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Bird Cloud
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Joan Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
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Publisher's summary
“Bird Cloud” is the name Annie Proulx gave to 640 acres of Wyoming wetlands and prairie and 400-foot cliffs plunging down to the North Platte River. On the day she first visited, a cloud in the shape of a bird hung in the evening sky. Proulx also saw pelicans, bald eagles, golden eagles, great blue herons, ravens, scores of bluebirds, harriers, kestrels, elk, deer and a dozen antelope. She fell in love with the land, then owned by the Nature Conservancy, and she knew what she wanted to build on it—a house in harmony with her work, her appetites and her character, a library surrounded by bedrooms and a kitchen.
Proulx’s first work of nonfiction in more than twenty years, Bird Cloud is the story of designing and constructing that house—with its solar panels, Japanese soak tub, concrete floor and elk horn handles on kitchen cabinets. It is also an enthralling natural history and archaeology of the region—inhabited for millennia by Ute, Arapaho and Shoshone Indians— and a family history, going back to 19th-century Mississippi riverboat captains and Canadian settlers.
Proulx, a writer with extraordinary powers of observation and compassion, here turns her lens on herself. We understand how she came to be living in a house surrounded by wilderness, with shelves for thousands of books and long worktables on which to heap manuscripts, research materials and maps, and how she came to be one of the great American writers of her time. Bird Cloud is magnificent.
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Editorial reviews
Bird Cloud by Annie Proulx and read by Joan Allen comes very close to being all things to all people. A memoir on a grand scale, Bird Cloud not only serves as a cautionary tale for any who wish to buy and build on Wyoming ranchland, but the book is a partial history of the American West and an environmental love song for the precious flora and fauna of open lands.
Bird Cloud begins with Proulx reading the first autobiographical chapter about her peripatetic childhood and family’s genealogical history. The chapter sets the stage for the author’s intense need to ground herself, finally, in a home that is perfect for her.
Joan Allen’s expressive reading captures the author’s increasing frustration with the building process. Not meaning to make light of the misfortunes of others, it is hard not to laugh as Allen characterizes Proulx’s unrestrained horror when first gazing upon a much-anticipated polished concrete floor. The “what next?” exasperation eventually felt by every homeowner cleverly seeps into Allen’s words and phrasings. Nonetheless, even the beleaguered home builder/author sees the humor in the multiple work shut-downs as all hands are called upon to shoo errant livestock from the construction area.
The foibles of construction take a back seat to the author’s obvious love for Wyoming. Grasses, wildflowers, rocks, and mammals of both land and air are meticulously noted, examined, and then treated to the author’s lyrical prose. Poetic descriptions of the dalliance of resident bald eagles bring the author’s observations into clear view for the enthralled listener.
Bird Cloud Allen assures all those enjoying the audiobook that home construction is not for the faint of heart. The experience has served a worthwhile purpose, though, if it has allowed a gifted author like Annie Proulx an inspiriting window through which to share her obvious love and respect for wide, open spaces. Carole Chouinard
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- Unabridged
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America's northern border is the world's longest international boundary, yet it remains obscure even to Americans. Travel writer Porter Fox spent two years exploring its length by canoe, freighter, and car - and in Northland, he delivers the little-known history of the region and a riveting account of his travels. Fox follows explorer Samuel de Champlain's adventures; recounts the rise and fall of the iron, wheat, and timber industries; crosses the Great Lakes on a freighter; and tracks America's fur traders through the Boundary Waters.
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Great listen - great narrator
- By Jonathan on 01-10-19
By: Porter Fox
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The Longest Road
- Overland in Search of America, from Key West to the Arctic Ocean
- By: Philip Caputo
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Philip Caputo, who had just turned 70, his wife, and their two English setters took off in a truck hauling an Airstream camper from Key West, Florida, en route via back roads and state routes to Deadhorse, Alaska. The journey took four months and covered 17,000 miles, during which Caputo interviewed more than 80 Americans from all walks of life to get a picture of what their lives and the life of the nation are really about in the 21st century.
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Very Disappointing
- By Amazon Customer on 03-25-18
By: Philip Caputo
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American Buffalo
- In Search of a Lost Icon
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.
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Phenomenal
- By Hunter Cole on 08-01-19
By: Steven Rinella
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The Hour of Land
- A Personal Topography of America's National Parks
- By: Terry Tempest Williams
- Narrated by: Terry Williams
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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For years, America's national parks have provided public breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why close to 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now, to honor the centennial of the National Park Service, Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, what they mean to us, and what we mean to them.
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It could have been good.
- By udzuzu on 04-14-18
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Essays of E. B. White
- By: E. B. White
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Legendary author and essayist E. B. White writes, "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Covering a large number of subjects, this classic collection features 31 of White's most memorable essays.
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E.B. White writes honestly, fearlessly and clearly
- By Bonny on 09-03-17
By: E. B. White
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The Old Ways
- A Journey on Foot
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In this exquisitely written book, Robert Macfarlane sets off from his Cambridge, England, home to follow the ancient tracks, holloways, drove roads, and sea paths that crisscross both the British landscape and its waters and territories beyond. The result is an immersive, enthralling exploration of the ghosts and voices that haunt old paths, of the stories our tracks keep and tell, and of pilgrimage and ritual. Told in Macfarlane’s distinctive voice, The Old Ways folds together natural history, cartography, geology, archaeology, and literature.
