Jim Killavey has narrated 18 audiobooks on Listento.it by 32 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.9★ across 19 ratings. The most-rated is The Practice of the Presence of God.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Summary
This essay by Thoreau first published in 1849, argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule their consciences. It goes on to say that individuals have a duty to avoid allowing the government to make them the agents of injustice. The quote: "That government is best which governs least," sometimes attributed to Thomas Jefferson or Thomas Paine, actually was first found in this essay. Thoreaus' thoughts were motivated by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican-American War but they are still relevant and resonate today.
Public Domain (P)2011 Jimcin Recordings
The Practice of the Presence of God
Summary
Compiled by Father Joseph De Beaufort, this book introduces us to a 17th century Carmelite monk known as Brother Lawrence. Lawrence worked in the kitchens and as a cobbler for the Carmelites. He rejoiced in everyday tasks, prayed constantly, and was known around the monastery for his kindness and willingness to help others. Brother Lawrence recounts in detail how to gain constantand comforting connection to the Almighty. Readers have treasured this little book for centuries because of Brother Lawrence's honest advice and his obvious passion for spiritual matters. Now a new generation of listeners can hear this creative Christian work and may come away withgreat peace, and the joy and understanding of Brother Lawrence and his plan for living in God's presence every minute.
Public Domain (P)2011 Jimcin Recordings
Two Years Before the Mast
Summary
Richard Henry Dana called this book a "a voice from the sea". It had an influence on both Joseph Conrad and Herman Melville, both of whom sang its praises. Dana was a law student at Harvard College who decided, in 1834, to take a break from his studies in order to experience the "real world" by signing on as a common sailor for a two year voyage from Boston around Cape Horn to California. He kept a journal which he turned into a book after the voyage. In it he gives a vivid and detailed account of his fantastic voyage. The book is many things: a history, travelogue, a social documentary and an adventure story. W. Clark Russell, one of the best writers of sea-stories in English, called it "the greatest sea-book that was ever written in any language", and Ralph Waldo Emerson said, it "possesses...the romantic charm of Robinson Crusoe".
Public Domain (P)1988 Jimcin Recordings
Great Sci-Fi Stories, Volume 1
Summary
This volume contains a variety of imaginative stories from both famous and not-so-famous science fiction writers. Titles include: "The Six Fingers of Time" by R. A. Lafferty "Card Trick" by Randall Garret "A World Apart" by Sam Merwin, Jr. "Industrial Revolution" by Poul Anderson "The Martian and Moron" by Theodore Sturgeon "The Smiler" by Albert Hernhunter "Project Hush" by William Tenn "Hunter Patrol" by H. Beam Piper and John McGuire "A Little Journey" by Ray Bradbury "Master of the Moondog" by Stanley Mullen "The Storm" by A.E. Van Vogt "Thompson's Cat" by Robert More Williams "Scrimshaw" by Murray Leinster "The Clean and Wholesome Land" by Ralph Shoto "Tony and the Beetles" by Phlip K. Dick "Innocent at Large" by Poul Anderson "Novice" by James H. Schmitz
©2020 Jimcin Recordings (P)2020 Jimcin Recordings
Favorite Children's Stories, Volume 2
Summary
This second delightful collection of children's stories contains the following titles: "The Three Goblins", by Mabel G. Taggart; "Alladin and the Wonderful Lamp", edited by Andrew Lang; "Cinderella", by the Brothers Grimm; "The Griffon and Minor Canon", by Frank Stockton; "Beauty and the Beast", by Madame de Villeneuve; "The Frog Prince", by The Brothers Grimm; "Goody Two Shoes", a traditional tale; "How Fear Came", by Rudyard Kipling; "Jack and the Beanstalk", a traditional tale; "Spindle, Shuttle and Needle", by the Brothers Grimm; "The Minotaur", by Nathaniel Hawthorne; "Thumbelina", by Hans Christian Anderson; "Tiger, Tiger", by Rudyard Kipling; "The Velveteen Rabbit", by Margery Williams; "Lazy Jack", a traditional tale; "The Dragon of the North", edited by Andrew Lang; "King Grisley Beard", by the Brothers Grimm; "The Girl Who Owned a Bear", by Frank Stockton; "The Apple of Contentment", by Howard Pyle; and "Wondering Jack", by James Baldwin.
