Anonymous
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The Bone Season
- Tenth Anniversary Edition
- By: Samantha Shannon
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 241
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 222
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 222
The year is 2059. For two centuries, the Republic of Scion has led an oppressive campaign against unnaturalness in Europe. In London, Paige Mahoney holds a high rank in the criminal underworld. The right hand of the ruthless White Binder, Paige is a dreamwalker, a rare and formidable kind of clairvoyant. Under Scion law, she commits treason simply by breathing. When Paige is arrested for murder, she meets the mysterious founders of Scion, who have designs on her uncommon abilities.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I want to live in Shannon’s brain
- By Anonymous User on 12-05-23
- The Bone Season
- Tenth Anniversary Edition
- By: Samantha Shannon
- Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins
all those pages
Reviewed: 03-17-25
the story was not worth the time it took to read it and the signs were there all along
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I Must Betray You
- By: Ruta Sepetys
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Ruta Sepetys
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,529
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,358
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,345
Romania, 1989. Communist regimes are crumbling across Europe. Seventeen-year-old Cristian Florescu dreams of becoming a writer, but Romanians aren’t free to dream; they are bound by rules and force. Amidst the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear, Cristian is blackmailed by the secret police to become an informer. He’s left with only two choices: betray everyone and everything he loves—or use his position to creatively undermine the most notoriously evil dictator in Eastern Europe.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Brilliant, dramatic, heartbreaking
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 02-04-22
- I Must Betray You
- By: Ruta Sepetys
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Ruta Sepetys
Must Read!!
Reviewed: 08-13-22
Gratitude to Sepetys for her accurate portrail of 1989 Bucharest and the very specific details of the communist/authoritarian regime that reigned over us through fear! There wasn't one aspect of my lived experiences as a Romanian teen this novel didn't cover accurately and that is hats down to Sepetys' skills as a historical fiction writer. Readers will get close to feeling what it was like to be a teenager on the brink of and through a popular uprising Revolution: fear, powerlessess, lack of trust at the foundation of lack of basic needs such as safety.
The protaginist Cristian/Cristi is spot on with his polarized needs and wants, though his progress in the span of the novel seems a tad exagerated. I appreciated archetypes embodied by Bunu the dissident, the ghostly overworked father, and Mama, whose concern for her family errodes her mental health. Cici's character missed the mark, as there was so much possible complexity that failed to manifest. I loved the use of the Romanian words 'Mama', 'Bunu', and first and last names 'Cici', 'Florescu'
The thriller aspect was so close to my lived experiences, it didn't quite work for me, and the unraveling at the end didn't seem to honor the predicament of the surprise antagonist. The intelligence reports were spot, as were the nicknames of the shady characters serving the regime.
I will reccomend this book with my whole heart!
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1 person found this helpful
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Easy Beauty
- By: Chloé Cooper Jones
- Narrated by: Chloé Cooper Jones
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 195
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 179
So begins Chloé Cooper Jones’s bold, revealing account of moving through the world in a body that looks different than most. Jones learned early on to factor “pain calculations” into every plan, every situation. Born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis which affects both her stature and gait, her pain is physical. But there is also the pain of being judged and pitied for her appearance, of being dismissed as “less than.”
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2 out of 5 stars
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Understanding Disabilities Increased
- By Gwendolyn Lewis on 06-10-22
- Easy Beauty
- By: Chloé Cooper Jones
- Narrated by: Chloé Cooper Jones
Breathtaking
Reviewed: 06-28-22
A memoir of contrasts woven masterfully: the beauty and ugly of humanity, the fascination with what isn't and gratitude for what is, deep research and mundane moments, projected upon labels and carefully chosen identity, daughterhood and motherhood, and humor, so much humor.
Reminds me of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous in its breathtaking descriptions, but unlike Ocean Vuong's novel, I could not put down this memoir - despite its length, I knew I would finish reading it.
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6 people found this helpful
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Wild Game
- My Mother, Her Secret, and Me
- By: Adrienne Brodeur
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Adrienne Brodeur
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,272
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,771
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,756
On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was 14, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me. Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Rich People Behaving Badly
- By Joan on 10-28-19
- Wild Game
- My Mother, Her Secret, and Me
- By: Adrienne Brodeur
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Adrienne Brodeur
Not my top ten
Reviewed: 05-13-22
If you are interested in reading memoirs that center mother-daughter relationships, this memoir will appeal. I liked the characters and their eccentricities, I felt I was present for at all the dinners.
It wasn't clear to me why the fourteen year old daughter had time to be her mother's sidekick. I wondered why weren't there friends her own age to occupy her time and consume her energy? Why wasn't she occupied with her school, extracurricular activities, friends? As the daughter matured, the arrested development became apparent but still I craved scenes from her life away to be as detailed as the dinner parties.
For an adult reader, the memoir felt, well, a lot like the main characters' MO: superficial. The last 1/3 felt rushed.
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How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move?
- Inside My Autistic Mind
- By: Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 139
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 124
When he was three years old, Tito was diagnosed as severely autistic, but his remarkable mother, Soma, determined that he would overcome the "problem" by teaching him to read and write. The result was that between the ages of eight and eleven he wrote stories and poems of exquisite beauty, which Dr. Oliver Sacks called "amazing and shocking". Their eloquence gave lie to all our assumptions about autism....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Insightful perspective on Autism from a non-speaking Autistic
- By Marc Masters on 06-07-23
- How Can I Talk If My Lips Don't Move?
- Inside My Autistic Mind
- By: Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
See Tito's world through his senses
Reviewed: 12-24-21
Deeply insightful and at times reading like what I imagine it would feel to read a painting, or the ocean, Tito's sensory experience moved through his stories into my body and shed light on how our human dependency on relationships impacts the neuro-divergent ecosystem that is Tito's being. So much gratitude for Tito's desire to be known and for the support those around him provided so the world would know his story.
This book is a must read for anyone curious to feel what it is like to be born nonverbal, and anyone interested in demystifying neuro-divergence.
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