The Indifferent Stars Above
The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party
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Narrated by:
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Michael Prichard
About this listen
From the number one best-selling author of The Boys in the Boat comes an unforgettable epic of family, tragedy, and survival on the American frontier.
“An ideal pairing of talent and material.... Engrossing.... A deft and ambitious storyteller.” (Mary Roach, New York Times Book Review)
In April of 1846, 21-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and 14 others set out for California on snowshoes and over the next 32 days endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors.
In this gripping narrative, New York Times best-selling author Daniel James Brown sheds new light on one of the most legendary events in American history. Following every painful footstep of Sarah’s journey with the Donner Party, Brown produces a tale both spellbinding and richly informative.
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In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with the Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America and the tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy in the land.
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Mediocre
- By Mona on 11-04-20
By: Timothy Egan
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My Life as an Indian
- By: James Willard Schultz
- Narrated by: Brian V. Hunt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Beautiful, tender, haunting, and full of excitement, this is the memoir of famed author, explorer, Glacier Park guide, trader, and historian of the Blackfoot Indians, James Willard Schultz. With the Blackfoot woman, whom he deeply loved, from 1880 to 1903, Schultz lived the life of a Blackfoot Indian with Nat-ah-ki and her people. During this time, he began writing for magazines, at times running a trading post, and working as a guide in the West.
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Compassionate Story
- By Ann Holmes on 09-13-18
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Disappointment River
- Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage
- By: Brian Castner
- Narrated by: Brian Castner
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Disappointment River is a dual historical narrative and travel memoir that at once transports listeners back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of energy extraction and climate change.
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Excellent
- By Jean on 05-06-18
By: Brian Castner
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Blood and Thunder
- An Epic of the American West
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
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In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness.
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Publisher's summary does not do it justice
- By Eric on 02-07-11
By: Hampton Sides
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Grandma Gatewood's Walk
- The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail
- By: Ben Montgomery
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
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Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than $200. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it."
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Inspiring story about a strong amazing woman
- By David Shear on 12-22-14
By: Ben Montgomery
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Gold Diggers
- Striking It Rich in the Klondike
- By: Charlotte Gray
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
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Between 1896 and 1899, thousands of people lured by gold braved a grueling journey into the remote wilderness of North America. Within two years, Dawson City, in the Canadian Yukon, grew from a mining camp of four hundred to a raucous town of more than thirty thousand. The stampede to the Klondike was the last great gold rush in history. Scurvy, dysentery, frostbite, and starvation stalked all who dared to be in Dawson. And yet the possibilities attracted people from all walks of life.
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Disappointed...
- By Michael McGrath on 01-29-14
By: Charlotte Gray
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Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce
- The Untold Story of an American Tragedy
- By: Kent Nerburn
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Learning about the 1,800-mile journey made by Chief Joseph and 800 Nez Perce men, women, and children from their homelands in what is now eastern Oregon to Montana is essential to understand who we are as a nation. There, only 40 miles from the Canadian border and freedom, Chief Joseph, convinced that the wounded and elders could go no farther, walked across the snowy battlefield, handed his rifle to the US military commander who had been pursuing them, and spoke his now-famous words, "From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."
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Long but totally worth it
- By Mt.. Jumper on 07-24-19
By: Kent Nerburn
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The Lost City of Z
- A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
- By: David Grann
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon. After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to find out what happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z.
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A Worthy Read for Armchair Explorers
- By Jennifer Seattle, WA on 03-01-09
By: David Grann
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The River of Doubt
- Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
- By: Candice Millard
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt's harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
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This audiobook deserves 6 stars
- By D. Littman on 11-15-05
By: Candice Millard
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Exploration Fawcett
- Journey to the Lost City of Z
- By: Lt. Col. P. H. Fawcett
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the true story of the real Colonel Fawcett, whose life was the inspiration for the best-selling book The Lost City of Z and an upcoming movie starring Brad Pitt. A thrilling account, it tells of Colonel Fawcett and his mysterious disappearance in the Amazon jungle, which is now considered one of the greatest mysteries of the 20th century.
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boring
- By Ramanda Brockett on 08-07-18
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The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Timothy Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones. Brilliantly capturing the terrifying drama of catastrophe, he does equal justice to the human characters who become his heroes.
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Excellent history ruined by Egan's bias & cynicism
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What listeners say about The Indifferent Stars Above
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Josh
- 08-29-21
Another excellent Brown book
Anyone who is read Boys in the Boat knows that the author is a very gifted writer. He does a similarly fantastic job in this book of weaving the broader US history into a compelling tale about the Donner party’s story.
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- Burnsy
- 07-09-21
An excellent historically narrative.
"Harrowing" is the right word to attribute to Sarah Graves' story. Wonderfully performed and researched. I could not stop listening.
I felt that the epilogue went in just a touch too long, though.
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- Jeff Fahner
- 04-29-19
Loved it
A wonderful book about a terrible tragedy. I truly enjoyed it and I recommend it.
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- L. Loker
- 08-21-19
Fascinating
I loved this narrator. His voice is so soothing although the subject matter quite intense and gruesome at times. The author does an excellent job of weaving in relevant facts contemporary to the time period. I highly recommend this audiobook.
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- elizabeth gerdes
- 06-04-21
Overall good story - but gut wrenching
Can't believe what all they had to go through. Their story is well preserved in this book. Amazing tales of heroism and survival. God bless them all.
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- K. Hurt
- 08-17-21
Great Story with Grim, Serious Details
I thought this was one of the better audiobooks I've listened to. I typically find it hard to listen to audiobook because the narration usually sucks, but I actually liked the serious tone of the narrator. I've seen on other reviews that some people feel the narrator is too "wooden" / "rotbotic", so if that would be a problem for you then be warned!
Story goes into quite a bit of detail, making the setting and characters feel real. I had always heard about the tragedy of the Donner Party, but the details make it sound even worse than I had originally thought. Although we already know, more or less, what happens I was happily surprised that there are still some twists with regards to the fates of some of the characters involved.
The main criticisms were that it becomes very difficult to try to remember the names of each character and where they are at any given point, specifically during the escape (Snow Shoe Party) and rescue / relief attempts... the author could have streamlined things by using relations (ie father, first son, etc) or nicknames, rather than the formal names of the individuals involved. Only other criticism is that I actually wish the book were longer! I flew through the audiobook in 3 days without issue.
Highly recommend giving it a listen if you are spending time in the Tahoe / Nevada region, as it makes things feel more "real". Now I'm looking around for more books about grim survival situations.
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- Keri
- 12-29-22
Fantastic book!!! with "just ok" narration
The content was fantastic with the author telling historical fact through the life of Sarah, who we don't know much about. I loved how the author put some scientific knowledge of weather patterns, human biology, etc into the story to better explain to a 21st century reader what they went through. Great story!!! The narrator was "just ok" with a very monotone voice and if the story wasn't as great as it was, I likely wouldn't have finished it. However, I'd still recommend this audiobook as it perfectly portrayed history with a more personal touch of it being told through Sarah's story.
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- Lisa Jones
- 12-30-22
Fantastic writing, boring narrator.
It was very smart, but the narrators tone made it difficult to enjoy at times.
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- Jodie
- 03-05-23
Interesting, very detailed, but terrible narration
A little too much detail into each person in the various parties, and it got confusing with all the families/branches involved. Agree with other reviewers that the narration was bad.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Roger Griffin
- 07-22-23
Excellent
I think all or most Americans were taught in school about the Donner Party’s tragic struggle to cross the mountains into California. But this book brought the horrors of their journey into a well written first hand record by survivors of their struggle.
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