Kingdom of Ash
Summary
Years in the making, Sarah J. Maas's number-one New York Times best-selling Throne of Glass series draws to an epic, unforgettable conclusion. Aelin Galathynius's journey from slave to king's assassin to the queen of a once-great kingdom reaches its heart-rending finale as war erupts across her world.... Aelin has risked everything to save her people - but at a tremendous cost. Locked within an iron coffin by the Queen of the Fae, Aelin must draw upon her fiery will as she endures months of torture. Aware that yielding to Maeve will doom those she loves keeps her from breaking, though her resolve begins to unravel with each passing day.... With Aelin captured, Aedion and Lysandra remain the last line of defense to protect Terrasen from utter destruction. Yet they soon realize that the many allies they've gathered to battle Erawan's hordes might not be enough to save them. Scattered across the continent and racing against time, Chaol, Manon, and Dorian are forced to forge their own paths to meet their fates. Hanging in the balance is any hope of salvation - and a better world.  And across the sea, his companions unwavering beside him, Rowan hunts to find his captured wife and queen - before she is lost to him forever.  As the threads of fate weave together at last, all must fight, if they are to have a chance at a future. Some bonds will grow even deeper, while others will be severed forever in the explosive final chapter of the Throne of Glass series.
©2018 Sarah J. Maas (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
The Fire Next Time
Summary
At once a powerful evocation of his early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice to both the individual and the body politic, James Baldwin galvanized the nation in the early days of the civil-rights movement with this eloquent manifesto. The Fire Next Time stands as one of the essential works of our literature.
©1962 James Baldwin (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America
If Beale Street Could Talk
Summary
In this honest and stunning novel, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice. Told through the eyes of Tish, a 19-year-old girl in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin's story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and is imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions - affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.
©1974 James Baldwin. © renewed 2002 by Gloria Baldwin Karefa-Smart (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Giovanni's Room
Summary
Set in the 1950âs Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwinâs now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
©1956 James Baldwin (P)2013 AudioGO
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Summary
James Baldwinâs stunning first novel is now an American classic. With startling realism that brings Harlem and the black experience vividly to life, this is a work that touches the heart with emotion while it stimulates the mind with its narrative style, symbolism, and excoriating vision of racism in America. Moving through time from the rural South to the northern ghetto, Baldwin chronicles a 14-year-old boyâs discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Go Tell it on the Mountain is an unsurpassed portrayal of human beings caught up in a dramatic struggle and of a society confronting inevitable change.
©1981 James Baldwin (P)2013 AudioGO
Marilla of Green Gables
Summary
A bold, heartfelt tale of life at Green Gables...before Anne: A marvelously entertaining and moving historical novel, set in rural Prince Edward Island in the 19th century, that imagines the young life of spinster Marilla Cuthbert and the choices that will open her life to the possibility of heartbreak - and unimaginable greatness. Plucky and ambitious, Marilla Cuthbert is 13 years old when her world is turned upside down. Her beloved mother dies in childbirth, and Marilla suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife: cooking, sewing, keeping house, and overseeing the day-to-day life of Green Gables with her brother, Matthew, and father, Hugh. In Avonlea - a small, tight-knit farming town on a remote island - life holds few options for farm girls. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth "Izzy" Johnson, her motherâs sister, who managed to escape from Avonlea to the bustling city of St. Catharines. An opinionated spinster, Aunt Izzyâs talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world. Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. Joining the Ladies Aid Society, she raises funds for an orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity in nearby Nova Scotia that secretly serves as a way station for runaway slaves from America. Her budding romance with John Blythe, the charming son of a neighbor, offers her a possibility of future happiness - Marilla is in no rush to trade one farm life for another. She soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics and abolition - jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe. Now, Marilla must face a reckoning between her dreams of making a difference in the wider world and the small-town reality of life at Green Gables.
©2018 Sarah McCoy (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Notes of a Native Son
Summary
At last, a new audio edition of the book many have called James Baldwin's most influential work! Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his 20s, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of Black life and Black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. Writing as an artist, activist, and social critic, Baldwin probes the complex condition of being Black in America. With a keen eye, he examines everything from the significance of the protest novel to the motives and circumstances of the many Black expatriates of the time, from his home in "The Harlem Ghetto" to a sobering "Journey to Atlanta." Notes of a Native Son inaugurated Baldwin as one of the leading interpreters of the dramatic social changes erupting in the United States in the 20th century, and many of his observations have proven almost prophetic. His criticism on topics such as the paternalism of White progressives or on his own friend Richard Wright's work is pointed and unabashed. He was also one of the few writing on race at the time who addressed the issue with a powerful mixture of outrage at the gross physical and political violence against Black citizens and measured understanding of their oppressors, which helped awaken a White audience to the injustices under their noses. Naturally, this combination of brazen criticism and unconventional empathy for White readers won Baldwin as much condemnation as praise. Notesis the book that established Baldwin's voice as a social critic, and it remains one of his most admired works. The essays collected here create a cohesive sketch of Black America and reveal an intimate portrait of Baldwin's own search for identity as an artist, as a Black man, and as an American.
©2012 James Baldwin (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Across Islands and Oceans
Summary
Across Islands and Oceans is the memoir of 25 year-old James Baldwin and his epic two-year, solo circumnavigation in Atom, his trusty but aging 28-foot sailboat. Early on and "as broke as [he] dared to be", James determined not only to sail around the world, but also to hike across every island that he visits. His inland forays are unique in the literature of circumnavigators as he finds danger, humor, friendship, and romance in places most sailors will never visit. James' story unfolds in his earnest exploration of distant lands and seas, his meditations on the people whose lives he touched, and his greater voyage to explore his own private ocean of solitude. His adventure is not merely an attempt to seek thrills, nor even to tempt death, but rather a voyage of discovery as he set out in the direction of his youthful dreams to meet the life he imagined. "Go seek what you will, where you will, but be a seeker all of your life." (James Baldwin)
©2012 James Baldwin (P)2017 James Baldwin
Bound for Distant Seas
Summary
Bound for Distant Seas begins sailing author James Baldwin's epic tale of his second circumnavigation. His story is seasoned by his adventures during his first circumnavigation in 1984-86 as told in Across Islands and Oceans. Alone with little money aboard Atom, his now-engineless 28-foot sailboat, James embarks on his odyssey without the comforts and equipment most sailors consider essential. Challenging himself to live as closely with the sea as possible, the author sets sail in 1987 from Florida, bound for new adventures on the distant shores of Asia. He does not return home again for 15 years. In this paean to the sea and foreign lands, the author recounts the best and worst of life on the ocean, visits to far-flung islands, and adventures amid throngs of humanity in some of the world's most densely populated cities. This unvarnished physical and philosophical saga includes encounters with dead-eyed bureaucrats, native angels of mercy, newly discovered WWII wreckage, fellow expat adventurers, rogues and misfits. The journey takes many unplanned turns as the author faces near misses with lurking dangers, hikes across islands, finds temporary employment ashore, and immerses himself in foreign cultures. Along the way he is tested by sea and society, and he ultimately discovers the priceless treasures of heart and mind that he seeks. James invites you to come aboard Atom for the journey of a lifetime.
©2015 James Baldwin (P)2015 David N. Olberding
Another Country
Summary
First published in 1962, this is an emotionally intense novel of love, hatred, race, and liberal America in the 1960s, taking on the then-taboo themes of interracial couples, bisexuality, and extramarital affairs. Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, Another Country tells the story of the suicide of jazz-musician Rufus Scott and the friends who search for an understanding of his life and death, discovering uncomfortable truths about themselves along the way. Another Country is a work that is as powerful today as it was 40 years ago - and expertly narrated by Dion Graham.
