2021

audiobooks

World Book and Copyright Day

Books

The intricacy of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are 'hard and important' and those that are 'easy and trivial'. Everything has become so much harder than it ought to be. But, Greg McKeown, best-selling author of Essentialism, says, there is a third alternative. In Effortless, he offers practical strategies for making the most vital tasks the easiest ones.

Effortless, written and read by Greg McKeown

Sorrowland - Rivers Solomon

Think of any problem that we face and there is already a solution out there. We just need to know where to look – and have the courage to think big.

All around the world, people are successfully putting into action ingenious ways to tackle everything from inequality and climate crisis to the challenges of housing, technology and demographic change. 

In his award-winning podcast Reasons to Be Cheerful, Ed Miliband has captured the imagination of millions by investigating how these schemes came about and why they work. In Go Big, he shows that a different world is entirely possible and how to get there by combining the best and most ambitious of these solutions – on a large scale.

Go Big, written and read by Ed Miliband

Filled with stories of people in the grip of illness or in the triumphant wake of recovery, this life-affirming audiobook shows how true health is possible—if we are willing to embrace authenticity above social expectations. The Myth of Normal is Gabor Maté's most ambitious, compassionate and urgent book yet.

The Myth of Normal, by Dr Gabor Mate

Brought to you by Penguin.

THE PHENOMENAL INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD.

Transform your life with tiny changes in behaviour, starting now.

People think that when you want to change your life, you need to think big. But world-renowned habits expert James Clear has discovered another way. He knows that real change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions: doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single short phone call.

He calls them atomic habits.

In this ground-breaking book, Clears reveals exactly how these minuscule changes can grow into such life-altering outcomes. He uncovers a handful of simple life hacks (the forgotten art of Habit Stacking, the unexpected power of the Two Minute Rule, or the trick to entering the Goldilocks Zone), and delves into cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience to explain why they matter. Along the way, he tells inspiring stories of Olympic gold medalists, leading CEOs, and distinguished scientists who have used the science of tiny habits to stay productive, motivated, and happy.

Atomic Habits

From the master of tragicomedy and award-winning author of Skippy Dies: a tour de force new novel about family, fortune, and the struggle to be a good person when the world is (maybe) ending...

Irresistibly funny, wise and thought-provoking, a state-of-the-nation novel about one unhappy family in the midst of meltdown.

The Bee Sting 1. Cass

BBC Radio adaptations of Aldous Huxley’s finest works – plus a bonus documentary programme.

Philosopher, pacifist, psychonaut and prophet, Aldous Huxley was one of the 20th century’s pre-eminent intellectuals and writers. The author of over 50 books, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize nine times, and elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962, a year before his death. Known for his mordant satire and visionary ideas, Huxley spanned the period from post-First World War disillusionment to mid-century mysticism, and the works in this collection reflect his literary evolution.

Antic Hay, his witty, ironic portrait of the glittering hedonism of 1920s London, is dramatised by award-winning playwright Mike Harris, and stars James Cooney and Emily Pithon.

Originally a short story, Huxley’s dark comedy of manners The Gioconda Smile was adapted as a hit West End play in 1948. This BBC Radio dramatisation stars Peter Bowles as the womanizing Henry Hutton, about to marry his second wife but accused of killing his first.

Brave New World is Huxley’s classic 1932 tale of a future totalitarian dystopia, where promiscuity is the norm, eugenics a respectable science and the drug Soma is freely available. Adapted for Radio 4, it stars Jonathan Coy, Justin Salinger, Milton Lopes and Anton Lesser.

Aldous Huxley’s 1953 novel The Devils of Loudon, an imagined account of a real-life witch trial in 17th-century France, was revamped for the stage as The Devils in 1960. A gripping tale of mass hysteria, religious and sexual obsession and alleged demonic possession, this radio version stars Michael Bryant and Sarah Badel.

The Dwarves, a full-cast drama based on Chapter 13 of Crome Yellow, tells the story of Sir Hercules and his wife Filomena, whose country-house haven for dwarves like themselves is unexpectedly threatened. David Learner, Claire Faulconbridge and Garard Green star.

Concluding our collection are readings of five of his short stories set in the 1920s and a fascinating biographical documentary. Edward Petherbridge reads ‘Cynthia’, ‘The Bookshop’, ‘Eupompus Gave Splendour to Art by Numbers’, ‘Fard’ and ‘The Portrait’, while the documentary All Those Vile Bodies explores the contradictions of the satirist of the brittle 20s turned prescient critic of 20th-century progress. Valentine Cunningham presents, with contributions from Sybille Bedford, Lord Jenkins, Sir Stephen Spender, Gavin Ewart, Julian Symons and Lewis Wolpert, and archive recordings of Huxley, his brother Julian and contemporaries.

First published 1920 (‘Cynthia’, ‘The Bookshop’, ‘Eupompus Gave Splendour to Art by Numbers’), 1921 (‘The Dwarves’), 1923 (Antic Hay), 1924 (‘Fard’, ‘The Portrait’), 1932 (Brave New World), 1948 (The Gioconda Smile), 1960 (The Devils)

© 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.(P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Aldous Huxley: A BBC Radio Collection audiobook extract

The inspiration for the film from Oscar award-winning director Barry Jenkins.

'Achingly beautiful' Guardian

Harlem in the 1970s: the black soul of New York City. Tish is nineteen and the man she loves - her lifelong friend and the father of her unborn child - has been jailed for a crime he did not commit. As their families come together to fight for his freedom, will their love be enough?

'Soulful . . . Racial injustice may flatten "the black experience" into one single, fearful, constantly undermined way of life - but black life, black love, is so much larger than that . . . It's one of the signature lessons of Baldwin's work that blackness contains multitudes' Vanity Fair

'If Beale Street Could Talk affirms not only love between a man and a woman, but love of a type that is dealt with only rarely in contemporary fiction - that between members of a family' Joyce Carol Oates

©1974 James Baldwin (P)2024 Penguin Audio

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin, read by Bahni Turpin

Random House presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne, read by Stephen Hogan.

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery or at least that’s what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn’t a real Avery, then who is he?

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from – and over his three score years and ten, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.

In this, Boyne's most transcendent work to date, we are shown the story of Ireland from the 1940s to today through the eyes of one ordinary man. The Heart's Invisible Furies is a novel to make you laugh and cry while reminding us all of the redemptive power of the human spirit.


Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1109577/the-heart-s-invisible-furies/#AQTFYJCxQKL3lclk.99

The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne (audiobook extract) read by Stephen Hogan

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of All Our Wrong Todays, written and read by Elan Mastai.

Tom lives in a perfect world: no war, no poverty, no under-ripe avocados. . . oh, and time travel. When he loses the love of his life, going back to fix it seems like the only answer. . . what could possibly go wrong?

Elan Mastai's breakthrough novel brings a whole new dimension to a classic love story

So, the thing is, I come from the world we were supposed to have.

That means nothing to you, obviously, because you live here, in the crappy world we do have.

But it never should've turned out like this. And it's all my fault - well, me and to a lesser extent my father.

And, yeah, I guess a little bit Penelope.

In both worlds, she's the love of my life. But only a single version of her can exist.

I have one impossible chance to fix history's greatest mistake and save this broken world.

Except it means saving one Penelope and losing the other forever - and I have absolutely no idea which to choose . . .
Praise for All Our Wrong Todays

'A thrilling tale of time travel and alternate timelines with a refreshingly optimistic view of humanity's future'
Andy Weir, author of international bestseller The Martian

'A novel about time travel has no right to be this engaging. A novel this engaging has no right to be this smart. And a novel this smart has no right to be this funny. Or insightful. Or immersive. Basically, this novel has no right to exist."
Jonathan Tropper, New York Times bestselling author of This Is Where I Leave You and One Last Thing Before I Go

'Elan Mastai has conjured up a witty and freewheeling time-traveling romance that packs an emotional wallop.All Our Wrong Todays is a page-turning delight' 
Maria Semple, author of Today Will Be Different and Where'd You Go, Bernadette


Read more at https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/295240/all-our-wrong-todays/#ueIXAEDMjXRO4wsd.99

All Our Wrong Todays written and read by Elan Mastai (audiobook extract)

Christine Grace McMulkin is a Certified Mindful Self Compassion Teacher. She teaches Live Online MSC and is also a faculty member of the Centre for Mindfulness Studies.

Soles of the Feet

Christine Grace McMulkin is a Certified Mindful Self Compassion Teacher. She teaches Live Online MSC and is also a faculty member of the Centre for Mindfulness Studies.

https://christinegraceandcommunity.com

Finding Loving Kindness Phrases

Loving Kindness for Ourselves

Grounding Earth Meditation

Brought to you by Penguin.

Winner of the Booker Prize 2019.

The British Book Awards Audiobook of the Year 2020

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood is read by Ann Dowd, Bryce Dallas Howard and Mae Whitman with Derek Jacobi, Tantoo Cardinal and Margaret Atwood.

Margaret Atwood's dystopian masterpiece, The Handmaid's Tale, is a modern classic. Now she brings the iconic story to a dramatic conclusion in this riveting sequel. 

More than fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, but there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with potentially explosive results.

Two have grown up as part of the first generation to come of age in the new order. The testimonies of these two young women are joined by a third voice: a woman who wields power through the ruthless accumulation and deployment of secrets.

As Atwood unfolds The Testaments, she opens up the innermost workings of Gilead as each woman is forced to come to terms with who she is, and how far she will go for what she believes.

'Dear Readers: Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in.' Margaret Atwood

'The literary event of the year.' Guardian

'A savage and beautiful novel, and it speaks to us today, all around the world, with particular conviction and power... The bar is set particularly high for Atwood and she soars over it' Peter Florence, Booker Prize Chair of Judges, Guardian

The Testaments - Margaret Atwood, read by Ann Dowd

Listening is about curiosity and patience - about asking the right questions in the right way. Improvisational comedians and con men are much better at it than most of us. And the cleverest people can be the worst at it. Listening has the potential to transform our relationships and our working lives, improve our self-knowledge, and increase our creativity and happiness. While it may take some effort, it's a skill that can be learnt and perfected.

What we crave is to understand and be understood, You're Not Listening shows us how.

Everybody Has Something Going On: What You're Missing and Why It Matters

Siberia’s story is traditionally one of exiles, penal colonies and unmarked graves. Yet there is another tale to tell.

Dotted throughout this remote land are pianos – grand instruments created during the boom years of the nineteenth century, and humble, Soviet-made uprights that found their way into equally modest homes. They tell the story of how, ever since entering Russian culture under the influence of Catherine the Great, piano music has run through the country like blood. 

How these pianos travelled into this snow-bound wilderness in the first place is testament to noble acts of fortitude by governors, adventurers and exiles. That stately instruments might still exist in such a hostile landscape is remarkable. That they are still capable of making music in far-flung villages is nothing less than a miracle.

But this is Siberia, where people can endure the worst of the world — and where music reveals a deep humanity in the last place on earth you would expect to find it.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts read by Catherine Bailey

Brought to you by Penguin.

'Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.'

Hidden away in the Record Department of the sprawling Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith skilfully rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Yet he inwardly rebels against the totalitarian world he lives in, which demands absolute obedience and controls him through the all-seeing telescreens and the watchful eye of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a secret love affair with a fellow-worker Julia, but soon discovers the true price of freedom is betrayal.

(P) Penguin Audio 2021

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell - Read by Peter Capaldi

Penguin Books publishes blockbusting, prize-winning, celebrated, controversial, heart-warming, thought-provoking and inspiring books by a range of authors from Ali Smith to Zadie Smith, Jeremy Clarkson to Jeremy Paxman and Jamie Oliver to Oliver Goldsmith.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell - Read by Peter Capaldi

Penguin Books UK