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Black Bottom Saints
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Imani Parks
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings.
From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson has been the pulse of Detroit’s famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he’s rubbed elbows with the legendary Black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater. But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats.
As he lays dying in the Black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it.
Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom’s venerable "52 Saints". Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant Joe Louis, and a raucous Bricktop. Randall balances the stories of these larger-than-life "Saints" with local heroes who became household names, enthralling men and women whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this Black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City’s Harlem.
Accompanying these “tributes” are thoughtfully paired cocktails - special drinks that capture the essence of each of Ziggy’s saints - libations as strong and satisfying as Alice Randall’s wholly original view of a place and time unlike any other.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Easy Enjoyable Read
- By Bunny on 06-23-21
By: Camille Aubray
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Save Me the Waltz
- By: Zelda Fitzgerald
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Save Me the Waltz is the first and only novel by the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the years when Fitzgerald was working on Tender Is the Night, Zelda Fitzgerald was preparing her own story, which parallels the narrative of her husband, throwing a fascinating light on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life and work. In its own right, it is a vivid and moving story: the confessions of a famous, slightly doomed glamour girl of the affluent 1920s, which captures the spirit of an era.
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Audio is a great platform for Zelda's writing--
- By Renee LaBonte-Jones on 10-30-16
By: Zelda Fitzgerald
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Pale Horse, Pale Rider
- Three Short Novels
- By: Katherine Anne Porter
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The classic 1939 collection of three novellas by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author and journalist, including the famous title story set during the influenza epidemic of 1918.
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Some of the most brilliant prose ever written
- By Anonymous User on 03-21-23
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Nigger
- An Autobiography
- By: Dick Gregory, Dr. Christian Gregory - introduction, Robert Lipsyte
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Dr. Christian Gregory
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Fifty-five years ago, in 1964, an incredibly honest and revealing memoir by one of the America's best-loved comedians and activists, Dick Gregory, was published. With a shocking title and breathtaking writing, Dick Gregory defined a genre and changed the way race was discussed in America.
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PLEASE don't pass this book up!
- By D on 05-06-20
By: Dick Gregory, and others
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Appointment in Samarra
- Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition
- By: John O'Hara, Charles McGrath - introduction
- Narrated by: Christian Camargo
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In December 1930, just before Christmas, the Gibbsville, Pennsylvania, social circuit is electrified with parties and dances. At the center of the social elite stand Julian and Caroline English. But in one rash moment born inside a highball glass, Julian breaks with polite society and begins a rapid descent toward self-destruction.
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Quite good, but not a classic
- By Michael on 04-25-15
By: John O'Hara, and others
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- By: Maya Angelou
- Narrated by: Maya Angelou
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. But years later, she learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors.
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Emotional & Powerful
- By Miss Toni on 06-30-13
By: Maya Angelou
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Tambourines to Glory
- By: Langston Hughes
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Angelic Essie Belle Johnson and devilish Laura Reed both agree that they need to do something to spice up their lives and earn more money. So, they start their own church on the street in front of their Harlem apartment. With Laura's gift for performing and Essie's melodious voice, the two quickly become a hit and must move their services into a renovated theater. But as their congregation grows, a host of misfits enter the scene - some honest, but others who just want a piece of the pie.
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Nice timepiece
- By Akida Kissane Long on 02-08-17
By: Langston Hughes
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The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
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Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
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Shine Bright
- A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop
- By: Danyel Smith
- Narrated by: Danyel Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo.
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Ok might have been better reading the hard copy
- By cde on 06-18-22
By: Danyel Smith
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Bitter in the Mouth
- By: Monique Truong
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in the small town of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the 70’s and 80’s, Linda believes that she is profoundly different from everyone else, including the members of her own family. “What I know about you, little girl, would break you in two” are the cruel, mysterious last words that Linda’s grandmother ever says to her.
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"Tasting Words" made this hard to hear!
- By Kate Anderson on 11-06-11
By: Monique Truong
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The Undocumented Americans
- By: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
- Narrated by: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Writer Karla Cornejo Villavicencio was on DACA when she decided to write about being undocumented for the first time using her own name. It was right after the election of 2016, the day she realized the story she'd tried to steer clear of was the only one she wanted to tell. So she wrote her immigration lawyer's phone number on her hand in Sharpie and embarked on a trip across the country to tell the stories of her fellow undocumented immigrants—and to find the hidden key to her own.
