README.txt
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Chelsea Manning
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By:
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Chelsea Manning
About this listen
"Manning reads her book in a sharp voice that is clearly accustomed to marshaling information..."- Washington Post
"[Manning's] text and performance create a blistering autobiography that is both observant and instructive."- AudioFile
"In both content and narration, Manning displays a keen ability to imbue this detailed account of her life and activism with both sarcasm and sincerity." - Library Journal
"In this revealing memoir, Manning details her experience in military intelligence and her ultimate decision to share classified information with WikiLeaks in this revealing memoir. Listeners will appreciate Manning’s voice as she explores her reasoning for her decisions and accepts her fate with dignity."- Booklist
This program is read by the author.
An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.
While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.
The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.
In README.txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. Manning details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence as a naive, computer-savvy kid, what drew her to the military, and the fierce pride she has about the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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From the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most underappreciated forces: shame. 'It's about the terror, isn't it?' 'The terror of what?' I said. 'The terror of being found out.' For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us - people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work.
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You'll never look at public shaming the same way
- By Megan Gunter on 04-02-15
By: Jon Ronson
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The Operators
- The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan
- By: Michael Hastings
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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An explosive, behind-the-scenes look into the workings of the U.S. war in Afghanistan that lifts the curtain of the world stage to reveal the devastating greed, waste, and failure surrounding this unwinnable war.
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VERY INTERESTING STORY
- By Professor on 01-04-13
By: Michael Hastings
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The Reluctant Spy
- My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror
- By: John Kiriakou, Michael Ruby
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Long before the waterboarding controversy exploded in the media, one CIA agent had already gone public. In a groundbreaking 2007 interview with ABC News, John Kiriakou called waterboarding torture - but admitted that it probably worked. This book, at once a confessional, an adventure story, and a chronicle of Kiriakou's life in the CIA, stands as an important, eloquent piece of testimony from a committed American patriot.
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Fascinating Read about the CIA
- By Nancy on 05-13-10
By: John Kiriakou, and others
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Somewhere Inside
- One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home
- By: Laura Ling, Lisa Ling
- Narrated by: Laura Ling, Lisa Ling
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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On March 17, 2009, Laura Ling and her colleague Euna Lee were working on a documentary about North Korean defectors who were fleeing the desperate conditions in their homeland. While filming on the Chinese/North Korean border, they were chased down by North Korean soldiers who violently apprehended them. Laura and Euna were charged with trespassing and "hostile acts," and imprisoned by Kim Jong Il's notoriously secretive Communist state.
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Disappointing
- By amandasan on 05-26-10
By: Laura Ling, and others
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Breaking Cover
- My Secret Life in the CIA and What it Taught Me About What's Worth Fighting For
- By: Michele Rigby Assad
- Narrated by: Michele Rigby Assad
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The CIA is looking for walking contradictions. Recruiters seek people who can keep a secret, yet pull classified information out of others; who love their country, but are willing to leave it behind to head into dangerous places; who live double lives, but can be trusted with some of the nation's most sensitive tasks. Michele Rigby Assad was one of those people. As a CIA agent, Michele soon found that working undercover was an all-encompassing job. The threats were real. The mission was a perilous one. Trained as a counterterrorism expert, Michele spent over a decade in the agency.
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Deceptive title and sample.
- By Philip Yaghmai on 07-17-18
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Witness to the Revolution
- Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul
- By: Clara Bingham
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 18 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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As the 1960s drew to a close, the United States was coming apart at the seams. From August 1969 to August 1970, the nation witnessed 9,000 protests and 84 acts of arson or bombings at schools across the country. It was the year of the My Lai massacre investigation, the Cambodia invasion, Woodstock, and the Moratorium to End the War. The American death toll in Vietnam was approaching 50,000, and the ascendant counterculture was challenging nearly every aspect of American society.
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great perspective on an era
- By james on 04-02-18
By: Clara Bingham
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Rosewater - Previously Published as 'Then They Came For Me’
- By: Maziar Bahari, Aimee Molloy
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran's presidential election, he assured his pregnant fiancée, Paola, that he'd be back in just a few days, a week at most. Little did he know, as he kissed her good-bye, that he would spend the next three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, enduring brutal interrogation sessions at the hands of a man he knew only by his smell: Rosewater.
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Book that would've shined but for the narration
- By loix on 06-24-11
By: Maziar Bahari, and others
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A Rope and a Prayer
- The Story of a Kidnapping
- By: David Rohde, Kristen Mulvihill
- Narrated by: David Rohde, Kristen Mulvihill
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The compelling and insightful account of a New York Times reporter's abduction by the Taliban and his wife's struggle to free him. Invited to an interview by a Taliban commander, New York Times reporter David Rohde and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped in November 2008 and spirited to the tribal areas of Pakistan. For the next seven months, they lived in an alternate reality, ruled by jihadists, in which paranoia, conspiracy theories, and shifting alliances abounded.
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A History Lesson
- By Ed on 12-31-10
By: David Rohde, and others
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I Lost My Love in Baghdad
- A Modern War Story
- By: Michael Hastings
- Narrated by: Michael Hastings
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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At age 25, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a 21st-century reporter: cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, and translators.
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Sad story...
- By kathryn on 01-01-09
By: Michael Hastings
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The Upside of Fear
- How One Man Broke the Cycle of Prison, Poverty, and Addiction
- By: Weldon Long
- Narrated by: Weldon Long
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Weldon Long knows firsthand that Maui is nicer than prison. After 13 years of federal and state incarceration, he emerged a transformed man: a powerful speaker, driven motivator, and successful trainer/entrepreneur. Long holds a BS in law and an MBA in management, despite dropping out of high school in the ninth grade.
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What’s the point?
- By Elliot king on 10-21-21
By: Weldon Long
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Soldier Girls
- The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War
- By: Helen Thorpe
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Soldier Girls follows the lives of three women on their paths to the military. These women, who are quite different in every way, become friends, and we watch their interaction and also what happens when they are separated. We see their families, their lovers, their spouses, their children. We see them work extremely hard, deal with the attentions of men on base and in war zones, and struggle to stay connected to their families back home.
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Valor Knows No Gender
- By Cynthia on 03-21-15
By: Helen Thorpe
What listeners say about README.txt
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dakota
- 03-08-23
Review
A very important story to be told, one I would recommend any adult listen to. Ms. Manning's performance has some flaws, but I found it did not negatively impact my listening experience.
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- andrea
- 04-14-23
amazing
If perfect could be a book, this would most certainly be it. Incredible incredible incredible!
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- Eric Johnson
- 12-16-22
An amazing author
This was a great book and an amazing storyline. It’s wild that in 2020 this was still going on. Happy that it’s over for her meaning her time in jail.
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- J Park
- 10-18-22
Excellent
Chelsea Manning’s Readme.txt memoir read by Chelsea herself, what’s more to say? Unforgettable book from a brave new writer who’s next follow-up books will be greatly anticipated.
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- Gerardo Orozco
- 12-08-22
Powerful endurance and teachings to all of us
Great story to learn more about many aspects! Hope the future holds a better place for everyone
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- Nel
- 11-03-22
That was really good!
those were the first words out of my mouth at the end of this audiobook. Chelsea Manning went through some horrific treatment, at the hands of our own citizens for whom cruelty was the whole point, people (can they really be people?)for whom dreaming up tortures was an actual pastime. Then they acted them out.
I didn't know much of Chelsea's story going in and even if I'm late, I'm happy to know her story now. Her intelligence and incredible wealth of knowledge is amazing! OMG She should be held in the highest esteem and given the respect of past heroes in our history.
The arc of Chelsea Manning's life is the actual real life story of someone in a superhero movie, or a drama about a factory worker named Norma Rae. She went through stuff that most of all of us couldn't bear.
And I believe her.
You need to read this book. You'll thank me later.
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- Ada Darwin
- 11-04-22
amazing
i never thought i would get to hear her story as told by her let alone read by her. this is an important read.
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- David Waldman
- 10-28-22
Eye Opening
I don’t want to say to much because I don’t want to spoil it. I still think Manning was wrong and should not have done what she did, but the way she was treated was inexcusable.
Note: sometimes it’s a good idea to have the author read the work, and sometimes it’s better to hire a professional narrator. This is a very personal and moving story, but it was read with all of the emotion of a reading of a math textbook.
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- Candice
- 11-02-22
read this book
Thank you so much for sharing your life Chelsea. We are kindred spirits and we love and appreciate you and your sacrifices for all human kind. You are selfless and amazing . Thank you,Thank you, thank you
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- Natalie Buckman
- 03-26-23
well worth the listening time
Excellently written autobiography. I did not follow much of the news of her story at the time, but I was curious how she came to the decision as a soldier. The only reason I did not give 5 stars for performance was an occasional change in the volume and vocal style. It may have been caused by editing recordings from two different times together, but it did interupt the audio flow if the book.
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