The Book of Lost Friends
Summary
New York Times best seller ⢠From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a new historical novel: the dramatic story of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her studentsâ lives. Best-selling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual "Lost Friends" advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away. Louisiana, 1875: In the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Laviniaâs Creole half-sister. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following roads rife with vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of stolen inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and siblings before slaveryâs end, the pilgrimage west reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope. Louisiana, 1987: For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt - until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, is suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled live oaks and run-down plantation homes lie the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.
©2020 Lisa Wingate (P)2020 Random House Audio
Who Could That Be At This Hour?
Summary
In a fading town, far from anyone he knew or trusted, a young Lemony Snicket began his apprenticeship in an organization nobody knows about. He began asking questions that shouldn't have been on his mind. In this title, he has written an account that should not be published and shouldn't be listened to. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
©2012 Lemony Snicket (P)2012 Audible Ltd
Asgard
Summary
In the final chapter of the A Shrouded World saga, Jack, Trip, and Mike have brought the fight to the Whistlersâ terrifying homeworld. With the help of some unexpected allies, the crew must finally find a way to stop the enemy before they can tear through the planes of existence and destroy all life. What they donât know, what they canât know, is that there is so much more to the enemy than they previously thought, and defeating them may be an impossible task. Will our heroes be able to stop the enormous war machine and return home, or will they perish in the attempt? Come along on this fast-paced thrill ride to its ultimate conclusion!
©2020 Mark Tufo, John O'Brien (P)2020 Audible, Inc.
Much Ado About Nutmeg
Summary
Wedding bells are in the air-along with the aroma of maple syrup - in the latest Pancake House Mystery. But a series of murders threatens to spoil everyone's appetite.... Between tourist season, planning her beach wedding, and running her pancake house, the Flip Side, Marley McKinney is busier than ever. On top of that, one of her regulars is competing in Wildwood Cove's Golden Oldies Games - a sporting event for athletes 50 and over - and Marley wants to cheer her on. Everything's running as smooth as batter - until sports reporter Yvonne Pritchard stirs up a triple batch of trouble... Yvonne has one admirer in town - Ed Herman - but she has many more enemies, from a disgruntled coach to an athlete she once shamed on social media. So when a body washes up on shore, and it's no accident, it's not a complete surprise Yvonne is the victim. And when Ed asks Marley to use her sleuthing skills to solve the crime, she'll have to squeeze in time between squeezing into wedding dresses. Then a second victim turns up, and Marley will have to work at high speed to stop a killer from piling up bodies faster than she can whip up a tall stack...
©2020 Sarah Fox (P)2020 Tantor
Trigger Warning
Summary
Neil Gaiman returns to dazzle, captivate, haunt, and entertain with this third collection of short fiction following Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things--which includes a never-before-published American Gods story, "Black Dog", written exclusively for this volume. In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well as "Black Dog", a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection. Trigger Warning explores the masks we all wear and the people we are beneath them to reveal our vulnerabilities and our truest selves. Here is a rich cornucopia of horror and ghost stories, science fiction and fairy tales, fabulism and poetry that explore the realm of experience and emotion. In "Adventure Story"--a thematic companion to The Ocean at the End of the Lane--Gaiman ponders death and the way people take their stories with them when they die. His social media experience "A Calendar of Tales" are short takes inspired by replies to fan tweets about the months of the year--stories of pirates and the March winds, an igloo made of books, and a Mother's Day card that portends disturbances in the universe. Gaiman offers his own ingenious spin on Sherlock Holmes in his award-nominated mystery tale "The Case of Death and Honey". And "Click-Clack the Rattlebag" explains the creaks and clatter we hear when we're all alone in the darkness. Full of wonder and terror, surprises and amusements, Trigger Warning is a treasury of delights that engage the mind, stir the heart, and shake the soul from one of the most unique and popular literary artists of our day.
©2015 Neil Gaiman (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers
Eliza Starts a Rumor
Summary
The author of Nine Women, One Dress delivers a charming, unforgettable novel about four women, one little lie, and the big repercussions that unite them all. It wasnât supposed to happen this way. When Eliza Hunt created the Hudson Valley Ladiesâ Bulletin Board 15 years ago, she was happily entrenched in her picture-perfect suburban life with her husband and twin preschoolers. Now, with an empty nest and a crippling case of agoraphobia, the once-fun hobby has become her lifeline. So, when a rival parenting forum threatens the siteâs existence, she doesnât think twice before fabricating a salacious rumor to spark things up a bit. It doesnât take long before that spark becomes a flame. Across town, new mom and site devotee Olivia York is thrown into a tailspin by what she reads on the Bulletin Board. Allison Le is making cyber friends with a woman who isnât quite who she says she is. And Amanda Cole, Elizaâs childhood friend, may just hold the key to unearthing why Eliza canât step out of her front door. In all this chaos, one thing is for sure.... Hudson Valley will never be the same. Funny, romantic, raw, and hopeful, this is a story about being a woman and of the healing power of sisterhood.
©2020 Jane L. Rosen (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Max and the Midknights: Battle of the Bodkins
Summary
Max takes on knight school in the hilarious sequel to the New York Times best-selling illustrated novel Max and the Midknights, from the author of the Big Nate series! "Fantastic! I loved it!" (Dav Pikley, New York Times best-selling author of the Dog Man series) "Max is epic fun!" (Jeff Kinney, New York Times best-selling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series) Max didn't expect knight school to be so tough. Luckily, she has her best friends - the Midknights - at her side. But when Byjovia is under attack, the Midknights will have to face beastly creatures, powerful spells, and their greatest foe yet - themselves? Lincoln Peirce, author of the New York Times best-selling Max & the Midknights, brings more laughs, more adventures, and more silliness to Battle of the Bodkins, book two in the Max & the Midknights series.Â
©2020 Lincoln Peirce (P)2020 Listening Library
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020
Summary
The best science fiction and fantasy stories from 2019, guest-edited by author of the mega-best-selling Outlander series Diana Gabaldon. Todayâs fans of science fiction and fantasy have an appetite for stories that address a wide variety of voices, perspectives, and styles. There is an openness to experiment and pushing boundaries, combined with the classic desire to hear about spaceships and dragons, future technology and ancient magic, and the places where they intersect. Contemporary science fiction and fantasy looks to accomplish the same goal as ever - to illuminate what it means to be human. With a diverse selection of stories chosen by series editor John Joseph Adams and Diana Gabaldon, The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 explores the ever-expanding and changing world of SFF today.
©2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
Rebel Cinderella
Summary
From the best-selling author of King Leopold's Ghost and Spain in Our Hearts comes the astonishing but forgotten story of an immigrant sweatshop worker who married an heir to a great American fortune and became one of the most charismatic radical leaders of her time. Rose Pastor arrived in New York City in 1903, a Jewish refugee from Russia who had worked in cigar factories since the age of 11. Two years later, she captured headlines across the globe when she married James Graham Phelps Stokes, scion of one of the legendary 400 families of New York high society. Together, this unusual couple joined the burgeoning Socialist Party and, over the next dozen years, moved among the liveliest group of activists and dreamers this country has ever seen. Their friends and houseguests included Emma Goldman, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene V. Debs, John Reed, Margaret Sanger, Jack London, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Rose stirred audiences to tears and led strikes of restaurant waiters and garment workers. She campaigned alongside the countryâs earliest feminists to publicly defy laws against distributing information about birth control, earning her notoriety as âone of the dangerous influences of the countryâ from President Woodrow Wilson. But in a way no one foresaw, her too-short life would end in the same abject poverty with which it began. By a master of narrative nonfiction, Rebel Cinderella unearths the rich, overlooked life of a social-justice campaigner who was truly ahead of her time. Lisa Flanagan is an award-winning narrator, voice actor, stage director, improviser, opera librettist, and classical singer. Her VO work includes animation, video games, and commercials. Lisa has received multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, Voice Arts Awards, and the 2019 Audie Award winner for Fantasy (Spinning Silver). She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her cats.
©2020 Adam Hochschild (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
The Winemaker's Wife
Summary
From the author of the âengrossingâ (People) and âpoignantâ (Booklist) international best seller The Room on Rue Amélie comes a remarkable and moving story of love, danger, and betrayal: two women in France in the darkest days of World War II and another in present-day America on a quest to uncover the secret that connects them. At the dawn of the Second World War, Inès is the young wife of Michel, owner of the House of Chauveau, a small champagne winery nestled among rolling vineyards near Reims, France. Marrying into a storied champagne empire was supposed to be a dream come true, but Inès feels increasingly isolated, purposely left out of the business by her husband; his chef de cave, Theo; and Theoâs wife, Sarah. But these disappointments pale in comparison to the increasing danger from German forces pouring across the border. At first, itâs merely the Nazi weinführer coming to demand the choicest champagne for Hitlerâs cronies, but soon, there are rumors of Jewish townspeople being rounded up and sent east to an unspeakable fate. The war is on their doorstep, and no one in Inèsâs life is safe - least of all Sarah, whose father is Jewish, or Michel, who has recklessly begun hiding munitions for the Résistance in the champagne caves. Inès realizes she has to do something to help. Sarah feels as lost as Inès does, but she doesnât have much else in common with Michelâs young wife. Inès seems to have it made, not least of all because as a Catholic, sheâs âsafe.â Sarah, on the other hand, is terrified about the fate of her parents - and about her own future as the Germans begin to rid the Champagne region of Jews. When Sarah makes a dangerous decision to follow her heart in a desperate bid to find some meaning in the ruin, it endangers the lives of all those she cares about - and the champagne house theyâve all worked so hard to save. In the present, Liv Kent has just lost her job - and her marriage. Her wealthy but aloof Grandma Edith, sensing that Liv needs a change of scenery before she hits rock bottom, insists that Liv accompany her on a trip to France. But the older woman has an ulterior motive - and some difficult but important information to share with her granddaughter. As Liv begins to uncover long-buried family secrets, she finds herself slowly coming back to life. When past and present intertwine at last, she may finally find a way forward, along a difficult road that leads straight to the winding caves beneath the House of Chauveau. Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannahâs The Nightingale and Kate Quinnâs The Alice Network, The Winemakerâs Wife is an evocative and gorgeously wrought novel that examines how the choices we make in our darkest hours can profoundly change our lives - and how hope can come from the places we least expect.
©2019 Kristin Harmel (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio
Ribbons of Scarlet
Summary
Six best-selling and award-winning authors bring to life a breathtaking epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires, and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers - six unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution. Ribbons of Scarlet is a timely story of the power of women to start a revolution - and change the world. In late 18th-century France, women do not have a place in politics. But as the tide of revolution rises, women from gilded salons to the streets of Paris decide otherwise - upending a world order that has long oppressed them. Blue-blooded Sophie de Grouchy believes in democracy, education, and equal rights for women and marries the only man in Paris who agrees. Emboldened to fight the injustices of King Louis XVI, Sophie aims to prove that an educated populace can govern itself - but one of her students, fruit-seller Louise Audu, is hungrier for bread and vengeance than learning. When the Bastille falls and Louise leads a womenâs march to Versailles, the monarchy is forced to bend, but not without a fight. The kingâs pious sister, Princess Elisabeth, takes a stand to defend her brother, spirit her family to safety, and restore the old order, even at the risk of her head. But when fanatics use the newspapers to twist the revolutionâs ideals into a new tyranny, even the women who toppled the monarchy are threatened by the guillotine. Putting her faith in the pen, brilliant political wife Manon Roland tries to write a way out of Franceâs blood-soaked Reign of Terror while pike-bearing Pauline Leon and steely Charlotte Corday embrace violence as the only way to save the nation. With justice corrupted by revenge, all the women must make impossible choices to survive - unless unlikely heroine and courtesanâs daughter Emilie de Sainte-Amaranthe can sway the man who controls Franceâs fate: the fearsome Robespierre.
©2019 Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, E. Knight, Sophie Perinot, and Heather Webb (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
Obsessed
Summary
The 2020 Porchlight Marketing and Sales Book of the Year The cofounder and chief branding officer of Red Antler, the branding and marketing company for startups and new ventures, explains how hot new brands like Casper, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, and Everlane build devoted fan followings right out of the gate. We're in the midst of a startup revolution, with new brands popping up every day, taking over our Instagram feeds, and vying for our affection. Every category is up for grabs, and traditional brands are seeing their businesses erode as hundreds of small companies encroach on their territory, each hoping to become the next runaway success. But it's not enough to have a great idea or a cool logo. Emily Heyward founded Red Antler, the Brooklyn-based brand and marketing company, to help entrepreneurs embed brand as a driver of business success from the beginning. In Obsessed, Heyward outlines the new principles of what it takes to build and launch a brand that has people queuing up to buy it on opening day. She takes you behind the scenes of the creation of some of today's hottest new brands, showing you: How Casper was able to upend the mattress industry by building a beloved brand where none had existed before How the dating app Hinge won a fanatical user base and great word-of-mouth with the promise that the app was "designed to be deleted" Why luggage startup Away, now valued at $1.4 billion, could build their brand around love of travel by launching with just one product - a hard-shell carry-on suitcase - rather than a whole range of luggage offerings. Whether you're starting a new business, launching a new product line, or looking to refresh a brand for a new generation of customers, Obsessed shows you why the old rules of brand-building no longer apply and what really works for today's customers.
