Showing results by narrator "BJ" in All Categories

After a meteorite strikes near a farmhouse outside of Arkham, livestock and plants begin to die. While the scientifically minded speak of discovering a new element, locals sense something more sinister is in the air. A pioneer of cosmic horror, Lovecraft had the ability to sharpen the intellect while causing chills to run down your spine.

When an aged watchmaker pits his two protégés against each other, the result is magnificent imperfection. The Rival Mechanicians has been lauded as one of the finest science fiction tales from the first half of the nineteenth century. The Western Literary Messenger declared it to be “above praise” when it was first published in 1847.

A wife’s indiscretion is answered with cruel estrangement. Yet when the couple meets again six years later in a train car, as two strangers traveling together, the Baron discovers the magnitude of his loss. Guy de Maupassant was a master of the short story, using every literary device and turn of phrase with masterful effect. A Meeting is an elegant tale that explores the consequences of unbridled, and bridled, passion.

The night’s stillness is broken as Dr. Petrie rushes out to care for a dying patient, the subtle machinations of villainy begin their work, and the nefarious Dr. Fu-Manchu again rears his insidious head in London. Arthur Henry Ward (Sax Rohmer) is best known for creating the criminal mastermind Dr. Fu-Manchu. The Wire Jacket contains the first three chapters of the novel The Return of Fu-Manchu, and can be listened to as a stand-alone story.

Bryan Dalyrimple returns to his hometown as a war hero after World War I. But after the ticker tape parades and back-slapping handshakes, he finds himself stuck in a dead-end job with little room for advancement, and frustration begins to mount. He decides to turn to the only option left for him—crime. Originally published in the 1920 short story collection Flappers and Philosophers, Fitzgerald shines a light on the sentiment toward the returning doughboys of World War I, and the dwindling opportunities awaiting them upon their return.

A country doctor visits the spacious house of a Baron. But when he arrives, he draws up in shock. Everything inside and outside of the house, down to the clothing of the inhabitants, is all the same color—white. Why is everything about the house eerily bloodless? Mary Fortune was one of the earliest female writers of crime fiction, and likely the first to write from the point of view of the detective. She enjoyed a prolific career in Australia, where she also wrote under the pseudonyms Waif Wanderer and W.W.

The bombastic Professor Challenger is convinced that a sentient being lurks in the mantle of the Earth. Aided by Edward Malone and Peerless Jones, he must drill down through the Earth’s crust to alert the creature of humankind’s existence. After his debut in The Lost World, Arthur Conan Doyle went on to develop the grandiloquent Professor Challenger in four other works. When the World Screamed is the fourth in the series, and a satisfying addition to the canon.

What must Ruscha do to secure the magic word that kills when it’s uttered? Taken from a Danish folk tale, and spiced up with lively characters and murky atmosphere, this short tale delivers some wonderful chills. Elizabeth Ellet wrote for the magazines, or periodicals in the mid-1800s, and the name of Mrs. Ellet was recognized in literary circles. Today, Ellet is perhaps known best for the scandal she leaked about Edgar Allan Poe’s rumored affair with Frances Sargent Osgood when both were married to other people.

A Christmas ball sets the plans in motion for the wealthy Julian Mastakovich, for an immensely wealthy business man has just announced that his daughter has a dowry of 300,000 rubles. First published in 1848, and adapted into a motion picture in 2000, Dostoyevsky shines a light on the business end of well-moneyed marriage. It begins when an 11-year-old girl gets an extravagant doll at a Christmas ball.

Something seems off. Lupin sensed it before it happened. When a simple burglary goes terribly wrong, and two of Lupin’s accomplices are sentenced to the guillotine, Lupin’s quest to free them reveals itself to be more twisted and darker than he’d ever imagined. Inspired by the infamous Panama scandals of 1892 and 1893, and expanding on the main concept in Poe’s The Purloined Letter, Leblanc weaves a thrilling tale of twists and turns with Lupin’s characteristic panache.

Everett’s brother rocked the world with his incredible musical talent. And Everett is…fine. But he’s okay with that. He’s a member of “a certain lovable class of men who never accomplish anything in particular”. But when traveling in the West, Everett meets a remarkable woman who is dying, and discovers that she has a history her brother, he gives her the greatest gift of all during her final days—the gift of understanding.

A seasoned, award-winning professional money manager delivers an eye-opening and insightful take on a frequently overlooked - and critically important - investing strategy. The author walks listeners through a crash-course in how to take full advantage of the greatest opportunity for wealth accumulation: a bull market. Unloved Bull Markets is the perfect book for investors who seek to base their decisions on data and logic, rather than fears and intuition, and want to focus on the profitable climb instead of distressing worries. 

Seeking a new life, the Oberstrasse family lands on the wild Maine coast in 1753. They find that the American frontier teems with conniving swindlers, hostile French and Indians, killing diseases, and then a powerful movement for independence from Britain. They have come because Christianne has decided that their infant sons will never soldier for the Landgraf of Hesse like their father, hired out to serve King George of England. Expecting to till the soil, Johann finds that opportunity on the rocky coast comes from the forest, not land, so he learns carpentry and trapping.

Shadowvale isn’t your typical American small town. The sun never shines, the gates decide who enters, magic abounds, and every resident bears a curse. Making a pact with a chocolate addict like Nasha might not be the right move, but Charlie will do anything to avoid the dragon mating games.

In the hospitality space, Three and Jackie Carpenter know full well the importance of leading teams who are loyal, engaged, and happy. Working in an industry where customer expectations are at an extreme, Three and Jackie have applied a mindset of treating employees like customers. They've developed a five-step roadmap to creating positive employee experiences and company cultures where connection is the crux of the team's success.  

For centuries, the West has produced stories about the future in which humans use advanced science and technology to transform the Earth. Michael Rawson uses a wide range of works that include Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, the science fiction novels of Jules Verne, and even the speculations of think tanks like the RAND Corporation to reveal the environmental paradox at the heart of these narratives: the single-minded expectation of unlimited growth on a finite planet.

B.J. Harrison reads Louisa May Alcotts famous novella "Behind a Mask", which is widely considered to be Alcotts masterpiece in sensation fiction. A wealthy Victorian-era family recruits Jean Muir as sixteen-year-old Bellas governess. But soon enough, Jean Muir appears to have everyone under her spell, and to have the power to do everything as she pleases. This novella from the late 19th century was initially published under Louisa May Alcotts pseudonym A. M. Barnard...

Career Diplomacy takes listeners inside the world of American diplomats in the US Foreign Service. Members of the Foreign Service represent the country abroad, protect and support American citizens overseas, manage government programs and facilities, and move foreign policy from the abstract to the actual. 

The Hague, 1672: A prize of 100,000 florins is offered to the person who can produce a perfectly black tulip - a feat considered impossible. But at the very moment when Cornelius van Bearle is on the brink of achieving the impossible feat, he is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. The story of his delicate tulip’s tumultuous journey to The Hague is absolutely riveting, and an event you don’t want to miss.

Only one yellow rose bush exists in the whole of the Hungarian Plain known as the Hortobágy, and its flowers are only given by the maiden who runs the Hortobágy Inn. But when she has a lover’s spat with her betrothed, and remembers a recipe for love she learned from a gypsy woman, how could she know that she would poison her beloved?