
Nine Parts of Desire
The Hidden World of Islamic Women
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $19.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Geraldine Brooks
-
By:
-
Geraldine Brooks
About this listen
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women is the story of Brooks’ intrepid journey toward an understanding of the women behind the veils, and of the often contradictory political, religious, and cultural forces that shape their lives. In fundamentalist Iran, Brooks finagles an invitation to tea with the ayatollah’s widow—and discovers that Mrs. Khomeini dyes her hair.
In Saudi Arabia, she eludes the severe segregation of the sexes and attends a bacchanal, laying bare the hypocrisy of this austere, male-dominated society. In war-torn Ethiopia, she watches as a female gynecologist repairs women who have undergone genital mutilation justified by a distorted interpretation of Islam.
In villages and capitals throughout the Middle East, she finds that a feminism of sorts has flowered under the forbidding shroud of the chador as she makes other startling discoveries that defy our stereotypes about the Muslim world. Nine Parts of Desire is much more than a captivating work of firsthand reportage; it is also an acute analysis of the world’s fastest-growing religion, deftly illustrating how Islam’s holiest texts have been misused to justify the repression of women. It was, after all, the Shiite leader Ali who proclaimed that “God created sexual desire in ten parts, then gave nine parts to women.”
©1995 Copyright © Geraldine Brooks 1995, 2008, 2011. (P)2012 Bolinda Publishing Pty LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
Year of Wonders
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.
-
-
Great Story- Awful Narrator
- By Diana Dunn on 07-12-12
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
People of the Book
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Edwina Wren
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.
-
-
Amazing, fabulous, wonderful!!!
- By Yvette on 03-13-09
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Horse
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
-
-
Love Geraldine Brooks
- By Regina on 06-25-22
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
The Secret Chord
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times best-selling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
-
-
Fictional Narrative of a great biblical character
- By Mildred Enriquez on 12-28-16
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
March
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Richard Easton
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.
-
-
Great book, greatly narrated
- By Paula on 07-30-06
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Caleb's Crossing
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex....
-
-
Sadly, I can't go on listening.
- By Susan C. S. on 06-22-11
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Year of Wonders
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.
-
-
Great Story- Awful Narrator
- By Diana Dunn on 07-12-12
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
People of the Book
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Edwina Wren
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.
-
-
Amazing, fabulous, wonderful!!!
- By Yvette on 03-13-09
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Horse
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
-
-
Love Geraldine Brooks
- By Regina on 06-25-22
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
The Secret Chord
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times best-selling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
-
-
Fictional Narrative of a great biblical character
- By Mildred Enriquez on 12-28-16
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
March
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Richard Easton
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.
-
-
Great book, greatly narrated
- By Paula on 07-30-06
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Caleb's Crossing
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex....
-
-
Sadly, I can't go on listening.
- By Susan C. S. on 06-22-11
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Foreign Correspondence
- A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young girl in a working-class neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks longed to discover the places where history happens and culture comes from, so she enlisted pen pals who offered her a window on adolescence in the Middle East, Europe, and America. Twenty years later, Brooks, an award-winning foreign correspondent, embarked on a human treasure hunt to find her pen friends. She found men and women whose lives had been shaped by war and hatred, by fame and notoriety, and by the ravages of mental illness.
-
-
the review synopsis does not reflect the book
- By BT on 04-05-21
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Tom Lake
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Meryl Streep
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.
-
-
So incredibly boring
- By Rhonda Morrison on 08-05-23
By: Ann Patchett
-
The Covenant of Water
- By: Abraham Verghese
- Narrated by: Abraham Verghese
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning—and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a twelve-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her forty-year-old husband for the first time.
