Born Bright
A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America
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Narrated by:
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Robin Eller
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By:
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C. Nicole Mason
About this listen
Born Bright, C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, is a story of reconciliation, constrained choices, and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful but volatile 16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds. The first, a cocoon of familiarity where street smarts, toughness, and the ability to survive won the day. The other, foreign and unfamiliar with its own set of rules, not designed for her success. In her Advanced Placement classes and outside of her neighborhood, she felt unwelcomed and judged because of the way she talked, dressed, and wore her hair. After moving to Las Vegas to live with her paternal grandmother, she worked nights at a food court in one of the mega casinos while finishing school. Mason would eventually board a plane for Howard University, alone and with $200 in her pocket.
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Always Running
- La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
- By: Luis J. Rodriguez
- Narrated by: Luis J. Rodriguez
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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By age 12, Luis Rodriguez was a veteran of East L.A. gang warfare. Lured by a seemingly invincible gang culture, he witnessed countless shootings, beatings, and arrests, then watched with increasing fear as that culture claimed friends and family members. Before long, Rodriguez saw a way out of the barrio through education and successfully broke free from years of violence and desperation.
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Book for all educators
- By Heather M. Vitz on 03-15-15
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The Boy Kings of Texas
- A Memoir
- By: Domingo Martinez
- Narrated by: Emilio Delgado
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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A lyrical and authentic book that recounts the story of a border-town family in Brownsville, Texas in the 1980s, as each member of the family desperately tries to assimilate and escape life on the border to become "real" Americans, even at the expense of their shared family history. This is really un-mined territory in the memoir genre that gives in-depth insight into a previously unexplored corner of America.
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It was Okay
- By DebKoo on 05-17-13
By: Domingo Martinez
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Saving Alex
- When I Was Fifteen I Told My Mormon Parents I Was Gay, and That's When My Nightmare Began
- By: Alex Cooper
- Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Days after Alex Cooper told her parents she was gay, they drove Alex from their home in Southern California to Utah, where they signed over guardianship to fellow Mormons who promised to save Alex from her homosexuality. For eight harrowing months, Alex was held captive in an unlicensed "residential treatment program" modeled on the many "therapeutic" boot camps scattered across Utah.
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I'm a Christian straight, divorced man, with 2 kids that lives in the heart of the Bible Belt.... Alabama
- By Ronald on 03-30-16
By: Alex Cooper
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The Pursuit of Happyness (Abridged)
- By: Chris Gardner
- Narrated by: Andre Blake
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Abridged
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At the age of 20, Chris Gardner arrived in San Francisco to pursue a promising career in medicine. However, he surprised everyone and himself by setting his sights on the competitive world of high finance. Yet no sooner had he landed an entry-level position at a prestigious firm, Gardner found himself caught in a web of incredibly challenging circumstances that left him part of the city's working homeless with his toddler son.
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Very Good Story!
- By Lito Da Critic on 06-02-06
By: Chris Gardner
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The Turner House
- By: Angela Flournoy
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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The Turners have lived on Yarrow Street for over 50 years. Their house has seen 13 children grown and gone - and some returned; it has seen the arrival of grandchildren, the fall of Detroit's East Side, and the loss of a father. The house still stands despite abandoned lots, an embattled city, and the inevitable shift outward to the suburbs. But now, as ailing matriarch Viola finds herself forced to leave her home and move in with her eldest son, the family discovers that the house is worth just a 10th of its mortgage.
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The narrator's performance made the difference.
- By KT on 06-11-15
By: Angela Flournoy
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Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
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Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
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True Biz
- A Novel
- By: Sara Novic
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges listeners into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the hearing headmistress.
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A good story with added features both intriguing and informational
- By A Signing Mom on 05-15-22
By: Sara Novic
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Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter
- By: Melissa Francis
- Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world’s most famous prime-time soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother.
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Awesome book - really enjoyed it.
- By Jane C. Bailey on 11-16-12
By: Melissa Francis
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All Souls
- A Family Story from Southie
- By: Michael Patrick MacDonald
- Narrated by: Michael Patrick MacDonald
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The anti-busing riots of 1974 forever changed Southie, Boston's working-class Irish community, branding it as a violent, racist enclave. Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up in Southie's Old Colony housing project. He describes the way this world within a world felt to the troubled yet keenly gifted observer he was even as a child. But the threats - poverty, drugs, a shadowy gangster world - were real. All Souls is heartbreaking testimony to lives lost too early, and the story of how a place so filled with pain could still be "the best place in the world".
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this book broke me in the best way
- By anon on 02-14-23
What listeners say about Born Bright
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- chantelle
- 11-06-16
important read!
a powerful life story of importance for many with important conclusions for all
her personal story resonates with many, including me, as I have a similar background.
her focus is on policy as the main culprit responsible for the disparate conditions of the poor. I agree it was and still is a huge factor. growing up in the time frame Dr.Mason talks about, we had no real understanding and knowledge of what was going on and no real power to make changes. today however, there is understanding and knowledge available for all through the Internet, books, etc... yet the people who need it most are unable to get and use the information they desperately need to help them move forward.
she gives great necessary policy strategies in the end and I support them...
I do however wonder what to do about the terrible familial relationships that are also a huge contributor to disparate conditions and cause poor outcomes to the point that only one family member makes it out from several generations...
I think we have to burn the candle from both ends...the societal end and then more personally the immediate family end. intergenerational transmission of issues has that crabs in a barrel effect on families and it kills the spirit of youngsters.
my only criticism is that I had to get use to the narrator. I felt like she enunciated too perfectly. I envisioned her as a very prim and proper person telling the story of a poor person and for this story (until the last two chapters) I personally would have preferred a slightly less formal narrator.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Micheal c
- 02-02-23
Great read/listen
A reflection on the struggles of other and how can be taken for granted. Great book
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- Daryl
- 11-06-16
Solid Book
This book - like many I have read before - is the story of one person growing up in poverty and getting out. Unlike many other books, this author and main character is female.
I enjoyed the look at Nicole's life growing up, how her schooling both prepared her and didn't for college, how her family both supported her and didn't.
Nicole has a unique insight into the realities of poverty, without judgment or hero-worship. I only wish more had been made of her transition to college - more than just after moving into the dorms.
Robin Eller wouldn't have been my first choice as narrator. She is adequate - though sometimes stilted - with narrative passages, but is not at all gifted with dialogue. If characters speak "angrily" or "loudly", she reads it in the same tone she would read the description of the neighborhood. Overall, this wasn't a huge issue, but it is something to keep in consideration.
Overall, this book is well worth your time and credit.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Marisa Peasley
- 06-18-18
Wow, I am sad this book is over
I want to thank Nicole for sharing her story. I felt like I was there living her life. In so many parts in the book I wanted to help her and was cheering for her.
I want to help low-income/homeless people. This book gave me many good ideas as to where to start.
This book was very well written and I look forward to another book from this author!
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- Colleen
- 12-13-16
Powerful
I can't wait to share Born Bright with a group of students who are repeat sophomores, attending a majority minority school, living in poverty, and being raised by single parents. I often question, as their Assistant Principal, am I making a difference. Your story confirms I am! I want to give them inspiration to stay the course and find their way!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-08-18
Eye-opening
We could be doing more. This book inspired me. Thank you Dr. Mason. I will never look at poverty the same again.
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- Teresa
- 03-04-17
So much food for thought
I loved this book. it is hard to read because it is hard to admit that such discrepancies exist in our country.
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Overall
- BargainHunter
- 08-08-19
Born bright
It didn't read me the whole book on my trail i was disappointed by it.
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