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Girls of Riyadh
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
Originally released in Arabic in 2005, the novel was immediately banned in Saudi Arabia because of the controversial and inflammatory content, though black-market copies circulated widely. The daring originality of Girls of Riyadh continues to create a firestorm all over the Arab world, and the excitement has spread far beyond the Middle East.
While this novel offers a distinctly Arab voice, it also represents the mongrel culture and language of a globalized world, reflecting the way the Arab world is being changed by new economic and political realities.
Riyadh is the larger setting of the novel, but the characters travel all over the world shedding traditional garb as they literally and figuratively cross over into Western society. These women understand the Western worldview and experiment with reconciling pieces of it with their own. This groundbreaking novel might be the very first that opens up their world to us - their culture, their struggles, their frustrations, their hopes, and their beliefs.
With Girls of Riyadh, Rajaa Alsanea gives us a rare and unforgettable insight into the complicated lives of these young Saudi women, whose amazing stories are unfolding in a culture so very different from our own.
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Beautifully Written!
- By Adele Aron Greenspun on 01-12-23
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Where the Past Begins
- A Writer's Memoir
- By: Amy Tan
- Narrated by: Amy Tan
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Moving from her childhood in Oakland and growing up with her Chinese parents through her success as a novelist, Amy Tan delves into her creative interests in music, the paralysis of beginning a new project, journal writing, and travelling. Where the Past Begins chronicles the making of a writer. With characteristic humor and poignant observation, Tan weaves a nontraditional introspective narrative that is as complex and vibrant as this beloved American novelist's fiction.
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Narration Issues
- By Sara on 12-14-17
By: Amy Tan
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The Museum of Innocence
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Maureen Freely (translator)
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Füsun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Once the long-lost cousins violate the code of virginity, a rift begins to open between Kemal and the world of the Westernized Istanbul bourgeosie - a world, as he lovingly describes it, with opulent parties and clubs, society gossip, picnics, and mansions on the Bosphorus, infused with the melancholy of decay.
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one of the very best I've ever heard
- By Rebecca Lindroos on 03-06-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
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The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
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Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
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Forgiveness
- By: Chiquis Rivera
- Narrated by: Arika Rapson
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Chiquis Rivera is a singer and the daughter of the late music superstar Jenni Rivera. In Forgiveness, her memoir, Chiquis bravely reveals the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father during her childhood and the difficulties she's faced in her personal life as a result. Despite growing up marked by the wounds of abuse, she eventually conquered her fear of love and intimacy.
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Audio
- By Eli on 03-24-17
By: Chiquis Rivera
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The Book of Separation
- A Memoir
- By: Tova Mirvis
- Narrated by: Tova Mirvis
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Born and raised in a tight-knit Orthodox Jewish family, Tova Mirvis committed herself to observing the rules and rituals prescribed by this way of life. After all, to observe was to be accepted and to be accepted was to be loved. She married a man from within the fold and quickly began a family. But over the years, her doubts became noisier than her faith, and at age 40 she could no longer breathe in what had become a suffocating existence.
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So many parallels
- By Cortney on 01-05-18
By: Tova Mirvis
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Infidel
- By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Narrated by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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This New York Times best-seller is the astonishing life story of award-winning humanitarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A deeply respected advocate for free speech and women's rights, Hirsi Ali also lives under armed protection because of her outspoken criticism of the Islamic faith in which she was raised.
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Tough, Candid Assessment
- By Paul Mullen on 02-18-08
By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
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The Imam's Daughter
- My Desperate Flight to Freedom
- By: Hannah Shah
- Narrated by: Christine Rendel
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Hannah Shah is an Imam's daughter. She lived the life of a devout Muslim in a family of Pakistani Muslims in England, but behind the front door, she was a caged butterfly. For many years, her father abused her in the cellar of their home. At 16, she discovered a plan to send her to Pakistan for an arranged marriage, and she gathered the courage to run away. Relentlessly hunted by her angry father and brothers, who were intent on executing an "honor" killing, she moved from house to house in perpetual fear to escape them.
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only half of the story is in Audible!
- By ellen on 02-09-11
By: Hannah Shah
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Americanized
- Rebel Without a Green Card
- By: Sara Saedi
- Narrated by: Lameece Issaq
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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At 13, bright-eyed straight-A student Sara Saedi uncovered a terrible family secret: She was breaking the law simply by living in the United States. Only two years old when her parents fled Iran, she didn't learn of her undocumented status until her older sister wanted to apply for an after-school job but couldn't because she didn't have a Social Security number. Fear of deportation kept Sara up at night, but it didn't keep her from being a teenager.
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Corny Cheesy
- By Mina00 on 09-06-18
By: Sara Saedi
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Philomena
- A Mother, Her Son, and a Fifty-Year Search
- By: Martin Sixsmith
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Now a major motion picture directed by Stephen Frears ( The Queen, High Fidelity) and starring Judi Dench ( Skyfall, Notes on a Scandal) and Steve Coogan ( The Trip, Hamlet 2): the heartbreaking true story of an Irishwoman and the secret she kept for 50 years. When she became pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to a convent to be looked after as a "fallen woman". Then the nuns took her baby from her and sold him, like thousands of others, to America for adoption. Fifty years later, Philomena decided to find him.
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Very Moving Story
- By Cariola on 02-09-14
By: Martin Sixsmith
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Peace from Broken Pieces
- How to Get Through What You're Going Through
- By: Iyanla Vanzant
- Narrated by: Iyanla Vanzant
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Iyanla Vanzant recounts the last decade of her life and the spiritual lessons learned—from the price of success during her meteoric rise as a TV celebrity on Oprah, the Iyanla TV show (produced by Barbara Walters), to the dissolution of her marriage and her daughter's 15 months of illness and death on Christmas day.
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Iyanla is Inspirational! A GREAT LISTEN!!!
- By Theresa on 12-04-11
By: Iyanla Vanzant
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Jackie, Ethel, Joan
- Women of Camelot
- By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
- Narrated by: Beth Fowler
- Length: 5 hrs and 42 mins
- Abridged
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What does it mean to be a Kennedy? If ever three women would be challenged and changed by marriage into a family, it would be Jacqueline Bouvier, Ethel Skakel, and Joan Bennett. None of these radiant brides could have ever been prepared for the fame, the family, and tragedies that would spring from their lives. As they struggled to cope with their husbands' infidelities, the harsh glare of the media, and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, these women would learn what it meant to be sisters, reaching out to one another with comfort and consolation.
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my first Kennedy book
- By colleen on 06-15-12
What listeners say about Girls of Riyadh
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ghassan Tranesh
- 11-29-17
I enjoyed this book like never before.
I recommend this book the most. I really live it. My recommendation is to read it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- NebSoilDoc
- 10-10-16
I know this is asking a lot
Most of the blame for the disfunction is put on the men, however, the role of the mothers is suscribes but not taken as a serious part of the problem. These yong women will be 'enforcers' in 20 years and hence will propagate the problem.
It would have been interesting to get the men's view of all these relationships.
The insight into Saudi society is interesting and the fact that the book was banned speaks loudly about that society.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Zahara
- 11-17-19
beautiful story!
Gorgeously told, and surprisingly endearing. 5 stars in every category! Would definitely recommend this book!
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- Linda
- 03-01-13
Truth Is Often Stranger Than Fiction
This may be a work of fiction, but it reads like a lot of the non-fiction/memior material that has been written by Arab women in the last 25 years. Enjoy it for the accurate cultural voyeurism it offers, respect it for the truth it tells.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Aly
- 06-17-19
Great Story & Narration
As an American woman living in Riyadh for a year now, this book definitely confirmed a lot of the observations and guesses I had made about what life may be like for a native woman here. The narrator was very easy to understand in English yet clearly also spoke Arabic, as those words sounded even more comfortable. The asides meant to explain some Arabic words and Saudi customs were very helpful (most I knew but I learned a few new ones). The stories were also wholly engrossing, as I found myself listening and listening, hardly able to stop.
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Overall
- nas
- 10-18-09
ok
Ok ..so this was a bit like a sisterhood of the traveling pants...in Saudi . It was enjoyable but didn't quite cut it. i love books about the "eastern" cultures...I can't put my finger on it ..but this didn't quite cut it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Veronica
- 04-24-12
A colourful cultural journey
What about Kate Reading’s performance did you like?
I've listened to Kate Reading before and always enjoyed her performaces (particularily The Wheel of Time series). She speaks clearly with a certain dryness, cut when applicable by the required emotion.
Any additional comments?
I picked up this book because I've always been fascinated by foreign cultures, and from the preview this appeared to be a venture into the lives of young women in Riyadh. This is exactly what I got. It's full of reasons and situations that are similar and at the same time very different from what I've grown up with, and forms of expression in dialogue that seem to be plucked straight from Arabic, which I find absolutely fascinating (I don't speak Arabic but intend to learn).
I quickly grew to root for the four main characters, and followed them through their ups and downs. At the end of the book I was sad to leave them.
I've already recommended this book to most of my friends. That in itself is n indication of how much I enjoyed it.
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3 people found this helpful
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- yabayan
- 06-01-23
Very interesting
Intriguing hidden stories from a time where everything is hushed up, It is of course not a generalised lifestyle as expected but nice to know.
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- Carroll
- 09-08-11
Essential if you work in the KSA
This was amazingly helpful for me to understand the social issues of working with Saudi's.. great examples of the various challenges in this culture.
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5 people found this helpful
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- DD
- 05-10-19
glimpse into saudi woman's lives
i found it engrossing and fascinating. it did not change my preconceived notions of how woman are 2nd class citizens in Saudi Arabia. it did open my eyes to some beautiful poetry of love of Muslim writers.
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