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Dirty Feet
- How the Great Unwashed Created the Tour De France
- Narrated by: David L. Stanley
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
Dirty Feet is a fresh look at the now more than 100-year-old Tour de France. Les Woodland goes back to the blue-collar origins of the race when the father of the Tour, Henri Desgrange, was so bothered by the hygiene of his tough, beloved racers that at the end of each stage he would publish the names of the riders who did not wash after a day of racing on France’s mostly dirt and often muddy roads.
The sports paper Desgrange edited was going to go out of business unless some way could be found to increase circulation. That way was a giant sales promotion called the Tour de France, first run in 1903. Dirty Feet tells anew the story of the Tour’s origins - at a time when the average life expectancy of a Frenchman was just 30 - and how it came to be modern spectacle it is today. The Tour is now a technological marvel where the riders shift gears electronically and the race is watched in real time around the world. Yet, despite all this change, the race is much the way Desgrange left it, a bicycle race around France where each day’s elapsed time is added up with the rider with the lowest time winning.
As Les tells the story, starting with the invention of the bicycle, he gives many of the myths that have cluttered cycling history merciful deaths. As a lifetime scholar of cycling history, he is able to sprinkle his tale with an endless stream of fascinating stories and little-known facts, bringing to life the men of the past century who have devoted themselves to the sport.
Come along for the ride as Henri Desgrange creates the greatest sporting event in the world, The Tour de France.
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Story
From its inception, the 1903 Tour de France was a colorful affair. Full of adventure, mishaps, and audacious attempts at cheating, it was a race to be remembered. Cyclists of the time weren't enthusiastic about participating in this "heroic" race on roads more suited to hooves than wheels, with bikes weighing up to 35 pounds, on a single fixed gear, for three full weeks. Assembling enough riders for the race meant paying unemployed amateurs from the suburbs of Paris, including a butcher, a chimney sweep, and a circus acrobat.
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Great rendition of the tour then and now.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-19
By: Peter Cossins
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Disney's Land
- Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World
- By: Richard Snow
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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This is a spectacular story of error and innovation, a wild ride from a vision to the realization of an iconic cultural landscape. It reflects the park’s uniqueness, but just as strongly that of the man who built it with a watchmaker’s precision, an artist’s conviction, and the desperate, high-hearted recklessness of a riverboat gambler.
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Okay, but better books on the subject
- By J.D. on 12-07-19
By: Richard Snow
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Stealing Home
- Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between
- By: Eric Nusbaum
- Narrated by: David Owen Nelson
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy.
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Once Upon a Time at Dodger Stadium
- By James Gamble on 03-06-21
By: Eric Nusbaum
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Light and Shadow
- Memoirs of a Spy's Son
- By: Mark Colvin
- Narrated by: Mark Colvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Mark Colvin is a broadcasting legend. He is the voice of ABC Radio’s leading current affairs program PM; he was a founding broadcaster for the groundbreaking youth station Double J; he initiated The World Today program; and he’s one of the most popular and influential journalists in the twittersphere. Mark has been covering local and global events for more than four decades. He has reported on wars, royal weddings and everything in between. In the midst of all this he discovered that his father was an MI6 spy.
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Probably of most interest to Australian readers
- By Robyn on 04-12-17
By: Mark Colvin
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Two Hours
- The Quest to Run the Impossible Marathon
- By: Ed Caesar
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Two hours to cover 26 miles and 385 yards. Its running's Everest, a feat once seen as impossible for the human body. Now we can glimpse the mountaintop. The sub-two-hour marathon requires an exceptional feat of speed, mental strength, and endurance. The pioneer will have to endure more, live braver, plan better, and be luckier than any who has run before. Ed Caesar takes us into the world of elite runners: the greatest marathoners on Earth.
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I liked it!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-16
By: Ed Caesar
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Faster
- How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best
- By: Neal Bascomb
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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As Nazi Germany launched its campaign of racial terror and pushed the world toward war, three misfits banded together to challenge Hitler’s dominance at the apex of motorsport: the Grand Prix. Their quest for redemption culminated in a remarkable race that is still talked about in racing circles to this day - but which, soon after it ended, Hitler attempted to completely erase from history.
