The Book Reader

The Women of the American Revolution Volume 1 by Elizabeth F. Ellet audiobook. Genre: history In The Women of the American Revolution, Volume 1, historian Elizabeth F. Ellet turns the spotlight from battlefields and legislatures to the households, roads, camps, and occupied towns where the struggle for independence was also fought. Drawing on letters, reminiscences, and early records, Ellet presents vivid biographical portraits of women whose courage and resourcefulness shaped the Revolution in ways official histories often overlook. Some are prominent figures moving within the circles of commanders and statesmen; others are ordinary wives, mothers, and daughters thrust into extraordinary circumstances by war. Across these narratives, the central conflict is not only the colonies' fight against British power, but each woman's fight to protect family and community amid scarcity, displacement, and political suspicion. Ellet traces how loyalty and conviction were tested in daily life: managing farms and businesses in a husband's absence, aiding soldiers, carrying intelligence, confronting occupation, and enduring imprisonment or exile. Volume 1 offers a gripping, human-scale view of the Revolution, exploring themes of patriotism, sacrifice, resilience, and the often-uncredited labor that sustained a nation in formation. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:22:45) Chapter 01 (00:39:47) Chapter 02 (01:14:01) Chapter 03 (01:37:00) Chapter 04 (02:27:34) Chapter 05 (03:18:48) Chapter 06 (03:57:46) Chapter 07 (04:23:19) Chapter 08 (04:49:14) Chapter 09 (05:09:32) Chapter 10 (05:31:16) Chapter 11 (06:08:11) Chapter 12 (06:38:31) Chapter 13 (07:08:13) Chapter 14 (07:50:37) Chapter 15 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Adventures of an Ugly Girl by Elizabeth Burgoyne Corbett audiobook. Genre: romance In late-Victorian England, Dora Courtenay has grown up in the shadow of her dazzling older sister, Belle, whose casual cruelty keeps Dora branded as the family 'ugly girl.' With only her brother Jerry offering steady kindness, Dora faces each day armored with sharp wit and a stubborn refusal to disappear. When their father brings home a new wife, the gentle and aristocratic Lady Elizabeth, Dora hopes for a fresh start - then promptly sabotages it by letting a thoughtless joke slip at exactly the wrong moment. As Dora tries to make peace in a changed household, old resentments and new expectations tighten around her, and society's verdict on a young woman's worth feels impossible to escape. Matters become far more complicated when Lady Elizabeth's powerful father, the Earl of Greatlands, takes an unsettling interest in Dora's future and makes a proposal that would transform her status overnight. Caught between class pressure, family politics, and her own desire to be valued for more than a face, Dora must decide what kind of life she will accept - and what kind of love, if any, she can trust. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:39:45) Chapter 02 (01:11:39) Chapter 03 (01:47:19) Chapter 04 (02:18:57) Chapter 05 (02:47:34) Chapter 06 (03:17:03) Chapter 07 (03:53:14) Chapter 08 (04:28:51) Chapter 09 (05:02:38) Chapter 10 (05:36:27) Chapter 11 (06:01:16) Chapter 12 (06:14:57) Chapter 13 (06:36:55) Chapter 14 (06:50:33) Chapter 15 (07:15:42) Chapter 16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Perkins, the Fakeer - A Travesty on Reincarnation by Edward S. Van Zile audiobook. Genre: comedy Edward S. Van Zile's Perkins, the Fakeer is a trio of comic, uncanny case histories, each allegedly set in motion by Perkins, a Yankee-turned-India adept whose peculiar powers trigger baffling psychic transpositions. In When Reginald Was Caroline, respectable spouses Reginald and Caroline wake to an impossible predicament: their minds have exchanged bodies. As servants knock at the door and the day’s obligations close in, the pair must improvise a way to preserve appearances, navigate marriage from the other side of the looking-glass, and argue over which habits and privileges truly belong to whom. How Chopin Came to Remsen shifts to another household, where practical businessman Tom Remsen begins to display flashes of artistic genius that seem borrowed from a far different life, drawing his anxious wife into doctors, music rooms, and the orbit of an intense admirer, Signorina Molatti. In Clarissa's Troublesome Baby, a contented remarriage is thrown into panic when a baby speaks with the voice and attitudes of Clarissa's late first husband, forcing secrets, negotiations, and awkward domestic diplomacy. Witty, satirical, and fast-moving, these tales lampoon society, spirituality, and the fragile performance of identity. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:02:02) Chapter 01 (00:31:54) Chapter 02 (00:59:09) Chapter 03 (01:24:42) Chapter 04 (01:47:48) Chapter 05 (02:12:02) Chapter 06 (02:36:06) Chapter 07 (02:59:08) Chapter 08 (03:21:41) Chapter 09 (03:43:51) Chapter 10 (04:04:11) Chapter 11 (04:25:26) Chapter 12 (04:44:11) Chapter 13 (05:02:28) Chapter 14 (05:21:52) Chapter 15 (05:38:05) Chapter 16 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Girl From Hollywood by Edgar Rice Burroughs audiobook. Genre: mystery Edgar Rice Burroughs steps away from jungle adventure into a hard-edged tale of America in the 1920s, where wide-open ranch country collides with the glitter and rot of the movie business. On a remote California spread, the Penningtons pride themselves on decency and hard work, but their son Custer is tested when his longtime friend Grace Evans dreams of leaving home to become an actress. In Hollywood, another young woman, Shannon Burke (billed on screen as Gaza de Lure), learns how easily ambition can be twisted by predators, and how quickly a life can be pulled into addiction and crime. As Prohibition bootlegging and a hidden drug traffic begin to thread through both the ranch and the studio world, the Penningtons find their family bonds strained by secrecy, temptation, and threats from men who profit off ruin. With a ruthless actor-director pulling strings, a smugglers network tightening its grip, and two very different women fighting for dignity in a system built to use them, Custer must decide what loyalty and love are worth when innocence is no longer protected by distance. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:12:56) Chapter 02 (00:23:41) Chapter 03 (00:30:48) Chapter 04 (00:46:41) Chapter 05 (01:10:20) Chapter 06 (01:22:13) Chapter 07 (01:27:26) Chapter 08 (01:35:13) Chapter 09 (01:46:14) Chapter 10 (02:00:11) Chapter 11 (02:12:57) Chapter 12 (02:24:13) Chapter 13 (02:34:01) Chapter 14 (02:52:28) Chapter 15 (03:14:41) Chapter 16 (03:39:13) Chapter 17 (03:48:45) Chapter 18 (04:08:50) Chapter 19 (04:15:24) Chapter 20 (04:32:18) Chapter 21 (04:46:17) Chapter 22 (04:55:46) Chapter 23 (05:09:37) Chapter 24 (05:19:34) Chapter 25 (05:29:42) Chapter 26 (05:42:23) Chapter 27 (05:56:55) Chapter 28 (06:08:30) Chapter 29 (06:16:19) Chapter 30 (06:23:48) Chapter 31 (06:39:33) Chapter 32 (06:55:37) Chapter 33 (07:07:03) Chapter 34 (07:21:01) Chapter 35 (07:37:20) Chapter 36 (07:43:24) Chapter 37 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Raven and The Philosophy Of Composition by Edgar Allan Poe audiobook. Genre: poetry Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven and The Philosophy of Composition pairs one of the most famous narrative poems in American literature with the provocative essay in which Poe claims to explain how he built it. In The Raven, a sleepless narrator, raw with grief and memory, tries to read away the night when an unexpected visitor arrives: a raven that perches above his door and answers every question with the same unnerving refrain. As the hours tighten, the speaker's curiosity turns to obsession, and the bird's calm presence becomes a mirror for longing, dread, and the mind's talent for self-torment. The companion piece, The Philosophy of Composition, shifts from candlelit Gothic atmosphere to cool analysis as Poe walks listeners through his stated method: choosing a single emotional effect, selecting sound and rhythm to reinforce it, and arranging images and repetition to escalate intensity. Together, poem and essay form a compact masterclass on how mood is engineered, how meaning can be driven by music, and how art can feel both inevitable and hauntingly personal. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:02:08) Chapter 01 (00:33:51) Chapter 02 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Thief in the Night by E. W. Hornung audiobook. Genre: mystery In Edward W. Hornung's A Thief in the Night, London's most charming criminal steps out of the gentlemen's clubs and onto moonlit streets where reputation is a mask and burglary is an art. A. J. Raffles is a celebrated sportsman by day, a master thief by night, and he never works alone for long: his devoted friend and reluctant accomplice Bunny Manders tells the tale with equal parts admiration and dread. Together they navigate drawing rooms, hotel corridors, and quiet suburban houses, hunting not only for jewels and cash but for the perfect escape from suspicion. Each new scheme tests their nerve and their friendship, as close calls multiply and the law closes in through wary detectives and inconvenient witnesses. Yet the deeper conflict is not simply man versus police, but conscience versus desire: Bunny is pulled between loyalty and fear, while Raffles treats danger like a game with rules only he understands. Witty, tense, and steeped in late-Victorian and Edwardian atmosphere, this is a classic portrait of crime told from the criminal's side. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:41:31) Chapter 02 (01:16:03) Chapter 03 (01:55:47) Chapter 04 (02:39:44) Chapter 05 (03:24:15) Chapter 06 (03:59:31) Chapter 07 (04:41:31) Chapter 08 (05:20:15) Chapter 09 (05:59:16) Chapter 10 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Suffragette - The History of the Women's Militant Suffrage Movement by E. Sylvia Pankhurst audiobook. Genre: history This history of the Women's Suffrage agitation is written at a time when the question is in the very forefront of British politics. What the immediate future holds for those women who are most actively engaged in fighting for their political freedom no one can foretell, but one thing is certain: complete victory for their cause is not far distant. When the long struggle for the enfranchisement of women is over, those who read the history of the movement will wonder at the blindness that led the Government of the day to obstinately resist so simple and obvious a measure of justice. The men and women of the coming time will, I am persuaded, be filled with admiration for the patient work of the early pioneers and the heroic determination and persistence in spite of coercion, repression, misrepresentation, and insult of those who fought the later militant fight. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:05:42) Chapter 01 (00:39:04) Chapter 02 (01:04:12) Chapter 03 (01:25:13) Chapter 04 (02:07:15) Chapter 05 (02:39:41) Chapter 06 (03:13:59) Chapter 07 (03:39:00) Chapter 08 (04:07:22) Chapter 09 (04:32:29) Chapter 10 (04:57:44) Chapter 11 (05:26:12) Chapter 12 (05:49:10) Chapter 13 (06:17:15) Chapter 14 (06:44:06) Chapter 15 (07:05:05) Chapter 16 (07:36:14) Chapter 17 (08:04:30) Chapter 18 (08:30:37) Chapter 19 (08:57:45) Chapter 20 (09:29:20) Chapter 21 (09:57:39) Chapter 22 (10:35:59) Chapter 23 (11:10:05) Chapter 24 (11:40:15) Chapter 25 (12:14:23) Chapter 26 (12:48:05) Chapter 27 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Evil Shepherd by E. Phillips Oppenheim audiobook. Genre: thriller Fresh from a dazzling courtroom victory, London barrister Francis Ledsam believes he has done his duty: his client, Oliver Hilditch, has been acquitted of stabbing his business partner to death. Then a woman steps out of the crowd and shatters the evening's triumph. She introduces herself as Margaret Hilditch, and what she tells Ledsam turns professional pride into a private nightmare: the man he saved is not merely suspect, but morally rotten in ways the law cannot easily punish. Before Ledsam can decide whether to protect his reputation or act on his conscience, Hilditch is murdered, and the case twists into something far more dangerous than a single trial. Pulled into the investigation, Ledsam navigates glittering clubs and cynical high society, where amusement can look like cruelty and influence can be as lethal as a knife. As he searches for the truth, he is forced to test his own principles, resist seductive compromises, and uncover the guiding hand of an unseen figure who seems to herd human lives toward disaster - an evil shepherd indeed. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:08:14) Chapter 02 (00:17:56) Chapter 03 (00:24:53) Chapter 04 (00:36:39) Chapter 05 (00:47:06) Chapter 06 (01:04:17) Chapter 07 (01:16:10) Chapter 08 (01:34:20) Chapter 09 (01:45:14) Chapter 10 (01:58:18) Chapter 11 (02:07:35) Chapter 12 (02:20:43) Chapter 13 (02:34:36) Chapter 14 (02:45:00) Chapter 15 (03:04:47) Chapter 16 (03:18:04) Chapter 17 (03:38:19) Chapter 18 (03:54:04) Chapter 19 (04:08:57) Chapter 20 (04:26:00) Chapter 21 (04:38:10) Chapter 22 (04:48:04) Chapter 23 (05:08:36) Chapter 24 (05:22:25) Chapter 25 (05:39:00) Chapter 26 (05:59:18) Chapter 27 (06:11:40) Chapter 28 (06:22:13) Chapter 29 (06:34:32) Chapter 30 (06:46:35) Chapter 31 (06:59:03) Chapter 32 (07:11:12) Chapter 33 (07:36:51) Chapter 34 (07:47:43) Chapter 35 (08:07:11) Chapter 36 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Black Box by E. Phillips Oppenheim audiobook. Genre: mystery Sanford Quest is not a policeman, and he is not a magician - yet New York's most baffling crimes have a way of landing on his desk. Celebrated as the world's greatest criminologist, Quest relies on a cool, scientific mind, experimental gadgets, and a gift for reading human weakness to unravel cases everyone else has abandoned. When a strange chain of violence begins with an uncanny exhibit and a murder that refuses to make sense, Quest finds himself pulled into an expanding web of stolen valuables, eerie evidence that seems to move by itself, and taunting messages delivered in a small black box. As suspicion spreads and the authorities grow impatient, Quest must prove what is real, what is staged, and who is using fear as a weapon. Aided by his capable assistant Laura and a circle of uneasy allies, he follows the trail from city streets to foreign ports and harsh, remote landscapes, where each new clue raises the stakes and tightens the trap around him. Fast, episodic, and steeped in early 20th-century intrigue, this adventure blends classic detective work with sensational twists and scientific thrills. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:12:22) Chapter 02 (00:22:25) Chapter 03 (00:32:23) Chapter 04 (00:44:18) Chapter 05 (00:57:09) Chapter 06 (01:11:49) Chapter 07 (01:32:48) Chapter 08 (01:57:16) Chapter 09 (02:18:47) Chapter 10 (02:40:51) Chapter 11 (03:09:36) Chapter 12 (03:21:12) Chapter 13 (03:39:27) Chapter 14 (04:06:36) Chapter 15 (04:24:37) Chapter 16 (04:54:26) Chapter 17 (05:20:05) Chapter 18 (05:34:26) Chapter 19 (05:50:03) Chapter 20 (06:19:34) Chapter 21 (06:35:15) Chapter 22 (07:04:52) Chapter 23 (07:25:09) Chapter 24 (07:53:38) Chapter 25 (08:25:34) Chapter 26 (08:44:13) Chapter 27 (08:58:19) Chapter 28 (09:05:59) Chapter 29 (09:30:35) Chapter 30 (09:43:41) Chapter 31 (09:56:51) Chapter 32 (10:03:48) Chapter 33 (10:12:17) Chapter 34 (10:24:45) Chapter 35 (10:33:35) Chapter 36 (10:46:31) Chapter 37 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Storm Cloud on Deka by E. E. Smith audiobook. Genre: scifi In the far-flung Lensman universe, civilization spans the stars and the Galactic Patrol keeps uneasy order, but one terror still devours worlds: self-sustaining atomic vortices, miniature suns of runaway energy that grow as they feed. Neal 'Storm' Cloud is not a celebrated Lensman - he washed out of the exam - yet his uncanny mathematical mind makes him the only specialist trusted to predict, cage, and extinguish these star-hot monsters. When a crisis pulls him to the planet Deka, Storm expects a brutal engineering problem and a ticking clock. Instead, he walks into a web of local power struggles, corruption, and personal danger, where the wrong decision can ignite more than a vortex. As Storm races to keep an entire world from burning, he must navigate suspicious officials, ruthless opportunists, and alliances that shift as fast as Deka's deadly weather. Part catastrophe thriller, part pulp adventure, 'Storm Cloud on Deka' delivers classic E. E. Smith momentum: big science, bigger stakes, and a reluctant hero forced to prove that brilliance alone is not enough when lives, politics, and pride collide. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:18:13) Chapter 02 (00:48:50) Chapter 03 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices