Sarah Nichols has narrated 25 audiobooks on Listento.it by 14 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 52 ratings. The most-rated is Start Where You Are.
Start Where You Are
Summary
Start Where You Are is an indispensable handbook for cultivating fearlessness and awakening a compassionate heart. With insight and humor, Pema Chödrön presents down-to-earth guidance on how we can "start where we are" - embracing rather than denying the painful aspects of our lives. Pema Chödrön frames her teachings on compassion around 59 traditional Tibetan Buddhist maxims, or slogans, such as: "Always apply only a joyful state of mind," "Don't seek others' pain as the limbs of your own happiness," and "Always meditate on whatever provokes resentment." Working with these slogans and through the practice of meditation, Start Where You Are shows how we can all develop the courage to work with our inner pain and discover joy, well-being, and confidence.
©2017 Pema Chödrön (P)2017 Random House Audio
The Right Sort of Man
Summary
First comes love, then comes murder. In a London slowly recovering from the ravages of World War II, two very different women join forces to launch a business venture in the heart of Mayfair - The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. Miss Iris Sparks, avuncular and unmarried, and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, practical and widowed with a young son, are determined to achieve some independence and do some good in a rapidly changing world. But the promising start to their marriage bureau is threatened when their newest client, Tillie La Salle, is found murdered and the man arrested for the crime is one Dickie Trower, the prospective husband they matched her with. While the police are convinced they have their man, Miss Sparks and Mrs. Bainbridge are not. To clear Trower's name - and to rescue their fledgling operation's reputation - Sparks and Bainbridge decide to investigate on their own, using the skills and contacts they've each acquired through life and their individual adventures during the recent war. In this charming, compelling mystery, Allison Montclair blends meticulous research with two brilliantly imagined main characters into the first in a wonderful new series.
©2019 Allison Montclair (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
A Rumored Fortune
Summary
A lonely young heiress becomes the poorest wealthy woman in Victorian England when her father dies without telling anyone where he hid his fortune. Can Tressa and the no-nonsense estate manager find the fortune before the greedy relatives get to it first? Tressa Harlowe's father did not trust banks, but neither did he trust his greedy extended family. He kept his vast fortune hidden somewhere on his estate in the south of England and died suddenly, without telling anyone where he had concealed it. Tressa and her ailing mother are left with a mansion and an immense vineyard and no money to run it. It doesn't take long for a bevy of opportunists to flock to the estate under the guise of offering condolences. Tressa knows what they're really up to. She'll have to work with the rough and rusticated vineyard manager to keep the laborers content without pay and discover the key to finding her father's fortune before someone else finds it first. Award-winning author Joanna Davidson Politano welcomes readers to Trevelyan Castle, home of the poorest heiress in Victorian England, for a treasure hunt they'll not soon forget.
©2018 Joanna Davidson Politano (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Untimely Death
Summary
This witty and wise work is the first in Elizabeth J. Duncan's charming new mystery series. A Catskills resort's production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet takes a wickedly ironic turn when the leading lady, Lauren Richmond, is first poisoned and then stabbed. Who would extinguish the life of such a beautiful young thespian? It seems like just about everyone had a motive to pull the ropes on her final curtain call. At the center of this Shakespearean tragedy is Charlotte Fairfax, formerly the costume mistress of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Upstate New York is a long way from the royal stage, but Charlotte is always the queen of her domain. As this small production's costume designer, she has stitched her way into everyone's lives, learning more than anyone could possibly imagine about the rise and fall of Lauren Richmond.
©2015 Elizabeth J. Duncan (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Ill Met by Murder
Summary
It's the most important night of the year for the Catskills Shakespeare Theater Company: the annual fundraising performance at the country estate of the wealthy widow Paula Van Dusen. And this year promises to be even more special as the company will give a moonlight performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream as part of the wedding celebrations for Paula's daughter, Belinda, and her fiancé Adrian. But "the course of true love never did run smooth", and in the wake of a disastrous after-party, the stage is set for murder. Hugh Hedley, son of a prominent upstate New York family and Adrian's rival in the cutthroat world of high-end Manhattan real estate, is found murdered with a prop stolen from the play. Mrs. Van Dusen is desperate to keep her daughter's name out of the paper, and so Charlotte Fairfax is drawn into a murder case amid her costume-design responsibilities and finding a home for the company's new theater school. Charlotte nevertheless throws herself into an investigation of shady business deals, a missing dog, and long-buried family secrets because "though she be but little, she is fierce!"
©2016 Elizabeth J. Duncan (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Diamond Cat
Summary
The cat who swallowed more than a canary.... A lifetime of craving cuddlier companionship than her hectoring mother has led 40ish Bettina Bilby to board her neighbors' felines - an expectant tabby, a pampered blue-eyed Balinese, a depressed ginger Persian with a cod-liver-oil addiction, and Adolf, an imperious mouser with a patchwork face - for a long holiday weekend. But a freak storm sets the pigeon among the cats: a carrier bird downed on the doorstep with a tiny load of large, flawless diamonds. And Bettina's dilemma escalates as Adolf gobbles up one of the gems and a succession of elegant but shifty strangers prowl the gardens, offending the cats and bringing in their wake backdoor bloodshed and murder.
©1995 Marian Babson (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Finding Lady Enderly
Summary
Raina Bretton is a rag woman in London's East End when a handsome stranger appears in a dank alley and offers her a glittering smile and a chance for adventure. Rothburne Abbey has a unique position for her, one that will take her away from her hardscrabble life and give her a chance to be a lady. Things she could only dream of might be coming true. But some dreams turn out to be nightmares. Though Raina has traded squalor for silk and satin, something about the abbey is deeply unsettling. As she wrestles with her true identity, the ruin, decay, and secrets she finds at the heart of the old mansion tear at her confidence and threaten to reveal her for who she really is. Only one man stands between her and the danger that lurks within - and only if he decides to keep her biggest secret hidden.
©2019 Joanna Davidson Politano (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Crusades
Summary
Looking into the past, the Crusades seem incomprehensible. What combination of religious fervor, hatred of people of different faiths, and gall led Europeans of AD 1100 to make their way thousands of miles to conquer the Holy Land? Why did they continue for 200 years? How did the Crusades change the world? The intriguing story is peppered with colorful characters. Over the centuries, this well-researched and written book argues, crusaders saw - and participated in - the evolution of warfare and the transformation of society from feudal fiefdoms to nations and empires. The story of the Crusades is a reminder, too, of the horrors wrought in the name of religion. The Crusades are seen by many Christians today as an exercise in fanaticism, an episode in which the teachings of Christ were used to justify the horrors perpetrated on innocents. That judgment is accurate, but not the whole story.
©2015 Abigail Archer (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
A Royal Affair
Summary
More goes wrong than could be imagined when Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau are unexpectedly engaged to dig into the past of a suitor of a royal princess. In London 1946, the Right Sort Marriage Bureau is just beginning to take off, and the proprietors, Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, are in need of a bigger office and a secretary to handle the growing demand. Unfortunately, they don’t yet have the necessary means. So when a woman arrives - a cousin of Gwen’s - with an interesting and quite remunerative proposition, they two of them are all ears. The cousin, one Lady Matheson, works for the queen in “some capacity” and is in need of some discreet investigation. It seems that Princess Elizabeth has developed feelings for a dashing Greek prince and a blackmail note has arrived, alluding to some potentially damaging information about said prince. Wanting to keep this out of the palace gossip circles, but also needing to find out what skeletons might lurk in the prince’s closet, the palace has quietly turned to Gwen and Iris. Without causing a stir, the two of them must now find out what secrets lurk in the prince’s past, before his engagement to the future queen of England is announced. And there’s more at stake than the future of the empire - there is their potential new office that lies in the balance.
©2020 Allison Montclair (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing
The Temptation of Elizabeth Tudor
Summary
A power-hungry courtier and an impressionable young princess: The Tudor court had never been more perilous for the young Elizabeth, where rumors had the power to determine her fate. England, late 1547. King Henry VIII is dead. His 14-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, is living with the king's widow, Catherine Parr, and her new husband, Thomas Seymour. Seymour is the brother of Henry VIII's third wife, the late Jane Seymour, who was the mother to the now-ailing boy king. Ambitious and dangerous, Seymour begins an overt flirtation with Elizabeth that ends with Catherine sending her away. When Catherine dies a year later and Seymour is arrested for treason soon after, a scandal explodes. Alone and in dreadful danger, Elizabeth is threatened by supporters of her half-sister, Mary, who wishes to see England return to Catholicism. She is also closely questioned by the king's regency council due to her place in the line of succession. Was she still a virgin? Was there a child? Had she promised to marry Seymour? Under pressure, Elizabeth shows the shrewdness and spirit she would later be famous for. She survives the scandal. Thomas Seymour is not so lucky. The "Seymour Scandal" led to the creation of the persona of the Virgin Queen. On hearing of Seymour's beheading, Elizabeth observed, "This day died a man of much wit, and very little judgment." She would never allow her heart to rule her head again.
©2016 Elizabeth Norton (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Reservoir Tapes
Summary
Returning us to the extraordinary territory of Jon McGregor's Man Booker Prize long-listed novel Reservoir 13, The Reservoir Tapes take us deep into the heart of an English village that is trying to come to terms with what has happened on its watch. A teenage girl has gone missing. The whole community has been called upon to join the search. And now an interviewer arrives, intent on capturing the community's unstable stories about life in the weeks and months before Becky Shaw vanished. Each villager has a memory to share or a secret to conceal, a connection to Becky that they are trying to make or break. A young wife pushes against the boundaries of her marriage, and another seeks a means of surviving within hers. A group of teenagers dare one another to jump into a flooded quarry, the one weak swimmer still awaiting his turn. A laborer lies trapped under rocks and dry limestone dust as his fellow workers attempt a risky rescue. And meanwhile a fractured portrait of Becky emerges at the edges of our vision - a girl swimming, climbing, and smearing dirt onto a scared boy's face, images to be cherished and challenged as the search for her goes on.
©2018 Jon McGregor (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
No Cooperation from the Cat
Summary
Marian Babson brings back theater actresses Trixie and Evangeline in No Cooperation from the Cat, her latest cat-suffused cozy! Trixie’s daughter Martha has taken up residence in the kitchen she shares with her friend Evangeline. Martha is frantically testing last-minute recipes to meet the deadline for her cookbook, helped by Jocasta, her overworked editor. When a strange man bursts into their lives, it’s revealed that Martha was not the first choice for the cookbook, and that the woman originally working on it died after eating something at a cooking demonstration. Unwanted guests descend on the already crowded and tense apartment, one of whom ends up dead. Cho-Cho-San, the lovely Japanese bobtail cat, joins in the fun as Trixie and Evangeline become entangled in another puzzling murder. Babson delivers a delightfully witty mystery with a cast sure to induce laughs, including one cat that will steal listeners’ hearts.
©2012 Marian Babson (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
To Catch a Cat
Summary
The last thing 11-year-old Robin wants to hear is that his mother and her new husband are extending their honeymoon indefinitely. Not that staying with his Aunt Mags is so bad, but there’s her boyfriend to contend with, and the members of the school gang are insisting that he complete a dare before they let him join the group. They want Robin to kidnap Mrs. Nordling’s prize-winning cat when no one is home. Getting into the Nordlings' house is easy, and Robin manages to find the cat and put him in his bag. As Robin is leaving, however, he stumbles upon a terrifying scene - Mr. Nordling leaving the master bedroom with blood all over his body. Robin is momentarily paralyzed and then flees down the stairs. He can’t be sure whether or not he has been seen, but realizes that in order to stay safe, he will have to hide the unusual-looking cat. Meanwhile, Mr. Nordling is getting desperate. He knows that if he can find the unmistakable cat he will also find the witness to his brutal crime. He begins a frantic search for the young boy, but his infuriating neighbor won’t leave him alone. She is beginning to understand what happened that night, and he decides that he will have to deal with her too. In her 36th published mystery, Marian Babson delights listeners again with her usual charm and lighthearted humor. To Catch a Cat will capture the hearts of feline lovers and mystery fans alike.
©2000 Marian Babson (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
The Cat Next Door
Summary
Returning home to England from New York, Margot finds her family in chaos. Her cousin Chloe is in prison awaiting trial for murdering her twin sister, Claudia, their mother has withdrawn into the imaginary world of her romance novels, Claudia’s 14-year-old daughter has regressed to early childhood and refuses to leave her bed, and to top it all off, the family cat has decided to live with the neighbors. As Chloe’s trial approaches, the atmosphere in the house becomes increasingly fraught, and Margot begins to wonder whether someone else is responsible for Claudia’s death. Is Chloe taking the blame for the family’s sake? It’s not until a second murder that the pieces begin to fall into place and the cat agrees to come home.
©2019 Marian Babson (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Henry VIII
Summary
Henry VIII ruled England from 1509 to 1547. As a young man, he was fond of sports and hunting and was said to be uncommonly handsome. Standing more than six feet tall, he loomed large in the lives and minds of his subjects as he navigated his country through the tricky diplomatic and military hazards of the 16th century. A man of enormous appetites, Henry conducted affairs with many women, married six, and executed two. His infatuation with Anne Boleyn set in motion a chain of events that reshaped the church in England and eroded the dominance of Rome. But the popular image of Henry as a crude tyrant, dispatching courtiers, enemies, and wives with gusto, obscures a more nuanced and fascinating character. He was a true Renaissance king who presided over one of Europe's greatest courts and nudged Western civilization onto a new course. Here, from Abigail Archer, author of the New York Times best seller Elizabeth I, is the story of Henry VIII.
©2015 Abigail Archer (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Elizabeth I
Summary
England's first Queen Elizabeth gave her name to an age. Inheriting a bankrupt, famished, and powerless country, she healed its religious rifts, replenished its treasury, redefined diplomatic guile, defeated the Spanish Armada, and inspired a new flowering of English culture. Her father, Henry VIII, beheaded her mother, Anne Boleyn, and Elizabeth was declared a bastard. As Henry kept marrying and discarding wives, she had to be adroit and canny to avoid being snared in the schemes of courtiers plotting to win the crown. And when at last she ascended the throne, her councilors told her she could survive only by marrying. But she reigned for 44 years as Glorianna, the "Virgin Queen" whose wit, evasions, and towering intellect frustrated enemies both within and outside her island kingdom. The more we know about Elizabeth's endless complexity, the more remains to be learned. Here's a beginning.
©2014 Abigail Archer (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Service of the Dead
Summary
Expertly recreating the social and political upheavals of late medieval Europe, acclaimed author Candace Robb introduces a new series starring Kate Clifford, a woman forged on the warring northern marches of 14th-century England. Political unrest permeates York at the cusp of the 15th century, as warring factions take sides on who should be the rightful king - Richard II or his estranged, powerful cousin in exile, Henry Bolingbroke. Independent-minded 20-year-old Kate Clifford is struggling to dig out from beneath the debt left by her late husband. Determined to find a way to be secure in her own wealth and establish her independence in a male-dominated society, Kate turns one of her properties near the minster into a guesthouse and sets up a business. In a dance of power, she also quietly rents the discreet bedchambers to the wealthy, powerful merchants of York for nights with their mistresses. But the brutal murder of a mysterious guest and the disappearance of his companion for the evening threatens all that Kate has built. Before others in town hear word of a looming scandal, she must call upon all of her hard-won survival skills to save herself from ruin.
©2016 Candace Robb (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Twelve Deaths of Christmas
Summary
As the Christmas holidays begin at Maude Daneson's rooming house, unsuspecting lodgers receive a most unwelcome present from the person responsible for a series of senseless and bizarre murders - a killer much more cunning than they had suspected.
©2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.; 2015 Marian Babson
Wickwythe Hall
Summary
May 1940. Hitler invades France, a move that threatens all of Europe, and three lives intersect at Wickwythe Hall, an opulent estate in the English countryside - a beautiful French refugee, a take-charge American heiress, and a charming champagne vendeur with ties to Roosevelt and Churchill who isn't what he seems. There, secrets and unexpected liaisons unfold, until a shocking tragedy in a far-off Algerian port binds them forever.... Wickwythe Hall is inspired by actual people, places, and events, including Operation Catapult, a sea action in which Churchill launched a bloody attack on the French fleet to keep the powerful ships out of Hitler's reach. More than 1,000 French sailors, who just days before fought side-by-side with the British, perished. Humanizing this forgotten piece of history, Wickwythe Hall takes the listener behind the blackout curtains of upper-class England, through the bustling private quarters of Churchill's Downing Street, and along the tense back alleys of occupied Vichy, illustrating what it took to survive in the dark early days of World War II.
©2017 Judithe Little (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Cat Who Wasn't a Dog
Summary
A purrfect crime! Dame Cecile Savoy's "revolting floor mop" of a Pekinese has passed away at a ripe old age. Now, the aging British actress convinces her rivals on stage and screen, Trixie and Evangeline, to support her in her hour of grief...by accompanying her to a taxidermist. But it's a cab ride straight to a cat-astrope! No sooner do the three elderly thespians enter "Stuff Yours" than they discover a dead body, a live kitty in a cage, and flames bursting from the back room. Fortunately for a rare Japanese bobtail called Cho-Cho-San, Trixie grabs the cat before fleeing the scene. But who's the victim? Who set the fire? And why was a gorgeous feline going to be stuffed? Of course, Cho-Cho-San knows more than she's letting on as the curtain goes up on foul play, murderous jealousies, and a killer who may be going to the dogs....
©2003 Marian Babson (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing