Riddim & Riddles
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Narrated by:
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Owen Blakka Ellis
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Paula Anne Porter Jones
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Jo-Anne Williams
About this listen
The poems in Riddim & Riddles throb with the heartbeat and drum beat of Jamaica. From the cool, majestic Blue Mountains to the hot, bloodied streets of Kingston it paints vivid and vibrant images of contemporary Jamaica. The poems in this collection move from urgent social insights about masculinity, the environment, and how the bony fingers of history reach into the present. The poetry collection also includes the personal, the romantic, erotic, and the comic—including Owen Blakka Ellis' "Gateman". They mark Owen Blakka Ellis as a clear inheritor of dub, poetry, and music, but with a distinctive voice of his own.
Owen Blakka Ellis explores Caribbean Black masculinity, childhood trauma, Jamaican history and how art can create healing. Herein breathe the rhythms and the riddles of life…and maybe even some revelations.
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When Robots Read, and I'm a Fan of Robots...
- By Jonathan on 03-26-13
By: Jean Toomer
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Song of the Exile
- By: Kiana Davenport
- Narrated by: Cristine McMurdo-Wallis
- Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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This beautiful and haunting novel bares the soul of a Hawaiian-American family during World War II. As you share in the Meahuna family's misfortunes and triumphs, a sense of intense intimacy evolves. Cristine McMurdo-Wallis lets you savor the family members' remarkable, heartwrenching stories as they are revealed piece by piece in language rich with sensuous detail.
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Stunning Historical Novel
- By Mimi Routh on 05-27-19
By: Kiana Davenport
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She Walks in Beauty
- A Woman's Journey Through Poems
- By: Adrienne Rich, Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, and others
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd, Campbell Scott, Jane Alexander, and others
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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She Walks in Beauty draws on poetry’s eloquent wisdom to ponder the many joys and challenges of being a woman. Caroline Kennedy has divided the collection into sections that signify to her the most notable milestones, passages, and universal experiences in a woman’s life, and she begins each of these sections with an introduction in which she explores and celebrates the most important elements of life’s journey.
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Still struggling with poetry
- By Beatrice on 01-30-12
By: Adrienne Rich, and others
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Leaves of Grass
- By: Walt Whitman
- Narrated by: Ed Begley
- Length: 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Walt Whitman's celebrated poetry collection, read by Ed Begley.
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It is NOT unabridged.
- By Mark D Worthen PsyD on 09-19-15
By: Walt Whitman
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The Book of Job
- By: Stephen Mitchell - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Coyote
- Length: 1 hr and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Perhaps no other Biblical tale penetrates so deeply into the everyday travails of the common person as The Book of Job. It tells the story of a righteous man beset by torment and misfortune through no fault of his own. This parable of bad things happening to a good person addresses the eternal question of why we are here, and why we suffer. This translation is by Stephen Mitchell.
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Phenominal !!!
- By Kirill on 08-10-04
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Zorba the Greek
- By: Nikos Kazantzakis
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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A wonderful tale of a young man’s coming of age, Zorba the Greek has been a classic of world literature since it was first translated into English in 1952 and made into an unforgettable movie with Anthony Quinn. Zorba, an irrepressible, earthy hedonist, sweeps his young disciple along as he wines, dines, and loves his way through a life dedicated to fulfilling his copious appetites. Zorba is irresistible in this charming audio production by veteran narrator George Guidall.
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Drink life to the lees
- By Scot Potts on 04-25-13
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Spoon River Anthology
- By: Edgar Lee Masters
- Narrated by: Patrick Fraley, Edward Asner
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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From a cemetery in a mythical small town in Illinois, the dead speak about their lives. Each free-verse monologue stands as an epitaph for the person speaking, yet the play is ultimately about life, not death. Featuring 50 performers with specially commissioned original music, this is the only audio version of this landmark classic available.
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Magnificent American poetry
- By Admiral Pike on 04-14-05
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Bad Indians
- A Tribal Memoir
- By: Deborah A. Miranda
- Narrated by: Deborah Miranda
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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This beautiful and devastating book - part tribal history, part lyric and intimate memoir - should be required for anyone seeking to learn about California Indian history, past and present. Deborah A. Miranda tells stories of her Ohlone Costanoan Esselen family as well as the experience of California Indians as a whole through oral histories, newspaper clippings, anthropological recordings, personal reflections, and poems. The result is a work of literary art that is wise, angry, and playful all at once, a compilation that will break your heart and teach you to see the world anew.
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Bad recording
- By Aspyn Maes on 09-18-21
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Leaves of Grass
- By: Walt Whitman
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the great innovators in American letters, Walt Whitman created a daringly new kind of poetry that became a major force in world literature. Leaves of Grass is his masterpiece, written in a pure, uninhibited style, combining sensual and mystical sensibilities. Its bold, joyous voice, its expansive optimism, and its transcendental vision made it uniquely American.
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No chapters! Can't skip to a particular poem :(
- By April Antoniou on 02-08-13
By: Walt Whitman
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The Death of Artemio Cruz
- A Novel
- By: Carlos Fuentes, Alfred MacAdam - translator
- Narrated by: Tony Chiroldes
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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As the novel opens, Artemio Cruz, the all-powerful newspaper magnate and land baron, lies confined to his bed and, in dreamlike flashes, recalls the pivotal episodes of his life. Carlos Fuentes manipulates the ensuing kaleidoscope of images with dazzling inventiveness, layering memory upon memory, from Cruz’s heroic campaigns during the Mexican Revolution, through his relentless climb from poverty to wealth, to his uneasy death. Perhaps Fuentes’ masterpiece, The Death of Artemio Cruz is a haunting voyage into the soul of modern Mexico.
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Great Writing
- By Kelly B. on 05-01-14
By: Carlos Fuentes, and others