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The Big House
- A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
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The Big House
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
In this evocative and affectionate memoir, Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith, the last surviving child of Joe and Rose Kennedy, offers an intimate and illuminating look at a time long ago when she and her siblings, guided by their parents, laughed and learned a great deal under one roof.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inside the Kennedy Family~ excellent and funny~
- By Molly on 10-30-16
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In the Great Green Room
- The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown
- By: Amy Gary
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Story4 out of 5 stars 65
The extraordinary life of the woman behind the beloved children's classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny comes alive in this fascinating biography of Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret's books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children's book publishing revolution.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Excruciatingly boring
- By Melissa S. on 01-31-19
By: Amy Gary
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Come to the Edge
- A Memoir
- By: Christina Haag
- Narrated by: Christina Haag
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 112
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4 out of 5 stars 93
When Christina Haag was growing up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was just one of the boys in her circle of prep-school friends. A decade later, after they had both graduated from Brown University and were living in New York City, Christina and John were cast in an off-Broadway play together. It was then that John confessed his long-standing crush on her, and they embarked on a five-year love affair.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thoroughly enjoyed Come to the Edge
- By CapeCodLady on 11-15-19
By: Christina Haag
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The Sheep Queen
- By: Tom Savage
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
Thomas Savage, a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and a PEN/Faulkner Award nominee, has long been a critically acclaimed author. The New Yorker calls him "a writer of the first order". This starkly elegant story details the lives of Emma Russell Sweringen and her family in the early 1900s. Emma’s daughter Beth secretly gave up a baby girl for adoption many years ago. Now, Beth’s secret life is being unraveled as her daughter comes looking for her long-lost family.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent in all respects
- By Marlene J. Gustafson on 05-11-19
By: Tom Savage
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Essays of E. B. White
- By: E. B. White
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 228
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 204
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 202
Legendary author and essayist E. B. White writes, "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Covering a large number of subjects, this classic collection features 31 of White's most memorable essays.
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5 out of 5 stars
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E.B. White writes honestly, fearlessly and clearly
- By Bonny on 09-03-17
By: E. B. White
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Charleston
- By: Margaret Bradham Thornton
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 60
When Eliza Poinsett left the elegant world of Charleston for college, she never expected it would take her ten years to return. Now almost a decade later, she is an art historian in London with a charming Etonian boyfriend who adores her. But the past catches up with her when she runs into Henry, her childhood love, at a wedding in the English countryside.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I loved this book.
- By Mary on 12-21-18
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Hemingway's Boat
- Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934 - 1961
- By: Paul Hendrickson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4 out of 5 stars 118
An award-winning historian and author, Paul Hendrickson here turns his attention to one of America’s most cherished literary icons, Ernest Hemingway. Drawing on previously unpublished material, Hendrickson focuses on Hemingway’s life in its twilight, just prior to his suicide, and the seemingly singular constant in the man’s life: his boat, Pilar. On this vessel, Hemingway would entertain and travel, but it would also be the scene of some of his greatest tragedies.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Hemingway biography for the 21st Century
- By George on 09-16-14
By: Paul Hendrickson
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Beer Money
- A Memoir of Privilege and Loss
- By: Frances Stroh
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 211
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 190
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Story4 out of 5 stars 189
Frances Stroh's earliest memories are ones of great privilege: shopping trips to London and New York, lunches served by black-tied waiters at the Regency Hotel, and a house filled with precious antiques, which she was forbidden to touch. Established in Detroit in 1850, by 1984 the Stroh Brewing Company had become the largest private beer fortune in America and a brand emblematic of the American dream itself; while Stroh was coming of age, the Stroh family fortune was estimated to be worth $700 million.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Beer boring
- By Richard E. Putt Jr. on 05-22-16
By: Frances Stroh
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The Cut Out Girl
- A Story of War and Family, Lost and Found
- By: Bart van Es
- Narrated by: Bart van Es
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Bart van Es left Holland for England many years ago, but one story from his Dutch childhood never left him. It was a mystery of sorts: A young Jewish girl named Lientje had been taken in during the war by relatives and hidden from the Nazis, handed over by her parents. The girl had been raised by her foster family as one of their own, but then, well after the war, they were no longer in touch. What was the girl's side of the story, Bart wondered? What really happened during the war and after? So began an investigation that would consume Bart van Es's life and change it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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a powerful & unique work on the Holocaust
- By D. Littman on 03-06-19
By: Bart van Es
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The Great Hurricane
- 1938
- By: Cherie Burns
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 5 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 556
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 382
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 380
On the night of September 20, 1938, the news on the radio was full of Hitler's pending invasion of Czechoslovakia. Severe weather wasn't mentioned; only light rain was forecast for the following day. In a matter of hours, however, a hurricane of unprecedented force would tear through one of the wealthiest and most populated stretches of coastline in America, obliterating communities from Long Island to Providence, destroying entire fishing fleets from Montauk to Narragansett Bay.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Mesmerizing book!
- By Tracey on 04-23-13
By: Cherie Burns
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Silver Like Dust
- One Family's Story of America's Japanese Internment
- By: Kimi Cunningham Grant
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 397
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 358
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 354
Kimi’s Obaachan, her grandmother, had always been a silent presence throughout her youth. Sipping tea by the fire, preparing sushi for the family, or indulgently listening to Ojichan’s (grandfather’s) stories for the thousandth time, Obaachan was a missing link to Kimi’s Japanese heritage, something she had had a mixed relationship with all her life. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, all Kimi ever wanted to do was fit in, spurning traditional Japanese cuisine and her grandfather’s attempts to teach her the language.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A New LIfe
- By Kindle Customer on 08-14-12
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Bettyville
- By: George Hodgman
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 368
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 329
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Story4 out of 5 stars 329
When George Hodgman leaves Manhattan for his hometown of Paris, Missouri, he finds himself - an unlikely caretaker and near-lethal cook - in a head-on collision with his aging mother, Betty, a woman of wit and will. Will George lure her into assisted living? When hell freezes over. He can't bring himself to force her from the home both treasure - the place where his father's voice lingers, the scene of shared jokes, skirmishes, and, behind the dusty antiques, a rarely acknowledged conflict...
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1 out of 5 stars
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Title Should Be Georgeville-It's All About George
- By Sara on 10-08-15
By: George Hodgman
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Sunny's Nights
- Lost and Found at the Bar at the End of the World
- By: Tim Sultan
- Narrated by: Robert Malloch
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
Imagine that Alice had walked into a bar instead of falling down the rabbit hole. In the tradition of J. R. Moehringer’s The Tender Bar and the classic reportage of Joseph Mitchell, here is an indelible portrait of what is quite possibly the greatest bar in the world—and the mercurial, magnificent man behind it. The first time he saw Sunny’s Bar, in 1995, Tim Sultan was lost, thirsty for a drink, and intrigued by the single bar sign among the forlorn warehouses lining the Brooklyn waterfront.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Visiting an Era
- By Carolyn on 03-01-16
By: Tim Sultan
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The Lobster Chronicles
- Life on a Very Small Island
- By: Linda Greenlaw
- Narrated by: Linda Greenlaw
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
After 17 years at sea, Linda Greenlaw figured it was time to take a break from her career as a swordboat captain. She felt she needed to return to Isle au Haut - a tiny island seven miles from the Maine coast with a population of 70 year-round residents, 30 of whom were her relatives. She would pursue a simpler life; move back in with her parents and get to know them again; become a professional lobsterman; and find a guy, build a house, have kids, and settle down. But all doesn't go as planned.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Was this narration sped up?
- By Linda Vanaman on 10-12-15
By: Linda Greenlaw
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Wait for Me!
- Memoirs
- By: Deborah Mitford Duchess of Devonshire
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 120
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire, is the youngest of the famously witty brood that includes the writers Jessica and Nancy, who wrote when Deborah was born, "How disgusting of the poor darling to go and be a girl." Deborah's effervescent memoir chronicles her remarkable life, from an eccentric but happy childhood in the Oxfordshire countryside, to tea with Adolf Hitler and her controversially political sister Unity in 1937, to her marriage to the second son of the Duke of Devonshire.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The last of the Mitford Sisters
- By Irene on 01-11-11
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Whirligig
- By: Paul Fleischman
- Narrated by: Robert Field, Lily Christian, Alex Hauk, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 259
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Story4 out of 5 stars 222
Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman writes a profoundly moving story of connectedness and the journey of a young soul to self-discovery. Told through the voices of five characters and narrated by age-appropriate actors, Whirligig compels the listener with its lesson on how our actions can impact the lives of others - even years later. A stunningly authentic listening experience.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fabulous
- By Tim on 03-21-17
By: Paul Fleischman
What listeners say about The Big House
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Jackson
- 05-08-19
Decent
I enjoyed the story although it gets a bit slow in the middle when discussing the history of the house,Boston, and construction theory. The story of the family is interesting and one can identify easily with the family dynamics.
At times the voice is very mechanical and robot sounding. The reader does use appropriate inflection when changing characters and one can get used to the voice overall.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Peter Russell
- 08-24-22
Terrific book
I have an old family home and every bit of this story resonated. But it is so well written, any person from any background might live this story.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jack in Cambridge
- 04-29-19
Fine Book Well Read
Wonderful book that spoke to me directly and strongly. Furthermore, it
is extremely well-read. Don't miss it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 10-06-23
For Fans of Boston Brahmins
Wonderful story depicting long ago Boston WASP life. Might have benefited from 10% to 15% more editing.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mcm
- 05-10-22
The narrator needs some coaching about Boston!
I read the book when it was first published. At the time I enjoyed it, chuckling as I recognized the many idiosyncrasies typical of so many New England families. Anticipating boredom on a long road trip I ordered the audio version of the book, which was generally as expected, though I found it to be longer- winded and a bit more self- indulgent than I remembered it. There were cringeworthy moments in the narration, most notable being the pronunciation of a North Shore town, Nahant ( pronounced “ Na HAhnt”). The narrator kept saying “NAY- hant, stealing any credibility of the narrator in his role as the author. Similarly was his pronunciation of “ Sorbonne” ( “SORbon”). I would think that when narrating one would check the correct pronunciation of unfamiliar words.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anastasia S.
- 08-14-23
The Life of an Old Classic House
Wonderful Listen! Really enjoyed listening while cleaning house and doing dishes.
Wish our extended Family had a house like this for us to gather. Very Preppy
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