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Madness Is Better Than Defeat
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Eric Meyers
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
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Madness Is Better Than Defeat
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Publisher's summary
In 1938, two rival expeditions descend on an ancient temple recently discovered in the jungles of Honduras, one intending to shoot a huge Hollywood production on location there, the other to disassemble the temple and ship it back to New York. A seemingly endless stalemate ensues. Twenty years later, a rogue CIA agent sets out to exploit the temple for his own ends, unaware that it is a locus of conspiracies far grander than anyone could ever have guessed.
Shot through with intrigue, ingenuity, and adventure, and showcasing Beauman's riotous humor, spectacular imagination, and riveting prose, Madness Is Better Than Defeat is a novel without parallel: inventive, anarchic, and delightfully insane.
Critic reviews
"Reminiscent of the Coen Brothers at their best, Madness Is Better Than Defeat is a strange, brilliant and satisfying trip to a more entertaining version of history." (Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness)
"[A] rowdy, thoroughly satisfying literary adventure.... Exquisitely comic and absurd, Beauman's imaginative novel brims with the snappy dialogue, vivid scenery, and converging story lines of an old Hollywood classic." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
"Ned Beauman writes sentences so good I want to collect them, except that after a few pages I'm basically just transcribing the book. His newest novel is elegant, witty, precise and often hilarious. I didn't read it so much as savor it, word by word." (Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe)
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So Many Roads to Peace, Blocked
- By Joe Kraus on 09-15-17
By: Nathan Englander
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The Lesser Bohemians
- A Novel
- By: Eimear McBride
- Narrated by: Eimear McBride
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
One night an 18-year-old Irish girl, recently arrived in London to attend drama school, meets an older man - a well-regarded actor in his own right. While she is naive and thrilled by life in the big city, he is haunted by more than a few demons, and the clamorous relationship that ensues risks undoing them both.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful Poetic Style; Failed Characters
- By jdk on 06-11-17
By: Eimear McBride
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Mount Chicago
- A Novel
- By: Adam Levin
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 20 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 20
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Story4 out of 5 stars 20
A one-in-ten-billion natural disaster devastates Chicago. A Jewish comedian, his most devoted fan, and the city’s mayor must struggle to move forward while the world—quite literally—caves beneath their feet. With this polyphonic tale of Chicago-style politics and political correctness, stand-up comedy and Jewish identity, celebrity, drugs, and animal psychology, Levin has constructed a monument to laughter, love, art, and resilience in an age of spectacular loss.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Absurd Metafiction for Those with Patience
- By Real Writer on 09-09-22
By: Adam Levin
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The End of Loneliness
- A Novel
- By: Benedict Wells, Charlotte Collins - translator
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4 out of 5 stars 28
Jules Moreau’s childhood is shattered after the sudden death of his parents. Enrolled in boarding school where he and his siblings, Marty and Liz, are forced to live apart, the once vivacious and fearless Jules retreats inward, preferring to live within his memories - until he meets Alva, a kindred soul caught in her own grief.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good for lonely hearts.
- By P.blue on 08-30-19
By: Benedict Wells, and others
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The Old Drift
- A Novel
- By: Namwali Serpell
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh, Richard E. Grant, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 24 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 294
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 264
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Story4 out of 5 stars 263
The year 1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from the majestic Victoria Falls, there is a colonial settlement called The Old Drift. In a smoky room at the hotel across the river, an Old Drifter named Percy M. Clark, foggy with fever, makes a mistake that entangles the fates of an Italian hotelier and an African busboy. This sets off a cycle of unwitting retribution between three Zambian families (black, white, brown) as they collide and converge over the course of the century, into the present and beyond.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A saga of Africa and African immigrants
- By Books on our Brains Society/ Barbara on 08-02-19
By: Namwali Serpell
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A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom
- A Novel
- By: John Boyne
- Narrated by: Tim McInnerny
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story4 out of 5 stars 84
This story starts with a family. For now, it is a father and a mother with two sons, one with his father’s violence in his blood, one with his mother’s artistry. One leaves. One stays. They will be joined by others whose deeds will determine their fate. It is a beginning. Their stories will intertwine and evolve over the course of 2,000 years. They will meet again and again at different times and in different places. From Palestine at the dawn of the first millennium and journeying across 50 countries to a life among the stars, their destinies remain the same....
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4 out of 5 stars
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AD 2016
- By Warren on 08-24-20
By: John Boyne
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The Butterfly Lampshade
- A Novel
- By: Aimee Bender
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4 out of 5 stars 58
On the night her single mother is taken to a mental hospital after a psychotic episode, eight-year-old Francie is staying with her babysitter, waiting to take the train to Los Angeles to go live with her aunt and uncle. There is a lovely lamp next to the couch on which she's sleeping, the shade adorned with butterflies. When she wakes, Francie spies a dead butterfly, exactly matching the ones on the lamp, floating in a glass of water. She drinks it before the babysitter can see.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Quite a Journey!
- By Anonymous User on 09-10-20
By: Aimee Bender
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The Door-to-Door Bookstore
- A Novel
- By: Carsten Henn
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
Small-town German bookseller Carl Kollhoff delivers his books to special customers in the evening hours after closing time, walking through the picturesque alleys of the city. These people are almost like friends to him, and he is their most important connection to the world. When Kollhoff unexpectedly loses his job, it takes the power of books and a nine-year-old girl to make them all find the courage to rebuild their bonds with each other.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Delightful
- By susan boardman on 07-11-23
By: Carsten Henn
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Three-Martini Lunch
- By: Suzanne Rindell
- Narrated by: Will Damron, JD Jackson, Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
In 1958, Greenwich Village buzzes with beatniks, jazz clubs, and new ideas - the ideal spot for three ambitious young people to meet. Cliff Nelson, the son of a successful book editor, is convinced he’s the next Kerouac, if only his father would notice. Eden Katz dreams of being an editor but is shocked when she encounters roadblocks to that ambition. And Miles Tillman, a talented black writer from Harlem, seeks to learn the truth about his father’s past, finding love in the process. Though different from one another, all three share a common goal.
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5 out of 5 stars
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WOW
- By Jordan on 05-20-17
By: Suzanne Rindell
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Cherry
- A Novel
- By: Nico Walker
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,001
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 912
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Story4 out of 5 stars 910
In this “miracle of literary serendipity” (The Washington Post), after finding himself deep in the thrall of heroin addiction, the soldier arrives at what seems like the only logical solution: robbing banks. Written by a singularly talented, wildly imaginative debut novelist, Cherry is a bracingly funny and unexpectedly tender work of fiction straight from the dark heart of America.
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5 out of 5 stars
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being an ex-junky is much cooler than being a junky
- By K Sabatini on 09-02-18
By: Nico Walker
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Only Child
- A Novel
- By: Rhiannon Navin
- Narrated by: Kivlighan de Montebello
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 711
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 650
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 647
Squeezed into a coat closet with his classmates and teacher, first grader Zach Taylor can hear gunshots ringing through the halls of his school. A gunman has entered the building, taking nineteen lives and irrevocably changing the very fabric of this close-knit community. While Zach's mother pursues a quest for justice against the shooter's parents, holding them responsible for their son's actions, Zach retreats into his super-secret hideout and loses himself in a world of books and art.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Mixed Feelings About This One
- By Wendi on 02-20-18
By: Rhiannon Navin
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The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman
- By: Julietta Henderson
- Narrated by: Katherine Parkinson
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 213
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Story5 out of 5 stars 192
Twelve-year-old Norman Foreman and his best friend, Jax, are a legendary comedic duo in waiting, with a plan to take their act all the way to the Edinburgh Fringe. But when Jax dies, Norman decides the only fitting tribute is to perform at the festival himself. The problem is, Norman’s not the funny one. Jax was.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it !
- By babybird on 05-31-21
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The Bookshop of Yesterdays
- By: Amy Meyerson
- Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 956
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 851
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Story4 out of 5 stars 850
Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s 12th birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear about him again until 16 years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy, and one final scavenger hunt.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A great story ….BUT
- By Jean on 12-16-19
By: Amy Meyerson
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Recipe for a Perfect Wife
- A Novel
- By: Karma Brown
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Mozhan Marnò
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 494
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 441
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Story4 out of 5 stars 443
In this captivating dual narrative novel, a modern-day woman finds inspiration in hidden notes left by her home’s previous owner, a quintessential 1950s housewife. As she discovers remarkable parallels between this woman’s life and her own, it causes her to question the foundation of her own relationship with her husband - and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.
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2 out of 5 stars
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ALL MEN ARE HORRIBLE, BAD, NASTY PEOPLE.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-13-20
By: Karma Brown
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The Light Through the Leaves
- A Novel
- By: Glendy Vanderah
- Narrated by: Susannah Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,299
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2,073
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,074
One unbearable mistake at the edge of the forest. In a moment of crisis, Ellis Abbey leaves her daughter, Viola, unattended - for just a few minutes. But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well - into grief, guilt, and addiction. Convinced she can only do more harm to her family, Ellis leaves her husband and young sons, burying her desperate ache for her children deeper with every step into the mountain wildernesses she treks alone.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Intriguing story, but...
- By Amazon Customer on 04-09-21
By: Glendy Vanderah
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Sorrow and Bliss
- A Novel
- By: Meg Mason
- Narrated by: Emilia Fox
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,211
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,068
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,067
Martha Friel just turned forty. Once, she worked at Vogue and planned to write a novel. Now, she creates internet content. She used to live in a pied-à-terre in Paris. Now she lives in a gated community in Oxford, the only person she knows without a PhD, a baby or both, in a house she hates but cannot bear to leave. But she must leave, now that her husband Patrick—the kind who cooks, throws her birthday parties, who loves her and has only ever wanted her to be happy—has just moved out.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Very Disappointed -- 2.75 Stars
- By Sharlotte on 06-07-21
By: Meg Mason
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Lessons
- By: Ian McEwan
- Narrated by: Simon McBurney
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 619
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 540
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 534
When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, eleven-year-old Roland Baines's life is turned upside down. 2,000 miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Narrator Simon McBurney gets my 100% rating
- By Peggy M on 09-26-22
By: Ian McEwan
What listeners say about Madness Is Better Than Defeat
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Lisa S
- 05-26-21
HUGE Disappointment
Struggled to get through the first chapter. We were reading it for a book club and NO ONE actually got past Chapter 2.
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