlying emotional current of this book runs, and it hits you on a real level.
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American Wolf
- A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
- By: Nate Blakeslee
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Nate Blakeslee
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her....
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An Epic American Story
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 10-17-17
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American Wolf
- A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Nate Blakeslee
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Release date: 10-17-17
- Language: English
- My Favorite Book of 2017
- The wolf is rife with symbolism in American culture, and no less so in Blakeslee’s dynamic exploration of the controversial Yellowstone wolf reintroduction. American Wolf is a story that really has it all: a charismatic (read: badass) female protagonist, fierce action scenes, gripping courtroom drama, a coming-of-age tale, and last minute political upheavals all served up with sturdy, hard-hitting narration. It diligently reveals a very real political and emotional landscape, illuminated by increasingly dire circumstances and bold personalities at every turn. The result of which is an upending portrait of a great and unmistakable bond that we all share, and is as strained as ever—the further you get into this modern-day epic, the more deeply you realize that our story and the wolf’s are one and the same.
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Born to Run
- By: Bruce Springsteen
- Narrated by: Bruce Springsteen
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2009, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at the Super Bowl's halftime show. The experience was so exhilarating that Bruce decided to write about it....
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The Boss demonstrates his strong work ethic and dedication to excellence as he tells his story.
- By Tim on 12-21-16
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Born to Run
- Narrated by: Bruce Springsteen
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Release date: 12-06-16
- Language: English
- A Marathon Concert Tell-All
- Growing up in New Jersey it’s not too much of a stretch to say that Bruce Springsteen was something of a spiritual force. His voice is synonymous with a powerful sense of place, and it bears a rugged, scrappy idealism that can make you feel patriotic and subversive at the same time. That’s what makes this autobiography, written and performed by The Boss himself, nothing less than magical. It’s not simply a story of his path to success or a philosophy of greatness, but a marathon concert tell-all wherein he confronts demons of mental illness, poverty, and familial strife. It is nostalgic for a simpler time, but urgent in its display of discipline and individuality. Ultimately, Bruce delivers with this audiobook what he has done for nearly five decades with his music: a celebration of the commonplace and the struggles of American life with candor, imagination, and purpose.
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Hell Divers II: Ghosts
- The Hell Divers Series, Book 2
- By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Ten years ago, Hell Diver Xavier "X" Rodriguez fell to Earth. Those he left behind went on without him aboard the airship he once called home....
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