Gardner, Grover

Autobiography of Mark Twain. Volume 1 by Mark Twain( Sound Recording )
9 editions published in 2010 in English and held by 820 libraries worldwide
Considered to be one of America's all-time brightest authors, Mark Twain has left his mark on the literary world. Authoring such gems as "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Twain's insight on the ever-evolving and expanding America gave the world a better understanding on the social issues that plagued the country. Here in his own words, Twain chronicles his life and career, offering some perspectives on how his books were created.

The women a novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle( Sound Recording )
14 editions published in 2009 in English and held by 781 libraries worldwide
Recounts the life of Frank Lloyd Wright as told through the experiences of the four women who loved him: the Montenegrin beauty Olgivanna Milanoff; the passionate Southern belle Maud Miriam Noel; the spirited Mamah Cheney, tragically killed; and his young first wife, Kitty Tobin.

The sound and the fury by William Faulkner( Sound Recording )
11 editions published between 1995 and 2007 in English and held by 714 libraries worldwide
The story of the tragic Caddy Compson, as seen through the eyes of her three brothers--the idiot Benjy, the neurotic Quentin, and the monstrous Jason.

Man's search for ultimate meaning by Viktor E Frankl( Sound Recording )
6 editions published between 2007 and 2011 in English and held by 694 libraries worldwide
Viktor Frankl offers a more straightforward alternative to traditional Freudian psychoanalysis: one's problems may be rooted in a failure to find a meaning in life beyond one's interior world. The basis for his interpretation, however, is not so straightforward. It lies in Frankl's existential analysis, plumbing for the reasons that people have repressed their consciences, their love, their creativity. By legitimizing a spiritual aspect of the human mind, Frankl has separated us definitively from the animal kingdom, but it is still up to each of us to rise to our human potential.

Play money or, how I quit my day job and made millions trading virtual loot by Julian Dibbell( Sound Recording )
6 editions published between 2007 and 2011 in English and held by 679 libraries worldwide
The author discusses how he earned his fortune by aquiring virtual goods during massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMPORGs) and selling them for real money on eBay.

Black order by James Rollins( Sound Recording )
14 editions published between 2006 and 2009 in English and held by 626 libraries worldwide
Painter Crowe, Commander Gray Pierce, and the other members of Sigma Force enter into an uneasy alliance with an old enemy to unravel a baffling scientific mystery, the secret of which is locked within cryptic runes.

Guns, germs, and steel [the fates of human societies by Jared M Diamond( Sound Recording )
9 editions published between 1997 and 2006 in English and held by 564 libraries worldwide
Is the balance of power in the world, the essentially unequal distribution of wealth and clout that has shaped civilization for centuries, a matter of survival of the fittest, or merely of the luckiest? In Guns, Germs, and Steel, UCLA professor (and author of the best-seller bearing the same title) Jared Diamond makes a compelling case for the latter. Diamond's theory is that the predominance of white Europeans (and Americans of European descent) over other cultures has nothing to do with racial superiority, as many have claimed, but is instead the result of nothing more, or less, than geographical coincidence. His argument, in a nutshell, is that the people who populated the Middle East's "fertile crescent" thousands of years ago were the first farmers, blessed with abundant natural resources (native crops such as wheat and barley, domesticable animals like pigs, goats, sheep, and cows). When their descendents migrated to Europe and northern Africa, climates similar to the crescent's, those same assets, which were unavailable in most of the rest of the world, led to the flourishing of advanced civilizations in those places as well. Add to that their ability to control fire, and Europeans eventually developed the guns and steel (swords, trains, etc.) they used to conquer the planet (the devastating diseases they brought with them, like smallpox, were an unplanned "benefit" to their subjugation of, for instance, Peru's native Incas). The program uses location footage (from New Guinea, South America, Africa, and elsewhere), interviews, reenactments, maps, and Diamond's own participation to support his thesis.

The cider house rules by John Irving( Sound Recording )
15 editions published between 1985 and 2005 in English and held by 508 libraries worldwide
Dr. Wilbur Larch, saint and obstetrician, founder and director of an orphanage in rural St. Cloud, Maine in first half of this century, is an ether addict and abortionist. He is also the mentor of Homer Wells, an orphan who is never adopted.

The flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor( Sound Recording )
12 editions published between 2004 and 2009 in English and No Linguistic Content and held by 483 libraries worldwide
They are twelve men who shouldn't be alive. They have survived the sudden blinding sandstorm that crippled their air freighter. Survived a desperate crash landing in the Sahara of Central Libya. Survived to face the slow, dry, agonizing death of the desert. Twelve men with one hope: to build a new plane from the wreckage of their Skytruck and make a flight out of hell. Only one man could build such a plane: Stringer, the brilliant and obsessed engineer. Only one man could fly it: Towns, the arrogant and tormented pilot. Both had been aboard the Skytruck, but both are mortal enemies whose consuming hatred for each other is a danger greater than the desert itself.

Tales from the Old West( Sound Recording )
9 editions published between 2005 and 2007 in English and held by 480 libraries worldwide
Presents three tales of the Old West by masters of the Western genre.