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The Residence
- Inside the Private World of the White House
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
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Publisher's summary
A remarkable history with elements of both In the President's Secret Service and The Butler, The Residence offers an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas.
America's first families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the president and first family.
These dedicated professionals maintain the six-floor mansion's 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three elevators, and eight staircases and prepare everything from hors d'oeuvres for intimate gatherings to meals served at elaborate state dinners. Over the course of the day, they gather in the lower level's basement kitchen to share stories, trade secrets, forge lifelong friendships, and sometimes even fall in love.
Combining incredible first-person anecdotes from extensive interviews with scores of White House staff members - many speaking for the first time - with archival research, Kate Andersen Brower tells their story. She reveals the intimacy between the first family and the people who serve them as well as tension that has shaken the staff over the decades. From the housekeeper and engineer who fell in love while serving President Reagan to Jackie Kennedy's private moment of grief with a beloved staffer after her husband's assassination to the tumultuous days surrounding President Nixon's resignation and President Clinton's impeachment battle, The Residence is full of surprising and moving details that illuminate day-to-day life at the White House.
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Army Wives goes beyond the sound bites and photo ops of military life to bring listeners into the hearts and homes of today's military wives. Biank tells the story of four typical Army wives who, in a flash, find themselves in extraordinary circumstances that ultimately force them to redefine who they are as women and wives.
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True life, not the TV Show
- By M. Hill on 06-16-10
By: Tanya Biank
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Eleanor and Hick
- The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady
- By: Susan Quinn
- Narrated by: Kimberly Farr
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1932 Eleanor Roosevelt entered the claustrophobic, duty-bound existence of the first lady with dread. By that time she had put her deep disappointment in her marriage behind her and developed an independent life - now threatened by the public role she would be forced to play. A lifeline came to her in the form of a feisty campaign reporter for the Associated Press: Lorena Hickok. Over the next 30 years, until Eleanor's death, the two women carried on an extraordinary relationship.
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An Icon who was real.
- By Francine Fields on 08-17-17
By: Susan Quinn
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Watergate
- A Novel
- By: Thomas Mallon
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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For all the monumental documentation that Watergate generated - uncountable volumes of committee records, court transcripts, and memoirs - it falls at last to a novelist to perform the work of inference (and invention) that allows us to solve some of the scandal’s greatest mysteries - who did erase those eighteen-and-a-half minutes of tape? - and to see this gaudy American catastrophe in its human entirety. In Watergate, Thomas Mallon conveys the drama and high comedy of the Nixon presidency through the urgent perspectives of seven characters we only thought we knew.
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A great listen
- By Tad Davis on 03-29-12
By: Thomas Mallon
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The Diana Chronicles
- By: Tina Brown
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 21 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Diana Chronicles, you will meet a formidable female cast and understand as never before the society that shaped them: among them, Diana's sexually charged mother, her bad-girl sister-in-law, Fergie, and, most formidable of them all, her mother-in-law, the Queen. Add Camilla Parker-Bowles, the ultimate "other woman" into this combustible mix, and it's no wonder that Diana broke out of her royal cage into celebrity culture, where she found her own power and used it to devastating effect.
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One of the best Diana's
- By J F Whitmore on 08-02-12
By: Tina Brown
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A Fine Romance
- By: Candice Bergen
- Narrated by: Candice Bergen
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
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A Fine Romance begins with Bergen's charming first husband, French director Louis Malle, whose huge appetite for life broadened her horizons and whose occasional darkness never diminished their love for each other. But her real romance begins when she discovers overpowering love for her daughter after years of ambivalence about motherhood.
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up the speed to 1.5 and Candace sounds way better
- By Susan on 06-03-15
By: Candice Bergen
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Lady Bird and Lyndon
- The Hidden Story of a Marriage That Made a President
- By: Betty Boyd Caroli
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
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A fresh look at Lady Bird Johnson that upends her image as a plain Jane who was married for her money and mistreated by Lyndon. This Lady Bird worked quietly behind the scenes through every campaign, every illness, and a trying presidency as a key strategist, fundraiser, barnstormer, peacemaker, and indispensable therapist.
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Lady Bird & btw Lyndon
- By Richard on 11-27-15
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George & Barbara Bush
- A Great American Love Story
- By: Ellie LeBlond Sosa, Kelly Anne Chase, George W. Bush - foreword
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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"To begin with I was in love and I am in love so that's not hard," Barbara Bush told her granddaughter Ellie LeBlond Sosa. Sosa had asked for the secret to her and President George H.W. Bush's 77-year love affair that withstood World War II separation, a leap of faith into the oil fields of West Texas, the painful loss of a child, a political climb to the highest office, and after the White House, the transition back to a "normal" life. Sosa and co-author Kelly Anne Chase paint the portrait of the enduring relationship of George and Barbara Bush.
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A Beautiful, Uplifting Read!
- By Cathi Hughes on 03-18-23
By: Ellie LeBlond Sosa, and others
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Inside Camp David
- The Private World of the Presidential Retreat
- By: Michael Giorgione
- Narrated by: Michael Giorgione
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A peaceful mountaintop setting crucially removed from the constant scrutiny of the press, Camp David has served as both a site of critical diplomacy and unparalleled tranquility. It is where President and Mrs. Reagan rode horses through the mountains, where Gerald Ford could take a moment to jump on a trampoline with his daughter, where Nixon rode shotgun with Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev, and where Jimmy Carter could find the ultimate flight-sledding - only to break his clavicle two weeks before the end of his tenure.
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I’m a Camp David “mom”
- By D. Eubanks on 12-03-20
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Lady Bird Johnson
- An Oral History
- By: Michael L. Gillette
- Narrated by: Corinna May
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Over a span of 18 years, Lady Bird Johnson recorded 47 oral history interviews with Michael Gillette and his colleagues. These conversations, just released in 2011, form the heart of Lady Bird Johnson: An Oral History, an intimate story of a shy young country girl's transformation into one of America's most effective and admired First Ladies.
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Fantastic
- By Syd Young on 06-01-19
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Mad Women
- The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the '60s and Beyond
- By: Jane Maas
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Mad Women is a tell-all account of life in the New York advertising world of the 1960s and '70s from Jane Maas, a female copywriter who succeeded in the primarily male environment portrayed by the hit TV show Mad Men. Fans of the show are dying to know how accurate it is: did people really have that much sex in the office? Were there really three-martini lunches? Were women really second-class citizens? Jane Maas says the answer to all three questions is unequivocally yes....
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Interesting Listen
- By Dean on 04-23-12
By: Jane Maas
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A tasteful taste of history
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As close as you will come to being Residence Staff
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Very interesting
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Engrossing
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Fascinating
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As close as you will come to being Residence Staff
- By Dennis on 03-17-21
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For 36 years, from Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt, Tom Pendel saw the daily comings and goings at the center of American political life in the White House. As doorkeeper, he saw senators, congressmen, royalty, citizens, and scoundrels appear on the White House steps.
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Very interesting
- By Crystal Stapleton on 06-28-22
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From the author of the New York Times best sellers First Women and The Residence, an intimate, news-making look at the men who are next in line to the most powerful office in the world - the vice presidents of the modern era - from Richard Nixon to Joe Biden to Mike Pence. In interviews with more than 200 people, Kate Andersen Brower pulls back the curtain and reveals the sometimes cold, sometimes close, and always complicated relationship between our modern presidents and their vice presidents.
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Engrossing
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Secret Service agent Clint Hill brings history intimately and vividly to life as he reflects on his 17 years protecting the most powerful office in the nation. Hill walked alongside Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, and Gerald R. Ford, seeing them through a long, tumultuous era - the Cold War; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy; the Vietnam War; Watergate; and the resignations of Spiro Agnew and Richard M. Nixon.
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Engaging subject, but fact-checking needed
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This was very, very interesting!
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Have you ever wondered what exactly goes on inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Sure, the president of the United States works and resides there, but do you know who helps keep this historic house running? It’s no simple task, especially when there are important state events and foreign dignitaries - in addition to presidential pups, mischievous children, and even a couple of ghosts. And its Residence workers and first ladies make sure everything is in check and running smoothly.
