Showing results by narrator "Adam Sims" in All Categories

Self-made American millionaire Christopher Newman arrives in Paris brimming with hope and optimism, excited to experience the culture and, hopefully, find the perfect woman to become his wife. After a chance encounter with American expatriate friends, his attention is drawn to Madame de Cintré, 25-year-old widowed daughter of the late Marquis de Bellegarde. Having fallen on hard times, the centuries-old aristocratic family permits Newman's courtship to proceed; however, they later persuade the widow to break off her engagement to the nouveau-riche businessman.

For decades, thousands of people have gathered in Omaha, Nebraska for the Berkshire Hathaway AGM, and quizzed Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger on everything from the psychology of successful investors to the future of Coca-Cola and Apple. But unless you attended, for many years you only had access to what people could remember and report back from the meetings.

Taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, a decade after the Civil War, The Bostonians tells the story of two cousins who battle for the affections of and control over an enchanting prophetess. While visiting his cousin Olive Chancellor, a fierce feminist deeply involved in the Suffragette movement, Basil Ransom, a Confederate Civil War veteran turned lawyer, attends a speech by the talented young orator Verena Tarrant. Basil quickly falls in love with Verena, although he disagrees with her politics; Olive, however, sees her as the future of the women's rights movement.

Two magical adventure stories from the queen of fantasy Immerse yourself in the magical world of Susan Cooper’s imagination. Drawing upon Celtic and Norse mythology and English folklore, Cooper creates worlds like no other. She is best known for her The Dark Is Rising series, the first of...

Since the day they unwittingly found themselves in the horror show of Carousel, Riley (the Film Buff), Antoine (the Athlete), Kimberly (the Eye Candy), Camden (the Scholar), and Anna (the Final Girl) have learned the rules of their horror-movie world. They've fought through story after story and come out alive—or at least preserved the storyline enough to come back to life. But their biggest challenge yet lies ahead.

When horror-obsessed Riley Lawrence and his group of college friends arrive in the small town of Carousel for their Centennial Celebration, the few decrepit cars parked in the street don’t scare them. But when they enter a locked building, an animatronic usher hands them each a ticket, and the lights dim, Riley realizes they’ve entered the inescapable patchwork of a horror movie set. And they’ve each been assigned an archetype—Scholar, Athlete, Eye Candy, Final Girl—to play out as the curtains rise.

When Martin's raiding guild join the latest virtual reality MMO, they discover a challenge like no other. Strata Online is a hundred 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. Stranger still, they must now contend with Sin, a twisted morality meter which can transform a players’ class into its dark counterpart.

William James was one of the most influential figures in 19th-century American philosophy and psychology. His Pragmatism is a set of lectures that he gave in 1906-07 in answer to the enduring debate between empiricism and rationalism. Shifting between them, he proposed pragmatism as a method, the idea being that the value of any truth is dependent upon its utility–upon its practical and experiential consequences.

Germany, late summer 1945. The war is over, but the country is in ruins. Millions of refugees and holocaust survivors strive to rebuild their lives in displaced persons camps. Millions of German soldiers and SS men are held captive in primitive conditions in open-air detention centres. Everywhere, civilians are desperate for food and shelter. No one admits to having voted Nazi, yet many are unrepentant. Adolf Hitler is said to have killed himself in his Berlin bunker. But no body was found - and many people believe he is alive.

For graduate student Jeremy Freirs, citified, cynical, yet prone to daydreams, summer is the time to shed a few pounds and finally get some reading done for a course on Gothic literature. He's picked just the right place: the small, secluded village of Gilead, New Jersey, only 90 minutes from Manhattan but, with its antique customs and clannish traditions, seemingly centuries away. For farmers Sarr and Deborah Poroth, young members of Gilead's fundamentalist community, the summer threatens a conflict between their passionate natures and the stern dictates of their faith.

Since they were lured to the festival at Carousel, Riley (the Film Buff), Antoine (the Athlete), Camden (the Scholar), Anna (the Final Girl), and Kimberly (the Eye Candy) have lived through entire horror movie plots. So far, Riley's survival strategy is working. He's high on his Moxie, Hustle, and Savvy stats. But his Mettle and Grit have dropped dangerously low, leaving him vulnerable. If he gets caught by a killer, he's done for.

Canada, 1867. A young murder suspect flees across the snowy wilderness. Tracking him is what passes for the law in this frontier land: trappers, sheriffs, traders and the suspect's own mother, desperate to clear his name. As the party pushes further from civilisation, hidden purposes and old obsessions are revealed. One is seeking long-lost daughters, another a fortune in stolen furs; yet another is chasing rumours of a lost Native American culture.

Assembled from notes and jottings left unpublished at the time of the author’s death, The Book of Disquiet is a collection of aphoristic prose-poetry musings on dreams, solitude, time and memory. Credited to Pessoa’s alter ego, Bernardo Soares, who chronicles his contemplations in this so-called "factless" autobiography, the work is a journey of one man’s soul and, by extension, of all human souls that allow their minds and hearts to roam far and free.

Nightmare Alley is American author William Lindsay Gresham’s first and best-known work. The novel - most admired by noir fiction fans - was published in 1946, adapted into a film in 1947 starring Tyrone Power and subsequently printed as a graphic novel by Spain Rodriquez. During the 1940s Gresham worked as an editor for a genuine crime pulp magazine in New York, during which period he wrote this book; characters range from hustlers to Machiavellian femme fatales in a dark world of show business.

In a desperate move Damien throws himself into the Streamer Contest of Saga Online, the latest fantasy VR-MMORPG. Winning will provide the funds for his mom’s surgery. Yet early betrayal and a close run in with a vampire almost ruin his attempt before he even begins. Stuck at the bottom of a dungeon with no gear, no allies and little hope, Damien must embrace the undiscovered Occultist class, master control of his new demon companions and take the contest by storm. His plan is simple enough. Topple the most famous player in Saga Online.

My daughter is getting married to the man of her dreams. But will she pay for it with her life? My beautiful daughter Ellie walks down the aisle in her full-length lace dress, beaming with happiness. As she exchanges her vows with Kyle, who looks devastatingly handsome in his smart black suit, I hope this time will be different.

"To inherit a great fortune. To inherit a great misfortune." These words, from Nathaniel Hawthorne's notebook, neatly encapsulate the theme of The House of the Seven Gables - that of a family whose fortunes are poisoned by its past misdeeds. The sins of the Pyncheon father are visited upon his children over a period of several generations, until such time as one of his descendants unites with a member of the family he has wronged. Love conquers hate, and new blood washes away the original crime.

The Ultimate Classics Collection: Volume Four is the fourth instalment of our wide-ranging classic collections. Volume Four features 12 timeless works that largely focuses on the greats of American and British literature, with novels from Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Thomas Hardy, Victor Hugo, and others. Read by a cast of incredible narrators including Miranda Raison, Pearl Mackie, Adam Sims, David Rintoul, and more, this is a chance to expand your listening with some of the greatest authors of all time.

More than half a century ago, the naturalist Farley Mowat accepted an assignment to investigate why wolves were killing Arctic caribou. Mowat’s account of the summer he lived in the frozen tundra alone – studying the wolf population and developing a deep affection for these wild creatures (who were no threat to caribou or man) – is today celebrated as a classic of nature writing, at once a tale of remarkable adventure and an indelible record of the myths and magic of wolves.

Dazzlingly rich, lyrical and elegiac, Thomas Wolfe’s vibrant autobiographical first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, follows the story of Eugene Gant, the ninth and last child born to alcoholic Oliver and go-getting Eliza in the fictional town of Altemont, based on Wolfe’s hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. The novel recounts Eugene’s early life, up to his departure from home at the age of 19.