Showing results by narrator "Adam Sims" in All Categories

The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense. From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman to Lemony Snicket. Some even call him the Grandfather of Goth. But who was this man, who lived with over 20,000 books and six cats, who roomed with Frank O'Hara at Harvard?

Investors are placing increased emphasis on capital allocation methods to achieve their desired social, environmental and financial objectives and are targeting investments that not only facilitate economic growth in countries around the world but also do good in terms of aiding human development - from cleaner environments to safer products and better employment practices. At the same time, there is considerable evidence that if companies adhere to ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) standards, they will outperform companies who do not.

When Martin's raiding guild join the latest virtual reality MMO, they discover a challenge like no other. Strata Online is a 100-floor mega-dungeon, filled with an ever-shifting ecosystem of monsters. Martin's team soon find themselves in a race against the world’s strongest guilds, all competing to be the first to reach the unbeatable game's lowest depths. But unlike other games, Martin will need as much courage as skill to progress. Because the deeper he goes, the darker Strata gets.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Poe's only full novel, is one of his most unusual works. A riveting story, toldl in the first person, it tells of a disastrous sea voyage involving storms, mutiny, starvation, thirst - and a mysterious conclusion. Jorge Luis Borges and Baudelaire were among those who rated it highly. This recording was timed to mark the 200th anniversary of Poe's birth.

In Samsboro, Kentucky, Kalyn Spence’s name is inseparable from the brutal murder her father committed when he was a teenager. Forced to return to town, Kalyn must attend school under a pseudonym...or face the lingering anger of Samsboro’s citizens, who refuse to forget the crime. Gus Peake has never had the luxury of redefining himself. A Samsboro native, he’s known either as the 'disabled kid' because of his cerebral palsy or as the kid whose dad was murdered. Gus just wants to be known as himself. 

From the author of the Richard and Judy best seller The Private Lives of Pippa Lee comes a brilliantly original novel about desire, faith, love, acting - and reincarnation. In 18th-century Paris, Jacob Cerf is a Jew, a peddler of knives, saltcellars, and snuffboxes. Despite a disastrous teenage marriage, he is determined to raise himself up in life, by whatever means he can.

Dr Rick Tower is a mild-mannered English professor easing into middle-age at a medium-sized New England college. A genial blur, he thinks. Even his vices are unremarkable. But it wasn’t always like this. Not until they changed his name, altered his looks and told him: ‘pretend you were never different’. Because, decades earlier after a very bad day at high school, he was committed to a secret government facility with three other kids, Cat, Jack and Stephanie, each special in their own way. Tested, tutored and trained, this extraordinary quartet were then told to save the world.

Since time began, the Grakhul, immortal servants of the gods who choose who lives and who dies when it comes time to make sacrifices to their deities, have been seeking to keep the world in balance and the gods appeased. When they take the family of Brogan McTyre to offer as sacrifice, everything changes. Brogan heads off on a quest to save his family from the Grakhul. The decision this time is costlier than they expected, leading to Brogan and his kin being hunted as criminals and the gods seeking to punish those who've defied them.

The kobolds’ Core has been destroyed. The Grotto is safe once more, and the gnomes are finally beginning to regroup. But when a greater threat rises, their only hope of survival is to embark upon a monumental exodus, abandoning everything they’ve built and striking out across the surface in search of a new home. As the god of gnomes, Corey must place more faith than ever before in his denizens - and a few unexpected allies.

The Fighter is a brilliant novel set against the dark and desolate backdrop of the Mississippi Delta, where Jack the Jaw, a washed-up bare-knuckle fighter, battles against decades of booze and drug abuse as he returns home to try to save all he has lost. The acres of fertile soil, the 200-year-old house, all gone. And so is the woman who gave it to him, the foster mother who now rests in hospice care, her mind eroded by dementia, the family legacy she entrusted to Jack now owned by banks and strangers.

First published in 1920, This Side of Paradise proved to be a best-selling novel in Fitzgerald’s own lifetime. The book follows the early life and education of Amory Blaine and is, in fact, a thinly disguised account of Fitzgerald’s own experience as an undergraduate at Princeton and as an aspiring writer. Brilliantly original in its experimental narrative, it comprises a series of contrasting styles and structures.

New York in the 1990s - impoverished writer Jonathan Dainty takes his wife, Maddie, out to the beach for her birthday. Hours later he finds himself at the local police precinct trying to explain how on earth he let his wife get into a stranger's car and allowed it to drive her away. More than 20 years later, Maddie is presumed dead and Jonathan has channelled his grief into a best-selling series of crime novels. As far as he can, he is living the perfect life. Then one day he catches a glimpse of his dead wife, moving through a throng of people.

A blistering rebuke of religious hypocrisy, Elmer Gantry is the story of a charismatic and manipulative social climber who rises to power within his church, despite his insincerity. Though he preaches against immorality and temptation, Reverend Dr Elmer Gantry can’t seem to give up his own vices, and he leaves a trail of broken people behind him in his pursuit of pleasure and power, betraying anybody and doing anything to get ahead.

A worldwide publication phenomenon that now includes 28 countries and 24 languages, The Slave by Anand Dilvar is a story that has to be listened to and shared. When the story begins, the narrator is trapped in a vegetative state following a terrible accident that has paralyzed his whole body and is unable to communicate with those around him.

Ten Days That Shook the World is John Reed's phenomenal firsthand account of the October Revolution, leading up to the storming of the Winter Palace and the assumption of power by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

In the wake of their aunt Amity's suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline's return to the childhood home they once shared.

Martin and Iron Riot have made their mark on the Dungeons of Strata, slaying the first of the nightmarish Archdukes faster than anyone could have hoped. Yet the dungeon has left its marks on them, too. Scarred with wounds that will not heal and changed in ways that he cannot comprehend, Martin must contend with the mysterious true nature of the game and the lengths that the Masters who made this world are willing to go to keep their secrets.

An idyllic summer at a cottage in the 1950s, as revealed through the eyes of a boy on the cusp of adolescence: experiencing his first crush, discovering the joy of nature, and struggling to understand grown-ups. Every year, from the end of June to the end of August, Bruce and his family go to their cedar-clad cottage on the blue, wide lake.

Scholar. Scientist. Sorcerer. Thief. For most of his adult life Alduce has kept to the shadows...until now. His passion to complete The Atlas of Dragons - the definitive guide to dragon lore - consumes him, and he must emerge from the safety of his studies to face the world once more. After years of research, he has discovered the secret to unlocking the fabled gateways powered by a legendary lost metal known only as Flaire. Risking his life on an experiment fraught with danger, he embarks on an unimaginable journey to another world, where dragons are real. He will forge an unlikely new friendship and face the ultimate test to his humanity, changing his life forever. 

Brogan McTyre and his compatriots are wanted, dead or alive. Preferably alive, so they can be sacrificed to the raging gods. All they can do is hire more mercenaries and turn them into a fearsome army. But warriors aren't enough when the gods bring Armageddon to the world, unleashing storms and madness and ceaseless attacks on Brogan's men by increasingly demonic foes.