
I've Tried Being Nice
(Among Other Things): Essays
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Narrated by:
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Ann Leary
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By:
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Ann Leary
About this listen
New York Times bestselling author Ann Leary offers a literary feast of humor and wisdom told from the perspective of a recovering people pleaser.
Having arrived at a certain age (her prime), Ann Leary casts a wry backward glance at a life spent trying—and often failing—to be nice. With wit and surprising candor, Leary recounts the bedlam of home bat invasions, an obsession with online personality tests, and the mortification of taking ballroom dance lessons with her actor husband. She describes hilarious red-carpet fiascos and other observations from the sidelines of fame, while also touching upon her more poignant struggles with alcoholism, her love for her family, her dogs, and so much more.
Prepare to laugh, cry, cringe and revel in the comically relatable chaos of Ann Leary’s life as revealed in this delightful collection of essays.
©2024 Ann Leary (P)2024 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Leslie Maitland is an award-winning former New York Times investigative reporter whose mother and grandparents fled Germany in 1938 for France, where, as Jews, they spent four years as refugees—the last two under risk of Nazi deportation. In 1942 they made it onto the last boat to escape France before the Germans sealed the harbors. Then, barred from entering the United States, they lived in Cuba for almost two years before immigrating to New York.
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I didn't want it to end..absolutely wonderful!
- By Ellen on 05-07-12
By: Leslie Maitland
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The New Rules of Aging Well
- A Simple Program for Immune Resilience, Strength, and Vitality
- By: Frank Lipman MD, Danielle Claro
- Narrated by: LJ Gasner
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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How you age is up to you. And it’s easy to take charge. From the renowned integrative doctor Frank Lipman comes a radically simple program to reverse the symptoms we reflexively call “normal aging,” including feeling achy, stiff, sluggish, weak, and vulnerable to chronic illness. This improves not only our life span but, more importantly, our health span—our quality of life and how we feel.
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Good for a psychology 101 class, maybe
- By Sharrie DeCouto on 06-26-21
By: Frank Lipman MD, and others
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Do Something
- Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of '70s New York
- By: Guy Trebay
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in the Bronx, Guy Trebay was raised in an atmosphere of privilege on Long Island’s North Shore after his entrepreneurial father struck business gold with Hawaiian Surf, a wildly successful cologne company that capitalized on the optimism of the 1960s as marketed to “an adventurous new breed of men.’’ But behind the facade of material prosperity lay the emotional disarray of a household dominated by a charismatic, con artist father, a glamorous yet lost and careless mother, a family haunted by tragedy.
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Heartache and heartbreak and the will to survive.
- By Polly B. on 07-05-24
By: Guy Trebay
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Girl with No Job
- The Crazy Beautiful Life of an Instagram Thirst Monster
- By: Claudia Oshry
- Narrated by: Claudia Oshry
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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As the creator of the breakout Instagram account @GirlWithNoJob, Claudia Oshry has turned not wanting an ordinary career into a thriving media company and pop culture-focused podcast and morning show. The origins of her pop culture obsessions can be traced back to household debates over boy bands and her flair for the dramatic to her young emulation of Blair Waldorf. When she started @GirlWithNoJob, Claudia entered that world as a social media influencer, sharing her unbelievable encounters with some of her favorite A-listers as she navigates her incredible access.
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Pretty boring
- By J.D. on 02-05-21
By: Claudia Oshry
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A Memoir of My Former Self
- A Life in Writing
- By: Hilary Mantel
- Narrated by: Anne Enright, Aurora Dawson-Hunte, Ben Miles, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In addition to her celebrated career as a novelist, Hilary Mantel contributed for years to newspapers and journals, unspooling stories from her own life and illuminating the world as she found it. “Ink is a generative fluid,” she explains. “If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.” A Memoir of My Former Self collects the finest of this writing over four decades.
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The writing. I would read the phone directory if Mantel wrote it. wonderful collection.
- By Anonymous User on 09-22-24
By: Hilary Mantel
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The Address Book
- What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power
- By: Deirdre Mask
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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An exuberant and insightful work of popular history of how streets got their names, houses their numbers, and what it reveals about class, race, power, and identity. When most people think about street addresses, if they think of them at all, it is in their capacity to ensure that the postman can deliver mail or a traveler won’t get lost. But street addresses were not invented to help you find your way; they were created to find you. In many parts of the world, your address can reveal your race and class.
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Simply OK
- By CJFLA on 07-18-20
By: Deirdre Mask
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Notes on a Silencing
- A Memoir
- By: Lacy Crawford
- Narrated by: Lacy Crawford
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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When Notes on a Silencing hit bookstores in the summer of 2020, even amidst a global pandemic, it sent shockwaves through the country. Not only did this intimate investigative memoir usher in a media storm of coverage, but it also prompted the elite St. Paul's School to issue a formal apology to the author, Lacy Crawford, for its handling of her report of sexual assault by two fellow students nearly 30 years ago.
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Everything about this book is magnificent
- By swimmergal on 08-15-20
By: Lacy Crawford
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The Hard Parts
- A Memoir of Courage and Triumph
- By: Oksana Masters, Cassidy Randall - contributor
- Narrated by: Emily Tremaine, Oksana Masters
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Oksana Masters was born in Ukraine—in the shadow of Chernobyl—seemingly with the odds stacked against her. She came into the world with one kidney, a partial stomach, six toes on each foot, webbed fingers, no right bicep, and no thumbs. Her left leg was six inches shorter than her right, and she was missing both tibias.
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Strength is Oksana Masters
- By Trina Bull on 02-01-25
By: Oksana Masters, and others
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Lust & Wonder
- A Memoir
- By: Augusten Burroughs
- Narrated by: Augusten Burroughs
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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From the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author comes an intimate look at the driving forces in one man’s life. With Augusten's unique and singular observations and his own unabashed way of detailing both the horrific and the humorous, Lust and Wonder is a hilariously frank audiobook memoir that his legions of fans have been waiting for. His story began in Running with Scissors, endured through Dry, and continues with this memoir, the capstone to the life of Augusten Burroughs.
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Relentlessly Tedious
- By River Holmes-miller on 03-31-16
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Hold Still
- A Memoir with Photographs
- By: Sally Mann
- Narrated by: Sally Mann
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In this groundbreaking audiobook, a unique interplay of narrative and image, Mann's preoccupation with family, race, mortality, and the storied landscape of the American South are revealed as almost genetically predetermined, written into her DNA by the family history that precedes her.
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Brilliant. But what's up with the PDF?
- By ARK on 06-27-15
By: Sally Mann
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Written in Bone
- Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind
- By: Sue Black
- Narrated by: Sue Black
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In her memoir All That Remains, internationally renowned forensic anthropologist and human anatomist Dame Sue Black recounted her life lived eye to eye with the Grim Reaper. During the course of it, she offered a primer on the basics of identifying human remains, plenty of insights into the fascinating processes of death, and a sober, compassionate understanding of its inescapable presence in our existence. Now in this book, Black builds on that memoir, taking us on a guided tour of the human skeleton and explaining how each person's life history is revealed in their bones.
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A very human story by a very believable human
- By Gary on 09-21-21
By: Sue Black
What listeners say about I've Tried Being Nice
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- gss
- 06-24-24
Big Leary Fan
Enjoyed essays found myself laughing out loud while listening..
I have enjoyed Ann Leary’s books more when she’s not the narrator.
I get it-it’s dry humor but I find Ann’s reading gets monotonous. Still a huge fan of all her books and of Rescue Me!
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- B. Saxon
- 06-18-24
I’ve tried being Nice!
This was absolutely a fun fun book, and so relatable. Ann Leary is not only enjoyable in her writing, but her own narration was spot on!!!
I’ll admit I had never heard of this author, and I downloaded the book for free only because of the title, as that is my mantra daily! Haha . I was out of credits so looking for free audio books, and I have to say this was a delicious surprise. Very few times do I luck out on the freebies , but BINGO on this one. I’ve already purchased “The Good House” and several others of hers are on my wish list!
Funny, realistic, honest, heart warming and lovely! Thank you Ann Leary.
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- S. Denora
- 07-05-24
Funny. Thought provoking.
Really liked her voice — in reading and writing. Love that she puts her own foibles out there — just like ours.
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- Jennifer Benton
- 02-08-25
Funny and charming
Made me chuckle often, laugh out loud once in a while and engaging all the way through. The essays are also interesting on a wide variety of topics from her life, very relatable.
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