Showing results by narrator "Laurel Lefkow" in All Categories

After two decades of covering riots, assassinations, and urban decay, Kate Osborn comes to Venice, Illinois, to profile Steve Higgins, an old-school Chicago-style politician. Although Higgins hews to tradition, the problems in Venice are thoroughly modern. Student unrest roils beneath the quiet surface of the university, kept in check only by the well-armed campus police, and in town, the white merchants and black coal miners are preparing to go to war.

Mental illness though can still carry a stigma. A case of ‘you’re not trying hard enough’, ‘or knuckling down and getting on with it’. But in more recent decades mental issues have come to be recognised as an illness, a disease rather than an affliction. We all remember horror stories of lobotomy’s and electric shock being used to ‘cure’ what society viewed as anti-social behaviour but illness, mental or physical is very real. Depression, schizophrenia, breakdown, psychosis are alarming events to have or to witness.

Christmas on Nantucket finds Winter Street Inn owner Kelley Quinn and his family busily preparing for the holiday season. Though the year has brought tragedy, the Quinns have much to celebrate: Kelley has reunited with his first wife, Margaret; Kevin and Isabelle have a new baby; and Ava is finally dating a nice guy. But when Kelley's wife, Mitzi, shows up on the island along with Kevin's devious ex-wife, Nora, and a dangerously irresistible old fling of Ava's, the inn is suddenly overrun with romantic feuds, not to mention guests.

Polly Solo-Miller Demarest is the perfect flower of the Solo-Miller family. The Solo-Millers have everything: looks, brains, money, a strong, fortified sense of clan, and branches in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, as well as London, just like a banking house. And Polly, along with Henry Demarest, a big handsome lawyer, has a beautiful household of her own and two nice, sturdy children. But one day—completely unexpectedly—she finds herself entangled in a sweet yet painful love affair with a painter.

Susannah has two beautiful daughters, a high-flying medical career, a successful husband and an enviable life. Her hair is glossy, her clothes are expensive: she truly has it all. But when—on the hottest day of the year—her strict morning routine is disrupted, Susannah finds herself running on autopilot. It is hours before she realises she has made a devastating mistake. Her baby, Louise, is still in the backseat of the car, and it is too late to save her.

As the 1900’s begin women are in a difficult situation. Whatever the pretence of society the reality for almost all women is that they are second class and the property of men. Whilst women have created enduring works of literature and poetry for centuries, much has remained hidden and voiceless. But technology and the mass distribution of printed materials has allowed new ideas and thoughts to circulate, to demand a voice. In this volume their talents and voices speak with determination, wisdom, courage and love on many subjects through their extraordinary verse.

There are many Marilyns: sex goddess and innocent child, crafty manipulator and dumb blonde, screen legend and Hollywood victim. In this incisive and subtle book, Sarah Churchwell looks at how the stories we tell have trivialised a woman we supposedly adore, and at what they reveal about our attitudes towards sex symbols and icons, to women, death, biography and Marilyn herself.

Skating on Thin Ice exposes the culture of toxic masculinity in professional hockey and suggests how sport and society can change the narrative on sexual assault and violence.

The ballad is one of the oldest poetic forms in English and are simply poems or songs that tell a story. Maybe it’s because of childhood associations or that we all enjoy a cracking good story told in rhyme but as this volume demonstrates, the ballad has endless appeal. We include favourites such as Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s The Ballad of the Harp Weaver, Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee as well as classics such as Sir Patrick Spens, the Ballad of Reading Gaol by Wilde and La Belle Dame Sans Merci by Keats.

Once again on the American side of the Atlantic talent pours forth from the pens of these literary women. Even to choose a mere ten seems to be a choice too difficult to make. Society may hold women back but these writers are equal to the challenge and overcome its boundaries with superbly written stories that are a beacon for all others who follow.

Can you combine wanderlust and motherhood? Margo Weinstein did. For decades, Margo Weinstein escaped her demanding legal practice by kayaking, whitewater rafting, trekking, and climbing in remote regions. Then she had a son and found herself in the kiddie pool on a Disney cruise.

Some of the stormy weather of the past few seasons seems to have finally lifted for the Quinns. Kevin is about to tie the knot with Isabelle, and there's hopeful news about Bart, who has been captured by enemy forces in Afghanistan. That doesn't mean there aren't a few dark clouds on the horizon as the family juggle health scares and love triangles. But if there's one holiday that brings the Quinn family together, it's Christmas. And this year promises to be a celebration unlike any other.

The world's most exclusive rehab clinic offers treatment to the rich and famous. Meg's sister Haley was one of them - a troubled country singer running from a terrible addiction. Between the luxury spa, the ayurvedic yoga and the world-class therapy, the clinic is a perfect place to heal and brush shoulders with the world's most beautiful people. Safely locked in the secluded compound, its patients are a thousand miles away from crazed fans and paparazzi...with no one to call for help. When Haley is found dead at the clinic, Meg checks in under an alias to find out why.

From the ancient indigenous narratives of "The Dreamtime" in Australia to the classical founding tales of some of the greatest empires of Western antiquity, these accounts are at once creative works of art as well as valuable sources of early history and sociology. Terri-ann White has brought together a range of fascinating stories from around the world. Each reflects familiar and universal themes such as humor, fear, lust, familial love, romantic love, mortality, a reverence for the divine, and a preoccupation with the meaning of life.

Critically acclaimed and commercially successful, this resource helps parents overcome their residual math anxiety and assists them in showing children how to enjoy the subject and excel at it. Packed with useful information and instruction, the audiobook features proven teaching techniques, games, and other activities. Suitable for home schoolers and other parents of children from preschool to age ten.

This is the compelling story of two women, born centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them. Ella Turner tries hard to fit into the small, close-knit community of the French town that she has moved to. She even changes her name back to Tournier, and knocks the rust off her high-school French. However, isolated and lonely, she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry, with heart-wrenching results.

In her memoirs, Wallis Simpson described her time in China as her ‘Lotus Year’, referring to Homer’s Lotus Eaters, a group living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness, never to return home. That year, however, was also used to damn her in the eyes of the British Establishment. Determined to ‘save’ the monarchy, the British government’s ‘China Dossier’ of Wallis’s rumoured amorous and immoral activities in the Far East portrayed her as debauched, influenced by foreign agents, and unfit to marry a king. But little was known about how she spent that mysterious period in her life – until now.

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation. From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own. Within this melting pot of styles, genres and wordplay one fact stands out: In the American short story, literary tradition has a strong, vibrant and almost inclusive history, if you know where to look.

The American literary tradition has, in a far shorter span of time than others throughout history, achieved a glowing and glittering reputation. From its transatlantic roots it has absorbed the sons and daughters of other cultures, other lands and made them part of her own. Within this melting pot of styles, genres and wordplay one fact stands out: In the American short story, literary tradition has a strong, vibrant and almost inclusive history, if you know where to look.

In this series we explore the many facets of love through literary talents that span both time and country. There are times when love is not a revelation and a calling from one soul to another but a carefully navigated path, or maybe a badly chosen path that decimates happiness. Which way will our literary leviathans take us? Inevitably it will be more than one.