Malibu Burning
The Real Story Behind LA's Most Devastating Wildfire
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Robert Kerbeck
-
By:
-
Robert Kerbeck
About this listen
Malibu is known as an earthly paradise of multi-million-dollar mansions, movie stars, and unimaginable natural beauty. But all that changed on November 8, 2018.
Go deep behind the scenes of the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles history. Alongside his wife and son, Robert Kerbeck battled the fire that threatened to take their home. He knows firsthand how the Malibu fires affected everyone - from the rich and famous to the firefighters who often risked their lives.
Blending investigative journalism and personal memoir, Malibu Burning brings you on the dramatic, life-threatening journey of real people fighting 2,000-degree flames to save entire neighborhoods.
By listening to this audiobook, you'll find out:
- Ways how the massive blaze affected Julia Roberts, Bob Dylan, Nick Nolte, and other celebrities.
- Real stories from hundreds of interviews with perspectives of locals ranging from the deputy fire chief and Malibu city council members to residents who fought to defend their homes.
- People who survived this tragedy through courage, kindness, and unified cooperation.
This book takes you into the hearts and minds of those who fought for their lives while the world watched Malibu burning.
©2019 Robert Kerbeck (P)2019 Robert KerbeckListeners also enjoyed...
-
Paradise
- One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire
- By: Lizzie Johnson
- Narrated by: Lizzie Johnson
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 8, 2018, the people of Paradise, California, awoke to a mottled gray sky and gusty winds. Soon the Camp Fire was upon them, gobbling an acre a second. Less than two hours after the fire ignited, the town was engulfed in flames, the residents trapped in their homes and cars. By the next morning, eighty-five people were dead. As a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Lizzie Johnson was there as the town of Paradise burned.
-
-
Horrible,Horrible,Illiterate narration.
- By howard bascom on 09-02-21
By: Lizzie Johnson
-
Ruse
- Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street
- By: Robert Kerbeck
- Narrated by: Robert Kerbeck
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the world of high finance, multibillion-dollar Wall Street banks greedily guard their secrets. Enter Robert Kerbeck, a working actor who made his real money lying on the phone, charming people into revealing their employers’ most valuable information. In this exhilarating memoir that will appeal to fans of The Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can, unsuspecting receptionists, assistants, and bigshot executives all fall victim to “the Ruse.”
-
-
Who knew?
- By philip parolisi on 03-04-22
By: Robert Kerbeck
-
Fire in Paradise
- By: Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is no precedent in postwar American history for the destruction of the town of Paradise, California. On November 8, 2018, the community of 27,000 people was swallowed by the ferocious Camp Fire, which razed virtually every home and killed at least 85 people. Fire in Paradise is a dramatic and moving narrative of the disaster based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with residents, firefighters and police, and scientific experts.
-
-
A gripping view of an American tragedy
- By Kalutha on 06-30-20
By: Alastair Gee, and others
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
Breathing Fire
- Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires
- By: Jaime Lowe
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo, Jaime Lowe
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California’s fire season gets hotter, longer, and more extreme every year - fire season is now year-round. Of the thousands of firefighters who battle California’s blazes every year, roughly 30 percent of the on-the-ground wildland crews are inmates earning a dollar an hour. Approximately 200 of those firefighters are women serving on all-female crews. In Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine.
-
-
Heartbreaking story of the plight of the incarcerated and women in general
- By Sophie on 08-11-21
By: Jaime Lowe
-
The Fire Line
- The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots
- By: Fernanda Santos
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the 20 men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. An elite crew trained to combat the most challenging wildfires, the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family crisscrossing the American West and wherever else the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal to one another and dedicated to the tough job they had.
-
-
touching
- By matt on 05-04-16
By: Fernanda Santos
-
Paradise
- One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire
- By: Lizzie Johnson
- Narrated by: Lizzie Johnson
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On November 8, 2018, the people of Paradise, California, awoke to a mottled gray sky and gusty winds. Soon the Camp Fire was upon them, gobbling an acre a second. Less than two hours after the fire ignited, the town was engulfed in flames, the residents trapped in their homes and cars. By the next morning, eighty-five people were dead. As a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, Lizzie Johnson was there as the town of Paradise burned.
-
-
Horrible,Horrible,Illiterate narration.
