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The Essay
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
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The Essay
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Editorial reviews
Robin Yocum's novel The Essay is an inspiring and humorous story about Jimmy Lee Hickam, a kid who lives in rural Ohio. As Jimmy sees it, when he grows up, he'll either be locked up or boozing and working at the mill. A teacher shows Jimmy, though, that there just may be another way to get out of Appalachia. Listening to Fleet Cooper is a joy. He brings to life a variety of characters, from gruff drunkards to Jimmy's idealistic teacher. Cooper's performance can be anywhere from quiet and touching to loud and bellicose.
Publisher's summary
Jimmy Lee Hickam grew up along Red Dog Road, a dead-end strip of gravel and mud buried deep in the bowels of Appalachian Ohio. It is the poorest road, in the poorest county, in the poorest region of the state. To make things worse, the name Hickam is synonymous with trouble. Jimmy Lee hails from a heathen mix of thieves, moonshiners, drunkards, and general anti-socials that for decades have clung to both the hardscrabble hills and the iron bars of every jail cell in the region. This life, Jimmy Lee believes, is his destiny, someday working with his drunkard father at the sawmill, or sitting next to his arsonist brother in the penitentiary. There aren’t many options if your last name is Hickam.
An inspiring coach and Jimmy Lee's ability to play football are the only things motivating him to return for his junior year of high school - until his visionary English teacher cuts him a break and preserves his eligibility for the coming football season. To thank her, Jimmy Lee writes a winning essay in the high school writing contest. When irate parents and the baffled administration claim he has cheated, his teacher is inspired to take his writing talent as far as it can go, showing him the path out of the hills of Appalachia.
Terrific characterizations, surprising revelations, gut-wrenching past betrayals, and an unforgettable cast of characters born of the dusty, worn-out landscape of southeastern Ohio make The Essay a powerful, evocative, and incredibly moving novel.
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- By marie on 07-17-13
By: Dale Peck
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Unstoppable
- By: Tim Green
- Narrated by: Tim Green
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 188
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
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Story5 out of 5 stars 152
If anyone understands the phrase "tough luck", it's Harrison. As a foster kid in a cruel home, he knows his dream of one day playing for the NFL is a long shot. Then Harrison's luck seems to change. He is brought into a new home with kind, loving parents - his new dad is even a football coach. Harrison's big build and his incredible determination quickly make him a star running back on the junior high school team. In no time, he's practically unstoppable. But Harrison's good luck can't last forever.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Listen to it with you kid
- By mamamijo on 07-06-14
By: Tim Green
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Signals: New and Selected Stories
- By: Tim Gautreaux
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfection! Amazing writer/amazing reader
- By Monique on 01-08-19
By: Tim Gautreaux
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Football Genius
- By: Tim Green
- Narrated by: Tim Green
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 93
When Tory White's mom gets a job with the Atlanta Falcons, Tory demonstrates his uncanny ability to call football plays before they happen. With Troy's genius, the Falcons could be unstoppable-- if only the coaches would take him seriously!
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5 out of 5 stars
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pretty engrossing
- By Pournima Navalkele on 01-20-24
By: Tim Green
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Our Story Begins
- New and Selected Stories
- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 135
Wolff here returns with fresh revelations - about biding one's time, or experiencing first love, or burying one's mother - that come to a variety of characters in circumstances at once everyday and extraordinary. A retired Marine enrolls in college while her son trains for Iraq. A lawyer takes a difficult deposition. An American in Rome indulges the Gypsy who's picked his pocket.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great
- By chris on 04-11-08
By: Tobias Wolff
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Bullet in the Brain
- By: Tobias Wolff
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 280
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 253
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 251
Anders is an angry, cynical man. A book critic known for his scathing reviews, he finds any excuse to dismiss, belittle, or insult. This afternoon is no more agitating than the next. Angers finds himself in a long line at the bank, waiting to reach a teller. Even after two men - wearing masks and carrying guns - take control of the building, Anders is unfazed. It's this behavior that lands him with a pistol against his stomach and a man screamingin his face. And when the bank robber, indignant over Anders' behavior, shoots the book critic in the head, his mind floats through the memories of his life, settling on one particular event....
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Perfect Example
- By Sarah on 08-01-17
By: Tobias Wolff
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The White Boy Shuffle
- A Novel
- By: Paul Beatty
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 144
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 129
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 128
Paul Beatty's hilarious and scathing debut novel, The White Boy Shuffle, is about Gunnar Kaufman, an awkward, black surfer bum who is moved by his mother from Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighborhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a "divided, downtrodden people".
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5 out of 5 stars
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So beautiful
- By mp on 06-15-18
By: Paul Beatty
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Pay Dirt Road
- By: Samantha Jayne Allen
- Narrated by: Sandy Rustin
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 359
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 320
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Story4 out of 5 stars 320
Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college and home waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie is lured into the family business—a private investigation firm—by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan's misgivings.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Narration
- By Cindy Buell NZ on 05-04-22
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We'll Fly Away
- By: Bryan Bliss
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Best friends since childhood, Luke and Toby have dreamed of one thing: getting out of their dead-end town. Soon they finally will, riding the tails of Luke's wrestling scholarship, never looking back. If they don't drift apart first. If Toby's abusive dad, or Luke's unreliable mom, or anything else their complicated lives throw at them doesn't get in the way. In a format that alternates between Luke's letters to Toby from death row and the events of their senior year, Bryan Bliss expertly unfolds the circumstances that led to Luke's incarceration.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Story Except....
- By Willizz on 05-18-18
By: Bryan Bliss
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Please Ignore Vera Dietz
- By: A. S. King
- Narrated by: Lynde Houck
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 107
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story4 out of 5 stars 91
Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything. So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone - the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to? Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: Smart, funny, dramatic, and always surprising.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Moving, disturbing, and humorous
- By Julie on 08-26-11
By: A. S. King
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The Flood Girls
- A Novel
- By: Richard Fifield
- Narrated by: Kathleen Early
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,738
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,569
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,564
This snappy, sassy redemption story set in small-town Montana is "a wild and crazy debut novel by a talented young writer" (Jackie Collins), filled with an uproarious and unforgettable cast of characters you won't want to leave behind.
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5 out of 5 stars
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WOW! Just WOW.
- By chamilton on 07-09-16
By: Richard Fifield
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Rats Saw God
- By: Rob Thomas
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
By his senior year, Steve York has come through the worst two years of his life. His parents have divorced, and his girlfriend has betrayed him. Worse yet, after running away to live with his mother in San Diego, forays into the drug culture have turned his A-average into a thing of the past. Steve's only hope to graduate on time and avoid summer school is to write a 100-page paper for his guidance counselor. Unfortunately, he has to write about something he knows, and all he knows well are the last two years of his life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Real
- By Mary on 06-26-09
By: Rob Thomas
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Nine Lives
- Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans
- By: Dan Baum
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 113
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 113
Nines Lives is a multivoiced biography of a dazzling, surreal, and imperiled city, told through the lives of nine unforgettable characters and bracketed by two epic storms: Hurricane Betsy, which transformed New Orleans in the 1960s, and Hurricane Katrina, which nearly destroyed it. Dan Baum brings this kaleidoscopic portrait to life, showing us what was lost in the storm and what remains to be saved.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Do not miss if you're interested in New Orleans
- By Kelly on 03-22-18
By: Dan Baum
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Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 759
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 675
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Story4 out of 5 stars 675
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
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Brighton
- A Novel
- By: Michael Harvey
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 100
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Story4 out of 5 stars 100
Kevin Pearce - baseball star, honor student, the pride of Brighton - was 15 when he left town in the back of his uncle's cab. He and his buddy, Bobby Scales, had just committed heinous violence for what they thought were the best of reasons. Kevin didn't want a pass, but he was getting it anyway. Bobby would stay and face the music; Kevin's future would remain as bright as ever. At least that was the way things were supposed to work, except in Brighton things never work the way they're supposed to.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Mystery gets no better.
- By William H. Harrington on 10-27-18
By: Michael Harvey
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Rain Dogs
- By: Sean Doolittle
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 195
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 185
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Story4 out of 5 stars 186
It was one hell of an inheritance for former Chicago reporter Tom Coleman: a broken-down pickup truck, ramshackle campground, a canoe livery - and one pot-smoking, barely working employee he doesn’t need, doesn’t want, and can’t afford. But the truth is, after losing a child and a marriage, Tom doesn’t really care.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Narration is awful
- By Karen Martin on 03-09-21
By: Sean Doolittle
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Chasing Spring
- By: R.S. Grey
- Narrated by: Alia Tavakolian, Ricco Fajardo, Jeannie Tirado
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 228
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 208
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Story4 out of 5 stars 208
I thought I'd left Blackwater, Texas, behind for good. I didn't belong in the small town, but my dad wouldn't listen. He dragged me back home in his beat-up truck and dropped a bomb along the way: Chase Matthews was moving in with us. He was the golden boy of my high school, my former best friend, and the last person I wanted sleeping across the hall. His presence was too great a reminder of the ghosts I was trying to forget.
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3 out of 5 stars
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This book bummed me out.
- By Lauren Helms on 07-06-16
By: R.S. Grey
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Marlena
- A Novel
- By: Julie Buntin
- Narrated by: Emma Galvin
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 608
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 554
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Story4 out of 5 stars 557
Everything about 15-year-old Cat's new town in rural Michigan is lonely and off-kilter until she meets her neighbor, the manic, beautiful, pill-popping Marlena. Cat, inexperienced and desperate for connection, is quickly lured into Marlena's orbit by little more than an arched eyebrow and a shake of white-blond hair. As the two girls turn the untamed landscape of their desolate small town into a kind of playground, Cat catalogues a litany of firsts - first drink, first cigarette, first kiss - while Marlena's habits harden and calcify.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Brilliant, Agonizing Portrait of a Young Woman
- By Sudi on 06-06-17
By: Julie Buntin
What listeners say about The Essay
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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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
- Jana E
- 10-13-21
Absolutely terrific!
This book was amazing from beginning to end. The story moved along nicely and although I knew it was going to be a feel good to the end story, I enjoyed it anyway. The narration is top notch too.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Lee
- 12-04-21
Ecellent book!
From beginning to end, the author developed a wonderfully engaging story that makes you root for the main character and his brother. An excellent story line, very well written, edited and narrated!
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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
- Carolyn Staub
- 04-24-22
Engaging
A tale about a teen who overcomes adversity with some key characters in his life who support & encourage him. Narrator was wonderful.
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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
- Amazon Customer
- 05-10-22
Justice by karma
karma, fate and a twist of justice. Is it the name or the game? Pictures painted by words - lifelike.
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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
- MH
- 07-13-22
Hidden gem
I really enjoyed this book. I would totally recommend it ......not my typical listen .....But it was fantastic
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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
- Diane Hollifield
- 08-15-22
Wonderful
Aurthor really knew how to draw you in. Nice little read for me. loved it
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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
- Momma Llama of 2
- 02-17-22
Great Book!
I loved this book. Highly recommend reading or listening to it. Wonderful storytelling and interesting story all around.
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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
- Mary mckenzie
- 02-01-22
I could listen to this over and over
I know people say that they never right reviews, I really never have...until now. This book was one of the best books I have listened to in a decade and I listen to many. There were times I laughed out loud and times I teared up. Bravo. Listen to it, you won't be disappointed.
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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
- akelly
- 02-02-22
The Burden of a Bad Name in a Small Town
Born into the poverty of rural Ohio amongest the dilapidated and abandoned coal mines that once fueled dreams, James Lee Hickam had three strikes already against him. The strikes being his last name, synonymous with white trash in their Ohio corner, older brothers who had already ruined any chance of change in their generation and a woe is me alcoholic father whose big talk and shallow pockets kept in in trouble.
Anyone who has ever lived in a small town knows the truth in everyone knowing your business and who your related to speaks volumes of your character deserving or not. James Lee Hickam had the odds stacked against him. But two teachers of different subjects saw something special in him and spoke up. This story is the power of the pen at its finest. It's one young man's journey to find out who he is and what he's capable of regardless of the last name he was born with.
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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
- Jamey M.
- 02-10-22
Could not stop listening
I was transported to red dog Road and I could not stop listening. I was drawn into the story.
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