-
-
Story Telling At Its Best
- By Regina on 05-06-23
By: Abraham Verghese
-
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
-
-
Multiple Stories Obfuscate Narrative
- By Stephnsea on 08-12-23
By: James McBride
-
Lessons in Chemistry
- A Novel
- By: Bonnie Garmus
- Narrated by: Miranda Raison, Bonnie Garmus, Pandora Sykes
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
-
-
Making my 3 adult daughters read this
- By Teresa H. on 04-07-22
By: Bonnie Garmus
-
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
-
-
Before Purchasing
- By JLDLOfficial on 08-13-22
By: Hernan Diaz
-
Lady Tan's Circle of Women
- By: Lisa See
- Narrated by: Jennifer Lim, Justin Chien
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to Confucius, “an educated woman is a worthless woman,” but Tan Yunxian—born into an elite family, yet haunted by death, separations, and loneliness—is being raised by her grandparents to be of use. Her grandmother is one of only a handful of female doctors in China, and she teaches Yunxian the pillars of Chinese medicine, the Four Examinations—looking, listening, touching, and asking—something a man can never do with a female patient.
-
-
Another Beautiful Novel from Lisa See!
- By TuxedoedCorgi95 on 06-06-23
By: Lisa See
-
Infidel
- By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Narrated by: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This New York Times best-seller is the astonishing life story of award-winning humanitarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali. A deeply respected advocate for free speech and women's rights, Hirsi Ali also lives under armed protection because of her outspoken criticism of the Islamic faith in which she was raised.
-
-
Tough, Candid Assessment
- By Paul Mullen on 02-18-08
By: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
-
Sunflower Sisters
- A Novel
- By: Martha Hall Kelly
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Shayna Small, Jenna Lamia, and others
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgeanna “Georgey” Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and the demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving them wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, DC, to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort.
-
-
It is a hard book to "listen" to.
- By Anna on 04-09-21
-
The Handmaid's Tale: Special Edition
- By: Margaret Atwood, Valerie Martin - essay
- Narrated by: Claire Danes, full cast, Margaret Atwood, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a violent coup in the United States overthrows the Constitution and ushers in a new government regime, the Republic of Gilead imposes subservient roles on all women. Offred, now a Handmaid tasked with the singular role of procreation in the childless household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost everything, even her own name.
-
-
Wait! It Mightn't Be What You Think--
- By Gillian on 04-05-17
By: Margaret Atwood, and others
-
Fall of Giants
- Book One of the Century Trilogy
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 30 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ken Follett's World Without End was a global phenomenon, a work of grand historical sweep beloved by millions of readers and acclaimed by critics. Fall of Giants is his magnificent new historical epic. The first novel in The Century Trilogy, it follows the fates of five interrelated families - American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh - as they move through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage.
-
-
Loved it and learned alot.
- By Louis on 10-19-10
By: Ken Follett
-
Jesus and the Essenes
- By: Dolores Cannon
- Narrated by: Carol Morrison, Saundra Kaye, Ted Snow
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This extraordinary document represents a new form of historical research and straightens out many open questions and misinterpretations. It takes the form of direct dialogues between a modern researcher and a member of the Qumran Essene community. Alive around the time of Christ, this community has become the focus of ideas about the connection of Jesus' teachings to earlier traditions.
-
-
everyone should read or listen to this
- By Fractal Cat on 03-24-19
By: Dolores Cannon
Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
March
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Richard Easton
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.
-
-
Great book, greatly narrated
- By Paula on 07-30-06
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Caleb's Crossing
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex....
-
-
Sadly, I can't go on listening.
- By Susan C. S. on 06-22-11
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
The Secret Chord
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times best-selling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
-
-
Fictional Narrative of a great biblical character
- By Mildred Enriquez on 12-28-16
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
People of the Book
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Edwina Wren
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.
-
-
Amazing, fabulous, wonderful!!!
- By Yvette on 03-13-09
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Foreign Correspondence
- A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young girl in a working-class neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks longed to discover the places where history happens and culture comes from, so she enlisted pen pals who offered her a window on adolescence in the Middle East, Europe, and America. Twenty years later, Brooks, an award-winning foreign correspondent, embarked on a human treasure hunt to find her pen friends. She found men and women whose lives had been shaped by war and hatred, by fame and notoriety, and by the ravages of mental illness.
-
-
the review synopsis does not reflect the book
- By BT on 04-05-21
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Year of Wonders
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.
-
-
Great Story- Awful Narrator
- By Diana Dunn on 07-12-12
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
March
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Richard Easton
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic Little Women, Geraldine Brooks has animated the character of the absent father, March, and crafted a story "filled with the ache of love and marriage and with the power of war upon the mind and heart of one unforgettable man" (Sue Monk Kidd). With "pitch-perfect writing" (USA Today), Brooks follows March as he leaves behind his family to aid the Union cause in the Civil War. His experiences will utterly change his marriage and challenge his most ardently held beliefs.
