Once There Was a Girl: A Memoir
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Once There Was a Girl: A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Wendy R. Randall
About this listen
Once There Was a Girl is the poignant true story of Wendy, a young black woman struggling to grow up in a housing project in New Orleans. Facing abject poverty, rampant crime, and formidable challenges, she believes against all hope that she will somehow survive. Her mother teaches her how to pray - and pray she does - even when all hope of a better life seems fleeting and perhaps impossible. As time passes, Wendy struggles to not give up, and fervently asks God to perform a miracle and deliver her from the projects to the world she hopes and dreams of.
©2020 Wendy R. Randall (P)2021 Wendy R. RandallListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
From New York Times best-selling authors Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski comes the young listeners' edition of an unbelievable memoir about an unlikely friendship that forever changed the lives of a busy sales executive and a hungry 11-year-old boy. On one rainy afternoon, on a crowded New York City street corner, eleven-year-old Maurice met Laura. Maurice asked Laura for spare change because he was hungry, and something made Laura stop and ask Maurice if she could take him to lunch.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful, heartwarming
- By Mr. Titus Paul Miller on 04-24-24
By: Laura Schroff, and others
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Black Sunday
- A Novel
- By: Tola Rotimi Abraham
- Narrated by: Liz Femi, Dele Ogundiran, Miebaka Yohannes, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4 out of 5 stars 39
Twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike are enjoying a relatively comfortable life in Lagos in 1996. Then their mother loses her job due to political strife, and the family, facing poverty, is drawn into the New Church, an institution led by a charismatic pastor who is not shy about worshipping earthly wealth. Soon Bibike and Ariyike's father wagers the family home on a sure bet that evaporates like smoke.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good Story - Awful accents
- By Tamara C-J on 02-15-21
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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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I Just Want You to Know
- Letters to My Kids on Love, Faith, and Family
- By: Kate Gosselin
- Narrated by: Kate Gosselin
- Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
In I Just Want You to Know, New York Times best-selling author Kate Gosselin continues her story of faith and family, picking up where her first book, Multiple Blessings, ended. Using excerpts and written prayers from her actual journal, Kate offers an intimate look at the heart of a mother during the three years her family transitioned from obscurity into television fame.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This was a good book
- By lisa m schumann on 01-03-22
By: Kate Gosselin
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Rare Bird
- A Memoir of Loss and Love
- By: Anna Whiston-Donaldson
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story5 out of 5 stars 57
On an ordinary September day, 12-year-old Jack is swept away in a freak neighborhood flood. His parents and younger sister are left to wrestle with the awful questions: How could God let this happen? Can we ever be happy again? They each fall into the abyss of grief in different ways. And in the days and months to come, they each find their faltering way toward peace. In Rare Bird, Anna Whiston-Donaldson unfolds a mother's story of loss that leads, in time, to enduring hope.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Warning! Tears
- By Madge on 08-16-15
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They Called Me Number One
- Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School
- By: Bev Sellars
- Narrated by: Bev Sellars
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 98
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Story5 out of 5 stars 98
Like thousands of Aboriginal children in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere in the colonized world, Xatsu'll chief Bev Sellars spent part of her childhood as a student in a church-run residential school. These institutions endeavored to "civilize" Native children through Christian teachings; forced separation from family, language, and culture; and strict discipline. In this frank and poignant memoir of her years at St. Joseph's Mission, Sellars breaks her silence about the residential school's lasting effects on her and her family and eloquently articulates her own path to healing.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Shame on Church and State
- By Susie on 08-22-17
By: Bev Sellars
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Laughing Without an Accent
- Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad
- By: Firoozeh Dumas
- Narrated by: Firoozeh Dumas
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 306
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 175
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 177
In the best-selling memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounted her adventures growing up Iranian American in Southern California. Now she again mines her rich Persian heritage in Laughing Without an Accent, sharing stories both tender and humorous on being a citizen of the world, on her well-meaning family, and on amusing cultural conundrums, all told with insights into the universality of the human condition. (Hint: It may have to do with brushing and flossing daily.)
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1 out of 5 stars
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Sigh
- By Sara on 01-29-14
By: Firoozeh Dumas
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Waking Up in Paris
- Overcoming Darkness in the City of Light
- By: Sonia Choquette
- Narrated by: Sonia Choquette
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 225
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 204
Devastated by the unexpected end of her decades-long marriage, renowned spiritual teacher and intuitive guide Sonia Choquette undertook an equally unexpected move and relocated to Paris, the scene of many happy memories from her life as a student and young mother. Arriving in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, she found a Paris as traumatized by this unforeseen event as she had been by her divorce.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I wanted to love this, but couldn't.
- By Bonnie Peterson on 10-02-18
By: Sonia Choquette
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Claiming My Place: Coming of Age in the Shadow of the Holocaust
- By: Planaria Price, Helen Reichmann West
- Narrated by: Ilyana Kadushin
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Meet Barbara Reichmann, once known as Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. A Jew growing up in predominantly Catholic Poland during the 1920s and ’30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis invade Poland and establish the first Jewish ghetto of World War II in her town of Piotrko´w Trybunalski.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing
- By Nordic Artisan on 07-09-18
By: Planaria Price, and others
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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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Fairyland
- A Memoir of My Father
- By: Alysia Abbott
- Narrated by: Alysia Abbott
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 109
A beautiful, vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and 80s San Francisco with an openly gay father. After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation - few of whom are raising a child. Steve throws himself into San Francisco's vibrant cultural scene.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great representation of the time
- By AvidReader22 on 06-07-19
By: Alysia Abbott
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The Girl Who Smiled Beads
- A Story of War and What Comes After
- By: Clemantine Wamariya, Elizabeth Weil
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 641
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 546
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 544
Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Narrator detracts from story
- By Laura on 01-16-19
By: Clemantine Wamariya, and others
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Finding Me
- A Memoir
- By: Viola Davis
- Narrated by: Viola Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 40,488
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 37,071
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Story5 out of 5 stars 36,884
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life-changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose but also my voice in a world that didn’t always see me.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely beautifully Written❤️
- By Love bug23 on 05-02-22
By: Viola Davis
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Wildflower
- By: Drew Barrymore
- Narrated by: Drew Barrymore
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,701
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,102
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,072
Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences of her earlier years. It includes tales of living on her own at 14 (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck in a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Hold the shrieking !
- By Dawne on 11-27-15
By: Drew Barrymore
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How Dare the Sun Rise
- Memoirs of a War Child
- By: Sandra Uwiringiyimana, Abigail Pesta
- Narrated by: Sandra Uwiringiyimana
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 205
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Story5 out of 5 stars 205
This profoundly moving memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism. Sandra was just 10 years old when she found herself with a gun pointed at her head. She had watched as rebels gunned down her mother and six-year-old sister in a refugee camp.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sandra's voice is mesmorizing!
- By Karissa Barber on 04-18-18
By: Sandra Uwiringiyimana, and others
What listeners say about Once There Was a Girl: A Memoir
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
- L
- 12-08-22
Thanks for sharing your life, Wendy!
Makes me thankful. I enjoyed hearing how Wendy thought about her childhood in the slums.
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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
- salzcyn
- 12-09-21
Faith and persistence win the day.
Wendy Randall takes us from a surrounding of sadness, poverty and hopelessness to a future of success in telling how her mother's dedication and deep faith kept her children from taking the wrong path, although they were living in a project which exposed them to crime and filth and people who were going nowhere but down in this world. Wendy's own belief in herself, along with help from not only her teachers but also from her leaders in the church, brought her to the turning point where she never, never, never gave up and was able to travel on a high school trip to France which truly turned her life around. After that she gained a wonderful higher education and became the thoroughly rounded woman of faith and ability that she is now.
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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
- Katherine Randall
- 09-26-21
A Moving, Real, and Relatable Story
This was such a beautiful book. I believe that anyone reading can see a bit of themselves in it. It’s a great testimony of how God can move in a person’s life as they continue to hope and trust in Him.
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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
- K
- 10-31-21
A story of hope
This book gave me insight on someone else's story. letting me know that I'm not alone in the struggle and that God is still in control . This book blessed my life, it made me laugh, cry, and a lot of self reflection. Knowing that where my beginning starts isn't important but the journey. Wendy did a great job telling her story. A true story of hope
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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
- 03-02-23
An extraordinary journey
This book is a very good read and I suggest everyone read it. For me, most interesting stories come from seemingly ordinary people who walk amongst us that have overcome traumatic challenges but still have so much to give.
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