History & Historical Fiction

The Book Thief

• UNABRIDGED (14 hrs and 22 mins)
• By Markus Zusak
• Narrated By Dennis Olsen

It is 1939, Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

• UNABRIDGED (10 hrs and 47 mins)
• By Mackenzi Lee
• Narrated By Christian Coulson
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Henry "Monty" Montague doesn't care that his roguish passions are far from suitable for the gentleman he was born to be. But as Monty embarks on his grand tour of Europe, his quests for pleasure and vice are in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family's estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 55 mins)
• By John Boyne
• Narrated By Michael Maloney
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

What happens when innocence is confronted by monstrous evil? Nine-year-old Bruno knows nothing of the Final Solution and the Holocaust. He is oblivious to the appalling cruelties being inflicted on the people of Europe by his country. All he knows is that he has been moved from a comfortable home in Berlin to a house in a desolate area where there is nothing to do and no one to play with.

The Little Prince

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs)
• By Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Richard Howard - translator
• Narrated By Humphrey Bower

A pilot stranded in the desert awakes one morning to see, standing before him, the most extraordinary little fellow. "Please," asks the stranger, "draw me a sheep." And the pilot realizes that when life's events are too difficult to understand, there is no choice but to succumb to their mysteries. He pulls out pencil and paper... And thus begins this wise and enchanting fable that, in teaching the secret of what is really important in life, has changed forever the world for its readers.

Treasure Island

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 12 mins)
• By Robert Louis Stevenson
• Narrated By Alfred Molina
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Robert Louis Stevenson's cherished, unforgettable adventure magically captures the thrill of a sea voyage and a treasure hunt through the eyes of its teenage protagonist, Jim Hawkins. Crossing the Atlantic in search of the buried cache, Jim and the ship's crew must brave the elements and a mutinous charge led by the quintessentially ruthless pirate Long John Silver. Brilliantly conceived and splendidly executed, it is a novel that has seized the imagination of generations of adults and children alike.

Then

• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 42 mins)
• By Morris Gleitzman
• Narrated By Morris Gleitzman
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Felix and Zelda - they escaped from the Nazis, but how long can they now survive when there are so many people ready to hand them over for a reward? Thanks to the courage of a kind, brave woman they are able to hide for a time in the open, but Felix knows he has a distinguishing feature that identifies him as a Jew and that it is only a matter of time before he is discovered, which will mean death for them all. Even though he promised Zelda he would never leave her, he knows he has to, before it is too late....

Queen of Someday: A Stolen Empire Novel

• UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 38 mins)
• By Sherry D. Ficklin
• Narrated By Elan O'Connor
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Before she can become the greatest empress in history, 15-year-old Sophia will have to survive her social-climbing mother's quest to put her on the throne of Russia at any cost. Imperial Court holds dangers like nothing Sophia has ever faced before. In the heart of St. Petersburg, surviving means navigating the political, romantic, and religious demands of the bitter Empress Elizabeth and her handsome but sadistic nephew, Peter.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

• UNABRIDGED (2 hrs and 51 mins)
• By Brian Selznick
• Narrated By Jeff Woodman
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks with an eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's undercover life and his most precious secret are put in jeopardy.

Incurable: The Ellie Chronicles

• UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 56 mins)
• By John Marsden
• Narrated By Mikaela Martin
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Ellie has struggled to put the war behind her and lead a normal life. Although what's normal about your parents having been murdered; trying to run a farm and go to school; and bringing up a young boy who's hiding terrible secrets about his past?

The Forest House

• UNABRIDGED (18 hrs and 19 mins)
• By Marion Zimmer Bradley
• Narrated By Rosalyn Landor

She was Eilan, the daughter of a Druidic warleader and gifted with visions. In a land struggling to survive both Roman conquerors and her own people's enemies, surely fate had marked her to become a priestess of the Forest House. But first Eilan had chosen a different, forbidden path - to love Gaius, a soldier of mixed blood among the legions sent to subdue her country. So she must hide a terrible secret when she is anointed as the new High Priestess.

While I Live: The Ellie Chronicles

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 29 mins)
• By John Marsden
• Narrated By Suzi Dougherty

The town of Wirrawee is emerging from war, slowly, like a flower after a cold snap. Businesses are starting to reopen, the school has re-commenced classes, and local farmers are gradually repossessing their land. But it's not the same Australia as before the war. A new nation exists just a few miles away, a new border that separates Australia from its invaders. Or does it?

The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 48 mins)
• By Esther Hautzig
• Narrated By Alyssa Bresnahan

Poland, 1940. The Russian army invades the beautiful city streets of Vilna. Soldiers storm 10-year-old Esther Rudomin's house and arrest her entire family. The Rudomins, the soldiers say, are "capitalists - enemies of the people". Forced from their home and friends, the Rudomins are herded onto crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia.

The Diviners

• UNABRIDGED (18 hrs and 14 mins)
• By Libba Bray
• Narrated By January LaVoy

Something dark and evil has awakened.... Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City - and she is pos-i-tute-ly ecstatic. It's 1926, and New York is filled with speakeasies, Ziegfeld girls, and rakish pickpockets. The only catch is that she has to live with her uncle Will and his unhealthy obsession with the occult. Evie worries her uncle will discover her darkest secret: a supernatural power that has only brought her trouble so far.

Bleak House

• UNABRIDGED (33 hrs and 2 mins)
• By Charles Dickens
• Narrated By Simon Vance
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

First published in monthly parts from March 1852 to September 1853, this novel follows the fortunes of three pedestrian characters; Esther Summerson, Ada Clare, and Richard Carstone. The story they tell embondies Dickens' merciless indictment of the Court of Chancery and its bungling, morally corrupt handling of the endless case of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, giving the novel its scope and meaning.

Circle of Flight: Ellie Chronicles

• UNABRIDGED (9 hrs and 12 mins)
• By John Marsden
• Narrated By Mikaela Martin

It is a time of profound change for Ellie Linton. Enemies are everywhere. Some come crawling over the hills others drive in and knock on the front door. Sometimes her friends are there and sometimes they are not. Ellie fights every inch of the way. But when courage and imagination are not enough, when she is trapped and helpless, Ellie must face the end of life as she knows it...standing alone, sustained only by her own strength.

The Great Brain

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 42 mins)
• By John D. Fitzgerald
• Narrated By Ron McLarty

Ten-year-old Tom D. Fitzgerald is known to everyone as The Great Brain. J.D., The Great Brain's sometimes confounded but always-admiring younger brother, tells his story. Such people as Mr. Standish, the mean schoolmaster, regret the day they came up against The Great Brain. But others, like the Jensen kids lost in Skeleton Cave, Basil, the Greek kid, or Andy, who has lost his leg and his friends, know that Tom's great brain never fails to find a way home.

Salt to the Sea

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 50 mins)
• By Ruta Sepetys
• Narrated By Jorjeana Marie, Will Damron, Cassandra Morris, and others
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

In 1945, World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia, and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, almost all of them with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety.

Starry River of the Sky

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 25 mins)
• By Grace Lin
• Narrated By Kim Mai Guest

The moon is missing from the remote Village of Clear Sky, but only a young boy named Rendi seems to notice! Rendi has run away from home and is now working as a chore boy at the village inn. He can't help but notice the village's peculiar inhabitants and their problems-where has the innkeeper's son gone? Why are Master Chao and Widow Yan always arguing? What is the crying sound Rendi keeps hearing? And how can crazy, old Mr. Shan not know if his pet is a toad or a rabbit?

The Red Necklace: The French Revolution, Book 1

• ABRIDGED (6 hrs and 40 mins)
• By Sally Gardner
• Narrated By Tom Hiddleston

France 1789: a time of terror; a charismatic boy, Yann, who must find out who he is; the daring rescue of Sido, an aristocrat's daughter: these are the elements in this tremendous adventure by a consummate storyteller, a marvellous tale of the first days of the French Revolution.

Henderson's Boys: Grey Wolves

• UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 49 mins)
• By Robert Muchamore
• Narrated By Simon Scardifield

Spring, 1941.German submarines are prowling the North Atlantic, sinking ships filled with the food, fuel and weapons that Britain needs to survive. With the Royal Navy losing the war at sea, six young agents must sneak into Nazi-occupied Europe and sabotage a submarine base on France's western coast. If the submarines aren't stopped, the British people will starve.

A Skinful of Shadows

• UNABRIDGED (11 hrs and 51 mins)
• By Frances Hardinge
• Narrated By Tuppence Middleton
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Twelve-year-old Makepeace has learned to defend herself from the ghosts which try to possess her in the night, desperate for refuge, but one day a dreadful event causes her to drop her guard. And now there's a spirit inside her. The spirit is wild, brutish and strong, and it may be her only defence when she is sent to live with her father's rich and powerful ancestors. There is talk of civil war, and they need people like her to protect their dark and terrible family secret.

Suspect Red

• UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 55 mins)
• By L. M. Elliott
• Narrated By Elizabeth Wiley

When a family from Czechoslovakia moves in down the street with a son Richard's age named Vlad, their bold ideas about art and politics bring everything into question. Richard is quickly drawn to Vlad's confidence, musical sensibilities, and passion for literature, which he shares. But as the nation's paranoia spirals out of control, Richard longs to prove himself a patriot, and blurred lines between friend and foe could lead to a betrayal that destroys lives.

The Island at the End of Everything

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 11 mins)
• By Kiran Millwood-Hargreave
• Narrated By Victoria Fox

Amihan lives on Culion Island where some of the inhabitants, including her mother, have leprosy. Ami loves her home with its blue sea and lush forests, but the arrival of Mr Zamora changes her world forever as Ami is banished from the island. She seeks to return before her mother's death. Can the colony of butterflies lead her home before it's too late?

Air and Ash: TIDES, Book 1

• UNABRIDGED (6 hrs and 57 mins)
• By Alex Lidell
• Narrated By Kaitlin Bellamy
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

After a lifetime of training, 17-year-old Princess Nile Greysik, a lieutenant on the prestigious Ashing navy flagship, sails into battle with one vital mission - and fails. Barred from the sea and facing a political marriage, Nile masquerades as a common sailor on the first ship she can find. With a cowardly captain, incompetent crew, and a cruel, too-handsome first officer intent on making her life a living hell, Nile must hide her identity while trying to turn the sorry frigate battle worthy. Worse, a terrifying and forbidden magic now tingles in Nile's blood.

Star Dancer

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 56 mins)
• By Beth Webb
• Narrated By Beth Webb
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

When 15-year old Tegen is declared the Star Dancer - the one who will save her people from a terrible evil - she is stunned. Tegen has nothing in common with the mystical druids whose rituals protect her village. She's just a normal girl, not a hero. Then Tegen learns to work real magic with an enchanted silk shawl, and has no choice but to accept her destiny. But there are those who are hell bent on destroying her before she can fulfil the prophecy and defeat the enemy that threatens her world....

The Elephant Thief

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 39 mins)
• By Jane Kerr
• Narrated By Robin Laing
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

When pickpocket Danny accidentally bids for Maharajah the elephant at an Edinburgh auction, he's swept up on an unforgettable journey. His new employer, a zookeeper, transforms Danny into a bejewelled Indian prince. As he rides Maharajah from Scotland to his new home in England, even Queen Victoria follows their journey with delight. But as a rival zookeeper wagers on their failure, Danny's shady connections threaten to overturn the mission....

Elsie Mae Has Something to Say

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 53 mins)
• By Nancy J. Cavanaugh
• Narrated By Cassandra Lee Morris
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Elsie Mae has long treasured summers with her grandparents in the Okefenokee Swamp, so she is devastated to hear that a shipping company plans to build a canal right through it. What will that mean for the people and animals that call the swamp home? So she writes a letter directly to President Franklin Roosevelt himself and sets off to enjoy what may be her last happy summer there with her new dog, Huck. But when she arrives, she discovers a team of hog bandits who have been stealing from the swamper families.

Risuko

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 20 mins)
• By David Kudler
• Narrated By Julia Kudler
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Though Japan has been devastated by a century of civil war, Risuko just wants to climb trees. Growing up far from the battlefields and court intrigues, the fatherless girl finds herself pulled into a plot that may reunite Japan - or may destroy it. She is torn from her home and what is left of her family, but finds new friends at a school that may not be what it seems. Magical but historical, Risuko follows her along the first dangerous steps to discovering who she truly is.

Who Was Alexander Hamilton?

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 10 mins)
• By Pam Pollack, Meg Belviso
• Narrated By P. J. Ochlan
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Born in the British West Indies and orphaned as a child, Alexander Hamilton made his way to the American colonies and studied to become a lawyer. He joined a local militia during the American Revolution, rose to the rank of major general, and became the chief aide to General George Washington. After the war he became the first US secretary of the Treasury. He founded the Bank of New York and the New York Post newspaper.

A Mother's Love: Davenport House, Book 3

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 36 mins)
• By Marie Silk
• Narrated By Allyson Voller
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

The family saga continues in this third book to Davenport House, beginning with a chapter that looks into the past to understand the present. Motor cars and telephone calls are now part of the modern life at Davenport House. It is summertime in 1915 Pennsylvania and the ladies of the house are making big plans for the year. Clara takes financial matters into her own hands and discovers an unlikely alliance outside of the house. The future becomes uncertain when faiths collide and a sudden outbreak of fever sweeps across the county.

Blood Rendezvous: Kit Carson, Book 6

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 10 mins)
• By Douglas Hirt
• Narrated By Rusty Nelson
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Trapper's treasure! The high point of any trapper's year was the summer rendezvous, the annual gathering where mountain men from all over the frontier met to trade the pelts they had risked their lives for. But for Kit Carson, the real danger lay in getting to the rendezvous. He was leading a party of trappers, all of them weighed down with a year's worth of furs. That was enough to make them a tempting target for any killer on the trail - especially when the trail led through Blackfoot territory.

