Other books that might interest you

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  Christmas Poetry and Hymn...

  Various Authors

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  This collection includes 40 different Christmas carols collected and read by Douglas D. Anderson, the creator of The Hymns and Carols of Christmas website, a public-domain collection of Christmas music containing over 2,600 hymns, carols and songs.

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  The Valley of the Squinting Windows

  Brinsley McNamara

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  Valley of the Squinting Windows is a classic Irish novel set in central Ireland c. 1914–16 in Garradrimna is a tiny village where everyone is interested in everyone else's business.
  
  
  Twenty years before the events of the book, Nan Byrne has a relationship with a local man, Henry Shannon, hoping to marry him for his wealth. She falls pregnant but Henry refuses to marry her. After a miscarriage, the baby is buried at the bottom of the garden. Henry marries another woman and later dies, while Nan herself emigrates to England and marries Ned Brennan. They later move back to Garradrimna, where the villagers rejoice in telling Ned about his wife's past.
  
  
  Ned is brought low by the humiliation of his wife's past promiscuity. He drinks and makes a little as a labourer, whereas Nan works every day at sewing to support their only child, John, studying in England to become a Catholic priest. However, she becomes as cruel, petty, and jealous as the rest of Garradrimna, conniving with the postmistress to sabotage Myles Shannon's chance at romance with an English girl, to get revenge on the Shannon family for rejecting her.
  
  
  Her son John returns to Garradrimna for a holiday, where he befriends Ulick Shannon (son of Henry) and falls for Rebecca Kerr, a schoolteacher. Ulick and Rebecca have a relationship however, and when Rebecca becomes pregnant she is disgraced and expelled from the village. Ulick abandons her and John murders him, weighing the body with lead and hiding it in the lake. Rebecca leaves for Dublin and an uncertain future. An old gossip informs Nan and John that she witnessed the night Nan gave birth to Henry's child – in reality, the child was born alive and was given to Henry and his wife – who they raised as their son, Ulick Shannon.

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  Poison (NHB Modern Plays)

  Lot Vekemans

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  An extraordinary play that asks a simple question: is it ever possible to move on?
  Poison by Dutch writer Lot Vekemans had a critically acclaimed run in New York in 2016, and was premiered in the UK at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, in November 2017, directed by Paul Miller.
  'An absorbing dance around the truth, in which tenderness and starkness alternate and the awkward cadences of debate are chasteningly authentic… considers the effects of grief, but instead of making pain appear poetic it portrays with sober precision the essential ordinariness of its two characters' - Evening Standard
  'Painful, powerful… a minutely realistic look at the oddly colourless nature of grieving, and the grim concrete structures that 21st-century secular society builds around it' - Time Out
  'Quietly unflinching… an almost forensic exploration of the hard, sharp edges of grief and loss… [has a] bruising truthfulness' - The Stage
  'searing... a tear-jerker' - New York Times
  'truly astounding' - Broadway World

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  My Best Poems Complete Collection

  Pia Horan-Gross

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  My Best Poems, Complete Collection contains prose poetry and covers a lifetime of poetry writing, sorted in alphabetical order of titles, with dates of creation of original poems featured, though reviewed and professionally edited at a later date. It comprises experienced reflections on the beauty of nature, the painful, at times fleeting joy of relationships and their deeply spiritual significance, and the wonder and discovery of the spiritual realm. The book contains 136 poems, divided into three parts; Part 1, Celebrating Nature, describes mainly Australian scenes and how they reflect what is going on in the author's inner world. Part 2, The Challenge of Relationships, covers a multitude of relational challenges, both experienced and observed, and the various life-stages and author's struggle to come to grips with those.Part 3, Spirituality. Finding the way out of the maze describes the author's search for meaning, relevance and truth.  She describes her attempt in various life situations, philosophical and religious teachings and trying to make sense in the midst of it all.The audiobook is meant for reflection and meditation and the soothing voice of Sallybeth beautifully enhances the author's intention for her listeners.

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  The Poetry of Sleep - “Sleep is...

  John Keats, Algernon Charles...

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  Sleep. That most mysterious of times.  The unconscious hours. 
   
  Everyone needs it. Whether it’s the recommended eight hours, forty winks, cat naps, power naps or other shades of blissful slumber.  
   
  Sleep offers a respite from the rigors and challenges of the day. A chance for the brain to process what has happened and bring rest and recuperation before the cycle of daytime activity begins again. 
   
  Also, perchance to dream or, if we are unlucky, the visitation of nightmares. 
   
  But for some people sleep does not come easy.  These can be wakeful hours of frustration or tedium where closing the eyes does not bring the closing of the mind and the slumber so keenly wanted. 
   
  Part of the problem, in this increasingly frenetic 24/7 world is that we seem reluctant or unable to switch off enough to recuperate; we might miss something.  But slumbered hours bring gains in health that far outweigh transitory loss. 
   
  Our poets from Kipling and Swinburne through Hafiz, James Joyce, Edgar Allan Poe and a pillowful of others explore the wish to rest, to close the eyes and reside in the land of nod.

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  Shakespeare Monologues...

  William Shakespeare

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  LibriVox readers present the sixth collection of monologues from Shakespeare’s plays. Containing 20 parts. William Shakespeare (April 26, 1564 – April 23, 1616) remains widely to be considered the single greatest playwright of all time. He wrote in such a variety of genres - tragedy, comedy, romance, &c - that there is always at least one monologue in each of his plays. Some of these teach a lesson, some simply characterize Shakespeare at his best, some are funny, some sad, but all are very moving. Each monologue will touch everybody differently. Some people will be so moved by a particular monologue that they will want to record it. (summary by Shurtagal)

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