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Pure Land
- A True Story of Three Lives, Three Cultures and the Search for Heaven on Earth
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
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Publisher's summary
Pure Land is the story of the most brutal murder in the history of the Grand Canyon and how McGivney's quest to investigate the victim's life and death wound up guiding the author through her own life-threatening crisis. On this journey stretching from the southern tip of Japan to the bottom of Grand Canyon, and into the ugliest aspects of human behavior, Pure Land offers proof of the healing power of nature and of the resiliency of the human spirit.
Tomomi Hanamure, a Japanese citizen who loved exploring the rugged wilderness of the American West, was killed on her birthday, May 8, 2006. She was stabbed 29 times as she hiked to Havasu Falls on the Havasupai Indian reservation at the bottom of Grand Canyon. Her killer was an 18-year old Havasupai youth named Randy Redtail Wescogame, who had a history of robbing tourists and was addicted to meth. It was the most brutal murder ever recorded in Grand Canyon's history. Annette McGivney covered the tragedy for Backpacker magazine where she is Southwest Editor and she wrote an award-winning article that received more reader mail than any story in the last decade.
While the assignment ended when the article was published, McGivney could not let go of the story. As a woman who also enjoys wilderness hiking, McGivney felt a bond with Hanamure and embarked on a years-long pursuit to learn more about her. McGivney traveled to Japan and across the American West following the trail Hanamure left in her journals. Yet, McGivney also had a connection to Wescogame, Hanamure's killer, and her reporting unexpectedly triggered long-buried memories about violent abuse McGivney experienced as a child.
Pure Land is a story of this inner and outer journey, how two women in search of their true nature found transcendence in the West's most spectacular landscapes. It is also a tale of how child abuse leads to violence and destroys lives. And it is, ultimately, a story of healing. While chronicling Hanamure's life landed McGivney in the crime scene of her own childhood, it was her connection to Hanamure - a woman she did not know until after Hanamure died - that helped McGivney find a way out of her own horror.
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Dennis Banks, an American Indian of the Ojibwa Tribe and a founder of the American Indian Movement, is one of the most influential Indian leaders of our time. In Ojibwa Warrior, written with acclaimed writer and photographer Richard Erdoes, Banks tells his own story for the first time and also traces the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM).
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By the numbers bio
- By Scott on 12-30-14
By: Dennis Banks, and others
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Love and Other Ways of Dying
- Essays
- By: Michael Paterniti
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 17 wide-ranging essays collected for the first time in Love and Other Ways of Dying, he brings his full literary powers to bear, pondering happiness and grief, memory and the redemptive power of human connection. In the remote Ukranian countryside, Paterniti picks apples (and faces mortality) with a real-life giant; in Nanjing, China, he confronts a distraught jumper on a suicide bridge.
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Incredibly intimate voice for humanity
- By Ed Hodges on 01-02-16
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Twentynine Palms
- A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave
- By: Deanne Stillman
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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August 2, 1991, Twentynine Palms, California: a troubled Marine who has recently returned from the Gulf War savagely murders two young girls. One was about to turn 16, the other 21. Exquisitely and inexorably, Deanne Stillman uses this tragedy as a prism through which she examines a rootless culture of fatherless families, shattered dreams, and relentless violence. She also traces the family histories of each murder victim back for generations, in one case to the Donner Party and the other to a shack in the Philippines.
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Ugh...
- By Ashley on 11-03-20
By: Deanne Stillman
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The Source of All Things
- A Memoir
- By: Tracy Ross
- Narrated by: Tracy Ross
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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A loving and devoted step-father, Donnie introduced Tracy Ross's family to the joys of fishing, deer hunting, camping, and hiking among the pristine mountains of rural Idaho. Donnie was everything Tracy dreamed a dad would be: protective, brave, and kind. But when his dependence on his eight-year-old daughter's companionship went too far, everything changed.
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Brave Woman
- By Ray Stewart on 06-23-24
By: Tracy Ross
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The Serial Killer Whisperer
- How One Man's Tragedy Helped Unlock the Deadliest Secrets of the World's Most Terrifying Killers
- By: Pete Earley
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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From New York Times best-selling author Pete Earley: the strange but true story of a man who suffers a traumatic brain injury and as a result is given the ability to converse with the world's most terrifying criminals.
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The Banality of Evil
- By Cynthia on 09-08-13
By: Pete Earley
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How Dare the Sun Rise
- Memoirs of a War Child
- By: Sandra Uwiringiyimana, Abigail Pesta
- Narrated by: Sandra Uwiringiyimana
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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This profoundly moving memoir is the remarkable and inspiring true story of Sandra Uwiringiyimana, a girl from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who tells the tale of how she survived a massacre, immigrated to America, and overcame her trauma through art and activism. Sandra was just 10 years old when she found herself with a gun pointed at her head. She had watched as rebels gunned down her mother and six-year-old sister in a refugee camp.
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Sandra's voice is mesmorizing!
- By Karissa Barber on 04-18-18
By: Sandra Uwiringiyimana, and others
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Until I Say Good-Bye
- My Year of Living with Joy
- By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, Bret Witter
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Susan Spencer-Wendel's Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy is a moving and inspirational memoir by a woman who makes the most of her final days after discovering she has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). After Spencer-Wendel, a celebrated journalist at the Palm Beach Post, learns of her diagnosis of ALS, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, she embarks on several adventures, traveling to several countries and sharing special experiences with loved ones.
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Until I Say Good-Bye is a paradox for me.
- By Bonny on 03-19-13
By: Susan Spencer-Wendel, and others
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Walking to Listen
- 4,000 Miles Across America, One Story at a Time
- By: Andrew Forsthoefel
- Narrated by: Andrew Forsthoefel
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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At 23, Andrew Forsthoefel headed out the back door of his home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, with a backpack, an audio recorder, his copies of Whitman and Rilke, and a sign that read "Walking to Listen". He had just graduated from Middlebury College and was ready to begin his adult life, but he didn't know how. So he decided to take a cross-country quest for guidance, one where everyone he met would be his guide. In the year that followed, he faced an Appalachian winter and a Mojave summer. He met beasts inside: fear, loneliness, doubt.
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Transcends the typical trekking story
- By barefoot rabbit on 08-07-18
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Sometimes Brilliant
- The Impossible Adventure of a Spiritual Seeker and Visionary Physician Who Helped Conquer the Worst Disease in History
- By: Larry Brilliant
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Larry Brilliant's life journey has led him on a purposeful path across continents and countercultural movements, marching arm in arm with the men and women who defined a generation. A man who has always been in the right place at the right time, Brilliant has engaged with some of the most prominent thought leaders, spiritual masters, heroes, and icons in the world, including Neem Karoli Baba (Maharajji), Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, Mikhail Gorbachev, Wavy Gravy, the Grateful Dead, the Dalai Lama, and Barack Obama.
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Sometimes Brilliant--Brilliant
- By Dr. Sharon G. Solloway on 10-24-16
By: Larry Brilliant
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Lassoing the Sun
- A Year in America's National Parks
- By: Mark Woods
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Many childhood summers, Mark Woods piled into a station wagon with his parents and two sisters and headed to America's national parks. Mark's most vivid childhood memories are set against a backdrop of mountains, woods, and fireflies in places like Redwood, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon national parks. On the eve of turning 50, and a little burned out, Mark decided to reconnect with the great outdoors. He'd spend a year visiting the national parks.
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great narrator, lackluster story, wonderful themes
- By MT on 08-21-18
By: Mark Woods
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Maya's Notebook
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Maria Cabezas
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Neglected by her parents, 19-year-old Maya Nidal has grown up in Berkeley with her grandparents. Her grandmother Nini is a force of nature, a woman whose formidable strength helped her build a new life after emigrating from Chile in 1973. Popo, Maya's grandfather, is a gentle man whose solid, comforting presence helps calm the turbulence of Maya's adolescence. When Popo dies of cancer, Maya goes completely off the rails, turning to drugs, alcohol, and petty crime in a downward spiral that eventually bottoms out in Las Vegas.
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Narrator ruins this book
- By R.J. Mulder on 05-13-14
By: Isabel Allende
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The Boys in the Bunkhouse
- Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland
- By: Dan Barry
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tiny Iowa farm town of Atalissa, dozens of men, all with intellectual disabilities and all from Texas, lived in an old schoolhouse. Before dawn each morning, they were bussed to a nearby processing plant, where they eviscerated turkeys in return for food, lodging, and $65 a month. They lived in near servitude for more than 30 years, enduring increasing neglect, exploitation, and physical and emotional abuse.
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Our Brothers' Keepers?
- By Gillian on 12-01-16
By: Dan Barry
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American Ghost
- A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest
- By: Hannah Nordhaus
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The dark-eyed woman in the long, black gown was first seen in the 1970s, standing near a fireplace. She was sad and translucent, present and absent at once. Strange things began to happen in the Santa Fe hotel where she was seen. Gas fireplaces turned off and on without anyone touching a switch. Glasses flew off shelves. And in one second-floor suite with a canopy bed and arched windows looking out to the mountains, guests reported alarming events.
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A true American tale
- By Cleo Colorado on 05-29-15
By: Hannah Nordhaus
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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
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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.
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Great book!
- By David on 02-26-15
By: Emily Brady
What listeners say about Pure Land
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gena
- 03-22-18
I'm going to read this one.
What other book might you compare Pure Land to and why?
Perhaps it was like "my sister milly" and "wild" in the way the author was able to convey a deeper understanding of the complex and often fragile nature of humans, by connecting her own story rather than detaching from it. I appreciate that. We are all so much more than "just the facts" and I believe our feminine nature is much more adept at telling this kind of story.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Unfortunately, this narrator just could not get in to the needed feel and nuance of telling this story well. I continually felt irritated that she just could not express what the writer was trying to convey. I have listened to the writer on other interviews as well as the welcomed bonus at the end of this audiobook. SHE SHOULD HAVE READ HER OWN BOOK!
Any additional comments?
This is one I wish they would re-record by the author, as it is one of those stories I know I could listen to again and again.
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- Thomas A. Siewert
- 05-01-23
Intense stories
This book consists of three interwoven personal stories: the Japanese girl (Tomami), the boy who killed her, and the author's. During the first part of the book, I, like others, wondered about the inclusion of the author's story as it just didn't seem to fit. By the end of the book, however, she wove it into the narrative quite well, though I do still think some of the earlier entries were superfluous. Overall I think it is an engrossing narrative, one story about a boy neglected by the system and his family, a girl who falls in love with the American West, maybe too much, and an author gripped by the story she covers that won't let her go until she learns some surprising things about herself and her life, all set around the Grand Canyon. The book is well-written and keeps you engrossed in the tapestry she weaves. The narration is good, though having lived and worked at the Grand Canyon, I was frustrated by some of the pronunciation inconsistencies. I do think the interviews at the end didn't do much for the understanding of the story, as it was pretty much already in the main body of the book. Recommended for those interested in true crime, Native American history and issues, and the process of cause and effect in people's lives.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-03-20
great book, narrator didn't research names
loved the book but I'm locally biased and knew the premise and wanted to learn more. as a local it was glaringly obvious the narrator/married and company didn't do enough research. there are some names that are mispronounced that are very obvious and well-known. example is the pronunciation of supai. another example is the pronunciation of Randy's last name.
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- ALLshop
- 03-15-23
Well told
A well told story of the tragic murder of a Japanese tourist in the Grand Canyon, intertwined with the author's personal journey of discovery and recovery from childhood violence. Compelling, harrowing, beautiful, touching. The reader comes to know the victim as a wonderful, inquisitive, sweet woman who loved America - especially the southwest and Native American culture. You also learn about the perpetrator and his and his people's troubled backgrounds, and the role of the government and NPS in their loss of homeland, identity, property, culture, and so much more. The author's personal story, which was unfolding as she researched the book and which she includes because of the connections she felt to the victim, but also to many other aspects of the story, is also raw and compelling. So much sadness in so many lives, but a book worth reading (or hearing) - maybe more than once.
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- Fancy Cat
- 04-14-23
profoundly moving
I felt everything. I felt empathy, sympathy, fear, sadness, joy, anger and confusion. but most of all I felt gratitude and ah ha. so much makes sense. I needed this book. I believe every American would be well-advised to read this book
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- BeachBabe
- 03-29-18
Moving and Insightful
This is a tremendous piece of journalism and writing. It is a multi-layered, depthful inspection of trauma and healing power of Nature. Trauma on both huge cultural levels and small personal levels.
The book is not depressing, however. It is heartfelt, compassionate and uplifting. It is educational and Insightful as well.
I am deeply impressed with the author's intelligence and heart. I heard an interview with her on the "Once Upon a Crime" podcast last week and immediately purchased the audiobook and devoured all twelve hours over a couple of days.
Thank you, Annette. Your book is a service to humankind.
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- JS
- 06-10-23
I read after visiting supai
I wanted to know more about the area and came across this book. I thought it was very enjoyable. I read some complaints about the author interweaving her own story and I have to agree that in the beginning it wasn’t obvious to me why we were listening to her story instead of the main characters. It does come together in the middle-ish end and I enjoyed all three stories that were revealed. A good book if you love the outdoors and consider yourself a bit of a “searcher.”
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- julia
- 06-01-24
not wha I expected
I was a bit disappointed by the focus of the book - more so on the authors life and problems than on the young hiker that was murdered in Havasupai. It was also annoying that the narrator mispronounced the names of the places in the Grand Canyon throughout the book.
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- kathy shearin
- 03-03-18
Absolutely Eye-opening and Exceptional Book!
What a read...This book had me captivated from the minute the audio started. Annette McGivney takes you right into the heart of the Grand Canyon with all its beauty, and yet dark sad history, and into the hearts of two precious endearing dreamy young girls whose lives intertwined in a foreboding and mysterious yet beautiful way. Out of the darkest circumstances came light, and you travel this journey with them, page by page. It’s the kind of book where you find yourself exploring your own life along with theirs. It’s a book that every true nature-lover and avid reader who seeks to broaden their horizons should own. It may even change the way you feel, think, and look at this beautiful world. Don’t be surprised if you cherish your next blazing sunset just a little more after this read.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-06-22
So much intertwined
I had the idea that this book was mostly about a murder that the writer was reseraching, but from the start it was so much more. It's a history of some of the people who were living on the land we call the United States and the ways they were treated as the national park boundaries and rules formed. It's also so much autobiographical story too, and it's all amazingly connected.
Sometimes the tone of the performance seemed a little off to me, like telling a fantasy story instead of true and harsh history.
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