This intense, detailed audiobook can be a difficult listen. It deals with one of the most pervasive and painful topics in U.S. history and culture--racism. With a measured and earnest delivery, narrator Jamie Renell leads listeners through 250 years of prejudiced and purposefully harmful national and local policy against Native Americans and African-Americans--all related to the city of St. Louis or its environs. The city was the jumping off point for innumerable Indian wars and ethnic cleansings. The 1853 Dred Scott decision that sent freed slaves back to their masters originated in St. Louis. Most recently, in 2014, Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson, illustrating how privilege, money, and violence continue to fuel racial inequality. Heartbreaking, urgent, essential listening.
Pub Date: April 14, 2020
Duration: 15 hrs, 45 mins
DD ISBN: 9781549156441
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Carol Matthau epitomizes a glamour and lifestyle not associated with the 1990's. Here is a life of privilege, tragedy and worry about what friends would think of her new frock or lover. Matthau possesses a voice and delivery that simply could not be improved on. In her coy whisper, she tells compelling stories involving everyone from William Saroyan (husband #1) and Truman Capote to Carson McCullers, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Walter Matthau (husband #2). This excellent audio presentation will leave you wanting to read the entire book to discover what juicy tidbits were left out.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: The Publishing Mills
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
More than 35 hours long, this comprehensive biography of Random House founder Bennett Cerf is equal to a workweek for many listeners. Cerf nurtured a roster of the 20th century's most consequential authors and was nationally known as a television panelist. His story is a fascinating panorama of American arts and society over 50 years, scrupulously researched but overburdened and slow. Listeners who've never heard of William Styron or Dorothy Kilgallen or the Famous Writers School will be fully educated here. Narrator Lisa Flanagan keeps a steady, unfussy pace that carries her listeners over the longueurs. But hers is a channel swim rather than a leisurely stroll through Central Park. This paunchy biography needed a stronger editorial hand.
Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
Duration: 35 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217346448
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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