Books on Tape Collection

This a list of all of the books on tape contained in the ASC resource center. This list is in alphabetical order, with a short paragraph about each set. This list was compiled by Amanda Butcher, February 27, 1997. For a short article on the use of audio books see Audio Books: "Shades of Deeper Meaning," by James Ward.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Read by Garrison Keillor and includes his "A Note From Huck Finn’s Father"

America’s favorite storyteller reads Mark Twain’s greatest story-the broadly comic, ironic tale of a small-town boy and a runaway slave, together on a raft on the mighty Mississippi. It’s one adventure after another, told with affection and unabashed joy.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain

Read by Dick Cavett

Begun in 1876 as a sequel to Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn is firmly established among the world’s classics. Choose one of our two versions of this timeless tale and enjoy!

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things, Robert Fulghum

Read by the author

Robert Fulghum, Unitarian minister, taps into the basic tenets we know already but tend to forget in the course of our increasingly complex lives. In the title essay of this uplifting collection, Fulghum praises the rules we learned as children: "Share everything...Play fair...Live a balanced life...Say you’re sorry when you hurt someone...". Remember theses things as adults, Fulghum suggests, and your life can be richer, our world a better place. And "Kindergarten" is reflective of the other essays as well. They are about everyday occurrences, small things with large meanings, the truths that touch all our lives. They are full of wit and insight and feeling.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X with Alex Haley

Through a life of passion and struggle, Malcolm X became one of the most influential figures of the 20th Century. In this riveting account, he tells of his journey from a prison cell to Mecca, describing his transition from hoodlum to Muslim minister. Here, the man who called himself "the angriest Black man in America" relates how his conversion to true Islam helped him confront his rage and recognize the brotherhood of all mankind. More than a generation after they first appeared, the strength of Malcolm X’s words and the power of his ideas continue to resonate.

Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms, Ed Rollins

Who else but Ed Rollins-the brilliant, bare-knuckled political consultant-would dare give us the inside story on how Washington really works? Famously outspoken, Rollins is a true maverick whose gift for winning campaigns is matched only by his talent for generating controversy. Now, in this astonishingly candid program, he delivers a no-holds-barred, hugely entertaining account of his thirty-year career in American politics.

Ed Rollins, a Republican party operative, is an American original-a power-punching, street-smart insider who loves politics and his country with equal fervor. Fast and funny, pugnacious and passionate, Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms reveals how the modern political game is really played-by a real player.

David Brinkley: A Memoir

He is an icon of the American airwaves, a face and voice we have been welcoming into our homes for the past half-century. Through times of great upheaval and interludes of business as usual, we have tuned in to David Brinkley’s programs for his sense of fairness and his distinctive ability to cut through cant and pretension.

Rich in anecdote and humor, David Brinkley tells a classic American story that overlaps with some of the great events and great personages of our era. In his unmistakable North Carolina cadences, David Brinkley relates his priceless moments, public and private, and takes aim at some of the things Americans love to hate. All from his own, uniquely Brinkley, vantage point.

Character Above All-Volume 1: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Read by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Recorded live at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, Ambrose begins a series of lectures delivered by a team of historians, biographers and journalists assembled by Robert Wilson to explore the Presidential character. Sharing their insight into the Presidents they have written about, these authors and scholars address the larger issue of the impact of the Presidential character on leadership and the creation of trust.

A master historian speaking on the towering subject she knows best, Goodwin discusses Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the master politician who always waited for the right moment to convince people to go where he wished to take them.

Character Above All-Volume 3: Dwight D. Eisenhower

Read by Stephen E. Ambrose

Ambrose tells of "Ike"-a great and good man, who stood up to the generals and McCarthy, always exuding optimism, self-confidence, humor and love of life.

Character Above All-Volume 5: Richard Nixon

Read by Tom Wicker

Wicker continues the lecture series assembled by Robert Wilson to explore the Presidential character. Wicker explains that Nixon was an ambiguous character-talented, suspicious, a loner, an anomaly in a successful politician. In the end, he was neither evil nor a victim-except of himself.

Character Above All-Volume 6: Ronald Reagan

Read by Peggy Noonan

The bestselling author of What I saw at the Revolution lends her unmistakable voice to the groundbreaking CHARACTER ABOVE ALL audio series with an illuminating examination of one of America’s most popular Presidents.

