Aaron Elliott
- 38
- reviews
- 23
- helpful votes
- 175
- ratings
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The House of Impossible Beauties
- By: Joseph Cassara
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 343
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 313
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 311
It's 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city's glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem ball scene, where 17-year-old Angel first comes into her own. Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning inside of her to help create family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Latino house in the Harlem ball circuit.
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5 out of 5 stars
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As real as it gets
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 03-01-18
- The House of Impossible Beauties
- By: Joseph Cassara
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
The House of Impossible Beauties
Reviewed: 04-28-18
Any additional comments?
This book is lucky to have been green-lighted due to the popularity of "RuPaul's Drag Race", but is in essence a fanboy retelling of the documentary "Paris is Burning".
The author doesn't even try hard to mask the names of characters, using the same names from "Paris is Burning"...or bring something fresh to this beautifully tragic group of gay men and trans women who perform within the Harlem Ballroom Circuit during the mid to late 80s.
The research is very sloppy. A young character traumatized by watching Jaws (1975) takes a plane trip where he gulps three bottles of water? Bottled water...on a plane...in 1975? No.
The author in the smallest way does however, manage to evoke the feeling of hopefulness for the characters' future.
This book is such a unimaginative and blatant rip-off of the above mentioned brilliant documentary (download it!) that I've decided to stop reading it. I already know how it ends.
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7 people found this helpful
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Grant
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 48 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 13,227
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 11,813
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Story5 out of 5 stars 11,748
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow reveals in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Book (BUT WHERE IS THE PDF FILES)????
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-17
- Grant
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
Grant
Reviewed: 04-28-18
Any additional comments?
Titanic in size, scope and story.
Like his "Hamilton" and his "Washington", Chernow has gifted history buffs and non-buffs but believers, an all encompassing work the reader can sink their teeth in and never tire of the chew.
Complex in his strengths and his weaknesses, U.S. Grant is a colorful and consistently interesting study of a man truly good and truly loved.
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Cry to Heaven
- By: Anne Rice
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 281
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4 out of 5 stars 196
In a sweeping saga of music and vengeance, the acclaimed author of The Vampire Chronicles draws listeners into 18th-century Italy, bringing to life the decadence beneath the shimmering surface of Venice, the wild frivolity of Naples, and the magnetic terror of its shadow, Vesuvius. This is the story of the castrati, the exquisite and otherworldly sopranos whose graceful bodies and glorious voices win the adulation of royal courts and grand opera houses throughout Europe. These men are revered as idols - and, at the same time, scorned for all they are not.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Abridged means missing 2/3 of original book!
- By B Chatman on 08-04-15
- Cry to Heaven
- By: Anne Rice
- Narrated by: Tim Curry
Cry to Heaven
Reviewed: 04-28-18
Any additional comments?
This is the worst audio book I have ever read.
This audio book version is cut down to 4 hours from approx. 20 hours.
The history of the story is at once fascinating and sublime and sorrowful.
BUT...the history of the story takes a back seat to breathy whispers of "secret flesh" and sexual fumblings between adults and pre/post pubescent boys who have the "voice of an angel".
Mrs. Rice was given no favors by this hacked to pieces recording of a book that if given the correct length might be a beautiful book about the romantic and powerful castrati singers of 18th century Italy minus the scenes of bestockinged and eye-rolling parlor porn.
The audio master of this book should be destroyed. Please avoid and check out Rice's "The Witching Hour", which is genius on an epic scale.
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3 people found this helpful
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Hunger
- A Memoir of (My) Body
- By: Roxane Gay
- Narrated by: Roxane Gay
- Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,588
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,008
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,981
In her phenomenally popular essays and long-running Tumblr blog, Roxane Gay has written with intimacy and sensitivity about food and body, using her own emotional and psychological struggles as a means of exploring our shared anxieties over pleasure, consumption, appearance, and health. As a woman who describes her own body as "wildly undisciplined", Roxane understands the tension between desire and denial, between self-comfort and self-care.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Dark, thought provoking, sometimes frustrating
- By River Holmes-miller on 06-21-17
- Hunger
- A Memoir of (My) Body
- By: Roxane Gay
- Narrated by: Roxane Gay
Hunger
Reviewed: 04-28-18
Any additional comments?
At the start, I was hungry for "Hunger". Roxane Gay's memoir of her body through eating is a very raw-real story of how fat people advance from being cute and chubby to monstrous.
Gay starts to pull back the layers of her Bloomin' Onion...and in doing so she pulled back all of the layers of mine. And still further she shows how very much harder it is to live in the body of a woman and harder still as a black woman.
This book is family history and thought process and hope. Reading (listening to) "Hunger", Gay does her own narration. Her voice is soft and friendly, but her personality is one of repetition and contradiction, leading to a "droning on" at times.
"Hunger" is a modern day Treatise of the Fat.
"Hunger" is not perfect, but it's damn close and should be read. The fat suffer in silence and this is why.
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Go Set a Watchman
- A Novel
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Reese Witherspoon
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 16,525
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15,028
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Story4 out of 5 stars 14,984
An historic literary event: the publication of a newly discovered novel, the earliest known work from Harper Lee, the beloved, best-selling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee first submitted to her publishers before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.
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5 out of 5 stars
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To Kill A Mockingbird vs Go Set A Watchman
- By Sara on 07-15-15
- Go Set a Watchman
- A Novel
- By: Harper Lee
- Narrated by: Reese Witherspoon
Disillusioned
Reviewed: 08-01-15
What did you like best about Go Set a Watchman? What did you like least?
I read this immediately after TKAM. Harper Lee does a beautiful job bringing back certain characters. She glosses over a few with little thought.
Growing up without a father, I tended to see Atticus Finch as my dad. Harper Lee is guilty of something so heinous as to never deserve forgiveness. For this book that was the point I guess.
There were moments as bright and luminous as the sun and moments as dark as the deepest hatreds. I dearly loved it as much as I wanted it never to have been written.
Reese Witherspoon was THE PERFECT choice for narrator. Her performance was one of my favorites of all time. Only a strong Southern woman could have done this book justice.
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2 people found this helpful
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The White Album
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Susan Varon
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,005
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 847
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 850
First published in 1979, The White Album records indelibly the upheavals and aftermaths of the 1960s. Examining key events, figures, and trends of the era - including Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, and the shopping mall - through the lens of her own spiritual confusion, Joan Didion helped to define mass culture as we now understand it. Written with a commanding sureness of tone and linguistic precision, The White Album is a central example of American reportage and a classic of American autobiography.
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5 out of 5 stars
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We tell ourselves stories in order to live...
- By Darwin8u on 08-27-15
- The White Album
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Susan Varon
Everybody Remembers Their First Didion!
Reviewed: 02-09-15
Any additional comments?
This being my first Didion I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I of course know of Ms. Didion's acclaim and her style of writing.
This potent little collection of essays is as diverse as it is evocative. Every fan of Los Angeles will find something here to savor.
Narrator, Susan Varon is perfect at conjuring up tone and feeling of the 1960s and 1970s. I truly felt as if Ms. Didion were seated with me recalling her meeting The Doors and her lust for greenhouses. Varon was that great. Ms. Varon should read more!
I look forward to more of Ms. Didion and MUCH MUCH more from Ms. Varon.
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2 people found this helpful
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40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering
- By: Alice Waters
- Narrated by: Alice Waters
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
Chez Panisse opened its doors in 1971. Founded by Alice Waters, the restaurant is rooted in her conviction that the best-tasting food is organic, locally grown, and harvested in ecologically sound ways by people who are taking care of the land for future generations. The quest for such ingredients has always determined the restaurant’s cuisine, and over the course of 40 years, Chez Panisse has helped create a community of local farmers and ranchers.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Tasty. Sort of.
- By Aaron Elliott on 06-15-13
- 40 Years of Chez Panisse: The Power of Gathering
- By: Alice Waters
- Narrated by: Alice Waters
Tasty. Sort of.
Reviewed: 06-15-13
Any additional comments?
This book praises Alice Waters to the point of canonization. She's slapped on the back so much I'm surprised the woman can walk upright. The book made me very hungry but didn't feed me. It's the descriptions of the food and the way the book was constructed that gets my three stars.
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4 people found this helpful
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Hero
- By: Perry Moore
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,464
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,098
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,107
In the story comic book legend Stan Lee calls "spellbinding" and "totally original," Thom Creed has secrets. For one, like his father, he has super powers. Also, he's been asked to join the League—the very organization of superheroes that spurned his dad. Then there s the secret Thom can barely face himself: he's gay. But becoming a member of the League opens up a new world to Thom. There, he connects with a misfit group of aspiring heroes, including Scarlett, Typhoid Larry, and Ruth, a wise old broad who can see the future. Like Thom, these heroes have things to hide....
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5 out of 5 stars
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A book to have for the rest of your live.
- By Kyle on 07-15-11
- Hero
- By: Perry Moore
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
All Young Gay Male Teens...Please Read This Book
Reviewed: 06-16-11
A great book. I wish all young gay male teens to read this. We all need someone to look up to. Well written and very humorous. Michael Urie did an amazing job reading. Very enjoyable.
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3 people found this helpful
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Dreams of Joy
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,912
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,533
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,527
Lisa See has brilliantly illuminated the potent bonds of mother love, romantic love, and love of country. Now, in her most powerful novel yet, she returns to these timeless themes, continuing the story of sisters Pearl and May from Shanghai Girls, and Pearl’s strong-willed nineteen-year-old daughter, Joy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great completion to the story
- By Janice on 09-18-11
- Dreams of Joy
- A Novel
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Janet Song
Chinese Perfection
Reviewed: 06-16-11
A nearly perfect novel. Heartbreak, sublimation, humanity. Just gorgeous. See breathes palpable and true life into her story. I will be reading her other books.
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3 people found this helpful
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Beauty Queens
- By: Libba Bray
- Narrated by: Libba Bray
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 597
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 525
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 527
The 50 contestants in the Miss Teen Dream pageant thought this was going to be a fun trip to the beach, where they could parade in their state-appropriate costumes and compete in front of the cameras. But sadly, their airplane had another idea, crashing on a desert island and leaving the survivors stranded with little food, little water, and practically no eyeliner. What’s a beauty queen to do? Continue to practice for the talent portion of the program - or wrestle snakes to the ground? Get a perfect tan - or learn to run wild? And what should happen when the sexy pirates show up?
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5 out of 5 stars
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No one left unscathed
- By Vanessa on 09-12-11
- Beauty Queens
- By: Libba Bray
- Narrated by: Libba Bray
Fun, Funky and Fresh
Reviewed: 06-10-11
The main problem I had with this book is the action/humor where not consistent. Half a dozen scenes could have been edited. With that said...this is the ONLY thing negative about this book. This book was LOADS OF FUN to read. Very funny. Drive-thru Plastic Surgery? Christian Pole-Dancing. Love it. Bray as a reader? BRILLIANT. One of the best performances I have listened to. Teens will eat this one up. Very new. Very fresh. I can't wait to see the movie.
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10 people found this helpful