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Sophie Bennett

I’m Sophie Bennett, a digital culture critic and podcaster exploring how technology is reshaping storytelling. With a background in digital media and communications, I analyze trends in new media, social platforms, and the creator economy. Whether through writing, podcasting, or online discussions, I break down complex ideas in an engaging way—making sense of the ever-evolving digital narrative.

Fiction & Literature

Bell Jar Audiobook: A Haunting Literary Classic – Free Download

A realistic and emotional look at a woman who falls into the grips of insanity written by the iconic American writer Sylvia Plath

“It is this perfectly wrought prose and the freshness of Plath’s voice in The Bell Jar that make this book enduring in its appeal.” — USA Today

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. Sylvia Plath masterfully draws the reader into Esther’s breakdown with such intensity that Esther’s neuroses become completely real and even rational, as probable and accessible an experience as going to the movies. Such deep penetration into the dark and harrowing corners of the psyche is an extraordinary accomplishment and has made The Bell Jar a haunting American classic.

Fiction & Literature

CATCH-22 Audiobook: A Classic Satire Review – Free Download

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hugh Laurie.

Fifty years after its original publication, Catch-22 remains a cornerstone of American literature and one of the funniest—and most celebrated—books of all time. In recent years it has been named to “best novels” lists by Time, Newsweek, the Modern Library, and the London Observer.

Set in Italy during World War II, this is the story of the incomparable, malingering bombardier, Yossarian, a hero who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy—it is his own army, which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to excuse himself from the perilous missions he’s assigned, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule: a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but if he makes a formal request to be removed from duty, he is proven sane and therefore ineligible to be relieved.

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction by Christopher Buckley; a wealth of critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos from Joseph Heller’s personal archive; and much more. Here, at last, is the definitive edition of a classic of world literature.

Self Development

Surrounded by Idiots Audiobook: Self-Help Insights – Free Download

Brought to you by Penguin

Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? Or does your colleague’s abrasive manner get your back up?

You are not alone.
After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots’, communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people.

Originally published in Swedish in 2014 as Omgiven Av Idioter, Erikon’s Surrounded by Idiots is already an international phenomenon, selling over 1.5 million copies worldwide, of which over 750,000 copies have been sold in Sweden alone. It offers a simple, yet ground-breaking method for assessing the personalities of people we communicate with – in and out of the office – based on four personality types (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow), and provides insights into how we can adjust the way(s) we speak and share information.

Narrated by David John, Erikson will help you understand yourself better, hone communication and social skills, handle conflict with confidence, improve dynamics with your boss and team, and get the best out of the people you deal with and manage. He also shares simple tricks on body language, improving written communication and advice on when to back away or when to push on, and when to speak up or indeed shut up. Packed with ‘aha!’ and ‘oh no!’ moments, Surrounded by Idiots will help you understand and influence those around you, even people you currently think are beyond all comprehension.

And with a bit of luck you can also be confident that the idiot out there isn’t you!

© Thomas Erikson 2019 (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Business & Economics

End of the World is Just the Beginning Audiobook: Global Insights – Free Download

2019 was the last great year for the world economy.

For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days – even hours – of when you decided you wanted it.

America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.

Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy. The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms. Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe.

All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending.

In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.

The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think. Which means everything about our interconnected world – from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all – is about to change.

A world ending. A world beginning. Zeihan brings readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence. 

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Non-Fiction

My Grandmother’s Hands Audiobook: A Healing Non-Fiction Gem – Free Download

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

‘My Grandmother’s Hands will change the direction of the movement for racial justice.’— Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility

In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology.

The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn’t just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police.

My Grandmother’s Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide.

Paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system.

Offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary.

Radio Theatre

Crucible Audiobook: Drama & Radio Theatre Review – Free Download

In the rigid theocracy of Salem, Massachusetts, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town. In a searing portrait of a community engulfed by panic – with ruthless prosecutors, and neighbors eager to testify against neighbor – The Crucible famously mirrors the anti-Communist hysteria that held the United States in its grip in the 1950’s. A Tony Award Winner for Best Play. A BBC and KCRW co-production.

Recorded at Culver Studios, Culver City in March 1988.

Directed by Martin Jenkins.
Producing Director: Susan Albert Loewenberg

An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance starring:
Irene Aranga as Mercy Lewis
René Auberjonois as Deputy Governor Danforth
Ed Begley Jr. as Thomas Putnam
Georgia Brown as Rebecca Nurse
Jack Coleman as Marshal Herrick
Bud Cort as Ezekiel Cheever
Richard Dreyfuss as Reverend John Hale
Héctor Elizondo as Giles Corey
Judyann Elder as Tituba
Fionnula Flanagan as Elizabeth Proctor
Ann Hearne as Susanna Walcott
Carol Kane as Mary Warren
Stacey Keach as John Proctor
Anna Sophie Loewenberg as Betty Parris
Marian Mercer as Mrs. Ann Putnam
Franklyn Seales as Judge Hathorne
Madolyn Smith as Abigail Williams
Joe Spano as Francis Nurse
Michael York as Reverend Parris

Non-Fiction

33 Strategies of War Audiobook: Non-Fiction Mastery – Free Download

The contemporary companion to Sun-tzu’s The Art of War, this brilliant distillation of the strategies of war can help us gain mastery in the modern world.< Spanning world civilizations, synthesizing dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts and thousands of years of violent conflict, this is a comprehensive guide to getting ahead and staying there. Each chapter outlines an approach that will help you win your life's wars. Learn the offensive strategies that require you to maintain the initiative and negotiate from a position of strength, and the defensive strategies that enable you to respond to dangerous situations and avoid situations where winning is impossible.< As in The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene uses illustrative examples from history: Lyndon Johnson's tenacity, Julius Caesar's decisiveness, Joan Crawford's refusal to compromise, Ted Williams's competitive drive, and the folly and genius of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher, Shaka the Zulu to Ulysses S. Grant. Great warriors of the battlefield and the drawing room demonstrate prudence, agility, balance, and calm. The rational, resourceful, and intuitive always defeat the panicked, uncreative, and stupid. Informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in war, The 33 Strategies provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand.

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