Bernadette Dunne has narrated 203 audiobooks on Listento.it by 158 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 6,128 ratings. The most-rated is Why We Sleep.
Duck the Halls
Summary
A few nights before Christmas, Meg is awakened when Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, despite the protests of Mr. Vess, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen - only to turn up later during the concert slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens. It's clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Vess is discovered dead.
©2013 Donna Andrews (P)2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Swan for the Money
Summary
Meg Langslow's eccentric parents have a new hobby: growing roses and entering them in highly competitive shows. Dad's gardening skill and Mother's gift for selecting and arranging the blossoms should make them an unbeatable team - and Meg is relieved they've taken up such a safe, gentle hobby. She even volunteers to help when the Caerphilly Garden Club sponsors its first annual rose show. But after a few hours of dealing with her parents' competitors, Meg sees trouble...Rose growers are so cutthroat that they will do nearly anything to win the Black Swan trophy - making them all prime suspects when Meg discovers that someone is attempting to kill the wealthy woman on whose estate the competition is being held. Meg tries to leave the detecting to the local police and focus on the competition, but she just can't help getting her hands dirty when lives are at stake....
©2010 Donna Andrews (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
Summary
Maybe there are people in Antarctica with penguins in their basements, but in Virginia? Finding a body down there is somewhat more likely for Meg. Explaining the penguins' presence is easy; Meg's dad volunteered to take care of the birds until the future of the bankrupt local zoo could be determined. But identifying the body in the basement proves a harder task. Meg and Michael have been planning to elope to avoid the elaborate wedding their mothers have begun to organize; a plan that's threatened by both the murder investigation and the carnival of animals. The only way to set things right, Meg decides, is to identify both their uninvited visitor and the killer who put him in their basement.
©2008 Donna Andrews (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Some Like it Hawk
Summary
Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at Caerphilly Days, a festival inspired by the town's sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail". The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated - except one. Phineas Throckmorton, town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict him, and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement. Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Meg soon deduces that the killer isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that would help the town reclaim its buildings.
©2012 Donna Andrews (P)2012 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Terns of Endearment
Summary
Meg's grandfather has been booked to give lectures on a cruise as part of the education/entertainment itinerary, and he's arranged for a passel of family members to join him. The passengers’ vacation quickly becomes a nightmare when they wake up to find themselves broken down and in need of repairs. Things get even worse when a crew member announces to all that a woman has jumped overboard, leaving behind her shoes, shawl, and a note. The note reveals she's a disliked member of a writers' group onboard for a retreat, and the group is split on whether this is in-character for her. The captain decides not to investigate, saying he'll notify American authorities when they reach their destination. But Meg's father decides they need to look into whether there was possible foul play while the prime suspects are all stuck on board. It'll be a race against the clock to solve this mystery before they make the necessary repairs and return to shore.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Voice of Reason
Summary
In the years between her first public lecture in 1961 and her last in 1981, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces are gathered together in book form for the first time. Written in the last decades of Rand's life, they reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor. The work concludes with Peikoff's epilogue, "My Thirty Years with Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir," which answers the question "What was Ayn Rand really like?" Important reading for all thinking individuals, this collection communicates not only Rand's singular worldview, but also the penetrating cultural and political analysis to which it gives rise.
©1989 the Estate of Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ayn Rand Answers
Summary
After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand occasionally lectured in order to bring her philosophy of Objectivism to a wider audience and apply it to current cultural and political issues. These taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed added not only an eloquent new dimension to Ayn Rand's ideas and beliefs, but a fresh and spontaneous insight into Ayn Rand herself. Here, Rand presents her provocative ideas in a personable question-and-answer session from which one can gain new insights and a fuller appreciation of her thought and a sense of what she was like as a person.
©2008 The Estate of Ayn Rand (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Goodbye Sarajevo
Summary
May, 1992. Hana is 12 years old when her older sister Atka puts her on a UN evacuation bus fleeing the besieged city of Sarajevo. Thinking they will be apart for a short time, they make a promise to each other to be brave. But as the Bosnian war escalates and months go by without contact, their promise becomes deeply significant. Hana is forced to cope as a refugee in Croatia, while Atka and their younger siblings battle for survival in a city overwhelmed by crime and destruction. Then, when Atka manages to find work as a translator, events take an unexpected turn, and the remarkable events that follow change her life, and those of her family, forever.
©2011 Atka Reid & Hana Schofield (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
We'll Always Have Parrots
Summary
Meg Langslow knew the fan convention for her actor-boyfriend's hit television series was going to be the ultimate in weird. But she came along because she figured Michael could use an occasional dose of sanity, and because it was an inspired place to sell her hand-crafted weapons. And so far, she was dealing pretty well with the costumed fans camped outside, the batch of escaped parrots and monkeys frolicking throughout the hotel, and the minefield of egos lurking behind the show's success. But soon after Meg goes head-to-head with egomaniacal series star Tamerlaine Wynncliffe-Jones, the "Queen B" turns up brutally murdered. Now, with Michael in the running as prime suspect, Meg will go up against an all-star cast of not-even-innocent parties, hidden identities, and buried motives. And she'll cross swords with a deviously obsessed murderer determined to write her out of this picture for good.
