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The Prettiest Star
- Narrated by: Tiffany Morgan, Charlie Thurston
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
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Publisher's summary
Small-town Appalachia doesn't have a lot going for it, but it's where Brian is from, where his family is, and where he's chosen to return to die.
At 18, Brian, like so many other promising young gay men, arrived in New York City without much more than a love for the freedom and release from his past that it promised. But within six short years, AIDS would claim his lover, his friends, and his future. With nothing left in New York but memories of death, Brian decides to write his mother a letter asking to come back to the place, and family, he was once so desperate to escape.
Set in 1986, a year after Rock Hudson's death shifted the public consciousness of the epidemic and brought the news of AIDS into living rooms and kitchens across America, The Prettiest Star is part Dog Years by Mark Doty and part Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt. But it is also an urgent story now: It a novel about the politics and fragility of the body; it is a novel about sex and shame. And it is a novel that speaks to the question of what home and family means when we try to forge a life for ourselves in a world that can be harsh and unpredictable.
Contains mature themes.
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Obnoxious musical interludes ruin the story
- By Joan on 12-25-11
By: Laura Moriarty
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We Begin at the End
- By: Chris Whitaker
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Duchess Day Radley is a 13-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids. Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he's in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother.
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Horrible narrator in this audible book
- By M. patton on 03-03-21
By: Chris Whitaker
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Before the Storm
- By: Diane Chamberlain
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Kris Koscheski
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Laurel Lockwood lost her son once through neglect. She's spent the rest of her life determined to make up for her mistakes, and she has succeeded in becoming a committed, protective parent-maybe even overprotective. Still, she loosens her grip just enough to let Andy attend a local church social-a decision that terrifies her when the church is consumed by fire. But Andy survives...and remarkably, saves other children from the flames.
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Great book...HORRIBLE performance
- By Andrea on 03-10-15
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June Bug
- By: Chris Fabry
- Narrated by: Chris Fabry
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as she can remember, June Bug and her father have traveled the back roads of the country in their beat-up RV, spending many nights parked at Walmart. One morning, as she walks past the greeter at the front of the store, her eyes are drawn to the pictures of missing children, where she is shocked to see herself. This discovery begins a quest for the truth about her father, the mother he rarely speaks about, and ultimately herself.
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Get Out The Box Of Tissues
- By 20eagle16 on 07-03-21
By: Chris Fabry
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Growing Things and Other Stories
- By: Paul Tremblay
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden, Graham Halstead, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A chilling collection of psychological suspense and literary horror from the multiple award-winning author of the national best seller The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts. A masterful anthology featuring 19 pieces of short fiction, Growing Things and Other Stories is an exciting glimpse into Paul Tremblay’s fantastically fertile imagination.
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Paul Tremblay is totally nuts.
- By Gary & Jay on 07-07-19
By: Paul Tremblay
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The Fourth Child
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Winter
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The author of Break in Case of Emergency follows up her the “extraordinary debut” (The Guardian) with a moving novel about motherhood and marriage, adolescence and bodily autonomy, family and love, religion and sexuality, and the delicate balance between the purity of faith and the messy reality of life.
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Just OK - Considered Bailing
- By Madeleine Homan on 04-18-21
By: Jessica Winter
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One True Thing
- By: Anna Quindlen
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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A young woman sits in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her dying mother. She didn't do it, but she thinks she knows who did. In the last months of her life, Ellen Gulden's mother revealed startling secrets that challenged everything Ellen believed about her family. Now, in jail, Ellen believes those secrets will tell her who had the courage to end her mother's suffering.
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Quindlen's writing skills shine in One True Thing.
- By Bonny on 08-26-13
By: Anna Quindlen
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The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season
- By: Molly Fader
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Everything Hope knows about the Orchard House is from the stories of her late mother. So when she arrives at the northern Michigan family estate late one night with a terrible secret and her 10-year-old daughter in tow, she’s not sure if she’ll be welcomed or turned away with a shotgun by the aunt she has never met.
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Really Enjoyed It
- By Kathryn @theBookDate on 03-30-21
By: Molly Fader
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How to Be an American Housewife
- A Novel
- By: Margaret Dilloway
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington, Emily Durante
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn't been what she'd expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways.
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big disappointment
- By Kirsten on 04-12-12
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The Descendants
- By: Kaui Hart Hemmings
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Matthew King was once considered one of the most fortunate men in Hawaii. His missionary ancestors who came to the islands were financially and culturally progressive - one even married a Hawaiian princess, making Matt a royal descendant and one of the state’s largest landowners. But now his luck has changed. His two daughters are out of control - 10-year-old Scottie has a smart-ass attitude and a desperate need for attention and 17-year-old Alex is a recovering drug addict.
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Try it, you'll love it!
- By Pamela Harvey on 07-04-11
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The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona. The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality.
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Just ok
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Even as We Breathe
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Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville's luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. With World War II raging in Europe, the inn is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. Soon, Cowney's refuge becomes a cage when the daughter of one of the residents goes missing.
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ending
- By julia on 08-12-24
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Fair and Tender Ladies
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
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Author of many novels and short stories, best-selling writer Lee Smith has received numerous awards for her works, including two O. Henry Awards. Fair and Tender Ladies is an epistolary novel that traces the life of Ivy Rowe, born in the isolated Virginia mountain community of Sugar Fork.
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Fair and Tender Ladies
- By Deanna on 10-16-04
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The Third Rainbow Girl
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Overall
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In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For 13 years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders", though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward.
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Terrible narrator
- By Anonymous User on 02-11-20
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The Storm
- One Voice from the AIDS Generation
- By: Christopher Zyda
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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An unflinching and, at times, raw memoir, The Storm is filled with heart, optimism, and love, interspersed with Los Angeles history, gay and lesbian history, AIDS history, and the backdrop of the 1980s and 1990s.
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Zyda is Brilliant (Just ask him.)
- By Your Average Gay Consumer on 06-27-21
By: Christopher Zyda
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Southernmost
- By: Silas House
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew - and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle. With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he'd turned against years ago after Luke came out.
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Wonderful
- By Jane G. on 10-28-18
By: Silas House
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The Birds of Opulence
- By: Crystal Wilkinson
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Goode-Brown family, led by matriarch and pillar of the community Minnie Mae, is plagued by old secrets and embarrassment over mental illness and illegitimacy. Meanwhile, single mother Francine Clark is haunted by her dead, lightning-struck husband and forced to fight against both the moral judgment of the community and her own rebellious daughter, Mona. The residents of Opulence struggle with vexing relationships to the land, to one another, and to their own sexuality.
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Just ok
- By Amazon Customer on 09-22-24
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Even as We Breathe
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- By: Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nineteen-year-old Cowney Sequoyah yearns to escape his hometown of Cherokee, North Carolina, in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. When a summer job at Asheville's luxurious Grove Park Inn and Resort brings him one step closer to escaping the hills that both cradle and suffocate him, he sees it as an opportunity. With World War II raging in Europe, the inn is the temporary home of Axis diplomats and their families, who are being held as prisoners of war. Soon, Cowney's refuge becomes a cage when the daughter of one of the residents goes missing.
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ending
- By julia on 08-12-24
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Fair and Tender Ladies
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 13 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Author of many novels and short stories, best-selling writer Lee Smith has received numerous awards for her works, including two O. Henry Awards. Fair and Tender Ladies is an epistolary novel that traces the life of Ivy Rowe, born in the isolated Virginia mountain community of Sugar Fork.
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Fair and Tender Ladies
- By Deanna on 10-16-04
By: Lee Smith
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The Third Rainbow Girl
- The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia
- By: Emma Copley Eisenberg
- Narrated by: Emma Copley Eisenberg
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For 13 years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders", though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local residents in the community, depicted as poor, dangerous, and backward.
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Terrible narrator
- By Anonymous User on 02-11-20
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The Storm
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- By: Christopher Zyda
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An unflinching and, at times, raw memoir, The Storm is filled with heart, optimism, and love, interspersed with Los Angeles history, gay and lesbian history, AIDS history, and the backdrop of the 1980s and 1990s.
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Zyda is Brilliant (Just ask him.)
- By Your Average Gay Consumer on 06-27-21
By: Christopher Zyda
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Southernmost
- By: Silas House
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the aftermath of a flood that washes away much of a small Tennessee town, evangelical preacher Asher Sharp offers shelter to two gay men. In doing so, he starts to see his life anew - and risks losing everything: his wife, locked into her religious prejudices; his congregation, which shuns Asher after he delivers a passionate sermon in defense of tolerance; and his young son, Justin, caught in the middle of what turns into a bitter custody battle. With no way out but ahead, Asher takes Justin and flees to Key West, where he hopes to find his brother, Luke, whom he'd turned against years ago after Luke came out.
