2001 Audie Awards®

It's 1940, and musician Katy Green gets what ought to be a dream gig, playing with the Ultra Belles, an all-female swing band. They travel by Pullman on the luxurious Starlight from Los Angeles to Santa Cruz, Lake Tahoe and San Francisco. 

So what if the songwriter is Katy's ex-boyfriend, and a notorious Casanova? So what if half the women are mad at the other half over politics, music, and sex? There are tensions and rivalries in every band. But that's not the worst of it. Katy quickly discovers that somebody's out for blood.

The story of one unremarkable steamship Captain, pitted against a storm of incredible fury. Calm, stoic Captain MacWhirr has just been given command of a new steamship, the Nan-Shan. 

He and his crew are transporting Asian workers across the China Sea when a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure alerts MacWhirr of, "some uncommonly dirty weather knocking about." With little more warning, the Nan-Shan and its crew are plunged into battle with a storm of terrifying proportions.

A dozen stories from the Peabody Award-winning radio series, Lost and Found Sound, heard throughout on NPR's All Things Considered. The series producers, The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva) with Jay Allison, started with an idea of a radio series exploring how sound has captured and shaped American history and how the sound of our lives has changed over the last 100 years. 

Culled from more than 60 stories, this first compilation includes: "Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later"; "Gettysburg Eyewitness"; "Cigar Stories" (narrated by Andy Garcia); "Carnival Talkers"; "Sound Restoration"; "LBJ and the Helium-Filled Astronaut"; "Listening to the Northern Lights"; "The Partridge Family Grand Tour"; "Tennessee Williams: The Pennyland Recordings"; and more.

Robert Kiyosaki shares the story of his two dads: his real father, whom he calls his ‘poor dad,’ and the father of his best friend, the man who became his mentor and his ‘rich dad.’ One man was well educated and an employee all his life, the other’s education was “street smarts” over traditional classroom education and he took the path of entrepreneurship…a road that led him to become one of the wealthiest men in Hawaii. Robert’s poor dad struggled financially all his life, and these two dads shaped Robert’s thinking about money.

Challenging and changing the way tens of millions of people around the world think about money, with perspectives that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert has earned a reputation for straight talk, irreverence, and courage.

This tale from Grimm tells all about young Marco, who leads a charmed life if anyone ever did, starting off as nobody special and ending up king. Not that it's an easy path, the most dangerous part being an errand that takes him down into Hell. 

Through a series of strange events, Marco finds himself married to a beautiful princess; but in order to keep her, Marco must make a journey to Hell to perform a difficult task for the King. But thanks to the Devil's grandmother, as good an old girl as grandmothers everywhere, it all comes right in the end.

The intrepid Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted otherworld, Cittagazze, where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. But she is not without allies: 12-year-old Will Parry, fleeing for his life after taking another's, has also stumbled into this strange new realm. 

On a perilous journey from world to world, Lyra and Will uncover a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and devastating power. And with every step, they move closer to an even greater threat, and the shattering truth of their own destiny.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was born at the height of British Imperial power. When he died, the British Empire was all but a memory. In Maugham's lifetime, as his civilization slowly disappeared, people from all walks of life—the proud, the urbane, the crude, the desperate—passed beneath the lens of his dispassionate scrutiny. They re-emerged in his short stories as some of the most unforgettable literary characters of the 20th century. 

The collection contains thirty stories that take us from the islands of the Pacific Ocean to England, France and Spain. They all reveal Maugham's acute and often sardonic observation of human foibles and his particular genius for exposing the bitter reality of human relationships. Maugham learnt his craft from Maupassant, and these stories display the remarkable talent that made him an unsurpassed storyteller.

As commander of the Third Army, General George S. Patton, Jr.'s wartime success inspired the remarkable performance of his troops, and the grudging admiration of his enemies. Illustrated by Patton’s decisive moves and distinctive style, executives and managers will learn straightforward, practical lessons in dynamic, results-oriented management.

Illuminated by actual statements the general made, these lessons show managers how to develop and project a leadership image, communicate effectively, establish clear priorities, build a winning team, mentor future leaders, resolve conflict, sustain optimum performance, and instill the kind of loyalty that inspires consistent outstanding achievement.

I am Pilot James Airie, a diagnosed schizophrenic. James David Airie, a retired pilot, is my father. Hannah MacLeish Airie, a physical therapist, is my mother. Eric Richard Airie, a neurosurgeon, is my older brother. Twenty years ago, Fiona May Airie, my little sister, disappeared. You might say it caused our family to unravel. It would happen to any family. 

But now I think all the unraveling is finally over, and it's to time to try and ravel everything back...

Switters is a contradiction for all seasons: an anarchist who works for the government; a pacifist who carries a gun; a vegetarian who sops up ham gravy; a cyberwhiz who hates computers; a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his high-school-age stepsister (only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior). 

Yet there is nothing remotely wishy-washy about Switters. He doesn’t merely pack a pistol. He is a pistol.

The Wilderness Years are over. But not for long. At the end of Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget hiccuped off into the sunset with man-of-her-dreams Mark Darcy. Now, in The Edge of Reason, she discovers what it is like when you have the man of your dreams actually in your flat and he hasn't done the washing-up, not just the whole of this week, but ever.

Lurching through a morass of self-help-book theories and mad advice from Jude and Shazzer, struggling with a boyfriend-stealing ex-friend with thighs like a baby giraffe, an 8ft hole in the living-room wall, a mother obsessed with boiled-egg peelers, and a builder obsessed with large reservoir fish, Bridget embarks on a spiritual epiphany. Bridget is back.

People around the world have found inspiration in the story of Lance Armstrong—a world-class athlete nearly struck down in his prime, who came back to win the world's most grueling test of cycling, the Tour de France. It's Not About the Bike is the story of Armstrong's journey from inauspicious beginnings through triumph, tragedy, transformation, and transcendence. Though he's a hero to millions, he never adopts a hero's pose. 

In his down-to earth Texas style, he tells of his childhood, early success, near-fatal cancer, recovery, survivorship, victory in the 1999 Tour de France, marriage, and first-time fatherhood. Everyone knows Lance Armstrong is a passionate and fearless competitor. It's Not About the Bike reveals what is truly heroic about the man: his depth of character and generosity of spirit.

12-year-old Trevor McKinney accepts the challenge that his teacher gives his class, a chance to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world for the better—and to put that plan into action. The plan that Trevor comes up with is so simple that when others learn of it they are dismissive. Even Trevor himself begins to doubt when his plan seems to flounder on a combination of bad luck and the worst of human nature. 

What is his idea? Trevor chooses three people for whom he will do a favor, and then when those people thank him and ask how they might pay him back, he will tell them that instead of paying him back they should each "pay it forward" by choosing three people for whom they can do favors, and in turn telling those people to pay it forward. It's nothing less than a human chain letter of kindness and good will. But will it work?

Cakewalk follows the labyrinth of laughter and passion that exists between any two people attracted to each other-especially if one of them is 20 years younger and the other a famous femme fatale. Lillian Hellman, the legendary, glamorous, glittering, inscrutable playwright, comes to life again in this highly personal love story, written for the theatre by the man who lived it. Spanning more than two decades, the relationship ricochets between bouts of tenderness and rage, humor and woe, sex and death, the story is impelled by the rhythms—the wash and backwash—of the human heart. 

An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring Samantha Bennett as Esther Bruce, Bruce Davison as Cuff Claudette, Claudette Nevins as Women’s Voices, Raphael Sbarge as Men’s Voices, and Elaine Stritch as Lilly. Directed by Rosalind Ayres and accompanied by the original music of Carly Simon.

Naked in his hot tub, Pete Amsterdam is idly reviewing his morning tennis game when trouble arrives in the form of the inevitable blonde. This being Key West, the blonde is not quite what she seems, and it's useless to explain to her that he's not a real detective—that, in fact, he got his P.I. license strictly as a tax dodge, a way to pretend his new wine cellar is an "office." She's got troubles of her own—big troubles that are utterly foreign to the cozy little paradise Pete has crafted for himself. 

Feeling trapped by the conventions of detective stories, Pete stumbles his way through the Key West crime scene, hardly realizing the danger he's in. 

In a rich first-person account that moves from Hitler's Berlin to Cold War Moscow, from Castro's Havana to the newsroom of America's most influential newspaper, this powerful, compelling work interweaves Max Frankel's personal and professional lives with the era's greatest stories, from Sputnik to the Pentagon Papers to the collapse of the Berlin Wall. 

It also reveals Frankel's fascinating off-the-record encounters with Nikita Khrushchev, Henry Kissinger, John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and a host of other history-makers who shaped their times—and ours.

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure: as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor.

Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life.

Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career.

Here is a diverse and fascinating story of the Theatre, from the first tragedies and comedies of Ancient Greece to the high-tech mega-musicals of the late 20th century. It is an absorbing listen, encompassing ancient tales, medieval theatre, Commedia dell'Arte, the great dramas of the Elizabethan age, the foppish 18th century, and the European developments in France, Germany, and Spain with Russia making its main impact in the 19th century. As the 20th century progressed, the theatre moved in different experimental directions, particularly in America and Europe.

Interwoven within the story are the playwrights, the actors, the designers, and theorists who have kept this performing art flourishing for 2,500 years. All this is illustrated by more than 50 excerpts from plays and contemporary accounts, ranging from the controversial and innovative to sheer entertainment. So sit back, relax, you have front row seats, and listen to a rich a variety experience that is the theatre.

Santa Claus does not exist. Or does he? For one doubting boy, an astonishing event occurs. Late on Christmas Eve night, he lies in bed hoping to hear the sound of reindeer bells from Santa's sleigh. When to his surprise, a steam engine's roar and whistle can be heard outside his window. The conductor invites him on board to take an extraordinary journey to the North Pole and Santa Claus' home with many other pajama-clad children. 

Through dark forests, over tall mountains, and across a desert of ice, the boy learns about friendship, bravery, and the spirit of Christmas. He embarks on a journey of self-discovery which shows him that the wonder of life never fades for those who believe. And when they arrive at the city atop the world, he receives an extraordinary gift only those who still believe in Santa can experience.

The Protein Power Lifeplan reveals how this evolutionary-based, protein-rich diet can be used to treat major health problems, including high cholesterol, diabetes, hypertension,heart disease, and obesity. Eades offer recipes, motivational advice, and a refined and expanded nutritional and lifestyle regimen, including a three-tiered approach to eating. These plans, the Hedonist, the Dilettante, and the Purist help readers optimize their health by offering a framework of change they can accept and live by forever. 

The Protein Power Lifeplan goes beyond the diet program in Protein Power and provides a lifeplan that thousands of readers have requested to promote weight loss, prevent disease, and encourage optimal health of mind and body.

This collection includes 70 poems written and performed by the best and the brightest African-American poets of the 20th century. The featured works present the important writers and the great historic movements in black literature and culture from the Harlem Renaissance to hip-hop, from W.E.B DuBois and Maya Angelou to Gil Scott-Heron and Public Enemy. 

Most of the readings are previously unreleased, and several were recorded by the original authors specifically for this collection.

Somerset Maugham’s irony and cool detachment make him an acknowledged master of the short story. He had a wry perception of human weakness and a unique talent for evoking a sense of time and place; an acute and often sardonic observation of human foibles and a particular genius for exposing the bitter realities of human relationships. 

KCRW presents Ten by Maugham, a series of Maugham’s unsurpassed short stories. Rosalind Ayres directs performances such as “The Three Fat Women of Antibes,” “The Consul,” “The Point of Honor,” “The Alien Corn,” “A Casual Affair,” and “The Ant and the Grasshopper.”

In this luminous memoir, a true American icon looks back on his celebrated life and career. Sidney Poitier here explores these elements of character and personal values to take his own measure: as a man, as a husband and a father, and as an actor.

Poitier credits his parents and his childhood on tiny Cat Island in the Bahamas for equipping him with the unflinching sense of right and wrong and of self-worth that he has never surrendered and that have dramatically shaped his world. Without television, radio, and material distractions to obscure what matters most, he could enjoy the simple things, endure the long commitments, and find true meaning in his life.

Poitier was uncompromising as he pursued a personal and public life that would honor his upbringing and the invaluable legacy of his parents. Just a few years after his introduction to indoor plumbing and the automobile, Poitier broke racial barrier after racial barrier to launch a pioneering acting career.

Their Eyes Were Watching God, an American classic, is the luminous and haunting novel about Janie Crawford, a Southern Black woman in the 1930s, whose journey from a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance has inspired writers and readers for close to 70 years.

This poetic, graceful love story, rooted in Black folk traditions and steeped in mythic realism, celebrates boldly and brilliantly African-American culture and heritage. And in a powerful, mesmerizing narrative, it pays quiet tribute to a Black woman who, though constricted by the times, still demanded to be heard.

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, this Southern love story is brought to life with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

"'There will be three tasks, spaced throughout the school year, and they will test the champions in many different ways...their magical prowess—their daring—their powers of deduction—and, of course, their ability to cope with danger.'"

The Triwizard Tournament is to be held at Hogwarts. Only wizards who are over seventeen are allowed to enter—but that doesn't stop Harry dreaming that he will win the competition. Then at Hallowe'en, when the Goblet of Fire makes its selection, Harry is amazed to find his name is one of those that the magical cup picks out. He will face death-defying tasks, dragons and Dark wizards, but with the help of his best friends, Ron and Hermione, he might just make it through—alive!

In this contemporary murder mystery, set within the confines of a convent, Agnes is a devout, innocent young nun accused of infanticide. As a psychiatrist, herself a lapsed Catholic, and the Mother Superior struggle over Agnes’ fate, the play plunges deeply into the mystery of faith and the consequence of truth.

An L.A. Theatre Works full cast performance featuring Barbara Bain as Mother Superior, Emily Bergl as Agnes, and Harriet Harris as Dr. Martha Livingstone. Directed by Nancy Malone. 

Established in 1997, Americana Audio was a vertically integrated multimedia publishing company that offered an electronic clearinghouse for unpublished manuscripts and music for small and medium-sized publishers.

Duvall and Sigrid Hecht, Co-founders of Books on Tape, were early pioneers in the unabridged audio field.

Caedmon celebrated 50 years in the business. They were recognized as one of the pioneers of the industry and for the outstanding quality of their work. The founders and HarperCollins, who had purchased Caedmon, were recognized.

Jenny Frost, President of Random House Audio Publishing Group and Random House Diversified Publishing Group, was recognized as a leader in the audiobook field through her tremendous service to the industry, the APA, and the Audie Awards.