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Beartown
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
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Publisher's summary
2018 Audie Award Finalist for Fiction
The number-one New York Times best-selling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream - and the price required to make it come true.
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semifinals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.
Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semifinal match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made, and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.
Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
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Sports agent Myron Bolitar is poised on the edge of the big-time. So is Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback and Myron's prized client. But when Christian gets a phone call from a former girlfriend, a woman who everyone, including the police, believes is dead, the deal starts to go sour. Suddenly Myron is plunged into a baffling mystery of sex and blackmail.
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Deal Breaker
- By Lisa on 07-02-08
By: Harlan Coben
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Open
- An Autobiography
- By: Andre Agassi
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 18 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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From Andre Agassi, one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court, a beautiful, haunting autobiography. Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match and every relationship. Never before has the inner game of tennis and the outer game of fame been so precisely limned. In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach, his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and find love at last with Stefanie Graf.
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Just an Incredible Story!
- By Patrick on 12-13-09
By: Andre Agassi
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Everybody's Son
- A Novel
- By: Thrity Umrigar
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
During a terrible heat wave in 1991 - the worst in a decade - 10-year-old Anton has been locked in an apartment in the projects, alone, for seven days, without air conditioning or a fan. With no electricity, the refrigerator and lights do not work. Hot, hungry, and desperate, Anton shatters a window and climbs out. Cutting his leg on the broken glass, he is covered in blood when the police find him. Juanita, his mother, is discovered in a crack house less than three blocks away, nearly unconscious and half-naked.
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Engaging and insightful
- By Amazon Customer on 07-12-17
By: Thrity Umrigar
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Art & Soul
- By: Brittainy C. Cherry
- Narrated by: Bailey Carr, Scott Aiello
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Falling in love wasn't the plan. But how could I resist his promises of hope? Of forgiveness? Of a future I had stopped dreaming of? We were shattered. We were scarred. We were something strange and beautiful. We were two lost souls holding on to the only thing that could keep us together. Each other.
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5 Soul Stars
- By whatcha.listening.to on 07-18-16
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Love Walked In
- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
- By Marenghi on 09-16-11
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Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture - baseball and barbeques - and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely.
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Excellent
- By Cheyenne on 06-13-15
By: Karim Dimechkie
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Snow White Must Die
- By: Nele Neuhaus
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On a rainy November day, police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: a woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath. According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed. The investigation leads Pia and Oliver to a small village, and the home of the victim, Rita Cramer. On a September evening eleven years earlier, two seventeen-year-old girls vanished from the village without a trace.
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Snow White and the Seven Red Herrings
- By Mel on 01-17-13
By: Nele Neuhaus
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Table for Five
- By: Susan Wiggs
- Narrated by: Amy Rubinate
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lily Robinson and Sean McGuire have nothing in common. She guards her independent lifestyle with a ferocity that hides a fear of love and the pain it can bring. He’s always been a rolling stone, making his own way. But with the sudden deaths of a couple close to them both, the two become joined in grief and a knowledge that they must step up and care for the three orphaned children. With little more than hope and dedication, these five embark on a cross-country road trip filled with the ups and downs, the joys and frustrations that make up a family.
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Ok if you’re in the mood for women’s fiction
- By Jane on 02-18-13
By: Susan Wiggs
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Vivian Apple at the End of the World
- By: Katie Coyle
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Seventeen-year-old Vivian Apple never believed in the evangelical Church of America, unlike her recently devout parents. But when Vivian returns home the night after the supposed 'Rapture,' all that's left of her parents are two holes in the roof. Suddenly, she doesn't know who or what to believe. With her best friend Harp and a mysterious ally, Peter, Vivian embarks on a desperate cross-country road trip through a paranoid and panic-stricken America to find answers.
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juvenile
- By emily on 12-16-19
By: Katie Coyle
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The Art of Starving
- By: Sam J. Miller
- Narrated by: Tom Phelan
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Matt hasn't eaten in days. His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal, but Matt won't give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp - and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he's going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away. Matt's hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have...powers.
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Transformative book!
- By Uno Person on 01-01-20
By: Sam J. Miller
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Crash
- By: Nicole Williams
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A steamy summer encounter with bad boy Jude means trouble for Lucy. Her sights are set on becoming a ballerina, and she won't let anything get in her way...except Jude. He's got a rap sheet, dangerous mood swings, and a name that's been sighed, shouted, and cursed by who knows how many girls. Jude's a cancer, the kind of guy who's fated to ruin the lives of girls like Lucy - and he tells her so. But as rumors run rampant and reputations are destroyed, Lucy's not listening to Jude's warning.
