Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow murders

Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow murders / by John Mortimer; read by Bill Wallis.— Auburn : Audio Partners ; p2005, c2004.

5 sound discs (5 hr., 57 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Unabridged

Compact discs

ISBN: 1572704748

1. Attorney and client – Fiction. 2. Legal stories. 3. London (England) – Fiction. 4. Mystery fiction. 5. Rumpole, Horace (Fictitious character) -- Fiction. 6. Trials (Murder) – Fiction.

823.914

When Horace Rumpole discovers that no one in his firm knows of his most famous case, the Penge Bungalow murders, he decides that it’s time to write his memoirs, before the world forgets one of the most shocking criminal cases to be tried in the Old Bailey in the 1950s. Two R.A.F. veterans shot dead at point blank range with a captured German pistol in their homes in the London suburb of Penge and the chief suspect is the young son of one of pilots. Although a very junior member of the firm, Rumpole rises for the defense, aided, behind the scenes, by the very determined and clever daughter of his boss. He also has a chance to defend a member of the Timpson clan for the first time.

Loyal followers of the series will be delight that after decades of allusions to this case, the cornerstone of Rumpole’s reputation is finally revealed. Mortimer’s wit and balanced plot construction are as delightful as ever and, delightfully performed by reader Bill Wallis.

T is for terrible

T is for terrible / book by Peter McCarty; narrated by David de Vries.— [Westport, CT] : Weston Woods ; Scholastic, p2005.

1 sound disc (4 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 book ([32]p. : col. ill. ; 24 cm.)

Music composed by Scotty Huff and Robert Reynolds.

Compact disc.

"Weston Woods read-along CD."

Accompanying book published: New York : H. Holt, c2004.

ISBN: 0439804760 (CD) : 080507404X (hbk.)

1. Dinosaurs --Fiction. 2. Identity --Fiction. 3. Tyrannosaurus rex --Fiction.

813.54

T. Rex tries to put a bright-eyed and positive spin on his reputation. It’s not his fault he can’t eat trees. He had a mother too and was once small and cute. He didn’t necessarily plan to grow up to be big and scary.

David de Vries does a good job of voicing the apologetic enormous carnivore, and the music by Scotty Huff and Robert Reynolds is an excellent match for McCarty's soft, shaded, color pencil illustrations in the book it accompanies.

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.