Showing results by narrator "Anne Flosnik" in All Categories

When Chessa, the princess of Ireland, is kidnapped, Cleve rescues her to hand her over to her rightful groom, William of Normandy. But Chessa refuses to marry anyone but Cleve.

From his impoverished childhood in a working-class English family and determination to educate himself at any cost to his complicated marriages, love affair with socialism, and the serious ill health that dominated his twenties and thirties, H. G. Wells's extraordinary early life would set him on a path to become one of the world's most influential writers. In this remarkable biography, Claire Tomalin paints a fascinating portrait of a man like no other, driven by curiosity and desiring reform, a socialist and a futurist whose new and imaginative worlds continue to inspire today.

A 1959 encounter brought reporter Valerie Danby-Smith face-to-face with Ernest Hemingway. The interview was brief, but before it ended something had clicked into place. For the next two years, Valerie was devoted to Hemingway and his wife, traveling with them through Spain and France and finally Cuba. Five years after his death, Valerie became a Hemingway when she married the writer's son Gregory. Now, she tells the story of the years she spent with this talented and doomed family.

After the death of her cruel father, Brithwin is determined never again to live under the harsh rule of any man. Independent and resourceful, she longs to be left alone to manage her father's estate. But she soon discovers a woman has few choices when the king decrees she is to marry Royce, the Lord of Rosencraig. As if the unwelcome marriage isn't enough, her new husband accuses her of murdering his family, and she is faced with a challenge of either proving her innocence or facing possible execution.

Something is hidden beneath the shifting sands of Middle Egypt, and its discovery will bring humanity to the edge of oblivion. Archaeologist Gail Turner stumbles upon the most incredible find in living memory, a find that the ruthless Seth Mallus will do anything to get hold of. Caught up in a web of deceit, kidnapping, and murder, Gail struggles to unravel the mystery of the Amarna Stickman as the world around her descends into chaos.

London, 1812. When the unconventional Gemma Lancaster embarked on a mission to infiltrate high society and avenge her beloved cousin's murder, she never would have guessed she'd end up in the arms of a thief. At least, that's what she assumes when she discovers Lucas Stone breaking into a private safe. Lucas Stone, the Earl of Winchester, has a reputation for arrogance and a soft spot for his sister, which is how he ends up in the predicament of hiding behind a curtain at midnight with the dreadfully dull Miss Gemma Lancaster. But he soon discovers appearances can be deceiving.

The marriage of Katharine of Aragon and King Henry VIII was a right royal match. England loved the young lovers, but hardly were they wed when powerful people in Henry's court were spinning webs of intrigue around the innocent royal pair. Spanish spies, the Pope's men, the Queen's seductive ladies-in-waiting, and especially the King's brilliant advisor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, all were obsessed with one question: Would Queen Katharine be able to give Henry the healthy son he so desperately wanted?

Golden-haired hellion Arabella goes to Naples, Italy, to solve the mystery of her father's missing ships and cargo. But soon she discovers that the man behind the thievery is a man she can't resist.

If you want to know your Socrates from your Sartre and your Confucius from your Kant, strap in for this whirlwind tour of the highlights of philosophy. This illuminating little book will introduce you to the key thinkers, themes, and theories you need to know to understand how human ideas have sculpted the world we live in and the way we think today.

London, 1732: Nora Reed, the daughter of a merchant, falls hopelessly in love with her father's clerk, Simon. Despite their differing social class, the star-crossed lovers dream of a future on a tropical island - until tragedy strikes, and Nora must face a life without her soulmate. Hopeless, Nora enters a marriage of convenience with Elias Fortnam, a widower and sugar planter in Jamaica. Even without Simon, she is determined to somehow fulfill their tropical fantasy.

The gods of Olympus are the most colorful characters of Greek civilization: even in antiquity, they were said to be cruel, oversexed, mad, or just plain silly. Yet for all their foibles and flaws, they proved to be tough survivors, far outlasting classical Greece itself. In Egypt, the Olympian gods claimed to have given birth to pharaohs; in Rome, they led respectable citizens into orgiastic rituals of drink and sex.

Chelsea Myles earns her living as an actress with her uncle's theater troupe, performing cheap plays on the streets of London and picking the customers' pockets. Until one night, a robbery goes awry and Chelsea is left holding a purse with enough gold to buy her passage to Australia, and the chance of a fresh start. Once on board the vessel, Chelsea is intrigued by a fellow passenger, Quaid Tanner, who is returning to his vineyard in Australia. As much as Quaid admires the feisty, courageous Chelsea, circumstances seem destined to keep them apart.

In the safety of her adoptive father's estate, south of London, Felise Scelfton is raised oblivious to the power of her beauty and rumors of her dowry. But when the knights of Windsor court brandish their swords and bid for her hand, Felise realizes she'd better keep her flirtatious tongue in check, lest her jests be taken as vows. Little does Felise know that King Henry II has already decided her fate - his royal command gives her hand to Sir Royce Leighton, the scarred and brooding lord of Segeland, in order to seal a political alliance.

As the '90s draw to a close, Liza wants to get married, Dulcie wants a divorce, and Pru wants things in her relationship to stay exactly the same. Those are the New Year's resolutions these three best friends have vowed to keep this year. But if you want to change your mind about your resolutions - and who doesn't? - you probably shouldn't have told your closest pals. Regardless of good intentions, every effort to help each other only gets things more mixed up. Fortunately for all concerned, Fate has got a few tricks of her own in store....

Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517, is one of the most famous events of Western history. It inaugurated the Protestant Reformation and has for centuries been a powerful and enduring symbol of religious freedom of conscience and of righteous protest against the abuse of power. But did it actually really happen? In this engagingly written, wide-ranging, and insightful work of cultural history, leading Reformation historian Peter Marshall reviews the available evidence and concludes that very probably, it did not.

It’s December 23, and Clara Dunphy is running around Oxford Street like a chicken with its head cut off trying to pick up “a few lastminute bits and bobs.” Despite the frenzy, the twicedivorced mother of three loves Christmas and always wants to make it perfect—a challenge even in the best of times but particularly when “family” means an extended network of inlaws, outlaws, exstepfathers, and hangerson totaling sixteen. Is the madness of Christmas really worth it?

The Blood Runners are an ancient culture, possessors of occult knowledge and power. Isolated in the forbidden Obeah system, they conduct horrific experiments exploring the nature of suffering, death, and immortality. And the person Owen Deathstalker cares for most has fallen into their aberrant clutches. But Owen’s Madness Maze-given powers appear to have abandoned him after the exhausting battle of Lachrymae Christi.

Victory is sweet - but England’s triumph was Georgie’s rout. Now that she’s widowed, the loathsome marriage her father first arranged has simply been renegotiated. With neither money nor rights, and nowhere to flee, all she can do is cherish her last weeks of freedom...until a band of ruffians overtake her carriage and kidnap her. When she escapes in seaside Brighton and encounters her brother’s rather wild friend, Lord St. Just - whom she suspects aspires to be a pirate - she’s prepared to entertain more of his adventurous suggestions than usual....

There are two sides to Holly Krauss. One is successful and happily married, and the other takes walks on the wild side and makes reckless mistakes. When those two sides collide, her world spirals out of control. She thinks that she is being stalked and that threats lurk around every corner. Are her fears due to paranoia or is the danger real? The people closest to her soon run out of patience and there may be no one to catch her when she falls.

Award-winning, internationally acclaimed author Anita Desai ruminates on art and memory, illusion and disillusion, and the sharp divide between life's expectations and its realities in three perfectly etched novellas. Set in India in the not-too-distant past, the dramas illuminate the ways in which Indian culture can nourish or suffocate. All are served up with Desai's characteristic perspicuity, subtle humor, and sensitive writing.