- By howard bascom on 09-02-21
By: Lizzie Johnson
-
Ruse
- Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street
- By: Robert Kerbeck
- Narrated by: Robert Kerbeck
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the world of high finance, multibillion-dollar Wall Street banks greedily guard their secrets. Enter Robert Kerbeck, a working actor who made his real money lying on the phone, charming people into revealing their employers’ most valuable information. In this exhilarating memoir that will appeal to fans of The Wolf of Wall Street and Catch Me If You Can, unsuspecting receptionists, assistants, and bigshot executives all fall victim to “the Ruse.”
-
-
Who knew?
- By philip parolisi on 03-04-22
By: Robert Kerbeck
-
Fire in Paradise
- By: Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is no precedent in postwar American history for the destruction of the town of Paradise, California. On November 8, 2018, the community of 27,000 people was swallowed by the ferocious Camp Fire, which razed virtually every home and killed at least 85 people. Fire in Paradise is a dramatic and moving narrative of the disaster based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with residents, firefighters and police, and scientific experts.
-
-
A gripping view of an American tragedy
- By Kalutha on 06-30-20
By: Alastair Gee, and others
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
Breathing Fire
- Female Inmate Firefighters on the Front Lines of California's Wildfires
- By: Jaime Lowe
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo, Jaime Lowe
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California’s fire season gets hotter, longer, and more extreme every year - fire season is now year-round. Of the thousands of firefighters who battle California’s blazes every year, roughly 30 percent of the on-the-ground wildland crews are inmates earning a dollar an hour. Approximately 200 of those firefighters are women serving on all-female crews. In Breathing Fire, Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine.
-
-
Heartbreaking story of the plight of the incarcerated and women in general
- By Sophie on 08-11-21
By: Jaime Lowe
-
The Fire Line
- The Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots
- By: Fernanda Santos
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When a bolt of lightning ignited a hilltop in the sleepy town of Yarnell, Arizona, in June of 2013, setting off a blaze that would grow into one of the deadliest fires in American history, the 20 men who made up the Granite Mountain Hotshots sprang into action. An elite crew trained to combat the most challenging wildfires, the Granite Mountain Hotshots were a ragtag family crisscrossing the American West and wherever else the fires took them. The Hotshots were loyal to one another and dedicated to the tough job they had.
-
-
touching
- By matt on 05-04-16
By: Fernanda Santos
-
Calico
- By: Lee Goldberg
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Eric Conger
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . . The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away. But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption. Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for a second chance.
-
-
Really enjoyed this!
- By CeeS on 02-13-24
By: Lee Goldberg
-
On the Burning Edge
- A Fateful Fire and the Men Who Fought It
- By: Kyle Dickman
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 28, 2013, a single bolt of lightning sparked an inferno that devoured more than 8,000 acres in Northern Arizona. Twenty elite firefighters - the Granite Mountain Hotshots - walked together into the blaze, tools in their hands and fire shelters on their hips. Only one of them walked out.
-
-
Be on the fire line, and in their heads.
- By Desiree May on 04-29-16
By: Kyle Dickman
-
Homegrown
- Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Toobin
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement. Speaking to his lawyers days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf War veteran expressed no regrets: killing 168 people was his patriotic duty. New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin traces the dramatic history and profound legacy of Timothy McVeigh, who once declared, “I believe there is an army out there, ready to rise up, even though I never found it.” But that doesn’t mean his army wasn’t there. With news-breaking reportage, Toobin details how McVeigh’s principles and tactics have flourished in the decades since his death in 2001.
-
-
Not a great book I’m sorry to say
- By H. Winslow on 05-10-23
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
The Right Kind of Crazy
- Navy SEAL, Covert Operative, and Boy Scout from Hell
- By: Clint Emerson
- Narrated by: Clint Emerson
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clint Emerson is the only SEAL ever inducted into the International Spy Museum. Operating from the shadows, with an instinct for running towards trouble, his unique skill set made him the perfect hybrid of elite and modern day counterintelligence agent. Emerson spent his career on the bleeding edge of intelligence and operations, often specializing in solo missions that took advantage of subterfuge, improvisation, the best in recon and surveillance tech, and even elements of Hollywood disguise to combat the changing global battlefield.
-
-
Ignore the haters...
- By Witness 22 on 04-08-20
By: Clint Emerson
-
Nomadland
- Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
- By: Jessica Bruder
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the beet fields of North Dakota to the wilderness campgrounds of California to an Amazon warehouse in Texas, people who once might have kicked back to enjoy their sunset years are hard at work. Underwater on mortgages or finding that Social Security comes up short, they're hitting the road in astonishing numbers, forming a new community of nomads: RV and van-dwelling migrant laborers, or "workampers".
-
-
Eccentric Hobby? No--Survival Skills!
- By Gillian on 03-07-18
By: Jessica Bruder
-
The Cold Vanish
- Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands
- By: Jon Billman
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers, and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue.
-
-
Sad but interesting finished a little confused
- By Jason on 07-09-20
By: Jon Billman
-
American Oz
- An Astonishing Year Inside Traveling Carnivals at State Fairs & Festivals: Hitchhiking from California to New York, Alaska to Mexico
- By: Michael Sean Comerford
- Narrated by: Michael Sean Comerford
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American Oz is a rollicking, gritty, adventurous story of life in the secretive subculture of traveling carnivals. You'll never see your state fair or street festival the same way again. Comerford writes a bold, inspiring true story of a year working behind the scenes with the colorful characters and legends of carnivals. He shares stories of freaks, a carnival pimp, a tramp gold miner, and the last king of the sideshows.
-
-
Fun Listen
- By Tim Blackburn on 05-26-22
-
Fire Chief
- The Story of a Volunteer Firefighter
- By: Ed Daniels
- Narrated by: Dave Johnson
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A retired fire chief pens reflections on his life as a volunteer firefighter. Fire Chief by Ed Daniels shares experiences and sacrifices until now known only to the volunteers themselves. In his first novel, Fire Chief: The Story of a Volunteer Firefighter, author Ed Daniels recalls his life as a volunteer firefighter in the mountains of Colorado. Based on actual events, the book takes listeners into the heat that countless volunteer firefighters face every day throughout the world.
-
-
This is real. I know, I've been there.
- By Jerry Dilliard on 02-21-13
By: Ed Daniels
-
Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
-
-
The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
-
A Trucker's Tale
- Wit, Wisdom, and True Stories from 60 Years on the Road
- By: Ed Miller
- Narrated by: Arthur Flavell
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They say that only truck drivers experience the true grandeur and landscape of America. In A Trucker's Tale, Ed Miller gives an inside look at the allure of the work and the colorful characters who haul our goods on the open road. He shares what it was like to grow up in a trucking family, his experience as an equipment officer in Vietnam, and the trials and tribulations of life as a trucker. His tales are often funny, sometimes sad, cringeworthy, or unbelievable. Many are the results of what he calls "just plain stupidity."
-
-
Are truckers are not gods gift to this earth
- By Michael D. Koser on 06-06-23
By: Ed Miller
-
Wild Escape
- The Prison Break from Dannemora and the Manhunt That Captured America
- By: Chelsia Rose Marcius
- Narrated by: Christopher Price, Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 6, 2015, inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility, New York State's largest maximum security prison. The media was instantly obsessed with the story: aided by a prison seamstress who smuggled hacksaw blades, chisels, and drill bits inside the facility via a vat of raw hamburger meat, the two convicted murderers sliced their way through steel cell walls, meandered through a maze of tunnels, climbed out of a manhole, and walked off into the night.
-
-
Awful
- By VT Lady on 07-23-18
-
Charlie's Requiem: A Novella
- Charlie's Requiem, Book 1
- By: A. American, Walt Browning
- Narrated by: Duke Fontaine
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charlie is good at her work. As a hard-charging drug rep with the brains and talent to make it to the top, she has the world at her feet. Then, the lights go out, and everything changes. An EMP decimates the United States, leaving the country in the dark. With modern technology suddenly and permanently turned off, society's dark side quickly takes over. Caught on the road, she teams up with two new companions and they fight their way towards safety and freedom. Criminals, gangs, and worse stand between them and the safety of a friend's farm.
-
-
The 'Going Home' Series Goes To Town
- By Greg on 10-07-20
By: A. American, and others
Critic reviews
"An engrossing, thorough, and revealing portrait of a beloved beachside community confronting disaster.” (Kirkus Reviews)
Related to this topic
-
Fire in Paradise
- By: Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is no precedent in postwar American history for the destruction of the town of Paradise, California. On November 8, 2018, the community of 27,000 people was swallowed by the ferocious Camp Fire, which razed virtually every home and killed at least 85 people. Fire in Paradise is a dramatic and moving narrative of the disaster based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with residents, firefighters and police, and scientific experts.
-
-
A gripping view of an American tragedy
- By Kalutha on 06-30-20
By: Alastair Gee, and others
-
Chasing Catastrophe
- My 35 Years Covering Wars, Hurricanes, Terror Attacks, and Other Breaking News
- By: Rick Leventhal
- Narrated by: Rick Leventhal
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the front lines in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and other conflict zones to the base of the burning Twin Towers on 9/11 to the eye of countless hurricanes, Rick Leventhal chronicles some of the most amazing stories he’s covered in his thirty-five years as a news reporter, anchor, and Senior Correspondent—with some life lessons thrown in along the way.
-
-
Great insights on catastrophes from a journalistic perspective
- By Laura N. Rains on 05-18-23
By: Rick Leventhal
-
Ordinary Heroes
- A Memoir of 9/11
- By: Joseph Pfeifer
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chief Joe Pfeifer led his firefighters to investigate an odor of gas in downtown Manhattan on the morning of 9/11, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever. A few moments later, he watched as the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Pfeifer, the closest FDNY chief to the scene, spearheaded rescue efforts on one of the darkest days in American history.
-
-
An amazing account
- By Anonymous User on 09-09-21
By: Joseph Pfeifer
-
Action Park
- Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park
- By: Andy Mulvihill, Jake Rossen
- Narrated by: Michael Satow
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Often called "Accident Park", "Class Action Park", or "Traction Park", Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures - sometimes with tragic results. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill.
-
-
Fascinating, but lacking in substance
- By That Guy From the Video Store on 09-05-20
By: Andy Mulvihill, and others
-
Zeitoun
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When HurricaneKatrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun - a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four - chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the eerie days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and rescuing those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.
-
-
Something bold, ebullient, yet quiet
- By Darwin8u on 10-08-13
By: Dave Eggers
-
This Is Chance!
- The Shaking of an All-American City, a Voice That Held It Together
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska, was a modern-day frontier town yearning to be a metropolis - the largest, proudest city in a state that was still brand-new. But just before sundown on Good Friday, the community was jolted by the most powerful earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale. This Is Chance! is the thrilling, cinematic story of a community shattered by disaster - and the extraordinary woman who helped pull it back together.
-
-
amazing story
- By Dani L on 02-07-21
By: Jon Mooallem
-
Fire in Paradise
- By: Alastair Gee, Dani Anguiano
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There is no precedent in postwar American history for the destruction of the town of Paradise, California. On November 8, 2018, the community of 27,000 people was swallowed by the ferocious Camp Fire, which razed virtually every home and killed at least 85 people. Fire in Paradise is a dramatic and moving narrative of the disaster based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with residents, firefighters and police, and scientific experts.
-
-
A gripping view of an American tragedy
- By Kalutha on 06-30-20
By: Alastair Gee, and others
-
Chasing Catastrophe
- My 35 Years Covering Wars, Hurricanes, Terror Attacks, and Other Breaking News
- By: Rick Leventhal
- Narrated by: Rick Leventhal
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the front lines in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and other conflict zones to the base of the burning Twin Towers on 9/11 to the eye of countless hurricanes, Rick Leventhal chronicles some of the most amazing stories he’s covered in his thirty-five years as a news reporter, anchor, and Senior Correspondent—with some life lessons thrown in along the way.
-
-
Great insights on catastrophes from a journalistic perspective
- By Laura N. Rains on 05-18-23
By: Rick Leventhal
-
Ordinary Heroes
- A Memoir of 9/11
- By: Joseph Pfeifer
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Chief Joe Pfeifer led his firefighters to investigate an odor of gas in downtown Manhattan on the morning of 9/11, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever. A few moments later, he watched as the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Pfeifer, the closest FDNY chief to the scene, spearheaded rescue efforts on one of the darkest days in American history.
-
-
An amazing account
- By Anonymous User on 09-09-21
By: Joseph Pfeifer
-
Action Park
- Fast Times, Wild Rides, and the Untold Story of America's Most Dangerous Amusement Park
- By: Andy Mulvihill, Jake Rossen
- Narrated by: Michael Satow
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Often called "Accident Park", "Class Action Park", or "Traction Park", Action Park was an American icon. Entertaining more than a million people a year in the 1980s, the New Jersey-based amusement playland placed no limits on danger or fun, a monument to the anything-goes spirit of the era that left guests in control of their own adventures - sometimes with tragic results. Action Park is the first-ever unvarnished look at the history of this DIY Disneyland, as seen through the eyes of Andy Mulvihill, the son of the park's idiosyncratic founder, Gene Mulvihill.
-
-
Fascinating, but lacking in substance
- By That Guy From the Video Store on 09-05-20
By: Andy Mulvihill, and others
-
Zeitoun
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When HurricaneKatrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun - a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four - chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the eerie days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and rescuing those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.
-
-
Something bold, ebullient, yet quiet
- By Darwin8u on 10-08-13
By: Dave Eggers
-
This Is Chance!
- The Shaking of an All-American City, a Voice That Held It Together
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 1964, Anchorage, Alaska, was a modern-day frontier town yearning to be a metropolis - the largest, proudest city in a state that was still brand-new. But just before sundown on Good Friday, the community was jolted by the most powerful earthquake in American history, a catastrophic 9.2 on the Richter Scale. This Is Chance! is the thrilling, cinematic story of a community shattered by disaster - and the extraordinary woman who helped pull it back together.
-
-
amazing story
- By Dani L on 02-07-21
By: Jon Mooallem
-
Storm of the Century
- The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
- By: Willie Drye
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1934, hundreds of jobless World War I veterans were sent to the remote Florida Keys to build a highway from Miami to Key West. The Roosevelt Administration was making a genuine effort to help these down-and-out vets. But the attempt to help them turned into a tragedy. The supervisors in charge of the veterans misunderstood the danger posed by hurricanes in the low-lying Florida Keys. The hurricane that struck the Upper Florida Keys on the evening of September 2, 1935, is still the most powerful hurricane to make landfall in the US.
-
-
Better than I expected
- By Jennifer Camp on 07-23-24
By: Willie Drye
-
Full Body Burden
- Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats
- By: Kristen Iversen
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter, Kristen Iversen
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated "the most contaminated site in America." Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and--unknown to those who lived there--tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium.
-
-
A story that no one else wanted to tell.
- By Carol on 01-28-13
By: Kristen Iversen
-
Washed Away
- How the Great Flood of 1913, America’s Most Widespread Natural Disaster, Terrorized a Nation and Changed It Forever
- By: Geoff Williams
- Narrated by: Jim Vann
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The incredible story of a flood of near-Biblical proportions - its destruction, its heroes and victims, and how it shaped America’s natural-disaster policies for the next century. The storm began March 23, 1913, with a series of tornadoes that killed 150 people and injured 400. Then the freezing rains started and the flooding began. It was the nation’s most widespread flood ever - more than 700 people died, hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings were destroyed, and millions were left homeless.
-
-
I love these historical narratives
- By Kim Hamacher on 07-28-15
By: Geoff Williams
-
Report from Ground Zero
- By: Dennis Smith
- Narrated by: Eric Conger, Jeff David, Don Leslie
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Immediately after two hijacked jets struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Dennis Smith volunteered in the rescue effort. Having spent his career as both a respected writer and a member of one of the city's busiest firehouses, Smith became determined to use his unique background to tell the story of the disaster and its aftermath with the empathy and understanding that only an insider could bring to it. In this audio memoir, he has collected astonishing first-person testimony.
-
-
Intersting choice of narrator
- By Sara Roltgen on 09-24-18
By: Dennis Smith
-
1 Dead in Attic
- After Katrina
- By: Chris Rose
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first harrowing year and a half of life in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Celebrated as a local treasure and heaped with national praise, Rose provides a rollercoaster ride of observation, commentary, emotion, tragedy, and even humor - in a way that only he could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair.
-
-
Still Makes Me Hurt
- By Gillian on 02-27-15
By: Chris Rose
-
Humboldt
- Life on America's Marijuana Frontier
- By: Emily Brady
- Narrated by: Dan Woren, Sonny Warner, Erin Bennett, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the vein of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief and Deborah Feldman's Unorthodox, journalist Emily Brady journeys into a secretive subculture - one that marijuana built. Say the words "Humboldt County" to a stranger and you might receive a knowing grin. The name is infamous, and yet the place, and its inhabitants, have been nearly impenetrable. Until now. Humboldt is a narrative exploration of an insular community in Northern California, which for nearly 40 years has existed primarily on the cultivation and sale of marijuana.
-
-
Great book!
- By David on 02-26-15
By: Emily Brady
-
The Esperanza Fire
- Arson, Murder and the Agony of Engine 57
- By: John N. Maclean
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Esperanza Fire started October 26, 2006, in the San Jacinto Mountains above the Banning Pass near Cabazon, California. It destroyed 41,000 acres and dozens of homes and cost the taxpayers $16 million dollars. But by far the highest costs of the conflagration were the lives of the five-man crew of Engine 57, the first engine crew ever killed fighting a wildland blaze. Fire and superheated gases had erupted in a freak "area ignition," sending flames racing across three-quarters of a mile in mere seconds, engulfing the crew and the house they were defending.
-
-
Read the "book reviews" on Amazon before judging.
- By IdyGal on 08-26-18
By: John N. Maclean
-
American Fire
- Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land
- By: Monica Hesse
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shocked by a five-month arson spree that left rural Virginia reeling, Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse drove down to Accomack County to cover the trial of Charlie Smith, who pled guilty to 67 counts of arson. But Charlie wasn't lighting fires alone: he had an accomplice - his girlfriend, Tonya Bundick. Through her depiction of the dangerous shift that happened in their passionate relationship, Hesse brilliantly brings to life the once-thriving coastal community and its distressed inhabitants.
-
-
Narration is horrible
- By Bryan Campbell on 08-17-17
By: Monica Hesse
-
Wild Escape
- The Prison Break from Dannemora and the Manhunt That Captured America
- By: Chelsia Rose Marcius
- Narrated by: Christopher Price, Lisa Stathoplos
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On June 6, 2015, inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility, New York State's largest maximum security prison. The media was instantly obsessed with the story: aided by a prison seamstress who smuggled hacksaw blades, chisels, and drill bits inside the facility via a vat of raw hamburger meat, the two convicted murderers sliced their way through steel cell walls, meandered through a maze of tunnels, climbed out of a manhole, and walked off into the night.
-
-
Awful
- By VT Lady on 07-23-18
-
The Right Kind of Crazy
- Navy SEAL, Covert Operative, and Boy Scout from Hell
- By: Clint Emerson
- Narrated by: Clint Emerson
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Clint Emerson is the only SEAL ever inducted into the International Spy Museum. Operating from the shadows, with an instinct for running towards trouble, his unique skill set made him the perfect hybrid of elite and modern day counterintelligence agent. Emerson spent his career on the bleeding edge of intelligence and operations, often specializing in solo missions that took advantage of subterfuge, improvisation, the best in recon and surveillance tech, and even elements of Hollywood disguise to combat the changing global battlefield.
-
-
Ignore the haters...
- By Witness 22 on 04-08-20
By: Clint Emerson
-
Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
-
-
The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
-
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear
- The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (and Some Bears)
- By: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town's thick wilderness.
-
-
Author's Political Biases Shine Through
- By Frank on 12-20-20
What listeners say about Malibu Burning
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- VP's
- 10-24-19
Wow!!!
Great book! Exe
I had my own experience during the Woolsey Fire but what a learned from Robert Kerbeck’s book It’s mind bottling.
Many different interviews, many different angles, his own family experience....WOW!
Amazing work!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Angela M. Dokos
- 05-17-24
Very interesting
Very interesting book but what a horrible disaster! So many sad stories in this one little book. I can’t imagine enduring the losses and trauma these people had to deal with.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adventure Boy
- 06-05-22
A dramatic account of a suburban wildfire
This is a compelling account of the Woolsey fire in 2018 that will be of particular interest to persons near undeveloped land. During a wildfire, you should expect to lose water pressure and power. The biggest surprise for me is that during a large fire, you should not expect any assistance from the fire department. The author/narrator has a fine voice and is clear, but tries to add drama by pitching his voice higher and higher, which wore on me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Enrico Patucci
- 09-30-20
A Riveting Must Listen and Read!
Our family listened to this book during an 8-hour drive which flew by because we were enthralled by the stories being told! The narration was superb! A must read or listen for Malibu residents as well as for those curious about Malibu. The book reveals personal stories from the horrific day the fires came roaring down out of the canyons into Western Malibu! It brought back memories of our evacuation as the fire crested the hill above us. It also covers the history, the natural beauty and character of Malibu as well as the events surrounding the Woolseyi Fire. I also brought the book to add to my Woolsey Fire collection. - Mary Rose Rodgers-Patucci
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- john
- 10-30-19
Behind The Scenes of Devastation
A true, bone-chilling, behind-the-scenes look into the devastating Woolsey Fire in November 2018. Each story was more shocking than the next. So many great stories of heroism and altruism. Kerbeck tells the story of his almost-deadly fight against the beast that was the Malibu fire, as well as other unfathomable stories of residents and non-residents all fighting to save their homes, animals and their beautiful town of Malibu.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Todd Bassman
- 11-18-19
Epic true Story about bravery and courage…
Malibu Burning is the untold story of the Woolsey Fire that devastated parts of LA and Malibu last year. Robert Kerbeck shares his own personal experience fighting the fire along with his wife Gardia and son Davis, in a manner that only someone who lived through it can. The story is moving and riveting and is hard to put down at times (well in my case stop listening to). I can imagine that reading the book is also excellent, however, in my opinion, listening to Robert tell the story of his own battle has to elevate the experience. In addition to his own personal experience, it’s the back story of all the research he has done with so many others who lived through this horrible tragedy that truly makes this a special book. I highly recommend this book to all of you.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Abramson
- 03-31-21
Enlightening , and upsetting.
Sad at how ill prepared the city of Malibu was for the last wildfire and is for the next wildfire. It is a beautiful area and this book explains all the diverse problems.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- John Z. Shafai
- 05-01-20
An intense, well-written page-turner.
Not only did I purchase a hardcopy of the book, I downloaded it from audible to "read" it again. With its opening chapter, this book gets a grip on you. From that moment on, the book never lets go - a real page-turner. Simply put, once you commit to reading this, be warned: Once you start, you can’t put it down. It remains steadfastly a delightful read from beginning, though middle, to end. Even its organization is fascinating – presenting a series of vignettes covering different sets of real people in different neighborhoods – with each piece intensely focusing on each participant’s specific experience and the unique ways in which he or she dealt with the devastatingly tragic Woolsey Fire. So, like a series of independent adventure tales tied together around a central theme, the only difference here is that each of adventures really happened.
To be honest, the book was quite a surprise for me – a veritable eye-opener. Admittedly and, I’m afraid self-centeredly, I was initially drawn to the book solely because I wanted to see how the author dealt with the story of Engine 271, the subject matter of Chapter 2. Having been a call firefighter assigned to that engine, my Woolsey experience was different from other people’s experiences. I had been confined to the Corral Canyon neighborhood of Malibu throughout and after the fire. Dealing with my own hell, and cutoff from the rest of the world, I had no idea what was happening in the rest of Malibu and beyond. So the book opened up an entire panorama that had been unseen by me, and that had been otherwise unknown to me. Because of this book, I first learned how other residents in the other neighborhoods experienced the same fire and faced down flame lengths that at times could exceed 100 feet and carried temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
One of the many things I liked about the book was how it pierced the the veil of perceived glitz and glamor to shine a light on the true face of Malibu. Still rustic and stubbornly holding on to its frontier-town vibe, not everyone in Malibu is a stereotypical botoxed vapid celeb. With each vignette, the reader is treated to a real, down-to-earth person and gets to experience the fire though his or her eyes. By the end of each chapter, I felt like I knew each and every one of them. I felt close to them, and thus closer to “my” Malibu. The book also raises the tough questions of how the city and the fire department handled the Woolsey Fire. The book creates the space for compassion, healing, and points a path forward to prepare for the next catastrophic fire, which, with utmost certainty, will happen. If you’re looking for an intense, well-written page-turner, look no further. This is your book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JC
- 12-30-19
A Must Read!
Malibu Burning is both insightful and heartbreaking. A small group of people that came together to battle a wildfire on their own as they fought to save neighbor’s homes and their own, as well as animals. We see a behind the scenes look at what it was like for the homeowner heroes who stayed and felt all alone when they asked for help from fire fighters and turned down because of bureaucratic jargon. Malibu Burning is told eloquently and passionately through the author’s first hand experience and his interviews.
An amazing book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful