Showing results by narrator "Christopher Ragland" in All Categories

Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? Ambrose Bierce is an author whose words take us one way and then send us another. These miniature masterpieces all have a central truth and plausibility that seems to vanish in an ending that can be anything from wry, to shocking to hallucinatory.

Sherwood Anderson was born on 13th September 1876 in Camden, Ohio. In 1916 his first book, ‘Windy McPherson’s Son’, was released and in 1919, his most famous book, ‘Winesburg, Ohio’, a collection of short stories about life in an Ohio town was released. Anderson continued to write short stories, novels and non-fiction but his only true bestseller came with ‘Dark Laughter’. His influence on writers that followed, from Faulkner to Hemingway, was immense.

Sherwood Anderson was born on 13th September 1876 in Camden, Ohio. In 1916 his first book, ‘Windy McPherson’s Son’, was released and in 1919, his most famous book, ‘Winesburg, Ohio’, a collection of short stories about life in an Ohio town was released. Anderson continued to write short stories, novels and non-fiction but his only true bestseller came with ‘Dark Laughter’. His influence on writers that followed, from Faulkner to Hemingway, was immense.

Talent bursts from this decade with astonishing ease. From America across Europe to Russia each and every story is an indelible mark of story-telling flecked with genius that enthralls us all. Whatever their chosen genre their stories break new ground, cover new topics and carry a legacy that cannot be disputed.

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation. From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own. Within this melting pot of styles, genres and wordplay one fact stands out: In the American short story, literary tradition has a strong, vibrant and almost inclusive history, if you know where to look.

William Austin was born on 2nd March 1778 in Lunenburg, Massachusetts. Although he was a frequent contributor to local periodicals on various subjects from Unitarian theology to chemistry to legal history, nothing quite approached the popularity of ‘Peter Rugg: The Missing Man’. This story and its sequels, constructed as long letters, were originally published in the New England Galaxy periodical between 1824 and 1827. So credible was his writing premise that they were accepted as a factual recounting of local legends rather than Austin’s fiction.

John Griffith Chaney was born on January 12th, 1876, in San Francisco. In late 1876 his mother married John London and the young child was brought to live with them as they moved around the Bay area, eventually settling in Oakland where now, calling himself Jack, he completed grade school. In the Klondike Jack began to gather material for his writing. During the late 1890s Jack was regularly publishing short stories and by the turn of the century full-blown novels.

In the heat-wave summer of 1971, four kids find a body by a lake and set out to solve a murder. But they dig too deep and ask too many questions. Larson is a town reeling in the wake of the Vietnam draft, where the unrelenting heat ruins the harvest and the people teeter on the edge of ruin. As tension and paranoia run rife, rumours become fact, violence becomes reflex. The unrest allows the dark elements of the close-knit farming community to rise and take control. And John, Jenny, Gloria and Rudy are about to discover that sometimes secrets are best left uncovered....

We join the action just as our ‘hero’ Tom, (early thirties, reads the ‘news’ on the radio) finds out that his girlfriend has not left him. Tom, I have not left you. But I am gone. Please carry on as normal. Love always, Hayley. Has Hayley gone or hasn’t she? Is she coming back? If she has gone, but is coming back, when is she coming back? And what is he supposed to bloody do in the meantime? And what if she’s never coming back?

Five years ago, three-year-old Dillon disappeared. For his father Harry - who left him alone for ten crucial minutes - it was an unforgivable lapse. Yet Dillon's mother Robyn has never blamed her husband: Her own secret guilt is burden enough. Now they're trying to move on, returning home to Dublin to make a fresh start. But their lives are turned upside down the day Harry sees an eight-year-old boy in the crowd. A boy Harry is convinced is Dillon. But the boy vanishes before he can do anything about it.

When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the Earth. George A. Romero's iconic film and novel terrified generations. Now Dawn of the Dead is back to terrify once more. The world is being devastated by zombies. No one knows how far they have spread, or how to stop them. And as the living fight to save themselves, society collapses. Four people escape the chaos of downtown Philadelphia and find shelter in a shopping mall. As the survivors exhaust their greed and the undead scrape at the doors, the refuge becomes a prison. And soon there will be nowhere left to hide....

This is an essential collection from the author of The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Hustler and The Colour of Money.

When Thomas 'Razor' Turner starts investigating his mum's death, he turns to Breanna Miller, the shy, smart girl he's never looked at twice, for help. Soon their newfound bond turns into something more. But can it survive the secrets of the past?

Metamorphosis: Three stories, each one involving a man who discovers that he has come to dwell, for an hour or for a lifetime, in a house and in a mind not quite his own. Each one opens doors onto rooms of illusion, radiance, regret, and dark enchantment. Welcome to the stories of three young writers, stories written in collaboration with James P. Blaylock. Welcome to the borderland of illusion and reality.

Six real-life stories of explorers who have ventured to the extremes of the earth. Hours of audio fun to keep children entertained while on the move! Introduce your children to six inspirational true stories about real life explorers and adventurers around the world, from Captain Scott of the Antarctic and Christopher Columbus to modern-day Mount Everest ice climbers.

If you don’t offer great customer experience, your main competitors will take away 50% of your business. Period. Gone are the days in which businesses could simply offer an "OK" experience and get away with it. In today’s hypercompetitive environment, companies can no longer be just B2C or B2B. They must become B2Me—more personal, more relevant.

Are you an executive leader who wants to create efficient and effective change - and be well rewarded for your success? This audiobook provides a step-by-step approach to help you drive fast, consistent internal innovation and allow your business to react positively to any changes in the market. It explains clearly how to create an agile, innovative organisation that can learn from its own mistakes and become a company that people will fight to work for.

‘If you care about the planet, and about the people and animals who live on it, there are two ways to think about this. You can keep on hoping that catastrophe is preventable, and feel ever more frustrated or enraged by the world’s inaction. Or you can accept that disaster is coming, and begin to rethink what it means to have hope.’ The honesty and realism of Jonathan Franzen’s writings on climate have been widely denounced and just as widely celebrated.

Nine of the bard’s most tragic plays, from Hamlet to Romeo and Juliet, abridged and novelised for young listeners. Hours of audio fun to keep children entertained while on the move! Introduce your children to the world of Shakespearean tragedies with these abridged stories, written especially for children. Filled with atmospheric sound effects, your children will come away with a newfound love for these classic stories!

More than at any other time in history, listeners are educating themselves on the world's major religions and what each believes. Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Islam often seem at odds with each other, and as listeners struggle to understand, The Complete Idiot's Guide® to World Religions, Third Edition, provides expanded and updated coverage to answer their questions.