Thrill of the Grass
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Thrill of the Grass
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Narrated by:
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Kris Koscheski
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By:
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W. P. Kinsella
About this listen
Highlights in this set include "The Night Manny Mota Tied the Record", "The Battery", and "The Thrill of the Grass". In a plot that preceded anything written by Mitch Albom, "The Night Manny Mota Tied the Record" explores the feelings after the death of Yankee catcher Thurmon Munson. Would a hardcore (non-Yankee) baseball fan give his life to save Munson's? "The Battery" takes readers to Santo Domingo where a wizard created in the vein of author Terry Pratchett sees the birth of baseball playing twins. While at least one twin excels in baseball, the wizard is the star of this story. "The Thrill of the Grass" is set during the 1981 players' strike, though the same scenario woud apply to 1994. The narrator breaks into an empty stadium as the story begins. Though he dislikes the lack of activity, he is most appalled by the artificial turf.
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From the imagination of W. P. Kinsella, arguably baseball’s best short story writer since Ring Lardner, comes a wondrous collection of short magical-realism baseball stories. Certain to touch the collective heart of all who love "the national pastime", the award-winning writer explores themes including life, death, and real grass vs. plastic turf. Like a utility infielder who earns a place on the All-Star team, Kris Koscheski performs the many voices of baseball lifers, fans, coaches, and players with the weariness, wariness, and wonder of those who inhabit Kinsella’s sympathetic tales of underdogs and fictional celebrations of baseball’s traditions .
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Molina
- The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty
- By: Bengie Molina, Joan Ryan
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 91
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Story5 out of 5 stars 86
A baseball rules book. A tape measure. A lottery ticket. These were in the pocket of Bengie Molina's father when he died of a heart attack on the rutted Little League field in his Puerto Rican barrio. The items serve as thematic guideposts in Molina's beautiful memoir about his father, who, through baseball, taught his three sons about loyalty, humility, courage, and the true meaning of success.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A book about life
- By P. Griswold on 06-11-15
By: Bengie Molina, and others
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The Soul of Baseball
- A Road Trip Through Buck O'Neil's America
- By: Joe Posnanski
- Narrated by: David Sadzin
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 177
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 157
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Story5 out of 5 stars 155
The Soul of Baseball is as much the story of Buck O'Neil as it is the story of baseball. Driven by a relentless optimism and his two great passions - for America's pastime and for jazz, America's music - O'Neil played solely for love. In an era when greedy, steroid-enhanced athletes have come to characterize professional ball, Posnanski offers a salve for the damaged spirit: the uplifting life lessons of a truly extraordinary man who never missed an opportunity to enjoy and love life.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Buck O’Neil fan!!
- By scott on 04-24-20
By: Joe Posnanski
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The Last Boy
- Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood
- By: Jane Leavy
- Narrated by: Jane Leavy, John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 314
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 259
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 261
Drawing on more than 500 interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Man Behind the Myth
- By Ray on 11-12-10
By: Jane Leavy
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The Fireballer
- A Novel
- By: Mark Stevens
- Narrated by: Shea Taylor
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4 out of 5 stars 93
Frank Ryder is unstoppable on the baseball field—his pitches arrive faster than a batter can swing, giving his opponents no chance. He’s being heralded as a game-changing pitcher. But within the maelstrom of press, adulation, and wild speculation, Frank is a man alone. Haunted by a tragic incident from years past, he yearns to be the best but cannot reconcile the guilt he carries with the man everyone believes him to be.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Just Wonderful
- By Mars on 01-05-23
By: Mark Stevens
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The Chicken Runs at Midnight
- A Daughter’s Message from Heaven That Changed a Father’s Heart and Won a World Series
- By: Tom Friend, Tim Kurkjian - foreword
- Narrated by: Ben Holland - foreword, Mark Schlicher
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 149
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 131
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Story5 out of 5 stars 131
Weaving baseball history with personal memoir, this book is one that will make you thrill to victory, believe in hope, stand up to cheer for what is good in peoples' lives. It's a powerful story of redemption and faith that reminds us that God can work in our lives even when we think it's too late to change - and sometimes he sends us signs from heaven if we only have eyes to see.
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5 out of 5 stars
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not really a sport's fan
- By virginia loranger on 09-24-20
By: Tom Friend, and others
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Bottom of the 33rd
- Hope and Redemption in Baseball's Longest Game
- By: Dan Barry
- Narrated by: Dan Barry
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 132
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
On April 18, 1981, a ball game sprang eternal. What began as a modestly attended minor-league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings became not only the longest ever played in baseball history, but something else entirely. The first pitch was thrown after dusk on Holy Saturday, and for the next eight hours the night seemed to suspend its participants between their collective pasts and futures, between their collective sorrows and joys....
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4 out of 5 stars
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I love baseball
- By Sher from Provo on 04-08-13
By: Dan Barry
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Netherland
- By: Joseph O'Neill
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 144
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Story4 out of 5 stars 145
Alone and un-tethered, feeling lost in the country he had come to regard as home, Hans stumbles upon the vibrant New York subculture of cricket, where he revisits his lost childhood and, thanks to a friendship with a charismatic and charming Trinidadian named Chuck Ramkissoon, begins to reconnect with his life and his adopted country. Ramkissoon, a Gatsby-like figure who is part idealist and part operator, introduces Hans to an "other" New York populated by immigrants and strivers of every race and nationality.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Get Your Post-Colonial Gatsby ON!
- By Darwin8u on 04-13-12
By: Joseph O'Neill
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Pete Rose
- An American Dilemma
- By: Kostya Kennedy
- Narrated by: Ben Bartolone
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4 out of 5 stars 122
Pete Rose played baseball with a singular and headfirst abandon that endeared him to fans and peers, even as it riled others--a figure at once magnetic, beloved and polarizing. Rose has more base hits than anyone in history, yet he is not in the Hall of Fame. Twenty-five years ago he was banished from baseball for gambling, then ruled ineligible for Cooperstown; today, the question "Does Pete Rose belong in the Hall of Fame?" has evolved into perhaps the most provocative in sports, a layered, slippery and ever-relevant moral conundrum.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, not so good production.
- By david d. on 05-01-14
By: Kostya Kennedy
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Golden Arm
- By: Carl Deuker
- Narrated by: Nick Walther
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story5 out of 5 stars 26
Lazarus "Laz" Weathers has always been shy, and his issue with stuttering when he speaks hasn't helped. Stuck in a Seattle trailer park, Laz finds baseball helps him escape from the world of poverty and drugs. When he gets an opportunity to pitch for the rich kids across town, he has a chance to get drafted by the major leagues. But playing for the other team means leaving behind his family, including Antonio, Laz's younger brother, who more and more, seems to be drawn to the dark world of the Jet City's drug ring.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Didn’t want it to end.
- By Christa on 12-20-22
By: Carl Deuker
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One Shot at Forever
- A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season
- By: Chris Ballard
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair, and warming up to "Jesus Christ Superstar", the Ironmen would play a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding.
- By Cartman18 on 08-02-13
By: Chris Ballard
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Fragile Beasts
- A Novel
- By: Tawni O'Dell
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
When their hard-drinking but loving father dies in a car accident, teenage brothers Kyle and Klint Hayes face a bleak prospect: leaving their Pennsylvania hometown for an uncertain life in Arizona with the mother who ran out on them years ago. But in a strange twist of fate, their town's matriarch, an eccentric, wealthy old woman whose family once owned the county coal mines, hears the boys' story and takes them in.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tawni O'Dell Fan
- By bette on 09-20-10
By: Tawni O'Dell
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June Bug
- By: Chris Fabry
- Narrated by: Chris Fabry
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story5 out of 5 stars 169
For as long as she can remember, June Bug and her father have traveled the back roads of the country in their beat-up RV, spending many nights parked at Walmart. One morning, as she walks past the greeter at the front of the store, her eyes are drawn to the pictures of missing children, where she is shocked to see herself. This discovery begins a quest for the truth about her father, the mother he rarely speaks about, and ultimately herself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Get Out The Box Of Tissues
- By 20eagle16 on 07-03-21
By: Chris Fabry
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Shattered
- Struck Down, But Not Destroyed
- By: Frank Pastore, Ellen Vaughn
- Narrated by: Frank Pastore
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
Shattered is part sports audio book, because you’ll go on road trips, enter clubhouses, and walk on the fields of professional baseball. It’s part romantic novel, because you’ll journey with two young kids who fall in love and eventually elope, evading not only her family, but the law as well - for she was only 16. It’s also a story of brokenness, betrayal, and burn-out. If you were raised in a dysfunctional family, if you’ve ever had your dreams fall apart, been betrayed by close friends, or hit the psychological “wall” in your professional career, this is your audio book too.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it
- By Jim Battle on 01-29-23
By: Frank Pastore, and others
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When a Stranger Comes to Town
- By: Michael Koryta
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Janina Edwards, Fajer Al-Kaisi, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4 out of 5 stars 53
It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The narrators are outstanding here.
- By Jennifer Baratta She/Her on 05-16-21
By: Michael Koryta
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We Begin at the End
- By: Chris Whitaker
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,019
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,756
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,744
Duchess Day Radley is a 13-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-year-old brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids. Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he's in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Horrible narrator in this audible book
- By M. patton on 03-03-21
By: Chris Whitaker
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Pull Up a Chair
- The Vin Scully Story
- By: Curt Smith
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4 out of 5 stars 95
Since 1950, the instantly recognizable voice of Vin Scully has invited listeners to “pull up a chair” for his peerless play-by-play sports reporting. Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, Scully has narrated NBC’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, and twenty-five World Series, describing players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Almost perfect
- By steve finkelstein on 02-06-21
By: Curt Smith
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The Last Picture Show
- Thalia Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Larry McMurtry
- Narrated by: John Randolph Jones
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 656
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 594
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 591
An almost-true story about a small town in Texas that ought to exist if it doesn’t, with characters like Sam the Lion, the delectable Jacy, and Ruth Popper, the coach’s wife. Set in a small, dusty, Texas town, The Last Picture Show introduced the characters of Jacy, Duane, and Sonny: teenagers stumbling toward adulthood, discovering the beguiling mysteries of sex and the even more baffling mysteries of love.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Not very good
- By Randall on 07-02-17
By: Larry McMurtry
What listeners say about Thrill of the Grass
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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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Dhandforth
- 06-05-22
Baseball is a religion
These short stories, in the style of Flannery O'Connor (who has a shout out in one tale), is more about the feel of baseball: its pacing, its players, its fans, even its women. Don't expect athletic feats, or even tense moments like Casey at the Bat. But if you love baseball, you'll love this book.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- wildbillhagy
- 03-07-24
About Baseball, But Only Just Slightly
These are odd little stories that all have the theme of baseball at some point in them, but to me they don't land well. Some storylines just keep getting more odd and seem to at times wither. I will always hold Kinsella in high regard for "Shoeless Joe" which is a masterpiece of nostalgia for any baseball fan. But these just didn't take me to the ballpark, in fact just seemed to let me out blocks from the closest ballpark. Sorry, but it was free so no harm.
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