
Mockingbird Summer
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Ren Hanami
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By:
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Lynda Rutledge
About this listen
A powerful and emotional coming-of-age novel set amid the turmoil and profound changes of the 1960s by the bestselling author of West with Giraffes.
In segregated High Cotton, Texas, in 1964, the racial divide is as clear as the railroad tracks running through town. It’s also where two girls are going to shake things up.
This is the last summer of thirteen-year-old Corky Corcoran’s childhood, and her family hires a Haitian housekeeper who brings her daughter, America, along with her. Corky is quick to befriend America and eager to share her favorite new “grown-up” novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. America’s take on it is different and profoundly personal. As their friendship grows, Corky finds out so much more about America’s life and her hidden skill: she can run as fast as Olympian Wilma Rudolph!
When Corky asks America to play with her girls’ softball team for the annual church rivals game, it’s a move that crosses the color line and sets off a firestorm. As tensions escalate, it fast becomes a season of big changes in High Cotton. For Corky, those changes will last a lifetime.
Set on the eve of massive cultural shifts, Mockingbird Summer explores the impact of great books, the burden of potential, and the power of friendship with humor, poignancy, and exhilarating hope.
©2024 by Lynda Rutledge. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“A brilliantly written coming-of-age novel that is set on the eve of massive cultural shifts throughout Texas and the American south, Mockingbird Summer is a deftly crafted novel by Lynda Rutledge.” —Midwest Book Review
“This is a well-thought-out book with a plot that keeps the reader engaged and presents realistic situations from the early Civil Rights Movement. The characters are complex and the depiction of racism only furthers the reader’s compassion for such hateful actions. Highly recommended.” —Historical Novel Society
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Stars of Alabama
- A Novel by Sean of the South
- By: Sean Dietrich
- Narrated by: Sean Dietrich
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When 15-year-old Marigold becomes pregnant amid the Great Depression, she is rejected by her family and forced to fend for herself. And when she loses her baby in the forest, her whole world turns upside down. She’s even more distraught upon discovering she has an inexplicable power that makes her both beautiful and terrifying - and something of a local legend. Meanwhile, migrant workers Vern and Paul discover a violet-eyed baby and take it upon themselves to care for her.
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Wow! How have I not heard of this?!?
- By Wren on 01-05-20
By: Sean Dietrich
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Yellow Crocus
- Yellow Crocus, Book 1
- By: Laila Ibrahim
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. Thus begins an intense relationship that will shape both of their lives for decades to come. Though Lisbeth leads a life of privilege, she finds nothing but loneliness in the company of her overwhelmed mother and her distant, slave-owning father.
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A rare find, a 5 star book!
- By Kathy in CA on 02-22-15
By: Laila Ibrahim
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The Women on Platform Two
- By: Laura Anthony
- Narrated by: Jessica Regan, Shakira Shute, Maeve Smyth
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Dublin, 1969: Maura has just married Dr. Christy Davenport and they look forward to growing their family. But as her husband’s vicious temper emerges, Maura worries that her home might never be safe for a child. Meanwhile, her close friend Bernie, a mother of three, learns the devastating news that if she conceives again, her health complications could prove fatal.
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Fabulous story!
- By kanga2012 on 04-21-25
By: Laura Anthony
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The Reading List
- A Novel
- By: Sara Nisha Adams
- Narrated by: Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, Paul Panting
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in the London Borough of Ealing after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading. Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper. It's a list of novels that she's never heard of before. When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too.
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Fabulous narrators!
- By Barbara S on 10-29-21
By: Sara Nisha Adams
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Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love
- A Novel
- By: Marianne Cronin
- Narrated by: Kim Durham, Clare Corbett, Natalie Nightingale
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Eddie Winston is 90 years old. He has lived and he has loved, but he has never been kissed. A true gentleman and incurable romantic, Eddie spends his days volunteering at a charity shop, where he sorts through the donations of the living and the dead, preserving letters and tokens of love along the way. And it is here that he meets Bella, a troubled young woman who, at 24 years old, has just lost the love of her life.
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The Sweetest Story
- By Cathy C. on 01-14-25
By: Marianne Cronin
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One Good Thing
- A Novel
- By: Georgia Hunter
- Narrated by: Eva Feiler, Georgia Hunter
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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1940, Italy. Lili and Esti have been best friends since they first met at university. When Esti’s son Theo is born, they become as close as sisters. While a war seethes across borders, life somehow goes on—until Germany invades Italy, and the friends suddenly find themselves in occupied territory. Esti, older and fiercely self-assured, convinces Lili to join the resistance efforts. But when disaster strikes, a critically wounded Esti asks Lili to take a much bigger step: To go on the run with Theo. Protect him while Esti can’t.
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I loved it
- By helene vanderhoff on 04-28-25
By: Georgia Hunter
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The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife
- A Novel
- By: Anna Johnston
- Narrated by: Tim Carroll
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Frederick Fife was born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from. At eighty-two, he’s desperately lonely, broke, and on the brink of homelessness. But Fred’s luck changes when, in a bizarre case of mistaken identity, he takes the place of grumpy Bernard Greer at the local nursing home. Now he has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his poker face is in better shape than his prostate and that his look-alike never turns up.
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Somewhat engaging but predictable
- By RSNYC on 10-15-24
By: Anna Johnston
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The Snow Child
- By: Eowyn Ivey
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods.
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WOW!!! A MUST Listen - even better than reading.
- By Edmund W. Cheung on 02-13-19
By: Eowyn Ivey
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The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris
- By: Daisy Wood
- Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow, Tom Lawrence
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Juliette and her husband have finally made it to France on the romantic getaway of her dreams—but as the days pass, all she discovers is quite how far they’ve grown apart. She’s craving a new adventure, so when she happens across a tiny, abandoned shop with a for-sale sign in the window, it feels fated. And she’s about to learn that the forgotten bookshop hides a lot more than meets the eye.
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WWII Historical Fiction
- By Mona-Alisa on 04-04-23
By: Daisy Wood
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The First Ladies
- By: Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
- Narrated by: Robin Miles, Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself is awestruck and eager to make her acquaintance.
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A Wake Up Call to history and today
- By JoeKristina Smith on 07-11-23
By: Marie Benedict, and others
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The Secret Life of Sunflowers
- By: Marta Molnar, Dana Marton
- Narrated by: Kendra Murray
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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When Hollywood auctioneer Emsley Wilson finds her famous grandmother's diary while cleaning out her New York brownstone, the pages are full of surprises. The first surprise is, the diary isn't her grandmother's. It belongs to Johanna Bonger, Vincent van Gogh's sister-in-law.
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Nothing like a expected…
- By LOVETOQUILT on 05-06-23
By: Marta Molnar, and others
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The River We Remember
- A Novel
- By: William Kent Krueger
- Narrated by: CJ Wilson
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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On Memorial Day in Jewel, Minnesota, the body of wealthy landowner Jimmy Quinn is found floating in the Alabaster River, dead from a shotgun blast. The investigation falls to Sheriff Brody Dern, a highly decorated war hero who still carries the physical and emotional scars from his military service. Even before Dern has the results of the autopsy, vicious rumors begin to circulate that the killer must be Noah Bluestone, a Native American WWII veteran who has recently returned to Jewel with a Japanese wife.
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Mediocre!
- By KEK on 09-08-23
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True Colors
- By: Kristin Hannah
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr
- Length: 13 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The Grey sisters had only each other when their mother died years ago. Their father provided for them physically on Water's Edge, the ranch that had been in their family for three generations, each of them however, longed for their father's love.
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Well written, POORLY narrated... :(
- By Brenda on 07-14-10
By: Kristin Hannah
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The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
- A Novel
- By: Allison Pataki
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Mrs. Post, the President and First Lady are here to see you. . . . So begins another average evening for Marjorie Merriweather Post. Presidents have come and gone, but she has hosted them all. Growing up in the modest farmlands of Battle Creek, Michigan, Marjorie was inspired by a few simple rules: always think for yourself, never take success for granted, and work hard—even when deemed American royalty, even while covered in imperial diamonds.
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That's 10 hours of my life I'll never get back
- By Andrea L. Helms on 03-30-22
By: Allison Pataki
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Memorial Days
- A Memoir
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz–just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy–collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.
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Uninspired, mediocre writing.
- By C. Tyler on 03-04-25
By: Geraldine Brooks
Reliving the revelations about racism
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A great read for Black History Month
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Enjoyed the story of the girls friendship and how her & her brother were humble servants of God
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True Grit
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Mockingbird Summer Captured the 60s!
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Very Good Story
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“It’s what you make of tragedy that makes you.”
This book took me a little longer to get through than most other books, even her other book which I really enjoyed and the reason I can think is the era or Corky, the main character in the book and boy, what a character she is. I have known a person or two like Corky” I think everyone has; maybe the only difference is age or maybe not. Corky is blissfully naïve even though she never seems to run out of inappropriate questions to ask. I am sure it was the time and small-town Texas but still a sad part of history.
I think everyone should have a Roy Rogers, of their own. 😉 A lot of the book is perhaps small-town America but the main event is the big Softball game at the end of the year and the terrible events that happen right after the game; lives are forever changed including Corky’s. That is the day her eyes are opened, oh, she’s still Corky and she still has a whole lot of growing up to do but she starts to get it. I Think. I love the way America, the only black player on the team for the Baptist Church always seems to run on to the field in the nick of time. I could have been friends with her easily. Pastor Pete’s last sermon is GREAT, it says a lot in only a few words.
Worth the read/listen!
Don't give up, this takes place in a different era
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Timeless
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Hoping for a sequel
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Character development
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