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Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)

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Published:
Macmillan Audio 2018
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Available from OverDrive
Description

This program is read by the author
If you're looking for a parenting audiobook, this is not it. This is not a treatise on how to be a mother.

This is an audiobook about a young girl who moves to a new town every couple of years; a misfit teenager who finds solace in a local music scene; an adrift twenty-something who drops out of college to pursue her dream of making cheesecake on a stick a successful business franchise (ah, the ideals of youth). Alone in a new city, she summons her inner strength as she holds the hand of a dying stranger.
Dawn Davies is a woman who finds humor in difficult pregnancies and post-partum depression (after listening to "Pie" you might never eat Thanksgiving dessert the same way). She is a divorcee who unexpectedly finds second love. She is a happily married suburban wife who nevertheless makes a mental list of all the men she would have slept with. And she is a parent who finds herself tested in ways she could never imagine. In stories that cut to the quick, Davies explores passion, loss, illness, pain, and joy, told from her singular, gimlet-eyed, hilarious perspective.
Mothers of Sparta is not a blow-by-blow of Davies' life but rather an examination of the exquisite and often painful moments of a life, the moments we look back on and say, That one, that one mattered. Straddling the fence between humor and, well...not humor, Davies delivers an audiobook about what it's like to try to carve a place for oneself in the world, no matter how unyielding the rock can be.
Praise for Mothers of Sparta:
"Powerful debut...startling, tragic, and ultimately redemptive....Whether perceptively exploring joy or anguish, Davis digs deeply." — Publishers Weekly
"A collection of quirky, funny, sad, and moving short personal essays that compress the author's life into the snippets and moments that shaped who she is today....Forthright, entertaining essays that portray all the love, struggle, and anguish of being a woman and a mother." — Kirkus
"Davies' collection of essays soars...It's a memoir that locates the profound within the ordinary." — Entertainment Weekly

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Format:
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen
Edition:
Unabridged
Street Date:
01/30/2018
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781427293510
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Dawn Davies. (2018). Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces. Unabridged Macmillan Audio.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Dawn Davies. 2018. Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces. Macmillan Audio.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Dawn Davies, Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces. Macmillan Audio, 2018.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Dawn Davies. Mothers of Sparta: A Memoir in Pieces. Unabridged Macmillan Audio, 2018.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 16:16:45
Date Updated:
Dec 06, 2020 02:42:40
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Last Metadata Change:
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Last Availability Change:
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Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 29, 2024 02:17:20

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      • name: Dawn Davies
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Mothers of Sparta
fullDescription

This program is read by the author
If you're looking for a parenting audiobook, this is not it. This is not a treatise on how to be a mother.

This is an audiobook about a young girl who moves to a new town every couple of years; a misfit teenager who finds solace in a local music scene; an adrift twenty-something who drops out of college to pursue her dream of making cheesecake on a stick a successful business franchise (ah, the ideals of youth). Alone in a new city, she summons her inner strength as she holds the hand of a dying stranger.
Dawn Davies is a woman who finds humor in difficult pregnancies and post-partum depression (after listening to "Pie" you might never eat Thanksgiving dessert the same way). She is a divorcee who unexpectedly finds second love. She is a happily married suburban wife who nevertheless makes a mental list of all the men she would have slept with. And she is a parent who finds herself tested in ways she could never imagine. In stories that cut to the quick, Davies explores passion, loss, illness, pain, and joy, told from her singular, gimlet-eyed, hilarious perspective.
Mothers of Sparta is not a blow-by-blow of Davies' life but rather an examination of the exquisite and often painful moments of a life, the moments we look back on and say, That one, that one mattered. Straddling the fence between humor and, well...not humor, Davies delivers an audiobook about what it's like to try to carve a place for oneself in the world, no matter how unyielding the rock can be.
Praise for Mothers of Sparta:
"Powerful debut...startling, tragic, and ultimately redemptive....Whether perceptively exploring joy or anguish, Davis digs deeply." — Publishers Weekly
"A collection of quirky, funny, sad, and moving short personal essays that compress the author's life into the snippets and moments that shaped who she is today....Forthright, entertaining essays that portray all the love, struggle, and anguish of being a woman and a mother." — Kirkus
"Davies' collection of essays soars...It's a memoir that locates the profound within the ordinary." — Entertainment Weekly

reviews
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        November 27, 2017
        This powerful debut collection of essays follows Davies from an unsettled childhood (her parents relocated often and divorced when she was 13) to a fulfilling life as a writer, wife, and mother. A number of these essays were previously published in literary journals; combined here, they portray a sensitive yet fierce woman who battles anxiety and rises from the despair of a failed marriage to find happiness with a second husband in a blended family (three kids from hers, two from his previous marriage). The opening piece, “Night Swim,” sparkles with vivid descriptions of Davies’s two young, carefree daughters swimming, even as Davies imagines the complications of life that they will face as they get older. “Keeping the Faith,” in which Davies details an accident she once witnessed, is startling, tragic, and ultimately redemptive. The strongest piece is the title essay, “Mothers of Sparta,” in which Davies tells of the struggles she encountered raising her son, who is autistic and sociopathic. Not all of the pieces are equally powerful: an essay on men she “would have” slept with seems both quirky and misplaced (Ben Carson makes the cut, as does Hermann Rorschach), but the author’s observations on parenting are spot-on (once you have kids you “must tiptoe through the rest of your life”). Whether perceptively exploring joy or anguish, Davis digs deeply.

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shortDescription

This program is read by the author
If you're looking for a parenting audiobook, this is not it. This is not a treatise on how to be a mother.

This is an audiobook about a young girl who moves to a new town every couple of years; a misfit teenager who finds solace in a local music scene; an adrift twenty-something who drops out of college to pursue her dream of making cheesecake on a stick a successful business franchise (ah, the ideals of youth). Alone in a new city, she summons her inner strength as she holds the hand of a dying stranger.
Dawn Davies is a woman who finds humor in difficult pregnancies and post-partum depression (after listening to "Pie" you might never eat Thanksgiving dessert the same way). She is a divorcee who unexpectedly finds second love. She is a happily married suburban wife who nevertheless makes a mental list of all the men she would have slept with. And she is a parent who finds herself tested in ways she could never imagine. In...

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