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Without Ever Reaching the Summit
- A Journey
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
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Without Ever Reaching the Summit
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Publisher's Summary
In this exquisitely written journal-turned-journey of self-discovery, international best-selling author Paolo Cognetti examines our universal desire for connection through a voyage in the Himalayas.
Why climb a mountain without ever reaching the summit?
In 2017, Paolo Cognetti returned to Nepal, not to conquer the mountains but to journey through the high valleys of the Dolpo with a copy of Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard in hand. Drawing on memories of his childhood in the Alps, Cognetti explored the roots of life in the mountains, truly getting to know the communities and the nature that forged this resilient, almost mythical region.
Accompanying him was Remigio, a childhood friend who had never left the mountains of Italy, and Nicola, a painter he had recently met. Joined by a stalwart team of local sherpas, the trio started out in the remote Dolpo region of Nepal. From there, a journey of self-discovery shaped by illness, human connection, and empathy was born.
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A must read
- By Lynn M Shirley on 07-30-19
By: Thomas K. Shor
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Wilderness, the Gateway to the Soul
- Spiritual Enlightenment Through Wilderness
- By: Scott Stillman
- Narrated by: Nicholas Sanders
- Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 92
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4 out of 5 stars 76
Could wilderness be our only hope? As our culture removes itself from the natural world, something very essential has been lost. But there is still one place we can go to get it back. Come along on a spiritual journey, away from a chaotic world of details, obligations, smartphones, and noisy machines to a place that is unspoiled, untamed, and free. Backpacking mostly solo, Stillman leads us to the heart of the American wilderness, where nature works her magic to heal and transform your life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Very disappointed in the reader.
- By Patricia on 12-21-20
By: Scott Stillman
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The Trail Provides
- A Boy's Memoir of Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail
- By: David Smart
- Narrated by: David Smart
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 257
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 239
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 238
Disillusioned by the corporate lifestyle, David finds himself unemployed and desperate for change. Bradley, his older, more adventurous, and slightly-wreckless college fraternity brother presents an enticing offer. Just a few weeks later, the two inexperienced hopefuls abandon society and plunge into a soul-searching sojourn to thru-hike the Pacific Crest trail, a 2,650-mile Mexico-to-Canada footpath - barefoot. At the trail’s mercy from day one, the two hikers face the endless pains of walking, rising tensions, and falling behind to the coming winter.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good Story
- By Zach mielens on 01-02-20
By: David Smart
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The Convert
- A Novel
- By: Stefan Hertmans
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 63
In 11th-century France, Vigdis Adelaïs, a young woman from a prosperous Christian family, falls in love with David Todros, a rabbi’s son and yeshiva student. To be together, the couple must flee their city, and Vigdis must renounce her life of privilege and comfort. Pursued by her father’s knights and in constant danger of betrayal, the lovers embark on a dangerous journey to the south of France, only to find their brief happiness destroyed by the vicious wave of anti-Semitism sweeping through Europe with the onset of the First Crusade.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Half Spectacular Half Pointless
- By Phyllis on 09-09-20
By: Stefan Hertmans
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The Tuscan Secret
- By: Angela Petch
- Narrated by: Ellie Heydon
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 307
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 272
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 269
Anna is distraught when her beloved mother, Ines, passes away. She inherits a box of papers, handwritten in Italian and yellowed with age, and a tantalizing promise that the truth about what happened during the war lies within. The diaries lead Anna to the small village of Rofelle, where she slowly starts to heal as she explores sun-kissed olive groves, and pieces together her mother’s past: happy days spent herding sheep across Tuscan meadows cruelly interrupted when World War Two erupted and the Nazis arrived....
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2 out of 5 stars
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Frustratingly naive main character (spoilers)
- By Whitney on 11-04-19
By: Angela Petch
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Desert Solitaire
- A Season in the Wilderness
- By: Edward Abbey
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,693
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,378
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,382
When Desert Solitaire was first published in 1968, it became the focus of a nationwide cult. Rude and sensitive. Thought-provoking and mystical. Angry and loving. Both Abbey and this book are all of these and more. Here, the legendary author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, Abbey's Road and many other critically acclaimed books vividly captures the essence of his life during three seasons as a park ranger in southeastern Utah.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Wrong narrator for Abbey
- By Todd Steele on 02-06-12
By: Edward Abbey
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Listening for Coyote
- A Walk Across Oregon's Wilderness
- By: William L. Sullivan
- Narrated by: William L. Sullivan
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Sullivan's classic account of his 65 day, 1,361-mile solo backpacking trek across Oregon has been chosen by the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission as one of Oregon's "100 Books", the most significant literary works in state history. Sullivan recounts adventures with blizzards, bears, and poisonous mushrooms, but he also spices his journal with notes on history, geology, and the people he meets along the way.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Man-up your delivery some, please!
- By Gary M on 01-30-18
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A Little More About Me
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Holly Fielding
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 43
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Story5 out of 5 stars 43
Renowned author Pam Houston treats us to a celebration of real-life adventures in this rich collection of essays. Ranging over five years and five continents, A Little More About Me introduces us to a woman - adventure-seeking, curious, and awestruck - whose experiences resonate with our own navigation through life’s many pleasures and challenges.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best, as usual.
