Showing results by narrator "Laurel Lefkow" in All Categories

Life has the capacity of great moments and attainment, of lives well lived, fulfilling for ourselves and for those we touch. But for others life is arduous. There is no spark to ignite the curiosity, to explore and achieve a stability and a growth to their lives. Indeed their lives, in their own eyes, become almost meaningless, their sense of themselves subsumed under a myriad of problems, whether real or imagined. Seismic events in a life might crush them; the loss of a loved one for instance. Coping is difficult, support hard to find and isolation abounds.

This is the compelling story of two women, born centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them. Ella Turner tries hard to fit into the small, close-knit community of the French town that she has moved to. She even changes her name back to Tournier, and knocks the rust off her high-school French. However, isolated and lonely, she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry, with heart-wrenching results.

The Age of Innocence is a powerful depiction of love and desire in New York's glamorous Gilded Age. When Newland Archer, happily engaged to May Welland, meets his fiancée's cousin Ellen, his entire future is cast into doubt: strong-willed, witty, and entirely unpretentious, Ellen is unlike any woman he has ever met. He is torn between his infatuation for her and his duty to marry May. In subtle and elegant language, Wharton delivers a critical look at the social mores of the time.

Bringing together Susan Sontag's most fearless and incisive writing, On Women examines the oppression of women and the tools necessary for liberation. First written in the 1970s during the height of second-wave feminism, Sontag's essays examine the 'biological division of labour', the double standard for ageing and the struggle for real power, topics which are strikingly relevant to our contemporary conversations. For any Sontag fan, this collection of lost essays is a revelation into her achievements as an essayist.

'Seriously wise, seriously wonderful, seriously comic - your life will be richer for it' Katherine Heiny Guido and Vicent - third cousins and best friends - spend their time lolling around and wondering who they will marry. Then, one wet Sunday afternoon in a museum, Gudio meets Holly. Precise...

It’s always the husband, isn’t it? When his wife Brie vanishes from their home one night, never to be seen again, people assume Andy got away with murder. The police can’t build a case against him, but still his friends and neighbours abandon him. Six years later, Andy’s life is back on track, and he’s settled with a new girlfriend. And when he hears his old house has been bulldozed and rebuilt, he’s not bothered. Things are good. But then one day, a woman who looks like Brie shows up at their old address.

A war-torn city. A dangerous secret. A shocking betrayal… Paris, 1940. War is closing in on the city of love. With his wife forced into hiding, Jacques must stand by and watch as the Nazis take away everything he holds dear. Everything except his last beacon of hope: his beloved bookshop, La...

The debut audiobook by former Director of the FBI, James Comey. A federal prosecutor's case against the Mob is blown wide open with a shocking revelation. The trial of the century. One chance to crack the case. A million ways to lose. Federal prosecutor Nora Carleton has spent years building a...

Revenant-X is the terrifying second novel in a new trilogy of survival and exploration in deep space, from Clarke Award-nominated author David Wellington. FEAR THE DARK. The crew of the Artemis - led by Firewatch agent Alexandra Petrova - have survived the furious onslaught of the Basilisk and...

'If you've ever been in a relationship with another person, if you've ever had a family, you need to read this book' Ann Patchett Polly Solo-Miller Demarest is the perfect flower of the Solo-Miller family. The Solo-Millers have everything: looks, brains, money, a strong, fortified sense of clan...

The USA Today Bestseller! In the shadowy underbelly of Cold War Moscow, Mae Pierce, once a formidable OSS agent, has found herself once again thrust into a perilous mission that could spell redemption—or ruin. Tasked with posing as a model at the American Exhibition, Mae is haunted by the...

In 12 years, Michelle Lyons witnessed nearly 300 executions. First as a reporter and then as a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Michelle was a frequent visitor to Huntsville's Walls Unit, where she recorded and relayed the final moments of death row inmates' lives before they were put to death by the state. Michelle was in the death chamber as some of the United States' most notorious criminals, including serial killers, child murderers and rapists, spoke their last words on earth, while a cocktail of lethal drugs surged through their veins.

The Heroine’s Journey describes contemporary woman’s search for wholeness in a society where she has been defined according to masculine values. Drawing on cultural myths and fairy tales, ancient symbols and goddesses, and the dreams of contemporary women, Murdock illustrates the need for — and the reality of — feminine values in Western culture.

Meet Toadling. On the day of her birth, she was stolen from her family by the fairies, but she grew up safe and loved in the warm waters of faerieland. Once an adult though, the fae ask a favor of Toadling: return to the human world and offer a blessing of protection to a newborn child. Simple, right? If only. Centuries later, a knight approaches a towering wall of brambles, where the thorns are as thick as your arm and as sharp as swords. He's heard there's a curse here that needs breaking, but it's a curse Toadling will do anything to uphold.

A royal palace. A closed book. A betrayal that will echo through generations… Windsor, 1940. Secretly tasked with foiling a suspected plot, Sophie Klein is placed in the Royal Library at Windsor castle, where the princesses reside. But when she learns that Windsor is compromised, Sophie must...

Whatever the reasons given or proffered the reality and known facts are that if you want a really good ghost story to bring that edge of chill, that foreboding of dread, that feeling that in an empty house we are not quite alone and that sometimes the sharp, sheer shock of what just happened is upon us then look no further than ‘The Victorian Ghost Story’ for your listening pleasure.

An unforgettable, heart-wrenching story tying together past and present, from the bestselling author of The Forgotten Bookshop in Paris Provence, 1940. Thrown out of occupied Paris by the Nazis, brave, beautiful Mathilde finds refuge with her cousin in Provence, where she’s soon drawn into the...

'The Queen of the Summer Novel' (People) The ultimate summertime reading for fans of Jennifer Weiner and Jodi Picoult. Nantucket is only two and a half hours away from Martha's Vineyard by ferry. But the two islands might as well be worlds apart for a set of identical twin sisters who have been...

Bloomsbury presents The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe by Sarah Churchwell, read by Laurel Lefkow ‘Ferociously smart. A rare combination of guilty pleasure and intellectual insight’ VOGUE ‘Perceptive. Refreshing. Tears away layers of false readings and conspiracy theories’ NEW YORK TIMES...

Therese is just an ordinary sales assistant working in a New York department store when an alluring woman in her 30s walks up to her counter. Standing there, Therese is wholly unprepared for the first shock of love. She is an awkward 19-year-old with a job she hates and a boyfriend she doesn't love; Carol is a sophisticated, bored suburban housewife in the throes of a divorce and a custody battle for her only daughter. As Therese becomes irresistibly drawn into Carol's world, she soon realises how much they both stand to lose....