Friday, April 30, 2010

Audiobooks



Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A



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Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A


Author : Mark Twain

Performed By : Stuart Langton

Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc

Runtime : 11 hours

Categories : Classic Literature

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An ingenious Yankee mechanic, knocked unconscious in a fight, awakens to find himself at

Camelot in A.D. 528. Imprisoned by Sir Kay the Seneschal and exhibited before the knights of the Round

Table, he is condemned to death but saves himself by posing as a magician like Merlin, correctly predicting

an eclipse, and becoming minister to King Arthur. He increases his power by applying nineteenth-century

knowledge of gunpowder, electricity, and industrial methods. However, when he attempts to better the

condition of the peasantry he meets opposition from the church, the knights, Merlin, and the sorceress

Morgan le Fay.



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Doctor Who at the BBC: The Plays
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Doctor Who at the BBC: The Plays

Author : Various
Performed By : Full Cast Production
Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Runtime : 2 hours 5 minutes
Categories : Dramatizations
Audio Theater
British
Sci-Fi
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Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred appear in one of threefull-cast BBC radio dramas based around the real-life worlds of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who, the TV series which millions adore, is the inspiration for these three original radio plays. Presented in their entirety, they each focus on the effect which the programme has had on the lives of ordinary – and some extraordinary – people.

Regenerations by Daragh Carville:

In this powerful and moving play, a group of friends reunite for an annual Doctor Who convention. Set against a backdrop of the Belfast troubles, the play deals with themes of sexuality and love, and features appearances by Tom Baker and Sophie Aldred.

Blue Veils and Golden Sands by Martyn Wade:

Delia Derbyshire was the delightful and unusual woman who created the unique sound of the original Doctor Who theme tune. This is a dramatised account of her early days at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and her later recollections of that time.

Dalek, I Love You by Colin Sharpe:

Nigel’s obsession with Doctor Who is a source of some concern to his mother. When he meets the girl of his dreams at a convention, life at home seems set to change forever…

Contains adult themes and language.

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As You Like It



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As You Like It


Author : William Shakespeare

Performed By : Full Cast Performance

Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Runtime : 2 hours

Categories : Dramatizations
Classic Literature
Shakespeare

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Helena Bonham Carter stars as Rosalind with David Morrissey as Orlando and Natasha Little as Celia in Shakespeare's festive comedy.



BBC radio has a unique heritage when it comes to Shakespeare. Since 1923. when the newly formed company broadcast its first full-length play, generations of actors and producers have honed and perfected the craft of making Shakespeare to be heard.



The trees and shrubs resonate with declarations of love and confessions of assumed identity in this exciting new production, where the intimacy of radio brilliantly recreates the closed-off, magical world of the Forest of Arden.



The play is introduced by Richard Eyre.



Revitalised, original and comprehensive, this is Shakespeare for the new millennium.

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Doctor Thorne
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Doctor Thorne

Author : Anthony Trollope
Performed By : Simon Vance
Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc
Runtime : 20 hours 30 minutes
Categories : Classic Literature
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Anthony Trollope once said, "A novel should give a picture of common life enlivened by humour and sweetened by pathos." Trollope admirably fulfills his own criteria in this charming third novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.

Doctor Thorne adopts his niece Mary, keeping secret her illegitimate birth as he introduces her to the best local social circles. There she meets and falls in love with Frank Gresham, heir to a vastly mortgaged estate; yet Frank is obliged to find a wealthy wife. Only Doctor Thorne knows that Mary is to inherit a large legacy that will make her acceptable to the otherwise disapproving middle-class society to which Frank belongs. Where fiery passion fails, understated English virtues of patience, persistence, and good humor prevail in this most appealing of Trollope's comedies.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

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Alan Bennett - Untold Stories Part 3: Written On The Body



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Alan Bennett - Untold Stories Part 3: Written On The Body


Author : Alan Bennett

Performed By : Alan Bennett

Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Runtime : 2 hours 30 minutes

Categories : Biographical
Autobiography
Arts & Drama
Comedy

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Alan Bennett reads five more extracts from Untold Stories , his major collection of new writings.

 


Untold Stories . Alan Bennett's first major collection of prose since his bestselling Writing Home , brings together the finest and funniest of his writing over the last ten years.


Following on from Untold Stories: Part I: Stories and Part 2: The Diaries ,  Part 3: Written on the Body is both a reflection on Alan Bennett's childhood and schooldays and a meditation on writing.


Written on the Body is a sideways look at Bennett's schooldays at Leeds Modern School, and a recollection of the growing pains of puberty. Seeing Stars is a nostalgic view of the movies of the Forties, seen by Bennett and his family in any one of the half a dozen cinemas in their district in Leeds, including the Western, the Clifton, the Picturedrome and the Lyric.


Finally, Staring Out of the Window lets us into Bennett's creative process, which apparently consists of a good deal of... well... staring out of the window.


Alan Bennett's television series Talking Heads has become a modern-day classic, as have many of his works for the stage, including Forty Years On, The Lady in the Van, The Madness of George III (together with the Oscar-nominated screenplay The Madness of King George ) and an adaptation of The Wind in the Willows . The History Boys won the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle awards for Best Play, the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, the South Bank Award and six Tony Awards.



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Disorder Peculiar to the Country, A
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Disorder Peculiar to the Country, A

Author : Ken Kalfus
Performed By : James Boles
Publisher : Audio Evolution LLC
Runtime : 8 hours 36 minutes
Categories : Fiction
Arts & Drama
Crime & Thrillers
Contemporary
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Joyce and Marshall Harriman are in the midst of a contentious divorce, but still sharing a cramped, overmortgaged Brooklyn apartment with their two children.

On the morning of September 11, Joyce departs for Newark to catch a flight to San Francisco, and Marshall, after dropping the kids at daycare, heads for his office in the World Trade Center.

She misses her flight and he's late for work, but on that grim day, in the devastated city, among millions seized by fear and grief, each thinks the other is dead, and each is secretly, shamefully, gloriously happy. As their bitter divorce is further complicated by anthrax scares, suicide bombs, foreign wars, and the stock market collapse, they suffer, in ways unexpectedly personal and increasingly ludicrous, the many strange ravages of our time.

In this astonishing black comedy, Kalfus suggests how our nation's public calamities have encroached upon our most private illusions.

Ken Kalfus is the author of a novel, The Commissariat of Enlightenment, and the short story collections, Thirst, which won the Salon Book Award, and Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies which was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. A Disorder Peculiar to the Country was a National Book Award finalist for 2006.

Reviews:

"Kalfus is an endlessly ingenious writer….Features some of the best fiction writing yet about September 11….A brilliant comedy of manners…about the way a conflict takes on a logic and momentum of its own."—Salon.com

"My inner idealist hopes Kalfus' novel joins the ranks of Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 on the required reading lists."—Philadelphia Magazine

"Kalfus' new novel [is] like a fever dream of recent events…Through the interbleeding of public and private story lines and his lampooning approach, Kalfus [is] freeing the way we think about September 11….If hyperbole can be weaponized anywhere in literature, it is here."—Los Angeles Times Book Review

Read by James Boles, Direction, Mastering and Original Music by Peter Pantelis.

 

 

Audiobook



Among The Roses



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Among The Roses


Author : Clint Gaige

Performed By : Full Cast Production

Publisher : Quiet Storm Publishing

Runtime : 4 minutes

Categories : Dramatizations
General

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This is the story of a young yellow rose who finds himself among a patch of red roses. He feels different and inadequate until he hears a story from the garden's mighty oak.

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Diary of Samuel Pepys, The
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Diary of Samuel Pepys, The

Author : Samuel Pepys
Performed By : Michael Maloney
Publisher : Select Music & Distribution
Runtime : 4 hours
Categories : Classic Literature
British
Pre 1900
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The diary of Samuel Pepys is perhaps the most well known collection of reminiscences. He maintained it, in secrecy, from 1660, the year of the Restoration, until 1669 when fear of blindness prevented his daily labours. Though it covers less than a decade, it offers a lively and detailed insight into a period and a personality �?? for he noted events in both     public and private life. Famous passages include descriptions of The Plague and the Great Fire of London.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Audio books



Adventures of Odysseus and The Tale of Troy



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Adventures of Odysseus and The Tale of Troy


Author : Padriac Colum

Performed By : Pratt, Sean

Publisher : In Audio

Runtime : 6 hours 19 minutes

Categories : Poetry
Classic Literature

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The Iliad and the Odyssey are retold in a glorious saga.



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Devoted Friend, The
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Devoted Friend, The

Author : Oscar Wilde
Performed By : David Ian Davies
Publisher : One Voice Recordings
Runtime : 24 minutes
Categories : Classic Literature
Classics
Fiction
Our Price : $11.00
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Oscar Wilde's short narrative teaches, through example, the difference between true devotion to a friend, and the selfish, egocentric uses to which some may employ lip service to friendship as a means of taking advantage of anothers good will.

Audio books



Death of Arthur, The



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Death of Arthur, The


Author : Sir Thomas Malory

Performed By : Philip Madoc

Publisher : Select Music & Distribution

Runtime : 4 hours

Categories : Classic Literature
Classics

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The glorious but tragic story of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is one of the great legends of Western civilisation. Storytellers and poets down the cen­turies have returned repeatedly to the universal themes of the Quest of the Holy Grail and the love between Sir Launcelot and Queen Guenever.


Yet the first printed account, written by the 15th century knight Sir Thomas Malory, remains unmatched. In words which speak as directly to us today as they did to his own period, he brings to life a rich tale of heroism and ideals undermined by the poignance of human emotions.



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Depth Perception
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Depth Perception

Author : Not Known
Performed By : Not Known
Publisher : Sound Forms
Runtime : 35 minutes
Categories : Poetry
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Cinematically Scored Poetry.

Audio book



How to Build a Tin Canoe



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How to Build a Tin Canoe


Author : Robb White

Performed By : Robb White

Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc

Runtime : 6 hours

Categories : Autobiography
Adventurers & Explorers
Biographical
Health & Recreation
Knowledge & Learning

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A graceful primer on life and how to sail through it with character,

easy grace, and personal priorities all in a row.Kirkus Reviews



Robb White knows everything there is to know about getting on the water and staying

there as long as you possibly can. While still a young boy, he built his first boat, hewn from

the tin roof of an abandoned chicken coop. In How to Build a Tin Canoe, this Southern

raconteur and self-taught, expert wooden-boat builder offers a wryly humorous journey

through a life lived on the water and the lessons learned along the way.



Robb White is the owner and proprietor of the boat-building company Robb White & Sons. A regular contributor to the publications WoodenBoat and Messing About in Boats, he is widely regarded for his boat knowledge and his working theory of life. He splits his time between southern Georgia and Florida's Apalachee Bay.

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DELISA: DErivative LIfe SApien
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DELISA: DErivative LIfe SApien

Author : K. Anderson Yancy
Performed By : Various
Publisher : Wollcott & Sheridan Aural Performance Library
Runtime : 1 hour 9 minutes
Categories : Dramatizations
Our Price : $9.95
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When the U.S. Supreme Court determines the fate of genetically engineered beings - whether they're humans or animals - humanity learns that the law is truly a double edged sword.

"Delisa" provides a first glimpse of a problem that does not yet exist, but one day will. we infuse plants with animal DNA, animals with plant DNA. When we start doing it to humans, what are they ? Do they remain humans ? Do they become something else ? More ? equal ? Superior ?

What is humanity ? How is it defined ?

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Cockney's Kipling, A



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Cockney's Kipling, A


Author : Rudyard Kipling

Performed By : David Ian Davies

Publisher : One Voice Recordings

Runtime : 27 minutes

Categories : Poetry

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One Voice Recordings presents this fine collection of ten of Rudyard Kiplings most enduring poetic works, recited in the wonderful Cockney lilt by renowned voice actor David Ian Davies. Titles include The Ladies, The Liner She's a Lady, Danny Deever, The Bell Buoy, Female of the Species, A Smuggler's Song, Power of the Dog, Gunga Din, Mandalay, and Kipling's 'If'.


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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The
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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The

Author : Edward Gibbon
Performed By : Neville Jason
Publisher : Select Music & Distribution
Runtime : 8 hours 20 minutes
Categories : Classic Literature
Ancient
Our Price : $27.25
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Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is one of the greatest texts in the English language. In magisterial prose, Gibbon charts the gradual collapse of the Roman rule from Augustus (23BC-AD14) to the first of the Barbarian kings, Odoacer (476-490 AD). It is a remarkable account, with the extravagant corruption and depravity of emperors such as Commodus, Caracalla and Elagabalus contrasted by the towering work of Constantine, Julian and other remarkable men. It remains the standard work of scholarship on the subject two hundred years after it was written; yet equally important, in its sheer accessibility, it is an unforgettable story.

Chapters I-XI (98 - 268 AD)
Edward Gibbon begins The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by setting the scene at the time of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome and describing the extent of the empire. It was a crucial time - in his last testament, Augustus advised that the Roman Empire should be contained within the geographical limits attained at the time. Britain had been added, and the period of active aggrandisement was over.

He passes rapidly over the following reigns, including the periods of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius I, Nero and Trajan, and concentrates on the 43 years of order and justice maintained during the administration of the Antonines, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius.

This was followed by the indulgence and cruelties of Commodus, succeeded, in his turn, by the virtuous Pertinax, whose brief reign was cut short by one of the first real displays of power by the Praetorian Guard. Thereafter, Septimus Severus introduced the dangerous pattern of mollifying the Praetorian Guard, which played a disproportionate part in the vicissitudes of the empire.

A further period of licentiousness and despotism followed with the extravagances of Caracalla and Elagabalus. After another all-too-short period of peaceful rule under Alexander, the empire was ruled by the tyrannical Maximin, and five others who all died within six months. This part of Gibbon's account concludes with the accession of Claudius II in AD 268.

Chapters XI to XVII (268 AD - 334 AD)
In this section, Gibbon continues his masterly survey by looking at some of the strongest figures in Roman history. There were four years of memorable achievement under Aurelian, and the "illustrious" joint reign of Diocletian and Maximian when administrative sense and order prevailed over the Western and Eastern empires. It was a time, also, which saw the end of Rome as the effective capital of the empire.

The sensible partition of power was not to last for long. From a period of turmoil, Constantine emerged to rule on his own and eventually set up a new capital on the banks of the Bosphorus - Constantinople.

It is also in this section that Gibbon considers the growth of Christianity and the early Christian Church. His account questioned the established views towards the Roman persecution and aroused the ire of Gibbon's contemporaries despite its scholastic basis. The historian himself stood by his comments that the persecution of the Christians was neither as extensive nor, in political terms, as inappropriate as was generally accepted.

Chapters XVIII - XXXVI (323 - 490 AD)
The reign of Julian was short (361-363), yet Gibbon devotes no fewer than three chapters to his personality and achievements. Frugal, even austere in his habits, Julian began as a philosopher and ended an emperor on the battlefield, and, through Gibbon's eyes, emerges as one of the most impressive in the catalogue of Roman rulers.

But neither he, nor other able rulers such as Theodosius, could do more than momentarily halt the decline of the Roman Empire. The incursions of the barbarians, including the Goths under Alaric (leading to the first sack of Rome) and the Huns under Attila, sounded its death-knell.

This account ends with the reign of Odoacer, the first barbarian king of Italy.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

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Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume 1, The



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Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Volume 1, The


Author : Arthur Conan Doyle

Performed By : Various

Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd

Runtime : 2 hours 55 minutes

Categories : Detective
Classics
Dramatizations
Drama
British

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Clive Merrison and Michael Williams star as Holmes and Watson in the first collection of stories from the unique fully dramatised BBC Radio 4 canon

 


A Scandal in Bohemia - The King of Bohemia seeks the return of a compromising photograph but the woman who has it proves more than a match for the great detective.


The Red-Headed League - Holmes and Doyle move into top gear in one of the finest stories in the canon. Why should a pawnbroker have to copy out the Encyclopaedia Britannica and what bearing can the knees of a man's trousers have on the case?


A Case of Identity - A squalid little story of greed, and a solid piece of professional work on Holmes' part in finding out why a City cashier should ditch his love on their wedding day.


The Boscombe Valley Mystery - Another dazzler with Holmes needing all his powers to solve a splendid murder case with Australian connections.



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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Part II, The
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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Part II, The

Author : Edward Gibbon
Performed By : Philip Madoc with Neville Jason
Publisher : Select Music & Distribution
Runtime : 7 hours 45 minutes
Categories : Classic Literature
Ancient
Our Price : $27.25
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Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire occupies an immortal place in the pantheon of historical masterpieces. This six-disc recording covers the final three volumes of Gibbon's work, tracing ten centuries in the life of the eastern half of the empire, whose capital city was Constantinople. Among the many figures who stride across Gibbon's stage here are the emperor Justinian I, a noble statesman and successful warrior, brought low by his lascivious wife, the former prostitute Theodora; the murdering Basil I, a peasant who nonetheless proved himself a worthy figure upon which to drape the purple; and the final emperor of all, Constantine XI, who died on the battlements of Constantinople in 1453, valiantly fighting a losing battle to prevent the Turks from gaining a city they had craved for centuries. It is still the work that sets the standard for all histories of the period.