-
Captive of the Labyrinth
- Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
![Prime logo](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/Homestead/Prime_Logo_RGB.png)
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The first full-length biography of Sarah Winchester, the subject of the movie Winchester starring Helen Mirren, now available for the first time in audio.
Since her death in 1922, Sarah Winchester has been perceived as a mysterious, haunted figure. After inheriting a vast fortune upon the death of her husband in 1881, Sarah purchased a simple farmhouse in San José, California. She began building additions to the house and continued construction on it for the next twenty years. A hostile press cast Sarah as the conscience of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company—a widow shouldering responsibility for the many deaths caused by the rifle that brought her riches. She was accused of being a ghost-obsessed spiritualist, and to this day it is largely believed that the extensive construction she executed on her San José house was done to appease the ghouls around her.
But was she really as guilt-ridden and superstitious as history remembers her? When Winchester’s home was purchased after her death, it was transformed into a tourist attraction. The bizarre, sprawling mansion and the enigmatic nature of Winchester’s life were exaggerated by the new owners to generate publicity for their business. But as the mansion has become more widely known, the person of Winchester has receded from reality, and she is only remembered for squandering her riches to ward off disturbed spirits.
Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune demystifies the life of this unique American. In the first full-length biography of Winchester, author and historian Mary Jo Ignoffo unearths the truth about this notorious eccentric, revealing that she was not a maddened spiritualist driven by remorse but an intelligent, articulate woman who sought to protect her private life amidst the chaos of her public existence. The author takes readers through Winchester’s several homes, explores her private life, and, by excerpting from personal correspondence, gives the heiress a voice for the first time since her death. Ignoffo’s research reveals that Winchester’s true financial priority was not dissipating her fortune on the mansion in San José but investing it for a philanthropic legacy.
For too long Sarah Winchester has existed as a ghost herself—a woman whose existence lies somewhere between the facts of her life and a set of sensationalized recollections of who she may have been. Captive of the Labyrinth finally puts to rest the myths about this remarkable woman, and, in the process, uncovers the legacy she intended to leave behind.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
The Last Castle
- The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home
- By: Denise Kiernan
- Narrated by: Denise Kiernan
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York's best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House. Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness.
-
-
Very factual
- By Jennifer on 11-28-17
By: Denise Kiernan
-
Empty Mansions
- The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
- By: Bill Dedman, Paul Clark Newell Jr.
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly 60 years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the 19th century with a 21st-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades.
-
-
Fascinating, But Know This...
- By Karen K on 04-08-15
By: Bill Dedman, and others
-
Jefferson's Daughters
- Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America
- By: Catherine Kerrison
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slavery — apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself.
-
-
Don't waste money on this book.
- By Amazon Customer on 02-17-18
-
Where I Was From
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her moving and insightful new book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history and ours. A native Californian, Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to the state’s ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic’s often tenuous relationship to reality. Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons.
-
-
California belongs to Joan Didion.
- By Darwin8u on 11-04-15
By: Joan Didion
-
Passing Strange
- A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line
- By: Martha A. Sandweiss
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, best-selling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, Clarence King was named by John Hay "the best and brightest of his generation". But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for 13 years he lived a double life - as the celebrated White explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a Black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd.
-
-
Race and Identity
- By Roy on 03-22-10
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
The Last Castle
- The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation’s Largest Home
- By: Denise Kiernan
- Narrated by: Denise Kiernan
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York's best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House. Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness.
-
-
Very factual
- By Jennifer on 11-28-17
By: Denise Kiernan
-
Empty Mansions
- The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune
- By: Bill Dedman, Paul Clark Newell Jr.
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bill Dedman noticed in 2009 a grand home for sale, unoccupied for nearly 60 years, he stumbled through a surprising portal into American history. Empty Mansions is a rich mystery of wealth and loss, connecting the Gilded Age opulence of the 19th century with a 21st-century battle over a $300 million inheritance. At its heart is a reclusive heiress named Huguette Clark, a woman so secretive that, at the time of her death at age 104, no new photograph of her had been seen in decades.
