Audiobooks narrated by Allyson Johnson

Young Mandela: The Revolutionary Years Audiobook

Nelson Mandela is well known throughout the world as a heroic leader who symbolizes freedom and moral authority. He is fixed in the public mind as the world's elder statesman'the gray-haired man with a kindly smile who spent twenty-seven years in prison before becoming the first black president of South Africa. But Nelson Mandela was not always elderly or benign. In Young Mandela, David James Smith takes us deep into the heart of racist South Africa to paint a portrait of the Mandela that many have forgotten: the committed revolutionary who left his family behind to live on the run, adopting false names, and organizing the first strikes to overthrow the apartheid state. Young Mandela lifts the curtain on an icon's first steps to greatness. Praise for David James Smith's Supper with the Crippens: 'Smith gives a superb psychological insight into a man who was thought to be inscrutable and inexpressive'Smith's impartial journalistic eye gives a balanced account of the events, untouched by the hyperbole so prevalent in many contemporary accounts.''Herald

David James Smith (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

You Are My I Love You

The all-time classic, bestselling ode to the love shared between parent and child. Perfect for new parents, baby showers, christenings, and sharing at bedtime. I am your parent; you are my child. I am your quiet place; you are my wild.I am your favorite book; you are my new lines. I am your nightlight; you are my starshine. A day in the life of parent and child--full of smiles and giggles, messes and meals, boundless energy and well-earned rest. Not to mention lots of love. Here, in simple rhyming verse, is one such day. Share it with others and treasure the memories.

Maryann K. Cusimano (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Women Who Invented the Sixties: Ella Baker, Jane Jacobs, Rachel Carson, and Betty Friedan

Women Who Invented the Sixties tells the story of how four women helped define the 1960s and made a lasting impression for decades to follow. In 1960, Ella Baker played the key role in the founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which became an essential organization for students during the civil rights movement and the model for the antiwar and women's movements. In 1961, Jane Jacobs published The Death and Life of Great American Cities, changing the shape of urban planning irrevocably. In 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, creating the modern environmental movement. And in 1963, Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, which sparked second-wave feminism and created lasting changes for women. Their four separate interventions helped, together, to end the 1950s and invent the 1960s. Women Who Invented the Sixties situates each of these four women in the 1950s-Baker's early activism with the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Jacobs's work with Architectural Forum and her growing involvement in neighborhood protest, Carson's conservation efforts and publications, and Friedan's work as a labor journalist and the discrimination she faced-before exploring their contributions to the 1960s and the movements they each helped shape.

Steve Golin (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

White Lines: The White Lines Novels, Book 1

Jada left home at the age of sixteen, running from her own demons and the horrors of physical abuse inflicted by her mother's boyfriend. She partied hard, and life seemed good when she was with Born, the neighborhood kingpin whose name was synonymous with money, power, and respect. But all his love couldn't save her from a crack addiction. Jada goes from crack addict and prostitute to survivor and back again before she finds the strength to live for herself and come out on top. And her stormy romance with one of the fiercest hustlers on the streets makes White Lines one of the most unforgettable urban love stories of the year. "Tracy Brown once again proves that the art of storytelling isn't dead."-K'wan, national bestselling author

Tracy Brown (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

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White Lines II: Sunny; a Novel

In her most stunning, riveting, unstoppable novel yet, bestselling and critically acclaimed author Tracy Brown delivers the unforgettable sequel to White Lines. On the surface, it appears that Sunny has got it all: looks, money, a beautiful home, a healthy daughter, and friends who love her. But Sunny has a secret-something she hasn't even told her best friend. The truth is Sunny is unhappy. She still misses her beloved Dorian and worries that no other man will ever captivate her the way he did. She's dated some very powerful and successful men since Dorian's death, but will she ever find love again? It's not long before Sunny is chasing those white lines, but when the truth finally explodes, will she be able to put her life back together again? "Readers who like delving into complex relationships and characters creeping behind one another's back will be drawn in."-Library Journal

Tracy Brown (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

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White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America

The American political scene today is poisonously divided, and the vast majority of white evangelicals plays a strikingly unified, powerful role in the disunion. These evangelicals raise a starkly consequential question for electoral politics: Why do they claim morality while supporting politicians who act immorally by most Christian measures? In this clear-eyed, hard-hitting chronicle of American religion and politics, Anthea Butler answers that racism is at the core of conservative evangelical activism and power. Butler reveals how evangelical racism, propelled by the benefits of whiteness, has since the nation's founding played a provocative role in severely fracturing the electorate. During the buildup to the Civil War, white evangelicals used scripture to defend slavery and nurture the Confederacy. During Reconstruction, they used it to deny the vote to newly emancipated blacks. In the twentieth century, they sided with segregationists in avidly opposing movements for racial equality and civil rights. Most recently, evangelicals supported the Tea Party, a Muslim ban, and border policies allowing family separation. White evangelicals today, cloaked in a vision of Christian patriarchy and nationhood, form a staunch voting bloc in support of white leadership.

Anthea Butler (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Whispers of Shadow & Flame: Earthsinger Chronicles, Book Two

The Mantle that separates the kingdoms of Elsira and Lagrimar is about to fall. And life will drastically change for both kingdoms. Born with a deadly magic she cannot control, Kyara is forced to become an assassin. Known as the Poison Flame in the kingdom of Lagrimar, she is notorious and lethal, but secretly seeks freedom from both her untamed power and the blood spell that commands her. She is tasked with capturing the legendary rebel called the Shadowfox, but everything changes when she learns her target's true identity. Darvyn ol-Tahlyro may be the most powerful Earthsinger in generations, but guilt over those he couldn't save tortures him daily. He isn't sure he can trust the mysterious young woman who claims to need his help, but when he discovers Kyara can unlock the secrets of his past, he can't stay away. Kyara and Darvyn grapple with betrayal, old promises, and older prophecies-all while trying to stop a war. And when a new threat emerges, they must beat the odds to save both kingdoms.

