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Big Brother
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Alice Rosengard
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
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Publisher's summary
From the acclaimed author of the National Book Award finalist So Much for That and the international best seller We Need to Talk About Kevin comes a striking new novel about siblings, marriage, and obesity.
When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at her local Iowa airport, she literally doesn't recognize him. In the four years since the siblings last saw each other, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?
And it's not just the weight. Imposing himself on Pandora's world, Edison breaks her husband Fletcher's handcrafted furniture, makes overkill breakfasts for the family, and entices her stepson not only to forgo college but to drop out of high school.
After the brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It's him or me. Putting her marriage and adopted family on the line, Pandora chooses her brother - who, without her support in losing weight, will surely eat himself into an early grave.
Rich with Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, Big Brother is about fat - an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much we'll sacrifice to rescue single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.
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New York Times best-selling author Jen Lancaster has lived a life based on re-invention and self-improvement. From Bitter Is the New Black to The Tao of Martha, she’s managed to document her (and her generation’s) attempts to shape up, grow up, and have it all - sometimes with disastrous results...Mistakes are one thing; regrets are another. After a girls’ weekend in Savannah makes her realize that she is - yikes! - middle-aged (binge watching is so the new binge drinking), Jen decides to make a bucket list and seize the day.
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The Smug Is Strong With This One
- By T. Filowitz on 05-24-15
By: Jen Lancaster
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The Widow of Wall Street
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- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Phoebe has loved Jake Pierce since childhood, and that love continues without hesitation while she watches him create a financial dynasty. But when Phoebe learns that her husband's triumphs are the result of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, her world unravels. Lies underpin her life and marriage. And as Jake's crime is uncovered, the world obsesses over her. Did she know her gilded life was fabricated by fraud?
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Here's a Miracle: Sympathy for Ruth Madoff
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Confessions of a Carb Queen
- A Memoir
- By: Susan Blech, Caroline Bock
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time Susan Blech was 38 years old, she weighed a staggering 468.1 pounds. She binged. She was "only a little chubby," or so she convinced herself. Gripping, sometimes shocking, and ultimately inspiring, Confessions of a Carb Queen is the story of how Susan changed her life to save her life, ultimately losing 250 pounds without surgery. Susan speaks candidly about eating binges, fat sex, and other topics no obese person has dared to address.
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Negative reviews are ridiculous.
- By Heather Marie on 01-07-16
By: Susan Blech, and others
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Hardly Knew Her
- By: Laura Lippman
- Narrated by: Linda Emond, Francois Battiste
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Each of these ingenious tales is a gem, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, always filled with delightfully unanticipated twists and reversals. For people who have yet to listen to Lippman, get ready to experience the spellbinding power of "one of today's most pleasing storytellers" ( San Diego Union-Tribune). As for longtime devotees of her multiple award-winning novels, you'll discover that you hardly know her.
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I Love Laura Lippman
- By Joy on 07-15-11
By: Laura Lippman
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Cooking as Fast as I Can
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- By: Cat Cora
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In Cooking as Fast as I Can, Cat Cora reveals, for the first time, coming-of-age experiences from early childhood sexual abuse to the realities of life as a lesbian in the Deep South. She shares how she found her passion in the kitchen and went on to attend the prestigious Culinary Institute of America and apprentice under Michelin-star chefs in France. After her big break as a cohost on the Food Network's Melting Pot, Cat broke barriers by becoming the first-ever female Iron Chef.
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Always admired her; but now…
- By Amazon Customer on 08-02-22
By: Cat Cora
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The Opposite of Loneliness
- Essays and Stories
- By: Marina Keegan
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Marina Keegan's star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at the New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash. Even though she was just 22 when she died, Marina left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation.
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Probably buy the book too.
- By Soupergirl on 09-14-15
By: Marina Keegan
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The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane
- By: Kelly Harms
- Narrated by: Reay Kaplan, Suehyla El-Attar
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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When their lives and personalities intersect, however, they discover that more than just a million-dollar dream home awaits them at the water’s edge. These three women (oh yes, Aunt Midge comes along for the ride!) arrive at their newfound mansion only to uncover what exactly it means to truly be "home." Filled with wit and charm, The Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane is Kelly Harms's enchanting and heartfelt debut - a testament to the many, many ways love finds us, the power of a home-cooked meal, and just what it means to be lucky.
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good plot but the swearing was too much for me
- By Arianne on 02-13-20
By: Kelly Harms
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May We Be Forgiven
- By: A. M. Homes
- Narrated by: Andy Paris
- Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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May We Be Forgiven, a darkly comic novel of 21st-century domestic life, stars Harold Silver, a historian who's always been jealous of his successful brother, George. But when the hot-tempered George is institutionalized for committing a violent act, Harold finds himself comforting his brother's wife and children. What follows is a scathing examination of a family so fractured it may never be whole again.
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Give this one a try!
- By JWB on 02-13-13
By: A. M. Homes
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The Bastard of Istanbul
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In her second novel written in English, Elif Shafak confronts her country's violent past in a vivid and colorful tale set in both Turkey and the United States. At its center is the "bastard" of the title, Asya, a 19-year-old woman who loves Johnny Cash and the French Existentialists, and the four sisters of the Kazanci family who all live together in an extended household in Istanbul.
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A tender gift from far away
- By Barbara on 11-07-07
By: Elif Shafak
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Everything Is Awful
- And Other Observations
- By: Matt Bellassai
- Narrated by: Matt Bellassai
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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From the break-out star of BuzzFeed and the People's Choice Award-winning comedian comes a collection of hilariously anguished essays chronicling awful moments from his life so far, the humiliations of being an adult, and other little indignities. Matt Bellassai has no idea what he's doing. Well, to be fair, he did become semi-Internet famous by getting drunk at work, making him a socially-acceptable - nay - professional alcoholic. He's got some things figured out. But the rest is all just a terrible, disgusting mess.
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Best Audio Book I’ve heard ever.
- By M on 11-23-17
By: Matt Bellassai
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Coyote Dream
- By: Jessica Davis Stein
- Narrated by: Julie Dretzin
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Sarah Friedman journeys to the Southwest to buy art for her family's New York gallery. Determined to put aside personal disappointments, she seeks new perspectives in the serenity of the desert landscape. Then her car breaks down on a Navajo reservation near the home of an aloof artist. And soon she will have to choose between love and duty, commitment and freedom - and learn to fight for what matters most.
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GREAT
- By Texasrodie on 06-20-10
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What listeners say about Big Brother
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Pamela Harvey
- 07-04-13
Shriver's Super-sized Best!
Once again Shriver treads the tough path through the weeds and delivers a novel that is so overstuffed and super-sized with conflict that every sentence is a gift that leaves us waiting eagerly for the next one. WIthin the novel she deftly embeds the issues of fame & notoriety, the role of food in our lives, the relative importance of family and loyalty, the role of addiction and the "addictive personality" - she gives us all of it!
Shriver's protagonist, Pandora Hafdinarsen, the almost-accidental but successful entrepreneur is jolted out of her comfort zone when her brother, a jazz pianist who is having a "rough patch", arrives in their home weighing 240 pounds more than he did the last time she saw him. This causes all manner of mayhem, particularly offending the aesthetic sensibilities of her husband, Fletcher, who is a designer and builder of art furniture in the basement of the home he shares with Pandora and his two pre-adolescent children. He is additionally an exercise maniac, riding his bicycle 50 miles per day, and a "nutritional nazi", shunning all white flour, white sugar and anything that's wrapped, packaged or processed, his primary meal consisting of brown rice and broccoli. His body is lean and spare, the perfect contrast to the excessively over-nourished-by-junk-food Edison, Pandora's brother, for whom all sorts of spatial and emotional accommodations must be made as they all attempt to deal with his extreme girth.
This is the main plot setup, but woven through the story are musings about food (she's also a former caterer) and its importance (and lack thereof), addiction, fame, loyalty, and what it means to be "successful". Pandora feels divided between her husband and her brother and this forms the fulcrum on which the novel balances perfectly, delicately, and with the precision we've come to love and admire in Shriver's writing.
I have read some reviews on other sites and there seems to be some discussion about the ending. As a reader I favor neither a 'perfect' resolution nor an open-ended plot line - what makes a novel work for me is the writer's attention to detail, characterization, layers of emotion and sense of place. It's more about the story itself, the process, rather than any particular event that signals "the end", and with "Big Brother", IMO ending is organic to the story.
Five stars all around!
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44 people found this helpful
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- Jacqueline
- 07-17-13
Well worth the credit--
This author is becoming one of my favorites. Starting with the deep, complex story of striving, grief and eventually a very satisfying ending in "So Much for That"--I have been hooked on her novels. If you have not tried her yet---you are missing out on a unique talent.
Big brother is completely enthralling from the first paragraph to the last. Told from the view point of Pandora who is married and the step-mom of two teenagers---the family is faced with making room in their lives when Pandora's obese brother moves in with them for a "visit" - and it soon becomes obvious he has no real plans to leave. Her brother had been a musician and quite fit last time she saw him-- about four years ago. Apparently he fell on hard times and decided to eat his way to feeling better. Lately he has been living on the couch of a friend, who has had all he can take of the freeloader.
Pandora's husband has an especially hard time as he is a health nut who is committed to eating only healthy food and exercising religiously. Just the presence of Pandora's brother seems to irritate him, and he encourages her to cut the visit short. As the families routines and relationships start to wear thin, Pandora decides to help her brother lose weight (so she won't feel guilty just sending him back home in his current condition) --thinking this will be kind of a new start to his life.
With the main story being the brother and his issues, the little sub-plots are all woven in expertly to bring everything together. A lot of dialogue goes on in Pandora's own head as she reasons with herself about her own actions and what she sees the end goal to be.
Lionel Shriver is always surprising, though, in how her novels all have some kind of twist that you don't expect. This was no exception. A complete pleasure to listen to this one.
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17 people found this helpful
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- Polyhymnia
- 09-22-13
Left me feeling betrayed
I felt betrayed by an unsympathetic central character. I never understood her motivation even at the end. There was little about this book that seemed real and I felt the author was making fun of the reader... sort of like the last episode of Seinfeld. Perhaps that was the point.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Nicole
- 08-05-13
Such a relevant issue
To have a close family member interject themselves intimately into your life for an extended period of time while being morbidly obese to the point of causing damage to your home, changing how meals are eaten (the focal point of family communication) and even altering your marriage is topic of Big Brother. Lionel Shriver does an excellent job of developing "Obesity" as a character of its own while showing the damaging impact it can have not only on the obese but on those around.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Lynette
- 11-12-13
Interesting story idea, but lack of realism grates
What would have made Big Brother better?
The premise of the story told in Big Brother sounded very interesting to me. A woman risks losing everything to help her obese brother lose weight. But the ridiculousness of the details...from last names like "Halfdanarson" and "Appaloosa" (seroiusly--even though it's a stage name?) to a jazz pianist who put the words "man," "cats" and "dig?" into every sentence....really soured the whole story for me. It was a good premise that ended up falling flat because it lost its realism for me and became very stilted. I couldn't focus on the story because those things grated on me so much.
At the point that Pandora, the lead character, takes her obese brother Edison under her wing, I was also amazed by the idea that the two could just cold-turkey diet on protein powder drinks of a mere 500 calories or so a day. No exercise, God forbid. I kept wondering to myself...what does Pandora think that Edison is going to do once she helps him lose this weight? He won't have learned a thing because no one has taught him the importance of moderation and exercise. It just seemed so implausible to me.
