Showing results by narrator "Rachel Botchan"

Having returned to Chicago, young socialite Anna Nicholson can't seem to focus on her upcoming marriage. The new information she's learned about her birth mother continues to pull at her, and she hires Pinkerton detectives to help her find the truth. But as she meets people who once knew her mother and hears stories about the past, Anna soon discovers that some secrets are better left hidden.

When her father and sister are killed, a distant relative invites Salome Alexandra and her mother to live with his family in Jerusalem. Quickly betrothed to a pagan prince half her age, Salome questions God's plan. But when she suddenly finds herself being crowned queen of Judea, she learns that a woman committed to God can change the world. 

When Xerxes, king of Persia, issues a call for beautiful young women, Hadassah, a Jewish orphan living in Susa, is forcibly taken to the palace of the pagan ruler. After months of preparation, the girl known to the Persians as Esther wins the king's heart and a queen's crown. But because her situation is uncertain, she keeps her ethnic identity a secret until she learns that an evil and ambitious man has won the king's permission to exterminate all Jews - young and old, powerful, and helpless.

After being branded during the battle of Jericho, Moriyah has had no prospects for marriage - until now. She hopes to please the man, but things go horribly wrong and she is forced to flee for her life. Seeking safety at one of the Levitical cities of refuge, she is unprepared for the dangers she faces, and the enemies - and allies - she encounters on her way. Seven years ago, Moriyah was taken captive in Jericho and branded with the mark of the Canaanite gods. Now the Israelites are experiencing peace in their new land, but Moriyah has yet to find her own peace. Because of the shameful mark on her face, she hides behind her veil at all times.

In this captivating memoir, Deborah Feldman takes listeners on an eye-opening journey into Orthodox Jewish culture. Raised in the suffocating world of Brooklyn’s Satmar Hasidim, Feldman was told what to read and who she was allowed to talk to. Married off at 17, she suffered from anxiety and was shamed by an inability to please her older husband. But after giving birth to a son at age 19, Feldman realized it was time to tear up her roots and make her own path in life.

Lena Rose Schwartz hadn't planned to leave her Old Order community in Centerville, Michigan. But then, she could not have foreseen the accident that made her and her siblings orphans. After her parents' funeral, her younger brothers and sisters are farmed out to various nearby relatives. But when the deacon in charge of the arrangements tells her there aren't places enough for everyone, she agrees to go live with her father's second cousin and his family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Beside the fact that Lena has never been more than a few miles from home, she's never met the family she will now be living with. But worse than that is the thought of being separated from her siblings. How will they manage without her to care for them - especially eight-year-old Chris?

Luke Schrock is a new and improved man after a stint in rehab, though everyone in Stoney Ridge only remembers the old Luke. They might have forgiven him, but nobody trusts him. Amos and Fern Lapp allow Luke to live at Windmill Farm under two conditions. First, Luke must make a sincere apology to each person he's hurt - a four-page, single-spaced list. Second, he must ask each victim of mischief to describe the damage he caused. 

The daughter of a pagan high priest, Sofea finds solace from her troubles in the freedom of the ocean. But when marauders attack her village on the island of Sicily, she and her cousin are taken across the sea to the shores of Canaan. Eitan has lived in Kedesh, a City of Refuge, for the last 11 years, haunted by a tragedy in his childhood and chafing at the boundaries placed on him. He is immediately captivated by Sofea, but revealing his most guarded secret could mean drawing her into the danger of his past. 

Dr. Rosalind Werner is at the forefront of a groundbreaking new water technology - if only she can get support for her work. Nicholas, Commissioner of Water for New York, is skeptical - and surprised by his reaction to Rosalind. While they fight against their own attraction, they stand on opposite sides of a battle that will impact thousands of lives.

Seeking peace and safety after a hard childhood, Leah marries Judah, a strong and gentle man, and for the first time in her life Leah believes she can rest easily. But the land is ruled by Antiochus IV, descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals, and when he issues a decree that all Jews are to conform to Syrian laws upon pain of death, devout Jews risk everything to follow the law of Moses. Judah's father resists the decree, igniting a war that will cost him his life. But before dying, he commands his son to pick up his sword and continue the fight - or bear responsibility for the obliteration of the land of Judah. Leah, who wants nothing but peace, struggles with her husband's decision - what kind of God would destroy the peace she has sought for so long?

Now Cannie's back. After her debut novel - a fictionalized (and highly sexualized) version of her life - became an overnight bestseller, she dropped out of the public eye and turned to writing science fiction under a pseudonym. She's happily married and has settled into a life that's wonderfully predictable. As preparations for her daughter Joy's bat mitzvah begin, everything seems right in Cannie's world. Then Joy discovers the novel Cannie wrote years before and suddenly finds herself faced with what she thinks is the truth about her own conception - the story her mother hid.

Five decades before the birth of Christ, Chava, daughter of the royal tutor, grows up with Urbi, a princess in Alexandria's royal palace. When Urbi becomes Queen Cleopatra, Chava vows to be a faithful friend no matter what - but after she and Cleopatra have an argument, she finds herself imprisoned and sold into slavery. Torn from her family, her community, and her elevated place in Alexandrian society, Chava finds herself cast off and alone in Rome.

Eighteen kids, one year of poems, one school set to close. Two yellow bulldozers crouched outside, ready to eat the building in one greedy gulp. But look out, bulldozers. Ms. Hill's fifth-grade class has plans for you. They're going to speak up and work together to save their school.

M. Wolf traveled to the Czech Republic, birthplace of her great-grandmother, for further insight into this remarkable story. Someone Named Eva is the devastating tale of a young girl whose identity is threatened by the allconsuming sweep of Nazi aggression. Before she loses everything, Milada is a normal, happy girl. But then come the Nazis, tearing her from her family’s arms and leaving her with little but her grandmother’s lingering words: “Remember who you are.”

Ever since the untimely death of her mother, 14-year-old Joan Skraggs has been desperately unhappy. Under the thumb of her cruel father and three sullen brothers, Joan lives like a servant on their farm just outside of Lancaster, forever cooking, cleaning, and attending to the many demands of the home. But she has little freedom and less support from her family for her love of reading and blossoming interest in education.

After sending his army to besiege another king's capital, King David forces himself on Bathsheba, a loyal soldier's wife. When her resulting pregnancy forces the king to murder her husband and add her to his harem, Bathsheba struggles to protect her son while dealing with the effects of a dark prophecy and deadly curse on the king's household. Combining historical facts with detailed fiction, Angela Hunt paints a realistic portrait of the beautiful woman who struggled to survive the dire results of divine judgment.

It's been so long since Auden slept at night. Ever since her parents' divorce - or since the fighting started. Now she has the chance to spend a carefree summer with her dad and his new family in the charming beach town where they live.A job in a clothes boutique introduces Auden to the world of girls: their talk, their friendship, their crushes. She missed out on all that, too busy being the perfect daughter to her demanding mother. Then she meets Eli, an intriguing loner and a fellow insomniac.

Eloise Drake's prim demeanor hides the turbulent past she's finally put behind her - or so she thinks. A mathematical genius, she's now a successful accountant for the largest engineering project in 1908 New York. But to her dismay, her new position puts her back in the path of the man responsible for her deepest heartbreak. Alex Duval is the mayor of a town about to be wiped off the map. He is stunned to discover the woman he once loved on the team charged with the demolition.

Make it a merry Christmas with these four heartwarming stories. In Christmas Homecoming, sparks fly between former Air Force Pararescueman Kevin Matthews and the town's new surgeon, Kate Stafford. Widower Billy Morgan and his longtime friend, Bella, might discover an occasion to celebrate in An Unexpected Gift. In Christmas in Blue Hollow Falls, Attorney Moira Brogan is rescued by a Aussie chef Hudson Walker. And event planner Julia Louisa Fernandez meets former pro baseball player Ben Thomas who just might inspire a winning strategy in Holiday Homerun.

The American Girl brand is synonymous with wholesome, empowering tales about young women growing up in America, even as the country grows, too. Each girl’s story documents with unsurpassed charm and wit the people, places, and events she witnesses. Taking place in 1854, Kirsten’s stories follow the young Swedish immigrant and her family as they attempt to start a new life on a farm in frontier Minnesota.