Like it or not,
holiday music will be playing all month long. So you might as well get the inside scoop about those tunes you’re being force-fed and check out Jingle Bell Pop—our new Audible Original about the secret history of Christmas music. Two huge bonuses here. First, members can pick it up for free this month. Second, I’ve also found that if you listen to an audiobook while shopping, other shoppers are far less likely to try to bother you, which is a huge win for me…or maybe I’m just a Grinch.By the way, can I get some love for the Grinch? He’s my all-time favorite Christmas character. (I’ve watched the original 1966 animated movie four times already this season.) Sure, the Grinch gets annoyed by people sometimes—especially around the holidays—but what could be more relatable than that? And (spoiler) he ultimately redeems himself by opening his heart to the Whos of Whoville.
Happy Holidays, and I’ll see you in 2019!
- Kyle, Audible editor
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The Santa Claus Man
- The Rise and Fall of a Jazz Age Con Man and the Invention of Christmas in New York
- By: Alex Palmer
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4 out of 5 stars 44
Before the charismatic John Duval Gluck, Jr., came along, letters from New York City children to Santa Claus were destroyed, unopened, by the US Post Office. Gluck saw an opportunity and created the Santa Claus Association. The effort delighted the public, and for 15 years money and gifts flowed to the only group authorized to answer Santa's mail. Gluck became a Jazz Age celebrity, rubbing shoulders with the era's movie stars and politicians.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting Story
- By Frank on 01-13-16
The skeletons in Santa's closet
If you’ve ever visited New York during the holidays, you can see exactly why one would fall in love with the city at Christmastime. It’s one of the things I love most about living here. From the heartwarming songs to the seasonal flicks, it’s hard to imagine Christmas without the influence of New York. Without it, we wouldn’t have trimmed municipal trees, The Night Before Christmas, or even today’s modernized version of jolly old Saint Nick. But things weren’t always so rosy. The Santa Claus Man tells the hidden history of New York's Santa Claus Association, which formed to answer children's letters to Santa but was eventually revealed as the cover for a nefarious con man. Think i>Boardwalk Empire but with fewer hit men, far more sugar plums, and a partridge in a pear tree.
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Barracoon
- The Story of the Last ""Black Cargo""
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,399
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,978
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,964
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile.
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3 out of 5 stars
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skip the introduction!
- By Earin on 10-16-18
Best of the Year, it's finally here!
As we close out the year, I’d be remiss not to highlight one of my favorite history listens of 2018 and one of our finalists for best history of the year. Zora Neale Hurston’s never-before-published Barracoon tells the true story of the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, as told to her by the last living man to tell the tale firsthand. It’s a timely reminder of the importance of understanding our past mistakes so we don’t repeat them in the future, and we’re also incredibly lucky to have a fresh piece of writing from one of the most talented American writers of all time. Read on to see what else topped the best of the year in history and beyond.
To read more, click here.
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The Wright Brothers
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: David McCullough
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,982
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 12,474
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 12,436
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story behind the story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright's Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why?
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing
- By Sara on 07-10-16
115 years of modern flight
While I was raised in Arizona, southern Virginia is where I was born. Every summer when I was a kid, my family would take trips down the coast of North Carolina to the Outer Banks and spend a week relaxing on the beach. The best part of the trip was always when we’d finally pass Kitty Hawk, and my father—an amateur pilot in his own right—would remind me how the first manned flight occurred right there on the beach. December 13 marks the 115th anniversary of that historic first piloted flight by the Wright Brothers, and there’s no one better to tell the tale than two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough.
New Releases
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The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth
- And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Morris
- Narrated by: Thomas Morris, Ruper Farley
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 628
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 543
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 540
A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the 19th century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Boring Toilet Humor
- By Nemo on 01-30-20
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Bringing Down the Colonel
- A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the "Powerless" Woman Who Took On Washington
- By: Patricia Miller
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
In Bringing Down the Colonel, journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely 19th-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined”, Pollard brought the man - and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality - to trial. And, surprisingly, she won.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Stay with it. It is amazing.
- By Living Downeast on 09-29-19
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Inglorious Empire
- What the British Did to India
- By: Shashi Tharoor
- Narrated by: Shashi Tharoor
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 518
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 454
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 452
In the 18th century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannons, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalized racism, and caused millions to die from starvation. British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial "gift" was designed in Britain's interests alone.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An entertaining and provocative history
- By James Moseley on 01-07-20
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In Praise of Blood
- The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
- By: Judi Rever
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 12
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Story5 out of 5 stars 12
A finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize: A stunning work of investigative reporting by a Canadian journalist who has risked her own life to bring us a deeply disturbing history of the Rwandan genocide that takes the true measure of Rwandan head of state Paul Kagame.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A complete paradigm shift.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-23-21
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The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth
- And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
- By: Thomas Morris
- Narrated by: Thomas Morris, Ruper Farley
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 628
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 543
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 540
A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the 19th century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Boring Toilet Humor
- By Nemo on 01-30-20
-
Bringing Down the Colonel
- A Sex Scandal of the Gilded Age, and the "Powerless" Woman Who Took On Washington
- By: Patricia Miller
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
In Bringing Down the Colonel, journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely 19th-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined”, Pollard brought the man - and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality - to trial. And, surprisingly, she won.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Stay with it. It is amazing.
- By Living Downeast on 09-29-19
-
Inglorious Empire
- What the British Did to India
- By: Shashi Tharoor
- Narrated by: Shashi Tharoor
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 518
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 454
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 452
In the 18th century, India's share of the world economy was as large as Europe's. By 1947, after two centuries of British rule, it had decreased six-fold. Beyond conquest and deception, the Empire blew rebels from cannons, massacred unarmed protesters, entrenched institutionalized racism, and caused millions to die from starvation. British imperialism justified itself as enlightened despotism for the benefit of the governed, but Shashi Tharoor takes on and demolishes this position, demonstrating how every supposed imperial "gift" was designed in Britain's interests alone.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
An entertaining and provocative history
- By James Moseley on 01-07-20
-
In Praise of Blood
- The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
- By: Judi Rever
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 12
A finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize: A stunning work of investigative reporting by a Canadian journalist who has risked her own life to bring us a deeply disturbing history of the Rwandan genocide that takes the true measure of Rwandan head of state Paul Kagame.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A complete paradigm shift.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-23-21
About the Editor
With tastes as varied as his shoe collection, editor Kyle will listen to just about anything; however, his go-to listens deal with the consequences of human nature: history, politics, religion, and true crime. His favorite pastime is taking long walks with his dogs while devouring a great story from Audible, of course. Follow him on Twitter @_EditorKyle.