Special Collections
Human-Narrated Books for Adults
Description: Please enjoy this collection of Bookshare books, now with human narration! #adults
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The Values Compass
by Mandeep RaiBroadcast journalist Mandeep Rai takes us on a journey to 101 countries around the world, highlighting a single, unique value that has defined each nation's history, culture, and global influence - and how we can apply them to better our own lives and make decisions more effectively.
Every day, whether we acknowledge it or not, we make decisions based on what we believe in. The choices, challenges, or opportunities facing us - and how we engage with them - in politics, family, relationships, work, and play reveal something important about our character, desires, and personality to ourselves and to others. When those values align and are shared by a single population, they have the power to transform a nation and teach the world valuable lessons about success.
From India's 'faith' to Vietnam's 'resilience', Argentina's 'passion' to Singapore's 'order', Australia's 'mateship' to Uganda's 'heritage' and from Malta's 'community' to Sri Lanka's 'joy', we may all find something of ourselves in others and succeed together as a result.
This is an insightful collection of profiles that open our eyes to the world around us, and in turn help us reflect on which values matter, last, and have the power to create change.
The Best of Me
by David SedarisFor more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing.
Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler's lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say 'give it to me' in five languages and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.
But if all you expect to find in Sedaris's work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms—at long last—with the other.
Taken together, the stories in The Best of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected—it's often harder, more fraught and certainly weirder—but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful.
The Library Thief
by Kuchenga ShenjéAn extraordinary historical debut for any reader who loves gothic mysteries like Rebecca and Fingersmith, and fiction which shines a light on untold stories.'Intriguingly and superbly plotted . . . Shenjé weaves race, identity, feminism, sexuality and class into a beguiling mystery' WOMAN & HOMEThe library is under lock and key. But its secrets can't be contained.After he brought her home from Jamaica as a baby, Florence's father had her hair hot-combed to make her look like the other girls. But as a young woman, Florence is not so easy to tame - and when she brings scandal to his door, the bookbinder throws her onto the streets of Manchester. Intercepting her father's latest commission, Florence talks her way into the remote, forbidding Rose Hall to restore its collection of rare books. Lord Francis Belfield's library is old and full of secrets - but none so intriguing as the whispers about his late wife. Then one night, the library is broken into. Strangely, all the priceless tomes remain untouched. Florence is puzzled, until she discovers a half-burned book in the fireplace. She realises with horror that someone has found and set fire to the secret diary of Lord Belfield's wife - which may hold the clue to her fate . . .'A tantalising read that swells with secrecy and intrigue. It's hard to believe that Kuchenga Shenjé writes of the past, and not of the present. A beautifully and skilfully written debut' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS, author of Queenie'Powerful, gorgeously absorbing and wholly original'JOANNE BURN, author of The Hemlock Cure'Threads in themes of identity, sexuality and a woman's impossible choices into an intricate web of mysteries that would not let me go'CARI THOMAS, author of Threadneedle'I was swept up with the mystery. A beautifully crafted story full of nuanced characters, gothic undertones and plenty of heart'STACEY THOMAS, author of The Revels'Atmospheric and compelling. Victorian gothic with a fresh twist'FREYA BERRY, author of The Birdcage Library'Filled with fantastically drawn characters and with a love of books that shines through the prose'KATIE LUMSDEN, author of The Secrets of Hartwood Hall
The Burning Men
by Will ShindlerWhen a high-rise development in South London catches fire mid-construction, a close-knit team of fire fighters tackle the blaze. The building should be empty, but they find a man, unconscious, next to several cases of money.
The fire crew make a fateful decision; leave the man, take the money, quit the service and never speak of this again. But five years later one of them is set alight in the toilets at his own wedding. Soon after, a second is found in the burnt out remains of his Maserati, nothing but a smoking corpse.
It appears that someone knows what they did. And there are still three firemen left to go. . . DI Alex Finn and DC Mattie Paulsen are an unlikely pairing, but they need to discover who is behind these killings before the last man burns.
This is first in Will Shindler's Finn and Paulsen series - a British detective series that ranks with Mark Billingham, M.J. Arlidge, Staurt Macbride. (P) 2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Dead Animals
by Phoebe Stuckes'Searing' Observer'A blistering, unbearably tense read' i'Wonderfully chilling . . . a delectable slice of defiantly queer menace' Leon Craig, author of Parallel HellsThere is something creeping at the edge of your vision, lingering somewhere just out of focus. All it would take is to let your mind wander, to let it come into view.A young woman wakes after a house party with scratches and bruises - and a gap in her memory. As the violent truth comes back to her - a series of events she struggles to name - her anger grows.Solace comes in the form of enigmatic, captivating Helene, who knows what the man at the party did, has suffered at his hands too. An act of violence demands one in return and Helene is planning revenge. But who can afford to ask for justice, when the cost is murderously high?'A brilliant, chilling, furious novel. Real, relatable, and unputdownable'Rachel Long, author of My Darling from the Lions'A brutal, blistering horror story about precarious lives. Part Eileen, part Carrie. I gulped it down'Clare Pollard, author of Delphi
Defender
by G X ToddDefender by G X Todd is an imaginative thriller that draws on influences from Stephen King, Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman to create a new world - where the biggest threat mankind faces is from the voices inside your own head.
On the cusp of sleep, have we not all heard a voice call out our name?
In a world where long drinks are in short supply, a stranger listens to the voice in his head telling him to buy a lemonade from the girl sitting on a dusty road. The moment locks them together. Here and now it's dangerous to listen to your inner voice.
Those who do, keep it quiet.
These voices have purpose. And when Pilgrim meets Lacey, there is a reason. He just doesn't know it yet.
Defender pulls you on a wild ride to a place where the voices in your head will save or slaughter you.
Love and Other Thought Experiments
by Sophie WardRachel and Eliza are planning their future together. One night in bed Rachel wakes up terrified and tells Eliza that an ant has crawled into her eye and is stuck there. Rachel is certain; Eliza, a scientist, is skeptical. Suddenly their entire relationship is called into question. What follows is a uniquely imaginative sequence of interlinked stories ranging across time, place and perspective to form a sparkling philosophical tale of love, lost and found across the universe.
The Underhistory
by Kaaron WarrenPeople come to visit my home and I love to show them around. Of course it's not the original house where it happened. That was destroyed when my entire family died. But I don't think their ghosts know the difference.Pera Sinclair was nine the day the pilot intentionally crashed his plane into her family's grand home, killing everyone inside. She was the girl who survived the tragedy, a sympathetic oddity, growing stranger by the day. Over the decades she rebuilt the huge and rambling building on the original site, recreating what she had lost, each room telling a piece of the story of her life and that of the many people who died, both before and after the disaster. Her sister, murdered a hundred miles away. The soldier, broken by war. Death follows Pera, and she welcomes it in as an old friend. And while she doesn't believe in ghosts, she's not above telling a ghost story or two to those who come to visit Sinclair House.On the day of her last haunted house tour of the season, an unexpected group of men arrive. One Pera recognises, but the others are strangers. But she knows their type all too well. Dangerous men, who will keep an old woman alive only so long as she is useful. But as she begins to show them around her home and reveal its secrets, the dangerous men will learn that she is far from helpless. After all, death seems to followher wherever she goes...Sinister and lyrical, The Underhistory is a haunting tale of loss, self-preservation and the darkness beneath.
Metamorphoses
by Karolina Watroba'A high-spirited, richly informed, and original portrait, a cross between biography, literary analysis and a study in modern canonisation: Karolina Watroba is an inspired guide and her book a pleasure to read.' Marina WarnerIn 2024, exactly one hundred years after his death at the age of 40, readers all over the world will reach for the works of Franz Kafka. Many of them will want to learn more about the enigmatic man behind the classic books filled with mysterious courts and monstrous insects. Who, exactly, was Franz Kafka?Karolina Watroba, the first Germanist ever elected as a Fellow of Oxford's All Souls College, will tell Kafka's story beyond the boundaries of language, time and space, travelling from the Prague of Kafka's birth through the work of contemporary writers in East Asia, whose award-winning novels are in part homages to the great man himself.Metamorphoses is a non-chronological journey through Kafka's life, drawing together literary scholarship with the responses of his readers through time. It is a both an exploration of Kafka's life and an exciting new way of approaching literary history.
The Three Dahlias
by Katy WatsonIt wouldn't be a country house weekend without a little murder. . .
Three rival actresses team up to solve a murder at the stately home of Lettice Davenport, the author whose sleuthing creation of the 1930s, Dahlia Lively, had made each of them famous to a new generation. A contemporary mystery with a Golden Age feel, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and Jessica Fellowes - and Janice Hallett and Richard Osman, of course!
In attendance at Aldermere: the VIP fans, staying at house; the fan club president turned convention organiser; the team behind the newest movie adaptation of Davenport's books; the Davenport family themselves; and the three actresses famous for portraying Dahlia Lively through the decades.
There is national treasure Rosalind King, from the original movies, who's feeling sensitive that she's past her prime, TV Dahlia for thirteen seasons, Caro Hooper, who believes she really IS Dahlia Lively, and ex-child star Posy Starling, fresh out of the fame wilderness (and rehab) to take on the Dahlia mantle for the new movie - but feeling outclassed by her predecessors.
Each actress has her own interpretation of the character and her own secrets to hide - but this English summer weekend they will have to put aside their differences as the crimes at Aldermere turn anything but cosy.
Phone for the Fish Knives
by Daisy WaughWhen Hollywood wants to do a remake of the film that made Tode Hall famous, India and Egbert are delighted. They envisage a summer of free money and star-studded dinner parties ahead . . . But the Hall is soon overrun by wardrobe trucks and catering tents, and lusty, insecure actors squabbling about nudity clauses. When the movie's producers threaten to sue over the exact colour of Tode Hall's rolling lawns, India and Egbert realise that having a film crew on their doorstep isn't such a breeze after all. With so many egos in one place things were bound to end badly, but no one would have predicted quite so literal a backstabbing…
Katherine of Aragon
by Alison WeirKatherine of Aragon: The True Queen by bestselling historian Alison Weir, author of The Lost Tudor Princess, is the first in a spellbinding six novel series about Henry VIII's Queens.
Alison takes you on an engrossing journey at Katherine's side and shows her extraordinary strength of character and intelligence. Ideal for fans of Philippa Gregory and Elizabeth Chadwick.
A Spanish princess. Raised to be modest, obedient and devout. Destined to be an English Queen.
Six weeks from home across treacherous seas, everything is different: the language, the food, the weather. And for her there is no comfort in any of it. At sixteen years-old, Catalina is alone among strangers.
She misses her mother. She mourns her lost brother. She cannot trust even those assigned to her protection.
KATHERINE OF ARAGON. The first of Henry's Queens. Her story. History tells us how she died. This captivating novel shows us how she lived. (P)2016 Headline Digital
Open Season
by Cassie Werber"A breathtaking novel that gets under the skin of the complexities of love, sex and human nature"-Katie Bishop, author of THE GIRLS OF SUMMER"A perceptive book about intimacy and desire that feels zingy, original, fresh"-Chloë Ashby, author of SECOND SELF"Tender, shimmering, elegant, and true... thoughtful and sensual, sexy and cerebral"-Laura Barnett, author of THE VERSIONS OF USEvery relationship has rules. What if they all changed?Hura and Cillian have a happy, secure marriage and are on the brink of planning a family. But when Hura's teaching career gets derailed, they decide it's time to explore a fantasy: opening up their relationship.Roses has never been monogamous. Her connection with elusive James-who works all hours as a junior doctor-is electric, and they're falling for each other. But both have secrets that make intimacy feel dangerous, and in a bid to reassert her independence, Roses suggests they sleep with other people.When these two couples collide, life shifts on its axis and starts to spin out of control. As Roses and James fight to keep the past from overwhelming them, and Cillian and Hura test the limits of trust, they must all decide which lines to draw-and which to cross.A passionate deconstruction of the complexities of sex, love, honesty and betrayal, OPEN SEASON marks Cassie Werber out as a major new talent.
A Famished Heart
by Nicola WhiteHer head was bowed, and the hands braced on the chair arms were not like hands at all, but the dry dark claws of a bird...The Macnamara sisters hadn't been seen for months before anyone noticed.
It was Father Timoney who finally broke down the door. One woman was sitting in her armchair, surrounded by religious tracts, the other was crouched under her own bed. Both had starved themselves to death.
Francesca Macnamara returns to Dublin after decades in the US, to find her family in ruins. Meanwhile, Detectives Vincent Swan and Gina Considine are convinced that there is more to the deaths than suicide. Because what little evidence there is, shows that someone was watching the sisters die...