Grover Gardner has narrated 345 audiobooks on Listento.it by 240 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 6,277 ratings. The most-rated is The Stand.
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
Summary
Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan returns to the planet that changed her destiny in a new novel by multiple New York Times best-selling author Lois McMaster Bujold. Future imperfect: Three years after her famous husband's death, Cordelia Vorkosigan, widowed vicereine of Sergyar, stands ready to spin her life in a new direction. Oliver Jole, admiral, Sergyar Fleet, finds himself caught up in her web of plans in ways he'd never imagined, bringing him to an unexpected crossroads in his life. Meanwhile, Miles Vorkosigan, one of Emperor Gregor's key investigators, this time dispatches himself on a mission of inquiry into a mystery he never anticipated - his own mother. Plans, wills, and expectations collide in this sparkling science fiction social comedy as the impact of galactic technology on the range of the possible changes all the old rules, and Miles learns that not only is the future not what he expects - neither is the past.
©2015 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Longest Winter
Summary
December 1944: Deep in the Ardennes forest, a platoon of 18 men under the command of 20-year-old lieutenant Lyle Bouck huddle in their foxholes. Under attack and vastly outnumbered, they repulse three German assaults in a fierce day-long battle, killing more than 500 Germans. Only when Bouck's men run out of ammunition do they surrender. As POWs, Bouck's platoon experience an ordeal far worse than combat: trigger-happy German guards, Allied bombing raids, and a daily ration of thin soup. Somehow, the men of Bouck's platoon all miraculously survive. Alex Kershaw brings to life the story of America's most decorated small unit of the war, and one of the most inspiring stories in American history.
©2004 Alex Kershaw (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
Summary
If you'd like to embark on a lifelong quest for godliness, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life will help you on your way. Based on the rich heritage left us by the early church fathers, the Puritan writers, and Jesus Christ Himself, this book takes you through a carefully selected array of disciplines including Scripture reading, prayer, worship, Scripture meditation, evangelism, serving, stewardship, Scripture application, fasting, silence and solitude, journaling, and learning.
©1991 Donald Whitney (P)2008 christianaudio.com
Penric's Mission: A Novella in the World of the Five Gods
Summary
In his 30th year, Penric fell in love with light. Learned Penric, a sorcerer and divine of the Bastard's Order, travels across the sea to sunlit Cedonia on his first covert diplomatic mission, to attempt to secure the services of a disaffected Cedonian general for the Duke of Adria. However, nothing is as it seems. Penric is betrayed and thrown into a dungeon, and worse follows for the general and his kin. Penric's narrow escapes and adventures - including his interest in a young widow - are told with Bujold's remarkable energy, wit, and humor. Once again, Bujold has created unforgettable characters and a wondrous, often dangerous world of intrigue and sorcery.
©2016 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ethan of Athos
Summary
Dr. Ethan Urquhart is chief of biology at a District Reproduction Center. He delivers babies from uterine replicators. You see, on Athos there are no women. In fact, the planet is forbidden to them. Isolated from the galactic community by distance and a lack of exploitable resources, the Athosians have peacefully lived their peculiar social experiment for two hundred years. But now, the ovarian cultures dating back to the original settlement of the planet are giving out. With the future of Athos at stake, Ethan is chosen on behalf of his cloistered fellows for a unique mission: to brave the wider universe in quest of new ovarian tissue cultures to replenish Athos' dwindling stocks. Along the way, he must tangle with covert operatives, killers, telepathy, interplanetary politics, and - perhaps most disturbingly - an indomitable female mercenary named Elli Quinn.
©1986 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Looting Machine
Summary
The trade in oil, gas, gems, metals, and rare earth minerals wreaks havoc in Africa. During the years when Brazil, India, China, and the other "emerging markets" have transformed their economies, Africa's resource states remained tethered to the bottom of the industrial supply chain. While Africa accounts for about 30 percent of the world's reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals and 14 percent of the world's population, its share of global manufacturing stood in 2011 exactly where it stood in 2000: at 1 percent. In his first book, The Looting Machine, Tom Burgis exposes the truth about the African development miracle: for the resource states, it's a mirage. The oil, copper, diamonds, gold, and coltan deposits attract a global network of traders, bankers, corporate extractors, and investors who combine with venal political cabals to loot the states' value. And the vagaries of resource-dependent economies could pitch Africa's new middle class back into destitution just as quickly as they climbed out of it. The ground beneath their feet is as precarious as a Congolese mine shaft; their prosperity could spill away like crude from a busted pipeline. This catastrophic social disintegration is not merely a continuation of Africa's past as a colonial victim. The looting now is accelerating as never before. As global demand for Africa's resources rises, a handful of Africans are becoming legitimately rich, but the vast majority, like the continent as a whole, is being fleeced. Outsiders tend to think of Africa as a great drain of philanthropy. But look more closely at the resource industry, and the relationship between Africa and the rest of the world looks rather different.
©2015 Tom Burgis (P)2015 Gildan Media LLC
Absalom, Absalom!
Summary
Absalom, Absalom! tells the story of Thomas Sutpen, the enigmatic stranger who came to Jefferson township in the early 1830s. With a French architect and a band of wild Haitians, he wrung a fabulous plantation out of the muddy bottoms of the north Mississippi wilderness. Sutpen was a man, Faulker said, "who wanted sons and the sons destroyed him". His tragedy left its impress not only on his contemporaries but also on men who came after, men like Quentin Compson, haunted even into the 20th century by Sutpen's legacy of ruthlessness and singleminded disregard for the human community.
©1986 Jill Faulkner Summers; 1993 Books on Tape, Inc.
The Wife's Secret: A Gripping Psychological Thriller with a Heart-Stopping Twist
Summary
Charley Willis was 13 years old when her parents were killed in their family home and she was found hiding in a cupboard upstairs. Fifteen years later, Charley is marrying Seth Chambers. It should be the happiest day of their lives, a chance for Charley to put her past behind her, but just hours after the ceremony, she is missing. No one saw her leave. No one knows where she is. One thing is for certain…Seth is about to discover he doesn’t really know the woman he just married. And his nightmare is only just beginning. A totally gripping psychological thriller that will keep you listening until the very last jaw-dropping twist.
©2018 Kerry Wilkinson (P)2018 Bookouture
Vinium
Summary
After the passage of two decades, the Omnians discovered a second, critical clue about the Nua'll, humankind's enemy, while investigating Celus-4, the home world of the intelligent, canine-like aliens, the Dischnya. This striking discovery, combined with the final broadcast of the Nua'll sphere at Libre, prior to its detonation, gave Alex Racine and company the means to narrow the search for the Nua'll home world. Alex has a consuming desire to locate the point of origin of the Nua'll before another gigantic sphere arrives to destroy more colonies. The first sphere's incursion into the Confederation burned billions of humans to ash. Six scout ships are constructed by the Omnians and crewed by SADEs, self-aware digital entities, to search the stars along a narrow path defined by the two clues. During its search, a scout ship, the Vivian, is captured by an alien warship in a faraway system that the SADEs dub Vinium. The two ships, locked tightly together in a form of electronic warfare, achieve an impasse. The scout ship calls for help, and Alex Racine receives the strange message. According to the SADEs, the aliens aboard the warship appear to be plant people. Rescuing the scout ship presents Alex and his companions the opportunity to meet the plant people, the Vinians, on their home world. It leads the Omnians to one more incredible discovery about the Nua'll, which, unfortunately, proves Alex's worst fears.
©2017 Scott H. Jucha (P)2018 Hannon Books, Inc.
