A Question of Freedom
A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison
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A Question of Freedom
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Narrated by:
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Sean Crisden
About this listen
At the age of 16, R. Dwayne Betts - a good student from a lower-middle-class family - carjacked a man with a friend. He had never held a gun before, but within a matter of minutes he had committed six felonies. In Virginia, carjacking is a "certifiable" offense, meaning that Betts would be treated as an adult under state law. A bright young kid, he served his nine-year sentence as part of the adult population in some of the worst prisons in the state. A Question of Freedom chronicles Betts's years in prison, reflecting back on his crime, and looking ahead to how his experiences and the books he discovered while incarcerated would define him.
Utterly alone, Betts confronts profound questions about violence, freedom, crime, race, and the justice system. Confined by cinder-block walls and barbed wire, he discovers the power of language through books, poetry, and his own pen. Above all, A Question of Freedom is about a quest for identity - one that guarantees Betts's survival in a hostile environment and incorporates an understanding of how his own past led to the moment of his crime.
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5 out of 5 stars
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THE BEST BOOK ON PRISON LIFE I HAVE EVER READ!!!
- By Steve on 06-27-09
By: Ted Conover
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Picking Cotton
- Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption
- By: Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, Erin Torneo, Ronald Cotton
- Narrated by: Richard Allen, Karen White
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 520
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 445
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 442
Jennifer Thompson was raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment while she slept. She was able to escape and eventually identified Ronald Cotton as her attacker. Ronald insisted that she was mistaken - but Jennifer's positive identification was the compelling evidence that put him behind bars. After 11 years, Ronald was allowed to take a DNA test that proved his innocence. He was released after serving more than a decade in prison for a crime he never committed.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Listen for the story not the writing
- By Professor Sombrero on 06-13-09
By: Jennifer Thompson-Cannino, and others
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All Souls
- A Family Story from Southie
- By: Michael Patrick MacDonald
- Narrated by: Michael Patrick MacDonald
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story5 out of 5 stars 36
The anti-busing riots of 1974 forever changed Southie, Boston's working-class Irish community, branding it as a violent, racist enclave. Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up in Southie's Old Colony housing project. He describes the way this world within a world felt to the troubled yet keenly gifted observer he was even as a child. But the threats - poverty, drugs, a shadowy gangster world - were real. All Souls is heartbreaking testimony to lives lost too early, and the story of how a place so filled with pain could still be "the best place in the world".
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5 out of 5 stars
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this book broke me in the best way
- By anon on 02-14-23
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True Notebooks
- A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall
- By: Mark Salzman
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 150
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Surprising, charming, upsetting, enlightening, and ultimately hopeful - driven by the insight and humor of Salzman’s voice and by the intelligence, candor, and strength of his students, whose writing appears throughout the book - True Notebooks is itself a reward of the self-expression Mark Salzman teaches: a revelatory meditation on the process, power, and meaning of writing.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Funny, witty and honest! Loved the book!!
- By Erika on 11-24-03
By: Mark Salzman
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The 57 Bus
- A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives
- By: Dashka Slater
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 962
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 825
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 820
If it weren't for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But, one afternoon, on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Unusual True-Crime Event...Beautifully Written.
- By Mary Burnight on 02-21-18
By: Dashka Slater
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Born Bright
- A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America
- By: C. Nicole Mason
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 60
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
Born Bright, C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, is a story of reconciliation, constrained choices, and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful but volatile 16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Solid Book
- By Daryl on 11-06-16
By: C. Nicole Mason
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Getting Life
- An Innocent Man’s 25-Year Journey from Prison to Peace
- By: Michael Morton
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 220
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 198
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Story5 out of 5 stars 199
On August 13, 1986, just one day after his 32nd birthday, Michael Morton went to work at his usual time. By the end of the day, his wife Christine had been savagely bludgeoned to death in the couple's bed - and the Williamson County Sherriff's office in Texas wasted no time in pinning her murder on Michael, despite an absolute lack of physical evidence. Michael was swiftly sentenced to life in prison for a crime he had not committed
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must read
- By Kevlar314 on 04-23-15
By: Michael Morton
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Convicted
- A Crooked Cop, an Innocent Man, and an Unlikely Journey of Forgiveness and Friendship
- By: Jameel McGee, Andrew Collins, Mark Tabb
- Narrated by: Calvin Robinson, Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story5 out of 5 stars 58
Racial tensions had long simmered in Benton Harbor, a small city on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, before the day a White narcotics officer - more focused on arrests than justice - set his sights on an innocent Black man. But when officer Andrew Collins framed Jameel McGee for possession of crack cocaine, the surprising result was not a race riot but a transformative journey for both men.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful book
- By Michelle B Ouellette on 06-10-21
By: Jameel McGee, and others
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Bluegrass
- A True Story of Murder in Kentucky
- By: William Van Meter
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4 out of 5 stars 63
Widely published journalist William Van Meter returned to his hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky to research this harrowing account of a horrifying crime that occurred at Western Kentucky University. In 2003, attractive college student Katie Autry was found dead in her dorm room after being raped, stabbed, and set on fire. As Van Meter delves into the facts of the case, further disturbing information surfaces.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent!
