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  Scotland Yard's First Cases - A...

  Joan Lock

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  When Scotland Yard’s first detective branch was set up in 1842, crime was very different from today.The favoured murder weapon was the cut-throat razor; carrying a pocket watch was dangerous; the most significant clue at a murder scene could be the whereabouts of a candlestick or hat; large households (family, servants and lodgers) complicated many a case; and servants sometimes murdered their masters.Detectives had few aids and suffered many disadvantages.The bloody handprints found at two early murder scenes were of no help, there being no way of telling whether blood (or hair) was human or animal.Fingerprinting was 50 years away, DNA profiling another hundred, and photography was too new to help with identification.The detectives had no transport and were expected to walk the first three miles on any enquiry before catching an omnibus or cab and trying to recoup the fares.All reports had to be handwritten with a dip pen and ink, and the only means of keeping contact with colleagues and disseminating information was by post, horseback or foot. In spite of these handicaps and severe press criticism, the detectives achieved some significant successes.Joan Lock includes such classic cases as the First Railway Murder, as well as many fascinating, fresh reports, weaving in new developments like the electric telegraph against a background of authentic Victorian police procedure.Charles Dickens said that Scotland Yard detectives gave the impression of leading lives of strong mental excitement. Listeners of this book will understand why....

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  Abba Eban - A Biography

  Asaf Siniver

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  “Based on interviews with dozens of people and research in more than twenty archival collections, [this] cleareyed biography deserves to be called definitive.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 
   
  Born in South Africa, educated in England, and ultimately a major figure in Israeli history, Abba Eban was a skilled debater, a master of multiple languages, and a passionate defender of the Jewish state. But his diplomatic presence was in many ways a contradiction unlike any the world has seen since. While he was celebrated internationally for his exceptional wit and his moderate, reasoned worldview, these same qualities painted him as elitist and foreign in his home country. The disparity in perception of Eban at home and abroad was such that both his critics and his friends agreed that he would have been a wonderful prime minister—in any country but Israel.  
   
  In Abba Eban, Asaf Siniver paints a nuanced and complete portrait of one of the most complex figures in twentieth-century foreign affairs. We see Eban growing up and coming into his own as part of the Cambridge Union, and watch him steadily become known as “The Voice of Israel.” Siniver draws on a vast amount of interviews, writings, and other newly available material to show that, in his unceasing quest for stability and peace for Israel, Eban’s primary opposition often came from the homeland he was fighting for; no matter how many allies he gained abroad, the man never understood his own domestic politics well enough to be as effective in his pursuits as he hoped. The first examination of Eban in nearly forty years, this is a fascinating look at a life that still offers a valuable perspective on Israel today. 
   
  “Siniver’s principal achievement is his artful documentation of the tension between Eban the intellectual and Eban the politician. Such lofty thoughts do not distract Mr. Siniver from listing the indiscretions and dishonesty to which Eban, in his politician’s guise, occasionally succumbed.” —The Wall Street Journal 
   
  “Siniver’s levelheaded account looks at the history of Israel through the life of the country’s eloquent defender.” —TheNew York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

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  The Son of Seven Mothers - A...

  Benjamin Risha

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  A man shares his story of growing up in a late 20th-century American cult—and how he escaped—in this gripping autobiography.   As the adopted son of two cult leaders, Benjamin Risha was raised to someday assume a place of leadership in the Alamo Christian Foundation, with the Bible, and his parents’ interpretations of it, as his guide. He believed the prophecies of his adoptive mother and father, Tony and Susan Alamo, including them being the two prophets foretold in the Book of Revelations who precede the second coming of Jesus Christ, them rising from the dead after they died, and such dire warnings as the ground opening up to swallow non-believers into hell. And he was sure that Susan Alamo could raise the dead as promised.   However, when none of it happened, and the foundation slid from bucolic communal lifestyle to insufferable criminality that included absolute obedience to the Alamos, and polygamous marriages with girls as young as eight years old, Benjamin knew he had to escape. If he were caught trying to escape, he would be severely beaten, forced to go without food and water for his sins, and shamed in the community. So, he embarked on a journey to locate his birth parents, discover the truth about a world he knew nothing about . . . and find himself.   In The Son of Seven Mothers, Benjamin Risha takes readers on a harrowing journey that few in the United States can imagine. And eventually he must choose between the life he knows and was “chosen” to lead, and his freedom.

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  Working With Winston - The...

  Cita Stelzer

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  All politicians adopt a public persona that they believe contributes to electoral success. Although those personas might reflect the character of the politician, they reveal only a part of the man: We know far less about the characteristics politicians reveal when they are out of the public eye, and Winston Churchill is no exception.Although much has been written about Churchill and the important world leaders, politicians, and high-ranking military personnel with whom he interacted, little has been written about Churchill in relation to the vast staff he required in order to maintain the intense pace at which he worked. When Churchill strode the world stage, the secretarial and support staff positions were inevitably filled by women. Though extraordinarily talented and valuable to Churchill and his work, these women remain unheralded.Churchill was not an easy employer. He was intimidating, with never-ending demands, and he would impose his relentless and demanding schedules on those around him. And yet these women were devoted to him — although there were times in his political career during which he was decidedly unpopular. Many reflect upon their years working for him as the best years of their lives. Intelligent and hard-working, these women were far from sycophants. Just as Churchill was no ordinary Prime Minister, these women were not ordinary secretaries. Indeed, in today’s terms, their titles would be much grander, as their work encompassed handling ultra-secret documents and decrypting and reading enemy codes.

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  What Makes an Apple? - Six...

  Amos Oz

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  This audiobook narrated by Laurel Lefkow and Eric Meyers brings alive revelatory talks about art and life with internationally acclaimed Israeli novelist Amos OzIn the last years of his life, the writer Amos Oz talked regularly with Shira Hadad, who worked closely with him as the editor of his final novel, Judas. These candid, uninhibited dialogues show a side of Oz that few ever saw. What Makes an Apple? presents the most revealing of these conversations in English for the first time, painting an illuminating and disarmingly intimate portrait of a towering literary figure.In frank and open exchanges that are by turns buoyant, introspective, and argumentative, Oz explains what impels him to begin a story and shares his routines, habits, and challenges as a writer. He discusses the tectonic changes he experienced in his lifetime in relationships between women and men, and describes how his erotic coming of age shaped him not only as a man but also as an author. Oz reflects on his parents, his formative years on a kibbutz, and how he dealt with and learned from his critics, his students, and his fame. He talks about why there is more humor in his later books and gives his exceptional take on fear of death.Resonating with Oz’s clear, honest, and humorous voice, What Makes an Apple? offers unique insights about Oz’s artistic and personal evolution, and enables readers to explore his work in new ways.

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  The Haunted House

  Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins,...

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  Whilst writer Charles Dickens needs no introduction, his ‘Haunted House’ anthology might, not least because in his role as editor he introduces a formidable array of known and lesser-known literary talents.   
   
  Dickens started a tradition of releasing stories each Christmas with ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843.  ‘The Haunted House’ was his 1859 offering and, as the name suggests, is set in a large house which, as his introductory story explains, is desired by John the narrator, as a temporary country retreat for health reasons.   
   
  He is made aware of the terror the house holds for the locals but undaunted, he and his sister, Patty, take residence without any servants, save for the deaf stable hand, who is untroubled by the ghostly goings on.   
   
  John and Patty invite friends to visit and except Patty who keeps her own room, they all draw lots for which rooms they will stay in but agree not to share their experiences of their rooms until the twelfth night. 
   
  On that night they all gather together to feast on their experiences and share them with each other.   
   
  The Haunted House is a skillful portmanteau by Dickens, assembling the best literary talent of his age including Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Hesba Stretton, Adelaide Anne Proctor, George Augustus Sala and, of course, the literary leviathan himself to delight us, scare us and occasionally raise a laugh or two before the next moment of fear and dread come calling.   
  1 - The Haunted House - An Introduction 
  2 - The Mortals in the House by Charles Dickens 
  3 - The Ghost in the Cloakroom by Hesba Stretton 
  4 - The Ghost in the Double Room by George Augustus Sala 
  5 - The Ghost in the Picture Room by Adelaide Anne Proctor 
  6 - The Ghost in the Cupboard Room by Wilkie Collins 
  7 -  The Ghost in Master B's Room by Charles Dickens 
  8 - The Ghost in the Garden Room, Part 1 by Elizabeth Gaskell 
  9 - The Ghost in the Garden Room, Part 2 by Elizabeth Gaskell 
  10 - The Ghost in the Corner Room by Charles Dickens

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