Kelly Birch has narrated 6 audiobooks on Listento.it by 6 authors, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 6 ratings. The most-rated is The Empire of Tea.
The Empire of Tea
Summary
From Darjeeling to Lapsang Souchon, from India to Japan-a fresh, concise, world-encompassing exploration of the way tea has shaped politics, culture, and the environment throughout history. From the fourth century BC in China, where it was used as an aid in Buddhist meditation, to the Boston Tea Party in 1773, to its present-day role as the most consumed substance on the planet, the humble Camellia plant has had profound effects on civilization. Renowned cultural anthropologist Alan MacFarlane and Iris MacFarlane recount the history of tea from its origin in the eastern Himalayas and explains, among other things, how tea became the world's most prevalent addiction, how tea was used as an instrument of imperial control, and how the cultivation of tea drove the industrial revolution. Both an absorbing narrative and a fascinating tour of some of the world's great cultures-Japan, China, India, France, the Britain, and others-The Empire of Tea brings into sharp focus one of the forces that shaped history.
©2009 Iris MacFarlane & Alan MacFarlane (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Literary Theory
Summary
Rescuing the subject from dry abstractions, Clare Connors focuses on the real questions that emerge when we read and study literature - such as how we find meaning and how literature relates to its historical context - before exploring the response of theorists. Using selections from works including poetry by Christina Rossetti and Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, Connors unites theory with practice, revealing how enjoyable it is to think about reading.
©2010 Clare Connors (P)2012 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
A Slow Passion
Summary
When BBC Radio 4's Material World programme announced a search for the UK's top amateur scientist, little did anyone expect that the winning experiment would comprise one of our humblest garden pests. Ruth Brooks posed this question: Do snails have a homing instinct? The nation was gripped by the unexpected thesis and by Ruth's online diaries, which catalogued her trials and tribulations as she got to grips with these slimy little gastropods. A Slow Passion is Ruth's story, with anecdotes and misadventures galore. What starts out as a ruthless vendetta against the snails that are decimating her hostas becomes a journey of discovery into the whys and wherefores of snail life. When Ruth dumps a group of the worst offending snails in a far-off wood, she decides to paint their shells with nail varnish, just to see what happens. And guess what, they come back home. This is the beginning of an obsession that sees the grandmother-turned-scientist prowling about and pouncing on the snails in her garden, sneaking off on night-time missions to repatriate bucket loads of painted snails, reading up on the sex-life of snails (which turns out to be unexpectedly romantic) and, eventually, sending off the application to a national competition for home science. With charming illustrations, A Slow Passion is a sweet, funny and surprising investigation into the hidden life of snails, which will change the way you look at the smaller (and slower) things in life.
©2013 Ruth Brooks (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Dancing Fish and Ammonites
Summary
The beloved and best-selling author takes an intimate look back at a life of reading and writing. "The memory that we live with...is the moth-eaten version of our own past that each of us carries around, depends on. It is our ID; this is how we know who we are and where we have been." Memory and history have been Penelope Lively’s terrain in fiction over a career that has spanned five decades. But she has only rarely given listeners a glimpse into her influences and formative years. Dancing Fish and Ammonites traces the arc of Lively’s life, stretching from her early childhood in Cairo to boarding school in England to the sweeping social changes of Britain’s 20th century. She reflects on her early love of archeology, the fragments of the ancients that have accompanied her journey - including a sherd of Egyptian ceramic depicting dancing fish and ammonites found years ago on a Dorset beach. She also writes insightfully about aging and what life looks like from where she now stands.
©2013 Penelope Lively (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Literary Theory
Summary
Rescuing the subject from dry abstractions, Clare Connors focuses on the real questions that emerge when we read and study literature - such as how we find meaning and how literature relates to its historical context - before exploring the response of theorists. Using selections from works including poetry by Christina Rossetti and Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain, Connors unites theory with practice, revealing how enjoyable it is to think about reading.
©2010 Clare Connors (P)2012 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
The Headstrong Ward
Summary
Lady Anne Tremayne is coming to Town. Anne was not best pleased when her godmother's family dealt with their troublesome ward by shipping her off to school. After years of being ignored by the aristocratic young Debenham brothers, a bit of revenge may be in order. Especially that arrogant, overbearing, insufferable Charles needs a lesson, and Anne is determined to teach it to him. And London may never be the same. Charles, Laurence, and Edward Debenham are steeling themselves to do their duty and guide the rebellious young miss through her first London season. They are completely unprepared for the fact that the wild, gawky girl has grown into a dazzling beauty - and she's about to turn all of their lives upside down.
©2014 Jane LeCompte (P)2014 Audible Inc.