Showing results by narrator "Susan Iannucci" in All Categories

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) was fascinated with imagined realities, alien worlds that intersect with human life, and the human condition developing throughout generations. With his keen observation of human behavior, Wells imagines worlds vastly different than the one in which he was writing.

Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost are two of Gene Stratton Porter's most famous novels. Set primarily in the Limberlost Swamp of Indiana, USA, Freckles follows the story of Freckles, a lame orphan whose innate character rises above his circumstances. A Girl of the Limberlost is the story of Elnora, blamed for her father's death by her mother, who nevertheless meets every challenge that comes her way with admirable resilience.

Freckles is the only name he has ever known. His right hand is missing at the wrist, and he is haunted by not knowing how it happened. Raised since infancy in a Chicago orphanage, he speaks with a slight Irish accent and sings with a beautiful voice. Now, exhausted after many days of walking, he applies for a job with the Grand Rapids Lumber Company, guarding timber in the Limberlost Swamp from timber thieves. His Swamp Angel declares her love for him and promises that she will find his parents and prove that Freckles comes from "a race of men that have been gentlemen for ages."

Queen Marguerite de Navarre was one of the most powerful women of her age. Her masterpiece, The Heptameron, is a collection of some 72 stories told by five gentlemen and five ladies who find themselves stranded in an abbey. Proposed as an edifying way of passing the time while a bridge is being repaired, the tale-telling - as well as the conversations that follow each story - quickly becomes a battle of wits between the sexes, with tales concerning illicit lovers, romantic conquests, lecherous monks, manly honor, and women's virtue.

First published in 1909, A Girl of the Limberlost is a novel by American writer and naturalist Gene Stratton-Porter. This classic of Indiana literature is a sequel to Stratton-Porter's earlier novel Freckles. Wholesome, sensible, and beautiful, the heroine, Elnora, is also compassionate, self-reliant, and intelligent. Neglected by her mother, Elnora reaches through this hardship toward education, friendship, and love. There are no shortcuts and her hard work brings joy to herself and all those she loves.

Anne and Gilbert begin their life together in Anne's House of Dreams, a continuation of the story that began with Anne of Green Gables. First published in 1917, the L. M. Montgomery series continues with Anne as a new bride making new friends wherever she finds them. They settle on the seashore at Four Winds Point, an area near the village of Glen St. Mary on Prince Edward Island, Canada. She is befriended by the capable Miss Cornelia Bryant, kindly old sea Captain Jim, and the beautiful, mysterious figure of Mrs. Dick Moore.

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) is a science-fiction drama that was first presented in Czech in 1921. It introduced the term "robot", which is derived from a Czech word meaning "worker," to international vocabulary. The action opens in a factory that has successfully produced thousands of robots, who are essentially mindless drones. An idealistic humanitarian activist launches a plan to imbue some of the robots with human traits. The robots which have been humanized then assume leadership over the other robots and seek to organize them in a revolution to take over the world.

A Woman of No Importance takes place in a 24-hour period during a house party hosted by Lady Hunstanton at her country estate. The upper echelons of English society mix, mingle and flirt, including Lady Caroline Pontefract (who is on her fourth husband), the witty and ironic Mrs. Allonby and the dandyish Lord Illingworth. Wilde balances these worldly characters with a visiting young American woman, Hester Worsley.

Anne of the Island was published in 1915 covering her from the ages of 18 to 22. This is the third story of Anne Shirley where she earns her BA at Redmond College. In this book, she enjoys new and old friends at Redmond, living together at Patty's Place chaperoned by Aunt Jamesina. Gilbert proposes to Anne and she rejects him - but you must listen to the story to know the rest!

First published in 1881, the subtitle of this book tells us that it was written “for children and those who love children”. Heidi, a 5-year-old orphan, is handed off by her young Aunt Dete to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. Though her new life is foreign, Heidi soon falls in love with her grandfather, and he with her. They share a contented life of goat-herding. But when Grandfather refuses to allow Heidi to attend school in the small village below, quarrels ensue.

Following Anne of Green Gables (1908), this book was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery in 1909. From the age of 16 to 18, Anne is about to start her first term teaching at the Avonlea school. The book soon introduces Anne's new and problematic neighbor, Mr. Harrison, and his foul-mouthed parrot, as well as the twins, Davy and Dora. Other characters introduced are some of Anne's new pupils and Miss Lavendar Lewis, a sweet but lonely lady.

Down and out John Stratton, recently robbed by two elderly gentlemen on the train to Adelaide, has one shilling left for his next meal. He is loitering near the post office when a large, sleek car pulls up with a beautiful girl and older man. The man goes into the post office, returns, and departs. There is a wallet in the street right where the man entered the car and John realizes the man dropped it. Looking down the street he can see that traffic is stopped and, if he runs, he can catch the car and return the wallet. With this one good deed, the trajectory of his life is changed.

In the not-too-distant future, 2185 AD, anti-gerisone is the new drug that stops ageing. People are now living into their hundreds until it's time to take their own big trip up yonder, and in the case of the Ford family and Gramps, the notable patriarch, families are living and fighting together in one home for much longer. Eventually there are no prisons, slums, asylums, poverty, wars, or disease. and 200 years later the population of the US is set at 40 million people. But since no one gets any older, someone must volunteer to die if a baby is born.

Ana Popesque arrives at Miss Ellwood's boarding house in Pine Glen to find she's boarding with a couple of very chatty housemates. The constant laughter and gossip make it difficult to focus on her violin practice for her upcoming Christmas Symphony. It's not until the other girls leave for Christmas break that Ana is left with the peace quiet of Pine Cottage. But in that silence, she hears beautiful violin music coming from the boarder downstairs.

Anna Katharine Green (1846 - 1935) was one of the crime novelists and paved the way for later female writers of detective novels, like Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Ngaio Marsh.

Newly married Mrs. Jeffrey is found in the library of the old family mansion dead with a pistol tied to her wrist, and everyone is suspect. The library in the family mansion has a reputation for harboring dead men, and no one knows how or why this is so. First published in 1903, Green delivers a well-written mystery again. Who is innocent and who is not?

The Boor (sometimes translated as The Bear) is an atypical romantic comedy by Anton Chekhov. A surly landowner visits a widow who is one of his debtors - with unexpected results.

A baker‘s dozen of futuristic and space travel tales await you in this audiobook of short stories, originally published in the science fiction magazine, IF (1960-61). These stories are both a sign of their times and a testament to the imaginative powers of writers in the era between Sputnik and Neil Armstrong’s steps on the moon. Death and Taxes are inevitable, of course, but you’ll also find a (Mind)snake, and maybe even a Garden of Eden within.

A Christmas story to warm the heart. Sgt. Evans recounts his most infamous case about a stolen Christmas tree.

Ellwood Manor, Rose Glen, West Virginia, 1864: Young Lady Adaline's days fluctuate between tea parties in the rose garden at Ellwood Manor, and attending to wounded Union soldiers injured in the Civil War. When the town's hospital, plantation homes, and government buildings, overflow as makeshift hospitals, Adaline's mother, Lady Ellwood, offers Ellwood Manor as a convalescent home to recovering soldiers.