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City of Thorns
- Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
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Publisher's Summary
Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of Northern Kenya, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks, or plastic; its entire economy is gray; and its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a firsthand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. Among them are Guled, a former child soldier who lives for football; Nisho, who scrapes an existence by pushing a wheelbarrow and dreaming of riches; and schoolgirl Kheyro, whose future hangs upon her education.
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Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Megan
- 09-16-16
Compelling but dry
This book is compelling and heart breaking but has so much information it gets to be almost overwhelming. Can be dry- I think the performers
Voice and just the slush of information made it hard to get through.
But
Such an important piece of work. Maybe better in print
4 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
- Anita Gordon
- 05-30-16
Great story
The author places a real human side to a tragic situation none of take time to think about
2 people found this helpful
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Diego
- 10-18-16
Life changing
I am not a fan of reading but this book was captivating and well written.
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By: Arundhati Roy
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The Way to the Spring
- Life and Death in Palestine
- By: Ben Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Ben Ehrenreich
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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From an award-winning journalist, a brave and necessary immersion into the everyday struggles of Palestinian life. Over the past three years, American writer Ben Ehrenreich has been traveling to and living in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages. Along the way he has written major stories for American outlets, including a remarkable New York Times Magazine cover story. Now comes the powerful new work that has always been his ultimate goal, The Way to the Spring.
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One-sided version of 'the truth'
- By Mark on 01-01-18
By: Ben Ehrenreich
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Call Me American
- A Memoir
- By: Abdi Nor Iftin
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Abdi Nor Iftin
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Abdi Nor Iftin first fell in love with America from afar. As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop and watching action films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. When US marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies. Sporting American clothes and dance moves, he became known around Mogadishu as Abdi American, but when the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab rose to power in 2006, it became dangerous to celebrate Western culture.
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Gripping
- By Nicola on 06-29-18
By: Abdi Nor Iftin
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Sovietistan
- Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan
- By: Erika Fatland
- Narrated by: Jill Rolls
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan became free of the Soviet Union in 1991. But though they are new to modern statehood, this is a region rich in ancient history, culture, and landscapes unlike anywhere else in the world. Traveling alone, Erika Fatland is a true adventurer in every sense. In Sovietistan, she takes the listener on a compassionate and insightful journey to explore how their Soviet heritage has influenced these countries, with governments experimenting with both democracy and dictatorships.
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Outstanding book
- By George MP on 04-24-22
By: Erika Fatland
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Stolen Girls
- Survivors of Boko Haram Tell Their Story
- By: Wolfgang Bauer, Eric Frederick Trump - translator
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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One night in April 2014, members of the terrorist organization Boko Haram raided the small town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria and abducted 276 young girls from the local boarding school. The event caused massive, international outrage. Using the hashtag "Bring Back Our Girls", politicians, activists, and celebrities from all around the world - among them First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai - protested.
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Perspective changer
- By frostyski3 on 05-13-17
By: Wolfgang Bauer, and others
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Brothers of the Gun
- By: Marwan Hisham, Molly Crabapple
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2011, Marwan Hisham and his two friends - fellow working-class college students Nael and Tareq - joined the first protests of the Arab Spring in Syria, in response to a recent massacre. Arm in arm they marched, poured Coca-Cola into one another’s eyes to blunt the effects of tear gas, ran from the security forces, and cursed the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad. It was ecstasy. A long-bottled revolution was finally erupting, and freedom from a brutal dictator seemed, at last, imminent.
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Powerful memoir of Syrian war
- By Jennifer Friedman on 08-21-19
By: Marwan Hisham, and others
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A Moonless, Starless Sky
- Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa
- By: Alexis Okeowo
- Narrated by: Kamali Minter
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In A Moonless, Starless Sky Okeowo weaves together four narratives that form a powerful tapestry of modern Africa: a young couple, kidnap victims of Joseph Kony's LRA; a Mauritanian waging a lonely campaign against modern-day slavery; a women's basketball team flourishing amid war-torn Somalia; and a vigilante who takes up arms against the extremist group Boko Haram.
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Amazing and Inspirational Stories
- By F L. on 01-01-18
By: Alexis Okeowo
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The Morning They Came for Us
- Dispatches from Syria
- By: Janine di Giovanni
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Doing for Syria what Imperial Life in the Emerald City did for the war in Iraq, The Morning They Came for Us bears witness to one of the most brutal, internecine conflicts in recent history. Drawing from years of experience covering Syria for Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and the front pages of the New York Times, award-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni gives us a tour de force of war reportage, all told through the perspective of ordinary people.
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Bearing Witness to the Brutalities of War
- By Theo Horesh on 06-07-18
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Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- By: Barbara Demick
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and the unchallenged rise to power of his son, Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population. Taking us into a landscape never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today.
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The man who wants to be GOD
- By Gohar on 05-08-10
By: Barbara Demick
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Madame President
- The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
- By: Helene Cooper
- Narrated by: Marlene Cooper Vasilic
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the harrowing but triumphant story of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, leader of the Liberian women's movement, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first democratically elected female president in African history.
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Enlightening
- By Jean on 04-28-17
By: Helene Cooper
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Mighty Be Our Powers
- How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War; a Memoir
- By: Leymah Gbowee, Carol Mithers
- Narrated by: Kimberly Scott
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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As a young woman growing up in Africa, 17-year-old Leymah Gbowee was crushed by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee’s bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized that women bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts.
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Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and
- By Kathy on 10-07-11
By: Leymah Gbowee, and others