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Dangerous Laughter
- Narrated by: George Guidall, Adam Grupper, Andy Paris, Jim Frangione, Sharon Washington
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
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Publisher's summary
In this acclaimed collection of short stories, Pulitzer Prizewinning author Stephen Millhauser shares the dark suspense and humor that have gained him a cult following. Millhauser’s imagination and creativity are on full display with stories featuring artists gone mad, egomaniacal architects, and a historical society that’s given up its chronicling of history. Characterized by “phenomenal clarity and rapacious movement” each story “focuses on the misery wrought by misdirected human desire and ambition.” (Publishers Weekly)
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Performance
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Story
In Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan's highly acclaimed first novel, set in 1978, the political drama and familial tensions of the 1960s form a backdrop for the world of Phoebe O'Connor, age eighteen. Phoebe is obsessed with the memory and death of her sister Faith, a beautiful idealistic hippie who died in Italy in 1970. In order to find out the truth about Faith's life and death, Phoebe retraces her steps from San Francisco across Europe, a quest which yields both complex and disturbing revelations about family, love, and Faith's lost generation.
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Too bad zero was not a choice...
- By IVAL on 04-28-13
By: Jennifer Egan
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Outside Looking In
- A Novel
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1943, LSD is synthesized in Basel. Two decades later, a coterie of grad students at Harvard are gradually drawn into the inner circle of renowned psychologist and psychedelic drug enthusiast Timothy Leary. Fitzhugh Loney, a psychology PhD student, and his wife, Joanie, become entranced by the drug’s possibilities such that their “research” becomes less a matter of clinical trials and academic papers and instead turns into a freewheeling exploration of mind expansion, group dynamics, and communal living.
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STORYTELLING AS CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
- By Christopher Meeks on 05-25-19
By: T. C. Boyle
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A Doubter's Almanac
- A Novel
- By: Ethan Canin
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Milo Andret is born with an unusual mind. A lonely child growing up in the woods of Northern Michigan in the 1950s, he gives little thought to his own talent. But with his acceptance at UC Berkeley, he realizes the extent - and the risks - of his singular gifts. California in the '70s is a seduction, opening Milo's eyes to the allure of both ambition and indulgence. The research he begins there will make him a legend; the woman he meets there - and the rival he meets alongside her - will haunt him for the rest of his life.
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The curse of genius?
- By Bonny on 03-03-16
By: Ethan Canin
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Wonder Boys
- By: Michael Chabon
- Narrated by: David Colacci
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A wildly successful first novel made Grady Tripp a young star, and seven years later he still hasn't grown up. He's now a writing professor in Pittsburgh, plummeting through middle age, stuck with an unfinishable manuscript, an estranged wife, a pregnant girlfriend, and a talented but deeply disturbed student named James Leer.
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A strong, early Chabon (sounds like grading wine)
- By Darwin8u on 03-09-14
By: Michael Chabon
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The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre
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Overall
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Performance
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In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. In 1839, Louis Daguerre's invention took the world by storm. A decade later, he is sinking deep into delusions brought on by exposure to mercury, the very agent that allowed his daguerreotype process. Believing the world will end within one year, he creates his "Doomsday List", 10 items he must photograph before the final day. It includes a woman he has always loved but has not seen in half a century.
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Dud
- By Deborah on 01-31-08
By: Dominic Smith
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April of Enchantment
- By: Jennifer Blake
- Narrated by: Holly Fielding
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Laura Nichols was always up for a challenge and the job Justin Roman has offered her is the perfect showcase for her talents. Not only was he dubious of her ability to complete the restoration of his Louisiana mansion in time for his wedding, but she was also frustrated by his arrogance tempered only by his good looks. But if he is so doubtful of her then why does he give her full artistic license even when it obviously angers his fiancé? Laura dives into the job, determined to prove the maddening man wrong.
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Narrator, No!
- By Priss on 04-26-21
By: Jennifer Blake
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The Lost Girls
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family's vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys the family - her father commits suicide, and her mother and two older sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person who might care: her grandniece, Justine.
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Engaging story spanning three generations.
- By LilMissMolly on 09-23-16
By: Heather Young
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77 Shadow Street
- By: Dean Koontz
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Enter the world of the Pendleton: The original owner became a recluse - and was rumored to be more than half mad - after his wife and two children were kidnapped in 1896 and never found. The second owner suffered a worse tragedy in 1935, when his house manager murdered him, his family, and the entire live-in staff.... Craftsmen and laborers working on renovations disappear or go mad.... For years, the Pendleton is a happy place, until a bad turn comes again.... Voices in unknown languages are heard in deserted rooms....
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hit or miss
- By donna on 12-31-11
By: Dean Koontz
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Tea with the Black Dragon
- Black Dragon, Book 1
- By: R. A. MacAvoy
- Narrated by: Megan Hayes
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Martha Macnamara knows that her daughter, Elizabeth, is in trouble; she just doesn't know what kind. Mysterious phone calls from San Francisco at odd hours of the night are the only contact she has had with Elizabeth for years. Now, Elizabeth has sent her a plane ticket and reserved a room for her at San Francisco's most luxurious hotel. Yet she has not tried to contact Martha since she arrived, leaving her lonely, confused, and a little bit worried. Into the story steps Mayland Long, a distinguished-looking and wealthy Chinese man who lives at the hotel and is drawn to Martha's good nature and ability to pinpoint the truth of a matter.
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My favorite dragon book
- By Ellenaeddy on 08-08-15
By: R. A. MacAvoy
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The Iron Dragon's Daughter
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Named a New York Times notable book of 1994, The Iron Dragon's Daughter tells the heartrending story of a changeling child who is kidnapped to a realm of malls and machines and enslaved in a vast, infernal factory. Ultimately, she escapes and attempts to educate herself about this alien world, while being tormented by visions of the life she was denied.
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Inconsistent story and makes for a poor experience
- By Martin Smith on 07-10-15
By: Michael Swanwick
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What listeners say about Dangerous Laughter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dundas I. Flaherty
- 08-06-12
This one didn't work for me.
Millhauser does lovely work with words and sentences, but the stories are odd. Like the art of Hieronymus Bosch, the stories are intricate, novel, loving constructs, consistent within themselves, but mostly didn't (like Bosch) create a world I could get into.
The first story is typical. M. tells the story of a cat/mouse cartoon. The natural medium for that story was a cartoon on film or TV. IMO, he didn't add anything by doing it all in words beyond showing that one could.
Another was about a man who made miniatures. Beautifully done, but I found the story itself hard to stay with, and if there was a deeper meaning I didn't find it worth the effort to understand.
MIne may be a personal, idiosyncratic disappointment, but I prefer more true-to-life stories like Englander's "What We Talk About When We Talk About Ann Frank," my idea of masterwork. Or, staying with story collections, Jennifer Egan's "Goon Squad."
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