In the Beauty of the Lilies
A Novel
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In the Beauty of the Lilies
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Narrated by:
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Jason Culp
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By:
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John Updike
About this listen
Faith ultimately bursts into flame as Updike's major new novel, charting the lives of one family through four generations, shows listeners an America whose dream of perfection is translated into an obsession with God and the moving picture. Paterson, New Jersey, 1910: When a Presbyterian minister suddenly loses his faith and leaves the pulpit to become a salesman, he becomes a movie addict as well.
©2009 John Updike (P)2020 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- By: Ellen Datlow
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
From the secret reels of a notoriously cursed cinematic masterpiece to the debauched livestreams of modern movie junkies who will do anything for clicks, Final Cuts brings together new and terrifying stories inspired by the many screens we can't peel our eyes away from. Inspired by the rich golden age of the film and television industries as well as the new media present, this new anthology reveals what evils hide behind the scenes and between the frames of our favorite medium.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Not Poor, Not Rich
- By Gary & Jay on 08-23-20
By: Ellen Datlow
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Main Street (Annotated): 100th Anniversary Edition
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Kitty Hendrix
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
A biting satire that countered the American myth of wholesome small-town life with a depiction of narrow-minded provincialism, it was to some degree based on Lewis's own experience of growing on Sauk Centre, Minnesota. Set in mid-1910s, it depicts the struggles of Carol Kennicott, a city girl, as she tries to adapt to small town life, having left her librarian job and St. Paul, Minnesota to marry Dr. Will Kennicott of Gopher Prairie. Dismayed by the town’s drabness and the conforming, petty inhabitants, Carol optimistically sets out to improve the town.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What Are Your Assumptions About Yourself & Others
- By Benny Fife on 02-06-20
By: Sinclair Lewis
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The Parisian
- By: Isabella Hammad
- Narrated by: Fiona Button
- Length: 20 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 141
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 143
A masterful debut novel by Plimpton Prize winner Isabella Hammad, The Parisian illuminates a pivotal period of Palestinian history through the journey and romances of one young man, from his studies in France during World War I to his return to Palestine at the dawn of its battle for independence.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Overly ambitious
- By Placeholder on 06-16-19
By: Isabella Hammad
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What Storm, What Thunder
- By: Myriam J.A. Chancy
- Narrated by: Ella Turenne
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
The Earth had buckled, and, in that movement, all that was not in its place fell upon the Earth’s children, upon the blameless as well as the guilty, without discrimination. At the end of a long sweltering day, as markets and businesses begin to close for the evening, an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shakes the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Award-winning author Myriam J. A. Chancy masterfully charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster
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5 out of 5 stars
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We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.
- By AuthorAnnaBella on 03-15-22
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The Beautiful and Damned
- By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 927
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 755
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 760
Published in 1922, Fitzgerald's second novel chronicles the relationship of Anthony Patch, Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete, and his beautiful wife, Gloria, as they await to inherit his grandfather's fortune. A devastating satire of the nouveaux rich and New York's nightlife, of reckless ambition and squandered talent, it is also a shattering portrait of a marriage fueled by alcohol and wasted by wealth. The Beautiful and Damned, Fitzgerald wrote to Zelda in 1930, "was all true."
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5 out of 5 stars
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i loved it
- By Emily on 01-20-05
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The Recognitions
- By: William Gaddis
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 47 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 226
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 180
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 181
Wyatt Gwyon's desire to forge is not driven by larceny but from love. Exactingly faithful to the spirit and letter of the Flemish masters, he produces uncannily accurate "originals" - pictures the painters themselves might have envied. In an age of counterfeit emotion and taste, the real and fake have become indistinguishable; yet Gwyon's forgeries reflect a truth that others cannot touch - cannot even recognize.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Breathtaking, Dizzying, Stimulating, Funny
- By andrew on 11-17-10
By: William Gaddis
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Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
- By: Laura Ruby
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 68
When Frankie’s mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That’s why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now, Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans - two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Boring, boring, boring
- By Marie J. on 08-20-21
By: Laura Ruby
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Herzog
- By: Saul Bellow
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 387
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 298
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 300
Winner of the National Book Award when it was first published in 1964, Herzog traces five days in the life of a failed academic whose wife has recently left him for his best friend. Through the device of letter writing, Herzog movingly portrays both the internal life of its eponymous hero and the complexity of modern consciousness.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Grows Within You
- By Chris Reich on 08-06-11
By: Saul Bellow
-
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna
- A Novel
- By: Juliet Grames
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 682
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 595
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 595
For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents - moments where ordinary situations like cooking eggplant or feeding the pigs inexplicably take lethal turns. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and her sister, Tina, must come of age side by side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Misogyny at its worst
- By brenda on 01-15-20
By: Juliet Grames
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The Promise
- By: Damon Galgut
