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Mysterious March

Posted on February 28, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Monthly Picks, mystery, News | Comments: 3 Comments on Mysterious March

March 2nd is National Reading Day in the US. A perfect excuse – as if we needed any – to present 10 old and new gems from our mysterious catalog.

Let’s start by celebrating World Math’s Day on the first Wednesday in March. Henri PoincarĂ© explains logic and mathematics in his book Science and Hypothesis quite plainly and without seven seals.

Sealed, however, is the room in which Miss Stangerson is found, heavily injured. Detective Rouletabille tries to solve the Mystery of the Yellow Room: How did the attacker leave – after locking the room from the inside? This novel by Gaston Leroux is also available in French.

Let’s change colors: The world is clad in green on March 17, and maybe there is some quiet time in the parades to listen to the Collected Works of Saint Patrick. After all, he’s the reason for the party!

One more celebration to have a round number: 175 years of Colt revolvers! That’s a great occasion to read 32 Caliber by Donald McGibney, where a lawyer turns detective when an accident first becomes suspicious and finally turns out to be murder.

Parties, cenotaphs, quiet streets,… all of them can be found in The Farmer’s Bride, poems that run the spectrum from loss and sorrow to love tinged with urgency by Charlotte Mew. It is very sad that she chose to end her talented life on March 24, 1928.

Death is the boundary we can only cross once, so the Return of Sherlock Holmes causes quite some unrest – mainly among criminals, of course. Read 13 stories about the master sleuth by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – the master of mysteries.

The mystery that demands a solution in The Crevice by William J. Burns and Isabel Ostrander is where all the money of Pennington Lawton disappeared with his death. And, of course, finding out whether it was really a heart attack or cold blooded murder.

No such doubts exist regarding the end of Julius Caesar in the Ides of March 44 BC. The deed was first considered a public service and the murderers heroes. Find out what turned the public opinion around in our production of Shakespeare’s classic drama.

Equally clear is the culprit when an old man is found dead at his desk: it must have been one of the daughters. Both assure their innocence, but why then do they refuse to help solving The Leavenworth Case in any way? Follow the twists of Anna Katharine Green’s excellent murder-mystery to the final solution.

Not solved any time soon will be the one mystery that has puzzled and fascinated mankind for generations: “Are we alone in the universe?” Edward J. Ruppelt, Air Force officer, puts together the facts of 4 years in The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects. Find out for yourself in which direction the evidence points – and whether it’s convincing…

Enjoy – and sharpen your logic skills!

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Freezing February

Posted on January 31, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Monthly Picks | Comments: 7 Comments on Freezing February

Large parts of the northern hemisphere are covered in snow. What better reason to sit down with a blanket and hot tea and enjoy 10 gems from our catalog.

Wearing socks and scarves is always a good idea to keep warm. Why not make them yourself, using our recording of Cornelia Mee’s Exercises in Knitting? Our volunteers even modernized the instructions and tried out the examples themselves – have a look!

What to do when housebound because of a snowstorm, and knitting is not your thing? Why not solve a mystery like little Dorothy Dale does together with her friends in her Queer Holidays, written by Margaret Penrose.

When you’re ready to get out again, it’s nice to explore the wintery landscape. No need to go as far as Robert F. Scott who wanted to be the first person at the South Pole. He arrived there on Jan. 17, 1912, beaten by 35 days by Amundsen, and his entire party perished on the way home. Read all about what became Scott’s last expedition in the first volume of his journals.

On the other end of the planet, two men end up alone to struggle for survival between the icebergs of the arctic. It does not help if one of them seeks to kill the other. Will they see the one woman they both love again? Find out in Wilkie Collins’ chilling novel The Frozen Deep.

Love is the driving force behind many things, and Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to express it! Read all about the love stories of Anthony and Cleopatra, Napoleon and Marie Walewska and many other couples in Lyndon Orr’s Famous Affinities of History.

Sometimes tragedies turn into wonderful love stories. What starts out with betrayal, death and abandonment ends “happily ever after” – not without the necessary Shakespearian twists of course – in The Winter’s Tale – one of our dramatic works.

To move back to our icy theme, we recommend the chilly love poem “Wind and Window Flower” written by Robert Frost and contained in his first collection of poems called A Boy’s Will.

We can now go back into the cold – into The Fur Country, to be precise. Jules Verne describes the adventures of some Hudson Bay Company officers, who establish a fort in the arctic. Everything seems idyllic – until the earthquake… This recording is also available in French.

William C. Russell was a sailor turned journalist turned writer. Many of his novels center around his experiences as a sailor, and the awakening of The Frozen Pirate can only lead to great adventures involving shipwrecks and treasure…

After all these chilling moments, it’s time to think of spring. Follow four ladies of good British society as they plan and finally experience an Enchanted April in Italy, in Elizabeth von Arnim’s novel.

Enjoy our books – and your tea!

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New Beginnings!

Posted on December 31, 2010 by | Posted in Blog, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: 2 Comments on New Beginnings!

2011 has just begun, and we have an exciting clean slate in front of us. Let’s fill it with 10 gems straight from our catalog:

The New Year ususally comes with champagne and the resolution to make the New Year also a Better one. Find out if the tolling of The Chimes in Charles Dickens’ novel really does improve things. This recording is also available in Dutch.

A New Year’s tradition in parts of the English speaking world is to sing “Auld Lang Syne” by the scotsman Robert Burns, whose 250th birthday was celebrated on January 25 2009. Listen to poems by and about him in our 250th anniversary collection dedicated to him.

Learning new subjects, languages or skills is a popular resolution. However, going (back) to school and finding new friends can be very daunting for people of all ages. This is certainly what Grace Harlowe has to find out in her First Year at Overton College, a novel for young and old by Jessie Graham Flower.

Or is your new year’s resolution “a new job”? So it is for Christie in Louisa M. Alcott’s novel Work: A Story of Experience. It was written in a time when a woman – especially of the higher classes – working for a living was something extraordinary and usually frowned upon. How times have changed!

If doing the biddings of a boss does not really appeal to you, get creative: How about becoming an inventor? For inspiration, check out the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, born on 17. January 1706, polymath, inventor, writer, … and Founding Father of the USA.

Watkin Tench is not seen as a Founding Father of Sydney, despite him being on the First Fleet that brought British convicts to the Australian shores. Read about his journey and the time after the landing on 20. January 1788 in his work A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany-Bay.

However easy travelling has become these days, moving is still a major undertaking for all concerned. Everyone who ever had to uproot himself will be sympathetic of the numerous moves of Frances Roe, described in Army Letters from an Officers Wife 1871-1888.

While humans often come to accept change quite fast, any disruption in the routine of an animal can be disastrous. Jack London heartrendingly describes this in his famous novel White Fang, the story of a half-wolf half-dog on his way from the wilderness to civilization.

You want to get married this year? Congratulations! Old Mr. Campbell has the same intentions, after all he has been courting the widow Summers for a long time. Pity she can’t stand him. Maybe a cup of Five O’Clock Tea will change her mind in William Dean Howells’ short story.

It does not need a new job, marriage or move to effect a change in us. Sometimes simply accepting who we are marks the biggest beginning of them all. Follow Kurt Gray in Richard Meeker’s novel Better Angel as he finally embraces his homosexuality.

Enjoy – and Happy New Year!

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December Holidays

Posted on November 30, 2010 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: 4 Comments on December Holidays

Another year is ending, and we at librivox celebrate the holidays and wrapped up 10 gems from our catalog.

In the German speaking countries in Europe, it is the custom to count the days until Christmas by opening one door daily of the ‘Adventskalender‘. We hope that you enjoy our acoustic one just as much – one small treat awaits you every day until Christmas.

December 2nd 1862, was the birthday of Florence L. Barclay. Her novel The Upas Tree is perfect for this season, although it is subtitled ‘A Christmas Story for all the Year’.

Something else to be aware of all year round are the “unalienable rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled”. They originate in the French Revolution, but have been updated, adopted, and proclaimed by the UN on 10 December 1948. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been translated in over 300 languages, 53 of which have been recorded for librivox.

Every scientist working in Physics, Chemistry or Medicine strives to be in Stockholm on the evening of December 10, where – under the auspices of the Swedish King – their lifetime achievements are honoured with the Nobelprize. Find out who (and why) received the Nobelprize in 1904, in one of our multilingual collections.

The closer Christmas Eve, the more nervous the children become. “Was I good enough to deserve any presents? What if Santa can’t find my house?” Give them something to occupy their minds – like learning a poem by heart: Snow Bound tells of 3 days John G. Whittier was trapped in his house by a snowstorm in his youth. With a mere 750 lines, this will keep your children busy for a while.

If you children are not quite up to the task – or you find that listening to a one hour snowstorm is just too daunting, you can always put on our recording of Grimms’ Fairy Tales. We can thank the two brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm from the early 19th century that “Snow White”, “Cinderella” and all the others are not forgotten today. We also have collections of their works in German and Danish.

Another story for all family to enjoy is The Christmas Angel by Abbie F. Brown. In a story reminiscent of Dickens, we hear of a grumpy old woman changing the way she thinks of other people.

Two more stories you may enjoy are “Merry Christmas” and “The Error of Santa Claus” by Stephen Leacock. However, somehow I feel they are more suitable for adults – why else would they be part of a collection called Frenzied Fiction?

Depending on where you live, you may celebrate Christmas – the birth of Jesus – on the 24 or 25 December. For hundreds of years people have asked whether the nativity story is just that – a story – or if Jesus was a real person. Follow Albert Schweitzer on his Quest of the Historical Jesus and see what he concludes.

Finally, we recommend Shakespeare‘s play Twelfth Night with hidden and mistaken identities, requited and unrequited loves, pranks and jokes abound in this romantic comedy, written for Christmas 1602.

Enjoy your holidays – hopefully with our books!

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