L. Penelope (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

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What to Read and Why

In this brilliant collection, the follow-up to her New York Times bestseller Reading Like a Writer, the distinguished novelist, literary critic, and essayist celebrates the pleasures of reading and pays homage to the works and writers she admires above all others, from Jane Austen and Charles Dickens to Jennifer Egan and Roberto Bolaño.In an age defined by hyper-connectivity and constant stimulation, Francine Prose makes a compelling case for the solitary act of reading and the great enjoyment it brings. Inspiring and illuminating, What to Read and Why includes selections culled from Prose’s previous essays, reviews, and introductions, combined with new, never-before-published pieces that focus on her favorite works of fiction and nonfiction, on works by masters of the short story, and even on books by photographers like Diane Arbus.Prose considers why the works of literary masters such as Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and Jane Austen have endured, and shares intriguing insights about modern authors whose words stimulate our minds and enlarge our lives, including Roberto Bolaño, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Jennifer Egan, and Mohsin Hamid. Prose implores us to read Mavis Gallant for her marvelously rich and compact sentences, and her meticulously rendered characters who reveal our flawed and complex human nature; Edward St. Aubyn for his elegance and sophisticated humor; and Mark Strand for his gift for depicting unlikely transformations. Here, too, are original pieces in which Prose explores the craft of writing: "On Clarity" and "What Makes a Short Story."Written with her sharp critical analysis, wit, and enthusiasm, What to Read and Why is a celebration of literature that will give readers a new appreciation for the power and beauty of the written word.

Francine Prose (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Voices of a People's History of the United States, 10th Anniversary Edition

Selected testimonies to living history-speeches, letters, poems, songs-offered by the people who make history happen, but are often left out of history books: women, workers, nonwhites. Featuring introductions to the original texts by Howard Zinn. New voices featured in this 10th Anniversary Edition include Chelsea Manning, speaking after her thirty-five-year prison sentence; Naomi Klein, speaking from the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Liberty Square; a member of Dream Defenders, a youth organization that confronts systemic racial inequality; members of the Undocumented Youth movement, who occupied, marched, and demonstrated in support of the DREAM Act; a member of the Day Laborers movement; Chicago Teachers Union strikers; and several critics of the Obama administration, including Glenn Greenwald, on governmental secrecy.

Anthony Arnove, Howard Zinn (Author), Allyson Johnson, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Jennifer Ikeda, Justin D. Torres, Prentice Onayemi, Raphael Corkhill, Robert Fass, Various, Various Narrators, Vikas Adam, Vivienne Leheny (Narrator)

Audiobook

Violet Comes to Stay

Violet Comes to Stay is the first in a series of storybooks inspired by Cynthia Coppersmith, Father Tim's wife from Jan Karon's bestselling Mitford Years series. Jan Karon's legions of fans will love this timeless story about the endearing white kitten named Violet, charmingly written by Melanie Cecka and beautifully illustrated by Caldecott Medal-winning artist Emily Arnold McCully. Ms. Karon searched for three years to find a storytelling voice and art style authentic to Cynthia Coppersmith. She was personally involved in every step of the creation of this book. In Violet Comes to Stay, Violet's search for the perfect home leads her to a plant nursery, a bakery, and finally a bookstore-the one place where the gentle cat isn't expected to be a mouse hunter.

Jan Karon (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Vanished

Sometimes the past can haunt you … Eighteen years ago, FBI profiler Evelyn Baine’s best friend, Cassie Byers, disappeared, the third in a series of unsolved abductions. Only a macabre nursery rhyme was left at the scene, a nursery rhyme that claimed Evelyn was also an intended victim. Now, after all these years of silence, another girl has gone missing in South Carolina, and the Nursery Rhyme Killer is taking credit. But is Cassie’s abductor really back, or is there a copycat at work? Sometimes the past is best forgotten. Evelyn has waited eighteen years for a chance to investigate, but when she returns to Rose Bay, she finds a dark side to the seemingly idyllic town. As the place erupts in violence and the kidnapper strikes again, Evelyn knows this is her last chance. If she doesn’t figure out what happened to Cassie eighteen years ago, it may be Evelyn’s turn to vanish without a trace. “A talented new voice in suspense.”—Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author, praise for the author

Elizabeth Heiter (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement from the Revolution to Reconstruction

A groundbreaking history of the movement for equal rights that courageously battled racist laws and institutions, north and south, in the decades before the Civil War. The half-century before the Civil War was beset with conflict over equality as well as freedom. Beginning in 1803, many free states, claiming the authority to maintain the domestic peace, enacted laws that discouraged free African Americans from settling their boundaries and restricted the rights to testify in court, move freely from place to place, work, vote, and attend public school. But over time, African American activists and their white allies, often facing mob violence, courageously built a movement to fight these racist laws. They countered the states' insistence on local control with the equal-rights promises they found in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Long stymied by hostile white majorities and unfavorable court decisions, the movement's vision became increasingly mainstream in the 1850s, particularly among supporters of the new Republican party. When Congress began rebuilding the nation after the Civil War, Republicans installed this vision of racial equality in the 1866 Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment. These were the landmark achievements of the first civil rights movement.

Kate Masur (Author), Allyson Johnson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Allyson Johnson