The Institute

Summary

A 2020 Thriller/Suspense Audie Award winner! A New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2019 selection From number one New York Times best-selling author Stephen King, the most riveting and unforgettable story of kids confronting evil since It.  “This is King at his best” (The St. Louis Post-Dispatch).  In the middle of the night, in a house on a quiet street in suburban Minneapolis, intruders silently murder Luke Ellis' parents and load him into a black SUV. The operation takes less than two minutes. Luke will wake up at The Institute, in a room that looks just like his own, except there's no window. And outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids with special talents - telekinesis and telepathy - who got to this place the same way Luke did: Kalisha, Nick, George, Iris, and 10-year-old Avery Dixon. They are all in Front Half. Others, Luke learns, graduated to Back Half, "like the roach motel," Kalisha says. "You check in, but you don't check out." In this most sinister of institutions, the director, Mrs. Sigsby, and her staff are ruthlessly dedicated to extracting from these children the force of their extranormal gifts. There are no scruples here. If you go along, you get tokens for the vending machines. If you don't, punishment is brutal. As each new victim disappears to Back Half, Luke becomes more and more desperate to get out and get help. But no one has ever escaped from the Institute. As psychically terrifying as Firestarter, and with the spectacular kid power of It, The Institute is “is another winner: creepy and touching and horrifyingly believable, all at once” (The Boston Globe). 

©2019 Stephen King (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio

The Greatest Secret

Summary

Beloved best-selling author Rhonda Byrne launched a global phenomenon with the publication of The Secret in 2006. This life-altering work helped listeners understand the untapped powers that reside within. But Rhonda’s journey was far from over as something inside her urged her to seek more wisdom. She spent 14 years searching until she uncovered the universal truth contained in this audiobook.  The Greatest Secret is a quantum leap that will take the listener beyond the material world and into the spiritual realm, where all possibilities exist. The teachings you will hear in this audiobook offer accessible practices that can be put to use immediately and profound revelations that will dissolve fears and uncertainty, anxiety and pain. Filled with revelatory words of spiritual teachers from around the world past and present - many of their voices appearing in this audiobook - The Greatest Secret is a profound master work that offers listeners everywhere a direct path to end suffering and to live a life of deep joy.  “The Secret showed you how to create anything you want to be, do, or have. Nothing has changed - it is as true today as it ever was. This book reveals the greatest discovery a human being can ever make, and shows you the way out of negativity, problems, and what you don’t want, to a life of permanent happiness and bliss.” (From The Greatest Secret)  Featuring the voices of Rhonda Byrne, Sailor Bob Adamson, Michael Beckwith, David Bingham, Peter Dziuban, Hale Dwoskin, Michael James, Loch Kelly, Kalyani Lawry, Peter Lawry, Francis Lucille, Shakti Caterina Maggi, Mooji, Jac O’Keeffe, Rupert Spira, and Pamela Wilson. Also featuring the words of Julian Barbour, Deepak Chopra, Anthony de Mello, Jan Frazier, Joel Goldsmith, Dr David R. Hawkins, Byron Katie, Krishna, J. Krishnamurti, Robert Lanza, Lao Tzu, Lester Levenson, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji, Max Planck, Rumi, Peter Russell, Eckhart Tolle, Alan Watts, and Paramahansa Yogananda. With the additional voices of Shaan Baig, Edoardo Ballerini, Antonia Bath, William Burns, Skye Byrne, Matthew Lloyd Davies, Manish Dongardive, Bill Doyle, Stephen Graybill, Gary Furlong, Michele Karpel, Adam Lazarre-White, and Sunil Malhotra.  Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.  PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.  Full list of Narrators: Rhonda Byrne, Sailor Bob Adamson, Antonia Bath, Michael Beckwith, David Bingham, Peter Dziuban, Hale Dwoskin, Michael James, Loch Kelly, Kalyani Lawry, Peter Lawry, Francis Lucille, Shakti Caterina Maggi, Mooji, Jac O'Keeffe, Rupert Spira, Pamela Wilson

©2020 Rhonda Byrne (P)2020 HarperAudio

Founding Gardeners

Summary

From the author of the acclaimed The Brother Gardeners, a fascinating look at the founding fathers from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers. For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. Andrea Wulf reveals for the first time this aspect of the revolutionary generation. She describes how, even as British ships gathered off Staten Island, George Washington wrote his estate manager about the garden at Mount Vernon; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartram’s garden helped the delegates of the Constitutional Congress break their deadlock; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of American environmentalism. These and other stories reveal a guiding but previously overlooked ideology of the American Revolution. Founding Gardeners adds depth and nuance to our understanding of the American experiment and provides us with a portrait of the founding fathers as they’ve never before been seen.

©2011 Andrea Wulf (P)2011 Random House Audio

Isabelle and Alexander

Summary

London, 1850. Isabelle Rackham knows she will not marry for love. Though arranged marriages have fallen out of fashion, hers has been settled for some time to combine the upper-middle-class wealth of her father’s coal mines with Alexander Osgood’s prospering Northern country textile mills. Though not a man prone to romantic gestures, Alexander is well known as an eligible bachelor. His good looks have turned more than one head, so Isabelle is content to think of herself as Alexander’s wife. However, her marriage is not what she expected. Northern England is nothing like her home farther west in the lake country. Cold, dreary, and dark, the soot from the textile mills creates a gray hue that seems to cling to everything in the city of Manchester. Alexander is distant and aloof, preferring to spend his time at the mill rather than with her at home. Their few conversations are brief, polite, and lacking any emotion, leaving Isabelle lonely and desperately homesick. Sensing his wife’s unhappiness, Alexander suggests a trip to his country estate. Isabelle hopes this will be an opportunity to get to know her new husband without the distractions of his business. But the change of scenery doesn’t bring them any closer. While riding together on horses, Alexander is thrown from his and becomes paralyzed. Tragedy or destiny? The help and care that Alexander now needs is Isabelle’s opportunity to forge a connection and create a deep and romantic love where nothing else could.

©2021 Becca White (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing