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The Last Days of August
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins
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Publisher's summary
Jon Ronson, the creator of Audible Original The Butterfly Effect, delves into the pornography industry again as he unravels the never-before-told story of what caused a beloved 23-year-old actress’s untimely death.
In December 2017, famed adult film star August Ames died by suicide in a park in the Conejo Valley. Her death came just a day after she’d been the victim of a social media pile-on by fellow porn professionals—punishment for her tweeting out something deemed homophobic.
A month later, August’s husband and pornography producer Kevin Moore connected with journalist Jon Ronson to tell the story of how cyberbullying via Twitter killed his wife. Neither of them could predict the rumors and secrets that Ronson would soon hear, revelations that hinted at a very different story—something mysterious and unexpected and terrible.
Please note: This audio features sexual content, adult language, and references to suicide and violence that may be upsetting to some listeners. Discretion is advised.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
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Go Behind the Scenes with Jon Ronson
Publisher's summary
Jon Ronson, the creator of Audible Original The Butterfly Effect, delves into the pornography industry again as he unravels the never-before-told story of what caused a beloved 23-year-old actress’s untimely death.
In December 2017, famed adult film star August Ames died by suicide in a park in the Conejo Valley. Her death came just a day after she’d been the victim of a social media pile-on by fellow porn professionals—punishment for her tweeting out something deemed homophobic.
A month later, August’s husband and pornography producer Kevin Moore connected with journalist Jon Ronson to tell the story of how cyberbullying via Twitter killed his wife. Neither of them could predict the rumors and secrets that Ronson would soon hear, revelations that hinted at a very different story—something mysterious and unexpected and terrible.
Please note: This audio features sexual content, adult language, and references to suicide and violence that may be upsetting to some listeners. Discretion is advised.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
Not the mystery you might be expecting
The titular "August" here is late adult-film star, August Ames, nee Mercedes Grabowski, who died by apparent suicide around the time she was the subject of a massive Twitter pile-on. Author and audio-storyteller extraordinaire, Jon Ronson, pulls up every corner to get the full picture. He explores questions like: Did her spouse have anything to do with her untimely end? Was social media bullying really to blame, or were other factors at play? The Last Days of August listens like equal parts mystery, thriller, social science exploration, and embedded journalistic undertaking—and it’s ultimately so satisfying in the end (albeit tragically so). And, lucky for Audible members this month, there's no credit required to listen.
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- By Phoenician on 09-10-20
By: Malcolm X, and others
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Caffeine
- How Caffeine Created the Modern World
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 2 hrs and 2 mins
- Original Recording
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Michael Pollan, known for his best-selling nonfiction audio, including The Omnivores Dilemma and How to Change Your Mind, conceived and wrote Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World as an Audible Original. In this controversial and exciting listen, Pollan explores caffeine’s power as the most-used drug in the world - and the only one we give to children (in soda pop) as a treat.
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Leaves much to be desired
- By Melody H on 02-02-20
By: Michael Pollan
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The Debutante
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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Interesting but not compelling
- By Gail Jester on 04-15-23
By: Jon Ronson
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I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn’t)
- Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power
- By: Brené Brown
- Narrated by: Lauren Fortgang
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on seven years of ground-breaking research and hundreds of interviews, I Thought It Was Just Me shines a long-overdue light on an important truth: Our imperfections are what connect us to each other and to our humanity. Our vulnerabilities are not weaknesses; they are powerful reminders to keep our hearts and minds open to the reality that we're all in this together.
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I'm sure its great if you are a mother ....
- By Leslie A Hill on 08-09-11
By: Brené Brown
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Buddhism for Beginners
- By: Thubten Chodron, His Holiness the Dalai Lama - foreword
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 4 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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This user’s guide to Buddhist basics takes the most commonly asked questions - beginning with “What is the essence of the Buddha’s teachings?” - and provides simple answers in plain English. Thubten Chodron’s responses to the questions that always seem to arise among people approaching Buddhism make this an exceptionally complete and accessible introduction - as well as a manual for living a more peaceful, mindful, and satisfying Life.
