Showing results by narrator "Lisa Flanagan" in All Categories

The year is 1861, the eve of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration. For Kate Warn, the first female private detective in American history, the only assignment tougher than exposing a conspiracy to assassinate the new president is training her new mentee, Hattie MacLaughlin, in the art of detection. The two women’s mission to save the president takes them from the granges of rural Maryland to the heart of secessionist high society, and sets them on a collision course that could alter the course of history.

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.

By early 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, suburban housewives in a brand-new "planned community" in Northern Virginia, appear to have it all. The fact that "all" doesn't feel like enough leaves them feeling confused and guilty, certain the fault must lie with them. Things begin to change when they form a book club with Charlotte Gustafson—the eccentric and artsy "new neighbor" from Manhattan—and read Betty Friedan's just-released book, The Feminine Mystique.

Valora Rigmore understands pressure. As the Chosen One (resident telekinetic, superstar, and model girlfriend), her life revolves around it. According to an ancient prophesy, Valora is destined to fight Erys, a terrifying individual with the power to control monsters. Valora is worshipped at school, in the press, and by her parents, but as the battle with Erys looms near, the cracks in her perfect façade are beginning to show.

Nadia Kaminski’s family has stolen wishes for generations, auctioning them off to skeevy business tycoons and politicians in back-alley deals. Their operation is simple enough. Find someone who gained a wish after saving a life. Trick the wisher into sharing a deep secret. Steal the wish. And as a marriage counselor, Nadia has more access to people’s secrets than most.

Starting with her childhood days in East Berlin (“I start with my life as a schoolgirl.... My own conscious life begins at the same time as the socialist life of Leipziger Strasse”), 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 Erpenbeck’s 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.

On a cold November night, Evelyn Van Pelt steals her roommate’s two underfed and neglected little girls from their beds and drives to the northwestern hometown she fled 14 years earlier - Cormorant Lake. There, hidden in the mountains and woods, dense with fog and the cold of winter, Evelyn grapples with the guilt of what she’s done, and as she attempts to reconcile her wild independence with the responsibilities of parenthood, she reconnects with the two women who raised her - her foster mother, Nan, and her biological mother, Jubilee.

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 Bea's 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.

It is August in Rosetown, Indiana. Ten-year-old Flora is having a calm and busy summer filled with old friends and new projects, dear pets, and, of course, many hours at her favorite place: Wings and a Chair Used Books. It is her constant and her comfort. But change may be ahead for Wings and a Chair, and Flora is uneasy about what it will bring.

Live by the power of the moon and fulfill your true potential with this guided journal offering magical prompts for self-reflection and personal growth. 

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.

It may seem that being a homemaker and climbing the corporate ladder are two mutually exclusive goals. But according to Julie-Anne Lutfi - wife, mother, and kick-ass corporate attorney - you don't have to choose. With the right attitude and strategies, you can achieve a successful career and a happy personal life.

With her face on wanted posters from New York to Missouri, Christal Van Alen dons a disguise, determined to clear her name by bringing the real killer to justice. But when outlaws ambush her wagon train, her fate falls into the hands of the most dangerous gunslinger in the West. Bringing a gang of deadly felons to justice was supposed to be Macauley Cain's last job. Then the Confederate soldier-turned-undercover US marshal could retire in peace. But first he is going to solve the mystery of the beautiful blonde in widow's weeds.

Just in time for the presidential election of 2016 comes Political Suicide, a history of the best and most interesting missteps, peccadilloes, bad calls, backroom hijinks, sordid pasts, rotten breaks, and just plain dumb mistakes in the annals of American politics.

As a young man, Gigi Paulo arrives in New York and is immediately drawn to a girl he sees in a bar near Penn Station. Before he can approach her, she is gone. He returns to the bar for weeks in hopes of seeing her again, dreams of her at night, and searches the crowds for her face. Quiet and careful, he is not the type to become obsessed by a stranger. But obsessed he is. Two years later he meets her at a party. Her name is Corrine.

When a Harvard Architecture School superstar plunges off the balcony at a graduation party, the police see an accident, not foul play. But fellow-student Iris Reid knows that any jealous member of the ruling clique would have relished pushing him off. Twenty years later, a reunion is luring the same cast of characters back to Cambridge. The opening night dinner is being held in a Modernist house that Iris has designed. She hopes to untangle the events that led to her friend's death. But the murderer has other plans.

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.

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.

Letters to a Young Feminist is a visionary message from a leading feminist to the next generation of feminists, both women and men. Phyllis Chesler discusses basic aspects of feminism, explains feminism's relevance in a world that has taken it for granted and derided it and helps the next generation reclaim feminism for itself. Chesler examines sisterhood, sex, families, motherhood, work, feminist heroism and the economics of power, providing guidance to the generation to come.

Although Scott Brisbane is human, he's developed an inner warrior - a berserker that wants to claim Irja Vainio as his own. Irja is an immortal Viking healer, but she hasn't used her true powers for centuries. The last time she did, someone close to her ended up dead. So instead she relies on medicine and science to protect her tribe while denying her feelings for Scott.