
Briefly Perfectly Human
Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End
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Narrated by:
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Alua Arthur
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By:
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Alua Arthur
About this listen
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | Named a New York Times' Staff Favorite Book of 2024 and a Boston Globe Best Book of 2024
A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America’s most visible death doula.
""A truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world.... There is no one I'd trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life."" — Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways
""Briefly Perfectly Human is a beautiful, raw, light-bringing experience. Alua's voice is shimmering, singular, and pulses with humor, vulnerability, insight, and refreshing candor.... Be prepared for it to grab you, hold you tight, and raise the roof on the power of human connection."" — Tembi Locke, author of From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home
For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country’s leading death doula, she’s spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death—whether imminent or not—will breathe wild, new potential into your life.
Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air—or maybe not shown up at all—and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments—when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients’ anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.
This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death’s periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d’état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life’s calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life’s painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.
Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care—what she calls “death embrace.” Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. “Hold that truth in your mind,” Alua says, “and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.”
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- By: Phil Jaekl
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In Out Cold, science writer Phil Jaekl chronicles the underappreciated story of human innovation with cold, from Ancient Egypt, where it was used to treat skin irritations, to 18th-century London, where scientists used it in their first explorations of suspended animation. Throughout history, physicians have used cold to innovate life extension, enable distant space missions, and explore consciousness.
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layers of "wows"
- By michele and david on 01-03-25
By: Phil Jaekl
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Life Hacks from the Buddha
- How to Be Calm and Content in a Chaotic World
- By: Dr. Tony Fernando
- Narrated by: Dr Tony Fernando
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The Buddha worked out how best to deal with the challenges we face today over 2000 years ago. His teachings show us that human stress, anxiety and suffering are nothing new. Life Hacks from the Buddha will help you to quieten your mind, create more peaceful environments to live in, and find the calm and contentment you need to help you function at your very best, which will leave a lasting impression on everyone around you.
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Author shared his own life experiences which made it somewhat more relatable
- By Anonymous User on 12-22-24
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The Death Doula's Guide to Living Fully and Dying Prepared
- An Essential Workbook to Help You Reflect Back, Plan Ahead, and Find Peace on Your Journey
- By: Francesca Lynn Arnoldy
- Narrated by: Randye Kaye
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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If you are preparing for the end of life—or simply looking to bring more meaning to the here and now—The Death Doula's Guide to Living Fully and Dying Prepared imparts valuable insight to nurture clarity and your internal strength on your journey. This workbook is a first-of-its-kind publication that invites you to process your life and legacy, create remembrance projects, build connections to vital supports, and draft informative wishes and plans for your last chapter.
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Boys Enter the House
- The Victims of John Wayne Gacy and the Lives They Left Behind
- By: David Nelson
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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As investigators brought out the bagged remains of several dozen young men from a small Chicago ranch home and paraded them in front of a crowd of TV reporters and spectators, attention quickly turned to the owner of the house. John Gacy was an upstanding citizen, active in local politics and charities, famous for his themed parties and appearances as Pogo the Clown. But in the winter of 1978-79, he became known as one of many so-called “sex murderers” who had begun gaining notoriety in the random brutality of the 1970s.
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What we really needed to know about the Gacy murders.
- By Aaron on 03-02-24
By: David Nelson
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Inner Mastery, Outer Impact
- How Your Five Core Energies Hold the Key to Success
- By: Hitendra Wadhwa PhD
- Narrated by: Hitendra Wadhwa PhD
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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It seems that our drives for Outer and Inner Success are destined to clash. But perhaps that’s only because we’ve been searching for success in the wrong places. Through extensive scientific research and masterful storytelling about exemplary figures and everyday heroes drawn from Dr. Hitendra Wadhwa’s class at Columbia Business School and client workshops at Mentora Institute—listeners arrive at timeless principles of success in life and leadership. Empowered by your Five Core Energies, you discover how to create outer impact from a place of inner mastery.
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A soulful passage
- By Steven Morris on 06-26-24
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The Unclaimed
- Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels
- By: Pamela Prickett, Stefan Timmermans
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters’ fields—a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid. Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies. Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year. Who are they? Why are they being forgotten? And what is the meaning of life if your death doesn’t matter to others?
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Humans are complex, in life and death
- By BECreative on 01-23-25
By: Pamela Prickett, and others
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Ghostland
- An American History in Haunted Places
- By: Colin Dickey
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes", Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places.
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A fluffed-up college essay writ large.
