
There's Always This Year
On Basketball and Ascension
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Narrated by:
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Hanif Abdurraqib
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By:
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Hanif Abdurraqib
About this listen
“Mesmerizing . . . not only the most original sports book I’ve ever read but one of the most moving books I’ve ever read, period.”—Steve James, director of Hoop Dreams
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Vulture, Chicago Public Library, BookPage
A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe, The New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, Electric Lit
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
Growing up in Columbus, Ohio, in the 1990s, Hanif Abdurraqib witnessed a golden era of basketball, one in which legends like LeBron James were forged and countless others weren’t. His lifelong love of the game leads Abdurraqib into a lyrical, historical, and emotionally rich exploration of what it means to make it, who we think deserves success, the tension between excellence and expectation, and the very notion of role models, all of which he expertly weaves together with intimate, personal storytelling. “Here is where I would like to tell you about the form on my father’s jump shot,” Abdurraqib writes. “The truth, though, is that I saw my father shoot a basketball only one time.”
There’s Always This Year is a triumph, brimming with joy, pain, solidarity, comfort, outrage, and hope. No matter the subject of his keen focus—whether it’s basketball, or music, or performance—Hanif Abdurraqib’s exquisite writing is always poetry, always profound, and always a clarion call to radically reimagine how we think about our culture, our country, and ourselves.
LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION©2024 Hanif Abdurraqib (P)2024 Random House Audio
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Critic reviews
“Hanif Abdurraqib again shows us new ways to be a social critic, a dreamer, a historian, and a lover of hoop. But—and this feels especially moving—he shows us how he wonders about, and how he is transformed in the wondering about, what it means to belong to a place. And you know by place I mean the people, the memories, the sorrows, the tomorrows, who are that place. And you know by all that I mean the love.”—Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights
“Hanif Abdurraqib is one of the finest authors working in America, and this book contains, I would argue, the sharpest, most insightful, most poignant writing of his career. It's incredible. It's fat with emotion and love and earnestness and basketball, four of the very best things, packaged and delivered in a way that only Hanif can.”—Shea Serrano, bestselling author of Basketball (and Other Things)
Editorial Review
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Story
In his much-anticipated follow-up to The Crown Ain't Worth Much, poet, essayist, biographer, and music critic Hanif Abdurraqib has written a book of poems about how one rebuilds oneself after a heartbreak, the kind that renders them a different version of themselves than the one they knew. It's a book about a mother's death, and admitting that Michael Jordan pushed off, about forgiveness, and how none of the author's black friends wanted to listen to "Don't Stop Believin'". It's about wrestling with histories, personal and shared.
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Like a real live reading
- By poetic_moni on 08-19-24
By: Hanif Abdurraqib
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All Things Are Too Small
- Essays in Praise of Excess
- By: Becca Rothfeld
- Narrated by: Ruth Crawford
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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All Things Are Too Small is brilliant cultural and literary critic Becca Rothfeld’s plea for derangement: imbalance, obsession, gluttony, and ravishment in all domains of life, from literature to romance. In a healthy culture, Rothfeld argues, economic security allows for wild aesthetic experimentation and excess, yet in our contemporary world, we’ve got it flipped. The gap between rich and poor yawns hideously wide, while we compensate with misguided attempts to effect equality in love and art, where it does not belong.
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Smart and clever
- By David on 12-04-24
By: Becca Rothfeld
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Benefits with Friends
- Starring Mae Martin and Sabrina Jalees
- By: Mae Martin, Sabrina Jalees
- Narrated by: Mae Martin, Sabrina Jalees
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Original Recording
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Sex, money, religion...all topics that we’re told to avoid in polite company. But exactly the kind of conversations you should be having with your bestie, according to best friends of more than 20 years, Mae Martin (Feel Good) and Sabrina Jalees (Roast Battle). Romantic couples are often guided through the conversations they should be having before committing to each other–but what are the topics that best friends should be covering to truly get to know each other?