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Jude! He has just reached Kellan status!
- By Candateshia Pafford on 06-10-13
By: Nicole Williams
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Behind the Bars
- By: Brittainy C. Cherry
- Narrated by: Erin Mallon, Kevin Free
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When I first met Jasmine Greene, she came in as raindrops. I was the awkward musician, and she was the high school queen. The only things we had in common were our music and our loneliness. Something in her eyes told me her smile wasn't always the truth. Something in her voice gave me a hope I always wished to find. And in a flash, she was gone. Years later, she was standing in front of me on a street in New Orleans. She was different, but so was I.
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✫✫ 4 Stars ✫✫
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 05-07-18
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A Horse Walks into a Bar
- By: David Grossman, Jessica Cohen
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In a little dive in a small Israeli city, Dov Greenstein, a comedian a bit past his prime, is doing a night of stand-up. In the audience is a district court justice, Avishai Lazar, whom Dov knew as a boy, along with a few others who remember Dov as the awkward, scrawny kid who walked on his hands to confound the neighborhood bullies. Gradually, teetering between hilarity and hysteria, Dov's patter becomes a kind of memoir, taking us back into the terrors of his childhood.
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An extraordinary experience
- By Judith on 07-28-17
By: David Grossman, and others
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Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. But behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove’s mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul.
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Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is 77 years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus crazy. She is also Elsa's best and only friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
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Simply splendid.
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Britt-Marie can't stand mess. She eats dinner at precisely the right time and starts her day at six in the morning because only lunatics wake up later than that. And she is not passive-aggressive. Not in the least. It's just that sometimes people interpret her helpful suggestions as criticisms, which is certainly not her intention. But at 63, Britt-Marie has had enough. She finally walks out on her loveless 40-year marriage and finds a job in the only place she can: Borg, a small, derelict town devastated by the financial crisis.
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A Gem
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Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day. The square is strange but also familiar, full of the odds and ends that have made up their lives: Grandpa's work desk, the stuffed dragon that Grandpa once gave to Noah, the sweet-smelling hyacinths that Grandma loved to grow in her garden.
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Heartbreakingly Perfect
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Set My Heart to Five
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By Far the Best Narrator of a Book I've Had
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Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is 77 years old and crazy, standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-men-who-want-to-talk-about-Jesus crazy. She is also Elsa's best and only friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother's stories, in the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
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Simply splendid.
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Things My Son Needs to Know About the World
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Things My Son Needs to Know About the World collects the personal dispatches from the front lines of one of the most daunting experiences any man can experience: fatherhood. As he conveys his profound awe at experiencing all the “firsts” that fill him with wonder and catch him completely unprepared, Fredrik Backman doesn’t shy away from revealing his own false steps and fatherly flaws, tackling issues both great and small, from masculinity and midlife crises to practical jokes and poop.
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Not my favorite Frederick Backman book
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The Book of Sand
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Story
Sand. A hostile world of burning sun. Outlines of several once-busy cities shimmer on the horizon. Now empty of inhabitants, their buildings lie in ruins. In the distance a group of people—a family—walks toward us. Ahead lies shelter: a “shuck” the family calls home and which they know they must reach before the light fails, as to be out after dark is to invite danger and almost certain death. To survive in this alien world of shifting sand, they must find an object hidden in or near water. But other families want it too.
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Fascinating book
- By SKDEB on 08-13-22
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The Deal of a Lifetime
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It all begins with a father telling a story to his son on Christmas Eve. But this isn't your typical Christmas story. The father admits to his son that he's taken a life but he won't say whose - not yet. One week earlier, in a hospital late at night, the man met a five-year-old girl with cancer. She's a smart kid - smart enough to know that she won't beat cancer by drawing with crayons all day, but it seems to make the adults happy, so she keeps doing it.
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Novellas Are Horrible!!!!!
- By 3xcharm on 12-28-17
By: Fredrik Backman
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The Beautiful Ones
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
They are the Beautiful Ones, Loisail’s most notable socialites, and this spring is Nina’s chance to join their ranks, courtesy of her well-connected cousin and his calculating wife. But the Grand Season has just begun, and already Nina’s debut has gone disastrously awry. She has always struggled to control her telekinesis- neighbors call her the Witch of Oldhouse - and the haphazard manifestations of her powers make her the subject of malicious gossip. When entertainer Hector Auvray arrives to town, Nina is dazzled.