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 618
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 535
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 530
Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life’s unfulfilled potential; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent novel
- By ALG on 11-09-21
By: Damon Galgut
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The Folded Leaf
- By: William Maxwell
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 63
Here is a classic novel from one of our most honored writers - the author of such acclaimed works as So Long, See You Tomorrow and All the Days and Nights. The Folded Leaf is the serenely observed yet deeply moving story of two boys finding one another in the Midwest of the 1920s, when childhood lasted longer than it does today and even adults were more innocent of what life could bring.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Midwestern Misfits
- By David on 03-17-15
By: William Maxwell
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The Wapshot Chronicle
- By: John Cheever
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
Based in part on Cheever's adolescence in New England, the novel follows the destinies of the impecunious and wildly eccentric Wapshots of St. Botolphs, a quintessential Massachusetts fishing village. Here are the stories of Captain Leander Wapshot, venerable sea dog and would-be suicide; of his licentious older son, Moses; and of Moses' adoring and errant younger brother, Coverly.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful 1950s Great Expectations-like Novel
- By Darwin8u on 05-31-13
By: John Cheever
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One of Ours
- By: Willa Cather
- Narrated by: Louis B. Jack
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
This is One of Ours, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Willa Cather, America’s greatest writer of the prairie heartland. It is set in rural Nebraska in the early 20th century prior to the first World War that enveloped Europe and eventually the United States. The story focuses on the young Claude Wheeler, a well-to-do farmer’s son who secretly longs for something to take him away from the hum-drum agrarian life he has inherited. As he prepares to take over his family’s farm business, war intrudes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Opened my heart
- By georgette bartell on 06-28-19
By: Willa Cather
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We Begin at the End
- By: Chris Whitaker
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,125
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,857
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,845
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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5 out of 5 stars
-
Horrible narrator in this audible book
- By M. patton on 03-03-21
By: Chris Whitaker
-
Say I'm Dead
- A Family Memoir of Race, Secrets, and Love
- By: E. Dolores Johnson
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Fearful of prison time - or lynching - for violating Indiana’s anti-miscegenation laws in the 1940s, E. Dolores Johnson's Black father and White mother fled Indianapolis to secretly marry in Buffalo. Her mother simply vanished, evading an FBI and police search that ended with the declaration to her family that she was the victim of foul play, either dead or sold into white slavery.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Deeply meaningful important read
- By A.M.Rousseau on 12-21-21
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Venice, 1736. When fate brings Violetta and Mino together on the roof of the Hospital of the Incurables, they form a connection that will change their lives forever. Both are orphans at the Incurables, dreaming of escape. But when the resident Maestro notices Violetta's voice, she is selected for the Incurables' world famous coro, and must sign an oath never to sing beyond its church doors. After a declaration of love ends in heartbreak, Mino flees the Incurables in search of his family. Venice is full of secrets, and Mino is certain one will lead to his long-lost mother.
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Determined to fit in at his New England prep school, the narrator has learned to mimic the bearing and manners of his adoptive tribe while concealing as much as possible about himself. His final year, however, unravels everything he’s achieved and steers his destiny in directions no one could have predicted.
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listen to this
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Helen Wilcox has one desire: to successfully launch her daughters into society. From the upper crust herself, Helen's unconventional--if happy--marriage has made the girls' social position precarious. Then her husband gambles the family fortunes on an elevated railroad that he claims will transform the face of the city and the way the people of New York live, but will it ruin the Wilcoxes first? As daughters Jemima and Alice navigate the rise and fall of their family--each is forced to re-examine who she is, and even who she is meant to love.
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Listened to it three times
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From the award-winning, internationally best-selling author, a beguiling romp of a novel, at once intimate and panoramic, about the adventures and misadventures of a nineteenth-century everyman.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Read the Author's Note first, not in the audiobook
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Medusa's Ankles
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Medusa's Ankles celebrates the very best of A. S. Byatt's short fiction, carefully selected from a lifetime of writing. Peopled by artists, poets, and fabulous creatures, the stories blaze with creativity and color. From ancient myth to a British candy factory, from a Chinese restaurant to a Mediterranean swimming pool, from a Turkish bazaar to a fairy-tale palace, Byatt transports her listeners beyond the veneer of the ordinary - even beyond the gloss of the fantastical - to places rich and strange and wholly unforgettable.
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Beautiful writing! Sensitive Reading!
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Every summer Teresa follows her father to his childhood home in Puglia, down in the heel of Italy, a land of relentless, shimmering heat. Everything changes the summer she meets the three boys who live on the farm next door: Nicola, Tommaso, and Bern - the man Teresa will love for the rest of her life. Raised like brothers on a farm that feels to Teresa almost suspended in time, the three boys share a complex, intimate, and seemingly unassailable bond. But there is resentment underneath the surface of that strange brotherhood, a twisted kind of love that protects a dark secret.
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Definitely not a mystery
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At the end of a US tour with his state-supported choir, popular singer Yao Tian takes a private gig in New York to pick up some extra cash for his daughter’s tuition fund, but the consequences of his choice spiral out of control. On his return to China, Tian is informed that the sponsors of the event were supporters of Taiwan’s secession, and that he must deliver a formal self-criticism. When he is asked to forfeit his passport to his employer, Tian impulsively decides instead to return to New York to protest the government’s threat to his artistic integrity.
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Wonderful Story
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The morning of January 12, 1888, was unusually mild, following a punishing cold spell. It was warm enough for the homesteaders of the Dakota Territory to venture out again and for their children to return to school without their heavy coats - leaving them unprepared when disaster struck. At the hour when most prairie schools were letting out for the day, a terrifying, fast-moving blizzard blew in without warning. Schoolteachers as young as 16 were suddenly faced with life-and-death decisions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Homesteaders
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By: Melanie Benjamin
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Mercury Pictures Presents
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 274
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Story4 out of 5 stars 273
Like many before her, Maria Lagana has come to Hollywood to outrun her past. Born in Rome, where every Sunday her father took her to the cinema instead of church, Maria immigrates with her mother to Los Angeles after a childhood transgression leads to her father’s arrest.
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5 out of 5 stars
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As the NYT review says, a gorgeous book
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By: Anthony Marra
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Royal Flush
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
Wealthy racing yard owner Edward de Jersey has spent the last few years of his life reaping the rewards of his criminal mastermind past and spending his free time priming his star horse, Royal Flush, for a Derby win. Having successfully pulled off some of the most lucrative heists in history as 'The Colonel', at the height of his activity, he was one of the most prolific criminals of his time. But, when his financial advisor invests his fortune in an internet company that crashes quickly after, he is left with no choice but to return to his old ways.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Ten Stars...!
- By Scotty on 02-19-24
By: Lynda La Plante
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Queens of London
- By: Heather Webb
- Narrated by: Amy Scanlon
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story5 out of 5 stars 36
1925. LONDON. When Alice Diamond, a.k.a. “Diamond Annie,” is elected the queen of the Forty Elephants, she’s determined to take the all-girl gang to new heights. She’s ambitious, tough as nails, and a brilliant mastermind with a plan to create a dynasty the likes of which no one has ever seen. Alice demands absolute loyalty from her “family”—it’s how she's always kept the cops in line. Too bad she’s now the target for one of Britain’s first policewomen.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Don't worry about the dog!
- By Kristyn Rose on 04-11-24
By: Heather Webb
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Paradise
- By: Abdulrazak Gurnah
- Narrated by: Chukwudi Iwuji
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4 out of 5 stars 17
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award, Paradise was characterized by the Nobel Prize committee as Abdulrazak Gurnah’s “breakthrough” work. It is at once the chronicle of an African boy’s coming-of-age, a tragic love story, and a tale of the corruption of African tradition by European colonialism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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East African pre-colonual history from the inside out
- By Nzingha on 03-08-24
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Are We There Yet?
- By: Kathleen West
- Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 159
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 142
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Story4 out of 5 stars 141
Alice Sullivan feels like she’s finally found her groove in middle age, but it only takes one moment for her perfectly curated life to unravel. On the same day she learns her daughter is struggling in second grade, a call from her son’s school accusing him of bullying throws Alice into a tailspin.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So much fun
- By Pink Amy on 03-23-22
By: Kathleen West
What listeners say about In the Beauty of the Lilies
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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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
- Anne Fischer
- 02-13-24
Pacing of read aloud was perfect
Updike’s novel is timeless. Like many of his novels, it left me wanting to know more.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cindy Burkhardt
- 11-01-24
Life lessons
The generational saga of a family is brilliantly told and shows empathy and respect to each individual’s life story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 02-02-24
updike certainly can paint a picture with his words and has such beautiful little insights on human nature .
well, this book takes a very hard left turn at the end . I personally didn't like the ending he made . all in all, a very good book . almost a great book . worth your time. the orator was superb!
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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
- uforic
- 10-24-24
Family saga
I liked the telling of the Wilmott family thru the decades. Clarence, Danny, Essie and Clark each face issues that they must face.
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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
- linda
- 08-15-20
In the Beauty of the Lillies
Extraordinary craftsmanship and a compelling story. My second time through after reading it many years ago. Timeless brilliance.
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3 people found this helpful
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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
- Maria Isabel de Pina
- 11-24-24
Interesting story and excellent reading
The book tells about the life of a family covering 4 generations along the 20th century. It is really interesting to follow so nearly the ins and outs of their inner conflicts and realizing how human we all are and how important it is to keep faith and follow our paths with determination and equanimity. Life unfolds with everyone appearing to be its center and then just not. It feels rather important to take this in
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- pangest
- 07-18-23
Could Barely Keep Interested
If you are looking for a Sunday sermon, this is the book for you. Otherwise, keep on scrolling. I tried and tried but it's just so much God-speak and though I don't mind reliving Bible study, I want a story too! I see why this book is not tremendously popular these days.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Peggy Brisgill
- 10-04-24
Story of multiple generations of a family
Don’t know what the point was of the story. Way too long for a book that didn’t say much.
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