Rough Beauty
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Narrated by:
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Jayme Mattler
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By:
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Karen Auvinen
About this listen
In the best-selling tradition of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild and Helen MacDonald’s H Is for Hawk, a stunning, inspirational memoir from an award-winning poet who ventures into the wilderness to seek answers to life’s big questions and finds her way back after losing everything she thought she needed.
During a difficult time, Karen Auvinen flees to a primitive cabin in the Rockies to live in solitude as a writer and to embrace all the beauty and brutality nature has to offer. When a fire incinerates every word she has ever written and all of her possessions - except for her beloved dog Elvis, her truck, and a few singed artifacts - Karen embarks on a heroic journey to reconcile her desire to be alone with her need for community.
In the evocative spirit of works by Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, and Mary Oliver, Karen’s rich and compulsively listenable memoir is as much an inward as it is an outward pilgrimage. Her pursuit of solace and salvation by shedding trivial ties and living in close harmony with nature, along with her account of finding community and love, is sure to resonate with all of us who long for meaning and deeper connection. Rough Beauty is a luminous, lyric exploration of and homage to her 40 seasons in the mountains, embracing the unpredictability and grace of living intimately with the forces of nature while making peace with her own wildness.
©2018 Karen Auvinen (P)2018 Simon & SchusterListeners also enjoyed...
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The Child Finder
- A Novel
- By: Rene Denfeld
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared when her family was choosing a Christmas tree in Oregon's Skookum National Forest. She would be eight years old now - if she has survived. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, certain someone took her, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as "the Child Finder", Naomi is their last hope.
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One Dimensional
- By Sara on 10-04-17
By: Rene Denfeld
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The Visiting Privilege
- New and Collected Stories
- By: Joy Williams
- Narrated by: Richard Powers, Emily Woo Zeller, Elisabeth Rodgers, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Joy Williams has been celebrated as a master of the short story for four decades, her renown passing from one generation to the next even in the shifting landscape of contemporary writing. And at long last the incredible scope of her singular achievement is put on display: 33 stories drawn from three much-lauded collections and another 13 appearing here for the first time in book form.
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I sure tried.
- By A.C. CALLOWAY on 01-28-24
By: Joy Williams
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Just Passin' Thru
- A Vintage Store, the Appalachian Trail, and a Cast of Unforgettable Characters
- By: Winton Porter
- Narrated by: Jones Allen
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Like a well-crafted stage play, Just Passin' Thru delivers one suspenseful scene after another. But in this historic setting a store on the Appalachian Trail called Mountain Crossings the characters who show up are no fictional creations. Like any good drama, there are the good guys (and gals) and the weirdos, too. Some show up once (and that’s enough), and some appear again and again. But all are united by two things: the author’s story-capturing talent, and whatever it is that lures them to attempt (or conquer) a 2,200-mile path that climbs and plummets from Georgia to Maine.
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Well Worth it!
- By Pamela M. on 11-13-14
By: Winton Porter
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Magic Lessons
- A Prequel to Practical Magic
- By: Alice Hoffman
- Narrated by: Sutton Foster
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Nameless Arts". Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.
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Alice Hoffman Never Disappoints
- By Elle Estee on 10-07-20
By: Alice Hoffman
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A Three Dog Life: A Memoir
- By: Abigail Thomas
- Narrated by: Abigail Thomas
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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When Abigail Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must live the rest of his life in an institution. He has no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before. This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to build a new life. How she built that life is a story of great courage and great change, of moving to a small country town, of a new family composed of three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt and discovering gratitude.
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Eloquent & Honest
- By Sara on 09-30-15
By: Abigail Thomas
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The Stolen Child
- By: Keith Donohue
- Narrated by: Andy Paris, Jeff Woodman
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven-year-old Henry Day is kidnapped and renamed "Aniday" by changelings, ageless beings who inhabit the woods near his home. The changelings also leave behind one of their own, who flawlessly impersonates Henry except for one noteworthy detail: the new Henry is a prodigiously talented pianist.
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Not Anything Close to the Hype
- By Jon on 06-20-06
By: Keith Donohue
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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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Here on Earth
- By: Alice Hoffman
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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March Murray, along with her 15-year-old daughter, Gwen, returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up to attend the funeral of Judith Dale, the beloved housekeeper who raised her. After nearly 20 years of living in California, March is thrust into the world of her past.
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The magical realm of Alice Hoffman
- By Brendolynne on 07-09-12
By: Alice Hoffman
What listeners say about Rough Beauty
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrea
- 08-29-18
Beautifully Written and Narrated
This book transported me into a dream of mountain living. Fulfilling by proxy the enduring connection with nature I always wished to know and obtain. The Author in so many ways told the story of my own heart. Probably the best articulation of the transforming love and relationship one can have with a dog that I've ever read. This is a wonderful book to live in and I'm just sorry it had an ending.
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- S. Sevilla
- 10-27-23
Enjoyable listen, transported to the rugged mountains of Colorado
Karen has tremendous facility with words.
As others have mentioned, I laughed and teared up many times listening to her poignant descriptions of love, loss and joy.
Th specificity and frequency of alcohol consumption is rampant throughout the book, a constant companion that conjures alcoholism yet she mentions it almost as though brag worthy. Not trying to come off as preachy but a heads up for anyone struggling with alcohol.
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- Sheryl
- 11-04-18
I LOVED this book in so many ways
I loved the author’s descriptions of her mountains, the food she cooks and serves with such care, her friends, and, most of all, her dog. The narration is pitch perfect. Be warned, though. There will be tears to shed, and your heart may break. But this book is worth both the time and the tears.
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- Kylee Morrow
- 08-29-19
Living out of the norm, and connecting to all nature has to offer, comes to life in this book
I love the perspective of how rough unfolds into peace and presence through the trials and tribulations of a beautiful strong woman.
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- Leonora
- 08-06-18
Author's Memoir
First, I need to say that Ms. Auvinen writes beautifully. However, I think I was expecting something a little different in this title. This memoir spends a lot of time on her painful childhood with a harsh father and a hurting family and her ultimate escape for solitude in the Colorado mountains. Overall I would say the story is more about her than about the mountains in which she lives. We are given a glimpse what life in those mountains is like, what the townsfolk are like but, it's really about the author's thoughts and feelings as she travels through these years.
There were two things that took away from my overall enjoyment of the book. First was the reader's voice. In my mind the author has a strong voice, yet the reader was somewhat nasally and ended each sentence with a gravelly down tone. I don't know why, but it quickly began to annoy me.
Secondly, I cried for the author's love of her dog. It was a very special relationship, no doubt. I have dogs and I get that. But, there was no similar emotion for her mother's life threatening illness. That came across as more of an annoyance to the author and something that forced her to have to interact with her family. It was hard for me to empathize with her story when she showed more love and heartbreak for her dog than for her mother.
All in all, I do like her writing style and I will look for other titles by Ms. Auvinen.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-14-18
A wonderful read. Grounded earthy but poetic prose
I found this book impossible to put down. an elegant masterpiece. Best read in decades.have just finished reading the Audible version, which was beautifully and sensitively read by the narrator. One of the most exquisite earthy grounded and yet elegantly written books I have read in a long time. I listened to the novel as I walked my own 'young dog', George, through the national park near our home in Australia each morning. As Karen describes her day with Elvis the rescued Husky, the foxes, bears and other mountain creatures for company - I watched huge kangaroos bounding away at dawn from the tracks we walk. I related to Karen's story so deeply on many levels. READ IT and grow richer. I have now ordered the hard back copy as well as this will remain a long time classic on my shelf. A book to keep and share forever. Thank you Karen. Please write more books. Your prose is of the best of these times.
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- Bambi L. Statz
- 03-31-19
Mountains, animals, plants, and a human life create synergy!
What a beautiful ode to nature and to human nature. The descriptions of animals and plants and their impact on the author’s well-being were heart warming.
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- Karen
- 08-06-18
One of my favorites of 2018
I love this book in so many ways, the poetic descriptions of the landscapes, the strong female friendships, the way it broke my heart.....Please read this book, but be aware that you will be sobbing in all the best ways...
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- aja martin
- 07-12-23
Beautiful story of a beautiful life.
What a beautiful story. I laughed, cried, and was transported into the mountain life with this book. After a very long winter here in Utah and living at 8000 feet, I questioned myself and why I moved to the mountains. It’s not for the faint. But Karen reminds me why we work so hard to live this type of life. The value of living each season to the fullest. Thank you for such a wonderfully inspirational read. I needed that.
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