Audio Books
Showing 601–650 of 2033 results
Coffee Break Collection 023 – Mysteries, Riddles and Conundrums
This is the twenty-third Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration — perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is Mysteries, Riddles and Conundrums. Short mystery fiction, puzzles that have baffled generations, whether solved or unsolved and anything our forefathers have struggled to explain. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays…who knows what you will discover?
Coffee Break Collection 024 – Ghosts, Ghouls and Spooky Things
This is the twenty-fourth Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration — perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is Ghosts, Ghouls and Spooky Things in honor of Halloween. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, prose, essays… all chill and perplex.
Coffee Break Collection 025 – Water
This is the twenty-fifth Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select English language public domain works of about 15 minutes or less in duration — perfect to listen to during commutes, workouts or coffee breaks. The topic for this collection is water, a subject that has attracted Archimedes, Shelley and Masefield, to name but a few.
Coffee Break Collection 027 – Sports
This is the 27th Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select and read poems, fiction and non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes’ duration or less. In honor of the Super Bowl, the subject for this collection is “Sports”.
Coffee Break Collection 028 – Hobbies
This is the 28th Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select and read stories or poems, fiction or non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes’ duration or less, suitable for short commutes and coffee breaks. The subject for this collection is “HOBBIES”… and the collection is full after 20 pieces have been submitted.
Coffee Break Collection 029 – Dogs
This is the 29th Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select and read stories or poems, fiction or non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes’ duration or less, suitable for short commutes and coffee breaks. The subject for this collection is “DOGS”… and the collection is full after 20 pieces have been submitted. – Summary by ~ Michele Fry
Coffee Break Collection 032 – Wilderness
This is the 32nd Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select and read stories or poems, fiction or non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes’ duration or less, suitable for short commutes and coffee breaks. The subject for this collection is WILDERNESS. The collection is full after 20 pieces have been submitted.
Coffee Break Collection 033 – Gardening
This is the 33rd Coffee Break Collection, in which Librivox readers select and read Public Domain stories or poems, fiction or non-fiction pieces of fifteen minutes’ duration or less, suitable for short commutes and coffee breaks. The subject for this collection is “GARDENING”.
Collection: Tales of the Cities
This is a collection of city stories, fiction or non-fiction, in English and published before 1923. Contributions have been chosen by the readers themselves. Summary by BellonaTimes.
Confessions (Outler translation)
Confessions (Latin: Confessiones) is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, written between AD 397 and AD 398. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of St. Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions. (Summary by Wikipedia)
Confessions of a Book-Lover
“I am of the company of book men who read simply for the love of it,” confesses E. Walter Walters, in this gently written tome. Walters documents his habit of “book fishing–” seeking and finding quality volumes in the discount binds at his booksellers, and as a connoisseur of wine might match varieties with courses, he matches his books with the contexts in which he reads them–in the garden, in the bedroom, with friends. He also provides a list of his favorite authors (mostly 19th century United Kingdom) and favorite books, as well as favorite characters from the books he has read, not in a way to impose his choices on other readers, but to share his own personal experiences. (summary by Dr. P. Gould)
Confessions of a Convert
Robert Hugh Benson was the youngest son of Edward White Benson, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his wife Mary. Benson was was a prolific and popular writer during his time, and in 1903 he became a prominent convert to the Roman Catholic Church from Anglicanism . In 1904 he was ordained a Catholic priest. This book is his personal story of his journey to the Catholic faith, containing comparisons between Catholicism and the Anglican religion. (Summary by Maria Therese)
Confessions, volumes 3 and 4
?The smallest, the most trifling pleasure that is conveniently within my reach, tempts me more than all the joys of paradise.? Here again is the youthful, hero-worshiping Jean-Jacques ? displaying an emotional immaturity that leads him into picaresque escapades in the company of transients and misfits, always ending in reunion with mother-surrogate Madame de Warens. In a literally unprecedented gesture of self-revelation, Rousseau opens Volume 3 exposing himself indecently in dark alleyways. This 1903 edition fails to appreciate the humorous strangeness of the passage and removes it to protect the reader. (Summary by Martin Geeson)
Confessions, volumes 5 and 6
“She was more to me than a sister, a mother, a friend, or even than a mistress, and for this very reason she was not a mistress; in a word, I loved her too much to desire her…” More of the amours of the twentysomething Jean-Jacques: here initiated into a strangely compromised manhood by his “maman” and perennial comforter – “Was I happy? No: I felt I know-not-what invincible sadness which empoisoned my happiness, it seemed that I had committed an incest, and two or three times, pressing her eagerly in my arms, I deluged her bosom with my tears. On her part, as she had never sought pleasure, she had not the stings of remorse…” (Introduction by Martin Geeson)