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Amazing introduction to Buddhism
- By chad d on 07-02-15
By: Thubten Chodron, and others
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The Mastery of Self
- A Toltec Guide to Personal Freedom
- By: Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.
- Narrated by: Charlie Varon
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The ancient Toltecs believed that life, as we perceive it, is a dream. We each live in our own personal dream, and these come together to form the dream of the planet, or the world in which we live. Problems arise when our perception of the dream becomes clouded with negativity, drama, and judgment (of ourselves and others), because it's in these moments of suffering that we have forgotten that we are the architects of our own reality and we have the power to change our dream if we choose.
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listen.. .then listen again
- By Casiano on 12-22-16
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The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean
- By: M. Doreal
- Narrated by: John Marino
- Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The history of the tablets translated in the following book is strange and beyond the belief of modern scientists. Their antiquity is stupendous, dating back some 36,000 years. The writer is Thoth, an Atlantean Priest-King, who founded a colony in ancient Egypt after the sinking of the mother country. He was the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, erroneously attributed to Cheops. In it he incorporated his knowledge of the ancient wisdom and also securely secreted records and instruments of ancient Atlantis.
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Excellence...
- By Light Worker on 04-21-18
By: M. Doreal
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Eight Dates
- Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love
- By: John Gottman PhD, Julie Schwartz Gottman PhD, Doug Abrams, and others
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin, Julie McKay
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Navigating the challenges of long-term commitment takes effort - and it just got simpler, with this empowering, step-by-step guide to communicating about the things that matter most to you and your partner. Drawing on 40 years of research from their world-famous Love Lab, Dr. John Gottman and Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman invite couples on eight fun, easy, and profoundly rewarding dates, each one focused on a make-or-break issue: trust, conflict, sex, money, family, adventure, spirituality, and dreams.
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What the F. Robot-reader???!?!?!
- By Anonymous User on 01-21-20
By: John Gottman PhD, and others
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Things Fell Apart
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From taking the knee to transgender rights, wedge issues are everywhere in modern life - dividing opinions, polarising debate and tearing friendships and families apart. Even something as seemingly innocuous as wearing a facemask can provoke vicious disagreement. But how did we get here, and what does it mean for society going forward? In this gripping series, acclaimed writer and journalist Jon Ronson searches for the origin stories of the hostilities - the pebbles thrown in the pond, creating the ripples that led to where we are today.
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Great but should have been a free listen...
- By Avid Listener on 05-21-23
By: Jon Ronson
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Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries
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Jon Ronson is fascinated by madness, extraordinary behaviour and the human mind. He has spent his life investigating crazy events, following fascinating people and unearthing unusual stories. Collected here from various sources (including the Guardian and GQ America) are the best of his adventures.
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Like a Collection of TAL Episodes
- By Pamela Harvey on 10-20-12
By: Jon Ronson
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The Elephant in the Room
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'But Hillary is a known Luciferian,' he tried. 'She's not a known Luciferian,' I said. 'Well, yes and no,' he said. In The Elephant in the Room, Jon Ronson, the New York Times best-selling author of The Psychopath Test, Them, and So You've Been Publicly Shamed, travels to Cleveland at the height of summer to witness the Republican National Convention.
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As Others See Us--
- By Gillian on 10-26-16
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Them: Adventures with Extremists
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- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
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Them began as a book about different kinds of extremists, but after Jon had got to know some of them - Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen - he found that they had one oddly similar belief: that a tiny, shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. In Them, Jon sets out, with the help of the extremists, to locate that room. The journey is as creepy as it is comic, and along the way Jon is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp, and more.
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Dated but VERY Good... and FUNNY!
