Perpetual Gloom
A Two Rut-Road Along the Boloney Trail
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Narrated by:
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Anthony J Santora
About this listen
SERIES STARTER: This is the first installment of the action and adventure-packed historical fiction book series, The Boloney Trail Trilogy. The novel tells the remarkable true events of the Hornbeck family, who struggle to survive The Great Depression, only then to become key players in the birth of the feared Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel.
Series Starter: Perpetual Gloom, a two rut-road along The Boloney Trail1930s – 1950s. When the depression hits the Hornbeck family hard, its patriarch, JC, a religious zealot, robs a bank in Missouri’s bootheel. Later, in Arkansas, he is put on trial as a communist. Keen to escape his father’s religious hypocrisy, JC’s teenage son, Monroe, steals his father’s horse in Texas and runs away. On his way to California, he experiences life-changing events that ultimately define him as a man. Monroe meets a young woman, Dora, some time on, and they wed after she falls pregnant.
Reviews: “…unforgettable details that pulls readers into scenes and helps them empathize with the human condition in a manner reminiscent of Steinbeck.” — William Mike Kielkopf, Author, Journalist, and Language Educator.
“The Boloney Trail Trilogy by Shelah Johnson, tells the remarkable true story — a kind of Grapes of Wrath meets Breaking Bad story…The writing is exceptional. Hard-core and unembellished, Johnson doesn’t mince words, and the story would not have worked if she had. ” —Sheri Hoyte, Managing Editor Reader Views
"A vivid portrait of Depression-era history. Johnson excels at weaving together rich historical detail, along with immersive colloquial dialogue that never seems to slip, even as it shifts between different regions of America. The familial relationships feel vibrant and authentic, while the undertone of philosophical questions about the Great Depression drives the plot and characters forward. The visceral story and three-dimensional characters make this novel a thoroughly compelling and thought-provoking portrait." Self-Publishing Review
©2021 Shelah A. Johnson (P)2022 Shelah A. JohnsonListeners also enjoyed...
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After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
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The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
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The Last Ballad
- A Novel
- By: Wiley Cash
- Narrated by: Karen White, Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Twelve times a week, 28-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. Two in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's owners - the newly arrived Goldberg brothers - white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for 72 hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has.
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Dryer than a popcorn fart
- By Scott Wilson on 02-11-18
By: Wiley Cash
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Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
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Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
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This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor, Sharon Washington, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
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A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
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Sometimes a Great Notion
- By: Ken Kesey
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 30 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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A literary icon sometimes seen as a bridge between the Beat Generation and the hippies, Ken Kesey scored an unexpected hit with his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His successful follow-up, Sometimes a Great Notion, was also transformed into a major motion picture, directed by and starring Paul Newman. Here, Oregon’s Stamper family does what it can to survive a bitter strike dividing their tiny logging community. And as tensions rise, delicate family bonds begin to fray and unravel.
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Sometimes a Great Novel Pops up out of Nowhere
- By Mr. Eyuz on 06-07-19
By: Ken Kesey
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That Old Ace in the Hole
- By: Annie Proulx
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Annie Proulx's That Old Ace in the Hole is told through the eyes of Bob Dollar, a young Denver man trying to make good in a bad world. Dollar is out of college but aimless, when he takes a job with Global Pork Rind - his task to locate big spreads of land in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles that can be purchased by the corporation and converted to hog farms.
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Doesn't work as a novel
- By Sarah C on 05-30-12
By: Annie Proulx
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The Auctioneer
- Valancourt 20th Century Classics
- By: Joan Samson
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, John Moore and his wife, Mim, work the land that has been in his family for generations. But from the moment the charismatic Perly Dinsmore arrives in town and starts soliciting donations for his auctions, things begin slowly and insidiously to change in Harlowe. As the auctioneer carries out his terrible, inscrutable plan, the Moores and their neighbors will find themselves gradually but inexorably stripped of their freedom, their possessions, and perhaps even their lives....
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Unbelievable
- By pineapple67 on 11-08-19
By: Joan Samson
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Ava's Man
- By: Rick Bragg
- Narrated by: Rick Bragg
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Abridged
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With the same emotional generosity and effortlessly compelling storytelling that made All Over But the Shoutin’ a beloved bestseller, Rick Bragg continues his personal history of the Deep South. This time he’s writing about his grandfather Charlie Bundrum, a man who died before Bragg was born but left an indelible imprint on the people who loved him. Drawing on their memories, Bragg reconstructs the life of an unlettered roofer who kept food on his family’s table through the worst of the Great Depression
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Deeply moving
- By Kate on 08-12-03
By: Rick Bragg
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Sugar
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Sugar arrives in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas, like an ominous storm. She saunters down the street in a blonde wig and spiked heels, cigarette dangling between red-painted lips. Without even speaking to her, the women in town hate her. But when she moves in next door to Pearl, a woman who tragically lost her daughter 15 years earlier, the two women bond over tragic pasts.
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Wow wow wow
- By brenda transon on 08-27-19
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Memphis
- A Novel
- By: Tara M. Stringfellow
- Narrated by: Karen Murray, Adenrele Ojo, Tara Stringfellow
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
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Awful narrator
- By Rachael edwards on 06-07-22
What listeners say about Perpetual Gloom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kentucky Bohemian
- 12-31-23
5 Star Story with Mediocre Narration
I loved this story when I wasn't being distracted by the lackluster narration. The Hornbeck family bears no resemblance to the classic TV families I grew up watching. But they don't resemble modern families depicted in media either. They are their own unique subset of misery, bitterness, anger, and regret.
Beginning with the family during the years of the Great Depression, the Hornbecks show us what life was like for too many people during that time. Readers are also reminded of the stark reality of ignorance and racism so common at that time. It was a hard era in which hard work and good morals did not always pay off. One of the themes running through this amazing story is the role religion played in the decisions people made and the actions they took. It's decidedly not pretty. But it certainly has the ring of truth in much of what occurs.
The characters here are wonderfully rich, detailed, and authentic. Readers will love some and loathe others. There are bittersweet moments as we witness the additional difficulties faced by innocent children during this time. Yet the resilience of the children keeps this from being too load-bearing. John Steinbeck and Ernest Hemingway were in my mind as I enjoyed this modern classic. There are moments when one can't help being reminded of The Grapes of Wrath, not just because of the time frame but because of the richness of these characters.
I'm glad to see the next book in the series is already available, because this one left us with a bit of a cliffhanger. I don't want to wait to jump into book 2 and find out what kind of trouble the Hornbecks will stir up next. If you're the type of audiobook listener who is easily distracted or upset by narration that isn't top-notch, I would recommend reading the book rather than listening to the audio. That's what I'll be doing for book 2. However you choose to do it, just make sure you don't miss this quiet gem!
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- Bernadene pilip
- 03-21-22
So close to home
Too close to home ! Sometimes a story is uncomfortable to read. It made me wonder if this could be my family’s history too.
Daniel Florea
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