Confidence
This light and somewhat awkward comedy centers on artist Bernard Longueville, scientist Gordon Wright, and the sometimes inscrutable heroine, Angela Vivian. The plot rambles through various romantic entanglements before reaching an uncomplicated, but still believable happy ending. (wikipedia)
Confucian Analects
The Analects, or Lunyu (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin: L?n Y?; literally “Classified/Ordered Sayings”), also known as the Analects of Confucius, are considered a record of the words and acts of the central Chinese thinker and philosopher Confucius and his disciples, as well as the discussions they held. Written during the Spring and Autumn Period through the Warring States Period (ca. 475 BC – 221 BC), the Analects is the representative work of Confucianism and continues to have a substantial influence on Chinese and East Asian thought and values today. James Legge (Chinese: ???; December 20, 1815 ? November 29, 1897) was a noted Scottish sinologist, a Scottish Congregationalist, representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong (1840?1873), and first professor of Chinese at Oxford University (1876?1897). In association with Max M?ller he prepared the monumental Sacred Books of the East series, published in 50 volumes between 1879 and 1891. (Summary by Wikipedia)
Coningsby, or The New Generation
Coningsby is the first of trilogy of political novels that Disraeli published in the 1840s, and gives an insight into his views of the political turmoil following the passage of the Great Reform Bill by the Whigs in 1832 (a second Reform Bill was passed in 1867 under Disraeli?s Tory leadership as prime minister). While Coningsby looks primarily at political questions, its successor — Sybil, or the Two Nations — was concerned with the ?condition of England? question and the growing social and economic imbalance between rich and poor that in tje writer’s view was hastened (though not begun) by the industrial revolution. Granted that Disraeli was not Dickens or Trollope or Eliot or one of the other giants of British letters in the nineteenth century, it?s a bit unfair to suggest (as some have) that the plots are thin and only there to provide the writer with a podium for setting forth his political and social views. It?s true that Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl, but much else happens as well, particularly thanks to the role played by the mysterious figure of the Jewish Sidonia, who in addition to enormous wealth and widespread international connections embodies a kind of wisdom that transcends the mere knowledge acquired by even the best educated Englishmen. Coningsby, himself a product of both Eton and Cambridge, is fortunate enough to be taken under his wing, and intelligent enough to accept his guidance. (Nicholas Clifford)
Coniston Tales
A selection of poems and short prose pieces grounded in the landscape, history and legends of Coniston in the English Lake District. W. G. Collingwood gave up a promising academic career as a young Oxford graduate to become John Ruskin’s personal secretary, living at first in his home, Brantwood, at Coniston. In the spirit of self-sufficiency that typified their community, Collingwood first published these pieces in ‘Nothing Much’, a faimily magazine edited by his young children and circulated to friends by private subscription. – Summary by Phil Benson
Conjuror’s House, a Romance of the Free Forest
In the northern outreaches of the Canadian wilderness, it was understood that the Hudson Bay Company governed all trading, and one factor named Galen Albret took his position seriously. Free traders, or those who dared try to do their trading outside of the Company, found themselves having to face Galen Albret and his methods of dealing with them. One or two offenses he might tolerate, but for those who repeatedly refuse to acknowledge his warning out, he would send them on ?La Longue Traverse? through the wilderness without supplies, and from which they seldom returned. Ned Trent was one such free trader who defied both the Company and Galen Albret. The defining difference between Ned and the other free traders however, was his youth, energy, and good looks, which the Factor?s daughter did not fail to recognize. What follows the initial confrontations between Ned, Galen Albret, and his daughter Virginia makes for a thrilling tale of adventure, daring, survival, and romance. Conjuror?s House was twice made into silent films titled ?The Call of the North?, the first being Cecil B. DeMille?s first film in which he received solo directorial credit, and the second starring Noah Beery and Jack Holt (whose face was the basis for the face of Dick Tracy). (Summary by Roger Melin)
Conquest Over Time
Pat Travis, a spacer renowned for his luck, is suddenly quite out of it. His job is to beat his competitors to sign newly-Contacted human races to commercial contracts… But what can he do when he finds he’s on a planet that consults astrology for literally every major decision – and he has arrived on one of the worst-aspected days in history? Michael Shaara, later to write the Pulitzer-winning novel “The Killer Angels”, wrote this story for Fantastic Universe in 1956. (Summary by Mark F. Smith)
Consequences
Set in late Victorian England, ?Consequences? follows the life of Alexandra Clare, a girl born into an upper class Catholic London family. Raised from birth for the privileged life of a wife and mother, Alexandra never quite fits in with her or her family?s expectations and fails at seemingly everything she tries ? school, the marriage market, family life.
