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  The Cyberiad - Stories

  Stanislaw Lem

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  “Lem has an almost Dickensian genius for vividly realizing the tragedy and comedy of future machines.” —The New York Times Book Review These are the stories of Trurl and Klapaucius, master inventors and engineers known as “constructors,” who have created marvels for kingdoms. Friends and rivals, they are constantly outdoing and challenging each other to reveal the next great evolution in cybernetics, and the exploits of these brilliant men are nothing short of incredible.   From tales of love, in which a robotic prince must woo a robotic princess enchanted by pleasures of true flesh, to epics of battle, in which the heroic constructors must use their considerable wit to outsmart a monarch obsessed with hunting, to examinations of humanity, wherein Trurl and Klapaucius must confront the limits of their skills and the meaning of true perfection, these stories are rich with profound questions, unimaginable marvels, and remarkable feats.   Hailed as “the most completely successful of [Lem’s] books,” The Cyberiad is an outrageously funny and incomparably wise collection of short stories, taking an insightful look at mechanics, technology, invention, and human ambition (The Boston Globe).

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  The Museum of Doubt

  James Meek

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  “Outstanding” stories from the bestselling author—“as though David Lynch had been let loose on the set of a drawing-room comedy” (The Times).  The Museum of Doubt is a collection of surreal and unnerving short stories from award-winning writer James Meek. The array of characters who populate Meek’s vague and elusive worlds are driven by paranoia and doubts, as well as hopes and fears of things only half-glimpsed.   “Ricochets between the supernatural and the suburban throughout . . . the writing fizzes . . . This is true experimental writing: careless of taboo, teeming with ideas, elusive yet utterly controlled.” —The Guardian   “The maniac energy of Kerouac pulses throughout the prose, but there is also a hallucinatory horror and hyper-realist constraint miraculously balanced in a manner which suggests the perfect fusion of Kafka and Kelman.” —Scotsman   “Demanding and rewarding, lyrical and vernacular, smart and entertaining.” —Times Literary Supplement   “Bristling with wit and invention, these tales are full of hair-brained schemes, hair-raising moments, and incredibly close shaves . . . tongue-twisting wordplay, clipped dialogue and well-groomed characters . . . These stories are all collector’s items.” —The Sunday Herald “Stories of antler eaters, fish smokers and suburban psychopaths make up this often startling and always disturbing collection.” —Duncan McLean, author of Bunker Man “One of the country’s finest writers.” —GQ

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  Fun Stories For Your Drive To Work

  R. Scott Murphy

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  Your commute stinks. Your job's a mess. You didn't win Powerball. Here's help!
  
  Get the first audio-book in the humorous Fun Stories series from award-winning writer R. Scott Murphy. Inspired by Friends, Seinfeld, The Office, Saturday Night Live, and The Far Side, the Fun Stories series offers amusing audiobooks to help lighten your day.
  
  Part storyteller, part game show host, part DJ, part madcap tour guide, Murphy shares embarrassing work stories, conducts crazy countdowns, sets out on silly Google safaris, and invites your participation through his interactive storytelling game called mental kickball. An accomplished radio and TV personality, game show producer, author, and four-time winner of the Late Show with David Letterman Top 10 List contest, Murphy takes random fun to the next level.
  
  Sample fun:
  
  Top-five theater: Count down the top five shamefully suggestive city names.
  Mental kickball survey: Is Starbucks more popular than deodorant in your office?
  Fun school: Turn an uneasy meeting with a man peeing in the alley into a valuable life lesson.
  Commuter empowerment: Learn the best ways to make fun of other motorists and give clown commuter awards.
  Uplifting adventure: How Chick-fil-A makes Scott feel like Leonardo DiCaprio.
  In a world of superheroes: Proof positive that Scott is the freakin' Michael Phelps of Googling.
  Secret office tips: How to successfully plant decoy food in your work refrigerator.
  
  Your average daily commute now clocks in at a record 52 minutes (Census Bureau). Your total yearly commute time is now more than nine days. Scott says that’s longer than some celebrity marriages. You deserve more smiles. Pick up Fun Stories for Your Drive to Work.An Author's Republic audio production.

