
Pachinko
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Narrated by:
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Sandra Oh
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Min Jin Lee
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By:
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Min Jin Lee
About this listen
One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century
In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan–the inspiration for the television series on Apple TV+.
In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty.
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 * A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE * WINNER OF THE MEDICI BOOK CLUB PRIZE
Roxane Gay's Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
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Story
An excellent student from a poor, traditional family in Seoul, the narrator has absorbed the same message her whole life: Only a boy can provide the family with dignity and wealth. Not her. Not her three sisters. Receiving approval only for uncomplaining sacrifice, she has resolved to take on her family’s troubles. She is a good girl. And she knows what good girls must do.
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Brings back sadness and hurt
- By Qats reads on 08-23-19
By: Min Jin Lee
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A Dreadful Splendor
- A Novel
- By: B.R. Myers
- Narrated by: Olivia Vinall
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In Victorian London, Genevieve Timmons poses as a spiritualist to swindle wealthy mourners—until one misstep lands her in a jail cell awaiting the noose. Then a stranger arrives to make her a peculiar offer. The lord he serves, Mr. Pemberton, has been inconsolable since the tragic death of his beautiful bride-to-be. If Genevieve can perform a séance persuasive enough to bring the young lord peace, she will win her freedom.
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Excellent!
- By Kimberly A. Minardi on 09-20-22
By: B.R. Myers
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Transcendent Kingdom
- A novel
- By: Yaa Gyasi
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.
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Would have benefited from a different narrator
- By Richard Stewart on 09-11-20
By: Yaa Gyasi
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The Dictionary of Lost Words
- A Novel
- By: Pip Williams
- Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and irrepressibly curious, she spends her childhood in the Scriptorium, an Oxford garden shed in which her father and a team of dedicated lexicographers are collecting words for the very first Oxford English Dictionary. Young Esme’s place is beneath the sorting table, unseen and unheard. One day a slip of paper containing the word bondmaid flutters beneath the table. She rescues the slip and, learning that the word means “slave girl,” begins to collect other words discarded or neglected by the dictionary men.
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Enchanted
- By Lulu Can on 04-07-21
By: Pip Williams
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Dear Edward
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
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Stunning characterization and compelling storytelling!
- By Amazon User on 01-29-20
By: Ann Napolitano
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Antelope Woman
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Louise Erdrich
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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When Klaus Shawano abducts Sweetheart Calico, the seductive Indian woman who has stolen his heart, and takes her far from her native Montana plains to his own Minneapolis home, he cannot begin to imagine the eventual ramifications his brazen act will entail. Shawano’s mysterious Antelope Woman has utterly mesmerized him - and soon proves to be a bewitching agent of chaos whose effect on others is disturbing and irresistible, as she alters the shape of things around her and the shape of things to come.
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Longing
- By LARA BIRCHLER on 01-03-24
By: Louise Erdrich
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The Starless Sea
- A Novel
- By: Erin Morgenstern
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman, full cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues - a bee, a key, and a sword.
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Just couldn't make it
- By Richard E. on 11-23-19
By: Erin Morgenstern
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Julia
- A Novel
- By: Sandra Newman
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Julia Worthing is a mechanic, working in the Fiction Department at the Ministry of Truth. It’s 1984, and Britain (now called Airstrip One) has long been absorbed into the larger trans-Atlantic nation of Oceania. Oceania has been at war for as long as anyone can remember, and is ruled by an ultra-totalitarian Party, whose leader is a quasi-mythical figure called Big Brother. In short, everything about this world is as it is in Orwell’s 1984.
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Double plus good and it hurts
- By WoofUsing ThisMonopoly on 10-30-23
By: Sandra Newman
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The Immortals of Tehran
- By: Ali Araghi
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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As a child living in his family's apple orchard, Ahmad Torkash-Vand treasures his great-great-great-great grandfather's every mesmerizing world. On the day of his father's death, Ahmad listens closely as the seemingly immortal elder tells him the tale of a centuries-old family curse...and the boy's own fated role in the story.
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Unique story with many characters
- By Anonymous User on 08-22-24
By: Ali Araghi
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Daughters of Shandong
- By: Eve J. Chung
- Narrated by: Yu-Li Alice Shen
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Daughters are the Ang family’s curse. In 1948, civil war ravages the Chinese countryside, but in rural Shandong, the wealthy, landowning Angs are more concerned with their lack of an heir. Hai is the eldest of four girls and spends her days looking after her sisters. Headstrong Di, who is just a year younger, learns to hide in plain sight, and their mother—abused by the family for failing to birth a boy—finds her own small acts of rebellion in the kitchen.