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Wonderful
- By Jane G. on 10-28-18
By: Silas House
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F*ckface
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- By: Leah Hampton
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Twelve stories: A young girl, desperate for a way out of her small town, finds support in an unlikely place. A ranger working along the Blue Ridge Parkway realizes that the dark side of the job, the all-too-frequent discovery of dead bodies, has taken its toll on her. Haunted by his past, and his future, a tech sergeant reluctantly spends a night with his estranged parents before being deployed to Afghanistan. Nearing 50 and facing new medical problems, a woman wonders if her short stint at the local chemical plant is to blame.
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Excellent, amazing collection of short stories—listen to it now!
- By Elizabeth Glass on 09-13-20
By: Leah Hampton
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A Single Man
- By: Christopher Isherwood
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When A Single Man was originally published, it shocked many by its frank, sympathetic, and moving portrayal of a gay man in midlife. George, the protagonist, is adjusting to life on his own after the sudden death of his partner, and determines to persist in the routines of his daily life; the course of A Single Man spans 24 hours in an ordinary day.
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Gorgeous Writing but Not for Everyone
- By Catherine on 01-27-13
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When These Mountains Burn
- By: David Joy
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When his addict son gets in deep with his dealer, it takes everything Raymond Mathis has to bail him out of trouble one last time. Frustrated by the slow pace and limitations of the law, Raymond decides to take matters into his own hands. After a workplace accident left him out of a job and in pain, Denny Rattler has spent years chasing his next high. He supports his habit through careful theft, following strict rules that keep him under the radar and out of jail.
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His Best Yet
- By The Elf in the Kitchen on 09-29-20
By: David Joy
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Edinburgh
- By: Alexander Chee
- Narrated by: Daniel K. Isaac, Josh Hurley
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys' choir. But when Fee learns how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter, his best friend, is in line to be next. When the director is arrested, Fee tries to forgive himself for his silence. But when Peter takes his own life, Fee blames only himself.
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Oof, right in the feels
- By Snoz the Cat on 07-14-21
By: Alexander Chee
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Elena Knows
- By: Claudia Piñeiro, Frances Riddle - translator
- Narrated by: Sally Masterson
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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After Rita is found dead in a church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.
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Super depressing but extremely well written and narrated
- By Lenny C. Husen on 03-07-24
By: Claudia Piñeiro, and others
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Young Mungo
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Chris Reilly
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Born under different stars—Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic—they should be sworn enemies if they’re to be seen as men at all. Their environment is a hyper-masculine and sectarian one, for gangs of young men and the violence they might dole out dominate the Glaswegian estate where they live. And yet against all odds Mungo and James become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds.
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Suffering Sappho!
- By Richard Stewart on 04-12-22
By: Douglas Stuart
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All Down Darkness Wide
- A Memoir
- By: Seán Hewitt
- Narrated by: Seán Hewitt
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Seán Hewitt meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe mental illness, they soon come face-to-face with crisis. All Down Darkness Wide is a perceptive and unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender and honest portrayal of what it’s like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one’s deep depression. As lives are made and unmade, this memoir asks what love can endure and what it cannot.
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The very deepest end of the pool
- By Gary Francis Burnham on 05-27-23
By: Seán Hewitt
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What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia
- By: Elizabeth Catte
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia is a frank assessment of America's recent fascination with the people and problems of the region. The audiobook analyzes trends in contemporary writing on Appalachia, presents a brief history of Appalachia with an eye toward unpacking Appalachian stereotypes, and provides examples of writing, art, and policy created by Appalachians as opposed to for Appalachians. The audiobook offers a much-needed insider's perspective on the region.
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Stop trying to make us fit into your ideology
- By Anonymous User on 03-08-19
By: Elizabeth Catte
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And the Band Played On
- Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
By the time Rock Hudson's death in 1985 alerted all America to the danger of the AIDS epidemic, the disease had spread across the nation, killing thousands of people and emerging as the greatest health crisis of the 20th century. America faced a troubling question: What happened? How was this epidemic allowed to spread so far before it was taken seriously?
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The subtitle says it all!
- By January Johnson on 03-19-13
By: Randy Shilts
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The Great Believers
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
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A story for all time
- By Carla jo Thompson on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
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The Chosen
- By: Chaim Potok
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Though they've lived their entire lives less than five blocks from each other, Reuven Malter and Danny Saunders exist in very different worlds. Reuven blends easily into both his secular Jewish faith and his typical American teen life, while Danny's conservative Hasidic clothes and appearance make him stick out in any crowd. Their improbable friendship teaches them that the differences separating people through cultures and generations are never as great as they seem.
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truly rates overused "classic" label
- By connie on 11-05-08
By: Chaim Potok
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Shuggie Bain
- By: Douglas Stuart
- Narrated by: Angus King
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Shuggie’s mother Agnes walks a wayward path: She is Shuggie’s guiding light but a burden for him and his siblings. She dreams of a house with its own front door while she flicks through the pages of the Freemans catalogue, ordering a little happiness on credit, anything to brighten up her grey life. Married to a philandering taxi-driver husband, Agnes keeps her pride by looking good - her beehive, make-up, and pearly-white false teeth offer a glamourous image of a Glaswegian Elizabeth Taylor.
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There’s far too much real pain and sadness in the world to spend any time listening to this tale of woe
- By SuperShopper on 02-18-21
By: Douglas Stuart
What listeners say about The Prettiest Star
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kevin Kraft
- 02-24-24
Beautiful and heartbreaking
This book is beautifully written. The characters are well developed. The narration is very well done. The story will break your heart.
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- Cheryl
- 07-27-24
Beautiful and haunting
The book took me back to the ‘80’s; I lived in southern Ohio then, and the story and the characters rang true. I did not care for the narrators, especially the female narration. The accent went in and out, and was more “soft southern” than the Ohio twang. I would recommend people read rather than listen to this book.
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Performance
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- Dominic
- 05-25-20
Heartbreaking and transformative!
This is a book that will open hearts and raise consciousness. A beautiful meditation on the meaning of home, the tension between sorrow and rage, and what it means to be queer at a time when having a virus made you less than human. This book asks us to "Don't forget. Say their names."
The narrators do justice to the story as well. Highly recommend!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Stacey L. Jackson
- 07-29-22
Very Compelling Story
It's a great story. I personally could have done with a lot less use of the f word.
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- T. Ervin
- 06-13-20
Heart wrenching
A heart wrenching tale about a young gay man in the 80's told from 3 different perspectives. He leaves his small town home for New York so he can finally live his true life. While living his truth, he finds love, friendships, and death. He loses his soul mate to AIDS and is diagnosed with the disease himself. He decides to move back to his hometown to face the reality of what is ahead. You will hear the story of an unwelcoming small town and the struggles of this young gay man as he lives out his final days.
Four stars! Be prepared to be sad, angry, simply broken-hearted. A great book!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mary M Dugan
- 10-02-20
important to remember
The performance has spots where the location or time or the story changes from one sentence to the next without pause or warning; not terrible, but it is distracting. The story itself is a hard one, so much bigotry and pain and ignorance during the AIDS crisis in the mid-80s and it's all here. There are few heroes in this book and lots of moments where hindsight grants the reader the opportunity to be judgmental. As the blurbs say, it's the story of one young man and his family and the small town he goes back to to die, but I think it's also important to remember the response of Ronald Reagan and his supporters: ignore the crisis, deny it's a crisis, blame the victims, invoke god's punishment, people die.
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2 people found this helpful
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- p b richards
- 08-12-20
Just Amazing
I was completely absorbed and could not stop listening. I'm certain that this book is going to win prizes.
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Performance
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Story
- Katelyn Miles
- 11-23-20
Great Book, So-So Performance
I loved this story. I loved the writing. I didn't love the performance. The same woman voiced the mother and the daughter which was hard to follow. The voices were not distinct enough so I had to keep looking at who was speaking, which fortunately it displays since the chapters are divided.
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- MPL
- 10-24-23
Might have preferred the book to the audio.
Though I felt the story could have used some key edits, I appreciated its rawness and was often moved by its honesty and humanity. What I had great difficulty with, unfortunately, was the female narration - the voice of Sharon and Jess - which I found almost unbearable in its lilting, sing-song nature. I’m not sure what the goal was for the almost bored-sounding warble of Brian’s mother and sister (maybe a geographic dialect?), but I felt the audio could have been SO much stronger with a less wishy-washy narration for its female characters, especially in the telling of such a heart wrenching experience.
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- Richard
- 10-26-20
History brought to life
Pretty accurate description of what happened to many a gay man who left families in small towns to live in NYC and then contracted HIV and AIDS. Going home meant confronting all the homophobia of small town America, especially for a disease that was feared and reviled. A bit "cookie cutter" in its characters and a bit long for what is served up, but a good reminder of a history not that long ago.
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1 person found this helpful