Showing results by narrator "B J Harrison" in All Categories

The first award-winning season of The Classic Tales Podcast, topping the iTunes charts as the #3 overall podcast. Here B.J. Harrison reintroduces the world to the greatest short fiction ever written, from Poe, Dickens, Hardy, Stevenson, Fitzgerald and many, many others

In this first volume of his magisterial study of the foundations of Mormon thought and practice, Terryl L. Givens offers a sweeping account of Mormon belief from its founding to the present day. Situating the relatively new movement in the context of the Christian tradition, he reveals that Mormonism continues to change and grow.

With considerable effort, the young prince Alexander Gorchakov managed to prevent a large-scale war between St. Petersburg’s old royal families. However, he got into a lot of trouble in the process and his actions did not go unnoticed by Her Imperial Majesty. Now, as his punishment, Alexander is forced to put on a uniform and enroll at a military school...and not at the most prestigious one, for that matter.

"The Moonstone" by Wilkie Collins is one of the forefathers of detective fiction, cementing the foundations of the genre. At the centre of it lays the theft of a diamond, dating in origin from a religious Indian shrine, which prompts detective Sergeant Cuff to take up the case. It is an absolute page-turner of a story and goes through the accounts of the different characters, winding and meandering from fact to fiction and vice versa.

Who will help the tailor of Gloucester to finish the Mayor’s elegant coat? For the tailor has fallen ill, and the Mayor is to be married in it tomorrow – on Christmas Day in the morning. Potter based the story on a real-world incident involving John Prichard, a Gloucester tailor who had a commission to make a new suit for the new mayor. But it’s Potter’s charming touch of adding impish, mischievous animals to move the story along that make this children’s classic.

Kay and Gerda discover the legend of the fearsome Snow Queen who lives in the great black cloud in the heavens. But once the Snow Queen visits their town in disguise and carries off Kay, Gerda begins a timeless quest. This book was the inspiration for Disney’s Frozen.

The beloved poem from the great Rudyard Kipling. If you can follow these precepts, you will indeed be a man, my son.

Mother and Father are called away suddenly, because Grandma is “failin’ fast”. This leaves the oldest Bassett girls, Tillie and Prue, to oversee the cooking of the Thanksgiving feast. Soon all eight children pitch in, though the subtleties of plum pudding and stuffed turkey are completely unknown to them. The result is a whole bunch of old-fashioned fun in the comfortably familiar Louisa May Alcott tradition.

John Carter returns to his beloved Mars, and engages in airborne combat with the dreaded Black Pirates. In his second search for the famed Dejah Thoris, Carter leads a revolt to free the Martian races from a devious cult that thrives on secretive slavery.

Guido has lost it all. At rock bottom and wandering the shore, Guido spies a misshapen creature floating toward him in the water, riding on a huge chest. The creature offers Guido a path of revenge – switching bodies for three days in exchange for the untold riches in the chest. Guido unfortunately fails to see a potential downside. Through skillful handling of the gothic motif of the doppelgänger, Shelley’s tale explores concepts that would eventually culminate into her masterpiece – Frankenstein.

Guillermo Vicente Vidal's memoir chronicles his journey from Castro's Cuba to the United States - a tapestry of his coming of age, a broken family, and disorientation of political unrest. Vidal was barely 10 years old when he proudly shook the hand of Fidel Castro. Although Vidal's parents were once staunch supporters of La Revolucion, they soon found they could no longer keep their sons safe in the new face of Castro's reign, making the difficult decision to send Vidal and his brothers to the US via Operation Peter Pan in 1961.

When a carousing Englishman disgraces the consecrated effigy of Hanuman, a leprous "Silver Man" marks him with a hideous curse. The ensuing night brings new terrors to the house of the doomed man.

It's just a hideously papered room. At least that's what everybody thought. But when a woman suffering from a nervous condition is housed in the room, things begin to surface from the wallpaper. Things that seem familiar but are best left quiet and undisturbed.

A delightful day in 1910 at the Haxford Spring Fair turns horrifying and deadly when a balloonist plummets to the earth from the blue skies above. However unlikely, it’s soon discovered that this unfortunate corpse was not done in by his precipitous plunge but instead from an arrow fatally lodged in his chest. Unraveling the twisted web of intrigue that took the man’s life requires the expert skills of Haxford’s brilliant and sartorially splendid Chief Inspector Pignon Scorbion. But the quirky detective is not alone. Aiding Scorbion in his dogged pursuit are his chosen deputies.

Join the feast of humor and epic adventure in a world where the gods of the Pantryon bestow mighty gifts of food magic on their guilds, including Cheese Wizards, Muffin Mages, and Bacon Masters. As a Bacon Master, Rasher Dilskin can channel the awesomeness of bacon for superhuman enhancements, making him a nearly unstoppable warrior. Except for the fact that he faints at the sight of blood. He is struggling to build a successful career and win permission to marry his true love, but the empire is invaded by hordes of monsters.

Brianna Putnam needs a juicy scandal and fast. Up for a promotion at a high-profile tabloid, she has one month to convince a hard-nosed editor that she has the chops for the job. What could be better than a story exposing Nocturne Falls, a town full of magical supernaturals? She has the ideal cover. Her grandmother is Echo Stargazer, and her cousin is Jessica Callahan, long-time residents, and self-proclaimed psychics. No time like the present to meet the family.

After the devastating battle at the East Homestead, Sean’s family regroups and makes some new alliances; however, with those growing bonds, new risks arise. Colonel Harris struggles to feed the 31st Regiment while attempting to offer assistance to the locals and contemplates risking his own life for the future of his country. A stranger arrives in Tionesta with unknown aspirations, and an ominous looting force the size of a small army entrenches nearby. Despite the emerging prospects for a new beginning, a shadow looms over the fresh buds of optimism.

In "The Red-Headed League", the legendary Sherlock Holmes catches one of London's most daring criminals while investigating the strange business of the League, a suspicious organization that gives its members money for "nominal work".

Nicholas Nickleby is a young boy left without a father. Nicholas has to take care of his mother and sister and is forced by his uncle to work as an assistant to the schoolmaster Wackford Squeers. Squeers’ intentions are however not good and his only goal is to make Nicholas’ life miserable. At the same time Squeers’ wife convinces herself that Nicholas loves her and this gets the young boy in even greater trouble. Nicholas’ uncle is colluding with the schoolmaster and it seems like everybody is against him.

What does a retired vampire hunter do with the rest of her life? That’s a question Bess Walker-James is desperately trying to figure out. Having recently been made redundant, she holes up at her family home in Maine to do some serious thinking about what comes next. Unfortunately, she has no idea. Until her handsome next-door neighbor shows up. Turns out, Callum McCarthy needs more help than just finding his missing cat. And what else has she got to do? But little does Bess know, he’s a lot more than he seems.