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  A New Cook

  Neil Munro

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  Neil Munro (1863-1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author, and literary critic who is now mainly known for his humorous short stories. 
  "A New Cook" is one of Munro's hilarious tales of Para Handy, Sunny Jim and the rest of the crew of the Vital Spark. The ship is welcoming a new cook whose talents include dancing, melodian playing, practical joking... but sadly not culinary skill.

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  The Tales of Terror

  Robert Louis Stevenson

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  The Short Stories Of Robert Louis Stevenson. The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel.  But it is an art in itself.  To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task.  Many try and many fail.  In this series we look at short stories from many of our most accomplished writers.  Miniature masterpieces with a lot to say.  In this volume we examine some of the short stories of Robert Louis Stevenson.  In the Scottish canon to be placed alongside Burns is high praise indeed but it’s a rightful place for one of Scotland’s finest novelists.  Born in 1850 he managed to cram much into his 44 years travelling widely to France, the United States, Samoa and the South Seas.  Of course he is widely feted for his classics Dr Jeckyll & Mr Hyde, Treasure Island and poetry volumes such as A Child’s Garden Of Verses.  Here we concentrate on his short stories Olalla, The Body Snatchers and The Pavillion On The Links.  All offer compelling examples of narration and suspense superbly reduced to their essence.  Some of these stories are also available as an audiobook from our sister company Word Of Mouth.  Many samples are at our youtube channel   http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee   The full volume can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.  They are read for you by Richard Mitchley & Robbie McNab.  Index Of Titles; The Body Snatcher; Olalla.

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  The Short Stories of Leo Tolstoy...

  Leo Tolstoy

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  Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 in the Russian province of Tula to a wealthy noble family. As a child, he had private tutors but he showed little interest in any formal education. When he went to the University of Kazan in 1843 to study oriental languages and law, he left without completing his courses.  Life now was relaxed and idle but with some writing also taking place.  Gambling debts forced an abrupt change of path and he joined the army to fight in the Crimean War.  He was commended for his bravery and promoted but was appalled at the brutality and loss of life.  He recorded these and other earlier experiences in his diaries which formed the basis of several of his works. 
   
  In 1852 ‘Childhood’ was published to immediate success and was followed by ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Youth’. 
   
  His experience in the army and the horrors he witnessed resulted in ‘The Cossacks’ in 1862 and the trilogy ‘Sevastopol Tales’. After the war he travelled around Europe, visiting London and Paris and meeting such luminaries as Victor Hugo and Charles Darwin.  
   
  It was now that Tolstoy began his masterpiece, ‘War and Peace’. Published in 1869 it was an epic work that changed literature. He quickly followed this with ‘Anna Karenina’.  
   
  These successes made Tolstoy rich and helped him accomplish many of his dreams but also brought problems as he grappled with his faith and the lot of the oppressed poor. These revolutionary views became so popular that the authorities now kept him under surveillance.  
   
  He led a life of asceticism and vegetarianism and put his socialist ideals into practice by establishing numerous schools for the poor and food programmes. He also believed in giving away his wealth, which caused much discord with his wife.  
   
  His writing continued to bring forth classics such as ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ and many brilliant and incisive short stories such as ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need’.  
   
  In 1901 Tolstoy was excommunicated from the Church and controversially deselected for the Nobel Prize for Literature. 
   
  Whilst undertaking a pilgrimage by train in October 1910 with his daughter Aleksandra he caught pneumonia in the nearby town of Astapovo.  Leo Tolstoy died on November 9th, 1910, he was 82. 
  01 - Leo Tolstoy - A Short Story Collection - An Introduction 
  02 - Diary of a Lunatic by Leo Tolstoy 
  03 - A Dialogue Among Clever People by Leo Tolstoy 
  04 - Aloysha The Pot by Leo Tolstoy 
  05 - God Sees The Truth But Waits by Leo Tolstoy 
  06 - How Much Land Does A Man Need by Leo Tolstoy

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