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Survival Math
- Notes on an All-American Family
- Narrated by: Mitchell Jackson
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
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Publisher's summary
In a thrillingly alive, candid new work, award-winning author Mitchell S. Jackson takes us inside the drug-ravaged neighborhood and struggling family of his youth, while examining the cultural forces - large and small - that led him and his family to this place.
With a poet’s gifted ear, a novelist’s sense of narrative, and a journalist’s unsentimental eye, Mitchell S. Jackson candidly explores his tumultuous youth in the other America. Survival Math takes its name from the calculations Mitchell and his family made to keep safe - to stay alive - in their community, a small Black neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, blighted by drugs, violence, poverty, and governmental neglect.
Survival Math is both a personal reckoning and a vital addition to the national conversation about race. Mitchell explores the Portland of his childhood, tracing the ways in which his family managed their lives in and around drugs, prostitution, gangs, and imprisonment as members of a tiny Black population in one of the country’s whitest cities. He discusses sex work and serial killers, gangs and guns, near-death experiences, composite fathers, the concept of “hustle”, and the destructive power of drugs and addiction on family.
In examining the conflicts within his family and community, Jackson presents a microcosm of struggle and survival in contemporary urban America - an exploration of the forces that shaped his life, his city, and the lives of so many Black men like him. As Jackson charts his own path from drug dealer to published novelist, he gives us a heartbreaking, fascinating, lovingly rendered view of the injustices and victories, large and small, that defined his youth.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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- Unabridged
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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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Pill City
- How Two Honor Roll Students Foiled the Feds and Built a Drug Empire
- By: Kevin Deutsch
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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April 28, 2015, West Baltimore, Maryland: ground zero in America's Opiate Wars. In this crime-plagued section of the city, the death of Freddie Gray has triggered the worst domestic rioting since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and created a terrifying new breed of criminal entrepreneur.
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Race baiting bullshit.
- By Nick on 02-16-17
By: Kevin Deutsch
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Mislaid
- A Novel
- By: Nell Zink
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Stillwater College in Virginia, 1966. Freshman Peggy, an ingénue with literary pretensions, falls under the spell of Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, and they begin an ill-advised affair that results in an unplanned pregnancy and marriage. The couple are mismatched from the start - she's a lesbian, he's gay - but it takes a decade of emotional erosion before Peggy runs off with their three-year-old daughter, leaving their nine-year-old son behind.
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Misbegotten, mishandled, misfired novel
- By Julie W. Capell on 02-07-16
By: Nell Zink
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The Gift of Our Wounds
- A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness After Hate
- By: Pardeep Singh Kaleka, Arno Michaelis, Robin Gaby Fisher
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, John McLain
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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When white supremacist Wade Michael Page murdered six people and wounded four in a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin in 2012, Pardeep Kaleka was devastated. The temple leader, now dead, was his father. His family, who had immigrated to the US from India when Pardeep was young, had done everything right. Why was this happening to him? Arno Michaelis, a former skinhead and founder of one of the largest racist skinhead organizations in the world, knew he had to take action and fight against the very crimes he used to commit.
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The Gift
- By M. Forsberg on 07-29-22
By: Pardeep Singh Kaleka, and others
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Where Mercy Is Shown, Mercy Is Given
- By: Duane 'Dog' Chapman
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Considered by many to be the world's greatest bounty hunter, Duane "Dog" Chapman has become famous for capturing fugitives on Dog the Bounty Hunter, his number-one-rated show on A&E. But his job doesn't end when he cuffs his man - or woman. Having personally struggled against abuse, addiction, and a life of crime, Dog knows a thing or two about the path that these fugitives cuffed in the back of his car are on.
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Slow narration - I wish the author narrated more
- By HappyQuails on 02-22-11
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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
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Born Bright
- A Young Girl's Journey from Nothing to Something in America
- By: C. Nicole Mason
- Narrated by: Robin Eller
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Born Bright, C. Nicole Mason's powerful memoir, is a story of reconciliation, constrained choices, and life on the other side of the tracks. Born in the 1970s in Los Angeles, California, Mason was raised by a beautiful but volatile 16-year-old single mother. Early on, she learned to navigate between an unpredictable home life and school, where she excelled. By high school, Mason was seamlessly straddling two worlds.
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Solid Book
- By Daryl on 11-06-16
By: C. Nicole Mason
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When They Call You a Terrorist
- A Black Lives Matter Memoir
- By: Patrisse Cullors, asha bandele, Angela Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Angela Davis - foreword, Angela Davis, Patrisse Cullors
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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When They Call You a Terrorist is the essential audiobook for every conscientious American. From one of the cofounders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic audiobook memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors' story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love.
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Everyone should listen!
- By Mary J. Bunker on 01-26-18
By: Patrisse Cullors, and others
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Cry Like a Man
- Fighting for Freedom from Emotional Incarceration
- By: Jason Wilson
- Narrated by: Damany Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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His grandfather’s lynching in the deep South, the murders of his two older brothers, and his verbally harsh and absent father all worked together to form Jason Wilson’s childhood. But it was his decision to acknowledge his emotions and yield to God’s call on his life that made Wilson the man and leader he is today. As the founder of one of the country’s most esteemed youth organizations, Wilson explains the dangers men face in our culture’s definition of “masculinity” and gives listeners hope that healing is possible.
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Just a sad story, no useful tips
- By Grzegorz on 08-15-21
By: Jason Wilson
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Almost Paradise
- The East Hampton Murder of Ted Ammon
- By: Kieran Crowley
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 22, 2001, handsome multimillionaire financier Ted Ammon was found bludgeoned to death in the magnificent East Hampton mansion he'd built with his beautiful - and volatile - wife, Generosa. She stood to make millions, but it wasn't the money that made Ted's friends suspicious: Generosa Ammon had a history of violent outbursts and bizarre obsessions.
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Wow! This was a fascinating story!
- By Lolly on 01-04-18
By: Kieran Crowley
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The World According to Fannie Davis
- My Mother's Life in the Detroit Numbers
- By: Bridgett M. Davis
- Narrated by: Bridgett M. Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A daughter's moving homage to an extraordinary parent, The World According to Fannie Davis is also the suspenseful, unforgettable story about the lengths to which a mother will go to "make a way out of no way" to provide a prosperous life for her family - and how those sacrifices resonate over time. This original, timely, and deeply relatable portrait of one American family is essential listening.
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Fantastic
- By BK on 02-15-19
What listeners say about Survival Math
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- vpepper
- 10-23-21
Stories of mistreated women
If one wants to feel repulsed of how men treated women, go ahead and read it. It is sad how women were treated in so many interactions listed in these stories. Then I wonder the purpose of the book, redemption?
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- Senshin
- 03-08-19
Not meant for me.
Over my head with this one. Beautifully written, but not meant for me as audience. English is not my first language, but I do only read and listen to books in English and do not consider myself having difficulty reading most books, but the language in this one was so academic that I had to look up so so many words. I gave up and just listened and got the overall meaning. Had that not been the case I would have given this one 4 stars.
Also horrible narrator. Hard to follow and not fall asleep to.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Cordelia Becker
- 07-27-20
A unique approach to memoir
the author/narrator did a great job telling the stories. The stories are heartbreaking and inspirational
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-21-19
Best Book I’ve Read in 2019
Mitchell Jackson is a great writer who has put his life stories into print. As a Portland, OR native, I could visualize each scene as he creatively tells his story in this book. I read this book but it was even more powerful listening to Mitchell read it. Loved it!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Barnaby Sanders
- 04-25-19
highly recommend
I heard an interview with Mitchell on NPR and decided to get his book. A great listen and interesting story. I dont finish a lot of books (even on Audible). This one I did. His reading was a tad slow for my liking, but adjusted to 1.25x was perfect for me and I liked that he narrates it himself.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Joe McFerrin II
- 02-12-23
Fast 10 Slow 20
Incredible Read. Exemplifies so many our real life experiences growing up. Illustration of the challenges navigating Fatherhood differently than the way in which we may have been raised by our Dad’s.
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- Jaydra P.
- 04-11-21
A window into another part of my hometown
Mitchell Jackson had a wonderful way with words. His mashup of academian vernacular and words from the streets is artful and endlessly enjoyable.
I grew up in the same place and there were parts of my life I saw in Jackson’s. There were also parts of Jackson’s story that was so different from my own it was like we lived in two separate towns. Which, in a way, we did thanks to an accumulation of institutionalized racism.
A beautiful telling of a complete story. Jackson shares the all the parts, pretty and shameful, gentle and violent, sincerely. The thing I appreciate most about the telling of this story is the appreciation of process. We are all somewhere on our journey and will never be finished.
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- Marc Anderson
- 04-10-19
Amazing
Representing N.E.P. on center stage. Thank you for sharing your narrative through eyes brown like mines.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amber
- 08-14-20
Great Read....But...
This is a good and necessary read for all. However the audible version is very difficult to get through. Author is not a good reader. Due to weight of the content some things are missed. The book is timely and relatable for 2020.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-18-24
Not your typical American story
Love the author’s authenticity, vulnerability, detailedness, the variety of tales told, and candor. Great read, especially for black men/community. Highly recommend. Makes me interested in other of Mitchell’s titles!
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