Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Genre Fiction

Lost love and a midnight visit from a raven bring one man to the brink of insanity. A classic poem by a master wordsmith. Narrated by Glenn Hascall.

Cakes and Ale is the novel that William Somerset Maugham said he wished to be remembered for. Published in 1930 and written in the first person singular, Maugham's narrator (and alter-ego) Ashenden exposes the disapproving, moral judgement made by conservative society on the character of Rosie Driffield and opines that it is unjustified.

Evangeline Knapp's neighbors are in awe of her prowess. She re-upholsters furniture and can take scraps of fabric and create a beautiful garment. Her house is always immaculate and her children are beautifully behaved - except for the stubborn youngest, but with Eva's strength of will, they're certain she'll sort him out in time. The neighbors don't know that in her frenzied zeal to create the perfect home, her children live in dread of her temper. She loves them, but she can't stand having to remind them constantly about the same things, simple rules easy enough for anyone to understand.

New Grub Street (1891) has the reputation of being George Gissing's finest novel. With bitter humour and grim realism, it tells the story of the ambitions, dreams, and disappointments of men and women struggling to earn their living as writers in the closing years of the Victorian era. Jasper Milvain is a young writer of limited talent, eager to exploit every opportunity and social connection in order to make his way. For those who toil "in the valley of the shadow of books" the spectre of poverty looms large.

The Freaks of Mayfair by E.F. Benson is a series of satirical sketches introducing us to some bizarre inhabitants of Edwardian High Society of Mayfair, which was, and still is today, the stamping ground of the very wealthy. Each sketch introduces a different type of "freak". Sir Louis and Lady Mary Marigold turn snobbism into fine art; Sarah Whitehand is the social-climbing wife of an American toilet bowl magnate, and the so-called "Grizzly Kittens", Babs Begum and Charlie Gordon, cling desperately to their youth as they totter toward old age.

Orphaned cousins Jane and Lucilla, both 19, receive the exciting news that their guardian is at last allowing them to leave boarding school. But their rosy future is thwarted when they find he has made some bad investments and fled, leaving them with a cottage in the English countryside and a modest bank account.

Emmeline Lucas, known to all as "Lucia", and her husband, Peppino, acquire a second home in fashionable Brompton Square in London from a deceased Aunt. When they move there for the season, Lucia's 'subjects' in Riseholme seethe with envy and outrage that she has deserted them for more illustrious circles, where her snobbism and blatant ambition reach new heights.

Following the initial Martian invasion of England, President Theodore Roosevelt tries to prepare the United States for the potential of another Martian incursion. As the possibility of a stronger invasion is increasingly clear, the US government tries to mobilize nations to share information and technology to defend humanity. Newly minted ordinance officer Andrew Comstock has been placed in charge of developing new technology that has to be tested on the fly in a race against time if humanity is to survive.

A tale of betrayal, revenge, loyalty, and redemption, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a true classic. Hester Prynne settles in a little town in Puritan-era Massachusetts while awaiting her husband’s arrival from England. Hester becomes pregnant, exposing her sin in the eyes of the townsfolk. Her penalty: wearing an embroidered A on her bosom for the remainder of her life. When Hester’s husband arrives in the town anticipating a joyous reunion with his young wife, he instead begins a cankering quest to uncover the father of Hester’s child.

Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse in 1920 deals with a man's lifelong search for self discovery during the time of Buddha. He grows up the son of a Brahman, and his quest for self discovery takes him through living as an asthetic until he actually meets the Buddha, but decides not to follow him, but rather discover the joys of sex and a wealth through a beautiful courtesan. He lives the life of the Playboy until one day he renounces it all to seek a more spiritual being. In the end Siddhartha does find enlightenment.

After their mother’s probable suicide, Jazz and Olivia Moon struggle to move on with their lives. Olivia, an 18-year-old who can taste words and see sounds, blinds herself by staring at the sun, then decides to walk to the remote setting of her mother’s unfinished novel to resuscitate her hopes and dreams. Jazz, plagued by unresolved conflict with her mother and a hidden trove of her unsent letters, takes a job in a funeral home before being forced back into the role of her sister’s keeper.

GOLAN, This is the Future of War, asks a question few want to consider. What will happen if Iran acquires nuclear weapons in the next ten years? In true Future of War style, GOLAN explores the question through the eyes of front-line participants on all sides, in a conflict set ten years into the future. Featuring military tech that is on the drawing boards today and characters you won't easily forget, GOLAN throws the listeners straight into the center of a nuclear storm and doesn't ease up.

The immaculate Psmith - newly emancipated from an unwilling participation in the fish business - donates an umbrella (not his own) to a damsel in distress; and to further press his suit, he follows her to Blandings Castle - seat of that amiable and boneheaded peer, Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth - in the guise of an absconded Canadian poet. And, for the best possible motives, Psmith is also embroiled in a plot to steal Lady Constance Keeble's fabulous diamond necklace - an endeavour which brings him into conflict with both professional rivals.

Written in 1913, D H Lawrence's first major novel, Sons and Lovers, was the one of the earliest in the English language to explore a close-knit mining community from the inside. Lawrence's semi-autobiographical novel, set in the Nottinghamshire coal fields, is renowned for its accurate portrayal of working-class life and for its use of local dialect. It traces emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with his over possessive mother, and the women he falls in love with.

Based on meticulously researched historical fact, "Brown on Resolution" marks C.S. Forester's first novel about the British Navy and his subsequent sea-faring novels. It charts the life and death of Leading Seaman, Albert Brown, beginning with the story of how his mother, Agatha, meets and spends five days with a young Lieutenant Commander (RN) and becomes pregnant with Albert.

Audie-nominated narrator Deepti Gupta shares a classic love story set among the fires of India's struggle for independence. Bimala is torn between her commitment to her husband, Nikhil, who holds Western beliefs, and the radical Sandip, a leader of the Swadeshi movement under the British Raj. Bimala finds herself asking what freedom truly means for herself and for her country.

A quiet, unassuming man who loves nothing more than his daughter, his music, and his violincello. His life is seriously disrupted by a zealous young man who sees a disparity between the monies paid out to the Warden and the monies paid out to the 12 bedesmen that live in the hospital of Barchester Cathedral as charity cases, according to Hiram's Will.

Jamie MacFarlane has returned a hero from the Great War but with a stubborn chest wound. The government has sent him to their new thermal springs hospital in California “where it was hoped that the brilliant sunshine, the fruits, and the clean air, the eternal summer of a beneficent land” would heal him. But nothing has worked and with his parents now deceased and no one to care for him, it seems the next step is a camp rife with tuberculosis. Realizing this, Jamie begins his Great Adventure on foot toward the ocean.

Little Women is a novel by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) that was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. Alcott wrote the books rapidly over several months at the request of her publisher. The novel follows the lives of four sisters - Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March - detailing their passage from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on the author and her three sisters. This special edition celebrating the 150th year since publication includes excerpts from "Louisa May Alcott, Her Life, Letters, and Journals" and "Little Women" part one and two.

Backed by Russian airpower, Syria has begun an operation to push Turkish troops out of Northern Syria. Despite US efforts not to get dragged into the conflict, the US 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines "Lava Dogs", find their hilltop combat outpost encircled and their Kurdish allies under siege. Further west, a Syrian armored advance across the border into Turkey pivots, threatening US troops at the Turkish and NATO airbase of Incirlik. But will Syria be satisfied with reclaiming its northern border region, or is the operation just the first move in a bolder plan to regain lost territories?