The Secrets We Kept: Reese's Book Club
A Novel
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By:
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Lara Prescott
About this listen
A HELLO SUNSHINE x REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK
"This month for Reese’s Book Club, we are listening to The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott! Set during the Cold War, it tells the story of secretaries turned spies who are tasked with smuggling Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR and into the hands of Russian citizens. You’ll get to know Sally and Irina, two spies who risk it all for love and adventure." (Reese Witherspoon)
A thrilling tale of secretaries turned spies, of love and duty, and of sacrifice - inspired by the true story of the CIA plot to infiltrate the hearts and minds of Soviet Russia, not with propaganda, but with the greatest love story of the 20th century: Doctor Zhivago.
At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dares publish it, and help Pasternak's magnum opus make its way into print around the world. Glamorous and sophisticated Sally Forrester is a seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit all over the world - using her magnetism and charm to pry secrets out of powerful men. Irina is a complete novice, and under Sally's tutelage quickly learns how to blend in, make drops, and invisibly ferry classified documents.
The Secrets We Kept combines a legendary literary love story - the decades-long affair between Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, who was sent to the Gulag and inspired Zhivago's heroine, Lara - with a narrative about two women empowered to lead lives of extraordinary intrigue and risk. From Pasternak's country estate outside Moscow to the brutalities of the Gulag, from Washington, DC to Paris and Milan, The Secrets We Kept captures a watershed moment in the history of literature - told with soaring emotional intensity and captivating historical detail. And at the center of this unforgettable debut is the powerful belief that a piece of art can change the world.
This audiobook features performances by Mozhan Marno as Olga, Carlotta Brentan as Irina, Cynthia Farrell as Sally, Saskia Maarleveld as The Typists, Jonathan Davis as Boris, David Pittu as Sergio, and James Fouhey as Teddy.
©2019 Lara Prescott (P)2019 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"The Secrets We Kept is simply sensational. Two gripping narratives unfold in the pressure cooker of the Cold War: passionate, courageous Olga who stands in the shadow of Soviet author Boris Pasternak yet inspires him to write a heroine for the ages, and the cynical, equally-overshadowed women of the CIA who help bring Pasternak's masterpiece Dr. Zhivago to bear as a weapon against Soviet oppression. From the gulags of the USSR to the cherry blossom trees of Washington DC, the story grips and refuses to let go. Lara Prescott is a star in the making." (Kate Quinn, New York Times best-selling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network)
"Through lucid images and vibrant storytelling, Prescott creates an edgy postfeminist vision of the Cold War, encompassing Sputnik to glasnost, typing pool to gulag, for a smart, lively page-turner. This debut shines as spy story, publication thriller, and historical romance with a twist." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
"Delightful.... An intriguing and little-known chapter of literary history is brought to life with brio." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
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Exhilarating
- By Joanna Butler on 08-20-20
By: Fiona Davis
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My Mrs. Brown
- A Novel
- By: William Norwich
- Narrated by: Angela Brazil
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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When the grand dame of Ashville passes away, Mrs. Brown is called upon to inventory her estate and comes across a dress that changes everything. This isn't a Cinderella confection; it's a simple yet exquisitely tailored Oscar de la Renta sheath and jacket - a suit that, Mrs. Brown realizes with startling clarity, will say everything she has ever wished to convey. She must have it. And so Mrs. Brown begins her odyssey to purchase the dress.
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Sweet story
- By Pam Hewitt on 05-01-20
By: William Norwich
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The Traitor
- By: V.S. Alexander
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets appears around the University of Munich, speaking out against escalating Nazi atrocities. The leaflets are hidden in public places, or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book. Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows who is behind the leaflets - a secret group called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends. As a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, Natalya witnessed the horrors of war first-hand. She willingly enters the White Rose's circle....
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Not all the Germans are guilty.
- By Judy Harley on 09-18-20
By: V.S. Alexander
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Bad Habits
- By: Amy Gentry
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Claire "Mac" Woods—a professor enjoying her newfound hotshot status at an academic conference—finally has the acceptance and admiration she has long craved. But at the conference's hotel bar, Mac is surprised to run into a face from a past she'd rather forget: the moneyed, effortlessly perfect Gwendolyn Whitney, Mac's foil, rival, and former best friend.
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Outstanding!
- By SLuzaz on 02-15-21
By: Amy Gentry
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The Folded Leaf
- By: William Maxwell
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is a classic novel from one of our most honored writers - the author of such acclaimed works as So Long, See You Tomorrow and All the Days and Nights. The Folded Leaf is the serenely observed yet deeply moving story of two boys finding one another in the Midwest of the 1920s, when childhood lasted longer than it does today and even adults were more innocent of what life could bring.
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Midwestern Misfits
- By David on 03-17-15
By: William Maxwell
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I Couldn't Love You More
- A Novel
- By: Esther Freud
- Narrated by: Niamh Cusack
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping story of three generations of women, crossing from London to Ireland and back again, and the enduring effort to retrieve the secrets of the past.
By: Esther Freud
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One True Thing
- By: Anna Quindlen
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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A young woman sits in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her dying mother. She didn't do it, but she thinks she knows who did. In the last months of her life, Ellen Gulden's mother revealed startling secrets that challenged everything Ellen believed about her family. Now, in jail, Ellen believes those secrets will tell her who had the courage to end her mother's suffering.
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Quindlen's writing skills shine in One True Thing.
- By Bonny on 08-26-13
By: Anna Quindlen
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Not a fan
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Sloane, Ardie, Grace, and Rosalita have worked at Truviv, Inc., for years. The sudden death of Truviv’s CEO means their boss, Ames, will likely take over the entire company. Each of the women has a different relationship with Ames, who has always been surrounded by whispers about how he treats women. Those whispers have been ignored, swept under the rug, hidden away by those in charge. But the world has changed, and the women are watching this promotion differently.
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I WANTED to like this book...
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Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to 18-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else—her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja—they went left.
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Heartbreakingly Beautiful
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The Scent Keeper
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Emmeline lives on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in glass bottles that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world—a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity.
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Beautiful. Had to write.
- By Gretel on 02-06-20
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You Think It, I'll Say It
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- By: Curtis Sittenfeld
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Throughout the 10 stories in You Think It, I'll Say It, Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. With moving insight and uncanny precision, Curtis Sittenfeld pinpoints the questionable decisions, missed connections, and sometimes extraordinary coincidences that make up a life. Indeed, she writes what we're all thinking - if only we could express it with the wit of a master satirist, the storytelling gifts of an old-fashioned raconteur, and the vision of an American original.
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Stories of people thinking and acting horribly towards each other
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It is 1943, and for four years, 16-year-old Stefania has been working for the Diamant family in their grocery store in Przemsyl, Poland, singing her way into their lives and hearts. She has even made a promise to one of their sons, Izio - a betrothal they must keep secret since she is Catholic and the Diamants are Jewish.
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Honored...
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For a runaway slave in the 1840s South, life on the run can be just as dangerous as life under a sadistic master. That's what 15-year-old Naomi learns after she escapes the brutal confines of life on an Alabama plantation. Striking out on her own, she leaves behind her beloved Momma and sister, Hazel, and takes refuge in a Georgia brothel run by a freewheeling, gun-toting Jewish madam named Cynthia.
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Not a fan
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I WANTED to like this book...
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Germany, 1945. The soldiers who liberated the Gross-Rosen concentration camp said the war was over, but nothing feels over to 18-year-old Zofia Lederman. Her body has barely begun to heal; her mind feels broken. And her life is completely shattered: Three years ago, she and her younger brother, Abek, were the only members of their family to be sent to the right, away from the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau. Everyone else—her parents, her grandmother, radiant Aunt Maja—they went left.
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Heartbreakingly Beautiful
- By Willow Star Serenity on 04-10-20
By: Monica Hesse
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The Scent Keeper
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- By: Erica Bauermeister
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
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Emmeline lives on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the natural world through her senses. What he won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in glass bottles that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them. As Emmeline grows, however, so too does her curiosity, until one day the unforeseen happens, and Emmeline is vaulted out into the real world—a place of love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge. To understand her past, Emmeline must unlock the clues to her identity.
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Beautiful. Had to write.
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Stories of people thinking and acting horribly towards each other
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Conviction
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The day Anna McDonald's quiet, respectable life explodes starts off like all the days before: Packing up the kids for school, making breakfast, listening to yet another true crime podcast. Then her husband comes downstairs with an announcement, and Anna is suddenly, shockingly alone. Reeling, desperate for distraction, Anna returns to the podcast. Other people's problems are much better than one's own - a sunken yacht, a murdered family, a hint of international conspiracy. But this case actually is Anna's problem. She knows one of the victims from an earlier life.
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Not at all what I expected
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It’s spring 1999, and 25-year-old Lia Cope and her prickly 73-year-old grandmother, Mineko, are sharing a bedroom in Curtain, Texas, the ranching town where Lia grew up and Mineko began her life as a Japanese war bride. Both women are at a turning point: Mineko, long widowed, moved in with her son and daughter-in-law after a suspicious fire destroyed the Cope family ranch house, while Lia, an architect with a promising career in Austin, has unexpectedly returned under circumstances she refuses to explain.
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Thank you.
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When 70-year-old Charlotte Perkins submits a sexy essay to the "Become a Jetsetter" contest, she dreams of reuniting her estranged children: Lee, an almost-famous actress; Cord, a handsome Manhattan venture capitalist who can't seem to find a bride; and Regan, a harried mother who took it all wrong when Charlotte bought her a Weight Watchers gift certificate for her birthday. Charlotte yearns for the years when her children were young and she was a single mother who meant everything to them. When she wins the cruise, the family packs all their baggage - literal and figurative....
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Calm down
- By Donna on 03-05-20
By: Amanda Eyre Ward
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Still Lives
- A Novel
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Kim Lord is an avant garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the LA art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition, Still Lives, is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous murdered women - the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others - and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women.
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Second fail from Reese
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Happiness: A Memoir
- The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After
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Overall
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Story
Happiness begins with a charming courtship between hopelessly attracted opposites: Heather, a world-roaming California girl, and Brian, an intellectual, homebody writer, kind and slyly funny, but loath to leave his Upper West Side studio. Their magical interlude ends, full stop, when Heather becomes pregnant - Brian is sure he loves her, only he doesn't want kids. Heather returns to California to deliver their daughter alone, buoyed by family and friends.
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Long & Tedious. If Only She'd Had a Good Editor.
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By: Heather Harpham
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The Light We Lost
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Story
He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last? Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her story - their story - at the very beginning. Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fated - perhaps they'll find life's meaning in each other.
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Meh.
- By L. Shoemaker on 08-28-17
By: Jill Santopolo
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On the Rooftop
- A Novel
- By: Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
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- Unabridged
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Story
At home they are just sisters, but on stage, they are The Salvations. Ruth, Esther, and Chloe have been singing and dancing in harmony since they could speak. Thanks to the rigorous direction of their mother, Vivian, they’ve become a bona fide girl group whose shows are the talk of the Jazz-era Fillmore.
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Basic
- By Monique Leary on 05-15-23
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L.A. Weather
- A Novel
- By: María Amparo Escandón
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L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and all Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants is a little rain. He’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters - Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude.
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DNF and wanted to return this book!
- By Diana S. on 09-12-21
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Everything Inside
- Stories
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- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In these eight powerful, emotionally absorbing stories, a romance unexpectedly sparks between two wounded friends; a marriage ends for what seem like noble reasons, but with irreparable consequences; a young woman holds on to an impossible dream even as she fights for her survival; two lovers reunite after unimaginable tragedy, both for their country and in their lives; a baby's christening brings three generations of a family to a precarious dance between old and new; a man falls to his death in slow motion, reliving the defining moments of the life he is about to lose.
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I liked it but I wanted to like it more than I did.
- By Nath G. on 07-11-20
By: Edwidge Danticat
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The Night Tiger
- A Novel
- By: Yangsze Choo
- Narrated by: Yangsze Choo
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dance hall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever.
