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The Glass Castle
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
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The Glass Castle
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Publisher's summary
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and above all, how to embrace life fearlessly.
Rose Mary, who painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing for her family, called herself an "excitement addict". Cooking a meal that would be consumed in 15 minutes had no appeal when she could make a painting that might last forever.
Later, when the money ran out, or the romance of the wandering life faded, the Walls retreated to the dismal West Virginia mining town - and the family - Rex Walls had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves, supporting one another as they weathered their parents' betrayals and, finally, found the resources and will to leave home.
What is so astonishing about Jeannette Walls is not just that she had the guts and tenacity and intelligence to get out, but that she describes her parents with such deep affection and generosity. Hers is a story of triumph against all odds, but also a tender, moving tale of unconditional love in a family that despite its profound flaws gave her the fiery determination to carve out a successful life on her own terms.
For two decades, Jeannette Walls hid her roots. Now she tells her own story. A regular contributor to MSNBC.com, she lives in New York and Long Island and is married to the writer John Taylor.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 545
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 378
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 382
When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of 300 people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period - people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written, beautifully read.
- By shopgirl on 03-06-08
By: Haven Kimmel
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Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
-
Like Family
- Growing Up in Other People's Houses, a Memoir
- By: Paula McLain
- Narrated by: Wendy Tremont King
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 78
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
This powerful and haunting memoir details the years Paula McLain and her two sisters spent as foster children after being abandoned by both parents in California in the early 1970s. As wards of the State, the sisters spent the next 14 years moving from foster home to foster home. The dislocations, confusions, and odd pleasures of an unrooted life form the basis of one of the most compelling memoirs in recent years - a book in the tradition of Jo Ann Beard's The Boys of My Youth and Mary Karr's The Liars' Club.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A famous writer describes her life growing up in foster care
- By Nancy C. on 12-21-18
By: Paula McLain
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Battleborn
- By: Claire Vaye Watkins
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Morgan Hallett, Laura Knight Keating, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
Like the work of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx, Battleborn represents a near-perfect confluence of sensibility and setting, and the introduction of an exceptionally powerful and original literary voice. In each of these ten unforgettable stories, Claire Vaye Watkins writes her way fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, utterly reimagining it.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful magnificent stories beautifully told
- By Pedro Ramirez on 12-03-15
-
Too Close to the Falls
- A Memoir
- By: Catherine Gildiner
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 137
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
Welcome to the childhood of Catherine McClure Gildiner. It is the middle of the 1950s in Lewiston, New York, a small and sleepy American town very near Niagara Falls. No one is divorced. Mothers wear high heels to the beauty salon and children pop Pez candy and swing from vines over a local gorge. But at the tender age of four, it becomes clear to her Cathy's parents that their rambunctious daughter is no ordinary child and they soon put her "to work" at her father's pharmacy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant and funny and touching.
- By Kindle Customer on 11-07-19
-
The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 41
Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
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I'll Be There
- By: Holly Goldberg Sloan
- Narrated by: Laura Jennings
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Emily Bell believes in destiny. To her, being forced to sing a solo in the church choir - despite her average voice - is fate: because it's while she's singing that she first sees Sam. At first sight they are connected. Sam Border wishes he could escape, but there's nowhere for him to run. He and his little brother, Riddle, have spent their entire lives constantly uprooted by their unstable father. As Sam and Riddle are welcomed into the Bells' lives, they witness the warmth and protection of a family for the first time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Needs to be a film!
- By TreasureHunter on 06-25-16
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Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 359
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 216
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 217
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
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The Free
- A Novel (P.S.)
- By: Willy Vlautin
- Narrated by: Willy Vlautin
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
In his heartbreaking yet hopeful fourth novel, award-winning author Willy Vlautin demonstrates his extraordinary talent for illuminating the disquiet of modern American life, captured in the experiences of three memorable characters looking for meaning in distressing times. Severely wounded in the Iraq war, Leroy Kervin has lived in a group home for eight years. Frustrated by the simplest daily routines, he finds his existence has become unbearable.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Free Fallin', Brilliantly
- By W Perry Hall on 03-11-14
By: Willy Vlautin
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Strong Motion
- By: Jonathan Franzen
- Narrated by: Scott Aiello
- Length: 20 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 222
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 193
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 196
Louis Holland arrives in Boston in a spring of ecological upheaval (a rash of earthquakes on the North Shore) and odd luck: the first one kills his grandmother. Louis tries to maintain his independence, but falls in love with a Harvard seismologist whose discoveries about the earthquakes' cause complicate everything.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Compelling Story, Ridiculous Narrator
- By DianeReads on 02-28-16
By: Jonathan Franzen
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Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter
- By: Melissa Francis
- Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 131
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 118
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 121
When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world’s most famous prime-time soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome book - really enjoyed it.
- By Jane C. Bailey on 11-16-12
By: Melissa Francis
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Marlena
- A Novel
- By: Julie Buntin
- Narrated by: Emma Galvin
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 609
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 554
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 557
Everything about 15-year-old Cat's new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter until she meets her neighbor, the manic, beautiful, pill-popping Marlena. Cat, inexperienced and desperate for connection, is quickly lured into Marlena's orbit by little more than an arched eyebrow and a shake of white-blond hair. As the two girls turn the untamed landscape of their desolate small town into a kind of playground, Cat catalogues a litany of firsts - first drink, first cigarette, first kiss - while Marlena's habits harden and calcify.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Brilliant, Agonizing Portrait of a Young Woman
- By Sudi on 06-06-17
By: Julie Buntin
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The Shadow Year
- A Novel
- By: Jeffrey Ford
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 42
On New York's Long Island, in the unpredictable decade of the 1960s, a young boy spends much of his free time in the basement of his family's modest home, where he and his brother, Jim, have created Botch Town, a detailed cardboard replica of their community, complete with figurines representing friends and neighbors. Their little sister, Mary, smokes cigarettes, speaks in other voices, inhabits alternate personas... and, unbeknownst to her siblings, moves around the inanimate clay residents.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Couldn't stop listening!!!
- By Marjory on 12-12-10
By: Jeffrey Ford
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She's Come Undone
- By: Wally Lamb
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,094
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,822
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,838
Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly-up.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Really disappointing narrator!
- By Jessica Williams on 01-21-12
By: Wally Lamb
-
Lit
- A Memoir
- By: Mary Karr
- Narrated by: Mary Karr
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 999
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 742
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 738
Lit follows Mary Karr's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness - and her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott" awakens her to the possibility of joy, and leads her to an unlikely faith.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Finally! One for the "Win" column
- By Kim on 03-22-10
By: Mary Karr
-
Marrow
- By: Tarryn Fisher
- Narrated by: Audra Pagano
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 549
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 490
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 489
Margo is not like other girls. She lives in a derelict neighborhood called the Bone, in a cursed house, with her cursed mother, who hasn't spoken to her in over two years. She lives her days feeling invisible. It's not until she develops a friendship with her wheelchair-bound neighbor, Judah Grant, that things begin to change. When a neighborhood girl, seven-year-old Neveah Anthony, goes missing, Judah sets out to help Margo uncover what happened to her. What Margo finds changes her, and with a new perspective on life she's determined to find evil and punish it.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
HUH?? I'm so confused LOL
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 09-15-16
By: Tarryn Fisher
-
Darling Days
- A Memoir
- By: iO Tillett Wright
- Narrated by: iO Tillett Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 409
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 377
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 373
Born into the beautiful bedlam of downtown New York in the eighties, iO Tillett Wright came of age at the intersection of punk, poverty, heroin, and art. This was a world of self-invented characters, glamorous superstars, and strung-out sufferers, ground zero of drag and performance art. Still, no personality was more vibrant and formidable than iO's mother's. Rhonna, a showgirl and young widow, was a mercurial, erratic glamazon. She was iO's fiercest defender and only authority in a world with few boundaries and even fewer indicators of normal life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Can’t wait for more from this Author!
- By Team Hobson on 07-24-19
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Half Broke Horses
- A True-Life Novel
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,187
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,419
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,410
Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle was "nothing short of spectacular" ( Entertainment Weekly). Now, in Half Broke Horses, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A BETTER BOOK THAN "THE GLASS CASTLE"
- By Kathryn on 01-10-10
By: Jeannette Walls
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The Glass Castle
- By: Trisha Priebe, Jerry B. Jenkins
- Narrated by: Jaimee Draper
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4 out of 5 stars 33
Avery, Kate, Tuck, and Kendrick take charge of an underground network of kidnapped children, inspiring them to believe that their pasts do not dictate their futures and pledging to do the hardest thing of all...reunite the children with the homes they left behind. When they discover that one among them might be the child of a man who wants them dead, will everything they are working for be lost?
-
5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome audible
- By Angela C on 08-06-20
By: Trisha Priebe, and others
-
The Silver Star
- A Novel
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 933
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 813
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 812
It is 1970. "Bean" Holladay is 12 and her sister, Liz, is 15 when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who flees every place she’s ever lived at the first sign of trouble," takes off to find herself." She leaves her girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that’s been in the family for generations.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A Bronze Star
- By Mel on 06-17-13
By: Jeannette Walls
-
Educated
- A Memoir
- By: Tara Westover
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 125,797
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 110,855
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 110,465
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Other Side of Idaho's Mountains
- By Darwin8u on 03-28-18
By: Tara Westover
-
Hang the Moon
- A Novel
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 448
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 379
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 379
Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, the charismatic Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie is her father’s daughter, sharp-witted and resourceful, Eddie is his mother’s son, timid and cerebral. When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Practically Unbearable
- By Autumn T. on 04-12-23
By: Jeannette Walls
-
Strangers to Ourselves
- Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us
- By: Rachel Aviv
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
In a powerful and gripping debut, Rachel Aviv raises fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress. Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. Animated by a profound sense of empathy, Aviv’s exploration is refracted through her own account of living in a hospital ward at the age of six and meeting a fellow patient with whom her life runs parallel—until it no longer does.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Just Falls Short ...
- By Jenny Jenkins on 01-15-23
By: Rachel Aviv
-
Half Broke Horses
- A True-Life Novel
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,187
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,419
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,410
Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle was "nothing short of spectacular" ( Entertainment Weekly). Now, in Half Broke Horses, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A BETTER BOOK THAN "THE GLASS CASTLE"
- By Kathryn on 01-10-10
By: Jeannette Walls
-
The Glass Castle
- By: Trisha Priebe, Jerry B. Jenkins
- Narrated by: Jaimee Draper
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 33
Avery, Kate, Tuck, and Kendrick take charge of an underground network of kidnapped children, inspiring them to believe that their pasts do not dictate their futures and pledging to do the hardest thing of all...reunite the children with the homes they left behind. When they discover that one among them might be the child of a man who wants them dead, will everything they are working for be lost?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Awesome audible
- By Angela C on 08-06-20
By: Trisha Priebe, and others
-
The Silver Star
- A Novel
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 933
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 813
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 812
It is 1970. "Bean" Holladay is 12 and her sister, Liz, is 15 when their artistic mother, Charlotte, a woman who flees every place she’s ever lived at the first sign of trouble," takes off to find herself." She leaves her girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that’s been in the family for generations.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A Bronze Star
- By Mel on 06-17-13
By: Jeannette Walls
-
Educated
- A Memoir
- By: Tara Westover
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 125,797
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 110,855
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 110,465
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The Other Side of Idaho's Mountains
- By Darwin8u on 03-28-18
By: Tara Westover
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Hang the Moon
- A Novel
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 448
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 379
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 379
Sallie Kincaid is the daughter of the biggest man in a small town, the charismatic Duke Kincaid. Born at the turn of the 20th century into a life of comfort and privilege, Sallie remembers little about her mother who died in a violent argument with the Duke. By the time she is just eight years old, the Duke has remarried and had a son, Eddie. While Sallie is her father’s daughter, sharp-witted and resourceful, Eddie is his mother’s son, timid and cerebral. When Sallie tries to teach young Eddie to be more like their father, her daredevil coaching leads to an accident, and Sallie is cast out.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Practically Unbearable
- By Autumn T. on 04-12-23
By: Jeannette Walls
-
Strangers to Ourselves
- Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us
- By: Rachel Aviv
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 250
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
In a powerful and gripping debut, Rachel Aviv raises fundamental questions about how we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress. Drawing on deep, original reporting as well as unpublished journals and memoirs, Aviv writes about people who have come up against the limits of psychiatric explanations for who they are. Animated by a profound sense of empathy, Aviv’s exploration is refracted through her own account of living in a hospital ward at the age of six and meeting a fellow patient with whom her life runs parallel—until it no longer does.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Just Falls Short ...
