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The Poisonwood Bible
- Narrated by: Dean Robertson
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
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The Poisonwood Bible
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Demon Copperhead
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 500
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Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity of putting down roots.
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oh, Turtle
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Unsheltered
- A Novel
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 118
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Brilliantly executed and compulsively listenable, Unsheltered is the story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum, as they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the throes of major cultural shifts. In this mesmerizing story told in alternating chapters, Willa and Thatcher come to realize that though the future is uncertain, even unnerving, shelter can be found in the bonds of kindred - whether family or friends - and in the strength of the human spirit.
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2 out of 5 stars
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disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 2019-07-27
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives in southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches them from an isolated mountain cabin where she is caught off-guard by Eddie Bondo, a young hunter who comes to invade her most private spaces and her solitary life.
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just can't listen anymore
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Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
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Stunning Book!
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Animal Dreams is a passionate and complex novel about love, forgiveness, and one woman's struggle to find her place in the world. At the end of her rope, Codi Noline returns to her Arizona home to face her ailing father, with whom she has a difficult, distant relationship. There she meets handsome Apache trainman Loyd Peregrina, who tells her, "If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life."
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5 out of 5 stars
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Remarkable depth and beauty
- By john ehrlich on 2023-05-30
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Demon Copperhead
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- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 542
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 500
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Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Clear-eyed and spirited, Taylor Greer grew up poor in rural Kentucky with the goals of avoiding pregnancy and getting away. But when she heads west with high hopes and a barely functional car, she meets the human condition head-on. By the time Taylor arrives in Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired a completely unexpected child, a three-year-old American Indian girl named Turtle, and must somehow come to terms with both motherhood and the necessity of putting down roots.
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5 out of 5 stars
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oh, Turtle
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 118
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Brilliantly executed and compulsively listenable, Unsheltered is the story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum, as they navigate the challenges of surviving a world in the throes of major cultural shifts. In this mesmerizing story told in alternating chapters, Willa and Thatcher come to realize that though the future is uncertain, even unnerving, shelter can be found in the bonds of kindred - whether family or friends - and in the strength of the human spirit.
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2 out of 5 stars
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disappointed
- By Anonymous User on 2019-07-27
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Prodigal Summer weaves together three stories of human love within a larger tapestry of lives in southern Appalachia. At the heart of these intertwined narratives is a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches them from an isolated mountain cabin where she is caught off-guard by Eddie Bondo, a young hunter who comes to invade her most private spaces and her solitary life.
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Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
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Animal Dreams is a passionate and complex novel about love, forgiveness, and one woman's struggle to find her place in the world. At the end of her rope, Codi Noline returns to her Arizona home to face her ailing father, with whom she has a difficult, distant relationship. There she meets handsome Apache trainman Loyd Peregrina, who tells her, "If you want sweet dreams, you've got to live a sweet life."
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Remarkable depth and beauty
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Set over the course of three summers, this novel follows Stephen, a first-generation Londoner born to Ghanaian immigrant parents, brother to Ray, and best friend to Adeline. On the cusp of big life changes, Stephen feels pressured to follow a certain path—a university degree, a move out of home—but when he decides instead to follow his first love, music, his world and family fracture in ways he didn’t foresee. Now Stephen must find a path and peace for himself: a space he can feel beautiful, a space he can feel free.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Beautiful prose
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Born in the United States, but reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers and, one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed muralist Diego Rivera. When he goes to work for Rivera, his wife, exotic artist Kahlo, and exiled leader Lev Trotsky, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution.
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Celie has grown up poor in rural Georgia, despised by the society around her and abused by her own family. She strives to protect her sister, Nettie, from a similar fate, and while Nettie escapes to a new life as a missionary in Africa, Celie is left behind without her best friend and confidante, married off to an older suitor, and sentenced to a life alone with a harsh and brutal husband. In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters directly to God.
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Beautiful Powerful, Wonderfully Narrated
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one of the best books I've ever listened to
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Of all of John Irving's books, this is the one that lends itself best to audio. In print, Owen Meany's dialogue is set in capital letters; for this production, Irving himself selected Joe Barrett to deliver Meany's difficult voice as intended. In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys – best friends – are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary and terrifying.
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Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Maneuvering in the stock market!
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The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert’s, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one. Maugham, one of the great novelists of his day, is beleaguered: Having long hidden his homosexuality, his unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings—and the freedom to travel with Gerald.
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Germany, 1939. A tumbledown farmhouse, on the outskirts of a close-knit village in the heart of the rolling hills of Bavaria. A once happy family home torn apart by Nazi rule. And one young girl who refuses to give up on what she believes in...London, 2018: When 94-year-old Imogen receives a letter addressed to her in neat, unfamiliar handwriting, she notices the postmark is stamped from Germany - and it sends shivers down her spine....
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Passionate, earthy, deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a valuable contribution to modern fiction: a vibrant new perspective of female life in the age that shaped present day civilization and values.
If you like The Red Tent, try The Harlot by the Side of the Road, a recounting of some of the most startling and explicit writings from The Old Testament.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent!!!
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Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed.
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Beautiful
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Publisher's Summary
“A powerful new epic... [Kingsolver] has with infinitely steady hands worked the prickly threads of religion, politics, race, sin and redemption into a thing of terrible beauty.” - Los Angeles Times Book Review
The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find that all of it - from garden seeds to Scripture - is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family’s tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa.
The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Taking its place alongside the classic works of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers.
What the critics say
"Haunting...A novel of character, a narrative shaped by keen-eyed women." (New York Times Book Review)
"Beautifully written....Kingsolver's tale of domestic tragedy is more than just a well-told yarn.. Played out against the bloody backdrop of political struggles in Congo that continue to this day, it is also particularly timely." (People)
"The book's sheer enjoyability is given depth by Kingsolver's insight and compassion for Congo, including its people, and their language and sayings." (Boston Globe)
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What listeners say about The Poisonwood Bible
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2023-03-29
An emotional rollercoaster
This story humbled me, I was raised religiously but have shed my faith in the biblical god. I wish I had read this when I was young and lost in guilt.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Valerie
- 2019-11-14
Wow!
Overwhelming at times. Slowed the reading to 95% to absorb every word. Incredible. Informative. Inspirational.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Patricia Smith
- 2023-12-29
Educational, entertaining and very emotional
Just finished this and immediately started listening to it again, it’s one of those books that has so much to say that one reading doesn’t do it justice. I knew the Congo had a horrible colonial history and is still in a terrible state but this book really filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge, and not in a preachy way. The story of the family is heart wrenching and the narrator really makes you feel the many varied emotions of each daughter and the mother. Even the dreadful father has a sympathetic back story. There are also very funny phrases that made me laugh out loud. Until now, Demon Copperhead was my favourite audiobook of 2023 but I think it has slipped to number 2 now. Well done madame, really well done!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ke Heintz
- 2023-06-05
Amazing Book
A boundlessly beautiful tale, both difficult to read and difficult to put down. My only criticism is with the narrator. She did a beautiful job, smooth and fluent narration, however having the same voice for all the Price girls/women across so many ages dulled the story for me a bit. Overall, highly recommended. Wonderful!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jason Campbell
- 2021-05-13
the bible of poison
Obviously, dear readers, I have become quite immersed in literature in the form of audiobooks. Some are simple fluff stories, others great pieces of literature that I have longed to enjoy. Each one from fluff to epic stories have helped me to grow, ever so slightly. This next book was recommended to me by my aunt.
My now passed on mother's youngest sister. In honor of the recently passed mother's day. This story meant a lot to me.
My mother was a very hard worker. As a registered nurse in OR and Emergency. Then on retirement she continued to dedicate herself to continuing her work as a Frontier nurse in northern Canada. She worked hard and sacrificed a lot. Including our relationship. Not at all entirely her fault. I was never an easy child, and definitely not the best son.
In the wake of her death I have come closer with one of her sisters, my aunt Cindy. Who out of many of my relatives I have always had the easiest time relating to. A kindred spirit as it were.
This may be a poor attempt to heal wounds. What it truly is, is an attempt to understand the individual my mother was as a person. Who was just trying to do her best. Making mistakes and triumphs in this world.
The Poisonwood Bible is set in the 1950 to 1990s. Focusing around a fictional family with a misogynistic white preacher who drags his wife and 4 caucasian daughters into the heart of Congo Africa. The story is told from the perspective of the woman who begrudgingly followed their righteous father. Bring the word of god in a misguided attempt to save the African people.
Although fiction, the book depicts very well the mindset of both man and woman at that time and how and why both men and women began changing their roles.
The book is well written. Showing the different personalities and perspectives of the 5 women. Giving me an interesting view because my mother has 3 sisters.
It also shows the lifestyle of the indigenous Africans in their own country invaded by American, Belgian and French ideologies. While the country is being taken advantage of.
It uses real life events and people and is very well researched. It tackles real topics like cultural differences, religious differences, and the expectation of both sexes of the 1950s. Also why this has changed and to this day both men and women are changing and redefining our expectations and roles.
Also points out the problem that can occur when traveling to a different part of the world, not understanding its nature.
After a tragedy each member of that family goes off in their own direction making life in their own way. With the scars of the Congo that forever changed them.
As ever I wish to give my thanks. First and foremost to my aunt Cindy. Thank you for the recommendations. Thank you for giving me a chance to get to know you and my mother a bit more. Like the characters in this book mom and I grew apart and neither of us really made the effort to heal the gap that we let grow too wide for too long. It may be too little too late. But I am trying and in you I have a doorway, a friend, and am part of a family
I wish to take a moment to include my 2 sisters Tracy, Taya and aunts Carline , Pam in acknowledgement as will. This has opened my mind a bit into me mentally of women. This book has shown me even sisters have their differences and can grow close or apart with the flow of time. Know despite the distance, wrong words, arguments, and the gap. I do love you. I do think of you. I do want you both to have fulfilling lives.
And of course from the author to narrator and everyone involved in the process of making this audiobook. My deepest thanks
Yours, an avid listener,
David Evil Midknight
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- theresa arenhardt
- 2023-03-09
fantastic
This was a fantastic book. so happy I listened to it. Eye opening on so many levels.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Alan Bryce
- 2024-02-02
Great Writer tells a great story
I am an author myself and I rate myself a 1 in comparison to Barbara Kingssolver at 90 plus. Many books tell a story and there well written, but she is an incredibly talented writer. Frankly, I don’t know how she does it. If you are looking for a beautiful, heartbreaking, intricate novel about a family from Georgia to the Congo in the 60’s this is for you. Along the way, you learn about the history of the Congo and the devastating effects of colonialism. I also highly recommend Demon Copperfield by the same author. I cant wait to listen to my next book by her.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M. Mildon
- 2020-07-28
Brilliant
I like everything about this book. I like the characters, the story, the structure, the remarkable way Kingsolver tells the story through 5 viewpoints that provide a wide understanding of the Congo in the 1960s and of the effects of religions on those who believe & those who don't. The performance works & I like to listen to the book every now and then. There's always something new.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lisa Rasmussen
- 2023-04-04
Love This Book
I have read this book countless times, and love it. After a 2 year stint in Nigeria during my middle school years which left its imprint on my heart, this book really resonates with me. It is a life life lived and shared, it is a tragedy that is endured and survived (by some).
I didn’t love the narrator at first, it took some getting used to. However she grew on me and I think she did a good job reflecting the different personalities of the characters.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sierra Skye
- 2023-10-26
Amazing book & Superb narration!
The story was phenomenal and the narrator was so good that I could tell which POV it was just by the tone of voice. This has got to be in the Top 5 books I’ve ever read. I know it’ll haunt me for the rest of my life.
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