-
-
Fascinating, But Know This...
- By Karen K on 04-08-15
By: Bill Dedman, and others
-
Jefferson's Daughters
- Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America
- By: Catherine Kerrison
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slavery — apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself.
-
-
Don't waste money on this book.
- By Amazon Customer on 02-17-18
-
Where I Was From
- By: Joan Didion
- Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her moving and insightful new book, Joan Didion reassesses parts of her life, her work, her history and ours. A native Californian, Didion applies her scalpel-like intelligence to the state’s ethic of ruthless self-sufficiency in order to examine that ethic’s often tenuous relationship to reality. Combining history and reportage, memoir and literary criticism, Where I Was From explores California’s romances with land and water; its unacknowledged debts to railroads, aerospace, and big government; the disjunction between its code of individualism and its fetish for prisons.
-
-
California belongs to Joan Didion.
- By Darwin8u on 11-04-15
By: Joan Didion
-
Passing Strange
- A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line
- By: Martha A. Sandweiss
- Narrated by: Lorna Raver
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, best-selling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, Clarence King was named by John Hay "the best and brightest of his generation". But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for 13 years he lived a double life - as the celebrated White explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a Black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd.
-
-
Race and Identity
- By Roy on 03-22-10
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
Hershey
- Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams
- By: Michael D'Antonio
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this compelling biography, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives us the real-life rags-to-riches story of Milton S. Hershey, a largely uneducated businessman whose idealistic sense of purpose created an immense financial empire, a town, and a legacy that lasts to this day.
-
-
The Benchmark for Chartiable, Rich Men
- By Boyd Tschaggeny on 01-30-19
-
Emily Post
- Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners
- By: Laura Claridge
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the excesses of the late 19th-century Gilded Age, through the horrors of World War I, to the transformations of the Roaring 20s that gave birth to her magisterial Etiquette, Emily Post unfailingly took the measure of her era. A Baltimore blue blood with a populist heart, she helped the masses live the American dream with her hugely popular book, which has been continuously in print for over 85 years.
-
-
Typical for Emily Post
- By Stephanie on 01-07-19
By: Laura Claridge
-
Frontier Grit
- The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women
- By: Marianne Monson
- Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover the stories of 12 women who heard the call to settle the West and who came from all points of the globe to begin their journeys. As a slave Clara watched helplessly as her husband and children were sold, only to be reunited with her youngest daughter as a free woman six decades later. As a young girl, Charlotte hid her gender to escape a life of poverty and became the greatest stagecoach driver who ever lived. As a Native American, Gertrude fought to give her people a voice and to educate leaders about the ways and importance of America's native people.
-
-
only ok
- By Jane Orr on 06-14-21
By: Marianne Monson
-
Taking on the Trust
- The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller
- By: Steve Weinberg
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long before the rise of mega-corporations like Wal-Mart and Microsoft, Standard Oil controlled the oil industry with a monopolistic force unprecedented in American business history. Undaunted by the ruthless power of its owner, John D. Rockefeller, a fearless and ambitious reporter named Ida Minerva Tarbell confronted the company known simply as "The Trust".
-
-
Annoying Narrator
- By Nate on 04-03-15
By: Steve Weinberg
-
Bunny Mellon
- The Life of an American Style Legend
- By: Meryl Gordon
- Narrated by: Vanessa Cortland
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art, and fashion.
-
-
Well written bio.
- By Minda Leah Kahn on 09-01-18
By: Meryl Gordon
-
The Black Russian
- By: Vladimir Alexandrov
- Narrated by: Peter Marinker
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Black Russian is the incredible story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, born in 1872 to former slaves who became prosperous farmers in Mississippi. After leaving the South and working as a waiter and valet in Chicago and Brooklyn, Frederick sought greater freedom in London, then crisscrossed Europe, and - in a highly unusual choice for a black American at the time - went to Russia in 1899. Because he found no color line there, Frederick made Moscow his home. He renamed himself Fyodor Fyodorovich Tomas, married twice, acquired a mistress, and took Russian citizenship.
-
-
US Born African Descendant 2 Russian Citizenship
- By Sheila Gibson on 03-14-15
-
The Orpheus Clock
- The Search for My Family's Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis
- By: Simon Goodman
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Gutmanns, as they were known, rose from a small Bohemian hamlet to become one of Germany's most powerful banking families. They also amassed a magnificent, world-class art collection that included works by Degas, Renoir, Botticelli, Guardi, and many, many others. But the Nazi regime snatched from them everything they had worked to build: their remarkable art, their immense wealth, their prominent social standing, and their very lives.
-
-
A Masterpiece of 21st Century History
- By Daniel J. Nyíri on 09-18-19
By: Simon Goodman
-
The Invisibles
- The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House
- By: Jesse Holland
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jesse J. Holland's The Invisibles is the first book to tell the story of the executive mansion's most unexpected residents: the African American slaves who lived with the US presidents who owned them. Interest in African Americans and the White House are at an all-time high due to the historic presidency of Barack Obama and the soon-to-be-opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History.
-
-
Riveting Book
- By Jean on 02-13-16
By: Jesse Holland
-
Black Titan
- A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire
- By: Carol Jenkins
- Narrated by: Susan Spain
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A.G. Gaston, the poor grandson of slaves, was born in the Deep South in 1892. Over the course of his extraordinary life, he amassed a fortune of over $130 million and a vast business empire. The story of his remarkable life is written with eloquence and grace by his niece, an Emmy¿ Award-winning journalist and her daughter, who holds degrees from Yale and Harvard.
-
-
Black Gold = Standing Ovation
- By 2Fresh on 01-20-16
By: Carol Jenkins
-
The Sugar King of Havana
- The Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba's Last Tycoon
- By: John Paul Rathbone
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fifty years after the Cuban revolution, the legendary wealth of the sugar magnate Julio Lobo remains emblematic of a certain way of life that came to an abrupt end when Fidel Castro marched into Havana. Known in his day as the King of Sugar, Lobo was for decades the most powerful force in the world sugar market, controlling vast swaths of the island's sugar interests.
-
-
VERY INFORMATIVE
- By Terry on 03-26-12
-
Prairie Fires
- The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of fans of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls - the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true story of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder's biography.
-
-
Don’t read if you don’t want your fond memories...
- By NMwritergal on 11-24-17
By: Caroline Fraser
-
Master of the Mountain
- Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves
- By: Henry Wiencek
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book - based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers - opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money.
-
-
Clear, Insightful & Iconclastic History
- By R.S. on 04-18-13
By: Henry Wiencek
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Defiant Brides
- The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married
- By: Nancy Rubin Stuart
- Narrated by: Ann M. Richardson
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Peggy Shippen, the celebrated blonde belle of Philadelphia, married American military hero Benedict Arnold in 1779, she anticipated a life of fame and fortune, but financial debts and political intrigues prompted her to conspire with her treasonous husband against George Washington and the American Revolution. In spite of her commendable efforts to rehabilitate her husband’s name, Peggy Shippen continues to be remembered as a traitor bride.
-
-
Too much military info
- By Campergirl on 10-19-22
-
A Very Expensive Poison
- The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West
- By: Luke Harding
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 1, 2006, journalist and Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London. He died twenty-two days later. The cause of death? Polonium—a rare, lethal, and highly radioactive substance. Here Luke Harding unspools a real-life political assassination story—complete with KGB, CIA, MI6, and Russian mobsters.
-
-
Cover-To-Cover, This'll Have You Mindblown!
- By Gillian on 02-03-17
By: Luke Harding
-
House of Nutter
- By: Lance Richardson
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From an early age, there was something different about Tommy and David Nutter. Growing up in an austere apartment above a café catering to truck drivers, both boys seemed destined to lead rather humble lives in postwar London - Tommy as a civil servant, David as a darkroom technician. Yet the strength of their imagination (plus a little help from their friends) transformed them instead into unlikely protagonists of a swinging cultural revolution.
-
-
Two lives in one story!
- By kobear on 03-13-23
By: Lance Richardson
-
A Good Country
- My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America
- By: Sofia Ali-Khan
- Narrated by: Kelsey Jaffer
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sofia Ali-Khan’s parents emigrated from Pakistan to America, believing it would be a good country. With a nerdy interest in American folk history and a devotion to the rule of law, Ali-Khan would pursue a career in social justice, serving some of America’s most vulnerable communities. By the time she had children of her own—having lived, worked, and worshipped in twelve different towns across the nation—Ali-Khan felt deeply American, maybe even a little extra American for having seen so much of the country.
-
-
Excellent, poignant memoir with history
- By Anonymous User on 05-23-23
By: Sofia Ali-Khan
-
The Beneficiary
- Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father
- By: Janny Scott
- Narrated by: Janny Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A parable for the new age of inequality: part family history, part detective story, part history of a vanishing class, and a vividly compelling exploration of the degree to which an inheritance - financial, cultural, genetic - conspired in one person's self-destruction.
-
-
Buy A Hard Copy
- By NFox on 06-08-19
By: Janny Scott
-
Give a Girl a Knife
- A Memoir
- By: Amy Thielen
- Narrated by: Amy Thielen
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Amy Thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in some of New York City's finest kitchens - for chefs David Bouley, Daniel Boulud, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten - she grew up in a northern Minnesota town home to the nation's largest French fry factory, the headwaters of the fast food nation, with a mother whose generous cooking dripped with tenderness, drama, and an overabundance of butter.
-
-
Brings me back to my Midwest roots
- By Eric on 01-02-18
By: Amy Thielen
-
Defiant Brides
- The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married
- By: Nancy Rubin Stuart
- Narrated by: Ann M. Richardson
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Peggy Shippen, the celebrated blonde belle of Philadelphia, married American military hero Benedict Arnold in 1779, she anticipated a life of fame and fortune, but financial debts and political intrigues prompted her to conspire with her treasonous husband against George Washington and the American Revolution. In spite of her commendable efforts to rehabilitate her husband’s name, Peggy Shippen continues to be remembered as a traitor bride.
-
-
Too much military info
- By Campergirl on 10-19-22
-
A Very Expensive Poison
- The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West
- By: Luke Harding
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 1, 2006, journalist and Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London. He died twenty-two days later. The cause of death? Polonium—a rare, lethal, and highly radioactive substance. Here Luke Harding unspools a real-life political assassination story—complete with KGB, CIA, MI6, and Russian mobsters.
-
-
Cover-To-Cover, This'll Have You Mindblown!
- By Gillian on 02-03-17
By: Luke Harding
-
House of Nutter
- By: Lance Richardson
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From an early age, there was something different about Tommy and David Nutter. Growing up in an austere apartment above a café catering to truck drivers, both boys seemed destined to lead rather humble lives in postwar London - Tommy as a civil servant, David as a darkroom technician. Yet the strength of their imagination (plus a little help from their friends) transformed them instead into unlikely protagonists of a swinging cultural revolution.
-
-
Two lives in one story!
- By kobear on 03-13-23
By: Lance Richardson
-
A Good Country
- My Life in Twelve Towns and the Devastating Battle for a White America
- By: Sofia Ali-Khan
- Narrated by: Kelsey Jaffer
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sofia Ali-Khan’s parents emigrated from Pakistan to America, believing it would be a good country. With a nerdy interest in American folk history and a devotion to the rule of law, Ali-Khan would pursue a career in social justice, serving some of America’s most vulnerable communities. By the time she had children of her own—having lived, worked, and worshipped in twelve different towns across the nation—Ali-Khan felt deeply American, maybe even a little extra American for having seen so much of the country.
-
-
Excellent, poignant memoir with history
- By Anonymous User on 05-23-23
By: Sofia Ali-Khan
-
The Beneficiary
- Fortune, Misfortune, and the Story of My Father
- By: Janny Scott
- Narrated by: Janny Scott
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A parable for the new age of inequality: part family history, part detective story, part history of a vanishing class, and a vividly compelling exploration of the degree to which an inheritance - financial, cultural, genetic - conspired in one person's self-destruction.
-
-
Buy A Hard Copy
- By NFox on 06-08-19
By: Janny Scott
-
Give a Girl a Knife
- A Memoir
- By: Amy Thielen
- Narrated by: Amy Thielen
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Amy Thielen frantically plated rings of truffled potatoes in some of New York City's finest kitchens - for chefs David Bouley, Daniel Boulud, and Jean-Georges Vongerichten - she grew up in a northern Minnesota town home to the nation's largest French fry factory, the headwaters of the fast food nation, with a mother whose generous cooking dripped with tenderness, drama, and an overabundance of butter.
-
-
Brings me back to my Midwest roots
- By Eric on 01-02-18
By: Amy Thielen
-
The Golden Thirteen
- How Black Men Won the Right to Wear Navy Gold
- By: Dan Goldberg
- Narrated by: Sam Manual
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through oral histories and original interviews with surviving family members, Dan Goldberg brings 13 forgotten heroes away from the margins of history and into the spotlight. He reveals the opposition these men faced: the racist pseudoscience, the regular condescension, the repeated epithets, the verbal abuse, and even violence. Despite these immense challenges, the Golden Thirteen persisted—understanding the power of integration, the opportunities for black Americans if they succeeded, and the consequences if they failed.
-
-
The Golden 13 is a must read for American history
- By BE on 03-24-21
By: Dan Goldberg
-
Victim F
- From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors
- By: Denise Huskins, Aaron Quinn, Nicole Weisensee Egan
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, James Fouhey, Samantha Desz
- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In March 2015, Denise Huskins and her boyfriend Aaron Quinn awoke from a sound sleep into a nightmare. Armed men bound and drugged them, then abducted Denise. Warned not to call the police or Denise would be killed, Aaron agonized about what to do. Finally he put his trust in law enforcement and dialed 911. But instead of searching for Denise, the police accused Aaron of her murder. His story, they told him, was just unbelievable. When Denise was released alive, the police turned their fire on her, dubbing her the “real-life ‘Gone Girl’” who had faked her own kidnapping.
-
-
I am so saddened for you both!!
- By Anonymous. on 06-09-21
By: Denise Huskins, and others
-
What You Have Heard Is True
- A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
- By: Carolyn Forché
- Narrated by: Carolyn Forché
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What You Have Heard is True is a devastating, lyrical, and visionary memoir about a young woman’s brave choice to engage with horror in order to help others. Written by one of the most gifted poets of her generation, this is the story of a woman’s radical act of empathy, and her fateful encounter with an intriguing man who changes the course of her life.
-
-
Beautiful story
- By Norhilda on 05-09-19
By: Carolyn Forché
-
If It Sounds Like a Quack...
- A Journey to the Fringes of American Medicine
- By: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's no secret that American health care has become too costly and politicized to help everyone. So where do you turn if you can't afford doctors, or don't trust them? In this book, Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling examines the growing universe of non-traditional treatments—including some that are really non-traditional. With costs skyrocketing and anti-science sentiment spreading, the so-called "medical freedom" movement has grown. Now it faces its greatest challenge: going mainstream.
-
-
WOW! A Must Read!
- By Christine on 09-14-23
-
Gideon's Promise
- A Public Defender Movement to Transform Criminal Justice
- By: Jonathan Rapping
- Narrated by: Frank Gerard
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Combining wisdom drawn from over a dozen years as a public defender and cutting-edge research in the fields of organizational and cultural psychology, Jonathan Rapping proposes a radical cultural shift to a “fiercely client-based ethos” driven by values-based recruitment training, awakening defenders to their role in upholding an unjust status quo, and a renewed pride in the essential role of moral lawyering in a democratic society.
-
-
A professional ethic for public defenders
- By Amazon Customer on 03-23-24
By: Jonathan Rapping
-
The West
- A New History in Fourteen Lives
- By: Naoíse Mac Sweeney
- Narrated by: Shaheen Khan
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prize-winning historian Naoíse Mac Sweeney delivers a captivating exploration of how “Western Civilization”—the concept of a single cultural inheritance extending from ancient Greece to modern times—is a powerful figment of our collective imagination. An urgently needed emergent voice in big history, she offers a bold new account of Western history, real and imagined, through the lives of fourteen remarkable individuals.
-
-
Extraordinary!!
- By Carlos Forray on 10-03-23
-
Happily
- A Personal History—with Fairy Tales
- By: Sabrina Orah Mark
- Narrated by: Gilli Messer
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The literary tradition of the fairy tale has long endured as the vehicle by which we interrogate the laws of reality. These fantastical stories, populated with wolves, kings, and wicked witches, have throughout history served as a template for understanding culture, society, and that muddy terrain we call our collective human psyche. In Happily, Sabrina Orah Mark reimagines the modern fairy tale, turning it inside out and searching it for the wisdom to better understand our contemporary moment in what Mark so incisively calls “this strange American weather.”
-
-
Weaves a magical spell
- By Tara Bardeen on 03-22-23
-
Last Witnesses
- An Oral History of the Children of World War II
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky
- Narrated by: Julia Emelin, Allen Lewis Rickman
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive style, Last Witnesses is Alexievich’s collection of the memories of those who were children during World War II. They had sometimes been soldiers as well as witnesses, and their generation grew up with the trauma of the war deeply embedded - a trauma that would change the course of the Russian nation. Collectively, this symphony of children’s stories, filled with the everyday details of life in combat, reveals an altogether unprecedented view of the war.
-
-
And how many years to forget?
- By Darwin8u on 09-16-21
By: Svetlana Alexievich, and others
-
The Dawn Watch
- Joseph Conrad in a Global World
- By: Maya Jasanoff
- Narrated by: Laurel Lekfow
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Migration, terrorism, the tensions between global capitalism and nationalism, and a communications revolution: These forces shaped Joseph Conrad's destiny at the dawn of the 20th century. In this brilliant new interpretation of one of the great voices in modern literature, Maya Jasanoff reveals Conrad as a prophet of globalization. As an immigrant from Poland to England, and in travels from Malaya to Congo to the Caribbean, Conrad navigated an interconnected world and captured it in a literary oeuvre of extraordinary depth.
-
-
History is like therapy for the present
- By Darwin8u on 01-13-18
By: Maya Jasanoff
-
The Good Hand
- A Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown
- By: Michael Patrick F. Smith
- Narrated by: Michael Patrick F. Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like thousands of restless men left unmoored in the wake of the 2008 economic crash, Michael Patrick Smith arrived in the fracking boomtown of Williston, North Dakota, five years later homeless, unemployed, and desperate for a job. Renting a mattress on a dirty flophouse floor, he slept boot to beard with migrant men who came from all across America and as far away as Jamaica, Africa, and the Philippines. They ate and drank together, argued like crows, and searched for jobs they couldn't get back home. Smith's aim was to find the hardest work he could - to find out if he could do it.
-
-
Best Memoir in a Decade!
- By Jennifer T Platt on 02-22-21
-
The Widower's Notebook
- A Memoir
- By: Jonathan Santlofer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Santlofer
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a summer day in New York, Jonathan Santlofer discovers his wife, Joy, gasping for breath on their living room couch. After a frenzied 911 call, an ambulance races across Manhattan, and after hours pacing in a hospital waiting room, a doctor finally delivers the fateful news. Consumed by grief, Jonathan desperately tries to pursue life as he always had - writing, social engagements, and working on his art - but finds it nearly impossible to admit his deep feelings of loss to anyone, not even his to beloved daughter, Doria, or to himself. Includes a Bonus PDF of author drawings.
-
-
Honest and Hopeful
- By Neil Wright on 08-07-18
-
Unorthodox
- The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots
- By: Deborah Feldman
- Narrated by: Rachel Botchan, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. Yet in spite of her repressive upbringing, Deborah grew into an independent-minded young woman whose stolen moments reading about the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott helped her to imagine an alternative way of life among the skyscrapers of Manhattan.
-
-
Narrator Problem
- By Phyllis on 04-24-20
By: Deborah Feldman
What listeners say about Captive of the Labyrinth
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lysette Stauffer
- 12-29-20
best biography I've ever read
I thought I knew everything about the Winchester Mystery House and Sarah. this book taught me the true much more interesting story of this mythical woman. well researched, fascinating and should be studied in history classes and journalism classes alike.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Brown
- 01-12-20
Want to know the truth?
Ghost stories are fun, but I prefer to know the truth, I also like to know when someone is pulling a fast one on me. The Winchester Mystery house is just as beautiful, spooky and mysterious without all the lies about Sarah Winchester. If you’d like to the truth behind the house, the woman, and the time they lived in, I highly recommend this book. I’m so glad I “read” it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matthew
- 04-14-21
Finally
It was wonderful to finally hear the true story of Sarah’s life. A woman who gave so generously should not be cast into such a sad light!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rick
- 08-02-20
Dispels myths about the subject
Ignoffo writes an informative overview of the life of a woman who sought to avoid attention. The problem with a bio of such a person is she did not leave much evidence about her life and it shows, but not in a bad way. The book starts with a lot of family history that is hard to follow in audio format. Turning what is essentially genealogical data into a narrative is not easy but as a genealogist I found it interesting, though I can see why many would find it slow and dull.
The book is best once she moves west and starts building the house that made her famous. You can tell Ignoffo is engaging in a lot of speculation based on limited evidence, but she always makes sense and avoids the sensational to focus on likely real motives for Sarah Winchester's building spree.
To flesh out the story she goes on a number of sensible tangents about relatives and the growth of the San Francisco area as well as historical events. She concludes not with Sarah's death, but how the "Mystery House" developed into the tourist attraction it is today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vicki Hare
- 12-28-17
Compelling historic listening
Having just visited the Winchester Mystery House I was curious to know more, especially as a Hollywood movie based on Sarah Winchester, played by Helen Mirrin, has been made. I wanted the facts not the hype.
This book is based on letters, notes, receipts, documents and direct telling from descendants of staff who knew the real story.
The book reveals that Sarah Winchester was not a spiritualist plagues by guilt and afraid of ghosts, but a skilled self educated architect and designer who built many houses including the now tourist attraction in San Jose.
Because she did not socialize, the town folk made up stories about her which warped into the mysterious tales we hear about her today. All are untrue, especially the movie!
The audio book reads somewhat like a textbook in style, it is not a story, but I found it compelling and extremely interesting.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Noelia
- 10-01-21
loved
loved it, it was very informative. I've been to the house before and loved the deep dive into Mrs. Winchester's life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- T. Redwood
- 04-27-18
The Woman Behind the Mystery House
This book was meticulously researched and is a great read. The first four chapters were a snooze-fest for myself with just a tad too much detail and history leading up to the reason we all chose this book: the life of Sarah Winchester and her amazing mansion. I will definitely listen to this book again, however I will remember to just start at chapter five. I live less than 30 minutes from the Mystery House and have visited it. This book reveals the legend and separates the myths from the facts that has built this story over time. Truly entertaining and enlightening. However, don't expect a spook story, but rather the media frenzy that INVENTED the spook story. It was so great to learn that Sarah was indeed a recluse which led to the mystery, but who knew what an a amazing philanthropist she was. The author gets credit for leading the story up to the present day with the present owners and manager of the Mystery House. See the Hollywood spook story movies, but also check out this book to see where the myth springs from reality.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carmen Gibson
- 03-07-24
Facts to Silence the Myths
Thank you to the author for your hard work and dedication to telling a factual story about Mrs Sarah Winchester. It is shameful that in life and now a century after her death people use her name and a false story to make money. I enjoyed the study but only of Mrs Winchester but a bit of history about the Winchester family and business, plus history of California. I highly recommend this book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Kelly Crawford
- 08-04-20
Love hearing the truth
I have been to the Winchester house many times. I have to say that the truth about Sarah Winchester makes me admire her and I will visit the house again but with a greater admiration for this woman
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- zippy1967
- 12-01-18
Not what I expected
I enjoyed but was not expecting it to read more like a documentary. Very educational.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!