The Book Reader

Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories by Ambrose Bierce audiobook. Genre: horror In Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories, Ambrose Bierce turns the everyday world of 19th-century America into a place where death never fully lets go. Soldiers, travelers, skeptics, and ordinary townspeople find themselves confronted by disturbances that cannot be explained away: a strange execution witnessed too closely, a quiet room that refuses to stay empty, a familiar face that should not be able to return, and a single uncanny moment that fractures a lifetime of certainty. Bierce's narrators speak with crisp confidence, yet their steady voices only sharpen the dread as the border between the rational and the supernatural thins. Each tale moves quickly toward its central unease, favoring precision over melodrama, and leaving the listener to question how much of what is seen and heard can be trusted. With dark wit and a veteran's eye for fear under pressure, Bierce explores guilt, obsession, and the stubborn afterlife of violence, crafting a collection of haunting encounters that linger long after the final sentence. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 1 (00:21:19) Chapter 2 (00:47:09) Chapter 3 (01:13:24) Chapter 4 (01:45:26) Chapter 5 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tarzan Triumphant by Edgar Rice Burroughs audiobook. Genre: adventure Deep in the African interior, danger comes from two directions at once. When Lady Barbara Collis, an English aviatrix, is forced down over the forbidding Ghenzi Mountains, she stumbles into a hidden volcanic valley called Midian - a lost, isolated people split into rival factions and ruled by prophets who enforce a warped, violent echo of an ancient faith. Barbara's survival depends on quick wits, uneasy alliances, and the loyalty of a courageous young woman who knows the valley's cruel rules. Beyond Midian, the wider jungle is no safer: raiders and political killers prowl the borders of Tarzan's domain, and a Soviet agent is dispatched to settle old scores by removing the Lord of the Jungle. As strangers blunder into Tarzan's country and tribal leaders beg for protection, Tarzan rallies Chief Muviro and the Waziri, tracking enemies through river, forest, and mountain to reach captives before ritual and revenge close in. With peril escalating on every front, Tarzan must fight not only for territory, but for lives caught between fanaticism and foreign intrigue. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:03:27) Chapter 01 (00:15:16) Chapter 02 (00:50:39) Chapter 03 (01:06:29) Chapter 04 (01:20:00) Chapter 05 (01:42:06) Chapter 06 (02:03:23) Chapter 07 (02:27:13) Chapter 08 (02:40:35) Chapter 09 (03:01:38) Chapter 10 (03:19:00) Chapter 11 (03:42:23) Chapter 12 (04:00:30) Chapter 13 (04:17:19) Chapter 14 (04:37:32) Chapter 15 (05:00:14) Chapter 16 (05:27:54) Chapter 17 (05:43:59) Chapter 18 (06:06:23) Chapter 19 (06:34:07) Chapter 20 (06:50:28) Chapter 21 (06:59:53) Chapter 22 (07:13:05) Chapter 23 (07:28:13) Chapter 24 (07:48:02) Chapter 25 (07:58:58) Chapter 26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Tarzan Twins by Edgar Rice Burroughs audiobook. Genre: adventure When fourteen-year-old cousins Dick and Doc discover that one of them is distantly related to the legendary Lord Greystoke, they earn a new nickname at school: the Tarzan Twins. Now they have the chance of a lifetime - a holiday on Tarzan's African estate. But before they can even reach their hero, disaster strikes. A rail mishap and a wrong turn plunge the boys into the vast, unforgiving jungle, where every mile is a lesson and every shadow could mean danger. Separated from safety and armed with little more than grit and quick thinking, the Twins must survive hostile terrain, wild beasts, and a deadly human threat when they fall into the hands of a brutal tribe. Their ordeal becomes more than a test of endurance: it is a chance to prove they can live up to the name they have claimed. As the boys fight to escape and find their way back, the jungle draws them into a larger mystery tied to ancient ruins, strange foes, and an innocent captive whose fate may depend on two determined boys - and the sudden appearance of the ape-man himself. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:05:34) Chapter 01 (00:17:00) Chapter 02 (00:28:32) Chapter 03 (00:37:59) Chapter 04 (00:46:50) Chapter 05 (00:55:02) Chapter 06 (01:05:13) Chapter 07 (01:17:26) Chapter 08 (01:28:12) Chapter 09 (01:30:26) Chapter 10 (01:38:41) Chapter 11 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Forty-Five Guardsmen by Alexandre Dumas audiobook. Genre: adventure In The Forty-Five Guardsmen, Alexandre Dumas plunges listeners into the perilous politics of late 16th-century France, where the throne is weak, factions sharpen their knives, and loyalty is bought at a terrible price. King Henry III, besieged by rivals and public unrest, forms an elite corps of forty-five Gascon gentlemen - hard-bitten soldiers hired to serve as his personal shield and secret instrument. Into this volatile court steps a young nobleman drawn into a web of intrigue that stretches from the Louvre's corridors to shadowed streets and provincial strongholds. As conspiracies multiply, Dumas follows messengers, spies, and swordsmen as they navigate shifting alliances between royal favorites, the powerful Catholic League, and those who would reshape the kingdom by force. Duels, coded letters, midnight arrests, and narrow escapes build toward a struggle where honor clashes with ambition and where private passions can ignite public catastrophe. Rich with period detail and Dumas' trademark momentum, the novel explores power, faith, betrayal, and the cost of serving a king when the nation is tearing itself apart. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:09:19) Chapter 02 (00:20:48) Chapter 03 (00:26:46) Chapter 04 (00:36:16) Chapter 05 (00:48:04) Chapter 06 (01:07:41) Chapter 07 (01:15:47) Chapter 08 (01:23:38) Chapter 09 (01:31:20) Chapter 10 (01:41:05) Chapter 11 (01:49:13) Chapter 12 (01:57:29) Chapter 13 (02:04:57) Chapter 14 (02:20:28) Chapter 15 (02:32:42) Chapter 16 (02:41:51) Chapter 17 (02:46:23) Chapter 18 (02:52:45) Chapter 19 (03:01:01) Chapter 20 (03:05:51) Chapter 21 (03:13:05) Chapter 22 (03:21:02) Chapter 23 (03:26:41) Chapter 24 (03:35:59) Chapter 25 (03:41:25) Chapter 26 (03:47:11) Chapter 27 (03:54:50) Chapter 28 (04:00:19) Chapter 29 (04:07:59) Chapter 30 (04:18:11) Chapter 31 (04:27:54) Chapter 32 (04:34:02) Chapter 33 (04:39:32) Chapter 34 (04:45:34) Chapter 35 (04:54:11) Chapter 36 (05:00:48) Chapter 37 (05:10:35) Chapter 38 (05:21:14) Chapter 39 (05:30:41) Chapter 40 (05:45:03) Chapter 41 (05:54:52) Chapter 42 (06:06:33) Chapter 43 (06:17:40) Chapter 44 (06:26:46) Chapter 45 (06:32:32) Chapter 46 (06:38:43) Chapter 47 (06:49:48) Chapter 48 (06:59:03) Chapter 49 (07:12:32) Chapter 50 (07:22:22) Chapter 51 (07:37:20) Chapter 52 (07:48:41) Chapter 53 (08:00:10) Chapter 54 (08:14:34) Chapter 55 (08:23:47) Chapter 56 (08:32:55) Chapter 57 (08:50:47) Chapter 58 (09:00:48) Chapter 59 (09:11:59) Chapter 60 (09:18:52) Chapter 61 (09:28:35) Chapter 62 (09:42:33) Chapter 63 (09:48:27) Chapter 64 (09:58:16) Chapter 65 (10:13:01) Chapter 66 (10:21:57) Chapter 67 (10:32:07) Chapter 68 (10:42:24) Chapter 69 (10:56:07) Chapter 70 (11:04:12) Chapter 71 (11:15:42) Chapter 72 (11:24:55) Chapter 73 (11:36:28) Chapter 74 (11:54:45) Chapter 75 (12:09:18) Chapter 76 (12:17:13) Chapter 77 (12:33:48) Chapter 78 (12:47:05) Chapter 79 (12:53:46) Chapter 80 (12:58:47) Chapter 81 (13:26:43) Chapter 82 (13:44:36) Chapter 83 (13:59:51) Chapter 84 (14:21:58) Chapter 85 (14:32:06) Chapter 86 (14:48:17) Chapter 87 (15:05:22) Chapter 88 (15:19:27) Chapter 89 (15:38:07) Chapter 90 (15:44:37) Chapter 91 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An Essay on Man by Alexander Pope audiobook. Genre: philosophy Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man is a philosophical poem that wrestles with one of humanity's oldest questions: how can a world filled with suffering, limitation, and contradiction still make moral and spiritual sense? Written in a series of tightly argued, brilliantly crafted epistles, the work guides the listener through a grand survey of the human condition - our place in the universe, the boundaries of our knowledge, the pulls of passion and reason, and the social forces that shape our lives. Pope speaks to the restless mind that wants certainty, reminding us that perspective is partial and that pride can masquerade as wisdom. With vivid imagery and memorable lines, he examines the chain of being that links all creatures, the temptations of ambition and self-love, and the fragile balance between individual desire and the common good. At once devotional and skeptical, elegant and confrontational, An Essay on Man invites you to consider what it means to be human, why humility matters, and how acceptance, responsibility, and compassion might coexist in an imperfect world. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:05:00) Chapter 01 (00:28:05) Chapter 02 (00:50:59) Chapter 03 (01:16:42) Chapter 04 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pamphilia to Amphilanthus by Lady Mary Wroth audiobook. Genre: poetry Pamphilia to Amphilanthus is Lady Mary Wroth's groundbreaking early modern sonnet sequence, spoken in the voice of Pamphilia, a woman caught between her vow of constancy and the painful knowledge that her beloved, Amphilanthus, is changeable. Through tightly wrought sonnets and interwoven songs, Pamphilia turns the conventions of courtly love inside out: instead of a silent lady adored from afar, she becomes the thinking, desiring, self-questioning center of the story. The poems trace her private battle as she tries to govern passion with reason, protect her dignity in a world of rumor and political display, and make meaning out of longing that refuses to end. Along the way, Wroth explores how love can be both a source of identity and a kind of captivity, especially for a woman whose choices are constrained by court, reputation, and expectation. Intimate, intellectually sharp, and emotionally relentless, this sequence offers a rare, sustained portrait of female interiority, where devotion, jealousy, hope, and endurance collide in language as precise as it is aching. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:29:17) Chapter 02 (00:55:44) Chapter 03 (01:03:56) Chapter 04 (01:17:38) Chapter 05 (01:30:24) Chapter 06 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Moving the Mountain by Charlotte Perkins Gilman audiobook. Genre: scifi When John Robertson returns to the United States after three decades away, he expects to find familiar streets, old habits, and the same social battles he once knew. Instead, he steps into a nation quietly transformed by a sweeping, practical reorganization of everyday life. Taken in by relatives and new acquaintances, John becomes a curious outsider in his own homeland, touring workplaces, homes, schools, and public spaces that run with striking efficiency and unexpected warmth. As he struggles to make sense of what has changed, he meets people who embody the new order: women and men reshaping family life, labor, health, and civic responsibility around cooperation rather than competition. But John's amazement soon turns to unease as he realizes that progress has a price, and that not everyone welcomes a society built on shared standards, public planning, and a redefined idea of freedom. Moving the Mountain is Charlotte Perkins Gilman's visionary utopian novel, mixing satire and earnest social critique to ask what a modern nation might become if it treated care, work, and equality as core infrastructure. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:23:25) Chapter 02 (00:46:43) Chapter 03 (01:08:39) Chapter 04 (01:35:18) Chapter 05 (02:04:09) Chapter 06 (02:25:45) Chapter 07 (02:49:32) Chapter 08 (03:14:46) Chapter 09 (03:49:17) Chapter 10 (04:04:14) Chapter 11 (04:36:02) Chapter 12 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maude by Christina Rossetti audiobook. Genre: drama Written as a 'tale for girls' and threaded with early poems, Christina Rossetti's Maude follows fifteen-year-old Maude Foster, a pale, clever, quietly intense London girl whose private writing-book is part diary, part sketchbook, and part confession. Praised for her verses yet unsettled by the attention they draw, Maude is pulled between the warmth and bustle of social life and an inward discipline shaped by religious devotion and relentless self-examination. When her mother brings her into the country to visit relatives for a birthday gathering, Maude steps into a world of lively cousins, youthful games, polite compliments, and the unspoken pressures of what a young woman should be: modest, domestic, agreeable. But Maude cannot stop measuring every thought and impulse, questioning whether her talents are vanity, whether her friendships are sincere, and whether she is truly worthy of the spiritual ideals she longs to live by. As days of pleasant activity give way to sharper moments of conscience, Maude must decide what kind of person she will become - and whether faith and feeling, duty and desire, can be held together without breaking her. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 1 (00:28:07) Chapter 2 (00:55:00) Chapter 3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Victory by Joseph Conrad audiobook. Genre: tragedy Set in the Dutch East Indies at the edge of empire, Joseph Conrad's Victory follows Axel Heyst, a wealthy, disillusioned European who retreats from the world to a remote island, convinced that detachment is the only safe philosophy. His self-imposed solitude is disrupted when he intervenes to help Lena, a young musician trapped in a seedy touring troupe. Bringing her to his island refuge, Heyst discovers that withdrawal does not cancel responsibility - or desire - and that intimacy can be both a sanctuary and a vulnerability. Meanwhile, the island becomes a magnet for danger: a failing business venture, old resentments, and a trio of predatory outsiders converge, sensing opportunity in Heyst's isolation and in the couple's precarious position. As pressure mounts, the novel tests the limits of Heyst's ideals against the demands of love, loyalty, and action. Victory is a tense, atmospheric study of moral paralysis and sudden courage, where Conrad's seascape of heat and shadow frames a clash between conscience and cruelty. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:03:01) Chapter 02 (00:20:58) Chapter 03 (00:33:18) Chapter 04 (00:52:43) Chapter 05 (01:05:10) Chapter 06 (01:17:54) Chapter 07 (01:46:25) Chapter 08 (01:56:22) Chapter 09 (02:05:25) Chapter 10 (02:26:44) Chapter 11 (02:53:16) Chapter 12 (03:05:20) Chapter 13 (03:16:52) Chapter 14 (03:39:52) Chapter 15 (04:08:45) Chapter 16 (04:39:59) Chapter 17 (05:08:35) Chapter 18 (05:25:30) Chapter 19 (05:30:30) Chapter 20 (05:58:12) Chapter 21 (06:24:50) Chapter 22 (06:39:42) Chapter 23 (06:54:16) Chapter 24 (07:14:33) Chapter 25 (07:22:23) Chapter 26 (07:38:30) Chapter 27 (08:10:36) Chapter 28 (08:26:08) Chapter 29 (08:41:44) Chapter 30 (08:52:50) Chapter 31 (09:06:49) Chapter 32 (09:36:39) Chapter 33 (09:46:56) Chapter 34 (09:55:27) Chapter 35 (10:19:16) Chapter 36 (10:40:03) Chapter 37 (10:52:47) Chapter 38 (11:25:25) Chapter 39 (11:40:48) Chapter 40 (11:48:55) Chapter 41 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Stolen Brain by Nicholas Carter audiobook. Genre: mystery In a quiet stretch of the Bronx, not far from the New York Zoological Park, a feared surgeon has turned his rambling home into a private hospital - and whispers say the screams are not only animal. Dr. Hiram A. Grantley is brilliant, ruthless, and obsessed with pushing surgery beyond accepted limits. When antivivisectionist John D. Wallace brings alarming suspicions to famed detective Nick Carter, Carter decides the only way to learn the truth is to move in next door under an assumed name. Disguised as an ordinary family, Carter, his quick-witted assistant Patsy Garvan, and Patsy's intuitive wife Adelina begin a round-the-clock watch on Grantley's visitors: poor East Side patients who cannot pay, young doctors arriving after dark, and furtive movements that suggest something is being carried out at night.As the stake grows from rumor to imminent danger, Carter must balance stealth with urgency, risking exposure to catch Grantley in the act. With an allied surgeon ready to testify and a desperate plan to force an opening into the guarded house, the investigation drives toward a confrontation where medical ambition, human morality, and cold-blooded crime collide. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:09:56) Chapter 02 (00:21:15) Chapter 03 (00:28:48) Chapter 04 (00:35:27) Chapter 05 (00:42:48) Chapter 06 (00:48:49) Chapter 07 (00:57:01) Chapter 08 (01:04:51) Chapter 09 (01:14:18) Chapter 10 (01:25:02) Chapter 11 (01:35:18) Chapter 12 (01:41:27) Chapter 13 (01:49:55) Chapter 14 (01:58:10) Chapter 15 (02:06:28) Chapter 16 (02:13:15) Chapter 17 (02:21:34) Chapter 18 (02:29:16) Chapter 19 (02:36:47) Chapter 20 (02:44:43) Chapter 21 (02:52:37) Chapter 22 (02:59:50) Chapter 23 (03:12:05) Chapter 24 (03:20:03) Chapter 25 (03:28:48) Chapter 26 (03:38:51) Chapter 27 (03:47:33) Chapter 28 (03:56:42) Chapter 29 (04:04:31) Chapter 30 (04:13:05) Chapter 31 (04:23:29) Chapter 32 (04:31:12) Chapter 33 (04:38:50) Chapter 34 (04:46:25) Chapter 35 (04:55:06) Chapter 36 (05:01:11) Chapter 37 (05:08:50) Chapter 38 (05:15:20) Chapter 39 (05:18:53) Chapter 40 (05:23:35) Chapter 41 (05:28:59) Chapter 42 (05:35:48) Chapter 43 (05:40:35) Chapter 44 (05:46:35) Chapter 45 (05:50:13) Chapter 46 (05:58:15) Chapter 47 (06:05:41) Chapter 48 (06:08:16) Chapter 49 (06:11:08) Chapter 50 (06:14:39) Chapter 51 (06:19:30) Chapter 52 (06:24:25) Chapter 53 (06:30:05) Chapter 54 (06:37:13) Chapter 55 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices