-
Time's Magpie
- A Walk in Prague
- Narrated by: Myla Goldberg
- Length: 2 hrs and 15 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
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Time's Magpie
Buy for $8.98
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
From Here to Eternity
- Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,770
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,372
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,360
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls) and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Caitlin has done it again
- By Shaun on 10-03-17
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
The Sea of Ash
- By: Scott Thomas
- Narrated by: Leeman Kessler
- Length: 2 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
A Victorian Englishman summons a strange puppet-like being to an old Colonial Inn. A doctor returns from the Great War and discovers a mysterious naked woman at the edge of the Atlantic. A contemporary collector of arcane books retraces the steps of these other men - adventurers who sought out the mysteries of neighboring dimensions.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Simply the best book I've listened to in years.
- By Kelly Young on 08-12-16
By: Scott Thomas
-
For the Love of Europe
- My Favorite Places, People, and Stories
- By: Rick Steves
- Narrated by: Rick Steves
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 441
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 351
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 349
Join Rick as he's swept away by a fado singer in Lisbon, learns the dangers of falling in love with a gondolier in Venice, and savors a cheese course in the Loire Valley. Contemplate the mysteries of centuries-old stone circles in England, dangle from a cliff in the Swiss Alps, and hear a French farmer's defense of foie gras. With a brand-new, original introduction from Rick reflecting on his decades of travel, For the Love of Europe features 100 of the best stories published throughout his career.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Glad I got the audio version
- By Simon Altus on 01-14-21
By: Rick Steves
-
Half Empty
- Essays
- By: David Rakoff
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 831
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 640
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 635
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times best-selling author of Don’t Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed. In this deeply funny (and, no kidding, wise and poignant) audiobook, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny, gosh everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Good Friend I Never Met
- By Rodney on 08-14-12
By: David Rakoff
-
Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
-
Tibetan Peach Pie
- A True Account of an Imaginative Life
- By: Tom Robbins
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 808
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 706
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 701
Internationally best-selling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins delivers the long-awaited tale of his wild life and times, both at home and around the globe. The grandchild of Baptist preachers, Robbins would become over the course of half a century a poet-interruptus, an air force weatherman, a radio DJ, an art-critic-turned-psychedelic-journeyman, a world-famous novelist, and a counter-culture hero, leading a life as unlikely, magical, and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This isn't a book, it's a complete experience
- By David Shear on 05-31-14
By: Tom Robbins
-
From Here to Eternity
- Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,770
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,372
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,360
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls) and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Caitlin has done it again
- By Shaun on 10-03-17
By: Caitlin Doughty
-
The Sea of Ash
- By: Scott Thomas
- Narrated by: Leeman Kessler
- Length: 2 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
A Victorian Englishman summons a strange puppet-like being to an old Colonial Inn. A doctor returns from the Great War and discovers a mysterious naked woman at the edge of the Atlantic. A contemporary collector of arcane books retraces the steps of these other men - adventurers who sought out the mysteries of neighboring dimensions.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Simply the best book I've listened to in years.
- By Kelly Young on 08-12-16
By: Scott Thomas
-
For the Love of Europe
- My Favorite Places, People, and Stories
- By: Rick Steves
- Narrated by: Rick Steves
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 441
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 351
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 349
Join Rick as he's swept away by a fado singer in Lisbon, learns the dangers of falling in love with a gondolier in Venice, and savors a cheese course in the Loire Valley. Contemplate the mysteries of centuries-old stone circles in England, dangle from a cliff in the Swiss Alps, and hear a French farmer's defense of foie gras. With a brand-new, original introduction from Rick reflecting on his decades of travel, For the Love of Europe features 100 of the best stories published throughout his career.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Glad I got the audio version
- By Simon Altus on 01-14-21
By: Rick Steves
-
Half Empty
- Essays
- By: David Rakoff
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 831
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 640
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 635
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times best-selling author of Don’t Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed. In this deeply funny (and, no kidding, wise and poignant) audiobook, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny, gosh everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Good Friend I Never Met
- By Rodney on 08-14-12
By: David Rakoff
-
Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
-
Tibetan Peach Pie
- A True Account of an Imaginative Life
- By: Tom Robbins
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 808
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 706
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 701
Internationally best-selling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins delivers the long-awaited tale of his wild life and times, both at home and around the globe. The grandchild of Baptist preachers, Robbins would become over the course of half a century a poet-interruptus, an air force weatherman, a radio DJ, an art-critic-turned-psychedelic-journeyman, a world-famous novelist, and a counter-culture hero, leading a life as unlikely, magical, and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This isn't a book, it's a complete experience
- By David Shear on 05-31-14
By: Tom Robbins
-
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- A Memoir of Life in Death
- By: Jean-Dominique Bauby
- Narrated by: René Auberjonois
- Length: 2 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 535
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 435
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 434
In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French Elle, the father of two young childen, a 44-year-old man known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. By the end of the year he was also the victim of a rare kind of stroke to the brainstem. After 20 days in a coma, Bauby awoke into a body which had all but stopped working: only his left eye functioned, allowing him to see and, by blinking it, to make clear that his mind was unimpaired.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Short but well written
- By january on 03-21-13
-
Speak Memory
- An Autobiography Revisited
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 476
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 405
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 405
Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Speak, Mnemosyne!
- By Darwin8u on 08-09-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
Flights
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 471
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 404
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 399
Chopin's heart is carried back to Warsaw in secret by his adoring sister. A woman must return to her native Poland in order to poison her terminally ill high school sweetheart, and a young man slowly descends into madness when his wife and child mysteriously vanish during a vacation and just as suddenly reappear. Through these brilliantly imagined characters and stories, interwoven with haunting, playful, and revelatory meditations, Flights explores what it means to be a traveler, a wanderer, a body in motion not only through space but through time.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Curious and beautifully written
- By Alejandra on 10-24-18
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
-
The Afterlife and Other Stories
- Unabridged Selections: The Man Who Became a Soprano, The Afterlife, The Other Side of the Street, Farrell's Caddie, Grandparenting
- By: John Updike
- Narrated by: John Updike
- Length: 2 hrs and 44 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
A fantastic short story collection from critically acclaimed and bestselling author John Updike.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Be Aware, It's An Abridged Edition
- By IthacaNancy on 05-08-14
By: John Updike
-
The Paris Deadline
- By: Max Byrd
- Narrated by: Dennis Holland
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 40
Paris, 1926. Newspaper reporter Toby Keats, a veteran of the Great War and the only American in Paris who doesn't know Hemingway, has lived a quiet life - until one day he comes into possession of a rare eighteenth-century automate, a very strange and somewhat scandalous mechanical duck. Highly sought after by an enigmatic American banker, European criminals, and the charming young American Elsie Short, the duck is rumored to hold the key to opening a new frontier in weapons technology for the German army, now beginning to threaten Europe once more.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
a unique story with a unique characters!
- By Carole Rae on 01-18-21
By: Max Byrd
-
Don't Get Too Comfortable (Unabridged Selections)
- The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
- By: David Rakoff
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 828
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 417
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 419
David Rakoff's best-selling collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of today's funniest and most insightful writers. Now, in Don't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff moves from the personal to the public, journeying into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily skewered.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
PJ O'Rourke has nothing to worry about
- By dgc on 10-07-05
By: David Rakoff
-
In Manchuria
- A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China
- By: Michael Meyer
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 45
For three years Meyer rented a home in the rice-farming community of Wasteland, hometown of his wife's family, and their personal saga mirrors the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing in the form of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
If you liked the Wonder Years...?
- By Judas Mallory on 05-19-15
By: Michael Meyer
-
Notes from a Small Island
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 792
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 444
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 444
Bill Bryson is an unabashed Anglophile who, through a mistake of history, happened to be born and bred in Iowa. Righting that error, he spent 20 years in England before deciding to repatriate. This was partly to let his wife and children experience life in Bryson's homeland - and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another. It was thus clear to him that his people needed him. But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Crackin' yarn, lad!
- By Dave on 03-28-05
By: Bill Bryson
-
A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir
- By: Lev Golinkin
- Narrated by: Daniel Gamburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 150
Lev Golinkin's memoir is the vivid, darkly comic, and poignant story of a young boy in the confusing and often chilling final decade of the Soviet Union. It's also the story of Lev Golinkin, the American man who finally confronts his buried past by returning to Austria and Eastern Europe to track down the strangers who made his escape possible…. and thank them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Touching, moving Memoir
- By Daryl on 04-13-15
By: Lev Golinkin
-
Neither Here Nor There
- Travels in Europe
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 841
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 454
You'll stop at Europe's most diverting and historic locales and view the Old World through Bryson's tourist eye view in this affectionate, blisteringly insightful, and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
reader beware
- By Marina on 11-19-03
By: Bill Bryson
-
Lost on Planet China
- By: J. Maarten Troost
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 753
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 505
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 505
When the travel bug bit, J. Maarten Troost took on the world's most populous and intriguing nation. As Troost relates his gonzo adventure - dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai, eating yak in Tibet, deciphering restaurant menus (offering local favorites such as cattle penis with garlic), and visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead) - he reveals a vast, complex country on the brink of transformation that will soon shape the way we all work, live, and think.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I love Troost but...
