
My Kind of Place
Travel Stories from a Woman Who's Been Everywhere
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Narrated by:
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Susan Orlean
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By:
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Susan Orlean
About this listen
With Orlean as guide, lucky listeners partake in all manner of armchair activity. They will trawl Icelandic waters with Keiko, everyone's favorite whale, as he tries to make it on his own; stay awhile in Midland, Texas, hometown of George W. Bush, a place where oil time is the only time that matters; and stalk caged tigers in Jackson, New Jersey, a suburban town with one of the highest concentrations anywhere in the world of tigers per square mile.
Vivid, humorous, unconventional, and incomparably entertaining, Susan Orlean's writings for The New Yorker have delighted readers for more than a decade. My Kind of Place is an inimitable treat by one of America's premier literary journalists.
©2004 Susan Orlean (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.
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Learned so Much from this Work
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Some good points, but not a great book
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Great except for an audio glitch
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Excellent, as always
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On Animals
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“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.
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Learned so Much from this Work
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Fuzz
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Overall
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What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
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The footnotes
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The Demon-Haunted World
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Great except for an audio glitch
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By: David Sedaris
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Calypso
- By: David Sedaris
- Narrated by: David Sedaris
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Excellent, as always
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Overall
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Devout Fan Disappointed
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Theft by Finding
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For nearly four decades, David Sedaris has faithfully kept a diary in which he records his thoughts and observations on the odd and funny events he witnesses. Anyone who has attended a live Sedaris event knows that his diary readings are often among the most joyful parts of the evening. But never before have they been available in print. Now, in Theft by Finding, Sedaris brings us his favorite entries. From deeply poignant to laugh-out-loud funny, these selections reveal with new intimacy a man longtime fans only think they know.
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Don't hate me but...
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When You Are Engulfed in Flames
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Once again, David Sedaris brings together a collection of essays so uproariously funny and profoundly moving that his legions of fans will fall for him all over again. He tests the limits of love when Hugh lances a boil from his backside, and pushes the boundaries of laziness when, finding the water shut off in his house in Normandy, he looks to the water in a vase of fresh cut flowers to fill the coffee machine.
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Don't Start with this One
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Uncommon Type
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A collection of 17 wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. The short stories are surprising, intelligent, heartwarming, and, for the millions and millions of Tom Hanks fans, an absolute must-have!
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Old fashioned romp of stories, some real gems!
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Naked
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Welcome to the hilarious, strange, elegiac, outrageous world of David Sedaris. In Naked, Sedaris turns the current mania for the memoir on its proverbial ear, mining the exceedingly rich terrain of his life, his family, and his unique worldview, a sensibility at once take-no-prisoners sharp and deeply charitable.
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Not the whole book
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The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
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Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century, 1951, in the middle of the United States, Des Moines, Iowa, in the middle of the largest generation in American history, the baby boomers. As one of the best and funniest writers alive, his is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for 24-carat memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero.
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Fun, but not for squeamish
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What's So Funny?
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Not narrated by Tim
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Tibetan Peach Pie
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Internationally best-selling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins delivers the long-awaited tale of his wild life and times, both at home and around the globe. The grandchild of Baptist preachers, Robbins would become over the course of half a century a poet-interruptus, an air force weatherman, a radio DJ, an art-critic-turned-psychedelic-journeyman, a world-famous novelist, and a counter-culture hero, leading a life as unlikely, magical, and bizarre as those of his quixotic characters.
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This isn't a book, it's a complete experience
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Knitlandia
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- By: Clara Parkes
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Building on the success of The Yarn Whisperer, Clara Parkes' rich personal essays invite listeners and devoted crafters on excursions to be savored, from a guide who quickly comes to feel like a trusted confidante. In Knitlandia, she takes listeners along on 17 of her most memorable journeys across the globe over the last 15 years, with stories spanning from the fjords of Iceland to a cozy yarn shop in Paris' 13th arrondissement.
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Disappointing
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Don't Get Too Comfortable (Unabridged Selections)
- The Indignities of Coach Class, The Torments of Low Thread Count, The Never- Ending Quest for Artisanal Olive Oil, and Other First World Problems
- By: David Rakoff
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- Length: 4 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
David Rakoff's best-selling collection of autobiographical essays, Fraud, established him as one of today's funniest and most insightful writers. Now, in Don't Get Too Comfortable, Rakoff moves from the personal to the public, journeying into the land of unchecked plenty that is contemporary America. Rarely have greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity been so mercilessly and wittily skewered.
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PJ O'Rourke has nothing to worry about
- By dgc on 10-07-05
By: David Rakoff
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This Love Is Not for Cowards
- Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juárez
- By: Robert Andrew Powell
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As Mexico has descended into a feudal narco-state - one where cartels, death squads, the army, and local police all fight over billions of dollars in profits from drug and human trafficking - the border city of Jurez has been hit hardest of all. And yet, more than a million people still live there. They even love their impoverished city, proudly repeating its mantra: "Amor por Jurez." Nothing exemplifies the spirit and hope of Juarenses more than the Indios, the city's beloved but hard-luck soccer team.
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Loved it
- By Nathan & Kira Huggins on 04-14-15
Critic reviews
"Orlean's essays are rich in color, metaphor, and crafty language....An insightful collection by an exceptional essayist." (Publishers Weekly)
What listeners say about My Kind of Place
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Rick
- 07-29-21
NOT Unabridged.
I love this audiobook and owned it on CDs when it was first released. That CD version of the audiobook (with the same reading by author) WAS unabridged. So why in the world would audible butcher the complete reading by releasing this incomplete version when they already had the complete version??? I wish I knew. It is very, very annoying and very stupid. This abridged contains numerous complete essays, but only half of them.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Pam
- 03-12-05
Not Really Travel Writing
These stories seemed more of the human interest type than "travel writing." However, they were very interesting and entertaining. The wide variety of topics, from a tiger lady in NJ to fertility trekkers in Bhutan, were well narrated. Orlean was sure to give educating background and context to each of her stories, while also putting a human face to the issues. Well worth listening to!
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Erik N
- 01-09-06
Wonderful listening, but the music!
I almost gave up a few minutes into the book. Sometimes producers stick music on, and usually it's okay. But the opening of this book is played under some African guitar, and it sounds as if the author is struggling to be heard. And it went on, deep into the narrative, and at the end, it came back, spoiling the ending for me.
That said, the writing is wonderful, the piece on the tigers and the travels to Bhutan are real high points and the afterward is touching in the extreme (until you can't hear her over the music). Recommended, but with a plea to audiobook producers to remember that the words are the most important things, and not to drown them out.
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14 people found this helpful
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- Anne McGrath
- 02-13-18
Susan Orlean Always Delivers
Orlean's enthusiasm is infectious, her delivery engaging, and her writing smart, warm, and funny. Nice short pieces that are perfect for short drives.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Alexis Bradley
- 10-15-10
Great book! Hate music!
Loved this book. I'd love to read more from her. I just couldn't stand the music it kept playing after she started speaking.
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1 person found this helpful