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The Brief History of the Dead
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
Brilliant in concept and execution, The Brief History of the Dead is a spectacular achievement that lingers in the mind long after the final word.
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- Narrated by: Johnathan McClain
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1943, LSD is synthesized in Basel. Two decades later, a coterie of grad students at Harvard are gradually drawn into the inner circle of renowned psychologist and psychedelic drug enthusiast Timothy Leary. Fitzhugh Loney, a psychology PhD student, and his wife, Joanie, become entranced by the drug’s possibilities such that their “research” becomes less a matter of clinical trials and academic papers and instead turns into a freewheeling exploration of mind expansion, group dynamics, and communal living.
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STORYTELLING AS CONSCIOUSNESS-RAISING
- By Christopher Meeks on 05-25-19
By: T. C. Boyle
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Her Body and Other Parties
- Stories
- By: Carmen Maria Machado
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.
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Beautiful
- By Anonymous User on 11-17-17
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Blind Lake
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Charles Wilson, says The New York Times, "writes superior science fiction thrillers." His Darwinia won Canada's Aurora Award; his most recent novel, The Chronoliths, won the prestigious John W. Campbell Memorial Award. Now he tells a gripping tale of alien contact and human love in a mysterious but hopeful universe.
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DIMINISHED EXPECTATIONS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-22-15
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The Boy Who Drew Monsters
- By: Keith Donohue
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since he nearly drowned in the ocean three years earlier, 10-year-old Jack Peter Keenan has been deathly afraid to venture outdoors. Refusing to leave his home in a small coastal town in Maine, Jack Peter spends his time drawing monsters. When those drawings take on a life of their own, no one is safe from the terror they inspire.
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troubled boy, troubled waters
- By Debra B on 10-29-14
By: Keith Donohue
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White Noise
- By: Don DeLillo
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event", a lethal black chemical cloud floats over the Gladneys' lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys - radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic appliances, and TV murmurings - pulsing with life yet suggesting something ominous.
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Designed to be analyzed by an English class
- By RI in Canada on 10-15-16
By: Don DeLillo
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The Winds of Marble Arch
- By: Connie Willis
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Tom, an American, is in London for a conference when he begins to experience unusual forces in the Underground. Is it an easily-explained phenomenon - or ghosts from Britain's past?
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Hugo award winner
- By Katherine on 07-09-12
By: Connie Willis
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The Invisible Circus
- By: Jennifer Egan
- Narrated by: Madeleine Lambert
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan's highly acclaimed first novel, set in 1978, the political drama and familial tensions of the 1960s form a backdrop for the world of Phoebe O'Connor, age eighteen. Phoebe is obsessed with the memory and death of her sister Faith, a beautiful idealistic hippie who died in Italy in 1970. In order to find out the truth about Faith's life and death, Phoebe retraces her steps from San Francisco across Europe, a quest which yields both complex and disturbing revelations about family, love, and Faith's lost generation.
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Too bad zero was not a choice...
- By IVAL on 04-28-13
By: Jennifer Egan
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Revenge
- Eleven Dark Tales
- By: Yoko Ogawa
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith, Johanna Parker
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon's neighbor - who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture.
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Maybe, more Gray then Dark?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 10-28-14
By: Yoko Ogawa
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I'll Be There
- By: Holly Goldberg Sloan
- Narrated by: Laura Jennings
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Emily Bell believes in destiny. To her, being forced to sing a solo in the church choir - despite her average voice - is fate: because it's while she's singing that she first sees Sam. At first sight they are connected. Sam Border wishes he could escape, but there's nowhere for him to run. He and his little brother, Riddle, have spent their entire lives constantly uprooted by their unstable father. As Sam and Riddle are welcomed into the Bells' lives, they witness the warmth and protection of a family for the first time.
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Needs to be a film!
- By TreasureHunter on 06-25-16
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In the Shadow of the Mountain
- A Memoir of Courage
- By: Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
- Narrated by: Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Endless ice. Thin air. The threat of dropping into nothingness thousands of feet below. This is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her pulse-raising memoir. A Latina hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she’d suffered as a child, she started climbing. She then took her biggest pain as a survivor to the biggest mountain: Everest.
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How much was not said in so many words
- By Emma Pavich on 10-25-24
What listeners say about The Brief History of the Dead
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Audrey
- 09-28-09
Can't wait to hear it again.
Finally, a truly great post-apocalyptic novel that manages to be about so much more than the nuts and bolts of the gory end of man. The premise is really fresh and the story is told so delicately and carefully that it unfolds like a flower. This book made me look at humankind and the nature of human relationships with a compassion that I had not felt for years.
About a year ago, I muscled through this novel in one reeeeeally long road trip. It kept me awake and engaged. When I finally reached my destination for the night, I was so bummed that there were 30 minutes left that I ended up listening to the rest of it there in the parking lot, in the same car I'd have paid good money to escape hundreds of miles earlier that day.
There were a few parts toward the end that I felt were too slow, and have since realized that I was just so curious and impatient to see how it ended that I was giving no respect to the process. Then I found out that when I just *listened* to the language and watched the story coming together in my mind, I was really glad that those parts were there.
I'm about to read it again. This time, instead of blazing through it, I'm going to take my time. It's worth it.
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4 people found this helpful
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- friendlykitty
- 06-10-14
When I was 13 I would have loved this.
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
If the friend is 13 and under yes I would.
Would you ever listen to anything by Kevin Brockmeier again?
maybe.
How could the performance have been better?
a little less silly would be nice.
Do you think The Brief History of the Dead needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
nah. I think we got all the good out of this one.
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- Austin Witherspoon
- 05-15-16
Really thought provoking book.
It's nicely written. Maybe at times it gets a little wordy, but usually not for too long.
The story is super interesting and really well thought out. There's a lot going on, but never too much to keep track of. A handful of really interesting characters- some dead, some alive - and I couldn't stop listening to the audio book waiting to see how it would all tie together.
The only downside was that it felt like it was going somewhere, like it was building to some big moment, and it never felt like that moment came. It sort of just ends. It makes sense and everything. You're not left hanging, but it wasn't as big of a moment as maybe I was hoping.
Still a great story and I'll be telling my friends about it.
And the audio book was really well narrated.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Aaron Talos
- 01-05-21
I was underwhelmed
There's two aspects I didn't like.
First was technical, where the audio separation from the end of a chapter to the next was shorter than the time between words of a sentence at 1.9x. eg, every chapter would sound like '...something something last wordChapter X first sentence' really messed up the pacing.
Second was the story itself which was ok. I get that it was more an idea story than a character story, but I didn't find any of the characters engaging in the slightest. I only finished because the idea was engaging enough for me to while doing nightly dishes.
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Overall
- Rafael
- 07-01-06
Just OK
First off, I love the narrator's voice. Second, I think there's a lot of story potential and the plot idea is clever. However, I kept waiting for something more substantial to occur. It never happened and the ending was a bit of a disappointment.
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7 people found this helpful
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- daunetullina
- 06-16-24
it just...ends.
great concept, engaging writing, abrupt ending. narrator was good but breathy. it was disappointing unfortunately
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Overall
- M.
- 10-09-06
Not for everyone...
I can't exactly classify this book for anyone, as it isn't classifiable. It's not sci/fi, it's not really dramatic, it's.. well it just is. it's sort of a slice of life & death.
Don't expect this to be a thrill ride, but if you let it in, this book will have an ongoing place in your memory; little things will suddenly pop into your head, little details you might not of picked up, but all the sudden their they are.
I really enjoyed this book, but as I said it’s not for everyone. The narration is some of the best I've ever listened to.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Cranberry
- 11-13-06
Interesting!
I really liked this book. The premise was very interesting and the author did not waste a good idea. Even when the end becomes apparent, it still did not lose any steam. Very interesting and enjoyable book.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 03-09-07
Intriguing & enjoyable listen
I really enjoyed this book! The concept is facinating and had me from the beginning. However, the ending was disappointing, and felt like the film at the movie theater just broke and no one was around to splice it back together. The characters were rich and there was just the right amount of descriptive detail.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Lynn7211
- 05-13-20
preferred the written format
I loved reading this book, where the tension built naturally and the ending seemed pretty and significant - a way of communicating other connections among all humanity and the meaning of individual experience. this did not come through in the audio version. I don't it was the performance, I love Richard Poe. I just think the nature of the story doesn't lend itself to the sound of a single voice or the steady cadence.
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