Random Loyalbooks.com Podcasts

Taking the reader back to the horror and devastation of September 11, 2001, the 9/11 Commission Report by the 9/11 Commission, is the official report that presents the final findings of the committee Krean Hamilton Commission (better known as the 9/11 Commission.) The report reveals not just the events that happened on that fateful day, but also describes the circumstances that led up to it. It analyzes the role of several government agencies in the drama and also pinpoints the lacunae in the system that allowed such events to occur. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 were the most heinous committed on American soil and led to nearly 4,000 deaths, countless injuries, enormous loss of property and forever changed the course of world history. The Krean Hamilton Commission was set up by President George W. Bush on November 2002 and the final report was released on July 26, 2004. During this period, the Commission examined thousands of people in many countries, went through millions of pages of documents, some of them top secret, and came to some very startling conclusions. Among the statements made by the commission were evidence of lax security, eyewitness testimony of the final moments of the fatal plane crash, and the conclusion that though the terrorists were from certain countries, there was no evidence to prove that they were funded by the governments of those countries. It traces the genesis of the dreaded terrorist organization al-Qaeda and portrays in great detail how they were able to infiltrate the country and plan their operations. The report directly led to more U.S. emphasis on diplomacy and more counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan. Some critics panned the report deeming it merely cosmetic in nature and only skimming the surface of the real issues. Yet the book remains an engrossing and riveting slice of history, which makes interesting reading for both casual readers and those engaged in politics, counterterrorism or diplomacy. It has been authored by several people and far from being a boring tract on administrative matters, is written in a dramatic and lyrical style. It zoomed to the top of the bestseller charts when it was first published and became a contender for the non-fiction prize in the National Book Awards. It has also been adapted for film and television. One of the notable features is that the point of view contained in this book remains completely neutral and unbiased in spite of the great emotional impact the events depicted had on the psyche of a nation. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Politics, The 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report

Oedipus the King (often known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex) is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BC. It was the second of Sophocles’s three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone. Over the centuries, it has come to be regarded by many as the Greek tragedy par excellence. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Dramatic Works, ebooks, free audio books, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, Oedipus Rex, play, poetry, Sophocles

Another delightful and sharply pointed excursion into the topics of the day, and of this day as well, with Gilbert Keith Chesterton. These reprinted magazine articles are filled with his good natured wit, his masterful use of paradox, and devastating ability to use reductio ad absurdum to destroy the popular myths that drive a society driving full-speed into secular humanism. You will come away with a whole new collection of wonderful quotes. (Ray Clare) More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts

Tags: All Things Considered, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, Essay/Short nonfiction, free audio books, G. K. Chesterton, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com

Bearing a striking resemblance to Aesop of Aesop’s Fables fame, American author Joel Chandler Harris’ Uncle Remus is also a former slave who loves to tell simple and pithy stories. Uncle Remus or to give it its original title, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings was published in late 1880 and received instant acclaim. The book was reviewed in hundreds of journals and newspapers across the country, leading to its immense success, both critical and financial. “Remus” was originally a fictional character in a newspaper column. Harris, who was a journalist with the Atlanta Constitution, a small-town newspaper, first presented Remus to the world via a regular column in which Remus was depicted as a person who regularly visited the newspaper offices to talk about the social issues of the day. However, later, Remus began to increasingly recount plantation folktales that Harris had compiled. He had heard them from the slaves of Turnworld Plantation as a 16 year old school dropout, working as an apprentice in a newspaper office located in the area. Harris was a poor, illegitimate, immigrant Irish boy who found more in common with the slaves on the plantation than with his so called social equals. He spent much of his free time in the slave quarters, absorbing their lifestyle, folklore and legends. Uncle Remus is famous also for one of its most lovable and astute characters, Br’er Rabbit. This smart, yet mischievous fellow and his companions have provided endless entertainment for generations of children. The original stories were rendered in authentic Southern Georgia slave dialect and later adapted so that they could be better understood. Apart from the doings of the trickster rabbit, Uncle Remus contains poems, songs and folk-tales deeply rooted in the plantation tradition. Though early critics were dismayed by the apparent racist nature of the stories and the passive acceptance of the slave-owning situation, modern versions have overcome these aspects and Uncle Remus today provides education, information and entertainment for children and parents. The 29 books that were originally written have been compiled into nine Uncle Remus series and three books were published posthumously. A total of 185 Uncle Remus stories were penned and they were path breaking in their depiction of the authentic speech of the Southern plantations. Extensively adapted for radio, animation, film and television, Uncle Remus is today an essential part of children’s literature. In fact, not just children, but older readers too will find the book a delightful classic!

Categories: Arts, Comedy, Kids & Family

Tags: animals, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, humor, Joel Chandler Harris, Kids, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, music, Philosophy, Short stories, Uncle Remus

This is the final installment in Sophocles’s Theban Plays, following Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus. Oedipus’s daughter Antigone deliberately breaks the laws of Thebes when she buries her brother’s body and is sentenced to death. She clashes with Creon, the King of Thebes, over what constitutes justice and morality: the laws of the state or the laws of the individual.

Categories: Arts, Education

Tags: Antigone, audio books, audiobook, Classics (antiquity), Dramatic Works, ebooks, free audio books, Languages, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Myths/Legends, play, poetry, Sophocles, tragedy

Inventor, author, printer, scientist, politician, diplomat—all these terms do not even begin to fully describe the amazing and multitalented, Benjamin Franklin who was of course also one of the Founding Fathers of America. At the age of 75, in 1771 he began work on what he called his Memoirs. He was still working on it when he died in 1790 and it was published posthumously, entitled An Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. The book had a complicated and controversial publication history. Strangely enough, the first volume only was first published in French, in Paris in 1791. Later in 1793 a couple of English translations appeared containing the second volume as well. In 1818 Franklin’s grandson brought out a three volume edition, which left out the last unfinished fourth volume. William Temple Franklin also took great liberties with the text and made his own revisions. However, in 1868, publisher John Bigelow purchased the original and complete manuscript and brought out the most complete edition so far. The 20th century saw several scholars bring out more definitive and complete versions. An Autobiography… was written apparently to apprise his son about the events of his life and also meant to be a treatise that would lead to the self betterment of the younger generation. As a book, it is a difficult and complex read. The tone is often meandering, arrogant and condescending in turn and does not have a consistent feel. Written over an extended time period, there are large gaps in sequence and often the author contradicts his own recounting of events. In fact, it ends abruptly, without a shred of information about Franklin’s seminal role in the American Revolution. Yet, two centuries after its debut, it remains widely read and acclaimed, valued for its being almost the first autobiography to have been written in English. Its extensive advice on how to go about achieving a list of virtues is probably the first ever self-help book. As a glimpse of life in 18th century America, it is unrivaled. An Autobiography… also provides readers with the immense possibilities that the New World holds. A poor middleclass youth, one of 10 children, whose parents could hardly afford to send him to school, who attains learning and honest employment by dint of sheer hard work can even today be said to represent the American Dream. With the publication of An Autobiography… it was possible for this new and emerging superpower to establish a history and tradition of its own. As a slice of history, An Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is indeed an interesting and riveting read.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Benjamin Franklin, Biography, ebooks, free audio books, History, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle cast into the ocean by the captain himself after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland decide to launch a rescue expedition. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known.Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant’s children and the crew of his yacht the Duncan they set off for South America. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer Jacques Paganel joins the search. They explore Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island, Australia and new Zeland and find Captain Grant at last. (Summary from Wikipedia.)

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, In Search of the Castaways, Jules Verne, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Sea stories, Teen/Young adult

From the dawn of human consciousness, dreams have always fascinated us. Do they mean something? Do dreams help us see into the future? These questions have intrigued us for centuries. Sigmund Freud was one of the first people to examine dreams seriously and interpret them in the context of our waking lives. In Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners, the Austrian psychoanalyst, Dr Sigmund Freud shares his exciting early discoveries that there was indeed a connection between his patients’ dreams and their mental disturbances. Sigmund Freud was educated to be a neurologist, but went on to revolutionize the world of human psychology by establishing the theories of psychoanalysis. This is a clinical therapeutic method for dealing with mental disturbances. He considered dreams as extra information that the patient was unable to convey to the analyst during the waking state. Dream Psychology, first published in 1921, and translated by MD Eder, is a definitive work which changed the climate of treatments and handling of different neuroses and dysfunctional people. The book is divided into nine chapters. In many of them, Freud uses his own dreams as subjects for interpretation, while in others, he uses his patients’ dreams to elucidate his theories of psychoanalysis. While some of the theories may no longer be relevant or valid in today’s world, this book is indeed one of the foundation stones of Freudian psychoanalysis and marked a water-shed in the attitude towards dreams. He refuted the purely medical and purely spiritual interpretations that had been prevalent till then and proposed a completely new theory. Some of the most interesting parts of the book deal with symbols and language in dreams. Freud developed a standard system of symbols and their actual meaning based on his studies and used it to interpret and decode what his patient was really thinking and conveying. Many of the dreams he recounts were analyzed in the context of Victorian attitudes towards sexuality, repressed desires and unfulfilled wishes. By analyzing and understanding these dreams, Freud’s patients were able to get a better understanding of their underlying, unexpressed motives and this set them on the path to healing. We spend nearly one third of our lives sleeping and during some of that time we dream. Some dreams are vivid enough to be remembered, others are forgotten the moment we wake. This book is an interesting and thought-provoking read that appeals to both people interested in psychology and the casual reader. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Dream Psychology, ebooks, free audio books, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Non-fiction, Psychology, Sigmund Freud

If you love and cherish old English nursery rhymes and have fond memories of your early childhood years, Our Old Nursery Rhymes by Alfred Moffat published in 1911 is indeed the little book for you! Or as a parent, if you’d like your own children to share the magic, this book provides them all. One of the most appealing aspects of this charming book is that the rhymes are all set to music and if you’re musically inclined, you can certainly keep yourself and your children entertained by playing these pretty tunes. Today, we are much less tolerant of perceived political incorrectness, subtle violence, racism and sexism, but in the era when these rhymes were sung, these ideas were not prevalent and children were exposed to many of the less savory aspects of human life. “Pussy-cat Pussy-cat where have you been” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” “Dickory Dickory Dock” “Polly Put the Kettle On” and others are some of the old favorites featured here. Others like “Yankee Doodle” “O Where is My Little Dog Gone” are American favorites. Modern research has shown that many of these nursery rhymes have a historical basis. Some like “Georgy-Porgy” are comic lampoons of the romantic predilections of George IV of England, while others like “Sing a Song of Sixpence” have historical allusions. “Oranges and Lemons” is a great way to remember the churches in and around London. Rhymes like “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush” are really games that young kids enjoy as they sing, “This is the way we wash our face” etc and also learn about their daily routines. Alfred Edward Moffat was a Scottish musician who composed many pieces of classical music. He was also a music historian and folk-song collector. The original version of Our Old Nursery Rhymes was charmingly illustrated by Henriette Willebeek La Mair and is today a collector’s item.

Categories: Arts, Kids & Family, Music

Tags: Alfred Moffat, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, Kids, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, music, Our Old Nursery Rhymes, poetry

Robert Bloch was a prolific writer in many genres. As a young man he was encouraged by his mentor H. P. Lovecraft, and was a close friend of Stanley G. Weinbaum. Besides hundreds of short stories and novels he wrote a number of television and film scripts including several for the original Star Trek. In 1959 Bloch wrote the novel Psycho which Alfred Hitchcock adapted to film a year later. He received the Hugo Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and he is a past president of the Mystery Writers of America. Published in Amazing Stories in 1958, This Crowded Earth is a thriller set on an overpopulated Earth of the future.

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Robert Bloch, science, science-fiction, This Crowded Earth

“The Memoir of my Aunt, Jane Austen, has been received with more favour than I had ventured to expect. The notices taken of it in the periodical press, as well as letters addressed to me by many with whom I am not personally acquainted, show that an unabated interest is still taken in every particular that can be told about her. I am thus encouraged not only to offer a Second Edition of the Memoir, but also to enlarge it with some additional matter which I might have scrupled to intrude on the public if they had not thus seemed to call for it. In the present Edition, the narrative is somewhat enlarged, and a few more letters are added; with a short specimen of her childish stories. The cancelled chapter of ‘Persuasion’ is given, in compliance with wishes both publicly and privately expressed. A fragment of a story entitled ‘The Watsons’ is printed; and extracts are given from a novel which she had begun a few months before her death; but the chief addition is a short tale never before published, called ‘Lady Susan.’ I regret that the little which I have been able to add could not appear in my First Edition; as much of it was either unknown to me, or not at my command, when I first published; and I hope that I may claim some indulgent allowance for the difficulty of recovering little facts and feelings which had been merged half a century deep in oblivion.” – James Edward Austen-Leigh in the Preface to Memoir of Jane Austen More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Biography, ebooks, free audio books, James Edward Austen-Leigh, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Memoir of Jane Austen, Non-fiction

