A Reason to Believe
Lessons from an Improbable Life
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A Reason to Believe
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Narrated by:
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Governor Deval Patrick
About this listen
New York Times Best Seller • 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Deval Patrick, “an inspirational figure guided by optimism and hope who presaged the rise of President Obama” (The Boston Globe), recounts his extraordinary journey from the South Side of Chicago to the governorship of Massachusetts.
“I’ve simply seen too much goodness in this country - and have come so far in my own journey - not to believe in those ideals, and my faith in the future is sometimes restored under the darkest clouds.” (Governor Deval Patrick)
In January 2007, Deval Patrick became the first Black governor of the state of Massachusetts, one of only two Black governors elected in American history. But that was just one triumphant step in an improbable life that began in a poor tenement on the South Side of Chicago, taking Patrick from a chaotic childhood to an elite boarding school in New England, from a sojourn doing relief work in Africa to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, and then to a career in politics.
In this heartfelt and inspiring memoir, he pays tribute to the family, friends, and strangers who, through words and deeds, have instilled in him transcendent lessons of faith, perseverance, and friendship. In doing so, he reminds us of the power of community and the imperative of idealism. With humility, humor, and grace, he offers a road map for attaining happiness, empowerment, and success while also making an appeal for listeners to cultivate those achievements in others, to feel a greater stake in this world, and to shape a life worth living.
Warm, nostalgic, and inspirational, A Reason to Believe is destined to become a timeless tribute to a uniquely American odyssey and a testament to what is possible in our lives and our communities if we are hopeful, generous, and resilient.
Governer Deval Patrick is donating a portion of the proceeds from A Reason to Believe to A Better Chance, a national organization dedicated to opening the doors to greater educational opportunities for young people of color.
©2011 Deval Patrick (P)2011 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 16 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
A revealing biography of Lady Bird Johnson with startling new insights into her marriage to Lyndon Baines Johnson and her unexpectedly strong impact on his presidency. Long obscured by her husband's shadow, Claudia "Lady Bird" Johnson emerges in this first comprehensive biography as a figure of surprising influence and the centering force for LBJ, a man who suffered from extreme mood swings and desperately needed someone to help control his darker impulses.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Do not waste an audible credit
- By Sandra B. on 10-15-23
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Dreams from My Father
- A Story of Race and Inheritance
- By: Barack Obama
- Narrated by: Barack Obama
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 569
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 492
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Story5 out of 5 stars 488
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a Black African father and a White American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a Black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father - a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man - has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey - first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Powerful
- By Gene R. on 10-26-21
By: Barack Obama
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While the World Watched
- A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Carolyn Maull McKinstry
- Narrated by: Felicia Bullock
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story5 out of 5 stars 68
Fifteen-year-old Carolyn Maull McKinstry was just a few feet away when the Klan - planted bomb that killed four of her friends exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was one of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history…and the turning point in a young girl's life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Look Back and Live With Greater Understanding
- By jerrie Will on 05-07-21
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My Song
- A Memoir
- By: Harry Belafonte, Michael Shnayerson
- Narrated by: Harry Belafonte, Mirron Willis
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 161
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 144
Harry Belafonte is not just one of the greatest entertainers of our time; he has led one of the great American lives of the last century. Now, this extraordinary icon tells us the story of that life, giving us its full breadth, letting us share in the struggles, the tragedies, and, most of all, the inspiring triumphs.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing
- By Khafre on 12-30-11
By: Harry Belafonte, and others
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Sign My Name to Freedom
- A Memoir of a Pioneering Life
- By: Betty Reid-Soskin
- Narrated by: Betty Reid-Soskin
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
In Betty Reid Soskin’s 96 years of living, she has been a witness to a grand sweep of American history. When she was born in 1921, the lynching of African-Americans was a national epidemic, blackface minstrel shows were the most popular American form of entertainment, white women had only just won the right to vote, and most African-Americans in the Deep South could not vote at all. From her great-grandmother, who had been enslaved until her mid-20s, Betty heard stories of slavery and the times of terror and struggle for Black folk that followed.
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3 out of 5 stars
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How she stressed Creole, but I guess it was a badge if honor not being regular black.
- By Satisfied customer on 05-21-24
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Mighty Be Our Powers
- How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War; a Memoir
- By: Leymah Gbowee, Carol Mithers
- Narrated by: Kimberly Scott
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 243
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 195
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 199
As a young woman growing up in Africa, 17-year-old Leymah Gbowee was crushed by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee’s bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized that women bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and
- By Kathy on 10-07-11
By: Leymah Gbowee, and others
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My Life, My Love, My Legacy
- By: Coretta Scott King, Barbara Reynolds
- Narrated by: January LaVoy, Phylicia Rashad
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 227
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 228
The life story of Coretta Scott King - wife of Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, and singular 20th-century American civil rights activist - as told fully for the first time, toward the end of her life, to one of her closest friends. Born in 1927 to daringly enterprising Black parents in the Deep South, Coretta Scott had always felt called to a special purpose.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Inspirational memoir
- By Jean on 01-30-17
By: Coretta Scott King, and others
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Just Like Us
- The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America
- By: Helen Thorpe
- Narrated by: Paula Christensen
- Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 77
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4 out of 5 stars 61
Just Like Us tells the story of four high school students whose parents entered this country illegally from Mexico. All four of the girls have grown up in the United States, and all four want to live the American dream, but only two have documents. As the girls attempt to make it into college, they discover that only the legal pair see a clear path forward. A coming-of-age story about girlhood and friendship, as well as the resilience required to transcend poverty, Just Like Us is also a book about identity.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I wanted to listen but...
- By PurpleSage on 03-22-14
By: Helen Thorpe
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Raven
- The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People
- By: Tim Reiterman
- Narrated by: Mitch Horowitz
- Length: 29 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 593
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 531
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 527
Tim Reiterman's Raven provides the seminal history of the Rev. Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and the murderous ordeal at Jonestown in 1978. This PEN Award-winning work explores the ideals gone wrong, the intrigue, and the grim realities behind the Peoples Temple and its implosion in the jungle of South America.
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5 out of 5 stars
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What a very thoroughly written book!
- By Traci P. on 04-22-17
By: Tim Reiterman
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Song in a Weary Throat
- Memoir of an American Pilgrimage
- By: Pauli Murray, Patricia Bell-Scott - Introduction by
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 82
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Story5 out of 5 stars 82
Poet, memoirist, labor organizer, and Episcopal priest, Pauli Murray helped transform the law of the land. Arrested in 1940 for sitting in the whites-only section of a Virginia bus, Murray propelled that life-defining event into a Howard law degree and a fight against "Jane Crow" sexism. Now Murray is finally getting long-deserved recognition: The first African American woman to receive a doctorate of law at Yale, her name graces one of the university's new colleges.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Song with a key to my life
- By Fran White on 11-28-24
By: Pauli Murray, and others
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The Song and the Silence
- A Story About Family, Race, and What Was Revealed in a Small Town in the Mississippi Delta While Searching for Booker Wright
- By: Yvette Johnson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 209
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 189
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 188
"Have to keep that smile", said Booker Wright in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. At the time Wright was a waiter in a Whites-only restaurant and a local business owner who would become an unwitting icon of the civil rights movement. For he did the unthinkable: Before a national audience, he described what life was truly like for the Black people of Greenwood, Mississippi.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exceeded every expectation
- By ZeeJ84 on 05-23-21
By: Yvette Johnson
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Because Our Fathers Lied
- A Memoir of Truth and Family, from Vietnam to Today
- By: Craig McNamara
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright, Craig McNamara
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 57
Craig McNamara came of age in the political tumult and upheaval of the late '60s. While Craig McNamara would grow up to take part in anti-war demonstrations, his father, Robert McNamara, served as John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense and the architect of the Vietnam War. This searching and revealing memoir offers an intimate picture of one father and son at pivotal periods in American history. Because Our Fathers Lied is more than a family story—it is a story about America.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Title Does Not Reflect Scope of the Book
- By Amazon Customer on 07-15-22
By: Craig McNamara
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Eleanor and Hick
- The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady
- By: Susan Quinn
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 583
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 512
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 512
In 1932 Eleanor Roosevelt entered the claustrophobic, duty-bound existence of the first lady with dread. By that time she had put her deep disappointment in her marriage behind her and developed an independent life - now threatened by the public role she would be forced to play. A lifeline came to her in the form of a feisty campaign reporter for the Associated Press: Lorena Hickok. Over the next 30 years, until Eleanor's death, the two women carried on an extraordinary relationship.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Icon who was real.
- By Francine Fields on 08-17-17
By: Susan Quinn
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Under Red Skies
- Three Generations of Life, Loss, and Hope in China
- By: Karoline Kan
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 109
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
A deeply personal and shocking look at how China is coming to terms with its conflicted past as it emerges into a modern, cutting-edge superpower.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An intimate view of real life in China
- By Lonnie G. Hardy, Jr. on 08-15-19
By: Karoline Kan
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Little Black Sheep
- A Memoir
- By: Ashley Cleveland
- Narrated by: Ashley Cleveland
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
Ashley Cleveland grew up in a Southern family fractured by alcoholism, homosexuality, and the collapse of her parents' marriage. She knew from the start that she was the "good-for-nothing" black sheep of her divided home, and she quickly learned to play the part. Yet in her destructive days of drugs, alcohol, and sex, she encountered a forgiving God who was relentlessly faithful. Change did not come quickly. The brokenness did not disappear. But Ashley allowed God to heal her, to transform her desires, to bring courage to others through her journey.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Strength, Love, and Hope!
- By Melanie White Designs on 05-05-19
By: Ashley Cleveland
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Common Ground: Exclusive Edition
- By: Justin Trudeau
- Narrated by: Justin Trudeau, Colm Feore
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
Justin Trudeau has spent his life in the public eye. From the moment he was born, the first son of an iconic prime minister and his young wife, Canadians have witnessed the highs and the lows, sharing in his successes and mourning with him during tragic times. But few beyond Justin's closest circle have heard his side of his unique journey. Now, in Common Ground, Justin Trudeau reveals how the events of his life have influenced him and formed the ideals that drive him today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Mesmerizing
- By emilia on 05-04-18
By: Justin Trudeau
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Midnight in Siberia
- A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia
- By: David Greene
- Narrated by: David Greene
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 176
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 163
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 163
Through the stories of fellow travelers, Greene explores the challenges and opportunities facing the new Russia: a nation that boasts open elections and newfound prosperity yet still continues to endure oppression, corruption, and stark inequality. Set against the wintery landscape of Siberia, Greene’s lively travel narrative offers a glimpse into the soul of 20th century Russia: how its people remember their history and look forward to the future.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Long String of NPR Short Reports
- By Sara on 04-13-15
By: David Greene
What listeners say about A Reason to Believe
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
- F V Alexander
- 02-09-20
A Realistic and Incredible Journey
Love it! I found it to be a highly personable, inspirational, and truthful book. i really hope it becomes mandatory reading for middle and high school students. it is sure to give hope to the disenfranchised and the super wealthy alike!
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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
- bilal
- 11-18-19
Patrick 2020
Patrick 2020 Patrick 2020 Patrick 2020 Patrick 2020 Patrick Patrick Patrick Patrick Patrick now that Beto O’Rourke is out he’s our guy!
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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
- Dr. Walker
- 07-06-24
Excellent memoir, Stellar narration
This memoir is one of the best I've encountered! At times, I found myself laughing aloud, crying silently, deeply reflecting on the author's words while simultaneously being filled with inspiration and hope. The audio book is skillfully narrated by the author. His authenticity shines through each chapter from beginning to end. It's so well done, I will listen again.
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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
- Gordon Nameni
- 09-18-20
INSPIRING
Deval Patrick is a wonderful story teller. He managed to weave history into His story and send an inspirational message to the next generation. This book should be taught in a social studies curriculum.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- david
- 07-05-11
A well told story about a very interesting life.
This is much more personal biography than a political one. It is an inspiring recollection of someone that is truly living the American dream.
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3 people 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
- Vivian
- 12-12-11
A Great Life and a Great Story
What made the experience of listening to A Reason to Believe the most enjoyable?
You felt you knew the Governor and was interested in what happened next in his life. You felt his sincerity and love for the people in his life as well as his honesty about events that shaped him.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Since it is an autobiography - it naturally is Deval Patrick.
Have you listened to any of Deval Patrick’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Patrick's experiences in the Sudan as well as his support of his wife, Dianne.
Any additional comments?
I hope he becomes a Supreme Court Justice.
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