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Swole
- The Making of Men and the Meaning of Muscle
- Narrated by: Mark Sanderlin
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
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Publisher's summary
From a Washington Post critic and self-described meathead, a witty, incisive, poignant exploration of male body image, from the history of the gym to the politics of superheroes to the world of manfluencers
Michael Andor Brodeur is a Gen-X gay writer with a passion for bodybuilding and an insatiable curiosity about masculinity—a concept in which many men are currently struggling to find their place. In our current moment, where “manfluencers” on TikTok tease their audiences with their latest videos, where right-wing men espouse the importance of being “alpha,” as toxic masculinity and the patriarchy are being rightfully criticized, the nature of masculinity has become murkier than ever.
In excavating this complex topic, Brodeur uses the male body as his guide: its role in cultures from the gymnasia of ancient Greece to Walt Whitman’s essays on manly health, from the rise of Muscular Christianity in 19th-century America to the swollen superheroes and Arnold Schwarzeneggers of Brodeur’s childhood. Interweaving history, cultural criticism, memoir, and reportage, laced with an irrepressible wit, Brodeur takes us into the unique culture centered around men’s bodies, probing its limitations and the promise beyond: how men can love themselves while rejecting the aggression, objectification, and misogyny that have for so long accompanied the quest to become swole.
Critic reviews
“A memoir, history, and critical essay in one, sure to captivate anyone who’s ever pumped—or dreamed of pumping—iron.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
“Brodeur maintains a sharp focus on the way Western culture’s perceived mind-body divide has shaped ideas about masculinity . . . Punchy, entertaining, and perceptive, this delivers.”—Publishers Weekly
“If you want your brain to get ripped, jacked, and shredded on the fascinating history of why men obsess over building up their bodies, you need to read Swole. Covering everything from He-Man and TikTok primal manfluencers to the jacked Jesus of Muscular Christianity, Brodeur’s glorious, insightful, and cackle-out-loud hilarious book is destined to be a classic. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to do some push-ups.”—Kevin Alexander, author of Burn the Ice: The American Culinary Revolution and Its End
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CeCé Telfer is a warrior. The first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA championship, she has contended with transphobia on and off the track since childhood. Now, she stands at the crossroads of a national and international conversation about equity in sports, forced to advocate for her personhood and rights at every turn. After spending years training for the 2024 Olympics, Telfer has been sidelined and silenced more times than she can count. But she's never been good at taking no for an answer. Make It Count is Telfer's raw and inspiring story.
By: CeCé Telfer
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The Crime Book
- Big Ideas Simply Explained
- By: DK, Peter James
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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From Jack the Ripper to the modern-day drug cartels, discover the most notorious crimes and criminals in history. With a foreword written and narrated by best-selling crime author Peter James, The Crime Book explores over 100 crimes and examines the science, psychology and sociology of criminal behavior. Hear the gory details of each crime and how they were solved, with renowned quotes and detailed criminal profiles letting you delve into the criminal mind.
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It covers a huge span of time. But what is covered is shallow rather than in depth.
- By DJ on 12-06-23
By: DK, and others
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No Son of Mine
- A Memoir
- By: Jonathan Corcoran
- Narrated by: Christopher P. Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In No Son of Mine, Corcoran traces his messy estrangement from his mother through lost geographies as well as the lost relationships with friends and family and the sense of home that were stripped away when she said he was no longer her son. Through grief, anger, questioning, and growth, Corcoran explores the entwined yet separate histories and identities of his mother and himself.
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A raw, painful, and real story about trauma and the pain of abandonment
- By Kaytee on 06-23-24
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A Last Supper of Queer Apostles
- Selected Essays
- By: Pedro Lemebel, Gwendolyn Harper - editor translator introduction, Idra Novey - foreword
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Vico Ortiz, Idra Novey, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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“I speak from my difference,” wrote Pedro Lemebel, an openly queer writer and artist living through Chile’s AIDS epidemic and the collapse of the Pinochet dictatorship. In brilliantly innovative essays—known as crónicas—that combine memoir, reportage, fiction, history, and poetry, he brought visibility and dignity to sexual minorities, the poor, and the powerless. This volume brings together the best of his work, introducing listeners of English to the subversive genius of a literary activist and queer icon whose acrobatic explorations of the Santiago demimonde reverberate around the world.
By: Pedro Lemebel, and others
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Dear Cisgender People
- A Guide to Trans Allyship and Empathy
- By: Kenny Ethan Jones
- Narrated by: Kenny Ethan Jones
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In this powerful, extensively researched, and deeply personal memoir, Kenny Ethan Jones, trans activist and writer, offers an authentic and in-depth insight into the trans experience. Drawing on his own experience, experts and the stories of others, Kenny unpacks the reality of living with gender dysphoria, navigating the difficult intersection of being Black and trans, the complexities of accessing gender-affirming care, the big debate about trans youth and so much more.
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High-Risk Homosexual
- A Memoir
- By: Edgar Gomez
- Narrated by: Edgar Gomez
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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A debut memoir about coming of age as a gay, Latinx man, High-Risk Homosexual opens in the ultimate anti-gay space: Edgar Gomez's uncle's cockfighting ring in Nicaragua, where he was sent at 13-years-old to become a man. Listeners follow Gomez through the queer spaces where he learned to love being gay and Latinx, including Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, a drag queen convention in Los Angeles, and the doctor's office where he was diagnosed a "high-risk homosexual".
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It feels familiar
- By Bruno on 06-06-24
By: Edgar Gomez
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The Easy Way Out
- By: Stephen McCauley
- Narrated by: Josh Hurley
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Patrick O’Neil is a travel agent who never goes anywhere. His closest confidante, Sharon, is chain-smoking her way to singles hell, passing up man after man. His parents, proprietors of a suburban men’s store whose fortunes are sagging more visibly than its customers, can’t agree how best to interfere in their sons’ lives. And his lover, Arthur (a nice golden retriever of a guy to whom Patrick can’t quite commit), wants to cement their relationship by buying a house. Then a call comes in the middle of another sleepless night.
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Read his later works
- By Bruce on 11-24-23
By: Stephen McCauley
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I Will Greet the Sun Again
- A Novel
- By: Khashayar J. Khabushani
- Narrated by: Sean Rohani
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Growing up in the San Fernando Valley with his two brothers, all K wants is to be “a boy from L.A.,” all American. But K—the youngest, named after a Persian king—knows there’s something different about himself. Like the way he feels about his closest friend, Johnny, a longing that he can’t share with anyone.
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A slice of humanity
- By Amazon Customer on 07-06-24
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Ten Bridges I've Burnt
- A Memoir in Verse
- By: Brontez Purnell
- Narrated by: Brontez Purnell
- Length: 1 hr and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In Ten Bridges I've Burnt, Brontez Purnell—the bard of the underloved and overlooked—turns his gaze inward. A storyteller with a musical eye for the absurdity of his own existence, he is peerless in his ability to find the levity within the stormiest of crises. Here, in his first collection of genre-defying verse, Purnell reflects on his peripatetic life, whose ups and downs have nothing on the turmoil within. The thirty-eight autobiographical pieces pulsing in Ten Bridges I've Burnt find Purnell at his no-holds-barred best.
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This work, this project these poems this poet 🫶
- By Lydia Paddon on 04-07-24
By: Brontez Purnell
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Affirmations for Queer People
- 100+ Positive Messages to Affirm, Empower, and Inspire
- By: Jess Vosseteig
- Narrated by: André Santana
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Queer people are essential members of society—trailblazing for positive change and building up a stronger and more vibrant community every day. It’s time to affirm these truths and so many more with Affirmations for Queer People. In this book, discover more than 100 affirmations to empower yourself, emphasize your self-worth, care for your mental health and emotional well-being, and so much more. You can use these affirmations and the accompanying texts to reflect on your own life and your future.
By: Jess Vosseteig
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The Palace of Eros
- A Novel
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Young, headstrong Psyche has captured the eyes of every suitor in town and far beyond with her tempestuous beauty, which has made her irresistible as a woman yet undesirable as a wife. Secretly, she longs for a life away from the expectations and demands of men. When her father realizes that the future of his family and town will be forever cursed unless he appeases an enraged Aphrodite, he follows the orders of the Oracle, tying Psyche to a rock to be ravaged by a monstrous husband. And yet a monster never arrives.
By: Caro De Robertis
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Shae
- A Novel
- By: Mesha Maren
- Narrated by: Kira Fixx
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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When sixteen-year-old Shae meets Cam, who is new to their small town in West Virginia, she thinks she has found someone who is everything she has ever wanted in a companion. The two become fast friends, and then more. And when Shae ends up pregnant, Cam begins a different transition—trying on clothes that Shae can no longer fit into and using female pronouns. Shae tries to be fully supportive as Cam becomes the person she wants and needs to be.
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Wow
- By Jessica Long on 05-28-24
By: Mesha Maren
What listeners say about Swole
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andres Alfredo Gomez
- 07-05-24
No dumbbell left uncurled
Idk how to review books so this is a summary/review for me.
This book is about men and men’s ideological history. Where do men get their beliefs for masculinity? This book offers readers rich historical perspectives from classical sculptors interpretations of Roman and Greek mythology to the designers and marketers of action hero’s and artistic and non-artisic motives.
In addition to the historical archive this book becomes the author uses personal experiences as a gay man traversing what it means to be a ‘man’ and sheds light on the topic. It is eye opening.
Childhood, adolescence, adulthood, in all stages of life men are asking themselves what is means to be a man and society asks them “how manly are you?” Many men follow a hyper masculine trope that the author, well wrote a whole book about. As he walks us through what i describe the history of ‘men wanting to be masculine’ I found myself seeing that muscles, looks, and wanting to be bigger than the other guy is not necessarily what makes one a man.
This book is a solid choice for any man who wants to understand what gender on a spectrum is. By exposing the audience to the historical accounts of the many Hercules statues, and bodybuilders in an era where their physique was unordinary men are left realizing that the physiques they are worshiping and dying to emulate (quite literally) are on the far end of the masculine presenting spectrum.
I love this book.
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- Julia Grant
- 06-21-24
Such an enjoyable listen!
This book draws on the author’s own history, as well as his vast knowledge of weight lifting, classical history, art, and other topics that he blends perfectly into an excellent book. It is laugh-out-loud funny at points, cringe-worthy at points, touching at points. The reading is spot-on as well, delivering the ideas perfectly.
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- Edward Antonio
- 06-28-24
A wonderful informative history of masculinity and muscle
Provides a historical perspective through a queer lense of masculinity and muscle culture and how it has changed throughout the years. Definitely recommend it, as the author also provides their own experience dealing with masculinity.
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- JoJo Bear
- 07-15-24
Every man should read this!
Big fan of Michael and after this book I’m even a bigger fan! He paints a picture of my own childhood.
I went in thinking this book was about lifting weights and getting bigger and It turns out it’s about getting older, our bodies and our identities as men!
A must read!
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