An eleven year old who remains eleven for more than half a century! As a literary creation, Richmal Crompton’s scalawag schoolboy has few peers. Along with his notorious gang of Outlaws, William Brown wreaks havoc not just on his family but also across the entire village. His long suffering family, the local shopkeepers and a host of unforgettable characters make the William series of 21 books a delightful and most amusing read. More William is the second in the long series written by Richmal Crompton Lamburn. She was a dedicated school teacher who began writing full time after she was crippled by polio at the age of 33. A life long sufferer of illnesses of various kinds, including cancer, Crompton’s William stories never reveal the darker side of life or despair. Instead, they celebrate youth, high spirits, mischief and the joy of childhood pranks. The William series met with instant success and to her own surprise, great financial rewards as well. She had written a short story entitled The Outlaws in 1917 but it came out only after another story entitled Rice Mould Pudding was published in the Home Magazine in 1919. It was in these stories that William first made his debut. In 1922, she published a collection entitled Just William featuring a cast of characters that went on to captivate generations of children and adults. She is less known for her considerable body of work in writing for adults, though she published more than 40 novels dealing with Edwardian themes. In fact, William himself was not aimed specifically at children. His misadventures and shenanigans hold much more appeal for grownups rather than younger readers through their humorous writing style. In More William, the young hero features in fourteen independent short stories. Some of them are truly hilarious like The Ghost in which William creates a “psychic” encounter for his cousin Mildred. Other tales like Knight at Arms have him and bosom pal Ginger rescuing a damsel in “distress” a la the Knight of La Mancha! Unable to bear the perceived atrocities of his family, William runs away from home in The Revenge. The collection also features Rice Mould Pudding which was the first published William story. Other stories feature William’s martyred family and their ineffectual efforts in coping with the head of the Outlaws. William’s eternal conflict with authority, his exuberance, his maverick take on life and his heroic ideals all form the backdrop to this truly engaging and enjoyable book.

Categories: Arts

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, free audio books, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, More William, Richmal Crompton

“Call me Ishmael” is one of the most famous opening lines in American literature. With these words, opens one of the strangest and most gripping stories ever written about the sea and sea-faring. Moby Dick by Herman Melville is today considered one of the greatest novels written in America but paradoxically, it was a miserable failure when it first made its debut in 1851. Entitled Moby Dick or The Whale the book finally got its due after the author’s death and is now regarded as a classic portrayal of mania and fatal obsession. The narrator, Ishmael, travels to New Bedford, Massachusetts, to find a place on a whaling ship. He lodges at a seedy inn where he is forced to share a room with a strange old character, Queequeg, who was a harpooner. Despite his initial revulsion of Queequeg, Ishmael decides to join him in looking for work together. They reach Nantucket, the traditional center of whaling, where they find a berth on the Pequod, a bizarre vessel adorned with the skeletons and teeth of whales. The captain, Ahab, a mysterious figure, does not appear immediately. Later, they come to know that he is on board, recovering from losing a leg on his last voyage having escaped death narrowly following an encounter with a massive sperm whale. As the ship sails past Africa, Ahab’s sinister motives begin to emerge. His agenda is to hunt and destroy a legendary whale named Moby Dick, whom he has unsuccessfully pursued several times. He has smuggled his own private harpooners on board and he accosts every whaling ship he meets and demands information about sightings of Moby Dick. One of the ships has a maniacal passenger called Gabriel, who claims to be a prophet and he predicts doom for anyone who seeks Moby Dick. The peg leg captain finally encounters Moby Dick and a trail of destruction follows. The obsessed Ahab refuses to give up. The novel then races towards a brilliant and dramatic climax. As an example of the Great American Novel, Moby Dick is unrivaled in its structure, language and style. Melville amalgamates a fabulous mix of Biblical, Shakespearean and mythical elements along with wonderful seafaring atmosphere sourced from his own nautical experiences on board whaling schooners. Whaling stories from contemporary sources in Nantucket’s local grapevine was another rich fountainhead of material. Moby Dick has been adapted for stage, radio, screen, television, comics and graphic novels. It remains a strange and unforgettable classic which no reader should miss. More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts

Tags: Adventure, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, herman melville, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, moby dick, Sea stories

Written by French author Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo follows the life of Edmond Dantes as he embarks on a journey of revenge after being wrongly imprisoned and set up by none other than his so-called friends. Set during the years after the fall of Napoleon’s empire, the story unwinds in several locations including Paris, Marseilles, Rome, Monte Cristo and Constantinople. A handsome young sailor and soon to be ship captain Edmond Dantes seems to have it all in life, as he returns to Marseilles to wed the love of his life and fiancée, the beautiful Mercedes. However, Edmond’s supposed friends have a hard time staying indifferent to his growing success, and their true jealous nature is revealed. Each has their own reason to envy Edmond. Danglers, who is a colleague of Edmonds, envies his career success, Fernand Mondego is in love with Edmonds fiancée, while his neighbor Caderousse is envious of his luck in life in general. Just as Edmond is about to pick the fruits that life has bore him, he is framed by the dangerously jealous trio, accused of being a traitor and unjustly sentenced to life in prison. As Edmond makes certain acquaintances in prison, he is determined to escape from his confinement and take the vengeance that is rightfully his. When Edmond does in turn return to the world of the free, he acquires a new identity and is motivated by his hunger for revenge. It is not said in vain that revenge is a dish best served cold. An intriguing novel of justice, vengeance, mercy and redemption, The Count of Monte Cristo follows its protagonist as he goes through his numerous masks shifting into several aliases including the Count of Monte Cristo, Sinbad the Sailor, Lord Wilmore, and Abbé Busoni. What makes the novel even more captivating is the fact that it is based on a true story. Captivating and keeping the reader at full throttle from beginning to end, it is no wonder the novel is a worldwide literary classic.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Adventure, Alexandre Dumas, audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, romance, The Count of Monte Cristo

One of the great literary tragedies of all time, The Hunchback of Notre Dame features some of the most well-known characters in all of fiction – Quasimodo, the hideously deformed bellringer of Notre-Dame de Paris, his master the evil priest Claude Frollo, and Esmeralda, the beautiful gypsy condemned for a crime she did not commit.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: audio books, audiobook, ebooks, fiction, free audio books, Historical Fiction, History, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, romance, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo

In a tiny French dukedom, a younger brother usurps his elder brother’s throne. Duke Senior is banished to the Forest of Arden along with his faithful retainers, leaving his lovely daughter Rosalind behind to serve as a companion for the usurper’s daughter, Celia. However, the outspoken Rosalind soon earns her uncle’s wrath and is also condemned to exile. The two cousins decide to flee together and join Duke Senior in the forest. Meanwhile, a young nobleman, Orlando is thrown out of his home by his cruel older brother Oliver. He too finds his way into the forest. What follows is absolutely captivating and a typical Shakespearean comedy! As You Like It was printed in the First Folio in 1623 though there is evidence to show that it was performed quite regularly after its presumed creation between 1598-1600. Though a very popular play and one that has been invariably brought to stage, As You Like It is not considered to be the finest of Shakespeare’s works. George Bernard Shaw commented that it was devoid of the “high artistry” that marked the great playwright. However, others like critic Harold Bloom have found Rosalind to be one of Shakespeare’s great heroines. The complicated twists and turns in the plot, elaborate disguises and gender reversals, the importance of love and forgiveness, the contrast between court and forest and the antics of Touchstone, the Fool who accompanies Duke Senior to the forest all make this a delightful play to view and to read. This is also one of Shakespeare’s most musical plays. There are plenty of songs incorporated into the body of the play, adding to the rural charm of the pastoral landscape. “Under the Greenwood Tree,” “Blow Blow Thou Winter Wind” and “It was a Lover and his Lass” are some of the famous songs that feature in As You Like It. The play is also famous for one of the most widely quoted passages in literature: “All the World’s a Stage” spoken by the melancholy Jacques, who is Duke Senior’s faithful lord and has vowed to stay with him throughout his troubles. The portrayals of the Seven Ages of Man, from birth till death is one of the immortal examples of Shakespeare’s deep insight into the human condition. As You Like It is indeed a delightful and charming play and one that will provide hours of entertaining reading!

Categories: Arts, Comedy

Tags: As You Like It, audio books, audiobook, Comedy, Dramatic Works, ebooks, free audio books, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, play, William Shakespeare

This is a true account by American woman journalist who, in 1889, set out to see whether she could beat the fictional journey in Jules Verne’s 1873 novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. Wearing one dress and carrying one handbag, Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (pen name “Nellie Bly”), reported her travels back to avid readers in America.

Categories: Arts, Society & Culture

Tags: Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, audio books, audiobook, Biography, ebooks, free audio books, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, Nellie Bly, Non-fiction

Banished from his own lands by a usurping brother, Prospero and his daughter Miranda have been living on a deserted island for years, until fate brings the brother within the range of Prospero’s powers. Will he seek revenge, or reconcilement? More great books at LoyalBooks.com

Categories: Arts, Comedy

Tags: audio books, audiobook, Comedy, Dramatic Works, ebooks, free audio books, Literature, Loyal Books, loyalbooks.com, play, The Tempest, William Shakespeare