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Almost perfect, but lousy sound cuts and splicing
- By F. on 06-08-20
By: Neal Bascomb
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Fall
- The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, Britain's Most Notorious Media Baron
- By: John Preston
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In February 1991, Robert Maxwell triumphantly sailed into Manhattan harbor on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, to buy the ailing New York Daily News. Taxi drivers stopped their cabs to shake his hand, children asked for his autograph, and patrons of the hottest restaurant in Manhattan gave him a standing ovation while he dined. Ten months later, Maxwell disappeared off that same yacht in the middle of the night and was later found dead in the water. As John Preston reveals in this revealing biography, Maxwell’s death was as mysterious as his remarkable life.
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Don't make men like this anymore
- By Sylvia on 04-06-21
By: John Preston
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Olympic Pride, American Prejudice
- The Untold Story of 18 African Americans Who Defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to Compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics
- By: Deborah Riley Draper, Blair Underwood, Travis Thrasher
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From burning crosses set on the Robinsons’s lawn to a Pennsylvania small town on fire with praise and parades when the athletes return from Berlin, Olympic Pride, American Prejudice is full of emotion, grit, political upheaval, and the American dream. Capturing a powerful and untold chapter of history, the narrative is also a celebration of the courage, commitment, and accomplishments of these talented athletes and their impact on race, sports and inclusion around the world.
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History I never knew...
- By Malcolm Drewery on 10-01-21
By: Deborah Riley Draper, and others
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One Summer
- America, 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.
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Why 1927?
- By Mark on 10-18-13
By: Bill Bryson
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Beautiful Jim Key
- The Lost History of the World’s Smartest Horse
- By: Mim Eichler Rivas
- Narrated by: Mim E. Rivas
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The horse Jim was known as Beautiful Jim Key from the moment he stepped into the American spotlight in 1897 at age eight until his death in 1912. This horse was beloved for his remarkable intelligence, cultivated by human kindness and patience. No less extraordinary was the man who trained Jim, Dr. William Key of Shelbyville, Tennessee, a former slave who in his life had seen horrific cruelty toward humans and animals. Bill Key was a self-schooled veterinarian and Black entrepreneur who refused to use force in any guise while breaking and training horses.
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Interesting subject, but horrible narration
- By Ken M. on 10-05-21
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The Comeback
- Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France
- By: Daniel de Vise
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Greg LeMond stunned the sporting world by becoming the first American to win the Tour de France in 1986, defeating French cycling legend Bernard Hinault. Nine months later, LeMond lay in a hospital bed, his career as a bicycle racer seemingly over. And yet, barely two years after this crisis, LeMond mounted a comeback. In 1989, he once again won the Tour - by a narrow margin of eight seconds. It remains the closest Tour de France in history. The Comeback chronicles the life of this great American athlete, from his roots in Nevada and California to the heights of global fame.
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Good book. Flawed reading.
- By david savage on 07-23-18
By: Daniel de Vise
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The Patient Assassin
- A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge, and India's Quest for Independence
- By: Anita Anand
- Narrated by: Anita Anand
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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The “compelling [and] vivid” (The New York Times Book Review) true story of a man who claimed to be a survivor of a 1919 British massacre in India, his elaborate 20-year plan for revenge, and the mix of truth and legend that made him a hero to hundreds of millions.
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more interesting history
- By Autodidact on 09-07-19
By: Anita Anand
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Battle for the Big Top
- P.T. Barnum, James Bailey, John Ringling, and the Death-Defying Saga of the American Circus
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: B.J. Harrison
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions have sat under the “big top,” watching as trapeze artists glide and clowns entertain, but few know the captivating stories behind the men whose creativity, ingenuity, and determination created one of our country’s most beloved pastimes. In Battle for the Big Top, New York Times best-selling author Les Standiford brings to life a remarkable era when three circus kings - James Bailey, P. T. Barnum, and John Ringling - all vied for control of the vastly profitable and influential American Circus.
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Fantastic!
- By IsleWait on 09-30-22
By: Les Standiford