• The Home Place

  • Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature
  • By: J. Drew Lanham
  • Narrated by: J. Drew Lanham
  • Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (226 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
The Home Place  By  cover art

The Home Place

By: J. Drew Lanham
Narrated by: J. Drew Lanham
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $17.19

Buy for $17.19

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

From the fertile soils of love, land, identity, family, and race emerges The Home Place, a big-hearted, unforgettable memoir by ornithologist J. Drew Lanham.  

Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina - a place "easy to pass by on the way somewhere else" - has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, listeners meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be "the rare bird, the oddity".  

By turns angry, funny, elegiac, and heartbreaking, The Home Place is a remarkable meditation on nature and belonging, at once a deeply moving memoir and riveting exploration of the contradictions of Black identity in the rural South - and in America today.

©2016 J. Drew Lanham (P)2019 Tantor

What listeners say about The Home Place

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    178
  • 4 Stars
    34
  • 3 Stars
    10
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    165
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    152
  • 4 Stars
    26
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

My heart grew

My heart grew because of this book. Professor Lanham's writing is now beautifully etched in my heart and constant in my thoughts. This was one of those few in a lifetime books that I constantly seek, nurture and hold sacred. This book changed me and I promise that your reading will bestow unknown and unconditional gifts. We, the readers, are so grateful for the entire Lanham family and how what came before, what is and what will become is always found in the nature and land around us.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully written and narrated

Dr. Lanham’s memoir about growing up in the South Carolina piedmont is a delight. His life story is an interesting one, and his passion for the natural world really shines through. Plus, he does a great job narrating his own story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Good

I got this title as part of the Plus program but it would've been well worth a credit. I thought it was a very thought-provoking listen.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved the insight!

I loved Mr. Lanham's accent and his insight into his connection with nature. I was grateful to be able to hear his stories about how race affected his connection with nature and how it had nothing to do with it. The focus of this book remains: his love affair with nature.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

wonderful!

This is one of my best reads from the last 5 years. His storytelling combines ornithology, ecology, farming, rural experiences, and his own personal view on black history. His ability to deliver insight and passion in simple and compact phrasing made this a difficult book to put down. Everyone should read it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it

Thank you for sharing your story, and including all the ancestors (human and otherwise) and history.
Beautiful.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful story, Told beautifully

I really enjoyed this book. J. Lanham has a wonderful way with words and descriptions with science and poetry all mixed into one great book. I highly recommend!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Out of my normal realm

As a SC low country native, the authors love of nature & the home place resonated deeply with me. Sometimes I long to return to the home I once knew but know that home place no longer exists. The story felt familiar though it was not my own.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting, yet Soothing

Interesting stories that educate, and in a low, calming voice. Comforting and calming so much so that I didn’t want it to end. So I listen again and again, like talking with a wise old friend.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Beautifully Done

I have so enjoyed listening to this book. You can feel the author’s love for his home place, his family and the land.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Sophie
  • Sophie
  • 07-10-22

Outstanding except for account of killing deer

This nature memoir, is beautifully written and was one of my favourite books ever, up to the point of the graphic and upsetting account of the Author killing a deer, with apparently not even the slightest awareness that he was causing the deer pain (the deer does not die immediately). There follows then a comment about how vegans must eat soy beans and a reference to the land they grow on, which lost me as I am vegan and no, we don’t have to eat soy beans. I could not see the book in the same light after this and would not have started reading it had I known this account was included.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!