- By Jenny Jenkins on 01-15-23
By: Rachel Aviv
-
The Sound of Gravel
- A Memoir
- By: Ruth Wariner
- Narrated by: Ruth Wariner
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,633
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,143
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,132
Ruth Wariner was the 39th of her father's 42 children. Growing up on a farm in rural Mexico, where authorities turned a blind eye to the practices of her community, Ruth lives in a ramshackle house without indoor plumbing or electricity. At church, preachers teach that God will punish the wicked by destroying the world and that women can ascend to heaven only by entering into polygamous marriages and giving birth to as many children as possible.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Unputdownable
- By Lesley A. on 01-16-16
By: Ruth Wariner
-
Angela's Ashes
- By: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Narrated by: Frank McCourt, Jeannette Walls - introduction
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,815
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7,843
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,838
Why we think it’s a great listen: There’s no gentle way to put this – Frank McCourt’s performance of Angela’s Ashes is just better than the Pulitzer Prize-winning book. Frank McCourt shares his sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking story of growing up poor, Irish, and Catholic in the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela's Ashes.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A classic book *and* a classic audiobook
- By Karen on 01-30-03
By: Frank McCourt, and others
-
Wave
- A Memoir
- By: Sonali Deraniyagala
- Narrated by: Hannah Curtis
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 341
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 287
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 286
On the morning of December 26, 2004, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala lost her parents, her husband, and her two young sons in the tsunami she miraculously survived. In this brave and searingly frank memoir, she describes those first horrifying moments and her long journey since. She has written an engrossing, unsentimental, beautifully poised account: as she struggles through the first months following the tragedy, furiously clenched against a reality that she cannot face and cannot deny....
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Tragic. Raw. Heart-Ripping!
- By CBlox on 03-19-13
-
The Noonday Demon
- An Atlas of Depression
- By: Andrew Solomon
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 479
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 407
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 399
With uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition, National Book Award winner Andrew Solomon takes the listener on a journey of incomparable range and resonance into the most pervasive of family secrets. The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
If you want to get depressed....
- By Daphne Stevens on 09-03-12
By: Andrew Solomon
-
The Kite Runner
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20,320
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 14,136
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 14,142
Why we think it’s a great listen: Never before has an author’s narration of his fiction been so important to fully grasping the book’s impact and global implications. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
A Worhty Read
- By P. C..S. on 08-17-03
By: Khaled Hosseini
-
Crying in H Mart
- A Memoir
- By: Michelle Zauner
- Narrated by: Michelle Zauner
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,828
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 10,240
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 10,209
In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian-American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Broken Korean
- By Tim on 04-21-21
By: Michelle Zauner
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Know My Name
- A Memoir
- By: Chanel Miller
- Narrated by: Chanel Miller
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 8,843
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 7,877
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Story5 out of 5 stars 7,832
She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford's campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral. Now, she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just, thank you.
- By Alysha DeShaé on 09-25-19
By: Chanel Miller
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Shirley
- By: Charlotte Brontë
- Narrated by: Georgina Sutton
- Length: 23 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Set in a chaotic time in England, during the height of the Napoleonic Wars, Caroline Helstone's world is turned upside down when she meets the vivacious Shirley Keeldar. Shirley becomes a beacon of light for Caroline as the two become close friends. However, Caroline is soon shocked to discover that Shirley has won the affections of Robert Moore, the impoverished mill owner whom she loves. Fully representative of Yorkshire life at the time, Brontë's second novel is completely gripping, unrelenting and utterly wrenching in its portrayal.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Social Romance
- By Montcalm on 06-03-15
By: Charlotte Brontë
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The Liars' Club
- A Memoir
- By: Mary Karr
- Narrated by: Mary Karr
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
The Liars’ Club took the world by storm and raised the art of the memoir to an entirely new level, bringing about a dramatic revival of the form. Karr’s comic childhood in an east Texas oil town brings us characters as darkly hilarious as any of J. D. Salinger’s—a hard-drinking daddy, a sister who can talk down the sheriff at age twelve, and an oft-married mother whose accumulated secrets threaten to destroy them all.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Awful narration
- By JG, Shreveport, LA on 12-10-23
By: Mary Karr
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An Unquiet Mind
- A Memoir of Moods and Madness
- By: Kay Redfield Jamison
- Narrated by: Kay Redfield Jamison
- Length: 2 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,831
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,386
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,377
Dr. Jamison is one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive (bipolar) illness; she has also experienced it firsthand. For even while she was pursuing her career in academic medicine, Jamison found herself succumbing to the same exhilarating highs and catastrophic depressions that afflicted many of her patients, as her disorder launched her into ruinous spending sprees, episodes of violence, and an attempted suicide.
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2 out of 5 stars
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It Says Unabridged. That is incorrect.
- By Casey Wagner on 10-17-11
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Wild
- From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
- By: Cheryl Strayed
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25,017
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21,797
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21,841
At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than “an idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.” But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Glad I Took the Trip
- By FanB14 on 04-08-13
By: Cheryl Strayed
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Just Kids
- By: Patti Smith
- Narrated by: Patti Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,495
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,467
Just Kids begins as a love story and ends as an elegy. It serves as a salute to New York City during the late 60s and 70s and to its rich and poor, its hustlers and hellions. A true fable, it is a portrait of two young artists' ascent, a prelude to fame.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Darkly Self Centered & Narrow View
- By Sara on 10-05-15
By: Patti Smith
What listeners say about The Glass Castle
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
- Tina
- 07-24-12
Everything you want in a memoir
What did you love best about The Glass Castle?
The Glass Castle made me cringe, cry, and laugh out loud --- sometimes all in the same chapter! It is exactly what you want from a memoir. Real people, real experiences.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Jeannette was my favorite character. Her story is complicated, but the beauty of her life shines through. She never pities herself. The anger comes through sometimes, but mostly it's just acceptance and the desire and determination to make her life better.
Which scene was your favorite?
My favorite scene was when Jeannette finally met the prostitute of Welch. Everything she had expected to feel about this woman went right out the window and the encounter delivered my favorite line of the book, "One thing about whoring, it put a chicken on the table."
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
If life circumstances had allowed, I would have listened to this book without ever turning it off until I had finished listening to every single chapter. I wanted to devour it.
Any additional comments?
I grew up in southern West Virginia. After living in a big city for over 16 years, I moved back to the state in 2009. I can say that Jeannette captured life in certain parts of WV very accurately. I wish her time in WV had been better for her and for her family. It's a fantastic state filled with wonderful people, but Jeannette's description of her life in Welch rings very true to me.
Jeannette's reading of her own work made this audiobook even more of a pleasure. Listening to the author describe events in her life made them come alive in a way that would be hard to capture by just reading words on a page. I feel like I made a friend in Jeannette. I will truly miss the sound of her voice.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Diane M. Gregson
- 08-07-18
Glad I Finally Read This!
I have avoided reading this book for years. I was aware of its great reviews and accolades, but I hesitated -- neglected and hungry children is not a topic I in which I am interested.
Now that I have read & listened, I am glad I finally explore this memoir.
The author's ability to relate the tale of her childhood without bitterness is remarkable.
I recommend this to everyone.
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2 people found this helpful
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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
- amazonspikejd
- 12-04-18
Absolutely wonderful.
My roommate recommended this book for my 6 hour long road trip, I didnt finish it right away but thr next day I found myself sitting in the car after work, parked in front of my house and I could not for the life of me stop it. It brought tears to my eyes several times, I found myself recalling old memories of my uprising, and my relationship with my dad. wonderfully written and read. Bravo!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Chwisty Bawwett
- 02-06-17
You'll walk away grateful.
What did you love best about The Glass Castle?
It moved me. It twisted my face. I found myself worrying about the characters when I wasn't listening. Only a great book can do that!
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Glass Castle?
The dramatic ups and downs that left my mouth open and my heart pulling for this family.
What does Jeannette Walls bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Hearing her story from her mouth certainly lends something to the story, although she doesn't seem to over do it when adding emotion to the story. This somehow intrigued me more when listening.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
I'm sure they'll come up with something better than I ever could, but I sure hope it has the word "skeedattle" in it!
Any additional comments?
This book left me feeling so grateful for my life. I live in Alaska and over 3,000 miles from my parents, but I felt a strong urge to hop a jet a hug my parents tight for the childhood they afforded me! Thank you, Jeannette, for being brave enough to share and embrace where you came from! Good for you!
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- Barb Chrysler
- 03-26-16
Excellent
What did you like best about this story?
This is a fantastic story. I loved the way the story was told and how the author overcame her early life experiences. Also the author's voice was perfect for the audio version.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sarah Hoesly
- 02-02-15
Well worth the read!
This is an amazing autobiography!
It seems hard to believe the kind of lifestyle portrayed and that the author and most of her siblings were able to rise up from the depths of despair.
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- mammloca
- 10-20-17
Makes you think...
This memoir truly makes you ponder life and appreciate all that you have. Amazed by this family's adventures.
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- Jacqueline Erwin
- 08-17-17
Jacqueline Erwin
Excellent story! Funny full of warmth and hopeful thoughts and unconditional love. Not your typical family? Maybe but I understood them. "Let's scadaddle"
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- Susie Hernandez
- 09-02-17
Amazing!!
I really enjoyed the storyline! This book had many ups and downs!!! ❤️ This was a very touching story!
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- glory
- 01-26-18
The Very Best.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This is an incredible memoir in which the reader will laugh and cry.
What did you like best about this story?
Such an amazing reading by Jeanette Walls, she recounts her life's story with great detail. Fabulous writing.
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