Audiobooks Narrated by Ann-Marie MacDonald

First to Leave the Party: My Life with Ordinary People... Who Happen to be Famous

"INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER A marvelous and compulsively readable collection of stories from the life of Salah Bachir - philanthropist, art collector, movie industry insider - who, through his sheer joy of life, art, giving back, and human interaction, has endeared him to some of the most famous and creative people in recent times. Salah Bachir's encounters with stars who have passed through his beloved Toronto over the years opens on a backyard garden barbecue with Marlon Brando, and bread continues to be broken with icons as fascinating and seemingly disparate as Muhammad Ali and Liberace, Margaret Atwood and Cesar Chavez, Andy Warhol and Princess Margaret, to name just a few. But the true literary coup is that the biggest, brightest star we encounter is the author himself. Alan Cumming Salah is the patron saint for all of us who are full of curiosity, hungry for celebration, horny for fun, and who won't stop until every need is fulfilled. His appetite and passion for life is voracious. His ability to transform those passions into making life better for others is even more impressive. Atom Egoyan Salah Bachir, who immigrated to Canada from Lebanon in the 1960s, has been a gay activist who has worked in the film world for over four decades. While this has given him undeniable front-row access to Hollywood's biggest stars, it is Salah's personal charm and kindness, his philanthropy, his overall style (think hats, scarves, brooches, pearls, diamonds) and deep involvement in the art world that has made him a friend, companion, confidante, and/or lover to so many - including Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Joan Rivers, Mary Tyler Moore, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Edward Albee, Orson Welles, Aretha Franklin, Norman Jewison, and Elizabeth Taylor - although it's true that Katharine Hepburn once turned him down, very nicely. Collected here in this wonderful book are personal stories of them all - some short, some long, some surprising, others juicy, and all fascinating. Through them we get to know Salah, a larger-than-life character that embodies the many worlds he shapes - the kind of person it would be hard to make up if he didn't already exist."

Salah Bachir (Author), Ann-Marie MacDonald (Narrator)

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Fayne: A Novel

"THE INSTANT #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE 2023 PARAGRAPHE HUGH MACLENNAN PRIZE FOR FICTION A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF CBC'S BEST CANADIAN FICTION BOOKS OF 2022 A beloved writer returns with a tale of science, magic, love and identity. In the late nineteenth century, Charlotte Bell is growing up at Fayne, a vast and lonely estate straddling the border between England and Scotland, where she has been kept from the world by her adoring father, Lord Henry Bell, owing to a mysterious condition. Charlotte, strong and insatiably curious, revels in the moorlands, and has learned the treacherous and healing ways of the bog from the old hired man, Byrn, whose own origins are shrouded in mystery. Her idyllic existence is shadowed by the magnificent portrait on the landing in Fayne House which depicts her mother, a beautiful Irish-American heiress, holding Charlotte's brother, Charles Bell. Charlotte has grown up with the knowledge that her mother died in giving birth to her, and that her older brother, Charles, the long-awaited heir, died soon afterwards at the age of two. When Charlotte's appetite for learning threatens to exceed the bounds of the estate, her father breaks with tradition and hires a tutor to teach his daughter "as you would my son, had I one." But when Charlotte and her tutor's explorations of the bog turn up an unexpected artefact, her father announces he has arranged for her to be cured of her condition, and her world is upended. Charlotte's passion for knowledge and adventure will take her to the bottom of family secrets and to the heart of her own identity."

Ann-Marie MacDonald (Author), Ann-Marie MacDonald (Narrator)

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Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces 2004–2021

"Brought to you by Penguin. From cultural icon Margaret Atwood comes a brilliant collection of essays -- funny, erudite, endlessly curious, uncannily prescient -- which seek answers to Burning Questions such as: Why do people everywhere, in all cultures, tell stories? How much of yourself can you give away without evaporating? How can we live on our planet? Is it true? And is it fair? What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism? In over fifty pieces Atwood aims her prodigious intellect and impish humour at the world, and reports back to us on what she finds. This roller-coaster period brought the end of history, a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. From debt to tech, the climate crisis to freedom; from when to dispense advice to the young (answer: only when asked) to how to define granola, we have no better guide to the many and varied mysteries of our universe. Read by: Amanda Cordner, Amelia Sargisson, Ann Dowd, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Becky Hardie, Ciarán Hinds, Claudia Dey, Damian Rogers, Dr. Asha de Vos, Dr. Vincent Lam, Esi Edugya, Georgia Toews, Heather O'Neill, Ian Davidson, Kaniehtiio Horn, Katie Ryerson, Kelly McCormack, Lee Boudreaux, Lorna Crozier, Margaret Atwood, Marie Henein, Megan Follows, Naomi Alderman, Omar El-Akkad, Patricia Zurita, R.H. Thomson, Rebecca Liddiard, Robyn Doolittle, Stephanie Belding, Stephen Ouimette, Tess Degenstein, Tiffany Ayalik, Tomson Highway, Tori Dunlap, Yasmeen Hassan, Yvonne Boyer © Margaret Atwood 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Margaret Atwood (Author), Amanda Cordner, Amelia Sargisson, Ann Dowd, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Ciarán Hinds, Esi Edugyan, Kaniehtiio Horn, Lorna Crozier, Margaret Atwood, Naomi Alderman, Omar El Akkad, Rachel Cairns, Stephanie Belding, Tess Degenstein, Tori Dunlap (Narrator)

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