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Women of Brewster Place
- Narrated by: Tonya Pinkins
- Length: 3 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's summary
The National Book Award-winning novel—and contemporary classic—that launched the brilliant career of Gloria Naylor, now with a foreword by Tayari Jones
“[A] shrewd and lyrical portrayal of many of the realities of black life . . . Naylor bravely risks sentimentality and melodrama to write her compassion and outrage large, and she pulls it off triumphantly.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Brims with inventiveness—and relevance.”—NPR's Fresh Air
In her heralded first novel, Gloria Naylor weaves together the stories of seven women living in Brewster Place, a bleak-inner city sanctuary, creating a powerful, moving portrait of the strengths, struggles, and hopes of black women in America. Vulnerable and resilient, openhanded and openhearted, these women forge their lives in a place that in turn threatens and protects—a common prison and a shared home. Naylor renders both loving and painful human experiences with simple eloquence and uncommon intuition in this touching and unforgettable listen.
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Critic reviews
"[Naylor's] ardent inventiveness as a storyteller and the complex individuality she gives to each of her seven main characters make the novel so much more than a contrived literary assembly line. . . . Deftly, Naylor gathers all these individual stories into one climactic narrative that works through the reader via a word-by-word sense of horror and outrage. . . . The Women of Brewster Place, born of the details of a particular time and community, also turns out to be one of those, yes, universal stories depicting how we, the fallen, seek grace.”—Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air
“The most refreshing voice in the black idiom since readers first discovered Toni Morrison.”—Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land
“Naylor creates a completely believable, and very frightening, world of degradation, violence and human—very human—courage and sturdiness.”—Chicago Sun-Times
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Sula
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Nel and Sula's devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
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Good against evil and a riotous story to boot
- By Karen on 04-11-11
By: Toni Morrison
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Paradise
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
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MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
By: Toni Morrison
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Carolina Moon
- By: Nora Roberts
- Narrated by: Dean Robertson
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Tory Bodeen grew up in a run-down house where her father ruled with an iron fist and a leather belt - and where her dreams and talents had no room to flourish. Her one escape was her neighbor Hope, who lived in the big house just a short skip away, and whose friendship allowed Tory to be something she wasn’t allowed to be at home: a child. Then Hope was brutally murdered, and everything fell apart.
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Good and Bad
- By paula lewis on 06-07-09
By: Nora Roberts
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- By: Maya Angelou
- Narrated by: Maya Angelou
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. But years later, she learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors.
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Emotional & Powerful
- By Miss Toni on 06-30-13
By: Maya Angelou
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The Star Side of Bird Hill
- By: Naomi Jackson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Two sisters, ages 10 and 16, are exiled from Brooklyn to Bird Hill in Barbados, after their mother can no longer care for them. The young Phaedra and her older sister, Dionne, live, for the summer of 1989, with their grandmother, Hyacinth, a midwife and practitioner of the local spiritual practice of obeah. Dionne spends the summer in search of love, testing her grandmother's limits, and wanting to go home. Phaedra explores Bird Hill, where her family has lived for generations.
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My absolute favorite book of all time
- By Eme on 07-16-15
By: Naomi Jackson
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Tryin' To Sleep In the Bed You Made
- By: Virginia DeBerry, Donna Grant
- Narrated by: Fran L. Washington
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Gayle was the beauty who believed that a man could make her life complete. Patricia was the intellectual who thought that rising to the top of her career would make her happy. And then there is Marcus Carter, who has been linked to both Gayle and Pat since the tragedy that occurred when they were all children. Can either one save him from himself? Can friends survive a love that comes between them? Each of them gets what she wants, but no one counts on the price they have to pay.
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Better with each chapter!
- By Cyn B. on 02-09-16
By: Virginia DeBerry, and others
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A Stone for Danny Fisher
- By: Harold Robbins
- Narrated by: Charles Leggett
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Born into a family of modest means and respectability, Danny Fisher was gradually driven downward into the world of crime, racketeering and poverty. His bitterness, his homesickness over the loss of the house in Brooklyn that was given to him for his eighth birthday, and his feud with his harsh father, pulled him one way; his natural decency and his love for a sweet Italian girl, Nellie Petito, pulled him another.
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My teenage read.
- By A. Mitchell on 11-11-11
By: Harold Robbins
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Promise
- A Novel
- By: Minrose Gwin
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In the aftermath of a devastating tornado that rips through the town of Tupelo, Mississippi, at the height of the Great Depression, two women worlds apart - one Black, one White; one a great-grandmother, the other a teenager - fight for their families' survival in this lyrical and powerful novel.
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Mostly Disappointing
- By Anjoli on 06-15-19
By: Minrose Gwin
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Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age - and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. But years later, she learns about love for herself and the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors.
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Wow!
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What listeners say about Women of Brewster Place
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- nichelle
- 09-20-19
wonderful book
love it! great narrator and great writing. I enjoyed the miniseries on television and the book.
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- Mama Mary
- 09-22-21
Sense for Suvival
The individual women give and take from personal experiences around the men they've encountered. They either build, or hide within walls---struggling through these experiences. After tragedy strikes this man, they find the sense and strength to go on.
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- Kelly
- 07-29-20
a classic for a reason
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor was first published in 1982. It tells the stories of seven African-American women living in poverty in an unnamed norther US city during the 1970s. The book is told in interlocking, connected short stories, with each one focusing on a different woman. Naylor weaves their relationships and their neighborhood together with each new story. The place is bleak and sad but their lives are rich, real and full.
Mattie Michael is the matriarch of Brewster Place. She is often meddling, but she guides the women and aids every decision made in the neighborhood. Kiswana is the name chosen by a woman who used to be called Melanie Brown. She is a college-dropout, feminist and activist. She leads the neighborhood into an organized association. Her influence is especially helpful to Cora Lee who is a single mother to eight and living in a two bedroom apartment. After seeing a live production of A Midsummer Night's Dream we have hope that Cora Lee's life is moving in a new direction. Also on the block are Sophie, who is nosy and intrusive, a gay couple (both teachers) named Lorraine and Teresa, and Mattie's friend Etta Mae. Sophie acts as an antagonist, and attempts to create tension between the other neighbors. When Kiswana determines to hold a fundraiser/block party we get to see all the women interact with one another a well as many previous residents. We also see how hard life was for the gay couple during that era.
I would love to find the adaptation done 30ish years ago if anyone knows where it can be viewed.
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2 people found this helpful
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- K LO
- 04-27-17
Good story, excellent narration.
I really appreciated the way she went in to different voices for different characters.
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- C. Reither
- 08-09-18
Like poetry
Beautifully read. I do wish the audio could have removed the sounds of the reader’s mouth (lips/dry tongue/etc). It was distracting in the slower more poetic parts. But overall such a well written tale of the hardships some women endure and performed exquisitely.
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- Taj
- 08-23-16
Wonderfully written and performed
Gloria Naylor truly constructed a world full of women society makes invisible (often by choice). Black women who are subject to so many systems of racism and patriarchy, but still find a way to survive and live. Tonya Pinkins is an unsung talent in her ability to create a persona of each character, and truly weave her voice work in with the worlds of Naylor. This was awesomely sad, but I'm so glad I got to listen to these stories. It couldn't have been done better.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Justin
- 07-22-19
Good Reading! But This isn't the complete novel.
I am reading this book for a course and also have the print copy of this same edition, however upon cross comparison the recording skips over alot of conversation and story in the print version. Be aware
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- Melissa Ellis
- 11-09-20
Strongly Recommend
This book is beautifully written with descriptive imagery, amazing storytelling and examples of real life stories. The narrator is phenomenal and transforms into the many characters with ease. I absolutely enjoyed this book! ❤🖤💚
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- Rachael Ward
- 01-31-22
Powerful
Tonya Pinkins’ absolutely beautiful reading brings this powerful story to life. A must-listen audiobook.
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- brownskinblue
- 10-11-24
A Classic!
An incredible story whose themes still, unfortunately, live on today. Beautifully written and performed; just as powerful as it movie!
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