-
Gracefully Insane
- Life and Death Inside America’s Premier Mental Hospital
- Narrated by: Matthew Josdal
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
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
Gracefully Insane
Buy for $17.19
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Woman They Could Not Silence
- One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear
- By: Kate Moore
- Narrated by: Kate Moore
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,572
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,397
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,390
1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of 21 years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened - by Elizabeth’s intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Everyone should read this!
- By Lana S on 12-22-21
By: Kate Moore
-
Damnation Island
- Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
- By: Stacy Horn
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 395
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 338
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 334
Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell's Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would build a lunatic asylum, prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. Stacy Horn has crafted a compelling and chilling narrative told through the stories of the poor souls sent to Blackwell's, as well as the period's city officials, reformers, and journalists (including the famous Nellie Bly). Damnation Island re-creates what daily life was like on the island....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating!
- By tamborine on 08-06-18
By: Stacy Horn
-
The South Carolina State Hospital
- Stories from Bull Street
- By: William Buchheit
- Narrated by: Adam Lofbomm
- Length: 3 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Nearly two decades after it closed, the South Carolina State Hospital continues to hold a palpable mystique in Columbia and throughout the state. Founded in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, it housed, fed, and treated thousands of patients incapable of surviving on their own. The patient population in 1961 eclipsed 6,600, well above its listed capacity of 4,823. By the mid-1990s, the patient population had fallen under 700, and the hospital had become a symbol of captivity, horror, and chaos.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Story review
- By Leann on 10-30-23
By: William Buchheit
-
The Five
- The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
- By: Hallie Rubenhold
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,245
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,067
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,061
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Everyone needs to read/listen to this book
- By AAHickman on 12-05-19
By: Hallie Rubenhold
-
Bellevue
- Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
- By: David Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 979
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 974
David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 12-14-16
By: David Oshinsky
-
Brain on Fire
- My Month of Madness
- By: Susannah Cahalan
- Narrated by: Susannah Cahalan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,055
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 872
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 871
When 24-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: At the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A must read for anyone in the medical field, and anyone who has ever gone undiagnosed.
- By Sarah M Valentino on 05-13-20
By: Susannah Cahalan
-
The Woman They Could Not Silence
- One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear
- By: Kate Moore
- Narrated by: Kate Moore
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,572
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,397
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,390
1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Her husband of 21 years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened - by Elizabeth’s intellect, independence, and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. So Theophilus makes a plan to put his wife back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Everyone should read this!
- By Lana S on 12-22-21
By: Kate Moore
-
Damnation Island
- Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
- By: Stacy Horn
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 395
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 338
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 334
Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell's Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would build a lunatic asylum, prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. Stacy Horn has crafted a compelling and chilling narrative told through the stories of the poor souls sent to Blackwell's, as well as the period's city officials, reformers, and journalists (including the famous Nellie Bly). Damnation Island re-creates what daily life was like on the island....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating!
- By tamborine on 08-06-18
By: Stacy Horn
-
The South Carolina State Hospital
- Stories from Bull Street
- By: William Buchheit
- Narrated by: Adam Lofbomm
- Length: 3 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Nearly two decades after it closed, the South Carolina State Hospital continues to hold a palpable mystique in Columbia and throughout the state. Founded in 1821 as the South Carolina Lunatic Asylum, it housed, fed, and treated thousands of patients incapable of surviving on their own. The patient population in 1961 eclipsed 6,600, well above its listed capacity of 4,823. By the mid-1990s, the patient population had fallen under 700, and the hospital had become a symbol of captivity, horror, and chaos.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Story review
- By Leann on 10-30-23
By: William Buchheit
-
The Five
- The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
- By: Hallie Rubenhold
- Narrated by: Louise Brealey
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,245
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,067
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,061
Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary-Jane are famous for the same thing, though they never met. What they had in common was the year of their murders: 1888. The person responsible was never identified, but the character created by the press to fill that gap has become far more famous than any of these five women. For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that "the Ripper" preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, but it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Everyone needs to read/listen to this book
- By AAHickman on 12-05-19
By: Hallie Rubenhold
-
Bellevue
- Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
- By: David Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 979
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 974
David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 12-14-16
By: David Oshinsky
-
Brain on Fire
- My Month of Madness
- By: Susannah Cahalan
- Narrated by: Susannah Cahalan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,055
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 872
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 871
When 24-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: At the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A must read for anyone in the medical field, and anyone who has ever gone undiagnosed.
- By Sarah M Valentino on 05-13-20
By: Susannah Cahalan
-
The Lives They Left Behind
- Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
- By: Peter Stastny, Darby Penney
- Narrated by: Alex Paul
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 155
More than four hundred abandoned suitcases filled with patients’ belongings were found when Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 after 125 years of operation. They are skillfully examined here and compared to the written record to create a moving—and devastating—group portrait of twentieth-century American psychiatric care.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not really the book I expected
- By B. Shaff on 11-09-17
By: Peter Stastny, and others
-
Pathological
- The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses
- By: Sarah Fay
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 196
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 170
In this stunning debut—both a memoir and a work of investigative journalism—writer Sarah Fay explores the ways we pathologize human experiences. Over thirty years, doctors diagnosed Sarah Fay with six different mental illnesses—anorexia, major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and bipolar disorder.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Balanced perspective
- By J. T. Conn on 07-09-22
By: Sarah Fay
-
Mad in America
- Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill
- By: Robert Whitaker
- Narrated by: Chris Kayser
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
Schizophrenics in the United States currently fare worse than patients in the world’s poorest countries. In Mad in America, medical journalist Robert Whitaker argues that modern treatments for the severely mentally ill are just old medicine in new bottles, and that we as a society are deeply deluded about their efficacy. The widespread use of lobotomies in the 1920s and 1930s gave way in the 1950s to electroshock and a wave of new drugs.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Essential Reading to Understand Modern Psychiatry
- By James H. Walter on 10-15-16
By: Robert Whitaker
-
The Orphan Collector
- By: Ellen Marie Wiseman
- Narrated by: Rachel Botchan
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,714
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,525
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,523
In the fall of 1918, 13-year-old German immigrant Pia Lange longs to be far from Philadelphia's overcrowded streets and slums, and from the anti-German sentiment that compelled her father to enlist in the US Army, hoping to prove his loyalty. But an even more urgent threat has arrived. Spanish influenza is spreading through the city. Soon, dead and dying are everywhere. With no food at home, Pia must venture out in search of supplies, leaving her infant twin brothers alone....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Author is an AMAZING storyteller!
- By Nicole Newman on 08-06-20
-
Dead Wake
- The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,860
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 12,314
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 12,290
On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Naivety VS Barbarians Of War
- By Sara on 03-05-16
By: Erik Larson
-
My Lobotomy
- A Memoir
- By: Howard Dully, Charles Fleming
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 324
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 209
"In 1960 I was given a transorbital, or 'ice pick' lobotomy. My stepmother arranged it. My father agreed to it. Dr. Walter Freeman, the father of the American lobotomy, told me he was going to do some 'tests'. It took 10 minutes and cost 200 dollars." Assisted by journalist/novelist Charles Fleming, Howard Dully recounts a family tragedy of Sophoclean proportions.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Freeman's Folly
- By James Gordon on 10-28-07
By: Howard Dully, and others
-
Hidden Valley Road
- Inside the Mind of an American Family
- By: Robert Kolker
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,904
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,806
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,777
Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dream. After World War II, Don's work with the Air Force brought them to Colorado, where their 12 children perfectly spanned the baby boom: the oldest born in 1945, the youngest in 1965. In those years, there was an established script for a family like the Galvins—aspiration, hard work, upward mobility, domestic harmony. But behind the scenes was a different story: psychological breakdown, sudden shocking violence, hidden abuse. By the mid-1970s, six of the 10 Galvin boys, one after another, were diagnosed as schizophrenic.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A story you've never heard before
- By Kelley Cox on 04-19-20
By: Robert Kolker
-
The Butchering Art
- Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
- By: Lindsey Fitzharris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,332
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,999
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,991
In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
-
The Family Across the Street
- A Totally Unputdownable Psychological Thriller with a Shocking Twist
- By: Nicole Trope
- Narrated by: Taryn Ryan
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,089
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 955
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 953
You’d never know what secrets the house on Hogarth Street holds - what’s happening, right this second, behind closed doors. An emerald-green front lawn. Perfectly trimmed hedging. An ivy-covered front gate and the scent of honeysuckle in the air. In the yard, two scooters lie on the grass. One blue, one pink, belonging to five-year-old twins.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
don't waste your time or money
- By Ruth Barroga on 08-26-21
By: Nicole Trope
-
Desperate Remedies
- Psychiatry’s Turbulent Quest to Cure Mental Illness
- By: Andrew Scull
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 49
For more than two hundred years, disturbances of the mind—the sorts of things that were once called "madness"—have been studied and treated by the medical profession. Mental illness, some insist, is a disease like any other, whose origins can be identified and from which one can be cured. But is this true? In this masterful account of America's quest to understand and treat everything from anxiety to psychosis, one of the most provocative thinkers writing about psychiatry today sheds light on its tumultuous past.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Great History but I Have One Big Reservation
