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Brownsville Bred
- Dreaming Out Loud
- Narrated by: Elaine Del Valle
- Length: 4 hrs and 7 mins
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Brownsville Bred
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Publisher's Summary
In the face of her father's addiction, an altruistic young Latina struggles to reclaim her self worth amidst her deteriorating Brooklyn projects.
Brownsville Bred (adapted from her autobiographical stage play) is a young adult novel told in a series of vignettes - some funny, some heartbreaking, that together tell Elaine Del Valle’s journey growing up in the toughest project in Brownsville, the toughest neighborhood in New York. But her story refuses to be ghetto-ized. It bursts with the details of life and touches everyone. Prepare to be handheld through a journey that will make you feel more than inspired...It will make you feel capable!
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What listeners say about Brownsville Bred
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
- Sammy Z
- 04-13-21
An Amazing Story Narrated Beautifully!!!
The love of a family can break through any circumstances. This story has magnified my passion and hope for a better tomorrow tenfold. The way it is narrated brought it completely to life. I saw everything play out just like a movie. It was like being in a time machine watching the story unfold from the sidelines. Phenomenal!!!! A Must Listen!!! Wow!!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Jeannie H
- 03-02-20
GREAT!!
This is AMAZING and so WONDERFUL! I loved hearing Elaine telling her story!! I felt I had seen the Broadway show! JUST LOVED IT!!!
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- Narrated by: Elisabet Velasquez
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 113
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 104
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Story5 out of 5 stars 103
Sarai is a first-generation Puerto Rican question asker who can see with clarity the truth, pain, and beauty of the world both inside and outside her Bushwick apartment. Together with her older sister, Estrella, she navigates the strain of family traumas and the systemic pressures of toxic masculinity and housing insecurity in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn. Sarai questions the society around her, her Boricua identity, and the life she lives with determination and an open heart, learning to celebrate herself in a way that she has long been denied.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible!
- By Diana on 05-28-23
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Maybe You Never Cry Again
- By: Bernie Mac
- Narrated by: Bernie Mac
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Abridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2,126
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,875
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,866
By the tender age of five, Bernie Mac had found his calling: making others laugh. He has since become the star and cocreator of Fox’s hit sitcom The Bernie Mac Show; a stand-up legend; and a hit movie star in Head of State and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle. Now, this amazing comedian delves deep down inside to retell the poignant and hilarious story of his childhood and the people who helped shape him into the comedian - and the strong and self-reliant man - he is today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sad & Happy Story, But Very Well Missed Bernie,RIP
- By Eddie G on 03-20-13
By: Bernie Mac
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Somebody's Daughter
- A Memoir
- By: Ashley C. Ford
- Narrated by: Ashley C. Ford
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,180
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 985
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 982
Through poverty, adolescence, and a fraught relationship with her mother, Ashley Ford wishes she could turn to her father for hope and encouragement. There are just a few problems: he’s in prison, and she doesn’t know what he did to end up there. She doesn’t know how to deal with the incessant worries that keep her up at night, or how to handle the changes in her body that draw unwanted attention from men. In her search for unconditional love, Ashley begins dating a boy her mother hates.
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5 out of 5 stars
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It gives words to the journey of so many brown girls.
- By Kenyon Martin on 06-06-21
By: Ashley C. Ford
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Ordinary Girls
- A Memoir
- By: Jaquira Diaz
- Narrated by: Almarie Guerra
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 333
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 296
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 294
While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Jaquira Diaz found herself caught between extremes: as her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was surrounded by the love of her friends; as she longed for a family and home, she found instead a life upended by violence. From her own struggles with depression and sexual assault to Puerto Rico's history of colonialism, Ordinary Girls vibrates with music and lyricism.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Compelling Story That We Don’t Get Enough Of
- By Leah T. on 06-09-20
By: Jaquira Diaz
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Girl Who Fell from the Sky
- By: Heidi Durrow
- Narrated by: Karen Murray, Emily Bauer, Kathleen McInerney
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 442
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 366
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Story4 out of 5 stars 364
The daughter of a Danish immigrant and a black G.I., Rachel survives a family tragedy only to face new challenges. Sent to live with her strict African-American grandmother in a racially divided Northwest city, she must suppress her grief and reinvent herself in a mostly black community. A beauty with light brown skin and blue eyes, she attracts much attention in her new home. The world wants to see her as either black or white, but that's not how she sees herself.
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2 out of 5 stars
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meh
- By Victoria on 04-05-10
By: Heidi Durrow
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Punch Me Up to the Gods
- A Memoir
- By: Brian Broome
- Narrated by: Brian Broome, Robin Miles
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 367
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 333
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Story5 out of 5 stars 334
Punch Me Up to the Gods introduces a powerful new talent in Brian Broome, whose early years growing up in Ohio as a dark-skinned Black boy harboring crushes on other boys propel forward this gorgeous, aching, and unforgettable debut. Brian’s recounting of his experiences—in all their cringe-worthy, hilarious, and heartbreaking glory—reveal a perpetual outsider awkwardly squirming to find his way in. Indiscriminate sex and escalating drug use help to soothe his hurt, young psyche, usually to uproarious and devastating effect.
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5 out of 5 stars
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All I Can Say is Wow!
- By Sonya on 05-29-21
By: Brian Broome
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Talking to the Sky
- A Memoir of Living My Best Life in a Sh!t Show
- By: Aimee Mayo
- Narrated by: Aimee Mayo
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 92
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Story5 out of 5 stars 90
An unforgettable, harrowing yet hilarious story about growing up in the midst of chaos by award-winning songwriter Aimee Mayo. Mayo is one of the few females to receive both BMI's Country Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year awards, putting her in the rare company of Dolly Parton and Taylor Swift. Her songs have sold more than 155 million units worldwide and have spent 26 weeks at number one on the Billboard charts. Talking to the Sky is her unforgettable memoir, the harrowing and hilarious story of believing in faith over fear and going after your dreams.
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5 out of 5 stars
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LOVE this book!!!
- By Darrah on 03-22-21
By: Aimee Mayo
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Same Sun Here
- By: Silas House, Neela Vaswani
- Narrated by: Silas House, Neela Vaswani
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
Meena and River have a lot in common: fathers forced to work away from home to make ends meet, grandmothers who mean the world to them, and faithful dogs. But Meena is an Indian immigrant girl living in New York City’s Chinatown, while River is a Kentucky coal miner’s son. As Meena’s family studies for citizenship exams and River’s town faces devastating mountaintop removal, this unlikely pair become pen pals, sharing thoughts and, as their camaraderie deepens, discovering common ground in their disparate experiences.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow!
- By Jennifer Jarvis on 01-18-23
By: Silas House, and others
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The Color of Water
- A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Susan Denaker
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,474
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,153
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,151
Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her 12 Black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Awesome
- By Michael on 05-30-17
By: James McBride
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Who Am I Without Him?
- Short Stories about Girls and the Boys in their Lives
- By: Sharon Flake
- Narrated by: Myra Lucretia Taylor, Cherise Boothe, Corey Allen, and others
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Guys and girls get together, get played, and get real. Who Am I Without Him? is a Booklist Top 10 Romance Novel for Teens and is "breaking new and necessary ground" in 12 short stories about guys and girls falling in and out of love and relationships, testing out ways to communicate with one another, respect each other - and respect themselves. This is a complex, often humorous, and always on-point exploration of today's teens determined to find love and self-worth...any way they know how.
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5 out of 5 stars
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First time on audible - many times good reading
- By SDP on 02-13-23
By: Sharon Flake
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The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
- By: Deesha Philyaw
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 4 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,443
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,255
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,249
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies explores the raw and tender places where Black women and girls dare to follow their desires and pursue a momentary reprieve from being good. The nine stories in this collection feature four generations of characters grappling with who they want to be in the world, caught as they are between the church's double standards and their own needs and passions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Honest, Modern-Day Telling
- By Jenee' Yvette Skinner on 01-06-21
By: Deesha Philyaw
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Look Both Ways
- By: Jason Reynolds
- Narrated by: Heather Alicia Simms, Chris Chalk, Bahni Turpin, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 256
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 200
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
From National Book Award finalist and New York Times best-selling author Jason Reynolds comes a genre-defying new novel that serves as an homage to sharing the stories we all hold within ourselves.
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5 out of 5 stars
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We all have a point of view.
- By Schuhmacher22 on 02-12-20
By: Jason Reynolds
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That Bird Has My Wings
- The Autobiography of an Innocent Man on Death Row
- By: Jarvis Jay Masters
- Narrated by: Korey Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 227
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 209
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Story5 out of 5 stars 207
In 1990, while serving a sentence in San Quentin for armed robbery, Jarvis Jay Masters was implicated as an accessory in the murder of a prison guard. A 23-year-old Black man, Jarvis was sentenced to death in the gas chamber. While in the maximum security section of Death Row, using the only instrument available to him—a ball-point pen filler—Masters's astounding memoir is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit and the talent of a fine writer.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing books !
- By HD on 12-12-22
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Unsuccessful Thug
- One Comedian's Journey from Naptown to Tinseltown
- By: Mike Epps
- Narrated by: J.D. Jackson
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 793
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 681
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 677
Mike Epps is one of America’s favorite and funniest people, but the path to fame was paved with opportunities to mess it up. And mess it up he did. Growing up in “Naptown” - what people who live there really call rough-around-the-edges Indianapolis - Epps was drawn to a life of crime, but as he quickly discovered, stealing and dealing didn’t really fit his sweet sensibilities. Not to mention he wasn’t very good at it - take, for example, the day he had to call the cops on himself when a dog wouldn’t let him leave a house he was burgling.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The performer is not good
- By Sgamble on 04-11-18
By: Mike Epps