The Invisible Man
by H. G. Wells
narrated by B. J. Harrison
"A scientist theorizes that if a person's refractive index is changed to exactly that of air his body does not absorb or reflect light, then he will not be visible. He successfully carries out this procedure on himself, but cannot become visible again."Obviously everybody knows about this story, but how many people actually know what's in it? I was completely unprepared for such a dark and violent tale, and have to conclude that this is the first time I have read it, which is very surprising indeed. Given the opportunities that invisibility might present, the author chooses to go nowhere near what I would have expected.
Sleep No More: Six Murderous Tales
by P. D. James
narrated by Daniel Weyman
"It's not always a question of "whodunit?" Sometimes there's more mystery in the why or how. And although we usually know the unhealthy fates of both victim and perpetrator, what of those clever few who plan and carry out the perfect crime?"A perfect book of short stories of murder that manage to be utterly different from each other. Sometimes the murderer and/or the murdered are introduced right at the start, sometimes they pitch up towards the end of the tale, and sometimes they aren't who you think they are. I really enjoyed this book.
Spider's Web
by Agatha Christie
narrated by Hugh Fraser
"‘Supposing I were to come down one morning and find a dead body in the library, what should I do?’ she muses. Clarissa has her chance to find out when she discovers a body in her drawing-room. Desperate to dispose of the body before her husband comes home with an important foreign politician, Clarissa persuades her three house guests to become accessories and accomplices."I was surprised to find this in the audio book library because I thought I knew a lot of Agatha Christie's work, but after I'd listened I found out it's an adaptation of a play she wrote. It's pretty good, and avoids many of the outdated tropes of her work, but that may be due to the work of the 'novelization'. Looking at the library again, there seem to be quite a number of her books that I haven't yet read...
Independence Day
by Richard Ford
"After the disintegration of his family, the ruin of his career and an affair with a much younger woman, Frank Bascombe decides that the surest route to a 'normal' American life is to become an estate agent in Haddam, New Jersey. Frank avoids engaging in life until the sudden, cataclysmic events of a Fourth-of-July weekend with his son jolt him back. "For most of the book I really wasn't bothered. I didn't hate it, but wasn't engaged enough to care what happened next, which is why it's taken a long time to finish it. When I was about 90% of the way through it started to grow on me, and I've ended up thinking it's actually rather good. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and I'm starting to get a feel for what that is all about - literary excellence without necessarily being a page-turner.
The Eternal Legacy
by Sangharakshita
"An introduction to the vast range of Buddhist canonical literature. It covers all major sacred texts, summarizes their essential teachings and places them in their doctrinal and historical context."This is an incredible resource that I couldn't have appreciated before now. Unlike Judaism, Christianity and Islam which only have a book or two of source material, Buddhism has a library of works describing the Buddha's life and teachings. Being originally an oral tradition and spreading throughout South East Asia, there are versions of the same books in Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese and Japanese so additions and losses can be tracked and some idea of authenticity is available. It is also an incredible scholarly achievement.
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