The Magic Finger read by Kate Winslet

'Well, that did it.
I saw red. 
And before I was able to stop myself, I did something I never meant to do.
I PUT THE MAGIC FINGER ON THEM ALL!'

Roald Dahl: The Magic Finger (Audiobook Extract) read by Kate Winslet

Body Scan

Here's a clip from James Van Praagh speaking at the Hay House World Summit, 2016. Visit hyperurl.co/tirgpq to access full- length interviews with 100 highly respected motivational speakers from around the world.

James Van Praagh - How To Break Limiting Beliefs To Create The Life You Want

Roald Dahl's wickedly funny novels have turned him into the world's number 1 storyteller. In this collection five splendiferous stories are brought to life by the author himself.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Abridged)
Willy Wonka's famous chocolate factory is opening at last!

James and the Giant Peach (Abridged) 
A little magic can take you a long way

Fantastic Mr. Fox (Unabridged) 
Nobody outfoxes Fantastic Mr. Fox!

The Enormous Crocodile (Unabridged) 
This greedy crocodile loves to guzzle up little boys and girls

The Magic Finger (Unabridged) 
Horrible neighbors learn their lesson from a little girl with powerful magic!

The Enormous Crocodile by Roald Dahl, read by Roald Dahl (audiobook extract)

To practice shifting into being mode, try this 7-minute guided practice called "Two Ways of Knowing" from The Mindful Way Workbook by John Teasdale.

We can learn to switch out of automatic pilot by bringing our awareness to the present moment. When we do this, we start to see that we have a choice, and this is often the first step in taking care of ourselves.

A 7-Minute Guided Practice to Switch out of "Doing" and into "Being"

The wild and wonderful calling of gibbons is a highlight of the Thai rainforests.

Our recording begins in the predawn, with frogs croaking from a streamside pool and the first birdsong carrying through the dense forest. Bulbuls, laughing thrushes, scimitar babblers, and the heavy wingbeats of hornbills all contribute to a tropical ambience.

Eventually a group of gibbons appear, swinging acrobatically through the treetops. The males call loudly to advertise territory, their rich, expressive voices echoing through the forest. Later we hear several individuals calling to each other alternately over great distances. 

'Gibbon Forest' - album sample

Narrated by the authors, Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth A. Silvers.

Two friends on opposite sides of the aisle provide a practical guide to grace-filled political conversation while challenging readers to put relationship before policy and understanding before argument.

More than ever, politics seems driven by conflict and anger. People sitting together in pews every Sunday have started to feel like strangers, loved ones at the dinner table like enemies. Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers say there is a better way.       

As working moms on opposite ends of the political spectrum and hosts of a fast-growing politics podcast, Holland and Silvers have learned how to practice engaging conversation while disagreeing. In I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening), they share principles on how to give grace and be vulnerable when discussing issues that affect families, churches, the country, and the world. They provide practical tools to move past frustration and into productive dialogue, emphasizing that faith should inform the way people engage more than it does the outcome of that engagement. This urgently needed new book reveals how to talk about politics in a way that inspires rather than angers and that pays spiritual dividends far past election day.

Order Audiobook

I THINK YOU'RE WRONG (BUT I'M LISTENING) by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth A. Silvers

From the most successful Republican political operative of his generation, a searing, unflinching, and deeply personal expos&eacute; of how his party became what it is today Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s. Stevens shows how racism has always lurked in the modern GOP's DNA, from Goldwater's opposition to desegregation to Ronald Reagan's welfare queens and states' rights rhetoric. He gives an insider's account of the rank hypocrisy of the party's claims to embody "family values," and shows how the party's vaunted commitment to fiscal responsibility has been a charade since the 1980s. When a party stands for nothing, he argues, it is only natural that it will be taken over by the loudest and angriest voices in the room. It Was All a Lie is not just an indictment of the Republican Party, but a candid and often lacerating mea culpa. Stevens is not asking for pity or forgiveness; he is simply telling us what he has seen firsthand. He helped to create the modern party that kneels before a morally bankrupt con man and now he wants nothing more than to see what it has become burned to the ground.

It Was All a Lie by Stuart Stevens, read by Dan John Miller

Like a lot of people, lockdown has made us think about intimacy. As separation from our loved ones drags on, we're all having to find different ways to connect, and in this socially distant reality, intimacy feels more necessary than ever - however we can get it (hot tip: books are good!). Writing and reading can be intimate acts, so for this episode we'll be discussing what intimacy means in literature, which writers - from Henry James to Sally Rooney to Maggie Nelson - have been able to capture it, and what it means to write in an intimate way. Our guest this month is Garth Greenwell, a writer whose work chronicles and explores intimacy in many forms, so he couldn't be a better person to talk to. His second book, Cleanness, follows an American teacher living in Sofia, Bulgaria as he navigates relationships with his students, love and sex. Listen in for our interview with Garth, our thoughts about intimacy in literature, and all the usual recommendations. Come closer, let us put our arms around you, and get enveloped for the next hour by Literary Friction. 

Recommendations on the theme, Intimacy: 
Octavia: The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/argonauts
Carrie: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/573/57368/giovanni-s-room/9780141186351.html

General Recommendations:
Octavia: This Brutal House by Niven Govinden https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/niven-govinden/this-brutal-house/9780349700687/
Garth: Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/594959/where-reasons-end-by-yiyun-li/
Carrie: The Years by Annie Ernaux https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/the-years

Email us: litfriction@gmail.com
Tweet us & find us on Instagram: @litfriction 
This episode is sponsored by Picador https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador

Literary Friction - Intimacy With Garth Greenwell

The Ice Monster, by David Walliams - Day 16

Persistence and creativity can lead to amazing things, as Leif the leaf discovers in this lovely storybook from Allison Sweet Grant and Adam Grant, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Originals. Leif is a leaf. A worried leaf. It is autumn, and Leif is afraid to fall. "All leaves fall in the fall," say the other leaves. But Leif is determined to find a different way down, and with his friend Laurel, he uses the resources around him to create a net, a kite, a parachute in hopes of softening his landing. The clock is ticking, the wind is blowing. What will happen when a gust of wind pulls Leif from his branch? In a culture that prizes achievement, kids are often afraid to fail--failing to realize that some of the very ideas that don't work are steps along the path to ones that will. Available for purchase at: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1984815490?tag=randohouseinc7911-20">Amazon</a><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/?ean=9781984815491">Barnes & Noble</a><a href="http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-8373827-10747236?SID=PRHD39095A662--9781984815491&url=http://www.booksamillion.com/p/9781984815491">Books A Million</a><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/2186/9781984815491?prhc=PRHD39095A662">Bookshop.org</a><a href="http://www.hudsonbooksellers.com/book/9781984815491?utm_source=prh&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_term=301&utm_content=PRHD39095A662--9781984815491&utm_campaign=9781984815491">Hudson Booksellers</a><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984815491?aff=penguinrandom">IndieBound</a><a href="http://www.powells.com/book/-9781984815491?utm_source=randomhouse&utm_campaign=randomhouse&utm_content=PRHD39095A662--9781984815491">Powell's</a><a href="http://goto.target.com/c/128773/81938/2092?subId1=PRHD39095A662--9781984815491&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.target.com%2Fs%3FsearchTerm%3D9781984815491">Target</a><a href="http://linksynergy.walmart.com/fs-bin/click?id=VD9*lkiWNd8&subid=0&offerid=183959.1&type=10&tmpid=273&u1=PRHD39095A662--9781984815491&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walmart.com%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-ng.do%3F&RD_PARM2=search_query%3D9781984815491%2526ic%3D16_0%2526Find%3DFind%2526search_constraint%3D3920">Walmart</a><a href="https://www.audible.com/search?advsearchKeywords=Leif+and+the+Fall+Allison+Sweet+Grant+%26+Adam+Grant&source_code=COMA0213WS031709&SID=randohouseinc7911-20--9780593294390">Audible - Audiobook (Downloadable format)</a><a href="http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-8373827-11099382?SID=PRHD39095A662--9780593294390&url=http://www.audiobooks.com/audiobook/9780593294390">audiobooks.com - Audiobook (Downloadable format)</a><a href="https://google.prf.hn/click/camref:1011ld4r/pubref:PRHD39095A662--9780593294390/destination:https://play.google.com/store/search?q=9780593294390&c=books">Google Play Store - Audiobook (Downloadable format)</a><a href="http://click.linksynergy.com/link?id=VD9*lkiWNd8&offerid=258185.12829781935712206&type=2&u1=PRHD39095A662--9780593294390}&murl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kobo.com%2Fsearch%3FQuery%3D9780593294390">Kobo - Audiobook (Downloadable format)</a>

Leif and the Fall by Allison Sweet Grant, Adam Grant, read by Allison Sweet Grant, Adam Grant

Publishers of award-winning fiction and non-fiction audiobooks for adults and children. Listen to exclusive clips from our books and free audioook extracts here on Soundcloud.

The Ice Monster, by David Walliams - Day 16

HarperCollins Publishers

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