
Within Arm's Reach
A Novel
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
By:
-
Ann Napolitano
About this listen
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The tender and perceptive debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Hello Beautiful, about three generations of a large Catholic family jarred into crisis by an unexpected pregnancy
“This stunning . . . exquisite, skillfully written gem addresses serious issues–e.g., guilt vs. loyalty, the past vs. the present—[but] remains hopeful and includes ample doses of humor and wit.”—Library Journal (starred review)
No one in my mother’s family ever talks about anything that can be categorized as unpleasant or as having to do with emotions. . . .
This spellbinding novel by bestselling author Ann Napolitano is a poignant reminder of how connected we are to those we love, even when we cannot find the words to say it. The unforgettable story of three generations of an Irish American family, Within Arm’s Reach is another rich and deeply satisfying novel from the author who captured the many dimensions of grief in Dear Edward and the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood in Hello Beautiful.
©2024 Ann Napolitano (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
A Good Hard Look
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Debra Monk
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Crippled by lupus at 25, celebrated author Flannery O'Connor was forced to leave New York City and return home to Andalusia, her family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. Years later, as Flannery is finishing a novel and tending to her menagerie of peacocks, her mother drags her to the wedding of a family friend....
-
-
A rare five star
- By Jennifer Peden on 02-08-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
Dear Edward
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
-
-
Stunning characterization and compelling storytelling!
- By Amazon User on 01-29-20
By: Ann Napolitano
-
This Motherless Land
- A Novel
- By: Nikki May
- Narrated by: Weruche Opia, Florence Howard
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.
-
-
So good
- By Nik Lan on 05-05-25
By: Nikki May
-
On Fire Island
- By: Jane L. Rosen
- Narrated by: Emily Lawrence
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a book editor, Julia Morse lived and breathed stories. Whether with her pen to a manuscript or curled up with a book while at her beloved Fire Island cottage, her imagination alight with a good tale, she could anticipate practically any ending. The ending she’d never imagined was her own. To be fair, no one expects to die at thirty-seven. So when the unthinkable happens to Julia, rather than following the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, she chooses to spend one last summer near those she loves most.
-
-
feels relatable
- By no name on 03-27-25
By: Jane L. Rosen
-
Erasure
- A Novel
- By: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days."
-
-
A Rollercoaster That Never Descends
- By Amazon Customer on 01-07-24
By: Percival Everett
-
Commonwealth
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Hope Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly - thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.
-
-
Patchett and Me--In-sympatico
- By Mel on 09-18-16
By: Ann Patchett
-
A Good Hard Look
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Debra Monk
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Crippled by lupus at 25, celebrated author Flannery O'Connor was forced to leave New York City and return home to Andalusia, her family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. Years later, as Flannery is finishing a novel and tending to her menagerie of peacocks, her mother drags her to the wedding of a family friend....
-
-
A rare five star
- By Jennifer Peden on 02-08-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
Dear Edward
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One summer morning, twelve-year-old Edward Adler, his beloved older brother, his parents, and 183 other passengers board a flight in Newark headed for Los Angeles. Among them are a Wall Street wunderkind, a young woman coming to terms with an unexpected pregnancy, an injured veteran returning from Afghanistan, a business tycoon, and a free-spirited woman running away from her controlling husband. Halfway across the country, the plane crashes. Edward is the sole survivor.
-
-
Stunning characterization and compelling storytelling!
- By Amazon User on 01-29-20
By: Ann Napolitano
-
This Motherless Land
- A Novel
- By: Nikki May
- Narrated by: Weruche Opia, Florence Howard
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. She loves her art teacher mother, her professor father, and even her annoying little brother (most of the time). But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather grey. Worse still, her mother’s family are cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin Liv.
-
-
So good
- By Nik Lan on 05-05-25
By: Nikki May
-
On Fire Island
- By: Jane L. Rosen
- Narrated by: Emily Lawrence
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a book editor, Julia Morse lived and breathed stories. Whether with her pen to a manuscript or curled up with a book while at her beloved Fire Island cottage, her imagination alight with a good tale, she could anticipate practically any ending. The ending she’d never imagined was her own. To be fair, no one expects to die at thirty-seven. So when the unthinkable happens to Julia, rather than following the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, she chooses to spend one last summer near those she loves most.
