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Audiobooks Narrated by Charlie Thurston
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During the last months of a brutal war, a sixteen-year-old boy must fight for survival.
The true account of a teenage soldier in World War 2 Germany.
Germany, 1945. Ever since Anton Kohler first heard the vibrant sound of the violin, he's dreamed of mastering the instrument. But when his father dies, the fifteen-year-old must give up his passion to support his seven younger siblings. As the Russian army marches closer to his hometown, Anton and his best friend Gerhard are pulled from their families and forced to help defend their home in a last desperate stand.
When Anton witnesses the slaughter of concentration camp prisoners, he vows to escape the war and find a way home to his family and his girl, Luise. In the chaos of impending defeat, Anton is torn between his promise to protect the life of his best friend and his desire to survive the war with his conscience intact.
Based on a true account, this coming-of-age story set in the last turbulent months of World War 2, Germany, is a tale of love and friendship, of hope and loss. Listen to When the War is Over now to experience the poignant journey of a teenage soldier.
Are humans the only dreamers on Earth? What goes on in the minds of animals when they sleep? When Animals Dream brings together behavioral and neuroscientific research on animal sleep with philosophical theories of dreaming. It shows that dreams provide an invaluable window into the cognitive and emotional lives of nonhuman animals, giving us access to a seemingly inaccessible realm of animal experience.
David Peña-Guzmán uncovers evidence of animal dreaming throughout the scientific literature, suggesting that many animals run 'reality simulations' while asleep, with a dream-ego moving through a dynamic and coherent dreamscape. He builds a convincing case for animals as conscious beings and examines the thorny scientific, philosophical, and ethical questions it raises. Once we accept that animals dream, we incur a host of moral obligations and have no choice but to rethink our views about who animals are and the interior lives they lead.
A mesmerizing journey into the otherworldly domain of nonhuman consciousness, When Animals Dream carries profound implications for contemporary debates about animal cognition, animal ethics, and animal rights, challenging us to regard animals as beings who matter, and for whom things matter.
Humor with a touch of the bittersweet is the hallmark of Welcome Thieves, the adult fiction debut of acclaimed young adult author Sean Beaudoin. Edgy and profane, angry, bemused, and sardonic, these stories offer the listener a gallery of unforgettable characters-misfits, losers, fighters, dreamers-all of them variations on a central theme: laughing at the absurdity of life. There is a distinct surreal quality to some (including Exposure and And Now Let's Have Some Fun), a strong sense of irony (as in You Too Can Graduate in Three Years with an Advanced Degree in Contextual Semiotics), and moments of awkward and therefore very real grapplings with sex and romance (most especially in The Rescues and the title story, Welcome Thieves). Sean Beaudoin is the author of five young adult novels which have been praised for their playfulness, their complexity ("Beaudoin plays a Chandler hand with a Tarrantino smirk" . . . Booklist), their originality (" . . . wickedly unpredictable adventure" . . . Publishers Weekly), and for the beauty of their language ("Beaudoin plays language like Hendrix plays a guitar" . . . BCCB). A former rock musician, he is a founding editor of the arts and culture website The Weeklings and lives in Seattle with his wife and daughter.
The #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen series comes to a stunning conclusion in War Storm.
VICTORY COMES AT A PRICE.
Mare Barrow learned this all too well when Cal's betrayal nearly destroyed her. Now determined to protect her heart-and secure freedom for Reds and newbloods like her-Mare resolves to overthrow the kingdom of Norta once and for all . . . starting with the crown on Maven's head.
But no battle is won alone, and before the Reds may rise as one, Mare must side with the boy who broke her heart in order to defeat the boy who almost broke her. Cal's powerful Silver allies, alongside Mare and the Scarlet Guard, prove a formidable force. But Maven is driven by an obsession so deep, he will stop at nothing to have Mare as his own again, even if it means demolish everything-and everyone-in his path.
War is coming, and all Mare has fought for hangs in the balance. Will victory be enough to topple the Silver kingdoms? Or will the little lightning girl be forever silenced?
In the epic conclusion to Victoria Aveyard's stunning series, Mare must embrace her fate and summon all her power . . . for all will be tested, but not all will survive.
Summer vacation isn't all fun and hanging out when you're a wizard-in-training. For partly reformed warlock Chance Fortunato, it's even worse. In addition to the constant study and training, he has to prove he's ready to be a full-fledged apprentice before he starts at the Franklin Academy. Plus, he's beginning to think someone has it out for him.
If things weren't bad enough with a snooty proctor monitoring his every move and demons trying to capture him, his father finally makes his first attempt to get his wayward son back under his control by trying to frame his mom. When the old man proves just how far he is willing to go with tragic results, Chance must make a desperate sacrifice-play to guarantee his freedom once and for all.
Apprentice mage Chance Fortunato just can't catch a break. His training has gotten even harder, and his mentor, Dr. Corwin, is pushing him to take his mage trials early. Still, it beats his old gig working for a demon. But life takes a turn for the worse when a member of his girlfriend Shade's werewolf pack is killed by a member of a rogue pack. Adding insult to grief, the pack is forced to let the Conclave send an observer to monitor their investigation.
When the Conclave allows Jacob Kain, an Alpha from the Boston clans to act in their stead, though, things become even more complicated, as Kain has an agenda of his own. As Chance and Shade fight to keep Kain from taking over, a new enemy arrives with a very personal connection to Chance. Even if he can survive this deadly combination of forces, can he survive the plans of another, hidden enemy from his past? The only thing that is certain is that before it's all over, everyone's true colors will show.
From the acclaimed author of Speak comes a kaleidoscopic novel about Robert Oppenheimer—father of the atomic bomb—as told by seven fictional characters.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. He loyally protected his Communist friends, only to later betray them under questioning. He repeatedly lied about love affairs. And he defended the use of the atomic bomb he helped create, before ultimately lobbying against nuclear proliferation.
Through narratives that cross time and space, a set of characters bears witness to the life of Oppenheimer, from a secret service agent who tailed him in San Francisco, to the young lover of a colleague in Los Alamos, to a woman fleeing McCarthyism who knew him on St. John. As these men and women fall into the orbit of a brilliant but mercurial mind at work, all consider his complicated legacy while also uncovering deep and often unsettling truths about their own lives.
In this stunning, elliptical novel, Louisa Hall has crafted a breathtaking and explosive story about the ability of the human mind to believe what it wants, about public and private tragedy, and about power and guilt. Blending science with literature and fiction with biography, Trinity asks searing questions about what it means to truly know someone, and about the secrets we keep from the world and from ourselves.
Justin Conkey was too young to fight in the Revolution of 1776, but now it is 1787 and he is fourteen. Justin is ready to fight, even if he has only his father's old sword to protect him. But once on the battlefield, war is not what he expected. It is dangerous and frightening and nothing makes sense. Throughout a particularly bitter winter the young man is desperate to prove that he too can be a hero-not realizing that many times heroes turn out to be just ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, who do what comes naturally to save others regardless of risk to themselves. Insisting on joining General Daniel Shays' group of Regulators, he lies about his age and marches with the group throughout New England. But war puts friendships and political convictions to the test.
Fourteen-year-old Chris Winchester is torn between two worlds. By birth, he's part of the indomitable Winchester clan, owners of the enormous electronics factory that employs nearly everyone in town. Yet Chris' father gave up his stake in the business to work for the Peace Corp. When he died, Chris, his mother, and his twin sisters moved into a tiny gatehouse on the Winchester estate-poor relations living on family goodwill. While his cousin Ernest is groomed to take over the family fortune, Chris attends public school and makes friends with the kids in town. He can't understand why a crisis at his uncle's factory makes people suddenly hate him, but a wage cut and a threatened strike have everyone's nerves on edge.