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Not bad, not bad at all.
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20 Years in the Secret Service: New Edition
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Great first hand look into the USSS
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Very insightful.
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President's are just human.
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As Margaret Truman knows from firsthand experience, living in the White House can be exhilarating and maddening, alarming and exhausting, but it is certainly never dull. Part private residence, part goldfish bowl, and part national shrine, the White House is both the most important address in America and the most intensely scrutinized.
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Awesome History!
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A fresh look at Lady Bird Johnson that upends her image as a plain Jane who was married for her money and mistreated by Lyndon. This Lady Bird worked quietly behind the scenes through every campaign, every illness, and a trying presidency as a key strategist, fundraiser, barnstormer, peacemaker, and indispensable therapist.
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Betty Boyd Caroli's engrossing and informative First Ladies is an essential resource for anyone interested in the role of America's First Ladies. Caroli observes the role as it has shifted and evolved from ceremonial backdrop to substantive world figure. This expanded and updated fifth edition presents Caroli's keen political analysis and astute observations of recent developments, including Melania Trump's reluctance to take on the mantle and former First Lady Hilary Clinton's recent run for president. Caroli here contributes a new preface and updated chapters.
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Thorough
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Slave in the White House
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Paul Jennings was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolley Madison in Virginia, later becoming part of the Madison household staff at the White House. Once finally emancipated by Senator Daniel Webster later in life, he would give an aged and impoverished Dolley Madison, his former owner, money from his own pocket, write the first White House memoir, and see his sons fight with the Union Army in the Civil War.
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Essential reading for Washington DC and Virginia history
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"If the general public knew what was going on inside the White House, they would scream." So states one Secret Service agent, just a small link in the chain of security that has guarded the public image of the presidency and the men who define it - until now. With unprecedented access to Secret Service agents, domestic servants, Air Force One stewards, and military aides, journalist Ronald Kessler has gone behind the scenes to uncover the inside story of the White House.
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Politically slanted, but interesting.
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What listeners say about The Residence
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sara
- 04-15-15
The White House Explored & Exposed
The narration started out sounding stilted and super slow and drawn out--so much so that for a while I had the speed turned up to 1.25. Then White, the narrator, seemed to relax and the reading improved and I was able to go back to the normal slower speed. But, be aware the first quarter of the book was difficult going until it got better--so be prepared to give it some time.
The writing is not done in chronologic order so there is a fair amount of jumping around in time. This was a bit confusing. Also, events are organized by topics and broken down into sections. The problem was that there were several stories that must have fit into multiple sections and rather than just tell them once--they were repeated. I think the book could have been about two hours shorter if the author just stated up front once that all the employees that worked in the White House kept quiet about the first families and honored their privacy. This point was belabored so much that it was ridiculous. If it were really true there would be no book!
All those quibbles aside I enjoyed the book. I particularly liked the stories that came from the families themselves. It was fun, gossipy, glamorous, wasteful, silly and in spots filled with surprising detail. A chance to see an inside view of life in the White House that spans decades and shows the first families and the staff as the flawed humans they are. Recommended if you'd like to hear the gossips tour of the eighteen acres.
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88 people found this helpful
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- JanB
- 03-15-16
Terrible narrator
I have to abandon this book due to the awful narration. The slowness, cadence and inflections used by the narrator are very strange. I can't listen to another minute.
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70 people found this helpful
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- Kelly Pruner
- 04-16-15
Loved the book, didn't love the narrator
The information in the book was great, I just didn't love the narrator. She has a very choppy, almost robotic way of speaking at times which I found very distracting. I still enjoyed the book, though.
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37 people found this helpful
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- Tanya K.
- 05-03-16
Interesting, but not for listening
I found the insights into the first families and the people who work for them interesting. However, I found the book to be slightly repetitious. It seemed like the author didn't have enough for a full book, so she padded the stories and told some of them again in slightly different ways. This probably would have been a better book to read in print. There was a list at the beginning of the book with the names of the people interviewed and what they did. It would have been helpful to be able to refer back to it. Another distraction was the reader trying to give the numerous characters unique voices. I think she overdid her interpretation of the African American voice. If someone is interested in personal history, the book is worth reading, but it is not a good book for listening.
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30 people found this helpful
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- Margaret P. Johnson
- 04-15-15
White House .... Scandal Sheet
I really did not care for the narrators voice at all. Very annoying and dramatic.
Very surprised so much private info was given out. I have read so much about the Presidents and surprised this info was disclosed to the public even though I found it interesting. I thought papers were signed by employees to secrecy .
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27 people found this helpful
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- Lois Creamer
- 12-11-15
Interesting if you can get beyond the narration.
The narrator was off-putting on this selection. She would change her voice for every character in a conversation. I found it irritating. The story was interesting.
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24 people found this helpful
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- WLD
- 04-20-15
Huge Disappointment
What disappointed you about The Residence?
This book failed to provide any level of new information or entertainment value. The stories are superficial and boring. No revelations here at all. The organization of the book was haphazard and choppy. The writing was amateurish and disorganized at best. A truly disappointing read. Karen White's narration only made things worse. Her "dramatic" style was consistently over the top. You'd think she was performing Shakespeare rather than reading this drivel. And every character voice was either portrayed as an illiterate or an air-headed sex kitten. Of particular note is the way Jackie Kennedy's voice was portrayed. I think Ms. White got President Kennedy's wife confused with Marilyn Monroe.
What could Kate Andersen Brower have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Provide new information and have some organization and structure for the story.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
Lose the drama and read the book.
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19 people found this helpful
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- SK
- 09-29-16
Just could not listen to this narrator.
Any additional comments?
Just my personal opinion. I found the narrators voice very grating and her reading style unpleasant to listen to. I only made it through the first chapter so I can't say much about the book but even that little bit just wasn't for me. Sorry.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Z'Oma
- 08-30-15
Discretion and Authentisity: Behind closed doors.
Would you listen to The Residence again? Why?
I would listen to this again. The performance was gentle and forthright. I worked in a privileged situation like The Residence for many years. What I saw , heard and experienced was not at all what was represented to the public. It should not have been either because it would have been out of context and thus misunderstood. This is the quandary of confidentiality and the necessity of confidentiality. It can, however, devolve into lies and deception for any number of reasons and agendas. Each justification is another layer that buries the truth of any moment or situation and it will never see the light of day. This book is the accounting by various people who served Presidents and their families. Sure, they had considerations about their sharing being viewed as a betrayal of loyalty. Some staff wouldn't participate. Thanks be to those who did because it truly gave me an unvarnished insight into the everyday-humanity of the Presidents and their families and their private personalities versus what is represented to the public. Because of my personal perspective in the obsessively private world of a public family, I can, perhaps, a unique way, appreciate and recognize the honest remarks shared in this narrative . I was driving East to West across the United States while I listened to this book. As I looked out across the flooded spring landscape of Nebraska or southward to the turbulent tornado ravages of eastern Colorado, I had an intense awareness that the private President and his family was/ is accountable to THIS very public land. I wondered if each particular President being focused upon had ever taken this drive. Has this man ever dodged severe storms on the plains? How cerebral was he? Unaware, arrogant or compassionate and kind? This book gave me an insight into the heart (if there was one) of the private person who made decisions for our nation. I don't believe anything that comes through the spin of the media. I do find truth and humanity through the generous, candid sharing of the house staff. I was very sorry for this book to end.
What was one of the most memorable moments of The Residence?
There are two things that stand out 3 months after finishing this book:1) The kindness and lack of affect of George and Barbara Bush with the people who supported them in The Resisdence was exceptional. 2) The ugly, vulgar nature of Lyndon Johnson was clearly detailed.
Have you listened to any of Karen White’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have never listened to Karen White perform before. I very much appreciated the gentle and dynamic quality she gave the book. I would consider seeking out her other work.
Any additional comments?
I would love to see this quality and depth given to historical Presidents, taken from journals of staff members, etc.
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- Judith
- 04-22-15
I expected more...
Book was interesting, but truly lacked substance. I listen to audiobooks and was not impressed with the performance. I was expecting more.
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