John Keating has narrated 98 audiobooks on Listento.it by 60 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 688 ratings. The most-rated is The Ruins of Gorlan.
The Wily O'Reilly
Summary
Long before Dr. Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly made most listeners’ acquaintance in Patrick Taylor's best-selling novel An Irish Country Doctor, he appeared in a series of humorous columns originally published in Stitches: The Journal of Medical Humour. These warm and wryly amusing vignettes provide an early glimpse at the redoubtable Dr. O’Reilly as he tends to the colourful and eccentric residents of Ballybucklebo, a cozy Ulster village nestled in the bygone years of the early '60s. Those seminal columns have been collected in The Wily O’Reilly: Irish Country Stories. In this convenient volume, Patrick Taylor's legions of devoted fans can savor the enchanting origins of the Irish Country series…and newcomers to Ballybucklebo can meet O’Reilly for the very first time. An ex-Navy boxing champion, classical scholar, crypto-philanthropist, widower, and hard-working general practitioner, Fingal Flahertie O’Reilly is crafty and cantankerous in these charming slices of rural Irish life. Whether he's educating a naive man of the cloth in the facts of life, dealing with chronic hypochondriacs and malingerers, clashing with pigheaded colleagues, or raising a pint in the neighborhood pub, the wily O’Reilly knows a doctor's work is never done, even if some of his "cures" can't be found in any medical text!
©2014 Ballybucklebo Stories Corp (P)2013 Macmillan Audio
Three Junes
Summary
Three Junes is a vividly textured symphonic novel set on both sides of the Atlantic during three fateful summers in the lives of a Scottish family. In June of 1989, Paul McLeod, the recently widowed patriarch, becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret sorrows of his marriage. Six years later, Paul’s death reunites his sons at Tealing, their idyllic childhood home, where Fenno, the eldest, faces a choice that puts him at the center of his family’s future. A lovable, slightly repressed gay man, Fenno leads the life of an aloof expatriate in the West Village, running a shop filled with books and birdwatching gear. He believes himself safe from all emotional entanglements - until a worldly neighbor presents him with an extraordinary gift and a seductive photographer makes him an unwitting subject. Each man draws Fenno into territories of the heart he has never braved before, leading him toward an almost unbearable loss that will reveal to him the nature of love. Love in its limitless forms - between husband and wife, between lovers, between people and animals, between parents and children - is the force that moves these characters’ lives, which collide again, in yet another June, over a Long Island dinner table. This time it is Fenno who meets and captivates Fern, the same woman who captivated his father in Greece ten years before. Now pregnant with a son of her own, Fern, like Fenno and Paul before him, must make peace with her past to embrace her future. Elegantly detailed yet full of emotional suspense, often as comic as it is sad, Three Junes is a glorious triptych about how we learn to live, and live fully, beyond incurable grief and betrayals of the heart - how family ties, both those we’re born into and those we make, can offer us redemption and joy.
©2002 by Julia Glass (P)2002 by Random House Audio
Emlyn's Moon
Summary
Young magician Gwyn and his friend Nia have been warned to stay away from Emlyn Llewelyn, the strange boy who claims his mother lives in the moon. And yet, a mysterious magic continues to draw them to him. But why? The answer lies in a spider's web, an ice-cold flower's glow, and the haunting whispers of children from someplace far away. It's up to Gwyn and Nia to solve the mystery with the hlep of Arianwen, the Snow Spider.
©2006 Jenny Nimmo. First published in 1986 in Great Britain by Egmont Books Ltd. All rights reserved. Published by Orchard Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc. ORCHARD BOOKS and design are registered trademarks of Watts Publishing Group, Ltd., used under license (P)2006 Scholastic Inc. All rights reserved. SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
Once in a Blue Moon
Summary
Twice upon a time, Prince Rupert and Princess Julia saved the Forest Kingdom. They have earned the right to live happily ever after. But there' s a blue moon on the rise... Hawk and Fisher, famous for their years of keeping the peace in Haven, are really quite happy being legends. They gave up the hero business when they decided they'd grown too old for it. Now they run the Hero Academy, training young hopefuls to be heroes. Legends never die, but it seems they cannot retire, either. Hawk and Fisher's adult children, Jack and Gillian, have been kidnapped. They were taken by the Demon Prince, an old enemy from the Forest Kingdom who challenges the couple to one final battle for their lives. But Hawk and Fisher believe there' s another motive behind the abductions, one connected to a case they worked in Haven many years ago - a case they refuse to discuss. They have no choice but to return to the Forest Kingdom, to be Prince Rupert and Princess Julia one last time in one last story - of the kind of things that happen only once in a blue moon...
©2014 Simon R. Green (P)2014 Recorded Books
Half a Crown
Summary
In 1941 the European war ended in the Farthing Peace, a rapprochement between Britain and Nazi Germany. The balls and banquets of Britain's upper class never faltered, while British ships ferried undesirables across the Channel to board the cattle cars headed east. Peter Carmichael is commander of the Watch, Britain's distinctly British secret police. It's his job to warn the Prime Minister of treason, to arrest plotters, and to discover Jews. The midnight knock of a Watchman is the most dreaded sound in the realm. Now, in 1960, a global peace conference is convening in London, where Britain, Germany, and Japan will oversee the final partition of the world. Hitler is once again on British soil. So is the long exiled Duke of Windsor and the rising gangs of British Power streetfighters, who consider the Government soft and may be the former king's bid to stage a coup d’état. Amidst all this, two of the most unlikely persons in the realm will join forces to oppose the fascists: a debutante whose greatest worry until now has been where to find the right string of pearls, and the Watch Commander himself.
©2008 Jo Walton (P)2011 Audible, Inc.
Run Before the Wind
Summary
Will Lee ran from a life of Southern wealth and privilege to spend a peaceful summer on the coast of Ireland. But there is no peace in this beautiful, troubled land.... Restless and dissatisfied, Will dreams of shipbuilding and sailing on crystal-blue waters. Then an explosion of senseless violence drags the young American drifter into a lethal game of terror and revenge. Now Will Lee must run for his life from a bloody past that is not his own.
©1983 Stuart Woods (P)2012 Recorded Books
James Joyce
Summary
Richard Ellmann has revised and expanded his definitive work on Joyce's life to include newly discovered primary material, including details of a failed love affair, a limerick about Samuel Beckett, a dream notebook, previously unknown letters, and much more.
©1982 Richard Ellman (P)2014 Audible Inc.
The Abstainer
Summary
“This is Dickens in the present tense, Dickens for the 21st century.” (Roddy Doyle, The New York Times Book Review) An Irishman in 19th-century England is forced to take sides when his nephew joins the bloody underground movement for independence in this propulsive novel from the acclaimed author of The North Water. Named One of the Ten Best Books of the Year by Chicago Tribune and One of the Best Books of the Year by The New York Times • The New York Public Library • New Statesman • Publishers Weekly Manchester, England, 1867. The rebels will be hanged at dawn, and their brotherhood is already plotting its revenge. Stephen Doyle, an Irish American veteran of the Civil War, arrives in Manchester from New York with a thirst for blood. He has joined the Fenians, a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland by any means necessary. Head Constable James O’Connor has fled grief and drink in Dublin for a sober start in Manchester. His job is to discover and thwart the Fenians’ plans, whatever they might be. When a long-lost nephew arrives on O’Connor’s doorstep looking for work, he cannot foresee the way his fragile new life will be imperiled - and how his and Doyle’s fates will become fatally intertwined. In this propulsive tale of the underground war for Irish independence, the author of The North Water once again transports listeners to a time when blood begot blood. Moving from the dirt and uproar of industrial Manchester to the quiet hills of rural Pennsylvania, The Abstainer is a searing novel in which two men, haunted by their pasts and driven forward by the need for justice and retribution, must fight for life and legacy.
©2020 Ian McGuire (P)2020 Random House Audio
The Cambridge Companion to Sherlock Holmes
Summary
Sherlock Holmes is the most famous fictional detective in history, with a popularity that has never waned since catching the imagination of his late-Victorian readership. This companion explores Holmes' popularity and his complex relationship to the late-Victorian and modernist periods; on one hand bearing the imprint of a range of Victorian anxieties and preoccupations, while on the other shaping popular conceptions of criminality, deviance, and the powers of the detective. This collection explores these questions in three parts. "Contexts" explores late-Victorian culture, from the emergence of detective fiction to ideas of evolution, gender, and Englishness. "Case Studies" reads selected Holmes adventures in the context of empire, visual culture, and the gothic. Finally, "Holmesian Afterlives" investigates the relationship between Holmes and literary theory, film and theatre adaptations, new Holmesian novels, and the fandom that now surrounds him.
