29 Best books to read on America
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrator: Mark Twain
- Length: 11 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: March 14, 2000
- Language: English
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3.83(1161894 ratings)
3.83(1161894 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAn unforgettable story of a boy’s adventures in the Mississippi Valley, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will captivate listeners of all ages with its vivid recreation of the history, the people, and the language of the nineteenth-centuryAn unforgettable story of a boy’s adventures in the Mississippi Valley, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn will captivate listeners of all ages with its vivid recreation of the history, the people, and the language of the nineteenth-century American South.
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Audacity
- By: Jonathan Chait
- Narrator: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 8 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: January 17, 2017
- Language: English
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3.88(418 ratings)
3.88(418 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDAn unassailable case that, in the eyes of history, Barack Obama will be viewed as one of America’s best and most accomplished presidents. Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama has amassed an array of outstanding achievements. HisAn unassailable case that, in the eyes of history, Barack Obama will be viewed as one of America’s best and most accomplished presidents.
Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama has amassed an array of outstanding achievements. His administration saved the American economy from collapse, expanded health insurance to millions who previously could not afford it, negotiated an historic nuclear deal with Iran, helped craft a groundbreaking international climate accord, reined in Wall Street and crafted a new vision of racial progress. He has done all of this despite a left that frequently disdained him as a sellout, and a hysterical right that did everything possible to destroy his agenda even when they agreed with what he was doing.
Now, as the page turns to our next Commander in Chief, Jonathan Chait, acclaimed as one of the most incisive and meticulous political commentators in America, digs deep into Obama’s record on major policy fronts–economics, the environment, domestic reform, health care, race, foreign policy, and civil rights–to demonstrate why history will judge our forty-fourth president as among the greatest in history.
Audacity does not shy away from Obama’s failures, most notably in foreign policy. Yet Chait convincingly shows that President Obama has accomplished what candidate Obama said he would, despite overwhelming opposition–and that the hopes of those who voted for him have not been dashed despite the smokescreen of extremist propaganda and the limits of short-term perspective.
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Hostile Takeover
- By: Matt Kibbe
- Narrator: George Newbern
- Length: 12 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 19, 2012
- Language: English
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4.09(56 ratings)
4.09(56 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USD“My friend Matt Kibbe uniquely understands what the Tea Party movement is really all about, where it’s going, and why it’s happening now.”–Glenn Beck Matt Kibbe, the high-profile leader of FreedomWorks–which the“My friend Matt Kibbe uniquely understands what the Tea Party movement is really all about, where it’s going, and why it’s happening now.”
–Glenn BeckMatt Kibbe, the high-profile leader of FreedomWorks–which the New York Times calls, “the most influential Tea Party-aligned group in Washington”–now offers an intelligent, aggressively argued attack on the American federal government machine in Washington, D.C. In Hostile Takeover, Kibbe, co-author (with Dick Armey) of Give Us Liberty: A Tea Party Manifesto, provides a blueprint for “resisting centralized government’s stranglehold on America,” in order to return the nation to the more workable system our Founding Fathers originally intended.
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Dear Fahrenheit 451
- By: Annie Spence
- Narrator: Stephanie Spicer
- Length: 5 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: October 10, 2017
- Language: English
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3.78(7927 ratings)
3.78(7927 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDLibrarians spend their lives weeding-not weeds, but books-books that have reached the end of their shelf life both literally and figuratively. They remove books that patrons no longer check out, and they put back books they treasure. Annie Spence,Librarians spend their lives weeding-not weeds, but books-books that have reached the end of their shelf life both literally and figuratively. They remove books that patrons no longer check out, and they put back books they treasure. Annie Spence, who has a decade of experience as a Midwestern librarian, does this not only at her Michigan library but also at home, for her neighbors, at cocktail parties-everywhere. In Dear Fahrenheit 451, she addresses those books directly. We read her love letters to The Goldfinch and Matilda as well as her snarky break-ups with Fifty Shades of Grey and Dear John. Her notes to The Virgin Suicides and The Time Traveler’s Wife feel like classics that are sure to strike a powerful chord. Through the lens of the books in her life, Annie comments on feminism, culture, health, poverty, childhood aspirations, and more. Hilarious, compassionate, and wise, Dear Fahrenheit 451 is the consummate book-lover’s birthday present, stocking stuffer, holiday gift, and all-purpose humor book.
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Pinheads and Patriots
- By: Bill O’Reilly
- Narrator: Bill O'Reilly
- Length: 5 hours 37 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: September 14, 2010
- Language: English
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3.74(2687 ratings)
3.74(2687 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDTelevision host, razor sharp political pundit, and #1 bestselling author Bill O’Reilly focuses in on where we all stand in the Age of Obama in Pinheads and Patriots. In this brave, hard-hitting, provocative volume, the author of CultureTelevision host, razor sharp political pundit, and #1 bestselling author Bill O’Reilly focuses in on where we all stand in the Age of Obama in Pinheads and Patriots. In this brave, hard-hitting, provocative volume, the author of Culture Warrior and A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity guides Americans through the extensive transformations sweeping their country and explains exactly what these profound changes mean for every one of us.
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Settle for More
- By: Megyn Kelly
- Narrator: Megyn Kelly
- Length: 10 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: November 15, 2016
- Language: English
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3.84(5540 ratings)
3.84(5540 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDAnchor of the number one news show on cable, The Kelly File, Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly writes her much anticipated book, a revealing and surprising memoir detailing her rise as one of the most respected journalists working today. From theAnchor of the number one news show on cable, The Kelly File, Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly writes her much anticipated book, a revealing and surprising memoir detailing her rise as one of the most respected journalists working today. From the values and lessons that have shaped her career, to her time at the center of the chaotic 2016 Republican presidential primary, this book offers an inside look at an uncompromising woman’s journey to the top of the news business.
In the two and half years since her show The Kelly File premiered on the Fox News Channel, Megyn Kelly has cemented her reputation as one of the most respected and hardest hitting journalists in America. Tackling issues from both sides of the aisle, live in prime time five nights a week, Kelly has embraced difficult questions
Now in her debut book, Kelly goes behind the scenes of the stories and the storms that have made her one of the most talked about public figures in America. From growing up in a tough love family where she had to earn her praise, to her father’s sudden, tragic death while she was still in high school, to the news stories that launched her journalism career, Kelly traces the values and experiences
With the same bold and brave voice that has won her fans across the political divide, she opens up about the controversy that made her a household name, telling her side of Donald Trump’s feud with her, while sharing never-before-heard details about the infamous first Republican debate, its challenging aftermath, and how she persevered through it all, winning widespread admiration while maintaining her professionalism. Speaking candidly about the career-changing decision that led her to “settle for more”
Throughout her meteoric career, Megyn Kelly has been a source of fascination and speculation. Men and women, Republicans and Democrats, viewers of Fox News and the network’s most diehard detractors have all sought to understand what she stands for and what matters to her. With this deeply personal account of her life, she answers critics and fans alike. At once humorous, uplifting, and revealing, Settle for More offers unparalleled insight into one of the most charismatic and intriguing television personalities in a generation, and will be one of the most talked about books from an influential voice unlike any other.
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Moby-Dick
- By: Herman Melville
- Narrator: Anthony Heald
- Length: 23 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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3.53(466138 ratings)
3.53(466138 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0034.95 USDOne of the great works of American literature, Moby-Dick is the epic tale of one man’s fight against a force of nature. The outcast youth Ishmael, succumbing to wanderlust during a dreary New England autumn, signs up for passage aboard aOne of the great works of American literature, Moby-Dick is the epic tale of one man’s fight against a force of nature. The outcast youth Ishmael, succumbing to wanderlust during a dreary New England autumn, signs up for passage aboard a whaling ship. The Pequod sails under the command of the one-legged Captain Ahab, who has set himself on a monomaniacal quest to capture the cunning white whale that robbed him of his leg: Moby-Dick. Capturing life on the sea with robust realism, Melville details the adventures of the colorful crew aboard the ship as Ahab pursues his crusade of revenge, heedless of all cost. This masterfully symbolic drama of the conflict between man and his fate has a special intensity that listeners will not soon forget.