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Dynamic and amazing
- By HTK on 03-29-25
By: Mae Martin, and others
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Knife
- Meditations After an Attempted Murder
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Salman Rushdie
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie was standing onstage at the Chautauqua Institution, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black—black clothes, black mask—rushed down the aisle toward him, wielding a knife. His first thought: So it’s you. Here you are. What followed was a horrific act of violence that shook the literary world and beyond.
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Triumph of Life
- By Donna Ponte on 04-17-24
By: Salman Rushdie
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The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt
- The Women Who Created a President
- By: Edward F. O'Keefe
- Narrated by: Edward F. O'Keefe
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A dazzling and lyrical look at the making of one of America’s most remarkable presidents, The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt celebrates five extraordinary yet unsung women who opened the door to the American Century and pushed Theodore Roosevelt through it.
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A fresh take on TR
- By Maria on 05-29-24
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The Door of No Return
- By: Kwame Alexander
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin. He’s warned though, to never go to the river at night. His brother tells him ”There are things about the water you do not know. “ Like what? Kofi asks. “The beasts.” His brother answers.
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The ending. It felt like Hope!
- By Maulana on 03-28-25
By: Kwame Alexander
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When the Sea Came Alive
- An Oral History of D-Day
- By: Garrett M. Graff
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Garrett M. Graff, full cast
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A visceral drama, When the Sea Came Alive is the most comprehensive account of D-Day that we have yet to see, and an unforgettable, fitting tribute to the men and women of the Greatest Generation.
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Just a great "oral" history of d day
- By PAUL on 07-25-24
By: Garrett M. Graff
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Beautiful Days
- Stories
- By: Zach Williams
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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A couple awakens in a home in the woods to find themselves rapidly aging as their toddler remains unchanged. A work-worn employee navigates conspiracy theories and the threat of violence in an abandoned office. A tour guide leads a troublesome group to an ancient structure, apparently nonhuman in origin, discovering along the way that the most mysterious creatures of all are right beside him.
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Needs more edge
- By Jeffrey A Horler on 12-15-24
By: Zach Williams
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Letters from Guantánamo
- By: Mansoor Adayfi, Antonio Aiello
- Narrated by: Mansoor Adayfi, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Elias Khalil, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Original Recording
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In weeks after the September 11 attacks, 18-year-old Mansoor Adayfi was kidnapped by Afghan militia and sold to US forces for bounty money. After months of interrogations, he was sent to the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as one of its first prisoners. Like the nearly 800 other men imprisoned at Guantanamo, Adayfi didn’t know why he was imprisoned or for how long. He had never seen a skyscraper and couldn’t imagine what the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center looked like, much less how they were destroyed.
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An important reminder
- By Dave Heilman on 05-25-24
By: Mansoor Adayfi, and others
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Headshot
- A Novel
- By: Rita Bullwinkel
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 5 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country.
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Wonderful Narrator
- By love it on 08-09-24
By: Rita Bullwinkel
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Candy Darling
- Dreamer, Icon, Superstar
- By: Cynthia Carr
- Narrated by: Justin Vivian Bond
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up on Long Island, lonely and quiet and queer, she was enchanted by Hollywood starlets like Kim Novak. She found her turn in New York’s early Off-Off-Broadway theater scene, in Warhol’s films Flesh and Women in Revolt, and at the famed nightclub Max's Kansas City. She inspired songs by Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones. She became friends with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, borrowed a dress from Lauren Hutton, posed for Richard Avedon, and performed alongside Tennessee Williams in his own play.
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Thee candy darling’s bibile
- By Anile on 04-15-24
By: Cynthia Carr
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Creep
- Accusations and Confessions
- By: Myriam Gurba
- Narrated by: Myriam Gurba
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Creep is “sharp, conversational cultural criticism” (Bustle), a blistering and slyly informal sociology of creeps (the individuals who deceive, exploit, and oppress) and creep culture (the systems, tacit rules, and institutions that feed them and allow them to grow and thrive). In eleven bold, electrifying pieces, Gurba mines her own life and the lives of others—some famous, some infamous, some you’ve never heard of but will likely never forget—to unearth the toxic traditions that have long plagued our culture and enabled the abusers who haunt our books, schools, and homes.