Nua'll
Summary
The Omnian expeditionary fleet sails for the faraway place they call "the wall". The worlds of humankind have consolidated their resources to create a powerful armada to confront the alien federation. During the Omnians' previous encounter with an alien fleet at the wall, the Nua'll comm sphere spoke to them in multiple languages. When the messages were deciphered by SADEs, the humans' digital friends, the Omnians realized two things. One, they would face a vast empire composed of hundreds of races, and, two, the Nua'll were not the leaders of the federacy. They had spoken of masters. Multiple challenges faced Alex Racine, the Omnian leader, to cobble together the fleet he required. The Confederation, which was composed of many colonies, could produce ships, but most of its people lacked the will to fight. Haraken and New Terra were worlds with limited material production capability. But they produced individuals who were anxious to deliver a blow against the federation. A debate raged over whether humans should flee, wait, or fight the onslaught of giant spheres, which ravaged humankind's worlds, and the probes that spied on them. It was Alex Racine's choice to confront the alien race. Anything less was only delaying the inevitable. The Omnians knew nothing about what they would find beyond the wall, where the federation's enormous empire lay. Alex knew he couldn't defeat the federacy in a long series of protracted engagements. His plan was to attempt to conquer and divide. He just needed to find the right sentient race for his idea to work.
©2018 S. H. Jucha (P)2018 Hannon Books, Inc.
The Nightmare Years, 1930-1940
Summary
The famous journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich documents his front row seat at the pivotal events leading up to World War II. In the second of a three-volume series, William L. Shirer tells the story of his own eventful life, detailing the most notable moments of his career as a journalist stationed in Germany during the rise of the Third Reich. Shirer was there while Hitler celebrated his new domination of Germany, unleashed the Blitzkrieg on Poland, and began the conflict that would come to be known as World War II. This remarkable account tells the story of an American reporter caught in a maelstrom of war and politics, desperately trying to warn Europe and the United States about the dangers to come. This memoir gives listeners a chance to relive one of the most turbulent periods in 20th-century history - painting a stunningly intimate portrait of a dangerous decade.
©1984, 2014 William L. Shirer (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
Mira's Last Dance
Summary
In this sequel to the novella Penric's Mission, the injured Penric, a Temple sorcerer and learned divine, tries to guide the betrayed General Arisaydia and his widowed sister, Nikys, across the last 100 miles of hostile Cedonia to safety in the Duchy of Orbas. In the town of Sosie, the fugitive party encounters unexpected delays, and even more unexpected opportunities and hazards, as the courtesan Mira of Adria, one of the 10 dead women whose imprints make up the personality of the chaos demon Desdemona, comes to the fore with her own special expertise.
©2017 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Celus-5
Summary
For its initial mission, Haraken's explorer ship, the Sojourn, undertook the investigation of Celus-5, a world identified by Willem, a SADE (self-aware digital entity), and his team of scientists, as the best candidate for a new colony. What should have been a routine survey mission became a disaster. To the Harakens' surprise, they discovered not one but two alien species, which were constantly engaged in conflict. One species, the Dischnya, hid their nests underground, and each nest owed its allegiance to a queen. On the grassy plains, where the Dischnya lived, the resources were scarce, and the warriors competed fiercely. Unfortunately, the Harakens' landing party was late in discovering the Dischnya's hideouts, and a shuttle and crew, including Teague, Alex Racine's son, were captured by the doglike warriors of the Tawas Soma nest. Soon the mission was mired in a standoff, and Captain Asu Azasdau fired off a comm to Haraken, pleading for a rescue from Tomas Monti, the Haraken president, and Alex Racine. The survey group might have been forgiven for their hasty landing. They were focused on investigating the three objects buried in the sands along the continent's shoreline. Smooth, dark, and silver, they were the ships belonging to the nemesis of every human - the Nua'll. The dark travelers presented another clue as to the direction of the Nua'll home world, but it also invoked the question: Where were the Swei Swee, the six-legged, whistling aliens who once were aboard the ships?
