Small Animals
Parenthood in the Age of Fear
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Narrated by:
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Kim Brooks
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By:
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Kim Brooks
About this listen
This program includes a bonus interview with the author.
One morning, Kim Brooks made a split-second decision to leave her four-year old son in the car while she ran into a store. What happened would consume the next several years of her life and spur her to investigate the broader role America’s culture of fear plays in parenthood. In Small Animals, Brooks asks: Of all the emotions inherent in parenting, is there any more universal or profound than fear? Why have our notions of what it means to be a good parent changed so radically? In what ways do these changes impact the lives of parents, children, and the structure of society at large? And what, in the end, does the rise of fearful parenting tell us about ourselves?
Fueled by urgency and the emotional intensity of Brooks’s own story, Small Animals is a riveting examination of the ways our culture of competitive, anxious, and judgmental parenting has profoundly altered the experiences of parents and children. In her signature style - by turns funny, penetrating, and always illuminating - which has dazzled millions of fans and been called "striking" by the New York Times Book Review and "beautiful" by the National Book Critics Circle, Brooks offers a provocative, compelling portrait of parenthood in America and calls us to examine what we most value in our relationships with our children and one another.
©2018 Kim Brooks (P)2018 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Part memoir, part history, part documentary, part impassioned manifesto...it might be the most important book about being a parent that you will ever read." (Emily Rapp Black, New York Times best-selling author of The Still Point of the Turning World)
"Kim Brooks's moving narration is the perfect vehicle for the drama surrounding her arrest for a momentary lapse in judgement...Brooks's lyrical writing and largely dispassionate narration will draw parents into this larger dynamic and restore their freedom to do what they believe is best as parents." (AudioFile Magazine)
"Small Animals interrogates how we weigh risk as parents, how we judge one another's parenting and what the costs might be - not just to parents, but to children, too - of a culture of constant surveillance." (New York Times Book Review)
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Story
Luisa "Lu" Brant is the newly elected - and first female - state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It's not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard County doesn't see many homicides.
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In a word saccharine and boring
- By Rena on 05-12-16
By: Laura Lippman
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Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay
- And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom
- By: Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
- Narrated by: Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
- Length: 5 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In busy-mom-friendly short essays, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay delivers the empathetic straight dirt on parenting, tackling everything from Mommy & Me classes ("Your baby doesn't need to be making friends at three months old - you do! But not with people you'll meet at Mommy & Me") to attachment parenting ("If you're holding your baby 24/7, that's not a baby, that's a tumor").
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Ok, nothing amazing
- By Lklns on 03-14-19
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If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother
- By: Julia Sweeney
- Narrated by: Julia Sweeney
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Since her time on Saturday Night Live, where she created the infamous androgynous character "Pat", Julia Sweeney has gone on to establish herself as a witty, captivating performer of one-woman shows, like God Said Ha!, In the Family Way, and Letting Go of God. She gave a TED talk sharing how she explained the birds and the bees to her eight-year-old daughter, Mulan, which ignited an incredible response. Now, when it comes to talking about motherhood, people want to hear what Julia has to say.
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I Love Julia Sweeney
- By Lisa on 04-05-13
By: Julia Sweeney
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The Unspeakable
- And Other Subjects of Discussion
- By: Meghan Daum
- Narrated by: Meghan Daum
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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It's a report tempered by hard times. In "Matricide", Daum unflinchingly describes a parent's death and the uncomfortable emotions it provokes; and in "Diary of a Coma" she relates her own journey to the twilight of the mind. But Daum also operates in a comic register. With perfect precision, she reveals the absurdities of the marriage-industrial complex, of the New Age dating market, and of the peculiar habits of the young and digital.
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Complaining about her dead mom.
- By Erik Hermansen on 11-23-14
By: Meghan Daum
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And When She Was Good
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Linda Emond
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Heloise considers it a blessing to be a person who seldom attracts attention. In her suburb, she's just a mom, the young widow with the forgettable job, who somehow never misses a soccer game. In the state capital, she's the redheaded lobbyist with a good cause and a mediocre track record. But in discreet hotel rooms throughout the area, she's the woman of your dreams - if you can afford the hourly fee. For more than a decade, Heloise believed she was safe, managing to keep up this rigidly compartmentalized life. But her secret life is under siege. One county over, another so-called suburban madam has been found dead in her car, an apparent suicide.
