Showing results by narrator "A.A. Smith" in All Categories

Following on from her examination of the weird and wonderful animal kingdom, this second season of Earpedia sees comedian Sue Perkins presenting a series of audio guides to the planet's most useful, bizarre and interesting plants.

Deklan ‘Dek’ Archer and his mates arrive at school to a tense atmosphere. ‘Old Mate’, Mr Henry, who has lived in town for a long time, has been found murdered. He had been selling grog on the black market for years. To add to these worries, the Year 12s, who were on camp, are now missing. The police think there is a link between the missing students and the murder. Dek and his friends are torn. Dek and Willum, his mate, have an important football match that evening – professional recruiters are in town. Neither wants to let their coach down but they feel they must search for their friends.

Lee Child selects the 20 best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, and many more. Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international best seller Lee Child has selected the 20 most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

Former Bake Off host, passionate animal lover and comedian Sue Perkins, is our indispensable guide to the animal kingdom. Join her on a comical, insightful and, at times, shocking nature trail around the world.

On his 13th birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry gets a bag of sand in the mail - his only inheritance from his father and mother. He soon learns that this is no ordinary bag of sand. It is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians who are taking over the world by spreading misinformation and suppressing truth. Alcatraz must stop them, using the only weapon he has: an incredible talent for breaking things.

Well, maybe not all supernaturals. I tend to avoid using my fury traits, but when I reluctantly use my power of invisibility and then can't undo it, I don't know whether the gods are punishing me—or someone else is. At first my condition isn't so bad. I can play well-deserved pranks on my family and aid Chief Fox as a silent observer in town. As time passes, however, it becomes clear that the longer I'm sight unseen, the more clear and present danger I'm in.

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.”

Every girl dreams of the perfect proposal. And my boss thought it would be a ‘media moment’ if I proposed to my boyfriend, Rex, live on national TV. With everyone watching. Rex said no. Now I’m a social media sensation for all the wrong reasons and hiding out in Hawaii. But because the universe apparently hates me, so is Rex... with his supermodel new girlfriend! To avoid total humiliation I need to find my own irresistible date. And the gorgeous surfer who looks like he’s walked straight from the ocean and into my fantasies is the perfect solution.

As a forensic nurse on a search and rescue team, Brynn Nealey braves a dangerous blizzard to find the survivors of a plane crash in the Cascade Mountains. Joining her is Alex Kinton, a former US Marshal with self-destructive tendencies. Alex lies his way onto Brynn’s team to find the man who killed his brother - and then return the favor. But once the team members reach the plane’s wreckage, they discover everyone aboard has perished...except for the man Alex is hunting.

One hundred and fifty years from now, in a world where Africa is the dominant technological and economic power, and where crime, war, disease and poverty have been banished to history, Geoffrey Akinya wants only one thing: to be left in peace, so that he can continue his studies into the...

There's something going bump on the Metropolitan line, and Sergeant Jaget Kumar knows exactly whom to call. It's PC Peter Grant's specialty.... Only it's more than going 'bump'. Traumatised travellers have been reporting strange encounters on their morning commute, with strangely dressed people trying to deliver an urgent message. Stranger still, despite calling the police themselves, within a few minutes the commuters have already forgotten the encounter - making the follow-up interviews rather difficult. 

When Shai is caught replacing the Moon Scepter with her nearly flawless forgery, she must bargain for her life. An assassin has left the Emperor Ashravan without consciousness, a circumstance concealed only by the death of his wife. If the emperor does not emerge after his hundred-day mourning period, the rule of the Heritage Faction will be forfeit and the empire will fall into chaos. Shai is given an impossible task: to create - to Forge - a new soul for the emperor in less than 100 days. But her soul-Forgery is considered an abomination by her captors. 

The battle lines have been drawn. The peace in West Hollow was shattered the night Segovax attacked. Now wearing the body of the Duke of Midhaven, the rogue war wizard prepares to finish the job, unleashing his new army on our unsuspecting town.

Ged, the greatest sorcerer in all Earthsea, was called Sparrowhawk in his reckless youth. Hungry for power and knowledge, Sparrowhawk tampered with long-held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This is the tale of his testing, how he mastered the mighty words of power, tamed an ancient dragon, and crossed death's threshold to restore the balance.  

Picking up from where his first memoir left off, Dr Tom is back with more of his gloriously eccentric stories. Still based as a locum in his beloved Scotland, he now takes time out from the surgery for stints as a medical researcher, travelling wherever he is called, from Rio to Jerusalem, Vienna to Singapore.

All 20-year-old Daisy Haites has ever wanted is a normal life, but as the heiress to London's most notorious criminal empire, it's just not on the cards for her. Raised by her older brother Julian since their parents were murdered, Daisy has never been able to escape the watchful gaze of her gang-lord brother. But Julian's line of work means that Daisy's life is...complicated. And things don't become any easier when she falls hard for the beautiful and emotionally unavailable Christian Hemmes, who also happens to be one of the few men in London who doesn't answer to Julian.

Elizabeth Bennet knows that marrying a gentleman of high birth would allow her to reclaim the social status she lost when her father died. Having been approached by men falsely proclaiming their affection for her, she embraces the opportunity to set the terms of her marriage openly and honestly. After meeting Mr. Darcy and his sister, Elizabeth is determined to give them the home and care they deserve. Believing she and Mr. Darcy have a common understanding of what their union will be like, she has high hopes for a happy future.

Brought to you by Penguin. Most people don't realise they're negotiating until it's too late - until they've already lost ground, damaged relationships, or walked away empty-handed. But what if you could transform every interaction into an opportunity to get what you want while making others...

Licensed therapist and respected mental health writer Dr. Kathleen Smith offers a smart, practical antidote to our anxiety-ridden times. Everything Isn't Terrible is an informative and fun guide - featuring a healthy dose of humor - for people who want to become beacons of calmness in our anxious world. Like Sarah Knight's No F*cks Given guides and You Are a Badass, Everything Isn't Terrible will inspire listeners to confront their anxious selves, take charge of their anxiety and increase their own capacity to choose how they respond to it. 

In this updated, companion volume to Merlin's Tour of the Universe, we visit again with Merlin, a timeless space traveler from Planet Omniscia, who answers a collection of imaginative questions about the cosmos from Earthlings of all ages. Whether waxing poetic about Earth and its environs, the Sun and its stellar siblings, the world of light, physical laws or galaxies near and far, Merlin's remarks are engaging, humorous, and clear as a starry night sky.