Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms by George Henschel audiobook.

Genre: biography

In Personal Recollections of Johannes Brahms, George Henschel - celebrated baritone, conductor, and one-time close collaborator of Brahms - offers an intimate portrait of the composer as friend, colleague, and fiercely private artist. Drawn from meetings, rehearsals, dinners, walks, and correspondence, these sketches bring the reader into the everyday world behind the masterpieces: the practical realities of performance, the give-and-take of interpretation, and the mixture of warmth, shyness, blunt humor, and high standards that shaped Brahms' relationships. Henschel writes not as a distant historian but as a participant in a musical circle where a single remark at the piano could illuminate a whole aesthetic, and where a new song, chamber work, or symphonic idea might surface in casual conversation before taking the concert hall by storm. Along the way, he introduces the personalities and social rituals of late-19th-century musical life, revealing how friendships, rivalries, and public expectations pressed on a composer determined to answer only to the music. Part memoir, part character study, this is a vivid doorway into Brahms' creative world and the human voice behind the legend.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:10:04) Chapter 02

(00:41:15) Chapter 03

(01:06:30) Chapter 04

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The True Stories of Celebrated Crimes by George Barton audiobook.

Genre: history

In The True Stories of Celebrated Crimes, George Barton turns away from invented whodunits to present a brisk, international tour of real cases chosen for what they reveal about detection itself. Across fifteen self-contained narratives, Barton invites the listener into the pressure-filled hours after a notorious offense, when scattered clues, unreliable witnesses, and public panic can bury the truth as easily as expose it. Moving from Paris to London to Russia and the United States, the book spotlights the investigators behind the headlines, including the legendary Vidocq, officers of Scotland Yard, and other officials whose reputations were built on patience, observation, and method. Barton's focus is less on sensational gore than on the practical craft of investigation: following paper trails, reading behavior, testing alibis, and turning small physical details into decisive leads. Along the way, he reflects on how different nations police crime and why certain systems produce results, for better or worse. Written with an early-1900s reporter's flair and a detective's respect for process, this collection is both a historical window and a study in how mysteries are solved in the real world.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:03:17) Chapter 01

(00:24:24) Chapter 02

(00:49:15) Chapter 03

(01:11:07) Chapter 04

(01:28:47) Chapter 05

(01:47:16) Chapter 06

(02:05:43) Chapter 07

(02:23:48) Chapter 08

(02:47:42) Chapter 09

(03:07:53) Chapter 10

(03:27:49) Chapter 11

(03:50:01) Chapter 12

(04:07:01) Chapter 13

(04:25:24) Chapter 14

(04:41:50) Chapter 15

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Dr. John Dee - Elizabethan Mystic and Astrologer by G. M. Hort audiobook.

Genre: biography

In Dr. John Dee - Elizabethan Mystic and Astrologer, G. M. Hort offers a compact, atmospheric portrait of one of Tudor England's most controversial minds: John Dee (1527-1608/9), a learned mathematician and astronomer who also pursued astrology, alchemy, and spiritual inquiry. Set against the rivalries, fears, and ambitions of Elizabeth I's court, the narrative follows Dee's rise from brilliant scholar to sought-after adviser, tracing how his passion for hidden knowledge won him both powerful patrons and dangerous suspicion. At Mortlake, Dee builds a formidable library and laboratory, while his interests range from practical navigation and imperial planning to experiments meant to probe the boundary between nature and the unseen. Hort frames Dee as a man pulled between two worlds - rigorous learning and mystical aspiration - and shows how rumor, politics, and religious anxiety can transform intellectual curiosity into an accusation of sorcery. As Dee's quest intensifies, the book explores the personal cost of seeking certainty in an uncertain age, and the uneasy legacy of a figure who helped shape the Elizabethan imagination even as he struggled to protect his name and livelihood.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:17:20) Chapter 02

(00:34:35) Chapter 03

(00:56:24) Chapter 04

(01:08:24) Chapter 05

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The Secret of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton audiobook.

Genre: mystery

In The Secret of Father Brown, G. K. Chesterton introduces an unlikely detective: Father Brown, a quiet Catholic priest whose shabby umbrella and absentminded manner hide a razor-sharp understanding of human nature. Moving through drawing rooms, country houses, crowded streets, and secluded gardens, Father Brown is repeatedly drawn into baffling crimes involving stolen jewels, missing persons, and apparently impossible acts of violence. While official investigators and confident amateurs chase clever theories, the priest listens, watches, and asks deceptively simple questions, guided by years of hearing confessions and studying the small motives that lead ordinary people into extraordinary wrongdoing. Each case becomes a contest between spectacle and truth, as Father Brown strips away disguises, false assumptions, and elegant lies to reveal the plain, unsettling logic beneath. With wit, paradox, and a gentle moral seriousness, Chesterton turns the classic puzzle mystery into something deeper: a series of encounters with pride, temptation, mercy, and the thin line between good intentions and disaster. The result is a collection of mysteries that rewards both the head and the heart.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:20:23) Chapter 02

(01:01:44) Chapter 03

(01:46:36) Chapter 04

(02:30:33) Chapter 05

(03:14:48) Chapter 06

(04:02:29) Chapter 07

(04:33:01) Chapter 08

(05:13:00) Chapter 09

(06:10:50) Chapter 10

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The Cornet of Horse by G. A. Henty audiobook.

Genre: adventure

In January 1702, at Windthorpe Chace near Derby, young Rupert Holliday is being shaped into a gentleman of the old school: hawking, riding, and relentless practice with the sword under his Jacobite grandfather, Colonel Holliday, and a French fencing master, Monsieur Dessin. But the politics of England run as hot as Rupert's temper, and when he intervenes to protect Dessin's daughter, Adele, from a brutal insult, a lightning-quick duel leaves Rupert with no safe place at home. With the law and a powerful local family closing in, Rupert rides for London with only his loyal friend Hugh Parsons at his side, determined to claim a promised commission in the Earl of Marlborough's cavalry.Soon Rupert is swept into the War of the Spanish Succession, where bravery is measured in smoke and steel at sieges and great battles such as Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. As he rises in the ranks, Rupert must learn when boldness is a virtue and when it is a fatal mistake, navigating battlefield chaos, enemy traps, and the dangerous politics of officers and courts. Behind the adventure lies a harder question: what does honor demand when loyalty, love, and survival all pull in different directions?

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:22:09) Chapter 02

(00:41:58) Chapter 03

(01:06:21) Chapter 04

(01:28:10) Chapter 05

(02:00:15) Chapter 06

(02:19:24) Chapter 07

(02:44:54) Chapter 08

(03:08:24) Chapter 09

(03:37:06) Chapter 10

(04:03:07) Chapter 11

(04:22:51) Chapter 12

(04:49:00) Chapter 13

(05:17:55) Chapter 14

(05:39:02) Chapter 15

(05:59:51) Chapter 16

(06:17:50) Chapter 17

(06:44:18) Chapter 18

(07:12:34) Chapter 19

(07:41:11) Chapter 20

(08:06:24) Chapter 21

(08:31:45) Chapter 22

(08:50:53) Chapter 23

(09:09:28) Chapter 24

(09:29:57) Chapter 25

(09:45:48) Chapter 26

(10:13:10) Chapter 27

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Destiny Times Three by Fritz Leiber audiobook.

Genre: scifi

In a seemingly perfected future, artists and scientists Thorn and his friend Clawly are preparing to brief the World Executive Committee on a discovery that should have remained theoretical: a way to make alternate timelines real. At the center of it all is the Probability Engine, a mind-responsive device that can split history into multiple living worlds, each diverging from a crucial point in the past. The breakthrough promises wonder, but it also opens doors - doors that can be crossed. As Thorn begins to experience unsettling shifts in memory and impulse, signs point to something far worse than academic controversy: one of the neighboring realities is ruled by a ruthless, power-hungry regime, and its leaders have found a path into Thorn's utopian world. With society unwilling to believe that paradise can be invaded, Thorn and Clawly must race to prove the threat, locate the Engine's secrets, and understand the strange ways their own identities echo across the branching worlds. Destiny Times Three blends parallel-universe suspense with psychological unease, asking how much of a person is choice, how much is circumstance, and what happens when destiny gets multiplied.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:08:46) Chapter 02

(00:29:01) Chapter 03

(00:41:30) Chapter 04

(00:57:03) Chapter 05

(01:15:33) Chapter 06

(01:34:35) Chapter 07

(01:48:11) Chapter 08

(02:03:26) Chapter 09

(02:17:47) Chapter 10

(02:37:52) Chapter 11

(02:54:42) Chapter 12

(03:08:19) Chapter 13

(03:30:10) Chapter 14

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A Town is Drowning by Frederik Pohl audiobook.

Genre: scifi

This novel takes you right into the heart of the new flood country, the Northeast United States which had generally been free of hurricanes and attendant floods. Now disaster has struck, more than once--terrible and grim.

Although this novel will give you an accurate and brilliantly vivid picture of what it's like to live through a flood, even more importantly it will show you what the people are like who fought the catastrophe and how those who survived are still fighting. In the persons of Starkman the burgess, Groff the dynamic young executive, Sharon the shrewd opportunist, Mrs. Goudeket, the resort owner, and others, you will meet and understand the varying human elements that the flood unleashed and intensified. Through it all you will sense a growing feeling of pride--that despite the selfishness of some, the people of the town met the terrible onslaught with courage and a sense of mutual help.

Already well known for their superb science fiction, Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth demonstrate here their equal power in the realistic contemporary novel.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 00

(00:01:39) Chapter 01

(00:18:30) Chapter 02

(00:37:52) Chapter 03

(00:50:59) Chapter 04

(01:09:46) Chapter 05

(01:17:05) Chapter 06

(01:31:49) Chapter 07

(01:51:04) Chapter 08

(01:55:53) Chapter 09

(02:12:46) Chapter 10

(02:33:28) Chapter 11

(02:44:25) Chapter 12

(03:09:02) Chapter 13

(03:23:14) Chapter 14

(03:45:00) Chapter 15

(04:03:41) Chapter 16

(04:20:09) Chapter 17

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Israel - A Prince with God by Frederick Brotherton Meyer audiobook.

Genre: religion

An old-world story this! In its strange Eastern dress, it appears to be as remote from us as the garb of an Arab, or the barter of an Oriental Bazaar. And yet human life is much the same, whenever and wherever lived. Our critics complain of our poring over these timeworn pages of ancient biography, but, with all deference to them, we feel bound to say that we learn better how to live, we inhale more spiritual ozone, we see further into the reasons of God's dealings with men, when doing so, than when scanning the pages of yesterday's newspaper, or of a society journal. Thousands of miles cannot part us from our kin across the seas; and thousands of years cannot part us from our kin across the ages, or sever the readers of these words from the son of Isaac, who, nearly drowned in the seas of his own craft and cunning, at length emerged a new man, and a prince with God.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:20:57) Chapter 02

(00:43:45) Chapter 03

(01:05:12) Chapter 04

(01:25:43) Chapter 05

(01:44:25) Chapter 06

(02:02:30) Chapter 07

(02:17:34) Chapter 08

(02:33:10) Chapter 09

(02:54:24) Chapter 10

(03:12:16) Chapter 11

(03:27:20) Chapter 12

(03:48:08) Chapter 13

(04:06:47) Chapter 14

(04:27:26) Chapter 15

(04:45:27) Chapter 16

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The Tower Treasure by Franklin W. Dixon audiobook.

Genre: mystery

When teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy return to their hometown of Bayport, they expect a quiet stretch of summer ahead - until a rash of daring robberies hits the community. Their father, famed detective Fenton Hardy, is drawn into a puzzling case involving a stolen collection of valuable securities, and the boys cannot resist joining the hunt. Following scattered clues through docks, back roads, and shadowy hideouts, Frank and Joe test their instincts against criminals who seem to stay one step ahead. Their search leads them to a mysterious old tower on a nearby estate, a place whispered about by locals and watched by strangers with secret motives. As the brothers interview suspects, decode messages, and survive close calls, they learn that every clue has a cost, and that courage and teamwork matter as much as cleverness. With the stakes rising for their family and their town, the Hardys race to uncover where the loot is hidden, who is behind the crimes, and how the tower fits into a much larger scheme.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:09:24) Chapter 02

(00:19:22) Chapter 03

(00:28:25) Chapter 04

(00:36:57) Chapter 05

(00:51:57) Chapter 06

(01:01:31) Chapter 07

(01:11:30) Chapter 08

(01:19:34) Chapter 09

(01:28:24) Chapter 10

(01:40:12) Chapter 11

(01:50:45) Chapter 12

(02:02:02) Chapter 13

(02:12:27) Chapter 14

(02:27:35) Chapter 15

(02:38:57) Chapter 16

(02:47:39) Chapter 17

(02:58:11) Chapter 18

(03:07:25) Chapter 19

(03:18:43) Chapter 20

(03:29:43) Chapter 21

(03:39:06) Chapter 22

(03:48:31) Chapter 23

(03:57:57) Chapter 24

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The Secret of the Old Mill by Franklin W. Dixon audiobook.

Genre: mystery

The Secret of the Old Mill is the third volume of the original The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories. This book was written for the Stratemeyer Syndicate by Leslie McFarlane under the pseudonym Franklin W. Dixon in 1927.

After becoming victims of a counterfeiting ring, the boys become suspicious of the activities surrounding a previously disused mill on a deserted road by the river. When they give a boat ride to a stranger with a somewhat suspect story, and the stranger steals the boat and tries to make his way up the same river, they become more interested in the matter and set about to discover what secrets might be hidden at the old mill. Using their inherited sleuthing skills, Frank and Joe succeed in solving the case and bring the perpetrators to justice with the assistance of their famous detective father, the state police, and the Secret Service.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:08:25) Chapter 02

(00:18:08) Chapter 03

(00:26:03) Chapter 04

(00:35:05) Chapter 05

(00:45:00) Chapter 06

(00:52:13) Chapter 07

(00:58:56) Chapter 08

(01:08:02) Chapter 09

(01:16:22) Chapter 10

(01:25:54) Chapter 11

(01:35:43) Chapter 12

(01:43:57) Chapter 13

(01:51:52) Chapter 14

(02:04:53) Chapter 15

(02:15:01) Chapter 16

(02:25:11) Chapter 17

(02:34:24) Chapter 18

(02:42:53) Chapter 19

(02:53:25) Chapter 20

(03:03:31) Chapter 21

(03:13:15) Chapter 22

(03:22:18) Chapter 23

(03:30:59) Chapter 24

(03:41:05) Chapter 25

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