Special Collections
Human-Narrated Books for Adults
Description: Please enjoy this collection of Bookshare books, now with human narration! #adults
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Billie Eilish
by Billie EilishLegendary recording artist Billie Eilish walks us through personal highlights and moments from the book as she reflects on photos from her life and career - both on and off the stage - for the first time in this fascinating audio accompaniment.
Billie Eilish is a 21st-century global pop phenomenon. Uncompromising and unapologetic, between her record-breaking, award-winning music and artistry, it's no surprise that she has become one of the biggest and most loved artists of her generation.
Contains never-before-told stories and recollections from her personal life and career, from the early years to her breakout success and including memories shared by her parents, this is an audiobook like no other - in her own words, providing a truly intimate window into her journey, narrated by Billie herself.(P)2021 Hachette Audio
Me And Mine
by Anna May ManganME AND MINE tells the story of an Irish immigrant family who left rural Ireland in the 1950s in the hope of finding work and a better way of life in England.
But home is never far away as aunts ferry over suitcases dripping with blood from the Irish boat train because English meat is 'dirt' or smuggle poteen disguised as holy water in Virgin Mary shaped bottles, and gossip is delivered weekly in the form of the local county paper.
ME AND MINE is an entertaining and vivid portrait of immigrant life in 1950s England, told through the stories of a truly colourful cast of characters.
Blackwater
by James HenryJanuary 1983, Colchester CID
A new year brings new resolutions for Detective Inspector Nicholas Lowry. With one eye on his approaching fortieth birthday, he has given up his two greatest vices: smoking, and the police boxing team. As a result, the largest remaining threat to his health is now his junior colleague's reckless driving.
If Detective Constable Daniel Kenton's orange sports convertible is symbolic of his fast track through the ranks, then his accompanying swagger, foppish hairstyle and university education only augment his uniqueness in the department. Yet regardless of this, it is not DC Kenton who is turning station heads.
WPC Jane Gabriel is the newest police recruit in Britain's oldest recorded town. Despite a familial tie to top brass, Gabriel's striking beauty and profound youth have landed her with two obstacles: a young male colleague who gives her too much attention, and an older one who acts like she's not there.
January 1983, Blackwater Estuary
A new year brings a new danger to the Essex shoreline. An illicit shipment, bound for Colchester - 100 kilograms of powder that will frantically accelerate tensions in the historic town, and leave its own murderous trace. Lowry, Kenton and Gabriel must now develop a tolerance to one another, and show their own substance, to save Britain's oldest settlement from a new, unsettling enemy.
The Massacre of Mankind
by Stephen BaxterIt has been 14 years since the Martians invaded England. The world has moved on, always watching the skies but content that we know how to defeat the Martian menace.
Machinery looted from the abandoned capsules and war-machines has led to technological leaps forward. The Martians are vulnerable to earth germs. The Army is prepared.
So when the signs of launches on Mars are seen, there seems little reason to worry. Unless you listen to one man, Walter Jenkins, the narrator of Wells' book. He is sure that the Martians have learned, adapted, understood their defeat.
He is right.
Thrust into the chaos of a new invasion, a journalist - sister-in-law to Walter Jenkins - must survive, escape and report on the war. The Massacre of Mankind has begun.
Read by Nathalie Buscombe
The Girl Before
by Jp DelaneyEnter the world of One Folgate Street and discover perfection . . . but can you pay the price?
Jane stumbles on the rental opportunity of a lifetime: the chance to live in a beautiful ultra-minimalist house designed by an enigmatic architect, on condition she abides by a long list of exacting rules.
After moving in, she makes a shocking discovery about the previous tenant, Emma, and Jane starts to wonder if her own story will be a rerun of the girl before.
Defender
by G X ToddDefender by G X Todd is an imaginative thriller that draws on influences from Stephen King, Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman to create a new world - where the biggest threat mankind faces is from the voices inside your own head.
On the cusp of sleep, have we not all heard a voice call out our name?
In a world where long drinks are in short supply, a stranger listens to the voice in his head telling him to buy a lemonade from the girl sitting on a dusty road. The moment locks them together. Here and now it's dangerous to listen to your inner voice.
Those who do, keep it quiet.
These voices have purpose. And when Pilgrim meets Lacey, there is a reason. He just doesn't know it yet.
Defender pulls you on a wild ride to a place where the voices in your head will save or slaughter you.
Caraval
by Stephanie GarberWelcome to Caraval, where nothing is quite what it seems. Scarlett has never left the tiny isle of Trisda, pining from afar for the wonder of Caraval, a once-a-year week-long performance where the audience participates in the show.
Caraval is Magic. Mystery. Adventure. And for Scarlett and her beloved sister Tella it represents freedom and an escape from their ruthless, abusive father.
When the sisters' long-awaited invitations to Caraval finally arrive, it seems their dreams have come true. But no sooner have they arrived than Tella vanishes, kidnapped by the show's mastermind organiser, Legend. Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But nonetheless she quickly becomes enmeshed in a dangerous game of love, magic and heartbreak. And real or not, she must find Tella before the game is over, and her sister disappears forever.
Witness X
by Se MoorheadFrom one of the most original new voices in fiction comes a startling vision of a world where hero Kyra must fight the past to save our future. She's the only one who can access the truth...
Fourteen years ago, the police caged a notorious serial killer who abducted and butchered two victims every February. He was safe behind bars. Wasn't he? But then another body is discovered, and soon enough, the race is on to catch the real killer.
Neuropsychologist Kyra Sullivan fights to use a new technology that accesses the minds of the witnesses, working with the police to uncover the truth. Will Kyra discover the person behind the murders, and if so, at what cost? And how far will she go to ensure justice is served?
Love and Other Thought Experiments
by Sophie WardRachel and Eliza are planning their future together. One night in bed Rachel wakes up terrified and tells Eliza that an ant has crawled into her eye and is stuck there. Rachel is certain; Eliza, a scientist, is skeptical. Suddenly their entire relationship is called into question. What follows is a uniquely imaginative sequence of interlinked stories ranging across time, place and perspective to form a sparkling philosophical tale of love, lost and found across the universe.
The Runner
by Stephen LeatherThe explosive new stand-alone thriller from the author of the Spider Shepherd series
Sally Page is an MI5 'footie', a junior Secret Service Agent who maintains 'legends': fake identities or footprints used by real spies. Her day consists of maintaining flats and houses where the legends allegedly live, doing online shopping, using payment, loyalty and travel cards and going on social media in their names - anything to give the impression to hostile surveillance that the legends are living, breathing individuals.
One day she goes out for a coffee run from the safe house from which she and her fellow footies operate. When she comes back they have all been murdered and she barely escapes with her own life. She is on the run, but from whom she has no idea. Worse, her bosses at MI5 seem powerless to help her. To live, she will have to use all the lies and false identities she has so carefully created while discovering the truth . . .(p) 2020 Isis Publishing Ltd
The Last Smile in Sunder City
by Luke ArnoldThe Last Smile in Sunder City is a brilliantly voiced contemporary fantasy for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Rotherweird or Terry Pratchett's Discworld, and the debut novel from high-profile actor Luke Arnold.
Fetch Phillips fought on the wrong side of a war between humans and magical creatures, and his actions helped to drain the world of enchantment. Now he works on the streets of Sunder City, taking what odd jobs he can while trying to help those whose lives he ruined.
His first case is to find a missing teacher. Professor Rye is a four-hundred-year-old vampire with a heart of gold in a husk of a body. In a world without magic, most vamps have already crumbled into dust, but Fetch is happy to go looking for some dirt with pointed teeth if it gets him his drinking money. Then, when a young siren disappears, Fetch finds out that this dark world still hides some monsters - and he'd better clean up his act before they come into the light.
A Famished Heart
by Nicola WhiteHer head was bowed, and the hands braced on the chair arms were not like hands at all, but the dry dark claws of a bird...The Macnamara sisters hadn't been seen for months before anyone noticed.
It was Father Timoney who finally broke down the door. One woman was sitting in her armchair, surrounded by religious tracts, the other was crouched under her own bed. Both had starved themselves to death.
Francesca Macnamara returns to Dublin after decades in the US, to find her family in ruins. Meanwhile, Detectives Vincent Swan and Gina Considine are convinced that there is more to the deaths than suicide. Because what little evidence there is, shows that someone was watching the sisters die...
The Darlings
by Cristina AlgerFrom the author of The Banker's Wife and Girls Like Us comes an explosive drama about family, greed and high society scandal.
The Darlings of New York are untouchable. But no one is safe from a scandal this big.
When Carter Darling's business partner commits suicide, it triggers a huge financial investigation. The allegations are serious. The danger of it exposing their private lives is equally threatening. In times of crisis, the Darlings have always stuck together. But with the stakes so high, how long will their loyalty last?(P) 2019 Penguin Random House Audio
The Burning Men
by Will ShindlerWhen a high-rise development in South London catches fire mid-construction, a close-knit team of fire fighters tackle the blaze. The building should be empty, but they find a man, unconscious, next to several cases of money.
The fire crew make a fateful decision; leave the man, take the money, quit the service and never speak of this again. But five years later one of them is set alight in the toilets at his own wedding. Soon after, a second is found in the burnt out remains of his Maserati, nothing but a smoking corpse.
It appears that someone knows what they did. And there are still three firemen left to go. . . DI Alex Finn and DC Mattie Paulsen are an unlikely pairing, but they need to discover who is behind these killings before the last man burns.
This is first in Will Shindler's Finn and Paulsen series - a British detective series that ranks with Mark Billingham, M.J. Arlidge, Staurt Macbride. (P) 2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd