-
The House of Broken Angels
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Too Soon for Adiós
- By: Annette Chavez Macias
- Narrated by: Luzma Ortiz
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one expects to meet their father at their mother’s funeral. But for Gabby Medina, that’s exactly what happens. Her dad abandoned her when she was a baby, and now he’s back. And he wants to give her a house. Gabby doesn’t want the house—or him. But she could use the money. So Gabby agrees to take it under two conditions: First, she can sell the house whenever she wants. Second, accepting it doesn’t mean she accepts him.
-
-
relatable
- By Jessica on 04-23-23
-
Good Night, Irene
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle. After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France.
-
-
If I hear insouciant one more time . ..
- By Sara on 07-10-23
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
-
-
Wow! It’s a Masterpiece
- By Billy on 10-25-22
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
Too Soon for Adiós
- By: Annette Chavez Macias
- Narrated by: Luzma Ortiz
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one expects to meet their father at their mother’s funeral. But for Gabby Medina, that’s exactly what happens. Her dad abandoned her when she was a baby, and now he’s back. And he wants to give her a house. Gabby doesn’t want the house—or him. But she could use the money. So Gabby agrees to take it under two conditions: First, she can sell the house whenever she wants. Second, accepting it doesn’t mean she accepts him.
-
-
relatable
- By Jessica on 04-23-23
-
Good Night, Irene
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle. After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France.
-
-
If I hear insouciant one more time . ..
- By Sara on 07-10-23
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
Demon Copperhead
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Kingsolver
- Narrated by: Charlie Thurston
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
-
-
Wow! It’s a Masterpiece
- By Billy on 10-25-22
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
The Hummingbird's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1889, and civil war is brewing in Mexico. A 16-year-old girl, Teresita, illegitimate but beloved daughter of the wealthy and powerful rancher Don Tomas Urrea, wakes from the strangest dream, a dream that she has died. Only it was not a dream. This passionate and rebellious young woman has arisen from death with the power to heal, but it will take all her faith to endure the trials that await her and her family now that she has become the "Saint of Cabora".
-
-
Magical Realism at its best!
- By Angie on 12-26-06
-
The Devil's Highway
- A True Story
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.
-
-
My Favorite Author to Listen to
- By C. F. Eastman on 03-08-18
-
Retablos
- Stories from a Life Lived Along the Border
- By: Octavio Solis
- Narrated by: Octavio Solis
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Living in El Paso, just a mile from the Rio Grande, Octavio is a skinny brown kid on the border, riding his bike out into the desert, growing up among those who live there and those passing through on their way north. Rituals of childhood and rites of passage are remembered as singular, dramatic events, moments of trauma and transformation with life-changing reverberations.
-
-
a wonder
- By J. Danoff-Burg on 01-16-21
By: Octavio Solis
-
Queen of America
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning where Luis Alberto Urrea's bestselling The Hummingbird's Daughter left off, Queen of America finds young Teresita Urrea, beloved healer and "Saint of Cabora," with her father in 1892 Arizona. But, besieged by pilgrims in desperate need of her healing powers, and pursued by assassins, she has no choice but to flee the borderlands and embark on an extraordinary journey into the heart of turn-of-the-century America.
-
-
Urrea does it again
- By Charlotte Bell on 04-01-13
-
The Water Museum
- Stories
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. This collection includes the Edgar-award winning "Amapola" and his now-classic "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses," which had the honor of being chosen for NPR's "Selected Shorts" not once but twice.
-
-
Luis Alberto Urrea is the Chicano Mark Twain
- By Jaziel Gonzalez on 03-02-19
-
American Dirt (Oprah's Book Club)
- A Novel
- By: Jeanine Cummins
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lydia Quixano Pérez lives in the Mexican city of Acapulco. She runs a bookstore. She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while there are cracks beginning to show in Acapulco because of the drug cartels, her life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. When Lydia’s husband’s tell-all profile of Javier, the jefe of the newest drug cartel that has gruesomely taken over the city, is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.
-
-
Completely unrealistic
- By Marlene L Marquez on 02-12-20
By: Jeanine Cummins
-
Solito
- A Memoir
- By: Javier Zamora
- Narrated by: Javier Zamora
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Javier Zamora’s adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks.
-
-
MASTERPIECE of Poetic Prose, Outstanding Narration
- By Mary Burnight on 01-12-23
By: Javier Zamora
-
Into the Beautiful North
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US to find work. Recently it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact there are almost no men in the village - they've all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men - her own "Siete Magníficos" - to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.
-
-
Needs a better reader
- By The Honest Reviewer on 01-16-19
-
Big Chicas Don't Cry
- By: Annette Chavez Macias
- Narrated by: Vanessa Vasquez, Alessandra Manon, Aida Reluzco, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cousins Mari, Erica, Selena, and Gracie are inseparable. They aren’t just family but best friends—sharing secrets, traditions, and a fierce love for their abuelita. But their idyllic childhood ends when Mari’s parents divorce, forcing her to move away. With Mari gone, the girls’ tight-knit bond unravels.
-
-
Painfully boring..
- By Monica Serrano on 09-24-22
-
The Round House
- A Novel
- By: Louise Erdrich
- Narrated by: Gary Farmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface as Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and 13-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude. Increasingly alone, Joe finds himself thrust prematurely into an adult world for which he is ill prepared.
-
-
Heavy in My Heart
- By Mel on 01-02-13
By: Louise Erdrich
-
There There
- A Novel
- By: Tommy Orange
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Alma Ceurvo, and others
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jacquie Red Feather is newly sober and trying to make it back to the family she left behind in shame. Dene Oxendene is pulling his life back together after his uncle's death and has come to work at the powwow to honor his uncle's memory. Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield has come to watch her nephew Orvil, who has taught himself traditional Indian dance through YouTube videos and will perform in public for the very first time. There will be glorious communion and a spectacle of sacred tradition and pageantry. And there will be sacrifice, and heroism, and loss.
-
-
Highly recommend.
- By Rachel S on 07-09-18
By: Tommy Orange
-
Cutting for Stone
- A Novel
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.
-
-
An Epic Medical Novel
- By Audiophile on 07-11-09
By: Abraham Verghese
Publisher's summary
In this "raucous, moving, and necessary" story by a Pulitzer Prize finalist (San Francisco Chronicle), the De La Cruzes, a family on the Mexican-American border, celebrate two of their most beloved relatives during a joyous and bittersweet weekend.
"All we do, mija, is love. Love is the answer. Nothing stops it. Not borders. Not death."
In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly 100, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life.
Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home.
Teeming with brilliance and humor, authentic at every turn, The House of Broken Angels is Luis Alberto Urrea at his best, and cements his reputation as a storyteller of the first rank.
"Epic...Rambunctious...Highly entertaining." (New York Times Book Review)
"Intimate and touching...the stuff of legend." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"An immensely charming and moving tale." (Boston Globe)
National Bestseller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist
A New York Times Notable Book
One of the Best Books of the Year from National Public Radio, American Library Association, San Francisco Chronicle, BookPage, Newsday, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Literary Hub
Critic reviews
"Luis Alberto Urrea's The House of Broken Angels is a vivid portrait of one Mexican-American family in San Diego and the complexities of immigration and heritage. The patriarch of the De La Cruz family decides to throw a huge birthday party in the last days of his life, but his mother also dies in the days leading up to the event, leading to a bittersweet celebration of both of their lives and their family's legacy." (Jarry Lee, Buzzfeed)
"Exuberant...Urrea has written a vital, vibrant book about the immigrant experience that is a messy celebration of life's common joys and sorrows." (Publishers Weekly)
"This, the most personal book by the great American novelist Luis Alberto Urrea, is one of the most vivid and engrossing family epics of the last 20 years." (Dave Eggers, National Book Award finalist and New York Times best-selling author of The Circle)
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
Rabbit, Run
- By: John Updike
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his - or any other - generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is 26 years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty - even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness, and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path.
-
-
A Thinking Man's Novel
- By L. Berlyne on 01-12-09
By: John Updike
-
Homesick for Another World
- Stories
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan, Richard Poe
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities.
-
-
Funny, Dynamic Writing
- By Sofia Macht on 06-13-18
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
Lit
- A Memoir
- By: Mary Karr
- Narrated by: Mary Karr
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lit follows Mary Karr's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness - and her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott" awakens her to the possibility of joy, and leads her to an unlikely faith.
-
-
Finally! One for the "Win" column
- By Kim on 03-22-10
By: Mary Karr
-
A Death in Kitchawank, and Other Stories
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: T. C. Boyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few authors write with such sheer love of story and language as T. C. Boyle, and that is nowhere more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and always entertaining short stories. Here are 14 new tales previously unpublished in book form. By turns mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, ironic and moving, Boyle's stories have mapped a wide range of human emotions. The stories here reflect his maturing themes.
-
-
Mixed Bag
- By AuntGert on 09-22-20
By: T. C. Boyle
-
The Kite Runner
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: Never before has an author’s narration of his fiction been so important to fully grasping the book’s impact and global implications. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them.
-
-
A Worhty Read
- By P. C..S. on 08-17-03
By: Khaled Hosseini
-
Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
-
-
The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
-
Rabbit, Run
- By: John Updike
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rabbit, Run is the book that established John Updike as one of the major American novelists of his - or any other - generation. Its hero is Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, a onetime high-school basketball star who on an impulse deserts his wife and son. He is 26 years old, a man-child caught in a struggle between instinct and thought, self and society, sexual gratification and family duty - even, in a sense, human hard-heartedness, and divine Grace. Though his flight from home traces a zigzag of evasion, he holds to the faith that he is on the right path.
-
-
A Thinking Man's Novel
- By L. Berlyne on 01-12-09
By: John Updike
-
Homesick for Another World
- Stories
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan, Richard Poe
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There's something eerily unsettling about Ottessa Moshfegh's stories, something almost dangerous, while also being delightful and even laugh-out-loud funny. Her characters are all unsteady on their feet in one way or another; they all yearn for connection and betterment, though each in very different ways, but they are often tripped up by their own baser impulses and existential insecurities.
-
-
Funny, Dynamic Writing
- By Sofia Macht on 06-13-18
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
Lit
- A Memoir
- By: Mary Karr
- Narrated by: Mary Karr
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lit follows Mary Karr's descent into the inferno of alcoholism and madness - and her astonishing resurrection. Karr's longing for a solid family seems secure when her marriage to a handsome, Shakespeare-quoting poet produces a son they adore. But she can't outrun her apocalyptic past. She drinks herself into the same numbness that nearly devoured her charismatic but troubled mother, reaching the brink of suicide. A hair-raising stint in "The Mental Marriott" awakens her to the possibility of joy, and leads her to an unlikely faith.
-
-
Finally! One for the "Win" column
- By Kim on 03-22-10
By: Mary Karr
-
A Death in Kitchawank, and Other Stories
- By: T. C. Boyle
- Narrated by: T. C. Boyle
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few authors write with such sheer love of story and language as T. C. Boyle, and that is nowhere more evident than in his inventive, wickedly funny, and always entertaining short stories. Here are 14 new tales previously unpublished in book form. By turns mythic and realistic, farcical and tragic, ironic and moving, Boyle's stories have mapped a wide range of human emotions. The stories here reflect his maturing themes.
-
-
Mixed Bag
- By AuntGert on 09-22-20
By: T. C. Boyle
-
The Kite Runner
- By: Khaled Hosseini
- Narrated by: Khaled Hosseini
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why we think it’s a great listen: Never before has an author’s narration of his fiction been so important to fully grasping the book’s impact and global implications. Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of its monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them.
-
-
A Worhty Read
- By P. C..S. on 08-17-03
By: Khaled Hosseini
-
Fourth of July Creek
- A Novel
- By: Smith Henderson
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews, Jenna Lamia
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times. But as Pete's own family spins out of control, Pearl's activities spark the full-blown interest of the FBI, putting Pete at the center of a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed.
-
-
The Ghost of Tom Joad & the Wrath of Grapes
- By Mel on 06-30-14
By: Smith Henderson
-
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (Unabridged Selections)
- By: Edited by David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris, Mary-Louise Parker, Cherry Jones
- Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules is a collection of short stories, some classic, others impending, selected and introduced by David Sedaris.
-
-
Great stories but only 5 of 17 are included
- By Terri Kirk on 07-13-12
-
Caramelo
- By: Sandra Cisneros
- Narrated by: Sandra Cisneros
- Length: 15 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl-makers. The striped (caramelo) is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip - a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels - from Chicago to “the other side”, Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the “healthy lies” that have ricocheted from one generation to the next.