Consider the Lilies of the Field
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Consider the Lilies of the Field by Christina Rossetti. This was the Weekly Poetry project for August 1, 2021. —— Rossetti began writing down and dating her poems from 1842, most of which imitated her favored poets. In 1847 she began experimenting with verse forms such as sonnets, hymns and ballads while drawing narratives from the Bible, folk tales, and the lives of saints. (Summary by Wikipedia)
Considerations on Representative Government
Mill’s volume was published in 1861 as an argument favoring this form of governance. Mill covers what forms of government work best, including when representative government is applicable and when not. He details appropriate functions of representative bodies and warns of problems to avoid. He distinguishes between true and false democracy. Other areas covered include how voting is carried out, the role of a second chamber in Parliament, and how an executive branch might function. (Summary by Bill Boerst)
Consolation
This Weekly Poem is taken from The Queens’ Garden – Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and others. – Summary by David Lawrence
Constance Dunlap
Constance Dunlap is a young woman who in Chapter 1 turns amateur criminal in order to to save her husband from disgrace and imminent arrest. When this sadly doesn’t work out exactly as planned, Constance goes on to embrace a new life. More antiheroine than heroine, she uses her wits and new found talents to aid others in avoiding retribution for their crimes always one step ahead of the detective pursuing her. Summary by J. M. Smallheer
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (Books 1 to 3)
The Apostolic Constitutions are made up of eight treatises on Early Christian discipline, worship, and doctrine, which was intended to act as a manual of guidance for the clergy, and laity. It claims to be composed by the Twelve Apostles who received these instructions from Jesus Christ, although most scholars believe it to be a 4th-century work. The structure of the work is as follows: Books 1 to 6 are a re-writing of the Didascalia Apostolorum. Book 7 is based largely on the Didache, with Chapters 33-45 containing prayers similar to existing Jewish ones. Book 8 has a treatise on charismata, along with, what are known as, the Canons of the Apostles. (Summarized from Wikipedia)
Constructive Beekeeping
The author explores the effects of condensation and evaporation as they relate to the success of a beehive. The results of various experiments and the author’s thoughts are given. (Summary by SoMDbeekeeper)
Constructive Conscious Control of the Individual
F. Matthias Alexander was an Australian actor, author and educator, who is best known as the inventor of Alexander Technique, a method for “unlearning” acquired habits of movement and posture that are harmful or suboptimal, and allowing natural, healthy patterns of body use to emerge in their place. Alexander Technique is now taught by specially trained instructors through in-person lessons around the world, and is particularly popular among musicians and other performance artists. In this 1923 book, considered by many to be his best, Alexander explains the principles of his technique and the theory behind it. It includes an introduction by the American philosopher and educator John Dewey, who studied the technique with Alexander. (Summary by Kazbek)
Consuelo
This roman ? clef follows the musical adventures of Consuelo, a gifted singer under the tutelage of the composer Nicola Porpora. After encountering betrayal in her home city of Venice, she goes to stay with a family of nobles in an isolated castle in Bohemia and teach singing to the baroness who lives there. It is there that she meets Count Albert, a troubled young man who experiences regressions to past lives. He is strangely drawn to her, but she, though moved with pity for him, is unsure what to think of him. She then sets out for Vienna to meet with Porpora again and on the way befriends a young Joseph Haydn. The two do their best to skirt intrigue and peril during their journey while Consuelo engages in soul-searching to determine who Count Albert is to her. (Summary by Scarbo)
Contagion
Minos was such a lovely planet. Not a thing seemed wrong with it. Excepting the food, perhaps. And a disease that wasn’t really. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, October, 1950. Katherine Anne MacLean (born January 22, 1925) is an American science fiction author best known for her short fiction of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society. – Summary by Wikipedia, story heading, and david wales
Contending Forces
Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins, despite an impressive record of productivity and creativity as a novelist, playwright, short fiction writer, editor, actress, and singer, is an African-American woman writer who has essentially been consigned to the dustbins of American literary history. Though contemporary with Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Charles W. Chesnutt, and Paul Laurence Dunbar, Hopkins is only now beginning to receive the kind of critical attention that Harper has enjoyed for a slightly longer period and that Chesnutt and Dunbar have always had. Hopkins had work published in several genres, but her reputation today rests primarily upon Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, the novel she published in 1900. (Introduction by Margaret)
Contentment
Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children’s poetry and humorous essays.
Contra Gentes
Contra Gentes is the first of a two volume work published by Athanasius of Alexandria prior to the outbreak of the Arian controversy (ca. 319). It focuses especially on pagan beliefs and worship concluding with a defense of the Christian view of God and creation — especially creation by the eternal Word. In this way, the ground is prepared for the second volume of his work, now published separately under the title De Incarnatione Verbi. (Summary by Jonathan Lange)
Contrasted Songs
This is a volume of collected poetry by American poet Marian Longfellow. The poems lack a uniform theme, but, as the author puts it, “Among these “Contrasted Songs” I trust that the reader will find something to which the heart may respond.” – Summary by Carolin
Contrasts
LibriVox volunteers bring you 21 recordings of Contrasts by Madison Julius Cawein. This was the Weekly Poetry project for May 29, 2022. —— Madison Julius Cawein was a poet from Louisville, Kentucky. His poetry allied his love of nature with a devotion to earlier English and European literature, mythology, and classical allusion. This Weekly Poem is taken from The Poems of Madison Cawein, Volume 2 (of 5) by Madison Julius Cawein (1907) – Summary by Wikipedia
Convention
LibriVox volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Convention by Agnes Lee. This was the weekly poetry project for December 21st, 2008.
Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds
This book is a popular science book written in the late 1600s. It is written as a series of conversations between a gallant philosopher and a countess, while walking in her garden and gazing at the stars. The philosopher explains the heliocentric (sun as the centre) model of the solar system and also muses on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. While it explains the heliocentric model, unlike other astronomy works of the time, it did not attract the attention of the Church. (Summary by TriciaG, modified from Wikipedia)
Conversion
Among the twelve hundred poems which have emanated from my too prolific pen there are some forty or fifty which treat entirely of that emotion which has been denominated “the grand passion”?love. A few of those are of an extremely fiery character. (from the Preface to Love and Passion by the authoress)
Cookie ‘n’ Cracker Cookin’
This is a short recipe book published by the United Biscuit Company of America, later to become the Keebler Company. Each recipe features one or more of their products the best known of which are Club Crackers, Town House Crackers, Honey Grahams, and Saltine Crackers. Categories range from appetizers through desserts. – Summary by Larry Wilson
Coppertop
The story is about a little girl who meets all manner of strange gnomes, fairies and creatures after she goes to sleep at night. She also has two invisible brothers whom she created so as to not be alone while her parents travel for the Crown. The author here produces an alternative version of fairyland to the more traditional European form, that is bizarre, entertaining and funny at the same time. – Summary by phil chenevert and Wikipedia
Coptic Homilies in the Dialect of Upper Egypt
The present work contains the Coptic versions of ten Greek Homilies on fasting, repentance, the end of the world, the Incarnation, etc., which are attributed to John the Faster, Athanasius of Alexandria, Proclus of Cyzicus, Eusebius and Basil of Caesarea, and Archbishop Theophilus. The texts, written in the dialect of Upper Egypt. Linguistically the texts are of great importance, and they form a mass of material which is of the highest value to Egyptologists generally. From the theological point of view they are no less interesting, for they illustrate Egyptian Theology in its Christian form, and reveal the opinions which were current among the dwellers in monasteries on the essentials of faith and works. (Summary from the preface)
Coriolanus
Shakespeare was passionately interested in the history of Rome, as is evident from plays like Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra. His tragedy Coriolanus was probably written around 1605-07, and dramatizes the rise and fall of a great Roman general, Caius Martius (later surnamed Coriolanus because of his military victory at Corioli). This play is unusual in that it provides a strong voice for the ordinary citizens of Rome, who begin the play rioting about the high price of food, and who continually clash with Coriolanus because of his contempt for plebians. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett) Cast Caius Martius Coriolanus: thebicyclethief Citizen: Patti Cunningham First Citizen/Second Officer/Second Patrician: Chuck Williamson Cominius: Bob Gonzalez Fifth Citizen: Availle First Conspirator/First Officer/Lieutenant/Second Senator/Second Servingman: Todd First Lord/Sixth Citizen: Tricia G First Senator: DublinGothic First Servingman: Leonard Wilson First Soldier/Herald: John Fricker Gentlewoman/Second Soldier/Third Lord/Young Coriolanus: Martin Geeson Junius Brutus: Ron Altman Menenius Agrippa: Algy Pug Roman/Second Conspirator/Seventh Citizen: Kristingj Second Citizen: Peter Makus Second Lord: Chuck Donovan Sicinius Velutus: Ric F Third Citizen: Joshua Letchford Third Conspirator: Heather Phillips Third Roman: Lucy Perry Titus Lartius/Aedile: Delmar H. Dolbier Tullus Aufidius: Arielle Lipshaw Valeria: Tiffany Halla Colonna Virgilia: Amy L. Gramour Volsce: Max Korlinge Volumnia: Elizabeth Klett Narrator: Diana Majlinger Other roles (crowd voices, etc) read by members of the company. Audio edited by Elizabeth Klett
Cornelli
Cornelli lives in Iller-Stream with her widowed father, who calls on two Ladies of Culture to come spend time with Cornelli during one of his business trips, hoping that their influence will refine and improve his daughter. Instead, the ladies prove to have no real love for Cornelli, and she, being a sensitive soul, turns inward and becomes sullen and uncooperative. A boy who comes on a visit to Iller-Stream for his health befriends her, and this begins a chain of events that turn Cornelli’s life right-side up again. (Summary by Jael Baldwin)
Cornhuskers
Carl Sandburg’s collection of 103 poems that earned a Pulitzer Prize Special Letters Award in 1919.
Corporal Cameron of the North West Mounted Police – A Tale of the Macleod Trail
Cameron, a young man from Edinburgh, is a university student who is a rising star on the football team. When the big day comes and he nearly fails his team, he doubts he’ll ever be good for anything ever again. Things soon take a turn downward and Cameron is forced to face the fact that his only option may be leaving all he’s ever known and going to Canada for a new start. Summary by Adele de Pignerolles
Cosmic Castaway
“Within a year Earth would be a vassal world, with the Sirian invaders triumphant. Only Standish, Earth’s Defense Engineer, could halt that last victorious onslaught?and he was helpless, the lone survivor of a prison ship wrecked in uncharted space.” – Summary by publishers blurb
Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Description of The Universe: Introduction
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and influential proponent of romantic philosophy. Many consider him to be the last of the great polymaths. After his death in 1859, the scientific world began to divide into separate disciplines, each with its own knowledgeable but narrowly defined experts. Humboldt?s mind encompassed all that was then known of nature in one great whole. He could well be considered the father of modern ecology and earth studies. His great scientific and literary achievement was the multi-volume Cosmos, twenty years in the writing, in which he attempted to describe the known physical world. Humboldt?s lyrical style of writing influenced the subsequent genre of nature writing as well as many of the towering figures of the Romantic movement. This LibriVox recording is of the Introduction to Cosmos. The Introduction gives a good measure of breadth of Humboldt?s mind and is a pleasure to read or hear because of its literary felicity. This reading omits the copious footnotes in favor of maintaining the flow of thought of the body of the text. Also included are the translator?s preface which contains a short biography of Humboldt as well as the author?s own preface. – Summary by Wikipedia and david wales
Cossack Fairy Tales
This is a volume of fairy tales and folk tales from the Cossack people, compiled and translated by Robert Nisbet Bain. The tales are special as most children will not have heard them a hundred times before, and as they take listeners into a different region of the realm of the fairy tale. The Cossacks are a group of people living mostly in what is now Ukraine and Russia. The fairy and folk tales contained in this volume allow a glimpse into both the cultural traditions of the Cossack people, as well as into how this culture was perceived by others. – Summary by Carolin
Cottage Cheese Recipe Book
This short recipe book from the Borden Company has a full range of recipes including Appetizers, Salads, Salad Dressings, Breads, Main Dishes, and Desserts. – Summary by Larry Wilson
Cottage Economy
How can you tell when your pig is fat enough? Why should you never buy mustard? What’s wrong with eating potatoes? Which is better, beer or tea? And what type of straw makes the best bonnets? William Cobbett is the man to ask. Here is his book of practical advice to the rural labouring ‘cottager’ (first published as a part-work in 1821-22), the precursor in many ways to the handbooks on self-sufficiency that today entice so many city-dwellers. A champion of the rural working class at a time of huge social and industrial change, a radical politician and a prolific writer, Cobbett is opinionated, passionate and enlightening, making ‘Cottage Economy’ a fascinating and entertaining window on daily life for the smallholders of his day, and still inspirational, almost 200 years later, to those who seek ‘a good living’ as the foundation of happiness. (Introduction by Philippa) The figures referred to in the section on ice houses can be viewed here