Click to receive personalized book recommendations daily.
Before you go...
Check Out These
Holiday Gift Ideas for Book Lovers
Go to Gift Guide
Best Seller
Listening Is an Act of Love by
Read An Excerpt

Reading Guide

Read An Excerpt
Read An Excerpt

Listening Is an Act of Love

A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project

A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project

A Celebration of American Life from the StoryCorps Project

Introduction by Dave Isay
Edited by Dave Isay

Introduction by Dave Isay
Edited by Dave Isay

Introduction by Dave Isay
Edited by Dave Isay

Introduction by Dave Isay
Edited by Dave Isay

By Dave Isay
Read by StoryCorps Participants
Narrated by Dave Isay

By Dave Isay
Read by StoryCorps Participants
Narrated by Dave Isay

Paperback $17.00

Oct 28, 2008 | 320 Pages

Ebook $13.99

Nov 08, 2007 | 320 Pages

Audiobook Download $7.50

Nov 08, 2007 | 55 Minutes

All Formats
+
    Listening Is an Act of Love by
    Paperback
    Oct 28, 2008 | 320 Pages
    See All Formats (2) +

    Paperback
    –

    • Paperback $17.00

      Oct 28, 2008 | 320 Pages

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook $13.99

      Nov 08, 2007 | 320 Pages

    Audio
    +

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About Listening Is an Act of Love

    As heard on NPR, a wondrous nationwide celebration of our shared humanity

    StoryCorps founder and legendary radio producer Dave Isay selects the most memorable stories from StoryCorps’ collection, creating a moving portrait of American life.

    The voices here connect us to real people and their lives–to their experiences of profound joy, sadness, courage, and despair, to good times and hard times, to good deeds and misdeeds. To read this book is to be reminded of how rich and varied the American storybook truly is, how resistant to easy categorization or stereotype. We are our history, individually and collectively, and Listening Is an Act of Love touchingly reminds us of this powerful truth.

    Dave Isay’s newest book, Callings, is now available from Penguin Press.

    About Listening Is an Act of Love

    As heard on NPR, a wondrous nationwide celebration of our shared humanity

    StoryCorps founder and legendary radio producer Dave Isay selects the most memorable stories from StoryCorps’ collection, creating a moving portrait of American life.

    The voices here connect us to real people and their lives–to their experiences of profound joy, sadness, courage, and despair, to good times and hard times, to good deeds and misdeeds. To read this book is to be reminded of how rich and varied the American storybook truly is, how resistant to easy categorization or stereotype. We are our history, individually and collectively, and Listening Is an Act of Love touchingly reminds us of this powerful truth.

    Dave Isay’s newest book, Callings, is now available from Penguin Press.

    About Listening Is an Act of Love

    From more than ten thousand interviews, StoryCorps—the largest oral history project in the nation’s history—presents a tapestry of American stories, told by the people who lived them to the people they love. 

    StoryCorps began with the idea that everyone has an important story to tell. And since 2003, this remarkable project has been collecting the stories of everyday Americans and preserving them for future generations. In New York City and in mobile recording booths traveling the country—from small towns to big cities, at Native American reservations and an Army post—StoryCorps is collecting the memories of Americans from all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. The project represents a wondrous nationwide celebration of our shared humanity, capturing for posterity the stories that define us and bind us together. 

    In Listening Is an Act of Love, StoryCorps founder and legendary radio producer Dave Isay selects some of the most remarkable stories from the already vast collection and arranges them thematically into a moving portrait of American life. The voices here connect us to real people and their lives—to their experiences of profound joy, sadness, courage and despair, to good times and hard times, to good deeds and misdeeds. 

    To read this book is to be reminded of how rich and varied the American storybook truly is, how resistant to easy categorization or caricature. Above all, this book honors the gift each StoryCorps participant has made, from the raw material of his or her life, to the Americans who will come after. We are our history, individually and collectively, and Listening Is an Act of Love touchingly reminds us of this powerful truth.

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Also by

    Callings
    Ties That Bind
    See all books by

    Also by

    Callings
    Ties That Bind
    See all books by

    Also by

    Callings
    Ties That Bind
    See all books by

    About Dave Isay

    David Isay is the founder of StoryCorps and its parent company, Sound Portraits Productions. Over the past two decades his radio documentary work has won nearly every award in broadcasting, including five Peabody awards. David has also received a Guggenheim… More about Dave Isay

    Product Details

    Category: Biography & Memoir | Literary Collections

    Paperback | $17.00
    Published by Penguin Books
    Oct 28, 2008 | 320 Pages | 5-1/16 x 7-3/4 | ISBN 9780143114345

    Category: Biography & Memoir | Literary Collections

    Ebook | $13.99
    Published by Penguin Books
    Nov 08, 2007 | 320 Pages | ISBN 9781101202630

    Category: Biography & Memoir | Literary Collections | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $7.50
    Published by Penguin Audio
    Nov 08, 2007 | 55 Minutes | ISBN 9781429592369

    People Who Read Listening Is an Act of Love Also Read

    ‹ ›
    The Smartest Guys in the Room
    American Rose
    The Birth of Classical Europe
    The War That Killed Achilles
    The Inheritance of Rome
    The Enemy Within
    The Black Arrow
    Cry Havoc!
    The 33 Strategies of War
    The Jasons
    Nelson's Trafalgar
    Cotton
    Not a Good Day to Die
    The Dominion of War
    Rising '44
    Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?
    The First World War
    The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople
    Air Power
    The Cross and the Crescent
    Mutants
    On Wings of Eagles
    Great Fortune
    Hitler's Scientists
    A Dangerous Place
    Lies
    Behind the Lines
    Jim Crow's Children
    The Sea Hunters II
    The Secret Teachings of All Ages
    Secrets
    The Blank Slate
    Shadow Warriors
    Neighbors
    The Woman Who Laughed at God
    The Lakota Way
    What If? II
    Booknotes
    New Worlds, Lost Worlds
    Interrogations
    Gladiatrix
    Above Hallowed Ground
    American Colonies
    Better Day Coming
    At War at Sea

    Inspired by Your Browsing History

    Praise

    “Each interview is a revelation.”—USA Today

    “As heartwarming as a holiday pumpkin pie and every bit as homey . . . what emerges in these compelling pages is hard-won wisdom and boundless humanity.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

    Table Of Contents

    Listening is an Act of LoveIntroduction
    Author’s Note

    Home and Family
    Work and Dedication
    Journeys
    History and Struggle
    Fire and Water

    The Story of StoryCorps
    Afterword
    The Conversation of a Lifetime
    Do-It-Yourself Checklist
    Favorite StoryCorps Questions
    Acknowledgments
    StoryCorps Facilitators, 2003-06

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    Download our Spring Fiction Sampler Now
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    TASTE img

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    LitFlash

    The eBooks you want at the lowest prices

    Read it Forward

    Read it first. Pass it on!
    First to Read

    First to Read

    Early access to Penguin Random House’s hottest new titles