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The Source of Self-Regard
Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations
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Narrated by:
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Bahni Turpin
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Written by:
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Toni Morrison
About this listen
Arguably the most celebrated and revered writer of our time now gives us a new nonfiction collection - a rich gathering of her essays, speeches, and meditations on society, culture, and art, spanning four decades.
The Source of Self-Regard is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison's inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: The first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11; the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King, Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin.
In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, "Black matter(s)", and human rights. She looks at enduring matters of culture: the role of the artist in society, the literary imagination, the Afro-American presence in American literature, and in her Nobel lecture, the power of language itself. And here, too, is piercing commentary on her own work (including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise) and that of others, among them, painter and collagist Romare Bearden, author Toni Cade Bambara, and theater director Peter Sellars.
In all, The Source of Self-Regard is a luminous and essential addition to Toni Morrison's oeuvre.
©2019 Toni Morrison (P)2019 Random House AudioYou may also enjoy...
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- Written by: Simone de Beauvoir, Constance Borde, Sheila Malovany-Chevallier
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- Length: 39 hrs and 9 mins
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Simone de Beauvoir’s essential masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of "woman", and a revolutionary exploration of inequality and otherness. This unabridged edition of the text reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation, and is now available on audio for the very first time. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as when it was first published, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.
-
-
A pivotal work, but long winded
- By W. Crawford on 2021-10-17
Written by: Simone de Beauvoir, and others
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Sula
- Written by: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Nel and Sula's devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
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Hell yea
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Written by: Toni Morrison
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Song of Solomon
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- Written by: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. As Morrison follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, she introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized Black world.
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Didn't draw me in
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Assata
- Written by: Assata Shakur, Angela Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Sirena Riley
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted list. Assata Shakur's trial and conviction for the murder of a white State Trooper in the spring of 1973 divided America. Her case quickly became emblematic of race relations and police brutality in the USA. While Assata's detractors continue to label her a ruthless killer, her defenders cite her as the victim of a systematic, racist campaign.
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Fantastic
- By shadea on 2022-05-24
Written by: Assata Shakur, and others
-
Beloved
- Written by: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.
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A literary must read.
- By Travelmug on 2019-01-03
Written by: Toni Morrison
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The Bluest Eye
- Written by: Toni Morrison
- Narrated by: Toni Morrison
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is the story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
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Thought provoking...well done narrative
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What the critics say
"The Source of Self-Regard speaks to today's social and political moment as directly as this morning's headlines...a call to action.... Morrison tackles headfirst the weighty issues that have long troubled America's conscience...profoundly insightful.... Is it a collection worth reading? Undoubtedly.... Throughout the collection she calls on us to do what she knows, what we should all know, is possible: "To lessen suffering, to know the truth and tell it, to raise the bar of humane expectation." (NPR)
"Clearly we do not deserve Morrison, and clearly we need her badly.... In this collection of nonfiction written over the past four decades, the revered (and sometimes controversial) author reinforces her status as a piercing and visionary analyst of history, society, literature, language, and, always, race.... [T]he book explodes into pure brilliance...despite its overflowing content, the book still inspires the desire for more.... The Source of Self-Regard is the definitive statement that Morrison, who has thought as much as anyone about the ways countries, cultures, and people fail and hurt each other and themselves, still believes that we can be better." (The Boston Globe)
"Morrison turns a critical eye on race, social politics, money, feminism, culture, and the press, with the essential mandate that each of us bears the responsibility for reaching beyond our superficial identities and circumstances for a closer look at what it means to be human." (Booklist, starred review)
"Brilliantly incisive essays, speeches, and meditations considering race, power, identity, and art.... Powerful, highly compelling pieces from one of our greatest writers." (Kirkus, starred review)
Featured Article: 10 Best Toni Morrison Audiobooks for Discovering an Icon
Few authors are as universally beloved as Toni Morrison, and for good reason. The Lorain, Ohio native dominated the literary scene from the moment she burst onto the stage in 1970, with her debut novel The Bluest Eye. A packed career of novels, poetry, short fiction, children's books, nonfiction and plays followed, along with a stack of awards to boot. A Nobel Prize? A Pulitzer Prize? The first female African American editor in the history of celebrated publishing company Random House? You name it, Toni Morrison has won it and done it. With such an incredible body of work in audio, it can be difficult to know where to begin. For longtime fans of Morrison and newcomers alike, we’ve gathered a selection of some of her greatest. Here are the best Toni Morrison audiobooks to add to your library today.