The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
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Narrated by:
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Dominic Hoffman
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By:
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Walter Mosley
About this listen
A masterful, moving novel about age, memory, and family from one of the literary icons of our time.
Coming in March 2022 from Apple Plus, a six-part series starring Samuel L. Jackson.
Ptolemy Grey is 91 years old and has been all but forgotten - by his family, his friends, even himself - as he sinks into a lonely dementia. His grand-nephew, Ptolemy's only connection to the outside world, was recently killed in a drive-by shooting, and Ptolemy is too suspicious of anyone else to allow them into his life. Until he meets Robyn, his niece's 17-year-old lodger and the only one willing to take care of an old man at his grandnephew's funeral.
But Robyn will not tolerate Ptolemy's hermitlike existence. She challenges him to interact more with the world around him, and he grasps more firmly onto his disappearing consciousness. However, this new activity pushes Ptolemy into the fold of a doctor touting an experimental drug that guarantees Ptolemy won't live to see age 92 but that he'll spend his last days in feverish vigor and clarity. With his mind clear, what Ptolemy finds-in his own past, in his own apartment, and in the circumstances surrounding his grand-nephew's death-is shocking enough to spur an old man to action, and to ensure a legacy that no one will forget.
In The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Mosley captures the compromised state of his protagonist's mind with profound sensitivity and insight, and creates an unforgettable pair of characters at the center of a novel that is sure to become a true contemporary classic.
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On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie - a good life. But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola's mother is detained by US immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins - Chantal, Donna, and Princess - the grittiness of Detroit's West Side, a new school, and a surprising romance all on her own.
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A lot to unpack
- By AudioBookHoe on 07-18-17
By: Ibi Zoboi
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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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Midnight Cowboy
- By: James Leo Herlihy
- Narrated by: Michael Urie
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Midnight Cowboy is considered by many to be one of the best American novels published since World War II. The main story centers around Joe Buck, a naive but eager and ambitious young Texan, who decides to leave his dead-end job in search of a grand and glamorous life he believes he will find in New York City. But the city turns out to be a much more difficult place to negotiate than Joe could ever have imagined. He soon finds himself and his dreams compromised. Buck's fall from innocence and his relationship with the crippled street hustler Ratso Rizzo form the novel's emotional nucleus.
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Superb
- By Macala Shon on 01-26-21
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Rabbit
- The Autobiography of Ms. Pat
- By: Patricia Williams, Jeannine Amber
- Narrated by: Patricia Williams
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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One of five children, Pat watched as her alcoholic mother struggled to get by on charity, cons, and petty crimes. At age seven, Pat was taught to roll drunks for money. At 12, she was targeted for sex by a man eight years her senior; by 13, she was pregnant. By 15, Pat was a mother of two. Alone at 16, Pat was determined to make a better life for her children. But with no job skills and an eighth-grade education, her options were limited. She learned quickly that hustling and humor were the only tools she had to survive.
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Amazing story but dry reading
- By SpazzyMaggee on 11-03-17
By: Patricia Williams, and others
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Tryin' To Sleep In the Bed You Made
- By: Virginia DeBerry, Donna Grant
- Narrated by: Fran L. Washington
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Gayle was the beauty who believed that a man could make her life complete. Patricia was the intellectual who thought that rising to the top of her career would make her happy. And then there is Marcus Carter, who has been linked to both Gayle and Pat since the tragedy that occurred when they were all children. Can either one save him from himself? Can friends survive a love that comes between them? Each of them gets what she wants, but no one counts on the price they have to pay.
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Better with each chapter!
- By Cyn B. on 02-09-16
By: Virginia DeBerry, and others
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Peyton Place
- By: Grace Metalious
- Narrated by: Tim O'Connor
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1956, when this novel was first published, communities all over New England snapped up copies to see if they were the town portrayed in the book. Peyton Place is the story of a repressive New England town known for its high standards of public morality, and the steamy sexual activities that take place behind its bedroom doors.
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Best book I've read to date!
- By Crusader on 11-07-11
By: Grace Metalious
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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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Marrow
- By: Tarryn Fisher
- Narrated by: Audra Pagano
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Margo is not like other girls. She lives in a derelict neighborhood called the Bone, in a cursed house, with her cursed mother, who hasn't spoken to her in over two years. She lives her days feeling invisible. It's not until she develops a friendship with her wheelchair-bound neighbor, Judah Grant, that things begin to change. When a neighborhood girl, seven-year-old Neveah Anthony, goes missing, Judah sets out to help Margo uncover what happened to her. What Margo finds changes her, and with a new perspective on life she's determined to find evil and punish it.
