Special Collections
Human-Narrated Books for Adults
Description: Please enjoy this collection of Bookshare books, now with human narration! #adults
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Finding Me
by Viola DavisFINDING ME is the deeply personal, brutally honest account of Viola's inspiring life, from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present-day career.
In my book, you will meet a little girl named Viola who ran from her past until she made a life changing decision to stop running forever. This is my story, from a crumbling apartment in Central Falls, Rhode Island, to the stage in New York City, and beyond. This is the path I took to finding my purpose and my strength, but also to finding my voice in a world that didn't always see me.
As I wrote Finding Me, my eyes were open to the truth of how our stories are often not given close examination. They are bogarted, reinvented to fit into a crazy, competitive, judgmental world. So I wrote this for anyone who is searching for a way to understand and overcome a complicated past, let go of shame, and find acceptance. For anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades and be…you.
Finding Me is a deep reflection on my past and a promise for my future. My hope is that my story will inspire you to light up your own life with creative expression and rediscover who you were before the world put a label on you.
(P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers
Zarifa
by Zarifa Ghafari and Hannah Lucinda SmithZarifa Ghafari was three years old when the Taliban banned girls from schools, and she began her education in secret. She was seven when American airstrikes began. She was twenty-six when she became mayor of Maidan Wardak, Kabul. An extremist mob barred her from her office; her male staff walked out in protest; assassins tried to kill her six times.
Through it all, Zarifa stood her ground. She ended corruption in the province, promoted peace, and tried to lift up women, despite constant fear for herself and her family. When the Taliban took Kabul in 2021, Ghafari had to flee. But even that couldn't stop her. Six months later, she returned, to continue her work empowering women.
Zarifa is an astonishing memoir that offers an unparalleled perspective of the last two decades in Afghanistan from a citizen, daughter, woman and mayor. Written with honesty, pain, and ultimately, hope, Zarifa describes the work she did, the women she still tries to help as they live under Taliban rule, and her vision for how grassroots activism can change their lives and the lives of women everywhere.
All in My Head
by Jessica MorrisAll In My Head is a memoir by a woman who in her early fifties received a life-shattering diagnosis. It is about her determined search for effective treatment, the birth of a campaign to get proper data and funding for research into glioblastoma (GBM), and finally her coming to terms with the knowledge that she has reached the end of the road.
Jessica Morris takes the reader on a whirlwind journey. How does an ordinary person who last studied biology aged sixteen negotiate with world-renowned doctors and surgeons about cutting-edge treatments she must decide between? How do you remain positive when the median statistics suggest you have only fourteen months to live? How instead do you cast those fears aside and bounce back?
All In My Head is much more than a book about GBM. It takes the reader into the life of a woman who when confronted by devastating news chooses to be strong. It is about fighting adversity with hope and finding reasons to be positive in the darkest moments.
All the Young Men
by Ruth Coker Burks"If I have one message with this book it's that we all have to care for one another. Today, not just in 1986. Life is about caring for each other, and I learned more about life from the dying than I ever learned from the living. It's in an elephant ride, it's in those wildflowers dancing on their way to the shared grave of two men in love, and it's in caring for that young man who just needed information without judgement."
In 1986, 26-year-old Ruth Coker Burks visits a friend in hospital when she notices that the door to one of the patient's rooms is painted red. The nurses are reluctant to enter, drawing straws to decide who will tend to the sick person inside. Out of impulse, Ruth herself enters the quarantined space and begins to care for the young man who cries for his mother in the last moments of his life. And in doing so, Ruth's own life changes forever.
As word spreads in the community that she is the only person willing to help the young men afflicted by the growing AIDS crisis, Ruth goes from being an ordinary young mother to an accidental activist. Forging deep friendships with the men she helps, Ruth works to find them housing and jobs, and then funeral homes willing to take their bodies—often in the middle of the night. She prepares and delivers meals to 'her guys,' supplementing her own income with discarded food found in the dumpsters behind supermarkets. She defies local pastors and the medical community to store rare medications for her most urgent patients, and teaches sex education to drag queens after hours at secret bars.
Emboldened by the weight of their collective pain, she fervently advocates for their safety and visibility, ultimately advising Governor Bill Clinton on the national HIV-AIDS crisis, and in doing so becomes a beacon of hope to an otherwise spurned group of ailing gay men on the fringes of society. Ruth kept her story a secret for years, fearful of repercussions within her deeply conservative community. But at a time when it's more important than ever to stand up for those who can't, Ruth has found the courage to have her voice—and the voices of those who were stigmatised, rejected and abandoned—heard.
Among You Taking Notes…
by Naomi Mitchison26th September 1939. I am beginning to wonder whether the point of a place like this may be that it will keep alive certain ideas of freedom which might easily be destroyed in the course of this totalitarian war….
Born in Edinburgh, Naomi Mitchison spent most of the Second World War in the fishing village of Carradale on Kintyre, her home until her death aged 101. Her life was crowded with incident, and her attitudes to events predictably forceful, original and honest.
Throughout the war she kept a diary at the request of the research organisation Mass Observation, in which she recorded both the momentous events of the time, and also how one (albeit extraordinary) family and their friends lived, what they hoped for and what actually happened. Her diaries developed far beyond the confines of a social document.
Written with the passion of a poet combined with the intellectual curiosity of a radial thinker, they provide a unique and valuable document of the period.
Are We There Yet?
by Emily Atack"In the underrated noughties film Crossroads, Britney Spears sang the immortal words 'I'm not a girl, not yet a woman'. Cheers Brit. I too find myself getting stuck somewhere between being an overdeveloped teenager and not quite being a fully functioning adult woman. I have no idea how to back-up my iCloud, I can't drive and I'm pretty bad at stopping men with exciting beards and unbuttoned vintage shirts from taking a big old walk all over me. In fact, not a girl, not yet a woman . . . it sums up my twenties perfectly."
Emily Atack was flung to fame at just 17, as the girl-next-door character in The Inbetweeners. Almost ten years later, she won over the nation on I'm a Celebrity Get Me out of Here with her cracking impersonations, epic bravery in the Bushtucker trials and general positivity.
Now, in her first book, Emily digs deep and reveals the hilarious highs and the heart-breaking lows that rocked the years between. With astonishing courage and her trade-mark humour, she shares stories about her family, first dates (and bad dates), first loves, moments where she's hit rock bottom and how she finally came to realise that it was all going to be okay.
Are We There Yet? is a warm, honest, FUNNY book for women of any age who have ever felt they needed to look a certain way or felt uncomfortable in their own skin. It's about life, love, everything grubby and glamorous in between, and ultimately realising that you're good enough. (Also she bought a laptop specifically to write this book so you better believe it's getting down and dirty :D)
The Ballast Seed
by Rosie KinchenThe surprise of a second pregnancy, so soon after the birth of her first son, plunged Rosie into a despair that spiralled into deep depression. Terrified at the prospect of adding another child into her already precariously balanced life, Rosie was compelled to find a new way of living. She found herself instinctively drawn to the local parks and scraps of communal green spaces in her local south east London neighbourhood, and to therapy via tending a hidden garden deep within the city. Interlaced with her responses to the travel journals of an eccentric 19th century female botanist and adventurer, Rosie elegantly describes how these pockets of nature amidst the urban sprawl provided just enough to mend her broken spirit.
The Best of Me
by David SedarisFor more than twenty-five years, David Sedaris has been carving out a unique literary space, virtually creating his own genre. A Sedaris story may seem confessional, but is also highly attuned to the world outside. It opens our eyes to what is at absurd and moving about our daily existence. And it is almost impossible to read without laughing.
Now, for the first time collected in one volume, the author brings us his funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, Sedaris shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler's lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say 'give it to me' in five languages and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.
But if all you expect to find in Sedaris's work is the deft and sharply observed comedy for which he became renowned, you may be surprised to discover that his words bring more warmth than mockery, more fellow-feeling than derision. Nowhere is this clearer than in his writing about his loved ones. In these pages, Sedaris explores falling in love and staying together, recognizing his own aging not in the mirror but in the faces of his siblings, losing one parent and coming to terms—at long last—with the other.
Taken together, the stories in The Best of Me reveal the wonder and delight Sedaris takes in the surprises life brings him. No experience, he sees, is quite as he expected—it's often harder, more fraught and certainly weirder—but sometimes it is also much richer and more wonderful.
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
Fear
by Ranulph FiennesSir Ranulph Fiennes has climbed the Eiger and Mount Everest. He's crossed both Poles on foot. He's been a member of the SAS and fought a bloody guerrilla war in Oman. And yet he confesses that his fear of heights is so great that he'd rather send his wife up a ladder to clean the gutters than do it himself.
In Fear, the world's greatest explorer delves into his own experiences to try and explain what fear is, how it happens and how he's overcome it so successfully. He examines key moments from history where fear played an important part in the outcome of a great event. He shows us how the brain perceives fear, how that manifests itself in us, and how we can transform our perceptions.
With an enthralling combination of story-telling, research and personal accounts of his own struggles to overcome fear, Sir Ranulph Fiennes sheds new light on one of humanity's strongest emotions.
Basta
by Marco Van BastenTriple European Footballer of the Year. Once World Footballer of the Year. European Champion two UEFA Super Cups, European Champion with the Dutch National Team in 1988 and numerous national championships with both Ajax and AC Milan. Marco van Basten is known as one of the greatest footballers of all time, but his personal life has always remained somewhat of a mystery, until now.
Basta is the raw, honest, but above all gripping autobiography of Marco van Basten.It's the unfiltered story of his rise to fame, from being under the wing of Cruyff and experiencing life as an Ajax player to being propelled into the spotlight following Euros '88 - and scoring the greatest goal ever to win a major final - and playing for AC Milan at the peak of Italian football's popularity.
But despite countless successes, Marco van Basten experienced many low points, including losing a childhood friend, battling with pain after his numerous fluffed operations, and ultimately coming to terms with life after playing football. Basta is his story.
Echolands
by Duncan MackayAn original, revelatory, enthralling narrative history of how Queen Boudica led the greatest rebellion Britain has ever seen.
Almost 2000 years ago, Boudica led the greatest rebellion Britain has ever seen. Within the space of a single blood-soaked year, she united the tribes to deliver blow after devastating blow to the Roman regime, culminating in a brutal, decisive battle.
Archaeologist Duncan Mackay has spent a lifetime on the trail of Boudica. Beginning near his home in Norfolk, in the heart of Boudica's tribal territory, he embarks on a journey in the footsteps of Romans and Britons, exploring their villages, towns, forts and roads. The passage of two millennia has buried the world that Boudica knew, but Duncan finds that its echoes and physical traces still surround us—as long as you know where to look. The armies marched along the roads we still use, and died in their thousands in towns, cities and countryside where we still live today. The site of Boudica's last battle was long believed be lost to time, but the threads of the story all pull towards one remarkable, forgotten little corner of the English landscape.
From the Breckland of Norfolk to the back streets of Colchester, from the remotest corner of Anglesey to the depths of the London Underground, Duncan takes us back two thousand years to retell the story of Britain's bloodiest year. Fusing ancient history, modern excavation, landscape exploration, and vivid reconstruction, Echolands weaves the long-lost tapestry of Boudica's war.
(P) 2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
A Day at the Beach Hut
by Veronica HenryEscape to the coast with this delicious collection of short stories and beach-hut inspired recipes from Sunday Times bestselling author Veronica Henry - the perfect summer treat!
On a shimmering summer's day, the waves are calling, the picnic basket is packed, and change is in the air. It's just the start of an eventful day for a cast of holiday-makers: over one day, sparks will fly, the tide will bring in old faces and new temptations, a proposal is planned, and an unexpected romance simmers…
This uplifting collection of eight original short stories and over fifty delicious recipes will transport you to the golden sands of Everdene for a perfect day at the beach hut, wherever you are.
The Fifth Ward
by Dale LucasIn the cramped quarters of the city of Yenara, humans, orcs, mages, elves and dwarves all jostle for success and survival, while understaffed watch wardens struggle to keep the citizens in line. Enter Rem. New to the city, he wakes bruised and hungover in the dungeons of the fifth ward. With no money for bail - and seeing no other way out of his cell - Rem jumps at the chance to join the Watch.
Torval, his new partner -- a dwarf who's handy with a maul and known for hitting first and asking questions later -- is highly unimpressed with the untrained and weaponless Rem. But when Torval's former partner goes missing, the two must learn to work together to uncover the truth and catch a murderer loose in their fair city.
The Year Without Summer
by Guinevere Glasfurd1815, Sumbawa Island, Indonesia
Mount Tambora explodes in a cataclysmic eruption, killing thousands. Sent to investigate, ship surgeon Henry Hoggcan barely believe his eyes. Once a paradise, the island is now solid ash, the surrounding sea turned to stone. But worse is yet to come: as the ash cloud rises and covers the sun, the seasons will fail.
1816In Switzerland, Mary Shelley finds dark inspiration. Confined inside by the unseasonable weather, thousands of famine refugees stream past her door. In Vermont, preacher Charles Whitlock begs his followers to keep faith as drought dries their wells and their livestock starve.
In Suffolk, the ambitious and lovesick painter John Constable struggles to reconcile the idyllic England he paints with the misery that surrounds him. In the Fens, farm labourer Sarah Hobbs has had enough of going hungry while the farmers flaunt their wealth. And Hope Peter, returned from the Napoleonic wars, finds his family home demolished and a fence gone up in its place. He flees to London, where he falls in with a group of revolutionaries who speak of a better life, whatever the cost. As desperation sets in, Britain becomes beset by riots—rebellion is in the air.
The Year Without Summer is the story of the books written, the art made; of the journeys taken, of the love longed for and the lives lost during that fateful year. Six separate lives, connected only by an event many thousands of miles away. Few had heard of Tambora—but none could escape its effects.
Definitely Fine
by Amy LavelleHannah is twenty-eight when the worst happens. Her first instinct? To call her mum. The problem is, her mum having an accident, being rushed to hospital and never waking up was the worst thing.
Realising that she is now the Woman of the Family, Hannah has to be the rock for her emotionally-repressed father and chaotic younger sister, all while trying to muddle her way through the crucial life lessons her mother never taught her, like: how to ride a tandem, how to react when your dad starts making lasagne for an unknown woman, how to broker peace between feuding aunts, how to know if you really want a baby or if this is just the grief talking
But what Hannah really wishes her mother had taught her is: when you've just lost the person who made sense of everything, how are you meant to find yourself?
Hilarious, heartbreaking and completely original, Definitely Fine is a book for anyone who's ever felt lost in their own life. Perfect for fans of Dolly Alderton, Holly Bourne and Emma Straub.
Letting in the Light
by Charlotte BettsFrom the award-winning author of The Apothecary's Daughter comes the next book in the Spindrift Trilogy - a beautifully evocative, family drama, perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore, Lucinda Riley and Elizabeth Jane Howard's Cazalet Chronicles.
1914 Spindrift House, Cornwall
Edith Fairchild's good-for-nothing husband, Benedict, deserted her when their children were babies. Now the children are almost adult, Edith and Pascal, her faithful lover of two decades, are planning to leave their beloved Spindrift artists' community and finally be together.
But an explosive encounter between Benedict and Pascal forces old secrets into the light, causing rifts in the happiness and security of the community. Then an assassin's bullet fired in faraway Sarajevo sets in motion a chain of events that changes everything. Under the shadow of war, the community struggles to eke out a living. The younger generation enlist or volunteer to support the war effort, facing dangers that seemed unimaginable in the golden summer of 1914.
When it's all over, will the Spindrift community survive an unexpected threat? And will Edith and Pascal ever be able to fulfill their dream?
Big Girl, Small Town
by Michelle GallenRoutine makes Majella’s world small but change is about to make it a whole lot bigger.
*Stuff Majella knows*
-God doesn’t punish men with baldness for wearing ladies’ knickers
-Banana-flavoured condoms taste the same as nutrition shakes
-Not everyone gets a volley of gunshots over their grave as they are being lowered into the ground
*Stuff Majella doesn’t know*
-That she is autistic
-Why her ma drinks
-Where her da is
Other people find Majella odd. She keeps herself to herself, she doesn’t like gossip and she isn’t interested in knowing her neighbours’ business. But suddenly everyone in the small town in Northern Ireland where she grew up wants to know all about hers.
Since her da disappeared during the Troubles, Majella has tried to live a quiet life with her alcoholic mother. She works in the local chip shop (Monday-Saturday, Sunday off), wears the same clothes every day (overalls, too small), has the same dinner each night (fish and chips, nuked in the microwave) and binge watches Dallas (the best show ever aired on TV) from the safety of her single bed. She has no friends and no boyfriend and Majella thinks things are better that way.
But Majella’s safe and predictable existence is shattered when her grandmother dies and as much as she wants things to go back to normal, Majella comes to realise that maybe there is more to life. And it might just be that from tragedy comes Majella’s one chance at escape.
A History of Heavy Metal
by Andrew O'NeillThe history of heavy metal brings brings us extraordinary stories of larger-than-life characters living to excess, from the household names of Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Bruce Dickinson and Metallica (SIT DOWN, LARS!), to the brutal notoriety of the underground Norwegian black metal scene and the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. It is the story of a worldwide network of rabid fans escaping everyday mundanity through music, of cut-throat corporate arseholes ripping off those fans and the bands they worship to line their pockets.
The expansive pantheon of heavy metal musicians includes junkies, Satanists and murderers, born-again Christians and teetotallers, stadium-touring billionaires and toilet-circuit journeymen. Award-winning comedian and life-long heavy metal obsessive Andrew O'Neill has performed his History of Heavy Metal comedy show to a huge range of audiences, from the teenage metalheads of Download festival to the broadsheet-reading theatre-goers of the Edinburgh Fringe.
Now, in his first book, he takes us on his own very personal and hilarious journey through the history of the music, the subculture, and the characters who shaped this most misunderstood genre of music.
Katherine of Aragon
by Alison WeirKatherine of Aragon: The True Queen by bestselling historian Alison Weir, author of The Lost Tudor Princess, is the first in a spellbinding six novel series about Henry VIII's Queens.
Alison takes you on an engrossing journey at Katherine's side and shows her extraordinary strength of character and intelligence. Ideal for fans of Philippa Gregory and Elizabeth Chadwick.
A Spanish princess. Raised to be modest, obedient and devout. Destined to be an English Queen.
Six weeks from home across treacherous seas, everything is different: the language, the food, the weather. And for her there is no comfort in any of it. At sixteen years-old, Catalina is alone among strangers.
She misses her mother. She mourns her lost brother. She cannot trust even those assigned to her protection.
KATHERINE OF ARAGON. The first of Henry's Queens. Her story. History tells us how she died. This captivating novel shows us how she lived. (P)2016 Headline Digital
The Keeper of Lost Things
by Ruth HoganOnce a celebrated author of short stories now in his twilight years, Anthony Peardew has spent half his life collecting lost objects, trying to atone for a promise broken many years before. Realising he is running out of time, he leaves his house and all its lost treasures to his assistant Laura, the one person he can trust to fulfill his legacy and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners.
But the final wishes of the 'Keeper of Lost Things' have unforeseen repercussions which trigger a most serendipitous series of encounters...
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.
Calling Major Tom
by David M. BarnettCALLING MAJOR TOM is a funny, uplifting tale of friendship and community about a man who has given up on the world... but discovers in the most unlikely way that it might not have given up on him.
We all know someone like Thomas. The grumpy next-door-neighbour who complains to the Residents' Committee about the state of your front lawn. The man who tuts when you don't have the correct change at the checkout. The colleague who sends an all-company email when you accidentally use the last drop of milk.
Thomas is very happy to be on his own, far away from other people and their problems. But beneath his cranky exterior lies a story and a sadness that is familiar to us all. And he's about to encounter a family who will change his view of the world.An irresistible and heart-warming tale of a very unexpected friendship, perfect for fans of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and A Man Called Ove. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you will cheer on all the curmudgeons in your life.
Read by David Thorpe(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group
Bad Day at the Vulture Club
by Vaseem KhanIn the gripping new Baby Ganesh Agency novel, Inspector Chopra and his elephant sidekick investigate the death of one of Mumbai's wealthiest citizens, a murder with ramifications for its poorest.
The Parsees are among the oldest, most secretive and most influential communities in the city: respected, envied and sometimes feared.
When prominent industrialist Cyrus Zorabian is murdered on holy ground, his body dumped inside a Tower of Silence—where the Parsee dead are consumed by vultures—the police dismiss it as a random killing. But his daughter is unconvinced.Chopra, uneasy at entering this world of power and privilege, is soon plagued by doubts about the case.
But murder is murder. And in Mumbai, wealth and corruption go in hand in hand, inextricably linking the lives of both high and low…
(P) 2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Phone for the Fish Knives
by Daisy WaughWhen Hollywood wants to do a remake of the film that made Tode Hall famous, India and Egbert are delighted. They envisage a summer of free money and star-studded dinner parties ahead . . . But the Hall is soon overrun by wardrobe trucks and catering tents, and lusty, insecure actors squabbling about nudity clauses. When the movie's producers threaten to sue over the exact colour of Tode Hall's rolling lawns, India and Egbert realise that having a film crew on their doorstep isn't such a breeze after all. With so many egos in one place things were bound to end badly, but no one would have predicted quite so literal a backstabbing…