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And When She Was Bad...
- By Carole T. on 08-18-12
By: Laura Lippman
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Overwhelmed
- Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time
- By: Brigid Schulte
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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According to the Leisure Studies Department at the University of Iowa, true leisure is “that place in which we realize our humanity.” If that’s true, argues Brigid Schulte, then we're doing dangerously little realizing of our humanity. In Overwhelmed, Schulte, a staff writer for The Washington Post, asks: Are our brains, our partners, our culture, and our bosses making it impossible for us to experience anything but “contaminated time”?
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Depressing, Dreary Listening Experience
- By Deb A on 04-19-15
By: Brigid Schulte
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The Boy Who Loved Too Much
- A True Story of Pathological Friendliness
- By: Jennifer Latson
- Narrated by: Heather Auden
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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What would it be like to see everyone as a friend? Twelve-year-old Eli D'Angelo has a genetic disorder that obliterates social inhibitions, making him irrepressibly friendly, indiscriminately trusting, and unconditionally loving toward everyone he meets. It also makes him enormously vulnerable. Eli lacks the innate skepticism that will help his peers navigate adolescence more safely - and vastly more successfully.
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Williams Syndrome
- By Sharlotte on 09-20-19
By: Jennifer Latson
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Hidden Girl
- The True Story of a Modern-Day Child Slave
- By: Shyima Hall, Lisa Wysocky
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Shyima Hall was born in Egypt on September 29, 1989, the seventh child of desperately poor parents. When she was eight, her parents sold her into slavery. Shyima then moved two hours away to Egypt's capitol city of Cairo to live with a wealthy family and serve them eighteen hours a day, seven days a week. When she was ten, her captors moved to Orange County, California, and smuggled Shyima with them. Two years later, an anonymous call from a neighbor brought about the end of Shyima's servitude - but her journey to true freedom was far from over.
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story
- By Don on 09-26-14
By: Shyima Hall, and others
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Have a New Teenager by Friday
- From Mouthy and Moody to Respectful and Responsible in 5 Days
- By: Kevin Leman
- Narrated by: Kirby Heybourne
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Congratulations! You have a teenager in your home. Life will never quite be the same again (of course, you already know that). But it can be better than you’ve ever dreamed. In fact, you’re just five days away from your teenager asking, “What can I do to help?” Guaranteed! With his signature wit and commonsense psychology, internationally recognized family expert and New York Times best-selling author Dr. Kevin Leman will help you. your teenager’s life. With Dr. Leman’s instinct and insight, plus an index with gutsy advice on 75 hot-button issues that keep parents up at night.
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Listen with a Critical Mind
- By Stephanie on 03-25-13
By: Kevin Leman
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This Is Not Over
- A Novel
- By: Holly Brown
- Narrated by: Madeleine Maby, Donna Postel
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Two very different women with this in common: Each harbors her own secret, her own reason why she can't just let this go. Neither can yield, not before they've dredged up all that's hidden, even if it has the power to shatter all they've built.
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Pettiness Turn Twisted!
- By Jenn on 01-19-17
By: Holly Brown
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My Two Moms
- Lessons of Love, Strength, and What Makes a Family
- By: Zach Wahls, Bruce Littlefield
- Narrated by: Kris Koscheski
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 31, 2011, Zach Wahls addressed the Iowa House Judiciary Committee in a public forum regarding civil unions. The 19-year-old son of a same-sex couple, Wahls proudly proclaimed, "The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character." Hours later, his speech was posted on YouTube, where it went viral, quickly receiving more than two million views. By the end of the week, everyone knew his name and wanted to hear more from the boy with two moms.
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You will not regret listening to this.
- By V. Brown on 06-07-12
By: Zach Wahls, and others
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Girls Like Us
- Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself
- By: Rachel Lloyd
- Narrated by: Rachel Lloyd
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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During her teens, Rachel Lloyd ended up a victim of commercial sexual exploitation. With time, through incredible resilience, and with the help of a local church community, she finally broke free of her pimp and her past and devoted herself to helping other young girls escape "the life". In Girls Like Us, Lloyd reveals the dark world of commercial sex trafficking in cinematic detail and tells the story of her groundbreaking nonprofit organization: GEMS.
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Rachel Lloyd is an Amazing Woman
- By joan m. on 01-14-22
By: Rachel Lloyd
What listeners say about Small Animals
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Renee Sorgenfrie
- 01-15-19
alternative look
This book presents an alternative look at practices in parenting. Parents (and others) have the best intentions for children. If we come to that understanding before judgement, conversational walls can be avoided and understanding/support will be created. Although (on the negative) this book can often come off as whiney. Perceptive is important for all sides of the conversation. This book vouched loudly for 1 chosen perspective once again. Although it was the alternative viewpoint, It is all the more important to give value to each side while coming to an understanding of a personal parenting situation.
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- david
- 02-09-21
Cover is good some of the story is captivating.
I enjoyed the book and recommended it to friends but what is a really cool story of a personal parental experience get a bit deep into public policy later in the book. I agree with the authors perspectives but the discussion of public policy and how we might have gotten their is pretty blah compared to her compelling personal story of the insanity of public policy and the fears of others intruding on our lives. We really need to learn to leave others alone to make their own decisions based on their own risk tolerance. Terrible what government put this lady thru. We need a way to remove prosecutors that fail to use appropriate discretion in pursuit of political ends rather than anything related to justice. One invasive busy body can cause a lot of trouble for an innocent working mom.
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- Joshua Ferguson
- 03-20-19
Didn’t want it to end
This book is incredible for any parent at any stage of their parenthood. Kim feels like your inner thoughts intertwined with talking to your best friend. Such an honest, funny, raw & amazing book, I couldn’t put it down. READ IT!
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-20-19
This explains a lot
Kids need space to be self reliant. Well written; well read. Thought provoking. Recommend for book groups and parent groups.
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- Autumn Johnson
- 09-21-18
Like hitting the pause button on the neurotic state we’ve found ourselves in as mothers. MUST READ!
Finally someone says what we’ve all been thinking and wondering in the deep recesses if our instinctual parental souls. will be buying a copy of this book to give to all my new Mom friends. A very worthwhile perspective to consider as we all blindly navigate the passages of parenthood and pointedly stop to consider the effect some of our FEARS (irrational or otherwise) may be - no - definitely ARE having on our children as we prepare or worse, handicap them for real world adulthood.
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- Honolulu Mama
- 09-03-18
Life Changing
I highly recommend this audiobook. I could relate so much to the author’s anxiety since motherhood. This made me question where my fears stem from and want to scream to all my friends that we need to find a better way. It has made me reevaluate myself as a parent and my perception of risk. I really appreciated the author’s openness and honesty throughout a dreadful experience. I’ll recommend this to all my parenting friends.
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- Mark A. Mahler
- 01-28-19
Fascinating & Frustrating in equal measure
To be honest, I really liked this book and I also frequently swore aloud at the author while listening to it. I don’t know if I’ve ever had a similarly conflicted response to a piece of media.
The information that Brooks conveys seems carefully researched and considered, timely, and important for any parent in the modern age. It also reads like it was written by an overly anxious young mother with an English Lit. degree, which is precisely what Brooks tells us she is. I can’t pan this book because it’s heartfelt and authentic, but neither can I wholeheartedly recommend it because it made me desperately wish she had Cher’s character from Moonstruck standing next to her, ready to scream “Snap out of it!”
If there was a way to edit out all of her personal anecdotes and keep the reporting, interviews, and statistics, I’d pay for this book all over again.
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- David Scheef
- 03-02-19
Want to know why so many parents are wacko?
As kids, we ran around. Jumped off things. Wandered through the woods. Climbed trees. Played ball in the street. All sorts of things where we could have been hurt. And we all survived and look back with some degree of joy and nostalgia on our childhoods.
Yet, as parents ourselves, so many of us are complete wackos. Hovering over our kids. Cramming activities into their days like we’re running their campaigns for office. Denying them so many of the simple things we enjoyed. I wanted to know why.
In this book, Kim Brooks does a remarkable job explaining why so many 21st Century parents have lost their minds. I’m so sorry she had to survive such an awful ordeal to take up the task but I’m glad she did.
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- I. Vaynberg
- 10-30-19
The only parenting book you need to read!
Really enjoyed this book. I thought it was very well-researched and put together, informative without being boring.
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- Hanah
- 11-25-18
Required Reading
I cannot recommend this book enough. It has put so much of what I have been feeling into words when I could not.
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