Showing results by narrator "Carrington MacDuffie" in All Categories

One thousand years ago, chaos loosed itself upon Japan, upending an era in which the arts flourished. At the dawn of 250 years of civil war, in the opulent court of Lord Norimasa, the beautiful but cruel poet Lady Utsu wages war with men's hearts and holds the fearsome lord and his devoted samurai Matsuhito in her thrall. As the two men raze Japan's landscape in futile battles for unity, Utsu falls for Matsuhito even as Lord Norimasa continues to love her.

Spend time in the funny, oddball village of Arnold Falls, where larger-than-life characters deal with the smallest of problems. Somehow, it all comes out right in the end. Given the choice of go big or go home, nine times out of 10 the townspeople of Arnold Falls will go home, get back into their house slippers, and forget about the whole thing, whatever the whole thing was this time. Tempests great and small (mostly small) are always brewing in this tiny, upstate hamlet where half of the residents are fighting to preserve Arnold Falls as it was in its red-light-district heyday.

Populating a small town in the Pacific Northwest, the characters in Lucia Perillo’s story collection all resist giving the world what it expects of them - and are surprised when the world comes roaring back. An addict trapped in a country house becomes obsessed with vacuum cleaners and the people who sell them door-to-door. An abandoned woman seeks consolation in tales of armed robbery told by one of her fellow housewives. Together, Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain is a sharp-edged, witty testament to the ambivalence of emotions.

For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets - from her father, who buried himself in work after her mother's death, and from her husband, Peter, who's always been respectable and safe. But then an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen's life with a surprising proposition. Elliot, it turns out, is in need of a pretend wife, just for the weekend, in order to fulfill his dying mother's last wish.

With her chance at the U.S. equestrian team shattered by an injury, Sydney Wellesley arrives at the Lazy Windmill ranch angry and heartbroken. But the rugged red bluffs and wild high plains of the Black Hills inspire her to purchase land where she can train her own Olympic hopefuls. Everything's going according to Sydney's new life plan - until her funding suddenly dries up.

International human rights activist Lisa Shannon spent many afternoons at the kitchen table having tea with her friend Francisca Thelin, who often spoke of her childhood in Congo. Thelin would conjure vivid images of lush flower gardens, fish the size of small children, and of children running barefoot through her family's coffee plantation, gorging themselves on fruit from the robust and plentiful mango trees.

Dara Willcox, in New York for a weekend, meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. The two are on different courses-Austin is British, temporarily in New York. Dara's from North Carolina, set on law school. They fall in love at first sight, and are determined to make their lives together. Days after their engagement dinner, Austin hears unsettling news from London that wrecks their plans. Dara abruptly cancels the wedding. She refuses to reveal why, not even to her best friends or her parents or grandmother, disrupting their family tradition of openness.

Ida grew up with Jackson and James - where there was “I” there was a “J.” She can’t recall a time when she didn’t have them around, whether in their early days camping out in the boys’ room decorated with circus scenes, or later as teenagers when they were drinking on rooftops. While the world outside saw them as neighbors and friends, to each other the three formed a family unit - two brothers and a sister - not drawn from blood but from a deep need to fill a void in their single-parent households.

>Elaine Benson, a successful novelist who let love in the person of an unreliable screenwriter jettison her career, is now divorced, broke, and on her way to a so-called primitive, untamed northern forest on Canada’s Lake Muskoka to interview for a job. Elderly Miss Moira Madison of the fabulously rich Canadian family wishes to write her memoirs. Settling into the family “cottage” and what remains of a lifestyle long gone, Elaine reconnects with her love of researching the past - until she discovers that the first such writer hired died under suspicious circumstances.

One Fifth Avenue is THE building - the chicest, the hottest, with all the best people. Within its luxuriously thick walls the lives of New York City's elite play out. There is Schiffer Diamond, an over-40 actress who had given up making movies and moved to Europe, until the call to come home gave her the chance to prove that women of style are truly ageless. And there is spoiled, self-assured Lola, whose mother is determined to launch her darling daughter into society and the arms of the right man by clawing her way into the building.

Lessons and rituals from the women of the Bible, connecting contemporary women with their sacred stories. In this vivid collection, Judaic scholar Vanessa Ochs brings the legends of the biblical matriarchs to new life. Intimate, familiar, and wise, the heroines in Sarah Laughed are revealed to be inspiring role models for women today.

What would cause a cheese-loving, meat-eating lawyer to become a vegan? Her dog. Teresa Rhyme and Seamus the beagle both survived cancer once, so when Seamus develops yet another cancer, Teresa vows to fight again. Unsure of the best way to battle the unseen enemy, she embarks on some experiments to create a healthier life for her family. She finds better food for Seamus, and a plant-based diet becomes her own guide, but she realizes that's not enough for her-and it's not enough for the animals.

Lillian Curtis, a 30-something high-powered New York City television producer, finds her past and present colliding when she moves back in with her parents after a devastating divorce. There, in her old room, time seems frozen in 1988, with a Rick Springfield tape still on her dresser and Duran Duran posters hanging on the wall.

When Artemus Ackerman, retired magician and mayor of Calendar, hears about the first fire on Sabbath Street, he sends his publicist, Maggie Wakeling, to the fire department to find out what caused it. Artemus, who still performs conjuring tricks for his constituents, has his heart set on turning the shabbily elegant Baldwin Theater into a museum of magic. All he has to do is convince wealthy widow Claudette Goodwin to donate the Baldwin to his beloved town. But the theater is located on Sabbath Street, where that first disastrous fire occurred....

Caroline de Maigret and Sophie Mas are back to amuse you, saying what you don’t expect to hear, just the way you want to hear it. But this time they reveal how they are modifying their favourite bad girl habits and mischievous mind-sets now they are more ‘madame’ than 'mademoiselle’. These iconoclastic, bohemian Parisiennes advise on love, seduction, fashion and dating as well as family, work, living alone and accepting imperfections.

Four years ago, Emily Locke's life was shattered when her infant daughter and husband were lost in an inexplicable accident. She has nearly rebuilt her fragile mental health when a disgraced former police detective, now working as a private investigator, resurfaces to ask for help in reconnaissance at a Texas skydiving establishment. Emily hesitates to work with Richard Cole again, but she finds she can't refuse when she learns that the case involves a missing boy.

A posh New York apartment building on Park Avenue is home to the rich and famous: Sidney Sapphire, the blond anchorwoman of ABC News; Angela Somoza, the gorgeous Nicaraguan jet-setter; Bob Horowitz, the former chairman of the United Jewish Appeals; and the usual collection of banking and industrial CEOs, Wall Street magnates, and white-haired philanthropists. Vinnie Ferretti, the Brooklyn-born doorman, joins the ranks when he becomes a major fashion designer.

Ollie doesn't see things the same way everybody else does (and he certainly doesn't see things the same way his older sister does). Instead of cars in traffic, Ollie sees a circus parade. Instead of cows grazing in a field, Ollie sees deadly bison with sharp horns and hooves. And at school, instead of letters on the board, Ollie sees birds with pointy beaks and fish with flapping tails in the big blue sea. Ollie knows he doesn't need glasses because he likes the world better the way he sees it. But will his parents and bossy sister see things his way?

Julia Longley is determined not to repeat her mother's mistake and marry the wrong guy. She thinks she has found the perfect one in Nick - a handsome, charming, and successful star reporter for the newspaper where Julia is a photojournalist. But when her coverage of a tragic and bloody accident leaves her in a temporary state of blindness, Nick is anything but loving and supportive, and Julia must search alone for a career more suited to her. Her choice: go back to school and get a degree in counseling.

Panache, an exuberant road gypsy, is on her way to the mountains. Benjamin Pencil, the man with the glass heart, has no use for mountains. But their paths cross, their lives intertwine, and Benjamin follows her up, up, up to where hills are smothered in poppies and a man can reach out and write his name in the sky. As they travel, they first encounter the beautiful but predatory Woman with the Breeding, a collector of hearts who tries to add Benjamin’s exquisite heart to her pitiable hoard. Next they meet the malicious Laughing Man, who lives only to create fear and kill dreams.