Top 50: Audiobooks

Lonergan

Year 12-13

audiobooks

World Book and Copyright Day

In english

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

Get the CD: http://www.hayhouse.co.uk/cds/1781803315/lucid-dreaming-conscious-sleeping

Enjoy the first track from lucid dreaming expert Charlie Morley's first CD for Hay House. 'Lucid Living' combines engineered ambience designed to get your brain into a relaxed state and words of wisdom and elucidation from Charlie. Enjoy!

Charlie Morley - Lucid Living (taken from Lucid Dreaming Conscious Sleeping)

Tennessee Williams, one of America’s most beloved playwrights, reads from his own work in an extraordinary and historic recording from the very earliest of the Caedmon archive.

This CD opens with the playwright reading the wistful opening monologue and the tragic ending of his Pulitzer Prize winning memory play, The Glass Menagerie. In addition, Williams reads a collection of his light and charming poetry that skillfully displays his range and skill. And Williams ends with his uproariously wicked short story, The Yellow Bird.

ESSENTIAL TENNESSEE WILLIAMS Performed by The Author

Solo piano original composition, Ridgeway Addison
June 2003, Washington, DC USA.

Min[d]ing Transcendence (original)

Spend some time with the inspirational and insightful George Mumford. For years George has been the secret weapon on Phil Jackson's championship teams. Working with Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaq and other greats.  This is a standalone meditation.
http://www.betterlisten.com/collections/george-mumford/products/mindful-athlete-audio-companion-with-george-mumford

The Mindful Athlete with George Mumford - 10 minute guided meditation

A download of guided meditations aimed to complement the learnings found in Prof Mark William's and Dr Danny Penman's guide to freeing yourself from the stresses of everyday life. Containing all the meditations that are mentioned in the book this is an invaluable resource to cement their teachings on how to find Mindfulness, and how to keep it.

Mindfulness - Finding Peace In A Frantic World - Guided Meditations

Meditation Two: The Body Scan

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)

Mindfulness: Meditation 1 - Mindfulness Of Body And Breath

“Want a happier, more contented life? I highly recommend the down-to-earth methods you’ll find in Mindfulness. Professor Mark Williams and Dr Danny Penman have teamed up to give us scientifically grounded techniques we can apply in the midst of our everyday challenges and catastrophes.” Daniel Goleman, bestselling author of Emotional Intelligence

Life can be relentless, frantic and exhausting - but it doesn’t have to be this way.

This is an introduction to Mindfulness, which reveals a set of simple yet powerful practices that you can incorporate into daily life to help break the cycle of anxiety, stress, unhappiness and exhaustion. Mindfulness is based on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), which is recommended by the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and is as effective as drugs for preventing depression. But, more importantly, it also works for the rest of us who aren’t depressed but are struggling to keep up with the constant demands of the modern world.

By investing just a few minutes each day, you can learn the simple mindfulness meditations at the heart of MBCT. This audio edition is an introduction to the technique which will give you the tools to put you back in control and able to enjoy life again.

Mindfulness: Meditation 2 - The Body Scan

Dr. Richard Sherlock: Lonergan's Argument for God

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Narrated by Claire Danes on Audible: 
http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B008NB9GIU&source_code=SCLGB9004WS040313


Get this audiobook Free when you try Audible: 
http://www.audible.com/offers/30free?asin=B008NB9GIU&source_code=SCLGB9004WS040313

Summary:

Audie Award Nominee, Fiction, 2013

Margaret Atwood's popular dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale explores a broad range of issues relating to power, gender and religious politics. Multiple Golden Globe award-winner Claire Danes (Romeo and Juliet, The Hours) gives a stirring performance of this classic in speculative fiction, one of the most powerful and widely read novels of our time.

After a staged terrorist attack kills the President and most of Congress, the government is deposed and taken over by the oppressive and all controlling Republic of Gilead. Offred, now a Handmaid serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife, can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Despite the danger, Offred learns to navigate the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules in hopes of ending this oppression.

The Handmaid's Tale is part of Audible’s A-List Collection, featuring the world’s most celebrated actors narrating distinguished works of literature that each star had a hand in selecting. For more great books performed by Hollywood’s finest, click here. 

What the Critics Say:

“Claire Danes sparkles in this performance…Danes’s Offred is complex, and her flashes of intense strength highlight her vulnerability. This is a consuming listen, thanks to Danes’s emotional subtleties.” (AudioFile)

Go Behind the Scenes on YouTube: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmdfdx3IKN0&feature=share&list=UURqjvP8KCzc5ayy0W2Gu8QA

Buy on Audible

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Narrated by Claire Danes

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.

The Testaments - Margaret Atwood, read by Ann Dowd

Penguin Books UK