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Worth the time!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-09-24
By: Eve J. Chung
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Last Summer at the Golden Hotel
- By: Elyssa Friedland
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In its heyday, The Golden Hotel was the crown jewel of the hotter-than-hot Catskills vacation scene. For more than sixty years, the Goldman and Weingold families - best friends and business partners - have presided over this glamorous resort which served as a second home for well-heeled guests and celebrities. But the Catskills are not what they used to be - and neither is the relationship between the Goldmans and the Weingolds.
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Very frustrating and confusing
- By kendallalycia on 05-26-21
By: Elyssa Friedland
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Out of the Darkness
- A Novel
- By: David A. Jacinto
- Narrated by: David A. Jacinto, Paul Michael, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1837, seven-year-old Thomas Wright followed in his family’s footsteps into one of England’s most dangerous coal mines. He struggled with childhood fears, working twelve-hour days, six days a week in the darkness 500 feet below ground. That was until disaster struck in one of England’s most horrific accidents that changes the direction of his life and the course of history. This is the fast-moving story of a young boy overcoming the iron-fisted rule of the massively wealthy lord of the land.
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The Best Book I’ve Ever Read!
- By Christie on 06-18-24
By: David A. Jacinto
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The Office of Historical Corrections
- A Novella and Stories
- By: Danielle Evans
- Narrated by: Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Nicole Lewis, Brittany Pressley, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters’ lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. She introduces us to Black and multiracial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief - all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively.
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blecch
- By Burns on 12-23-20
By: Danielle Evans
The setting was also very unique, very nice to hear some new perspectives, and I learned some things. Great story.
My only complaint is that there may have been too many characters. The result was that some great characters were introduced, but then skimmed over quickly. And when the book was finished with a character, their story arc was often abruptly cut off. I liked so many of the characters, I wish they could have been present for more of the story, or their absence dealt with more in-depth.
Satisfying Read, Good Narration
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Character development, plot, engaging and relatable storytelling
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Pachinko was an eye-opener in terms of the discrimination Koreans felt by the Japanese for such a long time. How sad that some characters felt the need to completely reinvent themselves in order to be accepted. What happened to Noah really caught me by surprise.😕 I’m sure this discrimination was felt by many in real life and was not written just for this book.
I enjoyed following the lives of the main characters in this book — especially the lives of the women. It was drilled into them that a woman’s lot in life is to “suffer.” How sad for one of the main characters (Sanja) who first lost her husband after his incarceration for being a Christian (minister) and then she later lost one of her sons. This poor mother took on the guilt for everything that was wrong in the lives of those she loved despite the fact that she was an excellent, loving, caring mother.
In a way, Sanja equated living with fear with loving someone because in her mind, if you risked loving someone, you had to also face the risk of losing them. I don’t disagree with her on this point. As a mother, I can relate to the “if I had only done this or that differently, life would be so much better/different for my children.” I believe that as parents, both mothers and fathers, we all have moments of thinking that, but as women and mothers, whether right or wrong or deserved, we internalize blame and see our mistakes as proof we are failures. This is so not the truth, but as mother’s we feel as we feel, whether it is true or not. We can rationalize whatever we want, but our hearts feel what they feel.
It was interesting to see this in a Korean mother. It goes to show, that no matter our skin color, our nationality, our belief system, that as women, we do live largely in a state of fear and guilt, especially where our children are concerned.
The narrator, actress Sandra Oh, did such a fantastic job in this book. She was authentic and she made every character come to vividly come to life.
Be warned: There are graphic sexual scenes in this book that are not appropriate for children to hear (in case you play this book aloud while at home or in the car with your kids). I have the benefit of listening to my books thru my hearing aides, so I can listen anywhere, any time without worrying about what others might hear, but if you don’t want to spend a lot of time having to explain things you may not be READY to explain, listen to this (amazing!) book at your own discretion.
I highly recommend this book!
THIS BOOK WILL STAY WITH ME FOR A LONG TIME…
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Absolutely excellent.
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I LOVE THIS BOOK
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If you’re from an immigrant family many of these stories, while fictional, will be eerily relatable. The characters are all so distinct and lifelike, and the story is constantly twisting and turning. I’ve got some lingering emotional whiplash, along with that hollow feeling that comes when you finish a truly good story!
Sandra Oh is the perfect choice for the narrator and she does a more than spectacular job with the characters. Her pronunciation is also quite good throughout, even with the numerous japanese/korean phrases (and adding accents when foreigners speak them), which makes the characters feel that much more authentic.
I won’t be forgetting this book anytime soon.
Feel like somebody stuck me with a spigot and drained my emotions into a bucket… so great!!
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Incredible. Best audio book I’ve ever listened to. And I’ve listened to many.
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Time Travel
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Beautiful story
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Beautiful writing
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