Hood
Summary
Robin Hood: The Legend Begins Anew For centuries, the legend of Robin Hood and his band of thieves has captivated the imagination. Now the familiar tale takes on new life, fresh meaning, and an unexpected setting. Hunted like an animal by Norman invaders, Bran ap Brychan, heir to the throne of Elfael, has abandoned his father's kingdom and fled to the greenwood. There, in a primeval forest of the Welsh borders, danger surrounds him - for this woodland is a living, breathing entity with mysterious powers and secrets, and Bran must find a way to make it his own if he is to survive. Steeped in Celtic mythology and the political intrigue of medieval Britain, Stephen R. Lawhead conjures up an ancient past and holds a mirror to contemporary realities. Prepare yourself for an epic tale that dares to shatter everything you thought you knew about Robin Hood.
©2007 Stephen Lawhead (P)2021 Thomas Nelson
Fight No More
Summary
In her first story collection since Love in Infant Monkeys, which became a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Lydia Millet explores what it means to be home. Nina, a lonely real-estate broker estranged from her only relative, is at the center of a web of stories connecting fractured communities and families. She moves through the houses of L.A.'s wealthy and elite and finds men and women both crass and tender, vicious, and desperate. With wit and intellect, Millet offers profound insight into human behavior from the ordinary to the bizarre: strong-minded girls are beset by the helpless; myopic executives are tormented by their employees; and beastly men do beastly things. Fresh off the critical triumph of Sweet Lamb of Heaven (longlisted for the National Book Award), Millet is pioneering a new kind of satire - compassionate toward its victims and hilariously brutal in its depiction of modern American life.
©2018 Lydia Millet (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Ossuaries
Summary
Dionne Brandâs hypnotic, urgent long poem is about the bones of fading cultures and ideas, about the living museums of spectacle where these bones are found. At the centre of Ossuaries is the narrative of Yasmine, a woman living an underground life, fleeing from past actions and regrets, in a perpetual state of movement. She leads a solitary clandestine life, crossing borders actual (Algiers, Cuba, Canada), and timeless. Cold-eyed and cynical, she contemplates the periodic crises of the contemporary world. This is a work of deep engagement, sensuality, and ultimate craft from an essential observer of our time and one of the most accomplished poets writing today.
©2010 Dionne Brand (P)2019 McClelland & Stewart
The Rise of the Ultra Runners
Summary
Marathons are no longer impressive. Pain is to be relished, not avoided. Hallucinations are perfectly normal. Ultra running defies conventional logic. Yet this most brutal and challenging sport is now one of the fastest growing in the world. But is it an antidote to modern life or a symptom of a modern illness? Adharanand Finn travelled to the heart of the sport to find out - and to see if could become an ultra runner himself. His journey took him from the deserts of Oman to the snow-capped peaks of the Rockies, and from a 24-hour track race in Tooting to his ultimate goal, the 105-mile Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc. The Rise of the Ultra Runners is the electrifying, inspirational account of what he learned along the way. Through encounters with the sport's many colourful characters and his experiences of its soaring highs and crushing lows, Finn offers an unforgettable insight into what can be found at the boundaries of human endeavour.
©2019 Adharanand Finn (P)2019 Faber Audio
Wild
Summary
Wild is a powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an 1100-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe - and built her back up again. At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life: to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - and to do it alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than âan idea, vague and outlandish and full of promise.â But it was a promise of piecing back together a life that had come undone. Strayed faced down rattlesnakes and black bears, intense heat and record snowfalls, and both the beauty and loneliness of the trail. Told with great suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild vividly captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
©2012 Cheryl Strayed (P)2012 Random House
Polymath: Master Multiple Disciplines, Learn New Skills, Think Flexibly, and Become Extraordinary Autodidact
Summary
Expertise pays; polymathy pays exponentially. Build a world-class skillset that will make you unique and irreplaceable. Polymath: a person of wide knowledge and learning. The art of becoming a polymath is really about maximizing your opportunities in life. Donât be the person with the hammer - be the person with an entire woodshop at their disposal. Learn to think outside the box and adopt a flexible mindset. Become multi-faceted.  Polymath shows you how to be a singular entity, like Benjamin Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, and Thomas Young. No, you wonât achieve what they achieved, but you will understand the skills, habits, and techniques to master multiple realms of knowledge and skills. Almost every famous genius you know is a polymath. This book will trace their journeys and change the way you look at learning. Jack of all trades, master of none? No such thing. A complete learning framework, from novice to expert, in any skill or discipline. Peter Hollins has studied psychology and peak human performance for over a dozen years and is a best-selling author. He has worked with a multitude of individuals to unlock their potential and path towards success. His writing draws on his academic, coaching, and research experience. Become a modern day Renaissance man/woman; broaden your horizons.  Learn why you should become a pi-shaped polymath. The primary traits you need to foster genius A 10-step process of learning a new topic or skill from A to Z How to choose and select your unique set of skills How to create your âsecond brainâ on paper Examples from every era of mankind Learn new perspectives, understand people better, and gain confidence to break your comfort zone. Polymathy is the most important skill for your career, hands down. It makes you one-of-a-kind. Become the most unique person you know. Create new routines and habits. Upgrade your life circumstances and see how mentally tough flexible thinking makes you. It boils down to this one question: are you content with your life circumstances? No? Then embrace the polymath mindset. Start your journey to polymathy and being irreplaceable by scrolling up and clicking the "Buy Now" button! PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Peter Hollins (P)2020 Peter Hollins
Escape the Breakdown
Summary
An EMP hits, the lights go out, the breakdown begins. When Colby Riker, a former LAPD cop turned skillful bounty hunter is hired to bring in Alicia Scott, an elusive bail-jumper, he figured it was an easy payday - until a catastrophic EMP obliterates the countryâs power grid and millions are thrust into chaos. No electricity, no transportation, no phones, no rules. As panic grips the City of Angels, Colby soon finds out he isnât the only one anxious to get Alicia. But in the murky underworld of bail bonds and a grid-down disaster, staying one step ahead isnât easy. Colby must keep her alive as they embark on a cross-city chase to escape the breakdown. With no power, do you have what it takes to survive? Six hundred miles north of LA, his small California hometownâs struggle to survive is just beginning as two feuding families confront each other in the darkness of the Redwoods. Escape the Breakdown is the first explosive book in the Powerless World saga. From the international best-selling author of All That Remains comes a thrilling, post-apocalyptic EMP thriller series about two families fighting for survival in a world gone dark.
©2021 Jack Hunt (P)2021 Jack Hunt
For All the Obvious Reasons
Summary
For All the Obvious Reasons is Lynn Stegner's superb collection of nine remarkably distinct tales of passion, clear-eyed wisdom, and honesty honed to a cutting edge. These are stories the listener can't shake: A woman living a marital shadow life realizes that her long compensating heart has begun to ominously decompensate. An affluent New Yorker becomes a hoarder to escape a future he cannot bear to take up. A baby dies in a miasma of sibling resentments, and from that the secrets of culpability unravel. A construction worker and a bereaved young neighbor together find a way to be in a broken world. And in the beautifully moving narrative that closes the volume, a story about the depth of goodness and duty and of the profound love they both define and prevent. From the wild rivers of British Columbia to the cement jungle of Manhattan, Stegner pulls us from our own worlds into her own. With luminous particulars and in richly orchestrated language, these stories sound the vibrant, sometimes anguished music that composes human lives. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for listeners interested in fiction - novels; novellas; political and medical thrillers; comedy; satire; historical fiction; romance; erotic and love stories; mystery; classic literature; folklore and mythology; literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, and Cather; and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times best seller or a national best seller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
©2016 Lynn Stegner (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Why We Sleep
Summary
The first sleep book by a leading scientific expert - Professor Matthew Walker, director of UC Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab - reveals his groundbreaking exploration of sleep, explaining how we can harness its transformative power to change our lives for the better. Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity. Until very recently, science had no answer to the question of why we sleep, or what good it served, or why we suffer such devastating health consequences when we don't sleep. Compared to the other basic drives in life - eating, drinking, and reproducing - the purpose of sleep remained elusive. But an explosion of scientific discoveries in the last 20 years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now, preeminent neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming. Among so many other things, within the brain, sleep enriches our ability to learn, memorize, and make logical decisions. It recalibrates our emotions, restocks our immune system, fine-tunes our metabolism, and regulates our appetite. Dreaming mollifies painful memories and creates a virtual reality space in which the brain melds past and present knowledge to inspire creativity. Walker answers important questions about sleep: How do caffeine and alcohol affect sleep? What really happens during REM sleep? Why do our sleep patterns change across a lifetime? How do common sleep aids affect us, and can they do long-term damage? Charting cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs and synthesizing decades of research and clinical practice, Walker explains how we can harness sleep to improve learning, mood, and energy levels; regulate hormones; prevent cancer, Alzheimer's, and diabetes; slow the effects of aging; increase longevity; enhance the education and lifespan of our children, and boost the efficiency, success, and productivity of our businesses. Clear-eyed, fascinating, and immensely accessible, Why We Sleep is the crucial account on sleep that will forever change listeners' minds on the subject. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Matthew Walker (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth
Summary
As Commander of the International Space Station, Chris Hadfield captivated the world with stunning photos and commentary from space. Now, reading from his first book, Chris takes listeners deep into his years of training and space exploration to show how to make the impossible possible.
Chris Hadfield decided to become an astronaut after watching the Apollo moon landing with his family on Stag Island, Ontario, when he was nine years old, and it was impossible for Canadians to be astronauts. In 2013, he served as Commander of the International Space Station orbiting the Earth during a five-month mission. Fulfilling this lifelong dream required intense focus, natural ability and a singular commitment to "thinking like an astronaut."Â
In An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, Chris gives us a rare insider's perspective on just what that kind of thinking involves, and how earthbound humans can use it to achieve success and happiness in their lives.Â
Astronaut training turns popular wisdom about how to be successful on its head. Instead of visualizing victory, astronauts prepare for the worst; always sweat the small stuff; and do care what others think. Chris shows how this unique education comes into play with dramatic anecdotes about going blind during a spacewalk, getting rid of a live snake while piloting a plane, and docking with space station Mir when laser tracking systems fail at the critical moment. Along the way, he shares exhilarating experiences, and challenges, from his 144 days on the ISS, and provides an unforgettable answer to his most-asked question: What's it really like in outer space?Â
With humour, humility and a profound optimism for the future of space exploration, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth offers listeners not just the inspiring story of one man's journey to the ISS, but the opportunity to step into his space-boots and think like an astronaut - and renew their commitment to pursuing their own dreams, big or small.Â
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2013 Chris Hadfield (P)2013 Random House Audio
May Bird and the Ever After
Summary
Most people aren't very comfortable in the woods, but the woods of Briery Swamp fit May Bird like a fuzzy mitten. There, she is safe from school and the taunts and teases of kids who don't understand her. Hidden in the trees, May is a warrior princess, and her cat, Somber Kitty, is her brave guardian. Then May falls into the lake. When she crawls out, May finds herself in a world that most certainly does not feel like a fuzzy mitten. In fact it is a place few living people have ever seen. Here, towns glow blue beneath zipping stars and the people walk through walls. Here theBook of the Dead holds the answers to everything in the universe. And here, if May is discovered, the horrifyingly evil Bo Cleevil will turn her into nothing. May Bird must get out. Fast. Within these pages, Jodi Lynn Anderson shares with us the beginning of May Bird's daring journey into the Ever After, a haunting place where true friends, and one terrible foe, await her on every corner.
©2005 Jodi Lynn Anderson (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
How to Be a Conservative
Summary
What does it mean to be a conservative in an age so sceptical of conservatism? How can we live in the presence of our 'canonized forefathers' at a time when their cultural, religious and political bequest is so routinely rejected? With soft left-liberalism as the dominant force in Western politics, what can conservatives now contribute to public debate that will not be dismissed as pure nostalgia? In this highly personal and witty book, renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explains how to live as a conservative in spite of the pressures to exist otherwise. Drawing on his own experience as a counter-cultural presence in public life, Scruton argues that while humanity might survive in the absence of the conservative outlook, it certainly won't flourish. How to Be a Conservative is not only a blueprint for modern conservatism. It is a heartfelt appeal on behalf of old fashioned decencies and values, which are the bedrock of our weakened, but still enduring civilization.
©2014 Roger Scruton (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Hedy's Folly
Summary
What do Hedy Lamarr, avant-garde composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio: a revolutionary invenÂtion based on the rapid switching of communications sigÂnals among a spread of different frequencies. Without this technology, we would not have the digital comforts that we take for granted today. Only a writer of Richard Rhodesâs caliber could do justice to this remarkable story. Unhappily married to a Nazi arms dealer, Lamarr fled to America at the start of World War II; she brought with her not only her theatrical talent but also a gift for technical innovation. An introduction to Antheil at a Hollywood dinner table culminated in a U.S. patent for a jam- proof radio guidance system for torpedoes - the unlikely duoâs gift to the U.S. war effort. What other book brings together 1920s Paris, player pianos, Nazi weaponry, and digital wireless into one satisfying whole? In its juxtaposition of Hollywood glamour with the reality of a brutal war, Hedyâs Folly is a riveting book about unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.
©2011 Richard Rhodes (P)2011 Random House Audio
Darkfever
Summary
MacKayla Lane's life is good. She has great friends, a decent job, and a car that breaks down only every other week or so. In other words, she's your perfectly ordinary 21st-century woman. Or so she thinks...until something extraordinary happens. When her sister is murdered, leaving a single clue to her death - a cryptic message on Mac's cell phone - Mac journeys to Ireland in search of answers. The quest to find her sister's killer draws her into a shadowy realm where nothing is as it seems, where good and evil wear the same treacherously seductive mask. She is soon faced with an even greater challenge: staying alive long enough to learn how to handle a power she had no idea she possessed - a gift that allows her to see beyond the world of man, into the dangerous realm of the Fae. As Mac delves deeper into the mystery of her sister's death, her every move is shadowed by the dark, mysterious Jericho, a man with no past and only mockery for a future. As she begins to close in on the truth, the ruthless Vlane - an alpha Fae who makes sex an addiction for human women - closes in on her. And as the boundary between worlds begins to crumble, Mac's true mission becomes clear: find the elusive Sinsar Dubh before someone else claims the all-powerful Dark Book - because whoever gets to it first holds nothing less than complete control of the very fabric of both worlds.
©2006 Karen Marie Moning (P)2006 Brilliance Audio
The Genius of Birds
Summary
Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates and even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Like humans, many birds have enormous brains relative to their size. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight.
©2016 Jennifer Ackerman. (P)2016 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Stone Mattress
Summary
A collection of highly imaginative short pieces that speak to our times with deadly accuracy. Vintage Atwood creativity, intelligence, and humor: think Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her award-winning 1996 novel, Alias Grace. A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in "Alphinland," the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists. In "The Freeze-Dried Bridegroom," a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise. In "Lusus Naturae," a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In "Torching the Dusties," an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. And in "Stone Mattress," a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game. List of Stories and Narrators: "Alphinland" and "Torching the Dusties" read by Lorna Raver "Revenant" read by Mark Bramhall "Dark Lady" and "The Dead Hand Loves You" read by Arthur Morey "Lusus Naturae" read by Emily Rankin "The Freeze-Dried Groom" read by Rob Delaney "I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth" read by Bernadette Dunne "Stone Mattress" read by Margaret Atwood
©2014 Margaret Atwood (P)2014 Random House Audio
Madame Mirabou's School of Love
Summary
Sometimes real passion means living the life you've always wanted. Nicole Bridges still can't believe she's taken up residence in a Colorado apartment complex nicknamed "Splitsville". She's still reeling from her husband's affair, a divorce she never saw coming, and having to leave the upscale, comfortable world she helped make for her ex and their teenage daughter. With little money, even less work experience, and no idea what to do next, she takes tentative steps, if only to keep her head above water. Along the way, Nikki unexpectedly finds herself falling in with eccentric new neighbors, and being seduced out of her funk by a charming, elusive ex-Londoner. And through her delight in the sensual elements of perfume, she will discover the courage to form bonds she never imagined. When a discarded flyer printed with the name "Madame Mirabou" provides the spark of inspiration, Nikki dares to blend the fragments of her life into a fragrance that's uniquely and passionately her own.
©2006 Barbara Samuel (P)2006 Books on Tape
The Year of the Flood
Summary
The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood. The Year of the Flood is a dystopic masterpiece and a testament to her visionary power.  The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners - a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life - has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have survived: Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible. Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers.... Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move. They can't stay locked away.... By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and uneasily hilarious, The Year of the Flood is Atwood at her most brilliant and inventive.
©2009 Margaret Atwood (P)2009 Random House
The Haunting of Hill House
Summary
Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waitsâ¦. Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and self-closing doors, but Hill House is gathering its powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own. Shirley Jackson (1916â1965), a celebrated writer of horror, wrote such classic novels as We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Birdâs Nest, as well as one of the most famous short stories in the English language, âThe Lotteryâ. She has influenced such writers as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and Richard Matheson.
©1959 Shirley Jackson; renewed 1987 by Laurence Hyman, Barry Hyman, Sarah Webster, and Joanne Schnurer (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Art of Gathering
Summary
"Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!" (Chris Anderson, owner and curator of TED) From the host of the New York Times podcast Together Apart, an exciting new approach to how we gather that will transform the ways we spend our time together - at home, at work, in our communities, and beyond. In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker argues that the gatherings in our lives are lackluster and unproductive - which they don't have to be. We rely too much on routine and the conventions of gatherings when we should focus on distinctiveness and the people involved. At a time when coming together is more important than ever, Parker sets forth a human-centered approach to gathering that will help everyone create meaningful, memorable experiences, large and small, for work and for play. Drawing on her expertise as a facilitator of high-powered gatherings around the world, Parker takes us inside events of all kinds to show what works, what doesn't, and why. She investigates a wide array of gatherings - conferences, meetings, a courtroom, a flash-mob party, an Arab-Israeli summer camp - and explains how simple, specific changes can invigorate any group experience. The result is a book that's both journey and guide, full of exciting ideas with real-world applications. The Art of Gathering will forever alter the way you look at your next meeting, industry conference, dinner party, and backyard barbecue - and how you host and attend them.Â
©2018 Priya Parker (P)2018 Penguin Audio
The Last Love Song
Summary
In The Last Love Song, Tracy Daugherty, the critically acclaimed author of Hiding Man (a New York Times Notable book) and Just One Catch, delves deep into the life of distinguished American author and journalist Joan Didion in this, the first biography published about her life. Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction. Some of her most notable work includes Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Run River, and The Year of Magical Thinking, a National Book Award winner shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. Daugherty takes listeners on a journey back through time, following a young Didion in Sacramento through to her adult life as a writer. Daugherty interviews those who know and knew her personally while maintaining a respectful distance from the reclusive literary great. The Last Love Song reads like fiction; lifelong fans and listeners learning about Didion for the first time will be enthralled with this impressive tribute.
©2015 Tracy Daugherty (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Lady Knight
Summary
Kel has finally achieved her lifelong dream of being a knight. But it's not turning out as she imagined at all. She is torn between a duty she has sworn to uphold and a quest that she feels could turn the tide of war. Unrelentingly realistic in its depiction of the horrors of war, Pierce provides exquisite details of the weaponry, topography, and culture of her world, and her control of a voluminous cast of characters is masterful.
©2003 Tamora Pierce (P)2009 Listening Library
Garlic and Sapphires
Summary
Garlic and Sapphires is Ruth Reichl's riotous account of the many disguises she employs to dine anonymously. There is her stint as Molly Hollis, a frumpy blond with manicured nails and an off-beige Armani suit that Ruth takes on when reviewing Le Cirque. The result: her famous double review of the restaurant: first she ate there as Molly; and then as she was coddled and pampered on her visit there as Ruth, New York Times food critic. What is even more remarkable about Reichl's spy games is that as she takes on these various disguises, she finds herself changed not just superficially, but in character as well. She gives a remarkable account of how one's outer appearance can very much influence one's inner character, expectations, and appetites. As she writes, "Every restaurant is a theater...even the modest restaurants offer the opportunity to become someone else, at least for a little while." Garlic and Sapphires is a reflection on personal identity and role playing in the decadent, epicurean theaters of the restaurant world.
©2005 Ruth Reichl (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.
Different
Summary
Why trying to be the best competing like crazy makes you mediocre. Every few years a book through a combination of the authors unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insight simply breaks the mold. Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods is one example. Richard Feynman's Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is another. Now comes Youngme Moons Different, a book for people who don't read business books. Actually, it's more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light. If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, it's the absolute importance of competing like crazy. Youngme Moons message is simply Get off this treadmill that's taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result of making you like everyone else. Different provides a highly original perspective on what it means to offer something that is meaningfully different in a manner that is both fundamental and comprehensive. Youngme Moon identifies the outliers, the mavericks, the iconoclasts the players who have thoughtfully rejected orthodoxy in favor of an approach that is more adventurous. Some are even hostile, almost daring you to buy what they are selling. The MINI Cooper was launched with fearless abandon: Worried that this car is too small? Look here. It's even smaller than you think. These are players that strike a genuine chord with even the most jaded consumers. In fact, almost every success story of the past two decades has been an exception to the rule. Simply go to your computer and compare AOL and Yahoo! with Google. The former pile on feature upon feature to their home pages, while Google is like an austere boutique, dominating a category filled with extras.
©2010 Youngme Moon (P)2010 Random House
Mindset
Summary
The updated edition of the book that has changed millions of lives with its insights into the growth mind-set. After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, PhD, discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mind-set. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mind-set - those who believe that abilities are fixed - are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mind-set - those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment. In this edition, Dweck offers new insights into her now famous and broadly embraced concept. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mind-set and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mind-set. She also expands the mind-set concept beyond the individual, applying it to the cultures of groups and organizations. With the right mind-set, you can motivate those you lead, teach, and love - to transform their lives and your own. Praise for Mindset: âA good book is one whose advice you believe. A great book is one whose advice you follow. This is a book that can change your life, as its ideas have changed mine.â (Robert J. Sternberg, co-author of Teaching for Wisdom, Intelligence, Creativity, and Success) âAn essential read for parents, teachers [and] coaches...as well as for those who would like to increase their own feelings of success and fulfillment.â (Library Journal, starred review) âEveryone should read this book.â (Chip Heath and Dan Heath, authors of Made to Stick) âOne of the most influential books ever about motivation.â (Po Bronson, author of NurtureShock) âIf you manage people or are a parent, which is a form of managing people, drop everything and read Mindset.â (Guy Kawasaki, author of The Art of the Start 2.0)
©2006 Carol S. Dweck (P)2019 Random House Audio
Memoirs of a Geisha
Summary
Nitta Sayuri tells us in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate of her life as a geisha. Her story begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction - at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful - and completely unforgettable.
©1997 Arthur Golden; Copyright ©1998 by Random House, Inc.
Squire
Summary
When Keladry of Mindelan is chosen by the legendary Lord Raoul to be his squire, the conservatives of the realm hardly think she's up to the job. Kel quickly proves her ability as a jouster, warrior, and guardian of a fiery griffin, ultimately earning respect and admiration among the men, as well as the affection of a fellow squire. In addition to coping with the challenges of a new romance and a life in the royal guard, Kel must also prepare for the infamous "Ordeal", the last challenge that stands between her and her dream of knighthood.
©2009 Tamora Pierce (P)2009 Listening Library
A Manual for Cleaning Women
Summary
"I have always had faith that the best writers will rise to the top, like cream, sooner or later, and will become exactly as well-known as they should be - their work talked about, quoted, taught, performed, filmed, set to music, anthologized. Perhaps, with the present collection, Lucia Berlin will begin to gain the attention she deserves." - Lydia Davis, from the foreword A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, among switchboard operators and struggling mothers, hitchhikers, and bad Christians. Listeners will revel in this remarkable collection from a master of the form and wonder how they'd ever overlooked her in the first place.