- By Jeffrey Scot Minch on 08-02-22
By: Andrew Scull
-
The Collected Schizophrenias
- Essays
- By: Esmé Weijun Wang
- Narrated by: Esmé Weijun Wang
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 898
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 798
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 788
An intimate, moving book written with the immediacy and directness of one who still struggles with the effects of mental and chronic illness, The Collected Schizophrenias cuts right to the core. Schizophrenia is not a single unifying diagnosis, and Esmé Weijun Wang writes not just to her fellow members of the “collected schizophrenias” but to those who wish to understand it as well.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Narration way too slow
- By Diane on 04-27-19
By: Esmé Weijun Wang
-
Starvation Heights
- Dangerous Women: True Crime Stories
- By: Gregg Olsen
- Narrated by: Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
In 1911 two British heiresses, Claire and Dora Williamson, read a brochure about a revolutionary fasting treatment that promised a lifetime of good health. The sanatorium in the village of Olalla, west of Seattle, was surrounded by a beautiful forest, sparkling waters and fresh air. The sisters agreed it sounded perfect and exactly the restorative holiday they needed. But within a month of arriving, under the supervision of Doctor Linda Burfield Hazzard, Claire and Dora began to realise the frightening truth – they were not patients but prisoners at the isolated sanitorium.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent true crime story!
- By Colleen T. Mizeres on 01-26-23
By: Gregg Olsen
Publisher's summary
Its landscaped ground, chosen by Frederick Law Olmsted and dotted with Tudor mansions, could belong to a New England prep school. There are no fences, no guards, no locked gates. But McLean Hospital is a mental institution - one of the most famous, most elite, and once most luxurious in America.
In its "golden age", McLean provided as genteel an environment for the treatment of mental illness as one could imagine. But the golden age is over, and a downsized, downscale McLean - despite its affiliation with Harvard University - is struggling to stay afloat. Gracefully Insane, by Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam, is a fascinating and emotional biography of McLean Hospital from its founding in 1817 through today. It is filled with stories about patients and doctors: the Ralph Waldo Emerson protégé whose brilliance disappeared along with his madness; Anne Sexton's poetry seminar, and many more.
The story of McLean is also the story of the hopes and failures of psychology and psychotherapy; of the evolution of attitudes about mental illness, of approaches to treatment, and of the economic pressures that are making McLean - and other institutions like it - relics of a bygone age.
More from the same
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Lives They Left Behind
- Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
- By: Peter Stastny, Darby Penney
- Narrated by: Alex Paul
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 155
More than four hundred abandoned suitcases filled with patients’ belongings were found when Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 after 125 years of operation. They are skillfully examined here and compared to the written record to create a moving—and devastating—group portrait of twentieth-century American psychiatric care.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not really the book I expected
- By B. Shaff on 11-09-17
By: Peter Stastny, and others
-
Bellevue
- Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
- By: David Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 979
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 974
David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 12-14-16
By: David Oshinsky
-
Insane
- America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness
- By: Alisa Roth
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 128
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to tell how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker. Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great required reading
- By K. C. H on 01-16-19
By: Alisa Roth
-
Ten Days in a Mad-House
- By: Nellie Bly
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 938
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 819
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 816
In 1887, Nellie Bly had herself committed to the notorious Blackwell's Island insane asylum in New York City with the goal of discovering what life was like for its patients. While there, she experienced firsthand the shocking abuse and neglect of its inmates, from inedible food to horrifyingly unsanitary conditions. Ten Days in a Mad-House established Bly as a pioneering female journalist and remains a classic of investigative reporting.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Laurel Merlington was the perfect voice to narrate
- By Dana B. on 10-29-16
By: Nellie Bly
-
American Crucifixion
- The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church
- By: Alex Beam
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 149
On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in the dusty frontier town of Carthage, Illinois. Clamorous and angry, they were hunting down a man they saw as a grave threat to their otherwise quiet lives: The founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. They wanted blood. At thirty-nine years old, Smith had already lived an outsized life. In addition to starting the Church of Latter-Day Saints and creating his own "Golden Bible" - the Book of Mormon - he had worked as a water-dowser and treasure hunter.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
All religious histories are not created equal
- By Kendra on 07-01-14
By: Alex Beam
-
Damnation Island
- Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
- By: Stacy Horn
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 395
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 338
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 334
Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell's Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would build a lunatic asylum, prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. Stacy Horn has crafted a compelling and chilling narrative told through the stories of the poor souls sent to Blackwell's, as well as the period's city officials, reformers, and journalists (including the famous Nellie Bly). Damnation Island re-creates what daily life was like on the island....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating!
- By tamborine on 08-06-18
By: Stacy Horn
-
The Lives They Left Behind
- Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
- By: Peter Stastny, Darby Penney
- Narrated by: Alex Paul
- Length: 8 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 153
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 155
More than four hundred abandoned suitcases filled with patients’ belongings were found when Willard Psychiatric Center closed in 1995 after 125 years of operation. They are skillfully examined here and compared to the written record to create a moving—and devastating—group portrait of twentieth-century American psychiatric care.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Not really the book I expected
- By B. Shaff on 11-09-17
By: Peter Stastny, and others
-
Bellevue
- Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital
- By: David Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 979
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 974
David Oshinsky, whose last book, Polio: An American Story, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize, chronicles the history of America's oldest hospital and in so doing also charts the rise of New York to the nation's preeminent city, the path of American medicine from butchery and quackery to a professional and scientific endeavor, and the growth of a civic institution.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 12-14-16
By: David Oshinsky
-
Insane
- America's Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness
- By: Alisa Roth
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 128
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
America has made mental illness a crime. Jails in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago each house more people with mental illnesses than any hospital. In this revelatory book, journalist Alisa Roth goes deep inside the criminal justice system to tell how and why it has become a warehouse where inmates are denied proper treatment, abused, and punished in ways that make them sicker. Through intimate stories of people in the system and those trying to fix it, Roth reveals the hidden forces behind this crisis and suggests how a fairer and more humane approach might look.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great required reading
- By K. C. H on 01-16-19
By: Alisa Roth
-
Ten Days in a Mad-House
- By: Nellie Bly
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 938
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 819
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 816
In 1887, Nellie Bly had herself committed to the notorious Blackwell's Island insane asylum in New York City with the goal of discovering what life was like for its patients. While there, she experienced firsthand the shocking abuse and neglect of its inmates, from inedible food to horrifyingly unsanitary conditions. Ten Days in a Mad-House established Bly as a pioneering female journalist and remains a classic of investigative reporting.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Laurel Merlington was the perfect voice to narrate
- By Dana B. on 10-29-16
By: Nellie Bly
-
American Crucifixion
- The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church
- By: Alex Beam
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 169
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 148
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 149
On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in the dusty frontier town of Carthage, Illinois. Clamorous and angry, they were hunting down a man they saw as a grave threat to their otherwise quiet lives: The founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. They wanted blood. At thirty-nine years old, Smith had already lived an outsized life. In addition to starting the Church of Latter-Day Saints and creating his own "Golden Bible" - the Book of Mormon - he had worked as a water-dowser and treasure hunter.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
All religious histories are not created equal
- By Kendra on 07-01-14
By: Alex Beam
-
Damnation Island
- Poor, Sick, Mad, and Criminal in 19th-Century New York
- By: Stacy Horn
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 395
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 338
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 334
Today it is known as Roosevelt Island. In 1828, when New York City purchased this narrow, two-mile-long island in the East River, it was called Blackwell's Island. There, over the next hundred years, the city would build a lunatic asylum, prison, hospital, workhouse, and almshouse. Stacy Horn has crafted a compelling and chilling narrative told through the stories of the poor souls sent to Blackwell's, as well as the period's city officials, reformers, and journalists (including the famous Nellie Bly). Damnation Island re-creates what daily life was like on the island....
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating!
- By tamborine on 08-06-18
By: Stacy Horn
What listeners say about Gracefully Insane
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sarah
- 05-16-23
Ugh, the narration!
Love this book and was so excited it showed up on audible. However……. The narrator takes so many pauses, has no idea how to pronounce names of cities near Boston (Worcester = Wister, not Wooster).
It took me weeks to get through this.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful