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The Middlesteins
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Molly Ringwald
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
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Publisher's summary
For more than 30 years, Edie and Richard Middlestein shared a solid family life together in the suburbs of Chicago. But now things are splintering apart, for one reason, it seems: Edie's enormous girth. She's obsessed with food - thinking about it, eating it - and if she doesn't stop, she won't have much longer to live.
When Richard abandons his wife, it is up to the next generation to take control. Robin, their schoolteacher daughter, is determined that her father pay for leaving Edie. Benny, an easy-going, pot-smoking family man, just wants to smooth things over. And Rachelle - a whippet thin perfectionist - is intent on saving her mother-in-law's life, but this task proves even bigger than planning her twin children's spectacular b'nai mitzvah party. Through it all, they wonder: do Edie's devastating choices rest on her shoulders alone? Or are others at fault, too?
With pitch-perfect prose, huge compassion, and sly humor, Jami Attenberg has given us an epic story of marriage, family, and obsession. The Middlesteins explores the hopes and heartbreaks of new and old love, the yearnings of Midwestern America, and our devastating, fascinating preoccupation with food.
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- By Dane Flakeman on 05-21-11
By: Margaux Fragoso
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The Opposite of Loneliness
- Essays and Stories
- By: Marina Keegan
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Marina Keegan's star was on the rise when she graduated magna cum laude from Yale in May 2012. She had a play that was to be produced at the New York International Fringe Festival and a job waiting for her at the New Yorker. Tragically, five days after graduation, Marina died in a car crash. Even though she was just 22 when she died, Marina left behind a rich, expansive trove of prose that, like her title essay, captures the hope, uncertainty, and possibility of her generation.
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Probably buy the book too.
- By Soupergirl on 09-14-15
By: Marina Keegan
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Disgruntled
- By: Asali Solomon
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Kenya Curtis is only eight years old, but she knows that she's different, even if she can't put her finger on how or why. It's not because she's black - most of the other students in the fourth-grade class at her West Philadelphia elementary school are, too. Maybe it's because she calls her father - a housepainter-slash-philosopher - "Baba" or because her parents' friends gather to pour out libations "from the Creator, for the Martyrs" and discuss "the community".
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Loved It!!!
- By ayodele higgs on 05-20-15
By: Asali Solomon
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Lifted by the Great Nothing
- By: Karim Dimechkie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Max doesn't remember his mother, who was murdered by burglars before they emigrated from Beirut to New Jersey. He lives with his father, Rasheed, who is enamored of his concept of American culture - baseball and barbeques - and tries to shed his Lebanese heritage completely.
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Excellent
- By Cheyenne on 06-13-15
By: Karim Dimechkie
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The Untelling
- By: Tayari Jones
- Narrated by: Michele Blackmon
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Aria is no stranger to tragedy. Fifteen years ago, a family outing took the lives of her father and baby sister, leaving remaining members of this fractured family struggling with their own guilt - real and imagined. At 25, Aria believes she can reinvent herself through her planned marriage with all its promise of a family of her own. Her infertility changes her life as swiftly and irrevocably as the urban landscape around her.
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Don’t waste your time!
- By shasha on 09-18-20
By: Tayari Jones
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The UnAmericans
- Stories
- By: Molly Antopol
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Again and again, Molly Antopol’s deeply sympathetic characters struggle for footing in an uncertain world, hounded by forces beyond their control. Their voices are intimate and powerful and they resonate with searing beauty. Antopol is a superb young talent, and The UnAmericans will long be remembered for its wit, humanity, and heart.
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Sensational stories! Brilliant new author.
- By MidwestGeek on 05-04-14
By: Molly Antopol
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Notes on a Banana
- A Memoir of Food, Love, and Manic Depression
- By: David Leite
- Narrated by: David Leite
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Reminiscing about the people and events that shaped him, David looks back at the highs and lows of his life, from his rejection of being gay and his attempt to "turn straight" through Aesthetic Realism, a cult in downtown Manhattan, to becoming a writer, cookbook author, and web publisher, to his 23-year relationship with Alan, known to millions of David's readers and listeners as "The One", which began with (what else?) food.
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Finished it in a day!
- By Kathryn on 08-23-17
By: David Leite
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Save Me
- By: Kristyn Kusek Lewis
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Daphne Mitchell has always believed in cause and effect, right and wrong, good and bad. The good: her dream job as a doctor; Owen, her childhood sweetheart and now husband; the beautiful farmhouse they're restoring together. In fact most of her life has been good - until the day Owen comes home early from work to tell her he's fallen head over heels for someone else.
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story
- By ngoza on 08-10-15
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The Opposite of Maybe
- By: Maddie Dawson
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Jonathan and Rosie have been together so long they finish each other's sentences - so when he (finally) proposes and asks her to move across the country with him, everyone is happily surprised. But when things suddenly unravel, Rosie sends Jonathan packing and moves back home with Soapie, the irascible, opinionated grandmother who raised her.
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Well written book. The characters grow on you~
- By chatteycathi on 08-01-18
By: Maddie Dawson
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Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
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This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
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She's Come Undone
- By: Wally Lamb
- Narrated by: Linda Stephens
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Beached like a whale in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally rolls into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before really going belly-up.
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Really disappointing narrator!
- By Jessica Williams on 01-21-12
By: Wally Lamb
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Love Walked In
- By: Marisa de los Santos
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning poet Marisa de los Santos crafts an irresistibly touching debut novel. Love Walked In is a contemporary tale, steeped in nostalgic, cinematic charm, of love in all its forms. Unapologetically idealistic about love, Cornelia Brown appears to catch the break of a lifetime when the dashing Martin Grace, her own personal Cary Grant, comes strolling into her life. But it is Martin's connection to 11-year-old Clare Hobbes that touches Cornelia's heart in ways she never imagined.
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Dreadful audio quality
- By Marenghi on 09-16-11
What listeners say about The Middlesteins
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ella
- 01-17-13
A Slice of Life
Having struggled with weight and also being Jewish, allowed me to really identify with the book. I too remember the Weight Watcher "tips" like removing the center piece of bread from a Big Mac to save calories. I too have been to many Bar/Bar Mitzvah's where the elaborate affair overshadowed what the Bar Mitzvah ceremony was all about. I too know of many dysfunctional families, as a matter of fact, I don't know too many who aren't. With all this identifying, I still couldn't really make a connection to the characters in Attenberg's book. The closest I came was to the protagonist Edie, the one who was eating herself to death. But Edie is an extreme case. Even being diabetic, having to go through surgery after surgery, having her husband Richard leave her, having her children and grandchildren look at her with pity and repulsion, did not deter Edie from even one dish of Chinese food. Edie had an addiction and she just couldn't stop. At times I felt a little nauseous "watching" her eat. There was a moral to the story though, you can't help someone who doesn't want to to be helped. Even though the book hit a nerve, I didn't love the black comedy, I barely liked it.
Molly Ringwald did an average narration, maybe if I had read this one instead of listening I would have liked it better.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Valentina
- 02-08-13
I didn't love it, but I couldn't stop listening
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
This book was good. It wasn't great. The story was interesting and entertaining, but never went deep enough. Perhaps that's the point--maybe there's no "there" there with the Middlestein family. They tend to live on the surface, and that's exactly where this narrative stays.
Would you be willing to try another book from Jami Attenberg? Why or why not?
Yes, I liked Attenberg's use of modern America's fixations to tell her story--she references iPods, The Black Eyed Peas, So You Think You Can Dance, etc. without sounding frivolous. I would hope she goes more in depth with the characters of her other works.
How could the performance have been better?
Yes. I'm a fan of Molly Ringwald's 80s movie career, but her narration left a lot to be desired. The accents she does are cringe-worthy at times.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
Yes. This book would actually make a good film. I bet it's being optioned as we speak.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Austin Jayhawk
- 03-19-17
Real Life
It's kind of like when Jerry's guitar would scream in agony followed by his own eerie moan, "Death don't have no mercy in this land. Come to your house and it don't take long. Wake up one morning and everybody be gone." We all pretend in public that everything is okay, rarely mentioning outside of family circles the trauma, insanity, depravity, and disease. It was refreshing to read a realistic novel about the nuances that make up this life, whatever this may be.
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- Jessica
- 02-22-13
Quick and Enjoyable
I don't really have a lot to say about this one. The narration was great. The story was a little sad and very touching. I'm glad I listened to it, but I don't think it will stick with me for a long time.
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- Heather W. Rudulph
- 12-06-17
Beautiful, true depiction of humanity
Jami Attenberg is one of the most sincere voices in literature today, and with Molly Ringwald performing her words? (Presses fingers to lips, making kissy sound) Perfection!
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- Melmonie
- 08-09-19
nothing new, mildly irritating
just another story about...
angry kids of divorce.
an overweight, overbearing wife.
a slender-ish, unfavored dad
Mechanical Judaism as identity.
"you're killing yourself!"
moody teenage girls.
"can I love again????"
overall, not the worst thing I've read, but it's really not for me.
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2 people found this helpful
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- j.rae.lam
- 11-12-12
I expected a lot & got little
The review says "pitch perfect prose, huge compassion & sly humor" - I did not find these qualities in the book and found it largely depressing but for a moment or two of compassion ... forget about humor; sly or otherwise
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1 person found this helpful
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- Gina L. Ritter
- 09-15-18
Listening without chapter headings
It was so hard to listen to this book. Chapters dissolved into other chapters without acknowledgment. It was so hard to listen to. I loved Molly reading it, but next time include chapter headings for a better listening experience.
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- Aimee L.
- 06-03-18
Oy vey! This book was awful!
I absolutely hated this book. It was one of the worst books I have ever listened to. I did not connect with any of the characters, and I was completely uninvested in their stories. I seriously could not wait for the book to end. What infuriated me most was that I chose to listen to this book through Audible rather than read it, and Molly Ringwald was beyond unprepared to narrate it. Ms. Ringwald mispronounced almost every one of the Jewish/ethnic words that were scattered throughout the entire book. It was unnerving that she cared so little about the authenticity of her performance, and shame on Audible for allowing such a sub-par narration to be finalized. Ms. Ringwald's pronunciation errors pulled me out of the story line rather than enhance it. I am so ready to move on to my next read. It has to be better than this.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Lee
- 01-02-13
Read this if you like feeling depressed
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Molly Ringwald?
Molly Ringwald read in a flat tone that reflected the flatness of the characters and of the story. The director did not tell Ms. Ringwald how to pronounce the Yiddish and Hebrew words correctly - and this was a book about Chicago Jews!
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
This book was the "Debbie Downer" (if you remember this skit on "Saturday Night Live") of books. The characters were depressing and there was no humor. The entire book was just character sketches. The point of view shifted from one character to another and the author gave back story for each, which halted any forward momentum and prevented this reader from becoming invested in the characters because we were often told what had happened to them rather than being a part of the action. Even the first hand action that did occur was meandering, with no clear goal for the story and no ramping up of tension. It was just a story about depressing people with depressing lives. To me, that's not a story.
It was like paying for a ticket for a scenic train ride through rolling hills and getting a ride on a slow train in an underground subway with banal signs inside the cabin and rare glimpses of the various characters painted on the tunnel walls that pass by you too quickly.
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