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Random Family
- Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 10-18-16
- Language: English
- Publisher: Random House Audio
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $38.50
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In the Name of the Children gives an unflinching look at what it's like to fight a never-ending battle against an enemy far more insidious than terrorists: the predators, lurking amongst us, who seek to harm our children. During his 30-year career with the FBI, Jeff Rinek worked hundreds of investigations involving crimes against children: from stranger abduction to serial homicide to ritualized sexual abuse. Those who do this kind of work are required to plumb the depths of human depravity, to see things no one should ever have to see - and once seen can never forget.
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One phone call. That's all it took to change Stephanie Wittels Wachs's life forever.... Her younger brother Harris, a star in the comedy world known for his work on shows like Parks and Recreation, had died of a heroin overdose. How do you make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance? In beautiful, unsentimental, and surprisingly funny prose, Stephanie Wittels Wachs alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, which she learned about three days before her wedding, and the first year after his death, in all its emotional devastation.
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From the creator of the blog Renegade Mothering, Janelle Hanchett's forthright, darkly funny, and ultimately empowering memoir chronicling her tumultuous journey from young motherhood to abysmal addiction and a recovery she never imagined possible. Pregnant at 21 by a man she'd known three months, Janelle Hanchett embraced motherhood with the determined optimism of the recklessly self-confident. After giving birth, she found herself bored, directionless, and seeking relief in wine, which she justified as sophisticated and going well with chicken.
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In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites listeners into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her - from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it - in her own words and on her own terms.
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Thank you, Michelle. That was some speech!
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A breakaway best seller since its first printing, All Souls takes us deep into Michael Patrick MacDonald's Southie, the proudly insular neighborhood with the highest concentration of white poverty in America. Rocked by Whitey Bulger's crime schemes and busing riots, MacDonald's Southie is populated by sharply hewn characters like his Ma, a mini-skirted, accordion-playing single mother who endures the deaths of four of her eleven children.
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If I could' I would've finished the book in a sing
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Safe Houses
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West Berlin, 1979. Helen Abell oversees the CIA's network of safe houses, rare havens for field agents and case officers amidst the dangerous milieu of a city in the grips of the Cold War. Helen's world is upended when, during her routine inspection of an agency property, she overhears a meeting between two unfamiliar people speaking a coded language that hints at shadowy realities far beyond her comprehension. Before the day is out, she witnesses a second unauthorized encounter, one that will place her in the sight lines of the most ruthless and powerful man at the agency.
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5 out of 5 stars
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My new favorite author
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Straight from the Street
- Volume 1
- By: Brian Gibbs
- Narrated by: Brian Glaze Gibbs
- Length: 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 173
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
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My name is Brian (Glaze) Gibbs. I was once a problem causing havoc in my community and with people, having a small army following me all for the wrong reason. Today, I am seeking to share my story of me. Illustrating the good, the bad, and the ugly outcome of our lifestyle, I am attempting to give an avid picture of what the future has to offer for anyone who wants to be a career criminal by committing crimes to make a quick dollar.
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5 out of 5 stars
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WORTH WAITING FOR 👍👌
- By Kelley S. Doswell on 07-30-18
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The Working Poor
- Invisible in America
- By: David K. Shipler
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 148
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 123
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Story4 out of 5 stars 123
Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Must Read Book for the Middle-Class
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Educated
- A Memoir
- By: Tara Westover
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 23,592
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 21,428
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Story5 out of 5 stars 21,319
Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father's junkyard. Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Other Side of Idaho's Mountains
- By Darwin8u on 03-28-18
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Blood in the Water
- The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
- By: Heather Ann Thompson
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 22 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 271
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 247
On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Holding guards and civilian employees hostage, the prisoners negotiated with officials for improved conditions during the four long days and nights that followed. On September 13, the state abruptly sent hundreds of heavily armed troopers and correction officers to retake the prison by force. Their gunfire killed 39 men - hostages as well as prisoners.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tragic Events, Well-Told
- By David on 10-27-17
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The Girl from Blind River
- By: Gale Massey
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
Everyone says the Elders family are nothing but cheats, thieves, and convicts - a fact 19-year-old Jamie Elders has been trying desperately to escape. She may have the natural talent of a poker savant, but her dreams of going pro and getting the hell out of the tiny town of Blind River, New York, are going nowhere fast - especially when she lands in a huge pile of debt to her uncle Loyal. At Loyal's beck and call until her debt is repaid, Jamie can't easily walk away - not with her younger brother Toby left at his mercy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent!
- By Yikes on 07-16-18
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You Knew Me When
- By: Emily Liebert
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4 out of 5 stars 23
Katherine Hill left her small New England hometown in pursuit of a dream. Now, twelve years later, she's a high-powered cosmetics executive in Manhattan and a much glossier version of her former self, unrecognizable to her family and old friends. Not that she would know - she hasn't been home in over a decade. Laney Marten always swore she'd never get "stuck" in Manchester, Vermont. No, she was destined to live out her glamorous big-city dreams. Instead, she wound up a young wife and mother.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A good read!
- By Gayle on 06-21-14
Publisher's Summary
This New York Times best-seller intimately depicts urban life in a gripping book that slips behind cold statistics and sensationalism to reveal the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour.
In her extraordinary best seller, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc immerses listeners in the intricacies of the ghetto, revealing the true sagas lurking behind the headlines of gangsta glamour, gold-drenched drug dealers, and street-corner society. Focusing on two romances - Jessica's dizzying infatuation with a hugely successful young heroin dealer, Boy George; and Coco's first love with Jessica's little brother, Cesar - Random Family is the story of young people trying to outrun their destinies. Jessica and Boy George ride the wild adventure between riches and ruin while Coco and Cesar stick closer to the street, all four caught in a precarious dance between survival and death. Friends get murdered; the DEA and FBI investigate Boy George; Cesar becomes a fugitive; Jessica and Coco endure homelessness, betrayal, the heartbreaking separation of prison, and, throughout it all, the insidious damage of poverty.
Charting the tumultuous cycle of the generations - as girls become mothers, boys become criminals, and hope struggles against deprivation - LeBlanc slips behind the cold statistics and sensationalism and comes back with a riveting, haunting, and true story.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars55
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ryan Martin
- Uniontown & Pittsburgh, PA; USA
- 10-21-18
The narrator ruined this book.
This book might actually be good if it wasn't for this narrator. The entire time I spent listening to this my mind kept wandering off into a million directions because the voice is so flat and fluctuates so little that the narrator could make any story, good or bad, boring.
I can't listen to it. I stopped it after 2 chapters because the narrator just ruined it. I keep wishing I was reading it instead of listening to this flat boring voice.
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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
- mamaurchin
- 10-16-18
REAL
I really enjoyed this book. It was great exposure to the cultural experience alive in America with Americans. Thank you to all who allowed us into their lives.
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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
- Monica F. Fajardo
- 04-11-18
Must read
This is a powerful story of the vicious cycle of poverty in the Bronx. Growing up here and not too far from where the story begins, makes the characters and their circumstances familiar, relatable, and heartbreaking. A must read, no matter your zip code.
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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
- LARGECRASH
- 04-05-18
outstanding
love it
narrator was perfect
it felt like I was there my favorite is Ms Scutari