©1990 Gloria Baldwin Karefa-Smart (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America
The Next Distant Sea
Summary
Narrated in his own voice, in this third book about his travels aboard the 28-foot sailboat Atom, James Baldwin creates an ode to the sea and to those who venture upon her in small voyaging sailboats.Â
The Next Distant Sea continues the memoir of his second adventurous circumnavigation as begun in his earlier book Bound for Distant Seas. Known for books and magazine articles about his earlier solo voyages, the author here describes the struggles and rewards of navigating distant seas, the joys and challenges of interacting with foreign cultures, as well as the love and loss of an intoxicating island girl.Â
Beginning in Hong Kong, The Next Distant Sea takes listeners to diverse destinations, through the lesser-traveled islands of the Philippines and Indonesia, to far-flung island outposts in the Indian Ocean, including a lengthy exploration of mysterious Madagascar, then on to newly postapartheid South Africa. Along the way Baldwinâs personal journey is interwoven with tales of the extraordinary and often outlandish characters he befriended, from a man who crossed the Pacific alone in a dugout canoe, to a vagabond trader who traveled to the poorest ports of east Africa in an engineless steel junk, to a young sailor who tragically lost his life. By melding their stories and his own, Baldwin provides valuable insight into the individualist, minimalist, and libertarian mind-set of the voyaging vagabond. The Next Distant Sea is essential listening for all who would go to sea in small boats.
©2017 James Baldwin (P)2018 James Baldwin
Home from Distant Seas
Summary
Home from Distant Seas completes the trilogy of books by James Baldwin recounting his 25 years of live-aboard cruising adventures. The author creates a tribute to the sea and to those who venture upon her in small voyaging sailboats as he describes his personal journey of survival and discovery at sea as well as the sailors and local people he met along the way. Continuing here with the memoir of his second adventurous circumnavigation begun in his earlier books Bound for Distant Seas and The Next Distant Sea, the author makes his way slowly, at times reluctantly, homeward from South Africa to the United States. He encounters a fierce storm off the Cape of Good Hope that tests his boat and his seamanship, then sails across the South Atlantic to Brazil and the Caribbean isles where he marries, and ultimately finds a new home port on the US East coast. On his journey Baldwin interviews some extraordinary characters who befriended him, ranging from a family of treasure hunters and island traders roaming the Indian Ocean on a Polynesian-style catamaran, to a married couple who sailed alone around the world together on two separate boats, a man who wintered alone aboard his sailboat in Antarctica, to an 80-year-old sailor who had just completed an Atlantic crossing in a unique home-built leeboarder. In his matter-of-fact style, Baldwin brings you all the colors and characters of humanityâthe good, the bad, and the downright bizarre. As their stories meld with his own, Home from Distant Seas provides insight into those intrepid individuals who lead their lives on distant seas. In the end, James Baldwinâs story is less a treatise on how to sail than a description and endorsement of a way of life.
©2020 James Baldwin (P)2021 James Baldwin
Going to Meet the Man
Summary
"There's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it."Â The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their heads above water. It may be the heroin that a down-and-out jazz pianist uses to face the terror of pouring his life into an inanimate instrument. It may be the brittle piety of a father who can never forgive his son for his illegitimacy. Or it may be the screen of bigotry that a redneck deputy has raised to blunt the awful childhood memory of the day his parents took him to watch a black man being murdered by a gleeful mob.
©1957, 1958, 1960, 1965 James Baldwin (P)2012 AudioGO
No Name in the Street
Summary
This stunningly personal document and extraordinary history of the turbulent '60s and early '70s displays James Baldwin's fury and despair more deeply than any of his other works. In vivid detail he remembers the Harlem childhood that shaped his early consciousness, the later events that scored his heart with pain - the murders of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, his sojourns in Europe and in Hollywood, and his return to the American South to confront a violent America face-to-face.
©1972 James Baldwin (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Devil Finds Work
Summary
Baldwin's personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing appraisal of American racial politics. Offering an incisive look at racism in American movies and a vision of America's self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist. Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained us and shaped our consciousness. And here too is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.
©1976 James Baldwin (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Nobody Knows My Name
Summary
James Baldwin's Nobody Knows My Name records the last months of this famed American writer's 10-year self-exile in Europe, his return to America and to Harlem, and his first trip south at the time of the school integration battles. It contains Baldwin's controversial and intimate profiles of Norman Mailer, Richard Wright, and Ingmar Bergman. And it explores such varied themes as the relations between blacks and whites, the role of blacks in America and in Europe, and the question of sexual identity.
©2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
James Baldwin: A Collection of Speeches and Lectures
Summary
James Baldwin was an American novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western society, most notably in regard to the mid-20th-century United States. This is a collection of his speeches and lectures.