Public Domain (P)2012 Jimcin Recordings
Favorite Children's Stories, Volume 5
Summary
Volume 5 of this popular series consists of the following stories: "The Books of Beasts" by Edith Nesbit "Prince Sneeze" by Henry Beston "Kind Little Edmund" by Edith Nesbit "The Plate of Pancakes" by Maude Lindsey "The Castle of Life" by Edward Deboulyea "The Glass Dog" by L. Frank Baum "The Country Called Nanomia" by Evelyn Sharp "The Sea Dragon" by Alan McCall "The Professor of Practical Jokes" by Evelyn Sharp "Revenge of the Fireflies" by Abbie Phillips Walker "Snow White and Rose Red" by The Brothers Grimm "Jean Mailin and the Bull Man" by Louisa Bontemps "The Marvelous Dog and the Wonderful Cat" by Henry Beston "Circe's Palace" by Nathaniel Hawthorne "The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese" by William Eliot Griffis "Oh" by Nicolas Shebresky "The Princess Eglantine" by Constance Harrison "The Stuffed Alligator" by Frank Stockton "The Wise Girl" by Miroslav Lukin
Public Domain (P)2018 Jimcin Recordings
A Christmas Carol and Other Stories
Summary
A Christmas Carol is undoubtedly the most famous supernatural story in English. However, it was not the only supernatural story of the season that Charles Dickens wrote. In Victorian England, Christmas was the time to explore the supernatural in stories, and Charles Dickens was one of the best at it. Included in this volume are a full-cast dramatization of A Christmas Carol, plus three more of Dickens' best stories of the season: "The Story of the Bagman's Uncle", "The Signalman", and "The Trial for Murder".
©1843 Public Domain (P)1979 Jimcin Recordings
The Pioneers
Summary
While portraying life in a new settlement on New York's Lake Otsego in the final years of the 18th century, Cooper deftly explores the cultural and philosophical underpinnings of the American experience. He contrasts the natural codes of the hunter and woodsman, Natty Bumpo, and his Indian friend, John Mokegan, with the more rigid structure of law required by a more complex society. This is the fourth in Cooper's series of five books known as the Leatherstocking Tales, which were arranged according to the chronology of their hero, Natty Bumpo.
©1986 Jimcin Recordings
A Princess of Mars
Summary
John Carter, an American Civil War veteran, goes prospecting in Arizona and, when set upon by Indians, is mysteriously transported to Mars, called "Barsoom" by its inhabitants. Carter finds that he has demigod-like strength on this planet, due to its lesser gravity. He is soon captured by "Tharks", the planet's warlike, four-armed, green inhabitants, and his incredible adventures begin.
Public Domain (P)1988 Jimcin Recordings
The Education of Henry Adams
Summary
The Education of Henry Adams is among the oddest and most enlightening books in American literature. Henry Adams was the grandson of a President and the great-grandson of another one. He was also the son of the American Ambassador to England, and his secretery. As such he rubbed elbows, literally, with Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Theodore Roosevelt and with many of the great figures of his time. The book contains thousands of memorable one-liners about politics, morality, culture, and transatlantic relations: "The American mind exasperated the European as a buzz-saw might exasperate a pine forest." There are astonishing glimpses of the high and mighty: "He saw a long, awkward figure; a plain, ploughed face; a mind, absent in part, and in part evidently worried by white kid gloves; features that expressed neither self-satisfaction nor any other familiar Americanism...." (That would be Abraham Lincoln; the "melancholy function" his Inaugural Ball.) But most of all, Adams' book is a brilliant account of how his own sensibility came to be. A literary landmark from the moment it first appeared, the autobiography confers upon its author precisely that prize he felt had always eluded him: success. This Pulitzer Prize-winner is considered by many to be one of the three greatest autoboigraphies ever written (the other two being Benjaman Franklin's and Jean-Jacques Rosseau's). Published shortly after the author's death in 1918, The Education of Henry Adams is a brilliant, idiosyncratic blend of autobiography and history that charts the great transformation in American life during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
©16 9; 2004 Brian J. Killavey ; 1992 Jimcin (P)1992 Jimcin; 16 9; 2004 Brian J. Killavey
The Gods of Mars
Summary
After a 10 year absence, John Carter returns to Mars and seeks to be reunited with his wife, the princess Dejah Thoris. Along the way, he both befriends, and often combats, a fantastic array of alien creatures and humanoids, while discovering the true nature of the Martian religions.
Public Domain (P)1989 Jimcin Recordings
Sandman's Rainy Day Stories
Summary
This is another delightful collection of fairy tales and "pour qua" stories, and even a charming poem, where good always triumphs over evil and kindness to others is rewarded. Easy listening for sunny days too! Stories included are: "Princess Cantilla" "The Tree of Swords" "The Silver Horseshoes" "The Blue Castle" "Nardo and the Princess" "Old Three Heads" "The Enchanted Boat" "Nicko and the Ogre" "The Gingerbread Rock" Prince Roul's Bride" "Sunev" "Cilia and and the Dwarf" "Greta and the Black Cat" "The Dolphin's Bride" "Catville Gossip" "How the Elephant Got His Trunk" "Why Rabbits Have Short Tails" "The Hunter's Friend" "Plaid Trousers" "The Three Runaways"
Public Domain (P)2020 Jimcin Recordings
The Rise of Silas Lapham
Summary
William Dean Howells was born in Martin's Ferry, Ohio, of Welch, Irish, and German forebears. Along with Mark Twain, he was one of the great novelists of his time. This book, the realisic saga of the rise and redemptive fall of an American tycoon, is considered to be his best novel.
©1997 Jimcin (P)1997 Jimcin
The Haunted and the Haunters
Summary
Edward Bulwer-Lytton was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote many best-selling novels. He coined the phrases "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", and "it was a dark and stormy night". "The Haunters and the Haunted" is both a wonderful ghost story and a well-crafted example of Bulwer-Lytton's theory of the supernatural. It represents nearly 20 years' study of paranormal phenomena. On the one hand, it is a chilling tale of ghosts and terror, but on the other, it illustrate the author's theory "that the Supernatural is Impossible, and that what is called supernatural is only a something in the laws of nature of which we have been hitherto ignorant." For him, though, the laws of nature include "the power that in the old days was called Magic, a power of the human will that can affect mental and physical reality and produce the apparently supernatural."
Public Domain (P)2017 Jimcin Recordings
Cape Cod
Summary
In the early 1850s, Henry David Thoreau took many meditative walks along the coast. In Cape Cod he reflects on these beach-combing trips and the powerful forces of the sea.
©1990 Jimcin Recordings (P)1990 Jimcin Recordings
Seven Keys to Baldpate
Summary
Known for his comic sense, Earl Derr Biggers was one of the foremost writers of mystery and detective stories in this country. To his friends he was known for his comic sense. Seven Keys to Baldpate was his first novel and became extremely popular. In it, a famous author visits a closed summer resort at Baldpate Mountain in the middle of winter. He is looking for peace and quiet so that he can write his next book. However, before his first night is over, numerous unexpected visitors begin to fill the hotel, on strange and sometimes dangerous missions. The author finds that a fortune is at stake and that his visitors will do anything to possess it. Before the end of the week, there is gunfire, bribery, fights, and hidden truths are unmasked. Seven Keys to Baldpate is an old-fashioned mysterious melodramatic farce. It was so popular that it was made into an extremely popular stage play by George M. Cohan and became the basis for no less than seven films.
©1997 Jimcin Recordings
The Sandman's Hour
Summary
A collection of "bedtime stories" filled with whimsy and life lessons. This charming collection includes stories about talking animals, flowers, fairies, why things are the way they are ("pour qua" stories), and morality tales. Gentle stories for bedtime or anytime listening. Stories included are: "Where the Sparks Go", "The Good Sea Monster", "Mother Turkey and Her Chicks," "The Fairies and the Dandelion", "Mr. Possum", "The Rooster That Crowed Too Soon," "Tearful", "Hilda's Mermaid", "The Mirror's Dream", "The Contest", "The Pink and Blue Eggs", "Why the Morning-Glory Sleeps", "Dorothy and the Portrait", "Mistress Pussy's Mistake", "Kid", "The Shoemaker Rat", "The Poppies", "Little China Doll", "The Disorderly Girl", "The Wise Old Gander", "Dinah Cat and the Witch", "The Star and the Lily", "Lazy Gray", "The Old Gray Hen", and "The Worsted Doll".
Public Domain (P)2020 Jimcin Recordings
Christmas Santa Stories
Summary
A dozen classic sweet stories about Santa Claus and Christmas to delight young and old alike. You might just learn something about "The Jolly Old Elf" that you didn't know before, as you listen to the tales of his adventures and enjoy other Christmas stories. Stories include: "Why Santa Was Late" "Santa Claus’ Fairy" "Santa Claus’ Record" "How the Animals Kept Christmas" "Santa Claus’ Plan" "Santa Claus’ Helpers" "Santa’s Second Trip" "The Tale of the Doll" "The Little Fir Tree" "Busy Mouse’s Christmas" "Tim Cat’s Christmas" "The Undelivered Present"
Public Domain (P)2020 Jimcin Recordings