- By Gavin on 10-13-16
By: Colin Dickey
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Knocking on Heaven's Door
- The Path to a Better Way of Death
- By: Katy Butler
- Narrated by: Katy Butler
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Like so many of us, award-winning writer Katy Butler always assumed her aging parents would experience healthy, active retirements before dying peacefully at home. Then her father suffered a stroke that left him incapable of easily finishing a sentence or showering without assistance. Her mother was thrust into full-time caregiving, and Katy became one of the 24 million Americans who help care for aging parents. In an effort to correct a minor and non - life threatening heart arrhythmia, doctors outfitted her father with a pacemaker.
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A better way to narrate a book about death?
- By MAUREEN on 10-21-13
By: Katy Butler
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Fascinate, Revised and Updated
- How to Make Your Brand Impossible to Resist
- By: Sally Hogshead
- Narrated by: Sally Hogshead
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A newly revised and updated edition of the influential guide that explores one of the most powerful ways to attract attention and influence behavior - fascination - and how businesses, products, and ideas can become irresistible to consumers. In an oversaturated culture defined by limited time and focus, how do we draw attention to our messages, our ideas, and our products when we have only seconds to compete?
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Motivational, but lacks substance!
- By Melanie Iannaggi on 09-15-17
By: Sally Hogshead
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The Book of Beautiful Questions
- The Powerful Questions That Will Help You Decide, Create, Connect, and Lead
- By: Warren Berger
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Book of Beautiful Questions, Berger shares illuminating stories and compelling research on the power of inquiry. Drawn from the insights and expertise of psychologists, innovators, effective leaders and some of the world's foremost creative thinkers, he presents the essential questions readers need to make the best choices when it truly counts, with a particular focus in four key areas: decision-making, creativity, leadership and relationships.
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Where's the Beef
- By Tintin on 03-03-19
By: Warren Berger
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The Formula
- Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children
- By: Ronald F. Ferguson, Tatsha Robertson
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children, Harvard economist Ronald Ferguson, named in a New York Times profile as the foremost expert on the US educational "achievement gap," along with award-winning journalist Tatsha Robertson, reveal an intriguing blueprint for helping children from all types of backgrounds become successful adults.
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would recommend
- By Marcia on 02-25-20
By: Ronald F. Ferguson, and others
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In the Mouth of the Wolf
- A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press
- By: Katherine Corcoran
- Narrated by: Gigi Saul Guerrero
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Regina Martínez was no stranger to retaliation. A journalist out of Mexico’s Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Regina's stories for the magazine Proceso laid out the corruption and abuse underlying Mexican politics. She was barred from press conferences, and copies of Proceso often disappeared before they made the newsstands. In 2012, shortly after Proceso published an article on corruption and two Veracruz politicians, and the magazine went missing once again, she was bludgeoned to death in her bathroom. The message was clear: No journalist in Mexico was safe.
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fascinating story ruined by bad narration
- By soup cook on 12-27-22
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Standing My Ground
- A Capitol Police Officer's Fight for Accountability and Good Trouble After January 6th
- By: Harry Dunn
- Narrated by: Harry Dunn
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Standing My Ground will provide a crucial, definitive first-hand account of what happened that day our world was shocked to its core. But it will also share the story of a man who refused to stay quiet when he learned that some of the men and women he had risked his life protecting, who knew him by name, would deny the horrors they faced.
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Listen and listen, again
- By B on 10-24-23
By: Harry Dunn
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Us, After
- A Memoir of Love and Suicide
- By: Rachel Zimmerman
- Narrated by: Rachel Zimmerman
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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When a state trooper appeared at Rachel Zimmerman’s door to report that her husband had jumped to his death off a nearby bridge, she fell to her knees, unable to fully absorb the news. How could the man she’d married, a devoted father and robotics professor at MIT, have committed such a violent act? How would she explain this to her young daughters? And could she have stopped him? A longtime journalist, she probed obsessively, believing answers would help her survive. She interviewed doctors, suicide researchers, and a man who jumped off the same bridge and lived.
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There’s no “good suicide”
- By Amazon Customer on 07-05-24
By: Rachel Zimmerman
Alua’s words found their way into my heart, and grounded me in my body.
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This longtime follower is grateful!
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This book feels like a hug!
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Highly recommend
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Raw, authentic, human
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get this one for sure and read
then
Perfect is right
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Alua Arthur is a gifted writer.
A magnificent journey
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Authenticity
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Something we all should be thinking about to live our life and prepare for the inevitable
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the compassion and empathy in her voice as she read her book
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