Insomniac City
New York, Oliver, and Me
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Narrated by:
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Stephen Bel Davies
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By:
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Bill Hayes
About this listen
Bill Hayes came to New York City in 2009 with a one-way ticket and only the vaguest idea of how he would get by. But, at 48 years old, having spent decades in San Francisco, he craved change.
Grieving over the death of his partner, he quickly discovered the profound consolations of the city's incessant rhythms, the sight of the Empire State Building against the night sky, and New Yorkers themselves, kindred souls that Hayes, a lifelong insomniac, encountered on late-night strolls with his camera.
And he unexpectedly fell in love again, with his friend and neighbor, the writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks, whose exuberance - 'I don't so much fear death as I do wasting life,' he tells Hayes early on - is captured in funny and touching vignettes throughout. What emerges is a portrait of Sacks at his most personal and endearing, from falling in love for the first time at age 75 to facing illness and death (Sacks died of cancer in August 2015).
Insomniac City is both a meditation on grief and a celebration of life, a love song to the New York City and to all who have felt the particular magic and solace it offers.
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- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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As a girl, Genevieve Martin spent the happiest summer of her life in Paris, learning the delicate art of locksmithing at her uncle's side. But since then, living back in the States, she has become more private, more subdued. She has been an observer of life rather than an active participant, holding herself back from those around her, including her soon-to-be ex-husband. Paris never really left Genevieve, and, as her marriage crumbles, she finds herself faced with an incredible opportunity.
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Not a cozy murder mystery but a cozy slice of life
- By sams on 10-23-15
By: Juliet Blackwell
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By Any Other Name
- By: Lauren Kate
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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What she doesn't know about love could fill a book. With a successful career as a romance editor, and an engagement to a man who checks off all ninety-nine boxes on her carefully curated list, Lanie's more than good. She's killing it. Then she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime: to work with world-renowned author and her biggest inspiration in love and life—the Noa Callaway.
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Cute
- By Kenz on 12-07-22
By: Lauren Kate
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God-Shaped Hole
- A Novel
- By: Tiffanie DeBartolo
- Narrated by: Rachael Warren
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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When Beatrice Trixie Jordan replies to a personal ad, she meets Jacob Grace, a charming, effervescent 30-something free-spirit writer passionately seeking life. He possesses his own turns of phrase and ways of thinking and feeling that dissonantly harmonize with Trixie's off-center vision. As they rollercoaster through the joys and furies of their wrenching romance, they try to come to terms with the hurt brought about by both of their distant fathers who, in different ways, forsook them.
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To see a fortune teller or not to see one...
- By Renee on 08-08-18
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Fairyland
- A Memoir of My Father
- By: Alysia Abbott
- Narrated by: Alysia Abbott
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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A beautiful, vibrant memoir about growing up motherless in 1970s and 80s San Francisco with an openly gay father. After his wife dies in a car accident, bisexual writer and activist Steve Abbott moves with his two-year-old daughter to San Francisco. There they discover a city in the midst of revolution, bustling with gay men in search of liberation - few of whom are raising a child. Steve throws himself into San Francisco's vibrant cultural scene.
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Great representation of the time
- By AvidReader22 on 06-07-19
By: Alysia Abbott
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Nightwatcher
- By: Wendy Corsi Staub
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Nightwatcher, the first in a riveting new series, takes place in the days immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A serial killer is loose in New York City, and Allison Taylor may be the only one who can identify him. She doesn’t know the killer has now set his sights on her—and unless she acts fast, she’ll be his next victim.
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Nightwatcher!!!
- By barbara on 06-07-13
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Your Voice in My Head
- A Memoir
- By: Emma Forrest
- Narrated by: Emma Forrest
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Emma Forrest, a British journalist, was just 22 and living the fast life in New York City when she realized that her quirks had gone beyond eccentricity. In a cycle of loneliness, damaging relationships, and destructive behavior, she found herself in the chair of a slim, balding, and effortlessly optimistic psychiatrist--a man whose wisdom and humanity would wrench her from the dangerous tide after she tried to end her life.
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Great, quick read
- By Amazon Customer on 02-12-21
By: Emma Forrest
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The Look of Love
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Jio
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Born during a Christmas blizzard, Jane Williams receives a rare gift: the ability to literally see true love. Jane has emerged from an ailing childhood a lonely, hopeless romantic when, on her 29th birthday, she receives a card from the midwife who delivered her. Jane must identify the six types of love before the full moon following her 30th birthday - or face grave consequences. When Jane falls for a science writer who doesn't believe in love, she fears that her fate is sealed.
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Highly recommend!!
- By Riley Pennington on 09-19-19
By: Sarah Jio
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Full Circle
- By: Michael Thomas Ford
- Narrated by: Blake Somerset
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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History professor Ned Brummel is living happily with his partner of 12 years in small-town Maine when he receives a phone call from his estranged friend - Jack - telling him that another friend - Andy - is very ill and possibly near death. As Ned boards a plane to Chicago on his way to his friend's bedside, he embarks on another journey into memory, examining the major events and small moments that have shaped his world and his relationships with these two very different, very important men.
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To Every Season...
- By Donald on 10-01-13
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The One-in-a-Million Boy
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
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Loved it
- By Justin on 10-20-16
By: Monica Wood
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The Great Failure
- A Bartender, a Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth
- By: Natalie Goldberg
- Narrated by: Natalie Goldberg
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Original Recording
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"The Great Failure is a boundless embrace, leaving nothing out. I wanted to learn the truth, to become whole. If I could touch the dark nature in someone else, I could know it in myself." So begins Natalie Goldberg in this candid exploration of her life. Here, Goldberg makes sense of primary relationships between father and daughter, teacher and student, and exemplifies the accomplishment available when creating daily writing practices.
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If you have been let down by anyone. Listen
- By Mia on 04-19-18
By: Natalie Goldberg
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Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and best-selling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals - also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the he chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded.
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On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. As one fireman recounted later, “Once that first stack got going, it was good-bye, Charlie.” The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more.
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Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat tells the stories of individuals afflicted with fantastic perceptual and intellectual aberrations: patients who have lost their memories and with them the greater part of their pasts; who are no longer able to recognize people and common objects; who are stricken with violent tics and grimaces or who shout involuntary obscenities; whose limbs have become alien; who have been dismissed as retarded yet are gifted with uncanny artistic or mathematical talents.
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I rarely stop reading a book halfway through...
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What listeners say about Insomniac City
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-18-19
Touching and Intimate Portrait
Such a touching and intimate portrait of the relationship between Bill Hayes and Oliver Sacks, with an ode to NYC as a bonus! Oliver was every bit as adorable as I would have imagined him to be, and then some. I would like to thank Bill Hayes for sharing this with the rest of us, who loved and admired "The Doctor" from afar.
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- Hobbes in Dobbs
- 04-24-24
The Story of Relationship
I read part of this book after reading “Life, Interrupted” by/about Spaulding Gray. Oliver Sacks saw Mr. Gray near the end of his life (Mr. Gray suffering from a head injury that led to Mr. Gray disappearing in Jan. 2013 and Mr. Sacks disappearing in 2015.
This book is a wonderful story of Mr. Sacks and Mr. Hayes meeting and getting to know each other, growing together with time. It is also a story about Mr. Hayes’ relationships with New York City and the people he meets and shares with parts of himself. It is sad Mr. Sacks leaving the story, but happens quite simply.
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- Espanolish
- 05-04-17
Addicting
I grew up in New York City, Lower East Side primarily, but also Greenwich Village and Staten Island. Insomuch as I have been transient most of my post college graduate years, I no longer call the Big Apple or any patch of land my home. Though the City author Bill Hayes describes is no longer the same one in which I spent my formative, prepubescent, young adult years, it is undoubtedly the place I currently frequent and readily recognize— right down to the shoutout to Russ and Daughters Deli on Orchard Street. Hoyt captures in equal measure a definite sense of place (NYC, but also any locale that one holds dear), time (the present now, more or less), and mood (joy, grief, and a complete array of experiences in-between), making the book relevant and relatable and entertaining. The work is as much an ode to the ever mutating and always addicting Manhattan as it is an expression of gratitude for the imperceptible spark of life that, out of nowhere it seems, sparks to full fire and gives us a boost just as we are about to give up— or already have given up.
I liked the way Hoyt was able to connect with nearly every walk of life padding across Manhattan's terrain. I'm sure my NY bred cynism is coloring the feel that perhaps some more "realistic" experiences were either figuratively "photoshopped" or otherwise eliminated. Thus the drop in points. Maybe I would have felt different if I had grown up familiar with the inimitable personality of neurologist Oliver Sacks. Instead, I was inundated with Archie Bunker pop culture (I hope to goodness I am not dating myself!). Despite my spiky take on Hoyt's what... syrupy??... take, I’ll likely be reading this again.
Narrator Stephen Bel Davies left no lines between himself and Hoyt (sans the saccharine).
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- msrae
- 12-13-18
4.5
4.5 stars. Great writing.
Great perspective piece. Beautiful and sad. I hope Billy finds peace.
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- Jonathan Hurst
- 12-30-23
Interesting
A friend recommended. This is an interesting book. It’s a very personal story. I enjoyed hearing about nyc and his journey
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- Vera
- 03-12-17
Amazing Read
Would you consider the audio edition of Insomniac City to be better than the print version?
Love the narration and really fun to listen to while driving!
What other book might you compare Insomniac City to and why?
Similar to Oliver Sacks books in that you learn something while also listening to art like writing.
What does Stephen Bel Davies bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His voice is perfect for this book!
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
WOW this is gonna be good!
Any additional comments?
Thank you!
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- Marguerite Pavloff
- 03-09-17
Magnificent
A touching memoir.. beautifully written and read. This one will stay with me for a long time.
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- John S.
- 08-02-18
Highly recommended!
Rather than a long review, I'm going to say that the author completely succeeds in a story with Oliver and NYC as co-protagonists, where often one aspect ends up feeling grafted into the other.
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- Mike Zinni
- 07-17-17
Required Reading for Any Sacks Fan
If you're a fan of Olivar Sacks, then you'll enjoy this book. Hayes provides a perspective of the man that only he could have known. It's wistful and dreamy, but not without intention. Expect to find all the humor and beauty you would from anything Sacks touched. But expect more.
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- Matthew J. Brockwell
- 03-24-17
moving, funny, perceptive
there's a lot to this story to make it come alive. whether or not you are already familiar with Oliver Sacks' work, this is a richly rewarding book that will help to restore your faith in life and the kindness of strangers
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