
Why Fathers Cry at Night
A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances
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Narrated by:
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Kwame Alexander
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By:
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Kwame Alexander
About this listen
This powerful memoir from a #1 New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medalist features poetry, letters, recipes, and other personal artifacts that provide an intimate look into his life and the loved ones he shares it with.
In a powerfully intimate and non-traditional (or "new-fashioned") memoir, Kwame Alexander shares snapshots of a man learning how to love. He takes us through stories of his parents: from being awkward newlyweds in the sticky Chicago summer of 1967, to the sometimes-confusing ways they showed their love to each other, and for him. He explores his own relationships—his difficulties as a newly wedded, 22-year-old father, and the precariousness of his early marriage working in a jazz club with his second wife. Alexander attempts to deal with the unravelling of his marriage and the grief of his mother's recent passing while sharing the solace he found in learning how to perfect her famous fried chicken dish. With an open heart, Alexander weaves together memories of his past to try and understand his greatest love: his daughters.
Full of heartfelt reminisces, family recipes, love poems, and personal letters, Why Fathers Cry at Night inspires bravery and vulnerability in every listener who has experienced the reckless passion, heartbreak, failure, and joy that define the whirlwind woes and wonders of love.
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Before Josh and Jordan Bell were streaking up and down the court, their father was learning his own moves. In this prequel to Newbery Medal winner The Crossover, Chuck Bell takes center stage, as listeners get a glimpse of his childhood and how he became the jazz music worshiping basketball star his sons look up to. A novel in verse with all the impact and rhythm listeners have come to expect from Kwame Alexander, Rebound will go back in time to visit the childhood of Chuck "Da Man" Bell during one pivotal summer when young Charlie is sent to stay with his grandparents, where he discovers basketball and learns more about his family's past.
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Book
- By Cookie crumbs on 07-09-19
By: Kwame Alexander
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Firstborn Girls
- A Memoir
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles, Bernice L. McFadden
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar. Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”
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Great Read
- By Mia CB on 05-15-25
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Mainline Mama
- A Memoir
- By: Keeonna Harris
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was “grown.” Within a year she was pregnant and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a “mainline mama,” a parent facing the task of raising a child—while still growing up herself—with an incarcerated partner.
By: Keeonna Harris
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While We Were Burning
- By: Sara Koffi
- Narrated by: Henriette Zoutomou, Karissa Vacker, Louisa Zhu
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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After her best friend's mysterious death, Elizabeth Smith’s picture-perfect life in the Memphis suburbs has spiraled out of control—so much so that she hires a personal assistant to keep her on track. Composed and elegant, Brianna is exactly who she needs and slides so neatly into Elizabeth’s life, almost like she belonged there from the start. Soon, the assistant Elizabeth hired to distract her from her obsession with her friend's death is the same person working with her to uncover the truth behind it. Because Brianna has questions, too.
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delicious revenge
- By Adriana Barbour on 04-23-24
By: Sara Koffi
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Blues Highway
- A Migration Journey from the South to Chicago
- By: Carla D. Williams
- Narrated by: Drama Simpson
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Blues Highway is one migration story of Blacks from the American South, aided initially by the Pullman porters broad reach into the world beyond. Moving on to the next generation, the porter Sidney sets up his daughter Janet to take hold of his barber shop. As she navigates her life, opportunities and social conditions shift. The power of Janet and Frank's relationship moves the saga forward, touching honestly and deeply on the forces of change.
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Awesome Narration!
- By Sonja R😁 on 02-29-24
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Rules of Engagement
- By: Stacey Abrams, Selena Montgomery
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Raleigh Foster, an operative for a top-secret intelligence organization, knows that her undercover work has its risks. So she doesn't hesitate when asked to infiltrate Scimitar, the terrorist group that has stolen lethal environmental technology. But when she's assigned a partner—brooding, sexy Adam Grayson—to pose as her lover, Raleigh discovers that the most dangerous risk of all...is falling in love.
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First time reader
- By Candice Bailey on 04-05-23
By: Stacey Abrams, and others
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Mirror Me
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Torian Brackett
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Eddie Asher arrives at Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital panicked that he may have murdered his brother’s fiancée, Lucy, with whom he shared a profound kinship. He can’t imagine doing such a terrible thing, but Eddie hasn’t been himself lately. Eddie’s anxiety is nothing new to Pär, the one Eddie calls his Other, who protects Eddie from truths he’s too sensitive to face. Or so Pär says. Troubled by Pär’s increasing sway over his life, Eddie seeks out Dr. Richard Montgomery, a specialist in dissociative identities.
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Good probably better to read than listen.
- By Lulu Dx on 12-05-24
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I Am Nobody's Slave
- How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free
- By: Lee Hawkins
- Narrated by: Lee Hawkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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A 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist and former Wall Street Journal writer exhaustively examines his family’s legacy of post-enslavement trauma and resilience, in this riveting memoir. I Am Nobody’s Slave tells the story of one Black family's pursuit of the American Dream through the impacts of systemic racism and racial violence. This book examines how trauma from enslavement and Jim Crow shaped their outlook on thriving in America, influenced each generation, and how they succeeded despite these challenges.
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Outstanding
- By Anonymous User on 03-05-25
By: Lee Hawkins
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How to Say Babylon
- A Memoir
- By: Safiya Sinclair
- Narrated by: Safiya Sinclair
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and a militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, was obsessed with the ever-present threat of the corrupting evils of the Western world outside their home, and worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure. For him, a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.
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The ability of Safia to both tell a gut wrenching story while making beautiful art with her words.
- By Grandchampion on 07-21-24
By: Safiya Sinclair
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Swing
- By: Kwame Alexander, Mary Rand Hess
- Narrated by: Kwame Alexander
- Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins
- Abridged
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When America is not so beautiful, or right, or just, it can be hard to know what to do. Best friends Walt and Noah decide to use their voices to grow more good in the world, but first they've got to find cool. Walt is convinced junior year is their year, and he has a plan to help them woo the girls of their dreams and become amazing athletes. Never mind that he and Noah failed to make the high school baseball team yet again, and Noah's love interest since third grade, Sam, has him firmly in the friend zone.
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Powerful and important read especially for boys
- By The Mrs. on 11-07-18
By: Kwame Alexander, and others
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Rootless
- A Novel
- By: Krystle Zara Appiah
- Narrated by: Clifford Samuel, Diana Yekinni
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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On a Spring afternoon in London, Sam hops the stairs of his flat two at a time. There’s £1,300 missing from his and his wife, Efe’s, shared bank account and his calls are going straight to voicemail. When he finally reaches someone, he learns Efe is nearly 5,000 miles away as their toddler looks around and asks, “Where’s Mummy?”
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The ending was traumatic & unnecessary
- By Kayzee on 04-27-25
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This Is the Honey
- An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets
- By: Kwame Alexander
- Narrated by: Mahogany L. Brown, Joel Damany Steingold
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of contemporary anthems at turns tender and piercing and deeply inspiring throughout.
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This spoke to me.
- By Kimberlee Johnson on 07-12-24
By: Kwame Alexander
As a father, on point
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Absolutly beautiful
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The Nikki Giovanni content is so good, but I'm an elementary school librarian, so I'm invested. ❤️
Immediately on repeat!
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Beautiful book.
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Just beautiful...
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Such a treasure and a gift.
Thank you, Mr. Alexander!
Just WOW
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Beautiful writing
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Loved it.
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Beautiful memoir
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Thought provoking and insightful
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