The Belles Lettres Papers
A Novel
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The Belles Lettres Papers
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Narrated by:
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Alex Hyde-White
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By:
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Charles Simmons
About this listen
The everyday insanity of life at a fictional literary review. The journal Belles Lettres has a long and storied history, which is what enticed young editor Frank Page over its threshold in the first place. But Frank did not anticipate the infighting, backstabbing, and utter oddity that are all business as usual at the respected magazine. Still, nothing can match Frank’s thrill at discovering a new literary phenom.
But the book industry seems to be on the decline. Integrity is going extinct as conglomerate giants gobble up smaller organs and trample innovation and daring into the muck of commerciality. At least Frank’s position gives him a front-row seat at the publishing world’s fight of the century, as deposed editorial icon Jonathan Margin takes on self-serving corporate overseer Newbold Press in an ink-splattered battle to the death.
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-
Story4 out of 5 stars 67
It's just another day at the office for book editor Samantha Clair. Checking jacket copy for howlers, wondering how to break it to her star novelist that her latest effort is utterly unpublishable, lunch scheduled with gossipy author Kit Lowell, whose new book will deliciously dish the dirt on the fashion industry. But little does she know how much trouble Kit's book is about to be. Before it even goes to print.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Excellent novel, horrible narrator
- By David on 03-20-17
By: Judith Flanders
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Finale
- A Novel of the Reagan Years
- By: Thomas Mallon
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4 out of 5 stars 54
From the author of the acclaimed novel Watergate comes a galvanizing new novel about the tumultuous administration of the most consequential and enigmatic president of modern times - Ronald Reagan. Finale takes listeners to the political gridiron of Washington in 1986, the wealthiest enclaves of Southern California, and the volcanic landscape of Iceland, where the president engages in two almost apocalyptic days of negotiation with Mikhail Gorbachev.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Gore Vidal for the 21st Century
- By philip on 10-31-15
By: Thomas Mallon
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The Speechwriter
- A Brief Education in Politics
- By: Barton Swaim
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 137
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 123
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 123
Everyone knows this kind of politician: a charismatic maverick who goes up against the system and its ways, but thinks he doesn't have to live by the rules. Using his experience as a speechwriter, Barton Swaim tells the story of a band of believers who attach themselves to this sort of ambitious narcissist.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A well-written complainers guide
- By Kindle Customer on 08-03-15
By: Barton Swaim
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Draft No. 4
- On the Writing Process
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: John McPhee
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 248
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 208
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 209
Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer's craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he's gathered over his career and refined during his long-running course at Princeton University, where he has launched some of the most esteemed writers of several generations. McPhee offers a definitive guide to the crucial decisions regarding structure, diction, and tone that shape nonfiction pieces and presents extracts from some of his best-loved work, subjecting them to wry scrutiny.
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4 out of 5 stars
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McPhee is the Craft
- By Darwin8u on 09-19-17
By: John McPhee
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Watergate
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Mallon
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 206
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 179
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Story4 out of 5 stars 176
For all the monumental documentation that Watergate generated - uncountable volumes of committee records, court transcripts, and memoirs - it falls at last to a novelist to perform the work of inference (and invention) that allows us to solve some of the scandal’s greatest mysteries - who did erase those eighteen-and-a-half minutes of tape? - and to see this gaudy American catastrophe in its human entirety. In Watergate, Thomas Mallon conveys the drama and high comedy of the Nixon presidency through the urgent perspectives of seven characters we only thought we knew.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A great listen
- By Tad Davis on 03-29-12
By: Thomas Mallon
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The Last of the President's Men
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Campbell Scott
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 509
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 454
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 443
Bob Woodward exposes one of the final pieces of the Richard Nixon puzzle in his new book, The Last of the President's Men. Woodward reveals the untold story of Alexander Butterfield, the Nixon aide who disclosed the secret White House taping system that changed history and led to Nixon's resignation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Disturbing portrayal of Nixon
- By Jean on 11-17-15
By: Bob Woodward
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
- An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 926
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 602
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Story4 out of 5 stars 596
New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, winner of the first-ever Saga Award for Wit, has entertained millions with his beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries. Now this phenomenally popular author introduces a fresh series, brimming with the charm and humor his stable of dedicated fans can't get enough of.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Advice For Prospective Listeners
- By DCinMI on 02-18-13
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The Rising
- Before They Were Left Behind
- By: Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 701
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 510
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 510
New York Times best-selling authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have sold more than 60 million copies of their Left Behind series, the fastest-selling adult fiction series of all time. Now these extraordinarily popular writers unveil the hotly anticipated Countdown to Rapture series, the thrilling saga that leads to the events of the Left Behind books.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Prequel
- By Colleena on 04-02-05
By: Tim LaHaye, and others
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And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
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She Made Me Laugh
- My Friend Nora Ephron
- By: Richard Cohen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 95
Award-winning journalist Richard Cohen, wrote this about his "third-person memoir": "I call this book a third-person memoir. It is about my closest friend, Nora Ephron, and the lives we lived together and how her life got to be bigger until, finally, she wrote her last work, the play, Lucky Guy, about a newspaper columnist dying of cancer while she herself was dying of cancer. I have interviewed many of her other friends - Mike Nichols, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Arianna Huffington.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it!
- By Leigh Lerro on 10-27-17
By: Richard Cohen
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Murder at the Kennedy Center
- By: Margaret Truman
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 118
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4 out of 5 stars 75
Kenneth Ewald has what it takes to win the presidency: the support of his party, a lovely wife, a dynamic campaign. What neither he nor any candidate needs is a corpse. He knows only one man capable of solving a crime, clearing his son, putting his campaign back on track and catching a killer: his best friend Mac Smith. Oddly enough, it was Mac and his dog Rufus who found the body in the first place.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Truman
- By Barbra on 01-01-08
By: Margaret Truman
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In the Light of What We Know
- By: Zia Haider Rahman
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 21 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4 out of 5 stars 82
One September morning in 2008, an investment banker approaching forty, his career in collapse and his marriage unraveling, receives a surprise visitor at his West London townhouse. In the disheveled figure of a South Asian male carrying a backpack the banker recognizes a long-lost friend, a mathematics prodigy who disappeared years earlier under mysterious circumstances. The friend has resurfaced to make a confession of unsettling power.
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1 out of 5 stars
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dreadful
- By sam on 06-05-15
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The Good Girls Revolt
- How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace
- By: Lynn Povich
- Narrated by: Susan Larkin
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 163
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Story4 out of 5 stars 167
It was the 1960s - a time of economic boom and social strife. Young women poured into the workplace, but the “Help Wanted” ads were segregated by gender and the “Mad Men” office culture was rife with sexual stereotyping and discrimination. Lynn Povich was one of the lucky ones, landing a job at Newsweek, renowned for its cutting-edge coverage of civil rights and the “Swinging Sixties.” Nora Ephron, Jane Bryant Quinn, Ellen Goodman, and Susan Brownmiller all started there as well. It was a top-notch job - for a girl - at an exciting place. But it was a dead end.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book read by Ms Robot.
- By careuther on 09-17-16
By: Lynn Povich
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How It All Began
- By: Penelope Lively
- Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 459
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 392
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 390
When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful and beautifully written
- By Molly-o on 02-15-12
By: Penelope Lively
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A Very English Scandal
- Sex, Lies, and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment
- By: John Preston
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 205
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 182
As a member of Parliament and leader of the Liberal Party in the 1960s and 70s, Jeremy Thorpe's bad behavior went under the radar for years. Police and politicians alike colluded to protect one of their own. In 1970, Thorpe was the most popular and charismatic politician in the country, poised to hold the balance of power in a coalition government. But Jeremy Thorpe was a man with a secret.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Who knew?
- By Dorothy on 10-24-16
By: John Preston
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A Torch Kept Lit
- Great Lives of the Twentieth Century
- By: William F. Buckley
- Narrated by: Tony Pasqualini
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 162
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 164
In a half century on the national stage, William F. Buckley Jr. achieved unique stature as a polemicist and the undisputed godfather of modern American conservatism. He knew everybody, hosted everybody at his East 73rd Street maisonette, skewered everybody who needed skewering, and in general lived life on a scale, and in a swashbuckling manner, that captivated and inspired countless young conservatives across that half century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent...inspiring imagery!
- By Lisa Hill on 10-14-16