©2004 Donna Andrews (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.
The Good, the Bad, and the Emus
Summary
Meg's paternal grandfather has hired Stanley Denton to find her grandmother Cordelia. Stanley has found a trail to his long-lost love in a small town a short drive away. He convinces Meg to come with him to meet her, but unfortunately, the woman they meet is Cordelia's cousin. Cordelia died several years ago, and the cousin suspects she was murdered by her long-time neighbor. Stanley and Meg agree to help track down the killer. Grandfather even has perfect cover: He, along with most of Meg's family and friends in Caerphilly, will stage a rescue of the feral emus and ostriches that infest this town. But then the neighbor is murdered, and not only Cordelia's cousin but also the entire contingent of emu-rescuers are suspects.
©2014 Donna Andrews (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Between Past and Future
Summary
Hannah Arendt's insightful observations of the modern world, based on a profound knowledge of the past, constitute an impassioned contribution to political philosophy. In Between Past and Future, Arendt describes the perplexing crises modern society faces as a result of the loss of meaning of the traditional key words of politics: justice, reason, responsibility, virtue, and glory. Through a series of eight exercises, she shows how we can redistill the vital essence of these concepts and use them to regain a frame of reference for the future. To participate in these exercises is to associate, in action, with one of the most original and fruitful minds of the 20th century.
©2017 Hannah Arendt and Jerome Kohn (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Fading Dream
Summary
The award-winning creator of Eberron infiltrates the magical cities of the feyspires.Thorn’s latest mission: protect the prince of Cyre, a monarch in name only since his country was destroyed by the Mourning. But in that same cataclysm, seven cities of the Feywild - the feyspires - were trapped on the plain of Eberron, a concurrence the eladrin who rule the feyspires insist is no coincidence. They insist that with the right pieces they can repair the devastation of the Mourning. All they need are a few missing - one in the heart of a mysterious Cyran soldier and one that’s lodged in Thorn’s spine, carrying the soul of the Angel of Flame. Intense secret agent action with all the magic and mystery of Eberron - the Thorn of Breland series has been a perfect mix of fantasy and adventure. James Bond meets J.R.R. Tolkien.
©2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The Last Love Song
Summary
In The Last Love Song, Tracy Daugherty, the critically acclaimed author of Hiding Man (a New York Times Notable book) and Just One Catch, delves deep into the life of distinguished American author and journalist Joan Didion in this, the first biography published about her life. Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction. Some of her most notable work includes Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Run River, and The Year of Magical Thinking, a National Book Award winner shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. Daugherty takes listeners on a journey back through time, following a young Didion in Sacramento through to her adult life as a writer. Daugherty interviews those who know and knew her personally while maintaining a respectful distance from the reclusive literary great. The Last Love Song reads like fiction; lifelong fans and listeners learning about Didion for the first time will be enthralled with this impressive tribute.
©2015 Tracy Daugherty (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Hedy's Folly
Summary
What do Hedy Lamarr, avant-garde composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio: a revolutionary invention based on the rapid switching of communications signals among a spread of different frequencies. Without this technology, we would not have the digital comforts that we take for granted today. Only a writer of Richard Rhodes’s caliber could do justice to this remarkable story. Unhappily married to a Nazi arms dealer, Lamarr fled to America at the start of World War II; she brought with her not only her theatrical talent but also a gift for technical innovation. An introduction to Antheil at a Hollywood dinner table culminated in a U.S. patent for a jam- proof radio guidance system for torpedoes - the unlikely duo’s gift to the U.S. war effort. What other book brings together 1920s Paris, player pianos, Nazi weaponry, and digital wireless into one satisfying whole? In its juxtaposition of Hollywood glamour with the reality of a brutal war, Hedy’s Folly is a riveting book about unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.
©2011 Richard Rhodes (P)2011 Random House Audio
The Submission
Summary
Claire Harwell hasn't settled into grief; events haven't let her. Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the 9/11 widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her mission: she sits on a jury charged with selecting a fitting memorial for the victims of the attack. Of the thousands of anonymous submissions that she and her fellow jurors examine, one transfixes Claire: a garden on whose walls the names of the dead are inscribed. But when the winning envelope is opened, they find the designer is Mohammad Khan - Mo - an enigmatic Muslim-American who, it seems, feels no need to represent anyone's beliefs except his own.
When the design and its creator are leaked, a media firestorm erupts, and Claire finds herself trying to balance principles against emotions amid escalating tensions about the place of Islam in America.
A remarkably bold and ambitious debut, The Submission is peopled with journalists, activists, mourners, and bureaucrats who struggle for advantage and fight for their ideals. In this deeply humane novel, the breadth of Amy Waldman's cast of characters is matched by her startling ability to conjure individual lives from their own points of view. A striking portrait of a city - and a country - fractured by old hatreds and new struggles, The Submission is a major novel by an important new talent.
©2011 AudioGO (P)2011 Amy Waldman
Countdown
Summary
"Don't kill her. She's no good to us dead." These words haunt Jane MacGuire after a shocking attack shatters her world in an instant. Was it a random kidnapping attempt, or the countdown to something far more sinister? Who is after her, and what do they want so badly they'll kill anyone in their way? That's what Jane is determined to find out, without the help of the police, the FBI, or her adoptive parents, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan, and her husband, Joe Quinn, of the Atlanta PD, because whoever is after her won't hesitate to hurt those she loves the most. Now Jane will go on the run with the only man who may be more dangerous than those who are pursuing her. A smuggler, a con man, and who knew what else, Mark Trevor had his own mysterious reasons for wanting to keep Jane safe and out of the hands of a killer obsessed with a 2,000-year-old mystery that could rock the modern-day world. Orphaned at an early age, Jane grew up the hard way, but she was given a new life, a loving family, and a chance to pursue her interest in one of the greatest archaeological finds ever unearthed. Now someone was trying to destroy that new life before it could even get started. The past is returning with the kind of vengeance that knows no mercy. The countdown has already begun, and it's approaching zero faster than anyone thinks.
©2005 Iris Johansen (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.
Toucan Keep a Secret
Summary
Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal locking up after an event and checking on the toucan that Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering in her office. After hearing a hammering in the crypt, Meg finds an elderly parishioner lying dead on the floor. Several niches have been chiseled open, several urns knocked out, and amid the spilled ashes is a gold ring with a huge red stone. The curmudgeonly victim had become disgruntled with the church and ranted all over town about taking back his wife's ashes. Did someone who had it in for him follow him? Or was the motive grave robbery? Or did he see someone breaking in and investigate? Why was the ruby left behind? While Chief Burke investigates the murder, Robyn recruits Meg to contact the families of the people whose ashes were disturbed. During this task, Meg discovers clues that indicate that a thief broke into the church to steal the toucan the night of the murder, so Meg decides to set a trap for the would-be toucan thief...who might also be the killer.
©2018 Donna Andrews (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Owls Well That Ends Well
Summary
Meg Langslow was actually looking forward to renovating the old Victorian mansion she and her boyfriend Michael bought. But she wasn't thrilled by the lifetime of junk accumulated by the house's eccentric previous owner, Edwina Sprocket. The easiest solution: hold the end-all and be-all of gigantic yard sales. But when the event attracts the late Miss Sprocket's money-hungry heirs, the over-enthusiastic supporters of some endangered barn owls, and customers willing to go to any lengths to uncover a hidden treasure, Meg suspects things have gotten a little out of hand. Then, an antiques dealer is found stuffed in a trunk with his head bashed in - and the yard sale turns into a days-long media circus.
©2005 Donna Andrews (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Way Through the Woods
Summary
A grieving widow discovers a most unexpected form of healing - hunting for mushrooms.
“Moving... Long tells the story of finding hope after despair lightly and artfully, with self-effacement and so much gentle good nature.” (The New York Times)
Long Litt Woon met Eiolf a month after arriving in Norway from Malaysia as an exchange student. They fell in love, married, and settled into domestic bliss. Then Eiolf’s unexpected death at 54 left Woon struggling to imagine a life without the man who had been her partner and anchor for 32 years. Adrift in grief, she signed up for a beginner’s course on mushrooming - a course the two of them had planned to take together - and found, to her surprise, that the pursuit of mushrooms rekindled her zest for life.
The Way Through the Woods tells the story of parallel journeys: an inner one, through the landscape of mourning, and an outer one, into the fascinating realm of mushrooms - resilient, adaptable, and essential to nature’s cycle of death and rebirth. From idyllic Norwegian forests and urban flower beds to the sandy beaches of Corsica and New York’s Central Park, Woon uncovers an abundance of surprises often hidden in plain sight: salmon-pink Bloody Milk Caps, which ooze red liquid when cut; delectable morels, prized for their earthy yet delicate flavor; and bioluminescent mushrooms that light up the forest at night.
Along the way, she discovers the warm fellowship of other mushroom obsessives, and finds that giving her full attention to the natural world transforms her, opening a way for her to survive Eiolf’s death, to see herself anew, and to reengage with life.
Praise for The Way Through the Woods
"In her search for new meaning in life after the death of her husband, Long Litt Woon undertook the study of mushrooms. What she found in the woods, and expresses with such tender joy in this heartfelt memoir, was nothing less than salvation." (Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia and Microbia)
©2019 Litt Woon Long (P)2019 Random House Audio
Die Like an Eagle
Summary
Meg is Team Mom, and Michael is coach of their twin sons' youth baseball team, the Caerphilly Eagles. Meg tangles with Biff Brown, the petty, vindictive league head. On opening day Biff's lookalike brother is found dead in the porta-potty at the ball field. So many people think Biff's scum that it would be easy to blame him, but he has an alibi - and Meg suspects he may actually have been the intended victim. With Die Like an Eagle, listeners can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery - this one filled with the spirit of America's pastime and Donna's eagle eye.
©2016 Donna Andrews (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC