
The Empress of Cooke County
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Brittany Pressley
About this listen
“Get ready to laugh! Elizabeth Bass Parman is a true Southern storyteller. I couldn’t have loved it more.” —Fannie Flagg, New York Times bestselling author
Posey Jarvis knows she’s the rightful empress of Cooke County . . . She just needs to make everyone else realize it too.
Thirty-eight-year-old Posey Jarvis is the self-appointed “empress” of rural Spark in Cooke County, Tennessee. She spends her days following every word about her idol and look-alike Jackie Kennedy, avoiding her stalwart husband Vern, and struggling to control her newly defiant daughter Callie Jane—all while sneaking nips of gin. When Posey unexpectedly inherits a derelict mansion from her quirky old aunt Milbrey, she finagles her way into hosting her high school’s twentieth reunion there. She cares nothing about seeing her classmates, but she cares deeply about seeing the love of her life, a man who dumped her nineteen years ago. Possums are nesting in the parlor and the stench of cat urine permeates the sunroom, but she must be ready for the big day, even if she has to do the work herself.
Eighteen-year-old Callie Jane finds herself accidentally engaged and is panicking about her fast-approaching wedding. She’s also had enough of her domineering mother. Even though she loves her father, the idea of working at his emporium for the rest of her life just makes her . . . so sad. She longs to escape from her mother, her job, her upcoming wedding, and the creepy Peeping Tom terrorizing the town. She dreams of leaving everything she’s ever known in her rearview mirror and starting over in California. But when her life has been mapped out for her from birth, how can she break free?
Set in a gossipy small town during the turbulent 1960s and full of Southern charm and unforgettable characters, The Empress of Cooke County is a novel about found family, what it means to be loved, and how being true to yourself can have life-altering consequences.
- Southern women’s fiction
- Stand-alone novel
- Book length: approximately 82,000 words
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs
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- By: Debbie Johnson
- Narrated by: Louise Williams
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
On paper, Gemma's life is just like any other successful, single thirtysomething. Her students adore her. She lives in a cute beachside cottage next door to the world's sweetest neighbor, Margie. And she's definitely caught the eye of Karim, the resident hot PE teacher at her school. But every day of her life, she can't get one thing out of her mind: the baby she gave up for adoption when Gemma was just sixteen years old. This is the year that Baby--the only name Gemma has for her little girl--will turn eighteen. And it might be the year she actually meets her daughter face-to-face.
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Completely unlikable main character
- By Abby on 03-19-25
By: Debbie Johnson
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Rules for Visiting
- A Novel
- By: Jessica Francis Kane
- Narrated by: Emily Rankin
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
At 40, May Attaway is more at home with plants than people. Over the years, she's turned inward, finding pleasure in language, her work as a gardener, and keeping her neighbors at arm's length while keenly observing them. But when she is unexpectedly granted some leave from her job, May is inspired to reconnect with four once close friends. She knows they will never have a proper reunion, so she goes, one by one, to each of them. A student of the classics, May considers her journey a female Odyssey.
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Charming, poignant, and utterly engaging
- By CDN on 06-22-19
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The Paris Novel
- By: Ruth Reichl
- Narrated by: Kiiri Sandy
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.
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Magical, but read the actual book do not listen
- By Gina DiMartino on 04-25-24
By: Ruth Reichl
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Whoever You Are, Honey
- A Novel
- By: Olivia Gatwood
- Narrated by: Olivia Gatwood
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On the Santa Cruz, California, waterfront, every house is a flawless glass monolith. Except for one. In a dilapidated bungalow, Mitty and her elderly roommate, Bethel, are the oddball pair who represent the last vestiges of a free-spirited town taken over by the tech elite. But their lives are about to be forever changed when a new couple, Sebastian and Lena, move in next door. Sebastian is a renowned tech founder and Lena is his girlfriend. But Lena has secrets; she feels uneasy about her oddly spotty memory and is growing increasingly wary of the way Sebastian controls their relationship.
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Interesting…..but kept me listening
- By Kate on 04-10-25
By: Olivia Gatwood
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The Spoiled Heart
- A Novel
- By: Sunjeev Sahota
- Narrated by: Esh Alladi
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nayan Olak keeps seeing Helen Fletcher around town. She’s returned with her teenage son to live in the run-down house at the end of the lane, and—though she’s strangely guarded—Nayan can’t help but be drawn to her. He hasn’t risked love since losing his young family in a terrible accident twenty years earlier.
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Misunderstandings lead to life altercations
- By A. L. Frati on 06-25-25
By: Sunjeev Sahota
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Marigold Mind Laundry
- A Novel
- By: Jungeun Yun, Shanna Tan - translator
- Narrated by: Sofia Jin
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Born with mysterious powers she does not know how to control, young Jieun accidentally causes her family to vanish. She vows to live a million lives in search of them. Finally, one night, she brings the Marigold Mind Laundry into existence. Its service: to remove the deepest pain from our hearts. Jieun listens while customers share their unhappy memories. As they speak, she transfers their sadness onto T-shirts as stains. After a spin in the washing machine, the stains become flower petals that soar into the air, and Jieun’s customers find solace.
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Sometimes finding what we want, means letting go of everything.
- By Rebecca A. Frager on 01-29-25
By: Jungeun Yun, and others
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Shiner
- A Novel
- By: Amy Jo Burns
- Narrated by: Catherine Taber
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
An hour from the closest West Virginia mining town, 15-year-old Wren Bird lives in a cloistered mountain cabin with her parents. Every Sunday, Wren's father delivers winding sermons in an abandoned gas station. But over the course of one summer, a miracle performed by Wren's father quickly turns to tragedy. As the order of her world begins to shatter, Wren must uncover the truth of her father's mysterious legend and her mother's harrowing history and complex bond with her best friend.
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Victim complexes extraordinaire
- By Dora on 08-21-20
By: Amy Jo Burns
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The Borrower
- A Novel
- By: Rebecca Makkai
- Narrated by: Kristen Sieh
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, 10-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan.
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Great story and great performance!
- By Anonymous User on 01-29-21
By: Rebecca Makkai
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Under the Southern Sky
- By: Kristy Woodson Harvey
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Michael Crouch, Rebekkah Ross, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Recently separated Amelia Saxton, a dedicated journalist, never expected that uncovering the biggest story of her career would become deeply personal. But when she discovers that a cluster of embryos belonging to her childhood friend Parker and his late wife Greer have been deemed “abandoned”, she’s put in the unenviable position of telling Parker - and dredging up old wounds in the process.
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WOW! Worth more than a credit
- By J&J on 04-27-21
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Dominoes
- A Novel
- By: Phoebe McIntosh
- Narrated by: Phoebe McIntosh
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Dominoes opens in London, twenty-nine days before a young couple’s wedding. Layla is a mixed-race woman—with a Black, Jamaican mother, and a white father she’s never met—and Andy is a white man of Scottish descent. When they first meet at a party, they can’t believe how instant their chemistry is, and how quickly their relationship unfolds. Funnily enough, they even share a last name: McKinnon.
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Good storyline, character development, and author reading.
- By Cammy Charcoal on 09-04-24
By: Phoebe McIntosh
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The Light of Luna Park
- By: Addison Armstrong
- Narrated by: Rachel L. Jacobs, Karissa Vacker
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
New York City, 1926. Nurse Althea Anderson's heart is near breaking when she witnesses another premature baby die at Bellevue Hospital. So when she reads an article detailing the amazing survival rates of babies treated in incubators in an exhibit at Luna Park, Coney Island, it feels like the miracle she has been searching for. But the doctors at Bellevue dismiss Althea and this unconventional medicine, forcing her to make a choice between a baby's life and the doctors' wishes that will change everything.
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So not believable and extremely sappy * Spoilers*
- By gogacks on 09-26-23
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Swimming in Paris
- A Life in Three Stories
- By: Colombe Schneck, Lauren Elkin - translator, Natasha Lehrer - translator
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Seventeen, Friendship, and Swimming, Colombe Schneck orchestrates a coming-of-age in three movements. Beautiful, masterfully controlled, yet filled with pathos, they invite the listener into a decades-long evolution of sexuality, bodily autonomy, friendship, and loss.
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a chronicle of transitions
- By Amazon Customer on 05-30-24
By: Colombe Schneck, and others
Wonderful characters and descriptions of the places where the story took place
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Southern small town charm
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A strong debut, and not the last I'll read by her.
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Surprise ending
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What a fun read! I couldn’t put it down!
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Captivating and Hilarious
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Good, clean and easy read.
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Excellent Must read/listen
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The narrator did a great job of making the mother’s character awful.
Stereotypes of southerners
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