Showing results by narrator "Christa Lewis" in All Categories

It's Gatsby Week at Castleton Manor, the elegant retreat for booklovers in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts, and the roaring '20s are in full swing. Charlotte Jaxon, owner of the manor, arrives to put on the ritz and oversee the festivities celebrating the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Faith Newberry is sitting pretty when she receives a brief respite from her duties in the library to assist Charlotte in organizing the events that have everyone jazzed up, including a fashion show, an antique car race, and a Gatsby Ball.

Maria von Wedemeyer knows the realities of war. Her beloved father and brother have both been killed on the battlefield. The last thing this spirited young woman needs is to fall for a man under constant surveillance by the Gestapo. How can she give another piece of her heart to a man so likely to share the same final fate? Yet when Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an old family friend, comes to comfort the von Wedemeyers after their losses, she discovers that love isn't always logical.

The cosmopolitan political tradition in Western thought begins with the Greek Cynic Diogenes, who, when asked where he came from, responded that he was a citizen of the world. Rather than declaring his lineage, city, social class, or gender, he defined himself as a human being, implicitly asserting the equal worth of all human beings. Nussbaum pursues this "noble but flawed" vision of world citizenship as it finds expression in figures of Greco-Roman antiquity, Hugo Grotius in the 17th century, Adam Smith during the 18th century, and various contemporary thinkers.

After dumping her cheating fiancé and canceling the wedding, Mallory Shepard can't bear another disaster. So when the former bride-to-be unexpectedly inherits Thistle Park, a ramshackle mansion in her ex's hometown of Port Quincy, it's a problem she can't afford - literally. It’s full of stray cats, peeling wallpaper, and nosy neighbors, and Mallory is dying to sell it off - once she finally fixes up both the place and her messy life.

It's late March in Lighthouse Bay, and Castleton Manor is undergoing spring-cleaning. Librarian and archivist, Faith Newberry, envisions a little downtime while the manor is closed to guests. But her reverie is cut short when she is pressed into service for the organizers of the Gothic Studies Conference, who are meeting in a nearby seaside home. Though reluctant to leave her cozy cottage on the Castleton estate, Faith agrees, especially since her faithful cat, Watson, is invited along.

The heroine, Zadieyek of Gyre has been captured and sold as a slave, who has amnesia and remembers nothing of her life before the trip across the desert with the slavers - and, due to a head injury, remembers mercifully little of that. But she does know that she would rather fight in the arena than be a harlot for the men who do…While she remains a slave, she’s quite different from the typical 'slave girl' - she grows and develops, always searching for her memory and her past, convinced that this is not how her life is supposed to be. And, of course, she's right.

In these marvelously inventive stories, Samantha Hunt imagines numerous ways in which human lives might be altered by the otherworldly: an FBI agent falls in love with a robot built for a suicide mission; a young woman unintentionally cheats on her husband when she is transformed into a deer; two strangers become lovers and find themselves responsible for the resurrection of a dog; a woman tries to start her life anew after the loss of a child but riddles that new life with lies.

The story of how English became American—and how it became Southern, Bostonian, Californian, African American, Chicano, elite, working-class, urban, rural, and everything in between.

Paris, 1940. The City of Light has fallen under German Occupation. Among patriotic Parisians, the pursuit of art, culture, and jazz have become bold acts of defiance. So has forbidden romance for talented and spirited Jewish teenager Annette Zelman and dashing young Catholic poet Jean Jausion. Despite their devout families' vehement opposition, the young couple finds acceptance at the famed Cafe de Flore, whose habitues include Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso, Django Reinhardt, and other luminaries of the Latin Quarter's creative world.

What makes us remember? Why do we forget? And what, exactly, is a memory? With playfulness and intelligence, this audiobook answers these questions and more, offering an illuminating look at one of our most fascinating faculties: our memory. The authors - two Norwegian sisters, one a neuropsychologist and the other an acclaimed writer - skillfully interweave history, research, and exceptional personal stories, taking listeners on a captivating exploration of the evolving science of memory....

One of the difficult issues for many Christians who are divorced and remarried is the fact that there is no evangelical consensus about what the Apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth. Thank you for dealing with this honestly and without altering the meaning of the Apostle's words! And thank you for such a thorough investment of real research and practical spiritual wisdom into a subject which needs more careful attention in the Body of Christ!

Between 1942 and 1945, a group of ordinary citizens formed a network to smuggle Dutch Jews and others targeted by the Nazis south into France, via Paris, and then to Switzerland. This network became known as the Dutch-Paris Escape Line, eventually growing to include 300 people and expanding its reach into Spain. Led by Jean Weidner, a Dutchman living in France, many lacked any experience in clandestine operations or military tactics, and yet they became one of the most effective resistance groups of the Second World War.

Few novels have affected readers (especially young people) like John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. With this new guide, you will have an even greater understanding of the book. Included in this guide: a biography of author John Green, a look at the book's context, its literary elements, detailed chapter summaries, analysis, and suggestions for essays.

Libbie Havens never fit in. She bought the old Carson place on Cub Creek and moved to the Virginia countryside to prove she could live on her own terms. In the process, she learned some truths about herself and found love - but love, acceptance, and belonging can be easier to find than to keep. While on a trip to Sicily with Libbie, Jim Mitchell must leave suddenly because his son is injured in an accident in California. Now alone, Libbie is surprised by an old friend, Dr. Barry Raymond, but Dr. Raymond is a reminder of her troubled past.

It's lights, camera, action at Castleton Manor, the exclusive literary retreat in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts. Faith Newberry's role as librarian expands to include assisting the producer in filming a remake of Alice in Wonderland. Faith and her friends in the Candle House Book Club thrill in the behind-the-scenes drama, and even Faith's loyal cat, Watson, eagerly pursues his big-screen debut. But the production falls down the rabbit hole when the star playing Alice enters the maze to shoot a scene, then vanishes.

Claire has finally found her forever home, and she and Chris soon find themselves falling in love. Then Chris' dreams of musical stardom and Claire's need for a stable home soon put their love in jeopardy. Chris struggles deeply with his plans for the future, entirely reluctant to leave Claire behind; until Claire does something that may break their love - and the only home she's comes to know - forever.

"Forty rooms" is a conceit: It proposes that a modern woman will inhabit 40 rooms in her lifetime. They form her biography, from childhood to death. For our protagonist, the much-loved child of a late marriage, the first rooms she is aware of as she nears the age of five are those that make up her family's Moscow apartment. We follow this child as she reaches adolescence, leaves home to study in America, and slowly discovers sexual happiness and love.

In the near future, Berlin’s real estate is being flipped in the name of “sustainability”, only to make the city even more unaffordable; artists are employed by corporations as consultants, and the weather is acting strange. When Anja and Louis are offered a rent-free home on an artificial mountain - yet another eco-friendly initiative run by a corporation - they seize the opportunity, but it isn’t long before the experimental house begins malfunctioning.

Workaholic Camille Ashland is at the top of her game. She has built a thriving business, is raising a lovely daughter, and lives in a newly decorated home. Her life is full until a heart attack and near-death experience change everything.

Gisela Kreglinger, the daughter of a vintner and trained as theologian, invites us to discover wine as part of a more full-bodied Christian spirituality. She shows us how the soulful savoring of wine is God's way of wooing us back into a great love affair. Indeed, Jesus's first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding. Along with bread, wine is the gift we receive at the table of communion. Through these gifts we experience God's glorious and loving presence among us, feeding and nurturing us in body, soul, and spirit.