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(Should Have Been) Great
- By Abstraction on 12-28-24
By: Myriam Gurba
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Legacy
- A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine
- By: Uché Blackstock MD
- Narrated by: Uché Blackstock MD
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uché Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives.
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I Feel Validated!
- By Lisa M Walker on 07-13-24
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Rednecks
- By: Taylor Brown
- Narrated by: Ramiz Monsef
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning novelist Taylor Brown brings to life one of the most compelling events in twentieth-century American history, reminding us of the hard-won origins of today’s unions. Rednecks is a propulsive, character-driven tale that’s both a century old and blisteringly contemporary: a story of unexpected friendship, heroism in the face of injustice, and the power of love and community against all odds.
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Slowest book for no payofff
- By Jackie H on 03-18-25
By: Taylor Brown
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The Viral Underclass
- The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide
- By: Steven W. Thrasher
- Narrated by: Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl, Steven W. Thrasher
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Having spent a ground-breaking career studying the racialization, policing, and criminalization of HIV, Dr. Thrasher has come to understand a deeper truth at the heart of our society: that there are vast inequalities in who is able to survive viruses and that the ways in which viruses spread, kill, and take their toll are much more dependent on social structures than they are on biology alone.
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New Perspective
- By Colin Oldham on 01-05-23
What listeners say about There's Always This Year
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- Howard W. Levitin, MD
- 11-18-24
Fantastic
Thought provoking, fast paced, insightful, warm, inspiring and profoundly original. I have read two other books in this one definitely should be considered for the Pulitzer.
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- Shrewsie Shrew
- 01-15-25
It flows!
I wouldn't say this book is ABOUT basketball. It's more of a memoir that flows through ideas and stories about neighborhoods, home, the love of place, basketball, family, and friends. I had to look at the hard copy to see if the book is written in verse, and was surprised that it's not! The author's reading is poetic. I am like, marginally interested in basketball and not at all interested in poetry, but I loved this book.
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- emcibi
- 10-22-24
You don’t need to love basketball to love this book
This book is a meditation, a prayer, a litany, a love song, an ode…to Ohio, to LeBron, to the Cavs, to basketball, to family, to friends, to love and poetry and, yes, ascension. Fans of Ocean Vuong or Kiese Laymon have to read this book.
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- Drew Ullman
- 05-02-24
Transcendent.
Achingly, searingly beautiful. Even non-sports fans will love Abdurraqib’s prose and performance. While he and I are worlds apart, I found his stories, his struggles, his hopes and dreams to be very relatable.
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- Mónica
- 08-23-24
Love and Basketball
This is about basketball yes but also about love. To love a place and feel that it doesn’t love you back, to try so hard to make it work and won’t until maybe just maybe one day it does. I don’t have the language to describe how much I enjoyed this book. The run on sentences the circling back. Everything. Everything. Listened to the audible and will now be purchasing the book. Excellent. Exceptional. In awe but above all thankful. Thankful for poets that can articulate so beautifully what I haven’t had the language or possibly the courage to articulate myself.
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- D. Moran
- 03-24-25
Great book
Loved the writing style, the substance and the delivery. The author did a great job of weaving his personal experiences with the story of his team and city.
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- Michael D. Taylor
- 05-06-24
Interesting Read
Thoroughly enjoy the narration. The poetry inside the story was awesome. I will definitely be looking for your poetry book.
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- Raul Figueroa
- 06-26-24
This is some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read.
Hanif writing is so good that he got me teared up with his description of a dunk. A dunk… ❤️
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- Brandon Chism
- 09-09-24
This book is about home.
I love when poets can competently write prose. Hanif Abdurraqib is one of those poets.
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- Margo Rey
- 11-17-24
Stunning Prose
An exquisitely beautiful painful read of the subjects most don’t dare to brooch, but should.
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