uncle charlie urban legend Audiobooks

“Papa explains the war like this: ‘When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.’ The great beasts, as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly, are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the small chickens.” Once in a great while comes a storyteller who can illuminate worlds large and small, magical and true to life. When the Elephants Dance introduces us to the incandescent voice of Tess Uriza Holthe, who sets her remarkable first novel in the waning days of World War II, as the Japanese and the Americans engage in a fierce battle for possession of the Philippine Islands. The Karangalan family and their neighbors huddle for survival in the cellar of a house a few miles from Manila. Outside the safety of their little refuge the war rages on—fiery bombs torch the beautiful Filipino countryside, Japanese soldiers round up and interrogate innocent people, and from the hills guerillas wage a desperate campaign against the enemy. Inside the cellar, these men, women, and children put their hopes and dreams on hold as they wait out the war, only emerging to look for food, water, and medicine. Through the eyes of three narrators, thirteen-year-old Alejandro Karangalan, his spirited older sister Isabelle, and Domingo, a passionate guerilla commander, we see how ordinary people must learn to live in the midst of extraordinary uncertainty, how they must find hope for survival where none seems to exist. They find this hope in the dramatic history of the Philippine Islands and the passion and bravery of its people. Crowded together in the cellar, the Karangalans and their friends and neighbors tell magical stories to one another based on Filipino myth and legend to fuel their courage, pass the time, and teach important lessons.

A murderous past… Can come back to haunt you. It’s almost spring in Paperwick, Connecticut, and Rosemary Grey has never felt more content. Her job teaching history at the local university is fun and challenging and she’s all settled into her cozy cottage on Jack and Charlie’s farm. She’s made a whole host of friends in the tiny New England village, and is most definitely falling in love with the adorable Seth Maguire. But when the university calls and asks Rosemary to fill in for a fellow history professor who didn’t show up to work, she would never dream that she’s just about to stumble into investigating a sinister mystery—or that the case will take her, along with Jack, Charlie, and Seth, to the outskirts of town where the Forgotten Village, a relic of Colonial America, still haunts the woods. Will history repeat itself before she can solve the crime? Find out in this intriguing Cozy Mystery!