Heresy

Heresy ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by John Lee
13:9

Set in the 16th-century England, Giordano Bruno, monk, poet, scientist, and magician is on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. Bruno’s pursuit of rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen.   His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy.

Read Full Post »

The Eight

The Eight ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Susan Denake
Download 25:49

A dabbler in mathematics and chess, Catherine Velis is also a computer expert for a Big Eight accounting firm. Before heading off to a new assignment in Algeria, Cat has her palm read by a fortune-teller. The woman warns Cat of danger. Then an antiques dealer approaches Cat with a mysterious offer: He has an anonymous client who is trying to collect the pieces of an ancient chess service, purported to be in Algeria. If Cat can bring the pieces back, there will be a generous reward.

In the south of France of 1790, Mireille de Rémy and her cousin Valentine are young novices at the fortress-like Montglane Abbey. With France aflame in revolution, the two girls burn to rebel against constricted convent life – and their means of escape is at hand. Buried deep within the abbey are pieces of the Montglane Chess Service, once owned by Charlemagne. Whoever reassembles the pieces can play a game of unlimited power. But to keep the Game a secret from those who would abuse it, the two young women must scatter the pieces throughout the world.

Read Full Post »

Sepulchre

Sepluchre  ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Donada Peters
Download 20:17

The stories of two women separated by more than a century are brought together by a series of visions that are related to the tarot and a small church, known as a Sepulchre in the grounds of the Domaine de la Cade.

Read Full Post »

Pictures at an Exhibition

Pictures at an Exhibition ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Mark Bramhall
7 discs

Born to an art dealer and his pianist wife, Max Berenzon is forbidden from entering the family’s business for reasons he cannot understand. He reluctantly attends medical school, reserving his true passion for his father’s beautiful gallery assistant, Rose. When Paris falls to the Nazis, the Berenzons survive in hiding, returning in 1944 to find that their priceless art collection has vanished. In Max’s obsessive hunt to recover his father’s paintings, he navigates a torn city of corrupt art dealers, black marketers, Râesistants, and collaborators, uncovering not only paintings but the stories of Rose’s heroism, and the truth behind a devastating family secret.

Read Full Post »

Labyrinth

Labyrinth  ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Donada Peters
19 hrs 38 mins

The lives of two women born centuries apart are linked by a common destiny, a labyrinth. In the Pyrenees mountains near Carcassonne, Alice, a volunteer at an archaeological dig stumbles into a cave and makes a startling discovery-two crumbling skeletons, strange writings on the walls, and the pattern of a labyrinth; between the skeletons, a stone ring, and a small leather bag. Eight hundred years earlier, on the eve of a brutal crusade to stamp out heresy that will rip apart southern France, Alais is given a ring and a mysterious book for safekeeping by her father as he leaves to fight the crusaders. The book, he says, contains the secret of the true Grail, and the ring, inscribed with a labyrinth, will identify a guardian of the Grail. As crusading armies led by Church potentates and nobles of northern France gather outside the city walls of Carcassonne, it will take great sacrifice to keep the secret of the labyrinth safe.

Read Full Post »

Parrot and Olivier in America

Parrot and Olivier in American  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Humphrey Bower
Download (17hrs 35mins)

Olivier is the traumatized child of aristocratic survivors of the French Revolution. Parrot is the motherless son of an itinerant English printer. They are born on different sides of history, but their lives will be connected in the United States by an enigmatic one-armed marquis.

Read Full Post »

The Tudors: the Complete Story of England’s Most Notorious Dynasty

The Tudors ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Robins Sachs
Download (24 hrs and 34 mins)

“More than four centuries after the death of the last Tudor, there continues to be an immense gap between who the various members of the family actually were and what most people–including most people with some knowledge of English history–think they know about them. The real Henry VIII was both a greater and lesser man than the lusty Bluff King Hal of legend, the man who famously had six wives. Elizabeth was vastly more complicated, more pathetic and less noble than the glorious façade behind which she concealed herself. The now-obscure Henry VII, Edward VI, and Mary I were both more important as rulers and far more fascinating as human beings than is commonly understood.” (GJ Meyer) Amazon

Read Full Post »

The Red Necklace

The Red Necklace ♥ ♥ ♥ 
Red by Carrington MacDuffie
8 discs

The winds of change are blowing through Paris in the winter of 1789, both for France and for  a striking and mysterious Gypsy boy named Yann Margoza. Yann was born with a gift for knowing what people are thinking and an uncanny ability to throw his voice, and he had been using those skills while working for a rather foolish magician. That work  ends  on the night of the magician s final performance. After meeting  shy Sido, an heiress with a cold-hearted father, an attachment is born that  influences both their paths.  While Revolution is afoot in France, Sido is being used as the pawn of a fearful villain who goes by the name Count Kalliovski. Some have instead called him the devil, and only Yann, for Sido s sake, will dare to oppose him

Read Full Post »

A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities  ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Frank Muller
12 Discs

The French Revolution was one of history s most explosive eras and has been captures in this epic novel.  After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille, the aging Doctor Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There the lives of two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil roads of London, they are drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror, and they soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

Read Full Post »

Wolf Hall

Wolf Hall ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Simon Slater
18 discs

With no male heir, the infamous Henry VIII wants to annul his 20-year marriage to Queen Catherine in favor of a marriage to Anne Boleyn. When Cardinal Wolsey fails to convince the Catholic Church to follow his king’s ideas, he falls out of favor. In steps Thomas Cromwell–a blacksmith’s son who has seen his share of hardship. When he is able to give the king his heart’s desire, he finds himself in a powerful position. But his new role is a dangerous one with the volatile king.

Read Full Post »