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Title: Van Gogh's Inner Struggle

Subtitle: Secrets of Van Gogh, Book 2

Author: Liesbeth Heenk

Narrator: Denise Kahn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-06-17

Publisher: Amsterdam Publishers

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

A fascinating look into the life of a tortured genius.

Using Van Gogh's letters as a primary source, the author discusses the artist's life, his approach to his work, and his mental illness. The letters vividly show the artist's life was no bed of roses. Whereas Van Gogh perfectly knew what was sellable, he continued to produce what he considered as honest, truthful art, regardless of current taste. He did not expect the art-buying public to understand the rough appearance of his work. Van Gogh acknowledged that being an artist simply involved struggle, but he believed that one would benefit from adversity, both personally and professionally.

"No victory without a battle, no battle without suffering."

In Van Gogh's case, it seems to have been a never-ending battle against poverty, isolation, and adversity. Given his circumstances - being financially dependent upon his brother Theo, not selling any work, and getting minimal recognition - his achievements are utterly amazing.

The Secrets of Van Gogh series:

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Title: Mansfield Park

Author: Jane Austen

Narrator: Alison Larkin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-05-17

Publisher: Alison Larkin Presents

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Award-winning Jane Austen narrator Alison Larkin is back with this hugely entertaining recording of Mansfield Park, followed by fascinating bonus material!

Eleven-year-old Fanny Price is "adopted" by wealthy relatives and leaves her life of poverty in Portsmouth for a much better life at Mansfield Park. Dependent, vulnerable, and often ignored, her only true friend in her new family is her cousin Edmund. When the reckless, flirtatious Crawfords arrive at Mansfield Park, Fanny must stand up for her principles in order to protect her heart.

Mansfield Park is followed by opinions on the novel by Austen's family and friends, never before heard on audio.

Like most writers, Jane Austen was very interested in what her family and friends thought of her books. She wrote down their opinions of Mansfield Park, recording both the bad and the good. These opinions dating from 1814 and 1815 will give solace to any writer whose work has been criticized, and will amuse and delight Austen fans worldwide.

"Alison Larkin's narration will captivate listeners from the first sentence. Her delicate voice and perfect English accent sweep the listener back in time, right into the lives of the characters.... Austen's nineteenth-century writing style flows off Larkin's tongue, making the dense passages easy to understand." - AudioFile Magazine

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Title: Why Dylan Matters

Author: Richard F. Thomas

Narrator: Nick Landrum

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-16-17

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

When the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob Dylan in 2016, the literary world was up in arms. How could the world's most prestigious book prize be awarded to a famously cantankerous singer-songwriter in his 70s, who wouldn't even deign to make a victory speech?

In Why Dylan Matters, Harvard professor Richard F. Thomas answers that question with magisterial erudition. A world expert on classical poetry, Thomas was initially ridiculed by his colleagues for teaching a course on Bob Dylan alongside his traditional seminars on Homer, Virgil and Ovid. Dylan's Nobel Prize win brought him vindication, and he immediately found himself thrust into the limelight as a leading academic voice in all matters Dylanological.

This witty, personal volume is a distillation of Thomas' famous course and makes a compelling case for moving Dylan out of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and into the pantheon of classical poets. The most dazzlingly original and compelling Dylan book in decades, Why Dylan Matters will amaze and astound everyone from the first-time listener to the lifetime fan. You'll never think about Bob Dylan in the same way again.

Critic Reviews:

"At last an expert classicist gets to grips with Bob Dylan. Richard Thomas takes us from Dylan's high school Latin club to his haunting engagement with Ovid and Homer in recent albums. He carefully argues that Dylan's poetry deserves comparison with Virgil's - and Thomas, senior professor of Latin at Harvard and author of some of the most influential modern studies of Virgil, should know!" (Mary Beard)

"In Why Dylan Matters, Professor Thomas reveals how Dylan's work transfigures Western literature and history into a magical world of song and performance that secures Dylan's place in a pantheon of literary heroes from Virgil to Eliot. A critical breakthrough that makes a masterful case for why Dylan is the bard of our times." (Andrew McCarron, author of Light Come Shining: The Transformations of Bob Dylan)

"Richard Thomas has created a monument to Bob Dylan - and, also, a Rosetta Stone. The erudite and politically engaged Thomas is the perfect guide through the wondrous mystery of Dylan's genius." (James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword)

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Title: The Life and Legacy of James Joyce

Subtitle: Pioneer of Modern Literature

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Mark Norman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-06-17

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

"His writing is not about something. It is that something itself." (Samuel Beckett, Joyces friend and secretary, about Finnegans Wake)

James Joyce is the high priest of modernist writing who lived a life of endless sacrifice to literature, loaded with poverty and petty humiliations. He blazed the path of the writer as resolute individualist, rejecting all conformity and risking everything, even public shaming, in order to "communicate" over the supine body of language with his enthralled readers. He once remarked to his younger brother Stanislaus, Dont you think there is a certain resemblance between the mystery of the Mass and what I am trying to do? I mean that I am trying...to give people some kind of intellectual pleasure or spiritual enjoyment by converting the bread of everyday life into something that has a permanent artistic life of its own...for their mental, moral, and spiritual uplift.

Joyce pioneered modern literature through his use of stream of consciousness, a literary technique that lets readers get straight into the mind of the books characters and stands in stark contrast to Ernest Hemingway's "iceberg" style of leaving things to the readers' imaginations. In his masterpiece Ulysses, Joyce explores several topics and thoughts that go through the mind of one man in Dublin for a day, and he also wrote other critically-acclaimed works such as the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

He said of his frequent use of Dublin as a setting, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal."

The Life and Legacy of James Joyce: Pioneer of Modern Literature profiles the life and career of one of America's most famous entertainers. You will learn about Joyce like you never have before, in no time at all.

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Title: Facing the Music

Subtitle: My Story

Author: Jennifer Knapp

Narrator: Jennifer Knapp

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-17

Publisher: Oasis Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Jennifer Knapp's meteoric rise in the Christian music industry ended abruptly when she walked away and came out publicly as a lesbian. This is her story - of coming to Christ, of building a career, of admitting who she is, and of how her faith remained strong through it all.

At the top of her career in the Christian music industry, Jennifer Knapp quit. A few years later, she publicly revealed she is gay. A media frenzy ensued, and many of her former fans were angry with what they saw as turning her back on God. But through it all, she held on to the truth that had guided her from the beginning.

In this memoir, she finally tells her story: of her troubled childhood, the love of music that pulled her through, her dramatic conversion to Christianity, her rise to stardom, her abrupt departure from Christian contemporary music, her years of trying to come to terms with her sexual orientation, and her return to music and Nashville in 2010, when she came out publicly for the first time. She also talks about the importance of her faith, and despite the many who claim she can no longer call herself a believer, she maintains that she is both gay and a Christian.

Now an advocate for LGBT issues in the church, Jennifer has witnessed heartbreaking struggles as churches wrestle with issues of homosexuality and faith. This engrossing, inspiring memoir will help people understand her story and to believe in their own stories, whatever they may be.

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Title: Writing out Loud

Subtitle: What a Blind Teacher Learned from Leading a Memoir Class for Seniors

Author: Beth Finke

Narrator: Robin J. Sitten

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-17-17

Publisher: Golden Alley Press

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll write.

She's never taught a class in her life. But when the City of Chicago calls on blind writer Beth Finke to teach a memoir-writing class for older adults, she reluctantly agrees. What she learns about her students, their stories, and herself will move and inspire you.

Written the way Beth hears life, you will come to know and love Minerva, Wanda, Hannelore, and the whole colorful cast of characters who build a community around Beth's classes.

Generously sprinkled with excerpts in her students' own voices, Beth's book will convince you to get your own stories down on paper while there's still time.

Critic Reviews:

"Honest, lyrical, and funny...a beautifully-felt and deeply moving tribute to the ways sharing life stories can connect us with others, and sometimes, with ourselves." (Miriam E. Nelson, PhD, best-selling author of

Strong Women Stay Young)

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Title: Lou Reed

Subtitle: A Life

Author: Anthony DeCurtis

Narrator: Peter Coleman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-05-17

Publisher: John Murray

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

The essential biography of the Velvet Underground singer and New York legend.

As lead singer and songwriter for the Velvet Underground and a renowned solo artist, Lou Reed invented alternative rock. His music, at once the height of sanctity and perversity, transcended a genre, speaking to millions of listeners, inspiring a new generation of musicians and forever changing the way we think of that iconic era of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.

Throughout his five-decade career, Reed embodied artistic self-awareness and captured the beauty, paranoia and vivacity of his time into an array of hit songs and experimental albums and a larger-than-life persona. With such masterpieces as 'Sweet Jane' and 'Walk on the Wild Side', Reed exerted an influence on popular music rivalled only by the likes of Bob Dylan and The Beatles, and he is recognised to this day as one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century.

Now, just a few years after Reed's death, comes the thrilling, provocative story of his complex life. An acclaimed Rolling Stone contributor, Anthony DeCurtis interviewed Reed extensively and knew him well. With unparalleled access to Reed's friends and family and dozens of other intimate relations, DeCurtis brings Reed's story compellingly alive and deepens our understanding of his indelible music.

We travel deep into the underground artist clubs, listen along in the studio as the Velvet Underground record their signature work and revel in Reed's relationship with legends like Andy Warhol, Patti Smith and David Bowie. Insightful, revelatory and intimate, Lou Reed is a gripping tribute to a quintessential American icon.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our desktop site.

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Title: 101 Amazing Facts About Eminem

Author: Jack Goldstein, Frankie Taylor

Narrator: Kent Harris

Format: Unabridged

Length: 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-13-17

Publisher: Andrews UK Limited

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Do you know Eminem's real full name? What did he want to do before his career in the music industry took off? What awards has he won? And how does he come up with his rhymes?

In this fascinating audiobook, narrator Kent Harris talks us through 101 amazing facts about the world's most famous rapper. Covering subjects such as his background, music, relationships and much more, this is an ideal audiobook for everyone from the casual listener right through to Eminem's biggest fan!

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Title: Ice Diaries

Subtitle: An Antarctic Memoir

Author: Jean McNeil

Narrator: Bridget Wareham

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-29-17

Publisher: ECW Press

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

A decade ago, novelist and short story writer Jean McNeil spent a year as writer-in-residence with the British Antarctic Survey, and four months on the world's most enigmatic continent - Antarctica. Access to the Antarctic remains largely reserved for scientists, and it is the only piece of earth that is nobody's country. Ice Diaries is the story of McNeil's years spent in ice, not only in the Antarctic, but her subsequent travels to Greenland, Iceland, and Svalbard, culminating in a strange event in Cape Town, South Africa, where she journeyed to make what was to be her final trip to the southernmost continent.

In the spirit of the diaries of Antarctic explorers Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton, McNeil mixes travelogue, popular science, and memoir to examine the history of our fascination with ice. In entering this world, McNeil unexpectedly finds herself confronting her own upbringing in the Maritimes, the lifelong effects of growing up in a cold place, and how the climates of childhood frame our emotional thermodynamics for life. Ice Diaries is a haunting story of the relationship between beauty and terror, loss and abandonment, transformation and triumph.

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Title: Otto Binder

Subtitle: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary

Author: Bill Schelly, Richard A. Lupoff - foreword

Narrator: Derek Botten

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-22-17

Publisher: North Atlantic Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Bios & Memoirs, Artists, Writers, & Musicians

Publisher's Summary:

Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary chronicles the career of Otto Binder, from pulp magazine author to writer of Supergirl, Captain Marvel, and Superman comics. As the originator of the first sentient robot in literature ("I, Robot," published in Amazing Stories in 1939 and predating Isaac Asimov's collection of the same name), Binder's effect on science fiction was profound.

Within the world of comic books, he created or cocreated much of the Superman universe, including Smallville; Krypto, Superboy's dog; Supergirl; and the villain Braniac. Binder is also credited with writing many of the first "Bizarro" storylines for DC Comics as well as for being the main writer for the Captain Marvel comics. In later years Binder expanded from comic books into pure science writing, publishing dozens of books and articles on the subject of satellites and space travel as well as UFOs and extraterrestrial life.

Comic book historian Bill Schelly tells the tale of Otto Binder through personal letters and interviews with Binder's own family and friends. Schelly weaves together Binder's professional successes and personal tragedies, including the death of Binder's only daughter and his wife's struggle with mental illness. A touching and human story, Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary is a biography that is both meticulously researched and beautifully told, keeping alive Binder's spirit of scientific curiosity and whimsy.

Critic Reviews:

"Bill Schelly has done an amazing job of capturing Otto and his family and friends, and explaining in an interesting way why his work was so important and precedent-setting." (Michael Uslan, executive producer of The Dark Knight Rises)

"Otto Binder was a kind of titan, a precursor of the gods ...because he came up with basic primordial forms that later writers would perhaps polish to a greater luster. But Binder hewed them out of solid rock. He was mining the raw material." (Alan Moore, author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta)

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