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Dancers on the Shore
- Narrated by: Jay Smooth
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
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Dancers on the Shore
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Publisher's summary
The first and only short story collection by William Melvin Kelley, author of A Different Drummer, and the source from which he drew inspiration for his subsequent novels.
Originally published in 1964, this collection of 16 stories includes three linked sets of stories about the Carey, Bedlow, and Dunford families. They represent the earliest work of William Melvin Kelley and provided a rich source of stories and characters who were to fill out his later novels.
Spanning generations from the Deep South during Reconstruction to New York City in the 1960s, these insightful stories depict African American families - their struggles, their heartbreak, and their love.
Critic reviews
“Kelley is able to create characters in a state of becoming. Accordingly, he is wise to return again and again to members of the same family. Each time he does, they unexpectedly reveal more about themselves and each other.” (Nat Hentoff, The Reporter)
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- By E. on 10-25-19
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Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
- By: Laura Ruby
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4 out of 5 stars 68
When Frankie’s mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That’s why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now, Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans - two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Boring, boring, boring
- By Marie J. on 08-20-21
By: Laura Ruby
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The Godmothers
- A Novel
- By: Camille Aubray
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan, Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 746
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 662
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 657
Meet the Godmothers: Filomena is a clever and resourceful war refugee with a childhood secret, who comes to America to wed Mario, the family's favored son. Amie, a beautiful and dreamy French girl from upstate New York, escapes an abusive husband after falling in love with Johnny, the oldest of the brothers. Lucy, a tough-as-nails Irish nurse, ran away from a strict girls' home and marries Frankie, the sensuous middle son. And the glamorous Petrina, the family's only daughter, graduates with honors from Barnard College despite a past trauma that nearly caused a family scandal.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Easy Enjoyable Read
- By Bunny on 06-23-21
By: Camille Aubray
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A Nail Through The Heart
- A Poke Rafferty Thriller
- By: Timothy Hallinan
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 520
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 442
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Story4 out of 5 stars 440
Poke Rafferty was writing offbeat travel guides for the young and terminally bored when Bangkok stole his heart. Now the American expat is assembling a new family with Rose, the former go-go dancer he wants to marry, and Miaow, the tiny, streetwise urchin he wants to adopt. But trouble in the guise of good intentions comes calling just when everything is beginning to work out.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Ever been to Bangkok?
- By Richard Delman on 12-11-11
By: Timothy Hallinan
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The Folded Leaf
- By: William Maxwell
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 61
Here is a classic novel from one of our most honored writers - the author of such acclaimed works as So Long, See You Tomorrow and All the Days and Nights. The Folded Leaf is the serenely observed yet deeply moving story of two boys finding one another in the Midwest of the 1920s, when childhood lasted longer than it does today and even adults were more innocent of what life could bring.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Midwestern Misfits
- By David on 03-17-15
By: William Maxwell
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The Lonely Lady
- By: Harold Robbins
- Narrated by: Maria Debonair
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 80
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 73
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Story4 out of 5 stars 73
Meet JeriLee Randall, aspiring actress, ambitious writer, and sexual powerhouse. It is this ambition that takes her away from her tiny hometown of Port Clare and sets her on a collision course with her future. Surviving on determination and seduction, she makes her way to Broadway and then on to Hollywood. The bright lights mask a deeper darkness, and JeriLee is quickly drawn into a world of greed, drugs, casting couches, and smooth-talking power players.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Lonely Lady
- By Shelly-Ann Brown on 02-25-21
By: Harold Robbins
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All Manner of Things
- By: Susie Finkbeiner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story5 out of 5 stars 55
When Annie Jacobson's brother Mike enlists as a medic in the Army in 1967, he hands her a piece of paper with the address of their long-estranged father. If anything should happen to him in Vietnam, Mike says, Annie must let their father know. In Mike's absence, their father returns to face tragedy at home, adding an extra measure of complication to an already tense time. As they work toward healing and pray fervently for Mike's safety overseas, letter by letter the Jacobsons must find a way to pull together as a family, regardless of past hurts.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Real fiction
- By Katijanae on 01-19-23
By: Susie Finkbeiner
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Gloria
- By: Kerry Young
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Jamaica, 1938. Gloria Campbell is sixteen years old when a single violent act alters the course of her life forever. Taking along her younger sister, she flees their hometown to forge a new life in Kingston. But in a capital city awash with change, a black woman is still treated as a second-class citizen. From a room in a boarding house and a job at a supply store, Gloria finds her way to a house of ill repute on the edge of the city, intrigued by the glamorous, financially independent women within.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome story! And Robin Miles is a star!!
- By atlfolk on 06-23-18
By: Kerry Young
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The Time Traveler's Wife
- By: Audrey Niffenegger
- Narrated by: Fred Berman, Phoebe Strole
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,498
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9,973
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,994
Clare and Henry have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36. They were married when Clare was 23 and Henry was 31. Impossible but true, because Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder: periodically his genetic clock resets and he finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, his experiences unpredictable, alternately harrowing and amusing.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of my favorite books
- By Joey on 01-13-08
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The Jew Store
- A Family Memoir
- By: Stella Suberman
- Narrated by: Donna Postel
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
In 1920, in small-town America, the ubiquitous dry goods store was usually owned by Jews and often referred to as "the Jew store". That's how Stella Suberman's father's store, Bronson's Low-Priced Store, in Concordia, Tennessee, was known locally. The Bronsons were the first Jews to ever live in that tiny town of one main street, one bank, one drugstore, one picture show, one feed and seed, one hardware, one barber shop, one beauty parlor, one blacksmith, and many Christian churches.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Katie Simpson on 09-04-21
By: Stella Suberman
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Lady Oracle
- By: Margaret Atwood
- Narrated by: Lorelei King
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4 out of 5 stars 80
From fat girl to thin, from red hair to mud brown, from London to Toronto, from Polish count to radical husband - Joan Foster is utterly confused by her life of multiple identities. She decides to escape to an Italian hill town to take stock of her life. But first, she must organize her own death.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Feminist Romp
- By annkpowers on 07-02-22
By: Margaret Atwood
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Where I'm Calling From
- Selected Stories
- By: Raymond Carver
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
By the time of his early death in 1988, Raymond Carver had established himself as one of the great practitioners of the American short story. Where I'm Calling From, his last collection, encompasses classic stories from Cathedral, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, and earlier Carver volumes, along with seven new works previously unpublished in book form.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Love Carver, But Dietz Ruins It With Reading
- By Noirbat on 05-10-18
By: Raymond Carver
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Pale Horse, Pale Rider
- Three Short Novels
- By: Katherine Anne Porter
- Narrated by: Chelsea Stephens
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4 out of 5 stars 54
The classic 1939 collection of three novellas by the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author and journalist, including the famous title story set during the influenza epidemic of 1918.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Some of the most brilliant prose ever written
- By Anonymous User on 03-21-23
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One True Thing
- By: Anna Quindlen
- Narrated by: Christina Moore
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 561
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 448
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 448
A young woman sits in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her dying mother. She didn't do it, but she thinks she knows who did. In the last months of her life, Ellen Gulden's mother revealed startling secrets that challenged everything Ellen believed about her family. Now, in jail, Ellen believes those secrets will tell her who had the courage to end her mother's suffering.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Quindlen's writing skills shine in One True Thing.
- By Bonny on 08-26-13
By: Anna Quindlen
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The Magician's Assistant
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Karen Ziemba
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,344
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,894
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,892
When a gay Los Angeles magician named Parsifal dies suddenly, he leaves behind his heartbroken assistant, Sabine, and a secret past that leads her to Nebraska and a father she never knew he had.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Patchett Has It
- By Pamela Harvey on 06-10-08
By: Ann Patchett
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All-of-a-Kind Family
- By: Sydney Taylor
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 457
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 335
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Story5 out of 5 stars 339
It's the turn of the 20th century in New York's Lower East Side and a sense of adventure and excitement abounds for five young sisters. Follow along on their adventures and experience their holiday fun.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful story about family life.
- By lavenderknitter on 10-27-15
By: Sydney Taylor