-
-
Love, family, history, and fantasy, Caramelo
- By Michele on 08-07-20
By: Sandra Cisneros
-
She's Come Undone
- By: Wally Lamb
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly-up.
-
-
Really disappointing narrator!
- By Jessica Williams on 01-21-12
By: Wally Lamb
-
Stories
- All-New Tales
- By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, Al Sarrantonio - editor, Joe Hill, and others
- Narrated by: Anne Bobby, Jonathan Davis, Katherine Kellgren, and others
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.
-
-
Something for Everyone
- By Nicole on 05-24-17
By: Neil Gaiman - author/editor, and others
-
Shadow Show
- All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury
- By: Sam Weller - editor, Mort Castle - editor
- Narrated by: George Takei, Edward Herrmann, Kate Mulgrew, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ray Bradbury - peerless storyteller, poet of the impossible, and one of America's most beloved authors - is a literary giant whose remarkable career spanned seven decades. Now 26 of today's most diverse and celebrated authors offer new short works in honor of the master; stories of heart, intelligence, and dark wonder from a remarkable range of creative artists.
-
-
THE MAN WHO FORGOT RAY BRADBURY
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-27-17
By: Sam Weller - editor, and others
-
Battleborn
- By: Claire Vaye Watkins
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Morgan Hallett, Laura Knight Keating, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like the work of Cormac McCarthy, Denis Johnson, Richard Ford, and Annie Proulx, Battleborn represents a near-perfect confluence of sensibility and setting, and the introduction of an exceptionally powerful and original literary voice. In each of these ten unforgettable stories, Claire Vaye Watkins writes her way fearlessly into the mythology of the American West, utterly reimagining it.
-
-
Wonderful magnificent stories beautifully told
- By Pedro Ramirez on 12-03-15
-
Paradise
- By: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Paradise - her first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Toni Morrison gives us a bravura performance. As the book begins deep in Oklahoma early one morning in 1976, nine men from Ruby (pop. 360), in defense of "the one all-black town worth the pain", assault the nearby Convent and the women in it. From the town's ancestral origins in 1890 to the fateful day of the assault, Paradise tells the story of a people ever mindful of the relationship between their spectacular history and a void.
-
-
MORRISON AT HER MOST COMPLEX
- By Kennedi Hill on 11-07-19
By: Toni Morrison
-
Make Something Up
- Stories You Can't Unread
- By: Chuck Palahniuk
- Narrated by: Chuck Palahniuk, Scott Sowers, Rich Orlow, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For years Chuck Palahniuk has reserved his best storytelling for his readings, often choosing to read a new short story instead of whatever novel he is supposed to be promoting. Make Something Up compiles these previously unpublished tales for the very first time, plus the Byliner social media insta-classic "Phoenix" and Palahniuk's most notable pieces from Playboy.
-
-
Plenty of shock, just not enough Palahniuk awe
- By Darwin8u on 06-10-15
By: Chuck Palahniuk
-
Gathering of Waters
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi - a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families. Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit
-
-
Loved it!!
- By Naima on 07-26-16
-
The Lost Family
- A Novel
- By: Jenna Blum
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1965 Manhattan, patrons flock to Masha’s to savor its brisket bourguignon and impeccable service and to admire its dashing owner and head chef Peter Rashkin, the most eligible bachelor in town. But Peter does not care for the parade of eligible women who come to the restaurant hoping to catch his eye. Running Masha’s consumes him, as does his terrible guilt over surviving the horrors of the Nazi death camp while his wife, Masha - the restaurant’s namesake - and two young daughters perished. Then exquisitely beautiful June Bouquet, an up-and-coming young model, appears at the restaurant, piercing Peter’s guard.
-
-
STIMULATES THE HEART, MIND AND IMAGINATION
- By Miss Manners on 07-01-18
By: Jenna Blum
-
The New Moon's Arms
- By: Nalo Hopkinson
- Narrated by: Gin Hammond
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Calamity is confronting two big transitions: the death of her beloved father and the beginning of menopause, a physical shift that has rekindled her gift for finding lost things. Suddenly, she is getting hot flashes that seem to forge objects out of thin air, most notably a four-year old boy. As Calamity takes the child into her care, she discovers that all is not as it seems. Then, Calamity must reawaken to the mysteries surrounding her own childhood and the early disappearance of her mother.
-
-
What a joy
- By newmoon on 07-05-19
By: Nalo Hopkinson
-
Marrow
- By: Tarryn Fisher
- Narrated by: Audra Pagano
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Margo is not like other girls. She lives in a derelict neighborhood called the Bone, in a cursed house, with her cursed mother, who hasn't spoken to her in over two years. She lives her days feeling invisible. It's not until she develops a friendship with her wheelchair-bound neighbor, Judah Grant, that things begin to change. When a neighborhood girl, seven-year-old Neveah Anthony, goes missing, Judah sets out to help Margo uncover what happened to her. What Margo finds changes her, and with a new perspective on life she's determined to find evil and punish it.
-
-
HUH?? I'm so confused LOL
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 09-15-16
By: Tarryn Fisher
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Devil's Highway
- A True Story
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.
-
-
My Favorite Author to Listen to
- By C. F. Eastman on 03-08-18
-
The Hummingbird's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1889, and civil war is brewing in Mexico. A 16-year-old girl, Teresita, illegitimate but beloved daughter of the wealthy and powerful rancher Don Tomas Urrea, wakes from the strangest dream, a dream that she has died. Only it was not a dream. This passionate and rebellious young woman has arisen from death with the power to heal, but it will take all her faith to endure the trials that await her and her family now that she has become the "Saint of Cabora".
-
-
Magical Realism at its best!
- By Angie on 12-26-06
-
Into the Beautiful North
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US to find work. Recently it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact there are almost no men in the village - they've all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men - her own "Siete Magníficos" - to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.
-
-
Needs a better reader
- By The Honest Reviewer on 01-16-19
-
Queen of America
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning where Luis Alberto Urrea's bestselling The Hummingbird's Daughter left off, Queen of America finds young Teresita Urrea, beloved healer and "Saint of Cabora," with her father in 1892 Arizona. But, besieged by pilgrims in desperate need of her healing powers, and pursued by assassins, she has no choice but to flee the borderlands and embark on an extraordinary journey into the heart of turn-of-the-century America.
-
-
Urrea does it again
- By Charlotte Bell on 04-01-13
-
Good Night, Irene
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle. After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France.
-
-
If I hear insouciant one more time . ..
- By Sara on 07-10-23
-
The Water Museum
- Stories
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. This collection includes the Edgar-award winning "Amapola" and his now-classic "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses," which had the honor of being chosen for NPR's "Selected Shorts" not once but twice.
-
-
Luis Alberto Urrea is the Chicano Mark Twain
- By Jaziel Gonzalez on 03-02-19
-
The Devil's Highway
- A True Story
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the Mexican border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, the "Devil's Highway." Three years later, Luis Alberto Urrea wrote about what happened to them. The result was a national bestseller, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a "book of the year" in multiple newspapers, and a work proclaimed as a modern American classic.
-
-
My Favorite Author to Listen to
- By C. F. Eastman on 03-08-18
-
The Hummingbird's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 18 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1889, and civil war is brewing in Mexico. A 16-year-old girl, Teresita, illegitimate but beloved daughter of the wealthy and powerful rancher Don Tomas Urrea, wakes from the strangest dream, a dream that she has died. Only it was not a dream. This passionate and rebellious young woman has arisen from death with the power to heal, but it will take all her faith to endure the trials that await her and her family now that she has become the "Saint of Cabora".
-
-
Magical Realism at its best!
- By Angie on 12-26-06
-
Into the Beautiful North
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the US to find work. Recently it has dawned on her that he isn't the only man who has left town. In fact there are almost no men in the village - they've all gone north. While watching The Magnificent Seven, Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men - her own "Siete Magníficos" - to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.
-
-
Needs a better reader
- By The Honest Reviewer on 01-16-19
-
Queen of America
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 17 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beginning where Luis Alberto Urrea's bestselling The Hummingbird's Daughter left off, Queen of America finds young Teresita Urrea, beloved healer and "Saint of Cabora," with her father in 1892 Arizona. But, besieged by pilgrims in desperate need of her healing powers, and pursued by assassins, she has no choice but to flee the borderlands and embark on an extraordinary journey into the heart of turn-of-the-century America.