©2020 Emily Heyward (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Incomparable
Summary
A raw, honest, and revealing co-memoir by Brie and Nikki Bella: twin sisters, WWE Hall of Fame inductees, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and stars of the hit E! shows Total Bellas and Total Divas.
As twins, the Bellas have always competed. Legend has it that Nikki drop-kicked Brie in the womb so that she could make her grand entrance first. But the rest of the world often treated them as identical and even interchangeable, so they decided to do something about it.
After they made it into WWE, the Bellas accomplished so much together: bringing in young girls and women while building the Bella Army, helping the transition of female performers from Divas to Superstars, starring in Total Divas and Total Bellas, and founding companies like Birdiebee, Nicole + Brizee Beauty, and Bonita Bonita Wine.
Though their early journey began with loss, abuse, and plenty of rough times, these challenges "shined the diamond". They resolved to be survivors and the heroes of their own stories, and to take control and responsibility for their lives. Eventually, they would come to show girls everywhere that they can do anything.
The Bellas may be identical twins - but as individuals, they have proven themselves Incomparable.
©2020 Brie Bella and Nikka Bella (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio
Golden Gate
Summary
In this second installment in the New York Times best-selling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies returns for another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smithâs Spy School for Girls. After thwarting a notorious villain at an eco-summit in Paris, the City Spies are gearing up for their next mission. Operating out of a base in Scotland, this secret team of young agents working for the British Secret Intelligence Serviceâs MI6 division have honed their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults canât. Fourteen-year-old Sydney is a surfer and a rebel from Bondi Beach, Australia. Sheâs also a field ops specialist for the City Spies. Sydney is excited to learn that sheâll be going undercover on the marine research vessel the Sylvia Earle. But things donât go exactly as planned, and while Sydney does find herself in the spotlight, itâs not in the way she was hoping. Meanwhile, thereâs been some new intel regarding a potential mole within the organization, offering the spies a lead that takes them to San Francisco, California. But as they investigate a spy who died at the Botanical Gardens, they discover that they are also being investigated. And soon, theyâre caught up in an exciting adventure filled with rogue missions and double agents! This mission is hot! The City Spies are a go!
©2021 James Ponti (P)2021 Simon & Schuster Audio
Spinning Silver
Summary
New York Times best seller âOne of the yearâs strongest fantasy novelsâ (NPR), an imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale from the best-selling author of Uprooted. Nebula and Hugo Award Finalist Named one of Paste's Best Fantasy Books of the Decade Named one of the top 10 books of the year by The New York Public Library and one of the best books of the year by: The New York Times Book Review; NPR; Time; Tor.com; PopSugar; Vox; Vulture; Paste; Bustle; Library Journal With the Nebula Award-winning Uprooted, Naomi Novik opened a brilliant new chapter in an already acclaimed career, delving into the magic of fairy tales to craft a love story that was both timeless and utterly of the now. Spinning Silver draws listeners deeper into this glittering realm of fantasy, where the boundary between wonder and terror is thinner than a breath, and safety can be stolen as quickly as a kiss. Miryem is the daughter and granddaughter of moneylenders, but her fatherâs inability to collect his debts has left his family on the edge of poverty - until Miryem takes matters into her own hands. Hardening her heart, the young woman sets out to claim what is owed and soon gains a reputation for being able to turn silver into gold. When an ill-advised boast draws the attention of the king of the Staryk - grim fey creatures who seem more ice than flesh - Miryemâs fate, and that of two kingdoms, will be forever altered. She will face an impossible challenge and, along with two unlikely allies, uncover a secret that threatens to consume the lands of humans and Staryk alike. Praise for Spinning Silver: 'âA perfect tale.... A big and meaty novel, rich in both ideas and people, with the vastness of Tolkien and the empathy and joy in daily life of Le Guin.â (The New York Times Book Review) âGorgeous, complex, and magical.... This is the kind of book that one might wish to inhabit forever.â (Publishers Weekly) âCool and clever and . . . dire and wonderful.â (Laini Taylor, author of Strange the Dreamer) âThe Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale has never been as captivating.... Spinning Silver further cements [Novikâs] place as one of the genre greats.â (Paste)Â
©2018 Naomi Novik (P)2018 Random House Audio
I Was Told It Would Get Easier
Summary
âAbbi Waxman is both irreverent and thoughtful.â (Number one New York Times best-selling author Emily Giffin) Squashed among a bus full of strangers, mother-daughter duo Jessica and Emily Burnstein watch their carefully mapped-out college tour devolve into a series of off-roading misadventures, from the USA Today best-selling author of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill. Jessica and Emily Burnstein have very different ideas of how this college tour should go. For Emily, it's a preview of freedom, exploring the possibility of her new and more exciting future. Not that she's sure she even wants to go to college, but let's ignore that for now. And maybe the other kids on the tour will like her more than the ones at school....They have to, right? For Jessica, it's a chance to bond with the daughter she seems to have lost. They used to be so close, but then Goldfish crackers and Play Doh were no longer enough of a draw. She isn't even sure if Emily likes her anymore. To be honest, Jessica isn't sure she likes herself. Together with a dozen strangers - and two familiar enemies - Jessica and Emily travel the East Coast, meeting up with family and old friends along the way. Surprises and secrets threaten their relationship and, in the end, change it forever.
©2020 Abbi Waxman (P)2020 Penguin Audio
True Places
Summary
An Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestseller. âTrue Places is a beautiful reminder that though we may busy ourselves seeking what we want, what we need has an uncanny way of finding us.â --Camille Pagán, bestselling author of Life and Other Near-Death Experiences A girl emerges from the woods, starved, ill, and alone...and collapses. Suzanne Blakemore hurtles along the Blue Ridge Parkway, away from her overscheduled and completely normal life, and encounters the girl. As Suzanne rushes her to the hospital, she never imagines how the encounter will change her - a change she both fears and desperately needs. Suzanne has the perfect house, a successful husband, and a thriving family. But beneath the veneer of an ideal life, her daughter is rebelling, her son is withdrawing, her husband is oblivious to it all, and Suzanne is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. After her discovery of the ethereal sixteen-year-old who has never experienced civilization, Suzanne is compelled to invite Iris into her family's life and all its apparent privileges. But Iris has an independence, a love of solitude, and a discomfort with materialism that contrasts with everything the Blakemores stand for - qualities that awaken in Suzanne first a fascination, then a longing. Now Suzanne can't help but wonder: Is she destined to save Iris, or is Iris the one who will save her?
©2019 Sonja Yoerg. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
You Don't Belong Here
Summary
The long-buried story of three extraordinary female journalists who permanently shattered the barriers to women covering war Kate Webb, an Australian iconoclast, Catherine Leroy, a French daredevil photographer, and Frances FitzGerald, a blue-blood American intellectual, arrived in Vietnam with starkly different life experiences but one shared purpose: to report on the most consequential story of the decade. At a time when women were considered unfit to be foreign reporters, Frankie, Catherine, and Kate challenged the rules imposed on them by the military, ignored the belittlement of their male peers, and ultimately altered the craft of war reportage for generations. In You Donât Belong Here, Elizabeth Becker uses these womenâs work and lives to illuminate the Vietnam War from the 1965 American buildup, the expansion into Cambodia, and the American defeat and its aftermath. Arriving herself in the last years of the war, Becker writes as a historian and a witness of the times. What emerges is an unforgettable story of three journalists forging their place in a land of men, often at great personal sacrifice. Deeply reported and filled with personal letters, interviews, and profound insight, You Donât Belong Here fills a void in the history of women and of war. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.Â
©2021 Elizabeth Becker (P)2021 PublicAffairs
Behind Every Lie
Summary
From the USA Today best-selling author of The Night Olivia Fell - an âemotionally charged mysteryâ (Mary Kubica, New York Times best-selling author) - comes a thrilling new suspense novel about the insidious nature of family secrets...and their deadly potential. If you canât remember it, how do you prove you didnât do it? Eva Hansen wakes in the hospital after being struck by lightning and discovers her mother, Kat, has been murdered. Eva was found unconscious down the street. She canât remember what happened, but the police are highly suspicious of her. Determined to clear her name, Eva heads from Seattle to London - Katâs former home - for answers. But as she unravels her motherâs carefully held secrets, Eva soon realizes that someone doesnât want her to know the truth. And with violent memories beginning to emerge, Eva doesnât know who to trust. Least of all herself. Told in alternating perspectives from Evaâs search for answers and Katâs mysterious past, Christina McDonald has crafted another âcomplex, emotionally intenseâ (Publishers Weekly) domestic thriller. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewellâs I Found You and Karin Slaughterâs Pieces of Her, Behind Every Lie explores the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships, family trauma, and the danger behind long-held secrets.
©2020 Christina McDonald (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio
Warriors Super Edition: Bluestar's Prophecy
Summary
Warriors Super Edition: Bluestarâs Prophecy is an epic stand-alone adventure in Erin Hunterâs number one nationally best-selling Warriors series! In this Super Edition, discover the secrets behind legendary ThunderClan leader Bluestarâs rise to power, before the events of Warriors #1: Into the Wild. Bluestar has been prophesied to guide ThunderClan through a time of great turmoil. But dangerous secrets from her past haunt her every paw step - shadowy whispers that may destroy her...and her Clan. Join the legion of fans who have discovered the epic adventures, fierce warrior cats, and thrilling fantasy world of the mega-best-selling Warriors series. This stand-alone entry is perfect for new listeners and dedicated fans alike. Bluestarâs Prophecy also includes an exclusive 10-page Warriors manga adventure!
©2009 Erin Hunter (P)2019 HarperAudio
Love & Luck
Summary
From the author of the New York Times best-selling Love & Gelato comes a heartwarming tale of a road trip through Ireland filled with love, adventure, and the true meaning behind the word family. Addie is visiting Ireland for her auntâs over-the-top destination wedding and hoping she can stop thinking about the one horrible thing she did that left her miserable and heartbroken - and threatens her future. But her brother, Ian, isnât about to let her forget, and his constant needling leads to arguments and even a fistfight between the two once inseparable siblings. Miserable, Addie canât wait to visit her friend in Italy and leave her brother - and her problems - behind. So when Addie discovers an unusual guidebook, Ireland for the Heartbroken, hidden in the dusty shelves of the hotel library, sheâs able to finally escape her anxious mind and Ianâs criticism. And then their travel plans change. Suddenly Addie finds herself on a whirlwind tour of the Emerald Isle, trapped in the worldâs smallest vehicle with Ian and his admittedly cute, Irish-accented friend Rowan. As the trio journeys over breathtaking green hills, past countless castles, and through a number of fairy-tale forests, Addie hopes her guidebook will heal not only her broken heart but also her shattered relationship with her brother. That is if they donât get completely lost along the way.
©2018 Jenna Evans Welch (P)2018 Simon & Schuster
The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames
Summary
A riveting family drama evocative of Angelaâs Ashes and The Glass Castle, about a woman who discovers the shocking secret at the center of her motherâs life. Justine had always been told that her mother came from royal blood. The proof could be found in her motherâs elegance, her upper-crust London accent - and in a cryptic letter hinting at her claim to a country estate. But beneath the polished veneer lay a fearsome, unpredictable temper that drove Justine from home the moment she was old enough to escape. Years later, when her mother sent her an envelope filled with secrets from the past, Justine buried it in the back of an old filing cabinet. Overcome with grief after her motherâs death, Justine found herself drawn back to that envelope. Its contents revealed a mystery that stretched back to the early years of World War II and beyond, into the dark corridors of the Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children. Established in the 18th century to raise âbastardâ children to clean chamber pots for Englandâs ruling class, the institution was tied to some of historyâs most influential figures and events. From its role in the development of solitary confinement and human medical experimentation to the creation of the British Museum and the Royal Academy of Arts, its impact on Western culture continues to reverberate. It was also the environment that shaped a young girl known as Dorothy Soames, who bravely withstood years of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of a sadistic headmistress - a resilient child who dreamed of escape as German bombers rained death from the skies. Heartbreaking, surprising, and unforgettable, The Secret Life of Dorothy Soames is the true story of one womanâs quest to understand the secrets that had poisoned her motherâs mind, and her startling discovery that her familyâs fate had been sealed centuries before. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.  PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Justine Thompson Cowan (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers
Wunderland
Summary
USA Today best seller "Searing...a heartbreaking page-turner." (People) "Both heartbreaking and hopeful, this story of a daughter searching for the truth about her motherâs secret past, tangled up in old secrets and terrible lies, kept me up late turning pages." (Martha Hall Kelly, best-selling author of Lilac Girls) Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Real Simple Once inseparable, Berlin teenagers Ilse Fischer and Renate Bauer find their friendship ripped apart by their nationâs abrupt swing into fascism. Ilse, a so-called Aryan, throws her lot in with the Nazi Party, while Renate sees her once-secure world dismantled by Adolf Hitler's race laws and then shattered by a shocking betrayal. Decades later, that same betrayal will upend the life of Ilse's daughter, Ava, as she discovers long-buried truths about her mother's past. A harrowing pause-resister, Wunderland traces the lives of three women across two generations - and the devastating repercussions of choices made in the dark days of wartime Germany. Praise for Wunderland "Engrossing...Epstein reveals the devastating choices these women make." (Real Simple) "Wunderland is both an engrossing family drama and a foray into a dark period of history...a wholly original angle to the WWII novel. Youâll read it in one shivered sitting." (Refinery29) "A vividly written and stark chronicle of Nazism and its legacies." (Kirkus Reviews starred review) "A wealth of history turns Wunderland into a novel thatâs both beautiful and devastating.... Epstein taps into the 1930s prewar era, laying out an unsparing narrative that details tragic events and horrifying legacies...opening a new door that may lead to redemption and joy for future generations." (BookPage starred review) "[A] heartbreaking historical tour de force.... Manâs inhumanity to man - and the redemptive power of forgiveness - is on stark and effective display in Epsteinâs gripping novel, a devastating tale bound for bestseller lists." (Publishers Weekly starred review)
©2019 Jennifer Cody Epstein (P)2019 Random House Audio
The Last
Summary
First Katherine Applegate thrilled fans with the action-packed Animorphs series. Then she stole our hearts with the award-winning The One and Only Ivan. Now she takes us on an unforgettable journey in this first book of an epic middle grade series! Byx is the youngest member of her dairne pack. Believed to possess remarkable abilities, her mythical doglike species has been hunted to near extinction in the war-torn kingdom of Nedarra. After her pack is hunted down and killed, Byx fears she may be the last of her species. The Endling. So Byx sets out to find safe haven, and to see if the legends of other hidden dairnes are true. Along the way, she meets new allies - both animals and humans alike - who each have their own motivations for joining her quest. And although they begin as strangers, they become their own kind of family - one that will ultimately uncover a secret that may threaten every creature in their world. Building upon the success of her critically acclaimed novels such as The One and Only Ivan, Crenshaw, and Wishtree, while also returning to her action-packed fantasy roots of Animorphs, the Endling series is Katherine Applegate at her finest. With its enthralling characters, unique setting, and gripping adventure, this series is the perfect next listen for fans of Rick Riordan, Brian Jacques, and Tui T. Sutherland.
©2018 Katherine Applegate (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
What Could Be Saved
Summary
"This brilliant portrayal of the lives of expats and their servants is also a suspenseful mystery with ever-darkening twists. For fans of A Little Life and The Goldfinch." (People, Book of the Week) Washington, DC, 2019: Laura Preston is a reclusive artist at odds with her older sister, Bea, as their elegant, formidable mother slowly slides into dementia. When a stranger contacts Laura claiming to be her brother who disappeared 40 years earlier when the family lived in Bangkok, Laura ignores Beaâs warnings of a scam and flies to Thailand to see if it can be true. But meeting him in person leads to more questions than answers. Bangkok, 1972: Genevieve and Robert Preston live in a beautiful house behind a high wall, raising their three children with the help of a cadre of servants. In these exotic surroundings, Genevieve strives to create a semblance of the life they would have had at home in the US - ballet and riding classes for the children, impeccable dinner parties, a meticulously kept home. But in truth, Robert works for American intelligence, Genevieve finds herself drawn into a passionate affair with her husbandâs boss, and their serene household is vulnerable to unseen dangers in a rapidly changing world and a country they donât really understand. Alternating between past and present as all of the secrets are revealed, What Could Be Saved is an unforgettable novel about a family shattered by loss and betrayal, and the beauty that can exist even in the midst of brokenness.
©2021 Liese O'Halloran Schwarz. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Shoemaker's Wife
Summary
The fateful first meeting of Enza and Ciro takes place amid the haunting majesty of the Italian Alps at the turn of the last century. Still teenagers, they are separated when Ciro is banished from his village and sent to hide in New York's Little Italy, apprenticed to a shoemaker, leaving a bereft Enza behind. But when her own family faces disaster, she, too, is forced to emigrate to America. Though destiny will reunite the star-crossed lovers, it will, just as abruptly, separate them once again - sending Ciro off to serve in World War I, while Enza is drawn into the glamorous world of the opera...and into the life of the international singing sensation Enrico Caruso. Still, Enza and Ciro have been touched by fate - and, ultimately, the power of their love will change their lives forever. A riveting historical epic of love and family, war and loss, risk and destiny, inspired by the author's own family history, The Shoemaker's Wife is the novel Adriana Trigiani was born to write.
©2012 Adriana Trigiani (P)2020 Random House Audio
Not a Novel
Summary
Jenny Erpenbeckâs highly acclaimed novel Go, Went, Gone was a New York Times notable book and launched one of Germanyâs most admired writers into the American spotlight. In the New Yorker, James Wood wrote: âWhen Erpenbeck wins the Nobel Prize in a few years, I suspect that this novel will be cited.â On the heels of this literary breakthrough comes Not a Novel, a book of personal, profound, often humorous meditations and reflections. Erpenbeck writes, âWith this collection of texts, I am looking back for the first time at many years of my life, at the thoughts that filled my life from day to day.â Starting with her childhood days in East Berlin (âI start with my life as a schoolgirl.... My own conscious life begins at the same time as the socialist life of Leipziger Strasseâ), Not a Novel provides a glimpse of growing up in the GDR and of what it was like to be 22 when the wall collapsed; it takes us through Erpenbeckâs early adult years, working in a bakery after immersing herself in the worlds of music, theater, and opera, and ultimately discovering her path as a writer. There are lively essays about her literary influences (Thomas Bernhard, the Brothers Grimm, Kafka, and Thomas Mann), unforgettable reflections on the forces at work in her novels (including history, silence, and time), and scathing commentaries on the dire situation of America and Europe today. âWhy do we still hear laments for the Germans who died attempting to flee over the wall, but almost none for the countless refugees who have drowned in the Mediterranean in recent years, turning the sea into a giant grave?â With deep insight and warm intelligence, Jenny Erpenbeck provides us with a collection of unforgettable essays that take us into the heart and mind of âone of the finest and most exciting writers aliveâ (Michel Faber).
©2019, 2020 Jenny Erpenbeck. Translation copyright by Kurt Beals. (P)2020 New Directions Publishing Corp.
Across the Winding River
Summary
A woman unlocks the mystery of her father's wartime past in a moving novel about secrets, sacrifice, and the power of love by the bestselling author of Daughters of the Night Sky. Beth Cohen wants to make the most of the months she has left with her elderly father, Max. His only request of his daughter is to go through the long-forgotten box of memorabilia from his days as a medic on the western front. Then, among his wartime souvenirs, Beth finds a photograph of her father with an adoring and beautiful stranger - a photograph worth a thousand questions. It was 1944 when Max was drawn into the underground resistance by the fearless German wife of a Nazi officer. Together, she and Max were willing to risk everything for what they believed was right. Ahead of them lay a dangerous romance, a dream of escape, and a destiny over which neither had control. But Max isn't alone in his haunting remembrances of war. In a nearby private care home is a fragile German-born woman with her own past to share. Only when the two women meet does Beth realize how much more to her father there is to know, all the ways in which his heart still breaks, and the closure he needs to heal it.
©2020 Aimie K. Runyan (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Master Class
Summary
From the critically-acclaimed author of the international best seller Vox comes a suspenseful new novel that examines a disturbing near future where harsh realities follow from unreachable standards. Itâs impossible to know what you will do.... Every child's potential is regularly determined by a standardized measurement: their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and attend a top tier school with a golden future. Score too low, and it's off to a federal boarding school with limited prospects afterwards. The purpose? An improved society where education costs drop, teachers focus on the more promising students, and parents are happy. When your child is taken from you. Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state's elite schools. When her nine-year-old daughter bombs a monthly test and her Q score drops to a disastrously low level, she is immediately forced to leave her top school for a federal institution hundreds of miles away. As a teacher, Elena thought she understood the tiered educational system, but as a mother whose child is now gone, Elena's perspective is changed forever. She just wants her daughter back. And she will do the unthinkable to make it happen.
©2020 Christina Dalcher (P)2020 Penguin Audio
The Lions of Fifth Avenue
Summary
A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and a New York Times best seller! âA page-turner for booklovers everywhere!... A story of family ties, their lost dreams, and the redemption that comes from discovering truth.â (Adriana Trigiani, best-selling author of The Shoemaker's Wife) In New York Times best-selling author Fiona Davis's latest historical novel, a series of book thefts roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces. It's 1913, and on the surface, Laura Lyons couldn't ask for more out of life - her husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library, allowing their family to live in an apartment within the grand building, and they are blessed with two children. But headstrong, passionate Laura wants more, and when she takes a leap of faith and applies to the Columbia Journalism School, her world is cracked wide open. As her studies take her all over the city, she is drawn to Greenwich Village's new bohemia, where she discovers the Heterodoxy Club - a radical, all-female group in which women are encouraged to loudly share their opinions on suffrage, birth control, and women's rights. Soon, Laura finds herself questioning her traditional role as wife and mother. And when valuable books are stolen back at the library, threatening the home and institution she loves, she's forced to confront her shifting priorities head on...and may just lose everything in the process. Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie Donovan struggles with the legacy of her grandmother, the famous essayist Laura Lyons, especially after she's wrangled her dream job as a curator at the New York Public Library. But the job quickly becomes a nightmare when rare manuscripts, notes, and books for the exhibit Sadie's running begin disappearing from the library's famous Berg Collection. Determined to save both the exhibit and her career, the typically risk-averse Sadie teams up with a private security expert to uncover the culprit. However, things unexpectedly become personal when the investigation leads Sadie to some unwelcome truths about her own family heritage - truths that shed new light on the biggest tragedy in the library's history.
©2020 Fiona Davis (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Fire, Ice, and Physics
Summary
Exploring the science in George R. R. Martin's fantastical world, from the physics of an ice wall to the genetics of the Targaryens and Lannisters. Game of Thrones is a fantasy that features a lot of made-up science - fabricated climatology (when is winter coming?), astronomy, metallurgy, chemistry, and biology. Most fans of George R. R. Martin's fantastical world accept it all as part of the magic. A trained scientist, watching the fake science in Game of Thrones, might think, "But how would it work?" In Fire, Ice, and Physics, Rebecca Thompson turns a scientist's eye on Game of Thrones, exploring, among other things, the science of an ice wall, the genetics of the Targaryen and Lannister families, and the biology of beheading. Thompson, a PhD in physics and an enthusiastic Game of Thrones fan, uses the fantasy science of the show as a gateway to some interesting real science, introducing GOT fandom to a new dimension of appreciation. Thompson starts at the beginning, with winter, explaining seasons and the very elliptical orbit of the Earth that might cause winter to come (or not come). She tells us that ice can behave like ketchup, compares regular steel to Valyrian steel, explains that dragons are "bats, but with fire", and considers Targaryen inbreeding. Finally, she offers scientific explanations of the various types of fatal justice meted out, including beheading, hanging, poisoning (reporting that the effects of "the Strangler", administered to Joffrey at the Purple Wedding, resemble the effects of strychnine), skull crushing, and burning at the stake. Even the most faithful Game of Thrones fans will learn new and interesting things about the show from Thompson's entertaining and engaging account. Fire, Ice, and Physics is an essential companion for all future bingeing. This audiobook includes a bonus PDF of charts, figures, and illustrations. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Rebecca C. Thompson (P)2019 Random House Audio
City Spies
Summary
A New York Times best seller! A GMA3 Summer Reading Squad Selection! âIngeniously plotted, and a grin-inducing delight.â (People) âWill keep young readers glued to the pageâ¦So when do I get the sequel?â (Beth McMullen, author of Mrs. Smithâs Spy School for Girls) Sara Martinez is a hacker. She recently broke into the New York City foster care system to expose her foster parents as cheats and lawbreakers. However, instead of being hailed as a hero, Sara finds herself facing years in a juvenile detention facility and banned from using computers for the same stretch of time. Enter Mother, a British spy who not only gets Sara released from jail but also offers her a chance to make a home for herself within a secret MI5 agency. Operating out of a base in Scotland, the City Spies are five kids from various parts of the world. When theyâre not attending the local boarding school, theyâre honing their unique skills, such as sleight of hand, breaking and entering, observation, and explosives. All of these allow them to go places in the world of espionage where adults can't. Before she knows what sheâs doing, Sara is heading to Paris for an international youth summit, hacking into a rival schoolâs computer to prevent them from winning a million euros, dangling 30 feet off the side of a building, and trying to stop a villain...all while navigating the complex dynamics of her new team. No one said saving the world was easy....
©2020 James Ponti (P)2020 Simon & Schuster
The Initial Insult
Summary
An Amazon Best Book of the Month! In the first book of a suspenseful YA duology, award-winning author Mindy McGinnis draws inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe and masterfully delivers a dark, propulsive mystery in alternating points of view that unravels a friendship...forevermore. Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying and Truly Devious! Tress Montorâs family used to mean something - until she didnât have a family anymore. When her parents disappeared seven years ago while driving her best friend home, Tress lost everything. The entire town shuns her now that she lives with her drunken, one-eyed grandfather at what locals refer to as the âWhite Trash Zooâ. Felicity Turnado has it all: looks, money, and a secret. One misstep could send her tumbling from the top of the social ladder, and sheâs worked hard to make everyone forget that she was with the Montors the night they disappeared. Felicity has buried what she knows so deeply that she canât even remember what it is...only that she canât look at Tress without feeling shame and guilt. But Tress has a plan. A Halloween costume party at an abandoned house provides the ideal situation for Tress to pry the truth from Felicity - brick by brick - as she slowly seals her former best friend into a coal chute. Tress will have her answers - or settle for revenge.Â
©2021 Mindy McGinnis (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers
Decoding Your Cat
Summary
The cutting-edge, scientifically accurate, definitive book on the most popular behavioral issues that cats face In the United States, one of the predominant reasons that owners abandon or give up their pets (often leading to euthanasia) is because of unwanted behaviors. Many have tried to instruct proper cat training, but this is the first book of its kind to provide an in-depth understanding of the underlying reasons for a catâs problem behavior, the essential key to unlocking the best for your cat and avoiding pitfalls. Decoding Your Cat gives owners new insight on promoting their catâs physical and psychological health and wellness and maintaining a long and fulfilling relationship together. Written by the leading experts in cat behavior from the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists, with an introduction by animal expert Steve Dale, this book conveys the newest and best information on cat behavioral science in a fun, interesting, and understandable way. Together with anecdotes from real life situations and the science behind how cats relate to their world, Decoding Your Cat empowers owners to provide a home environment that is happy, safe, and functional, to identify and seek treatment for medical health problems, to understand how to deal with unwanted behaviors, and in general to help cats live longer and fuller lives. Narrated by Lisa Flanagan. Lisa Flanagan is an award-winning narrator, voice actor, stage director, improviser, opera librettist, and classical singer. Her VO work includes animation, video games, and commercials. Lisa has received multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, Voice Arts Awards, and the 2019 Audie Award winner for Fantasy (Spinning Silver). She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her cats.
©2020 American College of Veterinary Behaviorists (P)2020 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
The Family Ship
Summary
From the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of True Places comes a disarming and emotional novel about a family in distress and a daughterâs mission to keep it from going under. Chesapeake Bay, 1980. Eighteen-year-old Verity Vergennes is the captain of the USS Nepenthe, and her seven younger siblings are her crew. The ship - an oyster boat transformed into a make-believe destroyer - is the heart of the Vergennes family, a place both to play and to learn responsibility. But Verityâs had it with being tied to the ship and secretly applies to a distant college. If only her parents could bear to let her go. Maeve and Arthur Vergennes already suffered one loss when, five years earlier, their eldest son, Jude, stormed out and never returned. Now Maeve is pregnant again and somethingâs amiss. Verity yearns to follow her dreams, but how can she jump ship now? The problem, and perhaps the answer, lies with Jude. When disaster strikes and the family unravels, Verity must rally her sibling crew to keep the Nepenthe and all it symbolizes afloat. Sailing away from home, she discovers, is never easy - not if you ever hope to find your way back.
©2021 by Sonja Yoerg. (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Unseen World
Summary
A heartbreaking and moving story about a daughter's quest to discover the truth about her father's hidden past. Ada Sibelius is raised by David, a single father and head of a computer science lab in Boston. Homeschooled, she accompanies her loving father - brilliant, eccentric, socially inept - to work every day. By 12 she is a painfully shy prodigy. At the same time that the lab begins to gain acclaim, David's mind begins to falter, and his mysterious past comes into question. When her father moves into a nursing home, Ada is taken in by one of David's colleagues. She embarks on a mission to uncover her father's secrets: a process that carries her from childhood to adulthood. Eventually Ada pioneers a type of software that enables her to make contact with her past and to reconcile the man she thought she knew with the truth. Praised for her ability to create quirky and unforgettable characters, Liz Moore has written a piercing story of a daughter's quest to restore the legacy of the father she desperately loves.
©2016 Liz Moore (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
War of the Spark: Forsaken (Magic: The Gathering)
Summary
Return to the multiverse of Magic: The Gathering as the hunt for Liliana Vess is on in the aftermath of the War of the Spark. The Planeswalkers have defeated Nicol Bolas and saved the Multiverse - though at grave cost. The living have been left to pick up the pieces and mourn the dead. But one loss is almost too great to bear: Gideon Jura, champion of justice and shield of the Gatewatch, is gone. As his former comrades Jace and Chandra struggle to rebuild from this tragedy, their future, like the future of the Gatewatch, remains uncertain. As the Gatewatchâs newest member, Kaya aims to help write that future. In joining, she pledged an oath to protect the living and the dead, but now that oath will be tested. The grieving guild masters of Ravnica have tasked her with a grave mission suited to her talents as a hunter and assassin - a mission she is ordered to keep secret from the Gatewatch. She must track down and exact retribution on the traitor Liliana Vess. But Liliana Vess has no interest in being found. Forsaken by her friends, she fled Ravnica after the defeat of Bolas. She was hostage to his wicked will, forced to assist in his terrible atrocities on pain of death - until Gideon, the last one who believed in her goodness, died in her place. Haunted by Gideonâs final gift, and hunted by former allies, Liliana now returns to a place sheâd thought sheâd never see again, the only place she has left: home.
©2019 Greg Weisman (P)2019 Random House Audio
Sweeping Up the Heart
Summary
From two-time Newbery Honor and New York Times best-selling author Kevin Henkes, this timeless novel about loss, loneliness, and friendship tells the story of the spring break that changes seventh-grader Amelia Albrightâs life forever. Amelia Albright dreams about going to Florida for spring break like everyone else in her class, but her father - a cranky and stubborn English professor - has decided Florida is too much adventure. Now, Amelia is stuck at home with him and her babysitter, the beloved Mrs. OâBrien. The week ahead promises to be boring, until Amelia meets Casey at her neighborhood art studio. Amelia has never been friends with a boy before, and the experience is both fraught and thrilling. When Casey claims to see the spirit of Ameliaâs mother (who died 10 years before), the pair embarks on an altogether different journey in their attempt to find her. Using crisp, lyrical, literary writing and moments of humor and truth, award-winning author Kevin Henkes deftly captures how it feels to be almost 13. With themes of family, death, grief, creativity, and loyalty, Sweeping Up the Heart is for fans of Kate DiCamillo, Rebecca Stead, Lauren Wolk, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, and Pam Muñoz Ryan.
©2019 Kevin Henkes (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
The Queen of the Night
Summary
From a ferociously talented writer, praised as "the fire, in my opinion. And the light" by Junot Diaz, comes a blazing portrait of one woman's rise from courtesan to world-renowned diva. Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role, every singer's chance at immortality. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past. Only four could have betrayed her: one is dead, one loves her, one wants to own her. And one, she hopes, never thinks of her at all. As she mines her memories for clues, she recalls her life as an orphan who left the American frontier for Europe and was swept up into the glitzy, gritty world of Second Empire Paris. To survive, she transformed herself from hippodrome rider to courtesan, from empress' maid to debut singer, all the while weaving a complicated web of romance, obligation, and political intrigue. Featuring a cast of characters drawn from history, The Queen of the Night follows Lilliet as she moves closer to the truth behind the mysterious opera and the role that could secure her reputation - or destroy her with the secrets it reveals.
©2016 Alexander Chee (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Visitation
Summary
A best seller in Germany, Visitation has established Jenny Erpenbeck as one of Europeâs most significant contemporary authors. A forested property on a Brandenburg lake outside Berlin lies at the heart of this darkly sensual, elegiac novel. Encompassing over 100 years of German history, from the 19th century to the Weimar Republic, from World War II to the Socialist German Democratic Republic, and finally reunification and its aftermath, Visitation offers the life stories of 12 individuals who seek to make their home in this one magical little house. The novel breaks into the everyday life of the house and shimmers through it, while relating the passions and fates of its inhabitants. Elegant and poetic, Visitation forms a literary mosaic of the last century, tearing open wounds and offering moments of reconciliation, with its drama and its exquisite evocation of a landscape no political upheaval can truly change.
©2008, 2010 Eichborn AG, Frankfurt am Main. Translation copyright Susan Bernofsky (P)2019 New Directions Publishing Corp.
The Nicotine Chronicles
Summary
In recent years, nicotine has become as verboten as many hard drugs. The literary styles in this volume are as varied as the moral quandaries herein, and the authors have successfully unleashed their incandescent imaginations on the subject matter, fashioning an immensely addictive collection. Featuring brand-new stories by: Lee Child, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Ames, Eric Bogosian, Achy Obejas, Michael Imperioli, Hannah Tinti, Ariel Gore, Bernice L. McFadden, Cara Black, Christopher Sorrentino, David L. Ulin, Jerry Stahl, Lauren Sanders, Peter Kimani, and Robert Arellano. Inspired by the ongoing international success of the city-based Akashic Noir Series (Brooklyn Noir, Boston Noir, Paris Noir, etc.), Akashic created the Drug Chronicles Series in 2011. Following The Speed Chronicles (William T. Vollmann, Megan Abbott), The Cocaine Chronicles (Lee Child, Laura Lippman), The Heroin Chronicles (Jerry Stahl, Eric Bogosian, Lydia Lunch), and The Marijuana Chronicles (Lee Child, Joyce Carol Oates) comes The Nicotine Chronicles, masterfully curated by blockbuster hit maker Lee Child.
©2020 Lee Child (P)2020 Random House Audio
Jackie and Maria
Summary
From the number one best-selling author of The Secret Wife comes a story of love, passion, and tragedy as the lives of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas are intertwined - and they become the ultimate rivals, in love with the same man. The president's wife; a glamorous superstar; the rivalry that shook the world.... Jackie Kennedy was beautiful, sophisticated, and contemplating leaving her ambitious young senator husband. Life in the public eye with an overly ambitious - and unfaithful - man who could hardly be coaxed to return from a vacation after the birth of a stillborn child was breaking her spirit. So when she's offered a holiday on the luxurious yacht owned by billionaire Ari Onassis, she says yes...to a meeting that will ultimately change her life. Maria Callas is at the height of her operatic career and widely considered to be the finest soprano in the world. And then she's introduced to Aristotle Onassis, the worldâs richest man and her fellow Greek. Stuck in a childless, sexless marriage, and with pressures on all sides from opera house managers and a hostile press, she finds her life being turned upside-down by this hyper-intelligent and impeccably charming man.... Little by little, Mariaâs and Jackieâs lives began to overlap, and they come closer and closer until everything they know about the world changes on a dime.
©2020 Gill Paul (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
Moon Spells
Summary
Achieve your desires - tap in to the hidden power of the moon! At any given moment, the moon shines down on half the world. Now, through the magick of Moon Spells, you can learn how to use its energies to achieve your desire - whether it's a joyful romance, a successful career, or superb physical and emotional health. Magickal practitioner Diane Ahlquist guides you on a journey to attuning your spirit with the moon. You'll be amazed at how much more you can achieve in life when you synchronize your activities with the moon's phases. With the proper use of candles, gemstones, and incense, spells can be conducted at exactly the right lunar moment to enhance the flow of power and make your wishes come true. By practicing the spells in this book, you can be more successful more often when you want to get a pay raise, release your fears, attract a lover, receive divine messages, begin a new life, or move on after a loss. The moon, our closest celestial neighbor, continues to offer you her power. Moon Spells shows you how to embrace it.
©2002 Diane Ahlquist. All rights reserved. (P)2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Seasonal Self-Care Rituals
Summary
Reap the health benefits of Ayurveda and optimize your seasonal habits with powerful, personalized self-care rituals to achieve permanent weight loss, increased focus, and emotional wellness. According to the ancient texts of Ayurveda, âAll diseases begin at the junctions of the seasonsâ. When we push against the essence of each season - staying up late in the winter, eating sweet, heavy foods in the spring, or neglecting our skin in the summer - we fall out of sync with nature and optimal health. Drawing on more than a decade of experience, Chopra-certified teacher Susan Weis-Bohlen guides listeners through simple yet profoundly effective, dosha-specific remedies and rituals - including food & drink, meditation, yoga, essential oils, chakra alignment, mantra, and breath work - to support your ideal body weight, increased focus and mental clarity, a healthier microbiome, improved stamina, better sleep, and emotional wellness. Featuring an all-new new dosha quiz measuring both mind and body constitution, Seasonal Self-Care Rituals is an essential guide to year-round health. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. Â
©2020 Susan Weis-Bohlen. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Toy Story 4
Summary
Toy Story 4 retells the exciting new Disney/Pixar movie hitting theaters June 21, 2019! Disney/Pixar's Toy Story 4 opens a new chapter in the lives of Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the rest of the Toy Story gang.
©2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc., and Pixar / Produced by Blackstone Publishing (P)2019 Disney Enterprises, Inc., and Pixar / Produced by Blackstone Publishing
The First
Summary
Endling, Book 2: The First is the second audiobook in an epic middle-grade animal fantasy series by Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal-winning and number one New York Times best-selling author of The One and Only Ivan, Wishtree, and Crenshaw! Perfect for fans of Rick Riordan, Brian Jacques, and Tui T. Sutherland. To learn if she truly is the last dairne in the world - the endling - Byx and her friends must travel into the snow-covered mountains of the country of Dreyland, where they hope to uncover the truth behind the legend of a hidden dairne colony. But the threat of war across the lands continues to grow with each passing day. As the group confronts untold dangers at every turn, they will ultimately uncover a treacherous plot that involves the other powerful governing species. With both her dreams and all the creatures of Nedarra on the brink of extinction, Byx and her friends are determined to never give up hope. Soon, they find themselves the unlikely leaders in a simmering rebellion that risks everything they hold dear. Byx may be the last of her kind, but will she also be the first to lead the revolution? Beloved author Katherine Applegate concludes her âsimply sublimeâ (Kirkus) epic middle-grade animal fantasy trilogy with Endling, Book 3: The Only. Check out all three!
©2019 Katherine Applegate (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
Stories We Never Told
Summary
From the Amazon Charts and Washington Post bestselling author of True Places comes an emotional novel of love, secrets, and obsession. Psychology professor Jackie Strelitz thinks sheâs over Harlan Crispin, her ex-lover and colleague. Why should she care if Harlan springs a new âfriendâ on her? After all, Jackie has everything she ever wanted: a loving husband and a thriving career. Still, she canât help but be curious about Harlanâs latest. Nasira Amari is graceful, smart, and appallingly young. Worse, sheâs the newest member of Jackieâs research team. For five years, Harlan enforced rules limiting his relationship with Jackie. With Nasira, heâs breaking every single one. Why her? Fixated by the couple, Jackieâs curiosity becomes obsession. But she soon learns that nothing is quite what it seems and that to her surprise - and peril - she may not be the only one who canât let go.
©2020 by Sonja Yoerg. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Moon + You
Summary
This lunar-inspired guide to self-care provides the tools to create a wellness routine based around the moonâs phases, with information on moon meditations, moon-friendly foods, moon-related beauty products, and more! Each phase of the moon brings a different energy. From the inspiring presence of the new moon spurring new intentions to the emotional release of the waxing moon to the inner reflection of the waning moon - now you can let the energizing and healing power of the moon guide your wellness routine. The Moon + You explains how to harness the moonâs energy during its major phases, and use it to better yourself through a variety of rituals, exercises, and meditations. Filled with information on the phases of the moon and how they affect our mental, physical, and emotional well-being, as well as advice and suggestions for creating a self-care routine that aligns with each moon phase, this complete guide gives you everything you need to fully embrace the moonâs energy. Including self-care rituals such as: Full moon meditation New moon gemstone ritual Waxing moon chakra alignment Dark moon healing bath Waning moon yoga sequence for releasing stress New moon herbal remedy for dry skin And much more... Learn how to utilize the moonâs natural influence to transform and nurture your body, mind, and spirit.
©2020 Diane Ahlquist (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio
Incredibles 2
Summary
Disney-Pixar Incredibles 2 brings back everyone's favorite family of Supers in an exciting, hilarious, and heartfelt super sequel. Mr. & Mrs. Incredible, Violet, Dash, and even baby Jack-Jack encounter a brand-new nemesis who puts their powers - and their family - to the ultimate test!
©2018 Disney Book Group and Suzanne Francis (P)2018 Disney
Start Your Own Event Planning Business
Summary
Take your passion for event planning to the next level with in-the-trenches advice and tools you need to start, run, and grow a successful business. From writing a solid contract to finding reliable vendors, our experts help you identify your niche, teach you how to scout potential clients, evaluate the competition, market your business, and more.  Discover how to: Identify a niche and establish yourself within the industry Build a loyal customer base for large and small events Implement targeted strategies for planning commercial, political, civic, social events, and more Promote your business, events, and yourself with Pinterest, Instagram, and other social and Online marketing tools Develop proposals, vendor agreements, contracts, and manage day-to-day operations and costs Keep within budget using money-saving tips and industry-tested ideas  Everything you need to make your event planning business a successful reality is right here - get the party started today! PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.Â
©2015 Entrepreneur Media, Inc. (P)2018 Gildan Media
The Sweetest Fruits
Summary
"A sublime, many-voiced novel of voyage and reinvention." (Anthony Marra) "[Truong] imagines the extraordinary lives of three women who loved an extraordinary man [and] creates distinct, engaging voices for these women." (Kirkus Reviews) A Greek woman tells of how she willed herself out of her father's cloistered house, married an Irish officer in the British Army, and came to Ireland with her two-year-old son in 1852, only to be forced to leave without him soon after. An African-American woman, born into slavery on a Kentucky plantation, makes her way to Cincinnati after the Civil War to work as a boarding-house cook, where in 1872 she meets and marries an up-and-coming newspaper reporter. In Matsue, Japan, in 1891, a former samurai's daughter is introduced to a newly arrived English teacher, and becomes the mother of his four children and his unsung literary collaborator. The lives of writers can often best be understood through the eyes of those who nurtured them and made their work possible. In The Sweetest Fruits, these three women tell the story of their time with Lafcadio Hearn, a globetrotting writer best known for his books about Meiji-era Japan. In their own unorthodox ways, these women are also intrepid travelers and explorers. Their accounts witness Hearn's remarkable life but also seek to witness their own existence and luminous will to live unbounded by gender, race, and the mores of their time. Each is a gifted storyteller with her own precise reason for sharing her story, and together their voices offer a revealing, often contradictory portrait of Hearn. With brilliant sensitivity and an unstinting eye, Truong illuminates the women's tenacity and their struggles in a novel that circumnavigates the globe in the search for love, family, home, and belonging.
©2019 Monique Truong (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
Summary
National Book Award 2019 Finalist! From the author of Printz Medal winner Bone Gap comes the unforgettable story of two young women - one living, one dead - dealing with loss, desire, and the fragility of the American dream during WWII. When Frankieâs mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. Thatâs why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now, Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans - two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive. And as the embers of the Great Depression are kindled into the fires of World War II, and the shadows of injustice, poverty, and death walk the streets in broad daylight, it will be up to Frankie to find something worth holding on to in the ruins of this shattered America - every minute of every day spent wondering if the life she's able to carve out will be enough. I will admit I do not know the answer. But I will be watching, waiting to find out. Thatâs what ghosts do.
©2019 Laura Ruby (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
The Library of the Unwritten
Summary
In the first book in a brilliant new fantasy series, books that aren't finished by their authors reside in the Library of the Unwritten in Hell, and it is up to the Librarian to track down any restless characters who emerge from those unfinished stories. Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing - a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must track and capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto. But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. The text of the Devil's Bible is a powerful weapon in the power struggle between Heaven and Hell, so it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell...and Earth.
©2019 A. J. Hackwith (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Certain American States
Summary
From one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists comes Certain American States, whose insightful and lonely stories beg you to discover the emotional universes hiding at their cores. The winner of a Whiting Award, Catherine Lacey brings her narrative mastery to Certain American States, her first collection of short stories. As with her acclaimed novels Nobody Is Ever Missing and The Answers, she gives life to a group of subtly complex, instantly memorable characters whose searches for love, struggles with grief, and tentative journeys into the minutiae of the human condition are simultaneously gripping and devastating. The characters in Certain American States are continually coming to terms with their place in the world, and how to adapt to that place, before change inevitably returns. A woman leaves her dead husband's clothing on the street, only for it to reappear on the body of a stranger; a man reads his ex-wife's short story and neurotically contemplates whether it is about him; a young woman whose Texan mother insists on moving to New York City with her has her daily attempts to get over a family tragedy interrupted by a mute stranger showing her incoherent messages on his phone. These are stories of breakups, abandonment, and strained family ties; dead brothers and distant surrogate fathers; loneliness, happenstance, starting over, and learning to let go. Lacey's elegiac and inspired prose is at its full power in this collection, further establishing her as one of the singular literary voices of her generation.
©2018 Catherine Lacey (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Swallows
Summary
A teacher at a New England prep school ignites a gender war - with deadly consequences - in this dark and provocative novel by the best-selling author of The Passenger âSuspenseful and utterly riveting!â (Tess Gerritsen) When Alexandra Witt joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, sheâs hoping to put a painful past behind her. Then one of her creative writing assignments generates some disturbing responses from students. Before long, Alex is immersed in an investigation of the students atop the schoolâs social hierarchy - and their connection to something called the Darkroom. She soon inspires the girls whoâve started to question the schoolâs âboys will be boysâ attitude and incites a resistance. But just as the movement is gaining momentum, Alex attracts the attention of an unknown enemy who knows a little too much about her - and what brought her to Stonebridge in the first place. Meanwhile, Gemma, a defiant senior, has been plotting her attack for years, waiting for the right moment. Shy loner Norman hates his role in the Darkroom, but canât find the courage to fight back until he makes an unlikely alliance. And then thereâs Finn Ford, an English teacher with a shady reputation, who keeps one eye on his literary ambitions and one on Ms. Witt. As the schoolâs secrets begin to trickle out, a boys-versus-girls skirmish turns into an all-out war, with deeply personal - and potentially fatal - consequences for everyone involved. Lisa Lutzâs blistering, timely tale of revenge and disruption shows us what can happen when silence wins out over decency for too long - and why the scariest threat of all might be the idea that sooner or later, girls will be girls. Cast of Narrators: Abby Elliot as Gemma Russo Lisa Flanagan as Ms. Witt Ari Fliakos as Mr. Ford Michael Crouch as Norman Crowley and with Johnny Heller reading The Announcements Advance praise for The Swallows âWes Anderson meets Muriel Spark in this delicious and vicious battle of the sexes set within a private school. Wickedly fun and wildly subversive but packing an emotional punch, The Swallows is as powerful as it is timely.â (Nationally best-selling author Megan Abbott) âSharpen your axes, ladies, and get ready for this fierce, fun, unsparing novel of female rage, power, and friendship.â (Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy)
©2019 Lisa Lutz (P)2019 Random House Audio
Say Say Say
Summary
One of the The Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Fiction Books of 2019 "A gem of a book...lyrical, tender, and profoundly insightful." (Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone) A beautiful, bracingly honest debut novel about the triangle formed between a young woman and the couple whose life she enters one transformative year: a story about love and compassion, the fluidity of desire, and the myriad ways of devotion. Ella is nearing 30, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student in Minnesota have given way to an unintended career in caregiving. One spring, Bryn - a retired carpenter - hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. A car accident caused a brain injury that has left Jill verbally diminished; she moves about the house like a ghost of her former self, often able to utter, like an incantation, only the words that comprise this novel's title. As Ella is drawn ever deeper into the couple's household, her presence unwanted but wholly necessary, she is profoundly moved by the tenderness Bryn shows toward the wife he still fiercely loves. Ella is startled by the yearning this awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at relationships of all kinds - between partners, between employer and employee, and above all between men and women - in new ways. Tightly woven, humane, and insightful, tracing unflinchingly the most intimate reaches of a young woman's heart and mind, Say Say Say is a riveting story about what it means to love, in a world where time is always running out.
©2019 Lila Savage (P)2019 Random House Audio
My Michael
Summary
One of Amos Oz's earliest and most famous novels, My Michael was a sensation upon its initial publication in 1968 and established Oz as a writer of international acclaim. Like all great books, it has an enduring power to surprise and mesmerize. Set in 1950s Jerusalem, My Michael is the story of a remote and intense woman named Hannah Gonen and her marriage to a decent but unremarkable man named Michael. As the years pass and Hannah's tempestuous fantasy life encroaches on reality, she feels increasingly estranged from him, and the marriage gradually disintegrates. Gorgeously written and profoundly moving, this extraordinary novel is at once a haunting love story and a rich, reflective portrait of a place.
©2005 Amos Oz (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Go, Went, Gone
Summary
New York Times Notable Book2018;Â Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2018; Lois Roth Award Winner An unforgettable German bestseller about the European refugee crisis: âErpenbeck will get under your skinâ (Washington Post Book World) Go, Went, Gone is the masterful new novel by the acclaimed German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, âone of the most significant German-language novelists of her generationâ (The Millions). The novel tells the tale of Richard, a retired classics professor who lives in Berlin. His wife has died, and he lives a routine existence until one day he spies some African refugees staging a hunger strike in Alexanderplatz. Curiosity turns to compassion and an inner transformation, as he visits their shelter, interviews them, and becomes embroiled in their harrowing fates. Go, Went, Gone is a scathing indictment of Western policy toward the European refugee crisis, but also a touching portrait of a man who finds he has more in common with the Africans than he realizes. Exquisitely translated by Susan Bernofsky, Go, Went, Gone addresses one of the most pivotal issues of our time, facing it head-on in a voice that is both nostalgic and frightening.
©2017 Albrecht Knaus Verlag, A Division of Verlagsgruppe Random House Gmb H; Translation Copyright by Susan Bernofsky (P)2019 New Directions Publishing Corporation
The Extra
Summary
Gabby Mays wishes she had her future figured out, like her gorgeous roommate Anna-Marie, who has just landed a role on the hit soap opera Passion Medical. Gabby would give anything to find a career sheâs half as passionate about as Anna-Marie is about acting - and a love life that isnât comprised of nights with a party-sized bag of Doritos and her Netflix account. When Gabby becomes a recurring extra on Passion Medical, she finds a job sheâs surprisingly great at. Even better, her old crush and ex-boss - the sexy, sweet Will Bowen - is writing the scripts, allowing Gabby lots of quality flirting time at the craft services table. But between feuding divas, fake Emmys, and Gabbyâs growing concern that Will might not see her as anything more than a friend, her life on set is quickly becoming a drama worthy of the soaps. The Extra is a stand-alone romance novel with PG-13 rated content, no cliffhanger, and a swoon-worthy happily-ever-after.
