ckwrites
- 10
- reviews
- 3
- helpful votes
- 11
- ratings
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The Peyton Place Murder
- The True Crime Story Behind the Novel That Shocked the Nation
- By: Renee Mallett
- Narrated by: Mia Gaskin
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Grace Metalious, born and raised in Manchester, New Hampshire, came from humble beginnings. A former mill worker, mother of three, and school principal’s wife, she would shock the nation in 1956 with the publication of Peyton Place, her first novel about a murder in a small town. Quickly becoming the best-selling book of its time, the sexually charged book spawned sequels, two Hollywood movies, and a long-running television series on ABC starring Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal.
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Disappointing
- By 6catz on 10-06-21
- The Peyton Place Murder
- The True Crime Story Behind the Novel That Shocked the Nation
- By: Renee Mallett
- Narrated by: Mia Gaskin
Meh
Reviewed: 03-10-24
Given the source material, I expected it to be much more compelling. It was okay but not what I expected.
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A Woman First: First Woman
- A Memoir
- By: Selina Meyer
- Narrated by: Selina Meyer
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
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The long-awaited memoir of her tumultuous year in office, A Woman First: First Woman is an intimate first-person account of the public and private lives of Selina Meyer, America's first woman president.
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Go. Get it. Now.
- By Sookie M on 04-24-19
- A Woman First: First Woman
- A Memoir
- By: Selina Meyer
- Narrated by: Selina Meyer
A Must Listen for all VEEP Fans
Reviewed: 11-07-23
As a diehard VEEP fan, I loved this so much. While I own the physical book, there’s really no comparison to hearing it read by JLD. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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The Husband Hunters
- American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Towards the end of the 19th century and for the first few years of the 20th, a strange invasion took place in Britain. The citadel of power, privilege, and breeding in which the titled, land-owning governing class had barricaded itself for so long was breached. The incomers were a group of young women who, 50 years earlier, would have been looked on as the alien denizens of another world - the New World, to be precise. From 1874 - the year that Jennie Jerome, the first known "Dollar Princess", married Randolph Churchill - to 1905, dozens of young American heiresses married into the British peerage....
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Bondfide Valuable History Lesson
- By A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. on 09-21-18
- The Husband Hunters
- American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy
- By: Anne de Courcy
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett
Could Have Been An Article
Reviewed: 10-29-23
There was a lot of redundancy and filler here in what would have been a really interesting think piece.
Meanwhile, the one story that could have been an entire book - that of Tennessee Clafin and her sister - was kinda buried amidst all the other stories.
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1 person found this helpful
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The Midnight Assassin
- Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer
- By: Skip Hollandsworth
- Narrated by: Clint Jordan
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late 1800s, the city of Austin, Texas, was on the cusp of emerging from an isolated western outpost into a truly cosmopolitan metropolis. But beginning in December 1884, Austin was terrorized by someone equally as vicious and, in some ways, far more diabolical than London's infamous Jack the Ripper. For almost exactly one year, the Midnight Assassin crisscrossed the entire city, striking on moonlit nights, using axes, knives, and long steel rods to rip apart women from every race and class.
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A Fascinating Cold, Cold Case
- By 6catz on 04-08-16
- The Midnight Assassin
- Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer
- By: Skip Hollandsworth
- Narrated by: Clint Jordan
Fascinating + Frustrating
Reviewed: 10-02-23
As others have also noted, my biggest complaint about the book was the lack of a satisfying ending. Not really the author’s fault! My only other wish is that more time had been devoted to the racism at play and how that was probably a key factor in the failure to solve the case.
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- How I Opened the Hottest Strip Club in New York City, Was Extorted out of Millions by the Gambino Family, and Became One of the Most Successful Mafia Informants in FBI History
- By: Michael D. Blutrich
- Narrated by: Michael D. Blutrich
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Michael Blutrich, mild-mannered New York lawyer and founder of Scores, the hottest strip club in New York City history, funded by the proceeds of an insurance embezzlement scheme. All Blutrich wanted was to lay low, make the club a success, and put his criminal acts behind him. But the Mafia got involved, and soon the FBI came knocking. Scores became wildly popular, in part thanks to Blutrich's ability to successfully bend the rules of adult entertainment. Unfortunately for Blutrich, it would all soon implode.
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Seductive narration about fortunes and betrayals
- By LEE on 02-06-17
- Scores
- How I Opened the Hottest Strip Club in New York City, Was Extorted out of Millions by the Gambino Family, and Became One of the Most Successful Mafia Informants in FBI History
- By: Michael D. Blutrich
- Narrated by: Michael D. Blutrich
The voice killed me
Reviewed: 09-24-23
I really thought I’d like this. The writing was amateurish, which was tolerable, but the voice, the voice…oof. I can only take a half hour at a time.
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Liar, Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions
- By: The Age and Sydney Morning Herald
- Original Recording
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Since late 2020, the case of missing Sydney woman Melissa Caddick has captivated the country. A seemingly successful businesswoman from Sydney's eastern suburbs went missing after authorities raided her Dover Heights home amid questions over an unlicensed financial planning business.Sydney Morning Herald investigative journalist Kate McClymont would reveal key details of a massive Ponzi scheme and a $23 million fraud that ripped off investors including her family and friends as Caddick lived the high life of overseas trips, cars and high end fashion. McClymont's coverage would win her a ninth ...
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Great true crime investigation Down Under
- By Teresa Brito on 10-11-23
Never heard this one!
Reviewed: 08-26-23
Super interesting and unfamiliar to me as a US listener. I wish there was a bit more detail about Melissa’s motivation but it seems like they were never really known.
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Curse of Riches
- By: Claire Prentice
- Narrated by: Claire Prentice, Hillary Huber
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
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How did the Wendels, one of New York’s most famous Gilded Age families, disappear from history? The Wendels built a fortune from New York real estate, and rubbed shoulders with the Astors, Vanderbilts, and Stuyvesants. But as the 19th century came to an end, the Wendel family tore itself apart. Following six years of painstaking archival research, Claire Prentice has prised open the door of the Wendels’ Fifth Avenue mansion—dubbed “the house of mystery” by the press—to reveal a fascinating and dysfunctional family imprisoned in a gilded cage.
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Kept Waiting for it to be Interesting
- By Mary on 06-23-23
- Curse of Riches
- By: Claire Prentice
- Narrated by: Claire Prentice, Hillary Huber
Slow Start but Worth It
Reviewed: 08-11-23
Such an interesting tale of a complicated family. While it could have been tighter, I still found myself wishing there had been more on the family “weirdness” and the reasons none of these siblings, especially the women, married young or had children, given the era and the other ways in which they were dominated by social mores of the time. But isn’t that the theme - we’ll never know because they disappeared with barely a trace.
Oh, and I’m still crushed about poor Toby’s final days. Note to self - set up dog trust.
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2 people found this helpful
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In the Name of the Children
- An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators
- By: Jeffrey L. Rinek, Marilee Strong
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In the Name of the Children gives an unflinching look at what it's like to fight a never-ending battle against an enemy far more insidious than terrorists: the predators, lurking amongst us, who seek to harm our children. During his 30-year career with the FBI, Jeff Rinek worked hundreds of investigations involving crimes against children: from stranger abduction to serial homicide to ritualized sexual abuse. Those who do this kind of work are required to plumb the depths of human depravity, to see things no one should ever have to see - and once seen can never forget.
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Tedious listening...
- By Jeny Kennedy on 09-26-18
- In the Name of the Children
- An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators
- By: Jeffrey L. Rinek, Marilee Strong
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
A meandering memoir with some true crime thrown in.
Reviewed: 03-29-23
The author is interesting and passionate but could have used a better editor to really focus in more on the cases and the work. While the many stories about his family, friends and colleagues were sincere, the balance felt off, particularly given how the book is marketed for true crime fans. I was expecting more MINDHUNTER.
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Harlow in Hollywood
- The Blonde Bombshell in the Glamour Capital, 1928-1937
- By: Darrell Rooney, Mark A. Vieira
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In her short decade in Hollywood, Jean Harlow created a new genre of movie star - her fans idolized her for her peerless image, her beautiful body, and her gorgeous façade. Harlow in Hollywood is the story of how a town and an industry created her, a story that's never been told before. In this book, renowned Harlow expert Darrell Rooney and Hollywood historian Mark Vieira team up to present the most beautiful - and accurate - book on Harlow ever produced.
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A quick listen
- By Michelle on 07-26-22
- Harlow in Hollywood
- The Blonde Bombshell in the Glamour Capital, 1928-1937
- By: Darrell Rooney, Mark A. Vieira
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
This narrator’s character voices are killing me.
Reviewed: 03-11-23
So far I’m engrossed by the story but keep having to step away because I can only bear the narration for short periods of time. Her exaggerated dialogue voices are painful.
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Women of Means
- The Fascinating Biographies of Royals, Heiresses, Eccentrics and Other Poor Little Rich Girls
- By: Marlene Wagman-Geller
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The grass isn't greener on the other side: Heiresses have always been viewed with eyes of envy. They were the ones for whom the cornucopia had been upended, showering them with unimaginable wealth and opportunity. However, through intimate historical biographies, Women of Means shows us that oftentimes the weaving sisters saved their most heart-wrenching tapestries for the destinies of wealthy women. Women of Means is bound to be a non-fiction best seller, full of the best biographies of all time.
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Did an editor read this?
- By jzm on 09-02-20
- Women of Means
- The Fascinating Biographies of Royals, Heiresses, Eccentrics and Other Poor Little Rich Girls
- By: Marlene Wagman-Geller
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
Not Nuanced.
Reviewed: 01-16-23
I love stories about ambitious, complicated women constrained by the times in which they lived. And while complicated women are as often villains as they are heroes, this book takes a very broad, surface approach and fails to dive deeper into their stories, instead painting them as soap opera characters, driven only by greed and narcissism.
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