Magnificence
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Magnificence
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Narrated by:
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Xe Sands
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By:
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Lydia Millet
About this listen
This stunning novel introduces Susan Lindley, a woman adrift after her husband's death. Suddenly gifted her great uncle's Pasadena mansion, Susan decides to restore his extensive collection of preserved animals, tending to "the fur and feathers, the beaks, the bones and shimmering tails." Meanwhile, a menagerie of uniquely damaged humans - including a cheating husband and a chorus of eccentric elderly women - joins her in residence. Funny and heartbreaking, Magnificence is the story of a woman emerging from the sudden dissolution of her family. Millet's trademark themes - evolution and extinction, children and parenthood, loss and wonder - produce a rapturous final act to the critically acclaimed cycle of novels that began with How the Dead Dream.
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 90
Few authors write with such sheer love of story and language as T. C. Boyle, and that is nowhere more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and always entertaining short stories. Here are 14 new tales previously unpublished in book form. By turns mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, ironic and moving, Boyle's stories have mapped a wide range of human emotions. The stories here reflect his maturing themes.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Mixed Bag
- By AuntGert on 09-22-20
By: T. C. Boyle
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Outside Looking In
- A Novel
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 202
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 185
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Story4 out of 5 stars 183
In 1943, LSD is synthesized in Basel. Two decades later, a coterie of grad students at Harvard are gradually drawn into the inner circle of renowned psychologist and psychedelic drug enthusiast Timothy Leary. Fitzhugh Loney, a psychology PhD student, and his wife, Joanie, become entranced by the drug’s possibilities such that their “research” becomes less a matter of clinical trials and academic papers and instead turns into a freewheeling exploration of mind expansion, group dynamics, and communal living.
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5 out of 5 stars
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STORYTELLING AS CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
- By Christopher Meeks on 05-25-19
By: T. C. Boyle
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Lie Still
- A Novel
- By: Julia Heaberlin
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 219
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 196
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Story4 out of 5 stars 195
Nursing the faded scars of a long-held trauma, Emily Page and her husband, awaiting the arrival of their first child, move from New York City to the uber-wealthy Clairmont, Texas. There, Emily is swept into a world of opulent privilege and shifting loyalties. But the secrets she keeps follow her south, and with them comes the danger that her new friends can't protect her from, and her new enemies will not hesitate to use to destroy her once and for all.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Lie Still
- By Mary K on 06-27-17
By: Julia Heaberlin
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The Blue Hour
- Merci Rayborn, Book 1
- By: T. Jefferson Parker
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 226
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 188
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Story4 out of 5 stars 186
Tim Hess is a semiretired veteran cop staring at a death sentence - his own. Detective Merci Rayborn, young enough to be his daughter, is brash, impatient, and not someone from whom Hess wants to be taking orders. He certainly isn't planning on falling in love with her. Together, they must track down a psychopathic killer who's been abducting beautiful young women from the malls of Orange County.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding book, exceptional reader
- By Jan on 03-24-10
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The Drowning Tree
- By: Carol Goodman
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4 out of 5 stars 97
Stained glass artist Juno McKay is forced to confront the events that shattered the intense friendship between herself, her best friend, Christine, and her husband, Neil, when she discovers, after years of absence, that Christine is to deliver a lecture at their college reunion. Despite her misgivings, Juno finds herself compelled to attend the lecture about the history of one of Penrose College's most hallowed works of art.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Read in print.
- By Susan on 10-14-12
By: Carol Goodman
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Bright Lights, Big City
- By: Jay McInerney
- Narrated by: Daniel Passer
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 341
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 280
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Story4 out of 5 stars 283
The tragicomedy of a young man in New York City, a writer, never named, who works as a fact-checker for a prestigious magazine. He struggles with the reality of his mother's death, alienation, and the seductive pull of drugs and a vibrant nightlife.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Curiously, mundanely real
- By Amber on 01-07-12
By: Jay McInerney
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Shadow Show
- All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
- By: Sam Weller - editor, Mort Castle - editor
- Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Story4 out of 5 stars 161
Ray Bradbury - peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors - is a literary giant whose remarkable career spanned seven decades. Now 26 of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
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5 out of 5 stars
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THE MAN WHO FORGOT RAY BRADBURY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-27-17
By: Sam Weller - editor, and others
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Wonder Boys
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 740
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 660
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Story4 out of 5 stars 660
A wildly successful first novel made Grady Tripp a young star, and seven years later he still hasn't grown up. He's now a writing professor in Pittsburgh, plummeting through middle age, stuck with an unfinishable manuscript, an estranged wife, a pregnant girlfriend, and a talented but deeply disturbed student named James Leer.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A strong, early Chabon (sounds like grading wine)
- By Darwin8u on 03-09-14
By: Michael Chabon
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Killing Critics
- By: Carol O'Connell
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 103
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4 out of 5 stars 64
NYPD sergeant Kathleen Mallory - computer genius, street fighter, provocative waif, peerless investigator, manipulative beauty - is the gorgeous, near-sociopathic heroine of this knife-edged suspense novel. Along with old pals, Ricker, Coffey, and faithful admirer Charles Butler, Mallory is determined to solve the brutal "art as death" murder of an untalented but highly touted artist-critic.
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2 out of 5 stars
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2 Stars is generous
- By P. Chavez on 10-14-12
By: Carol O'Connell
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Judas Child
- By: Carol O'Connell
- Narrated by: Erika Leigh
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 235
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4 out of 5 stars 110
It is three days before Christmas, and two young girls have disappeared from the local academy. This hasn't happened for 15 years, since Rouge Kendall's twin sister was murdered. The killer was found, but now Rouge, 25 and a policeman, is forced to wonder: was he really the one? Also wondering is a former classmate named Ali Cray, a forensic psychologist with scars of her own. The pattern is the same, she says: a child called out to meet a friend.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good book, bad narrator..
- By Lea on 12-15-09
By: Carol O'Connell
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Koko
- Blue Rose Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 366
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 331
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Story4 out of 5 stars 334
KOKO. Only four men knew what it meant. Now they must stop it. They are Vietnam vets — a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. Very different from each other, they are nonetheless linked by a shared history and a single shattering secret. Now, they have been reunited and are about to embark on a quest that will take them from Washington, D.C., to the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York.
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2 out of 5 stars
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7 hours in and I am done
- By bionichands on 01-26-12
By: Peter Straub
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The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 4
- By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, Stephen King, Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Meredith Mitchell, Rebecca Mitchell, Michael Healy, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 218
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 199
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 198
With tales from Laird Barron, Stephen King, John Langan, Peter Straub, and many others, and featuring Datlow’s comprehensive overview of the year in horror, now, more than ever, The Best Horror of the Year provides the petrifying horror fiction readers have come to expect - and enjoy.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Only a few decent stories in this bunch.
- By Jerry on 12-06-14
By: Ellen Datlow - author/editor, and others
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The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
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A is for Alibi
- A Kinsey Millhone Mystery
- By: Sue Grafton
- Narrated by: Mary Peiffer
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,751
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 2,096
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2,098
This is the first in the popular series featuring California investigator Kinsey Millhone. She's 32, twice divorced, no kids, an ex-cop who likes her work...and who works strictly alone!
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1 out of 5 stars
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No More for Me
- By Robin on 07-12-08
By: Sue Grafton
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Lost Boy, Lost Girl
- By: Peter Straub
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 152
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 139
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Story4 out of 5 stars 138
A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son- fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill - vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge.
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3 out of 5 stars
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ALAN ALDA WITHOUT THE SMIRK
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 04-11-15
By: Peter Straub
What listeners say about Magnificence
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
- CVC
- 03-29-22
Wild life
Love the writing & the narration. Wanted a little more in the end but the book is well worth the read.
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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
- Byron Rubin
- 01-24-23
Expect truth.
Millet flabbergasts me. I replayed her first chapter 3 times before going on. She names what we, or at least I, think, outright… to the world. OMG!
She is astute, loves to think. She wonders about the intersection of our chemistry composition and who are.
She cares deeply for Gaia, Mother Earth and for life
That’s what this rich novel is about. …what she loves.
The reader Sands has an attitude that drips with ‘I don’t give a flip about what you, the listener think.’ She’s terrific.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Melissa Ranks
- 11-16-12
Was there a point?
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
This book just drones on and on. If you want to be asleep, then the time listening to this book will be well spent. If you are looking for an exciting or intriguing read, skip it.
What could Lydia Millet have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
There could have been more of a POINT TO THE STORY. The main character never really changed. She was still the same person, except that by the end of the book she stops sleeping around.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
The performance was OK. I found the narrator's voice to be a bit monotone.
Could you see Magnificence being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?
If they made this book into a movie, it would be an incredible flop. The only way it would work would be to have more steamy interludes, some real intrigue about "the legacy" (all the dead animals and *spoiler alert* native peoples).
Any additional comments?
This book was just not good. It was dull. What should have been a climactic scene at the end where the main character finally finds "the legacy" was really just not exciting. The characters were all pretty flat with no depth. The book spent a lot of time going nowhere and when it got there, that was it.
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