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Raw, heartbreaking - we can do better by others
- By RapaciousReader on 04-11-20
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The Yellow House
- By: Sarah M. Broom
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1961, Sarah M. Broom’s mother Ivory Mae bought a shotgun house in the then-promising neighborhood of New Orleans East and built her world inside of it. It was the height of the Space Race and the neighborhood was home to a major NASA plant - the postwar optimism seemed assured. A book of great ambition, Sarah M. Broom’s The Yellow House tells a hundred years of her family and their relationship to home in a neglected area of one of America’s most mythologized cities.
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Great book. I wish the pictures had been included.
- By Lindsay on 02-28-20
By: Sarah M. Broom
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Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- By: Rebecca Wells
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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When Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable mother-daughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a "tap-dancing child abuser", the fallout is felt from Louisiana to New York to Seattle. Siddalee, a successful theater director with a huge hit on her hands, panics and postpones her upcoming wedding to her lover and friend, Connor McGill. Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay in and conspire to bring everyone back together.
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As usual the book is better than the movie
- By Denzil and Judy's Account on 03-25-10
By: Rebecca Wells
What listeners say about Black Bottom Saints
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- GH
- 05-01-21
An Incredible World Hidden In Plain Sight.
With sumptuous narration and vivid imagery, this book took me back to the Detroit and the America that history dodges because it shows the reality of mid-century Black America.
The real Black people do not exist only as a reaction to white evil or white compassion. We are our own soul and we live in no shadow cast by sin. This book stands as evidence of our humanity and no false history or Hollywood perversion can change that.
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- Barbara Suhr
- 09-26-20
History through character studies
As a white Detroiter I was familiar with many places and moments but unfamiliar with much about my beloved city. I believe It’s essential to learn more about black history and culture - this book is steeped in it. Its filled with amazing stories of dynamic, smart and talented (often famous) people. Their portraits are at times poignant, graceful and at others gritty and resilient.
The structure is creative and fun with a cocktail for each “Black Bottom Saint”. I want to try some of these cocktails!
Thank you Alice Randall for another lovely novel!
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- Red Dragon
- 05-17-21
Interesting and Deep
very compelling story. I loved learning about so many historical figures in a moving and compelling way. the female narrator is halting and strange. I don't understand it, I assume it is meant to be artistic, I just didn't understand. But, this shouldn't deter you from listening to this dynamic book.
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- AB
- 08-10-22
A fabulous listen.
This was a nostalgic walk through Detroit royalty and black history and entertainment.
I selected this book for entertainment and ended up getting educated too. This was one of the best if not the best narrated book that I’ve ever listened too which only added to the experience. Absolutely wonderful read!
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- Richard
- 08-28-20
Amazing book
If you want to read something that gives you an entertaining perspective on the richness and difficulty of Black life in America in the middle of last century, listen to this book.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-29-22
Entrancing engaging inspirational
I loved this book. Alice Randall writes poetically about real people who populated and passed through Black Bottom DETROIT during its golden age. Thank you, Alice and Ziggy.
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- Etoile NEOhio
- 10-26-22
Stories rooted in the legendary Detroit neighborho
An important addition to my understanding of a race and culture not my own. Stories rooted in the legendary Detroit neighborhood of Black Bottom which was home to more than a hundred thousand African Americans and their businesses during the 1930s and 40s. The neighborhood was destroyed in the 1960s in a sweep of "urban renewal" Highly recommended for all readers/listeners, especially those who have read books like "Caste", "The Warmth of Other Suns", etc. Read something outside your own bubble. This is a good place to start.
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- rderr
- 12-14-20
Interesting Read. Too Much In Common with Today
This is a great read. It took me a the first few chapters to get into the flow of the structure as it is quite different than anything else I have read. The individual chapters have some that are more interesting than others, but overall, they're all great.
It is sad when reading this how it feels like we have made so little progress in some areas. Many of the over arching themes still ring true today. I got a better understanding of why cultural appropriation is such a sensitive topic because the book touches on the theft of culture. The book touches on how integration can have a tendency to steam roll over black history. There were many items like this I knew about, but never focused on that this book forced me to really think about.
I did not realize how much Iiked this book until I circled back to reread a few of my favorite chapters and how hard they hit me on the 2nd reading.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Frances
- 08-23-20
Storytelling at its best
Engaging from first to last. I feel privileged to “know” the black bottom family and passing friends. A tiny glimpse; a slice; a diamond set in gold and platinum. More please. I have taken down the names to know more. Wow!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Paul R Szydlowski
- 08-26-20
For Detroit-lovers and students of black culture
A fascinating and wildly creative look at Black culture and the Detroit neighborhood where it thrived like nowhere else. An essential book for anyone who loves Detroit or wants to understand how people can thrive even when everything seems designed to thwart them.
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2 people found this helpful