Betty Smith has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 76 ratings. The most-rated is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Summary
A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity. His wife Katie scrubs floors to put food on the table and clothes on her children's backs, instilling in them the values of being practical and planning ahead. When Johnny dies, leaving Katie pregnant, Francie, smart, pensive and hoping for something better, cannot believe that life can carry on as before. But with her own determination, and that of her mother behind her, Francie is able to move toward the future of her dreams, completing her education and heading off to college, always carrying the beloved Brooklyn of her childhood in her heart.
©1947 Betty Smith (P)2001 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Joy in the Morning
Summary
From Betty Smith, author of the beloved American classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, comes an unsentimental yet radiant and uplifting tale of young love and marriage. In 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Though only 18, Annie travels alone halfway across the country to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law - and there they marry. But Carl and Annie’s first year together is much more difficult than they anticipated as they find themselves in a faraway place with little money and few friends. With hardship and poverty weighing heavily upon them, they come to realize that their greatest sources of strength, loyalty, and love will help them make it through. A moving and unforgettable story, Joy in the Morning is "a glad affirmation that love can accomplish the impossible" (Chicago Tribune).
©1963 Betty Smith (P)2020 HarperAudio
Wednesdays and Other Stories
Summary
Wednesdays for Mrs Taylor are sacrosanct. On Wednesdays, she escapes from unbearable reality into a fantasy world, a world to which she feels she rightly belongs. But to get to this place she has to travel by train. In The Undivided, Peggy Slater’s husband earns a great deal of money; this fact seems to affect the couple who live in the next street. Hannah, the Maiden tells the story of a happy shepherd on New Year’s Eve whilst he anxiously awaits the presence of a stranger who will change his life forever. The protagonist in The Beginning of Eternity considers himself finished. A timid man by nature, he distrusts uncontrolled emotions - but does he cope when he goes down to the cellar? These four fictional short stories are written and read by Betty Smith, who is a keen amateur criminologist.
©2002 Betty Smith (P)2002 The Lindsay Players
Maggie-Now
Summary
Betty Smith, the beloved author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, weaves a riveting modern myth out of the experiences of her own life in this rediscovered classic. In Brooklyn's unforgiving urban jungle, Maggie Moore is torn between answering her own needs and catering to the desirous men who dominate her life. Confronted by her quarrelsome Irish immigrant father, the feckless lover who may become her husband, and others, Maggie must learn to navigate a cycle of loss, separation, and hope as she forges her own path toward happiness. With characteristic warmth, compelling insight, and easy, conversational prose, Maggie-Now poignantly illuminates one woman's struggles and successes as she grapples with timeless questions of desire, duty, self-sacrifice, and the quest for fulfillment. Maggie-Now is an unforgettable masterpiece from one of the 20th century's greatest talents.
©1958 Betty Smith (P)2019 HarperAudio