Here you'll find a selection of hand-picked audiobooks for your listening pleasure.
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AUTHOR: Edith Hamilton
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Published in 1942, Mythology is a remarkably comprehensive work on the stories of ancient Greece and Rome. Containing over one hundred forty myths and lectures, Hamilton outlines the tales of gods and goddesses, heroes and kings, and everything else that makes these civilizations interesting and engaging. For anyone looking to understand more about ancient Greek, Roman, and Norse mythologies, or who simply wants a way to kill time by becoming immersed in these classic stories, Mythology is a perfect listen.
AUTHOR: John Steinbeck
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“The Grapes of Wrath” is John Steinbeck’s portrayal of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl and the American West as seen through the eyes of a family of landless farmers, the Joads. The Dust Bowl during the Great Depression was one of the worst disasters in American history. Steinbeck creates a tragedy by showing the tragedy to be nothing short of seemingly endless and unstoppable.
AUTHOR: Clarissa Pinkola Estés
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If it has been too long since you have experienced the unconditional love of a mother, this book is for you. Clarissa Pinkola Estés sheds light on the natural qualities of women that have been diluted by our patriarchal society. She gives hope to women who have never found satisfaction in the roles imposed on them by society. This book is for all women who feel out of place in society.
AUTHOR: Rick Riordan
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Book 2 in the Percy Jackson series, this novel picks up after The Sea of Monsters with Annabeth kidnapped and Percy all alone in the labyrinth. The Fates tell Percy he will never reach Annabeth in time if he travels by ground, but a celestial sign shows a path straight down to his rescue. The journey, of course, is not an easy one.
AUTHOR: Paramahansa Yogananda
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Paramahansa Yogananda, the founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, wrote Autobiography of a Yogi as a way to describe his experience as a yogi in the early 20th century. The book not only teaches about yogic practice but also offers insight into Eastern philosophy and society at that time.
AUTHOR: John Boyne
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In the striped pajamas, Bruno is a young German boy who eventually arrives at a concentration camp. He meets Shmuel, a Jew that lives in the camp and has been imprisoned there since he was a child. They start a journey with each other to escape, which leads them up to a fence, where they are stopped by a soldier.
AUTHOR: Scott O’Dell
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The Island of the Blue Dolphins is a 1960 young adult novel set in 17th century California. It was written by American author Scott O’Dell. Karana is the only member of the Native American tribe living on an uninhabited island off the coast of Southern California. She shares her time on the island with the Island of the Blue Dolphins, the sea, the sky, and her friends—the seals.
AUTHOR: Spencer Johnson
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Every day, your brain tells you what to do. It tells you where to go, what to say, and what to eat. The only thing it doesn’t tell you is how you can change your story. The time will come, however, when your old patterns will no longer work and you’ll need new patterns for the new realities. “Who Moved My Cheese? ” by Spencer Johnson is an interesting, easy-to-listen book that has a reflective narrative while giving a new perspective on the little things.
AUTHOR: Ernest Hemingway
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Much like the novel “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway, Hemingway’s 1926 book, The Sun Also Rises, chronicles the effects of World War I on civilians and how it has permanently changed their lives. After World War I, the author’s character Jake Barnes had escaped to Paris with some friends to avoid the immediate post-war atmosphere of depression, emptiness, and despair. The result of this escape was a novel that perfectly captured post-war life for its characters.
AUTHOR: Jeanne DuPrau
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The City of Ember is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where the city-dwellers depend on light bulbs for energy and go without natural light. Children are raised in simulated “worlds” where they are sheltered from the world before the Great Disruption. The perfect system of the society in the city takes on preeminence over actual needs. The book follows Lina and Doon as they try to learn about life outside the dying city.
AUTHOR: James McBride
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James McBride’s “The Color of Water” is a compelling true story about growing up in a dysfunctional family. A lower-middle-class black family from Brooklyn, McBride tells the story of his life starting with his mother’s transformation from a Southern sharecropper to a proud African American woman in America.
AUTHOR: Gregory Boyle
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Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle is a compilation of narratives of people he has met in his life. He has found out they are deeper than their tattooed skin, and instead of judging them by what they look like, he listens to how they live. He also discusses the need for hope in the society that’s riddled with drugs, gangs, violence, and poverty.