- By brooke whitehead on 01-09-23
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Flood
- A Novel (Burke, Book 1)
- By: Andrew Vachss
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 427
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 322
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Story4 out of 5 stars 327
Burke's newest client is a woman named Flood, who has the face of an angel, the body of a high-priced stripper, and the skills of a professional executioner. She wants Burke to find a monster for her - so she can kill him with her bare hands. In this thriller, Andrew Vachss's renegade private eye teams up with a lethally gifted avenger to follow a child's murderer through the catacombs of New York, where every alley is blind and the penthouses are as dangerous as the basements.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Noir!
- By Snoodely on 03-06-14
By: Andrew Vachss
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Always Running
- La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
- By: Luis J. Rodriguez
- Narrated by: Luis J. Rodriguez
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 485
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 427
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 428
By age 12, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as that culture claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Book for all educators
- By Heather M. Vitz on 03-15-15
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Finding Fish
- A Memoir
- By: Antwone Q. Fisher
- Narrated by: Thomas Penny
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story5 out of 5 stars 87
Baby Boy Fisher was raised in institutions from the moment of his birth in prison to a single mother. He ultimately came to live with a foster family, where he endured near-constant verbal and physical abuse. In his midteens he escaped and enlisted in the navy, where he became a man of the world, raised by the family he created for himself. Finding Fish shows how, out of this unlikely mix of deprivation and hope, an artist was born.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This book will not disappoint you.
- By Joseph on 10-16-16
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The Pursuit of Happyness (Abridged)
- By: Chris Gardner
- Narrated by: Andre Blake
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 422
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 260
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 260
At the age of 20, Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. However, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him part of the city's working homeless with his toddler son.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very Good Story!
- By Lito Da Critic on 06-02-06
By: Chris Gardner
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Aftershock
- By: Andrew Vachss
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante, Natalie Ross
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4 out of 5 stars 48
After a life in various war zones, Dell and Dolly have settled in this town, fulfilling Dolly's lifelong dream. Though she has given up her nursing career and moved smoothly into civilian life, Dell had been a mercenary, so they both have to sacrifice their prior identities. When the star of the girls' softball team shoots and kills the most popular boy in school, Dolly asks Dell to uncover the motive behind this inexplicable crime. It doesn't take him long to uncover a horrifying rite of passage.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Vachss hits a solid triple
- By Sara R. on 09-02-13
By: Andrew Vachss
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The Upside
- A Memoir
- By: Abdel Sellou
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
In 1992, Count Phillippe Pozzo di Borgo, on the heels of his wife's diagnosis with a terminal illness, suffered a paragliding accident that left him a quadriplegic. Forty-two years old, trapped inside his luxurious Paris town house, he was an outcast for the first time in his life. Abdel, an unemployed Algerian immigrant who had been an outcast for his entire existence, would become Phillipe's unlikely caretaker. Quick-thinking, unsentimental, and more than a little wild, Abdel surprises both himself and his employer.
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5 out of 5 stars
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loved it
- By RockyDog on 01-31-19
By: Abdel Sellou
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The Hour I First Believed
- A Novel
- By: Wally Lamb
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 25 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,224
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 862
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Story4 out of 5 stars 864
When high-school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives. But when Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right.
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5 out of 5 stars
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excellent all around yarn
- By G. on 01-10-09
By: Wally Lamb
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Four Feet Tall & Rising
- A Memoir
- By: Shorty Rossi, S. J. Hodges
- Narrated by: Shorty Rossi
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
Luigi Francis "Shorty" Rossi, the tough-talking, fedora-wearing star of Animal Planet's hit show Pit Boss, may stand only four feet tall, but that hasn't stopped him from living large, becoming a successful businessman and an outspoken advocate for pit bulls, the most misunderstood dog breed in the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book, truly good person
- By Anonymous on 03-03-12
By: Shorty Rossi, and others
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How to Find Your Way in the Dark
- The Sheldon Horowitz Series, Book 1
- By: Derek B. Miller
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 206
Twelve-year old Sheldon Horowitz is still recovering from the tragic loss of his mother only a year ago when a suspicious traffic accident steals the life of his father near their home in rural Massachusetts. It is 1938, and Sheldon, who was in the truck, emerges from the crash an orphan hell-bent on revenge. He takes that fire with him to Hartford, where he embarks on a new life under the roof of his buttoned-up Uncle Nate.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely wonderful story.
- By George Thomas on 12-11-21
By: Derek B. Miller
What listeners say about A Question of Freedom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Vance V. Ginn
- 06-11-24
Institutions Matter
Betts provides an insightful view of prison life and how it influenced him and many others. Check it out!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jdobs
- 05-26-21
Moving and Beautifully Written
Betts’ narrative about his experience in prison is incredibly moving and heartbreaking. It shines a light on the trauma of incarceration, and through his words allows the reader to meet the the man he becomes in spite of this experience. I am thankful he shared his story and powerful perspective.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 06-18-23
Powerful
Powerful story, this is one of those books that I wish someone would of gave to me when I was a kid
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gil Brown
- 07-16-22
Totally enjoyable
Almost every sentence was read like poetry. I never stop listening…I just fell asleep. A thousand, maybe ten thousand stories in one book. I know I will read again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Chicago873
- 02-24-23
Story of Hope
This book provide insight into the mindset of a teenager, making a bad decision that led him to prison and left him “marked” for the rest of his life. It is also a story of hope, encouragement, and possibilities. It is a reminder that we are our only limitations.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- tom
- 09-20-21
outstanding
thank you Mr. Betts. you have put into words my feelings. simply a masterpiece
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- chris marion
- 05-06-22
a poignant & powerful answer
what is the cost of walking away from a bad idea a minute too late?
the answer lies within...
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