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A perfect pairing of prose and narrator
- By chris on 11-05-12
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Disappointment River
- Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage
- By: Brian Castner
- Narrated by: Brian Castner
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Disappointment River is a dual historical narrative and travel memoir that at once transports listeners back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of energy extraction and climate change.
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Excellent
- By Jean on 05-06-18
By: Brian Castner
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Goodbye to a River
- By: John Graves
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In this classic from the Lone Star State, John Graves learns that the river he knew and loved as a youth, the Brazos in north-central Texas, is slated to be dammed at multiple points - and he understands that things will never be the same. Goodbye to a River is a poignant narrative of one man's journey by canoe down the river of his memories. Along the way, he describes the colorful Texas landscape and recounts its rich history.
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Undoubtedly a great piece of American literature
- By Chris on 04-04-13
By: John Graves
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In Search of the Old Ones
- Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest
- By: David Roberts
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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David Roberts describes the culture of the Anasazi - the name means "enemy ancestors" in Navajo - who once inhabited the Colorado Plateau and whose modern descendants are the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Archaeologists, Roberts writes, have been puzzling over the Anasazi for more than a century, trying to determine the environmental and cultural stresses that caused their society to collapse 700 years ago. He guides us through controversies in the historical record, among them the haunting question of whether the Anasazi committed acts of cannibalism.
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good story if you don't want to learn about Indian
- By Robert B. on 03-09-18
By: David Roberts
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The Wild Places
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we tarmacked, farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? In his vital, bewitching, inspiring classic, Robert Macfarlane sets out in search of the wildness that remains.
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Magical
- By Jennifer on 01-27-22
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Reservation Restless
- By: Jim Kristofic
- Narrated by: Jim Kristofic
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In the powerful and haunting lands of the Southwest, rainbows grow unexpectedly from the sky, mountain lions roam the desert, and summer storms roll over the Colorado River. As a park ranger, Kristofic explores the Ganado valley, traces the paths of the Anasazi, and finds mythic experiences on sacred mountains that explain the pain and loss promised for every person who decides to love. After reconnecting with his Navajo sister and brother, Kristofic must confront his own nightmares of the Anglo society and the future it has created.
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It is a gift to see the world through Jim's eyes
- By Josh Boyle on 06-23-21
By: Jim Kristofic
What listeners say about Bird Cloud
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Drinker
- 06-20-11
Craft vs. History
OK... I've also built a house, so I am familiar with the ins and outs... and so is Annie it seems. But for those of you who are looking for the Proulx twists and turns... the subtle and the grand stories weaving through fabulous characterizations and ironic plots, you will be disappointed. There is no mystery or mastery, only a house being built where it should not be by a tough and whimsical woman.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Kathryn
- 09-05-11
This book is for Anne Proulx Fans
This book is a mix of several genres: autobiography, historian, house builder. I enjoyed picking up little tidbits of her life but if you were expecting a start-middle-end, this is not for you.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mimi Routh
- 03-08-15
WRETCHEDLY DISAPPOINTING, FRUSTRATING, DISGUSTING
This is NOT Tracy Kidder's "House" nor Annie Dillard's "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek," both of which I loved and which stayed with me and to which I will return. I loved "Ace in the Hole" and bailed from "Accordion Crimes" because it was so sad and negative. Now I will say I don't like Annie Proulx, no matter how brilliant or intellectual she is. She's a pissy old biddy, intent on raining on my parade, injecting as many little digs and sad turns as she can think of! I don't want to hear about this woman's way-back family tree with mis-pronounced French. I don't want to hear the ins and outs of building some crappy house! And I don't want to hear a history of the abuse of wildlife and aboriginal peoples by white settlers. I work to help wildlife, and I'm part Native American. If I want to read PETA literature, I can. If I want to rub salt into all the old wounds, I can go to the history books. Now I've seen pictures of the house and the land arround it. I can only ask where was this woman's head? What happened to "cozy"? In visiting Lisbon, I was touched to learn that in winter time, the Portuguese royal family retreated to just a few low-ceilinged rooms, huddled around huge porcelain stoves. I look at Architectural Digest and think to myself that I wouldn't mind visiting those palaces, but I truly prefer smaller rooms. Now I live in the Lake Tahoe area where windows are double-paned and real estate prices are out of sight. I would not buy even a 900 square foot ski condo without finding out personally what it sounds like when twenty-something skiers (different renters every week, so no way to establish rapport or educate them!) tromp on the stairs just outside. Well, other reviewers have expressed our common frustration better than I can. The book is badly written, part miserable house building and the rest only fair nature observation. I've had it with Proulx.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jeanette
- 10-08-21
Verbose dudd
This book lacked a point.
Was the author looking for the perfect residence? Why did she spend most, if not all of her personal fortune on ,what turned out to be, a summer residence? Was she trying to compare herself to the birds she loved to watch?
While the descriptions of both Wyoming’s flora and fauna were beautiful and rivaled that of Teddy Roosevelt’s descriptions of the Grand Canyon , the book was simply wordy to stay in my collection. I accidentally skipped a few chapters due a playback glitch and, didn’t even notice.
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