©2019 Megan Walker and Janci Patterson (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
Anika Rising
Summary
From the bottom of a lake, deep in the Back Country, death takes a turn. Within a day of being struck down by Hansel, Anika has risen. The cruel, addictive infection of Marlene's poison has protected Anika from the finality of death. But the resurrection is not without a price. She has a new hunger, and its lure is irresistible. Anika sees suicide as the only option, until she learns of a new terror in the world, one related to the Witch of the North and which threatens the lives of her children. Anika must now find the threat and destroy it before it kills her children.
©2018 Christopher Coleman (P)2019 Tantor
Gretel
Summary
A gripping horror thriller that will leave you wanting more. Start listening to the first book in this dark and captivating re-imagined series of the classic story of Hansel and Gretel.  There is an ancient evil in the Back Country, dormant for centuries but now hungry and lurking.  When it sets its sights on an unsuspecting mother one routine morning along an isolated stretch of highway, a quiet farming family is suddenly thrust into a world of unspeakable terror, and young Gretel must learn to be a hero.
©2015 Christopher Coleman (P)2019 Tantor
Bow Down
Summary
One of Glamourâs Best Books of 2020 Popular podcast host and personal finance expert Lindsay Goldwert explores what professional dominatrixes can teach us about confidence, power, and happiness. Imagine, for a moment, a world where the usual power dynamic is turned on its head. Where women not only stop apologizing, but seize - and enjoy - control. This is the quickly mainstreaming world of BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism) - and it has a lot to teach women about empowerment, negotiation, open-mindedness, and more. Journalist Lindsay Goldwert, intrigued by this seismic cultural shift, traveled across the United States to meet the stars of the subculture, who spoke frankly with her about their lives and work. In âlively, funny, thoughtful channeling of wisdomâ (Sara Benincasa, author of Real Artists Have Day Jobs), these Alpha women show you how you can reset the power dynamic in any situation to get what you want - whether itâs from a husband, a boss, or partner. They share strategies for revolutionizing not only your sex life, but your career, your relationships, and most importantly, your inner foundations. With bondage gear popping up on the big screen, the runway, the red carpet, and in celebrity lingerie lines, BDSM is officially moving out of the dungeon and into the sun. Let Bow Down help you learn how to use it. âWhether your fantasies lie in the bedroom or the boardroom, Lindsay will give you the courage to go forth and dominate.â (Sarah Cooper, author of How to Be Successful Without Hurting Menâs Feelings).Â
©2020 Lindsay Goldwert (P)2020 Simon & Schuster Audio
All the Best People
Summary
Vermont, 1972. Carole LaPorte has a satisfying, ordinary life. She cares for her children, balances the books for the family's auto shop, and laughs when her husband slow dances her across the kitchen floor. Her tragic childhood might have happened to someone else. But now her mind is playing tricks on her. The accounts won't reconcile and the murmuring she hears isn't the television. She ought to seek help, but she's terrified of being locked away in a mental hospital like her mother, Solange. So Carole hides her symptoms, withdraws from her family, and unwittingly sets her 11-year-old daughter Alison on a desperate search for meaning and power: in Tarot cards, in omens from a nearby river, and in a mysterious blue glass box belonging to her grandmother. An exploration of the power of courage and love to overcome a damning legacy, All the Best People celebrates the search for identity and grace in the most ordinary lives.
©2017 Sonja Yoerg (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Moon Magic
Summary
From the author of Moon Spells comes a beginner's book about the moon's energy and how you can harness that lunar power in your everyday life. From new moons and eclipses to blue moons and the super moon, there are ample opportunities for the moon to influence our emotions and thoughts. Many believe our emotional potency is heightened during a super moon while a new moon can bring change and new perspectives. Knowing when and how to use that power is key. In Moon Magic, you'll learn how the lunar phases influence our emotions and well-being differently and how to harness that power for healing, emotional strength, and physical and mental wellness. Third-generation intuitive Diane Ahlquist helps guide those new to the power of the moon through lunar recipes and simple exercises, such as intention setting and moon meditation, to help you capitalize on the moon's inherent power and channel the moon's energy whenever you need it most.
©2017 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved. (P)2017 Simon & Schuster Audio
The Lost Rainforest #2: Gogi's Gambit
Summary
The second book in New York Times best-selling author and National Book Award finalist Eliot Schreferâs Lost Rainforest series will thrill fans of Warriors and Spirit Animals with action and humor as the shadowwalkers battle to save their magical rainforest home. Caldera always existed in harmony between the creatures who walk by day and those who walk by night - until an ancient evil awakened. In the year since the shadowwalkersâ narrow escape from the Ant Queen, the antsâ destruction has only spread. Gogi, a shadowwalker monkey still learning to wield his fire powers, embarks on a quest with his friends - including a healing bat, an invisible panther, and a tree frog who controls the winds - for a powerful object that can harness the magic of the eclipse to defeat the Ant Queen. But with just weeks before the next eclipse, Gogi must race to prove that he can control the mighty depths of his talent if he is to protect his friends, save the rainforest, and return home unsinged.
©2019 Eliot Schrefer (P)2019 HarperAudio
Bluff
Summary
One-time socialite Maud Warner polishes up the rags of her once-glittering existence and bluffs her way into a signature New York restaurant on a sunny October day. When she shoots Sun Sunderland, the "Pope of Finance", as he lunches with "accountant to the stars" Burt Sklar - the man she's accused for years of stealing her mother's fortune and leaving her family in ruins - she deals the first card in her high-stakes plan for revenge. Maud has grown accustomed to being underestimated and invisible, and uses it. Her fervent passion for poker has taught her that she can turn weakness into strength to take advantage of people who think they are taking advantage of her. It's uncanny how she reads them. Her intimates in New York high society believe that "Mad Maud" accidentally missed Sklar, her real target. But nothing is as it first appears as she weathers the unexpected while following her script. And while Maud is on the run, the dark secrets of men who believe their money and power place them above the law will be exposed. Betrayal, larceny, greed, sexual battery, and murder lurk beneath the surface of their glittering lives. One unexpected twist after another follows as we watch a fierce, unapologetic Maud play the most important poker hand of her life. The stakes? To take down her enemies and get justice for their victims. Her success depends on her continuing ability to bluff. And on who will fold. Can she win?
©2019 Jane Stanton Hitchcock (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Better Liar
Summary
âJonesâs sensational debut has the bones of a thriller but reads like literary fiction: lean, shrewd, and gratifyingly real.â (Entertainment Weekly) When a woman conceals her sisterâs death to claim their joint inheritance, her deception exposes a web of dangerous secrets in this addictive new thriller for fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins. An ID Book Club Selection Leslie Flores has the perfect life - a loving husband, a happy newborn, and a New Mexico home straight out of a magazine. Sheâs been the perfect daughter, too, taking care of her ailing father in his final days. But Leslie has a dark secret - and itâs an expensive secret to keep. When she discovers she wonât receive a penny of her inheritance unless she finds her estranged sister, Robin, she sets out to track her down. Instead, upon arriving at Robinâs apartment, Leslie discovers her body. Just as Leslie begins to panic, she meets a charismatic aspiring actress named Mary who bears a striking resemblance to Robin - and has every reason to leave her past behind. The two women make a bargain: Mary will impersonate Robin for a week in exchange for Robinâs half of the cash. Neither realizes how high the stakes will become when Mary takes a dead womanâs name. Even as Mary begins to suspect Leslie is hiding something, and Leslie realizes the stranger living in her house has secrets of her own, Robinâs wild, troubled legacy threatens to eclipse them both. Fans of Megan Abbott, Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins will relish this darkly addictive portrait of the ties that bind and the secrets we all keep from one another.
©2020 Tanen Jones (P)2020 Random House Audio
They Said This Day Would Never Come
Summary
The thrilling, unlikely story of Barack Obama's first presidential campaign, as told by the volunteers and staff who propelled the longshot candidate to the presidency In the year leading up to the Iowa caucuses, few thought a freshman senator named Barack Hussein Obama would be able to win the Democratic nomination - not to mention become the most popular leader in the world. But something was stirring. Hundreds of young people from all over the country began assembling first in Iowa. These "kids" became the foundation of one of the most improbable presidential campaigns of the modern era. Chris Liddell-Westefeld was one of those kids. He and thousands of other staff and volunteers dedicated every minute of their time, intelligence, and resources to help elect Barack Obama, as what started in the midwest spread nationwide. Drawn from more than 200 interviews with alumni including David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Alyssa Mastromonaco, Dan Pfeiffer, Valerie Jarrett, Josh Earnest, Tommy Vietor, Jon Favreau, and President Obama himself, They Said This Day Would Never Come takes listeners deep inside the most inspirational presidential campaign in recent history. Â This audiobook is voiced by the following contributors: The Author, Chris Liddell-Westefeld, Ally Coll, Alyssa Mastromonaco, Anne Filipic, Annick Febrey, Ava Hinds Lawson, Barack Obama, Bess Evans, Brynne Craig, Carianna Suiter, Chelsea Kammerer, Chris Wyant, Cody Keenan, Dan Pfeiffer, David Axelrod, David Plouffe, Danielle Crutchfield, Dean Fluker, Elizabeth Wilkins, Emily Parcell, Esther Morales, Francis Iacobucci, Graham Wilson, Greg Degen, Howli Ledbetter, Jackie Bray, Jamal Pope, James Schuelke, Janice Rottenberg, Jason Waskey, Jeremy Bird, Joe Cupka, Joe Paulsen, Jon Carson, Jon Favreau, Josh Earnest, Kal Penn, Katherine Onyshko, Kristin Avery, Lauren Champaign, Lauren Kidwell, Maggie Thompson, MaryGrace Galston, Megan Simpson, Meghan Goldenstein, Michael Blake, Michael Halle, Mitch Stewart, Nicole Young, Patricia King, Paul Tewes, Paulette Aniskoff, Pete Rouse, Rachel Haltom-Irwin, Shannon Valley, Stephanie Speirs, Steve Dunwoody, Tom Zimmerman, Tommy Vietor, Tony Rediger, Tripp Wellde, Tyler Lechtenberg, Valerie Jarrett, Victoria McCullough, Yohannes Abraham
©2020 Chris Liddell-Westefeld (P)2020 PublicAffairs
Coast to Coast Ghosts
Summary
Ghosts have been the entertaining subject of many works of fiction, but they're even more intriguing (and perhaps even scarier) when they are the focus of real-life hauntings in our own backyard. An employee of the St. James Hotel in New Mexico watches in shock as a fair-haired toddler with a terribly disfigured face disappears into the floor. This is just one of the paranormal mysteries Leslie Rule shares with us - a result of extensive interviews and research uncovering the reasons behind ghost sightings across the country.
Coast to Coast Ghosts features dozens of spine-tingling, real-life ghost stories and approximately fifty black-and-white photographs taken by Rule, including some believed to have captured actual apparitions.
Only the listener can decide....
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2001 Leslie Rule (P)2020 Andrews McMeel Publishing
Dear Sweet Filthy World
Summary
What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernanâs 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Treading the grim places where desire and destruction, longing and horror intersect, the author rises once again to meet the high expectations she set with such celebrated collections as Tales of Pain and Wonder, To Charles Fort, with Love, and the World Fantasy Award-winning The Apeâs Wife and Other Stories. In these chapters youâll meet a dragonâs lover, a drowned vampire cursed always to ride the tides, a wardrobe that grants wishes, and a lunatic artistâs marriage of the Black Dahlia and the Beast of Gévaudan. Youâll visit a ruined post-industrial Faerie, travel back to tropical Paleozoic seas and ahead to the far-flung future, and youâll meet a desperate writer forced to sell her memories for new ideas. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse. The stories in Dear Sweet Filthy World were first published in the subscription-only Sirenia Digest, run by Caitlin for her most devoted listeners. This publication marks the first availability to the general public for most of these rare tales.
©2017 CaitlÃn R. Kiernan (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing
If These Wings Could Fly
Summary
Perfect for fans of Laura Ruby, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Mindy McGinnis, Kyrie McCauleyâs stunning YA debut is a powerful story about the haunting specter of domestic violence and the rebellious forces of sisterhood and first love. A Morris Award finalist. Winner of the William C. Morris Award Tens of thousands of crows invading Auburn, Pennsylvania, is a problem for everyone in town except 17-year-old Leighton Barnes. For Leighton, itâs no stranger than her house, which inexplicably repairs itself every time her father loses his temper and breaks things. Leighton doesnât have time for the crows - itâs her senior year, and acceptance to her dream college is finally within reach. But grabbing that lifeline means abandoning her sisters, a choice sheâs not ready to face. With her fatherâs rage worsening and the town in chaos over the crows, Leighton allows herself a chance at happiness with Liam, her charming classmate, even though falling in love feels like a revolutionary act. Balancing school, dating, and survival under the shadow of sixty thousand feathered wings starts to feel almost comfortable, but Leighton knows that this fragile equilibrium can only last so long before it shatters.
©2020 Kyrie McCauley (P)2020 HarperAudio
Dumbo
Summary
The traveling Medici Bros. Circus is made up of a ragtag group. There's Miss Atlantis, the resident mermaid, who is trying to find her voice, and Rongo, a strongman juggling more duties than he can keep track of. There's also a brokenhearted family in need of some healing: Holt - a former Stallion Star and war veteran; his daughter, Milly - a budding scientist with little interest in taking up the family act; and her little brother, Joe - a clumsy kid who longs to be in the ring. But everything changes for the circus when a little elephant with a unique talent comes onto the scene. And when the Medici Bros. Circus joins with V. A. Vandevere's elaborate Dreamland, they're all thrown into a new world - one that might not be as ideal as it first appears....
©2019 Kari Sutherland (P)2019 Disney
Feast Your Eyes
Summary
One of NPRâs Best Books of 2019 A 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence finalist A 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award finalist  A 2020 Chautauqua Prize finalist  âA daringly inventive parable of female creativity and motherhoodâ (O, The Oprah Magazine) from Myla Goldberg, the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of Bee Season, a compelling and wholly original story about a female photographer grappling with ambition and motherhood, a balancing act familiar to women of every generation. Feast Your Eyes, framed as the catalog notes from a photography show at the Museum of Modern Art, tells the life story of Lillian Preston: âAmericaâs Worst Mother, Americaâs Bravest Mother, Americaâs Worst Photographer, or Americaâs Greatest Photographer, depending on who was talking.â After discovering photography as a teenager through her high schoolâs photo club, Lillian rejects her parentsâ expectations of college and marriage and moves to New York City in 1955. When a small gallery exhibits partially nude photographs of Lillian and her daughter, Samantha, Lillian is arrested, thrust into the national spotlight, and targeted with an obscenity charge. Mother and daughterâs sudden notoriety changes the course of both of their lives and especially Lillianâs career as she continues a lifelong quest for artistic legitimacy and recognition. âA searching consideration of the way that the identities and perceptions of a female artist shift over timeâ (The New Yorker), Feast Your Eyes shares Samanthaâs memories, interviews with Lillianâs friends and lovers, and excerpts from Lillianâs journals and letters - a collage of stories and impressions, together amounting to an astounding portrait of a mother and an artist dedicated, above all, to a vision of beauty, truth, and authenticity.  Myla Goldberg has gifted us with âa mother-daughter story, an art-monster story, and an exciting structural gambitâ (Lit Hub) - and, in the end, âa universal and profound story of love and lossâ (New York Newsday).Â
©2019 Myla Goldberg (P)2019 Simon & Schuster
Reputation
Summary
In this perfectly-paced new novel from Sara Shepard, the number one New York Times best-selling author of Pretty Little Liars, the women of a tight-knit college town learn through gossip, scandal, betrayal, and even murder who their neighbors and husbands really are. Aldrich University is rocked to its core when a hacker dumps 40,000 people's e-mails - the entire faculty, staff, students, alums - onto an easily searchable database. Rumors and affairs immediately leak, but things turn explosive when Kit Manning's handsome husband, Dr. Greg Strasser, is found murdered. Kit's sister, Willa, returns for the funeral, setting foot in a hometown she fled 15 years ago, after a night she wishes she could forget. As an investigative reporter, Willa knows something isn't right about the night Greg was killed, and she's determined to find the truth. What she doesn't expect is that everyone has something to hide. And with a killer on the loose, Willa and Kit must figure out who killed Greg before someone else is murdered. Told from multiple points of view, Reputation is full of twists, turns, and shocking reveals. It's a story of intrigue, sabotage, and the secrets we keep - and how far we go to keep them hidden. Number one best seller Sara Shepard is at the top of her game in this brand-new adult novel. Featuring Lisa Flanagan as Kit, Allyson Ryan as Willa, Phoebe Strole as Raina, Brittany Pressley as Laura, and Karissa Vacker as Lynn.
©2019 Sara Shepard (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Under the Rainbow
Summary
Longlisted for the Center for Fictionâs First Novel Prize "Delivered with such conviction and grace...fresh...essential.â (The New York Times Book Review) When outsiders on a mission arrive to change a small townâs attitudes, residents and newcomers alike end up transformed. Big Burr, Kansas is the kind of place where everyone seems to know everyone - or so they think. But when a national nonprofit labels Big Burr âthe most homophobic town in the USâ and sends in a queer task force to live and work there for two years, no one is prepared for what will ensue. Still grieving the death of her son, Linda welcomes the newcomers, who know mercifully little about her past. Teenage Avery, furious at being uprooted from her life in L.A. and desperate to fit in at her new high school, fears itâs only a matter of time before her classmates discover her mom is the head of the task force. And Gabe, an avid hunter who has lived in Big Burr his whole life, suddenly feels as if heâs in the crosshairs. As tensions roil the town, cratering relationships and bringing difficult truths to light, both long time residents and new arrivals must reconsider what it means to belong. Told with warmth and wit, Under the Rainbow is a poignant, hopeful articulation of our complicated humanity and the ways we can learn to live with each other and ourselves.Â
©2020 Celia Laskey (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Cursed
Summary
Twenty curses, old and new, from best-selling fantasy authors such as Neil Gaiman, Karen Joy Fowler, Christina Henry, M.R. Carey, and Charlie Jane Anders. All the Better to Read You With It's a prick of blood, the bite of an apple, the evil eye, a wedding ring, or a pair of red shoes. Curses come in all shapes and sizes, and they can happen to anyone, not just those of us with unpopular step-parents.... Here you'll find unique twists on curses, from fairy tale classics to brand-new hexes of the modern world - expect new monsters and mythologies as well as twists on well-loved fables. Stories to shock and stories of warning, stories of monsters and stories of magic.
©2020 Introduction © 2020 by Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane. Individual stories copyrighted by the authors (P)2020 by Blackstone Publishing
Last Things
Summary
"Everything I love in a book." (Victoria Schwab, author of number-one New York Times best seller This Savage Song) âThe kind of taut, atmospheric thriller that gets your heart racing and sets your imagination on fire. Sensational.â (Claire Legrand, New York Times best-selling author of Furyborn) Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award New York Times best-selling author Jacqueline West captivates listeners with a dark, hypnotic story about the cost of talent - and the evil that lurks just out of sight. Fans of Holly Black and Victoria Schwab will be mesmerized by this gorgeous, magnetic novel. High school senior Anders Thorson is unusually gifted. His band, Last Things, is legendary in their Northern Minnesota hometown. With guitar skills that would amaze even if he werenât only 18, Anders is the focus of head-turning admiration. And Thea Malcom, a newcomer to the insular town, is one of his admirers. Thea seems to turn up everywhere Anders goes: gigs at the local coffeehouse, guitar lessons, even in the woods near Andersâ home. When strange things start happening to Anders, blame immediately falls on Thea. But is she trying to hurt him? Or save him? Can he trust a girl who doesnât seem to know the difference between dreams and reality? And how much are they both willing to sacrifice to get what they want? Told from Andersâ and Theaâs dual points of view, this exquisitely crafted novel is full of unexpected twists and is for fans of Holly Blackâs The Darkest Part of the Forest and Melissa Albertâs The Hazel Wood.
©2019 Jacqueline West (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
Rule
Summary
Three Dark Crowns meets Pretty Little Liars in this sensational and striking new fantasy from debut author Ellen Goodlett. Three girls. Three deadly secrets. Only one can wear the crown. The king is dying, his heir has just been murdered, and rebellion brews in the east. But the kingdom of Kolonya and the outer Reaches has one last option before it descends into leaderless chaos. Or rather, three unexpected options. Zofi has spent her entire life trekking through the outer Reaches with her band of Travelers. She would do anything to protect the band, her family. But no one can ever find out how far she's already gone. Akeylah was raised in the Eastern Reach, surrounded by whispers of rebellion and abused by her father. Desperate to escape, she makes a decision that threatens the whole kingdom. Ren grew up in Kolonya, serving as a lady's maid and scheming her way out of the servants' chambers. But one such plot could get her hung for treason if anyone ever discovers what she's done. When the king summons the girls, they arrive expecting arrest or even execution. Instead they learn the truth: They are his illegitimate daughters, and one must become his new heir. But someone in Kolonya knows their secrets, and that someone will stop at nothing to keep the sisters from their destiny...to rule. Magic, mystery, and blackmail abound in the first book of this sensational and striking fantasy duology.
©2018 Ellen Goodlett (P)2018 Hachette Audio
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy
Summary
The Family Fang meets The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry in this literary mystery about a struggling bookseller whose recently deceased grandfather, a famed mathematician, left behind a dangerous equation for her to track down - and protect - before others can get their hands on it. Just days after mathematician and family patriarch Isaac Severy dies of an apparent suicide, his adopted granddaughter Hazel, owner of a struggling Seattle bookstore, receives a letter from him by mail. In it, Isaac alludes to a secretive organization that is after his final bombshell equation, and he charges Hazel with safely delivering it to a trusted colleague. But first, she must find where the equation is hidden. While in Los Angeles for Isaacâs funeral, Hazel realizes sheâs not the only one searching for his lifeâs work, and that the equationâs implications have potentially disastrous consequences for the extended Severy family, a group of dysfunctional geniuses unmoored by the sudden death of their patriarch. As agents of an enigmatic company shadow Isaacâs favorite son - a theoretical physicist - and a long-lost cousin mysteriously reappears in Los Angeles, the equation slips further from Hazelâs grasp. She must unravel a series of maddening clues hidden by Isaac inside one of her favorite novels, drawing her ever closer to his mathematical treasure. But when her efforts fall short, she is forced to enlist the help of those with questionable motives.
©2018 Nova Jacobs (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Two Worlds and In Between
Summary
Two Worlds and in Between: The Best of CaitlÃn R. Kiernan presents a stunning retrospective of the first 10 years of the authorâs work. It is a compilation of more than 200,000 words of short fiction, including many of her most acclaimed stories as well as some of the authorâs personal favorites; several previously uncollected, hard-to-find pieces; her sci-fi novella, The Dry Salvages; and a rare collaboration with Poppy Z. Brite.
©2011 Caitlin R. Kiernan (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
The Good Dinosaur
Summary
The Good Dinosaur is a humorous and exciting original story about Arlo, a lively Apatosaurus with a big heart. After a traumatic event unsettles Arlo's family, he sets out on a remarkable journey, gaining an unlikely companion along the way - a human boy. This novelization retells the whole exciting story.
©2016 Disney Press (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Lost Rainforest #3: Rumi's Riddle
Summary
The action-packed conclusion to the Lost Rainforest series by award-winning and best-selling author Eliot Schrefer delivers one last thrilling adventure as the shadowwalkers are pushed to the limit to protect Caldera. Perfect for fans of Warriors and Spirit Animals. When the shadowwalkers were victorious in their battle against the Ant Queen, they hoped their work to save Caldera was done. But the rainforest has begun to rumble. Rumi, a scholarly tree frog who can control the wind, must bring his band of animal friends to face the greatest danger theyâve yet encountered - the giant volcano beneath the jungle itself. While the volcano roars, rumors of a mysterious evil blanket Caldera - the Elemental of Darkness has emerged and is building a legion of followers. When the shadowwalkers are forced to divide and conquer, Rumi finds himself an unlikely leader and must grapple with his own secrets before he can unlock the full scope of his magical powers. Can Rumi rally the shadowwalkers to save their rainforest home?
©2020 Eliot Schrefer (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
The True Bastards
Summary
Half orc. All badass. A female chieftain in a brutal wasteland society fights to take what is hers in an action-packed, foul-mouthed fantasy adventure from the author of The Grey Bastards. âNonstop action, though not for faint hearts.â (The Wall Street Journal) Fetching was once the only female rider in the Lot Lands. Now she is the proud leader of her own hoof, a band of loyal half-orcs sworn to her command. But in the year since she became chief, the Lots have tested her strength to the breaking point. The Bastards are scattered, desperate, their ranks weakened by a mysterious famine, their fortress reduced to smoldering slag. And their troubles are only growing. A pack of ravening beasts circles their camp, while grasping human nobles hatch a plan that will shift the balance of power in the Lots. Fetch and her comrades are still standing defiant - theyâre Bastards, after all - but even the toughest half-orc can take only so much; and Fetch knows theyâre on the verge of ruin. As she strives to lead her hoof to safety and unravel the plots set against them, Fetching must journey through forbidden elven lands, overcome long-standing hatreds, battle a monstrous wizard of terrifying power - and, worst of all, delve into the dark truths of her own existence. Sheâs no stranger to fighting the world, but on this journey, sharp steel and a strong hog wonât be enough. To survive these trials, sheâll have to defy not just her foes but the very nature of the Lots. The True Bastards is the sweeping, ambitious second entry in the Lot Lands series, an irresistibly thrilling, gritty, foul-mouthed adventure that deepens, expands - and again upends - the Bastardsâ unforgettable world. Praise for The True Bastards "[An] action-packed sequel...the story is filled with relentless action and powered by a cast of adeptly developed and emotionally appealing characters.... Fans will be overjoyed not only with the return of some beloved characters, but also with the novel's conclusion, which sets up the storyline for a much larger adventure to come. Imagine an outlaw biker gang of half-orcs riding giant war pigs and you've captured this saga's gloriously dirty soul." (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
©2019 Jonathan French (P)2019 Random House Audio
The End of Days
Summary
Winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Hans Fallada Prize, The End of Days, by the acclaimed German writer Jenny Erpenbeck, consists essentially of five "books", each leading to a different death of the same unnamed female protagonist. "How could it all have gone differently?" the narrator asks in the intermezzos. The first chapter begins with the death of a baby in the early 20th-century Hapsburg Empire. In the next chapter, the same girl grows up in Vienna after World War I, but a pact she makes with a young man leads to a second death. In the next scenario, she survives adolescence and moves to Russia with her husband. Both are dedicated Communists, yet our heroine ends up in a labor camp. But her fate does not end there.... A novel of incredible breadth and amazing concision, The End of Days offers a unique overview of the 20th century.
©2012, 2014 Albrecht Knaus Verlag, a division of Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH, München, Germany. Translation copyright by Susan Bernofsky (P)2019 New Directions Publishing Corp.
Ava Gardner
Summary
Still renowned for her sultry screen performances, down-to- earth personality, and famed lifelong love affair with Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner left an indelible mark on Hollywood history and led a life as adventurous as any film script. Ava is a tribute to a legendary life. Authors Kendra Bean and Anthony Uzarowski take a closer look at the Academy Award-nominated actress' life and famous screen roles. They also shed new light on the creation and maintenance of her glamorous image, her marriages, and friendships with famous figures such as Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, and Tennessee Williams. From the backwoods of Grabtown, North Carolina to the bullfighting rings of Spain, from the MGM backlot to the Rome of La Dolce Vita, this biography takes listeners on the exciting journey of a life lived to the fullest and through four decades of film history with an iconic star. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Kendra Bean and Anthony Uzarowski (P)2017 Hachette Audio
Her Daughter's Mother
Summary
She befriended the one woman she was never supposed to meet. Now she's the key suspect in her disappearance. For fans of The Perfect Mother and The Wife Between Us comes a gripping psychological suspense debut about two strangers, one incredible connection, and the steep price of obsession. Lana Stone has never considered herself a stalker - until the night she impulsively follows a familiar face through the streets of New York's Upper West Side. Her target? The "anonymous" egg donor she'd selected through an agency, the one who's making motherhood possible for her. Hungry to learn more about her, Lana plans only to watch her from a distance. But when circumstances bring them face-to-face, an unexpected friendship is born. Katya, a student at Columbia, is the yin to Lana's yang, an impulsive free spirit who lives life at the edge. And for pragmatic Lana, she's a breath of fresh air and a welcome distraction from her painful breakup with her baby's father. Then, just as suddenly as Katya entered Lana's life, she disappears--and Lana might have been the last person to see her before she went missing. Determined to find out what became of the woman to whom she owes so much, Lana digs into Katya's past, even as the police grow suspicious of her motives. But she's unprepared for the secrets she unearths, and their power to change everything she thought she knew about those she loves best....
©2019 Daniela Petrova (P)2019 Penguin Audio
Marlene's Revenge
Summary
The witch has returned, and no one is safe. Almost a year has passed since Anika and Gretel's horrifying night in an abandoned cannery in the Back Country and the subsequent beginning of their quest to the Old Country for answers to the mysteries of Orphism. But rumors are reaching the far shore that the evil Witch of the North, presumed dead since that night of terror, is alive and strong. And hunting again. But this time, no one is safe. Everyone Gretel loves is in danger, and she must summon a new level of power and conviction to end her family's nightmare forever.
©2016 Christopher Coleman (P)2019 Tantor
Rise
Summary
Dark pasts and forbidden romances haunt three ambitious sisters as they fight to inherit the throne in this sequel to Rule, which New York Times best-selling author Elly Blake called "dazzling" and "pulse-pounding". Sisters Akeylah, Ren, and Zofi are all a step closer to their dying father's throne, a step closer to the crown that will allow one of them to rule over Kolonya. But the sisters' pasts continue to haunt them. Each hides a secret marked with blood and betrayal, and now their blackmailer is holding nothing back. When King Andros discovers the sisters' traitorous pasts, the consequences will shake the entire kingdom to its core. As Kolonya's greatest threat stalks closer and closer, weaving a web of fear and deceit around Ren, Zofi, and Akeylah, even the people they love are under suspicion. If the sisters are going to survive, they'll have to learn to trust each other above all else and work together, not only to save themselves, but to protect everyone and everything they hold dear. With shocking reveals and suspenseful storytelling, this breathtaking sequel to Rule will keep you guessing until the very last minute.
©2019 Ellen Goodlett (P)2019 Little, Brown Young Readers
The Girl
Summary
With an in-depth look at the two most empowering years in the life of Marilyn Monroe, The Girl details how The Seven Year Itch created an icon and sent the star on an adventure of self-discovery and transformation from a controlled wife and contract player into a businesswoman and unlikely feminist whose power is still felt today. When Marilyn Monroe stepped over a subway grating as The Girl in The Seven Year Itch and let a gust of wind catch the skirt of her pleated white dress, an icon was born. Before that, the actress was mainly known for a nude calendar and one-dimensional, albeit memorable, characters on the screen. Though she again played a "dumb blonde" in this film and was making headlines by revealing her enviable anatomy, the star was now every bit in control of her image, and ready for a personal revolution.  Emboldened by her winning fight to land the role of The Girl, the making of The Seven Year Itch and the 18 months that followed was the period of greatest confidence, liberation, and career success that Monroe lived in her tumultuous life. It was a time in which, among other things, she:  Ended her marriage to Joe DiMaggio and later began a relationship with Arthur Miller Legally changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, divorcing herself from the troubled past of Norma Jeane Started her own production company Studied in private lessons with Lee and Paula Strasberg of the Actors Studio and became a part of the acting revolution of the day The ripple effects her personal rebellion had on Hollywood, and in trailblazing the way for women that followed, will both surprise and inspire listeners to see the Marilyn Monroe in an entirely new light. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
Public Domain (P)2018 Hachette Audio
City of Flickering Light
Summary
Juliette Fay - "one of the best authors of women's fiction" (Library Journal) - transports us back to the Golden Age of Hollywood and the raucous Roaring 20s, as three friends struggle to earn their places among the stars of the silent screen - perfect for fans of La La Land and Rules of Civility. It's July 1921, "flickers" are all the rage, and Irene Van Beck has just declared her own independence by jumping off a moving train to escape her fate in a traveling burlesque show. When her friends, fellow dancer Millie Martin and comedian Henry Weiss, leap after her, the trio finds their way to the bright lights of Hollywood with hopes of making it big in the burgeoning silent film industry. At first glance, Hollywood in the 1920s is like no other place on earth - iridescent, scandalous, and utterly exhilarating - and the three friends yearn for a life they could only have dreamed of before. But despite the glamour and seduction of Tinseltown, success doesn't come easy, and nothing can prepare Irene, Millie, and Henry for the poverty, temptation, and heartbreak that lie ahead. With their ambitions challenged by both the men above them and the prejudice surrounding them, their friendship is the only constant through desperate times, as each struggles to find their true calling in an uncertain world. What begins as a quest for fame and fortune soon becomes a collective search for love, acceptance, and fulfillment as they navigate the backlots and stage sets where the illusions of the silver screen are brought to life. With her "trademark wit and grace" (Randy Susan Meyers, author of The Murderer's Daughters), Juliette Fay crafts another radiant and fascinating historical novel as thrilling as the bygone era of Hollywood itself.
©2019 Juliette Fay (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Familiar Dark
Summary
One of Publishers Weeklyâs Best Mystery/Thriller Books of 2020Â "From its gripping beginning to its sobering finale, Amy Engel's The Familiar Dark never fails to enthrall with surprising twists." (Associated Press) A spellbinding story of a mother with nothing left to lose who sets out on an all-consuming quest for justice after her daughter is murdered on the town playground. Sometimes the answers are worse than the questions. Sometimes it's better not to know. Set in the poorest part of the Missouri Ozarks, in a small town with big secrets, The Familiar Dark opens with a murder. Eve Taggert, desperate with grief over losing her daughter, takes it upon herself to find out the truth about what happened. Eve is no stranger to the dark side of life, having been raised by a hard-edged mother whose lessons Eve tried not to pass on to her own daughter. But Eve may need her mother's cruel brand of strength if she's going to face the reality about her daughter's death and about her own true nature. Her quest for justice takes her from the seedy underbelly of town to the quiet woods and, most frighteningly, back to her mother's trailer for a final lesson. The Familiar Dark is a story about the bonds of family - women doing the best they can for their daughters in dire circumstances - as well as a story about how even the darkest and most terrifying of places can provide the comfort of home.
©2020 Amy Engel (P)2020 Penguin Audio
The Vanished Queen
Summary
A stunning blend of vivid fantasy and political drama, The Vanished Queen is the timely story of a young resistance fighter working to overthrow a totalitarian rulerâs regime of terror and lies. â[G]rippingâ¦this is the novel the world needs nowâ (Kate Hearfield, Nebula AwardÂ-winning author of Armed in her Fashion). Long ago, Queen Mirantha vanished. King Karolje claimed she was assassinated by a neighboring ruler, but her people knew the truth: the king had Disappeared her himself. Now the queenâs disappearance is hardly a memory - merely one among many horrors the kingâs reign has wrought. But when Anza, a young student impassioned by her fatherâs unjust execution, finds the missing queenâs diary, she is inspired by Miranthaâs words - joins the resistance group to overthrow the king. Price Esvar is the second son to an evil king. Trapped under his thumb and desperate for a way out, a chance meeting with Anza gives him the opportunity to join the resistance. Together, they might have the leverage to move against the kingâbut if they fail, their deaths could mean a total loss of freedom for generations to follow. In this dangerous game of court politics, one misstep could lead to a fate worse than death. Set in a world where resistance is as dangerous as it is important, The Vanished Queen is a âbig, dark, intricate novelâ (Lousia Morgan, author of A Secret History of Witches) about the courage and sacrifice it requires to take on a tyrant.
©2020 Lisbeth Campbell. Sonnet #212 ©2017 J. M. McDermott. Used with permission. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Northernmost
Summary
One of Houston Chronicle's Best Books of the Year From the acclaimed author of Wintering: a thrilling ode to the spirit of adventure and the vagaries of loss and love. In 1897, Odd Einar Eide returns home from a near-death experience in the Arctic only to discover his own funeral underway. His wife, Inger, stunned to see him alive, is slow to warm back up to him, having spent many sleepless nights convinced she had lost both him and their daughter, Thea, who traveled to America two years earlier but has yet to send even a single letter back to them in Hammerfest, their small Norwegian town at the top of the earth. More than a century later, Greta Nansen has finally begun to admit to herself that her marriage is over. Desperately unhappy and unfulfilled, she makes the decision to follow her husband from their home in Minnesota to Oslo, where he has traveled for work, to end it once and for all. But on impulse, for reasons unknown even to her, she diverts her travels to Hammerfest: the town of her ancestors, the town where her great-great-grandmother Thea was born - and for some reason never returned to. Braiding together two remarkable stories of love and survival, Northernmost wades into the darkest recesses of the human heart and celebrates the remarkable ability of humans to endure nearly unimaginable trials.
©2020 Peter Geye (P)2020 Random House Audio
Lions and Lace
Summary
Heiress Alana Van Alen has everything - but she is living a lie. To protect her sister, she plays society's game and attends dazzling balls and soirees - until a cunningly orchestrated act of revenge leaves her penniless and at the mercy of one of the city's most notorious gentlemen. Dubbed the Predator of Wall Street, Trevor Sheridan rose from abject poverty in Ireland to the pinnacle of power in Manhattan. Yet he's still shunned by the city's elite Four Hundred. Now he has parlayed his hunger for revenge into a scheme to destroy the rich and powerful. In the final phase of his plan, he will marry the pedigreed Alana Van Alen to gain the acceptance that has been denied to him for so long.
©2016 Meagan McKinney (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
How Quickly She Disappears
Summary
As seen in People â¢Â Entertainment Weekly â¢Â New York Post Best Book of the Week "A novel paced like a thriller but written with the aching grace of literary fiction. A gorgeously dark, harrowing debut." (Riley Sager, New York Times best-selling author of Lock Every Door) The Dry meets The Silence of the Lambs in this intoxicating tale of literary suspense, set in the relentless Alaskan landscape, about madness and obsession, loneliness and grief, and the ferocious bonds of family.... It's been 20 years since Elisabethâs twin sister, Jacqueline, disappeared without a trace. Now, 30-year-old Elisabeth is living far from home in a small Alaskan town. She's in a loveless marriage and has a precocious young daughter she loves more than anything but who reminds her too much of her long-missing sister. But then, Alfred, a dangerous stranger with a plan of his own, arrives in town and commits an inexplicable act of violence. And he offers a startling revelation: He knows exactly what happened to Elisabeth's sister, but he'll reveal this truth only if she fulfills his three requests. Increasingly isolated from her neighbors and imprisoned by the bitter cold and her own obsession, Elisabeth can almost hear her sister's voice saying, "Come and find me." And so she will, even if it means putting herself - and her family - in danger.
©2020 Raymond Fleischmann (P)2020 Penguin Audio