- By Abigail on 02-25-09
-
Hasty for the Dark: Selected Horrors
- By: Adam Nevill
- Narrated by: Peter Bishop
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 75
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 64
Hasty for the Dark is the second short story collection from the award-winning and widely appreciated British writer of horror fiction, Adam L. G. Nevill. The author's best horror stories from 2009 to 2015 are collected here for the first time.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
When you want to like it but you just can't
- By Damian Etcitty on 12-09-17
By: Adam Nevill
Publisher's summary
Prague's personality is expressed as much by its obvious beauty as by its overlooked details. This unforgettable place is brought to life by acclaimed author Myla Goldberg, a former Prague expat, whose first novel, Bee Season, captivated so many with its unique voice and exhilarating prose.
Myla Goldberg lived in Prague in 1993, just as the process of Westernization was getting under way, the city straddling a past it wished to shed and a future it was eager to embrace. In 2003, she returned to see what the pursuit of capitalism had wrought and to observe the integral ways in which Prague's character had endured. In Time's Magpie, Goldberg explores a city where centuries-old buildings have become receptacles for Western values and a generation defined by the Communist regime coexists with a generation for whom communism is a rapidly fading memory.
This imaginative, individualistic journey will show you the odd and unique corners of a city often seeking to erase what its very stones will not allow it to forget.
Critic reviews
"A rich and vivid reflection on a beautiful, multifaceted city." (Publishers Weekly)
More from the same
Narrator
Related to this topic
-
Time Pieces
- A Dublin Memoir
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
As much about the life of the city as it is about a life lived, sometimes, in the city, John Banville's "quasi-memoir" is as layered, emotionally rich, witty, and unexpected as any of his novels. Born and bred in a small town a train ride away from Dublin, Banville saw the city as a place of enchantment when he was a child, a birthday treat, the place where his beloved, eccentric aunt lived.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
‘loved it!
- By SandyK on 02-24-24
By: John Banville
-
Broadway
- A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles
- By: Fran Leadon
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Broadway takes us on a mile-by-mile journey that traces the gradual evolution of the 17th century's Brede Wegh, a muddy cow path in a backwater Dutch settlement, to the 20th century's Great White Way. We learn why one side of the street was once considered more fashionable than the other; witness construction of the Ansonia Apartments, Trinity Church, and the Flatiron Building and the burning of P. T. Barnum's American Museum; and discover that Columbia University was built on the site of an insane asylum.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Give My Regards To Broadway!
- By Steven on 08-20-18
By: Fran Leadon
-
Downtown
- My Manhattan
- By: Pete Hamill
- Narrated by: Pete Hamill
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
In Downtown, Hamill leads us on an unforgettable journey through the city he loves, from the island's southern tip to 42nd Street, combining a moving memoir of his days and nights in New York with a passionate history of its most enduring places and people.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A frustrating read
- By David Ross on 09-09-05
By: Pete Hamill
-
Lost on Planet China
- By: J. Maarten Troost
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 753
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 505
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 505
When the travel bug bit, J. Maarten Troost took on the world's most populous and intriguing nation. As Troost relates his gonzo adventure - dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai, eating yak in Tibet, deciphering restaurant menus (offering local favorites such as cattle penis with garlic), and visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead) - he reveals a vast, complex country on the brink of transformation that will soon shape the way we all work, live, and think.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I love Troost but...
- By Abigail on 02-25-09
-
At Home in the World
- Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe
- By: Tsh Oxenreider
- Narrated by: Tsh Oxenreider
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 436
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 388
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 387
As Tsh Oxenreider, author of Notes from a Blue Bike, chronicles her family's adventure around the world. Seeing, smelling, and tasting the widely varying cultures along the way, she discovers what it truly means to be at home.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Having traveled the world as a kid myself.....
- By kmk on 07-31-17
By: Tsh Oxenreider
-
Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
-
Time Pieces
- A Dublin Memoir
- By: John Banville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
As much about the life of the city as it is about a life lived, sometimes, in the city, John Banville's "quasi-memoir" is as layered, emotionally rich, witty, and unexpected as any of his novels. Born and bred in a small town a train ride away from Dublin, Banville saw the city as a place of enchantment when he was a child, a birthday treat, the place where his beloved, eccentric aunt lived.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
‘loved it!
- By SandyK on 02-24-24
By: John Banville
-
Broadway
- A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles
- By: Fran Leadon
- Narrated by: Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Broadway takes us on a mile-by-mile journey that traces the gradual evolution of the 17th century's Brede Wegh, a muddy cow path in a backwater Dutch settlement, to the 20th century's Great White Way. We learn why one side of the street was once considered more fashionable than the other; witness construction of the Ansonia Apartments, Trinity Church, and the Flatiron Building and the burning of P. T. Barnum's American Museum; and discover that Columbia University was built on the site of an insane asylum.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Give My Regards To Broadway!
- By Steven on 08-20-18
By: Fran Leadon
-
Downtown
- My Manhattan
- By: Pete Hamill
- Narrated by: Pete Hamill
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
In Downtown, Hamill leads us on an unforgettable journey through the city he loves, from the island's southern tip to 42nd Street, combining a moving memoir of his days and nights in New York with a passionate history of its most enduring places and people.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A frustrating read
- By David Ross on 09-09-05
By: Pete Hamill
-
Lost on Planet China
- By: J. Maarten Troost
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 753
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 505
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 505
When the travel bug bit, J. Maarten Troost took on the world's most populous and intriguing nation. As Troost relates his gonzo adventure - dodging deadly drivers in Shanghai, eating yak in Tibet, deciphering restaurant menus (offering local favorites such as cattle penis with garlic), and visiting with Chairman Mao (still dead) - he reveals a vast, complex country on the brink of transformation that will soon shape the way we all work, live, and think.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I love Troost but...
- By Abigail on 02-25-09
-
At Home in the World
- Reflections on Belonging While Wandering the Globe
- By: Tsh Oxenreider
- Narrated by: Tsh Oxenreider
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 436
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 388
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 387
As Tsh Oxenreider, author of Notes from a Blue Bike, chronicles her family's adventure around the world. Seeing, smelling, and tasting the widely varying cultures along the way, she discovers what it truly means to be at home.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Having traveled the world as a kid myself.....
- By kmk on 07-31-17
By: Tsh Oxenreider
-
Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 58
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
-
Vanishing New York
- How a Great City Lost Its Soul
- By: Jeremiah Moss
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 15 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
New York City has long been a destination for rebels and rule breakers, artists, writers, and other hopefuls longing to be part of its rich cultural exchange and unique social fabric. But today, modern gentrification is transforming the city from an exceptional, iconoclastic metropolis into a suburbanized luxury zone. Blogger and cultural commentator Jeremiah Moss leads us on a colorful guided tour of the most changed parts of town lovingly eulogizing iconic institutions as they're replaced with soulless upscale boutiques, luxury condo towers, and suburban chains.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A compelling story, but the narration???
- By S. McGee on 11-30-17
By: Jeremiah Moss
-
Finding George Orwell in Burma
- By: Emma Larkin
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 49
Over the years the American writer Emma Larkin has spent traveling in Burma, she has come to know all too well the many ways this police state can be described as "Orwellian". The life of the mind exists in a state of siege in Burma, and it long has. The connection between George Orwell and Burma is not simply metaphorical, of course; Orwell's mother was born in Burma, and he was shaped by his experiences there as a young man working for the British Imperial Police.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Orwell's Horrors Brought to Life
- By Roger on 09-21-10
By: Emma Larkin
-
Black Dog of Fate
- A Memoir
- By: Peter Balakian
- Narrated by: Peter Balakian
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 63
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
The first-born son of his generation, Peter Balakian grew up in a close, extended family, sheltered by 1950s and '60s New Jersey suburbia. He was immersed in an all-American boyhood defined by rock 'n' roll, adolescent pranks, and a passion for the New York Yankees that he shared with his beloved grandmother. But beneath this sunny world lay the dark specter of the trauma his family and ancestors had experienced: the Turkish government's extermination of more than a million Armenians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book!
- By Lm on 06-27-13
By: Peter Balakian
-
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
- By: Dinaw Mengestu
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 140
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 140
Ethiopian émigré Dinaw Mengestu is a skilled observer of people who offers a colorful debut work of fiction. Insightful and swiftly paced, this novel evokes past and present in the course of its compelling narrative. It's the `70s, and one D.C. neighborhood is undergoing big changes. In the mix is Ethiopian grocery owner Sepha Stephanos - a man with a complex past who fled his homeland after seeing his father brutalized by themilitary. He hopes for new prospects in D.C.'s gentrification process.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, wonderful reader
- By Lisbeth on 11-22-11
By: Dinaw Mengestu
-
In Manchuria
- A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China
- By: Michael Meyer
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 56
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 45
For three years Meyer rented a home in the rice-farming community of Wasteland, hometown of his wife's family, and their personal saga mirrors the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing in the form of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
If you liked the Wonder Years...?
- By Judas Mallory on 05-19-15
By: Michael Meyer
-
A Backpack, a Bear, and Eight Crates of Vodka: A Memoir
- By: Lev Golinkin
- Narrated by: Daniel Gamburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 167
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 150
Lev Golinkin's memoir is the vivid, darkly comic, and poignant story of a young boy in the confusing and often chilling final decade of the Soviet Union. It's also the story of Lev Golinkin, the American man who finally confronts his buried past by returning to Austria and Eastern Europe to track down the strangers who made his escape possible…. and thank them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Touching, moving Memoir
- By Daryl on 04-13-15
By: Lev Golinkin
-
House of Stone
- A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
- By: Anthony Shadid
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 89
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 77
When Anthony Shadid—one of four New York Times reporters captured in Libya as the region erupted—was freed, he went home, not to Boston, Beirut, or Oklahoma, where he was raised by his Lebanese American family, but to an ancient estate built by his great-grandfather, a place filled with memories of a lost era when the Middle East was a world of grace, grandeur, and unexpected departures.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Bit depressing
- By Astrid Dahl on 03-17-12
By: Anthony Shadid
-
Train
- Riding the Rails That Created the Modern World - from the Trans-Siberian to the Southwest Chief
- By: Tom Zoellner
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 103
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion. In his new audiobook he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again. From the frigid Trans-Siberian Railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic maglev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man's relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The world history of trains up to the present
- By matthew on 03-06-14
By: Tom Zoellner
-
Last Ember
- By: Daniel Levin
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 54
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
When Jonathan's firm sends him to Rome to discredit the testimony of a prominent U.N. antiquities official, a chance reunion leads to a hunt for the legendary Tabernacle Menorah: solid gold, eight feet high, stolen 2,000 years ago and never recovered. As Jonathan and his friend scour Rome's ancient sites for hints to its whereabouts, they quickly realize they are not alone and the precious menorah is a key to controlling history itself.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Much better than the recent Dan Brown novel
- By Lori on 11-08-09
By: Daniel Levin
-
The Art of Travel
- By: Alain de Botton
- Narrated by: Nicholas Bell
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 177
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 155
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 155
Aside from love, few actvities seem to promise us as much happiness as going traveling: taking off for somewhere else, somewhere far from home, a place with more interesting weather, customs, and landscapes. But although we are inundated with advice on where to travel, few people seem to talk about why we should go and how we can become more fulfilled by doing so.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Dull, suggestions for better alternatives
- By J. Natael on 08-07-13
By: Alain de Botton
-
Almost French
- By: Sarah Turnbull
- Narrated by: Caroline Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 184
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 157
After backpacking her way around Europe journalist Sarah Turnbull is ready to embark on one last adventure before heading home to Sydney. A chance meeting with a charming Frenchman in Bucharest changes her travel plans forever. Acting on impulse, she agrees to visit Fredric in Paris for a week. Put a very French Frenchman together with a strong-willed Australian girl and the result is some spectacular - and often hilarious - cultural clashes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Almost Terrific
- By Elizabeth on 02-05-13
By: Sarah Turnbull
-
The Sword of the Templars
- By: Paul Christopher
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 113
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 84
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 82
After a lifetime on the front lines, Army Ranger John Holliday has resigned himself to ending his career teaching at West Point. But when his uncle passes away, Holliday discovers a mysterious medieval sword---wrapped in Adolf Hitler's personal battle standard. Then someone burns down his uncle's house in an attempt to retrieve the sword, and Holliday realizes that he's being drawn into a war that has been fought for centuries.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
...And they say waterboarding is torture!!!
- By Daniel on 01-25-11
By: Paul Christopher