Try free for 30 days
-
Reading Behind Bars
- A True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian
- Narrated by: Courtney Patterson
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $16.54
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Moonlight on Linoleum
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Terry Helwig
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even if others abandon you, you must never abandon yourself. This simple truth became Terry Helwig’s lifeline as she was forced to grow up too soon. Terry grew up the oldest of six girls in the big-sky country of the American Southwest, where she attended 12 schools in 11 years. Helwig’s stepfather, Davy, a good-hearted and loving man, proudly purchased a mobile home to enable his family to move more easily from one oil town to another, where Davy eked out a living in the oil fields.
-
The Great Expectations School
- A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle
- By: Dan Brown
- Narrated by: Gregory St. John
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 22, Dan Brown came to the Bronx's P.S. 85 as an eager, fresh-faced teacher. Unbeknownst to him, his assigned class, 4-217, was the designated "dumping ground" for all fourth-grade problem cases, and his students would prove to be more challenging than he could ever anticipate. Intent on being a caring, dedicated teacher but confronted with unruly children, absent parents, and a failing administration, Dan was pushed to the limit time and again: he found himself screaming with rage, punching his fist through a blackboard out of sheer frustration, often just wanting to give up and walk away.
-
She Effin' Hates Me
- A Love Story
- By: Scarlett Savage
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Molly has arrived home from Vassar to reveal that she has an important announcement to make. Her mother, Suzanne, is convinced that Molly’s news is history repeating herself and that she’s about to become a thirty-six-year-old grandmother. Suzanne’s mother, Ava, develops a case of impending great-grandmother fever that is, when she’s not spying on the new next-door neighbor, Buddy McKinley, who turns out to be a blast from her past.
-
My Train to Freedom
- A Jewish Boy’s Journey from Nazi Europe to a Life of Activism
- By: Ivan A. Backer
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The breathtaking memoir by a member of "Nicky's family", a group of 669 Czechoslovakian children who escaped the Holocaust through Sir Nicholas Winton's Kindertransport project. My Train to Freedom relates the trials and achievements of award-winning humanitarian and former Episcopal priest Ivan Backer.
-
Sins of the Fathers
- By: A.J. McCarthy
- Narrated by: Ryan Drean
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charlene Butler, a.k.a. Charlie, is beautiful, independent, and a successful pub owner in downtown Montreal, but prefers not to discuss her past, or the main reason for her success. When she anonymously receives strange letters and the police don’t show an interest in the case, she is convinced by Frank, her best friend, to hire a private investigator to help her solve the mystery. However, PI Simm seems to have a few secrets of his own.
-
Life After Manzanar
- By: Naomi Hirahara, Heather C. Lindquist
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Brian Nishii
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the editor of the award-winning Children of Manzanar, Heather C. Lindquist, and Edgar Award winner Naomi Hirahara comes a nuanced account of the “Resettlement”: the relatively unexamined period when ordinary people of Japanese ancestry, having been unjustly imprisoned during World War II, were finally released from custody. Given $25 and a one-way bus ticket to make a new life, some ventured east to Denver and Chicago to start over, while others returned to Southern California only to face discrimination and an alarming scarcity of housing and jobs.
-
Moonlight on Linoleum
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Terry Helwig
- Narrated by: Ann Richardson
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even if others abandon you, you must never abandon yourself. This simple truth became Terry Helwig’s lifeline as she was forced to grow up too soon. Terry grew up the oldest of six girls in the big-sky country of the American Southwest, where she attended 12 schools in 11 years. Helwig’s stepfather, Davy, a good-hearted and loving man, proudly purchased a mobile home to enable his family to move more easily from one oil town to another, where Davy eked out a living in the oil fields.
-
The Great Expectations School
- A Rookie Year in the New Blackboard Jungle
- By: Dan Brown
- Narrated by: Gregory St. John
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At 22, Dan Brown came to the Bronx's P.S. 85 as an eager, fresh-faced teacher. Unbeknownst to him, his assigned class, 4-217, was the designated "dumping ground" for all fourth-grade problem cases, and his students would prove to be more challenging than he could ever anticipate. Intent on being a caring, dedicated teacher but confronted with unruly children, absent parents, and a failing administration, Dan was pushed to the limit time and again: he found himself screaming with rage, punching his fist through a blackboard out of sheer frustration, often just wanting to give up and walk away.
-
She Effin' Hates Me
- A Love Story
- By: Scarlett Savage
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Molly has arrived home from Vassar to reveal that she has an important announcement to make. Her mother, Suzanne, is convinced that Molly’s news is history repeating herself and that she’s about to become a thirty-six-year-old grandmother. Suzanne’s mother, Ava, develops a case of impending great-grandmother fever that is, when she’s not spying on the new next-door neighbor, Buddy McKinley, who turns out to be a blast from her past.
-
My Train to Freedom
- A Jewish Boy’s Journey from Nazi Europe to a Life of Activism
- By: Ivan A. Backer
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The breathtaking memoir by a member of "Nicky's family", a group of 669 Czechoslovakian children who escaped the Holocaust through Sir Nicholas Winton's Kindertransport project. My Train to Freedom relates the trials and achievements of award-winning humanitarian and former Episcopal priest Ivan Backer.
-
Sins of the Fathers
- By: A.J. McCarthy
- Narrated by: Ryan Drean
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Charlene Butler, a.k.a. Charlie, is beautiful, independent, and a successful pub owner in downtown Montreal, but prefers not to discuss her past, or the main reason for her success. When she anonymously receives strange letters and the police don’t show an interest in the case, she is convinced by Frank, her best friend, to hire a private investigator to help her solve the mystery. However, PI Simm seems to have a few secrets of his own.
-
Life After Manzanar
- By: Naomi Hirahara, Heather C. Lindquist
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Brian Nishii
- Length: 4 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the editor of the award-winning Children of Manzanar, Heather C. Lindquist, and Edgar Award winner Naomi Hirahara comes a nuanced account of the “Resettlement”: the relatively unexamined period when ordinary people of Japanese ancestry, having been unjustly imprisoned during World War II, were finally released from custody. Given $25 and a one-way bus ticket to make a new life, some ventured east to Denver and Chicago to start over, while others returned to Southern California only to face discrimination and an alarming scarcity of housing and jobs.
-
Red Sorrow
- A Memoir
- By: Nanchu
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, 13-year-old Nanchu watched Red Guards burst into her home and arrest her parents, whom they tortured and jailed. She was left to fend for herself and her younger brother on the streets of Shanghai, enduring poverty and near-starvation. As she grew older she herself became a Red Guard and was sent down to the largest work camp in China. There she faced primitive conditions, predatory officials, a viper's nest of party jealousies, and near-fatal injury before she finally won admittance to Madame Mao's university in Shanghai.
-
Jack and Rochelle
- A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance
- By: Jack Sutin, Rochelle Sutin, Lawrence Sutin
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell, Widdi Turner
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this gripping memoir, Jack and Rochelle Sutin recount their experiences as Jewish resistance fighters during World War II, a story that ranges from extreme horror to poignant triumph. Told through their son Lawrence, the book brings alive the reality of months spent hidden in a dank underground bunker infested with lice and disease.
-
Walking with Gorillas
- The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet
- By: Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka
- Narrated by: Waceke Wambaa
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her enchanting memoir, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian, tells the remarkable story from her animal-loving childhood to her career protecting endangered mountain gorillas and other wild animals. In the face of discrimination and a male dominated world, one woman’s passion and determination to build a brighter future for the local wildlife and human community offers inspiration and insights into what is truly possible for our planet when we come together.
-
The Great Stain
- By: Noel Rae
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 24 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There have been numerous books about the why, when, and where of slavery in America, but there is a dearth of material exposing what slavery was actually like. In The Great Stain, researcher Noel Rae frames firsthand accounts from former slaves, slave owners, and even African slavers. Rae exposes the commerce and culture of slavery, not only from an economic or moral standpoint but also through multitudinous perspectives within it: a young girl is beaten after being accused of stealing a piece of candy, a slave ship's surgeon recounts brutal treatment and squalid conditions.
-
When I Was Seven
- By: Mary Ellen Bramwell
- Narrated by: Greg Walston
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucas is thrilled when his grandmother comes to live with him. She’s his best friend after Justin from down the street. But when she starts remembering things from her past, is he the only one who will listen? If no one else believes her, how can he fulfill her dying wish? A compelling story about the complexity and value of family as seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old boy.
-
Before Wallis
- Edward VIII's Other Women
- By: Rachel Trethewey
- Narrated by: Charlotte Strevens
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wallis Simpson stole the king's heart and rocked the monarchy - but she was not Edward VIII's first or only love. Before Wallis dominated his life, he adored three other women: Rosemary Leveson Gower, the girl he wanted to marry; Freda Dudley Ward, the Prince's long-term mistress; and Thelma Furness, his twice-married American lover. Each one of the three women in this book could have changed the course of history. In examining their lives and impact on the heir to the throne, Rachel Trethewey questions whether he ever really wanted to be king....
Publisher's Summary
A must-read prisoner memoir for fans of Orange is the New Black
“A fascinating look into a world many of us never see, and a powerful story about one woman’s journey to find her own strength, with a clear message of the importance of books and information for all.” —Booklist (American Library Association), starred review
Shortlisted for the 2020 Social Justice & Advocacy Book Award by In the Margins Book Awards.
In December 2008, twentysomething Jill Grunenwald graduated with her master’s degree in library science, ready to start living her dream of becoming a librarian. But the economy had a different idea. As the Great Recession reared its ugly head, jobs were scarce. After some searching, however, Jill was lucky enough to snag one of the few librarian gigs left in her home state of Ohio. The catch? The job was behind bars as the prison librarian at a men’s minimum-security prison. Talk about baptism by fire.
As an untested twentysomething woman, to say that the job was out of Jill’s comfort zone was an understatement. She was forced to adapt on the spot, speedily learning to take the metal detectors, hulking security guards, and colorful inmates in stride. Over the course of a little less than two years, Jill came to see past the bleak surroundings and the orange jumpsuits and recognize the humanity of the men stuck behind bars. They were just like every other library patron—persons who simply wanted to read, to be educated and entertained through the written word. By helping these inmates, Jill simultaneously began to recognize the humanity in everyone and to discover inner strength that she never knew she had.
At turns poignant and hilarious, Reading Behind Bars is a perfect listen for fans of Orange Is the New Black and Shakespeare Saved My Life.