Deacon King Kong
A Novel
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Deacon King Kong
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Narrated by:
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Dominic Hoffman
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By:
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James McBride
About this listen
Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction
Winner of the Gotham Book Prize
One of Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of the Year"
Oprah's Book Club Pick
Named one of the Top 10 Books of the Year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and Time Magazine
A Washington Post Notable Novel
From the author of the National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird and the best-selling modern classic The Color of Water comes one of the most celebrated novels of the year.
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in South Brooklyn, pulls a .38 from his pocket, and, in front of everybody, shoots the project's drug dealer at point-blank range.
The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride's funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the White neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood's Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself.
As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters - caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York - overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion.
Bringing both his masterly storytelling skills and his abiding faith in humanity, James McBride has written a novel every bit as involving as The Good Lord Bird and as emotionally honest as The Color of Water. Told with insight and wit, Deacon King Kong demonstrates that love and faith live in all of us.
©2020 James McBride (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Deacon King Kong is deeply felt, beautifully written and profoundly humane; McBride’s ability to inhabit his characters’ foibled, all-too-human interiority helps transform a fine book into a great one.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“A hilarious, pitch-perfect comedy set in the Brooklyn projects of the late 1960s. This alone may qualify it as one of the year’s best novels. However, McBride...has constructed a story with a deeper meaning for those who choose to read beyond the plot, one that makes the work funnier, sweeter, and more profound.” (The Washington Post)
“The sheer volume of invention in Deacon King Kong - on the level of both character...and language - commands awe.... And the sentences! The prose radiates a kind of chain-reaction energy.” (The New Yorker)
"McBride’s hilarious dialogue and an attention to detail reveals a complex local history. Capturing humanity through satire and witticisms, McBride draws everyday heroes." (Time)
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Story4 out of 5 stars 53
It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The narrators are outstanding here.
- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 05-16-21
By: Michael Koryta
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The Power of the Dog
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,880
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,875
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,847
This explosive novel of the drug trade takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you've never seen it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gripping Drama
- By Deborah on 01-06-11
By: Don Winslow
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Tuff
- A Novel
- By: Paul Beatty
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 37
Weighing in at 320 pounds, Winston "Tuffy" Foshay, is an East Harlem denizen who breaks jaws and shoots dogs and dreams of millions from his idea, Cap'n Crunch: The Movie, starring Danny DeVito. His best friend is a disabled Muslim who wants to rob banks, his guiding light is an ex-hippie Asian woman who worked for Malcolm X, and his wife, Yolanda, he married from jail over the phone. Shrewdly comical as this dazzling novel is, it turns acerbically sublime when the frustrated Tuffy agrees to run for City Council.
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5 out of 5 stars
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High Larry Us!
- By Amazon Customer on 07-24-23
By: Paul Beatty
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Nigger
- An Autobiography
- By: Dick Gregory, Dr. Christian Gregory - introduction, Robert Lipsyte
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Dr. Christian Gregory
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,278
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,139
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,131
Fifty-five years ago, in 1964, an incredibly honest and revealing memoir by one of the America's best-loved comedians and activists, Dick Gregory, was published. With a shocking title and breathtaking writing, Dick Gregory defined a genre and changed the way race was discussed in America.
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5 out of 5 stars
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PLEASE don't pass this book up!
- By D on 05-06-20
By: Dick Gregory, and others
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Devil in a Blue Dress
- An Easy Rawlins Mystery
- By: Walter Mosley
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 3,373
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,885
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,874
Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Beware of Mysterious Sexy Women with Big Suitcases
- By Jefferson on 02-13-11
By: Walter Mosley
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A Hard Ticket Home
- By: David Housewright
- Narrated by: Brent Hinkle
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4 out of 5 stars 48
Ex-St. Paul cop Rushmore McKenzie has more time, and more money, than he knows what to do with. In fact, when he’s willing to admit it to himself (and he usually isn’t), Mac is downright bored. Until he decides to do a favor for a friend facing a family tragedy: Nine-year-old Stacy Carlson has been diagnosed with leukemia, and the only one with the matching bone marrow that can save her is her older sister, Jamie. Trouble is, Jamie ran away from home years ago.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finally on Audible...
- By shelley on 03-14-20
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When a Stranger Comes to Town
- By: Michael Koryta
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Janina Edwards, Fajer Al-Kaisi, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4 out of 5 stars 53
It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The narrators are outstanding here.
- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 05-16-21
By: Michael Koryta
-
The Power of the Dog
- By: Don Winslow
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,880
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,875
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 8,847
This explosive novel of the drug trade takes you deep inside a world riddled with corruption, betrayal, and bloody revenge. From the streets of New York City to Mexico City and Tijuana to the jungles of Central America, this is the war on drugs like you've never seen it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gripping Drama
- By Deborah on 01-06-11
By: Don Winslow
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Permanent Midnight
- A Memoir (20th Anniversary Edition)
- By: Jerry Stahl, Nic Sheff - foreword
- Narrated by: Jerry Stahl, Scott Merriman
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
A searing confessional infused with the darkest humor, Permanent Midnight chronicles the opiated abyss of a Hollywood screenwriter and his formidable climb into sobriety. Made into a major motion picture starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, Permanent Midnight is revered by critics and an ever-growing cult of devoted fans as one of the most compelling contemporary memoirs.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Point deduction for the recording
- By Amazon Customer on 11-21-20
By: Jerry Stahl, and others
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Walking the Perfect Square
- A Moe Prager Mystery
- By: Reed Farrel Coleman
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 116
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 116
Recently retired due to a freak accident, NYPD officer Moe Prager is lost. In pain and without the job he loves, Moe relunctantly settles on the notion of going into the wine business with his brother. But when a suburban college student vanishes off the streets of Manhattan, Prager's universe is turned upside down and his life changed forever. Hired by the student's desperate family, Moe plunges deep into the world of New York's punk underground, sex clubs, and biker bars.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Clever, Interesting, Satisfying
- By Ted on 06-12-12
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The Godmothers
- A Novel
- By: Camille Aubray
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 759
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 674
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 668
Meet the Godmothers: Filomena is a clever and resourceful war refugee with a childhood secret, who comes to America to wed Mario, the family's favored son. Amie, a beautiful and dreamy French girl from upstate New York, escapes an abusive husband after falling in love with Johnny, the oldest of the brothers. Lucy, a tough-as-nails Irish nurse, ran away from a strict girls' home and marries Frankie, the sensuous middle son. And the glamorous Petrina, the family's only daughter, graduates with honors from Barnard College despite a past trauma that nearly caused a family scandal.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Easy Enjoyable Read
- By Bunny on 06-23-21
By: Camille Aubray
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Chasing Me to My Grave
- An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South
- By: Winfred Rembert, Erin I. Kelly, Bryan Stevenson - foreword
- Narrated by: Dion Graham, Karen Chilton
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story5 out of 5 stars 95
Winfred Rembert grew up in a family of Georgia field laborers and joined the civil rights movement as a teenager. He was arrested after fleeing a demonstration, later survived a near-lynching at the hands of law enforcement, and spent the next seven years on chain gangs. During that time he met the undaunted Patsy, who would become his wife. Years later, at the age of 51 and with Patsy’s encouragement, he started drawing and painting scenes from his youth using leather tooling skills he learned in prison.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Remarkable Memoir, Both Beautiful and Brutal
- By Peter Haas on 10-21-21
By: Winfred Rembert, and others
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A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 521
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 443
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Story4 out of 5 stars 441
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
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Invisible Man
- A Novel
- By: Ralph Ellison
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 8,973
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,996
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Story4 out of 5 stars 7,992
Ralph Elllison's Invisible Man is a monumental novel, one that can well be called an epic of modern American Negro life. It is a strange story, in which many extraordinary things happen, some of them shocking and brutal, some of them pitiful and touching—yet always with elements of comedy and irony and burlesque that appear in unexpected places. It is a book that has a great deal to say and which is destined to have a great deal said about it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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How Did This Escape Me?
- By E. Pearson on 11-23-11
By: Ralph Ellison
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The Sins of the Fathers
- By: Lawrence Block
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,093
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 965
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 963
The hooker was young, pretty...and dead, butchered in a Greenwich Village apartment. The prime suspect, a minister's son, was also dead, the victim of a jailhouse suicide. The case is closed, as far as the NYPD is concerned. Now the murdered prostitute's father wants it opened again--that's where Matthew Scudder comes in.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good introduction to a popular series
- By Sharron on 12-26-11
By: Lawrence Block
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Courageous
- A Novel
- By: Randy Alcorn, Alex Kendrick, Stephen Kendrick
- Narrated by: Roger Mueller
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 404
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 350
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 350
Four men, one calling: to serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, and their partners willingly stand up to the worst the world can offer. Yet at the end of the day, they face a challenge that none of them are truly prepared to tackle: fatherhood. While they consistently give their best on the job, good enough seems to be all they can muster as dads. But they’re quickly discovering that their standard is missing the mark. They know that God desires to turn the hearts of fathers to their children, but their children are beginning to drift....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent!!
- By Jennifer on 10-08-11
By: Randy Alcorn, and others
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The Residue Years
- By: Mitchell S. Jackson
- Narrated by: Corey Allen
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
Mitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighborhood in America’s whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the ’90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding autobiographical novel, Mitchell writes what it was to come of age in that time and place, with a break-out voice that’s nothing less than extraordinary. The Residue Years switches between the perspectives of a young man, Champ, and his mother, Grace.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Dense in cultural details
- By Angel on 12-04-15
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Hard Rain Falling
- By: Don Carpenter
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 116
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Story4 out of 5 stars 114
The novel follows the adventures of Jack Levitt, an orphaned teenager living off his wits in the fleabag hotels and seedy pool halls of Portland, Oregon. Jack befriends Billy Lancing, a young black runaway and pool hustler extraordinaire. A heist gone wrong gets Jack sent to reform school, from which he emerges embittered by abuse and solitary connement. In the meantime Billy has joined the middle class - married, fathered a son, acquired a business and a mistress. But they will meet again....
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Well Read, American Noir Novel from The 1960s
- By Frank Donnelly on 01-19-20
By: Don Carpenter
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Nine Lives
- Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans
- By: Dan Baum
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
Nines Lives is a multivoiced biography of a dazzling, surreal, and imperiled city, told through the lives of nine unforgettable characters and bracketed by two epic storms: Hurricane Betsy, which transformed New Orleans in the 1960s, and Hurricane Katrina, which nearly destroyed it. Dan Baum brings this kaleidoscopic portrait to life, showing us what was lost in the storm and what remains to be saved.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Do not miss if you're interested in New Orleans
- By Kelly on 03-22-18
By: Dan Baum
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The Last Detail
- A Novel
- By: Darryl Ponicsan
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 5 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
Unlike other branches of the armed services, the Navy draws its police force from the ranks as temporary duty - Shore Patrol. In this funny, bawdy, moving audiobook set during the height of the Vietnam War, two career sailors in transit in Norfolk, Virginia - Billy "Bad-Ass" Buddusky and Mule Mulhall - are assigned to escort 18-year-old Larry Meadows from Norfolk to the brig in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he is to serve an eight-year sentence for petty theft. It's good duty, until the two old salts realize the injustice of the sentence and are oddly affected by the naive innocence of their young prisoner.