Voices of Today

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/wehdg The Twins of Emu Plains By Mary Grant Bruce Narrated by Lyndal Curran Doolan Twins Jean and Jo Weston are fifteen-year-old country girls who are just finishing their first year at boarding school in Melbourne. They receive bad news from their father: due to drought the farm at Emu Plains is struggling, and next year they will need to stay home and help around the property. They will also be required to tutor their little brother, Billy. But just before they leave for home, Helen Forester, their school captain, makes a suggestion. Her little brother Rex will need looking after during the next year, and Emu Plains might be just the place for him. Helen says that her wealthy parents, who live overseas, would be willing to cover any expenses and Rex could be an ideal chum for Billy. The girls conclude an arrangement with Mrs. Forrester, but without telling their parents. The scene is set for a tumultuous return home and a tremendous battle with the ongoing drought, a common feature of rural life in Australia.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/26n9d One Poet, One Poem Narrated by Evan and Marie Blackmore This collection includes favorite English-language poems by 178 favorite authors, beginning with Sir Philip Sidney and the Countess of Pembroke in Elizabethan times, and ending with T. S. Eliot and Marianne Moore in the twentieth century. Cavaliers and Puritans, a famous king and a pilloried criminal, soulful lovers and sharp-witted satirists, Shakespeare and Jonson, Milton and Marvell, David Garrick and Rabindranath Tagore, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Christina Rossetti—all are here, in one constantly changing kaleidoscope of brilliant verse.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/p7yu0m The Last of the Bushrangers An Account of the Capture of the Kelly Gang By Francis Augustus Hare Narrated by Gregory Dwyer The book is written in the first person, giving a detailed, autobiographical account of Hare’s experiences as a superintendent in the Victorian Mounted Police, particularly during the pursuit and final capture of the Kelly Gang. Hare’s account offers insights into the social and criminal landscape of colonial Victoria, the operations of the police force, and the complexities of pursuing outlaws who were both feared and, by some, romanticized.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/trkcww The Eureka Stockade By Raffaello Carboni Narrated by Gregory Dwyer A firsthand account of the 1854 Eureka Rebellion in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Carboni, an Italian revolutionary and participant in the uprising, wrote the book to document the miners’ struggle against the colonial authorities. The story captures the miners’ frustrations over oppressive mining licenses, police corruption, and lack of representation. It details the events leading up to the violent clash at the Eureka Stockade, where miners built a makeshift fort and confronted government troops. Although the rebellion was crushed, it became a significant symbol of resistance and led to reforms in mining laws and democratic rights. Carboni’s narrative offers a passionate, personal perspective on the fight for justice and equality.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/2nmll A Manual of Buddhism By Dudley Wright Narrated by Oberon Michaels Buddhism has a vast array of scriptures but a relatively small body of essential doctrines. In this short treatise, the author presents a systematic introduction to Buddhist teaching, commencing with a discussion of the Noble Eightfold Path. Other topics include the Buddhist views of God and enlightenment, and the practice of Buddhism in the world of today. Dudley Wright (1868-1949) wrote extensively on a wide variety of religious subjects and was also active as an investigator of the paranormal. He was a practising Freemason, who believed that all religions shared a common basis.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/lcn3y8 The Real Jefferson Davis By Landon Knight Narrated by Ron Altman Jefferson Davis (1808 - 1889) was an American politician who became president of the Confederate States during the Civil War. He took his seat in Congress as the representative for Mississippi in 1847. As a Democrat, Davis was an enthusiastic supporter of the expansion of slavery. In 1861 he resigned from the Senate when the state of Mississippi seceded. During the Civil War Davis acted as chief executive and commander in chief for the Confederacy. After the war, he was captured and charged with treason. He was imprisoned for two years but was released under the terms of a general pardon from President Andrew Johnson before his case had come to court. In later years he supported himself with speaking tours and involvement in various business enterprises. Because of his agressive advocacy for the continuation of slavery, today Davis is not generally viewed favourably. Many of the memorials to him have been removed in recent years. This disapprobation has obscured Davis' undoubted abilities as politician and the extent of his influence as a notable public figure of his time.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Kobo.com: https://n9.cl/3r9bmr The Complete Love Sonnets of Michael Drayton by Michael Drayton Narrated by Evan Blackmore As he himself said, Drayton’s sonnets are the most “sportive” of the great Elizabethan love poems, “ever in motion,” by turns “wild, madding, jocund, and irregular,” yet maintaining a universality and sturdy good sense that have spoken to the hearts of hearers and readers for four centuries. This recording includes in full not only his famous final collection, Idea (1619), but also the earlier Idea’s Mirror (1594), as well as the various love sonnets that he wrote on other occasions.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com. https://n9.cl/blkbp On Our Selection By Steele Rudd Narrated by Gregory Dwyer On Our Selection is a collection of humorous short stories by Australian author Steele Rudd. It follows the trials and tribulations of the Rudd family, pioneers carving out a living in the Australian bush. The book humorously depicts the struggles of farming life, the resilience of the settlers, and the quirks of rural Australian society.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/ihyo2 Cynthia Wakeham's Money By Anna Katharine Green Narrated by Bonnie Trost This classic crime novel features the detective Ebenezer Grice, one of Anna Katherine Green's recurring characters.A young lawyer is summoned to draw up the will of an elderly and infirm woman. She directs that all her property be bequeathed to her sister. At the end of the consultation, the woman dies. When the heir goes missing, it is suspected that the woman's death was not due to natural causes. Further investigation reveals that the woman and her sister were trapped in a reclusive lifestyle by a promise exacted by their uncaring and overbearing father. Each woman had a lover whom she wished to marry, but the unions were frustrated by the demands of the father. A major sinister figure is the woman's brother, who stands to gain from the death of the sister.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/38xmp Memory: How to Develop, Train and Use It By William Walker Atkinson Narrated by Denis Daly Although the many works of New Thought author William Walker Atkinson (1862-1932) have generally been classified as self-help texts, their true focus tends to be self-development. This book on memory is not a catalogue of mnemonic techniques but rather a survey of its whole structure and operation. In the first chapter, Atkinson writes: "We see that the cultivation of memory is far more than the cultivation and development of a single mental faculty—it is the cultivation and development of our entire mental being—the development of our selves."