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Beautifully Written, Beautifully Boring, Horrifically Slow
- By Mary D on 04-29-21
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We Begin at the End
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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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Horrible narrator in this audible book
- By M. patton on 03-03-21
By: Chris Whitaker
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Still Life
- A GMA Book Club Pick (A Novel)
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades.
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Almost a DNF
- By Robert Bryant on 03-07-22
By: Sarah Winman
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The Great Believers
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Overall
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In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying and after his friend Nico's funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico's little sister.
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A story for all time
- By Carla jo Thompson on 08-06-18
By: Rebecca Makkai
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My Friends
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an artist herself, knows otherwise and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their difficult home lives by spending their days laughing and telling stories out on a pier.
By: Fredrik Backman
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Beartown \ (Spanish Edition)
- By: Fredrik Backman
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Cerca del lago en Beartown hay una pista de hielo, y en la pista Kevin, Amat, Benji y el resto del Equipo junior de hockey sobre hielo está a punto de competir en la semifinal nacional; y, de hecho, tiene la oportunidad de ganar. Todos los sueños y esperanzas de este lugar descansan ahora sobre los hombros de un grupo de adolescentes. Bajo la pesada carga, el partido se convierte en la catálisis de un acto violento que dejará a una joven traumatizada y a un pueblo en confusión. Se hacen las acusaciones y, como olas en un estanque, viajan a través de Beartown.
By: Fredrik Backman
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I Will Never See the World Again
- The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer
- By: Ahmet Altan, Yasemin Congar - translator
- Narrated by: Adam Alexi-Malle, Philippe Sands, Elizabeth Knowelden
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Confined in a cell four meters long, imprisoned on absurd, Kafkaesque charges, novelist Ahmet Altan is one of many writers persecuted by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's oppressive regime. In this extraordinary memoir, written from his prison cell, Altan reflects upon his sentence, on a life whittled down to a courtyard covered by bars, and on the hope and solace a writer's mind can provide, even in the darkest places.
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Loved it.
- By Hulya on 03-14-24
By: Ahmet Altan, and others
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Station Eleven (Television Tie-in)
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- By: Emily St. John Mandel
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Kirsten Raymonde will never forget the night Arthur Leander, the famous Hollywood actor, had a heart attack on stage during a production of King Lear. That was the night when a devastating flu pandemic arrived in the city, and within weeks, civilization as we know it came to an end.
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gah!
- By Stacy on 10-08-14
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Betty
- A Novel
- By: Tiffany McDaniel
- Narrated by: Dale Dickey
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a white mother and a Cherokee father, Betty Carpenter is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit in the rural town of Breathed, Ohio, is one of poverty and violence—both from outside the family and, devastatingly, from within. But despite the hardships she faces, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about the natural world, her fierce love for her sisters, and her father’s brilliant stories are kindling for the fire of her own imagination, and in the face of all to which she bears witness, Betty discovers an escape: she begins to write.
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Well
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By: Tiffany McDaniel
What listeners say about Beartown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Holly Mo
- 04-27-17
Backman Can Write Any Point of View!
I've read most of Backman's books, and this author is amazingly talented. When I read "A Man Called Ove," I thought, this guy must know my daughters and their grandfathers, because the characters' interactions are spot on. When I read, "Britt-Marie Was Here," I thought, he must know an older woman who felt discarded, because she seems so real. In "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry," I assumed he must have lived in an apartment building where his neighbors represented, all walks of life, because each character was alive and unique. Now, in "Beartown," I jokingly conclude that he is in fact a pseudonym for what must be a team of authors, each specializing in writing a certain point of view, because his representation of the human teenager was very accurate.
"Beartown" is about so many things: parenthood, navigating being a teen, the desperation that can engulf a small town into pack mentality. It touches on retirement and how it effects a sense of purpose. We see immeasurable loss, beating the odds, perseverance, abuse, revenge, forgiveness...and so much more.
From the above paragraph, you may think those are too many subjects to tackle in one book, but Backman makes it flow naturally and realistically.
At times, I felt that he was bordering on over description in regards to each character's inner thoughts, but as I read on, I came to appreciate the time he took to bring the reader into the characters' heads. Some may feel that the following is a spoiler, but I want to explain what I mean with an example, therefore, I'll preface the next section.