- By aaron on 09-26-12
By: Jon Ronson
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Frank
- The True Story that Inspired the Movie
- By: Jon Ronson
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In the late 1980s Jon Ronson was the keyboard player in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band. Frank wore a big fake head. Nobody outside his inner circle knew his true identity. This became the subject of feverish speculation during his zenith years. Together, they rode relatively high. Then it all went wrong. Twenty-five years later and Jon has co-written a movie, Frank, inspired by his time in this great and bizarre band. Frank is set for release in 2014, starring Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Domhnall Gleeson and directed by Lenny Abrahamson.
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Frankly, Not Enough
- By Dubi on 07-31-17
By: Jon Ronson
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The Debutante
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- Length: 3 hrs and 11 mins
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Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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Interesting but not compelling
- By Gail Jester on 04-15-23
By: Jon Ronson
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Things Fell Apart
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From taking the knee to transgender rights, wedge issues are everywhere in modern life - dividing opinions, polarising debate and tearing friendships and families apart. Even something as seemingly innocuous as wearing a facemask can provoke vicious disagreement. But how did we get here, and what does it mean for society going forward? In this gripping series, acclaimed writer and journalist Jon Ronson searches for the origin stories of the hostilities - the pebbles thrown in the pond, creating the ripples that led to where we are today.
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Great but should have been a free listen...
- By Avid Listener on 05-21-23
By: Jon Ronson
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Lost at Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Jon Ronson is fascinated by madness, extraordinary behaviour and the human mind. He has spent his life investigating crazy events, following fascinating people and unearthing unusual stories. Collected here from various sources (including the Guardian and GQ America) are the best of his adventures.
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Like a Collection of TAL Episodes
- By Pamela Harvey on 10-20-12
By: Jon Ronson
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The Elephant in the Room
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'But Hillary is a known Luciferian,' he tried. 'She's not a known Luciferian,' I said. 'Well, yes and no,' he said. In The Elephant in the Room, Jon Ronson, the New York Times best-selling author of The Psychopath Test, Them, and So You've Been Publicly Shamed, travels to Cleveland at the height of summer to witness the Republican National Convention.
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As Others See Us--
- By Gillian on 10-26-16
By: Jon Ronson
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Them: Adventures with Extremists
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Them began as a book about different kinds of extremists, but after Jon had got to know some of them - Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen - he found that they had one oddly similar belief: that a tiny, shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room. In Them, Jon sets out, with the help of the extremists, to locate that room. The journey is as creepy as it is comic, and along the way Jon is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp, and more.
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Dated but VERY Good... and FUNNY!
- By aaron on 09-26-12
By: Jon Ronson
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Frank
- The True Story that Inspired the Movie
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
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Overall
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In the late 1980s Jon Ronson was the keyboard player in the Frank Sidebottom Oh Blimey Big Band. Frank wore a big fake head. Nobody outside his inner circle knew his true identity. This became the subject of feverish speculation during his zenith years. Together, they rode relatively high. Then it all went wrong. Twenty-five years later and Jon has co-written a movie, Frank, inspired by his time in this great and bizarre band. Frank is set for release in 2014, starring Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Domhnall Gleeson and directed by Lenny Abrahamson.
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Frankly, Not Enough
- By Dubi on 07-31-17
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The Debutante
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Thirty years ago, award-winning journalist Jon Ronson stumbled on the mystery of Carol Howe—a charismatic, wealthy former debutante turned white supremacist spokeswoman turned undercover informant. In 1995, Carol was spying on Oklahoma’s neo-Nazis for the government just when Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.
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Interesting but not compelling
- By Gail Jester on 04-15-23
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The Men Who Stare at Goats
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In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice - and indeed, the laws of physics - they believed that a soldier could adopt the cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them. Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren't joking. What's more, they're back and fighting the War on Terror.
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FINALLY! In Ronson's own voice!
- By PaisleyTurtle on 05-31-16
By: Jon Ronson
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So You've Been Publicly Shamed
- By: Jon Ronson
- Narrated by: Jon Ronson
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Sunday Times top ten bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most underappreciated forces: shame. 'It's about the terror, isn't it?' 'The terror of what?' I said. 'The terror of being found out.' For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us - people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work.
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You'll never look at public shaming the same way
- By Megan Gunter on 04-02-15
By: Jon Ronson
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The Psychopath Test
- A Journey Through the Madness Industry
- By: Jon Ronson
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- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The Psychopath Test is a fascinating journey through the minds of madness. Jon Ronson's exploration of a potential hoax being played on the world's top neurologists takes him, unexpectedly, into the heart of the madness industry. An influential psychologist who is convinced that many important CEOs and politicians are, in fact, psychopaths teaches Ronson how to spot these high-flying individuals by looking out for little telltale verbal and nonverbal clues. And so Ronson, armed with his new psychopath-spotting abilities, enters the corridors of power.
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Interesting because it comes to more than one conclusion
- By Laura J on 06-20-23
By: Jon Ronson
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Junk
- By: Les Bohem
- Narrated by: John Waters
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in present-day Los Angeles, Junk explores an epic conspiracy, one at work for thousands of years that involves total takeover of the planet Earth by aliens. In the wild, souped-up vision of Les Bohem - the acclaimed, Emmy-winning writer of the Steven Spielberg miniseries, Taken - the world is at the end stage of long-range plot that involves a gigantic genetic-engineering project. The aliens who have invaded us have no planet. No spaceship is coming. Instead, a small advance force comes, breeds, and dies - thus becoming an anomaly in our DNA that can’t be explained.
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Flat narration on a boring story
- By Kingsley on 03-02-19
By: Les Bohem
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The Dead Drink First
- By: Dale Maharidge
- Narrated by: Dale Maharidge
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
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Dale Maharidge’s father, like many World War II veterans, never talked about “the good war”. There was just one clue to his dad’s experience as a US Marine - a portrait with a close friend that hung permanently in their home. In The Dead Drink First, Dale, now a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, recounts his 18-year quest to find and repatriate the missing remains of his dad’s buddy, Herman Walter Mulligan, 73 years after he was killed in action.
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read it even if it's not your usual genre
- By Kindle Customer on 06-07-19
By: Dale Maharidge
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Lullaby
- By: Jonathan Maberry
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 37 mins
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A young married couple, Matt and Gillian, have just bought a gorgeous house located next to a lake in the Catskills. They want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city to raise their baby girl, Hope, in relative peace and quiet. When night falls, however, their dream home becomes a house of nightmares. Matt and Gillian soon learn that darkness takes many forms. And sometimes, darkness is hungry.
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I guess there’s a reason it’s free
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Dodge & Twist
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It’s rumoured that Dickens wanted to return to his classic novel Oliver Twist, to bring him back into a later book as an older character, but he never managed this before he died. However, if Oliver had returned, what would he have been like? Would the scars of his childhood affect the man he would become? And what of ‘Dodger’, sent to a land halfway around the world, his friend, mentor and master dead because of Oliver? Dodge & Twist is that story. The tale of two boys, 12 years later, returning into each other’s lives - for both good and bad.
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Excellent performance, pretty dismal story
- By Kevin on 02-04-19
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Christmas Eve, 1914
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In 1914, the war which was to have been wrapped up by Christmas had - in reality - only just begun, as all sides entrenched themselves deeper into the Great War. Christmas Eve, 1914 follows one company of British officers as they rotate forward to spend their Christmas on the front lines, a mere 80 yards from the German guns. Upper- and working-class men and boys are thrown together into one trench and struggle to survive.
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I was just reading about this in my news paper
- By Bonnie on 12-22-14
By: Charles Olivier
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Sovereign
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Micah Cole has been in deep space for three years while his parents chase their obsession with finding intelligence to the far corners of the universe, but Micah dreams of the friends he left behind and counts the days until they return home. When a devastating meteor shower nearly destroys their ship, Micah is separated from his family and stranded on Sovereign, a vast planet of raging rivers, towering forests, and deadly creatures. If Micah ever wants to see his family or his home again, he’ll have to learn to how to survive on a hostile alien world, all alone.
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Exploring strange new worlds
- By Kingsley on 02-01-19
By: Jeff Hirsch
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The Darkwater Bride
- An Audible Original Drama
- By: Marty Ross
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Donal Finn, Jamie Glover, and others
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
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Late Victorian London. When James Miller, the most respectable of Scottish businessmen, is pulled, dead, from the Thames, his daughter is drawn into an investigation which reveals a whole world of secrets and corruption. Alongside local detective Culley, Catriona’s search for her father’s killer leads all the way to the tragic truth behind the ghostly legend of The Darkwater Bride and the power of her deadly kiss. The Darkwater Bride combines the genres of the Victorian mystery thriller with the equally classic Victorian mode of the ghostly tale.
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Well that was uncomfortable
- By East Coast Buyer on 04-11-19
By: Marty Ross
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The Coming Storm
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Tornadoes, cyclones, tsunamis… Weather can be deadly – especially when it strikes without warning. Millions of Americans could soon find themselves at the mercy of violent weather if the public data behind lifesaving storm alerts gets privatized for personal gain. In his first Audible Original feature, New York Times best-selling author and journalist Michael Lewis delivers hard-hitting research on not-so-random weather data – and how Washington plans to release it.
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Badly Mixed Message
- By GE Guest on 08-07-18
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How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps
- By: Andrew Rowe
- Narrated by: Suzy Jackson, Steve West
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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For thousands of years, there has been a cycle: a Demon King rises and conquers, and a Hero is reborn a hundred years later to defeat him. Each time, civilizations are ground to dust beneath the Demon King's hordes, but humanity has remained secure in the belief that a Hero of legend will always save them. There's just one slight problem. It's only been 23 years since the Demon King's latest rise, and this time, he's already conquered more than half the world. If humanity simply waits for the Hero's return, there may be no world left for him to save.
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The Best Audible Original Book I've Heard
- By Heather I on 05-01-20
By: Andrew Rowe
What listeners say about The Last Days of August
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alex Mayers
- 01-04-19
a healing masterpiece
Thank you for putting The Last Days Of August together... It was extraordinary - a solid masterpiece that I feel I was specifically meant to hear at this point in my life. I personally survived that world (I'm an ex pornstar who was extensively bullied - along with my parents - by industry figures on the venue where you located Shazia Sahari's name - I had that venue, which is a racist and homophobic hate crime, in the court system all last year), and managed to leave with my sanity. Your piece provided closure for me on a few things I'd forgotten about. The interviews were amazingly honest and revealed the truth about more than I can convey in this review...
I would encourage anyone considering a career in pornography to listen to this. I'd also encourage anyone working within the industry OR who's left to listen to this as well.
Again - thank you.
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111 people found this helpful
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- Kingsley
- 01-04-19
Butterfly Effect meets Publicly Shamed
This is a great real life mystery that went somewhere different to what I expect. Well worth the listen.
'The Last Days of August' is somewhat a joining of who of Jon Ronson's previous works, 'The Butterfly Effect' and 'So You Have Been Publicly Shamed'.
In 'The Butterfly Effect' Ronson investigated the porn industry, looking at the changes that have come about due to the internet, and particularly due to the change from paid sites to a large amount of free sites.In 'So You Have Been Publicly shamed' Ronson looked at people who have been shamed online or cyber-bullied, due to innocent mistakes, poor jokes, or sometimes for genuine, monumental stuff ups. It looked at how the internet pile on is returning to the public shaming of old, and how in most cases it is not beneficial, useful, or proportional for the size of the stuff up.
Here Ronson combines the two elements to look at the public shaming and pile on of a porn actress, leading her to take her own life. This leads to her husband, Kevin, calling people out online and starting a cycle of shaming and bullying. Ronson investigates to find out where all this shaming and call outs started, and where it leads. He tracks down 'missing' people and slowly ekes out lots of contradictory information from the industry.
Was it really the twitter pile-on that started this?
Audible provide a warning in the blurb, It's at the start of the audio too, but I'll say it again here: this audio contains some very frank discussions on suicide, bullying, sex, porn etc. It does not shy away from it. It shines a light on some of the best and worst parts of the porn industry (more so the worst). It uses strong language. If you have a problem with any of that, this is not for you.
Ronson interviews the victim's husband, as well as many others involved in the industry - including many of those who undertook that public shaming. One of the main people blamed, Jessica Drake, is very clearly distraught at the thought she has something to do with it, and is sorry for any involvement. But those interviews lead to others which leads him down a trail deeper into the depths of the porn industry to find issues much greater than the cyber bullying of one person.
This is an audio program - sound effect, music, interviews, audio excerpts etc. It is not a straight reading of the text, like to might find with most of Ronson's books. Ronson narrates his own books, and here he leads the audio production. He is the guide between all the interviews and excerpts, the investigator following the leads to where they go.
The audio is generally really good. Occasionally the music is mixed a little too high, considering Ronson is fairly softly spoken. Several of the interviews are not the highest quality audio recording, and there are some live parts from industry events with crowd noises or cheering in the background, but generally it is of a good quality. There are also some interviews with August Ames prior to her death, which Ronson uses but obviously didn't make himself and thus would have had zero control over. All this considered, the audio is good quality and is mixed well together to make it very listenable (even if at times it's not easy to listen to, due to content).
Fans of Ronson, or fans of true mysteries will enjoy.
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102 people found this helpful
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- Joshrocker
- 01-04-19
A strange listen that accomplished nothing
I felt dirty listening to this at times. There really doesn’t feel like there is much of an actual story here. We’re left with a troubled girl and a guy who may or may not be a bad boyfriend/husband. Dissecting Kevin’s life doesn’t seem fair after the fact when the one person who could really comment isn’t here to do so. Jon Ronson and team does his homework well and covers all of the bases you’d expect but at the end of the listen there’s really nothing to tell except a broken girl committed suicide. There isn’t an eye opening moment that’s going to cure suicide in the porn industry, there’s no real moment that even answers what August’s motivation really was (outside of an accumulation of emotional trauma). We’re left dissecting Kevin who may be guilty of being an emotionally distant husband. I’m left at the end of this production asking why and wondering what was actually accomplished with this story. The only answer I’m left with is nothing.
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80 people found this helpful
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- Texastential
- 01-06-19
Dirty Little Secrets of Porn
As a person who has only ever been mildly interested in porn (ahem), I never really considered the private lives of the performers. I just assumed it was easy money for people who lacked the talent to break into mainstream movies. Now that I know the prevalence of mental illness, sexual abuse, and drugs in that industry, I doubt I'll casually browse the sites again anytime soon.
Jon Ronson has what I found to be an annoying whispery voice. It would have been better if he'd let his producer, Lena narrate it. When she talks at the end, it's a lot better.
If you ever been curious about the inner workings of this particular industry, this is worth listening to.
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- Robert Alan Feingold
- 01-09-19
Jon Ronson is a talented reporter, but there's no story here
I'm a fan on Jon Ronson, and this story of porn and social media should fall right in his wheelhouse. Instead, there's really no story here and ends up focusing on one man. It comes off as unfair and inconclusive. Not worth the investment of your time.
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- Simona
- 01-08-19
Making a living off the mentally ill
The only valuable piece of information in this way too long podcast is this sentence, pronounced at the very end of the file: there is nothing bad about sex, but the adult industry is profoundly sick. We all make a living off the mentally ill.
Said by a porn producer.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-06-19
Captivating story but don’t expect a resolution.
