Showing results by narrator "Barbara Caruso" in All Categories

Ian and Glynnis McCullough, intelligent, professional, and successful, are the envy of their affluent friends. But suddenly, an unexpected plea for help and a cancelled check send their tranquility spinning out of control.

Most of us think of bugs as pesky creatures we squish under our shoes or bat away with our hands. Under the microscope of Sue Hubbell’s keen eye emerges an exciting world we rarely take the time to see. Author of A Country Year, Hubbell writes regularly for The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and Discover magazines, bringing to her delightful essays the practical veracity of a gentlewoman farmer, and the style and élan of an eccentric who has found her bliss.

After 25 years on a farm in the Ozarks, award-winning writer and naturalist Sue Hubbell moved to a small town on the coast of Maine. There, in the pools, tides, and thickets, she found a vast array of creatures that aroused her considerable curiosity. Join Hubbell on a unique tour of the world of invertebrates. From humpbacked camel crickets to glow worms, from horseshoe crabs to elegantly-furred sea mice, Hubbell offers vivid descriptions and fascinating details about these superb examples of survival.

In the heart of Paris, in the posh building made famous in The Elegance of Hedgehog, Pierre Athens, the greatest food critic in the world, is dying. Revered by some and reviled by many, Monsieur Arthens has been lording it over the world's most esteemed chefs for years, passing judgment on their creations, deciding their fates with a stroke of his pen, destroying and building reputations on a whim. But now, during these his final hours, his mind has turned to simpler things.

In the triumphant finale to the Incarnations of Immortality series, the Incarnation of Good dominates. Orlene has died and we follow her into the afterlife. Joining forces with two women--Jolie, Satan's consort and Vita, a troubled mortal--they will test the limits of morality.

Here are four unforgettable stories by Yann Martel, the New York Times best-selling author of Life of Pi. In the exquisite title novella, a very young man dying of AIDS joins his friend in fashioning a story of the Roccamatio family of Helsinki, set against the yearly march of the 20th century.

Anne Shirley is all grown up and married to her longtime sweetheart Gilbert Blythe. What’s more, they have six wonderfully mischievous children—who’ve just discovered a new secret hideout. When the Blythe boys and girls learn that an eccentric family has moved into a nearby mansion, they are bubbling over with curiosity. The new family is the Merediths, and they have two boys and two girls of their own. They also shelter a runaway named Mary Vance, but sadly she’s about to be sent away to an orphanage. Can the Blythe children find a way to help?

The prairie fires that sweep the grazing lands, the coming of white men with their guns and diseases, and the quick slaughter of the vast buffalo herds leave Running Fawn's Blackfoot tribe with little choice but to take up residence on the assigned Reserve. All her life, Running Fawn has known only contentment, but now what will become of her hopes and dreams?

Gwyn Hillerman acts as a nurse at her father's medical practice in 1935 rural Alaska. Her family life has been rough ever since her mother, hating Alaska, took Gwyn's younger sister back to Chicago to live. Dr. Jeremiah Vaughan finds his life suddenly turned upside down when his medical license is stripped away after he loses an affluent patient. In a snowball effect, he then loses his engagement to Gwyn's sister, Sophia. When the government decides to send a group of families to Alaska in hopes of making a better life, Dr. Hillerman sends a letter urging Jeremiah to join his practice.

Journalist Philip Bradley can't forget Rachel Yoder, the blind Amish woman he met while on assignment in Pennsylvania. He is determined to find a cure for her and to get to know her better. But before Rachel can move on in her life, she must first confront traumatic memories. Can their growing love survive the vast gulf between their different worlds and Rachel's agonizing road to recovery?

One of the most highly acclaimed and best-selling novels of 1991, Mariette in Ecstasy inspires even the most discriminating listener to some degree of reverence. This captivating story of faith and divine madness may move you to examine your own belief system. Since the tender age of four, Mariette Baptiste has had visions of her Savior. Now, at 17, she is entering the convent to dedicate her life to Him. At first, she is welcomed and admired. Then she begins to bleed from stigmata, and the villagers regard her as a saint.

With warmth and laughter, Amelia Bedelia - the maid who takes everything literally - teaches young listeners a critical, and often difficult, lesson: Words can have many different meanings. Young listeners will find Amelia Bedelia a welcome splash of fun.

Because she has disobeyed church rules, Katie Lapp is now Katherine Mayfield. Expelled from her strict Amish home, she sets out to find Laura Mayfield, the birth mother she has never known. But even as Katherine draws near to Laura, evil plans in the works to tear away their happiness and their inheritance.

In A Promise for Spring by ACF Book of the Year novelist Kim Vogel Sawyer, Geoffrey Garrett leaves his 17-year-old fiancée in England while he establishes his Kansas ranch and builds her a proper house. But when he sends for her five years later in 1874, it's clear her feelings have changed far more than his. Despite his desire to marry and her wish to leave, they forge a compromise. If she remains as the ranch's housekeeper until spring, he will pay for her trip back home.

Sixth-grader Milo Neal plans to do a science project on "The Complete Life Cycle of a Link in the Food Chain". But when he brings his specimen - a baby chick - to class, everyone falls in love with the cute ball of fluff. Soon she has a name: Henrietta. Not only is Henrietta the class pet, she's even chosen as mascot for the school hockey team! How can Milo finish his project, which calls for frying up his specimen and serving it to the judges of the science fair?

In a terrible accident, Rachel Yoder loses her husband, her son, and her unborn child. Now, Rachel leads a reclusive life with her young daughter. Her soul is troubled, and her eye-sight has mysteriously dimmed. But the discovery of an old postcard, hidden for years, is about to change Rachel's world.

“I looked over the edge of the ravine to see somebody there, helpless, barely moving. She lifted her head to look at me and I fled, stumbling, back to my room in Mr. Thiel’s house. Something had followed me there. Something, somebody, tall and dark, wrapped in a cloak, able to move soundlessly through the house." Jean Wainwright, ward of Wainwright Academy’s strict but affectionate headmistress, Miss Constance, was quite unprepared for the strange happenings of that memorable summer, 1894.

How Could You Do That?! illustrates Dr. Laura Schlessinger's philosophy of personal responsibility through her usually provocative but always stimulating moral dialogues with callers about everyday ethical dilemmas. In her lively pull-no-punches style, Dr. Laura takes on the moral dilemmas of...

Emily is excited about staying with their grandmother this summer, but Rose is angry about having to spend so much time with her sister. It seems the only thing they have in common is the adventure that awaits them in Gran's attic. Fantasy becomes reality for Emily and Rose when they begin to restore an old dollhouse. The dolls come to life and begin to speak telepathically to the girls. Awake for the first time in 20 years, they are sad to find that their baby, Walter, is missing.

In The Shunning, beautiful 22-year-old Katie Lapp longs to experience the forbidden things of the outside world, even while she is making plans to forever embrace the traditions of her people. In a few days, Katie will marry Bishop John, a widower with five young children. She should be excited, but instead she feels trapped. Her thoughts in turmoil, she heads to the attic to be alone. As she explores a dusty trunk, she discovers a satin infant gown, much too fancy for an Amish baby.