Showing titles in Linguistics

Twelve billionaires rule the United States, while those called freemen are forced to serve the rich. But that was 60 years ago, before the Scarlet Plague. In this post-apocalyptic novella, a ragged and tattered old man tells his progeny of what life was like before The Scarlet Plague appeared - and wiped out civilization as they knew it.

This short, opinionated audiobook addresses the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which argues that the language we speak shapes the way we perceive the world. Linguist John McWhorter argues that while this idea is mesmerizing, it is plainly wrong. It is language that reflects culture and worldview, not the other way around.

Bobby, a sparky, silver-haired Skye terrier, adopts Auld Jock, a worn-out simple shepherd, as his master. Jock is let go by the farmer and dies in poverty, having suffered one winter too many. The farmer tries to reclaim Bobby as a pet for his daughter, but the dog owes allegiance only to Auld Jock, guarding his grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard. His devotion changes the lives of those around him and ultimately the conditions of the poor in Edinburgh. Bobby's loyalty is eventually rewarded, and he becomes a famous dog indeed!

Written first as a series of stories in the late 19th century and published later as the quintessential Western novel in the early years of the 20th century, The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister contains elements of breathtaking adventure, courage, grit, conflict, humor, and heartfelt emotions that continue to resonate in the 21st century.

Zane Grey, an author synonymous with the daring tales of the Wild West, delivers an exciting tale in this phenomenal best-seller, The U.P. Trail. As the country changes around them, a group of Wyoming residents ban together to fight the coming of the Union Pacific Railroad. But railroad engineer Warren Neale, struggling against the terrain, the climate, the populace and even his girlfriend’s abduction, is determined to see his project to completion.

The classic genre-defining whodunit, by the mother of the detective novel. Introducing the first American series detective, Ebenezer Gryce, The Leavenworth Case was published nine years before the debut of Sherlock Holmes, and made author Anna Katharine Green an enormously popular and influential writer who changed the mystery genre forever.

Tarzan the Terrible, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, is the eighth book in the Tarzan series. Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author best known for his science fiction and fantasy novels. Burroughs created the characters of Tarzan and John Carter, as well as the fictional landmass in the Earth known as Pellucidar.

Jungle Tales of Tarzan is a collection of 12 loosely connected short stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs about the title character, Tarzan.

This amazing collection of poetry from the famous Greek Anthology spans over 1,500 years of ancient Greek and Byzantine history. The selections in this recording were chosen and translated by famed classicist J. W. Mackail.

When Mike Jackson's father suffers a serious financial setback, all Mike's hopes of "Varsity Blue" and a career playing his beloved cricket are dashed. Instead, he must go out and earn his living - in the alien world of the New Asiatic Bank, under the management of his nemesis Mr. John Bickersdyke. At first, all seems black; but then Mike finds that he has an ally, in the immaculate form of the irrepressible Psmith, who is likewise sentenced to a career in commerce. And Psmith has plans for the reform of Mr Bickersdyke....

With Storytelling and the Sciences of Mind, David Herman proposes a cross-fertilization between the study of narrative and research on intelligent behavior. The book as a whole centers on two questions: How do people make sense of stories, and how do people use stories to make sense of the world? Examining narratives from different periods and across multiple media and genres, Herman shows how traditions of narrative research can help shape ways of formulating and addressing questions about intelligent activity, and vice versa.

Including the stories "Lispeth", "Beyond the Pale", and "In the Pride of His Youth", this collection tells of soldiers, wise children, exiles, forbidden romances, and divided identities, creating a rich portrait of Anglo-Indian society. Originally published for a newspaper in Lahore when Kipling was a journalist, the tales were later revised by him to re-create as vividly as possible the sights and smells of India for readers at home.

One of Canada's most cherished writers, British-born Stephen Leacock was probably best known and loved for his works of light humor. First published in 1912, Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town is one of his most popular and enduring pieces of fiction. This collection of short stories describes the people that comprise a typical but fictional small town in Ontario - Mariposa. The book's appeal lies in the universality of the characters Leacock describes so eloquently, they live out their 'large' lives in the little town.

Reginald, published in 1904, was the first of Saki's collections of short stories. The eponymous Reginald is an effete, cynical young man-about-town whose character is a vehicle for Saki's delicious biting wit satirizing Edwardian high society.

Originally published in 1902, "The Monkey's Paw" is a classic horror short story written by author W. W. Jacobs. In the story, the paw of a dead monkey is a talisman that grants its possessor three wishes, but the wishes come with an enormous price. Proceeds from sale of this title go to Reach Out and Read, an innovative literacy advocacy organization.

Young Trot and the old captain, peg-legged Cap'n Bill, might seem like odd friends, but they are constant companions and Cap'n Bill taught her to love and appreciate the ocean. Trot was especially fascinated by the idea of mermaids and talked about them often with Cap'n Bill, who warned that no one who had met a mermaid had ever lived to tell the tale. One day while out sailing around, the pair is greeted by a beautiful mermaid who extends an invitation for them to come and visit their underwater kingdom and even become mermaids themselves for the adventure.

In the same engaging style and dry humor that makes the Podictionary podcast popular, Hodgson traces the development of our language using easily recognizable milestones such as Beowulf, William the Conqueror, Chaucer, and Shakespeare, with a minimum of dates and dry facts.

Listen to Captain of the Polestar with a movie-style soundtrack and amplify your audiobook experience. The Captain of the Polestar is a collection of strange mystery tales that are independent of each other, sometimes involving ship voyages, shipwrecks, amnesia, lost love, grand thefts, comedy, and fairy tales.

The Voyage Out is Virginia Woolf's haunting tale about a naïve young woman's sea voyage from London to a small resort on the South American coast. In symbolic, lyrical, and intoxicating prose, her outward journey begins to mirror her internal voyage into adulthood as she searches for her personal identity, grapples with love, and learns how to face life intellectually and emotionally. Its wit and exquisiteness, and its profound depth and insight into humanity, will capture the imagination of the listener.

After the young Prince Edward VI of England and a peasant boy switch places, the "little king" tries to escape from a world in which he must beg for food, sleep with rodents, face ridicule, and avoid assassination. Meanwhile, the peasant, who is now the prince, dreads exposure and possible execution; members of the Court believe he has gone mad. As a result of the swap, both boys learn that social class, like so much of life, is determined by chance and random circumstance. With his caustic wit and biting irony, Twain satirizes the power of the monarchy, superstitions, and religious intolerance.