-
-
Great book, greatly narrated
- By Paula on 07-30-06
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Caleb's Crossing
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ehle
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex....
-
-
Sadly, I can't go on listening.
- By Susan C. S. on 06-22-11
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
The Secret Chord
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With more than two million copies of her novels sold, New York Times best-selling author Geraldine Brooks has achieved both popular and critical acclaim. Now, Brooks takes on one of literature's richest and most enigmatic figures: a man who shimmers between history and legend. Peeling away the myth to bring David to life in Second Iron Age Israel, Brooks traces the arc of his journey from obscurity to fame, from shepherd to soldier, from hero to traitor, from beloved king to murderous despot and into his remorseful and diminished dotage.
-
-
Fictional Narrative of a great biblical character
- By Mildred Enriquez on 12-28-16
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
People of the Book
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Edwina Wren
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.
-
-
Amazing, fabulous, wonderful!!!
- By Yvette on 03-13-09
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Foreign Correspondence
- A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a young girl in a working-class neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks longed to discover the places where history happens and culture comes from, so she enlisted pen pals who offered her a window on adolescence in the Middle East, Europe, and America. Twenty years later, Brooks, an award-winning foreign correspondent, embarked on a human treasure hunt to find her pen friends. She found men and women whose lives had been shaped by war and hatred, by fame and notoriety, and by the ravages of mental illness.
-
-
the review synopsis does not reflect the book
- By BT on 04-05-21
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Year of Wonders
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When an infected bolt of cloth carries plague from London to an isolated village, a housemaid named Anna Frith emerges as an unlikely heroine and healer. Through Anna's eyes we follow the story of the fateful year of 1666, as she and her fellow villagers confront the spread of disease and superstition. As death reaches into every household and villagers turn from prayers to murderous witch-hunting, Anna must find the strength to confront the disintegration of her community and the lure of illicit love.
-
-
Great Story- Awful Narrator
- By Diana Dunn on 07-12-12
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Memorial Days
- A Memoir
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: Geraldine Brooks
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz–just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy–collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.
-
-
Uninspired, mediocre writing.
- By C. Tyler on 03-04-25
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
Horse
- A Novel
- By: Geraldine Brooks
- Narrated by: James Fouhey, Lisa Flanagan, Graham Halstead, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an itinerant young artist who has made his name on paintings of the racehorse takes up arms for the Union. On a perilous night, he reunites with the stallion and his groom, very far from the glamor of any racetrack.
-
-
Love Geraldine Brooks
- By Regina on 06-25-22
By: Geraldine Brooks
-
An American Bride in Kabul
- By: Phyllis Chesler PhD
- Narrated by: Janet Metzger
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few westerners will ever be able to understand Muslim or Afghan society unless they are part of a Muslim family. Twenty years old and in love, Phyllis Chesler, a Jewish-American girl from Brooklyn, embarked on an adventure that has lasted for more than a half-century. Drawing upon her personal diaries, Chesler recounts her ordeal, the nature of gender apartheid - and her longing to explore this beautiful, ancient, and exotic country and culture.
-
-
An Exceptional Book
- By Elaine Fresco on 04-16-19
-
Confederates in the Attic
- Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: Arthur Addison
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When prize-winning war correspondent Tony Horwitz leaves the battlefields of Bosnia and the Middle East for a peaceful corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he thinks he's put war zones behind him. But awakened one morning by the crackle of musket fire, Horwitz starts filing front-line dispatches again this time from a war close to home, and to his own heart.
-
-
A Must Read for Civil War Buffs!
- By Ms Winston on 12-06-14
By: Tony Horwitz
-
Inside the Kingdom
- My Life In Saudi Arabia
- By: Carmen bin Ladin
- Narrated by: Shohreh Aghdashloo
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On September 11, 2001, Carmen bin Ladin heard the news that the Twin Towers had been struck. She instinctively knew that her brother-in-law was involved in these horrifying acts of terrorism, and her heart went out to America. She also knew that her life and the lives of her daughters would never be the same again.
-
-
An inside view of the Saudi women's life
- By Richard on 08-04-04
By: Carmen bin Ladin
-
The Snow Child
- By: Eowyn Ivey
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods.
-
-
WOW!!! A MUST Listen - even better than reading.
- By Edmund W. Cheung on 02-13-19
By: Eowyn Ivey
What listeners say about Nine Parts of Desire
Highly rated for:
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Happy in Philly
- 06-10-20
Engaging and informative
The narrators voice is very engaging and I was led onward into the story because of her cadence and tone.
The stories were troublesome and enlightening throughout the entire book! I am looking forward to listening to this non-fiction publication and have recommended it to numerous women friends!
Thank you so much for such a thorough book for those of us who see this topic as an unknown territory. I think those who do know it will find it extremely informative as well!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Minivan Lee
- 10-03-12
I would read this again.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
.
Any additional comments?
I love Geraldine Brooks. I read "Year of Wonders" and was hooked on this author. She is also the narrator in that book as well. Geraldine is a superb author and, quite frankly, her voice soothes me. It does. I learned much about Islam and the dark under belly of that religion, but also the lives of women in the Middle East. Geraldine is my favorite author to day
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Maureen L.
- 11-22-20
A good read
A glimpse into a world where few foreigners get a chance to experience. Touching in places and horrific in others. A definite conversation starter.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Verna
- 09-26-13
Auto-ethnography and good research
Would you listen to Nine Parts of Desire again? Why?
I've listened to this book several times and found something new in each re-telling. It's powerful because much of the book is drawn from Ms Brooks' own experience, then it's coupled with some excellent research of the context. So the book has strong credibility. She's not judgemental in the telling - it's a finely drawn balance of experience, what others say, her opinion, and giving the other side of the story. Well done on this one!
What was one of the most memorable moments of Nine Parts of Desire?
The discussion about female genital mutilation, the clear assertion that this has nothing to do with Islam (which I knew - it's also practiced in other communities, includeing some christian communities; it's more a cultural practice). But it was Ms Brooks' lived experience in many islamic countries that makes the book memorable. Her descriptions of the 'unveiling' of women - their private lives.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I found I wanted to tap into this book at intervals. It was thought-provoking, so needed some 'soak time' to enable me to digest the messages.
Any additional comments?
Good on Ms Brooks reading her own book. Given it's her story that's appropriate. She's not the best narrator in the universe, but does a very reasonable job. Knowing it was her voice delivering her story and her message gives the book additional credibility in this audio version.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Beatriz
- 03-09-17
A good book badly read.
I am very curious about the lives of women in Islamic countries, that's why I bought this book but I got somehow lost among so many names and other unimportant information that permeates the narrative of very interesting facts. In my opinion, although the overall review of the book is good, Ms Brooks's reading is really discouraging! She reads in a very monotonous voice and doesn't pronounce the whole sentences in a clear and vivid way, as it should be to grasp the listener's attention. She reads her own book as if she was tired and bored of it. This book deserved a better performance.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jana R Kelley
- 12-31-18
Very informative
The author seems to try to write objectively and I appreciate that. She has lots of personal experience which adds so much to this. This should be required reading for any woman moving to the Middle East.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 07-24-23
excellent, thought-provoking
I wasn't sure about this book when my Book Club chose it, but I am glad and more knowledgeable now after reading it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- CW
- 06-24-21
As an Iranian woman born a few years after the revolution
I have read this book with skepticism. A book that tells the story of women in countries like my homeland, written 2 decades ago can be damaging to the image of the people of these countries. But I should say the book was fair, and true to the parts I could judge. I loved her narration and her perspective.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Curious in TN
- 08-23-24
I fell asleep repeatedly while listening
This did provide important glimpses into how women in Middle Eastern countries were living 20 years ago. But somehow I found it hard to stay focused while listening.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carl
- 12-30-13
Well worth your time
Geraldine spent many years living in the middle east meeting with the important men of the day and many of their wives or widows as well as the everyday women in all walks of life. She goes back to the Qumran and compares what it says with the various practices in countries. She follows successful women who take the veil as well as other women trying to throw it off.
It has been updated and she discusses the trend toward conservative thought.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful