
An Extravagant Life
An Autobiography Incorporating Blue Water, Green Skipper
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Narrated by:
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Tony Roberts
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By:
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Stuart Woods
About this listen
The number one New York Times best-selling author of the Stone Barrington series tells the story of his own life from childhood to the present, and chronicles the journey that made him the writer he is today.
Over the last 40 years, Stuart Woods has written more than 90 novels of suspense and intrigue, beginning with the award-winning Chiefs. Featuring iconic crime-fighting and jet-setting leads, the plots are masterfully conceived and wonderfully escapist.
What many listeners don’t know is that Woods' very own life was filled with similar stories of adventure. Born in Georgia, Woods worked in advertising in New York, served in the US Air Force, and had a short stint as an advance man. At the age of 37, he found himself in a transatlantic sailing race, and pursued writing as a full-time career shortly thereafter. Along the way, Woods has lived all over the world, from New York to London, Santa Fe to Ireland. Incorporating his iconic sailing memoir Blue Water, Green Skipper, this is the story of a life well-lived, and a special inside look into the beloved author’s many exploits.
©2022 Stuart Woods (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Just more of Wood's political propaganda
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Woods is great even without Stone
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Not for me : two stars ..
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Bad. Just bad. Disappointed.
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First there were roses and the notes in her mailbox signed simply, "Admirer". Then the accident. One minute Chris Callaway was one of Hollywood's brightest rising stars, starting a new picture that could send her career skyrocketing; the next she was falling from the unfinished deck of her beautiful new Malibu beach house...waking up blind, uncertain whether she would ever see again.
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Great
- By Richard Bell on 05-08-16
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Everyone is always telling Stone Barrington that he’s too smart to be a cop, but it’s pure luck that places him on the streets in the dead of night, just in time to witness the horrifying incident that turns his life inside out. Suddenly he is on the front page of every New York newspaper and his life is hopelessly entwined in the increasingly shocking life (and perhaps death) of Sasha Nijinsky, the country’s hottest and most beautiful television anchorwoman.
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Ridiculous
- By laall on 11-11-13
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Smooth Operator
- By: Stuart Woods, Parnell Hall
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Overall
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When President Kate Lee calls Stone Barrington to Washington on an urgent matter, it's soon clear that a potentially disastrous situation requires the kind of help more delicate than even he can provide...and he knows just the right man for the job. Teddy Fay: ex-CIA, master of disguise, and a gentleman not known for abiding by legal niceties in the pursuit of his own brand of justice.
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Just more of Wood's political propaganda
- By Tngal on 10-08-16
By: Stuart Woods, and others
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Imperfect Strangers
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Tony Roberts
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sandy Kinsolving's once-glittering life hangs by a thread; his future depends on his wife's inheritance and whether or not she's about to throw him out on his ear. What he wouldn't give for a solution to his money and marriage problems. If this were an Alfred Hitchcock movie, the solution would be obvious. Enter a stranger with wife problems of his own, who offers a violent - and mutually advantageous - proposal. Then, in the time it takes to whisper a word, Kinsolving's normal life ends.
-
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Woods is great even without Stone
- By jasiowa on 10-19-16
By: Stuart Woods
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Choke
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- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Tony Roberts
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
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Story
Chuck Chandler has choked on more than one occasion - first as a pro tennis player at Wimbledon, then as a womanizing coach at posh tennis clubs around the country. Now at Key West's Old Racquet Club, Chuck gets involved with the wrong married woman - the enticing Clare Carras, married to an enigmatic older man - and soon he is in way over his head.
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Not for me : two stars ..
- By antoine on 12-31-17
By: Stuart Woods
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Heat
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Tony Roberts
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Ex-DEA agent Jesse Warden has seen enough of the inside of a solitary confinement cell to last him a lifetime. Or two lifetimes, which is the sentence he's serving after being convicted of a crime he was planning to commit but never did. So when an old buddy shows up with a deal that could spring him from his hell behind bars, he's ready to listen.
-
-
Bad. Just bad. Disappointed.
- By Calliope on 03-03-18
By: Stuart Woods
-
Dead Eyes
- A Novel
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Tony Roberts
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First there were roses and the notes in her mailbox signed simply, "Admirer". Then the accident. One minute Chris Callaway was one of Hollywood's brightest rising stars, starting a new picture that could send her career skyrocketing; the next she was falling from the unfinished deck of her beautiful new Malibu beach house...waking up blind, uncertain whether she would ever see again.
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Great
- By Richard Bell on 05-08-16
By: Stuart Woods
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Chiefs
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In 1919, Delano, Georgia, appoints its first chief of police. Honest and hardworking, the new chief is puzzled when young men start to disappear. But his investigation is ended by the fatal blast from a shotgun. Delano's second chief-of-police is no hero, yet he is also disturbed by what he sees in the missing-persons bulletins. In 1969, when Delano's third chief takes over, the unsolved disappearances still haunt the police files.
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In my 'Top Ten' books of all time!
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Orchid Beach
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Forced into early retirement at 37, smart, attractive, and fiercely independent Major Holly Barker trades in her bars as a military cop for the badge of deputy chief of police in Orchid Beach, Florida. But below the sunny surface of this sleepy, well-to-do island town lies an evil that escalates into the cold-blooded murder of one of Holly's new colleagues.
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What is wrong with this narrator???
- By Roz on 02-14-17
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The Prince of Beverly Hills
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Rick Barron, a sharp, capable detective on the Beverly Hills force, finds himself demoted after a run-in with a superior officer, but he soon lands a job other cops only dream about: the security detail for Centurion Pictures, one of the hottest studios in the midst of Hollywood's golden age of the late 1930s. As the protector of the studio's interests, Barron looks after the elite of filmdom's stars - among them Clete Barrow, a British leading man with a penchant for parties, and Glenna Gleason, a peach of a talent on the verge of stardom.
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Like the new character - a bit anti-climatic
- By Remy Darden on 02-26-16
By: Stuart Woods
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Barely Legal
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Under the tutelage of Stone Barrington, Herbie Fisher has transformed from a bumbling sad sack into a capable man about town and the youngest partner at the white-shoe law firm Woodman & Weld. Now all of his training will be put to the test as he finds himself embroiled in his most daring adventure to date.
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Barely legal
- By Jennifer Rahel Conover on 11-06-17
By: Stuart Woods, and others
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Palindrome
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- Unabridged
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Award-winning author Stuart Woods has crafted a masterful novel no reader will soon forget. For years, Liz Barwick has been battered by her brutal husband, a famous pro football player. The beautiful and talented photographer retreats to an island paradise off Georgia’s coast to find solitude - and herself.
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Fantastic Story
- By Linda T. on 02-02-21
By: Stuart Woods
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Santa Fe Rules
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- Unabridged
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Successful movie producer Wolf Willett is stunned when he sees his own death reported in a major newspaper. It says he was a victim in a triple homicide during a sordid tryst with his wife and a friend. But who is the unidentified corpse? Why can't Wolf remember anything about the night in question? And who wants him dead?
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Too much sex stuff
- By Kathleen Fuller on 06-11-19
By: Stuart Woods
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Under the Lake
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- Unabridged
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Stuart Woods, the best-selling author of L.A. Times and Heat, has created a haunting thriller full of ghostly images, murder and old family secrets. Part detective story, part ghost story, part Southern gothic - this absorbing novel will fascinate listeners as a small town’s present, past and future converge.
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You like the mystical? Maybe this is for you.
- By Ted on 02-10-14
By: Stuart Woods
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White Cargo
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New York Times best-selling author Stuart Woods is hailed as a master of the modern thriller. With books including Chiefs and Worst Fears Realized, he has attracted millions of fans who relish their non-stop suspense and danger.
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Excellent story once again Mr. Woods aces it!!!!
- By Cynthia on 12-09-08
By: Stuart Woods
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Blue Water, Green Skipper
- A Memoir of Sailing Alone Across the Atlantic
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Steven Collins
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Stuart Woods had never owned more than a dinghy before setting out on one of the world's most demanding sea voyages, navigating single-handedly across the Atlantic. How, at the age of 37, did this self-proclaimed novice go from small ponds to the big sea? Now with a new afterword that looks back at how one transatlantic race changed his life, Woods takes listeners on a spectacular journey not just of traveling across the world, but of being tried in fire, learning by accepting challenges, appreciating the beauty of the open water, and living to tell about it.
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For the Hardened Sailor, Novice, and Dreamer Alike
- By Striker on 06-02-16
By: Stuart Woods
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The 6:20 Man
- A Thriller
- By: David Baldacci
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead.
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A new Baldacci exmilitary protagonist…
- By shelley on 07-13-22
By: David Baldacci
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The Good Stuff
- Old Man Sailing, Book 1
- By: John Passmore
- Narrated by: Charles Robert Fox
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Here, for the first time, is a complete and chronological account: everything from levitating the dog and navigating by smell to meeting his wife Tamsin through the Lonely Hearts column of Time Out and attempting to run away to sea and raise a family on a 27 foot boat.
By: John Passmore
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Seraffyn's European Adventure
- By: Lin Pardey, Larry Pardey
- Narrated by: Sonja Field
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Join cruising legends Lin and Larry Pardey as from England they proceed into the Baltic, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Germany. During their voyage they dealt with armed guards on the Polish waterfront who watched while the people greeted them with flowers and fruit. They weathered a fierce mast-under broach in a Baltic gale. And experienced great friendships found in harbors large and small.
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Wonderful Listen Despite It Being A Tad Dated
- By Kathy in CA on 09-08-18
By: Lin Pardey, and others
What listeners say about An Extravagant Life
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jennifer j pollett
- 10-16-22
Thank you Stuart, Rest in Peace.
Thank you for all the wonderful stories. You will be missed. I pray that Elaine had a table waiting for you with a knob creek on the rocks.
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- Joe Hampton
- 06-26-22
An extravagant life indeed
Stuart Woods fans owe him a debt of gratitude for including us in his extravagant life. What a pleasure it was to hear his autobiographical account from the great man himself. My son and I have listened to or read every published Stuart Woods book and over many years they have given us much content and characters to discuss and enjoy together. We will miss Stuart when he is gone and will treasure his wit and wisdom which will be passed down to future generations.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Larry Johnsen
- 09-27-22
Loving Stuart Woods
A engrossing account of a really prolific and popular author. I will miss him, but my library holds nearly all his books so he remains accessible.
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- Scott
- 01-03-23
My favorite author. In his own words.
I’ll miss Stuart Woods and his characters for the rest of my days. So thankful to have him tell his tale. Wish it was three times as long.
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- Zane E. Long
- 05-05-23
Rest in Peace, Stuart
I loved this autobiography of one of my favorite authors. I have always felt Woods life was interesting and deserved more attention. This work stands out by filling the reader in on how this young child from a single parent home in rural Georgia grew up to be a very successful author and lead an exceptional and, yes, extravagant, life.
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- Jeni P
- 12-14-22
A fan's view
Love this book and all by Stuart Woods. I think I've missed only four.
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- Todd R. Reis
- 07-28-24
way too much about sailing & his properties
Having been a fan of his books & characters I wanted to learn more about how he wrote & developed his stories from his own life. His book Chiefs is the only one he talked about a little. He goes into great detail about his sailing races, living in Ireland, homes he had all over. yes it was an life of riches, but not so much how he earned it all. as a regular voice of the Woods books, Tony Robert's does a good job, but that is all. very disappointed.
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- Tosh
- 09-11-22
Stuart Wood’ autobiography
Certainly not his best. You can skip the first 50 chapters if you’re not into sailing. He spends too much time talking about his “toys”. Would have been interesting if he detailed how he came up with Stone Barrington, Dino Boschetti, and Holly. Also, why is Stone’s libido running full bore, on overdrive, why he’s never contracted STD and, why most of Stone’s lovers are from Delano, GA?
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4 people found this helpful
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- S Marchand
- 10-16-22
Only if you sail
I was very disappointed in this book. Too many sailing details and way too many names of people. Who knows them and who cares.
And I found the beginning of the book confusing. Perhaps a genealogy tree might help.
The one thing I did learn is where Stone Barrington got his love of houses and planes.
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2 people found this helpful
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- James Anderson
- 01-21-23
Disappointed
Too much time on sailing and nothing about his characters very disappointing. I should have paid attention to the reviews
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1 person found this helpful