-
-
feels relatable
- By no name on 03-27-25
By: Jane L. Rosen
-
Erasure
- A Novel
- By: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days."
-
-
A Rollercoaster That Never Descends
- By Amazon Customer on 01-07-24
By: Percival Everett
-
Commonwealth
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Hope Davis
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly - thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.
-
-
Patchett and Me--In-sympatico
- By Mel on 09-18-16
By: Ann Patchett
-
Alternate Side
- A Novel
- By: Anna Quindlen
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some days Nora Nolan thinks that she and her husband, Charlie, lead a charmed life - except when there’s a crisis at work, a leak in the roof at home, or a problem with their twins at college. And why not? New York City was once Nora’s dream destination, and her clannish dead-end block has become a safe harbor, a tranquil village amid the urban craziness. Then one morning she returns from her run to discover that a terrible incident has shaken the neighborhood, and the fault lines begin to open: on the block, at her job, especially in her marriage.
-
-
An excellent listen
- By Irene on 03-27-18
By: Anna Quindlen
-
The Summer Wives
- A Novel
- By: Beatriz Williams
- Narrated by: Kristin Kalbli
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society. When her beautiful mother marries Hugh Fisher, Miranda’s catapulted into a heady new world of pedigrees and cocktails. Isobel Fisher, Miranda’s new stepsister is eager to draw Miranda into the arcane customs of Winthrop society. But there are really two clans: the summer families with their steadfast ways and quiet obsessions, and the working class of Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers. Then Miranda is caught in a catastrophe and banished....
-
-
Oh hum!
- By Ruth M. Penson on 07-26-18
By: Beatriz Williams
-
The Dutch House
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Tom Hanks
- Length: 9 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves. The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother.
-
-
Not my favorite Patchett
- By Regina on 12-07-19
By: Ann Patchett
-
This Is How It Always Is
- A Novel
- By: Laurie Frankel
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it's another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. One day he puts on a dress and refuses to take it off. He wants to bring a purse to kindergarten. He wants hair long enough to sit on. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
-
-
Story mirrors our life -- to a point -- spoilers
- By 1mom3kids on 11-14-17
By: Laurie Frankel
-
The Girls We Sent Away
- By: Meagan Church
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s the 1960s in North Carolina, and Lorraine Delford has it all—an upstanding family, a perfect boyfriend, and an idyllic home complete with a white picket fence. Yet every time she looks through her father’s telescope, she dreams of leaving it all behind to go to space. It’s ambitious, but Lorraine has always been exceptional.
-
-
Very predictable
- By Old dog learning new trick on 05-13-24
By: Meagan Church
-
Summer by the Tides
- By: Denise Hunter
- Narrated by: Nan Kelly
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When her grandmother goes missing from the family beach house, Maddy and her estranged sisters converge in Sea Haven, North Carolina. Being with uptight Nora and free-spirited Emma in the home where their family broke apart is a struggle Maddy is not in the mood to face, especially since she’s recovering from her ex-boyfriend’s betrayal. As the sisters wait for word of their grandmother, they begin to pack up the family belongings - and unpack memories of the idyllic summers of their childhood.
-
-
Not her best...
- By Anonymous User on 07-05-19
By: Denise Hunter
-
Broken Country
- By: Clare Leslie Hall
- Narrated by: Hattie Morahan
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beth and her gentle, kind husband Frank are happily married, but their relationship relies on the past staying buried. But when Beth’s brother-in-law shoots a dog going after their sheep, Beth doesn’t realize that the gunshot will alter the course of their lives. For the dog belonged to none other than Gabriel Wolfe, the man Beth loved as a teenager—the man who broke her heart years ago. Gabriel has returned to the village with his young son Leo, a boy who reminds Beth very much of her own son, who died in a tragic accident.
-
-
Excellent storytelling
- By A.E.C. on 03-15-25
-
A Likely Story
- A Novel
- By: Leigh McMullan Abramson
- Narrated by: Mia Barron, Cynthia Farrell, James Fouhey, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in the nineties in New York City as the only child of famous parents was both a blessing and a curse for Isabelle Manning. Her beautiful society hostess mother, Claire, and New York Times bestselling author father, Ward, were the city’s intellectual It couple. Ward’s glamorous obligations often took him away from Isabelle, but Claire made sure her childhood was always filled with magic and love. Now an adult, after many false starts and the unexpected death of her mother, she faces her upcoming thirty-fifth birthday alone and on the verge of a breakdown.
-
-
Cute story
- By Loen Bradford on 01-10-25
-
Three Days in June
- A Novel
- By: Anne Tyler
- Narrated by: J. Smith-Cameron
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.
-
-
Simple, Enjoyable, performed 5 stars
- By PM on 02-14-25
By: Anne Tyler
-
Summer of '69
- By: Elin Hilderbrand
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the 20th century. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times they are a-changing. Every year, the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same.
-
-
great story
- By Amazon Customer on 07-09-19
By: Elin Hilderbrand
-
Wolf at the Table
- By: Adam Rapp
- Narrated by: Paul Sparks
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As late summer 1951 descends on Elmira, New York, Myra Larkin, thirteen, the oldest child of a large Catholic family, meets a young man she believes to be Mickey Mantle. He chats her up at a local diner and gives her a ride home. The matter consumes her until later that night, when a triple homicide occurs just down the street, opening a specter of violence that will haunt the Larkins for half a century.
-
-
extraordinary writing.
- By michelle martinez on 05-23-24
By: Adam Rapp
-
Animal Dreams
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Animal Dreams is a passionate and complex novel about love, forgiveness, and one woman's struggle to find her place in the world. At the end of her rope, Codi Noline returns to her Arizona home to face her ailing father, with whom she has a difficult, distant relationship. There she meets handsome Apache trainman Loyd Peregrina, who tells her, "If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life."
-
-
She reads my heart
- By Sue Spahr Hodges on 08-03-18
Critic reviews
“Napolitano writes with beauty and power, skillfully bringing her characters within arms’s reach until your heart is taken and this family becomes your own. This novel is a must-read for any book group.”—Hannah Tinti, author of Animal Crackers
“Napolitano has created a fascinating family in crisis. . . . Successfully skirting melodrama, [she] gives us a family drama that says even the most contentious can find a bit of happiness.”—Hartford Courant
“As if we are friends she brought home for the holidays, Ann Napolitano plops us onto the living room sofa of a big family with big problems and gives us an intimate view of what goes on behind closed doors. Within Arm’s Reach is a deft, vivacious novel whose author compels us to stay seated until the very last word.”—Helen Ellis, author of Eating the Cheshire Cat
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Distance Between Us
- A Novel
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Susie Riddell
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cold February afternoon, Stella catches sight of a man she hasn't seen for many years, but instantly recognises. Or thinks she does. At the same moment on the other side of the globe, in the middle of a crowd of Chinese New Year revellers, Jake realises that things are becoming dangerous. They know nothing of one another's existence, but both Stella and Jake flee their lives: Jake in search of a place so remote it doesn't appear on any map, and Stella for a destination in Scotland, the significance of which only her sister, Nina, will understand.
-
-
Not my favorite Maggie O’Farrell novel…
- By serene ghazi on 03-05-24
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
A Good Hard Look
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Debra Monk
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Crippled by lupus at 25, celebrated author Flannery O'Connor was forced to leave New York City and return home to Andalusia, her family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. Years later, as Flannery is finishing a novel and tending to her menagerie of peacocks, her mother drags her to the wedding of a family friend....
-
-
A rare five star
- By Jennifer Peden on 02-08-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
Finding Margaret Fuller
- A Novel
- By: Allison Pataki
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated Sage of Concord, to meet his coterie of enlightened friends. There she becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists, a role model to a young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures out to Walden Pond . . . and a muse to Emerson. But Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama.
-
-
I must’ve missed this group of thinkers in high school being friends
- By Liesl on 04-20-24
By: Allison Pataki
-
What the Fireflies Knew
- A Novel
- By: Kai Harris
- Narrated by: Zenzi Williams
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An ode to Black girlhood and adolescence as seen through KB's eyes, What the Fireflies Knew follows KB after her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit. Soon thereafter, KB and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. Over the course of a single sweltering summer, KB attempts to navigate a world that has turned upside down.
-
-
Heart-Wrenching Story of Complex Love & Loss
- By Nicole Estes on 01-27-23
By: Kai Harris
-
Only the Beautiful
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant.
-
-
Seeing the world in colors…
- By Bridgeman Family on 03-04-24
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Celebrants
- A Novel
- By: Steven Rowley
- Narrated by: Steven Rowley
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation from Berkeley when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living.
-
-
Just okay
- By kristine Barnes on 06-27-23
By: Steven Rowley
-
The Distance Between Us
- A Novel
- By: Maggie O'Farrell
- Narrated by: Susie Riddell
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a cold February afternoon, Stella catches sight of a man she hasn't seen for many years, but instantly recognises. Or thinks she does. At the same moment on the other side of the globe, in the middle of a crowd of Chinese New Year revellers, Jake realises that things are becoming dangerous. They know nothing of one another's existence, but both Stella and Jake flee their lives: Jake in search of a place so remote it doesn't appear on any map, and Stella for a destination in Scotland, the significance of which only her sister, Nina, will understand.
-
-
Not my favorite Maggie O’Farrell novel…
- By serene ghazi on 03-05-24
By: Maggie O'Farrell
-
A Good Hard Look
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Debra Monk
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Crippled by lupus at 25, celebrated author Flannery O'Connor was forced to leave New York City and return home to Andalusia, her family farm in Milledgeville, Georgia. Years later, as Flannery is finishing a novel and tending to her menagerie of peacocks, her mother drags her to the wedding of a family friend....
-
-
A rare five star
- By Jennifer Peden on 02-08-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
Finding Margaret Fuller
- A Novel
- By: Allison Pataki
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young, brazen, beautiful, and unapologetically brilliant, Margaret Fuller accepts an invitation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, the celebrated Sage of Concord, to meet his coterie of enlightened friends. There she becomes “the radiant genius and fiery heart” of the Transcendentalists, a role model to a young Louisa May Alcott, an inspiration for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne and the scandalous Scarlet Letter, a friend to Henry David Thoreau as he ventures out to Walden Pond . . . and a muse to Emerson. But Margaret craves more than poetry and interpersonal drama.
-
-
I must’ve missed this group of thinkers in high school being friends
- By Liesl on 04-20-24
By: Allison Pataki
-
What the Fireflies Knew
- A Novel
- By: Kai Harris
- Narrated by: Zenzi Williams
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An ode to Black girlhood and adolescence as seen through KB's eyes, What the Fireflies Knew follows KB after her father dies of an overdose and the debts incurred from his addiction cause the loss of the family home in Detroit. Soon thereafter, KB and her teenage sister, Nia, are sent by their overwhelmed mother to live with their estranged grandfather in Lansing, Michigan. Over the course of a single sweltering summer, KB attempts to navigate a world that has turned upside down.
-
-
Heart-Wrenching Story of Complex Love & Loss
- By Nicole Estes on 01-27-23
By: Kai Harris
-
Only the Beautiful
- By: Susan Meissner
- Narrated by: Xe Sands, Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
California, 1938—When she loses her parents in an accident, sixteen-year-old Rosanne is taken in by the owners of the vineyard where she has lived her whole life as the vinedresser’s daughter. She moves into Celine and Truman Calvert’s spacious house with a secret, however—Rosie sees colors when she hears sound. She promised her mother she’d never reveal her little-understood ability to anyone, but the weight of her isolation and grief prove too much for her. Driven by her loneliness she not only breaks the vow to her mother, but in a desperate moment lets down her guard and ends up pregnant.
-
-
Seeing the world in colors…
- By Bridgeman Family on 03-04-24
By: Susan Meissner
-
The Celebrants
- A Novel
- By: Steven Rowley
- Narrated by: Steven Rowley
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation from Berkeley when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living.
-
-
Just okay
- By kristine Barnes on 06-27-23
By: Steven Rowley
-
Any Other Family
- By: Eleanor Brown
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley, Lindsey Dorcus, Sean Patrick Hopkins, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Though they look like any other family, they aren’t one—not quite. They are three sets of parents who find themselves intertwined after adopting four biological siblings, having committed to keeping the children as connected as possible. At the heart of the family, the adoptive mothers grapple to define themselves and their new roles. Tabitha, who adopted the twins, crowns herself planner of the group, responsible for endless playdates and holidays, determined to create a perfect happy family.
-
-
What is a family?
- By Barbara S on 07-27-22
By: Eleanor Brown
-
The Phoenix Crown
- A Novel
- By: Kate Quinn, Janie Chang
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Katharine Chin
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace.
-
-
A Queen of the Night
- By Syd Young on 02-15-24
By: Kate Quinn, and others
-
The Senator's Wife
- A Novel
- By: Liv Constantine
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a tragic chain of events led to the deaths of their spouses two years ago, D.C. philanthropist Sloane Chase and Senator Whit Montgomery are finally starting to move on. The horrifying ordeal drew them together, and now they're ready to settle down again—with each other. As Sloane returns to the world of White House dinners and political small talk, this time with her new husband, she's also preparing for an upcoming hip replacement—the latest reminder of the lupus diagnosis she's managed since her twenties.
-
-
Not my favorite LC
- By Raya on 07-05-23
By: Liv Constantine
-
Banyan Moon
- A Novel
- By: Thao Thai
- Narrated by: Cindy Kay, Catherine Ho, Elyse Dinh
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Ann Tran gets the call that her fiercely beloved grandmother, Minh, has passed away, her life is already at a crossroads. In the years since she’s last seen Minh, Ann has built a seemingly perfect life—a beautiful lake house, a charming professor boyfriend, and invites to elegant parties that bubble over with champagne and good taste—but it all crumbles with one positive pregnancy test. With both her relationship and carefully planned future now in question, Ann returns home to Florida to face her estranged mother, Huơng.
-
-
Mean Girls / Soap Opera, But Sans Fun
- By Ignatius on 08-26-23
By: Thao Thai
-
Someone Else's Shoes
- A Novel
- By: Jojo Moyes
- Narrated by: Daisy Ridley
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope--she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That’s because Sam Kemp—in the bleakest point of her life—has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag—she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat.
-
-
Bad language
- By Kerbear on 02-25-23
By: Jojo Moyes
-
Wandering Stars
- A Novel
- By: Tommy Orange
- Narrated by: Shaun Taylor-Corbett, MacLeod Andrews, Alma Cuervo, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture, and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola.
-
-
Beautiful writing and performance of realistic native family saga
- By ReallyNelie on 07-12-24
By: Tommy Orange
-
The Change
- A Novel
- By: Kirsten Miller
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 15 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Big Little Lies meets The Witches of Eastwick—a gloriously entertaining and knife-sharp revenge fantasy about three women whose midlife crisis brings unexpected new powers—putting them on a collision course with the evil that lurks in their wealthy beach town.
-
-
Great book until you realize what it’s about
- By Kaitlin Rosenthal on 05-16-22
By: Kirsten Miller
-
The Colony Club
- A Novel
- By: Shelley Noble
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When young Gilded Age society matron Daisy Harriman is refused a room at the Waldorf because they don’t cater to unaccompanied females, she takes matters into her own hands. She establishes the Colony Club, the first women’s club in Manhattan, where visiting women can stay overnight and dine with their friends; where they can discuss new ideas, take on social issues, and make their voices heard. She hires the most sought-after architect in New York, Stanford White, to design the clubhouse.
-
-
Nicely done!
- By Kristyn Rose on 02-02-25
By: Shelley Noble
-
The Librarian of Burned Books
- A Novel
- By: Brianna Labuskes
- Narrated by: Caroline Hewitt, Eleanor Caudill, Karissa Vacker
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For fans of The Rose Code and The Paris Library, The Librarian of Burned Books is a captivating WWII-era novel about the intertwined fates of three women who believe in the power of books to triumph over the very darkest moments of war.
-
-
Banned books, history repeating itself
- By Amazon Customer on 05-07-23
By: Brianna Labuskes
-
The Mighty Red
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Marin Ireland
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Argus, North Dakota, a collection of people revolve around a fraught wedding. Gary Geist, a terrified young man set to inherit two farms, is desperate to marry Kismet Poe, an impulsive, lapsed Goth who can't read her future but seems to resolve his. Hugo, a gentle red-haired, home-schooled giant, is also in love with Kismet. He’s determined to steal her and is eager to be a home wrecker. Kismet's mother, Crystal, hauls sugar beets for Gary's family, and on her nightly runs, tunes into the darkness of late-night radio, sees visions of guardian angels.
-
-
Read this book
- By Jessica on 11-01-24
By: Louise Erdrich
-
The Magnolia Palace
- A Novel
- By: Fiona Davis
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, 21-year-old Lillian Carter's life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists' models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge
-
-
This isn't my favorite but entertaining
- By Linda on 02-01-22
By: Fiona Davis
-
The Queen of Dirt Island
- A Novel
- By: Donal Ryan
- Narrated by: Emma Lowe
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Aylward women of Nenagh, Tipperary, are mad about each other, but you wouldn’t always think it. You’d have to know them to know that—in spite of what the neighbors might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes—their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world. Their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning. It involves wives and widows, gunrunners and gougers, sinners and saints. It’s a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, isolation and togetherness, of transgression, forgiveness, desire, and love.
-
-
Donal Ryan never disappoints
- By Chris C on 03-17-23
By: Donal Ryan
What listeners say about Within Arm's Reach
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sbk
- 05-18-24
Interesting story from multiple perspectives
I always love books that tell the story, but from multiple characters perspectives. Because isn’t that just how life is? I would have liked to deal a little deeper into some of the characters personalities, but all in all I enjoyed this book and listen to it from start to finish within two days on and off.
I do have to say, I struggled with the narrator of Catherine’s character, Kimberly Fararr, as she always sounds like she’s reading some thing at half speed, instead of inhabiting the character. It drives me crazy every time she is included in book narration. Otherwise, everyone did a stellar job, particularly Ray Porter.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 12-23-24
Didn’t realize it was old
I was wanting to read a more recent work of hers after Hello Beautiful. Found this one less skillful and now i understand she was only in her 20’s when she wrote it. I thought I had seen that It was published in 2024 but now I see on the author’s notes that it was written back in 2004!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Janet Koons
- 10-22-24
Louis was the only character I liked.
Kelly was whiny, not a good person. None of her children or grandchildren were very nice people. Strange family dynamic.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gayle Posey
- 06-23-24
Family Complexities
Good story. Complicated relationships as in all families. Family time line was very useful in keeping up with who was who.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ann E Boyum
- 05-29-24
I loved these women!
Strong family. Loads of love loss and miracles in this wonderful novel. I’m glad I got to read it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julia Itsikson
- 05-24-24
Not impressed nor moved
I love Ann Napolitano and her writing style and read all of her books at this point. Sadly, as much as I wanted to love or, at least, like this one, I didn’t. It was underwhelming and, at times, boring and anticlimactic. I’m happy, however, that the author continued to work on her craft and created more beautiful work over the years, Dear Edward and Hello Beautiful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-07-24
The love and need for family
The four letter language. I have never been a fan of it. However when used rarely, it makes a point.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Grant B.
- 10-19-24
Multigenerational masterpiece!
Love family sagas! This author never fails and the readers were amazing! Not difficult at all to keep up with the multiple characters and they were all well developed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Valerie
- 03-24-25
Loved this book!
I felt like I could be right in the middle of this family. She wave all of their stories into one big story. Adding to the fact that it is about Catholics and Irish really stole my heart.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marianne Davies
- 07-24-24
Character development and growth
This booked Pulled me in and held me. A real connection to how complex families are!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!