Elizabeth is recording a new audiobook of one of her favorite classic novels: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. The book will be available to listeners for free right here. Starting today (April 15, 2020), Elizabeth will post a chapter a day until the book is finished. We hope you’ll listen along, and that you find Anne’s story of hope, love, and imagination a balm for these troubled times.
Happy holidays, everyone! Here are some seasonally-inspired audio recordings for your listening pleasure:
Audible recordings
Free recordings
Two more days until Christmas! Today’s free poem is an excerpt from Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s monumental poem In Memoriam AHH, which begins “Ring out, wild bells.” Listen right here:
Three more days until Christmas! Today’s poem is Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush,” which you can listen to for free right here:
Elizabeth is counting down to Christmas Day with a series of free holiday poems, which you can stream right here over the next four days. First up is e.e. cummings’ “little tree,” a delightful and sweet poem:
It’s Free Audio Friday, special Halloween edition! Elizabeth will be featuring new free recordings of vampire stories every Friday in the month of October. This week’s story is “Mrs. Amworth” by E.F. Benson, a creepy tale of a seemingly normal English village invaded by the undead.
Elizabeth’s choice of material for these vampire stories was inspired by this post by author Amanda DeWees, with whom Elizabeth has worked on the audio versions of several Gothic romance novels: With This Curse, Cursed Once More, and Nocturne For a Widow. Elizabeth and Amanda will collaborate in 2017 on the sequel to Nocturne For a Widow as well!
“Mrs. Amworth” runs 38:18. You can read the text online here.
It’s Free Audio Friday, special Banned Books Week edition! Celebrate your freedom to read this week by listening to Elizabeth’s LibriVox recording of The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This book is on the list of frequently challenged classics, which contains many other amazing and influential works.
Kate Chopin’s 1899 novella is about the personal, sexual, and artistic awakening of a young wife and mother, Edna Pontellier. While on vacation at Grand Isle, an island in the Gulf of Mexico, Edna befriends the talented pianist Mlle. Reisz and the sympathetic Robert Lebrun, both of whom will influence her startling life choices. Chopin’s novel created a scandal upon its original publication and effectively destroyed her writing career. Now, however, it is considered one of the finest American novels of the 19th century.
Elizabeth is on an Edith Wharton kick lately – so this week for Free Audio Friday, it’s her LibriVox recording of The Glimpses of the Moon (1922), an excellent novel about an unusual marriage. You can listen to this book for free via the LibriVox site or app.
Nick and Susy Lansing live a decadent life in Europe by sponging off wealthy friends. They marry out of convenience and have an “open” relationship, but are unprepared for where their feelings will take them.
Fall is on its way! (Well, maybe not here in Texas, but hopefully for the rest of the country it is…) For Free Audio Friday this week, Elizabeth has recorded John Keats’ classic poem “To Autumn,” an ode celebrating the upcoming season. You can listen here for free:
Text runs 2:18 and is in the public domain. Enjoy!
Elizabeth is starting up her Free Audio Friday posts again – to promote titles from her free LibriVox recordings, and to offer new recordings on this site. Today’s title is Elizabeth’s LibriVox recording of Edith Wharton’s classic 1905 novel of manners The House of Mirth. Listen for free here. The book is about 29-year-old socialite Lily Bart, who is “on the hunt for a rich husband” but drawn irresistibly toward Lawrence Selden, a man with little money but who represents the intellectual freedom to which Lily aspires. Wharton’s beautiful novel established her as a major voice in American fiction. Happy Friday, and happy listening!
