Viviane

The History of Classical Music

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 12 mins)
• By Richard Fawkes
• Narrated By Robert Powell

From Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki, the first living classical composer to get into the pop album charts, here is the fascinating story of over a thousand years of Western classical music and the composers who have sought to express in music the deepest of human feelings and emotions.

Also available: The History of Opera.

Bismarck: The Story of a Fighter

• UNABRIDGED (25 hrs and 9 mins)
• By Emil Ludwig, Eden Paul, Cedar Paul
• Narrated By Ken Maxon

Otto von Bismarck was more than a politician and a leader: He was the single driving force that turned the disparate states of Germany into one cohesive empire. He then went on to lead Germany and the rest of Europe into an age of political peace that lasted from 1871 until the outbreak of World War I. Under his influence, Germany thrived. Bismarck’s use of statesmanship to fight for the interests of his country was legendary. As one of the most influential and powerful individuals in his country’s history, Bismarck became a symbol of leadership and pride for German nationalists.

To Prussia with Love: Misadventures in Rural East Germany

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 30 mins)
• By Roger Boyes
• Narrated By Brian Bowles
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In a desperate attempt to save his relationship with girlfriend, Lena, and take a break from the world of journalism, Germany correspondent Roger Boyes agrees to make a great escape from the easy urban lifestyle of Berlin and decamp to the countryside. Roger has hopes for southern Italy, but Lena has inherited a run-down old schloss in deepest, darkest Brandenburg....

The Black Tulip

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 27 mins)
• By Alexandre Dumas
• Narrated By John Bolen

The tulip craze of 17th century Holland has a dark side! Cornelius van Baerle, a wealthy but naive tulip grower, finds himself entangled in the deadly politics of his time, and he must decide where his true love lies.

Stalin Ate My Homework

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 44 mins)
• By Alexei Sayle
• Narrated By Alexei Sayle

Very funny and (almost) stranger than Alexei's fiction....Alexei knew he was doomed to be different the day he was taken to see Sergei Eisentein's Alexander Nevsky instead of Walt Disney's Bambi. Born on the day that egg rationing came to an end, Alexei grew up with his parents and the Soviet Weekly. Each year they holidayed in Eastern Europe, where they were shown round locomotive factories and the sites of Nazi atrocities.

The Search: How Google & Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business & Transformed Our Culture

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 4 mins)
• By John Battelle
• Narrated By John Battelle
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

What does the world want? According to John Battelle, a company that answers that question can unlock the most intractable riddles of both business and culture. And for the past few years, that's exactly what Google has been doing.

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

• UNABRIDGED (26 hrs and 30 mins)
• By Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
• Narrated By Jeff Cummings

J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.

God Is Not Great: The Case Against Religion

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 49 mins)
• By Christopher Hitchens
• Narrated By Christopher Hitchens

With robust clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which Hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix. God Is Not Great marvels at the possibility of society without religion.

Mao: The Unknown Story

• UNABRIDGED (32 hrs and 14 mins)
• By Jung Chang, Jon Halliday
• Narrated By Di Langford

Based on a decade of research, and on interviews with many of Mao's close circle in China who have never talked before - and with virtually everyone outside China who had significant dealings with him - this is the most authoritative life of Mao ever written. It is full of startling revelations, exploding the myth of the Long March, and showing a completely unknown Mao.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

• UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 7 mins)
• By Winifred Watson
• Narrated By Frances McDormand

Miss Pettigrew is a down-on-her-luck, middle-aged governess sent by her employment agency to work for a nightclub singer rather than a household of unruly children. Over a period of 24 hours, as she becomes caught up in the life of Delysia LaFloss, her own life is changed - forever. This charming, funny, light-hearted 1938 novel was a bestseller on its first appearance. Read by Academy Award winning actress Frances McDormand, who stars in the 2008 film as Miss Pettigrew.

Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon’s Army and Other Diabolical Insects

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 4 mins)
• By Amy Stewart
• Narrated By Coleen Marlo
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In this darkly comical look at the sinister side of our relationship with the natural world, Stewart has tracked down over one hundred of our worst entomological foes - creatures that infest, infect, and generally wreak havoc on human affairs. From the world's most painful hornet, to the flies that transmit deadly diseases, to millipedes that stop traffic, to the Japanese beetles munching on your roses, Wicked Bugs delves into the extraordinary powers of many-legged creatures