Showing results by narrator "Lee Ann Howlett" in All Categories

On a fall evening in Corvallis, Oregon, in 1967, 17-year-old Dick Kitchel, a senior at the high school, disappeared after attending a party. Ten days later, his body was spotted by two children as it floated down the Willamette River. He had been beaten and strangled. Now, nearly 50 years later, a classmate, New York Times best-selling author Rebecca Morris, returns to her hometown to write about how the murder changed the town and the lives of Dick Kitchel's friends.

In this story, by American writer Dorothy Parker, a woman gives a laundry list of men she's not married to. She also convincingly states the reasons why she is not and would not want to be married to the various men. Parker's wit and humor shine through as the eccentricities and foibles of the men are described.

First published in 1869, Little Women is the story of four sisters growing up against the background of the American Civil War. Alcott wrote the book at the urging of the publisher, Thomas Niles, who was seeking a story about girls that would have popular appeal. Although it was commenced essentially as a children's book, it developed into something of a bildungsroman, which touches on more serious issues such as the difficulties faced by single-parent families, the death of a sibling, and fractured relationships.

Ejaz Ahmad was handsome, charismatic, and a self-made businessman. He arrived in the United States from Pakistan determined to fulfill his mother's dying wish: to come to America, complete his education, and make his mark in the world. Settling in Memphis, Tennessee, Ejaz became owner of several businesses, father to a handsome boy, and a devout Muslim. The only thing missing in his life was a wife, someone special to protect, honor, and love. Leah Ward was a pretty girl, but a prison parolee with a questionable past.

What if Abel had killed Cain, but there was no jury of his peers? In 1928 Georgia, a black man who kills a white man is automatically guilty, but the bedwarmer's son, an ex-slave, is no normal black man. And the dead white man is his half-brother. Once his lily-white lawyer lady learns the truth, everything changes. Can she save him from swinging?

Mr. and Mrs. Wheelock live with their five-year old daughter in a small house in a tidy suburb. Although they present the picture of a happy little family, the old adage "appearances can be deceiving" could certainly apply to their household. This was American author and celebrated wit Dorothy Parker's first published short story.

Floy Turner is back, but this time she's knee-deep in murder, kidnappings, and burglaries. Leaving behind her Florida Highway Patrol Trooper hat and Miami's highways and byways, she dives into the world of high-level criminal investigations. Not only does she love it, but she finds she has a real knack for it.

Not long after the beginning of the 20th century, a woman has a dream about what she imagines the 21st century will bring. This utopian fiction piece was written by Winnifred Harper Cooley in 1902. Cooley is best known for her book The New Womanhood. Cooley's mother, Ida Husted Harper, was an author, a journalist, and a prominent figure in the United States' women's suffrage movement.

The Mantle follows the life of a civil servant, Akaki Akakievitch who just loves his work! Born in St Petersburg, he is a copy writer, meaning he copies text from one place to another. In his spare time and after work hours, he also copies. When given more responsibility, he begs to return to...copying. One particular winter, he notices that, between home and office, he is cold, his mantle is threadbare, and he can no longer repair it himself. Our conflict begins here, as Akaki seeks a solution to his threadbare mantle.

Dreaming of days of yore, Tim Porter organizes the return of Cosmo Draper, the town's favorite mayor. Only trouble is, Cosmo's been dead for years, right?

The deadly hurricane of 1928 claimed 2500 lives, and the long-forgotten story of the casualties, as told in Black Cloud, continues to stir passion. Among the dead were 700 black Floridian men, women, and children who were buried in an unmarked West Palm Beach ditch during a racist recovery and rebuilding effort that conscripted the labor of blacks much like latter-day slaves.

One woman learns the consequences of having a PlaceNook account when all her "friends" show up on her doorstep unannounced.

Despite its patina of humor, the work is a merciless exposé of the commercial middle class dishonesty, and the convenient immorality hiding behind social conventions, which are characteristic of a developing urban society. The most noble character, Serafima, is a compelling mixture of naïveté, whimsicality, sentimentality, and obstinate practicality - one of the finest character portraits in Russian drama.

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery around 1820. This biography by Elizabeth Ross Haynes was published just eight years after Harriet's death (1913) as a part of her book Unsung Heroes. Over the years Ms. Tubman's legacy as a former slave, an abolitionist, a humanitarian, a suffragette, and a spy and agent for the US Army has grown. Beginning in 2020 her face will grace the US 20 dollar bill.

In this lively and enlightening study, Kathleen B. Casey explores the ways in which the gender- and race-bending spectacles of vaudeville dramatized the economic, technological, social, and cultural upheaval that gripped the United States in the early 20th century. She focuses on four key performers: Eva Tanguay, Julian Eltinge, Lillyn Brown, and Sophie Tucker.

At the ripe age of 73, Imogene Deal McGregor has a penchant for following her own instincts, as well as more grit and spunk than her hypochondriac son, Billy McGregor, and Billy's impulsive partner Jackson can handle. The boys take Imogene to New Orleans with their devilishly handsome English bulldog Goose, hoping to visit friends and attend a second line parade, but moments after arriving in the French Quarter, they find their friend Glenway Gilbert murdered in his art gallery.

During a high society party set in New York City in the early 1900s, a beautiful woman is murdered and her precious diamond stolen. A young woman attending the party had just accepted a marriage proposal from a handsome young man. Unfortunately, the young man is the prime suspect in the murder due to circumstantial evidence. From there, the story takes many twists and turns before the identity of the killer is finally revealed.

How would you be affected if your mother died giving your life? And how would such a loss affect your children? These questions are the foundation of many issues raised by the author in her search for the missing pieces of a grandmother who in 1905 died giving the author's mother life. It was a tragedy that seemed to affect multiple generations, the voids in identity and ill-spent guilt flowing from the stream of blood that kept mother from daughter, and then from granddaughter. But it was a search well-spent.

Ann Eliza and Evelina Bunner are two unmarried sisters who own a small notions shop in a shabby section of New York City circa 1900. The older sister, Ann Eliza, buys a small clock for her sister's birthday from a tiny shop and meets the owner, a German immigrant named Herman Ramy. Once Mr. Ramy enters their lives, things begin to change in ways that neither sister could have imagined.

American Kate Chopin, now considered an early feminist, was a prolific writer of short stories in addition to two novels. Most of her stories were set in Louisiana, where she moved after marrying. Characters in her stories are as varied as her themes. Her use of irony and her ability to write so convincingly of characters from diverse backgrounds are hallmarks of her work. This collection includes "The Kiss", "The Unexpected", "An Egyptian Cigarette", "The Locket", "The Blind Man", and "Her Letters".