Sidecountry
Tales of Death and Life from the Back Roads of Sports
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Sidecountry
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Narrated by:
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Charles Constant
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By:
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John Branch
About this listen
New York Times reporter John Branch's riveting, humane pieces about ordinary people doing extraordinary things at the edges of the sporting world have won nearly every major journalism prize. Sidecountry gathers the best of Branch's work, featuring 20 of his favorites from the more than 2,000 pieces he has published in the paper.
Branch is renowned for covering the offbeat in the sporting world, from alligator hunting to wingsuit flying. Sidecountry features such classic Branch pieces as "Snow Fall", about downhill skiers caught in an avalanche in Washington state, and "Dawn Wall", about rock climbers trying to scale Yosemite's famed El Capitan. In other articles, Branch introduces people whose dedication and decency transcend their sporting lives, including a revered football coach rebuilding his tornado-devastated town in Iowa and a girls' basketball team in Tennessee that plays on despite never winning a game. The book culminates with his moving personal pieces, including "Children of the Cube", about the surprising drama of Rubik's Cube competitions as seen through the eyes of Branch's own sports-hating son, and "The Girl in the No. 8 Jersey", about a mother killed in the 2017 Las Vegas shooting whose daughter happens to play on Branch's daughter's soccer team.
©2021 John Branch (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 380
Often called "Accident Park", "Class Action Park", or "Traction Park", Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures - sometimes with tragic results. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating, but lacking in substance
- By That Guy From the Video Store on 09-05-20
By: Andy Mulvihill, and others
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The Boys of Winter
- The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team
- By: Wayne Coffey
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 325
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 289
Once upon a time, they taught us to believe. They were the 1980 US Olympic hockey team, a blue-collar bunch led by an unconventional coach, and they engineered perhaps the greatest sports moment of the 20th century. Their "Miracle on Ice" has become a national fairy tale, but the real Cinderella story is even more remarkable. It is a legacy of hope, hard work, and homegrown triumph. It is a chronicle of everyday heroes who just wanted to play hockey happily ever after.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great, but...
- By S. B. G. on 02-13-18
By: Wayne Coffey
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The Third Pole
- Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest
- By: Mark Synnott
- Narrated by: Steve Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 476
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 407
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 409
A hundred-year mystery lured veteran climber Mark Synnott into an unlikely expedition up Mount Everest during the spring 2019 season that came to be known as “the Year Everest Broke”. What he found was a gripping human story of impassioned characters from around the globe and a mountain that will consume your soul - and your life - if you let it.
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3 out of 5 stars
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This is not a book about the search for Sandy Irvine
- By erik on 09-15-21
By: Mark Synnott
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Head On
- A Memoir
- By: Larry Csonka
- Narrated by: Phil Thron
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story5 out of 5 stars 49
Larry Csonka ran the football with audacity and authority. He lived his off-the-field life with equal abandon. As part of the NFL's 100th Anniversary, he and his undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins teammates were named the best team in NFL history. In Head On, Csonka shares how they achieved their legendary Perfect Season. From quitting football at a young age, to his often-combative relationship with Coach Don Shula, to brazen exploits with his NFL pals, Csonka narrates a life that is colorful, unbridled, and thrilling.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My Childhood Hero
- By Amy MacDougall on 01-28-23
By: Larry Csonka
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Life Lived Wild
- Adventures at the Edge of the Map (Patagonia)
- By: Rick Ridgeway
- Narrated by: Rick Ridgeway
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 327
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Story5 out of 5 stars 293
At the beginning of his memoir Life Lived Wild: Adventures at the Edge of the Map, Rick Ridgeway tells us that if you add up all his many expeditions, he’s spent over five years of his life sleeping in tents: “And most of that in small tents pitched in the world’s most remote regions.” It’s not a boast so much as an explanation. Whether at elevation or raising a family back at sea level, those years taught him, he writes, “to distinguish matters of consequence from matters of inconsequence.” He leaves it to his listeners to do the final sort of which is which.
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1 out of 5 stars
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The hypocrisy and boasting ego. Blood boiling.
- By Amazon Customer on 12-30-21
By: Rick Ridgeway
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Playing Through the Whistle
- Steel, Football, and an American Town
- By: S. L. Price
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4 out of 5 stars 64
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania is famous for two things: the Jones and Laughlin Steel mill, an industrial behemoth that helped win World War II; and football, with a high school team that has produced numerous NFL stars, including Mike Ditka and Darrelle Revis. But the mill, once the fourth largest producer in America, closed for good in 2000. What happens to a town when a dream dies? Does it just disappear?
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5 out of 5 stars
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This is not a football book
- By radchick on 04-19-17
By: S. L. Price
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The Patch
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: John McPhee
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
The Patch is the seventh collection of essays by the nonfiction master John McPhee. It is divided into two parts. It is an "album quilt", an artful assortment of nonfiction writings that have not previously appeared in any book.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A thousand details add up to one impression
- By Darwin8u on 11-15-18
By: John McPhee
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Running with Sherman
- The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero
- By: Christopher McDougall
- Narrated by: Christopher McDougall
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,985
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,745
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,739
When Chris McDougall agreed to take in a donkey from an animal hoarder, he thought it would be no harder than the rest of the adjustments he and his family had made after moving from Philadelphia to the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country. But when he arrived, Sherman was in such bad shape he could barely move, and his hair was coming out in clumps. Chris decided to undertake a radical rehabilitation program designed not only to heal Sherman's body but to heal his mind as well - and so Chris decided to teach Sherman how to run.
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5 out of 5 stars
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amazing story
- By scott on 10-19-19
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This Love Is Not for Cowards
- Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juárez
- By: Robert Andrew Powell
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
As Mexico has descended into a feudal narco-state - one where cartels, death squads, the army, and local police all fight over billions of dollars in profits from drug and human trafficking - the border city of Jurez has been hit hardest of all. And yet, more than a million people still live there. They even love their impoverished city, proudly repeating its mantra: "Amor por Jurez." Nothing exemplifies the spirit and hope of Juarenses more than the Indios, the city's beloved but hard-luck soccer team.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it
- By Nathan & Kira Huggins on 04-14-15
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Lassoing the Sun
- A Year in America's National Parks
- By: Mark Woods
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks. On the eve of turning 50, and a little burned out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks.
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3 out of 5 stars
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great narrator, lackluster story, wonderful themes
- By MT on 08-21-18
By: Mark Woods
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Judgment Ridge
- The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders
- By: Dick Lehr, Mitchell Zuckoff
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 90
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Story4 out of 5 stars 89
On a cold night in January 2001, the idyllic community of Dartmouth College was shattered by the discovery that two of its most beloved professors had been hacked to death in their own home. Investigators searched helplessly for clues linking the victims to their murderer or murderers. A few weeks later, across the river, in the town of Chelsea, Vermont, police cars were spotted in front of the house of a high school senior. Soon, the town discovered the incomprehensible reality that two of Chelsea's brightest and most popular sons, were now fugitives, wanted for the murders.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Terrible
- By Maria on 04-26-20
By: Dick Lehr, and others
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The Secret Game
- A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph
- By: Scott Ellsworth
- Narrated by: Scott Ellsworth
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 49
In the wartime fall of 1943, at the little-known North Carolina College for Negroes, Coach John McLendon was on the verge of changing the game forever. Within six months his Eagles would become the highest-scoring college basketball team in America, a fast-breaking, hard-pressing juggernaut that would shatter its opponents by as many as 60 points per game. The last student of James Naismith, basketball's inventor, McLendon had opened the door to its future.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Could Have Been Great
- By Rich Hayami on 05-25-24
By: Scott Ellsworth
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The Cost of These Dreams
- Sports Stories and Other Serious Business
- By: Wright Thompson
- Narrated by: Wright Thompson
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 459
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 403
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Story5 out of 5 stars 401
There is only one Wright Thompson. He is, as they say, famous if you know who he is: his work includes the most-read articles in the history of ESPN (and it's not even close) and has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series ten times, and he counts John Grisham and Richard Ford among his ardent admirers. But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just great
- By ACK on 06-02-19
By: Wright Thompson
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Ranger Confidential
- Living, Working, and Dying in the National Parks
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Julia Motyka
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,284
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,148
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,145
The real stories behind the scenery of America’s national parks. For 12 years, Andrea Lankford lived in the biggest, most impressive national parks in the world, working a job she loved. She chaperoned baby sea turtles on their journey to sea. She pursued bad guys on her galloping patrol horse. She jumped into rescue helicopters bound for the heart of the Grand Canyon. She won arguments with bears. She slept with a few too many rattlesnakes. Hell yeah, it was the best job in the world! Fortunately, Andrea survived it.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Depressing from Cover to Cover
- By Drew (@drewsant) on 04-13-15
By: Andrea Lankford
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Miracle Country
- A Memoir
- By: Kendra Atleework
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero. Kendra's family raised their children to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it came at a price.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best memoir I've read
- By Patricia on 08-15-20
By: Kendra Atleework
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Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 641
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 553
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 551
On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
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Twelve Mighty Orphans
- The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football
- By: Jim Dent
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 259
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Story5 out of 5 stars 230
In the 1930s and 1940s, there was nothing bigger in Texas high school football than the Masonic Home Mighty Mites - a group of orphans bound together by hardship and death. These youngsters, in spite of being outweighed by at least 30 pounds per man, were the toughest football team around. They began with nothing - not even a football - yet in a few years were playing for the state championship on the highest level of Texas football. This is a winning tribute to a courageous band of underdogs from a time when America desperately needed fresh hope and big dreams.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great story!!
- By Damian McKeon on 06-14-21
By: Jim Dent
What listeners say about Sidecountry
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- M Aurelius
- 12-22-21
Repetitive and boring
Mr Branch’s approach to a story is well suited to interest pieces in The NY Times. Accumulated in a single volume, he comes off like a one-trick-pony whose cookie cutter journalistic approach is applied to new topics in an attempt at a refresh. Unfortunately, this poorly edited volume does him no favors, and I found listening to him, and the mediocre reader, a trial of self-satisfied writing read poorly.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Vas Sladek
- 09-01-21
The book title is more exciting than the content
Overall I enjoyed the book but the content isn't as exciting as the title and cover picture suggest. The bowling story will stay with you forever!
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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
- Mg
- 07-13-24
Human endurance and resilience
I really wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. I heard about this book after an interview with the author on a podcast. The disappointment of the book, is not the author’s fault but fault of my own. I wanted a book full of survival stories testing nature’s biggest challenges such as Everest and the featured avalanche story; however this is not the focus of the book.
The author is very talented and deserves all the achievements he has earned. I did enjoy all the stories and I’m glad that I finished it. Human endurance is a fascinating thing that Mr Branch captures and wraps around the reading pulling at our every emotion.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 10-14-21
Great title, okay content
It would have been nice if the serial pieces had been re-edited to reduce the redundant. Also, few of the stories- while interesting, live up to the suspense suggested by the Side Country title.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Kate
- 07-17-22
Why so repetitive?
The stories are interesting but someone did a lousy job of editing. Why do we have to hear a summation of the same story in each chapter. Cannot finish what could be a much shorter and better book.
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1 person found this helpful