-
Silver Sparrow
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Coleman Williams, Heather Alicia Simms
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $15.36
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Finding Me
- A Memoir
- By: Viola Davis
- Narrated by: Viola Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
-
-
A Glorious Listen!
- By Ajm220 on 04-27-22
By: Viola Davis
-
An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.
-
-
Loved the Story, but...
- By Lisa N. Haynes on 03-01-18
By: Tayari Jones
-
It's Not All Downhill from Here
- A Novel
- By: Terry McMillan
- Narrated by: Terry McMillan
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loretha Curry’s life is full. A little crowded sometimes, but full indeed. On the eve of her 68th birthday, she has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her - and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister, and everyone else with that outdated view of aging wrong. It’s not all downhill from here.
-
-
terry McMillan is in her own way
- By Jestina M Spaine on 04-12-20
By: Terry McMillan
-
Leaving Atlanta
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Kevin R. Free, Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning novelist Tayari Jones delivers a story based on the 1979-1980 Atlanta child murders. Told from the perspective of three fifth-grade classmates, Leaving Atlanta is a vividly disturbing, but hopeful novel.
-
-
Why does Audible make you answer these questions?
- By Rich in BCS on 04-03-13
By: Tayari Jones
-
The Other Black Girl
- A Novel
- By: Zakiya Dalila Harris
- Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather Alicia Simms, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
-
-
Provocative
- By TDub on 06-05-21
-
Dispossession
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Union
- Length: 57 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Motherhood isn’t easy, especially when you’re a mother of a Black son. Ten years ago, Cheryl jumped at the chance to send her son, Javonte, to an exclusive boarding school in New England - far away from Atlanta and the violence of the city streets. It was the American dream, or was it? Now settled in Vermont, Javonte is married and well-employed, but Cheryl hardly ever sees him, and when she does, her own son seems like someone she only used to know.
-
-
Wanted more
- By Sarah Peters on 01-19-21
By: Tayari Jones
-
Finding Me
- A Memoir
- By: Viola Davis
- Narrated by: Viola Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
-
-
A Glorious Listen!
- By Ajm220 on 04-27-22
By: Viola Davis
-
An American Marriage (Oprah’s Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Eisa Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to 12 years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding.
-
-
Loved the Story, but...
- By Lisa N. Haynes on 03-01-18
By: Tayari Jones
-
It's Not All Downhill from Here
- A Novel
- By: Terry McMillan
- Narrated by: Terry McMillan
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loretha Curry’s life is full. A little crowded sometimes, but full indeed. On the eve of her 68th birthday, she has a booming beauty-supply empire, a gaggle of lifelong friends, and a husband whose moves still surprise. True, she’s carrying a few more pounds than she should be, but Loretha is not one of those women who think her best days are behind her - and she’s determined to prove wrong her mother, her twin sister, and everyone else with that outdated view of aging wrong. It’s not all downhill from here.
-
-
terry McMillan is in her own way
- By Jestina M Spaine on 04-12-20
By: Terry McMillan
-
Leaving Atlanta
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Kevin R. Free, Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning novelist Tayari Jones delivers a story based on the 1979-1980 Atlanta child murders. Told from the perspective of three fifth-grade classmates, Leaving Atlanta is a vividly disturbing, but hopeful novel.
-
-
Why does Audible make you answer these questions?
- By Rich in BCS on 04-03-13
By: Tayari Jones
-
The Other Black Girl
- A Novel
- By: Zakiya Dalila Harris
- Narrated by: Aja Naomi King, Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Heather Alicia Simms, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-six-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers is tired of being the only Black employee at Wagner Books. Fed up with the isolation and microaggressions, she’s thrilled when Harlem-born and bred Hazel starts working in the cubicle beside hers. They’ve only just started comparing natural hair care regimens, though, when a string of uncomfortable events elevates Hazel to Office Darling, and Nella is left in the dust.
-
-
Provocative
- By TDub on 06-05-21
-
Dispossession
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Union
- Length: 57 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Motherhood isn’t easy, especially when you’re a mother of a Black son. Ten years ago, Cheryl jumped at the chance to send her son, Javonte, to an exclusive boarding school in New England - far away from Atlanta and the violence of the city streets. It was the American dream, or was it? Now settled in Vermont, Javonte is married and well-employed, but Cheryl hardly ever sees him, and when she does, her own son seems like someone she only used to know.
-
-
Wanted more
- By Sarah Peters on 01-19-21
By: Tayari Jones
-
Girl, Woman, Other
- By: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: Anna-Maria Nabirye
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of Britain's most celebrated writers of color, Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of black British women. Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and short-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, Girl, Woman, Other paints a vivid portrait of the state of post-Brexit Britain, as well as looking back to the legacy of Britain's colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.
-
-
smart, compassionate, confronting and enjoyable
- By Kelly on 12-20-19
-
The Darkest Child
- By: Delores Phillips
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1958 Georgia, the shade of a 13-year-old black girl's skin can make the difference in her fate. Tangy Mae is the smartest of her mother's 10 children, but she is also the darkest complected. The Quinns - all different skin shades, all with unknown fathers - live with their charismatic, beautiful, and tyrannical mother, Rozelle, in poverty on the fringes of a Georgia town where Jim Crow rules. Rozelle's children live in fear of her mood swings and her violence, but they are devoted to her. Rozelle pulls her children out of school when they are 12 years old so that they can help support her by going to work.
-
-
My heart couldn't take it
- By NIXX1993 on 03-01-18
By: Delores Phillips
-
Seven Days in June
- By: Tia Williams
- Narrated by: Mela Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eva Mercy is a single mom and bestselling erotica writer who is feeling pressed from all sides. Shane Hall is a reclusive, enigmatic, award‑winning novelist, who, to everyone's surprise, shows up in New York. When Shane and Eva meet unexpectedly at a literary event, sparks fly, raising not only their buried traumas, but the eyebrows of the Black literati. What no one knows is that 15 years earlier, teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy, torrid week madly in love.
-
-
Better than the Reviews Say
- By Akuba on 09-26-21
By: Tia Williams
-
The Help
- By: Kathryn Stockett
- Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.
-
-
What a great surprise!
- By Jan on 12-02-09
By: Kathryn Stockett
-
Miss Pearly's Girls
- By: ReShonda Tate Billingsley
- Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Raising four very different daughters on her own in rural Arkansas wasn't easy for Miss Pearly Bell. And she's always regretted that the sisters went their separate ways for good - and never wanted to see each other again. But when Pearly is stricken with a terminal illness, she summons them all home - determined to somehow help them get right with each other and forgive.... But that means dealing with past secrets and lies first.
-
-
Loved it
- By Louise.... New Jersey on 05-11-22
-
Before We Were Yours
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin, Catherine Taber
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge - until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents - but they quickly realize the dark truth.
-
-
I was rivetted, finished in three days.
- By Lin Cloward on 06-26-17
By: Lisa Wingate
-
The Vanishing Half
- A Novel
- By: Brit Bennett
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, Southern Black community and running away at age 16, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: Their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her Black daughter in the same Southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for White, and her White husband knows nothing of her past.
-
-
Soap opera material
- By Sheila S on 06-06-20
By: Brit Bennett
-
Orphan Train
- A Novel
- By: Christina Baker Kline
- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy, Suzanne Toren
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to "aging out" out of the foster care system. A community-service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse.... As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
-
-
Moving story of sharing and transformation.
- By Kathi on 04-03-13
-
His Only Wife
- By: Peace Adzo Medie
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Afi Tekple is a young seamstress whose life is narrowing rapidly. She lives in a small town in Ghana with her widowed mother, spending much of her time in her uncle Pious’ house with his many wives and children. Then one day she is offered a life-changing opportunity - a proposal of marriage from the wealthy family of Elikem Ganyo, a man she doesn’t truly know. She acquiesces but soon realizes that Elikem is not quite the catch he seemed. He sends a stand-in to his own wedding....
-
-
Storyline okay, audible performance horrible
- By Elizabeth G on 11-18-20
By: Peace Adzo Medie
-
Sugar
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sugar arrives in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas, like an ominous storm. She saunters down the street in a blonde wig and spiked heels, cigarette dangling between red-painted lips. Without even speaking to her, the women in town hate her. But when she moves in next door to Pearl, a woman who tragically lost her daughter 15 years earlier, the two women bond over tragic pasts.
-
-
Wow wow wow
- By brenda transon on 08-27-19
-
The Great Alone
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ernt Allbright, a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam war a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier.
-
-
IT WOULD. NOT. ENDDDD....
- By paintgal on 06-27-18
By: Kristin Hannah
-
Winter Garden
- A Novel
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters.
-
-
I thought I made a mistake
- By A. Musser on 11-29-17
By: Kristin Hannah
Publisher's Summary
Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, Silver Sparrow revolves around James Witherspoon's two families - the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters. It is a relationship destined to explode when secrets are revealed and illusions shattered. As Jones explores the backstories of her rich yet flawed characters - the father, the two mothers, the grandmother, and the uncle - she also reveals the joy, as well as the destruction, they brought to one another's lives. At the heart of it all are the two lives at stake, and like the best writers - think Toni Morrison with The Bluest Eye - Jones portrays the fragility of these young girls with raw authenticity as they seek love, demand attention, and try to imagine themselves as women, just not as their mothers.
More from the same
What listeners say about Silver Sparrow
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Keisha
- 01-17-13
underwhelming ending
3.75 stars. This book had been on my too read list for some time now so I was glad that an online book club chose it for January. I liked this book better than the authors other work Leaving Atlanta. I found myself unable to put the book down after a while and finished it in less than two days.
I try not to read too many reviews and synopsis so that I can go in with a clear head and draw my own opinions. I did notice however that some of reviews said the work was unfinished or the author seemed to not know how to wrap it up etc. As I was reading it I kept thinking what were people talking about this seems pretty complete and then I got to the end and epilogue and was like, HUH?!?!?!? I got it then and agree wholeheartedly. The book wasn't even wrapped up or concluded it seemed to end mid-sentence/thought. So I thought Ok the epilogue will complete it, but still no. That didn't do much more. Is there an author interview somewhere that explains the reason for this?
Outside of the ending, the book was good. I thought the two person perspective via the daughters helped bring a different level of emotion to the story especially for Dana's character. I appreciated the author giving us a kind of start to present view into both sets of lives so we could better understand certain decisions and actions. I actually wished we could have known Dana's thoughts during part 2. I wanted to know what finally prompted her to really befriend her sister and tell her she loved her. What was she thinking when she was in their house and having the conversation in the salon with Laverne. How terrified she was in that scene at the gas station when she was held up in the bathroom.
I think uncle Rolley was very interesting also and I would have been curious to understand some of his inner turmoil more.
All in all a solid read except for the ending.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michelle
- 12-21-11
A Big Disappointment
What disappointed you about Silver Sparrow?
The story line was predictable and not interesting. I picked this book because I really enjoyed her first book, Leaving Atlanta. However, I was so very disappointed this time around.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Something else from my already stocked library!
How did the narrator detract from the book?
No real problem with the narrator
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Silver Sparrow?
Everything after the Grandmother died or at least from the big party
Any additional comments?
Maybe Tayari can go back, review her Leaving Atlanta story, and write like that again!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael
- 11-06-12
Enjoyed the read
Would you listen to Silver Sparrow again? Why?
Probably not. I enjoyed listening to it, but don't feel compelled to go back
What was one of the most memorable moments of Silver Sparrow?
When they got stuck at the gas station
What about Rosalyn Coleman Williams and Heather Alicia Simms ’s performance did you like?
I loved their voices
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I had a positive reaction but I would not call it extreme.
Any additional comments?
Characters could have been more fully developed. Also the ending was blah!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. v. Kirchbach
- 11-08-20
A wonderfully thought provoking novel !
I read this book as the November read for the Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club, I absolutely loved this book, I know it is different from her earlier „American Marriage“ which I absolutely enjoyed as well.
Set in Atlanta, 'Silver Sparrow' grabbed my attention from the first page and ensured that I read through the night to finish the story.
Just why did I find the story of a family in the 1980s so fascinating? Well, the story concerns the interconnected lives of Dana and Chaurisse, two young black girls, growing up in a time of great change and the fight for rights. Although Chaurisse is largely unaware, the two girls are half-sisters as they share a father, who in fact is a bigamist and married to both of their mothers. I read Elizabeth Acevedo‘s „Clap when you land“ this summer and loved discovering similarities and things the authors had done differently.
„Silver Sparrow“ is told by first the perspective of Dana and then Chaurisse as they look back on their lives and realise the roles played by their parents.
This book is a thought provoking novel which raises the questions of love and duty. Along with the roles enforced by society and how people react.
A wonderfully written book and well worth reading. I will be following up with more of Tayari Jones's work.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Valerie
- 09-26-11
Disappointing
I purchased the book for a long business trip drive. It started off engaging at first, but then realism seemed to be absent in the middle. Character development would have helped; in the end, I was wanting the story to end.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 10-27-21
Weak ending
I enjoyed the story and performance. But the ending lacked substance. No real resolution was included or deduced.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ronda
- 07-10-21
playback speed
I enjoyed this book but only after I changed the playback speed to
1:10. The narrator was fantastic but only after I changed the playback speed.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mrs. Ruffin
- 07-07-21
Didn't do it for me
I didn't enjoy this book. First the narration made me cringe. It got better only because I got used to it. It took a bit too long to get to the point. It just didn't work for me.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 10-09-20
Phenomenal!
Tayari Jones NEVER disappoints. This tale like her others is woven into the fabric of my heart. Tayari tells a seamless story about the complicated nature of love, life, and marriage. I can't wait to read what she does next.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lyguria S.
- 06-25-22
Good story
What a story! I found myself full of emotions as the story played out. I was hoping for a different ending. It was truly heartbreaking