Showing results by narrator "Tavia Gilbert" in All Categories

When 17-year-old Sara Thibault's father is killed in a mudslide, her mother sells their vineyard to a rival family whose eldest son marries Sara's sister, Lydia. But a violent tragedy compels Sara and her sister to flee to New York, forcing Sara to put aside her dream of following in her father's footsteps as a master winemaker. Meanwhile, Philippe Lemieux has arrived in California with the ambition of owning the largest vineyard in Napa by 1900.

Just as Emmalee prepares to escape her hardscrabble life in Red Chert holler, Leona dies tragically. Grief-stricken, Emmalee decides she'll make Leona's burying dress, but there are plenty of people who don't think the unmarried Emmalee should design a dress for a Christian woman - or care for a child on her own.

For the audience that made Commencement a New York Times best seller comes a novel about women making their way in the world. Self-doubting Ruth is coddled by her immigrant mother, who uses food to soothe and control. Defiant Francesca believes her heavy frame shames her Park Avenue society mother and, to provoke her, consumes everything in sight. Lonely Opal longs to be included in her glamorous mother’s dinner dates - until a disturbing encounter forever changes her desires. Finally, Setsu, a promising violinist, staves off conflict with her jealous brother.

Sammy Ikua Gachagua had lost his father to AIDS, his mother to abandonment, and his home to poverty. By age ten, he was living in a shack with seven other children and very little food. He entered Tumaini Children's Home seeing it as a miracle with three meals a day, a bed to sleep in, and clothes on his back. When Claire Diaz-Ortiz arrived in Kenya at the end of an around-the-world journey, she decided to stay the night, climb Mt. Kenya, then head back home to Maine.

This fresh look at Hollywood's "Queen of Screwball," Carole Lombard, presents a first-ever examination of the events that led to the shocking flight mishap that took her life on the side of a Nevada mountain in 1942. It also provides a day-by-day account of the struggles of Lombard's husband, Clark Gable, and other family, friends, and fans to cope with the tragedy. In effect, having just completed the first sale of war bonds and stamps in the nation following its entry into World War II, Lombard became the first Hollywood star to sacrifice her life in the war.

A charming, heartwarming Christmas tale about the power of family, tradition, and love - sure to delight fans of Debbie Macomber and Richard Paul Evans. In 1875, Owen Thomas, a poor Welsh coal miner, falls in love with a beautiful London actress, Jessica Lavery. He builds her a cottage in his village and enchants her with the promise of the holidays they’ll share after they marry.

The lovely heiress to an olive oil empire, Donna Miro is gravely worried about her best friend, Lorna, who seems to be missing. Having traveled to New York to find the missing Lorna, Donna finds herself trapped in the city's seedy underbelly - until an unexpected man comes to her aid. Father Luke Trudeau, the most unusual priest she has ever met, has the mouth of a sailor and the brawn to go with it. Luke offers Donna help, and he seems to know things about the city - and the dangerous people in it - that might lead them to Lorna.

A fresh approach to spiritual formation! In the past, church leaders have turned to small groups or other kinds of discipleship programs to encourage spiritual growth in their churches. Yet, despite good intentions, the deeper experiences of spiritual transformation they had hoped for remained elusive.

Twinkle and Chubbins is a collection of short children's stories written by L. Frank Baum, but published under the pen name Laura Bancroft. The stories included in the collection are: "Mr. Woodchuck", "Bandit Jim Crow", "Prairie-Dog Town", "Prince Mud-Turtle", "Twinkle's Enchantment", and "Sugar-Loaf Mountain".

Prince Ring was a prince not as adventurous as most. But one day, while out hunting, he finds a beautiful golden ring on the antlers of a deer that greatly attracts him and he finds himself on a much greater adventure than he ever intended.

A king and queen who have long had everything they desire except a child, are finally graced with one but are immediately faced with tragedy. The queen dies on the day after her son is born, but not before she warns her husband to never let their son's feet touch the ground or else he will be immediately taken by an evil fairy. As he grew, everyone was careful to keep him from touching the ground - using wheelchairs, litters, and even horses, which he especially excelled at.

Now available in audio, originally published in Women on the Case, an anthology of 26 original stories by the best women in crime writing, a short story featuring Linda Barnes’ feisty, red-headed, ex-cop Private Investigator, Carlotta Carlyle. Carlotta can’t stay away when she’s offered a beautiful piece of classic blues history - the guitar of blues and gospel legend Reverend Gary Davis - in return for finding and stopping the uncomfortable advances of a blues-singing rock star’s stalker.

Now available in audio, originally published in the Boston Globe Magazine, a short story featuring award-winning author Linda Barnes’ feisty, redheaded, cab-driving, ex-cop private investigator, Carlotta Carlyle. On a great day to take in a ball game at Fenway, a seemingly harmless run-in with a familiar petty thief throws Carlotta into a wild chase through the park that turns up something far more interesting than the final score.

Now available in audio, the Anthony Award-winning short story that started it all. In Lucky Penny, award-winning author Linda Barnes introduces the red-headed, jazz-loving, cab-driving Bostonian and Private Investigator Carlotta Carlyle. As Carlotta lounges in her cab one night while waiting for a fare, the part-time cabbie is accosted and robbed at gun point. When she is unable to get any assistance from the police, Carlotta sets out on her own to recover the stolen goods and bring the perp to justice.

When motorcycle-riding Stella Crown hires a new farmhand to help run her Pennsylvania dairy business, she gets more than she bargained for. A Mennonite widow arrives, burdened not only with grief but also by rumors of infidelity and murder.

When Amy's sleazy ex reemerges, she is wary, for two good reasons. One, she is still paying off the debts Jack had gotten her in. Two, his scheme, as usual, smacks of fraud. Jack, however, insists that everything is perfectly legal, safe, and easy, especially Amy's part. All she needs to do to earn her share, which would be a quarter million dollars, is - adopt a cat.

Babe Walker, center of the universe, is a painstakingly manicured white girl with an expensive smoothie habit, a proclivity for Louboutins, a mysterious mother she's never met, and approximately 50 bajillion Twitter followers. But her "problems" have landed her in shopping rehab - that's what happens when you spend $246,893.50 in one afternoon at Barneys. Now she's decided to write her memoir, revealing the gut-wrenching hurdles she's had to overcome in order to be perfect in every way, every day.

Summer, 1934: Anne Dodge was raised by her old-money, New England Protestant father in the small coastal town of Warwick, Rhode Island. She has always been told that her Portuguese mother abandoned them when Anne was a small child, and died without ever contacting them again. After her mother's death, Anne learns that she has a half-sister, Maria Cristina, who was raised among Portuguese immigrants - and when Maria Cristina comes to stay with Anne and her father, ugly truths begin to surface....

During the 19th century, brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm traveled across Germany to write down the folk tales that had been told at kitchen tables, hearths, and bedsides for centuries. In doing so, they preserved a rich heritage of storytelling that connects us to the past. These favorite Grimm fairy tales showcase the evils of greed and jealousy and the redeeming power of love.

To survive a bleak winter, Hazard the coyote must find food for his pack, even if it puts him in grave danger. Finally on his own, a young raccoon named Lotor needs to find a new home before a predator finds him. Osa the brown bear builds the perfect winter den - with less-than-perfect results. These stories about fictional animal friends are rich with detail about real animal behaviors, so children learn as they enjoy the fun.