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  Title: Swann's Way Author: Marcel Proust Librivox Audiobook app Read by Expatriate This is the first volume of the monumental novel In Search of Lost Time, a masterpiece of French literature and modernist fiction. The book explores themes of memory, time, love, jealousy, and social class, all deeply intertwined with personal experiences and psychological insight. The narrative is divided into three main parts. The first introduces the unnamed narrator's childhood in Combray, a small French town, highlighting his emotional attachment to his mother and his sensory experience of time through involuntary memory—famously illustrated by the taste of a madeleine dipped in tea. This scene has become iconic in literary history and is central to the novel’s meditation on memory. The second and longest section, "Swann in Love," focuses on Charles Swann, a cultured man of the French aristocracy, and his obsessive, emotionally turbulent relationship with Odette de Crécy. Through...

  Title: At the Heart of the Reich Author: Major Gerhard Engel Translated from the German by Geoffrey Brooks Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing, New York Year published: 2016 208 pages This memoir offers a rare and insightful account of Adolf Hitler’s inner circle from the perspective of someone who was both close to the Führer and yet remained personally detached from Nazi ideology.  Engel served as Hitler’s army adjutant from 1941 to 1943, and his writings document the day-to-day life, behaviors, and mindset of Hitler and those around him during the critical years of the Second World War. The book is based on Engel’s diaries and personal notes, providing first-hand observations of Hitler's leadership style, moods, private conversations, and strategic thinking.  Engel portrays Hitler as a complex figure—charismatic and domineering, yet increasingly isolated and erratic as the war turned against Germany.  The memoir also highlights the internal dynamics and tensions with...