Free Audiobooks: Confessions of a Murder Suspect and Murder at the Vicarage

Two audiobooks are available for free from SYNC this week (through June 4th).

Confessions of
a Murder Suspect
by James Patterson
& Maxine Paetro
Tandy Angel isn’t a normal girl, and she knows it. For one thing, her family is magnificently wealthy and lives in a massive apartment in the famous Dakota building in New York City. Her parents are the head of a prominent hedge fund and the CEO of a large pharmaceutical company. She has been told from a very young age that her detachment from any kind of emotion is a superb trait. In fact, her parents have tried to cultivate a lack of emotion in all four of their children in order to encourage perfection of the highest level. But now the four siblings are tested in a way they never imagined–their parents have been murdered, and the kids are the number one suspect. Tandy decides that she’ll have to solve the crime and clear their names, but digging deeper into her parent’s affairs is a dangerous–and revealing–game. Spurred by her findings, Tandy begins to remember flashes of past events that were long ago buried in her memory, and she’s suddenly unable to trust anyone, not even her siblings to tell her the truth. She might not even be able to trust herself. Who knows what the Angel children are truly capable of?

Murder at the Vicarage
by Agatha Christie
The first Miss Marple mystery, one which tests all her powers of observation and deduction.

“Anyone who murdered Colonel Protheroe,” declared the parson, brandishing a carving knife above a joint of roast beef, “would be doing the world at large a favor!”

It was a careless remark for a man of the cloth. And one which was to come back and haunt the clergyman just a few hours later–when the Colonel is found shot dead in the clergyman’s study. But as Miss Marple soon discovers, the whole village seems to have had a motive to kill Colonel Protheroe.


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To get either audiobook (or both!), click the link in their title, above, or start at the download page.

You'll need to install the OverDrive® Media Console™ first, but the page walks you through that. The audiobooks have download buttons below the green sync-head thing in the third column of the page.

Enjoy!

Free Audiobooks: Cruel Beauty and Oedipus the King

Two audiobooks are available for free from SYNC this week (through May 28th).

Cruel Beauty
by Rosamund Hodge
Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom–all because of a reckless bargain her father struck. And since birth, she has been training to kill him.

Betrayed by her family yet bound to obey, Nyx rails against her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, she abandons everything she’s ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, disarm him, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle–a shifting maze of magical rooms–enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex’s secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. But even if she can bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him?

Based on the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Cruel Beauty is a dazzling love story about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny.

Oedipus the King
by Sophocles
The anguished tale of Oedipus, who, having solved the riddle of the Sphinx and become King of Thebes, gradually realizes the crimes he has, unwittingly, committed, remains a drama of unremitting power 2,500 years after it was written. With full drama values, this production brings the atmosphere of the Greek amphitheater to audio, with the outstanding young actor Michael Sheen—recently seen as Henry V (RSC) and Amadeus (West End) and on film and TV.


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Oedipus the King is one of the Classics of Western Literature and has influenced not only literature (as a model of tragedy, as well as with its iconic characters), but psychology as well. The text is available for free here; the translation might be different, but give it a try.

To get either audiobook (or both!), click the link in their title, above, or start at the download page.

You'll need to install the OverDrive® Media Console™ first, but the page walks you through that. The audiobooks have download buttons below the green sync-head thing in the third column of the page.

Enjoy!

AP III Summer Assignment (Prezi)

If you missed today's presentation on George Orwell and Animal Farm, please view the Prezi below and take decent notes. Consider bookmarking the Prezi, so you can refer to it--especially the timeline--as you read.



More on your Summer Assignment HERE

AP III Summer Assignment

AP English Language and Composition – Grade 11 Summer Reading and Writing Assignments

AP English Language and Composition, a college-level elective exploring the uses and power of language, challenges students to develop habits of analytical reading, critical thinking, and persuasive writing. It is actually two courses for the price of one, in that the journey we take toward becoming “effective citizen rhetoricians,” as the College Board intends, travels along the road of literature. Everything we study in some way touches on the two essential questions: “How and why do writers do what they do to say what they say?” and “What is American?” Your summer assignments will introduce you to the fundamental reading and writing processes we will continue to develop throughout the course, as preparation for the AP English Language and Composition Exam next May, as well as for rich and rewarding lives using and enjoying the power of language.

Major Works
Animal Farm by George Orwell. You are to read and annotate this novel and use it as your basis for the essay prompt. You are expected read actively and analytically, which will be demonstrated by the notes you take in your copy of Animal Farm. Simply underlining sections of the novel is not sufficient.

Essay
As we will explore this year, much of our study of literature and rhetoric revolves around the idea that America is itself an argument, both as an idea as well as a tension arising from the conflict between competing ideas. Choose one of the following prompts and compose an essay (not to exceed two typed, double-spaced pages) in which you articulate your argument.

1. George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” In a well organized essay, defend, challenge or qualify the validity of this statement. Use examples from your own reading, observation, or experience to support your position.
   
   
2. Ralph Waldo Emerson an American rhetorician and essayist wrote, “The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” In a well organized essay, defend, challenge or qualify the validity of this statement. Use examples from your own reading, observation, or experience to support your position.

All assignments are due on the first day of class in August. No exception or any excuses will be accepted. Obviously, since you enrolled in this course, you already enjoy language and ideas. In addition to the above, we hope you will also read books of your own choosing for pleasure anyway this summer (which we strongly encourage you to do).

For questions about your assignment or the course, please contact:
Mr. Mikesell: cmikesell@dallasisd.org

Free Audiobooks: WARP and The Time Machine

Two audiobooks are available for free from SYNC this week (through May 21st).

WARP: The Reluctant Assassin
by Eoin Colfer
Riley, a teen orphan boy living in Victorian London, has had the misfortune of being apprenticed to Albert Garrick, an illusionist who has fallen on difficult times and now uses his unique conjuring skills to gain access to victims’ dwellings. On one such escapade, Garrick brings his reluctant apprentice along and urges him to commit his first killing. Riley is saved from having to commit the grisly act when the intended victim turns out to be a scientist from the future, part of the FBI’s Witness Anonymous Relocation Program (WARP). Riley is unwittingly transported via wormhole to modern day London, followed closely by Garrick.

In modern London, Riley is helped by Chevron Savano, a nineteen-year-old FBI agent sent to London as punishment after a disastrous undercover, anti-terrorist operation in Los Angeles. Together Riley and Chevie must evade Garrick, who has been fundamentally altered by his trip through the wormhole. Garrick is now not only evil, but he also possesses all of the scientist’s knowledge. He is determined to track Riley down and use the timekey in Chevie’s possession to make his way back to Victorian London where he can literally change the world.

The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells
When the Time Traveller courageously stepped out of his machine for the first time, he found himself in the year 802,700–and everything had changed. In another, more utopian age, creatures seemed to dwell together in perfect harmony. The Time Traveller thought he could study these marvelous beings–unearth their secret and then retum to his own time–until he discovered that his invention, his only avenue of escape, had been stolen.


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The Time Machine is among the more influential works of science-fiction. Listening to/reading it will help build a greater appreciation for the genre as well as enable you to understand allusions to Morlocks, Eloi, and other components of the book not only in science-fiction stories but in a broad range of literature. The text is available for free here; follow along with the audiobook or read it on your own.

To get either audiobook (or both!), click the link in their title, above, or start at the download page.

You'll need to install the OverDrive® Media Console™ first, but the page walks you through that. The audiobooks have download buttons below the green sync-head thing in the third column of the page.

Enjoy!