In the eyes of the townspeople, Chris is guilty by association, for he bears the Winchester name. When things turn ugly, Chris discovers that his family can get very tough. Power is like a muscle, his uncle explains, and it must be flexed to keep it strong. Chris senses that power can be used to destroy, as well. In spite of himself, Chris is drawn into the inner circle of the Winchester clan. Suddenly he realizes that part of the Winchester wealth might be his one day. Being rich sounds exciting, but his uncle's protection is not without its price, and Chris' conscience is uneasy. As he journeys toward adulthood he is faced with some difficult questions: where does he belong, and whose side is he on?
"[An] affecting study of an adolescent's search for identity."-Publishers Weekly
While his wife and two-year-old daughter watched TV in the living room, David Poses was in the kitchen, measuring the distance from his index finger to his armpit. He needed to be sure he could pull the trigger with a shotgun barrel in his mouth. Twenty-six inches. Thirty-two years old. More than a decade in a double life fueled by depression and heroin.
In his groundbreaking memoir, The Weight of Air, David chronicles his struggle to overcome mental illness and addiction. By age nineteen, he'd been through medical detox, inpatient rehab, twelve-step programs, and a halfway house. He saw his drug use as a symptom of depression, but the experts insisted that addiction was the problem. Over the next thirteen years, he went from one relapse to the next, drowning in guilt, shame, and secrets, until he finally found an evidence-based treatment that not only saved his life, but helped him thrive.
With grit, humor, and brutal honesty, David's story exposes the danger in traditional recovery models: they actually increase stigma and the risk of overdose, relapse, and death. As depression and addiction rates skyrocket and overdose fatalities surge, The Weight of Air is a scathing indictment of our failed response to the opioid crisis-and proof that success is possible.
Instant New York Times bestseller!
Inspired by the real-life heroine who saved thousands of Jewish children during WWII, The Warsaw Orphan is Kelly Rimmer's most anticipated novel since her bestselling sensation, The Things We Cannot Say.
"Gripping… This one easily stands on its own." -Publishers Weekly
"Heart-stopping." - Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
"A surefire hit." - Kristin Harmel, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
In the spring of 1942, young Elzbieta Rabinek is aware of the swiftly growing discord just beyond the courtyard of her comfortable Warsaw home. She has no fondness for the Germans who patrol her streets and impose their curfews, but has never given much thought to what goes on behind the walls that contain her Jewish neighbors. She knows all too well about German brutality--and that it's the reason she must conceal her true identity. But in befriending Sara, a nurse who shares her apartment floor, Elzbieta makes a discovery that propels her into a dangerous world of deception and heroism.
Using Sara's credentials to smuggle children out of the ghetto brings Elzbieta face-to-face with the reality of the war behind its walls, and to the plight of the Gorka family, who must make the impossible decision to give up their newborn daughter or watch her starve. For Roman Gorka, this final injustice stirs him to rebellion with a zeal not even his newfound love for Elzbieta can suppress. But his recklessness brings unwanted attention to Sara's cause, unwittingly putting Elzbieta and her family in harm's way until one violent act threatens to destroy their chance at freedom forever.
From Nazi occupation to the threat of a communist regime, The Warsaw Orphan is the unforgettable story of Elzbieta and Roman's perilous attempt to reclaim the love and life they once knew.
Bradford Morrow's stories have garnered him awards such as the O. Henry and Pushcart prizes and have given him a devoted following. Now gathered here for the first time is a collection of his finest, gothic tales. A young man whose childhood hobby of collecting sea shells and birds' nests takes a sinister turn when he becomes obsessed with acquiring his brother's girlfriend, in "The Hoarder"Â selected as one of the Best American Noir Stories of the Century. An archeologist summoned to attend his beloved sister's funeral is astonished to discover it is not she who has died, but someone much closer to him, in "Gardener of Heart."Â A blind motivational speaker has a crisis of faith when he suddenly regains his sight, only to discover life was better lived in the dark, in "Amazing Grace."Â
