Harmless Like You
A Novel
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Harmless Like You
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Narrated by:
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P. J. Ochlan
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Emily Woo Zeller
About this listen
Written in startlingly beautiful prose, Harmless Like You is set across New York, Berlin, and Connecticut, following Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and Yuki's son, Jay, who, as an adult in the present day, is forced to confront the mother who abandoned him when he was only two years old. The novel opens when Yuki is 16 and her father is posted back to Japan. Though she and her family have been living as outsiders in New York City, Yuki opts to stay, intoxicated by her friendship with the beautiful aspiring model Odile, the energy of the city, and her desire to become an artist. But when she becomes involved with an older man and the relationship turns destructive, Yuki's life is unmoored.
Harmless Like You is a suspenseful novel about the complexities of identity, art, adolescent friendships, and familial bonds, which asks - and ultimately answers - how does a mother desert her son?
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Annie has always had high hopes for her future. But the reality of her life just isn’t measuring up. She loves her fiancé, Greg–doesn’t she? She’s going to get her degree and open her own business–won’t she? Then, a strange old woman shows up outside her house, and she seems to know a lot about Annie. An awful lot. Annie could tell the old woman to get lost. Yet there’s something about her Annie just can’t shake. And what she learns could change her life forever–but is it the life she envisioned?
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By: Ben H. Winters
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George Orwell’s 1984
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10,882
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5 out of 5 stars
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- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
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The Art of War
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- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42,019
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34,825
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34,406
The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.
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5 out of 5 stars
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By: Sun Tzu
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- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,122
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,056
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,056
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- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,921
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,796
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,796
Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Say No More
- By: Caroline Overington
- Narrated by: Anna Skellern
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,629
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,597
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,597
Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.
-
4 out of 5 stars
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Seriously, that was the ending?
- By alicia in athens on 02-13-25
What listeners say about Harmless Like You
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- CRYSTAL
- 03-27-17
Would read this author again.
Great story of inner demons. Could do without the F word used a million times.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- PiercePress
- 03-07-17
profoundly moving
What a stunning experience. I listened to this entire book in the space of about two days. I almost put it aside at one point, because it awakened memories long buried and a sense of dread. In the end, there was a bitter-sweet resolution to the generational angst that left a sense of hope. I thought the voice of Jay sounded a little pugnacious, but I was able to get used to it. I listened to this book at about 1.2x speed, so maybe that enhanced the clipped, angry sounding voice. Buchanan has really tapped into some fundamental human truths with this novel.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jamie McCloskey
- 09-16-17
A glimpse at how others think & feel
A very descriptive story with artistic imagery, fitting to the art aspect. A glimpse of the inner workings of two people. Sad but felt real.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- RZ
- 04-02-18
Well written with enticing and vivid language but
Somewhere 2/3 through the book, I started to realize that I can no longer connect with the characters. It took me some time to figure out why. the author is very skilled with the language that entices you enough to want to hear more, but being a painter and a mother I realized eventually that there was not enough substance. The flavorful sentences and unique perspectives lacked depth of thoughts and experiences. My analogy would be that The book offered incredible writing about the outward beauty- colors, shapes and smell of a cake without cutting into it and adding taste to the content.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Shoegirl
- 04-30-24
Miserable experience
While this book was well written, I really really didn’t like it. It had very vivid and disgusting descriptions, again very well written, but to make matters worse the characters were unlikable and miserable. I definitely could have skipped this one.
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