The complete audiobook is available at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/93z5vd Dr Thorndyke Intervenes By R. Austin Freeman Narrated by Graham Scott The great medical jurist Dr John Thorndyke must unravel three intricate cases, as a wealthy American attempts to prove a preposterous claim to an English earldom, based only upon a startlingly tall old family tale; a hundredweight of platinum, worth a fortune, is stolen; and, most bizarrely of all, a severed human head is discovered in a box in the left luggage office of London's Fenchurch Street Station...

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/cvvrl Sea Spray and Smoke Drift By A.L. Gordon Narrated by Gregory Dwyer Sea Spray and Smoke Drift is a collection of poetry. The book showcases Gordon’s deep connection to nature, the sea, and the rugged Australian landscape. His verses explore themes of courage, adventure, and personal struggle, often reflecting his own turbulent life. The poems, characterized by their vivid imagery and rhythmic flow, capturing the spirit of colonial Australia. Notable pieces like “A Song of Autumn” and “The Swimmer” highlight his skill of lyrical storytelling. The collection remains a significant contribution to Australian literature, celebrated for its emotional depth and evocative language.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/64qr4 While the Billy Boils By Henry Lawson Narrated by Gregory Dwyer While the Billy Boils (1896) is a collection of short stories by Australian writer Henry Lawson, portraying life in the Australian outback during the late 19th century. The stories, written with a real touch of dry humor, focus on the struggles of bush workers, swagmen, shearers, and settlers. Lawson captures the themes of rural life, of isolation, resilience, and mateship. It highlights the everyday hardships and quiet heroism of the ordinary Australians. The collection remains a significant work in Australian literature, shaping national identity and bush storytelling traditions.

The complete audiobook can be purchased at Audible .com: https://n9.cl/a2vut The Girls By Edna Ferber Narrated by Martha H. Weller The Girls is the story of three spinsters living in Chicago—an aunt, her niece, and her niece’s niece. The aunt has memories of the Civil War, and all three women have adjusted to the outbreak of the First World War. Generational changes, particularly in regard to romantic attachments, are a central feature of the book, which is also a fascinating portrait of the Chicago lifestyle of the time. The emerging political and social power of women is also a significant feature of the story.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/ijxnp Sea Garden By H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) Read by Nancy Beard Hilda Doolittle was an American poet and novelist who was one of the founders of the Imagist movement, which includes such poetic luminaries as Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington, with both of whom Doolittle had romantic relationships. Sea Garden, a collection of 27 short poems, was published in 1916. The verse is characterized by an economy of expression and frequent allusions to Greek myths.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/yjpgf The Escaped Cock By D. H. Lawrence Narrated by Patrick Barker The Escaped Cock is Lawrence’s take on resurrection, the life-force, and sexuality. The man who has been crucified wakes up in the garden wounded and weakened. Disillusioned with his old companions and inspired by the zest for life of the escaped cock of the title, he decides to live anew. Journeying to the sea, he stumbles on a temple of Isis, where its priestess, who mistakes him for the lost Egyptian god Osiris, introduces him to the pleasures of the flesh. Published in 1929, The Escaped Cock (also published as The Man Who Died) was Lawrence’s last major work of fiction before his untimely death in 1930.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/fue3r The Land By Vita Sackville-West Narrated by Patrick Barker Vita Sackville-West’s book length poem celebrates the landscapes and produce of the Weald of Kent. Divided into four parts—Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn—it paints a vivid picture of the Kentish countryside across the year and the farming practices of the Kentish folk eking out a living on its unpredictable clayey soils. Published in 1926, the poem was a great success, winning the Hawthornden Prize for Literature and going through six print runs in three years.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/p0g1y The Jane Austen Omnibus Narrated by Catherine Bilson, Terah Tucker, Sarah Jane Rose, Graham Scott, Denis Daly and Linda Barrans. Jane Austen commenced writing in her adolescence and continued right up to her untimely death in 1817. Her novels are reflections of the socially constricted world in which she lived, and the plots are built around the search of one or more young women for a suitable spouse. Austen’s works are noted for the perceptive elegance of her prose and for vigor and detail of characterization. Celebrated critic F. R. Leavis considered Austen as one of the four great English novelists, along with George Eliot, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad. This collection contains the following titles: Sense and Sensibility (1811) Pride and Prejudice (1813) Mansfield Park and Lovers’ Vows (1814) Emma (1816) Works published posthumously: Northanger Abbey (1818) Persuasion (1818) Lady Susan (1871) Unfinished works: The Watsons (1871); completed by L. Oulton (1923) Sanditon: Fragment of a Novel (1925)

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/oind6 The Pageants By William Shakespeare Comprising multicast performances of Henry V and Henry VIII Shakespeare’s history plays fall into two categories: political dramas and propagandistic pageants. The second category is comprised of the two plays in this presentation, Henry V and Henry VIII. These two plays have many elements in common. An underlying theme is the necessity and glory of government by sovereign royalty. Each play is presented by a chorus, who defines the action and intent of the drama. Rather than a continuous narrative the action is depicted in a series of tableaux, each of which seeks to illustrate a positive aspect of the monarch’s character. In each play an early part of the action involves the detection of treason and the punishment of the malefactors, presented as examples of the king’s shrewdness and rigorous sense of justice. Henry V, originally titled The Life of Henry the Fifth, tells the story of the king’s successful incursion into France to regain control of the territories claimed by the English crown, and his consolidation of his position by marrying the daughter of the King of France. Despite its references to the horror of military conflict, the mood of the play is generally bright and upbeat, although in the final speech the Chorus warns that much of this glory will be lost under the rule of Henry VI. Henry VIII, first published as The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth, was a joint production by Shakespeare and John Fletcher. It appears to have been written in 1612-1613. During a production of the play at the Globe Theatre in 1613, a cannon was discharged, resulting in a fire which burned the building to the ground. The action of Henry VIII focuses on three major events: The allegation of treason against the Duke of Buckingham, and his subsequent conviction and execution; Henry’s concern over the failure of his wife Katharine of Aragon to produce a male heir, his desire to divorce her and to marry the much younger Anne Bullen (Boleyn); and the birth of Anne’s child, the future Queen Elizabeth I. All references to Anne Bullen’s fall from grace and execution and to Henry’s subsequent marriages are strictly avoided. Henry is presented as a thoughtful and capable sovereign, somewhat overbearing, but genuinely troubled by the thought that his marriage to Katharine may have been canonically improper. Featuring Blaise Doran as Henry V and Josh Innerst as Henry VIII. Audio edited by Denis Daly.

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/ohdqkm The Dunciad In Four Books Edited by George Gilfillan By Alexander Pope Read by Denis Daly Alexander Pope was fiercely critical of writers whom he considered to have little talent and whom he liked to nominate as dunces. His most encyclopedic examination of these apostles of dullness is the Dunciad, a long satirical saga first published in a three book version in 1728. A variorium edition followed shortly afterwards in 1729. In 1742 Pope added a fourth book and a new complete edition was published in 1743. The concept of an excoriation of dullness in mock heroic form appears to have been inspired by John Dryden's MacFlecknoe or, A satyr upon the True-Blue-Protestant Poet, T.S. (1682). Dryden's target was the poet and low-brow playright Thomas Shadwell, who later replaced Dryden as Poet Laureate in 1688. In Pope's view dullness is at war with reason, and he nominates Lewis Theobald and Colley Cibber as the champions of insipidity. In the words of editor George Gilfillan: "The "Dunciad" is in many respects the ablest, the most elaborate, and the most characteristic of Pope's poems. In embalming insignificance and impaling folly he seems to have found, at last, his most congenial work."