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The Coal Tattoo
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Kate Forbes
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
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Publisher's summary
Two sisters can’t stand to live together, but can’t bear to be apart. One worships the flashy world of Nashville, the other is a devout Pentecostal. One falls into the lap of any man, the other is afraid to even date. One gets pregnant in a flash, the other desperately wants to have a child. This is what’s at the heart of Silas House’s third novel, which tells the story of Easter and Anneth, tragically left parentless as children, who must raise themselves and each other in their small coal-mining town. Easter is deeply religious, keeps a good home, believes in tradition, and is intent on rearing her wild younger sister properly. Anneth is untamable, full of passion, determined to live hard and fast. It’s only a matter of time before their predilections split their paths and nearly undo their bond. How these two women learn to overcome their past, sacrifice deeply for each other, and live together again in the only place that matters is the story of The Coal Tattoo.
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Too Good For Audio
- By Yennta on 06-18-12
By: Eudora Welty
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Paradise
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
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MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
By: Toni Morrison
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Rush Home Road
- By: Lori Lansens
- Narrated by: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Abridged
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When a 70-year-old woman finds a five-year-old girl abandoned on her doorstep, she is thrust into a sorrowful past that can only be conquered with the help of the girl who opened her memory - the very girl she is trying to save. This first novel, according to author Jacquelyn Mitchard, is one of "exquisite power, honesty, and conviction...quite nearly without flaws."
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filthy language and violent content
- By Anna on 12-16-11
By: Lori Lansens
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Our Story Begins
- New and Selected Stories
- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Wolff here returns with fresh revelations - about biding one's time, or experiencing first love, or burying one's mother - that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. A retired Marine enrolls in college while her son trains for Iraq. A lawyer takes a difficult deposition. An American in Rome indulges the Gypsy who's picked his pocket.
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Great
- By chris on 04-11-08
By: Tobias Wolff
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The Lost Girls
- A Novel
- By: Heather Young
- Narrated by: Alice Rosengard, Laurel Schroeder
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1935, six-year-old Emily Evans vanishes from her family's vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake. Her disappearance destroys the family - her father commits suicide, and her mother and two older sisters spend the rest of their lives at the lake house, keeping a decades-long vigil for the lost child. Sixty years later, Lucy, the quiet and watchful middle sister, lives in the lake house alone. Before her death, she writes the story of that devastating summer in a notebook that she leaves, along with the house, to the only person who might care: her grandniece, Justine.
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Engaging story spanning three generations.
- By LilMissMolly on 09-23-16
By: Heather Young
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Fallen Angels
- By: Patricia Hickman
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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During the Great Depression, Jeb Nubey is running from the law when he meets three abandoned children. With nowhere else to go the group passes a stormy night in a comforting church. When they are discovered, a case of mistaken identity ensues. It seems the congregation has been waiting for their new pastor, a widower with three kids. Looks like more trouble for Jeb. Yet the chance for a steady job and three squares a day is too good to turn down.
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Touching
- By Christina on 11-11-04
By: Patricia Hickman
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How to Survive a Summer
- A Novel
- By: Nick White
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Grad student Will Dillard has largely buried memories of the summer he spent at a camp intended to "cure" homosexuality. But when he finds out a horror movie based on the camp is hitting theaters, he's forced to face his past - and his role in another camper's death. As he recounts the events surrounding his "failed rehabilitation", Will strikes out on an impromptu road trip back home to Mississippi, eventually returning to the abandoned campgrounds to solve the mysteries of that pivotal summer.
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A story full of heart and healing
- By ZippyBippy on 05-06-18
By: Nick White
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This Side of the Sky
- By: Elyse Singleton
- Narrated by: Myra Taylor, Sharon Washington, Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Elyse Singleton delivers what Essence calls “a gem - the perfect book to curl up with.”
Best friends Lilian and Myraleen, two African American women from rural Mississippi, travel to Europe during World War II to act as members of the Women’s Army Corps. During this time of segregation and destruction, both women discover love and heartbreak, triumph and defeat.
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A Breath of Fresh Air
- By Adina Andreu on 07-19-12
By: Elyse Singleton
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The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder
- By: Rebecca Wells
- Narrated by: Judith Ivey
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells one of today's most cherished writers, and gives us an unforgettable new heroine to treasure.
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Loved it, Ya'll!
- By Ella Gracen on 08-11-09
By: Rebecca Wells
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Battleborn
- By: Claire Vaye Watkins
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Morgan Hallett, Laura Knight Keating, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Like the work of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx, Battleborn represents a near-perfect confluence of sensibility and setting, and the introduction of an exceptionally powerful and original literary voice. In each of these ten unforgettable stories, Claire Vaye Watkins writes her way fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, utterly reimagining it.
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Wonderful magnificent stories beautifully told
- By Pedro Ramirez on 12-03-15
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Sula
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Nel and Sula's devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
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Good against evil and a riotous story to boot
- By Karen on 04-11-11
By: Toni Morrison
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Memphis
- A Novel
- By: Tara M. Stringfellow
- Narrated by: Karen Murray, Adenrele Ojo, Tara Stringfellow
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.
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Awful narrator
- By Rachael edwards on 06-07-22
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disappointing and preachy
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Clay’s Quilt was a Book Sense '76 Pick and was nominated for the Southeastern Booksellers Book of the Year and the Appalachian Writers Association Book Award. Clay Sizemore loves his home in Free Creek, but he longs for more. Since the death of his mother when he was four, he has felt the absence of family. His father left, and he has no siblings. But finally, through the love of others, he is able to create a place of his own.
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What listeners say about The Coal Tattoo
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- J. Morris
- 08-29-24
Kentucky classic
Being from a coal town myself, I felt as if I could relate to the emotions of the characters. It’s hard to understand the resilience of people from that area unless you know some of the background. Lovely and a perfect read.
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- DK
- 12-11-12
Good Book - A bit heavy reading
What does Kate Forbes bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
Great narration...no complaints at all.
Any additional comments?
Got this on sale and not something I would not normally have purchased. Good read - this is not a beach or light reading. Enjoyable but one must pay attention!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Carlie Hensley
- 05-25-24
Great book
Awesome book. Definitely a must read. I'm so glad I did. I enjoyed it very much.
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- JTW
- 07-05-24
Love a southern writer! Esp from Kentucky
Love the complexity of the characters, the relationships and the generational trauma and grief Easter and Anneth carry with them.
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- Doreen
- 07-28-12
This Story Touched My Heart!
I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the characters in this story. Easter and Anneth especially were much more loveable in their imperfections than the story synopsis had led me to expect. Their love for each other and for their home was very touching.
The one aspect I would have liked to read more about was their "magic". Easter has the second sight and Anneth is always talking about believing in magic, but I would have liked these elements to have been more prominent in the story.
Kate Forbes did an excellent job as narrator - loved the accents!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Phyllis
- 08-08-12
Good narration!
What other book might you compare The Coal Tattoo to and why?
Fair and Tender Ladies
What about Kate Forbes’s performance did you like?
Sounded authentic!
Any additional comments?
It was authentic in the way it depicted how people think and react to situations.
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1 person found this helpful
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- JRC 318
- 07-06-24
Great Story - Frustrating Narration
While I love Audible, this is likely a book I would have done better to read versus listen to. I’ll start with the positive - the story is fantastic! Silas House is a marvelous Appalachian writer and I’ve been wanting to dive into this one for a long time. The endearing love of the sisters is something that will touch your heart. Complete devotion.
The narration would be good…without the swallowing and lip smacking. The first time I heard it, I thought maybe it was just an anomaly but it got worse. It was so bad during the last few chapters that I couldn’t wait for the book to end to rid myself of her swallowing. It could have easily been edited out. I don’t understand why publishers do this. Just edit out the swallowing and smacking.
I would gladly listen to many more books by Silas House but I will be very careful to never choose another book with this narrator.
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- Kim
- 08-06-12
Really Good
I liked this one - the dynamic between the sisters was just right and their story kept me interested. The narration was great - not too heavy on the accents and enough variation to give the individual characters their own feel. I give The Coal Tattoo 3.5-4 stars, a credit-worthy experience for sure.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Artkeep
- 07-07-12
Performance almost killed my interest in this book
I enjoyed the story to a great degree but I could hear the narrator swallow. Sounded like she was drinking something. Was almost annoying for me.
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2 people found this helpful
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- TSmith
- 07-11-19
Sisterly love at it strongest
This a great story about 2 sisters That live in the rural South. The story takes you through their triumphs, loses, heartbreaks and tribulations. The narrator does an amazing job with the voices of each character. The ending left me hanging and I felt like it needed a little something more, unless there is a sequel.
My only issue is hearing the narrator swallow loudly or smack and occasionly hearing someone in the background perhaps a child or a dog. Overall I was pleased with the story.
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