Selected Shorts: Fictions for Our Times: Listener Favorites Old & New

by Toni Cade Bambara, Christine Baranski, Richard Bausch

These three-CD collections feature audiences' best-loved selections from National Public Radio's Selected Shorts , an award-winning series of classic and contemporary short fiction read by acclaimed actors and recorded live at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York City. More than three hours of recordings in each collection capture the intimacy of live performance. Stories are alternately funny, sad, moving, and exciting and make a perfect accompaniment to daily activities such as driving, cooking, exercising, and relaxing. Fictions for our Listener Favorites Old and New includes, among others, Thomas Meehan's "Yma Dream," read by Christine Baranski; Toni Cade Bambara's "Gorilla, My Love," read by Hattie Winston; Percival Everett's "The Fix," read by Isaiah Sheffer; Richard Bausch's "Valor," read by William Hurt; and Alice McDermott's "Enough," read by Kathleen Chalfant.

Genres: Audiobook

1 pages, Audio CD

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade (March 25, 1939 – December 9, 1995) was an African-American author, documentary film-maker, social activist and college professor.

Toni Cade Bambara was born in New York City to parents Walter and Helen (Henderson) Cade. She grew up in Harlem, Bedford Stuyvesant (Brooklyn), Queens and New Jersey. In 1970 she changed her name to include the name of a West African ethnic group, Bambara.

Bambara graduated from Queens College with a B.A. in Theater Arts/English Literature in 1959, then studied mime at the Ecole de Mime Etienne Decroux in Paris, France. She also became interested in dance before completing her master's degree in American studies at City College, New York (from 1962), while serving as program director of Colony Settlement House in Brooklyn. She has also worked for New York social services and as a recreation director in the psychiatric ward of Metropolitan hospital. From 1965 to 1969 she was with City College's Search for Education, Elevation, Knowledge-program. She taught English, published material and worked with SEEK's black theatre group. She was made assistant professor of English at Rutgers University's new Livingston College in 1969, was visiting professor in Afro-American Studies at Emory University and at Atlanta University (1977), where she also taught at the School of Social Work (until 1979). She was writer-in-residence at Neighborhood Arts Center (1975–79), at Stephens College at Columbia, Missouri (1976) and at Atlanta's Spelman College (1978–79). From 1986 she taught film-script writing at Louis Massiah's Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia.

Bambara participated in several community and activist organizations, and her work was influenced by the Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements of the 1960s. She went on propaganda trips to Cuba in 1973 and to Vietnam in 1975. She moved to Atlanta, GA, with her daughter, Karma Bene, and became a founding member of the Southern Collective of African-American Writers.

Toni Cade Bambara was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1993 and died of it in 1995, at the age of 56.

(from Wikipedia)

aka Toni Cade

Reviews

[da AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every single one of these short stories, including the reading of them, is a gem!

[Sharon Falduto · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know if there was an author or editor...I mean, there must have been, right? Anyway, this was an audio book with some celebrity types (Christine Baranski, Asmif Mandvi, William Hurt, others) reading short stories. Some nice short stories in the group, not that I remember any of the authors.

So that was not a very useful post. One of the stories was called, I believe, "The H Street Sledding Record." I really liked that one--it was just a little window into a happy family. (Oh, thanks internet--that one was by Ron Carlson.)

I loved "The H Street Sledding Record."

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this set of stories read/performed by various actors. The performance were all good, but Hattie Wilson preforming "Gorilla, My Love" was particularly good. I think seeing her perform this might have been even better. Having an audience there to react to what was being read really enhanced the experience. I was unfamiliar with most of these stories but I had previously read Jhumpa Lahiri's The Third and Final Continent", read by Aasif Mandvi.

[Randy Tramp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "My Man Bovanne." I enjoyed the voice of Mama. I spent some time in the South and I could see the character as real as when I lived there. Mama was a crude talker, but straight to the point. Being a strong character, Mama came off the page. I enjoyed the short story because I liked the main character.

[Amber]

Never got around to listening to this.