Small States

In the first of three essays included in this audiobook, Bill Bryson decides to move his wife and kids back to his homeland, the United States, after nearly two decades in Britain. But not before taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. The result is a hilarious social commentary.

Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenaged brother, whom she adores, in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. She, with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin, form a tentative trio and, for a brief moment, carve out for themselves a simple life of Double Dutch and innocence.

Fans of The Conjuring and The Amityville Horror will love this chilling new novel unraveling the tale of a family haunted by the ghosts of their malevolent ancestors’ disturbing past. The decrepit well has been a fountain of terror for generations, an abyss of dread that emits tragedy and death like fog. Its darkness touched Jacob’s soul some twenty years ago, and since moving back to his ancestral home, the chilling feeling of being in front of the old well hasn’t left his troubled mind. But this time, the shadows that creep from the well have taken on a malevolent sentience, ...

Fans of The Exorcist and Insidious will love this bone-chilling sequel to The Well—a haunting tale of an orphanage plagued by a malevolent force. Easton’s Home for Wayward Youth is no ordinary orphanage: it’s a house under siege. Ghostly footsteps echo through its halls. Objects hurl across rooms. And at the center of it all is Isiah—a jittery, terrified boy cruelly ostracized for everyone’s safety. Enter Jacob Waldmiller, a rogue priest with no credentials, no congregation, and no luck. His freelance exorcism gigs, scattered between paranoid students and superstitious grandmas, ...

Readers will flock to NYT bestselling author Donna Andrews' latest installment in the award-winning Meg Langslow series. Two of Meg’s cousins, members of Mother’s vast Hollingsworth clan, are getting married, and both have chosen Caerphilly for their Christmas destination wedding . . on the...

He left home on the farm in Illinois, looking for adventure. What he found would change the course of his short life. In 1925, Ted Coggeshall was a young farmer from small-town Illinois - caring, hard-working, and restless. With the open road ahead, he set out to see the South, chasing sunshine and adventure. But what followed may have been one of the most notorious miscarriages of justice the nation has ever seen. A local drifter with mob ties—Sam “Slim” Scarborough—cut a deal to save his own neck, accusing Ted and his friend of murdering a retired schoolmaster. Circumstantial ...

In The Small and the Mighty, Sharon McMahon proves that the most remarkable Americans are often ordinary people who didn’t make it into the textbooks. Not the presidents, but the telephone operators. Not the aristocrats, but the schoolteachers. Through meticulous research, she discovers history’s unsung characters and brings their rich, riveting stories to light for the first time.

In Washington State’s Red Mountain wine country, Otis and Rebecca’s bond was one for the ages. Now older, and reflecting on his blessings and his losses, Otis is moved to write down the love story of their lives. At Woodstock in 1969, two lost souls with big hearts and boundless dreams see the future and all its possibilities in each other’s eyes. Before the music is even over, Otis is thunderstruck by the liberating Rebecca, so much so that he’s suddenly questioning his attendance at Berkeley and decision to follow in his father’s footsteps as a journalist.

Willow Shorts has told herself the same thing for years – she doesn’t want a divorce. But deep down, she knows there’s more to life than laundry and loneliness. Her husband, Charlie, had promised to give up his workaholic ways this summer. But it’s been months, and nothing has changed. In an act of desperation, Willow leaves her husband a note, drives south through the night, to stay at her best friend’s summer cottage on Sanibel Island. The first few days are filled with sandy streets, sunshine and crystal blue water, just as she imagined. It’s only after 4 days have passed ...

After the loss of her husband a year ago, Grace Evans can’t continue with her career or her life in the city any longer. Lost emotionally, she sells her law practice and decides to spend her summer among the sandy beaches of Florida, taking care of an old inn in Naples Beach with her childhood friend Susan Willows. Maybe the lush palm trees and sun-drenched days filled with sand between her toes will help her find direction again. What she doesn’t expect to find is a secret tucked away in an old hidden locket that will change her life forever. And making things more complicated is local...

Fans of Friday the 13th and Halloween will love this gruesome slasher following a group of teens hunted by a supernatural killer. You can run. You can try to hide. But no matter where you are, the scarecrow will find you. After a heart-wrenching breakup, the last thing high school sophomore Kyle Shoemaker expected was to fight for his life. But that’s exactly what happens after a drunken trip takes he and his friends to the abandoned farm at the edge of town. Nightly, the scarecrow claims one of them, leaving him with little time. Will he unravel the mystery of the scarecrow before it's ...

A collection of stories capturing what it means to be a cowboy.

Olivia Cameron always knew she was adopted. What she didn’t know is that her birth family would come back into her life 47 years later… Just days after her husband’s death, Olivia gets a call that she might have inherited a beach cottage in Cape May. Except she’s never been to Cape May, and the lawyer explains it has nothing to do with her husband’s recent passing. Nestled in front of an old vineyard, the cottage is exactly the fresh start she needs. Although she’ll need to provide proof of her identity within 30 days before it goes to the person next in line. When she arrives ...

You don't want to be around when the real owners of the museum come to life. ★★★★★ "You may never look at another art museum the same again." - Goodreads reviewer. In the heart of an unfamiliar city, Vincent seeks refuge from his troubled past. Employed as a night guard at a peculiar museum, he believes he has found stability. But when the clock strikes three in the morning; it's the Devil's hour for a reason. The museum awakens in a macabre spectacle. Statues begin to move and paintings come to life, crawling out of the canvas. He knows better than to leave his job. Anything is ...

A collection of stories from the most famous Western author of all time! Desert Death-Song is a compilation of some of Louis L’Amour’s greatest stories, many of which might otherwise be difficult to find. Whether he was writing under his early pen name, Jim Mayo, or his own, L’Amour’s stories are unforgettable, touching on rough and rugged American ideals, and set in the untamable frontier of the Western United States.

What makes a person an armed citizen? Where does the right to bear arms originate or is it even a right at all? Are the police legally required to protect citizens from criminals and terrorists? Did the Nazis really ban guns in Germany? Are countries with strict gun control laws more safe from crime and terrorism than those who allow their people to carry firearms? All of those questions and many more are considered in “Examining the Armed Citizen” by Paul G. Markel. The author examines, not simply the modern gun control movement but, the history of arms control worldwide. Both within ...

Get ready to fall into 50 States of Romance – Fall Edition, a sweeping collection of cozy small-town romances perfect for fans of heartwarming autumn love stories. This massive anthology includes 11 full-length stand-alone novels (over 1 million words!) all set against crisp fall foliage and the scent of pumpkin spice on the breeze. Every story brims with community spirit, second chances, and local pride, making it an ideal binge-read on Kindle Unlimited for those who adore Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove or Hallmark-style fall romances. Brewed Local – In a quaint small town, a feisty ...

Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia, where they were born and raised. Now Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books—none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home: a cute wooden hutch with glass doors and neat rows of the worthy literature that she’s sure the town’s readers need.

Hardly anyone ever leaves Des Moines, Iowa. But Bill Bryson did, and after 10 years in England he decided to go home, to a foreign country. In an ageing Chevrolet Chevette, he drove nearly 14,000 miles through 38 states to compile this hilarious and perceptive state-of-the-nation report on small-town America.

In this, his final work, finished only weeks before his passing, Peres offers a long-awaited examination of the crucial turning points in Israeli history through the prism of having been a decision maker and eyewitness. Told with the frankness of someone aware this would likely be his final statement, No Room for Small Dreams spans decades and events, but as much as it is about what happened, it is about why it happened.