©2014 Janice M. Allan (P)2019 Recorded Books
The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
Summary
Matthew Bramble, a gout-ridden misanthrope, travels Britain with his nephew, niece, spinster sister, and man-servant, the trusty Humphry Clinker. In poor health, Bramble sees the world as one of degeneracy and raucous overcrowding, and will not hesitate to let his companions know his feelings on the matter. Peopled with pimps, drunkards, decadents, and con-men, Humphrey Clinker displays Smollett's ferociously pessimistic view of mankind, and his belief that the luxury of 18th-century English existence was the enemy of sense and sobriety. Presented in the form of letters from six very different characters, and full of joyful puns and double entendres, Humphry Clinker is now recognized as a boisterous and observant masterpiece of English satire.
Public Domain (P)2017 Recorded Books
The Player King
Summary
From Newbery Award-winning author Avi comes the gripping and amazingly true tale of a boy plucked from the gutter to become the King of England. England, 1486. King Henry VII has recently snatched the English Crown and now sits on the throne, while young Prince Edward, who has a truer claim, has apparently disappeared. Meanwhile, a penniless kitchen boy named Lambert Simnel is slaving away at a tavern in Oxford - until a mysterious friar, Brother Simonds, buys Lambert from the tavern keeper and whisks him away in the dead of night. But this is nothing compared to the secret that the friar reveals: You, Lambert, are actually Prince Edward, the true King of England! With the aid of the deceitful Earl of Lincoln, Brother Simonds sets out to teach the boy how to become the rightful English king. Lambert has everything to gain and nothing to lose, or so he thinks. Yet in this dangerous battle for the throne, Lambert is not prepared for what's to come - or for what it really means to play at being a king.
©2017 Avi Wortis, Inc. (P)2017 Recorded Books
The Prisoner of Zenda
Summary
Anthony Hope's swashbuckling classic tale of adventure and romance: Ruritania, a beautiful kingdom in the mountains between Germany and Austria, is in the midst of a power struggle. On one side is the alcoholic lay-about crown prince, Rudolf - popular with the upper class and army - and on the other is his half-brother, Michael, who has the love of the common people. The struggle reaches a new fervor at Rudolf's coronation, when Michael kidnaps his brother and takes him to the Castle of Zenda. Now the only thing in the way of Black Michael's plan is a confused distant cousin in England. But a man named Rudolf Rassendyll could ruin Michael's plan. Rassendyll bears a striking resemblance to the kidnapped king Rudolf. After the king's disappearance, Rassendyll poses as the sovereign in order to maintain order - and finds that it is up to him to find the rightful ruler.
Public Domain (P)2018 Recorded Books
Beyond the Blue Moon
Summary
Captains Hawk and Fisher, the only honest cops in Haven, are up to their ears in the usual Haven business when a messenger from a far away land finds them and reveals their real identities and mission - bring a killer to justice and ascend to the throne.
©2000 Simon R. Green (P)2014 Recorded Books
Leopards' Gold
Summary
Many years have passed since the end of Book Two, and we now must meet Timoken's children, who, with their own magical endowments, stand divided between the forces of good and bad. Toung Petrello and Tolomeo must fight to protect their siblings and their kingdom as an evil force invades the oncepeaceful Red Castle. Embark on one last adventure in the thrilling finale to Jenny Nimmo's extraordinary trilogy!
©2013 Jenny Nimmo (P)2013 Scholastic Inc.
The Most Dangerous Book
Summary
For more than a decade, the book that literary critics now consider the most important novel in the English language was illegal to own, sell, advertise or purchase in most of the English-speaking world. James Joyce's big blue book, Ulysses, ushered in the modernist era and changed the novel for all time. But the genius of Ulysses was also its danger: it omitted absolutely nothing. All of the minutiae of Leopold Bloom's day, including its unspeakable details, unfold with careful precision in its pages. The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice immediately banned the novel as "obscene, lewd, and lascivious". Joyce, along with some of the most important publishers and writers of his era, had to fight for years to win the freedom to publish it. The Most Dangerous Book tells the remarkable story surrounding Ulysses, from the first stirrings of Joyce's inspiration in 1904 to its landmark federal obscenity trial in 1933. Literary historian Kevin Birmingham follows Joyce's years as a young writer, his feverish work on his literary masterpiece, and his ardent love affair with Nora Barnacle, the model for Molly Bloom. Joyce and Nora socialized with literary greats like Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, T. S. Eliot and Sylvia Beach. Their support helped Joyce fight an array of anti-vice crusaders while his book was disguised and smuggled, pirated and burned in the United States and Britain. The long struggle for publication added to the growing pressures of Joyce's deteriorating eyesight, finances and home life. Birmingham's archival work brings to light new information about both Joyce and the story surrounding Ulysses. Written for ardent Joyceans as well as novices who want to get to the heart of the greatest novel of the 20th century, The Most Dangerous Book is a gripping examination of how the world came to say yes to Ulysses.
©2014 Kevin Birmingham (P)2014 Penguin Audio
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Summary
Laurence Sterne's beloved comic novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, is the "biography" of Tristram Shandy - a wonderfully humorous and eccentric narrator who guides the listener from his conception to his birth and on to his life as an adult. The twists and turns of Tristram's life expose him to such memorable characters as Uncle Toby, Corporal Trim, Parson Yorick, Dr. Slop, and the Widow Wadman - whose own stories enrich the central narrative of Tristram's life. Published in nine separate volumes from 1759 to 1767, Tristram Shandy is recognized today as one of the first modern novels in English literature.
Public Domain (P)2016 Recorded Books
Chronicles of the Red King: The Secret Kingdom
Summary
An extraordinary quest, a magician’s powers, and the journey to find a kingdom.... Timoken is a prince from a secret kingdom. Before his birth, a forest-jinni bestowed upon him two magical gifts: a cloak made from the web of the last moon spider, and a potion called Alixir, the water of eternal life. Yet in exchange for the protection of these gifts, Timoken will always have one foot in the world of men and the other in the strange world of magic. When his peaceful kingdom is suddenly attacked, Timoken, and his sister, Zobayda, flee in search of a new land to call home, with only the jinni’s gifts and a talking camel. But the journey is wrought with danger, as Timoken and Zobayda are being hunted by viridees - evil creatures from the realm of enchantments that desperately seek the moon cloak. If Timoken ever hopes to escape the viridees and find a new kingdom, he must learn to harness his powers, and trust those he meets along the way.
©2011 Jenny Nimmo (P)2011 Scholastic Audio
Stones of Ravenglass
Summary
This is the second audiobook in New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Jenny Nimmo's new series chronicling the origin and the adventures of Charlie Bone's magical ancestor, the Red King. Timoken, a magician king, has found a new home in a castle in Britain. But when an evil steward takes control of the castle, he imprisons Timoken and wreaks havoc on surrounding villages. With the help of Gabar, the talking camel, Timoken escapes and embarks on a quest to find and rescue his friends, and build himself a kingdom to call home for good. In this brand-new series, best-selling author Jenny Nimmo takes listeners on an extraordinary quest with one of her most powerful and mysterious characters, the one who started it all for Charlie Bone.
©2012 Jenny Nimmo (P)2012 Scholastic Audio
The Rebellion
Summary
A kingdom at peace. A war fought in the shadows. As the Order celebrates its union with the crown, a founding member of the secret society plots its demise. Wanting to use the potential of the Soul Stones - legendary relics of unspeakable power - Victor gathers his supporters to rise against the Prophet and all those who wish for the stones' existence to be kept unknown. Caught between his duty and his heart, Lucian must either stand with Victor and betray his fellow brethren, or take his true love, Sarie, and leave it all behind. With time running out, Lucian knows that there is no stopping the rebellion. It has already begun.
©2019 Matt Moss (P)2021 Podium Audio
The Butchers' Blessing
Summary
A murder on the Irish border; an ancient folk tradition dying out. The Butchers’ Blessing is a novel about families and farmers; about mythic rituals and mad cows; about the stories we leave behind and the ones we cling to, no matter the cost. Every year, Úna prepares for her father to leave her. He will wave good-bye early one morning, then disappear with seven other men to traverse the Irish countryside. Together, these men form the Butchers, a group that roams from farm to farm, enacting ancient methods of cattle slaughter. The Butchers’ Blessing moves between the events of 1996 and the present, offering a simmering glimpse into the modern tensions that surround these eight fabled men. For Úna, being a Butcher’s daughter means a life of tangled ambition and incredible loneliness. For her mother, Grá, it’s a life of faith and longing, of performing a promise that she may or may not be able to keep. For nonbeliever Fionn, the Butchers represent a dated and complicated reality, though for his son, Davey, they represent an entirely new world - and potentially new love. For photographer Ronan, the Butchers are ideal subjects: representatives of an older, more folkloric Ireland whose survival is now being tested. As he moves through the countryside, Ronan captures this world image by image - a lake, a cottage, and his most striking photo: a single Butcher, hung upside down in a pose of unspeakable violence.
©2020 Ruth Gilligan (P)2020 Recorded Books