©2017 S. H. Jucha (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Age of Gold
Summary
By the author of the best-selling Pulitzer Prize finalist The first American - they went west to change their lives and in the bargain they changed the world. This is the extraordinary story of the men and women of the Gold Rush. When gold was first discovered on the American River above Sutter's Fort in January 1848, California was sparsely populated frontier territory not yet ceded to the United States from Mexixo. The discovery triggered a massive influx as hundreds of thousands of people scrambled to California in search of riches, braving dangerous journeys across the Pacific, around Cape Horn, and through the Isthmus of Panama, as well as across America's vast, unsettled wilderness. Cities sprang up overnight, in response to the demand for supplies and services of all kinds. By 1850, California had become a state - the fastest journey to statehood in US history. It had also become a symbol of what America stood for and of where it was going. In The Age of Gold, H. W. Brands explores the far-reaching implications of this pivotal point in U.S. history, weaving the politics of the times with the gripping stories of individuals that displays both the best and the worse of the American character. He discusses the national issues that exploded around the ratification of California's statehood, hastening the clouds that would lead to the Civil War. He tells the stories of the great fortunes made by such memorable figures as John and Jessie Fremont, Leland Stanford and George Hearst - and of great fortunes lost by hundreds now forgotten by history. And he reveals the profound effect of the Gold Rush on the way Americans viewed their destinies, as the Puritan ethic of hard work and the gradual accumulation of worldly riches gave way to the notion of getting rich quickly.
©2002 H.W. Brands (P)2002 Books On Tape, Inc.
Rescued
Summary
In Rescued, David Rosenfelt again delights listeners with the charm and wit they’ve come to expect. Even the most fervent fans of the sardonic Andy Carpenter and his team will be enthralled by this latest case, where the stakes have never been higher. Defense lawyer Andy Carpenter is reluctant to take on any more cases. He’d much rather spend his time working for his dog rescue organization, the Tara Foundation, than find himself back in a courtroom. However, when a truck carrying more than 70 dogs from the South to the rescue-friendly Northeast turns up with a murdered driver, Andy can’t help but get involved. Of course Andy is eager to help the dogs, many of whom come to the Tara Foundation while awaiting forever homes - it’s the man accused of murder who he has a problem defending. The accused just happens to be his wife Laurie’s ex-fiance; her tall, good looking, ex-Marine ex-fiance. Even though he acknowledges having argued with the victim, he swears that he is not a killer, and though he would rather not, Andy has to admit he believes he's telling the truth. For Andy, even with dozens of successful cases behind him, this case that his wife insists he take may prove to be his most difficult.
©2018 Tara Productions, Inc. (P)2018 Macmillan Audio
Shoeless Joe
Summary
Shoeless Joe, the soul-stirring novel on which the movie Field of Dreams is based, is more than just another baseball story. Kinsella captures the spiritual dimension that baseball represents for its most determined devotees in this tale of love and the power of dreams to make people come alive. “Shoeless Joe” is the great Joe Jackson, one of the eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox who were banned from baseball for throwing the World Series. One day, while out in his corn field, Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears the voice of a baseball announcer saying, “If you build it, he will come.” “He,” of course, is Ray's hero, Joe Jackson. “It” is a baseball stadium, which Ray carves out of his corn field.
©1982 W. P. Kinsella (P)1991 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Cold Sassy Tree
Summary
The one thing you can depend on in Cold Sassy, Georgia, is that word gets around fast. If the preacher's wife's petticoat shows, the ladies will make the talk last a week. But on July 5, 1906, things take a scandalous turn. That is the day E. Rucker Blakeslee, proprietor of the general store and barely three weeks a widower, elopes with Miss Love Simpson, a woman half his age and, worse yet, a Yankee! On that day, 14-year-old Will Tweedy's adventures begin and an unimpeachably pious, deliciously irreverent town comes to life. Olive Ann Burns's classic best seller brings to vivid life an era that will never exist again, exploring timeless issues of love, death, coming-of-age, and the ties that bind families and generations.
©1984 Olive Ann Burn (P)1993 Blackstone Audiobooks
Dachshund Through the Snow
Summary
"Narrator Grover Gardner...makes the experience of listening to this audiobook as delightful as can be." (AudioFile Magazine) This Christmas, lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever, Tara, can't say no to helping young Danny and his dachshund, Murphy. Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, have started a new Christmas tradition. Their local pet store has a Christmas tree, where instead of ornaments there are wishes from those in need. One poignant wish leads Andy to a child named Danny, whose selfless plea strikes a chord. Danny asked Santa for a coat for his mother, a sweater for his dachshund, Murphy, and for the safe return of his missing father. It turns out Danny’s father doesn't want to be found, he’s on the run after just being arrested for a murder that took place 14 years ago - a murder that Danny’s mother swears he didn’t commit. With his trademark humor and larger-than-life characters - including a police officer and his K-9 partner, Simon - Rosenfelt never fails to deliver as Andy and his eccentric crew dash to reunite a family in time for Christmas.
©2019 Tara Productions, Inc. (P)2019 Macmillan Audio
Simon the Fiddler
Summary
The critically acclaimed, best-selling author of News of the World and Enemy Women returns to Texas in this atmospheric story, set at the end of the Civil War, about an itinerant fiddle player, a ragtag band of musicians with whom he travels trying to make a living, and the charming young Irish lass who steals his heart. In March 1865, the long and bitter War between the States is winding down. Till now, 23-year-old Simon Boudlin has evaded military duty thanks to his slight stature, youthful appearance, and utter lack of compunction about bending the truth. But following a barroom brawl in Victoria, Texas, Simon finds himself conscripted, however belatedly, into the Confederate Army. Luckily his talent with a fiddle gets him a comparatively easy position in a regimental band. Weeks later, on the eve of the Confederate surrender, Simon and his bandmates are called to play for officers and their families from both sides of the conflict. There the quick-thinking, audacious fiddler can’t help but notice the lovely Doris Mary Aherne, an indentured girl from Ireland, who is governess to a Union colonel’s daughter. After the surrender, Simon and Doris go their separate ways. He will travel around Texas seeking fame and fortune as a musician. She must accompany the colonel’s family to finish her three years of service. But Simon cannot forget the fair Irish maiden, and vows that someday he will find her again. Incandescent in its beauty, told in Paulette Jiles’ trademark spare yet lilting style, Simon the Fiddler is a captivating, bittersweet tale of the chances a devoted man will take, and the lengths he will go to fulfill his heart’s yearning.
©2020 Paulette Jiles (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Espero
Summary
Trouble infiltrated the Harakens' capital city of Espero, in the form of New Terra criminal gangs who grew wealthy and powerful on the moons of Ganymede, hiding behind the cover of an ill-conceived mining charter. The gangs brought stims and addictive hallucinogenic drugs to Espero, distributing them to the young on the planet. Christie Racine and her friends visited a hidden club rumored to be a source of the dangerous drugs and have run afoul of the criminals running the illegal establishment. Kidnapped and transported out of Hellébore's system aboard a freighter, the girls become desperate to free themselves. Alex Racine, Christie's brother and president of the Harakens, races to discover where the girls were taken. The trail leads Alex from Espero to the pleasure domes of Jolares, a moon orbiting a gas giant in Oistos, the New Terrans' home system. Alex's search is complicated by the discovery of not one, but three sets of pleasure domes, each on its own moon and run by its own criminal mastermind. It becomes a dangerous game of hide-and-seek as the Harakens attempt to recover their girls and locate the biochemist who created the dangerous hallucinogen, without panicking the kidnappers. The Harakens' efforts are complicated by the duplicitous scheme of "Mr. Blue" and "Sniffer", two gang leaders, who seek to steal the domes of "Craze", the third gang leader, in a dangerous double-cross. Alex and his people thought things couldn't get any more complicated until they discover the gangs have gone to war with deadly stunners and plasma rifles in a fight for possession of the Haraken girls, who are caught between the rivals.
©2017 S. H. Jucha (P)2017 Hannon Books, Inc.