The Book Reader

Wings and the Child by E. Nesbit audiobook. Genre: fantasy 'When this book first came to my mind it came as a history and theory of the building of Magic Cities on tables, with bricks and toys and little things such as a child may find and use. But as I kept the thought by me it grew and changed, as thoughts will do, until at last it took shape as an attempt to contribute something, however small and unworthy, to the science of building a magic city in the soul of a child, a city built of all things pure and fine and beautiful.' -- E. Nesbit 'This lovely book describes the practicalities of building cities (or forts, secret bases and fairytale palaces) out of household odds-and-ends. It also goes much further to speak of the importance of developing a child's imagination and other aspects of Education beyond simple instruction. Nesbit may not have realised how multicultural her own Britain was, let alone ours now, or that the wider world might be interested in this book, so please forgive some rather dated phrasing in places.' For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:10:59) Chapter 02 (00:21:40) Chapter 03 (00:30:24) Chapter 04 (00:38:51) Chapter 05 (00:49:49) Chapter 06 (01:06:15) Chapter 07 (01:20:08) Chapter 08 (01:39:46) Chapter 09 (01:55:21) Chapter 10 (02:07:45) Chapter 11 (02:22:14) Chapter 12 (02:37:28) Chapter 13 (02:52:47) Chapter 14 (03:06:35) Chapter 15 (03:17:28) Chapter 16 (03:29:31) Chapter 17 (03:43:37) Chapter 18 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Royal Children of English History by E. Nesbit audiobook. Genre: history In Royal Children of English History, beloved storyteller E. Nesbit turns the page of the past to meet England's kings and queens first as boys and girls. Rather than marching through dates and battles, Nesbit offers vivid, approachable portraits of young princes and princesses growing up inside castles and courts, where lessons in Latin and etiquette sit beside tournaments, long journeys, illness, and sudden danger. Each chapter introduces a different royal child and traces how family loyalties, rival claimants, stern guardians, and the expectations of a watching nation shaped their earliest years. Some children are cherished heirs, others are political pawns, hostages, or siblings pushed into the shadows, and Nesbit shows how quickly playtime could give way to responsibility when a crown was at stake. With a clear, conversational voice and an eye for the human details of childhood, the book invites listeners to consider how power changes a life before adulthood even begins - and how the private fears and hopes of children can echo through public history. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 1 (00:12:37) Chapter 2 (00:24:38) Chapter 3 (00:36:36) Chapter 4 (00:48:52) Chapter 5 (01:00:13) Chapter 6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our Little English Cousin by Blanche McManus audiobook. Genre: history In Our Little English Cousin, Blanche McManus invites young listeners into the turn-of-the-century world of Edith Howard, a bright English girl growing up beside the River Thames. Guided by family, friends, and a watchful governess, Edith turns ordinary days into a rolling series of small expeditions that open a window onto English life: garden teas, boat rides, and countryside drives, followed by visits to places whose names echo with history. As Edith ventures to Hampton Court, Richmond, and Kew Gardens, and later into the great swirl of London, she discovers that castles, abbeys, and city streets are not just landmarks but living stories. Along the way she meets cousins and companions, balances lessons with play, and learns the habits and traditions that shape her nation, from pageantry and public ceremonies to the quiet rules of manners at home. Warm, observant, and illustrated by the author, this book blends gentle narrative with vivid cultural detail, making England feel both unfamiliar and oddly close - like family across the sea. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:13:51) Chapter 02 (00:26:32) Chapter 03 (00:40:12) Chapter 04 (00:49:00) Chapter 05 (01:04:49) Chapter 06 (01:11:52) Chapter 07 (01:19:29) Chapter 08 (01:25:08) Chapter 09 (01:32:32) Chapter 10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My Trip Abroad by Charlie Chaplin audiobook. Genre: biography 'A steak and kidney pie, influenza and a cablegram. There is the triple alliance that is responsible for the whole thing.' So begins Charlie Chaplin's My Trip Abroad, a travel memoir charting the actor-director's semi-spontaneous visit to Europe. Fresh off the success of 1921's The Kid, Chaplin decides to 'play hookey' after his seven year stay in Hollywood. He return to his native Europe as an international superstar, beloved by fans and hounded by reporters. The 'triple alliance' of the book's opening line sends Chaplin on an whirlwind tour through Great Britain, Germany, and France -- and the results are both funny and insightful. My Trip Abroad gives us an intimate and moving portrait of a Hollywood legend. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:31:33) Chapter 02 (01:03:44) Chapter 03 (01:34:49) Chapter 04 (02:05:10) Chapter 05 (02:30:17) Chapter 06 (02:54:08) Chapter 07 (03:12:17) Chapter 08 (03:39:09) Chapter 09 (04:11:55) Chapter 10 (04:40:40) Chapter 11 (05:11:13) Chapter 12 (05:42:24) Chapter 13 (06:12:04) Chapter 14 (06:38:40) Chapter 15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley audiobook. Genre: fantasy When young chimney sweep Tom tumbles into the river after a frightening night of work, he slips into a world that is stranger and brighter than anything he has known. Transformed into a water-baby, Tom begins an odyssey through streams, estuaries, and the wide sea, meeting talking creatures, mysterious helpers, and dangers that test his courage and his conscience. Guided by the elusive, fairy-like Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby and the sterner Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, Tom is pushed to learn responsibility, kindness, and self-control - lessons that matter just as much underwater as they do on land. Along the way, his path crosses with Ellie, a wealthy girl whose choices and compassion challenge the boundaries between social classes, and with the selfish, predatory figures that embody cruelty and neglect. By turns playful, satirical, and moral, Charles Kingsley's classic blends fantasy adventure with sharp commentary on Victorian society, childhood, education, and the treatment of the powerless. The result is a richly imaginative tale of transformation, justice, and growing up, where every ripple brings Tom closer to understanding what it means to be truly clean inside and out. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:26:24) Chapter 02 (00:52:24) Chapter 03 (01:13:14) Chapter 04 (01:41:56) Chapter 05 (02:07:47) Chapter 06 (02:36:46) Chapter 07 (03:07:50) Chapter 08 (03:36:19) Chapter 09 (04:01:13) Chapter 10 (04:23:27) Chapter 11 (04:41:23) Chapter 12 (05:03:06) Chapter 13 (05:26:40) Chapter 14 (05:54:01) Chapter 15 (06:25:29) Chapter 16 (07:01:54) Chapter 17 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Life in a Thousand Worlds by William Shuler Harris audiobook. Genre: scifi In this early 20th century voyage of speculative imagination, Rev. W. S. Harris invites listeners to leave Earth behind and travel by a mysterious journey of the soul from world to world across the solar system and into the stars. Moving from the Moon's crowded cities and their uncanny way of surviving, to Mars and its brutal lessons in monopoly and oppression, to the giant vistas of Jupiter and the strange beauty of Saturn, the narrator studies each civilization as a living mirror of humanity's own strengths and failures. Every stop brings startling biology, daring inventions, and sharply drawn social systems: floating metropolises, worlds that have solved medicine, planets trapped under ruthless 'trusts,' and societies so transparent that even hidden thoughts can be brought to light. Part travelogue, part moral fable, and part political warning, Life in a Thousand Worlds uses wonder and satire to ask what makes a people free, healthy, and good - and what might await beyond our small world if we do not learn those lessons. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:06:46) Chapter 01 (00:15:13) Chapter 02 (00:39:26) Chapter 03 (00:57:47) Chapter 04 (01:22:50) Chapter 05 (01:37:48) Chapter 06 (01:48:52) Chapter 07 (02:03:04) Chapter 08 (02:19:24) Chapter 09 (02:33:18) Chapter 10 (02:47:47) Chapter 11 (03:03:36) Chapter 12 (03:17:00) Chapter 13 (03:29:08) Chapter 14 (03:39:26) Chapter 15 (03:59:20) Chapter 16 (04:13:22) Chapter 17 (04:31:46) Chapter 18 (04:39:57) Chapter 19 (04:53:26) Chapter 20 (05:05:03) Chapter 21 (05:27:16) Chapter 22 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare audiobook. Genre: comedy William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice was probably written between 1596 and 1598, and was printed with the comedies in the First Folio of 1623. Bassanio, an impoverished gentleman, uses the credit of his friend, the merchant Antonio, to borrow money from a wealthy Jew, Shylock. Antonio pledges to pay Shylock a pound of flesh if he defaults on the loan, which Bassanio will use to woo a rich heiress, Portia. A subplot concerns the elopement of Shylock's daughter Jessica with a Christian, Bassanio's friend Lorenzo. In its focus on love and marriage, the play shares certain concerns with Shakespeare's other comedies. Yet its depiction of the tensions between Jews and Christians in early modern Venice - and its highly dramatic trial scene in Act 4 - create darker currents in the play. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 0 (00:02:28) Chapter 1 (00:28:08) Chapter 2 (01:06:43) Chapter 3 (01:43:34) Chapter 4 (02:10:03) Chapter 5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bab Ballads by William S. Gilbert audiobook. Genre: poetry The Bab Ballads are a collection of light verse by W. S. Gilbert, illustrated with his own comic drawings. Gilbert wrote the Ballads before he became famous for his comic opera librettos with Arthur Sullivan. In writing the Bab Ballads, Gilbert developed his unique 'topsy-turvy' style, where the humour was derived by setting up a ridiculous premise and working out its logical consequences, however absurd. The Ballads also reveal Gilbert's cynical and satirical approach to humour. They became famous on their own, as well as being a source for plot elements, characters and songs that Gilbert would recycle in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. The Bab Ballads take their name from Gilbert's childhood nickname, and he later began to sign his illustrations 'Bab' For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:04:57) Chapter 02 (00:09:05) Chapter 03 (00:11:35) Chapter 04 (00:14:31) Chapter 05 (00:16:04) Chapter 06 (00:19:41) Chapter 07 (00:22:42) Chapter 08 (00:26:34) Chapter 09 (00:30:31) Chapter 10 (00:34:47) Chapter 11 (00:40:12) Chapter 12 (00:44:33) Chapter 13 (00:47:35) Chapter 14 (00:52:04) Chapter 15 (00:55:14) Chapter 16 (00:59:40) Chapter 17 (01:03:45) Chapter 18 (01:08:40) Chapter 19 (01:13:21) Chapter 20 (01:17:30) Chapter 21 (01:18:44) Chapter 22 (01:23:30) Chapter 23 (01:28:20) Chapter 24 (01:32:39) Chapter 25 (01:37:54) Chapter 26 (01:41:06) Chapter 27 (01:45:39) Chapter 28 (01:50:25) Chapter 29 (01:54:50) Chapter 30 (01:59:51) Chapter 31 (02:02:45) Chapter 32 (02:06:53) Chapter 33 (02:12:06) Chapter 34 (02:16:09) Chapter 35 (02:20:03) Chapter 36 (02:25:18) Chapter 37 (02:30:00) Chapter 38 (02:35:41) Chapter 39 (02:40:45) Chapter 40 (02:45:23) Chapter 41 (02:49:42) Chapter 42 (02:54:28) Chapter 43 (02:55:57) Chapter 44 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave by Aphra Behn audiobook. Genre: tragedy Aphra Behn was the first woman writer in England to make a living by her pen, and her novel Oroonoko was the first work published in English to express sympathy for African slaves. Perhaps based partly on Behn's own experiences living in Surinam, the novel tells the tragic story of a noble slave, Oroonoko, and his love Imoinda. The work was an instant success and was adapted for the stage in 1695 (and more recently by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1999). Behn's work paved the way for women writers who came after her, as Virginia Woolf noted in a Room of One's Own (1928): 'All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, ... for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.' For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:17:04) Chapter 02 (00:31:07) Chapter 03 (00:48:34) Chapter 04 (01:02:13) Chapter 05 (01:16:49) Chapter 06 (01:36:34) Chapter 07 (01:50:13) Chapter 08 (02:09:27) Chapter 09 (02:23:42) Chapter 10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lewis and Clark by William R. Lighton audiobook. Genre: biography William R. Lighton's Lewis and Clark is a brisk, story-driven biography of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark that follows the planning and launch of the Corps of Discovery and the long push from the Missouri River toward the Pacific. Beginning with the two officers' backgrounds and President Thomas Jefferson's ambitious mission after the Louisiana Purchase, Lighton traces how a small, disciplined party is assembled, supplied, and sent into a continent most Americans of the era knew only through rumor and rough maps. As the expedition moves upriver and into the mountains, the narrative highlights the leaders' contrasting strengths, the daily demands of command, and the constant problem-solving required to keep men, boats, and supplies moving through rapids, storms, hunger, and injury. Along the way, the captains must negotiate fragile alliances and passage with Native nations, interpret unfamiliar landscapes, and record what they see with careful attention to geography, plants, animals, and routes that might reshape the young nation's future. Written in a clear early-1900s style, the book balances adventure with historical context, showing how exploration, diplomacy, and leadership collide on a journey where every decision carries lasting consequences. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:17:17) Chapter 02 (00:28:52) Chapter 03 (00:39:43) Chapter 04 (01:01:28) Chapter 05 (01:24:10) Chapter 06 (01:39:36) Chapter 07 (01:52:54) Chapter 08 (02:10:04) Chapter 09 (02:23:09) Chapter 10 (02:43:48) Chapter 11 (02:52:50) Chapter 12 (03:00:59) Chapter 13 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices