The Book Reader

Billy Whiskers, the Autobiography of a Goat by Frances Trego Montgomery audiobook. Genre: family Told with mischievous charm in the voice of its unlikely hero, Billy Whiskers, the Autobiography of a Goat follows a bold young goat whose curiosity is always one nibble away from trouble. When Billy is separated from the comfortable rhythms of farm life, he finds himself plunged into a wider world of wagons and roads, strange barns and backyards, and humans who are by turns helpful, baffled, or downright determined to keep a certain goat out of mischief. Along the way, Billy crosses paths with a lively cast of animals - from barnyard rivals to unexpected companions - and learns that cleverness and nerve can get you far, but so can kindness and a bit of humility. As Billy searches for safety and a place to belong, each narrow escape and comic mishap becomes a lesson in resilience, trust, and the messy business of growing up. Frances Trego Montgomery delivers a classic animal adventure packed with humor, heart, and the spirited perspective of a narrator who is never afraid to tell you exactly what he thinks - especially when snacks are involved. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:11:03) Chapter 02 (00:17:30) Chapter 03 (00:32:00) Chapter 04 (00:40:36) Chapter 05 (00:47:55) Chapter 06 (00:54:08) Chapter 07 (01:11:11) Chapter 08 (01:18:10) Chapter 09 (01:30:57) Chapter 10 (01:57:10) Chapter 11 (02:07:04) Chapter 12 (02:19:52) Chapter 13 (02:25:48) Chapter 14 (02:35:38) Chapter 15 (02:41:34) Chapter 16 (02:52:22) Chapter 17 (03:00:14) Chapter 18 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Amethyst Cross by Fergus Hume audiobook. Genre: mystery On a soft May afternoon by the Thames, Lesbia Hale and George Walker dream aloud of a life they are not yet allowed to live. Their engagement, tender and hard-won, is threatened by Lesbia's formidable father, Walter Hale, who refuses to sanction the match and seems consumed by a strange fixation on an heirloom Lesbia has inherited from her late mother: a costly amethyst cross. When violence shatters the lovers' quiet plans and the cross vanishes under baffling circumstances, suspicion spreads through the household and beyond, touching servants, acquaintances, and those with hidden ties to the Hales. As Lesbia guards secrets she believes will protect her future, George is pulled into a web of clues that points to greed, old grudges, and carefully staged deception. Moving from riverside calm to shadowed streets and tense drawing rooms, Fergus Hume blends romance with classic Edwardian intrigue, building a puzzle in which every gesture may be a misdirection and the truth behind a single piece of jewelry could cost more than anyone expects. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:18:33) Chapter 02 (00:34:49) Chapter 03 (00:58:02) Chapter 04 (01:17:43) Chapter 05 (01:36:10) Chapter 06 (01:55:37) Chapter 07 (02:16:33) Chapter 08 (02:37:02) Chapter 09 (03:02:38) Chapter 10 (03:23:33) Chapter 11 (03:47:32) Chapter 12 (04:09:32) Chapter 13 (04:27:26) Chapter 14 (04:44:30) Chapter 15 (05:04:58) Chapter 16 (05:25:03) Chapter 17 (05:44:14) Chapter 18 (06:04:33) Chapter 19 (06:24:38) Chapter 21 (06:47:34) Chapter 22 (07:08:13) Chapter 23 (07:26:23) Chapter 24 (07:53:24) Chapter 25 (08:14:48) Chapter 26 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ada Merton by Francis J. Finn audiobook. Genre: religion In Ada Merton, Francis J. Finn, S.J. tells a compact, emotionally charged tale of a comfortable couple whose lives have drifted far from the faith they once knew. The Mertons are respected and self-sufficient, but religion has become a polite afterthought - until their home is shaken by the sudden loss of their only child, Ada. In the quiet aftermath of grief, ordinary routines turn hollow, old certainties crumble, and questions they have long avoided press in with new urgency: What does suffering mean? What, if anything, can outlast death? And where can hope be found when consolation feels impossible?Set against the rhythms of late 19th-century American Catholic life, the story follows the parents as friends, neighbors, and clergy offer help that is not merely sentimental, but demanding - calling for humility, honesty, and a willingness to begin again. Finn writes with pastoral insight, tracing how sorrow can either harden the heart or open it, and how a child's memory can become a summons to reconciliation. Ada Merton is a moving meditation on loss, spiritual awakening, and the hard, grace-filled work of returning home. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:09:58) Chapter 02 (00:25:18) Chapter 03 (00:35:51) Chapter 04 (00:47:31) Chapter 05 (00:58:46) Chapter 06 (01:11:15) Chapter 07 (01:22:16) Chapter 08 (01:36:14) Chapter 09 (01:48:09) Chapter 10 (01:59:22) Chapter 11 (02:11:54) Chapter 12 (02:20:48) Chapter 13 (02:31:23) Chapter 14 (02:46:06) Chapter 15 (02:59:43) Chapter 16 (03:06:35) Chapter 17 (03:16:50) Chapter 18 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thus Spake Zarathustra - A Book for All and None by Friedrich Nietzsche audiobook. Genre: philosophy Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a nineteenth-century German philosopher. He wrote critical texts on religion, morality, contemporary culture, philosophy and science, using a distinctive German language style and displaying a fondness for aphorism. Nietzsche's influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. Thus Spake Zarathustra (Also sprach Zarathustra), is a work composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885. Much of the work deals with ideas such as the 'eternal recurrence of the same', the parable on the 'death of God', and the 'prophecy' of the Overman, which were first introduced in The Gay Science. Described by Nietzsche himself as 'the deepest ever written', the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality, featuring as protagonist a fictionalized Zarathustra. A central irony of the text is that the style of the Bible is used by Nietzsche to present ideas of his which fundamentally oppose Judaeo-Christian morality and tradition. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:49:30) Chapter 01 (01:29:03) Chapter 02 (01:36:09) Chapter 03 (01:44:09) Chapter 04 (01:52:39) Chapter 05 (01:58:29) Chapter 06 (02:03:14) Chapter 07 (02:09:18) Chapter 08 (02:14:03) Chapter 09 (02:21:16) Chapter 10 (02:26:16) Chapter 11 (02:31:11) Chapter 12 (02:38:26) Chapter 13 (02:47:34) Chapter 14 (02:51:01) Chapter 15 (02:56:36) Chapter 16 (03:03:43) Chapter 17 (03:08:15) Chapter 18 (03:16:15) Chapter 19 (03:25:50) Chapter 20 (03:30:39) Chapter 21 (03:36:19) Chapter 22 (03:44:14) Chapter 23 (03:58:34) Chapter 24 (04:07:37) Chapter 25 (04:16:02) Chapter 26 (04:23:47) Chapter 27 (04:30:57) Chapter 28 (04:39:42) Chapter 29 (04:47:21) Chapter 30 (04:57:46) Chapter 31 (05:06:11) Chapter 32 (05:12:01) Chapter 33 (05:18:44) Chapter 34 (05:28:16) Chapter 35 (05:38:40) Chapter 36 (05:46:40) Chapter 37 (05:55:03) Chapter 38 (06:04:14) Chapter 39 (06:10:24) Chapter 40 (06:19:22) Chapter 41 (06:30:17) Chapter 42 (06:40:16) Chapter 43 (06:55:40) Chapter 44 (07:05:05) Chapter 45 (07:15:12) Chapter 46 (07:24:47) Chapter 47 (07:42:37) Chapter 48 (07:51:57) Chapter 49 (08:01:22) Chapter 50 (08:20:02) Chapter 51 (08:28:43) Chapter 52 (08:39:28) Chapter 53 (08:52:13) Chapter 54 (09:06:07) Chapter 55 (09:23:57) Chapter 56 (09:37:42) Chapter 57 (10:19:37) Chapter 58 (10:39:58) Chapter 59 (11:05:24) Chapter 60 (11:13:20) Chapter 61 (11:21:55) Chapter 62 (11:31:00) Chapter 63 (11:47:30) Chapter 64 (11:59:50) Chapter 65 (12:12:00) Chapter 66 (12:23:00) Chapter 67 (12:44:40) Chapter 68 (12:59:55) Chapter 69 (13:19:15) Chapter 70 (13:33:30) Chapter 71 (13:47:40) Chapter 72 (13:58:25) Chapter 73 (14:16:20) Chapter 74 (14:22:25) Chapter 75 (14:53:45) Chapter 76 (15:04:30) Chapter 77 (15:14:25) Chapter 78 (15:28:34) Chapter 79 (15:40:44) Chapter 80 (15:51:54) Chapter 81 (16:13:49) Chapter 82 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Superfluous Woman by Emma Francis Brooke audiobook. Genre: drama Published anonymously in 1894 at the height of the New Woman debate, A Superfluous Woman follows Jessamine Halliday, a beautiful young aristocrat who seems to be wasting away in the velvet air of London society. Her family, fearing a breakdown, summons the unconventional Dr. Cornerstone, who offers a startling diagnosis: Jessamine is not truly ill - she is starving for purpose. Pushed to examine how wealth, idleness, and the marriage market have shaped her, Jessamine attempts a daring cure. She leaves the drawing rooms behind and escapes to the Scottish Highlands, determined to live plainly, work with her hands, and discover who she might become without servants, gossip, or an arranged future closing in. In the rugged landscape she encounters Colin Macgillvray, a crofter whose integrity and independence challenge everything she has been taught to value, and whose presence awakens both longing and defiance. But shedding a lifetime of privilege is not the same as escaping its power. As old expectations pursue her into new terrain, Jessamine must decide what freedom costs - and whether love, labor, and self-respect can survive the pressures of class, scandal, and a double standard that punishes women for the choices men are allowed to make. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:18:26) Chapter 02 (00:46:43) Chapter 03 (01:15:01) Chapter 04 (01:27:46) Chapter 05 (01:40:24) Chapter 06 (01:58:09) Chapter 07 (02:10:15) Chapter 08 (02:28:53) Chapter 09 (02:46:09) Chapter 10 (03:04:04) Chapter 11 (03:21:35) Chapter 12 (03:43:00) Chapter 13 (03:50:34) Chapter 14 (04:12:13) Chapter 15 (04:20:17) Chapter 16 (04:48:09) Chapter 17 (05:13:28) Chapter 18 (05:32:35) Chapter 19 (05:57:57) Chapter 20 (06:20:21) Chapter 21 (06:37:45) Chapter 22 (06:59:43) Chapter 23 (07:31:58) Chapter 24 (08:03:57) Chapter 25 (08:24:38) Chapter 26 (09:05:03) Chapter 27 (09:26:08) Chapter 28 (09:50:47) Chapter 29 (10:11:52) Chapter 30 (10:34:28) Chapter 31 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Black Candle by Emily Murphy audiobook. Genre: history First published in 1922, The Black Candle is Emily F. Murphy's hard-hitting and highly influential exposé on narcotics in early 20th-century Canada. Writing from the vantage point of a public magistrate (and drawing on earlier journalism under her pen name, Janey Canuck), Murphy assembles courtroom anecdotes, police accounts, medical claims, and sensational reportage to argue that opium, cocaine, morphine and heroin, and the then-new specter of marijuana are not private vices but a national emergency. Moving from city streets and alleged opium dens to the machinery of trafficking and corruption, she portrays addiction as a force that can hollow out families, exploit the vulnerable, and undermine social order. The book's central conflict is not a single mystery to be solved, but a campaign: Murphy presses for stronger enforcement, harsher penalties, and broader public vigilance against dealers and users alike. At the same time, the narrative reveals the era's moral panic and the racialized assumptions that shaped public debate, making the work both a period artifact and a document with lasting consequences for drug policy and social attitudes. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:06:08) Chapter 01 (00:24:09) Chapter 02 (00:41:00) Chapter 03 (00:57:06) Chapter 04 (01:14:39) Chapter 05 (01:29:18) Chapter 06 (01:43:27) Chapter 07 (01:56:59) Chapter 08 (02:28:00) Chapter 09 (02:50:01) Chapter 10 (03:08:52) Chapter 11 (03:30:58) Chapter 12 (03:49:18) Chapter 13 (04:16:55) Chapter 14 (04:38:50) Chapter 15 (04:55:22) Chapter 16 (05:17:06) Chapter 17 (05:43:37) Chapter 18 (06:09:06) Chapter 19 (06:30:38) Chapter 20 (06:47:59) Chapter 21 (07:12:13) Chapter 22 (07:40:41) Chapter 23 (07:55:27) Chapter 24 (08:17:32) Chapter 25 (08:39:35) Chapter 26 (09:00:18) Chapter 27 (09:25:53) Chapter 28 (09:38:51) Chapter 29 (09:59:20) Chapter 30 (10:22:31) Chapter 31 (10:44:04) Chapter 32 (11:10:32) Chapter 33 (11:26:03) Chapter 34 (11:44:34) Chapter 35 (12:03:09) Chapter 36 (12:14:56) Chapter 37 (12:37:28) Chapter 38 (12:53:55) Chapter 39 (13:13:43) Chapter 40 (13:27:51) Chapter 41 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

File No. 113 by Emile Gaboriau audiobook. Genre: mystery As the story opens the impregnable safe of the Fauvel bank is robbed of 350,000 francs. As the only keyholders are Andre Fauvel the owner and his trusted head cashier it stands to reason that one of the two must be guilty. Both adamantly refute the charge. Enter the celebrated detective, and master of disguise, Monsieur Le coq who is determined to prove the accused Prosper Bertomy innocent and why he was framed. Believing the crimes linked he enlists the aid of 'The Squirrel'', an aspiring detective, in order to unravel the ingenuous plot of two despicable scoundrels, the Marquis de Clameran and Raoul Lagors, who have coerced the banker's wife and his niece Madeleine into giving up their money and precious jewels. With his methodical and superior investigative skills Le Coq uncovers the past betrayals, deceit, lies and family secrets that led to this vile plot which has affected so many lives. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:27:10) Chapter 02 (01:00:23) Chapter 03 (01:31:50) Chapter 04 (02:03:45) Chapter 05 (02:38:00) Chapter 06 (03:02:24) Chapter 07 (03:26:40) Chapter 08 (03:57:47) Chapter 09 (04:24:54) Chapter 10 (04:44:17) Chapter 11 (05:10:14) Chapter 12 (05:36:25) Chapter 13 (05:59:29) Chapter 14 (06:21:41) Chapter 15 (06:46:58) Chapter 16 (07:07:04) Chapter 17 (07:36:47) Chapter 18 (08:06:28) Chapter 19 (08:45:34) Chapter 20 (09:16:32) Chapter 21 (09:44:24) Chapter 22 (10:07:18) Chapter 23 (10:28:12) Chapter 24 (10:53:58) Chapter 25 (11:24:45) Chapter 26 (11:52:00) Chapter 27 (12:26:54) Chapter 28 (12:55:52) Chapter 29 (13:21:21) Chapter 30 (13:50:36) Chapter 31 (14:15:07) Chapter 32 (14:39:43) Chapter 33 (14:58:38) Chapter 34 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche audiobook. Genre: philosophy In The Birth of Tragedy, a young Friedrich Nietzsche sets out to explain how the greatest achievements of ancient Greek art emerged - and why modern culture so often feels artistically and spiritually exhausted. Moving from myth and music to drama and philosophy, Nietzsche argues that Greek tragedy was born from a volatile tension between two forces: the Apollonian impulse toward form, clarity, and luminous images, and the Dionysian impulse toward ecstasy, intoxication, and the breakdown of ordinary boundaries. At the center of the story stands tragedy's rise and decline, from the choral origins of ritual to the stagecraft of Aeschylus and Sophocles, and then toward a turning point Nietzsche links to the ascendancy of rational explanation. Along the way he confronts Socrates, probes the role of suffering in art, and offers an audacious defense of music - especially the kind of primal, world-shaping music he associates with the spirit of Wagner. Provocative, lyrical, and combative, this book invites listeners to ask what art is for, what a culture needs in order to flourish, and whether modern life can recover a tragic wisdom without surrendering to despair. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 00 (00:44:40) Chapter 01 (01:21:05) Chapter 02 (01:24:20) Chapter 03 (01:38:55) Chapter 04 (01:49:35) Chapter 05 (02:00:20) Chapter 06 (02:12:31) Chapter 07 (02:30:51) Chapter 08 (02:42:51) Chapter 09 (02:59:06) Chapter 10 (03:19:46) Chapter 11 (03:38:11) Chapter 12 (03:49:06) Chapter 13 (04:06:11) Chapter 14 (04:24:21) Chapter 15 (04:34:46) Chapter 16 (04:48:41) Chapter 17 (05:04:56) Chapter 18 (05:23:26) Chapter 19 (05:41:11) Chapter 20 (05:54:23) Chapter 21 (06:18:53) Chapter 22 (06:27:43) Chapter 23 (06:49:08) Chapter 24 (07:02:48) Chapter 25 (07:16:28) Chapter 26 (07:30:23) Chapter 27 (07:35:30) Chapter 28 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Soul or Rational Psychology by Emanuel Swedenborg audiobook. Genre: philosophy In The Soul, or Rational Psychology, Emanuel Swedenborg brings the mind of an 18th-century scientist to one of humanity's oldest questions: what is the soul, and how does it work within a living person? Writing before his later visionary theological works, Swedenborg sets out to build a rational account of the soul's nature, its relationship to the body, and the inner machinery of human life - sensation, imagination, memory, understanding, and will. Moving between careful observation, philosophical argument, and the anatomical knowledge of his era, he challenges the listener to consider whether thought and feeling can be reduced to matter alone, or whether a deeper principle must be admitted to explain consciousness, freedom, and moral responsibility. Along the way, Swedenborg explores how the soul communicates with the senses, how the mind forms ideas from experience, and how a person can be both a physical organism and a self-aware agent. Dense, ambitious, and often surprisingly modern in its aims, this work is a rigorous invitation to follow reason as far as it can go in the search for the soul. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:48:30) Chapter 02 (00:52:04) Chapter 03 (00:56:29) Chapter 04 (01:16:05) Chapter 05 (01:25:11) Chapter 06 (01:32:58) Chapter 07 (01:53:49) Chapter 08 (02:22:50) Chapter 09 (02:35:49) Chapter 10 (02:43:53) Chapter 11 (02:57:03) Chapter 12 (03:17:01) Chapter 13 (03:39:38) Chapter 14 (04:01:54) Chapter 15 (04:28:07) Chapter 16 (04:56:19) Chapter 17 (05:22:50) Chapter 18 (05:37:12) Chapter 19 (05:58:25) Chapter 20 (06:20:07) Chapter 21 (06:40:12) Chapter 22 (07:05:02) Chapter 23 (07:32:17) Chapter 24 (07:53:21) Chapter 25 (08:12:25) Chapter 26 (08:39:20) Chapter 27 (09:00:41) Chapter 28 (09:18:56) Chapter 29 (09:41:42) Chapter 30 (09:49:46) Chapter 31 (10:10:05) Chapter 32 (10:30:31) Chapter 33 (10:54:44) Chapter 34 (11:23:53) Chapter 35 (12:01:12) Chapter 36 (12:26:40) Chapter 37 (12:46:36) Chapter 38 (12:57:54) Chapter 39 (13:04:03) Chapter 40 (13:10:46) Chapter 41 (13:20:51) Chapter 42 (13:34:22) Chapter 43 (13:51:38) Chapter 44 (14:05:52) Chapter 45 (14:23:45) Chapter 46 (14:40:21) Chapter 47 (14:48:20) Chapter 48 (15:05:38) Chapter 49 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Settlers of the Marsh by Frederick Philip Grove audiobook. Genre: tragedy In the Big Grassy Marsh country of northern Manitoba in the early twentieth century, Swedish immigrant Niels Lindstedt stakes everything on a simple, burning vision: clear the bush, break the stubborn soil, and build a home that proves he belongs in this new land. Through backbreaking work and fierce self-discipline, he begins to turn raw wilderness into a prosperous farm - and he fixes his hopes on Ellen Amundsen, the capable, guarded daughter of a neighboring settler. But Ellen carries a private vow shaped by the brutal history she has witnessed, and Niels's yearning for domestic happiness meets a refusal he cannot understand. Stung by rejection and swept up by loneliness, he is drawn toward town and into the orbit of Clara Vogel, a woman who offers immediate comfort and dangerous excitement. As prairie respectability, desire, and pride collide, Niels discovers that building a house is easier than building a life, and that one impulsive decision can put a hard-won dream at risk. Frederick Philip Grove's stark, unsentimental novel explores isolation, sexuality, moral consequence, and the relentless pressures of pioneer survival. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 01 (00:30:43) Chapter 02 (01:03:18) Chapter 03 (01:36:21) Chapter 04 (02:06:34) Chapter 05 (02:31:56) Chapter 06 (03:00:04) Chapter 07 (03:26:31) Chapter 08 (03:49:31) Chapter 09 (04:17:35) Chapter 10 (04:50:35) Chapter 11 (05:19:53) Chapter 12 (05:53:34) Chapter 13 (06:17:30) Chapter 14 (06:40:08) Chapter 15 (07:06:44) Chapter 16 (07:39:00) Chapter 17 (08:16:19) Chapter 18 (08:43:54) Chapter 19 (09:26:15) Chapter 20 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices