The Book Reader

Animal Ghosts by Elliott ODonnell audiobook. Genre: folklore In Animal Ghosts, noted ghost-hunter and storyteller Elliott O'Donnell turns his attention from haunted houses to the creatures that shared them, asking a provocative question: if human beings may survive death, why not animals? Framed by an impassioned preface arguing for animal souls and a just hereafter, the book unfolds as a casebook of eerie reports, letters, and traditional tales gathered from witnesses and old sources. O'Donnell organizes his investigation by kind, moving through cats, dogs, horses, farm animals, and then outward to wild creatures, jungle beasts, and birds. A sinister cat emblem over an ancient manor, phantom dogs that pad through corridors or appear as omens, spectral hunts and riders, and uncanny animal behavior that seems to sense the unseen all become evidence in his wider argument. Part anthology and part inquiry, the narrative blends folklore with first-hand testimony, inviting listeners to weigh coincidence against haunting and compassion against cruelty. By the end, the lingering question is not only what people might see in the dark, but what debts the living may owe to the voiceless dead. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:21:21) Chapter 02 (00:46:54) Chapter 03 (01:28:27) Chapter 04 (01:52:20) Chapter 05 (02:42:07) Chapter 06 (03:17:45) Chapter 07 (03:31:11) Chapter 08 (04:07:59) Chapter 09 (04:35:15) Chapter 10 (05:18:44) Chapter 11 (06:12:54) Chapter 12 (06:36:49) Chapter 13 (06:55:00) Chapter 14 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Heart of the New Thought by Ella Wheeler Wilcox audiobook. Genre: self help In The Heart of the New Thought, bestselling poet and essayist Ella Wheeler Wilcox offers a clear, warmly persuasive introduction to the spiritual philosophy that helped shape early self-improvement movements in America. Speaking directly to the listener, Wilcox argues that the most decisive battles are fought in the unseen world of thought: fear versus faith, resentment versus forgiveness, and passive wishing versus deliberate, constructive intention. Moving between practical counsel and uplifting reflection, she explores how habit, attention, and emotion influence health, work, and relationships, and she urges readers to replace despairing inner talk with chosen ideas that build courage and calm. Throughout, Wilcox returns to a central challenge: how to hold to a higher view of life when daily setbacks, grief, and discouragement tempt the mind to surrender. With an emphasis on personal responsibility, inner discipline, and a hopeful moral vision, this classic New Thought text invites listeners to test its principles in ordinary moments - and to discover a steadier sense of purpose, power, and peace. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:01:38) Chapter 01 (00:06:52) Chapter 02 (00:12:06) Chapter 03 (00:17:03) Chapter 04 (00:22:20) Chapter 05 (00:27:31) Chapter 06 (00:33:53) Chapter 07 (00:40:00) Chapter 08 (00:44:16) Chapter 09 (00:48:03) Chapter 10 (00:54:02) Chapter 11 (00:58:53) Chapter 12 (01:07:00) Chapter 13 (01:10:36) Chapter 14 (01:17:31) Chapter 15 (01:22:53) Chapter 16 (01:29:36) Chapter 17 (01:33:25) Chapter 18 (01:36:59) Chapter 19 (01:39:10) Chapter 20 (01:47:41) Chapter 21 (01:53:54) Chapter 22 (01:59:09) Chapter 23 (02:04:49) Chapter 24 (02:08:23) Chapter 25 (02:11:27) Chapter 26 (02:15:24) Chapter 27 (02:20:30) Chapter 28 (02:25:56) Chapter 29 (02:31:05) Chapter 30 (02:36:19) Chapter 31 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Story of a Modern Woman by Ella Hepworth Dixon audiobook. Genre: drama Set in late-Victorian London at the height of the 'New Woman' debate, The Story of a Modern Woman follows Mary Erle, a bright, ambitious young writer trying to build a life on her own terms. When her family circumstances shift, Mary is forced to exchange genteel expectations for paid work, navigating the precarious world of journalism, publishing, and social connections where a woman's reputation can be made or broken by a rumor. Alongside her are other sharply drawn women - friends and rivals - each testing the era's narrow ideas about love, duty, and respectability. As Mary pursues independence, she confronts the costs of self-reliance: uneven opportunities, patronizing gatekeepers, financial anxiety, and the constant pressure to trade talent for security. A candid, witty, and often melancholy portrait of modernity arriving early, Ella Hepworth Dixon's novel explores the tension between desire and practicality, friendship and competition, and the private sacrifices hidden behind public poise. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:19:59) Chapter 02 (00:42:07) Chapter 03 (00:58:44) Chapter 04 (01:15:51) Chapter 05 (01:34:34) Chapter 06 (01:53:06) Chapter 07 (02:08:05) Chapter 08 (02:25:54) Chapter 09 (02:41:38) Chapter 10 (02:59:01) Chapter 11 (03:18:12) Chapter 12 (03:37:28) Chapter 13 (03:56:52) Chapter 14 (04:13:17) Chapter 15 (04:28:26) Chapter 16 (04:47:42) Chapter 17 (05:03:48) Chapter 18 (05:19:32) Chapter 19 (05:39:56) Chapter 20 (05:57:18) Chapter 21 (06:16:59) Chapter 22 (06:36:13) Chapter 23 (06:53:57) Chapter 24 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wired Love - A Romance of Dots and Dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer audiobook. Genre: romance In the bustling, wire-laced world of late 19th-century America, Nattie Rogers lives by a strict code: keep your private life private, keep your feelings in check, and never mix romance with the telegraph key. A skilled operator known on the line by a crisp, professional handle, Nattie spends her days translating human urgency into dots and dashes and her nights guarding her independence in a society eager to define what a woman should be. But the telegraph also offers something intoxicating - connection without appearances, intimacy without introductions. When Nattie strikes up a playful, increasingly personal correspondence with a charming operator she knows only by his signal name, the exchange turns into a contest of wit, willpower, and vulnerability. As their messages grow bolder, the risks rise: misunderstandings can travel as fast as electricity, reputations can be damaged by rumor, and the boundary between on-the-wire fantasy and real-world consequence begins to blur. Moving from offices and boardinghouses to social gatherings and chance encounters, this pioneering romance explores identity, trust, and the strange thrill of falling for a voice you cannot see - while asking what it means to choose love on your own terms. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:17:55) Chapter 02 (00:37:30) Chapter 03 (01:04:13) Chapter 04 (01:20:01) Chapter 05 (01:37:29) Chapter 06 (01:54:06) Chapter 07 (02:10:46) Chapter 08 (02:26:11) Chapter 09 (02:47:31) Chapter 10 (03:10:50) Chapter 11 (03:34:11) Chapter 12 (03:50:07) Chapter 13 (04:03:48) Chapter 14 (04:14:06) Chapter 15 (04:43:54) Chapter 16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Autobiography of a Newspaper Girl by Elizabeth L. Banks audiobook. Genre: comedy Elizabeth Banks was an American journalist and author. She grew up in Wisconsin, then lived in England the last forty years of her life. She became a regular contributor to English publications such as The Daily News, Punch, St James' Gazette, and London Illustrated. She created a sensation by recording her observations on the plight of the lower classes, which she researched posing as a housemaid, street sweeper, and Covent Garden flower girl. Her later journalistic writings promoted women's right to vote and denounced prison conditions for jailed suffragettes. This memoir was written about 10 years into her career, when she was better known but was not financially secure. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:11:01) Chapter 02 (00:33:54) Chapter 03 (01:00:45) Chapter 04 (01:26:34) Chapter 05 (01:47:23) Chapter 06 (02:11:51) Chapter 07 (02:34:10) Chapter 08 (03:00:24) Chapter 09 (03:14:16) Chapter 10 (03:42:00) Chapter 11 (03:57:19) Chapter 12 (04:03:39) Chapter 13 (04:24:22) Chapter 14 (04:38:15) Chapter 15 (05:04:20) Chapter 16 (05:24:30) Chapter 17 (05:50:00) Chapter 18 (06:12:57) Chapter 19 (06:20:21) Chapter 20 (06:42:42) Chapter 21 (07:02:33) Chapter 22 (07:25:48) Chapter 23 (07:46:22) Chapter 24 (08:03:46) Chapter 25 (08:24:57) Chapter 26 (08:48:06) Chapter 27 (09:05:45) Chapter 28 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Cave Girl by Edgar Rice Burroughs audiobook. Genre: adventure Blueblooded mama's boy Waldo Emerson Smith-Jones is swept overboard during a south seas voyage for his lifelong ill health. He finds himself on a jungle island. His bookish education has not prepared him to cope with these surroundings, and he is a coward. He is terrified when he encounters primitive, violent men, ape-like throwbacks in mankind's evolutionary history. He runs from them, but when he reaches a dead end, he successfully makes a stand, astonishing himself. While keeping the hairy brutes at bay, he meets a beautiful girl, Nadara, also on the run. In an uncharacteristic gesture, he saves her from the grasp of one ape-man during their escape. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:20:37) Chapter 02 (00:37:01) Chapter 03 (00:59:40) Chapter 04 (01:23:25) Chapter 05 (01:49:03) Chapter 06 (02:03:11) Chapter 07 (02:19:15) Chapter 08 (02:30:10) Chapter 09 (02:50:59) Chapter 10 (03:11:52) Chapter 11 (03:42:45) Chapter 12 (04:04:00) Chapter 13 (04:27:53) Chapter 14 (04:47:38) Chapter 15 (05:09:03) Chapter 16 (05:25:31) Chapter 17 (05:46:14) Chapter 18 (06:18:10) Chapter 19 (06:41:25) Chapter 20 (07:06:29) Chapter 21 (07:27:32) Chapter 22 (07:54:02) Chapter 23 (08:21:49) Chapter 24 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Book of All Power by Edgar Wallace audiobook. Genre: thriller The Book of All Power by Edgar Wallace is set in London at the beginning, and then the action moves to Russia. The story covers the period from 1910 to 1919 during which the Russian Revolution takes place and this results in drastic changes to Russian society. This book could be described as a romantic adventure story and the main characters are a weird assortment - Malcolm Hay, a young Englishman, a beautiful Grand Duchess of the Russian Aristocracy, a Russian general, a Jewish bookbinder, and an American sharp shooter. Much happens, and the Russian characters, heavily influenced by their religion and politics, provide a fascinating insight into the mind of the Russian people, aristocrats and peasants, and all those in between. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:21:12) Chapter 02 (00:40:40) Chapter 03 (01:05:00) Chapter 04 (01:19:16) Chapter 05 (01:36:20) Chapter 06 (01:56:28) Chapter 07 (02:17:50) Chapter 08 (02:36:00) Chapter 09 (02:53:00) Chapter 10 (03:10:45) Chapter 11 (03:24:22) Chapter 12 (03:42:00) Chapter 13 (04:00:31) Chapter 14 (04:09:45) Chapter 15 (04:26:52) Chapter 16 (04:41:03) Chapter 17 (04:56:07) Chapter 18 (05:09:31) Chapter 19 (05:21:13) Chapter 20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Secresy, or, the Ruin on the Rock by Eliza Fenwick audiobook. Genre: romance Told through an intimate web of letters, Eliza Fenwick's Secresy, or, the Ruin on the Rock draws listeners into a remote coastal estate where affection, reputation, and power collide. Caroline Ashburn, thoughtful and clear-eyed, writes with growing alarm about her friend Sibella Valmont, a young heiress kept under the stern rule of her uncle, Mr. Valmont. Behind the castle walls and the constant roar of the sea, Sibella's lively intelligence and hunger for freedom clash with a household that treats obedience as virtue and silence as safety. As Sibella's attachment to Clement Montgomery deepens, Mr. Valmont tightens his control, and a private crisis emerges that cannot be easily contained. What begins as concern for a friend's welfare becomes a tense struggle over who gets to decide a woman's future: family authority, social expectation, or the woman herself. Part Gothic atmosphere and part social critique, Fenwick explores female friendship, moral courage, and the cost of hidden truths, as every letter inches closer to consequences no one can fully predict. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:01:19) Chapter 01 (00:05:55) Chapter 02 (00:16:40) Chapter 03 (00:41:08) Chapter 04 (00:47:51) Chapter 05 (01:17:20) Chapter 06 (01:33:14) Chapter 07 (02:14:32) Chapter 08 (02:22:50) Chapter 09 (02:38:26) Chapter 10 (02:55:17) Chapter 11 (03:02:56) Chapter 12 (03:06:24) Chapter 13 (03:26:04) Chapter 14 (03:30:29) Chapter 15 (03:33:03) Chapter 16 (03:35:17) Chapter 17 (03:36:23) Chapter 18 (03:43:23) Chapter 19 (03:55:08) Chapter 20 (04:19:52) Chapter 21 (04:25:34) Chapter 22 (04:32:26) Chapter 23 (04:35:37) Chapter 24 (04:54:46) Chapter 25 (05:08:25) Chapter 26 (05:20:31) Chapter 27 (05:32:58) Chapter 28 (05:54:56) Chapter 29 (05:59:04) Chapter 30 (06:01:02) Chapter 31 (06:14:16) Chapter 32 (06:26:13) Chapter 33 (06:40:51) Chapter 34 (07:15:07) Chapter 35 (07:31:23) Chapter 36 (07:41:31) Chapter 37 (07:54:34) Chapter 38 (08:01:02) Chapter 39 (08:21:03) Chapter 40 (08:36:04) Chapter 41 (08:43:13) Chapter 42 (08:46:30) Chapter 43 (08:50:18) Chapter 44 (08:52:02) Chapter 45 (08:55:56) Chapter 46 (08:57:05) Chapter 47 (08:59:46) Chapter 48 (09:12:34) Chapter 49 (09:13:47) Chapter 50 (09:15:15) Chapter 51 (09:17:36) Chapter 52 (09:21:32) Chapter 53 (09:23:32) Chapter 54 (09:25:19) Chapter 55 (09:26:51) Chapter 56 (09:29:58) Chapter 57 (09:38:48) Chapter 58 (09:39:56) Chapter 59 (09:40:45) Chapter 60 (09:56:31) Chapter 61 (09:59:07) Chapter 62 (10:03:26) Chapter 63 (10:06:52) Chapter 64 (10:12:21) Chapter 65 (10:14:57) Chapter 66 (10:18:50) Chapter 67 (10:23:05) Chapter 68 (10:24:27) Chapter 69 (10:26:15) Chapter 70 (10:32:48) Chapter 71 (10:33:54) Chapter 72 (10:35:16) Chapter 73 (10:37:36) Chapter 74 (10:57:11) Chapter 75 (11:00:56) Chapter 76 (11:08:59) Chapter 77 (11:14:08) Chapter 78 (11:16:09) Chapter 79 (11:32:01) Chapter 80 (11:37:53) Chapter 81 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Voyage to the Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac audiobook. Genre: scifi In A Voyage to the Moon, Cyrano de Bergerac launches a bold, mischievous tale that blends adventure with razor-edged satire. The narrator, a quick-witted skeptic with an appetite for daring theories, becomes obsessed with the possibility of life beyond Earth and devises a series of improbable schemes to reach the Moon. When his experiments finally hurl him into the heavens, he arrives in a world that is unmistakably alien yet uncomfortably familiar: a society with its own customs, hierarchies, and assumptions about what is natural, moral, and true. As an outsider, he is forced to justify his origin, his beliefs, and even his humanity before curious (and often hostile) lunar authorities and philosophers. Each encounter becomes a contest of ideas, where accepted wisdom is flipped on its head and earthly dogmas about religion, science, politics, and social status are tested under an unforgiving new logic. By turns comic, confrontational, and imaginative, this early classic invites listeners to question certainty itself and to wonder how strange our own world might look from far away. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:22:06) Chapter 01 (00:24:45) Chapter 02 (00:32:18) Chapter 03 (00:37:15) Chapter 04 (00:43:12) Chapter 05 (00:56:38) Chapter 06 (01:02:15) Chapter 07 (01:08:41) Chapter 08 (01:27:31) Chapter 09 (01:41:22) Chapter 10 (01:55:48) Chapter 11 (02:16:32) Chapter 12 (02:22:30) Chapter 13 (02:36:00) Chapter 14 (02:55:15) Chapter 15 (03:05:12) Chapter 16 (03:21:43) Chapter 17 (03:34:51) Chapter 18 (03:42:11) Chapter 19 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Calico Cat by Charles Miner Thompson audiobook. Genre: comedy In a quiet village where reputation is everything, Solomon Peaslee is determined to be taken seriously. He has his eye on public respectability, and he is especially pleased with the prospect of serving on the grand jury, a role that feels like proof he has finally arrived. But the one thing that reliably unmans him is a bold, trespassing calico cat that treats his property as its personal kingdom. One impulsive night, Solomon decides to end the nuisance for good, raising his shotgun at the cat on the fence. The blast misses its target and strikes something far more dangerous: a man lurking in the dark. In the stunned aftermath, Solomon scrambles to protect his standing, dodge suspicion, and keep the village from turning its sharp attention on him. As gossip spreads and half-truths multiply, the incident ripples outward, pulling neighbors and family into a tightening knot of fear, blame, and misplaced certainty. When a boy becomes entangled in the fallout, Solomon must face a conflict that no civic title can solve: whether preserving his image is worth the cost of his conscience. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 1 (00:22:10) Chapter 2 (00:46:26) Chapter 3 (01:07:14) Chapter 4 (01:26:14) Chapter 5 (01:43:02) Chapter 6 (02:04:40) Chapter 7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices