Books published by publisher Urban Audiobooks and Blackstone Audio

For all Sherlock Holmes fans, Blackstone Audiobooks is pleased to present the first audio recordings ever of the only two Holmes plays written by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Napoleon of Crime and The Speckled Band, along with a newly created one-act comedy, Ghastly Double Murder in Famed Detective’s Flat. These new, specially commissioned productions of the Hollywood Theater of the Ear star Audie Award-winning readers and a full cast in three exceptional dramas, a unique, must-have audio for all Sherlockians.

"Nope, that little feller don't look like he'll amount to much." That's what almost everyone said about Little Bub. But young Joel Goss knew that Little Bub was a special colt, even though he was a runt. When schoolteacher Justin Morgan asked Joel to gentle the colt, Joel was thrilled. Little Bub proved that size and breed weren't everything, and soon word spread throughout the entire Northeast that this spirited colt could pull heavier loads than a pair of oxen and run faster than thoroughbreds. This book, which garnered a Newbery Honor, presents the true story of a simple horse who, through pure spirit, rose to greatness. His descendants, who helped settlers tame the American wilderness, would become a world-famous breed of American horses, the Morgan.

[MP3-CD audiobook format in Vinyl case.] [Read by Danella] She dishes celebrity dirt no one else dares. But now, Maya Morgan is about to get a taste of her own medicine. Gossip show Rumor Central has gone beyond Miami to national syndication, so now's the time for Maya Morgan to really make her brand blow up. But things start to blow up in her face when a superfan takes over her online life, trashing her reputation and putting her gossip future at risk. Now Maya will need every down-and-dirty move -- and a little help from her frenemies -- to manage this disaster and save everything she's dished so hard to get.

[MP3-CD audiobook format in Vinyl case. NOTE: The MP3-CD format requires a compatible audio CD player.] [Young Adult Fiction] [Read by Nicole Small] She can uncover the biggest celebrity secrets, but now Maya Morgan's hottest story ever is way too up-close-and-personal. -- For once, everything in Maya's life is falling perfectly into place. She's getting serious media cred uncovering the source of a new designer drug doing major glitterati damage, and the new man in her life is giving her all the cool bling and attention she craves off-camera. But the truth behind her scoop is about to cut too close to home -- and put Maya and her family in the crosshairs. Soon, she'll have to decide just how far she can afford to go to save her family, her career . . . and herself.

Alain de Botton has performed a stunning feat: he has transformed arcane philosophy into something accessible and entertaining, useful and kind. Drawing on the work of six of the world’s most brilliant thinkers, de Botton has arranged a panoply of wisdom to guide us through our most common problems. From the frustration of misplacing your keys to the sadness of losing a loved one, the writings of Seneca can offer consolation. For the particular agony of not having enough money, Epicurus has a solution that everyone can afford. And if your life is beset by difficulty after difficulty, wise advice may be found in the words of Nietzsche, the brilliant philosopher whose own life was riddled with poverty, bad health, and excruciating loneliness. The Consolations of Philosophy is smart, lucid, and pleasing, a rare sort of book that wonderfully fulfills the promise of its title.

A green hunting cap squeezed the top of the fleshy balloon of a head. The green earflaps, full of large ears and uncut hair and the fine bristles that grew in the ears themselves, stuck out on either side like turn signals indicating two directions at once. Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs. So enters one of the most memorable characters in recent American fiction. The hero of John Kennedy Toole's incomparable, Pultizer Prize-winning comic classic is one Ignatius J. Reilly, an obese, self-absorbed, hapless Don Quixote of the French Quarter, whose half-hearted attempts at employment lead to a series of wacky adventures among the lower denizens of New Orleans. This book has become an American comic masterpiece.

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor, The Prince is a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince, a king, a president. When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. The prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values. Through the years, The Prince has been misunderstood to the extent that Machiavelli's name has become synonymous with unscrupulous political behavior. However, it remains essential reading as the ultimate book on power politics. Included are selections from Machiavelli's Discourses upon the First Ten Books of Titus Livy.

"The best version of the Cinderella story in modern idiom that exists," is how Marghanita Laski describes Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Lord Fauntleroy. It is the charming story of a seven-year-old American boy, Ceddie Errol, who lives on the edge of poverty in New York. One day he is visited by a gruff lawyer at the tiny house he shares with his widowed mother, and his life is never to be the same: waiting in England is Dorincourt Castle, where Ceddie is to reside as the sole living heir to the irascible, proud, and selfish Earl of Dorincourt. It will be up to this virtuous boy to capture and warm the Earl's heart and transform him into a doting grandfather and responsible landlord. This stirring classic is a great family listen.