©2020 James Baldwin (P)2020 James Baldwin
Great American Authors Read from Their Works, Volume 1
Summary
James Baldwin gives an electrifying reading about a young gay American in Paris recalling a dramatic and transforming incident from his boyhood, as he struggles to accept his sexual identity. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©1962 James Baldwin (P)1963 Calliope Author Readings
Xenofall
Summary
With the final battle looming, the fate of humanity will be decided. Alex Keener and Elekim will face down Askala, the dark Radaskim Xenomind. But as Askala unleashes her final fury, the road to Ragnarok can only be paved with grit...and lives. In this explosive conclusion to the Wasteland Chronicles series, Alex will rise to the mantle as Elekim...but will it be enough to defeat Askala?
©2014 Kyle West (P)2021 Tantor
Nobody Knows My Name
Summary
Told with Baldwin's characteristically unflinching honesty, this collection of illuminating, deeply felt essays - "passionate, probing, controversial" (The Atlantic) - examines topics ranging from race relations in the United States to the role of the writer in society, and offers personal accounts of Richard Wright, Norman Mailer, and other writers.
©1992 James Baldwin (P)2021 Hilton publishing
Just Above My Head
Summary
The stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this novel with a stunning, unforgettable experience. Here, in a monumental saga of love and rage, Baldwin goes back to Harlem, to the church of his groundbreaking novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the homosexual passion of Giovanni's Room, and to the political fire that inflames his nonfiction work. Here, too, the story of gospel singer Arthur Montana and his family becomes both a journey into another country of the soul and senses - and a living contemporary history of black struggle in this land.
©1978, 1979 James Baldwin (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
I Am Not Your Negro
Summary
Peck weaves these texts together, brilliantly imagining the book that Baldwin never wrote with selected published and unpublished passages, essays, letters, notes, and interviews that are every bit as incisive and pertinent now as they have ever been. Peckâs film uses them to jump through time, juxtaposing Baldwinâs private words with his public statements, in a blazing examination of the tragic history of race in America.
©2017 James Baldwin, Raoul Peck (P)2021 Hilton publishing
Great American Authors Read from Their Works, Volume 1
Summary
In the first passage James Baldwin reads with passion about the suicide of a young black man in despair. The second passage takes place at his funeral service, where Baldwin speaks with both anger and eloquence, in the voice of the minister attempting to comfort his friends and family.
©1956 James Baldwin (P)1963 Calliope Author Readings
Fifty Famous Stories Retold
Summary
Here are 50 famous stories of long-ago times, retold in a short form for all young people. These are tales of valor, bravery, and kindness, as well as high adventure. Included: "King Alfred and the Cakes", "King Alfred and the Beggar", "King Canute of the Seashore", "The Sons of William the Conqueror", "The White Ship", "King John and the Abbott", "The Story of Robin Hood", "Bruce and the Spider", "The Black Douglas", "The Three Men of Gotham", "Other Wise Men of Gotham", "The Miller of the Dee", "Sir Philip Sidney", "Ungrateful Soldier", "Sir Humphrey Gilbert", "Sir Walter Raleigh", "Pocahontas", "George Washington and His Hatchet", "Grace Darling", "The Story of William Tell", "Arnold Winkelreid", "The Bell of Atri", "How Napoleon Crossed the Alps", "The Story of Cincinnatus", "The Story of Regulus", "Cornelia's Jewels", "Androclus and the Lion", "Horatius at the Bridge", "Julius Caesar", "The Sword of Damocles", "Damon and Pythias", "A Laconic Answer", "The Ungrateful Guest", "Alexander and Bucephalus", "Diogenes the Wise Man", "The Brave Three Hundred", "Socrates and His House", "The King and His Hawk", "Doctor Goldsmith", "The Kingdoms", "The Barmecide Feast", "The Endless Tale", "The Blind Men and the Elephant", "Maximilian and the Goose Boy", "The Inchcape Rock", "Whittington and His Cat", "Casabianca", "Antonio Canova", "Picciola", and "Mignon".
Public Domain (P)2006 Alcazar Audioworks
Androclus and the Lion
Summary
Androclus, a runaway Roman slave, befriends a lion with a thorn in his paw. They meet again in a Roman arena where the attraction consists of watching a lion devour a human. Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.  A story told by award-winning audiobook narrator and storyteller Mike Vendetti.
Public Domain (P)2020 Mike Vendetti