Showing results by narrator "Carrington MacDuffie" in All Categories

All his life, William Stanley searched for a wild place of his own. Growing up in the straightened-out city blocks of his childhood and finding some respite in summer trips to a cabin in the woods, he yearned for space, fragrant soil, tall trees, and the silence that surrounds them. In Hawaii, he learned of acres of land depleted from toxic agricultural practices, and he became determined to restore that land and create one of the most comprehensive palm gardens in the world.

In the middle of the Great Depression, Montana native Julia Bennett arrived in New York City with no money and an audacious business plan: to identify and visit easterners who could afford to spend their summers at her brand new dude ranch near Ennis, Montana. Julia, a big-game hunter whom friends described as “a clever shot with both rifle and shotgun,” flouted gender conventions to build guest ranches in Montana and Arizona that attracted world-renowned entertainers and artists.

Berlin. Wartime. A city of secrets - secrets that destroyed Paul Bertram's once-idyllic marriage. When the Berlin Wall falls in 1989, Paul is finally compelled to confront his past. Seeking one last chance at redemption, Paul turns to his former wife, Eve, and together they embark on a journey during which he is able, at last, to reveal the awful truths he has lived with for so long.

Julia Longley is determined not to repeat her mother's mistake and marry the wrong guy. She thinks she has found the perfect one in Nick - a handsome, charming, and successful star reporter for the newspaper where Julia is a photojournalist. But when her coverage of a tragic and bloody accident leaves her in a temporary state of blindness, Nick is anything but loving and supportive, and Julia must search alone for a career more suited to her. Her choice: go back to school and get a degree in counseling.

Dr. Erica Bauer - an identical twin - studies twins at the university in Vancouver. Through the course of her research, she meets a set of preteen twins who are evidently fraternal, but who insist emphatically that they are identical. Their mother, Karen Oxley, is a West Van single mum whose life is on the wrong road - and who discovers an urgent need to put it back on the right one. As Erica sets out to help the twins, their family’s lives become increasingly intertwined with hers in unexpected ways.

When we think of slavery, most of us think of the American South. We think of back-breaking fieldwork on plantations. We don't think of slavery in the North, nor do we think of the grueling labor of urban and domestic slaves. Rachel May's rich new book explores the far reach of slavery, from New England to the Caribbean, the role it played in the growth of mercantile America, and the bonds between the agrarian South and the industrial North in the antebellum era - all through the discovery of a remarkable quilt.

Every town has at least one beloved if misunderstood eccentric, and Beanie Bradsher belongs to Mayhew Junction. Some - LouWanda Crump, for example - would call Beanie a spectacle, but Beanie just marches - and dresses - to the beat of a different drum.

The Los Angeles Times affectionately referred to Freddy Powers as the "Ol Blue Eyes' of Country Music" and wrote that if you were to "ask country superstars Willie Nelson, George Jones or Merle Haggard (they'll)...tell you that he's one of country music's best-kept secrets". The Texas Country Music Hall of Fame inductee has been to the top of the charts as both a producer for Willie Nelson's Grammy-winning LP Over the Rainbow and a songwriter for many of country music legend Merle Haggard's number one hits.

From Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli comes the story of a girl searching for happiness inside the walls of a prison. And don't miss the author's highly anticipated new novel, Dead Wednesday! Cammie O'Reilly lives at the Hancock County Prison--not as a prisoner, she's the warden's daughter. She...

What would it be like to return to your hometown after 25 years in prison for a crime you have maintained you did not commit? And why would you? Walter Desmond is back in Trafalgar, British Columbia, having been officially exonerated when new evidence showed corruption at worst, incompetence at best, by the Trafalgar City Police conducting the investigation.

Twelve short stories, 12 points of view, 12 neighborhoods of the same town, and finally, 12 pieces of the same puzzle. Paris Noir takes you on a ride through the old medieval center of town with its intertwined streets, its ghosts, and its secrets buried in history. You'll cruise Paris with its nightclubs full of mysterious beauties who seem to have a lot to hide.

When you think of St. Petersburg noir, some of the greatest literary names immediately spring to mind - Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Gogol, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Modern day St. Petersburg lavishly offers the scenery and conditions for true noir stories, and the writers in St. Petersburg Noir succeed in concocting their own worlds within this city with stories ranging from mystical to outwardly grotesque.

What would cause a cheese-loving, meat-eating lawyer to become a vegan? Her dog. Teresa Rhyme and Seamus the beagle both survived cancer once, so when Seamus develops yet another cancer, Teresa vows to fight again. Unsure of the best way to battle the unseen enemy, she embarks on some experiments to create a healthier life for her family. She finds better food for Seamus, and a plant-based diet becomes her own guide, but she realizes that's not enough for her-and it's not enough for the animals.

They're an unlikely couple: Lucky Smith, passionate environmentalist and old-time hippie, and Paul Keller, chief constable of Trafalgar, British Columbia. Their weekend getaway to a Scottish-inspired castle in the Rocky Mountains is a chance to explore their fledgling late-in-life relationship and indulge themselves at the famous Banff Springs Hotel. Trouble interferes when Lucky, strong willed and sometimes too stubborn for her own good, stands up to two bullies in the local coffeeshop. To his horror, Paul recognizes one of the young men as his estranged son, Matt.

Sam and Lori had only just met and now they are dead, the result of a car accident. Accident? No. Dead? Not exactly. In life, Sam was a successful playwright, Lori a secretary for Ben Carnahan, a scheming movie producer who wants Sam's new script and whose negligence on a movie set twenty years earlier killed Lori's father. Now Sam and Lori are ghosts out of sequence with the real world yet fully aware of their existence. As they work together to find out what happened to them, a plot to murder Ben is revealed.

Adventurer Ethan Gage travels through the darkest and most superstitious realms of eighteenth century Europe, to the castles and caves of Bohemia to rescue his family and uncover a mysterious medieval device rumored to foretell the future. Having quick-wittedly survived the battle of Trafalgar...

When Artemus Ackerman, retired magician and mayor of Calendar, hears about the first fire on Sabbath Street, he sends his publicist, Maggie Wakeling, to the fire department to find out what caused it. Artemus, who still performs conjuring tricks for his constituents, has his heart set on turning the shabbily elegant Baldwin Theater into a museum of magic. All he has to do is convince wealthy widow Claudette Goodwin to donate the Baldwin to his beloved town. But the theater is located on Sabbath Street, where that first disastrous fire occurred....

"For someone who could not talk or see or walk, he made a big splash." As gifted as he was challenged, this moving, inspiring audiobook tells the story of Ezra and the family that loved him. Born two months premature, Ezra suffered permanent brain damage. His parents ignored the forewarnings of doctors and welcomed their son openheartedly into their lives for the seventeen years they had together. Penned by his courageous mother, Ezra is as much about its narrator as it is about its subject.

It’s the end of March, and Trafalgar, British Columbia, is preparing for the last influx of skiers for the season. Schools are closed for a week, with teachers, parents, and students preparing to relax at home or head out on vacation. But for Cathy Lindsay, the week of relaxation doesn’t work out as planned when she is gunned down by a sniper on the hiking trail high above town, her small dog the only witness. Cathy - a middle-aged, middle-class, small-town resident, high school English teacher, and married mother of two - is an unlikely candidate for a murderous ambush. As Sergeant John Winters begins his investigation, he finds himself frustrated at every turn.

Hannah Manning was once an internationally renowned journalist and war correspondent; today she’s a woman suffering from a traumatic brain injury. Unable to read, unable to concentrate, full of pain, lost and confused, and haunted by her memories, Hannah goes to Ontario to her sister’s small-scale vegetable farm to recover. As summer settles on the farm, she finds comfort in the soft rolling hills and neat fields as well as friendship in the company of Hila Popalzai, an Afghan woman also traumatized by war.