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Here’s another batch of free Audible files for downloading that I’ve found and have compiled for this posting. I hope you will find them interesting. Again, they range from short sample clips to interviews and comedy clips and even complete stories, showing the vast range of audio files that Audible offers and how useful and entertaining they can be.

Where the Wild Things Are (Unabridged)
By: Maurice Sendak

Narrator: Peter Schickele
Publisher: Weston Woods Studios, 2007
Length: 6 min.

Publisher’s Summary

Max is the hero of this beloved children’s classic in which he makes mischief, sails away, tames the wild things, and returns home for supper.

Click here to see more great Weston Woods stories.

©1963 Maurice Sendak; (P)1987 Weston Woods Studios

Narrator: Paula Poundstone
Publisher: HighBridge Audio, 2007
Length: 2 min.

What the Critics Say

“Paula Poundstone pokes fun at her tabloid woes in wry - and occasionally pointed - tales about life in the comedy trenches as a single mom….[She] has a lively sense of the absurd.” (Variety)
“Poundstone makes self-involvement entertaining in her memoir-cum-history.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Publisher’s Summary

This complimentary download includes “Joan of Arc: Called by God and Driven by Drink”, a selection from There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say by Paula Poundstone. The following is a description of the full audio program:

What do the lives of Lincoln, Helen Keller, Joan of Arc, and other historical figures have in common with Paula Poundstone? In the hands of this wryly observant and self-deprecating comedian, the answer is outrageously funny and unexpectedly touching. Poundstone compares her crazy life to theirs, as she holds forth on her children, her career, and the time in her life when it appeared she would lose them both.

Now exonerated, Poundstone treats that stressful experience and the rest of her life, successes and failures, with remarkable wit and insight. There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say is self-awareness and honesty at its most hilarious.

©2006 Paula Poundstone. All rights reserved; (P) and ©2006 HighBridge Company

Abraham Lincoln: Pennywise and Poundstone Foolish
By: Paula Poundstone

Narrator: Paula Poundstone
Publisher: HighBridge Audio, 2007
Length: 2 min.

What the Critics Say

“Paula Poundstone pokes fun at her tabloid woes in wry - and occasionally pointed - tales about life in the comedy trenches as a single mom….[She] has a lively sense of the absurd.” (Variety)
“Poundstone makes self-involvement entertaining in her memoir-cum-history.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Publisher’s Summary

This complimentary download includes “Abraham Lincoln: Pennywise and Poundstone Foolish”, a selection from There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say by Paula Poundstone. The following is a description of the full audio program:

What do the lives of Lincoln, Helen Keller, Joan of Arc, and other historical figures have in common with Paula Poundstone? In the hands of this wryly observant and self-deprecating comedian, the answer is outrageously funny and unexpectedly touching. Poundstone compares her crazy life to theirs, as she holds forth on her children, her career, and the time in her life when it appeared she would lose them both.

Now exonerated, Poundstone treats that stressful experience and the rest of her life, successes and failures, with remarkable wit and insight. There’s Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say is self-awareness and honesty at its most hilarious.

©2006 Paula Poundstone. All rights reserved; (P) and ©2006 HighBridge Company

Publisher: Kansas Board of Education, 2005
Length: 4 hours and 43 min.

Publisher’s Summary

A subcommittee of the Kansas Board of Education holds hearings on whether the state’s science curriculum should permit alternate theories to be taught alongside evolution. During the first three days of hearings, proponents of intelligent design present their views. They are represented by a retired lawyer, John Calvert, who heads the Intelligent Design Network of Shawnee Mission, Kansas. The witnesses are questioned by the members of the subcommittee and by attorney Pedro Irigonegaray, who supports the teaching of evolution.

Listen to Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4 (Conclusion) of the Kansas Evolution Hearings.

Publisher: Associated Press, 2005
Length: 2 hours and 36 min.

Publisher’s Summary

At a Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI is formally installed as the Catholic Church’s 265th pontiff. The Mass, called “the ceremony of investiture,” is celebrated by the senior cardinal deacon, Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez of Chile. During the Mass, the new Pope receives the symbols of his papal authority: the Fisherman’s Ring and the pallium, a stole of white wool embroidered with six black silk crosses.

©2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use. AP will not be held liable in any way to the User or to any third party or to any other person who may receive information in the Service or to any other person whatsoever, for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing or occasioned thereby.

Publisher: Associated Press, 2005
Length: 5 min.

Publisher’s Summary

Shortly after his election on Apr. 19, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI emerged onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, spoke to a crowd of tens of thousands and gave his first blessing as the Catholic Church’s 265th pontiff.

Here is the text of the Pope’s speech:
“Dear brothers and sisters,
After the Great Pope John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard. I am comforted by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient instruments. And above all, I entrust myself to your prayers. With the joy of the risen Lord and confidence in his constant help, we will go forward. The Lord will help us and Mary his most holy mother will be alongside us. Thank you.”

The commentary, provided by AP Radio News, includes the thoughts of Fr. James Watkins.

©2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Narrator: Sal Giangrasso
Publisher: Scientific American, 2007
Length: 22 min.

Publisher’s Summary

New systems may allow people to record all that has touched their lives, thereby creating a collection of personal digital archives. Learn more in this article “A Digital Life” from the March 2007 edition of Scientific American.

Want more Scientific American?

One month subscription

Twelve Months subscription

complete Scientific America archive

©2007 Scientific American

Performer: Beth Lapides
Publisher: Un-Cabaret, 2007
Length: 19 min.

What the Critics Say

“Above and Beyond!” (The New Yorker)
“Original, deep, smart, surprising, and very funny!” (The Onion)

Publisher’s Summary

A deeply funny story by Beth Lapides about her Jewishness.

BETH LAPIDES executive produced and hosted Un-Cabaret for Comedy Central. She hosts and curates the Un-Cabaret, Say the Word and the Other Network. She is commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered and The Huffington Post, and she had her own daily talk show on Comedy World Radio.

This story was recorded at Un-Cabaret’s reading series “Say the Word”, featuring great comedy writers reading their own original first-person non-fiction.

Check out other Un-Cabaret audio files at audible.com

©2006 Un-Cabaret & Artists

Narrator: Nadia May
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2007
Length: 19 min.

What the Critics Say

“Gripping from start to finish; Heller brings vivid, nuanced characterizations to the racy story.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Both a penetrating character study and a sharp examination of voyeurism, Heller’s novel is utterly brilliant.” (Booklist)
“Equally adroit at satire and at psychological suspense, Heller charts the course of a predatory friendship and demonstrates the lengths to which some people go for human company.” (New Yorker)

Publisher’s Summary

This is a free excerpt.

Schoolteacher Barbara Covett has led a bitter, lonely life as a self-made careerist. Sheba Hart is an ethereal, inexperienced new pottery teacher. When Barbara hears of Sheba’s problems in the classroom, a maternal pity arises in her that soon leads to friendship and confidence. But Barbara is unprepared for the secret she will learn: that Sheba has begun a passionate affair with an underage male student. Barbara’s confusion, disapproval, and jealousy are helpless to prevent the coming disaster.

Get the full title (What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal (Unabridged) By: Zoe Heller)!

©2003 Zoë Heller; (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Narrator: John Slattery and Reg Rogers
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 2007
Length: 7 min.

Publisher’s Summary

This is the exclusive, free prologue of Step on a Crack.

NYPD Detective Michael Bennett is about to take on the most sinister challenge of his career. The nation has fallen into mourning after the unexpected death of a beloved former first lady, and the most powerful people in the world gather in New York for her funeral. Then the inconceivable occurs. Billionaires, politicians, and superstars of every kind are suddenly trapped within one man’s brilliant and cold-blooded scenario.

Bennett, father of 10, is pulled into the fray. As the danger escalates, he is hit with devastating news: after fighting for many years, his wife has succumbed to a terrible disease. As New York descends into chaos, he has lost the great love of his life, faces raising his heartbroken children alone, and must somehow rescue 34 hostages.

Day after day, Bennett confronts the most ruthless man he has ever dealt with, a man who kills without hesitation and counters everything the NYPD and FBI throw at him with impunity. As the entire world watches, and the tensions builds to a searing heat, Bennett has to find a way out or face responsibility for the greatest debacle in history.

Don’t be left in suspense: download the full-length version of Step on a Crack.

©2007 James Patterson. All Rights Reserved; (P)2007 Hachette Audio

By: Sherryl Woods

Narrator: Elenna Stauffer
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd., 2007
Length: 38 min.

Publisher’s Summary

Can a very special wedding dress bring about love on Valentine’s Day?

Drawn to an old trunk in the attic, Lara Calhoun is unable to resist finding out what treasure her late, beloved mother had kept hidden away for all these years. Her unexpected discovery soon turns her world upside down and makes her second-guess everything she’s ever believed about her mother and about love. Will it lead her straight into Dave Lafferty’s arms, or make her turn away from the love of a lifetime?

©2002 Sherryl Woods; (P)2007 Audible, Inc.
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A. All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

By: Christopher Moore

Narrator: Susan Bennett
Publisher: Harper Audio, 2007
Length: 13 min.

What the Critics Say

“A cheerfully perverse, gut-busting tale of young vampires in love….Moore writes with the jittery energy of a brilliant, charming class clown, mixing sex and gore and a potty mouth with a goofy-sweet sensibility to deliver laughs on nearly every page.” (Publishers Weekly)

Publisher’s Summary

This is a free excerpt.

“You bitch, you killed me. You suck!”

Being dead sucks. Make that being undead sucks.

Literally. Just ask Thomas C. Flood. Waking up after a fantastic night unlike anything he’s ever experienced, he discovers that his girlfriend, Jody, the woman of his dreams, is a vampire. And surprise! Now he’s one, too.

For some couples, the whole biting-and-blood thing would have been a deal breaker. But Tommy and Jody are in love, and they vow to work through their issues. Like how much Jody should teach Tommy about his new superpowers (and how much he needs to learn on his own). Plus there’s Tommy’s cute new minion, 16-year-old goth girl Abby Normal. (Well, someone has to run errands during daylight hours!)

Get the full title here!

©2007 Christopher Moore; (P)2007 HarperCollins Publishers

By: Alice Hoffman

Narrator: Mare Winningham
Publisher: Hachette Audio, 2007
Length: 21 min.

What the Critics Say

“Hoffman’s shimmering, multigenerational melodrama bewitches with supernatural imagery.” (Booklist)

Publisher’s Summary

A legacy of broken pieces that need to be put together. An emotional and mysterious puzzle made up of people who don’t know the first thing about love. The story of a family so real, so tragic, so devoted, it is as if they have written their own riveting history. Skylight Confessions is a quest for love and truth.

Like what you hear? Get the full title Skylight Confessions by Alice Hoffman.

©2007 Alice Hoffman; (P)2007 Hachette Audio

Kofi Annan
Publisher: C-SPAN, 2006
Length: 49 min.

Publisher’s Summary

After serving for ten years as U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan delivers his final address to an American audience. In the Dec. 11, 2006, speech at the Truman Presidential Museum and Library in Independence, MO, Annan challenges the Bush administration to shun go-it-alone diplomacy and to remain committed to human rights as it fights terrorism.

©2006 National Cable Satellite Corporation

Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio, 2001
Length: 14 min.

Publisher’s Summary

In Deck the Halls, Regan Reilly, the dynamic young sleuth featured in the novels of Carol Higgins Clark, meets Alvirah Meehan, the famous lottery winner and amateur detective who has appeared in several books by Mary Higgins Clark. Listen to the mother-daughter duo talk about how they collaborated to create this story of high stakes and detection played out against a holiday setting. How did they sit down to right it? How did their styles mesh? And how did they get along? Hear answers to these and other questions as well as interesting anecdotes, such as when an allergy forced them to relocate, in this free interview.

Download Deck the Halls by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark.

Ward Churchill

Publisher: C-SPAN, 2005
Length: 1 hour and 5 min.

Publisher’s Summary

At the University of Colorado in Boulder, Ethnic Studies Professor Ward Churchill addressed his comments about the victims of 9/11 and the importance of freedom of speech. He spoke to a crowd of about 1,200 students and other supporters. He is introduced by Native American activist Russell Means.

©2005 National Cable Satellite Corporation

Elmore Leonard

Interviewer: Beth Anderson
Publisher: Audible, Inc., 2005
Length: 18 min.

Publisher’s Summary

In this exclusive interview, best-selling author Elmore Leonard talks with Audible’s Beth Anderson about his long and prolific career, his writing process, and what it’s like to have an inside track on Hollywood. Leonard has sold most of his books to Hollywood, several of which have been made into movies, including Out of Sight, Jackie Brown, Get Shorty, and its sequel, Be Cool, starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman. Be Cool hits theaters March 4. Elmore Leonard’s current book, The Hot Kid, is expected out later this spring.

Listen to Be Cool and other best sellers from Elmore Leonard.

Producer: Kerry Donahue
Assistant Producer: Diana Krawciw
Post-Production Engineer: Gil Hova
(P)2005 Audible, Inc.

Angelina Jolie

Publisher: C-SPAN, 2005
Length: 53 min.

Publisher’s Summary

Actress Angelina Jolie, Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, speaks at a National Press Club luncheon. Jolie discusses plans for the National Center for Refugee and Immigrant Children, to be based in Washington, D.C.

©2005 National Cable Satellite Corporation

Lemony Snicket

Publisher: Audible, Inc., 2004
Length: 24 min.

Publisher’s Summary

Best-selling author Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler) recently spoke with Beth Anderson, Audible’s publisher, about A Series of Unfortunate Events. He talked about his experience narrating audiobooks, as well as his participation in the movie. You’ll hear about his favorite authors and musicians and learn more about the Baudelaire orphans. Whether you are a die-hard fan or new to this fantastically grim and gripping series, this dire dialogue will make you marvelously miserable.

Don’t miss Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events!

Producer: Kerry Donahue
Assistant Producer: Diana Krawciw
Post-Production Engineer: Gil Hova
(P)2004 Audible, Inc.

Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker

Interviewer: Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker
Publisher: Random House Audible, 2002
Length: 6 min.

Publisher’s Summary

They think you’re cool! Yes, you, the Audible listener! In this exclusive interview, Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker explain the phenomenon they call the “Deviant’s Advantage” and discuss companies that have capitalized on the advantage as well as those that failed to recognize the opportunity. Hear what they say about science, coming trends, and you, the Audible listener.

Don’t miss Mathews and Wacker’s The Deviant’s Advantage!

Ryan Mathews is a futurist and principal of FirstMatter, a trend-watching consulting firm. Hailed as one of the few true philosophers in modern business, Mathews has been profiled in publications from Fast Company to Wired. He is a coauthor of the best selling The Myth of Excellence and lives in Detroit, Michigan.

Watts Wacker, also a futurist and principal of FirstMatter, has been profiled in such publications as Fast Company and Forbes and was called “one of the 50 smartest people in the business world” by the Financial Times. He is a coauthor of The 500-Year Delta and The Visionary’s Handbook. He lives in Westport, Connecticut.

©2002 by Ryan Mathews and Watts Wacker
(P)2002 Random House, Inc.

By: Roger Greenawalt and Brian Fielding

Publisher: Audible, Internet Theatre, 2001
Length: 11 min.

Publisher’s Summary

1. Wiretap Soundtrack Excerpts: Wiretap Dark Theme
2. Sex Mix (One)
3. The Kid Theme (One)

©2001 Audible, Inc. and ©2001 Roger Greenawalt

David Brooks

Publisher: Random House Audible, 2001
Length: 15 min.

Publisher’s Summary

David Brooks is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek, and a commentator on NPR and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He was formerly a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal. His articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, SmartMoney, The New Republic, Commentary, and other publications. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Listen to Brooks read his book about the new upper class and now they got there, Bobos in Paradise, a Random House Audible audio exclusive!

Kathleen Hall Jamieson

Publisher: Random House Audible, 2001
Length: 7 min.

Publisher’s Summary

NPR commentator, respected political expert, and Director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, Kathleen Hall Jamieson answers questions about the current political scene. Jamieson explains how the 2000 Presidential campaign differed from earlier campaigns, and discusses negative ads, politicians’ broken promises, manipulation of the media, and the effect of the Internet on campaigns. She even goes so far as to offer a few predictions for Campaign 2004.

Listen to Kathleen Hall Jamieson’s Everything You Think You Know About Politics…And Why You’re Wrong, a Random House Audible audio exclusive!

A nationally respected expert on presidential politics, Kathleen Hall Jamieson is Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania. She is the author or co-author of nine widely acclaimed books on American politics and is herself a frequent media commentator on NPR’s Weekend Edition and The Newshour with Jim Lehrer. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Frank Muller

Interviewer: Frank Muller
Publisher: Audible, 1999
Length: 6 min.

What the Critics Say

“[When Frank reads], the blind will see, the lame will walk, and the deaf will hear.” (Stephen King)

Publisher’s Summary

What’s it like to be an audiobook narrator? Frank Muller - who The New York Times called “a genius” - answers that question for Audible in this exclusive talk. Muller discusses his latest release, John Grisham’s blockbuster-bound The Testament, and the research and preparation involved to bring each character to life, pronounce every syllable correctly, and stay true to the author’s intentions. Muller also reflects on the debate over audiobooks and the art form which he has mastered.

Muller has won many audio industry awards for his work from Publishers Weekly’s Listen Up to the Audio Publishers Association’s Audie to AudioFile’s Earphone. At Audible, in addition to The Testament, you’ll find Muller reading Grisham’s Runaway Jury, The Street Lawyer, and The Rainmaker, as well as Nicholas Evans’s Horse Whisperer, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and much more.

Check out the collection of Frank Muller’s works.

Interviewer: Annabelle Gurwitch, Susan Loewenberg, Dana Gould
Publisher: L.A. Theatre Works, 2007
Length: 48 min.

What the Critics Say

Audie Award Nominee, Humor, 2005

Publisher’s Summary

This is a free excerpt.

Rejection has never been so hilarious! After her role in a Woody Allen play was “rethought”, actress Annabelle Gurwitch (TBS’ Dinner and a Movie) was devastated. But then she got funny. Gurwitch and a revolving cast of fellow show-biz veterans share their stories in L.A. Theatre Works’ Fired: Tales of Jobs Gone Bad.

This excerpt features an L.A. Theatre Works interview with Annabelle Gurwitch, as well as comedian Dana Gould’s routine from Fired, called “Jimmy the Idiot”.

Want more? Get the full version of Fired: Tales of Jobs Gone Bad.

(P)2007 L.A. Theatre Works

Eve Ensler

Publisher: Random House Audible, 2001
Length: 10 min.

Publisher’s Summary

Eve Ensler’s play, The Vagina Monologues, is currently playing in theaters world-wide. Her play Necessary Targets has had benefit performances on Broadway, at the National Theater in Sarajevo, and at the Kennedy Center, and will open in New York this year. Other plays include Lemonade, The Depot, Floating Rhoda and the Glue Man, and Scooncat.

Listen to Obie Award-winning playwright Eve Ensler discuss her play, The Vagina Monologues, a Random House Audible audio exclusive!

I hope you enjoy the free Audible files. In order to listen and download the files to listen on your Palm, you’ll first need to register and set up a free Audible account. Download the necessary softwares (Audible manager, Audible player or Audible Air if you have a Treo) and install them. Download the files and transfer them over to the Palm (if applicable). Then sit back and enjoy. More information on Audible can be found at my blog posting on Audible

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