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Sicilian Splendors
- Discovering the Secret Places That Speak to the Heart
- Narrated by: P.J. Ochlan
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
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Publisher's summary
From Palermo to Castiglione di Sicilia to Alimena, Sicily holds great secrets from the past and unspoken promises. Tradition, in the form of festivals, the written word, photographs, and song, reverberates through village walls. Now, slowly shaking itself free of the Mafia, Sicily is opening itself up to visitors in ways it never has before.
Sicilian Splendors explores the history, politics, food, Mafia, and people which John Keahey encounters throughout his travels during his return to Sicily. Through conversing with natives and immersing himself in culture, Keahey illustrates a brand new Sicily no one has ever talked about before.
Villagers, eager to welcome tourism and impart awareness of their cultural background, greet Keahey for meals and drink and walk him through their winding streets. They share stories of well-known writers, such as Maria Messina, who have found inspiration in Sicily's villages. Keahey's never-ending curiosity as a traveler shines light on Sicily's mythical mysteries and portrays the island not only through his eyes but also through Sicily's heart.
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What listeners say about Sicilian Splendors
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- michael
- 11-14-18
Small towns are a joy
I give John Keahey a lot of credit for his approach to travel. He has reinforced the direction I have taken with my travels. I have been to Sicily many times and I now have new places to see thanks to him. The smaller towns give you a glimpse of yesterday. And a feeling of being a part of it a lot faster.
I hope some day this Island finds its own direction because it can stand on its own. It has three perfect things location,location and location. I really enjoyed the book.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mr N T Whitley
- 09-05-20
Interesting book, spoiled by narration
Fascinating detail and information, but regrettably this is the first audiobook I have given up on because I found the delivery of the narrator so jarring. Very clear but slow, robotic, and bizarre intonation and phrasing that just does not flow and spoils the text.
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- Christopher
- 12-23-18
Good journey through Sicily
This is much better than the normal travelogues. The author/narrator have a passion for the island and it becomes obvious, bringing you into the journey
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5 out of 5 stars
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Science revealed beautifully
- By Gary on 10-30-18
By: Seth Fletcher
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Sicily: Three Thousand Years of Human History
- By: Sandra Benjamin
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 116
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 98
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
Emigration of people from Sicily often overshadows the importance of the people who immigrated to the island through the centuries. These have included several who became Sicily's rulers, along with Jews, Ligurians, and Albanians. Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Goths, Byzantines, Muslims, Normans, Hohenstaufens, Spaniards, Bourbons, the Savoy Kingdom of Italy and the modern era have all held sway, and left lasting influences on the island's culture and architecture.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Surprisingly compelling!
- By P. Strayer on 08-25-12
By: Sandra Benjamin
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Sicily
- An Island at the Crossroads of History
- By: John Julius Norwich
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 160
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 158
"Sicily," said Goethe, "is the key to everything." It is the largest island in the Mediterranean, the stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the link between the Latin West and the Greek East. Sicily's strategic location has tempted Roman emperors, French princes, and Spanish kings. The subsequent struggles to conquer and keep it have played crucial roles in the rise and fall of the world's most powerful dynasties.
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3 out of 5 stars
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DISAPPOINTING
- By SRdto on 11-22-16
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An Arabian Journey
- One Man's Quest Through the Heart of the Middle East
- By: Levison Wood
- Narrated by: Levison Wood
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Starting in a city in Northern Syria, Wood set forth on a 5,000-mile trek through the most contested region on the planet. He moved through the Middle East for six months, from ISIS-occupied Iraq through Kuwait and along the jagged coastlines of the Emirates and Oman; across a civil-war-torn Yemen and on to Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel, before ending on the shores of the Mediterranean in Lebanon. Like his predecessors, Wood traveled through some of the harshest and most beautiful environments on Earth, seeking to challenge our perceptions of this misunderstood part of the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Learning about people
- By B Tidball on 07-13-21
By: Levison Wood
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The Streets of Paris
- A Guide to the City of Light Following in the Footsteps of Famous Parisians Throughout History
- By: Susan Cahill
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
For hundreds of years, the City of Light has set the stage for larger-than-life characters-from medieval lovers Heloïse and Abelard to the defiant King Henri IV to the brilliant scientist Madame Curie, beloved chanteuse Edith Piaf, and the writer Colette. In this book, Susan Cahill recounts the lives of 22 famous Parisians and then takes you through the seductive streets of Paris to the quartiers where they lived and worked: the scenes of their greatest triumphs and tragedies, their favorite cafes, bars, and restaurants, and the places where they found inspiration and love.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I feel there should be a pdf.
- By Matthew Spinola on 09-20-21
By: Susan Cahill
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The Pursuit of Italy
- A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples
- By: David Gilmour
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 19 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 100
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
Did Garibaldi do Italy a disservice when he helped its disparate parts achieve unity? Was the goal of political unification a mistake? These questions are asked and answered in a number of ways in this engaging, original consideration of the many histories that contribute to the brilliance - and weakness - of Italy today. David Gilmour's exploration of Italian life over the centuries is filled with provocative anecdotes as well as personal observations.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good history: Tough Narration
- By C.S. on 11-12-18
By: David Gilmour
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Einstein's Shadow
- The Inside Story of Astronomers' Decades-Long Quest to Take the First Picture of a Black Hole
- By: Seth Fletcher
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
Einstein’s Shadow follows a team of elite scientists on a historic mission to take the first picture of a black hole, putting Einstein’s theory of relativity to its ultimate test and helping to answer our deepest questions about space, time, the origins of the universe, and the nature of reality.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Science revealed beautifully
- By Gary on 10-30-18
By: Seth Fletcher
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Rice, Noodle, Fish
- Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture (Roads & Kingdoms Presents, Book 1)
- By: Matt Goulding
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story5 out of 5 stars 26
An innovative new take on the travel guide, Rice, Noodle, Fish decodes Japan's extraordinary food culture through a mix of in-depth narrative and insider advice. In this 5,000-mile journey through the noodle shops, tempura temples, and teahouses of Japan, Matt Goulding, cocreator of the enormously popular Eat This, Not That! book series, navigates the intersection between food, history, and culture, creating one of the most ambitious and complete books ever written about Japanese culinary culture from the Western perspective.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Starts strong tapers off
- By Craig Bryan on 01-02-21
By: Matt Goulding
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To the Edges of the Earth
- 1909, the Race for the Three Poles, and the Climax of the Age of Exploration
- By: Edward J. Larson
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
As 1909 dawned, the greatest jewels of exploration - set at the world's frozen extremes - lay unclaimed: the North and South Poles and the so-called "Third Pole", the pole of altitude, located in unexplored heights of the Himalaya. Before the calendar turned, three expeditions had faced death, mutiny, and the harshest conditions on the planet to plant flags at the furthest edges of the Earth.
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5 out of 5 stars
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brutally honest accounts unbelievable stories
- By Troy Hamilton on 07-17-18
By: Edward J. Larson
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Ten Years a Nomad
- A Traveler's Journey Home
- By: Matthew Kepnes
- Narrated by: Ryan Burke
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 229
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 197
Ten Years a Nomad is for travel junkies, the travel-curious, and anyone interested in what you can learn about the world when you don’t have a cable bill for a decade or spend a month not wearing shoes living on the beach in Thailand.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Capturing!
- By Nanu on 01-28-21
By: Matthew Kepnes
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The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 352
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 295
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 290
In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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London's Number One Dog-Walking Agency
- A Memoir
- By: Kate MacDougall
- Narrated by: Anna Popplewell
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
In 2006, Kate MacDougall was working a safe but dull job at the venerable auction house Sotheby’s in London. After a clumsy accident nearly destroyed a precious piece of art, she quit Sotheby’s and set up her own dog-walking company. Kate knew little about dogs and nothing about business, and no one thought being a professional dog walker was a good use of her university degree. Nevertheless, Kate embarked upon an entirely new and very much improvised career walking some of the city’s many pampered pooches, branding her company "London's Number One Dog Walking Agency".
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5 out of 5 stars
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Entertaining light read
- By Amy D. on 07-10-21
By: Kate MacDougall
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Life in a Medieval City
- By: Frances Gies, Joseph Gies
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
Life in a Medieval City is the classic account of the year 1250 in the city of Troyes, in modern-day France. Acclaimed historians Frances and Joseph Gies focus on a high point of medieval civilization - before war and the Black Death ravaged Europe - providing a fascinating window into the sophistication of a period we too often dismiss as backward. Urban life in the Middle Ages revolved around the home, often a mixed-use dwelling for burghers with a store or workshop on the ground floor and living quarters upstairs.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Troyes, an old town but a new city
- By Darwin8u on 04-02-18
By: Frances Gies, and others
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Lands of Lost Borders
- A Journey on the Silk Road
- By: Kate Harris
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 154
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 136
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Story4 out of 5 stars 134
As a teenager, Kate Harris realized that the career she craved - to be an explorer, equal parts swashbuckler and metaphysician - had gone extinct. From what she could tell of the world from small-town Ontario, the likes of Marco Polo and Magellan had mapped the whole earth; there was nothing left to be discovered. Looking beyond this planet, she decided to become a scientist and go to Mars. In between studying at Oxford and MIT, Harris set off by bicycle down the fabled Silk Road with her childhood friend Mel.
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2 out of 5 stars
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narrator
- By Shyra on 08-29-18
By: Kate Harris
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Empire of Shadows
- The Epic Story of Yellowstone
- By: George Black
- Narrated by: Jack de Golia
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
Empire of Shadows is the epic story of the conquest of Yellowstone, a landscape uninhabited, inaccessible, and shrouded in myth in the aftermath of the Civil War. In a radical reinterpretation of the 19th century West, George Black casts Yellowstone's creation as the culmination of three interwoven strands of history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Paints a big picture
- By Gail Thomalla on 07-13-21
By: George Black
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London
- The Biography
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 32 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
London: The Biography is the pinnacle of Peter Ackroyd's brilliant obsession with the eponymous city. In this unusual and engaging work, Ackroyd brings the listener through time into the city whose institutions and idiosyncrasies have permeated much of his works of fiction and nonfiction. Peter Ackroyd sees London as a living, breathing organism, with its own laws of growth and change.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Book
- By Joann on 01-04-21
By: Peter Ackroyd
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Growing Old
- Notes on Aging with Something Like Grace
- By: Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
- Narrated by: Sara Sheckells
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 10
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Story4 out of 5 stars 10
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has spent a lifetime observing the natural world, chronicling the customs of precontact hunter-gatherers and the secret lives of deer and dogs. In this audiobook, the capstone of her long career, Thomas, now 88, turns her keen eye to her own life. The result is an account of growing old that is at once funny and charming and intimate and profound, both a memoir and a life-affirming map all of us may follow to embrace our later years with grace and dignity.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Narrator is hard to listen to
- By Noemi Santana on 06-06-21