I really liked this but I do feel that Jon’s feelings regarding certain people because of their personalities can sometimes cloud his judgment. You aren’t necessarily guilty of something because you see a reporter as adversarial and you aren’t one of the “good guys” because you cultivate a positive relationship with him. I think that Jon sometimes extends his empathy to the point of bias towards those he finds likable and reserves the guy punch hard questions for those he doesn’t. From a reader/listener perspective it’s sometimes frustrating to witness Jon not asking the questions you would have of somebody he has empathized with.
I think many people would react the way August’s husband did towards Jon and the people around her in the industry. I don’t think he’s a saint, but it isn’t unreasonable to try to create distance between somebody you care about and the toxic people and drug culture they may be surrounded by. Even the story of him being controlling because she gave her male “friend” the cold shoulder in public seems a moot point considering that same guy confessed to being secretly in love with her and wanted to be with her. It doesn’t seem unreasonable that a man wouldn’t like some male friend whom he rightly suspected of trying to get with his wife buzzing around her. It’s also not unreasonable to develop an antagonistic relationship with a reporter if you are hearing through the grapevine that he seems to crafting a hit-piece about you. In the end, it wasn’t a hit-piece but it was a bit too focused on one individual. How should a person react if they had reason to believe that’s what you were up to with your story?
August’s brother raised some questions too and I don’t think Jon focuses enough on just how dysfunctional that family seems to be just because he got along well with Jon. At one point we hear about her father, who sounds like a horrible person, and how that may have impacted her life and mental state. Even her brother doesn’t describe him very kindly. Yet, it seems as though the supportive brother still has a relationship with him when he talks about their phone conversations and he even expressed pride in having his father’s family name. Which is it? I know families are complicated but it just seems like despite his disagreements with his father he fell right into pointing the finger everywhere but at his family and seemed hellbent on placing blame anywhere but dear old dad. He had a list of the culpable and he just kept reaching for new ones. The pornstar on Twitter, the Russian porn actor, the producer, the husband. The actions of August’s father were far more egregious and at a far more formitive time in her life but her brother seems desperate to stick his head into the sand. It was frustrating that Jon didn’t press him on that contridiction in his role as a source of support and stability in her life. It’s sad to see genetic loyalty turn people into such defense attorneys for the awful humans that raised them that they can’t even fully commit to support a sibling who is seeing the situation clearly by holding their parents to some level of accountability.
All in all, don’t expect a resolution. It’s a real life story which means few people will accept responsibility for their roles and a whole bunch of finger pointing at others. There are no clear good guys or bad guys here, just people with their own baggage and not a lot of introspection. It was fascinating but ultimately only as a study of human behavior at it’s most defensive. Everything is muddy and grey and it’s an industry filled with broken people from broken families, and a story about both leaves you feeling like none of these people seem comfortable with a long look in the mirror when blaming others is an option.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-05-19
Jon Ronson at his best
A deep dive coda to “The Butterfly Effect,” Ronson moves from the macro of Porn after Internet to the micro with the story of a single woman’s tragic death and it’s relationship to the internet and the broader porn world. Ronson zero-ins on her marriage with his totally unique blend of empathy, obsession, doggedness and grace. He turns the true crime genre on its head and he and his producer, Linda Misitzis have crafted a new type of long form non-fiction journalism that transcends the episodic format of the podcast but pulls you along with well placed refreshes of information to help you reorient in the soundscape of the real life porn community in crisis. In a crowded space of audio journalism about tragedy heading towards cliche and insensitivity, Ronson and Misitzis have thread the needle in an exceptional and revealing way.
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- R. Connor
- 01-04-19
Rambles a bit, kind of tedious and overlong
Almost the entirety of this book implies that there will be some narrative or resolution, and there's really not. For being so meandering and constantly jumping from interview to interview, it didn't add much to the story. Large sections are unrelated to each other and could be left out. The only conclusion is basically "nobody really knows, but people in this industry tend to be pretty messed up."
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- MBJ
- 01-04-19
Fascinating!
What a rollercoaster ride! I feel like someone could have saved this girl. Time well spent
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