Showing results by narrator "Virginia Leishman" in All Categories

This mesmerizing, poetic novel won the 2003 National Book Award for fiction and has earned universal acclaim. Set against the beautiful but tragic landscape of post-World War II Asia, The Great Fire tells a sweeping tale of the search for new beginnings in a world ravaged by tragedy.

When Lady Tremaine petitions her husband for an end to their civil but loveless marriage, Lord Camden agrees on one scandalous condition - she must give him an heir within a year. Their early attempts to fulfill this delicate arrangement are marred by cold detachment, but soon sparks of passion and long-forgotten lust begin to be kindled anew.

Moql's mother is Folk, one of those tiny fairies who live hidden from mere mortals, and her father is human. Young patrons will empathize as this tiny changeling experiences the fear, sadness, and danger of not belonging. Set against the backdrop of a charming medieval setting, this award-winning audiobook addresses problems that are still, sadly, quite contemporary.

At their second home on the Isle of Skye, the Ramsay family surrounds itself with friends and colleagues. They contend with World War I, family deaths, and hardships both spoken and unspoken. All the while, the lighthouse looms in the distance. Six-year-old James asks his father to take him there, but many years will pass before the voyage begins.

It is 1907, and in her Lake Country village, Beatrix Potter is about to encounter both woodland magic and an intriguing mystery. As she helps some village children look for fairy folk, she stumbles upon evidence that a flame-haired stranger may have dangerous plans.

Works by best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert have been nominated for the Agatha and Anthony awards. In The Tale of Oat Cake Crag, Miss Beatrix Potter is frustrated by distractions near her home. As the noisy test flights of a hydroplane disrupt her concentration, Beatrix investigates a string of bizarre letters threatening a friend’s reputation. Then life becomes even more complicated when the body of the hydroplane project funder is found at the foot of Oat Cake Crag.

Set in the 16th century, Until You tells the tale of a young heroine who discovers the love of a lifetime. Beautiful Rosamund is introduced to the Earl of Glenkirk, and they immediately fall in love. Their growing passion is stifled, however, when war breaks out between England and Scotland.

Jerry, Jimmy, and Kathleen can’t go home for their school holiday because their cousin is sick with measles there. Instead, they stay at Kathleen’s school with the French teacher. One morning, they set out to find adventure. Instead, they find an enchanted place - and magic, too! Walking through a nearby forest, they discover an enormous mansion, where a girl lies asleep in the garden. Although she pretends to be an enchanted princess, she is Mabel, the housekeeper’s niece. But she has a ring that really is magical. It can make the wearer invisible and grant wishes.

ALA Best Book for Teens recipient Chris Wooding delivers "a twisted fairytale fantasy" (Wooding) sprinkled with marvelous characters and seasoned with incredible plot twists. In the rotting stilt-village of Gull just above the foul-smelling Black Swamp, 16-year-old Poison vows to rescue her kidnapped sister from the phaeries. A wise friend reluctantly provides the money, directions, and ancient lore necessary for her journey. Poison soon encounters the treacherous phaerie lord, the terrifying bone witch, and the deceptive spider queen. But when her reality is completely upended, Poison questions whether she can save anyone.

USA Today best-selling author Jo Goodman begins a delightful new quartet of Regency romances with Let Me Be the One. The four gentlemen of the compass club-North, South, East and West-are all unwed. Now North has fallen for the charms of Libby Penrose, an intelligent beauty with a strong determination to remain unattached. When North awakens feelings deep within Libby, whirlwind events lead to their marriage. Yet a dark secret threatens to tear their newfound happiness apart.

Jim Crace has been called "one of the brightest lights in contemporary British fiction" by The New York Times Book Review. His novels have won a Whitbread Prize, an E.M. Forster Award, the Guardian Fiction Award, the GAP International Prize for Literature, and have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Far-ranging in its imagery, Being Dead is a provocative examination of mortality.

Brenn Owen, the new but impoverished Earl of Merton, is looking for a bride: one rich enough to finance his estate. When he meets Tess Hamlin, he sees a woman who is not only wealthy, but a dazzling beauty as well. To his surprise, Tess quickly accepts his proposal. But behind her eagerness lurks a secret she will do anything to hide from him. As the Earl and his bride begin their life together, their path is a passionate one, but far from smooth: haste must give way to patience and understanding.

When Anne Burnett is forced into a proxy marriage with Aidan Black, a dashing Scottish laird with a reputation for unpredictability, traveling to the wilds of 19th-century Scotland to meet him is only a small concern. Her biggest worry is how to inform her new husband that he is married. Falling in love with his castle and the fierce loyalty Aidan inspires in his people, Anne finds her greatest challenge is yet to come.

In her daring first novel, the youngest Brontë sister drew upon her own experiences to tell the unvarnished truth about life as a governess. Like Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte was a young middle-class Victorian lady whose family fortunes had faltered. Like so many other unmarried women of the 19th century, Bronte accepted the only "respectable" employment available - and entered a world of hardship, humiliation, and loneliness.

Eleven-year-old Nannerl is arguably the best keyboard player in all of Europe. Yet, because her six-year-old brother, Wolfie, can play almost as well as she, he receives virtually all the praise and adulation. Traveling far and wide with her family, she and her brother perform before the crowned heads of Europe. Social convention and public clamor relegate her to living life in the shadow of a prodigy. When will Nannerl ever realize her own dreams and aspirations?

For peasant intellectual Thomas Torr, translating the Latin Vulgate into English with the illustrious John Wycliffe is a way to bring God’s word to all people. But the Roman Church has pronounced a death sentence on anyone possessing an English Bible, and Thomas soon faces a baptism of fire that threatens his very existence. From a simple British village to the elaborate Roman catacombs, Thomas confronts incredible adventure and shattering betrayal as he struggles to heed God’s call for him.