Noonan asserts that Ronald Reagan was successful because he didn’t become President to "be big," but to "do big things." He knew what he thought and why. With an almost offhand courage, he turned his philosophy into his policies.

Character Above All-Volume 7: Lyndon B. Johnson and Jimmy Carter

Robert Dallek on Johnson and Hendrik Hertzberg on Carter

Dallek, the bestselling author of Lone Star Rising: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, tells how LBJ was an example of the contradiction of opposites. A powerful Senate Majority Leader, he won an enormous election victory and proposed civil rights legislation and the Great Society. Less than three years later, broken by the Vietnam war and unable to appear in public, he announced he would not seek re-election. Hertzberg, the Executive Editor of The New Yorker, shares how Jimmy Carter, elected in the backwash of Watergate, serious about his Christian values, diagnosed the country’s spiritual "malaise" but was unable to provide a cure.

The Children’s Book of Virtues Audio Treasury, William Bennett

From the #1 national bestseller comes the definitive audio treasury of great moral tales for young children and their parents, including ten postcard-sized reproductions of Michael Hague’s beautiful illustrations. Covering the essential ingredients for virtuous living, Bennett includes stories, poems, and excerpts about courage, perseverance, responsibility, self-discipline, loyalty, and friendship, just to name a few. Feature performances by: The Bennett Family, Barbara Bush, Charlton Heston, Dana Ivey, Faith Prince, Tom Selleck, and Betty White.

Don’t Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know About American History but Never Learned, Kenneth C. Davis

Introduction read by the Author

Who really "discovered" America? Why was Kansas "bloody"? What was so "great" and the Great Depression? From the first settlements of the continent through Vietnam, Watergate, and Reagan, Davis takes listeners on a rollicking ride through 600 years of Americana. With will, candor, and fascinating facts, Don’t Know Much About History explodes long-held myths and misconceptions-revealing the very human side of history that the textbooks neglect.

Eisenhower: In His Own Voice

Eisenhower first came to public attention in 1942, during the Second World War, when General George C. Marshall chose him to be commander in chief of the Allied forces in Europe. By war’s end, Eisenhower had become one of the best known and most popular figures in the United States. In 1952, he was nominated by the Republican party as its presidential candidate and defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson in that year and again, for a second presidential term, in 1956.

Eisenhower was greatly admired and enjoyed uncritical affection during a presidency of relative peace and sustained prosperity. This recording revisits the high points of his life and military and political careers through his own voice and the voices of Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Khrushchev, Truman, Nixon, and others.

Everyone is Entitled to My Opinion, David Brinkley

In this one-of-a-kind AudioBook, we get the undiluted David Brinkley. He reminisces about a White House that welcomed casual picnickers on its lawn. He is amazed at an IRS report stating that in the event of war or nuclear attack, the collection of taxes will continue. He observes that Representative Wayne Hays of Ohio had enormous power in Washington-the power to allocate parking spaces. He forgives George Bush for passing out in Tokyo, and marvels at a system that revives a prisoner who has attempted suicide-only to then execute him. He skewers lawyers, bureaucrats, Washington insiders, hypocrites of all stripes. He commemorates absurdity-and hence suffers fools gladly.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Short Stories

Read by Alexander Scourby

F. Scott Fitzgerald, who characterized his short life (1896-1940) by defining the glittering veneer of the materialistic Jazz Age, left us with American classics like The Great Gatsby and Paradise Lost. His writing brilliantly exposes the spiritual vacuum in his colorful but often empty characters. The four stories read in this collection are The Bridal Party, Three Hours Between Planes, Babylon Revisited, and The Lost Decade.

Forward the Fountain, Isaac Asimov

Forward the Fountain, the seventh and final book in his bestselling Foundation series, is the saga’s dramatic climax-the story his fans have been waiting for. Completed just before his death, it is an exciting tale of danger, intrigue, and suspense bringing to life Asimov’s best-loved characters: hero Hari Seldon, who struggles to perfect his revolutionary theory of psychohistory to ensure the survival of humanity; Cleon II, the vain and crafty emperor of the Galactic Empire, doomed as the last scion of a fading dynasty; and, among others, Wanda Seldon, Hari’s strangely gifted granddaughter, whom he entrusts with his greatest creation: the Second Foundation.

A resounding tour de force, Forward the Foundation provides an ingenious link to Asimov’s popular Robot tales and at last reveals the danger, intrigue, and sacrifice that brought about the fall of the Galactic Empire and the birth of a new order to be known as the Foundation.

From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives, Robert Fulghum

How we change from moment to moment, year to year, from one stage of life to another, is Fulghum’s memorable theme in From Beginning to End. Here, America’s most beloved philosopher and essayist teaches us how to address our personal transformation, large and small, with dignity, love, and acceptance. Whether they are public rituals, anything from weddings to sales meetings; private rituals, such as the saying of grace at a family dinner; or secret passages, such as one’s personal greeting of the day, these habits and routines bring structure and meaning to daily life, enriching who we are both individually and collectively. Here is a celebration of our everyday lives.

Great American Poets: ROBERT FROST reads his poetry

The definitive recording of four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Frost reading his most famous poems including "The Road Not Taken," "Mending Wall" and 21 others.

This recording was made in May of 1956 at Robert Frost’s home in Cambridge, where the ebullient spirits, rural quiet and the sense that this was to be the authoritative Frost recording influenced the fine vitality of the reading.

Growing Up Republican--Christie Whitman: the Politics of Character,

Patricia Beard

Read by the author

At a time when the word "politics" is highly charged, and the meaning of "Republican" is the subject of a fight between openly warring factions, New Jersey Governor Christie Whitman’s clear centrist vision-a direct legacy from her family-has attracted national attention and acclaim. Yet, although Christie Whitman is the most prominent woman in the Republican Party, few know the story of how she got there.

Written with the full cooperation of the governor-including uncensored access to private documents, letters and photographs, a selection from her response to Clinton’s State of the Union Address, and unusual exposure to her current and private life-Growing Up Republican is an intimate, unvarnished look at a woman who has lived her entire life in the political arena.

Guy Noir: Radio Private Eye, Garrison Keillor and Walter Bobbie

Join radio personality, Garrison Keillor, for nine Guy Noir segments of his radio show Prairie Home Companion.

"It’s a dark night in the city that knows how to keep its secrets, but high above the mean streets, a light burns on the twelfth floor of the Acme Building where Guy Noir is trying to find the answers to life’s questions. In his big swivel chair under the bare bulb beside the beat up gray file cabinet, he awaits the call of his clientele -- the disappointed, the paranoid, the embittered, the rejected -- but instead of a paying customer, what does he get? A knock on the door from Pete, who has shot and killed Guy on many occasions in the past yet the two of them are still friends. What can guy do? If you’re Guy Noir, you get up and open the door. Life is no picnic, pal, and friendship so often leads to violence, but you can’t walk away from these things."

Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years, Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth

Read by Whoopi Goldberg

Sadie and Bessie Delaney, aged 104 and 102, respectively, are the daughters of a freed slave who became America’s first elected black Episcopal bishop. Through their memories we recall the bitter era of Jim Crow, of lynchings and legal segregation. Their lifelong insights provide us with a priceless history of our nation’s past century. And what they have to say shows us, as nothing else can, where we’ve been, how far we’ve been, how far we’ve come-and how far we have to go.

A Hero All His Life: A Memoir by the Mantle Family: Merlyn, Mickey Jr., David, and Dan Mantle

Read by Travis Swords and Dorothy Schott

A hero to millions, Mickey Mantle embodied the ideal of small-town athlete made good every time he stepped up to the plate. Now, for the first time, Mantle’s wife, Merlyn, and their sons tell the unique and inspirational story of their very separate, often harrowing private lives with the husband and father and how they come together during Mantle’s last year to fight the cancer that took his life.

How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: The Secrets of Good Communication, Larry King

Read by the Author

We do it every day, but talking to people-especially people we don’t know-can sometimes be a daunting challenge. Now Larry King, who has talked with everybody from Mikhail Gorbachev to Michael Jordan, shares his secrets of how to communicate confidently and effectively in any situation. Whether you’re at a cocktail party, in a job interview, or giving a speech, there are simple techniques for getting your listeners on your side and getting your message across-Larry King knows them all.

Langston Hughes Reads

"Langston Hughes belongs to whoever is listening. A possession in common, like the sights and sounds of a street corner hangout, or the barbershop debate over pretty girls’ legs, and baseball players: open your ears and your heart if you’ve got one, Langston will walk right in and do the rest. Always public, his poems have no front door; not fully alive in the unspoken state; never quite satisfied unless they are talking to somebody. His thoughts come naked, conceived in the open, only at home in the public domain. Free, without charge, like water, like air-like salted peanuts at a Harlem rent party. Come in, have one on me-that’s Langston’s style: a great host; a perfect bartender; profligate-no of pigsfeet-but of poetry-dishing it up, iambic pentameter, on the rocks and on the house, fresh wrote this morning. Dead now, but still alive, Ol’ Langston in the corner of my mind." -Ossie Davis

Readings include "One Way Ticket," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Klu Klux Klan," and others of his poems.

Lincoln: A Biography, Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr., Philip B. Kunhardt III, and Peter W. Kunhardt

Read by Frank Langella

This remarkable biography presents Abraham Lincoln as we have never before seen him. The insightful and vibrant narrative draws extensively on diaries, letters, and other primary sources to provide a remarkable close-up view of Lincoln: the boy, the homespun politician, the president, the military leader, the man with his family. The authors give us the fascinating life-from birth to death-of the extraordinary man who was the 16th president of the United States.

Maybe (Maybe Not): Second Thoughts from a Secret Life, Robert Fulghum

Taking as his premise the undeniable fact that truth is often stranger than fiction, Fulghum, author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (which we also have on audio cassette), continues to inspire us with enlightenments encountered in the most unexpected ways and places. Whether the subject is barber shop mythology or the shifting significance of nicknames over the course of a lifetime, Maybe (Maybe Not) is Robert Fulghum at his extraordinary best-making us a little more aware of the richness, fullness and joyousness of life.

A Memoir: Barbara Bush

Read by the Author

Politics aside, people worldwide have come to admire Barbara Bush’s wit, candor and compassion, as well as her unswerving devotion to her husband and children.

Drawing upon excerpts from the diary she has compiled for more than 30 years, Mrs. Bush takes us behind the scenes of the Persian Gulf conflict and the end of the Cold War, and introduces us to the world leaders and their spouses with whom she has developed friendships over the years. She also talks about the disappointments of the 1992 Presidential campaign and the joys of rediscovering private life.

Filled with the funny, often self-deprecating and occasionally touching anecdotes for which she is well-known, Mrs. Bush’s memoir will charm her millions of admirers and earn her many more.

O. Henry Short Stories

In life and in art O. Henry, born William Sydney Porter in 1862, epitomizes the spirit of turn-of-the-century America. As the stories on this delightful recording demonstrate, his vivid settings range from his beloved adopted city of New York, to rural Alabama, to pastoral France. Depicted with sympathetic generosity, his characters are earnest and comic, common and extraordinary. The quick pace and finely tuned plots culminate in the surprise endings that are his most characteristic contribution to the American short story. Includes "Gift of the Magi," "The Furnished Room," "The Ransom of Red Chief," and Roads of Destiny."

Old Time Radio Science Fiction, The Smithsonian Collection

The Smithsonian Institution and Radio Spirits have united to bring you the very finest from radio’s golden age. Each radio broadcast has been digitally restored and remastered from original recordings for superb sound quality. The 60-page book is filled with rare photographs and insightful commentary about the shows, the performers and the medium. The foreword is written by Ray Bradbury, renowned writer of the science fiction genre. Experience the finest in classic entertainment with this unprecedented series from the Smithsonian Collection of Old Time Radio.

Plain and Simple: A Woman’s Journey to the Amish, Sue Bender

Twenty-five years age, Sue Bender found herself drawn to an array of old Amish quilts. She was struck by their deep, saturated colors, the geometric simplicity of their design, and their quiet power. "They went straight to my heart." That was the beginning of her "journey of the spirit."

Plain and Simple describes Ms. Bender’s time spent in Iowa and Ohio with two Amish families, recounting her venture into their seemingly timeless world, a landscape of immense inner quiet. She illuminates the everyday rhythms of that world, so different from hers, and conveys the life of the people who taught her about simplicity, commitment, and the joy of doing whatever you do well.

Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life and Times, James Finn Garner

A Hilarious Send-up of Political Correctness in Fractured Fairy Tales for Our Times! "Once upon a time, in the olden days, heavy-set middle-aged men would congregate in their elitist clubs, smoke cigars, and pitch story ideas and plots to each other. Problem was, these stories were discriminatory, unfair, culturally biased and in general, demeaning to witches, animals, goblins, and fairies everywhere." The author goes on to liberate classic bedtime stories and retell them in a manner that is sarcastically positive and self-esteem building to anyone and anything who listens to or is in these stories.

Principle-Centered Leadership, Stephen R. Covey

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." No matter what level of success we have achieved, none of us can be content to stay where we are. Within all of us lies an innate desire for progress in ever aspect of our lives. In order to harness and utilize this internal drive in ourselves and those around us, we must learn to center our lives according to a set of certain basic principles.

The Shadow

The Shadow first materialized as an eerie radio announcer on Street and Smith’s "Detective Story Hour," introducing stories about more conventional detectives. The Shadow became the surprise hit of the show. In 1931, Walter Gibson was hired to write a Shadow novel. Under the house name of "Maxwell Grant", Gibson wrote 283 Shadow pulp novels.

On September 26, 1937, the Shadow made his radio debut starring 22 year old Orson Welles as the Shadow and Agnes Moorehead as "the lovely Margo Lane." The series was one of the most popular in the history of radio, thrilling and chilling the airwaves until December 26, 1954. Here for you listening pleasure are 8 original radio broadcasts of America’s most famous mystery man.

Showing My Color: Impolite Arguments on Race and Identity,

Clarence Page

Read by the Author

As a Pulitzer Prize-winning, widely syndicated columnist for the Chicago Tribune, Clarence Page examines, exposes, and ties together the difficult and persistent themes of race relations and individual identity. And with great candor, Page manages to reconnect the increasingly abstract political debates about black conservatives, affirmative action, and the "race card" to the people for whom these words mean something more than getting votes. Showing My Color emerges out of Page’s fuming discontent with the current fashions of racial denial...and the demand that we "get past race." America, Page proposes, will have to go through race to get past race.

The Truman Tapes: In His Own Voice

Although forever identified as the president who ordered the dropping of atomic bombs to end the Second World War, Harry S Truman was a man of learning whose meek, bespectacled appearance belied the talent, tenacity and supreme confidence that made him the most successful replacement president in U.S. history. Truman was a voracious reader who understood history and statesmanship enough to step in for a stricken F.D.R. and proceed to work this will in the dizzying world of power politics that existed in 1945. Here, in his own words, Truman traces an astonishing presidency that encompasses the creation of the United Nations, World War II, the Berlin Crisis, Korea, the McCarthy era, the formation of NATO, and of course the use and development of the most destructive forces ever unleashed by mankind. The Truman Tapes offers fascinating insights into one of the towering figures of our century.

The Way Things Ought to Be

Rush Limbaugh

Read by the Author

Rush Limbaugh is a way of life for over twelve million avid and devoted listeners. For three hours every day this comic conservative of the airwaves with "talent on loan from God" entertains, provokes and persuades friends and enemies alike in a no-holds-barred show that is one of the biggest draws in radio history. Using personal anecdotes, Limbaugh now reveals the major influences on his life and views, and blasts off on all the leading issues of our day including Feminazis to Environmentalist Wackos. Tune in and decide what you think.

Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now, Maya Angelou

From the remarkable woman who spoke to our nation in her inaugural poem, here is a beautifully rendered series of inspirational reflections. Maya Angelou speaks from the soul with the wisdom of a lifetime. In a voice that vibrates with strength and pierces with honesty, she serves up the essence of her thoughts about how spirit and spirituality move and shape her life; about service and grace and giving; about how she celebrates the spirit of her people and the earthy sensuality of the sisterhood. She talks about family, discusses how people have gone astray, and how they can move to regain the way. These are her lessons in living-lessons from which we all can learn.