©2015 Lucia Berlin (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Summary
Maureen Johnson, the somewhat irregular mother of Lazarus Long, wakes up in bed with a man and a cat. The cat is Pixel, well-known to fans of the New York Times best seller The Cat Who Walks through Walls. The man is a stranger to her, and besides that, he is dead. So begins Robert A. Heinleinâs To Sail Beyond the Sunset. Filled with the masterâs most beloved characters, this compelling work broadens and enriches his epic vision of time and space, life and death, love and desire. It is also an autobiographical masterpieceâand a wondrous return to the alternate universes that all Heinlein fans have come to know and love.
©1987 Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein, trustees (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Abide with Me
Summary
National best seller From the Pulitzer Prize-winning, number one New York Times best-selling author of Olive Kitteridge comes a âsuperbâ (O: The Oprah Magazine) novel that âconfirms Strout as the possessor of an irresistibly companionable, peculiarly American voice.â (The Atlantic Monthly) In the late 1950s, in a small New England town, Reverend Tyler Caskey has suffered a terrible loss and finds it hard to be the person he once was. He struggles to find the right words in his sermons and in his conversations with those facing crises of their own, and to bring his 5-year-old daughter, Katherine, out of the silence she has observed in the wake of the familyâs tragedy. Tylerâs usually patient and kind congregation now questions his leadership and propriety, and accusations are born out of anger and gossip. Then, in Tylerâs darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his parishâs humanity - and his own will to endure the trials that sooner or later test us all. Praise for Abide with Me âStroutâs greatly anticipated second novel...is an answered prayer.â (Vanity Fair) âDeeply moving...In one beautiful page after another, Strout captures the mysterious combinations of hope and sorrow. She sees all these wounded people with heartbreaking clarity, but she has managed to write a story that cradles them in understanding and that, somehow, seems like a foretaste of salvation.ââThe Washington Post âGraceful and moving...The pacing of Stroutâs deeply felt fiction about the distance between parents and children gives her work an addictive quality.â (People)Â
©2006 Elizabeth Strout (P)2006 Books on Tape
Be Calm
Summary
Stop anxiety wherever and whenever it starts. If you suffer from anxiety, you're not alone - like 40 million Americans, you know symptoms can strike anytime, anywhere. Relief is here. Be Calm targets symptoms wherever they strike with cutting-edge techniques that help you reduce anxiety on the spot. This book is both a handy resource for stress management and a close look into the causes of anxiety. Evidence-based strategies show you how to control a variety of symptoms in lots of different circumstances. With Be Calm, you're always prepared. Be Calm includes: A unique, effective approach - offering proven strategies to help manage anxiety on the spot, in a wide range of situations and "Go Deeper" interactive activities that take you to the next level; and The best science - the advanced techniques reflect the latest psychology research Wherever you are, whatever you're doing - you can reduce anxiety quickly with Be Calm: Proven Techniques to Stop Anxiety Now. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.Â
©2019 Jill P. Weber, PhD (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Don't Say a Word
Summary
While preparing for her wedding, Julia DeMarco comes across a famous photograph of a little girl in front of a Russian orphanage, and sees her own eyes staring back at her. But Julia is not an orphan, nor was she adopted. She knows where she comes from, or does she? Suddenly, the people she has loved and trusted are tainted by suspicion. The one person who is willing to help her is reckless photographer Alex Manning, who will journey with her toward the dangerous truth, while trying to hide a secret of his own.
©2005 Barbara Freethy (P)2005 Books on Tape
Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Summary
Ayn Rand is the author of two phenomenally best-selling ideological novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which have sold over 12 million copies in the United States alone. Through them, she built a right-wing cult following in the late 1950s and became the guiding light of Libertarianism and of White House economic policy in the 1960s and '70s. Her defenses of radical individualism and of selfishness as a "capitalist virtue" have permanently altered the American cultural landscape.
©2009 Anne C. Heller (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Democracy in Chains
Summary
Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist for the National Book Award The Nation's "Most Valuable Book" â[A] vibrant intellectual history of the radical right.â (The Atlantic) âThis sixty-year campaign to make libertarianism mainstream and eventually take the government itself is at the heart of Democracy in Chains.... If you're worried about what all this means for America's future, you should be.â (NPR)  An explosive exposé of the right's relentless campaign to eliminate unions, suppress voting, privatize public education, stop action on climate change, and alter the Constitution. Behind today's headlines of billionaires taking over our government is a secretive political establishment with long, deep, and troubling roots. The capitalist radical right has been working not simply to change who rules but to fundamentally alter the rules of democratic governance. But billionaires did not launch this movement; a white intellectual in the embattled Jim Crow South did. Democracy in Chains names its true architect - the Nobel Prize-winning political economist James McGill Buchanan - and dissects the operation he and his colleagues designed over six decades to alter every branch of government to disempower the majority. In a brilliant and engrossing narrative, Nancy MacLean shows how Buchanan forged his ideas about government in a last-gasp attempt to preserve the white elite's power in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education. In response to the widening of American democracy, he developed a brilliant, if diabolical, plan to undermine the ability of the majority to use its numbers to level the playing field between the rich and powerful and the rest of us. Corporate donors and their right-wing foundations were only too eager to support Buchanan's work in teaching others how to divide America into "makers" and "takers". And when a multibillionaire on a messianic mission to rewrite the social contract of the modern world, Charles Koch, discovered Buchanan, he created a vast, relentless, and multiarmed machine to carry out Buchanan's strategy. Without Buchanan's ideas and Koch's money, the libertarian right would not have succeeded in its stealth takeover of the Republican Party as a delivery mechanism. Now, with Mike Pence as vice president, the cause has a longtime loyalist in the White House, not to mention a phalanx of Republicans in the House, the Senate, a majority of state governments, and the courts, all carrying out the plan. That plan includes harsher laws to undermine unions, privatizing everything from schools to health care and Social Security, and keeping as many of us as possible from voting. Based on 10 years of unique research, Democracy in Chains tells a chilling story of right-wing academics and big money run amok. This revelatory work of scholarship is also a call to arms to protect the achievements of 20th-century American self-government.Â
©2017 Nancy MacLean (P)2017 Penguin Audio
Lady Luck's Map of Vegas
Summary
A successful web designer, 40-year-old India has a fabulously hip life in Denver and a sexy Irish lover in New York who jets out to see her on bi-weekly visits. The long-distance romance suits India just fine: Though Jack is the only man who has ever made India feel truly alive, she doesnât want things to get too serious. But then her father passes away, and India must honor the promise she made to him: to look after her mother when heâs gone. Suddenly India finds herself back in Colorado Springs with the woman who both intrigues and infuriates her. Eldora is 60-something and exquisitely gorgeous, but her larger-than-life personality can suck the air out of a room. True to form, Eldora throws India a curveball, insisting that they hit the road to look for Indiaâs twin, Gypsy, a brilliant artist who lives a vagabondâs existence in the remote mountain towns of New Mexico. It looks like India canât avoid her motherâs intensity any longer, especially after she discovers stunning secrets from Eldoraâs past. Thirty years ago, Eldora regaled her twin girls with glamorous stories about her days as a Las Vegas showgirl - stories of martinis and music at the Sahara, back when Frank and Sammy ruled the town. But the story of how she really ended up in Sin City, and the unsavory life sheâd run from with her daughters in tow, is full of details sheâs never seen fit to share - until now. As mother and daughter sail down Route 66, the very road Eldora drove those many years ago, looking for Gypsy, while passing motels, diners, and souvenir shops, Eldora must relive a lifetime of memories that have tormented her before she can put them to rest once and for all.... Award-winning author Barbara Samuel brings us a heartfelt story of second chances and unexpected detours. As two women come to terms with themselves and each other, the past unravels and the future spreads out before them like the open road.Â
©2005 Barbara Samuel (P)2005 Books on Tape
See What Can Be Done
Summary
A welcome surprise: more than 50 prose pieces, gathered together for the first time, by one of America's most revered and admired novelists and short-story writers, whose articles, essays, and cultural commentary - appearing in the New York Review of Books, the New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Harper's Magazine, and elsewhere - have been parsing the political, artistic, and media idiom for the last three decades. From Lorrie Moore's earliest reviews of novels by Margaret Atwood and Nora Ephron, to an essay on Ezra Edelman's 2016 O. J. Simpson documentary, and in between: Moore on the writing of fiction (the works of V. S. Pritchett, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, Joyce Carol Oates, Alice Munro, Stanley Elkin, Dawn Powell, Nicholson Baker, et al.); on the continuing unequal state of race in America; on the shock of the shocking GOP; on the dangers (and cruel truths) of celebrity marriages and love affairs; on the wilds of television (The Wire, Friday Night Lights, Into the Abyss, Girls, Homeland, True Detective, Making a Murderer); on the (d)evolving environment; on terrorism, the historical imagination, and the world's newest form of novelist; on the lesser (and larger) lives of biography and the midwifery between art and life (Anais Nin, Marilyn Monroe, John Cheever, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eudora Welty, Bernard Malamud, among others); on the high art of being Helen Gurley Brown; and much, much more.
©2018 Lorrie Moore (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ayn Rand Answers
Summary
After the publication of Atlas Shrugged in 1957, Ayn Rand occasionally lectured in order to bring her philosophy of Objectivism to a wider audience and apply it to current cultural and political issues. These taped lectures and the question-and-answer sessions that followed added not only an eloquent new dimension to Ayn Rand's ideas and beliefs, but a fresh and spontaneous insight into Ayn Rand herself. Here, Rand presents her provocative ideas in a personable question-and-answer session from which one can gain new insights and a fuller appreciation of her thought and a sense of what she was like as a person.
©2008 The Estate of Ayn Rand (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Summary
Six years after four family members died of arsenic poisoning, the three remaining Blackwoodsâelder, agoraphobic sister Constance; wheelchair-bound Uncle Julian; and 18-year-old Mary Katherine, or, Merricatâlive together in pleasant isolation. Merricat has developed an idiosyncratic system of rules and protective magic to guard the estate against intrusions from hostile villagers. But one day a stranger arrivesâcousin Charles, with his eye on the Blackwood fortuneâand manages to penetrate into their carefully shielded lives. Unable to drive him away by either polite or occult means, Merricat adopts more desperate methods, resulting in crisis, tragedy, and the revelation of a terrible secret.
©1962 Shirley Jackson (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Devil Wears Prada
Summary
A delightfully dishy novel about the all-time most impossible boss in the history of impossible bosses. Andrea Sachs, a small-town girl fresh out of college, lands the job âa million girls would die for.â Hired as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, fabulously successful editor of Runway magazine, Andrea finds herself in an office that shouts Prada! Armani! Versace! at every turn, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men clad in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and tight leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. With breathtaking ease, Miranda can turn each and every one of these hip sophisticates into a scared, whimpering child. The Devil Wears Prada gives a rich and hilarious new meaning to complaints about âThe Boss from Hell.â Narrated in Andreaâs smart, refreshingly disarming voice, it traces a deep, dark, devilish view of life at the top only hinted at in gossip columns and over Cosmopolitans at the trendiest cocktail parties. From sending the latest, not-yet-in-stores Harry Potter to Mirandaâs children in Paris by private jet, to locating an unnamed antique store where Miranda had at some point admired a vintage dresser, to serving lattes to Miranda at precisely the piping hot temperature she prefers, Andrea is sorely tested each and every day - and often late into the night with orders barked over the phone. She puts up with it all by keeping her eyes on the prize: a recommendation from Miranda that will get Andrea a top job at any magazine of her choosing. As things escalate from the merely unacceptable to the downright outrageous, however, Andrea begins to realize that the job a million girls would die for may just kill her. And even if she survives, she has to decide whether or not the job is worth the price of her soul.Â
©2003 Lauren Weisberger (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.
Requiem for a Mezzo
Summary
With dashing Scotland Yard Inspector Alec Fletcher at her side, Daisy is enjoying a delightful performance of Verdi's Requiem, featuring her neighbor Muriel Westlea's celebrated sister, Bettina. But when all that emerges from the doomed diva's vocal chords is a dying gasp, Daisy soon discovers that the notoriously difficult opera star had her share of adversaries; among them a smugly philandering tenor, a burly Russian bass, and even her own vocal coach husband, with whom she shared a hardly harmonious marriage. Did one of them fatally poison the acclaimed mezzo? Or is someone else determined to see that Daisy's investigation ends on as bitter a note as Bettina's fateful last performance?
©1996 Carola Dunn (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc
The Voice of Reason
Summary
In the years between her first public lecture in 1961 and her last in 1981, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces are gathered together in book form for the first time. Written in the last decades of Rand's life, they reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor. The work concludes with Peikoff's epilogue, "My Thirty Years with Ayn Rand: An Intellectual Memoir," which answers the question "What was Ayn Rand really like?" Important reading for all thinking individuals, this collection communicates not only Rand's singular worldview, but also the penetrating cultural and political analysis to which it gives rise.
©1989 the Estate of Ayn Rand and Leonard Peikoff (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Between Past and Future
Summary
Hannah Arendt's insightful observations of the modern world, based on a profound knowledge of the past, constitute an impassioned contribution to political philosophy. In Between Past and Future, Arendt describes the perplexing crises modern society faces as a result of the loss of meaning of the traditional key words of politics: justice, reason, responsibility, virtue, and glory. Through a series of eight exercises, she shows how we can redistill the vital essence of these concepts and use them to regain a frame of reference for the future. To participate in these exercises is to associate, in action, with one of the most original and fruitful minds of the 20th century.
©2017 Hannah Arendt and Jerome Kohn (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
In Praise of Difficult Women
Summary
From Frida Kahlo and Elizabeth Taylor to Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher, and Lena Dunham, this witty narrative explores what we can learn from the imperfect and extraordinary legacies of 29 iconic women who forged their own unique paths in the world. Smart, sassy, and unapologetically feminine, In Praise of Difficult Women is an ode to the bold and charismatic women of modern history. Best-selling author Karen Karbo spotlights the spirited rule breakers who charted their way with little regard for expectations: Amelia Earhart, Helen Gurley Brown, Edie Sedgwick, Hillary Clinton, Amy Poehler, and Shonda Rhimes, among others. Their lives - imperfect, elegant, messy, glorious - provide inspiration and instruction for the new age of feminism we have entered. Karbo distills these lessons with wit and humor, examining the universal themes that connect us to each of these mesmerizing personalities today: success and style, love and authenticity, daring and courage. Being "difficult," Karbo reveals, might not make life easier, but it can make it more fulfilling-whatever that means for you.
©2018 Karen Karbo (P)2018 Blackstone Publishing
The Sharing Knife, Vol. 4: Horizon
Summary
In a world where malices, remnants of ancient magic, can erupt with life-destroying power, only the soldier-sorcerer Lakewalkers have mastered the ability to kill them. But Lakewalkers keep their uncanny secrets - and themselves - from the farmers they protect. So when patroller Dag rescued farm girl Fawn, neither expected to fall in love, marry, and defy both their kin to seek new solutions to the split between their peoples. As Dag's powers have grown, so has his frustration with the Lakewalkers' rigid mores. Fawn and Dag see that their world is changing and that the traditional Lakewalker practices cannot hold the malices at bay forever. Yet for all the customs that Dag and Fawn have challenged, they will soon be confronted with a crisis beyond imagining. When the old ways fail, can their untried new ways stand against their world's deadliest foe?
©2009 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
enLIGHTened
Summary
An absorbing, entertaining diet memoir with humor, empathy, and yoga.Meet your new best yoga-and-healthy-eating friend in this smart, accessible, and funny memoir of dieting and discovery. For years, Jessica struggled with fluctuating weight and bouts of unhappiness. Like many of us, she found comfort in food and craved cigarettes and self-confidence. Then one day Jessica took her first yoga class in Katmandu. She lost 40 pounds and changed her life forever. In enLIGHTened, Jessica shares the core principles of yoga philosophyânot the poses and postures, but the ancient system of ideas that lies behind them, drawn from a 2000-year-old text called the Yoga Sutras. The inspiration for this memoir-driven diet and health book is studied by devout yoga students and teachers, and offers answers to eating smartly, living right, and losing weight.Jessica goes beyond yoga's merge into mainstreamâbeyond trendy diets, unsustainable exercise routines, and the quest for the perfect figure. Using spiritual philosophy, and personal stories everyone can relate to, she sets the reader on a journey to self-acceptance, personal peace, and long-term health.
©2009, 2012 Jessica Berger Gross (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The Lost Recipe for Happiness
Summary
In this sumptuous new novel, Barbara OâNeal offers listeners a celebration of food, family, and love as a woman searches for the elusive ingredient weâre all hoping to find...Itâs the opportunity Elena Alvarez has been waiting for - the challenge of running her own kitchen in a world-class restaurant. Haunted by an accident of which she was the lone survivor, Elena knows better than anyone how to defy the odds.  With her faithful dog, Alvin, and her grandmotherâs recipes, Elena arrives in Colorado to find a restaurant in as desperate need of a fresh start as she is - and a man whose passionate approach to food and life rivals her own. Owner Julian Liswood is a name many people know but a man few do. Heâs come to Aspen with a troubled teenage daughter and a dream of the kind of stability and love only a family can provide. But for Elena, old ghosts donât die quietly, yet a chance to find happiness at last is worth the risk.Â
©2008 Barbara O'Neal (P)2008 Books on Tape
The Sharing Knife, Volume 1
Summary
Young, pregnant Fawn Bluefield has just fled her family's farm to the city of Glassforge, where she encounters a patrol of the enigmatic soldier-sorcerers known as Lakewalkers. Fawn has heard stories about the Lakewalkers, who are wandering necromancers with no permanent homes and no possessions except the clothes they wear and the mysterious knives they carry. What she does not know is that the Lakewalkers are engaged in a perilous campaign against inhuman and immortal magical entities known as "malices". When Fawn is kidnapped by one of these creatures, it is up to Dag, an older Lakewalker, heavy with sorrows and responsibilities, to rescue her. But in the ensuing struggle, it is not Dag but Fawn who kills the creature, at dire cost. And an uncanny accident befalls Dag's sharing knife, which unexpectedly binds their two fates together.
©2007 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
MaddAddam
Summary
Audie Award Finalist, Science Fiction, 2014 A New York Times Notable Book A Washington Post Notable Book A Best Book of the Year: The Guardian, NPR, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe and Mail A GoodReads Reader's Choice Bringing together Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, this thrilling conclusion to Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction trilogy points toward the ultimate endurance of community, and love. Months after the Waterless Flood pandemic has wiped out most of humanity, Toby and Ren have rescued their friend Amanda from the vicious Painballers. They return to the MaddAddamite cob house, newly fortified against man and giant pigoon alike. Accompanying them are the Crakers, the gentle, quasi-human species engineered by the brilliant but deceased Crake. Their reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is recovering from a debilitating fever, so it's left to Toby to preach the Craker theology, with Crake as Creator. She must also deal with cultural misunderstandings, terrible coffee, and her jealousy over her lover, Zeb. Zeb has been searching for Adam One, founder of the God's Gardeners, the pacifist green religion from which Zeb broke years ago to lead the MaddAddamites in active resistance against the destructive CorpSeCorps. But now, under threat of a Painballer attack, the MaddAddamites must fight back with the aid of their newfound allies, some of whom have four trotters. At the center of MaddAddam is the story of Zeb's dark and twisted past, which contains a lost brother, a hidden murder, a bear, and a bizarre act of revenge. Combining adventure, humor, romance, superb storytelling, and an imagination at once dazzlingly inventive and grounded in a recognizable world, MaddAddam is vintage Margaret Atwood - a moving and dramatic conclusion to her internationally celebrated dystopian trilogy.
©2013 Margaret Atwood (P)2013 Random House Audio
The Romantic Manifesto
Summary
In this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned collection of essays, Ayn Rand throws new light on the nature of art and its purpose in human life. Once again, Rand demonstrates her bold originality and her refusal to let conventional ideas define her sense of the truth.
Rand eloquently asserts that one cannot create art without infusing it with one's own value judgments and personal philosophy - even an attempt to withhold moral overtones only results in a deterministic or naturalistic message. Because the moral influence of art is inescapable, she argues, art should always strive to elevate the human spirit.
The Romantic Manifesto takes its place beside The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as one of the most important achievements of our time.
©1971 The Objectivist, Inc. (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Stone Mattress
Summary
A collection of highly imaginative short pieces that speak to our times with deadly accuracy. Vintage Atwood creativity, intelligence, and humor: think Alias Grace. Margaret Atwood turns to short fiction for the first time since her 2006 collection, Moral Disorder, with nine tales of acute psychological insight and turbulent relationships bringing to mind her award-winning 1996 novel, Alias Grace. A recently widowed fantasy writer is guided through a stormy winter evening by the voice of her late husband in Alphinland, the first of three loosely linked stories about the romantic geometries of a group of writers and artists. In The Freeze-Dried Bridegroom, a man who bids on an auctioned storage space has a surprise. In Lusus Naturae, a woman born with a genetic abnormality is mistaken for a vampire. In Torching the Dusties, an elderly lady with Charles Bonnet syndrome comes to terms with the little people she keeps seeing, while a newly formed populist group gathers to burn down her retirement residence. And in Stone Mattress, a long-ago crime is avenged in the Arctic via a 1.9 billion-year-old stromatolite. In these nine tales, Margaret Atwood is at the top of her darkly humorous and seriously playful game. This audiobook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.
©2014 O.W. Toad, Ltd. (P)2015 Audible Inc.
Joyful
Summary
Return to Sugarcreek with best-selling author Shelley Shepard Gray for a heartwarming story of second chances with a young Amish couple. Randall Beiler will sacrifice anything to take care of his younger siblings and the family farm, even if it means forsaking love. But when his brother offers pretty Elizabeth Nolt a job cleaning and cooking for the family, Randall is furious - and feels guilty about the way he once broke Elizabeth's heart. Then he learns that Elizabeth and her grandmother are struggling to make ends meet and he knows the offer, no matter how painful, is the right thing for everyone. Elizabeth wants to refuse but she needs the work. Though she vows to protect her heart, spending time in the Beiler household makes Elizabeth realize that her love for Randall still burns strong. And though Randall keeps his distance at first, time and teamwork reveal that something deeper still connects them. Elizabeth isn't sure what to think: Does Randall want her because he truly loves her, or because he needs a housekeeper? And if his feelings have changed for sure, Randall must find a way to show Elizabeth what she really means to him or risk losing his partner in life and love forever.
©2014 Shelley Shepard Gray (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers
Crystal Healing for Women
Summary
Discover the physical, mental, and spiritual healing power of crystals and awaken the healer within. Believed to hold restorative powers over our health, crystals have served humanity for millennia. With Crystal Healing for Women, you can unlock the ancient secrets of healing and wisdom held within these stones. Crystal healer and Reiki Master Mariah K. Lyons shares her knowledge in this practical guide that helps women awaken to their feminine divinity and healing powers and rekindle their instinctual relationship with nature. She also shows you how to select and care for crystals and incorporate them in rituals. You'll learn to intentionally utilize crystals, helping you to find deeper levels of spiritual growth, integrated healing, and sustainable well-being. Crystal Healing for Women features:  Crystal healing fundamentals: how crystal vibrational energy works as well as how to activate, charge, and cleanse your crystals. Forty energetic self-care rituals: daily and seasonal wellness practices plus focused healing and manifestation for fertility, pregnancy, the feminine cycle, anxiety, creativity, and love. Fifty healing crystal profiles: modern interpretations and individual features of stones with energetic properties and healing compatibilities. Ten key crystals for women: an in-depth look at select stones chosen for their potency, healing power, and connection to Divine Feminine energy. Crystals in everyday life: where to place them in your home and on your body and how to work with them and create crystal-healing grids.Â
©2020 Mariah K. Lyons (P)2020 Random House Audio
The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue
Summary
Trudy Marino never expected her life to turn out perfectly. But at 46, she was content with what she did have: her caring husband Rick...20-plus happy years raising three accomplished kids...and a lovely house in the artistic, vibrantly diverse town of Pueblo, New Mexico. But a heartbreaking discovery and a suddenly shattered marriage now has Trudy looking back on the choices she didnât make - and where she might go from here. Struggling to pick up the pieces, Trudy finds support from a quirky, eclectic group of friends and neighbors - her goddesses of Kitchen Avenue - all of whom are trying in their own unique ways to navigate lifeâs little surprises. Thereâs Jade, a fiery social worker whoâs finding unexpected strength to deal with her âplayerâ ex-husband, thanks to a most unorthodox passion; Jadeâs grandmother, Roberta, who has just lost her husband of 62 years - and through memory and piercing grief wonders what to do with the rest of her life; Shannelle, Trudyâs young neighbor and an aspiring writer, determined to realize her talent despite formidable obstacles...including the husband whoâs afraid her success will be his loss; and Angel, a young, quietly knowing photographer who makes Trudy uncover a sensuality she never knew - even as he tries to get over the one love he can never really forget. As Trudy faces her future, she discovers that figuring out what to let go and what to keep is just as difficult as moving on. As she weighs what she and Rick still share against new possibilities, sheâll surprise everyone - including herself - as she tries to reconcile the best of both. From an acclaimed voice in fiction, this is a wry, beguiling, heartfelt, and warmly wise novel about second chances, unexpected choices, and the dreams that we all hunger to fulfill.Â
©2004 Barbara Samuel (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.
The Hiding Place
Summary
Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler's concentration camps, and one of the most remarkable evangelists of the 20h century. In World War II she and her family risked their lives to help Jews and underground workers escape from the Nazi's, and for their work they were tested in the infamous Nazi death camps. Only Corrie among her whole family survived to tell the story of how faith ultimately triumphs over evil. Here is the riveting account of how Corrie and her family were able to save many of God's chosen people. For 35 years millions have seen that there is no pit so deep that God's love in not deeper still. Now The Hiding Place, repackaged for a new generation of readers, continue to declare that God's love will overcome, heal and restore.
©2009 Corrie Ten Boom (P)2009 christianaudio.com
Return of the Primitive
Summary
In the 1960s and early '70s, the most prominent, vocal cultural movement was the New Left, a movement that condemned America and everything it stood for: individualism, material wealth, science, technology, capitalism. While the New Left achieved limited political success, it brought about vast cultural changes that remain with us to this day. The reason is that while its representatives faced some political opposition, they faced little-to-no fundamental intellectual opposition. Ayn Rand was the exception. In her essays from this period, anthologized in The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, she opposed the New Left as no one else did. The audience for the book, she wrote, is "all those who are concerned about college students and about the state of modern education" and who are seeking "a voice of reason to turn to". In her essays, Ayn Rand identified the essential evils of the New Left and their cause. Where most viewed the New Left and its violent college protests, its worship of untouched nature, and its orgiastic mob celebrations as some sort of inexplicable, youthful rebellion against the "establishment", Ayn Rand identified these "rebels" as in fact dutiful, consistent practitioners of the ideas taught to them by their teachers. Return of the Primitive is an expanded edition of The New Left. It features the entire contents of the original edition authorized by Ayn Rand, plus two of her other essays, "Racism" and "Global Balkanization", which are highly relevant to today's campuses and world. Additionally, it features three essays written after her death by Peter Schwartz, analyzing some of the ideologies that the New Left helped spawn, such as multiculturalism and environmentalism. For those who seek to understand the state of American culture today, Return of the Primitive is required reading.
©1999 Peter Schwartz (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Owl Be Home for Christmas
Summary
While trapped by a snowstorm at a conference, a visiting ornithologist is murdered. Now, nobody may make it home in time for Christmas...unless Meg comes to the rescue.
©2019 Donna Andrews (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
First Test
Summary
In the medieval and fantastic realm of Tortall, Keladry of Mindelan (known as Kel) is the first girl to take advantage of the decree that permits females to train for knighthood. Up against the traditional hazing of pages and a grueling schedule, Kel faces only one real roadblock: Lord Wyldon, the training master of pages and squires. He is absolutely against girls becoming knights. So while he is forced to train her, Wyldon puts her on probation for one year. It is a trial period that no male page has ever had to endure and one that separates the good-natured Kel even more from her fellow trainees during the tough first year. But Kel is not a girl to underestimate, as everyone is about to find out.
©1999 Tamora Pierce (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group
The Good, the Bad, and the Emus
Summary
Meg's paternal grandfather has hired Stanley Denton to find her grandmother Cordelia. Stanley has found a trail to his long-lost love in a small town a short drive away. He convinces Meg to come with him to meet her, but unfortunately, the woman they meet is Cordelia's cousin. Cordelia died several years ago, and the cousin suspects she was murdered by her long-time neighbor. Stanley and Meg agree to help track down the killer. Grandfather even has perfect cover: He, along with most of Meg's family and friends in Caerphilly, will stage a rescue of the feral emus and ostriches that infest this town. But then the neighbor is murdered, and not only Cordelia's cousin but also the entire contingent of emu-rescuers are suspects.
©2014 Donna Andrews (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Kindred Souls
Summary
For 15 years, Eleanor Roosevelt and her handsome doctor, David Gurewitsch, were friends, traveling, entertaining, and eventually buying a townhouse together in Manhattan. Their friendship has always intrigued historians, but not much is known about it. David kept detailed journals and took thousands of photos, but he never publicly discussed their time together. For the first time, Edna Gurewitsch, David's wife, is opening up and revealing their story, and hers, after she married into their complicated relationship. Edna also gives a fresh, insider's look at Mrs. Roosevelt as she continued to influence world events, and the book is filled with passionate letters from Mrs. Roosevelt.
©2002 Edna P. Gurewitsch (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks
The Winter Garden Mystery
Summary
In this second installment of Carola Dunn's cozy mystery series set in 1923 England, plucky Daisy Dalrymple embarks on another assignment for Town and Country magazine and discovers that daffodil bulbs aren't all that's buried in a country estate's flower bed. Feisty flapper Dalrymple is a breath of fresh air to the occupants of gloomy Occles Hall in Cheshire, among them her former school chum, wallflower Bobbie Parslow, and the thorny mistress of the manor, Lady Valeria. While photographing the barren ground behind the house, Daisy suspects someone has been digging amidst the soil's first green shoots, and promptly unearths the corpse of Grace Moss, the missing parlor maid. So begins a harrowing romp as the dead woman's shocking secret is revealed.
©1995 Carola Dunn (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Blind Alley
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of Firestorm, Iris Johansen, returns with a psychological thriller so terrifying, so relentlessly paced, it wonât leave you time to catch your breath before the next shock comes. A forensic sculptor is locked in a deadly duel with a serial killer determined to destroy her - one life at a time. Eve Duncanâs job is to put a face on the faceless victims of violent crimes. Her work not only comforts their survivors - but helps catch their killers. But there is another, more personal reason that Eve Duncan is driven to do the kind of work she does - a dark nightmare from a past she can never bury. And as she works on the skull of a newly discovered victim, that past is about to return all over again. The victim is a Jane Doe found murdered, her face erased beyond recognition. But whoever killed her wasnât just trying to hide her identity. The plan was far more horrifying. For as the face forms under Eveâs skilled hands, she is about to get the shock of her life. The victim is someone she knows all too well. Someone who isnât dead. Yet, instantly Eveâs peaceful life is shattered. The sanctuary of the lakeside cottage she shares with Atlanta detective Joe Quinn and their adopted daughter Jane has been invaded by a killer whoâs sent the grimmest of threats: the face of his next victim. To stop him, Eve must put her own life in the balance and question everything and everyone she trusts. Not even Quinn can go where Eve must go this time.  As the trail of faceless bodies leads to a chilling revelation, Eve finds herself trying to catch a master murderer whose grisly work is a testament to a mind warped by perversion and revenge. Now she must pit her skills against his in a showdown where the stakes are life itself - and where the unbearable cost of failure will make Eveâs own murder seem like a mercy killing.
©2004 Iris Johansen (P)2004 Books on Tape
Why They Marched
Summary
Looking beyond the national leadership of the suffrage movement, an acclaimed historian gives voice to the thousands of women from different backgrounds, races, and religions whose local passion and protest resounded throughout the land. For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. But Susan Ware uncovered a much broader and more diverse story waiting to be told. Why They Marched is a tribute to the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship. Ware tells her story through the lives of 19 activists, most of whom have long been overlooked. We meet Mary Church Terrell, a multilingual African American woman; Rose Schneiderman, a labor activist building coalitions on New Yorkâs Lower East Side; Claiborne Catlin, who toured the Massachusetts countryside on horseback to drum up support for the cause; Mary Johnston, an aristocratic novelist bucking the Southern ruling elite; Emmeline B. Wells, a Mormon woman in a polygamous marriage determined to make her voice heard; and others who helped harness a groundswell of popular support. We also see the many places where the suffrage movement unfolded - in church parlors, meeting rooms, and the halls of Congress, but also on college campuses and even at the top of Mount Rainier. Few corners of the United States were untouched by suffrage activism. Wareâs deeply moving stories provide a fresh account of one of the most significant moments of political mobilization in American history. The dramatic, often joyous experiences of these women resonate powerfully today, as a new generation of young women demands to be heard.
©2019 Susan Ware (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
Vampire Zero
Summary
The author of 13 Bullets and 99 Coffins, David Wellington takes the Laura Caxton series to a whole new level in this action-packed third volume. U.S. Marshal Jameson Arkeley, the countryâs foremost authority on vampires, taught police investigator and vampire fighter Laura Caxton everything she knows about monsters. After a bloody war visited upon Gettysburg by an army of vampires, Arkeley gave up his own life to save othersâexcept he didnât exactly die. Arkeley accepted the curse and is now a vampire himself. Whatâs worse, heâs the savviest vampire ever; he knows all the tricks better than anyone. Caxton is now faced with the task of destroying her former mentor. But Arkeley knows all her tactics too; after all, he taught them to her. Caxton realizes she must finish Arkeley before he succeeds in his quest to exterminate his own family. But even more important, she has to prevent him from becoming a beast exponentially more dangerous: a vampire zero.
©2008 David Wellington (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Gospel According to Coco Chanel
Summary
Delving into the long, extraordinary life of renowned French fashion designer Coco Chanel, Karen Karbo has written a new kind of book, exploring Chanelâs philosophy on a range of universal themesâfrom style to passion, from money and success to femininity and living life on your own terms. Chanel is credited not simply with giving us the little black dress and boxy jackets, but with popularizing pants for women and easy, practical clothes that allowed women a chic freedom theyâd never known before. In her strong-headed, elegant, opinionated, passionate, entirely French way, Coco Chanel helped bring women into the modern era, and because of this she was the only person in fashion to be named one of Time magazineâs 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century. Karen Karbo weaves Chanelâs life story into chapter themes that subtly convey life lessons and leave the reader utterly entranced with Chanelâs amazing individuality, confidence, and determination. The story of the designerâs extraordinary life and rise to unprecedented success is both compelling and admirable. And while the great Coco may have launched her singular empire a hundred years ago, her methods, attitude, and élan are as relevant and modern as ever, and perhaps more appealing. Chanel was a self-made girl who knew how to make do with less until she had more, discover and stay true to her own style, problem solve using the tools at hand, and do it all with seemingly effortless flair. The Gospel According to Coco Chanel is a captivating, offbeat look at style, celebrity, and self-inventionâall held together with Karboâs droll Chanel-style commentary and culled from an examination of Chanelâs difficult childhood and triumphant adulthood, passionate love affairs, career choices, habits, eccentricities, and personal philosophies.
©2009 Karen Karbo (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Murder Most Fowl
Summary
Murder Most Foul is a Shakespearean twist on the long-running Meg Langslow mystery series in the latest installment from Donna Andrews, the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of The Falcon Always Wings Twice. Meg Langslowâs in for a busy summer. Her husband is directing a production of Macbeth, and most of the cast and crew are occupying spare bedrooms in their house. She also has to keep an eye on Camp Birnam, where a group of medieval reenactors are commemorating the real-life Macbeth by setting up what they fondly believe is an authentic medieval Scottish military camp. And then thereâs Damien Goodwin, a filmmaker who has been hanging around, trying to document the production. When Goodwin hosts a showing of some of the footage heâs taken, he manages to embarrass or offend just about everyone. The next morning Meg isnât exactly surprised to find that someone has murdered him. But who? Some peopleâs motives were obvious from the footage: the couple whose affair was revealed...the bombastic leader of the reenactors, who could be facing years in prison if the evidence from the video helps convict him of sheep stealing...the actress whoâs desperately trying to downplay a health issue that could cost her the role of her life. Other motives are only hinted at - did the filmmaker have other footage that would reveal why one of the actors is behaving so furtively? Unfortunately, whoever murdered Goodwin also destroyed all the electronic devices on which his video was stored. So Caerphillyâs chief of police - and Meg - must rediscover the same secrets the filmmaker did if they want to catch a killer. A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books
©2021 Donna Andrews (P)2021 Macmillan Audio
Lark! The Herald Angels Sing
Summary
It's Christmas time in Caerphilly, and the town is preparing for their live nativity. During rehearsals, Meg discovers a real baby in the manger, with a note attached that says the mother is leaving the baby girl there so that her father can take care of her, and the wording of the note implicates Meg's brother, Rob, as the father. Rob protests that he can't possibly be the father, but the town's suspicion creates a rift between him and his new girlfriend. Rob asks Meg to investigate on his behalfâ to clear his name and to find the real parents of the baby. But every day that passes without answers is another day that spoils everyone's enjoyment of the holiday and drives the wedge between Rob and his girlfriend deeper. As Meg gets further into her investigation, she discovers the found baby is connected to something much bigger, a crime that will need to be stopped by Meg and her motley crew to save the holidays for everyone.
©2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Phantom of Fifth Avenue
Summary
Born in 1906, Huguette Clark grew up in her family's 121-room Beaux Arts mansion in New York and was one of the leading celebrities of her day. Her father, William Andrews Clark, was a copper magnate, the second richest man in America, and not above bribing his way into the Senate. Huguette attended the coronation of King George V. And at 22, with a personal fortune of $50 million to her name, she married a Princeton man and childhood friend, William MacDonald Gower. Two-years later the couple divorced. After a series of failed romances, Huguette began to withdraw from society - first living with her mother in a kind of Grey Gardens isolation, then as a modern-day Miss Havisham, spending her days in a vast apartment overlooking Central Park, eating crackers and watching The Flintstones with only servants for company. All her money and all her real estate could not protect her in her later life from being manipulated by shady hangers-on and hospitals that were only too happy to admit (and bill) a healthy woman. But what happened to Huguette that turned a vivacious, young socialite into a recluse? And what was her life like inside that gilded, copper cage?
©2014 Meryl Gordon (P)2014 Hachette Audio
The Number of the Beast
Summary
The wickedest, most wonderful science-fiction story ever created in our - or any - time. Anything can begin at a party in California - and everything does in this bold masterwork by a grand master of science fiction. When four supremely sensual and unspeakably cerebral humans - two male, two female - find themselves under attack from aliens who want their awesome quantum breakthrough, they take to the skies - and zoom into the cosmos on a rocket roller-coaster ride of adventure, danger, ecstasy, and peril. Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) was the dominant science-fiction writer of the modern era, a writer whose influence on the field was immense. He won science fiction's Hugo Award for best novel four times.
©1980 Robert A. Heinlein (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Gone Gull
Summary
Meg Langslow is spending the summer at the Biscuit Mountain Craft Center, helping her grandmother Cordelia run the studios. But someone is committing acts of vandalism, which threaten to ruin the newly opened center's reputation. Is it the work of a rival center? Have the developers who want to build a resort atop Biscuit Mountain found a new tactic to pressure Cordelia into selling? Or is the real target Meg's grandfather, who points out that any number of environmentally irresponsible people and organizations could have it in for him? While Meg is trying to track down the vandal, her grandfather is more interested in locating a rare gull. Their missions collide when a body is found in one of the classrooms. Can Meg identify the vandal and the murderer in time to save the center's name (and also help her grandfather track down and rescue his beloved gull)?
©2017 Donna Andrews (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
How the Finch Stole Christmas!
Summary
Meg's husband has decided to escalate his one-man show of Dickens's A Christmas Carol into a full-scale production with a large cast including their sons Jamie and Josh as Tiny Tim and young Scrooge and Meg helping as stage manager. When a famous, although slightly over-the-hill, actor comes to town to play the starring role of Scrooge, no one expects that he's bringing a lot of baggage and enemies with him. Like Andrews' previous Christmas books Six Geese a-Slaying, Duck the Halls, and The Nightingale Before Christmas, How the Finch Stole Christmas! is guaranteed to put the ho ho hos into the holidays of cozy lovers everywhere with its gut-bustingly funny mystery.
©2017 Donna Andrews (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Gift of the Magpie
Summary
An AudioFile Earphones Award-winning production. New York Times best-selling author Donna Andrews returns with another Meg Langslow mystery crafted "firmly in the grand tradition of Agatha Christie's Christmas books" (Toronto Globe and Mail). The 28th audiobook and the seventh Christmas mystery in the Meg Langslow series, The Gift of the Magpie is yet another wonderfully merry and funny book from New York Times best-selling author Donna Andrews. Megâs running Caerphillyâs Helping Hands for the Holidays project, in which neighbors help each other with things they canât do and canât afford to have done. Her hopes for a relatively peaceful (if busy) Christmas vanish when someone murders Harvey the Hoarder, whose house the Helping Hands were decluttering. Was there any truth to the rumor that he had something valuable hidden beneath all his junk? Was one of his friends, neighbors, or relatives greedy enough to murder him for the rumored treasure? And what about the magpie that has been bringing her family bits of tinsel and costume jewelry - does the birdâs latest gift hold a clue to solving the crime? Full of intrigue, this Christmas mystery will take listeners home to Caerphilly, where the suspense falls as thick as the snow. A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books
©2020 Donna Andrews (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
Stork Raving Mad
Summary
Meg Langslow is pregnant with twins when Michael asks if she wouldn't mind having a houseguest. One of his doctoral students is directing his new translation of a play by a minor Spanish playwright, who has agreed to come to town for the production. Surely they can spare some room for such an important academic cause? Señor Mendoza turns out to be a partygoer who loves to spend raucous evenings among adoring students...at Casa Langslow. Into this chaos arrives the dean of the English department, who insists the play be canceled. Then the unthinkable happens: the dean is found murdered, and Meg's house has become a crime scene. Now it's up to Meg to help Chief Burke solve the murders, rescue the student's dissertation, make sure Michael doesn't lose tenure, and, while she's at it, give birth to twins. Encore! Encore!
©2010 Donna Andrews (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Terns of Endearment
Summary
Meg's grandfather has been booked to give lectures on a cruise as part of the education/entertainment itinerary, and he's arranged for a passel of family members to join him. The passengersâ vacation quickly becomes a nightmare when they wake up to find themselves broken down and in need of repairs. Things get even worse when a crew member announces to all that a woman has jumped overboard, leaving behind her shoes, shawl, and a note. The note reveals she's a disliked member of a writers' group onboard for a retreat, and the group is split on whether this is in-character for her. The captain decides not to investigate, saying he'll notify American authorities when they reach their destination. But Meg's father decides they need to look into whether there was possible foul play while the prime suspects are all stuck on board. It'll be a race against the clock to solve this mystery before they make the necessary repairs and return to shore.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon
Summary
Poor Meg Langslow. She's blessed in so many ways. Michael, her boyfriend, is a handsome, delightful heartthrob who adores her. She's a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations. But somehow Meg's road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair. There are Michael's and Meg's doting but demanding mothers, for a start. And then there's the fruitless hunt for a place big enough for the couple to live together. And a succession of crises brought on by the well-meaning but utterly wacky demands of her friends and family. Demands that Meg has a hard time refusing, which is why she's tending the switchboard of Mutant Wizards, where her brother's computer games are created, and handling all the office management problems that no one else bothers with. For companionship, besides a crew of eccentric techies, she has a buzzard with one wing, who she must feed frozen mice thawed in the office microwave, and Michael's mother's nightmare dog. Not to mention the psychotherapists who refuse to give up their lease on half of the office space, and whose conflicting therapies cause continuing dissension. This is not what Meg had in mind when she agreed to help her brother move his staff to new offices. In fact, the atmosphere is so consistently loony that the office mail cart makes several passes through the reception room, with the office practical joker lying on top of it pretending to be dead, before Meg realizes that he's become the victim of someone who wasn't joking at all. He's been murdered for real. Donna Andrews's debut book, Murder with Peacocks, won the St. Martin's Malice Domestic best first novel contest and reaped a harvest of other honors as well. This is the fourth book in the Meg Langslow series, which features the intrepid Meg and her cast of oddball relatives. Their capers are a lighthearted joy to read.
©2003 Donna Andrews (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.
The Nightingale Before Christmas
Summary
As the holidays draw near in Caerphilly, Mother volunteers to take part in a big Christmas-themed decorator show house - each room of a temporarily untenanted house is decorated to the hilt by a different decorator for the public to tour. Of course, Mother insists that Meg pitch in with the organization, and she finds herself surrounded by flamboyant personalities with massive egos clashing and feeling their professional reputations are at stake. Then the rooms start to be sabotaged, and an unfortunate designer turns up dead - making Mother a prime suspect. Can Meg catch the real killer in time to save Mother the indignity of arrest?
©2014 Donna Andrews (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Some Like it Hawk
Summary
Meg Langslow is plying her blacksmith's trade at Caerphilly Days, a festival inspired by the town's sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail". The lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all employees have evacuated - except one. Phineas Throckmorton, town clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year. But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict him, and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot, apparently from inside the basement. Meg and her fellow townspeople suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton. Meg soon deduces that the killer isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that would help the town reclaim its buildings.
©2012 Donna Andrews (P)2012 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Taken
Summary
Taken by a promise....Kayla Sheridan has longed for love, marriage, and a family. Now, after a miraculous whirlwind courtship with the man of her dreams, she is his wife. But on their wedding night, he vanishes, leaving Kayla with the bitter realization that her desire has made her an easy mark for deception. Taken by surprise....Nick Granville has an ingrained sense of honor and an intense desire to succeed in building the worldâs most challenging high-tech bridges. But when he crosses paths with a ruthless con man, heâs robbed of everything he values, including his identity. With nothing left to lose, heâll risk any danger to clear his name and reclaim his life. Taking back their lives....Thrown together by fate, and endangering their hearts, Kayla and Nick embark on a desperate journey toward the truth - to uncover the mysterious motives of an ingenious and seductive stranger who boasts he canât be caught...and to reveal the shocking secrets of their own shattered pasts.Â
©2006 Barbara Freethy (P)2006 Books on Tape
Fall of a Philanderer
Summary
In the summer of 1924, the Honourable Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher is off on a holiday by the sea with her step-daughter Belinda, Belinda's chum Deva, and Daisy's husband, Detective Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard. Daisy is anticipating a relaxing, nondramatic holiday. But Daisy doesn't have that kind of luck. It seems that a low-rent Don Juan has been busily seducing the local womenfolk, and, in a town this small, no secret is kept for long. When the Fletchers' picnic is interrupted by the discovery of a broken body at the foot of the cliff, that of the philandering local innkeeper, the unflappable Daisy Dalrymple finds herself embroiled in a mystery. In the continuation of her popular series, Carola Dunn vividly evokes the life and times of 1920s England, wrapped in a classic mystery to delight her many fans.
©2005 Carola Dunn (P)2006 Blackstone Audiobooks
Firestorm
Summary
For Kerry Murphy, the inferno is never far away. The flames of that long-ago night still burn in her nightmares: the heat, the choking smoke, the helplessness. She can never run fast enough. In this explosive psychological thriller, Kerry Murphy, a gifted arson investigator haunted by her mother's death in a fire, teams up with a mysterious operative Silver to stop a psychopath determined to set the world on fire. Assisted by her loveable dog Sam, she soon discovers that in order to catch him, she must put her secret weapon to the test, a prospect that terrifies her more than anything.
©2004 Johansen Publishing LLLP (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.
Page
Summary
Kel fights to maintain the rigorous regimen of a page while confronting the prejudices that come with being a female in a man's world and coping with a crush on her closest friend, Neal.
©2008 Listening Library (P)2004 Tamora Pierce
Death at Wentwater Court
Summary
This first installment of a cozy mystery series transports listeners back to the bygone era of 1923 Britain, where unflappable flapper and fledgling journalist Daisy Dalrymple daringly embarks on her first writing assignment, and promptly stumbles across a corpse. No stranger to sprawling country estates, wealthy Daisy Dalrymple is breaking new ground in having scandalously traded silver spoon for pen and camera to cover a story for Town and Country magazine. But her planned interviews with the inhabitants of Wentwater Court give way to interrogation after suave Lord Stephen Astwick meets a dire fate on the tranquil skating pond. Armed with evidence that his fate was anything but accidental, Daisy joins forces with Scotland Yard to examine an esteemed collection of suspects and to see that the unlikely culprit doesn't slip through their fingers just as the unfortunate Astwick slipped through the ice.
©1994 Carola Dunn (P)2005 Blackstone Audiobooks
The Pursuit of the Pankera
Summary
The Pursuit of the Pankera is one of the most audacious experiments ever done in science fiction by the legendary author of the classic best seller Starship Troopers. Robert A. Heinlein wrote The Number of the Beast, which was published in 1980. In the book Zeb, Deety, Hilda, and Jake are ambushed by the alien "Black Hats" and barely escape with their lives on a specially configured vehicle (the Gay Deceiver) which can travel along various planes of existence, allowing them to visit parallel universes. However, unknown to most fans, Heinlein had already written a "parallel" novel about the four characters and parallel universes in 1977. He effectively wrote two parallel novels about parallel universes. The novels share the same start, but as soon as the Gay Deceiver is used to transport them to a parallel universe, each book transports them to a totally different parallel world. From that point on the plot lines diverge completely. While The Number of the Beast morphs into something very different, more representative of later Heinlein works, The Pursuit of the Pankera remains on target with a much more traditional Heinleinesque storyline and ending, reminiscent of his earlier works. The Pursuit of the Pankera was never published, and there have been many competing theories as to why (including significant copyright issues in 1977). Over time the manuscript was largely forgotten but survived in fragments. A recent re-examination of these fragments, however, made it clear that they constitute the complete novel. And here it finally is: Robert A. Heinlein's audacious experiment. A fitting farewell from one of the most inventive science fiction writers to have ever lived: a parallel novel about parallel universes, as well as a great adventure pitting the forces of good versus evil only the way Heinlein could do.
©2020 Robert A. Heinlein (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
American Rose
Summary
With the critically acclaimed Sin in the Second City, best-selling author Karen Abbott âpioneered sizzle historyâ (USA Today). Now she returns with the gripping and expansive story of Americaâs coming-of-ageâtold through the extraordinary life of Gypsy Rose Lee and the world she survived and conquered. America in the Roaring Twenties. Vaudeville was king. Talking pictures were only a distant flicker. Speakeasies beckoned beyond dimly lit doorways; money flowed fast and free. But then, almost overnight, the Great Depression leveled everything. When the dust settled, Americans were primed for a star who could distract them from grim reality and excite them in new, unexpected ways. Enter Gypsy Rose Lee, a strutting, bawdy, erudite stripper who possessed a preternatural gift for delivering exactly what America needed. With her superb narrative skills and eye for compelling detail, Karen Abbott brings to vivid life an era of ambition, glamour, struggle, and survival. Using exclusive interviews and never-before-published material, she vividly delves into Gypsyâs world, including her intensely dramatic triangle relationship with her sister, actress June Havoc, and their formidable mother, Rose, a petite but ferocious woman who seduced men and women alike and literally killed to get her daughters on the stage. American Rose chronicles their story, as well as the story of the four scrappy and savvy showbiz brothers from New York City who would pave the way for Gypsy Rose Leeâs brand of burlesque. Modeling their shows after the glitzy, daring reviews staged in the theaters of Paris, the Minsky brothers relied on grit, determination, and a few tricks that fell just outside the lawâand they would shape, and ultimately transform, the landscape of American entertainment.
©2010 Karen Abbott (P)2010 Random House
Temperatures Rising
Summary
Darkly handsome with an arrogant edge, architectural engineer Scout Ritland is the kind of American man who spells trouble. Chantal duPont should know, for she has experienced the best and worst of the country and its people. Yet here she is, home on Parrish Island, putting herself in the way of another bold Yankee. This time, however, it's for a good cause: Scout is the one man who can help her village. Scout's ready for a little recreation. But when he catches sight of an exotic beauty with electric blue eyes, events quickly spin out of control. Soon Scout is swept up by Chantal's need to help her people and the role he is to play in her ambitious plan. With each passing day, the work and the woman present him challenges he could never find at home. But as the project progresses, intrigue and adventure burn hotter than the island's volcano. And the two people who have met their match in each other face a future that could tear them apart.
©2006 Sandra Brown (P)2006 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.
The Sharing Knife, Volume 2
Summary
Filled with magic, heroism, and all-too-human characters, Bujold's Sharing Knife saga is both a gripping adventure and a poignant romance. In this second volume, Fawn Bluefield, the clever farm girl, and Dag Redwing Hickory, the seasoned Lakewalker soldier-sorcerer, are newly married. Their arrival at Dag's home on Hickory Lake Camp is met with prejudice and suspicion, as many in the camp deny the literal bond between Dag and Fawn, woven in blood in the Lakewalker magical way. Then Dag is called away by an unexpected and vicious malice attack on a neighboring hinterland, threatening Lakewalkers and farmers both. What his patrol discovers there will not only change Dag and his new bride but will call into question the uneasy relationship between their peoples - and may even offer hope of a less divided future.
©2007 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Signora da Vinci
Summary
"I suffered much cruelty as an unmarried mother and I had no recourse when they took my boy away from me. I had no rights, no prospects, no future. Everyone believed I was ruined. But no one knew the secrets of my own childhood, nor could they ever have imagined the dangerous and heretical scheme I would devise to protect and watch over my remarkable son as he grew in to manhood. "Some might call me a liar, since all I describe would be impossible for a woman of my station. But that is where my design unfolds, and I am finally ready to reveal it. They call me Caterina. And this is my story."
©2009 Robin Maxwell (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Blackbird House
Summary
Hoffman follows her celebrated bestseller The Probable Future with an evocative work that traces the lives of the various occupants of an old Massachusetts house over a span of two hundred years. In a rare and gorgeous departure, beloved novelist Alice Hoffman weaves a web of tales, all set in Blackbird House. This small farm on the outer reaches of Cape Cod is a place that is as bewitching and alive as the characters we meet: Violet, a brilliant girl who is in love with books and with a man destined to betray her; Lysander Wynn, attacked by a halibut as big as a horse, certain that his life is ruined until a boarder wearing red boots arrives to change everything; Maya Cooper, who does not understand the true meaning of the love between her mother and father until it is nearly too late. From the time of the British occupation of Massachusetts to our own modern world, family after family's lives are inexorably changed, not only by the people they love but by the lives they lead inside Blackbird House. These interconnected narratives are as intelligent as they are haunting, as luminous as they are unusual. Inside Blackbird House more than a dozen men and women learn how love transforms us and how it is the one lasting element in our lives. The past both dissipates and remains contained inside the rooms of Blackbird House, where there are terrible secrets, inspired beauty, and, above all else, a spirit of coming home. Narrated by John Lee, Se Sands, Amy Rubinate, Paul Michael Garcia, Bernadette Dunne, Tavia Gilbert, Cassandra Campbell, Hillary Huber, Kirsten Potter, Carrington McDuffie, Kate Reading, and Laura Hicks.
©2004 Alice Hoffman (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Kiss the Boys Goodbye
Summary
As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to be winding down, for many it brings back memories of the Vietnam war, particularly on one issue: American policy on the rescue and negotiation for American prisoners. Kiss the Boys Goodbye convincingly shows that a legacy of shame remains from Americaâs ill-fated involvement in Vietnam even though that conflict ended over 35 years ago. Until US government policy on POW/MIAs changes, it remains one of the most crucial issues for any American soldier who fights for home and country, particularly when we are engaged with an enemy who doesn't adhere to the international standards for the treatment of prisoners - or any American hostage - as the graphic video of Daniel Pearlâs decapitation on various Jihad websites bears out. As the authors of Kiss The Boys Goodbye point out, videos of Sergeant Bergdahl's captors graphically illustrate the distinct possibility that Bergdahl could suffer the same fate as Daniel Pearl. In this explosive book, Monika Jensen-Stevenson and William Stevenson provide startling evidence that American troops were left in captivity in Indochina, victims of their government's abuse of secrecy and power. The book not only delves into the world of official obstruction, missing files, censored testimony and the pressures brought to bear on witnesses ready to tell the truth, it reveals the trauma on patriotic families torn apart by a policy that, at first, seemed unbelievable to them. First published in 1990, Kiss the Boys Goodbye has become a classic on the subject. This new edition features an afterword, which fills in the news on the latest verifiable scandal produced by the Senate Select Committee on POWs. The reason it has taken so long to bring out this second edition, which was produced and briefly available in 1999, the publishers leave to the listenerâs imagination.
©2014 Monika Jensen-Stevenson and William Stevenson (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Murder with Peacocks
Summary
Meg Langslow's summer is not going swimmingly. In her small Virginia hometown, she's the maid of honor at the nuptials of three loved ones - each of whom has dumped the planning in her hands. One bride is set on including a Native American herbal purification ceremony while another wants live peacocks on the lawn. Only help from the town's drop-dead gorgeous hunk keeps Meg afloat in a sea of relatives and outrageous neighbors. But when an offensive newcomer, who hints at skeletons in the guests' closets, is found dead under suspicious circumstances, level-headed Meg's to-do list extends from flower arrangements and bridal registries to catching a killer - before the next event is her own funeral.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Found
Summary
A murder is solved and a quiet Amish community must deal with the repercussions. Amid the surprising revelations, can a newfound love survive? As the search for Perry Borntrager's killer continues, Jacob Schrock feels like his world is about to crumble. Right before Perry went missing, he and Jacob got into a fistfight. Jacob never told anyone what happened that terrible night. He's good at keeping secrets - including his love for Deborah, Perry's sister. But when Deborah takes a job at his family's store and their friendship blossoms, Jacob senses everything is about to be revealed. Deborah has been searching for a slice of happiness ever since her brother's body was discovered. When the police start questioning Jacob, Deborah can't believe that the one person she's finally allowed in could be the one responsible for her brother's death. Will she believe what everyone seems to think is the truth . . . or listen to her heart, and hope there is still one more person who is keeping secrets in Crittenden County?
©2012 Shelley Sheperd Gray (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers
The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses)
Summary
A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change the lives of the people around them. Alfonse Carducci was a literary giant who lived his life to excess - lovers, alcohol, parties, and literary rivalries. But now he's come to the Bar Harbor Home for the Elderly to spend the remainder of his days among kindred spirits: the publishing industry's nearly gone but never forgotten greats. Only now, at the end of his life, does he comprehend the price of appeasing every desire, and the consequences of forsaking love to pursue greatness. For Alfonse has an unshakeable case of writer's block that distresses him much more than his precarious health. Set on the water in one of New England's most beautiful locales, the Bar Harbor Home was established specifically for elderly writers needing a place to live out their golden years - or final days - in understated luxury and surrounded by congenial literary company. A faithful staff of nurses and orderlies surround the writers, and are drawn into their orbit, as they are forced to reckon with their own life stories. Among them are Cecibel Bringer, a young woman who knows first-hand the cost of chasing excess. A terrible accident destroyed her face and her sister in a split-second decision that Cecibel can never forgive, though she has tried to forget. Living quietly as an orderly, refusing to risk again the cost of love, Cecibel never anticipated the impact of meeting her favorite writer, Alfonse Carducci - or the effect he would have on her existence. In Cecibel, Alfonse finds a muse who returns him to the passion he thought he lost. As the words flow from him, weaving a tale taken up by the other residents of the Pen, Cecibel is reawakened to the idea of love and forgiveness. As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within a world is created. Itâs a place where the old are made young, the damaged are made whole, and anything is possible....
©2018 Terri-Lynne DeFino (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
The Shogun's Daughter
Summary
Japan, 1704. In an elegant mansion a young woman named Tsuruhime lies on her deathbed. The death of the Shogun's daughter has immediate consequences on his regime. Faced with his own mortality and beset by troubles, he names as his heir Yoshisato, the seventeen-year-old son he only recently discovered was his. Until five months ago, Yoshisato was raised as the illegitimate son of Yanagisawa, the shogun's favorite advisor. Yanagisawa is also the longtime enemy of Sano Ichiro. When Sano learns that Tsuruhime's death may have been a murder, he sets off on a dangerous investigation as he struggles to keep his pregnant wife and his son safe. Instead, he and his family become the accused. And this time, they may not survive the day.
©2013 Laura Joh Rowland (P)2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC
How Ike Led
Summary
"The work is clear-eyed but naturally imbued with a granddaughter's affection. Narrator Bernadette Dunne's amiable manner is a good match for the author's tone, objective but tinged with warmth...Dunne manages to go beyond the plain sense of the text to give us the author as an intelligent, sensible, well-spoken person who is examining an important life in a way that informs, pleases, and serves as a lesson for the present day." (AudioFile Magazine) This program includes an audiobook exclusive introduction written and read by Susan Eisenhower and a newly remastered version of President Eisenhower's 1961 Farewell Address. How Dwight D. Eisenhower led America through a transformational time â by a DC policy strategist, security expert, and his granddaughter. Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean War to Cold War crises, from the Red Scare to the Missile Gap controversies, he was able to give our country eight years of peace and prosperity by relying on a core set of principles. These were informed by his heritage and upbringing, his strong character and his personal discipline, but he also avoided making himself the center of things. He tried to be the calmest man in the room, not the loudest. So instead of seeking to fulfill his personal desires and political needs, he pursued a course he called the "Middle Way" that tried to make winners on both sides of a situation. In addition, Ike maintained a big picture view on any situation; he was a strategic, not an operational leader. He also ensured that he had all the information he needed to make a decision. His talent for envisioning a whole, especially in the context of the long game, and his ability to see causes and various consequences, explains his success as Allied Commander President. Then, after making a decision, he made himself accountable for it, prizing responsibility most of all his principles. Susan Eisenhower's How Ike Led shows us not just what a great American did, but why â and what we can learn from him today. A Macmillan Audio production from Thomas Dunne Books "[Susan Eisenhower] lays bare the essence of her grandfatherâs leadership in war and peace â his singular devotion to the unity and security of the American people and the nationâs allies.â (Wall Street Journal)
©2020 Susan Eisenhower (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
The Hen of the Baskervilles
Summary
Meg Langslow is helping organize the Virginia Un-Fair, Caerphilly's entry in the race to replace the old state fair. While patrolling the fairgrounds, Meg runs into her friend Molly. Molly is terrified that she may lose her farm because her idle husband has left her for a rich hobby winemaker and is demanding his half of the land. Meg enlists Mother's help to find Molly a divorce lawyer, which Mother is all the more willing to do because the unfaithful husband's new girlfriend is the bete noire of the wine pavilion. She is so universally disliked that Meg begins to worry about her safety. But it's the unfaithful husband whose murdered body she and Michael find that night.
©2013 Donna Andrews (P)2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Falcon Always Wings Twice
Summary
A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Terns of Endearment. When Meg's grandmother, Cordelia, hosts a Renaissance Faire at her craft center, the whole family is put to work: Meg handles the blacksmithing, Michael and the boys will be performing, and no one misses the opportunity to dress up in full regalia. More exciting to Grandfather is the pair of rare falcons he discovers breeding at the fairgrounds. Concerned for their well-being amid all the activity, he appoints himself their protector. When one of the actors performing at the fair is found dead - an actor suspected of mistreating one of the falcons, among other sins - Grandfather is a prime suspect. Donna Andrewsâs long-running Meg Langslow series continues to be beloved by its fans, who loyally listen to every new installment. The Falcon Always Wings Twice is a perfect new addition, full of laughter, adventure, and Andrews's wonderful cast of wacky characters. A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books
©2020 Donna Andrews (P)2020 Macmillan Audio
The Ronin's Mistress
Summary
Japan, 1703. On a snowy night, 47 warriors murder the man at the center of the scandal that turned them from samurai into masterless ronin two years before. Clearly this was an act of revengeâbut why did they wait so long? And is there any reason they should not immediately be ordered to commit ritual suicide? Sano Ichiro, demoted from Chamberlain to his old post as Most Honorable Investigator of Events, Situations, and People, has mere days to solve the greatest mystery of samurai legendâwhile his own fortunes hang in the balance.
©2011 Laura Joh Rowland. All rights reserved. (P)2011 AudioGO
Cockatiels at Seven
Summary
When her old friend Karen drops by with her two-year-old son, Meg Langslow reluctantly agrees to babysit. But when night falls, the toddler is still in residence, and Karen isn't answering her phone. Concerned, Meg spends the next morning retracing her friend's steps - and what she discovers makes her begin to suspect that Karen has either been killed or kidnapped or is on the run. Since the police don't seem to care, Meg once again plays sleuth - this time with a toddler in tow and with her extended family, as usual, complicating everything. In this outrageous book of feathered fun, Donna Andrews once again proves her skill as one of the funniest, most entertaining mystery authors around.
©2009 Donna Andrews (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
We'll Always Have Parrots
Summary
Meg Langslow knew the fan convention for her actor-boyfriend's hit television series was going to be the ultimate in weird. But she came along because she figured Michael could use an occasional dose of sanity, and because it was an inspired place to sell her hand-crafted weapons. And so far, she was dealing pretty well with the costumed fans camped outside, the batch of escaped parrots and monkeys frolicking throughout the hotel, and the minefield of egos lurking behind the show's success. But soon after Meg goes head-to-head with egomaniacal series star Tamerlaine Wynncliffe-Jones, the "Queen B" turns up brutally murdered. Now, with Michael in the running as prime suspect, Meg will go up against an all-star cast of not-even-innocent parties, hidden identities, and buried motives. And she'll cross swords with a deviously obsessed murderer determined to write her out of this picture for good.
©2004 Donna Andrews (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.
The Real Macaw
Summary
During an early morning feeding for her four-month-old twins, Meg Langslow hears an odd noise and goes downstairs to find her living room filled with dozens of animals - cats, dogs, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, guinea pigs, and a stunningly foul-mouthed macaw. She soon learns that financial woes have caused the local animal shelter to repeal its no-kill policy. Her kind-hearted father, her zoologist grandfather, and other like-minded citizens have stolen all the shelter animals, both as a gesture of protest and to protect them until the hated policy can be repealed. But the volunteer who was transporting animals to new homes has been murdered. Was it the victim's tangled love life that drove someone to murder? Or the dark secrets behind local politics? And will Meg ever succeed in finding homes for all the animals that have landed in her life?
©2011 Donna Andrews (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
A Piece of Heaven
Summary
With her acclaimed hardcover debut, No Place Like Home, readers enthusiastically welcomed Barbara Samuel into the ranks of best-selling womenâs fiction, applauding her stirring novel of loss and redemption. In A Piece of Heaven, she shares another poignant tale rich in atmosphere and insight that explores the complexity of relationships, the importance of family, and the healing power of love.  In the sun-baked hills of New Mexico, Luna McGraw has lived a lifetime of regrets, struggling to conquer the demons that destroyed her marriage and caused her to lose custody of her beloved daughter. But as Luna fights to rebuild a relationship with the troubled teenager, she remains haunted by images of her own childhood and the father she barely knew.  Strong and resilient as the houses he builds, Thomas Coyote comes into Luna's life one extraordinary night when his grandmother nearly dies while conjuring a fiery brew of spiritual enchantment. Luna does not need a man - especially one with a needy ex-wife - to complicate her fragile dreams of the future. Their attraction pushes them both beyond reason into a place where there is only possibility. Yet it will take more than passion to recover the tattered pieces of Luna's soul, more than time to forgive the sins of an offending husband, and more than promises to mend the broken heart of a child. A Piece of Heaven is an irresistible novel full of colorful characters and lush settings spiced with the magical flavors of the Southwest, a brilliant tapestry of romance and realism by a master storyteller.Â
©2003 Barbara Samuel (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.
Son of Khyber
Summary
Thorn infiltrates a gang of criminals with special powers - aberrant dragonmarks - trying to gain information on their leader, the enigmatic Son of Khyber. But when her orders and her experiences contradict each other, Thorn starts listening to what the Son of Khyber has to say. Featuring characters from Bakerâs popular Dreaming Dark Trilogy that return to challenge Thorn, the creator of the world of Eberron returns with a series that has all the smarts and action of a spy thriller, with the magic and depth of world only fantasy can create. Thereâs something here for every fan!
©2009 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Die Like an Eagle
Summary
Meg is Team Mom, and Michael is coach of their twin sons' youth baseball team, the Caerphilly Eagles. Meg tangles with Biff Brown, the petty, vindictive league head. On opening day Biff's lookalike brother is found dead in the porta-potty at the ball field. So many people think Biff's scum that it would be easy to blame him, but he has an alibi - and Meg suspects he may actually have been the intended victim. With Die Like an Eagle, listeners can look forward to another zany Meg Langslow mystery - this one filled with the spirit of America's pastime and Donna's eagle eye.
©2016 Donna Andrews (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Sisters
Summary
Having recently lost both her parents in a tragic car accident, Alex Woods is shocked to discover through the family lawyer that her beloved mother was keeping a secret: a baby she gave up for adoption when she had just left high school. Fresh out of graduate school and back in the suburbs of Boston where she grew up, Alex is already overwhelmed trying to figure out what to do with the family home and finding a job. But when, at last, she decides to search for her long-lost sister - and finds her - Alex is in for a terrible surprise....
©2012 Patricia Bourgeau (P)2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Edge of Midnight
Summary
The collection isnât complete without herâ¦. The writer becomes the story when crime reporter Mia Hale is discovered on a beach in Jacksonville, Floridaâbloodied and disoriented but alive. She remembers nothing, but her wounds bear the signature of a sadistic serial killer. After years lying dormant, the Collector has resumed his grim hobby of abducting women and taking gruesome souvenirs before dumping their bodies. Not one of his victims has ever escapedâand he wants Mia back more than he ever wanted any of the others. FBI agent Eric MacFarlane has pursued the Collector for a long timeâthe case runs deep in his veins, bordering on obsessionâand now Mia holds the key. Sheâll risk everything to recover her memory and bring the madman to justice, and Eric swears to protect this fierce, fragile survivor. But the Collector will not be denied. In his mind he knows just how their story ends.
©2012 Leslie Tentler (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc
The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters
Summary
A poignant, evocative, and wonderfully gossipy account of the two sisters who represented style and class above all else - Jackie Kennedy Onassis and Lee Radziwill - from the authors of Furious Love. When 64-year-old Jackie Kennedy Onassis died in her Fifth Avenue apartment, her younger sister Lee wept inconsolably. Then Jackieâs 38-page will was read. Lee discovered that substantial cash bequests were left to family members, friends, and employees - but nothing to her. "I have made no provision in this my Will for my sister, Lee B. Radziwill, for whom I have great affection, because I have already done so during my lifetime", read Jackieâs final testament. Drawing on the authorsâ candid interviews with Lee Radziwill, The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters explores their complicated relationship, placing them at the center of 20th-century fashion, design, and style. In life, Jackie and Lee were alike in so many ways. Both women had a keen eye for beauty - in fashion, design, painting, music, dance, sculpture, poetry - and both were talented artists. Both loved pre-revolutionary Russian culture, and the blinding sunlight, calm seas, and ancient olive groves of Greece. Both loved the siren call of the Atlantic, sharing sweet, early memories of swimming with the rakish father they adored, Jack Vernou Bouvier, at his East Hampton retreat. But Jackie was her fatherâs favorite, and Lee, her motherâs. One would grow to become the most iconic woman of her time, while the other lived in her shadow. As they grew up, the two sisters developed an extremely close relationship threaded with rivalry, jealousy, and competition. Yet it was probably the most important relationship of their lives. For the first time, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner and acclaimed biographer Nancy Schoenberger tell the complete story of these larger-than-life sisters. Drawing on new information and extensive interviews with Lee, now 84, this dual biography sheds light on the public and private lives of two extraordinary women who lived through immense tragedy in enormous glamour.
©2018 Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
White like Her
Summary
In the historical context of the Jim Crow South, Gail explores her mother's decision to pass, how she hid her secret even from her own husband, and the price she paid for choosing whiteness. Haunted by her mother's fear and shame, Gail embarks on a quest to uncover her mother's racial lineage, tracing her family back to 18th-century colonial Louisiana. In coming to terms with her decision to publicly out her mother, Gail changed how she looks at race and heritage. With a foreword written by Kenyatta Berry, host of PBS's Genealogy Roadshow, this unique and fascinating story of coming to terms with oneself breaks down barriers. A Washington Post Notable Book of 2017's Most Inspiring Stories.
©2018 Gail Lukasik (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
Summary
Maybe there are people in Antarctica with penguins in their basements, but in Virginia? Finding a body down there is somewhat more likely for Meg. Explaining the penguins' presence is easy; Meg's dad volunteered to take care of the birds until the future of the bankrupt local zoo could be determined. But identifying the body in the basement proves a harder task. Meg and Michael have been planning to elope to avoid the elaborate wedding their mothers have begun to organize; a plan that's threatened by both the murder investigation and the carnival of animals. The only way to set things right, Meg decides, is to identify both their uninvited visitor and the killer who put him in their basement.
©2008 Donna Andrews (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
21st Century Dead
Summary
The Stoker Award-winning editor of the acclaimed, eclectic anthology The New Dead returns with 21st Century Dead and an all-new lineup of authors from every corner of the fiction world, shining a dark light on our fascination with tales of death and resurrection - and with zombies! The stellar stories in this volume include a tale set in the world of Daniel H. Wilsonâs Robopocalypse, the first published fiction by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, and a tale of love, family, and resurrection from the legendary Orson Scott Card. This new volume also includes stories from other award-winning and New York Times best-selling authors, such as Simon R. Green, Chelsea Cain, Jonathan Maberry, Duane Swiercyznski, Caitlin Kittredge, Brian Keene, Amber Benson, John Skipp, S. G. Browne, Thomas E. Sniegoski, Hollywood screenwriter Stephen Susco, National Book Award nominee Dan Chaon, and others. The complete list of narrators includes Scott Brick, Cassandra Campbell, Bernadette Dunne, Paul Michael Garcia, Kirby Heyborne, Malcolm Hillgartner, Chris Patton, John Pruden, Renée Raudman, Stefan Rudnicki, Sean Runnette, Simon Vance, and Tom Weiner. "Zombies Are Good for You: An Introduction" © 2012 by Christopher Golden. "Biters" © 2012 by Mark Morris. "Why Mothers Let Their Babies Watch Television: A Just-So Horror Story" © 2012 by Verite, Inc. "Carousel" © 2012 by Orson Scott Card. "Reality Bites" © 2012 by S. G. Browne. "The Drop" © 2012 by Stephen Susco. "Antiparallelogram" © 2012 by Amber Benson. "How We Escaped Our Certain Fate" © 2012 by Dan Chaon. "A Motherâs Love" © 2012 by John M. McIlveen. "Down and Out in Dead Town" © 2012 by Simon R. Green. "Devil Dust" © 2012 by Caitlin Kittredge. "The Dead of Dromore" © 2012 by Ken Bruen. "All the Comforts of Home: A Beacon Story" © 2012 by John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow. "Ghost Dog & Pup: Stay" © 2012 by Thomas E. Sniegoski. "Tic Boom: A Slice of Love" © 2012 by Mad/Doll, Inc. "Jack and Jill" © 2012 by Jonathan Maberry. "Tender as Teeth" © 2012 by Stephanie Crawford and Duane Swierczynski. "Couch Potato" © 2012 by Brian Keene. "The Happy Bird and Other Tales" © 2012 by Rio Youers. "Parasite" © 2012 by Daniel H. Wilson.
©2012 Christopher Golden (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Last List of Miss Judith Kratt
Summary
Some bury their secrets close to home, others scatter them to the wind and hope they land somewhere far away. Judith Kratt inherited all the Kratt family had to offer - the pie safe, the copper clock, the murder that no one talks about - and she knows in her old bones that it's time to make an inventory of her household and its valuables. But she finds that cataloging the family belongings - as well as their misfortunes - won't contain her family's secrets, not when her wayward sister suddenly returns, determined to expose skeletons that the Kratts had hoped to take to their grave. Interweaving the present with chilling flashbacks from one fateful evening in 1929, Judith pieces together the influence of her family on their small South Carolina cotton town, learning that the devastating effects of dark family secrets can last a lifetime and beyond.
©2019 Andrea Bobotis (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Lord of the Wings
Summary
It's another holiday and Mayor Randall Shiffley has turned Caerphilly, Virginia, into Spooky City, USA. The residents are covering every window with cobwebs and roaming the streets in costume to entertain the tourists, and Meg's grandfather is opening a new 'Creatures of the Night' exhibit in the zoo. When a real body at the zoo and a suspicious fire at the Haunted House threaten to mar the town's creepy fun, it's up to Meg Langslow to save Halloween.
©2015 Donna Andrews (P)2015 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Swan for the Money
Summary
Meg Langslow's eccentric parents have a new hobby: growing roses and entering them in highly competitive shows. Dad's gardening skill and Mother's gift for selecting and arranging the blossoms should make them an unbeatable team - and Meg is relieved they've taken up such a safe, gentle hobby. She even volunteers to help when the Caerphilly Garden Club sponsors its first annual rose show. But after a few hours of dealing with her parents' competitors, Meg sees trouble...Rose growers are so cutthroat that they will do nearly anything to win the Black Swan trophy - making them all prime suspects when Meg discovers that someone is attempting to kill the wealthy woman on whose estate the competition is being held. Meg tries to leave the detecting to the local police and focus on the competition, but she just can't help getting her hands dirty when lives are at stake....
©2010 Donna Andrews (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Son
Summary
"They called her Water Claire." When the young girl washed up on their shore, no one knew she had been a Vessel. That she had carried a Product. That it had been carved from her belly. Stolen. Claire had had a son. She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. When he was taken from their community, she knew she had to follow. And so her journey began. But here in this wind-battered village Claire is welcomed as one of their own. In the security of her new home, she is free and loved. She grows stronger. As tempted as she is by the warmth of more human kindness than she has ever known, she cannot stay. Her son is out there; a young boy by now. Claire will stop at nothing to find her child...even if it means trading her own life. With Son, the two-time Newbery Medal - winning Lois Lowry has spun another mesmerizing tale in this thrilling and long-awaited conclusion to The Giver.
©2012 Lois Lowry (P)2012 Listening Library
The Fading Dream
Summary
The award-winning creator of Eberron infiltrates the magical cities of the feyspires.Thornâs latest mission: protect the prince of Cyre, a monarch in name only since his country was destroyed by the Mourning. But in that same cataclysm, seven cities of the Feywild - the feyspires - were trapped on the plain of Eberron, a concurrence the eladrin who rule the feyspires insist is no coincidence. They insist that with the right pieces they can repair the devastation of the Mourning. All they need are a few missing - one in the heart of a mysterious Cyran soldier and one thatâs lodged in Thornâs spine, carrying the soul of the Angel of Flame. Intense secret agent action with all the magic and mystery of Eberron - the Thorn of Breland series has been a perfect mix of fantasy and adventure. James Bond meets J.R.R. Tolkien.
©2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Hostage Moon
Summary
Everything can change in a heartbeat.Hunter Roswell thought she had left her past behind. But her carefully structured world starts to fall apart when a serial killer connected to her past emerges from the shadows and begins stalking her. Already responsible for the deaths of five women, the killer now has Hunter firmly in his sights. And heâs picked a target date - the night of Octoberâs full moon - also known as the blood moon or hunterâs moon. Sara Wilder, a psychologist and former FBI profiler, is brought in to help Hunter unravel the connection between her past and a ruthless killer. But as the search for the killer intensifies, both women find themselves struggling with an unexpected and undeniably mutual attraction. In a race against time, can they survive a killer who is willing to use anything - even love - to further his own agenda?
©2011 A.J. Quinn (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Snowfall
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Shelley Shepard Gray spins a beautiful holiday tale of finding love in unexpected places. Twenty-year-old Ruth Stutzman is a wonderful caregiver - but she has no experience with children. Laid off because of budget cuts from her job at a retirement home, she's relieved to find work - even if it means temporarily watching widower Martin Rhodes's brood of six! Martin has been doing his best since his wife's passing, but he and the children need help. Their house, once full of laughter and light, has been darkened by sadness. Soon after Ruth arrives, the children are drawn to her warmth and gentleness, and so is Martin, even though he feels it's wrong. But the harder he tries to ignore her, the deeper he begins to care for this attractive young woman who has brought joy back into his children's lives - and his own. Each passing day brings the Rhodes closer to Ruth - and closer to Christmas, when she will have to say goodbye. Ruth cannot deny the bond she feels with the children - and with Martin. When her old job becomes available again, Ruth finds herself torn: How can she stay with the Rhodes? And yet how can she go?
©2014 Shelley Shepard Gray (P)2014 Harper Collins Publishers
The Echo Maker
Summary
On a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, 27-year-old Mark Schluter flips his truck in a near fatal accident. His older sister, Karin, returns to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. But when he emerges from a coma, Mark believes that this woman is really an impostor who looks just like his sister. Shattered, Karin contacts the cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber, who eagerly investigates. What he discovers in Mark slowly undermines even his own sense of being. Meanwhile, Mark attempts to learn what happened the night of his inexplicable accident - armed only with a note left by an anonymous witness.
©2007 Richard Powers (P)2006 AudioGO
Duck the Halls
Summary
A few nights before Christmas, Meg is awakened when Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, despite the protests of Mr. Vess, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen - only to turn up later during the concert slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens. It's clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Vess is discovered dead.
©2013 Donna Andrews (P)2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Way Through the Woods
Summary
A grieving widow discovers a most unexpected form of healing - hunting for mushrooms.
âMoving... Long tells the story of finding hope after despair lightly and artfully, with self-effacement and so much gentle good nature.â (The New York Times)
Long Litt Woon met Eiolf a month after arriving in Norway from Malaysia as an exchange student. They fell in love, married, and settled into domestic bliss. Then Eiolfâs unexpected death at 54 left Woon struggling to imagine a life without the man who had been her partner and anchor for 32 years. Adrift in grief, she signed up for a beginnerâs course on mushrooming - a course the two of them had planned to take together - and found, to her surprise, that the pursuit of mushrooms rekindled her zest for life.
The Way Through the Woods tells the story of parallel journeys: an inner one, through the landscape of mourning, and an outer one, into the fascinating realm of mushrooms - resilient, adaptable, and essential to natureâs cycle of death and rebirth. From idyllic Norwegian forests and urban flower beds to the sandy beaches of Corsica and New Yorkâs Central Park, Woon uncovers an abundance of surprises often hidden in plain sight: salmon-pink Bloody Milk Caps, which ooze red liquid when cut; delectable morels, prized for their earthy yet delicate flavor; and bioluminescent mushrooms that light up the forest at night.
Along the way, she discovers the warm fellowship of other mushroom obsessives, and finds that giving her full attention to the natural world transforms her, opening a way for her to survive Eiolfâs death, to see herself anew, and to reengage with life.
Praise for The Way Through the Woods
"In her search for new meaning in life after the death of her husband, Long Litt Woon undertook the study of mushrooms. What she found in the woods, and expresses with such tender joy in this heartfelt memoir, was nothing less than salvation." (Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia and Microbia)
©2019 Litt Woon Long (P)2019 Random House Audio
Kabul Beauty School
Summary
Most Westerners working in Afghanistan spend their time tucked inside a military compound or embassy. Not Deborah Rodriguez. Here, she tells the story of the beauty school she founded in the middle of Kabul and of the vibrant women who were her students. When Rodriguez opened the Kabul Beauty School, she not only empowered her students with a new sense of autonomy but also made some of the closest friends of her life. Woven through the book are the stories of her students: the newlywed who must fake her virginity; the 12-year-old sold into marriage to pay her family's debts; and a woman who pursues her training despite her Taliban husband's constant beatings. They all bring their stories to the beauty school, where, along with Rodriguez herself, they learn the art of perms, friendship, and freedom.
©2007 Deborah Rodriguez-Turner (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Goodbye Sarajevo
Summary
May, 1992. Hana is 12 years old when her older sister Atka puts her on a UN evacuation bus fleeing the besieged city of Sarajevo. Thinking they will be apart for a short time, they make a promise to each other to be brave. But as the Bosnian war escalates and months go by without contact, their promise becomes deeply significant. Hana is forced to cope as a refugee in Croatia, while Atka and their younger siblings battle for survival in a city overwhelmed by crime and destruction. Then, when Atka manages to find work as a translator, events take an unexpected turn, and the remarkable events that follow change her life, and those of her family, forever.
©2011 Atka Reid & Hana Schofield (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The Sexy Years
Summary
Getting older can be brutal - women gain weight, lose their sex drive, experience hot flashes, suffer memory loss, become short-tempered, find it difficult to sleep, and on and on. Itâs not so easy for men, either - they start to lose energy and stamina as they age, too (and they have to live with women going through menopause). After years of being thin and fit and full of energy, Suzanne herself encountered the âSeven Dwarfs of Menopauseâ - itchy, bitchy, sweaty, sleepy, bloated, forgetful, and all-dried-up. Instead of living out the rest of her life cranky, sleep-deprived, and libido-less, Suzanne set out to discover how she could get her mind, body, and life back and banish those pesky dwarfs for good. The result is The Sexy Years: Discover the Hormone Connection - The Secret to Fabulous Sex, Great Health, and Vitality, for Women and Men. In this passionately argued and enormously practical book, Suzanne supports her own research and experiences with the expertise of leading doctors in the field of womenâs and menâs health and sexuality to create an inspiring, accessible call-to-arms to women to radically rethink how they approach life after 50, and give them the tools to turn their lives around. Suzanne has discovered that the second half of life has been more rewarding, fun, and purposeful than her younger years. The key to her happiness? Taking natural bioidentical hormones. Natural hormones, which mimic the hormones produced in our own bodies that are almost completely lost with aging, are the answer to the symptoms of menopause that plague women. Recent findings from the medical community show that synthetic hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be harmful to women - thus, thousands of women are looking for what else they can do to alleviate their symptoms. In The Sexy Years, Suzanne comes to the rescue with a step-by-step plan and detailed information about how women can take control of their health, for themselves and for their men, including: What the differences are between synthetic and bioidentical hormones, and why bioidentical hormones help women lose weight, reinvigorate their sex lives, and fight the symptoms of aging How doctors do not receive adequate training about hormones and are slaves to the pharmaceutical industry, and what questions every woman must ask her physician about hormone replacement therapy and her health How Suzanne turned her life around, with information about how often she visits her doctor, blood work, what hormones she takes, how to get these hormones, and more What male menopause, or andropause, is and how men can also take bioidentical hormones and regain the energy they had in their youth What a variety of specialists think about natural hormones, health, and sexuality - Suzanne shares the best advice from these doctors and provides a resource list of physicians and pharmacies With bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, Suzanne has found the fountain of youth, the elixir that has made her feel 30 years old again. In combination with her Somersize diet and fitness plan, which she also writes about here, Suzanne has never felt better. The beauty of growing older, she maintains, is that you can combine the wisdom of age with the vitality of youth. Suzanne makes it perfectly clear how women and men can regain their zest for life at any age. These really are the sexy years!Â
©2004 Suzanne Somers (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.
With One Shot
Summary
The brutal murder of LaVerne Stordock, a respected family man and former police detective, shocked the residents of his rural Wisconsin community. On the surface, the case seemed closed with the confession of Stordock's second wife, Suzanne. But the trail of secrets and lies that began with his death did not end with his widow's conviction. Ever since she was a teenager, Dorothy Marcic was haunted by unresolved questions surrounding the killing of her beloved uncle. Though she led a busy life as a playwright, theatrical producer, and university professor, she couldn't put her doubts to rest - especially after the conniving Suzanne was released and began cutting a new swath of destructive behavior. In 2014 Marcic embarked on a two-year mission to uncover the truth. She collected and studied court documents, talked to more than 60 people connected to the case, and spent more than 14 hours interviewing the alleged killer. The more she investigated, the clearer the picture became one of a heartless woman who manipulated her own son and destroyed lives without remorse, of a troubled teenager duped into committing a heinous crime, and of a cover-up that stretched over several decades. In the best-selling tradition of Ann Rule and M. William Phelps, With One Shot weaves a spellbinding tale of unmet justice and the truth behind a shocking family tragedy.
©2018 Dorothy Marcic (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Profiteers
Summary
From the best-selling coauthor of The Money and the Power, the inside story of the Bechtel family and the empire they've controlled since the construction of the Hoover Dam. The tale of the Bechtel family dynasty is a classic American business story. It begins with Warren A. "Dad" Bechtel, who led a consortium that constructed the Hoover Dam. From that auspicious start, the family and its eponymous company would go on to build the world, from the construction of airports in Hong Kong and Doha to pipelines and tunnels in Alaska and Europe to mining and energy operations around the globe. Today Bechtel is one of the largest privately held corporations in the world, enriched and empowered by a long history of government contracts and the privatization of public works, made possible by an unprecedented revolving door between its San Francisco headquarters and Washington. Bechtel executives John McCone, Caspar Weinberger, and George P. Shultz segued from leadership at the company to positions as director of the CIA, secretary of defense, and secretary of state, respectively. Like all stories of empire building, the rise of Bechtel presents a complex and riveting narrative. In The Profiteers, Sally Denton exposes Bechtel's secret world and one of the biggest business and political stories of our time.
©2016 Sally Denton (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
A Shooting Star
Summary
Sabrina Castro is a wealthy, attractive woman married to an older physician who no longer fulfills her dreams. An accidental misstep leads her down the path of moral disintegration. How she comes to terms with her life is the theme of this absorbing personal drama played out against the backdrop of an old Peninsula estate where her mother lives among her servants, her memories of Boston, and her treasured family archives. Now on audio for the first time, A Shooting Star displays the storytelling powers that Wallace Stegnerâs fans have enjoyed for more than half a century.
©1961 Wallace Stegner; renewed 1989 by Wallace Stegner (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
An Unladylike Profession
Summary
When World War I began, war reporting was a thoroughly masculine bastion of journalism. But that did not stop dozens of women reporters from stepping into the breach, defying gender norms and official restrictions to establish roles for themselves - and to write new kinds of narratives about women and war. Chris Dubbs tells the fascinating stories of Edith Wharton, Nellie Bly, and more than 30 other American women who worked as war reporters. As Dubbs shows, stories by these journalists brought in women from the periphery of war and made them active participants - fully engaged and equally heroic, if bearing different burdens and making different sacrifices. Women journalists traveled from belligerent capitals to the front lines to report on the conflict. But their experiences also brought them into contact with social transformations, political unrest, labor conditions, campaigns for womenâs rights, and the rise of revolutionary socialism. An eye-opening look at womenâs war reporting, An Unladylike Profession is a portrait of a sisterhood from the guns of August to the corridors of Versailles.
©2020 by Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2020 by Blackstone Publishing
Owls Well That Ends Well
Summary
Meg Langslow was actually looking forward to renovating the old Victorian mansion she and her boyfriend Michael bought. But she wasn't thrilled by the lifetime of junk accumulated by the house's eccentric previous owner, Edwina Sprocket. The easiest solution: hold the end-all and be-all of gigantic yard sales. But when the event attracts the late Miss Sprocket's money-hungry heirs, the over-enthusiastic supporters of some endangered barn owls, and customers willing to go to any lengths to uncover a hidden treasure, Meg suspects things have gotten a little out of hand. Then, an antiques dealer is found stuffed in a trunk with his head bashed in - and the yard sale turns into a days-long media circus.
©2005 Donna Andrews (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Mouse & Dragon
Summary
Aelliana Caylon has escaped her abusive family. She's found love in her starship co-pilot - a man who turns out to be the leader of Korval, the most powerful clan of the Liaden Universe. But destiny never intended an easy life for Aelliana. Insidious forces within the empire are determined that a new line of Korval heirs be destroyed and that Clan Korval itself be blasted to interplanetary dust. The fight for the future of the Liaden Universe is on, and one heroine is determined to protect her family and her soul mate at all costs!
©2010 Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The CEO Next Door
Summary
New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller Winner of CMI Management Book of the Year 2019 Based on an in-depth analysis of over 2,600 leaders drawn from a database of more than 17,000 CEOs and C-suite executives, as well 13,000 hours of interviews, and two decades of experience advising CEOs and executive boards, Elena L. Botelho and Kim R. Powell overturn the myths about what it takes to get to the top and succeed. Their groundbreaking research was the featured cover story in the May-June 2017 issue of Harvard Business Review. It reveals the common attributes and counterintuitive choices that set apart successful CEOs - lessons that we can apply to our own careers. Much of what we hear about who gets to the top, and how, is wrong. Those who become chief executives set their sights on the C-suite at an early age. In fact, over 70 percent of the CEOs didn't have designs on the corner office until later in their careers. You must graduate from an elite college. In fact, only seven percent of CEOs in the dataset are Ivy League graduates - and eight percent didn't graduate from college at all. To become a CEO you need a flawless résumé. The reality: 45 percent of CEO candidates had at least one major career blowup. What those who reach the top do share are four key behaviors that anyone can master: they are decisive; they are reliable, delivering what they promised when the promise it, without exception; they adapt boldly, and they engage with stakeholders without shying away from conflict. Based on this breakthrough study of the most successful people in business, Botelho and Powell offer career advice for everyone who aspires to get ahead. Based on research insights illustrated by real life stories from CEOs and boardrooms, they tell us how to: Fast-track our career by deploying the career catapults used by those who get to the top quickly. Overcome the hidden handicaps to getting the job we want. Avoid the five hazards that most commonly derail those promoted into a new role. For everyone who aspires to rise up through the organization and achieve their full potential, The CEO Next Door is an essential guide.
©2018 G.H. Smart & Company, Inc. (P)2018 Random House Audio
The Sight of the Stars
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Belva Plain beguiles us once again with a novel that explores the bonds that sustain families - and the lies that can shatter them forever. Sweeping through the pivotal events of 20th century America, The Sight of the Stars chronicles four generations of one remarkable family as they journey through years of love, loss, sacrifice, and unimaginable betrayal. Dressed in a brand-new suit, with $150 in his pocket, Adam Arnring says goodbye to his family and boards a train for the fabled West. The year is 1907. Adam is 19 years old, a young man with stars in his eyes who has always dreamed of a future in the great open spaces of America. Now, far from his New Jersey home, he takes the first step toward attaining that dream, landing a job in a small department store in a booming Texas town. Here he meets a woman who excites him beyond all measure. The exquisite, untouchable Emma Rothirsch lives in a world whose doors are firmly closed to him. But Adam is a man willing to take great risks to get what he wants. One is Emma. The other is to build a lasting business enterprise that will live on through his children and grandchildren. But just when Adamâs dreams are within reach, fate intervenes. Tragedy strikes from the trenches of World War I, setting in motion a series of events that echo down through the years. The owner of a prospering department store and the head of a growing family, Adam succumbs to a moment of weakness that culminates in an unforgivable act of betrayal. And now, as another generation prepares to take its rightful place in the familyâs legendary empire, the tenuous threads of the Arnringsâ past begin to unravel, revealing a shattering secret that reaches back nearly a century. Across a teeming canvas of history, through world wars and the close of a century, The Sight of the Stars tells a deeply affecting story of family and forgiveness, guilt and redemption. Brimming with the emotional depth and moral complexity we have come to expect from this incomparable storyteller, The Sight of the Stars is about what happens when we dare to dream, and the moments that can change families forever.Â
©2004 Bar-Nan Creations, Inc. (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.
Thankful
Summary
From best-selling author Shelley Shepard Gray comes a tender story of faith, family, and finding love with the Amish of Sugarcreek. Christina Kempf has always felt that God chose Aden Reese to be her husband. When they were children, Aden was there to save her when she fell through a patch of thin ice, and he's been by her side ever since. After his parents died in a car accident 10 years ago, the Kempfs raised Aden as one of their own, and everyone sees Aden and Christina as brother and sister. But Christina has never given up hope that Aden will one day see her as the perfect woman for himâ¦and ask her to be his wife. Despite what his heart wants, Aden can't find it in himself to repay the Kempfs' kindness with an admission that his feelings for Christina have only ever been romantic. But when she's pressured by her parents to court more broadly, Christina begins to accept the attentions of Sugarcreek's young men. Now Aden must make a choice. Will he stand by and watch the love of his life slip away? Or will he risk losing the love and trust of the family he holds dear to tell Christina how he truly feels?
©2014 Shelley Shepard Gray (P)2014 HarperCollins Publishers
Toucan Keep a Secret
Summary
Meg Langslow is at Trinity Episcopal locking up after an event and checking on the toucan that Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering in her office. After hearing a hammering in the crypt, Meg finds an elderly parishioner lying dead on the floor. Several niches have been chiseled open, several urns knocked out, and amid the spilled ashes is a gold ring with a huge red stone. The curmudgeonly victim had become disgruntled with the church and ranted all over town about taking back his wife's ashes. Did someone who had it in for him follow him? Or was the motive grave robbery? Or did he see someone breaking in and investigate? Why was the ruby left behind? While Chief Burke investigates the murder, Robyn recruits Meg to contact the families of the people whose ashes were disturbed. During this task, Meg discovers clues that indicate that a thief broke into the church to steal the toucan the night of the murder, so Meg decides to set a trap for the would-be toucan thief...who might also be the killer.
©2018 Donna Andrews (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Sharing Knife, Volume 3
Summary
Filled with magic, heroism, and all-too-human characters, Bujold's Sharing Knife saga is both a gripping adventure and a poignant romance. In this third volume, Fawn, the young farm girl, and Dag, the seasoned soldier-sorcerer, set off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples - and encounter new hazards both human and uncanny. The farmers and riverfolk have long distrusted the power of the mysterious and aloof Lakewalkers, even though they depend on them for protection from the evil malices. The proud Lakewalkers, meanwhile, have exiled Dag after learning of his marriage to Fawn, the first outsider to be bound to a Lakewalker in their magical way. But as Dag's natural Lakewalker ability to manipulate "ground energy" begins to develop in dangerous directions, he and Fawn realize that big changes are ahead.
©2008 Lois McMaster Bujold (P)2008 Blackstone Audio Inc.
12 Stories of Christmas
Summary
Experience the wonderment of Christmas with this endearing collection of original stories. Even though he's got 3.5 million copies of books in print, Pastor Robert Morgan writes only one short fiction story each year - an original work he shares with his church on Christmas Eve. Now with a fresh new cover and six new stories, the entire collection of 12 is available in this beautiful volume. Beginning is a foreword by David Jeremiah, followed by adventures that evoke the splendor and love found at the manger over 2000 years ago. You'll meet a shy, bookish boy who finds himself center stage in a Christmas pageant, a family whose car full of presents and groceries disappears, and a mountain man trapped in a blizzard with his 12-year-old grandson. You'll meet characters you feel you've known your whole life who'll make you laugh one minute and cry the next. So this year, and the years to follow, gather your family and experience the true spirit of adoration and worship at Christmas through this timeless gift of story.
©2014 Robert Morgan (P)2020 Thomas Nelson
When Books Went to War
Summary
When America entered World War II in 1941, we faced an enemy that had banned and burned over 100 million books and caused fearful citizens to hide or destroy many more. Outraged librarians launched a campaign to send free books to American troops and gathered 20 million hardcover donations. In 1943, the War Department and the publishing industry stepped in with an extraordinary program: 120 million small, lightweight paperbacks for troops to carry in their pockets and their rucksacks in every theater of war. Comprising 1,200 different titles of every imaginable type, these paperbacks were beloved by the troops and are still fondly remembered today. Soldiers read them while waiting to land at Normandy, in hellish trenches in the midst of battles in the Pacific, in field hospitals, and on long bombing flights. They wrote to the authors, many of whom responded to every letter. They helped rescue The Great Gatsby from obscurity. They made Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, into a national icon. When Books Went to War is an inspiring story for history buffs and book lovers alike.
©2014 Molly Guptill Manning (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Who Is Derek Jeter?
Summary
When Derek Jeter was eight years old, he announced that he was going to play baseball for the New York Yankees. Jeter earned the attention of major league scouts in high school and was drafted to the New York Yankees in 1992. Named Rookie of the Year, he helped the Yankees win the World Series five times and became team captain in 2003. With his good looks, easygoing personality, and sense of humor, Derek has always been a fan favorite. Retiring from baseball in 2014, Derek Jeter leaves behind a legacy.Â
©2015 Gail Herman (P)2016 Listening Library
Rosemary
Summary
They were the most prominent American family of the 20th century. The daughter they secreted away made all the difference. Joe and Rose Kennedy's strikingly beautiful daughter, Rosemary, attended exclusive schools, was presented as a debutante to the queen of England, and traveled the world with her high-spirited sisters. And yet Rosemary was intellectually disabled - a secret fiercely guarded by her powerful and glamorous family. Major new sources - Rose Kennedy's diaries and correspondence, school and doctors' letters, and exclusive family interviews - bring Rosemary to life as a girl adored but left far behind by her competitive siblings. Kate Larson reveals both the sensitive care Rose and Joe gave to Rosemary and then, as the family's standing reached an apex, the often desperate and duplicitous arrangements the Kennedys made to keep her away from home as she became increasingly intractable in her early 20s. Finally, Larson illuminates Joe's decision to have Rosemary lobotomized at age 23 and the family's complicity in keeping the secret. Rosemary delivers a profoundly moving coda: JFK visited Rosemary for the first time while campaigning in the Midwest; she had been living isolated in a Wisconsin institution for nearly 20 years. Only then did the siblings understand what had happened to Rosemary and bring her home for loving family visits. It was a reckoning that inspired them to direct attention to the plight of the disabled, transforming the lives of millions.
©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2015 Blackstone Audiobooks
The Incense Game
Summary
In the wake of a terrifying earthquake, Sano Ichiro races to solve a crime that could bring down the shogun's regime. When a massive earthquake devastates Japan in 1703, even the shogun's carefully regulated court is left teetering on the brink of chaos. This is no time for a murder investigation - except when a nobleman's daughters are found dead from incense poisoning and their father threatens to topple the regime unless Sano Ichiro tracks down the killer. As Sano and his wife strive to solve the case in a world that is crumbling around them, Laura Joh Rowland - author of one of the "five best historical mystery novels" (The Wall Street Journal) - brings us her most powerful and evocative thriller yet.
©2012 Laura Joh Rowland (P)2012 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Mindfulness 25th Anniversary Edition
Summary
In the years since it was first published, this influential book based on the highly innovative findings of social psychologist Dr. Ellen J. Langer and her team of researchers at Harvard made its mark for its unique concept of mindfulness, thoroughly adapted to contemporary life in the West. Langerâs theory has been applied to a wide number of fields, including health, business, aging, prejudice, and learning. There is now a new psychological assessment based on her work (called the Langer Mindfulness Scale) as well as an institute in Mexico founded to apply the concepts of mindfulness to health and wellness. In her introduction to this 25th anniversary edition, Dr. Langer outlines some of these exciting applications and suggests those still to come.
©2014 Ellen J. Langer (P)2014 Gildan Media LLC
The Queen of Stone
Summary
In the land of monsters, you'll want her by your side. Nyrielle Tam - better known by her code name, Thorn - is a Dark Lantern sent undercover to a summit in the monstrous kingdom of Droaam. The beasts of Droaam have organized and want recognition from the kingdoms of Khorvaire. Breland attends to gauge its neighbors' reaction to the new state's demands of equality... and to take the opportunity to recover something long ago stolen by the mysterious Sheshka, Queen of the Medusas. It's up to Thorn to accomplish both, while keeping her King and Country out of war. The creator of the world of Eberron returns with a series that shows off Eberron's cross-genre capabilities - all the smarts and action of a spy thriller, with the magic and depth of world only fantasy can create. There's something here for every fan!
©2008 Wizards of the Coast LLC (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
China's Long March
Summary
From award-winning children's author Jean Fritz comes the incredible true account of the Long March, a 6,000-mile journey across China In 1986, Jean Fritz went to China and talked to survivors of the Long March. It is from their recollections and her own broad, personal knowledge of Chinese history that Fritz has written one of the most compelling accounts of the incredible 6,000-mile journey across China made by the Communist Army in 1934 and 1935. Fritz takes us on the route of the 60-mile-long First Front Army, the unit of Mao Zedong that wound its way through a terrain so perilous it was often more threatening than their battles with the enemy. The fear of a young soldier on Old Mountain afraid to go to sleep in case he might roll over and fall off the cliff is real to us; the drama and devastation that reduced the Red Army to 20,000 men and women are immediate. And when the army crosses the thundering Dadu River on the threadbare remains of a bridge, we cross our fingers and hope to make it, too. Skillfully placing events within the context of history, Fritz allows us to view them with the perspective of time, and, as she shares the memories of those she talked with, she brings humanness and intimacy to the participants and their unforgettable journey.
©1988 Jean Fritz (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
The Drowning Season
Summary
The matriarch of a Long Island clan with a stubbornly suicidal son and a defiant, restless granddaughter, Esther has hired a Russian landscaper to watch over the family as well as the grounds of their secluded waterfront estate. But he has been watching Esther, too. And his love for her is growing wild enough to uproot them all. The author of Here on Earth and The River King presents a "stunning and hypnotic" novel that "interweaves past and present with piercing images and unfailing energy" (Publishers Weekly).
©1979 Alice Hoffman (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Missing
Summary
Darby McCormick had known Melanie Cruz and Stacey Stephens forever. Best friends since childhood, the threesome had survived high school together. But one night in the woods, drinking beers to celebrate Melanie's 16th birthday, the three unsuspecting teenagers witnessed the grisly murder of a woman. Darby and her friends fled the scene, but they left behind a clue to their whereabouts, which only simplified the killer's revenge. It didn't take long to find them. This time, only Darby survived. Twenty-five years later, Darby is a crime-scene investigator for the Boston Police Department. When a young woman is abducted from her home in the middle of the night, Darby finds an unexpected witness: a woman dressed in rags hiding behind garbage cans kept underneath the back porch of the victim's house. The woman is dangerously malnourished and is so distraught, so terrified, she believes she is still locked inside a dark prison cell, and that Darby is one of her fellow prisoners. Darby's investigation reveals that the woman, Rachel Swanson, has been missing for more than five years. And there are others. As Darby tries to get Rachel to talk about the other missing women and the horrors she endured, the killer known as Traveler is brought to light. As the race to find him heats up, Darby finds herself trying to unravel forensic clues about the case while attempting to uncover the existence of a killer who has eluded the police and FBI for more than two decades. A killer who, years ago, introduced Darby to violence and death. A killer who will use every means necessary to protect himself and to keep the missing women from ever being found. A breathless, gripping read from beginning to end, The Missing is an unforgettable story about a courageous woman whose past has literally come back to haunt her. Told with tremendous style at a breakneck pace, this is thriller writing at its best.
©2007 Chris Mooney (P)2007 Books on Tape
Shirley Jackson
Summary
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Biography, 2016 This historically relevant biography establishes Shirley Jackson as a towering figure in American literature and revives the life and work of a neglected master. Known to millions mainly as the author of the "The Lottery", Shirley Jackson has been curiously absent from the mainstream American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense and psychological horror, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America more deeply than anyone. Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author of The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Placing Jackson within an American Gothic tradition stretching back to Hawthorne and Poe, Franklin demonstrates how her unique contribution to this genre came from her focus on "domestic horror". Almost two decades before The Feminine Mystique ignited the women's movement, Jackson's stories and nonfiction chronicles were already exploring the exploitation and the desperate isolation of women, particularly married women, in American society. Here Jackson emerges as a ferociously talented, determined, and prodigiously creative writer when it was unusual for a woman to have both a family and a profession. Mother of four and wife of a prominent New Yorker critic and academic, Jackson lived a seemingly bucolic life in Vermont. Yet, much like her stories, which explored the claustrophobia of marriage and motherhood, Jackson's creativity was haunted by a darker side. As her career progressed, her marriage became more tenuous, her anxiety mounted, and she became addicted to amphetamines and tranquilizers. Franklin insightfully details the effects of Jackson's upbringing, hypercritical mother, and relationship with her husband. Based on previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of new interviews, this book explores an astonishing talent shaped by a damaging childhood and turbulent marriage and becomes the definitive biography of a generational avatar and American literary giant.Â
©2016 Ruth Franklin (P)2016 Blackstone Audio
The Robber Bride
Summary
Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride is inspired by "The Robber Bridegroom", a wonderfully grisly tale from the Brothers Grimm in which an evil groom lures three maidens into his lair and devours them one by one. But in her version, Atwood brilliantly recasts the monster as Zenia, a villainess of demonic proportions, and sets her loose in the lives of three friends: Tony, Charis, and Roz. All three have lost men, spirit, money, and time to their old college acquaintance, Zenia. At various times, and in various emotional disguises, Zenia has insinuated her way into their lives and practically demolished them. To Tony, who almost lost her husband and jeopardized her academic career, Zenia is "a lurking enemy commando". To Roz, who did lose her husband and almost her magazine, Zenia is "a cold and treacherous bitch". To Charis, who lost a boyfriend, quarts of vegetable juice, and some pet chickens, Zenia is a kind of zombie, maybe "soulless" (Lorrie Moore, New York Times Book Review). In love and war, illusion and deceit, Zenia's subterranean malevolence takes us deep into her enemies' pasts.
©2011 Margaret Atwood (P)2011 Random House
23 Hours
Summary
In the next 23 hours, there will be no reprieve, no mercy, and no time off for good behavior. When vampire hunter Laura Caxton is locked up in a maximum-security prison, the cop-turned-con finds herself surrounded by countless murderers and death-row inmates with nothing to lose and plenty of time to kill. Caxtonâs always been able to watch her own backâeven when itâs against a cell-block wall. But soon she learns that an even greater threat has slithered behind the bars to join her. Justinia Malvern, the worldâs oldest living vampire, has taken up residence, and her strength grows by the moment as she raids the inmate population like an all-you-can-drink open bar of fresh blood. The crafty old vampire knows just how to pull Caxtonâs strings, too, and she's issued an ultimatum that Laura canât refuse. Now Laura has just 23 hours to fight her way through a gauntlet of vampires, cons, and killers.
©2009 David Wellington (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Fire Kimono
Summary
Japan, March 1700. The strife between Sano Ichir-o, the samurai detective who has risen to power in the shogun's court, and his enemies has escalated to the brink of war. Called away from the crisis by the shogun's orders to investigate a mysterious skeleton, Sano and his wife, Reiko, must confront dangerous, long-buried secrets. What was Sano's own mother doing on the night when a burning kimono ignited a blaze that nearly destroyed the city? The shogun gives Sano and Reiko just three days to find out - or risk losing not only their position at court but their families' lives as well.
©2008 Laura Joh Rowland (P)2008 BBc Audiobooks America
Identity in Democracy
Summary
Written by one of America's leading political thinkers, this is a book about the good, the bad, and the ugly of identity politics. Amy Gutmann rises above the raging polemics that often characterize discussions of identity groups and offers a fair-minded assessment of the role they play in democracies. She addresses fundamental questions of timeless urgency while keeping in focus their relevance to contemporary debates: Do some identity groups undermine the greater democratic good and thus their own legitimacy in a democratic society? Even if so, how is a democracy to fairly distinguish between groups such as the KKK on the one hand and the NAACP on the other? Should democracies exempt members of some minorities from certain legitimate or widely accepted rules, such as Canads's allowing Sikh members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to wear turbans instead of Stetsons? Do voluntary groups like the Boy Scouts have a right to discriminate on grounds of sexual preference, gender, or race? Identity-group politics, Gutmann shows, is not aberrant but inescapable in democracies, because identity groups represent who people are, not only what they want - and who people are shapes what they demand from democratic politics. Rather than trying to abolish identity politics, Gutmann calls upon us to distinguish between those demands of identity groups that aid and those that impede justice. Her book does justice to identity groups, while recognizing that they cannot be counted upon to do likewise to others. Clear, engaging, and forcefully argued, Amy Gutmann's Identity in Democracy provides the fractious world of multicultural and identy-group scholarship with a unifying work that will sustain it for years to come. The book is published by Princeton University Press.
©2003 Princeton University Press (P)2010 Redwood Audiobooks
White Picket Fences
Summary
When her black sheep brother disappears, Amanda Janvier eagerly takes in her 16-year-old niece, Tally. The girl is practically an orphan: motherless, and living with a father who raises Tally wherever he lands - in a Buick, a pizza joint, a horse farm - and regularly takes off on wild schemes. Amanda envisions that she, her husband Neil, and their two teenagers can offer the girl stability and a shot at a "normal" life, even though their own storybook lives are about to crumble. Seventeen-year-old Chase Janvier hasn't seen his cousin in years, and other than a vague curiosity about her strange life, he doesn't expect her arrival will affect him much - or interfere with his growing, disturbing interest in a long-ago house fire that plagues his dreams unbeknownst to anyone else. Tally and Chase bond as they interview two Holocaust survivors for a sociology project and become startlingly aware that the whole family is grappling with hidden secrets, with the echoes of the past, and with the realization that ignoring tragic situations won't make them go away. Will Tally's presence blow apart their carefully-constructed world, knocking down the illusion of the white picket fence and reveal a hidden past that could destroy them all - or can she help them find the truth without losing each other?
©2009 Susan Meissner (P)2009 Random House
Margarita Wednesdays
Summary
In answer to the question of what happened following her New York Times best seller Kabul Beauty School, Deborah Rodriquez is back with a new memoir. Irreverent, insightful, and blatantly honest, Deborah takes us along on her inspiring journey of self-discovery and renewal after she is forced to flee Afghanistan in 2007. She first lands in California, where she feels like a misfit teetering on the brink of sanity. Where was that fearless redhead who stared danger in the face back in Kabul? After being advised to commune with glowworms and sit in contemplation for a year, Rodriguez finally packs her life and her cat into her Mini Cooper and moves to a seaside town in Mexico. Despite having no plan, no friends, and no Spanish, a determined Rodriguez soon finds herself swept up in a world where the music never stops and a new life can begin. Her adventures and misadventures among the expats and locals help lead the way to new love, new family, and a new sense of herself. In the magic of Mexico, she finds the hairdresser within and builds the life she never knew was possible - a life on her own terms.
©2014 Deborah Rodriguez (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right
Summary
Texas may well be Americaâs most controversial state. Evangelicals dominate the halls of power, millions of its people live in poverty, and its death row is the busiest in the country. Skeptical outsiders have found much to be offended by in the stateâs politics and attitude, and yet, according to journalist and Texan Erica Grieder, the United States has a great deal to learn from Texas. In Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right, Grieder traces the political history of a state that was always larger than life. From its rowdy beginnings, Texas has combined a long-standing suspicion of government intrusion with a passion for business. Looking to the present, Grieder assesses the unique mix of policies on issues like immigration, debt, taxes, regulation, and energy, which together have sparked a bona fide Texas miracle of job growth. While acknowledging that it still has plenty of 21st-century problems to face, she finds in Texas a model of governance whose power has been drastically underestimated. Her book is a fascinating exploration of Americaâs underrated powerhouse.
©2013 Erica Grieder (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Exuberance
Summary
We have learned much about depression, but what about its opposite? Why hasn't the human emotion that lifts us, inspires us, drives us on, and makes life worth living been discussed and celebrated? In this outstanding book, best-selling author Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison explores exuberance in all its unrestrained, joyful energy, and shows how its unique vitality is essential to our existence. Jamison points to the contagiousness of laughter, excitement, and positive feelings, and how it plays a role in choosing a mate, in the giddiness of new love, music, and religious ecstasy. She also discusses our dangerous desire to simulate exuberance by using drugs or alcohol. Most of all, Jamison points to some of our most famous artists and scientists to show how they all share an exuberance for life that inspires their discoveries, drives, and the force to persevere even when it seems the odds are against them.
©2004 Kay Redfield Jamison (P)2004 Books on Tape
Six Geese a-Slaying
Summary
Meg Langslow and Michael's house is serving as the marshalling point for the annual Caerphilly holiday parade. The theme is the 12 Days of Christmas, and it features 12 drummers from the school's marching band, 11 bagpipers, 10 leaping lords costumed in medieval finery from the college's drama department, and so on. There are also assorted floats, a live nativity scene on a flatbed truck, the three wise men on Caerphilly Zoo camels, and Santa in a bright-red horse-drawn sleigh. As the organizer, Meg's job is already hard enough, but when her nephew Eric, wide-eyed and ashen-faced, whispers, "Something's wrong with Santa...", things take a tragic turn. It turns out that the local curmudgeon, whose beard and belly made him a natural for the role, has been murdered. Now it's up to Meg and Chief Burke, who is playing one of the wise men, to tackle a twofold mission: solve the murder and save Christmas.
©2008 Donna Andrews (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
All My Belongings
Summary
Jayne Dennagee has spent her life running from the "doctor death" legacy of her father. His Kervorkian-copycat methods of euthanasia ruined her childhood, covering it in shame. She won't let him steal her future, too. After changing her name to Becka, she assumes a new life and new job caring for the ailing mother of a handsome young businessman, Isaac Hughes. Becka struggles to sort out her feelings for her new boss just as her patient passes away under unusual circumstances. Suddenly, her past catches up with her and the unnerving details of her heritage make Becka look like a murder suspect. Worse, all sense of home and all hope for love vanish. Even if she could clear her name, a phone call from prison wraps a suffocating shroud around her heart. Her father is out - and he needs her help. Can Becka open her new life to the man who has prematurely taken so many? Or will her father's legacy make it impossible to open her heart at all?
©2014 Cynthia Ruchti (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
Joy
Summary
The first full biography of Joy Davidman brings her out from C. S. Lewis' shadow, where she has long been hidden, to reveal a powerful writer and thinker. Joy Davidman is known, if she is known at all, as the wife of C. S. Lewis. Their marriage was immortalized in the film Shadowlands and Lewis' memoir, A Grief Observed. Now, through extraordinary new documents as well as years of research and interviews, Abigail Santamaria brings Joy Davidman Gresham Lewis to your ears in the fullness and depth she deserves. A poet and radical, Davidman was a frequent contributor to the communist vehicle New Masses and an active member of New York literary circles in the 1930s and '40s. Born Jewish in the Bronx, she was an atheist then a practitioner of Dianetics; she converted to Christianity after experiencing a moment of transcendent grace. A mother, a novelist, a vibrant and difficult and intelligent woman, she set off for England in 1952, determined to captivate the man whose work had changed her life. Davidman became the intellectual and spiritual partner Lewis never expected but cherished. She helped him refine his autobiography, Surprised by Joy, and to write his novel Till We Have Faces. Their relationship - begun when Joy wrote to Lewis as a religious guide - grew from a dialogue about faith, writing, and poetry into a deep friendship and a timeless love story. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2015 Abigail Santamaria (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Cloud Pavilion
Summary
Japan, 1701. A woman is brutally attacked within a bamboo prison as clouds swirl around her head. Meanwhile, at Edo Castle, samurai detective turned chamberlain Sano Ichiro is suspicious of his old rival, Yanagisawa, who has been oddly cooperative since returning from exile. But just as Yanagisawa's true motives begin to emerge, Sano's estranged uncle comes to him for help: his daughter has disappeared, and he begs Sano and his wife--who once suffered through the kidnapping of their own son--to find her before it is too late.
©2009 Laura Joh Rowland; 2009 BBC Audio
The Iris Fan
Summary
Japan, 1709. Amid the ever-treacherous intrigue in the court, Sano Ichiro has been demoted from chamberlain to a lowly patrol guard. His relationship with his wife Reiko is in tatters, and a bizarre new alliance between his two enemies Yanagisawa and Lord Ienobu has left him puzzled and wary. Then a harrowing, almost inconceivable crime takes place. In his own palace, the shogun is stabbed with a fan made of painted silk with sharp-pointed iron ribs. Sano is restored to the rank of chief investigator to find the culprit. This is the most significant, and most dangerous, investigation of his career. If the shogun's heir is displeased, he will have Sano and his family put to death without waiting for the shogun's permission.
©2014 Laura Joh Rowland (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Broken Bargain
Summary
A history of major financial crises - and how taxpayers have been left with the bill. In the 1930s, battered and humbled by the Great Depression, the US financial sector struck a grand bargain with the federal government. Bankers gained a safety net in exchange for certain curbs on their freedom: transparency rules, record-keeping and anti-fraud measures, and fiduciary responsibilities. Despite subsequent periodic changes in these regulations, the underlying bargain played a major role in preserving the stability of the financial markets as well as the larger economy. By the free-market era of the 1980s and 90s, however, Wall Street argued that rules embodied in New Deal-era regulations to protect consumers and ultimately taxpayers were no longer needed - and government agreed. This engaging history documents the country's financial crises, focusing on those of the 1920s, the 1980s, and the 2000s, and reveals how the two more recent crises arose from the neglect of this fundamental bargain.
©2018 Kathleen Day (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
Summary
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage restores to the literary canon an extraordinarily gifted writer, who was recognized as a major talent before all but disappearing from public view for decades, until nearly the end of her life. Bette Howland herself was an outsider - an intellectual from a working-class neighborhood in Chicago; a divorce and single mother, to the disapproval of her family; an artist chipped away at by poverty and perfection. Each of these facets plays a central role in her work. Mining her deepest emotions for her art, she chronicles the tension of her generation. Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage introduces a new generation of listeners to a wry, brilliant observer and a writer of great empathy and sly, joyous humor.Â
©1978 Bette Howland; 2019 by the estate of Bette Howland (P)2020 Audible, Inc.
In the Great Green Room
Summary
The extraordinary life of the woman behind the beloved children's classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny comes alive in this fascinating biography of Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret's books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children's book publishing revolution. Her whimsy and imagination fueled a steady stream of stories, book ideas, songs, and poems and she was renowned for her prolific writing and business savvy, as well as her stunning beauty and endless thirst for adventure. Margaret started her writing career by helping to shape the curriculum for the Bank Street School for Children, making it her mission to create stories that would rise above traditional fairy tales and allowed girls to see themselves as equal to boys. At the same time, she also experimented endlessly with her own writing. Margaret would spend days researching subjects, picking daisies, cloud gazing, and observing nature, all in an effort to precisely capture a child's sense of awe and wonder as they discovered the world. Clever, quirky, and incredibly talented, Margaret embraced life with passion, lived extravagantly off of her royalties, went on rabbit hunts, and carried on long and troubled love affairs with both men and women. But before she could marry Margaret died unexpectedly at the age of 42, leaving behind a cache of unpublished work and a timeless collection of books that would go on to become classics in children's literature. Author Amy Gary captures the eccentric and exceptional life of Margaret Wise Brown, and drawing on newly discovered personal letters and diaries, reveals an intimate portrait of a creative genius whose unrivaled talent breathed new life into the literary world.
©2017 Amy Gary (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners
Summary
A legendary island steeped in the mystery and wisdom of centuries. A runaway heiress learning to trust life, and love. A mother and daughter, separated for years, searching for a way to face the future together. New York Times best-selling author Luanne Rice tells a powerful story of love, family, and friendship through the lives of two women who reunite at a place where dreams beginand where they may be fulfilled at last. Years ago, Lyra Davis left behind a world of wealth and privilege and the people she loved most in the world, unable to reconcile the expectations of her celebrated family with the longings of her own wild heart. Now she lives quietly among a community of expatriates on the isle of Capri, slowly, carefully learning to live fully for the first time, flourishing in the friendship of a singular man who recognizes in her a kindred spirit. Granddaughter of the reigning doyenne of Newport, Rhode Island, wise beyond her 16 years, Pell Davis is poised to take her place at the pinnacle of society. Yet she and her young sister still long for the mother who ran away from them when they were children so that they could be raised by the father they adored. Pell knows that Lyra felt she loved them best by leaving. But with her father now dead and her sister veering dangerously into fantasy, she will travel across an ocean to find the mother she remembers and the deeper truths they all need so desperately. Lyrical, unforgettable, Luanne Rice's new novel unfolds against a background of timeless beauty, as an unlikely love affair reshapes the meaning of devotion and three generations of women resist the pull of memory and tradition to find a new way forward.
©2009 Luanne Rice (P)2009 Random House
Zipporah, Wife of Moses
Summary
From the internationally best-selling author of Sarah comes the riveting story of the remarkable woman who walked beside Moses. Although she is a Cushite by birth - one of the people of the lands to the south - Zipporah grew up as the beloved daughter of Jethro, high priest and sage of the Midianites. But the color of Zipporahâs skin sets her apart, making her an outsider to the men of her adopted tribe, who do not want her as a wife. Then one day while drawing water from a well, she meets a handsome young stranger. Like her, he is an outsider. A Hebrew raised in the house of the Egyptian Pharaoh, Moses is a fugitive, forced to flee his homeland. Zipporah realizes that this man will be the husband and partner she never thought she would have. Moses wants nothing more than a peaceful life with the Midianites, but Zipporah wonât let Moses forget his past - or turn away from his true destiny. She refuses to marry him until he returns to Egypt to free his people. When God reveals himself to Moses in a burning bush, his words echo Zipporahâs, and Moses returns to Egypt with his passionate and generous wife by his side. A woman ahead of her time, Zipporah leaps from the chapters of this remarkable novel. Bold, independent, and a true survivor, she is a captivating heroine, and her world of deserts, temples, and ancient wonders is a fitting backdrop to an epic tale.Â
©2005 Marek Halter (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.
Somebody Else's Daughter
Summary
A novel of psychological suspense in which a private adoption's dark consequences play out years later, at an elite prep school in the Berkshires.
©2008 Elizabeth Brundage (P)2008 Penguin
Lilah
Summary
Set in the magnificent culture of the Middle East more than 4,000 years ago, Lilah is a rich and emotionally resonant story of faith, love, and courage. Living in exile, Lilah is in love with Antinoes, a Persian warrior. They have known each other since they were children, and Antinoes dearly wants to make Lilah his wife. Yet Lilah does not feel she can marry without the blessing of her brother, Ezra. She and Ezra are close, and Lilah knows her brother well - he does not want his sister to have a husband outside their faith. Ezra is a scholar of the laws of Moses, and Lilah believes it is her brother's destiny to lead the Jewish people back to the Promised Land. While Antinoes pressures her to accept his proposal, Lilah realizes that before she can consider her own happiness, it is her duty to help her brother accomplish the seemingly impossible task that is before him. Putting herself in grave danger, and with the help of Antinoes, Lilah wins Ezra an audience with Artaxerxes II, the King of Kings, who grants permission to lead the exiles on their journey back to the Promised Land. After a hazardous trip across the desert, Lilah, Ezra, and the thousands who join them arrive in Jerusalem. But the hardship of rebuilding the Temple takes its toll, and the religious enthusiasm of some turns to extremism. Ezra, listening to the zealots, orders all non-Jewish wives and their children banished from Jerusalem. Lilah, whose love for Antinoes has never wavered, is horrified by this command. She knows she must now choose between her brother and her conscience, which tells her that the time has come to defy him. Lilah is a timeless story of one woman's stand against intolerance; it will linger in the listener's mind long after the last moment.
©2006 Marek Halter (P)2006 Books on Tape
The Gunning of America
Summary
Americans have always loved guns. This special bond was forged during the American Revolution and sanctified by the Second Amendment. It is because of this exceptional relationship that American civilians are more heavily armed than the citizens of any other nation. Or so we're told. In The Gunning of America, historian Pamela Haag overturns this conventional wisdom. American gun culture, she argues, developed not because the gun was exceptional but precisely because it was not: guns proliferated in America because throughout most of the nation's history they were perceived as an unexceptional commodity, no different from buttons or typewriters. Focusing on the history of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, one of the most iconic arms manufacturers in America, Haag challenges many basic assumptions of how and when America became a gun culture. Under the leadership of Oliver Winchester and his heirs, the company used aggressive, sometimes ingenious sales and marketing techniques to create new markets for their product. Guns have never "sold themselves"; rather, through advertising and innovative distribution campaigns, the gun industry did. Through the meticulous examination of gun-industry archives, Haag challenges the myth of a primal bond between Americans and their firearms. Over the course of its 150-year history, the Winchester Repeating Arms Company sold over eight million guns. But Oliver Winchester - a shirtmaker in his previous career - had no apparent qualms about a life spent arming America. His daughter-in-law, Sarah Winchester, was a different story. Legend holds that Sarah was haunted by what she considered a vast blood fortune and became convinced that the ghosts of rifle victims were haunting her. In this provocative and deeply researched work of narrative history, Haag fundamentally revises the history of arms in America and, in so doing, explodes the clichés that have created and sustained our lethal gun culture.
©2016 Pamela Haag (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Troubled Refuge
Summary
A fascinating and original portrait of the escaped-slave refugee camps and how they shaped the course of emancipation and black citizenship. By the end of the Civil War, nearly half a million slaves had taken refuge behind Union lines in what became known as "contraband camps". These were crowded, dangerous places, yet some 12 to 15 percent of the Confederacy's slave population took almost unimaginable risks to reach them, and they became the first places Northerners came to know former slaves en masse. Ranging from stories of individuals to those of armies on the move to the debates in Congress, Troubled Refuge probes what the camps were really like and how former slaves and Union soldiers warily united there. This alliance, which would outlast the war, helped to destroy slavery and ward off the surprisingly tenacious danger of reenslavement. But it also raised unsettling questions about the relationship between American civil and military authority and reshaped the meaning of American citizenship to the benefit as well as the lasting cost of African Americans.
©2016 Chandra Manning (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Murder with Puffins
Summary
Meg Langslow and her boyfriend, Michael, are searching for some romantic alone time. She knows the perfect place for a private getaway: her aunt's cottage on the tiny island of Monhegan. But when a series of events leads to the couple being trapped in the cottage with her entire family, their private getaway vacation slowly turns into a disaster. Meg doesn't think anything more could go wrong until a resident of the island with close ties to her mother is murdered. When her father becomes the chief suspect, she knows she can no longer sit by the cozy fireplace. In a dash to save her father and her weekend, Meg finds herself knee deep in murder once again.
©2006 Donna Andrews (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
No Nest for the Wicket
Summary
The hilly terrain next to the old Sprocket house that Meg Langslow and her fiancé, Michael, are refurbishing is the perfect location for an extreme croquet field - even the legs of cows and sheep are convenient extra wickets. Croquet has become all the rage in Caerphilly...until it appears someone in town has taken the rage a bit too literally. While stumbling down a steep bank after her ball, Meg encounters the body of a fresh female corpse with a mallet-sized dent in her head. If that isn't reason enough to call a timeout, it turns out that Michael knew the woman from years before. Ever curious, Meg decides that playing armchair sleuth is far more important than working on her game.
©2016 Donna Andrews (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos
Summary
Yorktown, Virginia, is reliving its role in the Revolutionary War by celebrating the anniversary of the British surrender in 1781. This year, plans include a reenactment of the battle and a craft fair. Meg Langslow has returned to her home town for the festivities - and to sell her wrought-iron flamingos. Meg's also trying to keep her father from scaring too many tourists with his impersonation of an 18th-century physician - not to mention saving her brother from the clutches of a con man who might steal the computer game he's invented. It's a tough job - until the swindler is found dead, slain in Meg's booth with one of her wrought-iron creations. Now Meg must add another item to her to-do list: Don't forget to solve the murder!
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Secrets of a Fire King
Summary
Showcasing the intensity and perception of a truly gifted writer, this collection of stories by the author of the number-one New York Times best-seller The Memory Keeper's Daughter transports us to exotic locations as it follows the lives of those on the fringes of society: a fire-eater, an American and his Korean war bride, a juggler and a trapeze artist, and a cleaning woman whose life is interwoven with Marie Curie's. Each must confront, in dramatically differing ways, the barriers of time, place, and circumstance in that most universal of human experiences: the quest to discover, and understand, the elusive mysteries of love.
©1997 Kim Edwards (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., and Books on Tape. All rights reserved.
The Roberts Court
Summary
Seven minutes after President Obama put his signature to a landmark national health care insurance program, a lawyer in the office of Florida GOP attorney general Bill McCollum hit a computer key, sparking a legal challenge to the new law that would eventually reach the nationâs highest court. Health care is only the most visible and recent front in a battle over the meaning and scope of the U.S. Constitution. The battleground is the Supreme Court, and one of the most skilled, insightful, and trenchant of its observers takes us close up to watch it in action. The Roberts court, seven years old, is at the center of a constitutional maelstrom. Four landmark decisions - concerning health care, money in elections, guns at home, and race in schools - reveal the fault lines in a conservative-dominated court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. Marcia Coyleâs brilliant inside account of the high court captures how those cases began - the personalities and conflicts that catapulted them onto the national scene - and how they ultimately exposed the great divides among the justices, such as the originalists versus the pragmatists on guns and the Second Amendment, and corporate speech versus human speech in the controversial Citizens United campaign case. Most dramatically, her analysis shows how dedicated conservative lawyers and groups are strategizing to find cases and crafting them to bring up the judicial road to the Supreme Court with an eye on a receptive conservative majority. The Roberts Court offers a ringside seat at the struggle to lay down the law of the land.
©2013 Marcia Coyle (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Evening Spider
Summary
A gripping blend of psychological suspense and historical true crime, this riveting novel - inspired by a sensational real-life murder from the 1800s - by critically acclaimed author Emily Arsenault delivers a heart-stopping mystery linking two young mothers from different centuries. Frances Barnett and Abby Bernacki are two haunted young mothers living in the same house in two different centuries. In 1885, Frances Barnett is in the Northampton Lunatic Hospital, telling her story to a visitor. She has come to distrust her own memories and believes that her pregnancy, birth, and early days of motherhood may have impaired her sanity. During the earliest months of her baby's life, Frances eagerly followed the famous murder trial of Mary Stannard that captivated New Englanders with its salacious details and expert forensic testimony. Following - and even attending - this trial, Frances found an escape from the monotony of new motherhood. But as her story unfolds, Frances must admit that her obsession with the details of the murder were not entirely innocent. Present day: Abby has been adjusting to motherhood smoothly - until recently, when odd sensations and dreams have begun to unsettle her while home alone with her baby. When she starts to question the house's history, she is given the diary of Frances Barnett, who lived in the house 125 years earlier. Abby finds the diary disturbing and researches the Barnett family's history. The more Abby learns, the more she wonders about a negative - possibly supernatural - influence in her house. She becomes convinced that when she sleeps, she leaves her daughter vulnerable - and then vows not to sleep until she can determine the cause of her eerie experiences. Frances Barnett might not be the only new mother to lose her mind in this house. And like Frances, Abby discovers that by trying to uncover another's secrets, she risks awakening some of her own.
©2016 Emily Arsenault (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers
The Bathhouse
Summary
In the early days of the fundamentalist revolution in Iran, a 17-year-old girl is arrested because of her brother's involvement with leftist politics. She is placed in a makeshift jail, a former bathhouse, in which other women are also being held captive. With intense emotion and great literary skill, Moshiri gives voice to these prisoners, exploring their torment and struggle, but also their courage and humanity, in the face of tyrants. Based on interviews with real women who have been imprisoned, Farnoosh Moshiri's novel is a gripping and moving narrative of oppression, injustice, and the human spirit.
©2001 Farnoosh Moshiri (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.
Sarah: Book One of the Canaan Trilogy
Summary
The first novel in a dazzling new trilogy about the women of the Old Testament by internationally best-selling author Marek Halter. The story of Sarah - and of history itself - begins in the cradle of civilization: the Sumerian city-state of Ur, a land of desert heat, towering gardens, and immense wealth. The daughter of a powerful lord, Sarah is raised in great luxury, but balks at the arranged marriage her father has planned for her. The groom is handsome and a nobleman, but on their wedding day, Sarah panics and impulsively flees to the vast, empty marshes outside the city walls. There she meets a young man, Abram, a member of a nomadic tribe of outsiders. Drawn to this exotic stranger, Sarah spends the night with him, but reluctantly returns to her father's house. But on her return, still desperate to avoid another wedding, she drinks a poisonous potion that will make her barren and thus unfit for marriage.  Many years later, Abram's people return to Ur, and he discovers that the lost, rebellious girl from the marsh has been transformed into the most splendid and revered woman in Sumeria - the high priestess of the goddess Ishtar. But the memory of their night together has always haunted Sarah, and she gives up her exalted life to join Abram's tribe and follow the one true God, an invisible deity who speaks only to Abram. It is then that her journey truly begins - a journey that holds the key to her remarkable destiny as the mother of nations. From the great ziggurat of Ishtar and the fertile valleys of Canaan to the bedchamber of the mighty Pharaoh himself, Sarah's story reveals an ancient world full of beauty, intrigue, and miracles.
©2003 Marek Halter (P)2004 Books on Tape
Countdown
Summary
"Don't kill her. She's no good to us dead." These words haunt Jane MacGuire after a shocking attack shatters her world in an instant. Was it a random kidnapping attempt, or the countdown to something far more sinister? Who is after her, and what do they want so badly they'll kill anyone in their way? That's what Jane is determined to find out, without the help of the police, the FBI, or her adoptive parents, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan, and her husband, Joe Quinn, of the Atlanta PD, because whoever is after her won't hesitate to hurt those she loves the most. Now Jane will go on the run with the only man who may be more dangerous than those who are pursuing her. A smuggler, a con man, and who knew what else, Mark Trevor had his own mysterious reasons for wanting to keep Jane safe and out of the hands of a killer obsessed with a 2,000-year-old mystery that could rock the modern-day world. Orphaned at an early age, Jane grew up the hard way, but she was given a new life, a loving family, and a chance to pursue her interest in one of the greatest archaeological finds ever unearthed. Now someone was trying to destroy that new life before it could even get started. The past is returning with the kind of vengeance that knows no mercy. The countdown has already begun, and it's approaching zero faster than anyone thinks.
©2005 Iris Johansen (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.
The Majesty of the Law
Summary
In this remarkable book, a national best seller in hardcover, Sandra Day OâConnor explores the law, her life as a Supreme Court Justice, and how the Court has evolved and continues to function, grow, and change as an American institution. Tracing some of the origins of American law through history, people, ideas, and landmark cases, OâConnor sheds new light on the basics, exploring through personal observation the evolution of the Court and American democratic traditions. Straight-talking, clear-eyed, inspiring, The Majesty of the Law is more than a reflection on OâConnorâs own experiences as the first female Justice of the Supreme Court; it also reveals some of the things she has learned and believes about American law and life - reflections gleaned over her years as one of the most powerful and inspiring women in American history.Â
©2003 The Arizona Community Foundation (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.
Cold Case, Hot Accomplice
Summary
Best-selling author Carla Cassidy brings in the Men of Wolf Creek to seek a missing woman. Roxy Marcoli cares about three things - her restaurant, her sisters and her aunt Liz. When Liz disappears, she's forced to turn to shameless playboy cop Steve Kincaid. Every time the sexy detective turns on the charm, he gets Roxy's hackles up. Despite his reputation, Steve is no ladies' man. His casual flirting hides the pain of an unbearable loss. As they search for clues, he discovers what lies beneath Roxy's prickly exterior and sharp tongue. As his desire grows, so does his fear. Because it's not just Aunt Liz the killer wants - but Roxy, too.
©2013 Carla Cassidy (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Eventide
Summary
A young Amish woman harbors a difficult secret. Does she dare share the truth with the man she hopes to marry? Elsie Keim doesn't want to be left behind. Her twin sister, Viola, and her older brother, Roman, have both found love and are building lives of their own. But Elsie? She's still stuck at home, being treated like a child. No one seems to consider her a capable woman - all they see are the thick lenses of her glasses, constant reminders that Elsie suffers from keratoconus and is slowly going blind. Elsie knows there's much more to her than her disease. That's why when a new neighbor, Landon Troyer, shows some interest in her, she doesn't want anything to scare him awayâ¦even if it means keeping her condition a secret. Landon is ready to start a new life and feels like Elsie may just be the right woman to start it with. But when Roman steps in and shares the truth about Elsie's illness, Landon is floored. His job is demanding and takes him away from home, sometimes for days at a time. How could he keep up with his responsibilities and take care of Elsie? A riveting conclusion to the Days of Redemption series, Eventide reveals the power of love to illuminate even the darkest paths and how faith, family, and forgiveness can forge through any obstacle.
©2013 Shelley Shepard Gray (P)2013 HarperCollins Publishers
Making Haste from Babylon
Summary
At the end of 1618, a blazing green star soared across the night sky over the northern hemisphere. From the Philippines to the Arctic, the comet became a sensation and a symbol, a warning of doom or a promise of salvation. Two years later, as the Pilgrims prepared to sail across the Atlantic on board the Mayflower, the atmosphere remained charged with fear and expectation. Men and women readied themselves for war, pestilence, or divine retribution. Against this background, and amid deep economic depression, the Pilgrims conceived their enterprise of exile.
Within a decade, despite crisis and catastrophe, they built a thriving settlement at New Plymouth, based on beaver fur, corn, and cattle. In doing so, they laid the foundations for Massachusetts, New England, and a new nation.
Using a wealth of new evidence from landscape, archaeology, and hundreds of overlooked or neglected documents, Nick Bunker gives a vivid and strikingly original account of the Mayflower project and the first decade of the Plymouth Colony. From mercantile London and the rural England of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I to the mountains and rivers of Maine, he weaves a rich narrative that combines religion, politics, money, science, and the sea.
The Pilgrims were entrepreneurs as well as evangelicals, political radicals as well as Christian idealists. Making Haste from Babylon tells their story in unrivaled depth, from their roots in religious conflict and village strife at home to their final creation of a permanent foothold in America.
©2010 Nick Bunker (P)2010 Random House
A Deeper Sleep
Summary
In A Deeper Sleep, her first novel since Blindfold Game, the stand-alone political thriller that made Dana Stabenow a New York Times best seller, the author returns to the popular and award-winning Kate Shugak series. Kate, a private investigator, has been working on a case for the Anchorage District Attorney involving the murder of a young woman by her husband, a man named Louis Deem. Deem has been the subject of investigation before, and heâs never been convicted of a crime. But Kate and her on-again, off-again lover, state trooper Jim Chopin, who arrested Deem, are convinced that this time itâs different, and heâll finally be punished for his actions. When the jury returns a verdict of not guilty, Kate and Jim are devastated, and like the rest of the citizens of Niniltna, Alaska, certain that a man has gotten away with murder. They canât help but think that itâs only a matter of time before heâs in the frame for another killing. Sure enough, a few weeks later, a shooting leaves two dead in an apparent robbery. But this time, Kate and Jim have a witness, and theyâre not going to let Louis Deem get away again. Or will he? Dana Stabenow, Edgar Award®-winning author and New York Times best-selling thriller writer, delivers a gripping nail-biter about one townâs search for justice - at any cost.
©2007 Dana Stabenow (P)2007 Books on Tape
Beyond This Moment
Summary
Dismissed from the university where she served as professor of romantic languages, Dr. Molly Whitcomb travels west to start over in the secluded mountain town of Timber Ridge, Colorado, where she'll be teaching children. Her train stops in Denver, and on a whim, Molly purchases a wedding band - an attempt to cover a mistake, but also a chance at a fresh start. Sheriff James McPherson was eager to hire a schoolteacher, but Dr. Whitcomb isn't what he expected. His instincts about people - which rarely miss the mark - tell him she's hiding something. And when Molly's secret is revealed, her reinvented life begins to unravel. What's more, she risks losing her new-found relationship with the sheriff and her renewed faith in God.
©2009 Tamera Alexander (P)2009 christianaudio.com
The Many-Colored Land
Summary
This is a spellbinding tale woven of equal parts epic and myth - with a liberal dash of hard science fiction. When a one-way time tunnel to Earthâs distant past, specifically six million B.C., was discovered by folks on the Galactic Milieu, every misfit for light-years around hurried to pass through it. Each sought his own brand of happiness. But none could have guessed what awaited them. Not even in a million years. In the early 22nd century, many humans are being born with psychic powers and are linked in a single galactic mind. Those without these psychic powers - the misfits, undesirables, criminals, and radicals - have a choice: mental reprogramming or exile. Exile, voluntary or otherwise, takes them back six million years, to a time between the extinction of dinosaurs and the rise of Homo sapiens, and to a time of exotic surprises and unknown dangers. Julian May lives in Washington state and has been writing science fiction and fantasy for more than 30 years.
©1981 Julian May (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Pioneer Girl
Summary
Jobless with a PhD, Lee Lien returns home to her Chicago suburb from grad school, only to find herself contending with issues she's evaded since college. But when her brother disappears, he leaves behind an object from their mother's Vietnam past that stirs up a forgotten childhood dream: a gold-leaf brooch, abandoned by an American reporter in Saigon back in 1965, that might be an heirloom belonging to Laura Ingalls Wilder.
As Lee explores the tenuous facts of this connection, she unearths more than expected - a trail of clues and enticements that lead her from the dusty stacks of library archives to hilarious prairie life reenactments and ultimately to San Francisco, where her findings will transform strangers' lives as well as her own.
©2014 Bich Minh Nguyen (P)2014 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Purple Diaries
Summary
1936 was a great year for the movie industry - the financial setbacks of the Great Depression were subsiding, so theater attendance was up. Americans everywhere were watching the stars, and few stars shined as brightly as one of America's most enduring screen favorites, Mary Astor. But Astor's personal story wasn't a happy one. Born poor and widowed at 24, Mary Astor had spent years looking for stability when she met and wed Dr. Franklyn Thorpe. The marriage had been rocky from the start and both were unfaithful, but they did not divorce before Mary Astor gave birth to little Marylyn Thorpe. What followed was a custody battle that pushed the Spanish Civil War and Hitler's 1936 Olympics off the front page all over America. Although Astor and Thorpe were both ruthless fighters, Thorpe held a trump card: the two diaries Mary Astor had been keeping for years. In these diaries, Astor detailed her own affairs as well as the myriad dalliances of some of Hollywood's biggest names. The studio heads, longtime controllers of public perception, were desperate to keep such juicy details from leaking. At risk from the information in those diaries was an entire fledgling industry. With the support of the Astor family, including unlimited access to the photographs and memorabilia of Mary Astor's estate, Joseph Egan presents a portrait of a great film actress in her most challenging role - a determined mother battling for her daughter, regardless of the harm that her affairs and her most intimate secrets could do to her career, the careers of her friends, or even Hollywood itself.
©2016 Joseph Egan (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Local Custom
Summary
The first of the seven books set in the Liaden Universe tells a rich and sweeping story of warring families and star-crossed lovers in a fantastic, other-world galaxy.
©2001 Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
A Star for Mrs. Blake
Summary
The United States Congress in 1929 passed legislation to fund travel for mothers of the fallen soldiers of World War I to visit their sonsâ graves in France. Over the next three years, 6,693 Gold Star Mothers made the trip. In this emotionally charged, brilliantly realized novel, April Smith breathes life into a unique moment in American history, imagining the experience of five of these women. They are strangers at the start, but their lives will become inextricably intertwined, altered in indelible ways. These very different Gold Star Mothers travel to the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery to say final good-byes to their sons and come together along the way to face the unexpected: a death, a scandal, and a secret revealed. None of these pilgrims will be as affected as Cora Blake, who has lived almost her entire life in a small fishing village off the coast of Maine, caring for her late sisterâs three daughters, hoping to fill the void left by the death of her son, Sammy, who was killed on a scouting mission during the final days of the war. Cora believes she is managing as well as can be expected in the midst of the Depression, but nothing has prepared her for what lies ahead on this unpredictable journey, including an extraordinary encounter with an expatriate American journalist, Griffin Reed, who was wounded in the trenches and hides behind a metal mask, one of hundreds of "tin noses" who became symbols of the war. With expert storytelling, memorable characters, and beautiful prose, April Smith gives us a timeless story, by turns heartwarming and heartbreaking, set against a footnote of history - little known, yet unforgettable.
©2014 April Smith (P)2014 Random House Audio
Dating Is Murder
Summary
Wollie Shelley is a greeting card artist struggling to keep afloat financially and to pursue - despite a series of recent disasters - the search for the love of her life. She reluctantly agrees to be a contestant on the reality television show Biological Clock. The show's premise: six eligible singles date each other, and the audience votes on which couple would make the best parents. Alas, Wollie isn't having much luck finding a man she'd like to date "off the air", much less father her child. As the biological clock ticks away, Wollie gets caught up in a much more pressing demand on her time. Her friend Annika has vanished into thin air and Wollie is convinced that she's in grave danger. When Wollie reports the disappearance to the Los Angeles Police Department, however, the detective assigned to the case seems more interested in dating Wollie than in finding her friend. So Wollie springs into action - and lands right in the middle of an FBI investigation into an international drug cartel. She soon finds herself being stalked by an assortment of threatening characters, including her fellow television contestants, who will stop at nothing to beat the clock. With Dating Is Murder, Kozak delivers another sparkling treasure, a laugh-out-loud funny, literate mystery for readers of Janet Evanovich and Sue Grafton, and for Kozak's own growing legion of fans.
©2005 Harley Jane Kozak (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.
Scout's Progress
Summary
The second novel of the Liaden Universe, Scout's Progress is the story of a young girl who has won a starship, but now must learn to fly if she is to escape her dastardly brother.
©2001 Sharon Lee and Steve Miller (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The Search
Summary
In the midst of a murder investigation in the heart of Amish country, one young policeman finds his heart led astray. The serenity of the quiet Amish community of Marion, Kentucky, is disrupted when the body of Perry Borntrager is discovered in an abandoned well. Now the small town faces the first death by mysterious circumstances in more than twenty years, and Detective Luke Reynolds is brought in to help investigate. But before he can solve the crime, he faces unexpected feelings for Frannie, the Amish owner of the local bed-and-breakfast. Though they butt heads at first, Luke finds himself drawn to Frannie's bedside when she's injured in a kitchen accident. Soon it becomes clear that Frannie knew Perry better than she let on.... They'd been secretly courting when he disappeared. Has Luke fallen for the very woman responsible for the crime?
©2012 Shelley Shepard Gray (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers
Madam President
Summary
An up-close look at Edith Wilson, a first lady with unequaled responsibilities during her husband's presidency. After President Woodrow Wilson suffered a paralyzing stroke in the fall of 1919, his wife, First Lady Edith Wilson, began to handle the day-to-day responsibilities of the chief executive. Mrs. Wilson had had little formal education and had only been married to President Wilson for four years, yet in the tenuous peace following the end of World War I, she dedicated herself to managing the office of the president, reading all correspondence intended for her bedridden husband. Though her Oval Office authority was acknowledged in Washington circles at the time - one senator called her "the presidentress who had fulfilled the dream of suffragettes by changing her title from First Lady to Acting First Man" - her legacy as the first woman president is now largely forgotten. William Hazelgrove's Madam President is a vivid, engaging portrait of the woman who became the acting president of the United States in 1919, months before women officially won the right to vote.
©2016 William Hazelgrove (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Kingfisher
Summary
In the new fantasy from the award-winning author of the Riddle-Master Trilogy, a young man comes of age amid family secrets and revelations - and transformative magic. Hidden away from the world by his mother, the powerful sorceress Heloise Oliver, Pierce has grown up working in her restaurant in Desolation Point. One day, unexpectedly, strangers pass through town on the way to the legendary capital city. "Look for us," they tell Pierce, "if you come to Severluna. You might find a place for yourself in King Arden's court." Lured by a future far away from the bleak northern coast, Pierce makes his choice. Heloise, bereft and furious, tells her son the truth: about his father, a knight in King Arden's court; about an older brother he never knew existed; about his father's destructive love for King Arden's queen and Heloise's decision to raise her younger son alone. As Pierce journeys to Severluna, his path twists and turns through other lives and mysteries: an inn where ancient rites are celebrated, though no one will speak of them; a legendary local chef whose delicacies leave diners slowly withering from hunger; his mysterious wife, who steals Pierce's heart; a young woman whose need to escape is even greater than Pierce's; and finally, in Severluna, King Arden's youngest son, who is urged by strange and lovely forces to sacrifice his father's kingdom. Things are changing in that kingdom. Oldmagic is on the rise. The immensely powerful artifact of an ancient god has come to light, and the king is gathering his knights to quest for this profound mystery, which may restore the kingdom to its former glory - or destroy it....
©2016 Patricia A. McKillip (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
For My Own
Summary
Snowy days and steamy nights... This year, a modern-day Scrooge learns the true meaning of Christmas with the help of a suddenly sexy old friend. A down-on-his-luck baseball star finds a beautiful new beginning with a hometown girl. And a prim-and-proper teacher is determined to bring out the holiday spirit in a grumpy tree farmer. Settle in for the season with this collection of very merry short fiction.
©2013 Alison Packard, Shari Mikels, and Kinley Cade (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Time's Magpie
Summary
From the critically acclaimed best-selling author of Bee Season comes a travelogue through the magical and historic city of Prague, a city of vast beauty and wonderfully intimate detail. In Time's Magpie, Myla Goldberg uses her eye for the wonder of tiny objects and everyday things to put us in touch with the essence of this haunting and fantastical place. Goldberg takes us through the city's historic streets, some eerily transformed by the devastating flood of 2002; to Lunapark, home to bumper cars, go-carts, and a discomfiting array of Technicolor confections; and through Strahov Monastery, where the cabinets of curiosity display everything from butterfly specimens to a supposedly real jabberwocky. We attend an anti-war protest in Old Town square and watch the skateboarders do tricks on a ramped marble pedestal that once held a statue of Lenin.
©2004 Myla Goldberg (P)2004 Books on Tape
The Secret Lives of Wives
Summary
A best-selling, groundbreaking author investigates wives who thrive, sharing their uncensored strategies for staying married. Americaâs high divorce rate is well known, but little attention has been paid to the flip side: couples who creatively (sometimes clandestinely) manage to build marriages that last longer than we ever thought possible. Whatâs the secret? To find out, best-selling journalist Iris Krasnow interviewed more than 200 wives whose marriages have survived for 15-70 years. They are a diverse cast, yet they share one common and significant trait: they have made bold, sometimes secretive and shocking, choices on how to keep their marital vows, âtill death do us part,â as Krasnow says, âwithout killing someone first.â In raw, candid, titillating stories, Krasnowâs cast of wise women give voice to the truth about marriage and the importance of maintaining a strong sense of self apart from the relationship. Some spend summers apart. Some make time for wine with the girls. One septuagenarian has a recurring date with an old flame from high school. In every case, the marriage operates on many tracks, giving both spouses license to pursue the question, who am I apart from my marriage? Krasnowâs goal is to give women permission to create their own marriages at any age. Marital bliss is possible, she says, if each partner is blissful apart from the other. A fascinating window on the many faces of modern relationships, The Secret Lives of Wives brims with inspiring and daring examples of women who have it both ways: a committed marriage and personal adventures in uncharted territory. For anyone who wants to stay married and stay sane, this is the book to read.
©2011 Iris Krasnow (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Submission
Summary
Claire Harwell hasn't settled into grief; events haven't let her. Cool, eloquent, raising two fatherless children, Claire has emerged as the most visible of the 9/11 widows who became a potent political force in the aftermath of the catastrophe. She longs for her husband, but she has found her mission: she sits on a jury charged with selecting a fitting memorial for the victims of the attack. Of the thousands of anonymous submissions that she and her fellow jurors examine, one transfixes Claire: a garden on whose walls the names of the dead are inscribed. But when the winning envelope is opened, they find the designer is Mohammad Khan - Mo - an enigmatic Muslim-American who, it seems, feels no need to represent anyone's beliefs except his own.
When the design and its creator are leaked, a media firestorm erupts, and Claire finds herself trying to balance principles against emotions amid escalating tensions about the place of Islam in America.
A remarkably bold and ambitious debut, The Submission is peopled with journalists, activists, mourners, and bureaucrats who struggle for advantage and fight for their ideals. In this deeply humane novel, the breadth of Amy Waldman's cast of characters is matched by her startling ability to conjure individual lives from their own points of view. A striking portrait of a city - and a country - fractured by old hatreds and new struggles, The Submission is a major novel by an important new talent.
©2011 AudioGO (P)2011 Amy Waldman
The Face of War
Summary
Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) was a war correspondent for nearly 50 years. From the Spanish Civil War in 1937 through the wars in Central America in the mid-'80s, her candid reports reflected her feelings for people no matter what their political ideologies, and the openness and vulnerability of her conscience. "I wrote very fast, as I had to," she says, "afraid that I would forget the exact sound, smell, words, gestures, which were special to this moment and this place." Whether in Java, Finland, the Middle East, or Vietnam, she used the same vigorous approach. Collected here together for the first time, The Face of War is what The New York Times called "a brilliant anti-war book".
©1936, 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1959, 1966, 1967, 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 Martha Gellhorn. The reports on the War in Spain, the War in Finland, the War in China, and the First World War first appeared in Collier's; the report on the War in Java appeared in The Saturday Evening Post; "The Paths of Glory" in Collier's; "They Talked of Peace" in The New Republic; "Suffer the Little Children" in Ladies' Home JournaI; the reports on the War in Vietnam and the Six Day War were published in The Guardian (London), and the articles on Wars in Central America in The New Statesman (London). Recorded by arrangement with Grove Atlantic, Inc. (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Into the Still Blue
Summary
The race to the Still Blue has reached a stalemate. Aria and Perry are determined to find this last safe haven from the Aether storms before Sable and Hess do - and they are just as determined to stay together. Within the confines of a cave they're using as a makeshift refuge, they struggle to reconcile their people, Dwellers and Outsiders, who are united only in their hatred of their desperate situation. Meanwhile, time is running out to rescue Cinder, who was abducted by Hess and Sable for his unique abilities. Then Roar arrives in a grief-stricken fury, endangering all with his need for revenge. Out of options, Perry and Aria assemble an unlikely team for an impossible rescue mission. Cinder isn't just the key to unlocking the Still Blue and their only hope for survival - he's also their friend. And in a dying world, the bonds between people are what matter most. In this final audiobook in her earth-shattering Under the Never Sky trilogy, Veronica Rossi raises the stakes to their absolute limit and brings her epic love story to an unforgettable close.
©2014 Veronica Rossi (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers
The Geometry of Sisters
Summary
What is one sister without the other? Is it even possible to imagine? New York Times best-selling author Luanne Rice explores with penetrating insight the complex emotional equations of love and loyalty that hold together three pairs of remarkable sisters a bond that proves powerful and true even in the face of loss and tragedy. Here in the halls of Newport Academy, a unique private school that has attracted generations of rebels, outcasts, and visionaries, a poignant and unforgettable lesson in the eternal truths of sisterhood is about to begin. After years away, Maggie Shaw has returned to Newport to teach English at the academy. Behind her lies her life as the perfect midwestern wife and mother, a life that seemed on the surface to be all she had ever wished for. Ahead lie long-buried truths cracked open by the unfathomable loss of her husband and eldest daughter. Newport has never failed to infuse Maggie with a sense of mystery, romance, and hope. But for 14-year-old Beck, the move is a painful upheaval from everything she has ever loved, especially her sister, Carrie. Ever since her father and sister disappeared into the storm-tossed waters off Mackinac Island, Beck has retreated into the world of mathematics, where principles are permanent, unlike so many other things in life. Without Carrie, Beck has lost half of herself, the half that would have fit in at the elite private school she and her brother, Travis, will now attend. The half that made things right. Still, Beck clings to the hope that her sister will return. For her body remains undiscovered and only Beck knows about Carrie's last day, about her plans. Beck isn't alone in her struggle to adjust. At 16, Travis is juggling a long-distance first love and an attraction to an expensive-looking girl with a wicked sparkle in her eye. And for Maggie, ghosts linger here, an unresolved breach with her own beloved sister and a long-ago secret that may now have the power to set her free.
©2009 Luanne Rice (P)2009 Random House
Threading the Needle
Summary
From New York Times best-selling author Marie Bostwick comes a beautiful novel of sisterhood lost and found - and of the ways we create the rich tapestries that encompass the past and the future. The economic downturn has hit New Bern, Connecticut, and Tessa Woodruffâs herbal apothecary shop, For the Love of Lavender, is suffering. So is her once-happy 34-year marriage to Lee. Theyâd given up everything to come back to New Bern from Boston and start their business, but now theyâre wondering if they made the right decision. To relieve the strain, Tessa signs up for a quilting class at the Cobbled Court Quilt Shop and, to her surprise, rediscovers the power of sisterhood - along with the childhood friend she thought sheâd lost forever. Madelyn Beecher left New Bern 20 years ago and never looked back. But when her husband is convicted of running a Ponzi scheme and sheâs left with nothing but her late grandmotherâs cottage, she is forced to return to the town she fled. Unfortunately, the cottage is in terrible shape. Madelynâs only hope is to transform it into an inn. But to succeed, sheâll need the help of her fellow quilters, including the one friend she never thought sheâd see again - or forgive. Now Madelyn and Tessa will have to relive old memories, forge new ones, and realize itâs possible to start over, one stitch at a time - as long as youâre surrounded by friends. Marie Bostwick was born and raised in the Northwest. She and her family have moved a score of times, living in eight U.S. states and two Mexican cities, and collecting a vast and cherished array of friends and experiences. She has three handsome sons and now lives with her husband in Connecticut, where she writes, reads, quilts, and is active in her local church.
©2011 Marie Bostwick (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
We Are Satellites
Summary
From award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them. Everybody's getting one. Val and Julie just want whatâs best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all. Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device. Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it's everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot's powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most.
©2021 Sarah Pinsker (P)2021 Penguin Audio
The Twelve Jays of Christmas
Summary
The cast of Donna Andrewsâ New York Times best-selling Meg Langslow mystery series is back for an unforgettable holiday story in The Twelve Jays of Christmas. Meg's brother Rob and his fiancé Delaney have been engaged for some time now. In fear of their mothersâ propensity for over-the-top celebrations, they decide to throw a party just before Christmas and then elope. When a blizzard traps their guests inside, the two mothers find out about the planned elopement and start trying to pull together the kind of over-the-top event the couple was trying to avoid in the first place. To make matters worse, a murder is afoot. Will Meg manage to help the snowbound would-be eloping couple thwart their mothers' grandiose wedding plans and solve a murder among the assembled friends and relatives? A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books
©2021 Donna Andrews (P)2021 Macmillan Audio
The Right Address
Summary
The Right Address sears through the upper crust of New York's glittering Park Avenue scene to dish the dirt on the ladies who lunch, the gents who club, and the desperate climbers who will stop at nothing to join the backstabbing, champagne-sipping, socialite-eat-socialite stratosphere. When Melanie Sartomsky, wily Floridian flight attendant, snares billionaire divorcie Arthur "the coffin king" Korn, she is catapulted into the creme de la creme of Park Avenue society, where hiring the wrong decorator is tantamount to social suicide, and where, if you're anyone, your personal assistant has a personal assistant. But Melanie quickly discovers that in the world of the rich and idle, malicious gossip is as de rigeur as owning 20 pairs of Manolo Blahniks. And despite her frenzied plunge into the charity circuit and the right dinner reservations, her neighbors are Givenchy-clad vultures who see her as nothing more than a reinvented trailer trollop. To make matters worse, when a snide society-rag journalist rakes her over the coals, Melanie's reputation is toast. Meanwhile, Melanie is not the only billionaire in the neighborhood coming unhinged. Kleptomania, adultery, plagiarism, and a grisly Harlem sex murder are just a few of the secrets swirling under the pedigreed patina of furs and emeralds on Park Avenue. Authors Jill Kargman and Carrie Karasyov know a thing or two about their subject matter. They met at the Upper East Side's chic Spence School and claim that The Right Address is inspired by "the insane socialites we've eavesdropped on our entire lives." Meow. So kick off your Jimmy Choos, crack open the Veuve Clicquot, and get ready for a rollicking, unforgettable tour of the richer-and-bitchier-than-thou set.
©2004 C. Karasyov and J. Kargman (P)2004 Books on Tape
Same Beach, Next Year
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Dorothea Benton Frank returns to her magical Lowcountry of South Carolina in this bewitching story of marriage, love, family, and friendship that is infused with her warm and engaging earthy humor and generous heart. One enchanted summer, two couples begin a friendship that will last more than 20 years and transform their lives. A chance meeting on the Isle of Palms, one of Charleston's most stunning barrier islands, brings former sweethearts Adam Stanley and Eve Landers together again. Their respective spouses, Eliza and Carl, fight sparks of jealousy flaring from their imagined rekindling of old flames. As Adam and Eve get caught up on their lives, their partners strike up a deep friendship - and flirt with an unexpected attraction - of their own. Year after year Adam, Eliza, Eve, and Carl eagerly await their reunion at Wild Dunes, a condominium complex at the island's tip end, where they grow closer with each passing day, building a friendship that will withstand financial catastrophe, family tragedy, and devastating heartbreak. The devotion and love they share will help them weather the vagaries of time and enrich their lives as circumstances change, their children grow up and leave home, and their twilight years approach. Bursting with the intoxicating richness of Dorothea Benton Frank's beloved Lowcountry - the sultry sunshine, cool ocean breezes, icy cocktails, and starry velvet skies - Same Beach, Next Year is a dazzling celebration of the infrangible power of friendship, the enduring promise of summer, and the indelible bonds of love.
©2017 Dorothea Benton Frank (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did
Summary
Social networks are the defining cultural movement of our time, empowering us in constantly evolving ways. We can all now be reporters, alerting the world to breaking news; participate in crowd-sourced scientific research; and become investigators, helping the police solve crimes. Social networks have even helped to bring down governments. But they have also greatly accelerated the erosion of our personal privacy rights - and anyone could become a victim. If Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest nation in the world. While that nation appears to be a comforting small town in which we socialize with our selective group of friends, it and the rest of the Web are actually lawless frontiers of hidden and unpredictable dangers. The same power of information that can topple governments can destroy a personâs career or marriage. As leading expert on social networks and privacy Lori Andrews shows through groundbreaking research and a host of stunning stories of abuses, as we work and chat and shop and date over the Web, we are opening ourselves up to increasingly intrusive and anonymous surveillance by employers, schools, lawyers, the police, and aggressive data aggregator services. Some mobile Web devices are even being programmed to listen in on us and feed data services a steady stream of information about what we are doing. Even the best services canât remove our personal data from the Web for long. As Andrews shows, the legal system cannot be counted on to protect us. In the thousands of cases brought to trial by those whose rights have been violated, judges have most often ruled against them. That is why, in addition to revealing the dangers and providing the best expert advice about protecting ourselves, Andrews proposes that we all become supporters of a constitution for the Web, which she has drafted and introduces in this book. Now is the time to join her and take action - the very future of privacy is at stake. Lori Andrews is a law professor and the director of the Institute for Science, Law, and Technology at Illinois Institute of Technology. She has served as a regular advisor to the US government on ethical issues regarding new technologies and was the chair of the federal committee on ethical and legal issues concerning the Human Genome Project.
©2011 Lori Andrews (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.