Veteran broadcaster John Rayburn here combines philosophy, poetry, inspiration, motivation, and touches of humor to provide comfort, cheer, and encouragement. This audiobook is an opportunity to collect your thoughts and set aside a few moments for contemplation in a busy, busy world.

Here is a meeting with George and Marion Kerby, a couple of free-wheeling ghosts, who meet up with respectable banker Cosmo Topper. This was noted by the New York Times, claiming:“Thorne Smith created the modern American ghost story, ghosts with style and wit; ghosts that haunt us still.”Others pointed out, “Smith was a master of urbane wit and sophisticated repartee.”The overall mood has a touch of silliness, but it provides lighthearted reading and listen...

A fictional priest and amateur detective named Father Brown had a face once described “as round and dull as a Norfolk dumpling.” This made him appear somewhat clumsy and naïve, but that didn’t take into account his keen understanding of human nature and exceptional intuition. English writer G. K. Chesterton created the character, writing fifty-three short stories over the years and gaining widespread popularity, later on TV as well. All of the stories you’re about to hear were originally p...

It gives us considerable pleasure to be able to offer to the public the “inside” record of those of former District Attorney Markham’s criminal cases in which Mr. Philo Vance figured so effectively. The true inwardness of these famous cases has never before been revealed by S. S. Van Dine, Mr. Vance’s lawyer and almost constant companion, being the only person who possessed a complete record of the facts and has only recently been permitted to make them public.After inspecting Mr. ...

It would be easy to call it a case of naïveté on the part of Richard Hannay, but there was much more to the story. He had just returned to London after living in Rhodesia so he wasn’t fully versed in the intrigue going on in England. That wasn’t much of a reason for Hannay allowing a man he met to live in his flat. However, that’s what he did, even though Franklin Scudder claimed to be a spy with involvement in an anarchist plot to assassinate the Greek premier. Hannay got into a major pro...

Danger, intrigue, threatening death, plus strange and bewildering locations. All these were part of what youthful Biff Brewster encountered. They were surprising because it was part of what was meant to be a pleasant vacation at the beginning.Biff’s father and uncle were both well-traveled and accustomed to unusual situations and they felt it could be a matter of learning and enjoyment for the sixteen-year-old boy. He was big, strong, and very intelligent, so his relatives felt suc...

This is a whodunit that neatly fits into the history of detective fiction. It features artist Philip Trent as he unexpectedly becomes an amateur detective. Some of his carefully collected information often proved erroneous. It begins when a wealthy American plutocrat, Bigsbee Manderson, uses his finances in an attempt to establish rules controlling society. When Manderson is found murdered on the grounds of his country house in England, Trent is hired as a reporter by a press association t...

The sublime beauty of Hawaii nearly a century ago is captured in this first book featuring the fictional Honolulu police detective, Charlie Chan. Author Biggers was staying at a hotel on Waikiki Beach in the 1920s when he was inspired to write the book. The Chan role at first was relatively minor, and he didn’t say anything until several chapters had gone by. However, the concept caught on when the literary public wanted more of him. That prompted five subsequent books as the character bec...

A subtitle of this book is “The Lost World Under the Sea,” and it’s somewhat based on the famed legend of Atlantis. That was an ancient city or continent that was supposedly inundated by the sea. Whether it actually existed has been a question that has lasted for thousands of years. Greek philosopher Plato wrote about it around 360 BC, so even his possible information was second-hand. Tsunamis (sea storms) have existed for centuries and if there really was an Atlantis, any survivors may ha...

This book is an example of Alternative History. That, in essence, is asking what the future could be like.It suggests the US could have become a Dominion of America. Call this standard history with a twist, or even mythology in part. It is certainly historical material, told in fictional fashion. The basis of the concept can help broaden your personal historical imagination by emphasizing an unorthodox perspective. The key to any such literary approach centers around a point of div...

This is a kind of history, or at least remembrances. It’s primarily personal but overall takes a look at the way things were many, many decades ago. Details may get a little out of whack from a chronological order now and then, but the gist of the way things in some desperate personal and national times will be fairly well put in place. It begins a trifle before the outset of the 1929 stock market crash that led to the Great Depression. Then, it points to the difficulties, financial and ot...

Throughout the stories here is information on how places, cities, and states got their names. However, questions arise because Native American tribes of the day didn’t yet have a written alphabet, and none of those came along until Sequoyah invented one in 1821, one that was actually more of a syllabary with symbols that stood for consonant/vowel sequences and could make words, basically just a writing system.One such word example is Tsa-La-Gi in Oklahoma, a recreated Cherokee sett...