Sipsworth
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Sipsworth
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Narrated by:
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Christine Rendel
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By:
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Simon Van Booy
About this listen
Over the course of a single week, a woman who is ready to die discovers an unexpected reason to live.
Following the deaths of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the English village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss.
Helen retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit. Then, one cold autumn night, a chance encounter with an abandoned pet mouse on the street outside her house sets Helen on a surprising journey of friendship.
Sipsworth is a reminder that there can be second chances. No matter what we have planned for ourselves, sometimes the world has plans of its own. Simon Van Booy's lyrical storytelling is a delight even as it will fill your heart.
©2024 Simon Van Booy (P)2024 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
Over the past decade, Simon Van Booy has been listening to people’s stories. With these personal accounts as a starting point, he has crafted a powerful collection of short fiction that takes listeners into the innermost lives of everyday people. From a family saved from ruin by a mysterious benefactor to a downtrodden boxer who shows unexpected kindness to a mugger, these tales reveal not only the precarious balance maintained between grief and happiness in our lives but also how the echoes of personal tragedy can shape us for the better.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Heartwarming tales
- By David Kaplan on 10-13-18
By: Simon Van Booy
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Gertie Milk and the Keeper of Lost Things
- By: Simon Van Booy
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4 out of 5 stars 5
When 12-year-old Gertie Milk washes up on the island of Skuldark, she finds that all of her memories are gone. Home to helpful Slug Lamps, delicious moonberries, and a ferocious Guard Worm, the island is full of oddities, including a cozy cottage containing artifacts from every corner of history. It is there that Gertie discovers she has been chosen as the next Keeper of Lost Things, tasked with the mission of returning objects to history's most important figures right when they need them most.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Plodding
- By Amazon Customer on 09-10-20
By: Simon Van Booy
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Father's Day
- A Novel
- By: Simon Van Booy
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
At the age of six, a little girl named Harvey learns that her parents have died in a car accident. As she struggles to understand, a kindly social worker named Wanda introduces her to her only living relative: her uncle Jason, a disabled felon with a violent past and a criminal record. Despite his limitations - and his resistance - Wanda follows a hunch and cajoles Jason into becoming her legal guardian, convinced that each may be the other's last chance.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Heartwarming
- By RueRue on 07-16-21
By: Simon Van Booy
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If the Tide Turns
- By: Rachel Rueckert
- Narrated by: Pilar Witherspoon
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4 out of 5 stars 64
Set during the Golden Age of Pirates and the shadowy aftermath of the Salem witch trials, this vivid literary debut is inspired by the captivating true story of real-life pirate Samuel Bellamy, combining high seas adventure, star-crossed longing, surprisingly timely questions about social justice and freedom, and the emotionally satisfying tale of one strong-willed young woman determined to choose her own path.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting history
- By shpr2014 on 09-20-24
By: Rachel Rueckert
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The Girls
- By: John Bowen
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 3
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3
In their lovely old Cotswolds village, Janet and Susan are known to all the other villagers as “the girls”—a fixture. Partners in love and work, co-proprietors of a picturesque shop specializing in the work of local artisans and farmers, they lead an enviable, enviably settled life. So it’s no catastrophe when Sue, the younger of the two, feels the need to take a month to travel on her own, leaving Jan alone to run their stall at the Inland Waterways Rally Craft Fair.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A reverse mystery
- By beatriz Rodriguez on 01-09-25
By: John Bowen
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Highway Thirteen
- Stories
- By: Fiona McFarlane
- Narrated by: Emma Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 6
In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged for a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims’ families, but its impact travels even further: into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes. Highway Thirteen, Fiona McFarlane’s newest collection, takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more.
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3 out of 5 stars
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well written and interesting
- By Kristina D. Tiedeman on 09-03-24
By: Fiona McFarlane
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Dream
- The Art and Science of Slumber
- By: Scott Carney
- Narrated by: Scott Carney
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 38
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 38
Why do so many of us have trouble falling asleep? Why do our thoughts spin in wild directions after dark? More important: why do we dream? In this groundbreaking new book, investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney sets out to discover how the sleeping world reverberates in the waking one. Unlock the power of the immune system at the same time you dig deeply into the source of creativity. Discover the evolutionary process that forges both memory and emotions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A balanced book on that phenomenon we take for granted
- By Justin Weiss on 01-10-24
By: Scott Carney
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A Comedy of Nobodies
- A Collection of Stories
- By: Baron Ryan
- Narrated by: Baron Ryan
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 95
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4 out of 5 stars 89
Charlie knows he’s not the main character in his own story. He’s just another schmuck in the Ivy League looking to be somebody. He plays in a terrible jazz band, falls in love too easily, and struggles with the human being business. Written in a wry, comedic style, A Comedy of Nobodies: A Collection of Stories traces one fall semester in the lives of four typical but unforgettable university students who, as compensation for their existential anxieties, just want to feel understood.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant in every way
- By Amazon Customer on 11-16-24
By: Baron Ryan
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When Stars Rain Down
- By: Angela Jackson-Brown
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
The summer of 1936 in Parsons, Georgia, is unseasonably hot, and Opal Pruitt senses a nameless storm brewing. She hopes this foreboding feeling won’t overshadow her upcoming 18th birthday or the annual Founder’s Day celebration in just a few weeks. She and her Grandma Birdie work as housekeepers for the white widow Miss Peggy, and Opal desperately wants some time to be young and carefree with her cousins and friends.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Better than I could imagine!
- By Kindle Customer on 02-27-25
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The Flatshare
- A Novel
- By: Beth O'Leary
- Narrated by: Carrie Hope Fletcher, Kwaku Fortune
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,007
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,637
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,627
Tiffy and Leon share an apartment. Tiffy and Leon have never met. After a bad breakup, Tiffy Moore needs a place to live. Fast. And cheap. But the apartments in her budget have her wondering if astonishingly colored mold on the walls counts as art. Desperation makes her open minded, so she answers an ad for a flatshare. Leon, a night shift worker, will take the apartment during the day, and Tiffy can have it nights and weekends. He'll only ever be there when she's at the office. In fact, they'll never even have to meet.
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3 out of 5 stars
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so much language!!
- By H H on 10-12-19
By: Beth O'Leary
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Olivetti
- By: Allie Millington
- Narrated by: Christopher Gebauer, Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 219
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 190
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 190
Being a typewriter is not as easy as it looks. Surrounded by books (notorious attention hogs) and recently replaced by a computer, Olivetti has been forgotten by the Brindles—the family he’s lived with for years. The Brindles are busy humans, apart from twelve-year-old Ernest, who would rather be left alone with his collection of Oxford English Dictionaries. Once a collector of words, now Olivetti only collects dust. He gets a rare glimpse of action from Ernest’s mom, Beatrice—his used-to-be frequent visitor—only for her to drop him off at Heartland Pawn Shop and leave him behind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Absolutely brilliant!
- By Stephanie C. on 05-14-24
By: Allie Millington
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Women and Children First
- A Novel
- By: Alina Grabowski
- Narrated by: Abigail Reno, EJ Lavery, Maria McCann, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 38
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 38
Nashquitten, MA, is a decaying coastal enclave that not even tourist season can revive, full of locals who have run the town’s industries for generations. When a young woman dies at a house party, the circumstances around her death suspiciously unclear, the tight-knit community is shaken. As a mother grieves her daughter, a teacher her student, a best friend her confidante, the events around the tragedy become a lightning rod: blame is cast, secrets are buried deeper.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Relationships of Mother’s & Daughters!
- By Amazon Customer on 06-30-24
By: Alina Grabowski
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The North Line
- A Novel
- By: Matt Riordan
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 102
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4 out of 5 stars 89
Everyone believes Adam to be something he’s not. Sometimes that’s because he’s told them a story. Sometimes he’s told himself one. But when Adam joins an Alaskan fishing crew that’s promising quick money, the dangerous work and harsh lifestyle strip away all fabrications and force a dark-hearted exploration of who he really is. On the unforgiving Bering Sea, Adam finds the adventure and authenticity of a fisherman’s life revelatory. The labor required to seize bounty from the ocean invigorates him, and the often crude comradery accompanies a welcome, hard-earned wisdom.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Summer Read!
- By J.R. on 06-13-24
By: Matt Riordan
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How to Read a Book
- A Novel
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 668
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 635
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 635
From the award-winning author of The One-in-a-Million Boy comes a heartfelt, uplifting novel about a chance encounter at a bookstore, exploring redemption, unlikely friendships, and the life-changing power of sharing stories.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This book wrecked me!
- By BlaneClark on 05-27-24
By: Monica Wood
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Memories of the Lost
- A Novel
- By: Barbara O'Neal
- Narrated by: Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 410
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 380
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 380
Months after her mother passes away, artist Tillie Morrisey sees a painting in a gallery that leaves her inexplicably lightheaded and unsteady. When a handsome stranger comes to her aid, their connection is so immediate it seems fated, though Liam is only visiting for a few days. Working on her own art has always been a refuge, but after discovering a document among her mother’s belongings that suggests Tillie’s life has been a lie, she begins to suffer from a series of fugue states, with memories surfacing that she isn’t even sure are her own.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Fun mystery wrapped in a love story
- By sweeterindawn on 10-14-24
By: Barbara O'Neal
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The History of Sound
- Stories
- By: Ben Shattuck
- Narrated by: Ben Shattuck, Zachary Chastain, Paul Mescal, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
In twelve luminous stories set across three centuries, The History of Sound examines the unexpected ways the past returns to us and how love and loss are entwined and transformed over generations. In Ben Shattuck's ingenious collection, each story has a companion story, which contains a revelation about the previous, paired story. Mysteries and murders are revealed, history is refracted, and deep emotional connections are woven through characters and families.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gorgeous written connected stories
- By Briana R. on 07-22-24
By: Ben Shattuck
Christine Rendel’s beautiful narration of this lovely book is perfect.
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Catharsis and hope
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Cute story
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I was immediately immersed in the story and found it so meaningful and touching and sweet.
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Friendships
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A Lovely Heartwarming Story
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Awesome!
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A story I will not forget.
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Save mice from death?
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Charming story
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