Len Joy has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators. The most-rated is Letting Go: Stories.
Everyone Dies Famous
Summary
As a tornado threatens their town, a stubborn old man who has lost his son teams up with a troubled young soldier to deliver a jukebox to the wealthy developer having an affair with the soldier's wife. It's July 2003 and the small town of Maple Springs, Missouri is suffering through a month-long drought. Dancer Stonemason, a long-forgotten hometown hero still grieving over the death of his oldest son, is moving into town to live with his more dependable younger son. He hires Wayne Mesirow, an Iraq war veteran, to help him liquidate his late son's business. The heat wave breaks and the skies darken. Dancer tries to settle an old score while Wyne discovers the true cost of his wife's indifference and turns his thoughts to revenge. When the tornado hits Maple Springs, only one of the men will make it out alive. Everyone Dies Famous is a story from the heartland about the uncommon lives of everyday people - the choices they make, how they live their lives, and how they die.
©2020 Len Joy (P)2020 Len Joy
American Past Time
Summary
September 1953: Dancer Stonemason is three days from his major league debut. With his wife and son cheering him on, he pitches the greatest game of his life. And then loses everything. Told against the backdrop of America's postwar challenges from Little Rock to the Bay of Pigs to Viet Nam, American Past Time is the story of what happens to a man and his family after the cheering stops.
©2014 Len Joy (P)2019 Len Joy
Letting Go: Stories
Summary
Foreword Reviews 2018 Indies Finalist - war & military "This short-fiction collection examines various characters' reactions to death, past regrets, and other life changes. Throughout these brief tales, Joy maintains a smooth prose style with a light touch that acts as a counterpoint to the darkness. Short edgy tales with depth." (Kirkus Reviews) "You can have your Italian and Scandinavian contemporary troubadours of modern life, Len Joy knows our American one. Especially he knows men, and as a woman reader, I like getting inside men's heads. No fancy stuff. No mumble jumble interiority. Len Joy is sold Americana." (Sandra Scofied, National Book Award nominee) It took me eight years, nine months, and three days to write my first novel American Past Time. My second novel Better Days was published in 2018 and my new novel Everyone Dies Famous will be published in 2020. Someone asked me what the theme of my collection was. I hate those questions. I'm really bad at theme. I don't think about a theme when I'm writing the story. I'm just trying to tell a story that interests me (and hopefully someone else). Here's a tagline for some of the stories: Riding a Greyhound Bus into the New World - a widower searches for the innocent boy he used to be Dalton's Good Fortune - a down-on-his-luck ex-soldier gets a new perspective on his life from a fortune teller This Train Makes All the Stops - a man tries to adapt to a new world after his wife dies Letting Go - a woman in an emergency room waiting for a word on her husband, reflects on her marriage Most of these stories are about people who have lost something and are trying to find a way to move on with their lives. I hope you enjoy them.
©2018 Len Joy (P)2020 Len Joy