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Thanks, Obama
- By: David Litt
- Narrator: David Litt
- Length: 9 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: September 19, 2017
- Language: English
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4.09(5588 ratings)
4.09(5588 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Remember when presidents spoke in complete sentences instead of in unhinged tweets? David Litt does. In his comic, coming-of-age memoir, he takes us back to the Obama years – and charts a path forward in the age ofNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Remember when presidents spoke in complete sentences instead of in unhinged tweets? David Litt does. In his comic, coming-of-age memoir, he takes us back to the Obama years – and charts a path forward in the age of Trump.
More than any other presidency, Barack Obama’s eight years in the White House were defined by young people – twenty-somethings who didn’t have much experience in politics (or anything else, for that matter), yet suddenly found themselves in the most high-stakes office building on earth. David Litt was one of those twenty-somethings. After graduating from college in 2008, he went straight to the Obama campaign. In 2011, he became one of the youngest White House speechwriters in history. Until leaving the White House in 2016, he wrote on topics from healthcare to climate change to criminal justice reform. As President Obama’s go-to comedy writer, he also took the lead on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the so-called “State of the Union of jokes.”
Now, in this refreshingly honest memoir, Litt brings us inside Obamaworld. With a humorists’ eye for detail, he describes what it’s like to accidentally trigger an international incident or nearly set a president’s hair aflame. He answers questions you never knew you had: Which White House men’s room is the classiest? What do you do when the commander in chief gets your name wrong? Where should you never, under any circumstances, change clothes on Air Force One? With nearly a decade of stories to tell, Litt makes clear that politics is completely, hopelessly absurd.
But it’s also important. For all the moments of chaos, frustration, and yes, disillusionment, Litt remains a believer in the words that first drew him to the Obama campaign: “People who love this country can change it.” In telling his own story, Litt sheds fresh light on his former boss’s legacy. And he argues that, despite the current political climate, the politics championed by Barack Obama will outlive the presidency of Donald Trump.
Full of hilarious stories and told in a truly original voice, Thanks, Obama is an exciting debut about what it means – personally, professionally, and politically – to grow up.
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The American Future
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrator: Rupert Degas
- Length: 15 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: May 19, 2009
- Language: English
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3.69(550 ratings)
3.69(550 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USD“With eloquence, wit, passion, and irony, The American Future traces the history of an idea: that of our national destiny….A book of beautiful writing, peppered with wisecracks, slashed with rapier thrusts.” —Philadelphia“With eloquence, wit, passion, and irony, The American Future traces the history of an idea: that of our national destiny….A book of beautiful writing, peppered with wisecracks, slashed with rapier thrusts.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
A De Tocqueville for the 21st century, Simon Schama, NBCC Award winning author of Rough Crossings offers an essential, historical, long view analysis of the American character in The American Future. Shama examines four themes–war, race and faith, immigration, and custodianship of the land–through the prism of the historic 2008 presidential election in a magnificent work that the Wall Street Journal calls a “celebration of American resiliency.” Niall Ferguson says, “I hope Obama will have this book on his bedside table.”
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The Best Worst President
- By: Mark Hannah
- Narrator: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 7 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 28, 2016
- Language: English
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3.86(85 ratings)
3.86(85 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDPolitical analyst and Democratic campaign veteran Mark Hannah and renowned New Yorker illustrator Bob Staake give Barack Obama the victory lap he deserves in this compendium that takes the president’s critics head-on and celebrates thePolitical analyst and Democratic campaign veteran Mark Hannah and renowned New Yorker illustrator Bob Staake give Barack Obama the victory lap he deserves in this compendium that takes the president’s critics head-on and celebrates the president’s many underappreciated triumphs.
Barack Obama’s election in 2008 was a watershed moment in American history that inspired supporters on the Left–and fired up enemies on the Right. Elected in the midst of multiple crises–a Wall Street meltdown that imperiled the global economy and American troops entangled in two foreign wars–Barack Obama’s presidency promised, from the start, to be one of the most consequential presidencies in modern American history.
Although he stabilized the economy and restored America’s prestige on the global stage, President Obama has been denied the credit he deserves, receiving instead acidic commentary from political opponents such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, who declared that Obama was “the worst president in [his] lifetime”–an accusation that reflects the politics of resentment and recrimination that has come to characterize the president’s critics.
In The “Best Worst” President, Mark Hannah and New Yorker illustrator Bob Staake swiftly and systematically debunk conservative lies and disinformation meant to negate the president’s accomplishments and damage his reputation–baseless charges too often left unchallenged by the national media. The “Best Worst” President is a whip-smart takedown of these half-truths and hypocrisies, each refuted in a smart, witty, fact-based style. Hannah and Staake not only defend the president but showcase his administration’s most surprising and underappreciated triumphs–making clear he truly is the best “worst president” our nation has ever known.
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CATCH-22
- By: Joseph Heller
- Narrator: Jay O. Sanders
- Length: 19 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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3.99(761621 ratings)
3.99(761621 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDThis fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more. Nominated asThis fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more.
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Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hugh Laurie.
Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest–and most celebrated–books of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.
Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy–it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.
This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature. -
The Reagan Diaries Extended Selections
- By: Ronald Reagan
- Narrator: Eric Conger
- Length: 13 hours 16 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 05, 2007
- Language: English
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4.03(45 ratings)
4.03(45 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDDuring his two terms as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences ofDuring his two terms as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences of his presidency. Now, nearly two decades after he left office, this remarkable record–the only daily Presidential diary in American history–is available for the first time.
Edited by historian Douglas Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries provides a striking insight into one of this nation’s most important presidencies and sheds new light on the character of a true American leader. Whether he was in his White House residence study or aboard Air Force One, each night Reagan wrote about the events of his day, which often included his relationships with other world leaders and the unforgettable moments that defined the era.
Seldom before has the American public been given access to the unfiltered experiences and opinions of a President in his own words. To read these diaries–filled with Reagan’s trademark wit, sharp intelligence, and humor–is to gain a unique understanding of one of the most beloved occupants of the Oval Office in our nation’s history.
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Gone With the Wind
- By: Margaret Mitchell
- Narrator: Margaret Mitchell
- Length: 49 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: September 25, 2009
- Language: English
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4.3(1126533 ratings)
4.3(1126533 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0039.99 USDWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell’s great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, itWinner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, Margaret Mitchell’s great novel of the South is one of the most popular books ever written. Within six months of its publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind had sold a million copies. To date, it has been translated into 25 languages, and more than 28 million copies have been sold. Here are the characters that have become symbols of passion and desire: darkly handsome Rhett Butler and flirtatious Scarlett O’Hara. Behind them stand their gentler counterparts: Ashley Wilkes and Melanie Hamilton. As the lives and affairs of these absorbing characters play out against the tumult of the Civil War, Gone With the Wind reaches dramatic heights that have swept generations of fans off their feet. Having lived in Atlanta for many years, narrator Linda Stephens has an authentic ear for the dialects of that region. Get ready to hear Gone With the Wind exactly as it was written: every word beautifully captured in a spectacular unabridged audio production.
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The Scarlet Letter
- By: Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Narrator: Michael Learned
- Length: 2 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 1986
- Language: English
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3.43(741878 ratings)
3.43(741878 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0015.95 USDWritten in the winter of 1849, The Scarlet Letter unfolds the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman branded as an adulteress in the harsh Puritan world of seventeenth-century New England. As Hester calls on her inner strength to transcend her shame,Written in the winter of 1849, The Scarlet Letter unfolds the story of Hester Prynne, a young woman branded as an adulteress in the harsh Puritan world of seventeenth-century New England. As Hester calls on her inner strength to transcend her shame, the scarlet letter ceases to be a stigma and finally becomes Hester’s symbol of self-affirmation. This dramatic reading heightens the sense of lyric poetry that permeates every line of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s great novel.
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The Reagan Diaries Selections
- By: Ronald Reagan
- Narrator: Eric Conger
- Length: 2 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 05, 2007
- Language: English
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4.03(45 ratings)
4.03(45 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.99 USDDuring his two terms as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences ofDuring his two terms as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he recorded, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences of his presidency. Now, nearly two decades after he left office, this remarkable record–the only daily Presidential diary in American history–is available for the first time.
