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Whale Day
- And Other Poems
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 25 mins
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Publisher's summary
A wondrous collection from Billy Collins, former US Poet Laureate and New York Times best-selling author of The Rain in Portugal
“The poems are marked by his characteristic humor and arise out of small, banal moments, unearthing the extraordinary or uncanny in the everyday.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Whale Day brings together more than fifty poems and showcases the deft mixing of the playful and the serious that has made Billy Collins one of our country’s most celebrated and widely read poets. Here are poems that leap with whimsy and imagination, yet stay grounded in the familiar, common things of everyday experience. Collins takes us for a walk with an impossibly ancient dog, discovers the original way to eat a banana, meets an Irish spider, and even invites us to his own funeral. Sensitive to the wonders of being alive as well as the thrill of mortality, Whale Day builds on and amplifies Collins’ reputation as one of America’s most interesting and durable poets.
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Reminded me of home
- By jill on 06-02-13
By: Sarah Stonich
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Owls Do Cry
- By: Janet Frame
- Narrated by: Heather Bolton
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Owls Do Cry is Janet Frame's first novel. She describes her idea behind it in the second volume of her autobiography: 'Pictures of great treasure in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for main characters, and inventing minor characters.'
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well told but a wee bit depressing.
- By Muzza on 11-03-19
By: Janet Frame
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All for Nothing
- By: Walter Kempowski, Anthea Bell - translator, Jenny Erpenbeck - introduction
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In East Prussia, January 1945, the German forces are in retreat, and the Red Army is approaching. The von Globig family's manor house, the Georgenhof, is falling into disrepair. Auntie runs the estate as best she can since Eberhard von Globig, a special officer in the German army, went to war, leaving behind his beautiful but vague wife, Katharina, and her bookish 12-year-old son, Peter. As the road fills with Germans fleeing the occupied territories, the Georgenhof begins to receive strange visitors - a Nazi violinist, a dissident painter, a Baltic baron, even a Jewish refugee.
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All for Nothing
- By Lynn on 03-16-19
By: Walter Kempowski, and others
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The Blind Assassin
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Margot Dionne
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
For the past twenty-five years, Margaret Atwood has written works of striking originality and imagination. In The Blind Assassin, she stretches the limits of her accomplishments as never before, creating a novel that is entertaining and profoundly serious. The novel opens with these simple, resonant words: "Ten days after the war ended, my sister drove a car off the bridge." They are spoken by Iris, whose terse account of her sister Laura's death in 1945 is followed by an inquest report proclaiming the death accidental.
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Good book, TERRIBLE audio!
- By Whitney on 04-27-09
By: Margaret Atwood
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Breakfast at Tiffany's
- By: Truman Capote
- Narrated by: Michael C. Hall
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Golden Globe-winning actor Michael C. Hall (Six Feet Under) performs Truman Capote's masterstroke about a young writer's charmed fascination with his unorthodox neighbor, the "American geisha" Holly Golightly. Holly - a World War II-era society girl in her late teens - survives via socialization, attending parties and restaurants with men from the wealthy upper class who also provide her with money and expensive gifts. Over the course of the novella, the seemingly shallow Holly slowly opens up to the curious protagonist.
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"Better to look at the sky than live there"
- By W Perry Hall on 02-12-14
By: Truman Capote
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The Saturdays
- By: Elizabeth Enright
- Narrated by: Pamela Dillman
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
The four Melendy children live with their father and Cuffy, their beloved housekeeper, in a worn but comfortable brownstone in New York City. There's thirteen-year-old Mona, who has decided to become an actress; twelve-year-old mischievous Rush; ten-year-old Randy who loves to dance and paint; and thoughtful Oliver, who is just six-years-old.
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Excellent for children and adults
- By Dale on 05-15-04
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The Wapshot Chronicle
- By: John Cheever
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Based in part on Cheever's adolescence in New England, the novel follows the destinies of the impecunious and wildly eccentric Wapshots of St. Botolphs, a quintessential Massachusetts fishing village. Here are the stories of Captain Leander Wapshot, venerable sea dog and would-be suicide; of his licentious older son, Moses; and of Moses' adoring and errant younger brother, Coverly.
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Beautiful 1950s Great Expectations-like Novel
- By Darwin8u on 05-31-13
By: John Cheever
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Priestdaddy
- A Memoir
- By: Patricia Lockwood
- Narrated by: Patricia Lockwood
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Father Greg Lockwood is unlike any Catholic priest you have ever met - a man who lounges in boxer shorts, who loves action movies, and whose constant jamming on the guitar reverberates "like a whole band dying in a plane crash in 1972". His daughter is an irreverent poet who long ago left the church's country. When an unexpected crisis leads her and her husband to move back into her parents' rectory, their two worlds collide.
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Terrible narration--read, don't listen
- By Penelope on 08-06-17
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The Waves
- By: Virginia Woolf
- Narrated by: Frances Jeater
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Waves traces the lives of six friends from childhood to old age. It was written when Virginia Woolf was at the height of her experimental powers, and she allows each character to tell their own story, through powerful, poetic monologues. By listening to these voices struggling to impose order and meaning on their lives, we are drawn into a literary journey that stunningly reproduces the complex, confusing and contradictory nature of human experience. It is read with affection and skill by Frances Jeater.
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Not an easy read but worth it
- By Lena on 03-26-16
By: Virginia Woolf
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The Lightest Object in the Universe
- A Novel
- By: Kimi Eisele
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
What if the end times allowed people to see and build the world anew? This is the landscape that Kimi Eisele creates in her surprising and original debut novel. Evoking the spirit of such monumental love stories as Cold Mountain and the creative vision of novels like Station Eleven, The Lightest Object in the Universe tells the story of what happens after the global economy collapses and the electrical grid goes down.
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Don't waste your time.......
- By Chester Johnson on 07-18-19
By: Kimi Eisele
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Essays of E. B. White
- By: E. B. White
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Legendary author and essayist E. B. White writes, "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Covering a large number of subjects, this classic collection features 31 of White's most memorable essays.
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E.B. White writes honestly, fearlessly and clearly
- By Bonny on 09-03-17
By: E. B. White
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Water, Water
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- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the former Poet Laureate of the United States and New York Times bestselling author of Aimless Love comes a wondrous new collection of poems focused on the joys and mysteries of daily life.
By: Billy Collins
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Aimless Love
- A Selection of Poems
- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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From the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first compilation of new and selected poems in 12 years. Aimless Love combines new poems with selections from four previous books— Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, and Horoscopes for the Dead. Collins’s unmistakable voice, which brings together plain speech with imaginative surprise, is clearly heard with every word, reminding us how he has managed to enrich the tapestry of contemporary poetry and greatly expand its audience.
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the audio version is abridged.
- By Denis A. on 03-27-14
By: Billy Collins
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Musical Tables
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- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
“America’s favorite poet” (The Wall Street Journal) has found a new form for his unique poetic style: the small poem. Here Collins writes about his trademark themes of nature, animals, poetry, mortality, absurdity, and love—all in a handful of lines. Neither haiku nor limerick, the small poem pushes to an extreme poetry’s famed power to condense emotional and conceptual meaning. Inspired by the small poetry of writers, the poems of Musical Tables show one of our greatest poets channeling his unique voice into a new phase of his exceptional career.
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Master Mind
- By Tara D. on 10-04-24
By: Billy Collins
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Call Us What We Carry
- Poems
- By: Amanda Gorman
- Narrated by: Amanda Gorman
- Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by number one New York Times best-selling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage.
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STUNNING!
- By Ciara Jones on 01-02-22
By: Amanda Gorman
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Billy Collins Live
- A Performance at the Peter Norton Symphony Space April 20, 2005
- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this exclusive audio publishing event, Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate, shares an evening of his poetry in a benefit reading for WNYC, New York Public Radio. Often compared to Robert Frost, his poetry has been embraced by people of all ages and backgrounds, and his readings are most often standing room only.
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Does Not Get Better Than This
- By Mel on 09-27-10
By: Billy Collins
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Wade in the Water: Poems
- By: Tracy K. Smith
- Narrated by: Tracy K. Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith boldly ties America's contemporary moment both to our nation's fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith's signature voice - inquisitive, lyrical, and wry - turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence.
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Brings the Reader to tears!
- By Tom on 08-12-20
By: Tracy K. Smith
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Water, Water
- Poems
- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
From the former Poet Laureate of the United States and New York Times bestselling author of Aimless Love comes a wondrous new collection of poems focused on the joys and mysteries of daily life.
By: Billy Collins
-
Aimless Love
- A Selection of Poems
- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the two-term Poet Laureate of the United States Billy Collins comes his first compilation of new and selected poems in 12 years. Aimless Love combines new poems with selections from four previous books— Nine Horses, The Trouble with Poetry, Ballistics, and Horoscopes for the Dead. Collins’s unmistakable voice, which brings together plain speech with imaginative surprise, is clearly heard with every word, reminding us how he has managed to enrich the tapestry of contemporary poetry and greatly expand its audience.
-
-
the audio version is abridged.
- By Denis A. on 03-27-14
By: Billy Collins
-
Musical Tables
- Poems
- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“America’s favorite poet” (The Wall Street Journal) has found a new form for his unique poetic style: the small poem. Here Collins writes about his trademark themes of nature, animals, poetry, mortality, absurdity, and love—all in a handful of lines. Neither haiku nor limerick, the small poem pushes to an extreme poetry’s famed power to condense emotional and conceptual meaning. Inspired by the small poetry of writers, the poems of Musical Tables show one of our greatest poets channeling his unique voice into a new phase of his exceptional career.
-
-
Master Mind
- By Tara D. on 10-04-24
By: Billy Collins
-
Call Us What We Carry
- Poems
- By: Amanda Gorman
- Narrated by: Amanda Gorman
- Length: 3 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by number one New York Times best-selling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage.
-
-
STUNNING!
- By Ciara Jones on 01-02-22
By: Amanda Gorman
-
Billy Collins Live
- A Performance at the Peter Norton Symphony Space April 20, 2005
- By: Billy Collins
- Narrated by: Billy Collins
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this exclusive audio publishing event, Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate, shares an evening of his poetry in a benefit reading for WNYC, New York Public Radio. Often compared to Robert Frost, his poetry has been embraced by people of all ages and backgrounds, and his readings are most often standing room only.
-
-
Does Not Get Better Than This
- By Mel on 09-27-10
By: Billy Collins
-
Wade in the Water: Poems
- By: Tracy K. Smith
- Narrated by: Tracy K. Smith
- Length: 1 hr and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith boldly ties America's contemporary moment both to our nation's fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith's signature voice - inquisitive, lyrical, and wry - turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence.
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Brings the Reader to tears!
- By Tom on 08-12-20
By: Tracy K. Smith
What listeners say about Whale Day
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Thomas Kirk
- 01-30-23
More
The plates and cups were full. We ate and drank till we could not possibly take another bite or down another gulp. And yet, we cried for more.
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- Susan H.
- 08-29-21
Master Poet
Love Billy Collins! I've listened to Whale Day three times, discovered something new each time.
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- Maggie Hess
- 11-03-20
To be read in the voice of Billy Collins
I have considered Billy Collins among the best writers ever since I first came across his poetry, which happened to be a poem he read on Prairie Home Companion about a Lanyard. I myself have long considered myself a poet, and I often wondered, regarding Collins, how he got to the superior collected quality you find in Whale Day and the rest of his works. "It is something about his voice," I considered quietly to myself, not realizing the irony in my words until later. Now I think I have found just what it is about his writing that carries so strongly in voice, because I imagine one day, long ago, when Billy Collins looked down at his own shoes and said to himself "If I want to be a poet, I am going to have to transform my literal voice into something that better fits what I do wish to have as my poetry." So on that day, age 13, when his voice finally had begun changing to something screechy and juvenile naturally on his own, Collins began the artful embodiment of the style of speech that you hear in this wonderful book today, or maybe you haven't read this yet, in which case let me describe it. The narrating voice of Billy Collins puts true poetry, deep emotional moments of love and trembling, to a vocalization that I personally have described as monotone. But it is in the contrast from his totally relatable writing to this droll yet sensitive tone, that so exquisitely and beautifully captures all that I value in poetry.
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1 person found this helpful
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- William
- 01-21-24
Billy Collins’ Sense of Humor
Billy Collins annoys me because I wish I could write poems as good as his but I can’t. Rats!
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