Showing results by narrator "Dina Pearlman" in All Categories

When a futuristic chalice transports San Francisco-based videogame programmer Marian Tyler back to 1100 AD it turns her life into a living knightmare. Dashing Sir Thomas de Percivale is on his way to his execution - unjustly accused of a crime he didn't commit - when a 'witch' drops out of the sky and knocks him off his horse thus saving his life. Together they must flee for their lives, outwit the Bishop of Durham and stay alive long enough to reclaim Sir Thomas' birthright.

Chances are you've been there before: On an awkward first date where you find yourself stuck playing 20 questions with a person who has broccoli stuck in their teeth, or the one who shows up so on-the-rocks wasted that they end up passed out in their bowl of clam chowder before the main course arrives. All My Friends Are Engaged is a collection of dating disaster stories, packed with witty and relatable answers to the age-old annoying question of "Why are you still single?"

Mia Appleby finally has the life she always wanted. She's escaped her trailer trash childhood and built a nice life for herself with a marketing job and a cute, little condo. But no matter how much baggage she's ditched from her past, she still hasn't managed to shake her greatest weakness - men. So when her new neighbor turns out to be single and oh-so-sexy, Mia's worried she's playing with fire… Kevin McKnight can't get enough of his gorgeous neighbor, but after one amazing night, she's already showing him the door.

What if there were a world bigger than the one you can touch? Leigh Alexander recounts a stormy adolescence alongside the mysterious early Internet. From the surrealism of early video games to raw connections made over primitive newsgroups, from sex bots to Sailor Moon, Alexander intimately captures a dark frontier age.

Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Victoria Maria Teresa Inez Smythe-Peterwald, daughter of wealth and power, was raised to do little except be attractive and marry well. Then everything changed - her brother, her father’s favorite and the heir apparent, was killed in battle by Lieutenant Kris Longknife, daughter of the Peterwald’s longtime enemies. Vicky vowed revenge, but her skill set was more suitable for seduction than assassination, and she failed. Angry and disappointed, her father decided she needed military training and forced her to join the Navy.

When people think about Marlon Brando they think of the movie star; the hunk; the scandals. Susan L. Mizruchi finds the Brando others have missed: the man who collected 4,000 books; the man who rewrote scripts, trimming his lines to make them sharper; the man who consciously used his body and employed the objects around him to create believable characters; the man who used his fame to foster Indian and civil rights.

Some say Demiel ben Yusef is the world’s most dangerous terrorist, personally responsible for bombings and riots that have claimed the lives of thousands. Others insist he is a man of peace, a miracle worker, and possibly even the Son of God. His trial in New York City for crimes against humanity attracts scores of protestors, as well as media and religious leaders from around the world.

Life in Bodega Bay on the rugged, foggy coast of northern California has been pretty quiet since Alfred Hitchcock filmed The Birds there. But antiques dealer Toby Sandler learns that his new business partner Charlie has been found dead on an abandoned boat in the harbor. When the local sheriff discovers that Charlie’s newly acquired Hitchcock artifacts and a painting of an angel are missing, he enlists Toby and his wife, Nora Barnes, an art historian, in the investigation.

The cave of Lascaux may be closed to the public, but five scholars a day are allowed inside, and Nora Barnes has finagled an appointment. True, she may have fudged a bit in her letter to the authorities, but she does teach art history, and she isn’t about to miss her chance to see the world’s most famous prehistoric paintings. Nora and her high-spirited husband, Toby, are visiting the Dordogne, in the southern French region of the Aquitaine. Aware that the Dordogne’s renown for cave art is matched only by its reputation for delicious cuisine, the couple has also signed up for a cooking class at a nearby château.

Centuries ago, Templar knights defied the archangels and unearthed the copper scroll that revealed the locations of the gates to hell. Cursed for their forbidden act, they now roam the Earth, protecting mankind from evil.

But darkness stalks them, and battles they fight bring them ever closer to eternal damnation. One promise remains to give them salvation - the return of the seraphs.

Plus-sized P.I. Savannah Reid gets a taste of the high life when she attends a Hollywood premiere on the arm of husband Dirk Coulter. Savannah may be a newlywed, but even she gets weak in the knees when she meets celebrity-athlete-turned-movie-star Jason Tyrone. So imagine how she feels when the star’s rock-hard body is found rock-hard dead.…

Psychologist Elizabeth Cole prepared for the worst when she accepted a job on a newly discovered world--a world where every colonist is tethered to an alien who manifests in the form of a dead loved one. But she never expected she'd struggle with the requirement to shun these "ghosts." She never expected to be so attracted to the charming Irishman assigned as her supervisor. And she certainly never expected to discover she died in a transport crash en route to the planet.

In a topsy-turvy ragtime era of side-shows and bamboozlers, Irish Maupin goes from street urchin to burlesque star. Plucked from the streets as a girl and fattened up for candy-factory advertising, she navigates a sensational career around heart-break and loneliness, gaining and losing hundreds of pounds, manipulated by the men around her even as she defies them.

Holly Parker's life changes forever when she visits Enchantment Spring with her older sister Madison. They hike through the woods, and when they reach the spring, Holly's disappointed. A concrete coffin full of water? She expected a pool surrounded by flowers, birds, dancing dragonflies. But fine. They eat the lunch they packed, and lounge around in the sunshine a while. As they get ready to leave, Holly dabbles her fingers in the water. And sees a face beneath the surface.

Humor is the most celebrated of all Jewish responses to modernity. In this book, Ruth Wisse evokes and applauds the genius of spontaneous Jewish joking - as well as the brilliance of comic masterworks by writers like Heinrich Heine, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, S. Y. Agnon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Philip Roth. At the same time, Wisse draws attention to the precarious conditions that call Jewish humor into being - and the price it may exact from its practitioners and audience.

Matti Glover is thrilled to learn that hot Hollywood heartthrob Antonio Reed is not only filming a movie in Santa Fe, but staying in the exclusive complex where she's housesitting. She rescues him from a busload of teenage girls, and grateful and intrigued, he asks her for a date. Matti's caught up in a Cinderella dream come true - until midnight hits and it's pumpkin time. Any reader who ever cherished a secret crush on Robert, Justin, or Orlando will enjoy this romp through the fan's ultimate fantasy.

In a post-apocalyptic world, the young healer Snake ventures into unknown lands during her proving year. Her genetically engineered rattlesnake and cobra provide vaccines and medicines, while the rare alien dreamsnake eases pain and suffering. Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand won SFWA's Nebula Award. It is the first chapter of Dreamsnake, which won the Nebula, the Hugo, the Locus, and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award.

Kylis believes she can protect herself, but when the commander of the prison Screwtop threatens her lovers, she understands her own vulnerability. Jannine loves the accomplishment she feels in her Virtual Reality job...yet she fears doing it too well, and attracting the attention of her superiors. Lais, the freak, flees from comfort and rewards, knowing too much about herself.

Twelve-year-old Barbary is emigrating from Earth to Einstein, an orbital space station. Researchers and diplomats on board the station are preparing to meet the first alien spacecraft to visit the solar system. Barbary wants to stay with her new sister, Heather, and Heather's father Yoshi. But Barbary is keeping a secret, and if her secret is discovered, she could be sent back to Earth.

Alice Fivey is seven years old when her father dies, and ten when her mentally fragile mother is institutionalized. So begins the “sleepover life” for Alice. Shuttled among the homes of wealthy relatives, retainers, babysitters, and reluctant caretakers, Alice must learn their habits and adapt if she is to survive. But how is she to remain intact after the loss of her parents, whose troubled pasts are invoked to punish and manipulate her? Books help, as do kindly teachers.