*Possibly could be considered a spoiler*
At one point, some boys throw a rock with an expletive written on it through a window. The mother/wife gets in her car and scares the boys in a way that could be perceived as unstable. But the reader has been inside her head. We've seen what she's been through. She's endured unimaginable loss. Outwardly, she seems abrasive and uncompromising, but the reader knows how much she has sacrificed for those she loves. You feel her desperation and helplessness and anger. Despite knowing how wrong it would have been, had she actually caused permanent damage, I found myself cheering her on; then, when she came to her senses, so did I. She wasn't insane; she had a temporary moment of insanity. Backman took a lot of time to get us inside her mind, and it allows the reader to understand her irrational behavior.
*End of possible spoiler*
What I like best about the book is the multiple layers given to each character. We see tough guys in moments of sensitivity. We see sensitive guys finding their strengths. It is easy to dismiss a character as universally shallow, until we see the character in a different environment and we watch them bloom into someone we'd like to know. Heroes make selfish/life altering choices and bullies evolve into better people.
I especially like the ending, because it felt so complete that I actually exhaled. This is a great book for discussion, and I'm encouraging my teen daughters to read it. The narrator's performance was spectacular in the audio version. I highly recommend it!
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40 people found this helpful
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- jeff
- 05-11-17
Best book I've listened to in years
I'm not often motivated to write reviews of any kind but I had to with Beartown. As the title says, I haven't enjoyed and been as riveted to a book as much as this in a long time. The character and story development is perfect. What's even more amazing, is that this book was translated from another language. I would never have known that other than the currency that is used in the story. I'm really not a sports enthusiast and couldn't care less about hockey, and none of that kept me from enjoying the hell out of this book.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Pamela J
- 05-04-17
An emotional rollarcoaster you'll want to ride
For someone who really doesn't know, or care to know, about hockey - - I thought I'd finally found the Backman book I wasn't going to like. Silly me. This book is brilliant. No one in Beartown is simple or stupid or all bad or all good - - they're just relatable because you know them or sometimes, you are them. Backman moves his readers to Beartown to live and die with the families whose lives revolve around a sport. Hockey is the perfect vehicle for much more complicated problems and feelings that are involved with being part of a community, and Beartown is a community that you will want to live with, and in, for a long time.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Krish
- 02-27-18
This is not about Hockey. This is about people.
This is not about Hockey. This is about people. This is about simplest yet most complicated human nature. This is about beartown. Fredrik Backman has did it again.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jenny G
- 05-04-17
Must read
One of those books that touches you so deeply, that as soon as you finish you want to start it all over again.
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- Ohai Boo
- 07-12-22
Fantastic
This novel catches you by surprise- with every single paragraph. You’re invested until the last second and miss the characters when you’re away from it. Bachman has a way of pulling you into the depths of the story without you even realizing he’s done so. Fantastic author, I’ve loved everything I’ve read of his.
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- Haecity
- 07-10-18
Incredible
A book has never made me more infuriated and proud to be a human being. I started this book because Fredrik Backman was an instant favorite of mine after I read My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry. I got into this book without knowing what it was about. Completely different to tonality, fantastic story.
I don’t think a story has ever made me feel pride before, but this one did. I wish I could thank the author in person for this one. I burst into tears at the last line.
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- N. Myers
- 04-19-18
The best book about a topic I had no interest in!
I read this book as a book club selection. Itwas suggested by another member, and I was pretty neutral about reading it. The subject matter of hockey and what it does to it's town really didn't interest me. Wow! I was incredibly wrong! the summaries of Beartown that I read, did not lead me to understand the power of the story. While listening, I was simultaneously nauseated, felt be not of fear in a parent's heart, and I couldn't wait until I could listen again! as a parent of a daughter and two sons, I'm not sure that I could have listened to this book if they were a little bit older than they are now. Backman writes with a simple, yet visceral grace that any parent could relate to, on both sides of this terrible coin. I will highly recommend this book in the future.
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- MityMouse
- 12-27-18
Intricately capturing
Took impossible situations and formed them into triumphs beyond what I thought would be possible..something real...something good ..
What else would you want in a story like this...
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-19-19
Beartown: All Heart
As a hockey lover and mom to a teenage daughter, Fredrik Bakman’s novel moved me deeply. It was lyrical and alive with robust characters. I will add it to my list of all-time favorite books. Marin Ireland’s voice and mastery of each character’s nuances drove a great novel to the next level. Score!
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