Edited by historian Douglas Brinkley, The Reagan Diaries provides a striking insight into one of this nation’s most important presidencies and sheds new light on the character of a true American leader. Whether he was in his White House residence study or aboard Air Force One, each night Reagan wrote about the events of his day, which often included his relationships with other world leaders and the unforgettable moments that defined the era.
Seldom before has the American public been given access to the unfiltered experiences and opinions of a President in his own words. To read these diaries–filled with Reagan’s trademark wit, sharp intelligence, and humor–is to gain a unique understanding of one of the most beloved occupants of the Oval Office in our nation’s history.
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A Farewell to Arms
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrator: John Slattery
- Length: 8 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.81(260212 ratings)
3.81(260212 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.95 USDErnest Hemingway’s classic novel of love during wartime. Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an AmericanErnest Hemingway’s classic novel of love during wartime.
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Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance driver on the Italian front and his passion for a beautiful English nurse. Set against the looming horrors of the battlefield, this gripping, semiautobiographical work captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.
Hemingway famously rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times to get the words right. A classic novel of love during wartime, “A Farewell to Arms stands, more than eighty years after its first appearance, as a towering ornament of American literature” (The Washington Times). -
Breathless
- By: Beverly Jenkins
- Narrator: Kim Staunton
- Length: 8 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: January 31, 2017
- Language: English
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4.15(694 ratings)
4.15(694 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDA strong-willed beauty finds herself in the arms of the handsome drifter from her past, in this second book in the sizzling series set in the Old West, from USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins. As manager of one of the finest hotels inA strong-willed beauty finds herself in the arms of the handsome drifter from her past, in this second book in the sizzling series set in the Old West, from USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins.
As manager of one of the finest hotels in Arizona Territory, Portia Carmichael has respect and stability–qualities sorely missing from her harsh childhood. She refuses to jeopardize that by hitching herself to the wrong man. Suitors are plentiful, but none of them has ever looked quite as tempting as the family friend who just rode into town…and none has looked at her with such intensity and heat.
Duchess. That’s the nickname Kent Randolph gave Portia when she was a young girl. Now she’s a stunning, intelligent woman–and Kent has learned his share of hard lessons. After drifting through the West, he’s learned the value of a place to settle down, and in Portia’s arms he’s found that and more. But convincing her to trust him with her heart, not just her passion, will be the greatest challenge he’s known–and one he intends to win…
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- By: Mark Twain
- Narrator: Patrick Fraley
- Length: 7 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 1999
- Language: English
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3.92(818408 ratings)
3.92(818408 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.95 USDThe sun shines on Tom Sawyer. The idealized childhood of this fictional hero, based on Mark Twain’s own early life along the banks of the Mississippi, is filled with robust good humor and high-spirited adventures. Yet there is also an in-depthThe sun shines on Tom Sawyer. The idealized childhood of this fictional hero, based on Mark Twain’s own early life along the banks of the Mississippi, is filled with robust good humor and high-spirited adventures. Yet there is also an in-depth experience of the central South of the 1840s–its dialects, superstitions, and social values. While romping through fun-filled fantasy, Tom Sawyer shows how morally complicated real life can be.
This reading of Tom Sawyer is especially notable for the virtuoso performance of actor Patrick Fraley. Crafting thirty-six authentic “voices” to represent the wide range of Twain’s delightful characters, Fraley proves his storytelling mastery. Hear why this is one of the world’s best-known and best-loved books, appealing to all ages.
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Calling My Name
- By: Liara Tamani
- Narrator: Imani Parks
- Length: 6 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books
- Publish date: October 24, 2017
- Language: English
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3.49(1274 ratings)
3.49(1274 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USDCalling My Name, by debut author Liara Tamani, is a striking, luminous, and literary exploration of family, spirituality, and self–ideal for readers of Jacqueline Woodson, Jandy Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Sandra Cisneros. This unforgettableCalling My Name, by debut author Liara Tamani, is a striking, luminous, and literary exploration of family, spirituality, and self–ideal for readers of Jacqueline Woodson, Jandy Nelson, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Sandra Cisneros.
This unforgettable novel tells a universal coming-of-age story about Taja Brown, a young African American girl growing up in Houston, Texas, and it deftly and beautifully explores the universal struggles of growing up, battling family expectations, discovering a sense of self, and finding a unique voice and purpose.
Told in fifty-three short, episodic, moving, and iridescent chapters, Calling My Name follows Taja on her journey from middle school to high school. Literary and noteworthy, this is a beauty of a novel that deftly captures the multifaceted struggle of finding where you belong and why you matter.
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrator: Campbell Scott
- Length: 16 hours 24 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.98(249982 ratings)
3.98(249982 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDErnest Hemingway’s masterpiece on war, love, loyalty, and honor tells the story of Robert Jordan, an antifascist American fighting in the Spanish Civil War.In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the NorthErnest Hemingway’s masterpiece on war, love, loyalty, and honor tells the story of Robert Jordan, an antifascist American fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
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In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from “the good fight” and one of the foremost classics of war literature.
For Whom the Bell Tolls tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades, is attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain. In his portrayal of Jordan’s love for the beautiful Maria and his superb account of a guerilla leader’s last stand, Hemingway creates a work at once rare and beautiful, strong and brutal, compassionate, moving, and wise. Greater in power, broader in scope, and more intensely emotional than any of the author’s previous works, For Whom the Bell Tolls stands as one of the best war novels ever written. -
The Sun Also Rises
- By: Ernest Hemingway
- Narrator: Michael Gandolfini
- Length: 8 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.8(368440 ratings)
3.8(368440 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDHemingway’s brilliant first novel is a poignant tale of love, loss, and the power to endure. In his unforgettable first novel, Hemingway artfully illuminates the plight of the Lost Generation, weaving a poignant tale of love and loss in theHemingway’s brilliant first novel is a poignant tale of love, loss, and the power to endure.
In his unforgettable first novel, Hemingway artfully illuminates the plight of the Lost Generation, weaving a poignant tale of love and loss in the aftermath of World War I. The story follows two expatriates living in Paris in the 1920s: Jake Barnes, an American war veteran and journalist, and Lady Brett Ashley, an independent Englishwoman exploring the opportunities afforded by a new era of liberated women and sexual freedom. Impotent due to an injury suffered during the war, Jake must navigate his hopeless love for Brett in a changed world of waning morality.
From Parisian society’s vibrant nightlife to the ruthless bullfighting rings of Spain, The Sun Also Rises takes readers on a powerful journey through mass disillusionment, moral bankruptcy, and elusive could-have-beens. All the while, we see both the brokenness and resilience of a generation scarred physically and emotionally by the horrors of war.
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Cherries and Cherry Pits
- By: Vera B. Williams
- Narrator: Martha Plimpton
- Length: 12 minutes
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books
- Publish date: May 12, 2009
- Language: English
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4.16(315 ratings)
4.16(315 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.002.99 USDThis is Bidemmi’s book. Enter her world, look at the pictures she draws as she tells her stories. You will never forget her. This is Bidemmi’s book. Enter her world, look at the pictures she draws as she tells her stories. You will neverThis is Bidemmi’s book. Enter her world, look at the pictures she draws as she tells her stories. You will never forget her.
This is Bidemmi’s book. Enter her world, look at the pictures she draws as she tells her stories. You will never forget her.
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- By: Stephen Chbosky
- Narrator: Noah Galvin
- Length: 6 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.22(1453294 ratings)
4.22(1453294 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDRead the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being aRead the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.
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The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
A years-long #1 New York Times bestseller, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults and Best Book for Reluctant Readers, and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life. -
Gone Crazy in Alabama
- By: Rita Williams-Garcia
- Narrator: Sisi A. Johnson
- Length: 6 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: Quill Tree Books
- Publish date: April 21, 2015
- Language: English
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4.15(3452 ratings)
4.15(3452 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.99 USDThe Coretta Scott King Award-winning Gone Crazy in Alabama by Newbery Honor and New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of the Gaither sisters as they travel from the streets of Brooklyn to the rural South for theThe Coretta Scott King Award-winning Gone Crazy in Alabama by Newbery Honor and New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of the Gaither sisters as they travel from the streets of Brooklyn to the rural South for the summer of a lifetime.
Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern are off to Alabama to visit their grandmother Big Ma and her mother, Ma Charles. Across the way lives Ma Charles’s half sister, Miss Trotter. The two half sisters haven’t spoken in years. As Delphine hears about her family history, she uncovers the surprising truth that’s been keeping the sisters apart. But when tragedy strikes, Delphine discovers that the bonds of family run deeper than she ever knew possible.
Powerful and humorous, this companion to the award-winning One Crazy Summer and P.S. Be Eleven will be enjoyed by fans of the first two books, as well as by readers meeting these memorable sisters for the first time.
Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis’s The Watsons Go to Birmingham and Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming will find much to love in this book. Rita Williams-Garcia’s books about Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern can also be read alongside nonfiction explorations of American history such as Jason Reynolds’s and Ibram X. Kendi’s books.
Each humorous, unforgettable story in this trilogy follows the sisters as they grow up during one of the most tumultuous eras in recent American history, the 1960s. Read the adventures of eleven-year-old Delphine and her younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern, as they visit their kin all over the rapidly changing nation–and as they discover that the bonds of family, and their own strength, run deeper than they ever knew possible.
“The Gaither sisters are an irresistible trio. Williams-Garcia excels at conveying defining moments of American society from their point of view.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Coretta Scott King Award winner * ALA Notable Book * School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year * ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice * Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year * Washington Post Best Books of the Year * The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Book * Three starred reviews * CCBC Choice * New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing * Amazon Best Book of the Year
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A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- By: Betty Smith
- Narrator: Kate Burton
- Length: 14 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Caedmon
- Publish date: July 31, 2005
- Language: English
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4.29(400389 ratings)
4.29(400389 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.003.99 USDA PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century. From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing upA PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick
The beloved American classic about a young girl’s coming-of-age at the turn of the twentieth century.
From the moment she entered the world, Francie Nolan needed to be made of stern stuff, for growing up in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn, New York demanded fortitude, precocity, and strength of spirit. Often scorned by neighbors for her family’s erratic and eccentric behavior–such as her father Johnny’s taste for alcohol and Aunt Sissy’s habit of marrying serially without the formality of divorce–no one, least of all Francie, could say that the Nolans’ life lacked drama.
By turns heartbreaking and uplifting, the Nolans’ daily experiences are raw with honestly and tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith has, in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, captured the joys of humble Williamsburg life–from “junk day” on Saturdays, when the children traded their weekly take for pennies, to the special excitement of holidays, bringing cause for celebration and revelry. Smith has created a work of literary art that brilliantly captures a unique time and place as well as deeply resonant moments of universal experience. Here is an American classic that “cuts right to the heart of life,” hails the New York Times. “If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, you will deny yourself a rich experience.”
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Lazaretto
- By: Diane McKinney-Whetstone
- Narrator: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 12 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: April 12, 2016
- Language: English
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3.75(749 ratings)
3.75(749 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDDiane McKinney-Whetstone’s nationally bestselling novel, Tumbling, immersed us into Philadelphia’s black community during the Civil Rights era, and she returns to the city in this new historical novel about a cast of nineteenth-centuryDiane McKinney-Whetstone’s nationally bestselling novel, Tumbling, immersed us into Philadelphia’s black community during the Civil Rights era, and she returns to the city in this new historical novel about a cast of nineteenth-century characters whose colorful lives intersect at the legendary Lazaretto–America’s first quarantine hospital.
Isolated on an island where two rivers meet, the Lazaretto quarantine hospital is the first stop for immigrants who wish to begin new lives in Philadelphia. The Lazaretto’s black live-in staff forge a strong social community, and when one of them receives permission to get married on the island the mood is one of celebration, particularly since the white staff–save the opium-addicted doctor–are given leave for the weekend. On the eve of the ceremony, a gunshot rings out across the river. A white man has fired at a boat carrying the couple’s friends and family to the island, and the captain is injured. His life lies in the hands of Sylvia, the Lazaretto’s head nurse, who is shocked to realize she knows the patient.
Intertwined with the drama unfolding at the Lazaretto are the fates of orphan brothers. When one brother commits a crime to protect the other, he imperils both of their lives–and the consequences ultimately deliver both of them to the Lazaretto.
In this masterful work of historical fiction, Diane McKinney-Whetstone seamlessly transports us to Philadelphia in the aftermath of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination, beautifully evoking powerful stories of love, friendship and humanity amid the vibrant black community that flourished amid the troubled times.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrator: Ruby Dee
- Length: 6 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 31, 2005
- Language: English
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3.97(282569 ratings)
3.97(282569 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.99 USD“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” –Zadie Smith One of“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” –Zadie Smith
One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years–due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist–Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature. The audio is performed by the legendary Ruby Dee.
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Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrator: Scott Brick
- Length: 62 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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3.69(353754 ratings)
3.69(353754 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDPeopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller–nominated as one ofPeopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus: a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller–nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Atlas Shrugged is the “second most influential book for Americans today” after the Bible, according to a joint survey of five thousand people conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book of the Month Club in 1991.
In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts?
This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world–and did. In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, he sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike. Is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battle not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? The answers will be revealed once you discover the reason behind the baffling events that wreak havoc on the lives of the amazing men and women in this remarkable book.
Tremendous in scope and breathtaking in its suspense, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand’s magnum opus, which launched an ideology and a movement. With the publication of this work in 1957, Rand gained an instant following and became a phenomenon. Atlas Shrugged emerged as a premier moral apologia for capitalism, a defense that had an electrifying effect on millions of readers (and now listeners) who had never heard capitalism defended in other than technical terms.
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Welcome to Braggsville
- By: T. Geronimo Johnson
- Narrator: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 12 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: February 17, 2015
- Language: English
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3.24(2811 ratings)
3.24(2811 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDLONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2015 BY THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, MEN’S JOURNAL, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, KANSAS CITY STAR, BROOKLYN MAGAZINE, NPR, HUFFINGTON POST, THE DAILY BEAST, AND BUZZFEED WINNER OFLONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2015 BY THE WASHINGTON POST, TIME, MEN’S JOURNAL, CHICAGO TRIBUNE, KANSAS CITY STAR, BROOKLYN MAGAZINE, NPR, HUFFINGTON POST, THE DAILY BEAST, AND BUZZFEED
WINNER OF THE 2015 ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
From the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of Hold It ‘Til It Hurts comes a dark and socially provocative Southern-fried comedy about four UC Berkeley students who stage a dramatic protest during a Civil War reenactment–a fierce, funny, tragic work from a bold new writer.
Welcome to Braggsville. The City that Love Built in the Heart of Georgia. Population 712
Born and raised in the heart of old Dixie, D’aron Davenport finds himself in unfamiliar territory his freshman year at UC Berkeley. Two thousand miles and a world away from his childhood, he is a small-town fish floundering in the depths of a large, hyper-liberal pond. Caught between the prosaic values of his rural hometown and the intellectualized multicultural cosmopolitanism of Berzerkeley, the nineteen-year-old white kid is uncertain about his place until one disastrous party brings him three idiosyncratic best friends: Louis, a “kung-fu comedian” from California; Candice, an earnest do-gooder claiming Native roots from Iowa; and Charlie, an introspective inner-city black teen from Chicago. They dub themselves the “4 Little Indians.”
But everything changes in the group’s alternative history class, when D’aron lets slip that his hometown hosts an annual Civil War reenactment, recently rebranded “Patriot Days.” His announcement is met with righteous indignation, and inspires Candice to suggest a “performative intervention” to protest the reenactment. Armed with youthful self-importance, makeshift slave costumes, righteous zeal, and their own misguided ideas about the South, the 4 Little Indians descend on Braggsville. Their journey through backwoods churches, backroom politics, Waffle Houses, and drunken family barbecues is uproarious to start, but will have devastating consequences.
With the keen wit of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and the deft argot of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, T. Geronimo Johnson has written an astonishing, razor-sharp satire. Using a panoply of styles and tones, from tragicomic to Southern Gothic, he skewers issues of class, race, intellectual and political chauvinism, Obamaism, social media, and much more.
A literary coming-of-age novel for a new generation, written with tremendous social insight and a unique, generous heart, Welcome to Braggsville reminds us of the promise and perils of youthful exuberance, while painting an indelible portrait of contemporary America.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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