Monthly Picks

Chill Out June

Posted on June 1, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Monthly Picks | Comments: 4 Comments on Chill Out June

It’s June and hence time to prepare for summer with the following 10 gems of easy reading from our catalog.

During holidays, many people spend more time reading. To make sure this time is well spent, we recommend Literary Taste: How to form it, with lighthearted advice by Arnold Bennett to help you choose once you finished all our books.

This point will be far in the future, though maybe not quite as far as the year 2000 was for George Sutherland. He shares his 1901 predictions of the future in Twentieth Century Inventions: A forecast. Some of his glimpses into the future were quite a failure, some of them were spot on! Find out which ones…

Taking a plunge into the ocean is a wonderful way to cool down on a hot summer’s day. You’re stuck in the city? How about reading Ballads of Lost Haven: A Book of the Sea, containing a wonderful collection of poetry about the sea by Bliss Carman?

If the beach is too far away, a cool bath can be just as refreshing. or a stimulating conversation with a stranger. What happens if you combine those two and add a serious case of mistaken identities, is described in Porcelain and Pink, a delightful 1-act comedy by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Another case of mistaken identities… well, not really. After all, both Mr. Bultitude and his son Dick know perfectly well who they are. It’s just that they happen to occupy the other’s body… More details are given in the novel by F. Anstey, Vice Versa.

Both the young and the old cannot escape the fascination of circuses, adventure parks and the like. Neil Boyton packs his own childhood memories about growing up in the world of amusement parks into Killgloom Park, a book for boys and girls of all ages.

More recollections, namely the Memoirs of Jacques Casanova are on our list now. Written by Casanova himself in old age, we hear about his life of young age – and his numerous conquests of course – in the first of five volumes.

Instead of writing his memoirs, Mr. Fulton, a millionaire, is busy worrying about whom to leave all his money once he dies. Of course, he could simply pass (it) on, but he wants to make sure the money gets into the right hands. And so he goes undercover in E. H. Porter’s novel Oh Money, Money.

The prospect of heaps of money attracts distant relatives and other shady creatures. But who is this Arsène Lupin, a new Robin Hood, an undercover policeman, or just an ordinary misfit? Maurice Leblanc’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar tells 9 of his stories. A recording in the original French is also available.

Manasseh da Costa has no doubts where he’s standing. After all, he is The King of Schnorrers. His adventures in the ghetto, involving Jews and other people alike can be found in Israel Zangwill’s novel.

Enjoy – and have a relaxing June!

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Lovely May

Posted on April 30, 2011 by | Posted in about LibriVox, Blog, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: Comments Off on Lovely May

May has arrived, and this time we present 10 gems on and about love from the depths of our catalog.

Let’s start at the beginning with First Love, of which most of us have fond memories. In Ivan Turgenev’s novella, Vladimir Petrovich recounts his turbulent first romance…

If you don’t want troubles to happen in your relationship, you should take advice from Theodore Arnold Haultain. His Hints for Lovers cover all aspects of romance: from courtship to the first kiss until marriage and children.

On mother’s day (in most countries the 2nd Sunday in May) children take great pains to please their mothers. To avoid having this end in disaster, we recommend When Mother Lets us Cook by Constance Johnson – for children of all ages…

Good food and love sickness are often blamed for gaining weight – and young widow Molly has lots of the latter. While she’s trying to melt away her pounds, 4 suitors are trying to melt her heart. Who is going to succeed in The Melting of Molly, a novel by Maria Thompson Daviess?

Raina Petkoff faces a similar problem in George Bernard Shaw’s drama Arms and the Man. There is her fiance, just returned from the war, but a refugee whom she granted shelter the winter before also stakes his claims. The choice is hers – who will it be?

It’s always a choice whether to love or to leave. Sometimes the choice is made for the good of the other. How such a decision may lead to great pain for the other person after all is something that the protagonist of Camille, Alexandre Dumas (fils) famous novel, has to find out.

George Bellow hopes that the girl who just dumped him will see the errors of her ways eventually. Until then, he takes a walking tour through the country side, where he unexpectedly finds a friend and true love. Curious? Read The Money Moon by Jeffery Farnol.

Money was the driving force behind Charlotte Turner Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems. After all, by writing them she could earn enough money to get her out of jail…

Like a jail can a relationship feel when the love is gone. A woman, tightly bound in another commitment, finds some freedom while stargazing with a young astronomer. Find out about the fate of the Two on a Tower in Thomas Hardy’s novel.

Unfortunately those two would not have been able to verify Einstein’s theory of relativity. This was done when the sun was shining, or rather, during its eclipse on May 29, 1919. Read Easy Lessons in Einstein by Edwin E. Slosson to find out all about relativity.

Enjoy – and give love a chance!

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April Fools!

Posted on March 31, 2011 by | Posted in Blog, Monthly Picks, News | Comments: 1 Comment on April Fools!

Once more a new month has begun, and it’s no joke that once again we present 10 gems from our catalog.

Hopefully it’s not too late to prepare for April Fool’s Day! Our recording of Pathological Lying, Accusation and Swindling by William and Mary Healy tells you all there is to know about liars, so you will not be taken advantage of.

To avoid exactly that is the aim of rich Mr. Brewster, when his daughter appears with a brand new husband in the novel by P. G. Wodehouse. Will The Indiscretions of Archie be too much to bear for the unsuspecting father-in-law?

John Kendrick Bangs’ protagonist The Idiot proves to be quite trying company in Mrs. Smith-Pedagog’s boarding house. His table talk vexes all other guests, but is he really such a fool as everyone assumes?

Fools are certainly those who do not learn from history. The genocide on the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in 1915 is denied, condemned, or seen as part of normal warfare. Read about Martyred Armenia in Fa’iz El-Ghusein’s autobiographical account of a Turk condemned to spectator.

While we can vow “never again” faced with human atrocities, we can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best when it comes to natural disasters. On April 18, 1906, The San Francisco Calamity by Earthquake and Fire happened. Charles Morris interviewed eyewitnesses for a first hand account of the catastrophe.

The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen also profess to be first hand accounts of real events, but who has already heard of the baron will take the stories in Rudolf Erich Raspe’s book with a grain of salt.

The same should young Vivie do in George Bernard Shaw’s play, after she excerts a promise from her mother to end her questionable business. But Mrs. Warren’s Profession is a profitable one, and luxuries are hard to give up…

Instead of giving up, what if somebody could take over your life for a while? Unfortunately the stand-in for John Chilcote turns out to be the better him. Find out if the politician is getting his life back in The Masquerader by Katherine Thurston.

Undercover agents are used to slip into the skin of other people, hopefully to protect the innocent. But even as Gabriel Syme turns into The Man Who was Thursday, it is still difficult to find out who needs protection in the story by G. K. Chesterton.

This year April ends with a long holiday weekend. Celebrate Easter with a selection of poems From The Temple on various religious topics by the Anglican priest George Herbert.

Enjoy – and don’t get fooled!

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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 Poincaré 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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