Reunited

• UNABRIDGED (16 hrs and 21 mins)
• By Colleen Houck
• Narrated By Phoebe Strole, Mark Deakins

After surviving her otherworldly adventure, Lily wakes up on her nana's farm having forgotten everything. Her sun prince, her travels to Egypt, and her journey to the Afterlife are all distant memories. But Lily is not the girl she once was. Her body is now part human, part lion, and part fairy. And if that isn't bad enough, she must harness this power of three and become Wasret: a goddess destined to defeat the evil god Seth once and for all.

I Am America

• UNABRIDGED (1 hr and 27 mins)
• By Mary Sheldon, Bob Van Dusen
• Narrated By President Gerald Ford, President George H. W. Bush, President Richard Nixon, and others

This is a delightful introduction to the 50 states and the District of Columbia, presented through stories, statistics, legends, descriptions, and music. Three former US presidents and four first ladies join with 16 actors and actresses to narrate this work, presented from the point of view of the individual states. The program opens with a reading of the Pledge of Allegiance performed by former US presidents.

Search and Destroy

• UNABRIDGED (5 hrs and 37 mins)
• By Dean Hughes
• Narrated By Kirby Heyborne

Rick Ward wants to go to war. And he's not sure why. Maybe he's running from his dad and his crazy temper. Maybe he's running from his girl, who seems to think he's more of a joke than a man. Or maybe he's just running - to find himself. After basic training, Rick enlists with the Charlie Rangers, a special unit that ambushes the enemy in secret jungle raids. It is the most dangerous front line duty, and Rick's six-man team will experience everything from horrifying enemy encounters to mourning the death of a comrade.

Refugee

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 36 mins)
• By Alan Gratz
• Narrated By Michael Goldstrom, Kyla Garcia, Assaf Cohen
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

This timely and powerful novel tells the story of three different children seeking refuge. Josef is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety in America. Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe.

A Promising Life: Coming of Age with America: A Novel

• UNABRIDGED (8 hrs and 46 mins)
• By Emily Arnold McCully
• Narrated By MacLeod Andrews
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Award-winning author Emily McCully's most adventurous book to date draws a dramatic portrait of life in 19th century America. For as long as he can remember, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau has been told that a promising future lies ahead of him. After all, his mother is the great Sacagawea, who accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expedition of discovery. And thanks to his mother, Baptiste's life changes forever when Captain Clark offers him an education in the bustling new city of St. Louis.

Dragonfly Dreams

• UNABRIDGED (3 hrs and 56 mins)
• By Jennifer J. Chow
• Narrated By Kieren Metts

It's 1880 in Fresno, California when 17-year-old Topaz Woo dies after giving birth. She can get an extension in a non-physical body if she uses The Ten Commandments to influence her newborn. Over the course of ten years, she finds herself stymied in parenting by intergenerational drama and spiritual battle. Will she adjust to an otherworldly existence and give her daughter a solid foundation? Or will she become mired in family disputes and forfeit her soul to evil?

Digital Horizon: Geek Girl Mysteries, Book 3

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 47 mins)
• By Sherry D. Ficklin
• Narrated By Andrea Emmes
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Still reeling from her devastating loss, Farris is barely holding it together when she's approached by a covert government agency. The IDC is recruiting the best hackers in the country to form a team capable of tracking down and thwarting cyber terrorists. When they make her an offer she can't refuse - a shot at catching the people responsible for the death of her father - she's all in. But success will mean forging new alliances, betraying the people she loves, and trusting an old enemy. If she succeeds, she might finally get the closure she needs.

Concentration Camps of Canada: Based on a True Story

• UNABRIDGED (4 hrs and 38 mins)
• By Baron Alexander Deschauer, Lucky Deschauer
• Narrated By Alex Hyde-White, Lisa Cordileone

Imagine a world where everyone lives in harmony. A world where square miles of farmland are given to settlers in exchange for them agreeing to move there. A world of freedom, laws, and opportunity. That world is Canada, then and now. Unknown to the world and its citizens, that same government waged a genocidal war against its Indigenous peoples - never granting them ownership of land they freely gave to European settlers.

Daughter of the Pirate King

• UNABRIDGED (7 hrs and 25 mins)
• By Tricia Levenseller
• Narrated By Marisa Calin
• Whispersync for Voice-ready

Sent on a mission to retrieve an ancient hidden map - the key to a legendary treasure trove - 17-year-old pirate captain Alosa deliberately allows herself to be captured by her enemies, giving her the perfect opportunity to search their ship. More than a match for the ruthless pirate crew, Alosa has only one thing standing between her and the map: her captor, the unexpectedly clever and unfairly attractive first mate Riden. But not to worry, for Alosa has a few tricks up her sleeve, and no lone pirate can stop the Daughter of the Pirate King.