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Basic Books (Audiobook Excerpts)

Listen to an excerpt from THAT FRIEND by Sabrina Brier, read by the author and a full cast.

THAT FRIEND Audiobook Excerpt

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Audible: https://www.audible.de/pd/B0DLPH6R64/?source_code=EKAORWS0223189009-BK-ACX0-421099&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_421099_rh_de 
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5zQf7ba1SZhAZobE3T56GS
Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/?id=AQAAAECyHy1fjM&c=books&hl=de&pli=1
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/en/album/653899971

Mein Mann ist tot. Eine Fremde steht vor meiner Tür. Sie sagt, mein Haus gehört ihr ...

Nur wenige Tage nach dem plötzlichen Tod meines Mannes klingelt es an der Tür. Vor mir steht eine fremde Frau. Sie hat einen kleinen Jungen auf dem Arm und trägt genau das gleiche Diamantenarmband am Handgelenk wie ich.

Als ich sie hereinbitte, bemerke ich, wie beim Anblick unseres geräumigem, liebevoll eingerichteten Zuhauses ihre Augen groß werden. Sie wirft einen Blick auf die silbergerahmten Familienfotos und meine kleine Tochter, die sich hinter mir versteckt. Sie sieht mich mit ernsten blauen Augen an. »Es tut mir leid«, sagt sie. »Ich weiß, das ist ein Schock für Sie. Aber ich bin die Geliebte Ihres Mannes. Und das ist sein Sohn.«

Meine Welt bricht zusammen. Und dann teilt sie mir mit, dass ihr mein Haus gehört – und sie nicht die geringste Absicht hat, wieder zu gehen ...


Seine andere Frau by K.L. Slater, narrated by Viola Gabor

Hier hören:
Audible: https://www.audible.de/pd/B0DLL9YNGV/?source_code=EKAORWS0223189009-BK-ACX0-421077&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_421077_rh_de 
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3CWLRNSnVkhQWqQspmnHET
Google Books: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details/?id=AQAAAECyHyhfiM&c=books&hl=de 
Deezer: https://deezer.com/album/653900051

Mein Mann war kein Monster. Ganz gleich, was die Leute sagen ...

Bis vor ein paar Wochen war mein Leben perfekt. Michael war ein hingebungsvoller Ehemann und ein liebevoller Vater. Unsere Familie war der Traum, den ich mir immer gewünscht hatte. Doch plötzlich wurde er zum Albtraum. Mein Mannwurde beschuldigt, etwas mit dem Verschwinden einer jungen Mutter aus unserem Dorf zu tun zu haben. Nachdem er von der Polizei befragt worden war, stürzte er sich vor einen Lastwagen.

Er war mein Leben – und jetzt stehe ich auf seiner Beerdigung und halte die kleine Hand unserer sechsjährigen Tochter Tansy. Ich versichere allen, dass Michael unschuldig war, aber ich sehe in ihren Augen, dass sie mir nicht glauben.

Meine Tochter wird ihren Vater nicht als Monster in Erinnerung behalten, dafür werde ich sorgen. Ich werde jede Spur eines Verbrechens vernichten, koste es, was es wolle. Denn auch ich habe Geheimnisse. Und ich kann nicht riskieren, dass die Leute anfangen, mich zu beobachten ...

Die Witwe by K.L. Slater, narrated by Patrizia Grawe

The School for Wicked Witches #2: 
Wicked Never Waits
Written by Will Taylor
Narrated by Mia Hutchinson-Shaw	

After making her escape from The School for Wicked Witches, Ava has realized that it might be the right place for her, after all.  But her return isn't triumphant -- if anything, she's more behind than ever. When things start to go very wrong at the school, Ava discovers she may be able to save the day... but only if she pairs up with Tinabella, her friend-turned-enemy. What's a young witch to do?

Print edition published by Scholastic Inc.  Text copyright 2025 by Will Taylor.  Production copyright 2025 by Scholastic Inc.  All rights reserved. 

Formats Available:
Digital Trade		978-1-5461-5155-5		$20.99
Digital Library	978-1-5461-5156-2		$62.99


The School for Wicked Witches #2: Wicked Never Waits - Audiobook Clip

Squad, The
Written by Christina Soontornvat
Narrated by Grace Li, Vaneh Assadourian, Ashley Austin Morris, and a full cast	

"Raw, candid, moving, and full of heart." - Betty C. Tang, creator of the award-winning bestseller Parachute Kids
"Gorgeous, heartfelt, and hilarious." - Sarah Mlynowski, New York Times bestselling author of the Whatever After series
STEP UP. COMMIT. FOLLOW THROUGH.
It's eighth grade and Christina and her besties, Megan and Leanne, are once again going through the brutal trials of cheerleading tryouts. This year, Christina feels more confident: She dresses in her own style and has amazing friends, even her first crush. But what if the girls don't all make the squad? Worse than that, Christina learns her parents' marriage is collapsing. Suddenly, her family, her future, and her identity seem in total freefall. Can she keep it together and still make her cheerleading dreams come true?

Print edition published by Scholastic Inc. Text Copyright 2024 by Christina Soontornvat. Production Copyright 2024 by Scholastic Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Formats Available:
Digital Trade		978-1-5461-3718-4		$24.99
Digital Library		978-1-5461-3719-1		$74.99




The Squad - Audiobook Clip

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Audible UK: https://zpr.io/waaNMvP9rmiv
Audible US: https://zpr.io/25ibN486hJZA

I’m Rylan Flynn. I hunt for ghosts and restless spirits, and solve the mysteries that make them haunt the living.

As I drive across an isolated bridge way out in the woods, a bright light blinds me. But it isn’t a car approaching. It’s a ghost, with a deadly secret to reveal.

I follow the spirit down to the river. There, below the water, I find the body of a young woman. A small square of skin is missing from her hip, and I’m certain she was murdered.

Detective Ford Pierce rushes to join me. Our friendship is turning into something deeper, and there’s nobody I would rather have by my side.

But when Ford sees the body his face turns pale. The girl in the water is his cousin, Kenzie Cross.

As a family member, Ford is forbidden from investigating. But he’s determined to find the killer, and he wants my help. Even if that means working outside the rules.

When the police discover that Kenzie had a secret boyfriend from a strict religious family, they’re certain this is a simple case. But I find evidence that links Kenzie to another mysterious death—years ago, beneath the very same bridge.

I’ve never worked so closely with Ford before, and the danger of the case puts a strain on our new relationship. Can we learn to work together, before another innocent life is taken?

Packed with mysteries, hauntings, shocking twists, and slow-burn romance, the Rylan Flynn series is a paranormal adventure perfect for fans of Noelle W. Ihli, Heather Graham, and Wendy Wang.

The River Ghost by Dawn Merriman, narrated by Stephanie Cannon

Brought to you by Penguin.

I know what I saw...

'The ghosts of today live not in castles or stately homes, but in ordinary houses and offices, and they're witnessed by ordinary people like you and me. We just need to figure out what the hell they are - the dead returning from the "undiscovered country" of death? Or the product of that equally mysterious and ancient location, the human mind?

This book is the story of these ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary things and want to make sense of them. Each one is a brand-new case I have never shared before; modern day ghost stories that make my blood run cold as effectively as anything that Charles Dickens could rustle up. And they are all entirely true.

It's also a story of my own personal journey of discovery because I've realised something while reading all these incredible stories that come my way. I've realised how much I want to believe. I'm asking you to join me, to keep an open mind and to prepare to have your very concept of reality challenged. Are you ready?'

Into the Uncanny, written and read by Danny Robins

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of the international phenomenon Surrounded by Idiots.

Studies suggest two people who have never met before will tell three lies within the first five minutes. Astounding. But why?

Why do we choose to lie even when we know it's wrong? To protect the people we love? To paint ourselves in a better light? To win short-lived praise? Or, are there simply far more obscure reasons behind why we lie?

In Surrounded by Liars, international bestselling author and behavioural expert Thomas Erikson unpacks the psychological reasons behind why we lie, and reveals the impact lying has on our relationships.

With the help of the behavioural model made famous in Surrounded by Idiots, discover how to detect the liars in your life and shatter their deception for good!

Surrounded by Liars, written by Thomas Erikson and read by David John

Brought to you by Penguin.

**Soon to be a major Netflix TV series, starring Gong Yoo and Seo Hyun-jin**

Listen to the captivating Korean feminist thriller for fans of KIM JIYOUNG BORN 1982, CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN and YELLOWFACE.

‘So this is the world we live in, where even spouses can be rented’

Meet Noh Inji: thirty years old, five wedding rings so far, and she’s never once been in love.

When Inji takes a job at Wedding & Life, the popular matchmaking service, she never imagines her role will be with NM, their secretive marriage division that rents out ‘field spouses’ for a fixed period to their elite clientele. Just like a real marriage, Inji’s assignments involve a wedding, some sex and a spot of housework. It’s all tailored exactly to the client’s desires - no legal battles, no fights, no emotional baggage.

In no way is Inji interested in finding real love, because accidents happen when you mistakenly assume that you are somehow special. At NM, love is temporary, which is just how Inji likes it.
When one of Inji’s old husbands, a mysterious high-profile music producer, requests her back for another year of marriage, Inji’s own dark past will begin to unravel – as well as the sinister underbelly of the NM management, who will stop at nothing to preserve their reputation - and that of their wealthiest clients …


The Trunk, written by Kim Ryeo-Ryeong and read by Greta Jung

Babysitters Little Sister #16: 
Karen's Goldfish
Written by Ann M. Martin
Narrated by Stephanie Drake	

Karen and her little brother Andrew are getting new pet - goldfish! Karen names hers Crystal Light. Andrew's is called Goldfishie. Karen and Andrew love to watch their fish swim around and around.
 
Then something happens to Crystal Light, and Karen is so sad. Nothing can make her feel better...until Karen's witchy neighbor saves the day!


Print edition published by Scholastic Inc.  Text copyright 1991 by Ann M. Martin.  Production copyright 2025 by Scholastic Inc.  All rights reserved.

Formats Available:
Digital Trade		978-1-5461-5119-7		$18.99
Digital Library		978-1-5461-5120-3	$56.99

Babysitters Little Sister #16: Karen's Goldfish - Audiobook Clip

On sale March 11th, 2025

A revelatory new history of the Irish Great Famine, showing how the British Empire caused Ireland’s most infamous disaster

In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, that the blight’s devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million people dead and forcing millions more to emigrate.

In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and the British Empire made it uniquely vulnerable to starvation. Ireland’s overreliance on the potato was a desperate adaptation to an unstable and unequal marketplace created by British colonialism. The empire’s laissez-faire economic policies saw Ireland exporting livestock and grain even as its people starved. When famine struck, relief efforts were premised on the idea that only free markets and wage labor could save the Irish. Ireland’s wretchedness, before and during the Great Famine, was often blamed on Irish backwardness, but in fact, it resulted from the British Empire’s embrace of modern capitalism.

Uncovering the disaster’s roots in Britain’s deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy.

Rot By Padraic X. Scanlan, Read By Stephen Hogan (Audiobook Excerpt)

On sale May 6th, 2025

A powerful, unsparing new history of World War II, recasting the conflict as a brutal struggle for survival among declining and ascendant imperial powers

In popular memory, the Second World War was an unalloyed victory for freedom over totalitarianism, marking the demise of the age of empires and the triumph of an American-led democratic order. 

In Scorched Earth, historian Paul Thomas Chamberlin dispatches the myth of World War II as a good war. Instead, he depicts the conflict as it truly was: a massive battle beset by vicious racial atrocities, fought between rival empires across huge stretches of Asia and Europe. The war was sparked by German and Japanese invasions that threatened the old powers’ dominance, not by Allied opposition to fascism. The Allies achieved victory not through pluck and democratic idealism but through savage firebombing raids on civilian targets and the slaughter of millions of Soviet soldiers. The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as hyper-militarized new imperial powers, each laying claim to former Axis holdings across the globe before turning on one another and triggering a new forever war.  
 
Dramatically rendered and persuasively argued, Scorched Earth shows that World War II marked the culmination of centuries of colonial violence and ushered in a new era of imperial struggle.

Listen Here

Scorched Earth By Paul Thomas Chamberlin, Read By Jefferson Mays (Audiobook Excerpt)

On sale May 6th, 2025

From Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason L. Riley, a contrarian argument that racial preferences have done more harm than good for black Americans

After the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that the use of race in college admissions was unconstitutional, many predicted that the black middle class was doomed. One byproduct of a half century of affirmative action is that it has given people the impression that blacks can’t advance without special treatment. In The Affirmative Action Myth, Jason L. Riley details the neglected history of black achievement without government intervention. Using empirical data, Riley shows how black families lifted themselves out of poverty prior to the racial preference policies of the 1960s and 1970s. 

