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Flight Behavior
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
New York Times best seller
Indie best seller
Barnes & Noble best seller
National best seller
Amazon Best Book of the Month
Indie Next Pick
Best book of the year: New York Times Notable, Washington Post Notable, Amazon Editor’s Choice, USA Today’s Top Ten (#1), St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Kansas City Star
Prize-winning author: Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award), Orange Prize for Fiction
Prize-winning author: National Humanities Medal, Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Orange Prize for Fiction, Dayton Literary Peace Prize (Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award)
"Kingsolver is a gifted magician of words." (Time)
The extraordinary New York Times best-selling author of The Lacuna (winner of the Orange Prize), The Poisonwood Bible (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver returns with a truly stunning and unforgettable work.
Flight Behavior is a brilliant and suspenseful novel set in present day Appalachia; a breathtaking parable of catastrophe and denial that explores how the complexities we inevitably encounter in life lead us to believe in our particular chosen truths. Kingsolver's riveting story concerns a young wife and mother on a failing farm in rural Tennessee who experiences something she cannot explain, and how her discovery energizes various competing factions - religious leaders, climate scientists, environmentalists, politicians - trapping her in the center of the conflict and ultimately opening up her world.
Flight Behavior is arguably Kingsolver's most thrilling and accessible novel to date, and like so many other of her acclaimed works, represents contemporary American fiction at its finest.
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Needs to be a film!
- By TreasureHunter on 06-25-16
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A Death in Kitchawank, and Other Stories
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: T. C. Boyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Few authors write with such sheer love of story and language as T. C. Boyle, and that is nowhere more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and always entertaining short stories. Here are 14 new tales previously unpublished in book form. By turns mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, ironic and moving, Boyle's stories have mapped a wide range of human emotions. The stories here reflect his maturing themes.
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Mixed Bag
- By AuntGert on 09-22-20
By: T. C. Boyle
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The Walking People
- By: Mary Beth Keane
- Narrated by: Sile Bermingham
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Greta Cahill never believed she would leave her village in the west of Ireland until she found herself on a ship bound for New York, along with her sister Johanna and a boy named Michael Ward. Labeled a "softheaded goose" by her family, Greta discovers that in America she can fall in love, raise her own family, and earn a living.
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Irish immigratn story
- By Chrissie on 09-10-13
By: Mary Beth Keane
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The Plague of Doves
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Peter Francis James, Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.
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Avoid this Plague
- By Andre on 05-16-08
By: Louise Erdrich
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The One-in-a-Million Boy
- By: Monica Wood
- Narrated by: Chris Ciulla
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records-obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for one of his son's unfinished Boy Scout badges. For seven Saturdays Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly.
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Loved it
- By Justin on 10-20-16
By: Monica Wood
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Shadow Show
- All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
- By: Sam Weller - editor, Mort Castle - editor
- Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Ray Bradbury - peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors - is a literary giant whose remarkable career spanned seven decades. Now 26 of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
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THE MAN WHO FORGOT RAY BRADBURY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-27-17
By: Sam Weller - editor, and others
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The Portable Veblen
- By: Elizabeth Mckenzie
- Narrated by: Julia Gibson
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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An exuberant, one-of-a-kind novel about love and family, war and nature, new money and old values by a brilliant New Yorker contributor. The Portable Veblen is a dazzlingly original novel that's as big-hearted as it is laugh-out-loud funny. Set in and around Palo Alto amid the culture clash of new money and old (antiestablishment) values, and with the specter of our current wars looming across its words, The Portable Veblen is an unforgettable look at the way we live now.
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Not what it was cracked up to be
- By Linda on 02-03-16
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Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Emmie Lang
- Narrated by: Piper Goodeve, Peter Berkrot, Cassandra Campbell, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Stopping a tornado was the first of many strange events that seem to follow Weylyn from town to town, although he doesn't like to take credit. As amazing as these powers may appear, they tend to manifest themselves at inopportune times and places. From freak storms to trees that appear to grow over night, Weylyn's unique abilities are a curiosity at best and at worst, a danger to himself and the woman he loves. But Mary doesn't care.
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An Accidental Wonder!
- By Brandy Pendergrass on 02-16-18
By: Ruth Emmie Lang
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A Girl Named Zippy
- Growing Up Small in Mooreland, Indiana
- By: Haven Kimmel
- Narrated by: Haven Kimmel
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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When Haven Kimmel was born in 1965, Mooreland, Indiana, was a sleepy little hamlet of 300 people. Nicknamed "Zippy" for the way she would bolt around the house, this small girl was possessed of big eyes and even bigger ears. In this witty and lovingly told memoir, Kimmel takes readers back to a time when small-town America was caught in the amber of the innocent postwar period - people helped their neighbors, went to church on Sunday, and kept barnyard animals in their backyards.
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Beautifully written, beautifully read.
- By shopgirl on 03-06-08
By: Haven Kimmel
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Spring for a professional narrator, please!
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Amazing!
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The Lacuna
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Born in the United States, but reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers and, one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed muralist Diego Rivera. When he goes to work for Rivera, his wife, exotic artist Kahlo, and exiled leader Lev Trotsky, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution.
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Great Writers need Great Narrators
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The Bean Trees
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Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity of putting down roots.
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Barbara, can we have a "re-do?"
- By Nancy on 02-22-12
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The Poisonwood Bible
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The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
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Listen to the sample first!
- By Cheryl D on 07-30-08
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Animal Dreams
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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."
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She reads my heart
- By Sue Spahr Hodges on 08-03-18
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Spring for a professional narrator, please!
- By Gail D. on 11-05-18
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Prodigal Summer
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Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives in southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches them from an isolated mountain cabin where she is caught off-guard by Eddie Bondo, a young hunter who comes to invade her most private spaces and her solitary life.
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Amazing!
- By Lily on 10-12-08
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The Lacuna
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
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Born in the United States, but reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers and, one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed muralist Diego Rivera. When he goes to work for Rivera, his wife, exotic artist Kahlo, and exiled leader Lev Trotsky, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution.
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Great Writers need Great Narrators
- By Gypsy Wife on 12-04-09
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The Bean Trees
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Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity of putting down roots.
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Barbara, can we have a "re-do?"
- By Nancy on 02-22-12
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The Poisonwood Bible
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Dean Robertson
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
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The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
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Listen to the sample first!
- By Cheryl D on 07-30-08
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Animal Dreams
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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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."
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She reads my heart
- By Sue Spahr Hodges on 08-03-18
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Small Wonder
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
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In her new essay collection, the beloved author of High Tide in Tucson brings to us from one of history's darker moments an extended love song to the world we still have. From its opening parable gleaned from recent news about a lost child saved in an astonishing way, the book moves on to consider a world of surprising and hopeful prospects, ranging from an inventive conservation scheme in a remote jungle to the backyard flock of chickens tended by the author's small daughter.
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Not much of a Wonder
- By Max on 10-20-06
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Homeland and Other Stories
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
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- Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
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Barbara Kingsolver has written these five short stories with the same wit and sensitivity that characterize her highly praised and beloved novels Animal Dreams and The Bean Trees. Spreading her characters over a variety of colorful landscapes, she tells stories of hope, momentary joy, and powerful endurance.
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Another great book by Kingsolver!
- By Rosemarie on 01-09-12
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
- A Year of Food Life
- By: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver, Camille Kingsolver, Steven L. Hopp
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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When Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally-produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle follows the family through the first year of their experiment.
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mixed feelings
- By pterion on 11-15-07
By: Barbara Kingsolver, and others
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How to Fly (in Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)
- Poetry
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
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In her second poetry collection, Barbara Kingsolver offers reflections on the practical, the spiritual, and the wild. She begins with "how to" poems addressing everyday matters such as being hopeful, married, divorced; shearing a sheep; praying to unreliable gods; doing nothing at all; and of course, flying. Next come rafts of poems about making peace (or not) with the complicated bonds of friendship and family, and making peace (or not) with death, in the many ways it finds us.
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A Joy to Read
- By Lee Moderow on 05-20-21
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High Tide in Tucson
- Essays from Now or Never
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Abridged
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Exploring the themes of family, community, and the natural world with the vision of a poet and the eyes of a scientist, Barbara Kingsolver writes about ideas as diverse as modern motherhood, the history of private property, and the suspended citizenship of humans in the animal kingdom.
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Good book, but not unabridged...
- By Kathy Roberts Forde on 04-20-20
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Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
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Wow! It’s a Masterpiece
- By Billy on 10-25-22
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Holding the Line
- Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver, Jennifer Jill Araya
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Holding the Line, Barbara Kingsolver's first nonfiction book, is the story of women's lives transformed by an a signal event. Set in the small mining towns of Arizona, it is part oral history and part social criticism, exploring the process of empowerment that occurs when people work together as a community. Like Kingsolver's award-winning novels, Holding the Line is a beautifully written book grounded on the strength of its characters.
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Amazing story that gives voice to the women
- By Jmrik on 12-28-23
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Pigs in Heaven
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Barbara Kingsolver
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
- Abridged
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In Heaven, Oklahoma, pigs are both edible and inspirational! The story begins when a 6-year-old named Turtle is the sole witness to a freak accident. As a result she and her adoptive mother, Taylor, have a moment of celebrity that changes their lives forever. After seeing them on television, Annawake Fourkiller, a young attorney for Oklahoma's Cherokee Nation, claims that Turtle was improperly taken from the tribe.
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I didn't realize it was the abridged version
- By David Andrews on 02-27-15
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The Patron Saint of Liars
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Julia Gibson
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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St. Elizabeth's is a lovely old place in a small town in Kentucky that used to be the beautiful Hotel Louisa. In the 1960s, it is a home for unwed mothers run by nuns. Life at St. Elizabeth's is not unpleasant, but it is temporary. All the pregnant women who come there will go home within the year. Except for Rose, a beautiful, mysterious woman, who is neither unwed nor alone. She is simply pregnant and doesn't want her husband or her mother to know. She plans to give her baby up because she knows she cannot be the mother the baby needs.
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Incomplete
- By Deborah on 04-24-08
By: Ann Patchett
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Odds Against Tomorrow
- By: Nathaniel Rich
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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New York City, the near future: Mitchell Zukor, a gifted young mathematician, is hired by a mysterious new financial consulting firm, FutureWorld. The business operates out of an empty office in the Empire State Building; Mitchell is employee number two. He is asked to calculate worst-case scenarios in the most intricate detail, and his schemes are sold to corporations to indemnify them against any future disasters. This is the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility, and business is booming. As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastrophe - ecological collapse, war games, natural disasters - he becomes obsessed by a culture's fears.
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And the forecast for tomorrow is....
- By Matthew on 05-31-13
By: Nathaniel Rich
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Unsaid
- A Novel
- By: Neil Abramson
- Narrated by: Angela Brazil
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Unsaid is told from the perspective of Helena Colden, a veterinarian who has just died of breast cancer. Helena is forced to witness the rapid emotional deterioration of her husband David. With Helena's passing, David, a successful Manhattan attorney, loses the only connection that made his life full. He tries to carry on the life that Helena had created for them, but he is too grief-stricken, too angry, and too quickly reabsorbed into the demands of his career. Helena's animals likewise struggle with the loss of their understanding and compassionate human companion.
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Great book but...
- By Diane on 03-01-12
By: Neil Abramson
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I'll Leave You with This
- By: Kylie Ladd
- Narrated by: Jo Van Es
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Three years after Daniel was killed by a senseless act of violence, all his sisters have left of him are their memories - and responsibility for Daniel's mischievous dachshund John Thomas. Daniel donated his organs, his death facilitating life-saving miracles for other families, while his own loved ones struggle to come to terms with their devastating loss, each at a crossroads of her own.
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Family
- By Becky on 11-07-23
By: Kylie Ladd
What listeners say about Flight Behavior
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jdog
- 02-07-21
Kingsolver is my hero.
Such a tapestry of very different characters.. creating an intense bubble hoping a myriad of human behavior.
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- Yolkb
- 09-02-18
Hhhhmmm, not so sure what to say
This book is about global warming .
I’m not sure if this is the correct platform. She made the Christians in this book dim witted and simple as if we are enemies to planet earth.
I would not recommend this book but would recommend The Poisonwood Bible. I loved that book and that’s why I gave this one a try. Sorry Barbara, you missed the mark here.
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- Kathleen M. Courts
- 02-02-13
Dellarobia Turnbow Rocks!
What did you like about this audiobook?
This is Barbara Kingsolver at her best, introducing a subject she is passionate about, in the context of a funny, sad, moving, fascinating story about a young American woman. The subject is global warming (aka climate change). This book is an engaging, engrossing fictional version of Al Gore's important policy book An Inconvenient Truth.
There's so much to enjoy -- let's start with the names. Petite Dellarobia Turnbow is our protagonist; all is from her POV. She lives in tiny, insignificant Feathertown in the Tennessee Appalachians, where the high school math teacher was mainly the basketball coach and used most class-times to shoot hoops with the boys. Dellarobia lives with her husband Burleigh, universally known as Cub, a huge, dense, sweet man whose childhood can't end, since his father's nickname is Bear. Cub's mother, who acts like a classic wicked stepmother, is named Hester. (You'll find out why late in the story.)
Under embarrassing circumstances, Dellarobia discovers that millions of Monarch butterflies are roosting in a grove near the top of a mountain on the Turnbow land. She convinces her husband to take a look, and next the congregation of their church is calling the phenomenon a miracle.
The Outsider who arrives in Feathertown (in a rented, orange VW bug) is the scientist Ovid Byron, a professor and world expert on the Monarch butterflies. With impulsive Southern hospitality, Dellarobia invites him to dinner, then spends the rest of the day in panic, cleaning the worn, dilapidated state of her household and its furnishings.
Kingsolver nails children's behavior perfectly, and this book is full of examples. Dellarobia's 5-year-old son Preston is serious, nerdy, clearly a future scientist. Her daughter Cordelia, age 1, is the rebel, flinging her uncomb-able blonde curls and her applesauce around the house with reckless enthusiasm. There are a couple of classic shopping scenes which every mom will recognize.
For me, the high point of the book is the interview of Ovid Byron by Tina, a perfectly-groomed CNN reporter.
Kingsolver's language is exciting and always appropriate. Dellarobia's sense of humor and metaphors are gleaned from her own life, and the same is true for each of the characters. Example: Dellarobia and Cub are in his truck at the Dairy Prince for a rare meal away from home. She likens this to a date, as they used to have before their marriage. Cub disagrees. Not the same. Now there's a different engine in his truck.
Listen to this book! It's read by the author, who does a great job, even with accents. She did a lot of research, too, so the details of this fictional story are correct.
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- Faye J. Carter
- 08-31-13
Thought provoking
Enjoyed this book very much. Makes you step back & think about what we are doing to our environment & realizing once bad things start to happen, there is no 'going back' and having a re-do.
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- Mandy Sue
- 08-06-21
A moving meditation on ecological disasters
The novel skillfully intertwines the plight of the monarch butterfly and that of the main character. Despite all the odds against both insects and woman, the author shows us a hope in the unstoppable drive to survive and thrive.
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- fitz951
- 01-02-23
All good here
Loved it! I got shown the Barbara Kingsolver series of books and wondered what rock I’d been under to just find out about her. Absolutely loved her newest Demon Copperhead. Narration can make or break a book. So far… they’re making them even better.
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- Kenneth
- 02-12-23
Interesting story but the narration is ruining it
Good story but the narration is all wrong for the main character. The narrator speaks in perfect English with none of the dialect that would be expected of the main character. She sounds like an extremely educated woman instead of a poor HS graduate woman barely making it. It really detracts from the story.
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- Rjamr
- 05-20-23
I loved this book!
Second of Barbara Kingsolver’s books I have read. I truly loved this book. I enjoyed the slow development of the characters and learning why their behaviors were on point- instead of just being unkind or uninterested- their history was explained. I thought the narration was spot on.
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- Susan Love
- 05-28-23
Lovely words for difficult times
Flight behavior is a story of changing times and new behavior. It’s a nice story with interesting fact about and nature and wildlife wrapped around a fictional story. An easy and enjoyable listen.
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- Hayden Goodman
- 02-28-24
somewhat disappointed.
not as nuanced as I had hoped. characters a bit on the central casting side.
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