- By Red Mare on 11-02-17
By: Pam Houston
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Exile and the Kingdom
- By: Albert Camus
- Narrated by: Jefferson Mays
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
From a variety of masterfully rendered perspectives, these six stories depict people at painful odds with the world around them. A wife can only surrender to a desert night by betraying her husband. An artist struggles to honor his own aspirations as well as society's expectations of him. A missionary brutally converted to the worship of a tribal fetish is left with but an echo of his identity. Whether set in North Africa, Paris, or Brazil, the stories in Exile and the Kingdom are probing portraits of spiritual exile, and man's perpetual search for an inner kingdom.
By: Albert Camus
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Himalaya
- By: Michael Palin
- Narrated by: Michael Palin
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
In his most challenging journey to date, Palin tackles the Himalayas, the greatest mountain range on earth. It is a virtually unbroken wall of rock stretching 1,800 miles from the borders of Afghanistan to south-west China. Penetrated but never conquered, it remains the world's most majestic natural barrier, a magnificent wilderness that shapes the history and politics of Asia to this day.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Summer Must-Have
- By James on 05-05-05
By: Michael Palin
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The Songlines
- By: Bruce Chatwin
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Part travelogue, part memoir, part novel, The Songlines is one of Bruce Chatwin's final - and most ambitious - works. From the author of the bestselling In Patagonia and On the Black Hill, a sweeping exploration of a landscape, a people, and one man's history, it is the sort of book that changes the listener forever.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Travel with Bruce
- By Peter Ryers on 10-07-21
By: Bruce Chatwin
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Full Tilt
- Ireland to India with a Bicycle
- By: Dervla Murphy
- Narrated by: Emma Lowe
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
Full Tilt is the inspiring true story of Dervla Murphy's 1963 journey from Ireland to India on an Armstrong Cadet bicycle, and the trials, landscapes, and cultures she encountered along the way. The route takes her through the valleys and snowy mountain passes of Europe and India to the scorching deserts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the metal of her bicycle, Rozinante (named after Don Quixote's steed), becomes too hot to touch.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Prejudice personified
- By Steve on 09-27-20
By: Dervla Murphy
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Raven's Witness
- The Alaska Life of Richard K. Nelson
- By: Hank Lentfer, Barry Lopez - foreword
- Narrated by: Basil Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story5 out of 5 stars 28
In Raven's Witness, Lentfer tells Nelson's story - from his midwestern childhood to his first experiences with Native culture in Alaska through his own lifelong passion for the land where he so belonged. Nelson was the author of the best-selling The Island Within and Heart and Blood. The recipient of multiple honorary degrees and numerous literary awards, he regularly packed auditoriums when he spoke. His depth of experience allowed him to become an intermediary between worlds. This is his story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Really enjoyed this book
- By AtticusNB on 06-24-21
By: Hank Lentfer, and others
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Miracle Country
- A Memoir
- By: Kendra Atleework
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero. Kendra's family raised their children to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it came at a price.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best memoir I've read
- By Patricia on 08-15-20
By: Kendra Atleework
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Death Comes to the Village
- Kurland St. Mary Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: Catherine Lloyd
- Narrated by: Susannah Tyrrell
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Major Robert Kurland has returned to the quiet vistas of Kurland St. Mary to recuperate from the horrors of Waterloo. However injured his body may be, his mind is as active as ever. Too active, perhaps. When he glimpses a shadowy figure from his bedroom window struggling with a heavy load, the tranquil façade of the village begins to loom sinister....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fantastic
- By Lori Dykes on 06-04-23
By: Catherine Lloyd
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The Easy Life in Kamusari
- Forest, Book 1
- By: Shion Miura, Juliet Winters Carpenter - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 129
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
Yuki Hirano is just out of high school when his parents enroll him, against his will, in a forestry training program in the remote mountain village of Kamusari. No phone, no internet, no shopping. Just a small, inviting community where the most common expression is “take it easy.” At first, Yuki is exhausted, fumbles with the tools, asks silly questions, and feels like an outcast. Kamusari is the last place a city boy from Yokohama wants to spend a year of his life. But as resistant as he might be, the scent of the cedars and the staggering beauty of the region have a pull.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I wanted it to be a true story
- By Scott on 05-19-22
By: Shion Miura, and others
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House Made of Dawn
- A Novel
- By: N. Scott Momaday
- Narrated by: N. Scott Momaday, Darrell Dennis
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 92
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
A young Native American, Abel has come home from war to find himself caught between two worlds. The first is the world of his father’s, wedding him to the rhythm of the seasons, the harsh beauty of the land, and the ancient rites and traditions of his people. But the other world - modern, industrial America - pulls at Abel, demanding his loyalty, trying to claim his soul, and goading him into a destructive, compulsive cycle of depravity and disgust.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Novel great, reader not so much.
- By Marcia on 05-17-20
By: N. Scott Momaday