Showing results by narrator "Kirsten Potter" in All Categories

Love for war's victims keeps them apart. Will love for each other see them through? The slightest spark will ignite an explosion. And the tinderbox of broken political and racial relations in 1960s France and Algeria provides plenty of kindling. In the midst of the chaos, Gabriella Madison guards the orphans in her care while battling jealousy with Anne-Marie Duchemin, David’s former flame who has recently arrived in Castelnau, France.

New Orleans, 1838. When Benjamin January suddenly finds that his services playing piano at extravagant balls held by the city's wealthy are no longer required, he ends up agreeing to accompany sugar planter Henri Viellard and his young wife, Chloe, on a mission to Washington to find a missing friend. Plunged into a murky world, it soon becomes clear that while it is very possible the Viellards' friend is dead, his enemies are very much alive - and ready to kill anyone who gets in their way.

When Kat Jamison retreats to the Blue Ridge Mountains, she's counting on peace and solitude to help her make a difficult decision. Her breast cancer has returned, but after the death of her husband, her will to fight is dampened. Her getaway is complicated by a pair of abandoned dogs and two friendly children staying nearby, Lily and Nirav. But when lightning ignites a deadly wildfire, Kat's cabin is cut off from the rest of the camp, separating Lily and Nirav from their parents. Kat, the children, and the dogs must flee on foot through the drought-stricken forest....

Eleven unforgettable new stories demonstrate the emotional power and the clean, assured style that have earned Meloy praise from critics and devotion from readers and listeners. Propelled by a terrific instinct for storytelling, and concerned with the convolutions of modern love and the importance of place, this collection is about the battlefields—and fields of victory—that exist in seemingly harmless spaces, in kitchens and living rooms and cars.

Brenda Lockhart’s family has been living well beyond their means for too long when Brenda’s husband leaves them―for an older and less attractive woman than Brenda, no less. Brenda has never worked outside the home, and the family’s economic situation quickly declines. Oldest daughter Peggy is certain she’s heading off to a university, until her father offers her a job sorting mail while she attends community college instead. Younger daughter Allison, a high school senior, can’t believe her luck that California golden boy Kevin has fallen in love with her.

The instant Sunday Times bestseller, Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel investigates the idea of parallel worlds and possibilities, and plays with the very line along which time should run. 'So wise, so graceful, so rich' - Naomi Alderman, author of The Power 'Ingenious' - Guardian...

Linda Wallheim is the mother of five grown boys and the wife of a Mormon bishop. As bishop, Kurt Wallheim is the ward's designated spiritual father, and that makes Linda the ward's unofficial mother whose days are filled with comfort visits, community service, and informal counseling. But Linda is increasingly troubled by the church's patriarchal structure and secrecy, especially as a disturbing situation takes shape in the ward.

Among the first female reporters at The Wall Street Journal, Joann S. Lublin faced a number of uphill battles in her career. She became deputy bureau chief of the Journal's important London bureau, its first run by women. Now, she and dozens of other women who successfully navigated the corporate battlefield share their valuable leadership lessons.

The crooked, the greedy, and those with a checkered past - they all came to Leadville with the same purpose: Get in, get rich, get out. As 1879 draws to a close, silver fever burns hot in the Rocky Mountain boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. Unfortunately for Joe Rose, an assayer of precious metals, death stakes its own claim. Joe’s body is found trampled into the muck behind Inez Stannert’s saloon. Inez already has much more to deal with than pouring shots of Taos Lightning.

Now that all five of her sons have left home, Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim has quite a bit of time on her hands, most of which she spends worrying about the state of the country and how her youngest son, Samuel, who is openly gay, is faring on his mission in Boston. She has also become close with one of the women in her ward, Gwen Ferris. But Gwen is quickly losing faith in the church, and her issues with the Mormon power structure are only reinforced by her calling in Draper's local "Spanish ward".

As part owner of the Silver Queen Saloon, Inez Stannert has observed the ruination that comes from yielding to temptation. Still, that knowledge hasn't stopped her from striking a backroom deal with upscale brothel madam Frisco Flo - a deal that Inez wagers will make her financially independent. But she begins to have second thoughts when the body of one of Flo's women is discovered and when she learns of another silent business partner - one whose identity Flo refuses to divulge.

After having travelled west for weeks, the party of pioneers comes to a crossroads. It is time for their leader, George Donner, to make a choice. They face two diverging paths which lead to the same destination. One is well-documented, the other untested but rumoured to be shorter. Donner’s decision will shape the lives of everyone travelling with him. The searing heat of the desert gives way to biting winds and a bitter cold that freezes the cattle where they stand.

Nine is the ninth female born in her batch of ten females and ten males. By design, her life in Freedom Province is without complications or consequences. However, such freedom comes with a price. The Prime Maker is determined to keep that price a secret from the new batches of citizens that are born, nurtured, and raised androgynously.

'Just listen,' Adam says with a voice that sounds like shrapnel. I open my eyes wide now. I sit up as much as I can. And I listen. 'Stay,' he says. Everybody has to make choices. Some might break you. For 17-year-old Mia, surrounded by a wonderful family, friends and a gorgeous boyfriend, decisions seem tough, but they're all about a future full of music and love, a future that's brimming with hope. But life can change in an instant.

Lady-in-waiting Caitrina de Montfort is in a terrible bind. With her sister held captive by a henchman of Edward Longshanks, she has been forced to spy on the dowager queen of Scotland. But the resourceful young noblewoman has a plan to set her sister free - until the arrival of a charming but steely-eyed courtier ruins everything.

Who gets to shape the narrative of our times? The current moment is a battle royale over that foundational power, one in which women, people of color, and non-straight people are telling other versions, and white people and men (and particularly, white men) are trying to hang onto the old versions and their own centrality. In Whose Story Is This?, Rebecca Solnit appraises what's emerging, why it matters, and what the obstacles are.

When Destina Rosethorn and her companions were transported to a time 300 years before their birth—to the days of the Third Dragon War famed in song and story—the last thing they wanted to do was upset history. But upon returning to the near-past from which they departed, they discover a world completely altered. Thanks in no small part to the Graygem of Gargath that Destina carries, the war that was once won is now lost, and the forces of evil hold sway over the land.

Summer 1880. The railroad is coming west, all the way to Leadville, Colorado, and its rich Rocky Mountain mines - and millionaires. Coming to celebrate the arrival of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad is a former president, none other than Ulysses S. Grant, eighteenth president of the United States and commander of the Union armies during the Civil War. But not everyone wants to celebrate the arrival of the railroad.

Linda Wallheim, who is increasingly jaded with the Mormon church, has begun marriage counseling with her bishop husband, Kurt, hoping to reconcile their household and philosophical disagreements. On other days, Linda occupies herself with happier things, like visits to see her five grown sons and their families. When Linda's eldest son, Joseph, tells her his infant daughter's babysitter, a local teenager named Sage Jensen, has vanished, Linda can't help but ask questions.

Olivia Reed needs a break. She doesn’t want to think about her name plastered on tabloids or be reminded of her recent meltdown on a Manhattan street. Her micromanaging publicist has just the thing in mind: a remote retreat in upstate New York—the House of Light. It’s not rehab; it’s a Spiritual Center, a site for seeking realignment and personal growth. There will be yoga and morning meditation, soft bamboo-blend fabrics and no shortage of crystals to cleanse her energy.