My one hundred adventures

My one hundred adventures / Polly Horvath; read by Tai Alexandra Ricci.— New York : Listening Library, p2008.

5 sound discs (5 hr., 29 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Unabridged.

Compact disc

ISBN: 9780739371626

1. Babysitters – Fiction. 2. Beaches – Fiction. 3. Massachusetts – Fiction. 4. Prayer – Fiction. 5. Single-parent families – Fiction. 6. Summer – Fiction.

813.54

After hearing Nellie Phipps extol the power of prayer at church, twelve-year-old Jane prays for adventures, at least a hundred of them. She also wants a sign that her prayers have been heard: a purple circle in the sky. The next Sunday she gets her sign and her first adventure. While distributing Bibles Nellie tells her to jump in the basket of an untended hot air balloon with the Bibles. Then she’s set loose to drop Bibles on anyone along her path of flight. As she ascends she looks up at the circle of the purple balloon against the blue of the sky. Jane starts to realize that adventures and adults can booth be very unpredictable and full of surprises.

Jane and her younger brothers and sisters live on the seashore with her mother an unmarried poet. She’s blackmailed into babysitting an unruly pack of children by her ne’er do well neighbor who accuses Jane of beaning her baby with a Bible. While doing this unwelcome chore she encounters three men who she has reason to think might be her father. Nellie Phipps, her preacher, continually drags her along on her New Age spiritual quests. All the adults in her life are eccentric, and making sense out of it all is a challenge for Jane, which Ricci’s somewhat raspy and exasperated vocal narration characterizes well. Horvath’s playfully imaginative story is the equal of Newbery honor winning Everything on a Waffle.

Infinity and the mind

Infinity and the mind : the science and philosophy of the infinite / Rudy Rucker.—Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2005.

xx, 342 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

(Princeton Science Library)

“Originally published by Birkhäuserin 1982”

“Expanded Princeton Science Library edition with a new preface by the author, 2005”

ISBN: 9780691121277

1. Infinite. 2. Logic, Symbolic and mathematical. 3. Set theory.

511.3

In the 1981 preface Rucker writes, “This book discusses every kind of infinity: potential and actual, mathematical and physical, the ontological and the mundane.” The main line of argument is mathematical. Rucker uses physics, philosophy and theology as illustrations and examples of mathematical concepts. He also uses mathematical formulas, diagrams and cartoon to illustrate concepts in other disciplines. The five chapters all conclude with a collection of puzzles and paradoxes. This assumes that if the reader has followed and understood the concepts so far you have another chance to exhaust your reasoning powers on these, because with infinities there are things that cannot be logically, mathematically or scientifically described fully. Rucker argues that many of the ideas about infinity are not rationally and deductive, but mystical an intuitive. This makes a book that is an active and entertaining mental wrestling match. It also makes it a stimulating, thought provoking, and potentially mind expanding read.

Inkheart

Inkheart / Cornelia Funke; read by Lynn Redgrave.— New York : Listening Library, 2003.

14 sound discs (14 hr., 36 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Unabridged.

Compact discs.

English translation by Anthea Bell

ISBN: 0307282279

1. Characters and characteristics – Fiction. 2. Fantasy fiction. 3. Books and reading -- Fiction.

833.914

Meggie loves books. Her father, Mo, has made her a box, painted bright red as a poppy, to take with her whenever they go on a trip. It’s a decorated wooden chest to hold her favorite books. The lid proclaims it as Meggie’s Treasure Chest. They do a lot of traveling; Mo says that as a bookbinder he’s often called to libraries, the shops of antique dealers, and the homes of wealthy collectors across Europe to repair old and valuable books. Meggie takes her books along because they are, “familiar voices, friends that never [quarrel] with her, clever, powerful friends—daring and knowledgeable, tried and tested adventurers who had traveled far and wide.” They were her home.

One rainy night when Meggie is twelve a strange man with a strange name, Dustfinger, appears at their door in the middle of the night. He calls her father by a strange name, “Silvertongue.” Meggie wonders who would call on the services of a bookbinder in the middle of the night, and why? Who is this stranger; where does he come from, and what does he want with her father? She eavesdrops. Dustfinger warns her father that Capricorn and his men are coming soon, and that they will do anything to obtain it. As soon as he leaves, Mo orders Meggie to pack her clothes and treasure chest. They have to leave immediately. As they are packing she sees her father wrapping a book in plain brown paper. When he sees her, he hides it behind his back. He doesn’t want her to know about this book at all.

It turns out to be not an old book with an expensive binding, but a modern sword and sorcery novel titled Inkheart. It’s set in an enchanted world full of fairies, knights, heroes, and some very evil villains, including one called Capricorn. As Meggie learns what this book is, she also learns where Dustfinger came from and where her long-lost mother disappeared. Her mother went into the book when Mo accidentally read Dustfinger and the evil Capricorn out of Inkheart and into Meggie’s world.

Funke has a talent for bringing the fantastic plausibly into the contemporary world. She displays it brilliantly as literary characters and treasure are brought out of books and into a criminal gang’s hideout in modern Italy. And what more cold-hearted capo could lead such a gang than Capricorn, the man whose heart is as black as ink. Redgrave’s eerie reading brings a spine tingle to life in this capture and escape tale to as skillfully and Meggie’s father can bring a character out of the Arabian Nights to life.

Inkspell

Inkspell / Cornelia Funke; read by Brendan Fraser.— New York : Listening Library, 2005.

16 sound discs (18 hr., 46 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Unabridged edition

Compact discs

English translation of Tintenblut by Anthea Bell

Sequel to: Inkheart

ISBN: 9780307281623

1. Fantasy fiction. 2. Books and reading -- Fiction.

833.914

Desperate to return to his own world, Dustfinger finds a reader, a pale, flabby oaf with a magnificent voice, who’s willing to send him and his apprentice fire-eater Farid there—for a price. But when Farid is left behind, he goes to Meggie in the hopes that she has inherited her father’s gift and can send him after Dustfinger. Because she so wants to see for herself the exotic world that her mother has described to her, she takes them both there and immediately regrets her decision.

In Inkheart characters from the book sprang to life in this world. In its sequel people from this world are transported to the richly imaginative fantasy world of the book. Funke’s characters are vivid and distinctive in both worlds and Fraser’s superb acting ability makes this an excellent realization of her work.

Inkdeath

Inkdeath / Cornelia Funke ; English translation by Anthea Bell ; read by Allan Corduner. -- New York : Listening Library, p2008.

16 sound discs (19 hr., 46 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Sequel to: Inkspell

"Final tale in the Inkheart trilogy"--Container.

Unabridged.

Compact discs.

ISBN: 9780739363003

1. Books and reading – Fiction. 2. Death – Fiction. 3. Fantasy fiction.

833.914

In the aftermath of the disastrous attack on the Castle of Night, in a city occupied by hostile forces, Orpheus is struggling to find a way to bring his hero Dustfinger back to life. He hopes that the bookbinder, Silvertongue who was mortally wounded, and so close to death that the White Women, the daughters of death, came to take him, will be able to bring them close to Orpheus. He wants to bargain with them. But Death sets its own conditions for Silvertongue, and they are quite different from the ones that Orpheus so desperately wants.

Allan Corduner’s narration meets the high standard set by Lynn Redgrave’s reading of Inkheart and Brendan Fraser’s reading of Inkspell. Funke’s well-drawn characters give verisimilitude to her fantasy novel set in a fantasy novel. One that can be reached and changed by the most skillful of oral readers. In addition to a marvelous adventure yarn she gives a thoughtful portrait of death and the prods the reader to wonder about the nature of reality.

tttyl

ttyl / Lauren Myracle. -- New York : Amulet Books, 2005, c2004.

209 p. ; 18 cm.

Sequel: ttfn

ISBN: 0810987880 (pbk.)

1. Epistolary fiction. 2. Female friendship – Fiction. 3. Friendship – Fiction. 4. High schools – Fiction. 5. Instant messaging -- Fiction. 6. Interpersonal relations – Fiction. 7. Schools – Fiction.

813.6

Zoe, Maddie, and Angela have been bff since the seventh grade, now as they enter the tenth grade they vow to keep it that way no matter what happens. But a lot does happen in their sophomore year of high school. There are new friends, male and female, that strain and test their friendship. There are also extreme social faux pas that test their individual resiliency and loyalty to one another.

The emotionally exciting and harrowing adventures of adolescent relationships are presented in a series of IM messages between the three girls. There’s plenty of girl talk about clothes, parents, the opposite sex, what someone said. There’re also intimate confidences that are only shared with trusted friends about sex, bodily emissions, confessions of self-doubt and mistakes made. Myracle has very successfully captured this in a well crafted and dramatic story.

Acronyms decoded for IM as a second language speakers:

bff best friends forever

IM Instant Messaging

ttfn ta-ta for now, good-bye

ttyl talk to you later

And here are some other opinions about the book from Round Rock, Texas:

Round Rock chief removes contested book from middle schools
Author defends book pulled from middle schools in Round Rock district

The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Invasion of the body snatchers / Jack Finney; read by Kristoffer Tabori.-- [Ashland, Or.] : Blackstone Audio ; [Boulder, Colo. : Made available electronically by] NetLibrary, 2007

1 sound file : digital, wma file (95808 KB) : (6 hr., 40 min.)

ISBN: 9781433283901 (electronic audio bk.)

1. Extraterrestrial beings -- Fiction. 2. Horror fiction. 3. Human-alien encounters -- Fiction. 4. Mill Valley (Calif.) -- Fiction. 5. Science fiction.

813.54

There’s something rotten in Mill Valley and Dr. Miles Bennell and his girlfriend Becky are going to find out what it is. People are convinced that their relatives and friends are not really their relatives and friends, even though they speak, act, and look exactly like them. At first it’s just a few, and then more and more, and then suddenly everyone decides that they were wrong and everything is all right now. But the clever reader knows (because he or she has read the title of the book) that it’s really not all right; it’s really all wrong and Miles and Becky are in big trouble unless they get out of town fast.

This is a pretty good thriller. Reader Kristoffer Tabori gives Miles a tired and tense voice that helps convey the character’s sudden and vacillating alterations from skeptical disbelief to horrified realization that everyone’s about to be replaced by a pod person from outer space. Although set in 1976, the book has more of the atmosphere of small-town America in 1955, the year of its publication, than the year of the bicentennial. The 1956 film version of the book is justifiably famous, but be prepared for a different ending in the original. Interestingly, reader Tabori is the son of that film’s director Don Siegel.

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 / Ray Bradbury ; read by Christopher Hurt.— [Ashland] : Blackstone Audiobooks, 2005.

1 audio file (73998 KB) : (5 hr., 9 min.)

Unabridged

Downloadable audio file

Title from title screen

Requires OverDrive Media Console

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

ISBN: 9780786153107 (sound recording : OverDrive Audio Book)

1. Book burning -- Fiction. 2. Censorship -- Fiction. 3. Political fiction. 4. Science fiction.

813.54

Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to burn books, and he enjoys his job. But he has a secret dread hidden in the ventilation ducts above his ceiling. Lately he thinks that his hands are betraying him. They keep snatching and hiding the things he’s supposed to burn. One day he encounters an eccentric teenaged girl on the way home from work. What she says begins to worry him. He’s not sure why. But things are not right. His wife has attempted suicide several times, but she doesn’t want to talk to him about it. She does not want to believe that it happened. She just wants to watch “The Family” on the wall-sized television. She just wants to be happy and normal.

Listening to this books decades after first reading it, I was surprised by how good the writing is and how well Bradbury’s 1953 vision of the future has stood the test of time. What he had to say then is as relevant now as it was in the midst of the McCarthy era and the beginning of television. Montag’s turbulent and painful transformation from book burner to truth seeker is well wrought by both author and reader.

This edition includes an afterword by the author in which he describes the alternative versions of the book including Francois Truffaut’s 1966 film and his own stage adaptation, and his emphatic reasons why he has not altered the novel to fit current sensibilities.

The Texas City Disaster

The Texas City disaster / by Linda Scher; consultant, Archie P. McDonald.— New York : Bearport Pub. Co., c2007.

32 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps ; 26 cm.

(Code red)

Includes bibliography, index and glossary

Audience: Grades 4-6.

ISBN: 9781597163637 (lib. bdg.)

1. Disasters -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century. 2. Explosions -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century. 3. Fires -- Texas -- Texas City -- History -- 20th century. 4. Grandcamp (Ship) -- Explosion, 1947. 5. High Flyer (Ship) -- Explosion, 1947. 6. Texas City (Tex.) -- History -- 20th century.

976.4139063

This is an excellent short book about the explosions and fire that devastated the port of Texas City, Texas on April 16-17, 1947, “the worst industrial accident in United States history.” Smoldering fertilizer being loaded for export caught one ship on fire. While firefighters were attempting to extinguish the flame, it exploded. The shock wave downed two overhead aircraft and triggering a fifteen-foot tidal wave. Flaming debris set a chemical plant ablaze. The following afternoon another freighter caught fire and exploded. By the time it was over 550 people were dead and 3,500 injured.

While written in a simple and direct style for beginning readers the book vividly covers the facts. The illustrations are well selected, and the book’s layout is superb.

Doctor Who : The Faceless Ones

Doctor Who : The Faceless Ones.— [Bath:] BBC Audiobooks, 2005, ©2002.—

1 audio file (34791 KB) : (2 hr., 25 min.)
(Doctor Who (Television program : 1963-1989))
Downloadable audio file.
Title from title screen
Cast: Patrick Troughton (the Doctor), Frazer Hines (narrator, Jamie), Michael Craze (Ben Jackson), Anneke Wills (Polly), Pauline Collins (Samantha Briggs)
Originally published as a set of Compact Discs by the BBC in 2002, this edition is an audio version based on the television serial “The Faceless Ones,” first broadcast as part of the BBC television series “Doctor Who” between April 8 and May 13, 1967. The script for the serial is by David Ellis and Malcolm Hulke. This audio version incorporates parts of the television soundtrack with additional narration.
Requires OverDrive Media Console
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN: 9781405696593

1. Alien abduction--Drama. 2. Doctor Who (Fictitious character) -- Drama. 3. Science fiction radio programs. 4. Science fiction television programs.

791.447

The Doctor and his three human companions land in the middle of a Gatwick Airport runway in 1966. After dodging an incoming flight they run off to the terminal only to discover that, "Inspector Gascoigne was murdered with a ray gun. A weapon that has not yet been developed on this Earth!" And that’s not all, there are some nefarious aliens skulking about the airport, and running a body-snatching scam in the guise of a charter airline (cleverly called Chameleon Tours) offering bargain priced tours to young people. Tours from which they never return.

The narration helps fill in for the loss of visual images in this adaptation of a television series to an audio only drama. Since most of the original TV version is now lost, this makes this version a vital one for obsessive fans, and a pleasant science fiction radio drama for others.

Doctor Who : Genesis of the Daleks - Exploration Earth

Doctor Who : Genesis of the Daleks -- Exploration Earth. – [Bath :] BBC, 2005.

1 sound file (18791 KB) : (1 hr., 18 min.)

ISBN: 9781405696517

Downloadable audiofile

Requires OverDrive Media Console 1.0 or later

Cast:

Tom Baker The Doctor

Elizabeth Sladen Sarah Jane Smith

Ian Marter Harry Sullivan

Michael Wisher Davros

Bernard Venables Megron

Tom Baker provides the narration for this audio abridgement of the BBC television serial by the Daleks’ creator Terry Nation. The narration is minimal compared with other radio adaptations of the science fiction TV show. Interestingly enough, this allows the dialog to flow smoothly, and the result is an above average radio drama. This audio edition of Genesis of the Daleks was first published in 1980.

“’Exploration Earth: The Time Machine’ was recorded and broadcast in 1976” as an educational audio program to dramatize earth science for school children. It may be enjoyed by only the hardest of hard-core Doctor Who fans.

Aristotle and the Gun

Aristotle and the gun : and other stories / L. Sprangue de Camp; with an introduction by Harry Turtledove.—

Waterville : Five Star, 2002.

240 p. ; xx cm.

ISBN: 0786243112

Contents: Aristotle and the gun – The gnarly man – A gun for dinosaur – The honeymoon dragon – The mislaid mastodon – Nothing in the rules – Two yards of dragon.

1. Fantasy fiction. 2. Science fiction. 3. Short stories. 4. Time travel – Fiction.

813.52

This is an excellent sampling of de Camp’s work. The original copyrights on these stories range from 1939 to 1993. There’s humorous fantasy about a knight with an entrepreneurial knight who’d much rather get ahead in the world by maximizing profits rather than slaying dragons, and a story of the havoc caused by entering a mermaid in a swim meet. There are also science fiction stories: a Neanderthal living in New York in 1946, a cautionary tale about going back in time to enlighten the ancient Greeks about the advantages of the scientific method, and – my favorites – three stories told by Reginald Rivers, de Camp’s time traveling Australian dinosaur hunting guide.

The only out of place thing in the whole package is the odd cover illustration, a flying charioteer with a lightning whip breaking through plate glass, which has no connection with any of the stories in the book.