The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less
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Narrated by:
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Terry Ryan
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By:
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Terry Ryan
About this listen
Evelyn Ryan won every appliance her family ever owned by entering contests. It wasn't just the winning that was miraculous; it was the timing. If a toaster died, one was sure to arrive in the mail from a forgotten contest. Graced with a rare appreciation for life's inherent hilarity, Evelyn turned every financial challenge into an opportunity for fun and profit.
From her frenetic supermarket shopping spree - worth $3,000 today - to her clever entries worthy of Erma Bombeck, Dorothy Parker, and Ogden Nash, Evelyn Ryan's story shows how a winning spirit will triumph over the poverty of circumstance.
©2001 Terry Ryan, All Rights Reserved (P)2001 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights ReservedListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"If Mrs. Ryan were starting out today, she'd be president of J. Walter Thompson tomorrow." (The New York Times)
"This well-told, suspenseful tale...has a fiction-worthy climax that will keep listeners laughing even as they're glued to Ryan's tale." (Publishers Weekly)
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- By: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
- Narrated by: Leslie Bellair
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's children live in a world filled with adventure, mental stimulation, topical issues, and personal challenges. The values they learn now, between the ages of 5 and 8, will shape the rest of their lives. Through this collection of heartfelt true stories about family ties, helping neighbors, and lasting friendships, children will see how other kids their age have learned valuable lessons from the choices they've made - and most of all, they will realize that they are not alone in dealing with some of the difficult issues in their lives.
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My kids love these
- By shrockin on 12-22-15
By: Jack Canfield, and others
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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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Chicken Soup for the Soul: Christmas Cheer - 101 Stories about the Love, Inspiration, and Joy of Christmas
- By: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Amy Newmark
- Narrated by: Sandra Burr, Dan John Miller
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone loves Christmas and the holiday season. We reunite scattered family members, watch the wonder in a child’s eyes, and feel the joy of giving gifts. The rituals of the holiday season give a rhythm to the years and create a foundation for our lives, as we gather with family, with our communities at church, at school, and even at the mall, to share the special spirit of the season, brightening those long winter days.
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Heart warming for the Christmas Season<br />
- By KAT M K on 12-20-16
By: Jack Canfield, and others
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What's So Funny?
- My Hilarious Life
- By: Tim Conway, Jane Scovell, Carol Burnett - foreword
- Narrated by: Tim Conway, Carol Burnett, Dick Hill, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Six-time Emmy Award-winning funnyman Tim Conway, best known for his characters on The Carol Burnett Show, offers a straight-shooting and hilarious memoir about his life on stage and off as an actor and comedian. In television history, few entertainers have captured as many hearts and made as many people laugh as Tim Conway. There's nothing in the world that Tim Conway would rather do than entertain - and in his first-ever memoir, What's So Funny?, that's exactly what he does.
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Not narrated by Tim
- By Bob Murdock on 05-05-14
By: Tim Conway, and others
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Diary of a Stage Mother's Daughter
- By: Melissa Francis
- Narrated by: Cris Dukehart
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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When Melissa Francis was eight years old, she won the role of lifetime: playing Cassandra Cooper Ingalls, the little girl who was adopted with her brother (played by young Jason Bateman) by the Ingalls family on the world’s most famous prime-time soap opera, Little House on the Prairie. But behind the scenes, her success was fueled by the pride, pressure, and sometimes grinding cruelty of her stage mother.
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Awesome book - really enjoyed it.
- By Jane C. Bailey on 11-16-12
By: Melissa Francis
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Christmas Jars
- By: Jason F. Wright
- Narrated by: Jason F. Wright
- Length: 3 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Hope Jensen is a young, single woman and an aspiring newspaper writer, and when she receives a much-needed but anonymous Christmas gift, she's determined to find her benefactor. That search leads her to an unusual family with a longstanding Christmas tradition. Sensing a front-page feature article, Hope desperately wants to publish their story, but doing so would be a breach of trust. What she decides to do will change her life forever.
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I was moved to tears more than once
- By Brenda Irene DiBiase on 12-18-15
By: Jason F. Wright
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The One-in-a-Million Boy
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
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Loved it
- By Justin on 10-20-16
By: Monica Wood
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A Girl Named Zippy
- Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
- By: Haven Kimmel
- Narrated by: Haven Kimmel
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of 300 people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period - people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.
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Beautifully written, beautifully read.
- By shopgirl on 03-06-08
By: Haven Kimmel
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To See the Moon Again
- By: Jamie Langston Turner
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The first step to letting go of the past is forgiving it …Every day of her life Julia Rich lives with the memory of a horrible accident she caused long ago. In the years since, she has tried to hide her guilt in the quiet routine of teaching at a small South Carolina college, avoiding close relationships with family and would-be friends. But one day a phone call from Carmen, a niece she has never met, disrupts her carefully controlled world.
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Beautiful Story of Forgiveness and Selfless Love
- By sharon on 09-20-14
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Mistletoe Murder
- A Lucy Stone Mystery, Book 1
- By: Leslie Meier
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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As if baking holiday cookies, knitting a sweater for her husband, and making her daughter’s angel costume for the church pageant weren’t enough things for Lucy Stone’s busy Christmas schedule, she’s also working nights at the famous mail-order company Country Cousins. But when she discovers Sam Miller, its very wealthy founder, dead in his car from an apparent suicide, the sleuth in her knows something just doesn’t smell right.
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5 stars
- By Beatrice on 12-21-20
By: Leslie Meier
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No Biking in the House Without a Helmet
- By: Melissa Fay Greene
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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When the two-time National Book Award finalist Melissa Fay Greene confided to friends that she and her husband planned to adopt a four-year-old boy from Bulgaria to add to their four children at home, the news threatened to place her, she writes, "among the greats: the Kennedys, the McCaughey septuplets, the von Trapp family singers, and perhaps even Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev, who, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, gave birth to 69 children in eighteenth-century Russia."
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Great story of family changes
- By Peter on 02-14-12
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Life Among the Savages
- By: Shirley Jackson
- Narrated by: Lesa Lockford
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In her celebrated fiction, Shirley Jackson explored the darkness lurking beneath the surface of small-town America. But in Life Among the Savages, she takes on the lighter side of small-town life. In this witty and warm memoir of her family's life in rural Vermont, she delightfully exposes a domestic side in cheerful contrast to her quietly terrifying fiction. With a novelist's gift for character, an unfailing maternal instinct, and her signature humor, Jackson turns everyday family experiences into brilliant adventures.
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Stories From A Quirky Family
- By Sara on 01-23-16
By: Shirley Jackson
What listeners say about The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cara
- 12-19-11
Wish I had the Unabridged
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I enjoyed how the writer told the story of her mom's and family's unique way of survival. I wanted to know more about the characters and how the author's mom kept the family together through her prize winnings.
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Overall
- Pat
- 11-07-05
Heatwarming and Absorbing
I recomend this read to anyone. Once you begin you will not want to stop so set it aside for a road trip, etc. It takes you back to a time when integrity and resourcefullness were more common and lends you to hope that this could happen again. If you are in a slump this book can do nothing but pick you up. We could all take a lesson from Evelyn. I hope this will become a movie.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Darcy
- 05-20-07
The story is great
but Terry Ryan is not a particularly good reader. I read the first few chapters of this book at a friend's house when it was newly published and always meant to finish it. I'm generally not a fan of abridged works, but in this case the abridged memoir trims some of the repetition of the original. The only real problem is that Terry Ryan's reading of her work is never particularly engaging and at times very irritating as she reads at a very dull monotone.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- K. McRitchie
- 10-17-09
Loved it!
This is a quick listen, very interesting characters. True story of a mom who had to enter contests in the 1950s to make money for her family to survive. Good writing, good characters...a bit sappy at times, however. Narration is good as well. I would recommend this one.
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- Deena
- 05-24-03
Totally Delightful!
I had read Terry Ryan's book when it was newly published and enjoyed it very much. When I saw that it was available via Audible, I never hesitated to purchase it and listen to Terry read it--in fact, I think I'll probably download it again and again. The writing is refreshing and truly a work to honor her mother, father and siblings. I recommend this to anyone who wants to hear an amazing story of a family growing up in the fifties in hard times.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Pamela
- 10-04-13
A strong woman comes in many packages.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, have reommended it to many. Its a story of a woman making the best out of a bad situation coming out in the end the winner in more ways than one.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Evelyn of course. A person who had dreams that were never going to come to be, married to a man she really didn't love and forced to marry due to pregnancy, having a multitude of children and being the main breadwinner without having a real job is a person to be celebrated.
What about Terry Ryan’s performance did you like?
Terry lived it, she knew her subject better than a professional reader did and her emotions came through brilliantly. A great writer and storyteller, she will be missed.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
A lot of anger, frustration,tears and yes laughter, mostly due to Evelyn's great sense of humor.
Any additional comments?
This isn't a well known book, the movie was less known, but it is worth a read. Give it a chance.
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Overall
- kit
- 03-19-08
Wonderful! But better in print.
Such a charming story... especially for anyone who grew up in a big family in the 50's. (Though I think people of all ages will enjoy the spunk and wit of Evelyn Ryan, recounted so well by her daughter) I wish though, that the author had sprung for a narrator rather than reading it herself. Terry Ryan's unprofessional monotone detracted from her good writing. Also, because some of the poems and jingles use "made-up" or convoluted language, they might be more easily understood in print.
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2 people found this helpful
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- James M Cunningham
- 03-26-21
As amazing as I thought it would be!
I loved the Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio. My husband was born there and I have been there once. I loved how Evelyn Ryan used her wonderful brain to help her ten kids to be smart and have great lives.
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Overall
- Thor
- 02-02-08
Inspirational!
One of the most inspirational and uplifting books I have read (listened to) in a long time. Highly recommended!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Mary
- 04-18-12
A Fun Listen
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
If a friend wanted a quick, light read, this would be the one. The author presents the eccentric mother with warmth and love.
Any additional comments?
Fun and fluffy! Good for a light-hearted listen!
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