Since I Laid My Burden Down
A Novel
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Since I Laid My Burden Down
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Narrated by:
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Brontez Purnell
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By:
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Brontez Purnell
About this listen
Whiting Award winner Brontez Purnell’s debut novel is an uninhibited portrait of growing up gay in 1980s Alabama: exploring art and sex with “more layered insight than the page count should allow” (Hanif Abdurraqib, MTV News).
DeShawn lives a high, creative, and promiscuous life in San Francisco. But when he’s called back to his cramped Alabama hometown for his uncle’s funeral, he’s hit by flashbacks of handsome, doomed neighbors and sweltering Sunday services. Amid prickly reminders of his childhood, DeShawn ponders family, church, and the men in his life, prompting the question: Who deserves love?
A modern American classic, Since I Laid My Burden Down is a raw and searing look into the intersections of memory, Blackness, and queerness.
"An antidote to the rigamarole of gay lit." (Mask Magazine)
"Slim yet potently realized, with a lot to ponder." (The Bay Area Reporter)
“Since I Laid My Burden Down has a fearless (sometimes reckless) humor as Brontez Purnell interrogates what it means to be black, male, queer; a son, an uncle, a lover; Southern, punk, and human. An emotional tightrope walk of a book and an important American story rarely, if ever, told.” (Michelle Tea, author of Black Wave)
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Striking in their emotional immediacy, the stories in Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self are based in a world where inequality is reality but where the insecurities of adolescence and young adulthood, and the tensions within family and the community, are sometimes the biggest complicating forces in one's sense of identity and the choices one makes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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things we do to oursekves
- By Jamintel on 02-06-23
By: Danielle Evans
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In the Shadow of the Valley
- A Memoir
- By: Bobi Conn
- Narrated by: Bobi Conn
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 297
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 252
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 251
Bobi Conn was raised in a remote Kentucky holler in 1980s Appalachia. She remembers her tin-roofed house tucked away in a vast forest paradise; the sparkling creeks, with their frogs and crawdads; the sweet blackberries growing along the road to her granny’s; and her abusive father. An elegiac account of survival despite being born poor, female, and cloistered, Bobi’s testament is one of hope for all vulnerable populations, particularly women and girls caught in the cycle of poverty and abuse.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Hard Pass
- By Kathryn Liggett on 06-13-20
By: Bobi Conn
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Harley Loco
- A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk from the Middle East to the Lower East Side
- By: Rayya Elias
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
When she was 7, Rayya Elias and her family fled the political conflict in their native Syria, settling in Detroit. Bullied in school and caught between the world of her traditional family and her tough American classmates, she rebelled early. Elias moved to New York City to become a musician and kept herself afloat with an uncommon talent for cutting hair. At the height of the punk movement, life on the Lower East Side was full of adventure, creative inspiration, and temptation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What an amazing woman.
- By Canaan Voss on 06-12-24
By: Rayya Elias
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The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,189
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,021
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,013
In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
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Before We Were Wicked
- By: Eric Jerome Dickey
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 744
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 658
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 659
They say the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it's the love of a woman. Ken is 21, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What's meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. And when Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mixed feelings on this one
- By Av8ist on 07-28-19
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Snow
- A Love Story Birthed in the Streets (Snow, Book 1)
- By: Jessica N. Watkins
- Narrated by: Jay Miranda, Patrick Stevens
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 501
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 442
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 443
Azu Wilson gave his oldest daughter the name Snow because she was born amongst his snowfall on the city of Gary, Indiana in 2001. Then, Azu had just began to drop tons kilos of coke on the city, starting the birth of his empire. Fast forward 18 years later, Snow is Azu's favorite girl and only daughter. She has been doted on by her father. Now, she is off to college with her best friends, Tristan and Bae. They hope that their move out of the violent streets of Chicago to Tallahassee will bring positive change to the brutally savage lives they have lived.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Stop putting this Narrator on Urban Books.
- By Cookie C. on 01-23-20
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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 81
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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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How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
- Essays
- By: Kiese Laymon
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 223
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 198
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Story5 out of 5 stars 195
Author and essayist Kiese Laymon is one of the most unique, stirring, and powerful new voices in American social and cultural commentary. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America is a collection of Laymon's essays, touching on subjects ranging from family, race, violence, and celebrity to music, writing, and coming of age in the rural Mississippi Gulf Coast. Laymon's writing is unflinchingly honest, while also being smart, lacerating, and unexpectedly funny.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I'm Stunned By This Collection
- By Rachel on 10-17-17
By: Kiese Laymon
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The Baddest Bitch in the Room
- (Explicit Version)
- By: Sophia Chang
- Narrated by: Sophia Chang
- Length: 8 hrs
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,873
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,662
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,661
Sophia Chang is a badass of the music industry. As the daughter of Korean immigrants in predominantly white suburban Vancouver, she grew up shunning the “model minority” myth. Armed with a fierce sense of independence, she moved to New York City and infiltrated the world of hip-hop, yet remained mostly in the shadows of the artists she supported. With her debut memoir, Sophia Chang is finally ready to grab the mic for herself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Something in the music spoke to me...
- By Tina G. on 09-30-19
By: Sophia Chang
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Problem Child
- By: Terrell Carter, Stacy Thunes
- Narrated by: Terrell Carter
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 235
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 210
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Story5 out of 5 stars 210
Problem Child is the unbelievably true story of Terrell Carter, an American musician and actor who grew up in Buffalo, New York, in a dysfunctional family, each member crazier than the next. And the Problem Child is the only one in the story who may, or may not, actually have a problem. An emotional journey of trials and revelations, with a huge secret at its core, this story may force you to laugh - just to keep from crying.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Worth the wait . . .
- By JPALJ on 12-07-22
By: Terrell Carter, and others
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Will
- By: Will Smith, Mark Manson
- Narrated by: Will Smith
- Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 58,166
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 52,634
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Story5 out of 5 stars 52,372
One of the most dynamic and globally recognized entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in full of one of the most amazing rides through the worlds of music and film that anyone has ever had.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Will sure loves Will
- By Kejeco on 11-18-21
By: Will Smith, and others
What listeners say about Since I Laid My Burden Down
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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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ornanial Cates
- 10-14-23
Good story, bad reader
Struggling listen to the story. The reader 's voice is a little distracting. I hope you reissue the book with another reader.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 01-30-24
Shameless and raw
It’s just too good for this world, Brontez is a master at describing sluttish ways.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Dr. James H. Lawson
- 06-03-23
Almost, but not Quite There
Should have sought another reader. His voice was monotone and boring. Storyline was rather good.
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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
- Tiffany S. Brooks
- 02-10-21
Strong, Vibrant, Storytelling
I loved this book. Brontez performing his story of DeShaun and his life were so powerful. I loved how genuinely reflective Brontez was when speaking to his family dynamics. One of my favorite reads this year.
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