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very satisfying
- By Ian Macdonald on 03-19-19
By: Yangsze Choo
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The Christie Affair
- A Novel
- By: Nina de Gramont
- Narrated by: Lucy Scott
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie. The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O’Dea so intricately tied to those 11 mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?
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Terrific Book!
- By robin hayes on 02-11-22
By: Nina de Gramont
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His Only Wife
- By: Peace Adzo Medie
- Narrated by: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Afi Tekple is a young seamstress in Ghana. She is smart; she is pretty; and she has been convinced by her mother to marry a man she does not know. Afi knows who he is, of course—Elikem is a wealthy businessman whose mother has chosen Afi in the hopes that she will distract him from his relationship with a woman his family claims is inappropriate. But Afi is not prepared for the shift her life takes when she is moved from her small hometown of Ho to live in Accra, Ghana’s gleaming capital, a place of wealth and sophistication where she has days of nothing to do but cook meals.
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Storyline okay, audible performance horrible
- By Elizabeth G on 11-18-20
By: Peace Adzo Medie
What listeners say about The Secrets We Kept: Reese's Book Club
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ignatius
- 09-27-19
Meh
If you are going to fictionalize true events, then you should create compelling characters, situations, and events. Unfortunately, this book did not. The overall premise is great, but if the author can't make up better stuff than these cardboard characters, then she should have stuck with non-fiction reporting of the Boris Pasternak story. Good narrators, though.
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22 people found this helpful
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- Tatyana
- 03-15-20
mispronunciation
I just started to listen to this great novel but as native Russian I couldn't stop cringing because of wrong placement of emphasis on a syllable in Russian names. I bet it would take just couple hours with native speaker to correct it...
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22 people found this helpful
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- Richamann
- 12-16-19
Enthralling listen
Excellent! Listened over 2 days and the narrators were top notch. I loved how the story was told from different points of view. I can't wait to read more by this author. It is hard to believe this is her first novel, makes me excited to see what she does next.
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2 people found this helpful
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- LSuzieClark
- 09-07-19
Confusion at first
It was a bit confusing at first, but the different narrators brought it into focus.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ruthi
- 03-02-20
Fantastic
You know a historical fiction novel is good when you find yourself pausing to look up the events that inspired the author to create such a brilliant book. I’m annoyed with myself as I had bought this a few months ago, but returned it because I wasn’t in the mood & mistook that for disliking the book overall. Thankfully, something told me to try it again because I love every narrator chosen & I was actually in the mood for historical fiction. I loved this book! It definitely lives up to the hype and each character has such life to them - I truly feel as if I know them. Definitely another great Reese Witherspoon recommendation!
To call it just a romance is a bit hilarious because that’s such a minor element though major because of the time period. The focus is definitely more on the characters, even the mistress of Boris Pasternak (author of Doctor Zhivago) moreso than Pasternak or his book, than the plot which is why I loved it so much - I’m more of a character person than plot but it definitely is plot driven as well. Overall, if someone hasn’t finished it & claims to know exactly what “type” of book it is (especially if they use the sexist term chick lit), it’s best to ignore them.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Muffin Heidi Poms
- 04-17-20
Absolutely wonderful
I loved everything about this book. It’s such a great story. I highly recommend this book.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Yuliya Smilowitz
- 04-14-20
Know thy ancestors
Two parallel stories with one happening in Russia during Stalin’s repression’s and the other in the United States. A very obvious contrast of how people lived here and there at that same time. A very touching true story of a Russian move prize writer and obstacles in professional and love life... and much more. After reading this book I bought Dr.Zhivago and don’t regret it. Worth your time!
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- Elizabeth
- 10-04-19
Left too much undone.
I wanted to love this book. It was intriguing and a good premise. But became lost and undone. The mystery of the typists and what secrets they kept...really wasn't a mystery or any large reveal at the end.
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- Osman
- 10-18-19
Like it
What a thriller, want more of the same author in the same theme - for we have been kept outside the world by Basheer’s stupid governance
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- anna
- 10-08-19
Meh...
It wasn’t bad but I kept waiting for something interesting to happen...and then it ended.
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