Black employment, incomes, homeownership, and educational attainment all were on the rise in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century and began to stagnate only after affirmative action became the law of the land, tainting black achievement with suspicions of unfair advantage. Countering thinkers who blame white supremacy and systemic racism for today’s racial gaps, Riley offers a more optimistic story of black success without racial favoritism.  

The Affirmative Action Myth By Jason L Riley, Read By James Shippy (Audiobook Excerpt)

On sale May 6th, 2025

An awesome, globe-spanning, and New York Times bestselling journey through the beauty and power of mathematics

What if you had to take an art class in which you were only taught how to paint a fence? What if you were never shown the paintings of van Gogh and Picasso, weren't even told they existed? Alas, this is how math is taught, and so for most of us it becomes the intellectual equivalent of watching paint dry.

In Love and Math, renowned mathematician Edward Frenkel reveals a side of math we've never seen, suffused with all the beauty and elegance of a work of art. In this heartfelt and passionate book, Frenkel shows that mathematics, far from occupying a specialist niche, goes to the heart of all matter, uniting us across cultures, time, and space.

Love and Math tells two intertwined stories: of the wonders of mathematics and of one young man's journey learning and living it. Having braved a discriminatory educational system to become one of the twenty-first century's leading mathematicians, Frenkel now works on one of the biggest ideas to come out of math in the last 50 years: the Langlands Program. Considered by many to be a Grand Unified Theory of mathematics, the Langlands Program enables researchers to translate findings from one field to another so that they can solve problems, such as Fermat's last theorem, that had seemed intractable before.

At its core, Love and Math is a story about accessing a new way of thinking, which can enrich our lives and empower us to better understand the world and our place in it. It is an invitation to discover the magic hidden universe of mathematics.

Love and Math By Edward Frenkel, Read By Mike Lenz (Audiobook Excerpt)

On sale May 13th, 2025

A kaleidoscopic narrative history of 1963, the pivotal moment in America’s long civil rights movement—the year of the March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” and the assassinations of Medgar Evers and John F. Kennedy

In Freedom Season, acclaimed historian Peniel E. Joseph offers a stirring narrative history of 1963, marking it as the defining year of the Black freedom struggle—a year when America faced a deluge of political strife and violence and emerged transformed.

Nineteen sixty-three opened with the centenary of the Emancipation Proclamation and ended with America in a state of mourning. The months in between brought waves of racial terror, mass protest, and police repression that shocked the world, inspired radicals and reformers, and forced the hands of moderate legislators. By year’s end the murders of John F. Kennedy, Medgar Evers, and four Black girls at a church in Alabama left the nation determined to imagine a new way forward. Alongside the stories of historical giants like James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr., Joseph uplifts the perspectives of less celebrated leaders like playwright Lorraine Hansberry and activist Gloria Richardson.

Over one heartbreakingly tumultuous year, America unraveled and remade itself as the world looked on. Freedom Season shows how the upheavals of 1963 planted the seeds for watershed civil rights legislation and renewed hope in the promise and possibility of freedom. 

Freedom Season By Peniel E. Joseph (Audiobook Excerpt)

On sale June 17th, 2025

A playful examination of how science’s silliest research leads to crucial breakthroughs and enduring insights

Why would anyone research how elephants pee? Or study worms who tie themselves into a communal knot? Or quantify the squishability of a cockroach? It all sounds pointless, silly, or even disgusting.

Maybe it is. But in The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog, Carly Anne York shows how unappreciated, overlooked, and simply curiosity-driven science has led to breakthroughs big and small. Got wind power? You might have humpback whales to thank. Know anything about particle physics? Turns out there is a ferret close to the heart of it all. And if you want to keep salmon around, be thankful for that cannon! The research itself can seem bizarre. But it drives our economy. And what’s more, this stuff is simply cool.

York invites listeners to appreciate the often unpredictable journey of scientific exploration, highlighting that the heart of science lies in the relentless pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Emphasizing the hard work of the people behind the discoveries, this is an accessible, story-driven book that shows how important and exciting it is to simply let curiosity run wild.



The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog By Carly Anne York, Read By Eileen Stevens (Audiobook Excerpt)

Grammy-winning audiobook publisher. Authors include James Patterson, David Baldacci, and Michael Connelly. Earbuds encouraged. Follow us on Twitter at @HachetteAudio.

Rot By Padraic X. Scanlan, Read By Stephen Hogan (Audiobook Excerpt)

HachetteAudio

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