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HUH?? I'm so confused LOL
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 09-15-16
By: Tarryn Fisher
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The Homeplace
- Singing River, Book 1
- By: Gilbert Morris
- Narrated by: Judith West
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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As the year 1928 begins, 14-year-old Lanie Belle Freeman of Fairhope, Arkansas, has bright hopes for the future. Her father has launched a new business, and her mother is expecting her fifth baby. Lanie has dreams of going to college and being a writer. Then tragedy strikes.
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Slow to start. But hang in there. It’s worth it
- By paula wright on 02-24-19
By: Gilbert Morris
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Sugar
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Sugar arrives in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas, like an ominous storm. She saunters down the street in a blonde wig and spiked heels, cigarette dangling between red-painted lips. Without even speaking to her, the women in town hate her. But when she moves in next door to Pearl, a woman who tragically lost her daughter 15 years earlier, the two women bond over tragic pasts.
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Wow wow wow
- By brenda transon on 08-27-19
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Angel of Harlem
- By: Kuwanna Haulsey
- Narrated by: Brenda Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Inspired by the extraordinary events of Dr. May Chinn’s life, Angel of Harlem is a deeply affecting story of love and transcendence. Weaving seamlessly scenes from the battlefields of the Civil War, during which her father escaped from slavery, to the Harlem living rooms and kitchen tables where May is sometimes forced to operate on her patients, this fascinating novel lays bare the heart of a woman who changed the face of medicine.
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Really Enjoyed!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-08-19
By: Kuwanna Haulsey
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Martin Just wakes up one morning after what feels like, and might actually be, a centuries-long sleep with two new innate pieces of knowledge: Humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence. And he is the Cure. Martin begins slipping into an alternate consciousness, with new physical strengths, to violently defend his family—the only Black family in their neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles—against pure evil.
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Paris Minton is a man who would just as soon walk away from trouble as stand up to it. But in 1950s Los Angeles, sometimes trouble just comes and gets you. When one of L.A.'s wealthiest women hires Paris and his friend Fearless Jones to find a missing nephew, Paris steps into the a complex and terrifying corner of the black bourgeoisie, and wonders whom he should fear more - the people he's looking for or the people he's working for.
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One of the best
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This masterpiece by celebrated New York Times bestselling author Walter Mosley is the mysterious story of a young Black man who agrees to an unusual bargain to save the home that has belonged to his family for generations.
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Well, it's different
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Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators until he was framed for sexual assault by unknown enemies within the force. A decade has passed since his release from Rikers, and he now runs a private detective agency with the help of his teenage daughter. Physically and emotionally broken by the brutality he suffered while behind bars, King leads a solitary life, his work and his daughter the only lights. When he receives a letter from his accuser confessing that she was paid to frame him years ago, King decides to find out who wanted him gone and why.
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So.Damn.Good.
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Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore
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In this scorching, mournful, often explicit, and never less than moving literary novel by the famed creator of the Easy Rawlins series, Debbie Dare, a black porn queen, has to come to terms with her sordid life in the adult entertainment industry after her tomcatting husband dies in a hot tub. Electrocuted. With another woman in there with him. Debbie decides she just isn't going to "do it anymore". But executing her exit strategy from the porn world is a wrenching and far from simple process.
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Different than I thought
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Martin Just wakes up one morning after what feels like, and might actually be, a centuries-long sleep with two new innate pieces of knowledge: Humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence. And he is the Cure. Martin begins slipping into an alternate consciousness, with new physical strengths, to violently defend his family—the only Black family in their neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles—against pure evil.
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Beware of Mysterious Sexy Women with Big Suitcases
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Paris Minton is a man who would just as soon walk away from trouble as stand up to it. But in 1950s Los Angeles, sometimes trouble just comes and gets you. When one of L.A.'s wealthiest women hires Paris and his friend Fearless Jones to find a missing nephew, Paris steps into the a complex and terrifying corner of the black bourgeoisie, and wonders whom he should fear more - the people he's looking for or the people he's working for.
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Joe King Oliver was one of the NYPD's finest investigators until he was framed for sexual assault by unknown enemies within the force. A decade has passed since his release from Rikers, and he now runs a private detective agency with the help of his teenage daughter. Physically and emotionally broken by the brutality he suffered while behind bars, King leads a solitary life, his work and his daughter the only lights. When he receives a letter from his accuser confessing that she was paid to frame him years ago, King decides to find out who wanted him gone and why.
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So.Damn.Good.
- By Jabulile on 03-08-18
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Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore
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In this scorching, mournful, often explicit, and never less than moving literary novel by the famed creator of the Easy Rawlins series, Debbie Dare, a black porn queen, has to come to terms with her sordid life in the adult entertainment industry after her tomcatting husband dies in a hot tub. Electrocuted. With another woman in there with him. Debbie decides she just isn't going to "do it anymore". But executing her exit strategy from the porn world is a wrenching and far from simple process.
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Walter Mosley, "one of crime fiction's brightest stars" ( People), returns to mysteries at last! Fearless Jones is a dazzling new thriller, set in 1950s L.A. and featuring the most engaging hero since Easy Rawlins.
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In his first book for young adults, best-selling author Walter Mosley deftly weaves historical and speculative fiction into a powerful narrative about the nature of freedom.
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Poignant, powerful tale, richly narrated
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At 12 years old, Cornelius secretly takes over his father's job at a silent film theater in New York's East Village. Five years later, as his father, Herman, lives out his last days, he shares his wisdom with his son, explaining that the person who controls the narrative of history controls their own fate. After his father dies and his mother disappears, Cornelius sets about reinventing himself as Professor John Woman and spreading Herman's teachings. But some are attempting to influence the narrative of John Woman, and they might know something about the facts of his hidden past.
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On the road in a “borrowed” '36 Ford, nineteen-year-old Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins and his companion, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, are on a perilous odyssey that takes them from Houston to a mysterious bayou world of voodoo, sex, revenge, and death. Their destination is desolate Pariah, Texas—Mouse's home once, and still home to his hated stepfather.
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Mosley is a master of the time machine!
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The Long Fall
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His name is etched on the door of his Manhattan office: LEONID McGILL , PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. It's a name that takes a little explaining, but he's used to it. Ex-boxer, hard drinker, in a business that trades mostly in cash and favors: McGill's an old-school P.I. working a city that's gotten fancy all around him. Fancy or not, he has always managed to get by - keep a roof over the head of his wife and kids, and still manage a little fun on the side - mostly because he's never been above taking a shady job for a quick buck.
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Not as good as Easy Rawlins
- By Calliope on 05-04-18
By: Walter Mosley
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The Awkward Black Man
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Mosley presents distinct characters as they struggle to move through the world in each of these stories - heroes who are awkward, nerdy, self-defeating, self-involved, and, on the whole, odd. He overturns the stereotypes that corral black male characters and paints a subtle, powerful portrait of each of these unique individuals.
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Don't just listen, think.
- By Alonzo on 04-13-21
By: Walter Mosley
What listeners say about The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Minivan Lee
- 07-30-12
Bravo
Any additional comments?
Bravo Author! I was skeptical when I started this book, but after the first few minutes I was hooked. I listen to audio books while I work and try to keep them solely for work, not home. But this book could not wait. I listened at home AND at work. It truly is a gem. I fell in love with the characters and the rich descriptions took me to another world. I recommend this book for anyone who loves life or desires to re-connect with life and what is important. I will never ever forget Ptolemy Grey. He is in my heart forever.
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- emile jones
- 10-24-21
I'm a Fan
As always hanging on every word spoken. Mr. Grey reminded me of my Grandfather righteous and honorable
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- L. Fuller
- 03-04-22
Engrossing
The story itself is a fantastic look at how elderly ppl are discarded or seen as burdens before they are seen as people. The reading style made the characters feel alive. Although the murder mystery was easy to solve the story isn’t about that. It’s about recognizing ignored community members and what they have to offer, it’s about building new relationships, it’s a bout trauma, it’s about love it’s about looking at the totality of ones life and being okay with how it all panned out. Highly recommended.
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- MommaJ
- 11-21-21
Good but a bit weird
Good story. Definitely has some mild fantasy aspects of it. Not amazing but satisfying and interesting.
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- Jeremy White
- 12-11-20
slow at the beginning
Starts slowly, but finishes strong. A great book that I plan to recommend to everyone who likes the genre.
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- Peggy Cobb Gregory
- 03-17-22
Wanted to hear more...
Loved it! Kept me interested and learned a few things along the way. Looking for more by Mosley!
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- Disisil Rickety
- 04-13-22
One of Mosley’s Best
I’ve read almost all of Walter Mosley’s works. This is so far the best. The story and the narration was excellent. I wanted to finish this prior to watching Samuel L. Jackson’s portrayal because normally so much is lost going from book to the screen. But this excellent presentation makes me anxious to see the screen play. I would definitely recommend this work to others!
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- Anonymous
- 05-06-22
Masterfully written and presented!
Loved feeling like I could feel what the 91 year old man was thinking, feeling, experiencing. Truly got an opportunity to walk a mile in his shoes.
Makes me think about what my recently deceased 95 yr old relative went through in her final days.
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- Lisa T.
- 05-17-23
Well done!
This is a wonderful story of compassion, love, empathy, and, most of all, the process of aging. I actually listen to this book twice. I didn't want to miss anything.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book.
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- maurice
- 09-12-23
So much better than the movie
I don’t know why I even bother to watch the movie when I’ve already read the book. I guess I must like torturing myself. These characters really spoke to me. I have these people in my family. Do the good guys really win in this scenario? I don’t think so. This seems like a crabs in a bucket situation, whatever progress is made by one is soon cancelled by the others. But, provides great entertainment for the reader. Walter Mosley knows exactly how to tease his readers and leave us wanting more.
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