Showing results by narrator "Lorelei King" in All Categories

Harry Houdini's story is the classic American tale of an immigrant who from impoverished beginnings made it big in the United States. Born in Hungary as Erik Weisz, he was brought up in Wisconsin, USA and first developed his acts at the age of 17 after a childhood in poverty. Captivated by magic shows, he began performing tricks on stage with one of his brothers, and then with his wife. From being bound in chains to massive locks and straight jackets, Houdini found fame with his dramatic escapes.

Thirtieth-century Britain and the calamitous collapse of the pension system means compulsory euthanasia for all 70-year-olds. But a clerical error spells disaster for 69-year-old George Smith, who suddenly finds himself facing his demise a year early. Feisty George isn't going to take this lying down and goes into battle with Central Admin - and the terrifying TV crew from This Was Your Life, who want to broadcast his imminent death live on air.

Trade and Taboo addresses the creation of disrepute in ancient Roman society. What made someone disreputable in the eyes of Romans, and how did this effect their everyday life? The book tracks the shifting application of stigmas of disrepute between the Republican period and the later Roman Empire (45 BCE-565 CE) by following various Roman professionals. Through the lives of funeral workers, town criers, tanners, mint workers, and even bakers, Bond asks how certain tradesmen coped with stigmatization.

Tom Putnam has resigned himself to a quiet and half-fulfilled life. An English professor in a sleepy college town, he spends his days browsing the Shakespeare shelves at the campus bookstore, managing the oddball faculty in his department and caring, alongside his formidable mother-in-law, for his wife Marjory, a fragile shut-in with unrelenting neuroses, a condition exacerbated by her discovery of Tom's brief and misguided affair with a visiting poetess a decade earlier.

It’s 1994 - and in West Seattle, new mom Laura Benton is busy juggling work as a freelance music journalist with the constant demands of a young baby. Life is crazy enough, but it takes a darker turn when she interviews Carson Mack, a down-on-his-luck country music star who's looking to make a comeback. Carson is also desperate to make amends to the family he left behind years before and Laura finds herself sucked into helping him trace his long lost son.

Have you always wanted to write a bestselling book? If you have ever wanted to try your hand at writing fiction, started a novel, written a short story, or even completed a manuscript – only to find that it lacks that certain something, then this is the book for you. How To Write Fiction Without The Fuss takes you through all aspects of the craft of fiction writing and gives you a clear understanding of the fundamentals, along with tools and tips to enhance your writing skills.

When turbocharged Park Avenue mom Ivy Ames finds she's been downsized from her high-powered corporate job and her marriage, she swiftly realises that she's going to need a whole new way to support herself and her two private-school daughters. At first she does the obvious thing -- she panics. Then she decides to put her years of marketing savvy to work and dreams up a brilliant new business: helping upscale New Yorkers get their little darlings into the most exclusive kindergartens in the city.

Ethan Muller is struggling to establish his reputation as a dealer in the cut-throat world of contemporary art when he is alerted to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: in a decaying New York slum, an elderly tenant has disappeared, leaving behind a staggeringly large trove of original drawings and paintings. Nobody can tell Ethan much about the old man, except that he came and went in solitude for nearly forty years, his genius hidden and unacknowledged.

A renegade terrorist with a bottomless personal grudge against all things American targets the most visible symbol of American prestige and power one clear morning in Florida as NASA prepares to launch the Space Shuttle. This time the shuttle carries a high-profile payload and a high-paying visitor on board as a guest, and astronaut Kenai Munro, the FBI special agent Patrick Chisolm and U.S. Coast Guard Captain Cal Schyler are doing everything they can to help the launch go off without a hitch.

Here are the life stories of eight remarkable people who were born and grew up in America and who made their mark upon American history. They represent the remarkable individuality and sense of enterprise and courage that has marked the American hero.

Seattle, May 1988: Why would up and coming musician Craig Adler OD on heroin just days before signing a major record deal? Craig's band was the first of the new Seattle music scene to break out of the Northwest and they were about to hit the big time. With everything to live for, Craig had been clean for months; everybody swore it. Music journalist Laura Benton is determined to find the answer. But as she digs into the story, the pieces don’t quite add up - and then the threats begin.

A concise history of the origins of The Vietnam War for a new generation. On September 2, 1945, Vietnamese revolutionary Ho Chi Minh boldly proclaimed his country’s independence. Just as Americans had done almost two centuries earlier in defiance of the British, Ho declared that Vietnamese patriots were, after many decades of French domination, affirming that “all the peoples on the earth are equal from birth” and “have a right to live and to be happy and free.”

At the first annual "states party", Virginia and Idaho hatch a plan to swap spots so each can see another part of the country. Before the party is over, all the states decide to switch places. In the beginning, every state is happy in its new location. But soon things start to go wrong. Florida, who switches spots with Minnesota, is freezing in the frosty northern climate, and Minnesota hasn't brought sunscreen and is getting an awful sunburn.

A highway patrol trooper notices something strange on the side of the road: a homemade cross, fashioned as a memorial. Except the date being 'remembered' is the following day - the day the police find a kidnapped teenage girl in the trunk of a car, left for dead. Special Agent Kathryn Dance, the kinesics expert with the California Bureau of Investigation, is on the case.

Whilst their father is fighting in the American Civil War, four sisters and their mother struggle to survive with help from a wealthy neighbour. Each girl has to overcome their own individual battles which range from short temper to the contraction of scarlet fever. Each will bring the family closer together or further apart. The story tells of their progression into womanhood and how they cope with the competitive romance of the neighbour's grandson and his tutor.

Bath-based BBC Audiobooks hosted a sell-out event for the Bath Literature Festival. Reading Between the Lines: From Page to Production featured Rula Lenska, Lynne Truss, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Lorelei King in an entertaining and lively discussion about the art of the audiobook. They were joined by Sunday Times audio critic Karen Robinson, BBC Audiobooks' Publishing Director Jan Paterson, and Senior Producer Kate Thomas.

Poetry can sometimes be elusive, the real meaning layered beneath another. In this volume American poets give voice to their nation, their hopes, and their aspirations. Whitman, Emerson, and Dickinson are joined by Poe, Holmes, Dunbar, and others to pleasure our ears and minds with a rambling stroll through their works. It doesn’t define America, but it captures her mood and the flavours of her soul in the early days of the American dream.

What if you could go back in time to save the person you love the most? The rules are simple. If you want to travel back in time, you need to be at least 18 years old. You can travel only within your own lifespan for a maximum of six months. And, above all else, you must never, ever change the past. But that's exactly what Brooke Wallace plans to do. As Brooke faces existence without her beloved brother, his life cut short by a rare disease, she can think of only one solution - travel back in time to prevent his death.

1920: After his return from the battlefields in France, Walter Langdon and his wife Rosanna begin their life together on a remote farm in Iowa. As time passes, their little family will grow: from Frank, the handsome, willful first-born, to Joe, whose love of animals and the land sustains him; from Lillian, beloved by her mother, to Henry who craves only the world of his books; and Claire, the surprise baby, who earns a special place in her father's heart.

Here is a magnificent story of love and politics that continues the saga of Kane and Abel. The titanic battle between two men obsessed with destroying each other follows on into the next generation. Florentyna Rosnovski, Abel's daughter, inherits all her father's drive, but none of his wealth. A woman gifted with beauty and spirit, but above all with indomitable will, she sets out in pursuit of an ambition that dwarfs both Kane and Abel, as she battles for the highest office of all.