-
-
Urrea does it again
- By Charlotte Bell on 04-01-13
-
Good Night, Irene
- A Novel
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1943, Irene Woodward abandons an abusive fiancé in New York to enlist with the Red Cross and head to Europe. She makes fast friends in training with Dorothy Dunford, a towering Midwesterner with a ferocious wit. Together they are part of an elite group of women, nicknamed Donut Dollies, who command military vehicles called Clubmobiles at the front line, providing camaraderie and a taste of home that may be the only solace before troops head into battle. After D-Day, these two intrepid friends join the Allied soldiers streaming into France.
-
-
If I hear insouciant one more time . ..
- By Sara on 07-10-23
-
The Water Museum
- Stories
- By: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Narrated by: Luis Alberto Urrea
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. This collection includes the Edgar-award winning "Amapola" and his now-classic "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses," which had the honor of being chosen for NPR's "Selected Shorts" not once but twice.
-
-
Luis Alberto Urrea is the Chicano Mark Twain
- By Jaziel Gonzalez on 03-02-19
-
Of Women and Salt
- A Novel
- By: Gabriela Garcia
- Narrated by: Frankie Corzo, Gabriela Garcia
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In present-day Miami, Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt.
-
-
Bored
- By Kindle Customer on 04-05-21
By: Gabriela Garcia
-
Living Beyond Borders
- Growing Up Mexican in America
- By: Margarita Longoria
- Narrated by: Alejandro Ruiz, Kyla Garcia, Margarita Longoria
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, and poetry, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. Living Beyond Borders is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today's young listeners.
-
-
Will buy the hard copy to keep forever
- By Anonymous User on 12-04-23
-
Too Soon for Adiós
- By: Annette Chavez Macias
- Narrated by: Luzma Ortiz
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one expects to meet their father at their mother’s funeral. But for Gabby Medina, that’s exactly what happens. Her dad abandoned her when she was a baby, and now he’s back. And he wants to give her a house. Gabby doesn’t want the house—or him. But she could use the money. So Gabby agrees to take it under two conditions: First, she can sell the house whenever she wants. Second, accepting it doesn’t mean she accepts him.
-
-
relatable
- By Jessica on 04-23-23
-
Cantoras
- A Novel
- By: Carolina De Robertis
- Narrated by: Carolina De Robertis
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A genre-defining novel and De Robertis's masterpiece, Cantoras is a breathtaking portrait of queer love, community, forgotten history, and the strength of the human spirit. At once timeless and groundbreaking, Cantoras is a tale about the fire in all our souls and those who make it burn.
-
-
Excruciating to get through
- By Xochitl Casillas on 11-30-20
-
Big Chicas Don't Cry
- By: Annette Chavez Macias
- Narrated by: Vanessa Vasquez, Alessandra Manon, Aida Reluzco, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cousins Mari, Erica, Selena, and Gracie are inseparable. They aren’t just family but best friends—sharing secrets, traditions, and a fierce love for their abuelita. But their idyllic childhood ends when Mari’s parents divorce, forcing her to move away. With Mari gone, the girls’ tight-knit bond unravels.
-
-
Painfully boring..
- By Monica Serrano on 09-24-22
-
A House of My Own
- Stories from My Life
- By: Sandra Cisneros
- Narrated by: Sandra Cisneros
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the Chicago neighborhoods where she grew up and set her groundbreaking The House on Mango Street to her abode in Mexico in a region where “my ancestors lived for centuries,” the places Sandra Cisneros has lived have provided inspiration for her now-classic works of fiction and poetry. But a house of her own, where she could truly take root, has eluded her. With this collection—spanning three decades, and including never-before-published work—Cisneros has come home at last.
-
-
Rich stories, wonderful narration.
- By Anna on 03-01-16
By: Sandra Cisneros
-
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega
- By: Crystal Maldonado
- Narrated by: Carla Vega
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charlie Vega is a lot of things. Smart. Funny. Artistic. Ambitious. Fat. People sometimes have a problem with that last one. Especially her mom. Charlie wants a good relationship with her body, but it's hard, and her mom leaving a billion weight loss shakes on her dresser doesn't help. The world and everyone in it have ideas about what she should look like: thinner, lighter, slimmer-faced, straighter-haired. Be smaller. Be whiter. Be quieter. But there's one person who's always in Charlie's corner: her best friend Amelia.
-
-
Loved it.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-31-21
-
For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts
- A Love Letter to Women of Color
- By: Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
- Narrated by: Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The founder of Latina Rebels and a “Latinx Activist You Should Know” (Teen Vogue) arms women of color with the tools and knowledge they need to find success on their own terms.
-
-
Must Read for BIWOC
- By Veronica Garcia on 09-24-21
-
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
- By: Erika L. Sánchez
- Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents' house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga's role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.
-
-
FOR LATINAS WHO ARE OFTEN TOLD THEY "SOUND WHITE"
- By Alex on 12-14-18
By: Erika L. Sánchez
-
A Dream Called Home
- By: Reyna Grande
- Narrated by: Yareli Arizmendi
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Reyna Grande was nine years old, she walked across the US-Mexico border in search of a home, desperate to be reunited with the parents who had left her behind years before for a better life in the City of Angels. What she found instead was an indifferent mother, an abusive, alcoholic father, and a school system that belittled her heritage. With so few resources at her disposal, Reyna finds refuge in words, and it is her love of reading and writing that propels her to rise above until she achieves the impossible and is accepted to the University of California, Santa Cruz.
-
-
Beautiful
- By Carolyn on 10-17-18
By: Reyna Grande
-
Afterlife
- By: Julia Alvarez
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep.
-
-
That's all?
- By Karenmarie on 05-06-20
By: Julia Alvarez
-
The Taste of Sugar
- By: Marisel Vera
- Narrated by: Kyla García
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 1898, and groups of starving Puerto Ricans, los hambrientos, roam the parched countryside and dusty towns begging for food. Under the yoke of Spanish oppression, the Caribbean island is forced to prepare to wage war with the United States. Up in the mountainous coffee region of Utuado, Vicente Vega and Valentina Sanchez labor to keep their small farm from the creditors. When the Spanish-American War and the great San Ciriaco Hurricane of 1899 bring devastating upheaval, the young couple is lured, along with thousands of others, to the sugar plantations of Hawaii.
-
-
Loved it!
- By Ebitimi Igbaseimokumo on 01-30-23
By: Marisel Vera
What listeners say about The House of Broken Angels
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JKC
- 05-01-18
Not death, and Not borders
“The House of Broken Angels” is the first Great San Diego novel. It is written in a language not classically literary, and yet exactly accurate and appropriate to the place, the time, and the people. It is the melting-pot amalgam of two cultures, and two languages, and too much history; about a family that encompasses all of this, a family that is real and believable because in fact this is what an increasing, perhaps preponderating, majority of families are like - in San Diego and all along the US – Mexico border.
The plot is simple. It is sort of an Aztlan “As I Lay Dying”: the ruminations of the terminally ill Angel de la Cruz at his final birthday party. But the ruminations of any human being open up a history with so many memories, regrets, accomplishments, subplots, fantasies – that they provide a portal through which to view the entire panorama of a life nearly finished. And beyond that, the entire world in which he lived.
And that entire world is displayed here: the origins in Mexican poverty, the “Children of Sanchez” machismo and misogyny, the strange gravitational field that keeps Hispanic families continually falling apart and bonding together, the older generation which immigrates to the US but never really leaves Mexico; the younger generation that lives in its own little gang-boundary barrio with its own culture neither Mexican nor American, the half-assimilated cousins that hardly know Spanish but still have quinceañeras, the weird gringo uncle who wears Hawaiian shirts. (And, yes, Cheech: there is probably a son-in-law named Jeff!) They are all there, and they are all real, and they are all what San Diego really is.
The language is simply brilliant. Only the author, Luis Alberto Urrea, whose ear has captured and whose pen has transcribed these borderland dialects with such verisimilitude, could have done justice to this book. The English narration is literary, the Mexican Spanish is authentic, the pocho amalgam of both is spot on. Even the occasional gringo-Spanglish bastardization rings true. This is the way the border speaks, and Urrea is the laureate who has captured it on the written page and in the spoken word.
There is simply NO WAY that reading this book could be as rewarding as listening to Urrea's narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
104 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 05-16-18
Authentic but slow and confusing
This novel had so many great things - the writing was amazing. It felt poetic at times, and the feel of this novel was totally authentic. It starts with Big Angel, the patriarch of a Mexican-American family, burying his mother and also preparing for his own death from cancer. The very start was moving and fascinating. But then almost nothing happened in the first half, as the extended family began to gather. There were many characters, so many I was often confused who was who. I was ready to stop when the book jumped back in time and I gave it more time. It did get better, but not enough for me to finish this novel. I liked the authentic voice of the author, who narrated this, but that was not enough for me to stay with the book. I can see why others loved this. I tried to, and did really like parts, but not enough to recommend this. I loved the character Big Angel, but no one else came alive as an individual to me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
83 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marco Gorgonzola
- 03-14-18
Marvelous story read masterfully by the author!
The House of Broken Angels is a beautiful novel about a Mexican-American family and focuses on the relationship of two brothers as the older one prepares to die. Luis Urrea yet again creates a novel that feels like a transformative spiritual experience—no mean feat, and it has never been done better. Best yet, Urrea himself narrates this audio book, giving the words the inflections they were meant to possess, and in the intended accent—whether speaking English, Spanish or Spanglish. As an avid reader as well as a devourer of audio books, I could recommend this more highly.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
34 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- lynniemilano
- 04-19-18
So much fun and an excellent narrator/author!
This was my first experience of Luis Alberto Urrea's writing and I will definitely be back for more. His characters are so warm, complete, and full of life I felt as if I were in the room/car/backyard with them all as the action took place. I am usually wary of author-narrated books (I'm sure we've all had at least one bad experience with those) but in this case I don't think anyone BUT Urrea himself could have breathed true life into his words - who else would have known how to say "PANCAKES!!!!" with that voice? Anyone who's ever lived in a border area will immediately recognize the particular style of Spanglish that wends it's way through the dialogue. I enjoyed every minute and may need to listen again very soon!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
27 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- D. Short
- 09-15-18
A nice family story
I enjoyed the story but I thought the book had too many characters. Each character’s story got lost in the mix at times and there were a couple of peripheral characters that did not leave a lasting impression.
I thought the story itself was was thoughtful, insightful and endearing. It was interesting enough for me to be able to finish the book but not engaging enough for me to be excited about reading it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
26 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- SandyC
- 06-26-18
Dark theme, not uplifting
Not sure how I feel about this book. I was hoping for some insight to a culture I wasn’t brought up with-but truthfully it reinforced almost all of the stereotypes I have. The author/narrator was excellent so overall it’s 4 Stars. But there’s no growth, no humor (maybe one or two smiles), no emotional investment for the reader, and just sort of a bummer of a story with a gratifying end. Definitely something different for me so that is something I suppose.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mary
- 06-19-18
What a precious book!
I found this story so wonderful. Such a full bodied examination of family and love and death. I did grow up in Southern California so many of the places and events were warmly familiar to me.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michele
- 04-13-18
Historical Poetic of an Entire Family Through One Man’s Life
Through a constant flow of magnificent vignettes the author captures the music and poetic depth of Mexico and the beautiful immigrant landscape of San Diego to tell the story of a father and his family. Urrea uses the difficult and many times Riffic story of Miguel to tell a beautiful story of perseverance and love.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ramona Petersen
- 06-30-20
Hard to Follow
As a first generation Mexican American, I found this story hard to follow and quite frankly a little offensive. My family came here with nothing, from nothing but worked hard to assimilate and become lawyers, engineers, nurses, etc. They have produced 2 Harvard graduates, 1 Stanford, 1 Berkley and at least 20 other "lesser" graduates... read, Notre Dam, Chapman, USC, etc. Out of 38 first cousins, not a gang banger or drug addict among them. I was really hoping to relate to this story but other than chanclas and bollio sandwiches, I found very little. So disapointing to hear another story of an immigrant family of cheaters, gang bangers, abusers, etc.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Julia
- 04-05-18
Excellent book - highly recommend
Really enjoyed this book. The story was solid and engaging to keep me coming back. More importantly, the writing was fantastic, beautiful and vivid. Having the author read it added even greater depth and authenticity. Helped bring the book to life.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful