Nomadland
Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
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Narrated by:
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Karen White
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By:
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Jessica Bruder
About this listen
From the beet fields of North Dakota to the wilderness campgrounds of California to an Amazon warehouse in Texas, people who once might have kicked back to enjoy their sunset years are hard at work. Underwater on mortgages or finding that Social Security comes up short, they're hitting the road in astonishing numbers, forming a new community of nomads: RV and van-dwelling migrant laborers, or "workampers".
Building on her groundbreaking Harper's cover story, "The End of Retirement", which brought attention to these formerly settled members of the middle class, Jessica Bruder follows one such RVer, Linda, between physically taxing seasonal jobs and reunions of her new van-dweller family, or "vanily". Bruder tells a compelling, eye-opening tale of both the economy's dark underbelly and the extraordinary resilience, creativity, and hope of these hardworking, quintessential Americans - many of them single women - who have traded rootedness for the dream of a better life.
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The Man Who Quit Money is an account of how one man learned to live, sanely and happily, without earning, receiving, or spending a single cent. Suelo doesn't pay taxes, or accept food stamps or welfare. He lives in caves in the Utah canyonlands, forages wild foods and gourmet discards. He no longer even carries an I.D. Yet he manages to amply fulfill not only the basic human needs - for shelter, food, and warmth - but, to an enviable degree, the universal desires for companionship, purpose, and spiritual engagement.
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Roots are weak and faith was thin
- By MISSCHRISTY on 08-26-17
By: Mark Sundeen
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Country Driving
- A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years, he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming China.
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Pass the white rice please
- By Nick on 02-18-10
By: Peter Hessler
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The Broken Road
- By: Richard Paul Evans
- Narrated by: Richard Paul Evans
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Celebrity Charles James can't shake the nightmare that wakes him each night. He sees himself walking down a long, broken highway, the sides of which are lit in flames. Where is he going? Why is he walking? What is the wailing he hears around him? By day he wonders why he's so haunted and unhappy when he has all he ever wanted - fame, fans, and fortune and the lavish lifestyle it affords him. Coming from a childhood of poverty and pain, this is what he's dreamed of. But now, at the pinnacle of his career, he's started to wonder if he's wanted the wrong things.
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Unresolved.
- By Ann Owen on 05-14-17
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The Dinosaur Artist
- Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy
- By: Paige Williams
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia—a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science, and politics" (Rebecca Skloot).
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More filler than Joan Rivers’ face.
- By Brandi on 03-13-19
By: Paige Williams
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Train
- Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World - from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief
- By: Tom Zoellner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion. In his new audiobook he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again. From the frigid Trans-Siberian Railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic maglev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man's relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil.
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The world history of trains up to the present
- By matthew on 03-06-14
By: Tom Zoellner
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Nickel and Dimed
- On (Not) Getting By in America
- By: Barbara Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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This engrossing piece of undercover reportage has been a fixture on the New York Times best seller list since its publication. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor.
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Good concept, but poor execution.
- By Marco Forcone on 08-24-04
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The Boys in the Bunkhouse
- Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland
- By: Dan Barry
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tiny Iowa farm town of Atalissa, dozens of men, all with intellectual disabilities and all from Texas, lived in an old schoolhouse. Before dawn each morning, they were bussed to a nearby processing plant, where they eviscerated turkeys in return for food, lodging, and $65 a month. They lived in near servitude for more than 30 years, enduring increasing neglect, exploitation, and physical and emotional abuse.
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Our Brothers' Keepers?
- By Gillian on 12-01-16
By: Dan Barry
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Govt Cheese
- By: Steven Pressfield
- Narrated by: Steven Pressfield
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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People who have read my books, particularly “The War of Art” and its cousins, have a vague idea of the odyssey of a particular solitary guy, wracked with guilt and riven by self-doubt, as he struggles toward his destiny as a writer. But they have only the scantiest conception of the particulars of that journey. These particulars I’m hoping may be of use to others as they wrestle with their own version of that same odyssey. So let me try to strip it down. Let me tell the parts I normally leave out.
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Another Great Work by a great storyteller
- By Vales Tales on 12-11-22
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Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
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The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
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Full Body Burden
- Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
- By: Kristen Iversen
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Kristen Iversen
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium.
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A story that no one else wanted to tell.
- By Carol on 01-28-13
By: Kristen Iversen
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Roadshow
- Landscape with Drums: A Concert Tour by Motorcycle
- By: Neil Peart
- Narrated by: Brian Sutherland
- Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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For 30 years, drummer, author, and songwriter Neil Peart had wanted to write a book about "the biggest journey of all in my restless existence: the life of a touring musician." Finally, the right time, and the right tour. In the summer of 2004, after three decades, 20 gold albums, and thousands of performances, the band Rush embarked on a 30th Anniversary World Tour. The "R30" tour traveled to nine countries, where the band performed 57 shows for more than half a million fans. Uniquely, Peart chose to do his between-show traveling by motorcycle, riding 21,000 miles of back roads.
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Enjoyable, even for a non-fan of Rush
- By Jim In Texas! on 10-04-14
By: Neil Peart
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Liberators
- A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse (Coming Collapse, Book 5)
- By: James Wesley Rawles
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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When looting and rioting overwhelm all the major US cities, Afghanistan War vet Ray McGregor makes his way from Michigan's Upper Peninsula to his parents' cattle ranch in Bella Coola, British Columbia, in remote western Canada. Joining him is his old friend Phil Adams, a Defense Intelligence Agency counterintelligence case officer based in Washington State.
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Really slow
- By David on 11-15-14
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The Silk Roads
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An Absolutely SUPERB Book for Lovers of History
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What listeners say about Nomadland
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gillian
- 03-07-18
Eccentric Hobby? No--Survival Skills!
I first ran across working nomads in a piece on CBS Sunday Morning. It was winter, and an older couple was delighting in hitting the road, finding places where the older gentleman could be a Santa, and the older woman could work in a gift shop, all the time looking like a Mrs. Claus. They seemed deliriously happy.
Enter Nomadland, and all of that is turned on its head. Here, Bruder follows mostly Linda, a woman in her mid-60s, on her quest to find ways to make ends meet. We meet others, we meet depressing and challenging work environments, we meet jamborees where like-minded people come together.
While Bruder's prose is sometimes lovely, and her depiction of the nomads is always gentle, I found the book to be somewhat frightening. Make no mistake: It's a good book. It's just that it plays upon my deepest fear of being one illness away from homelessness. (And by the way, the nomads are HOUSELESS! Don't tick them off!)
Karen White turns in a 50-50 performance as she always does (she butchered Daring Greatly; she shone in Nothing to Envy)--sometimes she's on target, but sometimes her delivery is dry and robotic.
Still, and engaging book. But it's kinda sorta too depressing to spend a whole credit on...
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110 people found this helpful
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- Dennis Hinkamp
- 01-01-18
You Have to Buy the Premise to Enjoy It
What did you love best about Nomadland?
It showed me a world that I was unfamiliar with, camp workers at Amazon, camp ground hosts, Quartzite AZ
What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?
I was interested in the Amazon seasonal workers but it seemed the author spent too much time on it. There were a lot of repeated descriptions especially of the one in Fernley NV. I would have liked a broader picture of full time RVer.
What three words best describe Karen White’s performance?
Her voice is a dead ringer for Samatha Bee which made it hard to disassociate from the comedian. I like Sam Bee but couldn't get that image out of my head to enjoy the book.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
The author seemed determined to tie everything to the 2008 financial crash and show the trajectory of only a few characters. Certainly she met some middle and upper class people who were doing just fine and not living gas fill up to fill up and trying to make it on social security checks and minimum wage jobs. Maybe that was her point; to show the dark side of RV life.
Any additional comments?
I admire her for putting in the road time and actually living in a van rather than flying in and being a "tourist" As my title says you have to by into the premise that RV life is bleak and not done by choice. Maybe I just WANT to think it is not that way.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Frank
- 01-05-18
Read this before hitting the road
I've always dreamed of the freedom of a life on the road. No mortgage or rent, no ties. Just me and the open road. The idea appeals to the hermit inside. After reading this book, I don't think that life is for me. I really don't like how Amazon exploits these people.
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4 people found this helpful
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- michael sevigny
- 11-24-17
Great Book For those considering Nomad Life
Eye opening that many former Middle Class folks have turned to living a nomadic life not by choice but by the economy that is forcing millions to make hard choice to survive
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-26-18
Great listening!
I'm thinking about this for my own life, but then, I drive for a living. My bus driving job lacks the freedom to go wherever whenever and the kinship shared. I'm jealous!
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- Anonymous User
- 06-09-20
Modern Day Upton Sinclair
Really pertinent subject and well researched. However, book was longer than subject matter warranted, and the nonchronological skipping between storylines was sometimes hard to follow. That being said, everyone interested in the plight of the elderly, economic injustice, and the collapsing American safety net should read this book. Think modern day Upton Sinclair.
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- JKB2
- 03-29-18
Interesting Story
Reader is awful...voice is breathy and very tinny.... almost shrill. Had to gut out.... but...Good stories.
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- Amy-Marie W.
- 03-14-18
The American Spirit of Survival ...
is alive and well although laced with poverty a flame of fierce determination and imagination is visible in these almost invisible Americans. I particularly enjoyed the description of Cochise County, Arizona..my 5 acres are there.
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- Cheryl C
- 03-17-18
I'm buying a school bus
Well written and spoken truths of the aging American. I love Mary and would love to visit her Earth ship when I can retire and travel.
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- Boaz
- 08-02-18
Intriguing options
Great information on the struggles and resourcefulness of an aging population seemingly forced to live off the grid. The individuals stories are both heartwarming and heartbreaking.
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