And then...there were the preachy sections that were inserted into the story. Long diatribes about obesity and food that seemingly came out of nowhere. Talk about interrupting the story's flow.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
I think that Shriver needed to add a dose of realism to this story. I understand that she lost a brother due to complications of obesity, so it does surprise me that this book had so many unrealistic elements. Also, she needs to omit the long-winded speeches about food and obesity. I understand this was probably a cathartic exercise for her, but it didn't do the book any favors.
What three words best describe Alice Rosengard’s performance?
The narrator's performance was decent. I wouldn't say it was the best or the worst that I've ever read.
What character would you cut from Big Brother?
I don't think I would cut any characters from the book, as they all have their place in the story. However, Pandora's character was not very sympathetic. She goes from doormat to suddenly moving out of her house to live with her brother, risking her marriage--something she's tiptoed around for quite some time. And then Edison....I found myself wanting to kick him. I had a really hard time feeling sorry for someone who was so self-centered, even if he was grossly overweight.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Sandra
- 09-15-13
Lost Credibility
I was engrossed with this story and felt empathy for all the characters. There were periods when I felt the author endulged in being too, 'preachy.' But, overall, it was an interesting tale. Nevertheless, no amount of explaination could justify such a ridiculous ending. I would not trust this author again.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Jackie
- 06-30-13
Thought Provoking
I am finding that Lionel Shriver is quickly becoming my favorite contemporary author. This is definitely worth the listening time. The only drawback to the narration is that I sometimes had difficulty telling the difference between the two main characters when being read.
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- Tina
- 06-02-16
The Meryl Streep of writing - Such range!
Would you listen to Big Brother again? Why?
Yes. Even though I'm not particularly interested in the themes of this particular novel (sibling relationships, addiction, destiny, etc)...I absolutely love and respect Lionel Shriver as an author. She is like Donna Tartt meets Ann Patchett with a dash of William Boyd. I feel as if she's able to write with a remarkable vocabulary without sounding pretentious nor contrived. The stories flow even if the plot structure isn't set around something that the reader doesn't relate to (i.e. "So Much for That", "We need to Talk about Kevin," "The Post Birthday World"....) love them all!
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- JoAnn
- 12-15-13
Very Shriver, VERY good!
I am a huge Lionel Shriver fan, so this book was a wonderful addition to her collection. As always, I was very impressed with her in-depth character study. She is, almost to a fault, honest, and brings us characters that resonate both in their consistency and in their unique quirks. She never paints a clear "good guy" and "bad guy," but always provides a good story.
Alice Rosengard did a wonderful job narrating this story. I can still hear Ms. Shriver's characters' idiosyncratic phrases in the narrator's voice ("Panda-bear!").
If you are not used to Ms. Shriver's work, they are not sunny. They are, however, wonderful works of fiction.
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- DebaDeb
- 12-08-13
The story was a bit overweight too!
I decided to read Big brother, when a listener I follow recommended it. I was rather intrigued. A husband hell bent on health, his supportive wife and her brother who has fallen into despair and has gained an enormous amount of weight, and their battle of the bulge. I too battle the ups and downs of the scale, and reading a story about someone else and their journey into "normal" size, sounded wonderful.
The first part of the book was interesting, but it moved slowly. I found myself cringing whenever Edison, Pandora's brother, spoke. His constant usage of "jazz" lingo was repetitive, and after hearing Ms. Rosengard read "man" after nearly every sentence grated on me. Then, to make it worse, Cory, Pandora's step-daughter picked up Edison's habit of jazz lingo.
I can't say I totally disliked this book. There were many parts I enjoyed. However, I noticed I kept looking at the time remaining to see if the book was close to ending. I stopped reading when I had 2 hours remaining. I just wasn't interested anymore.
In my opinion, this book could have been much shorter. Perhaps the abridged version would have been better. I even tried speeding up the narration at one point, but the echo from the increase, made it difficult to understand the narrator.
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