Showing results by narrator "Mary Helen Gallucci" in All Categories

When biologist Hanna Bjørgaas spots a fairy cup lichen in Antarctica, she is surprised to recognize it from her own backyard in Oslo. When she returns home, she embarks on a journey into urban nature, visiting city parks, cemeteries, and concrete rooftops to investigate the species that live in urban spaces. Along the way, she meets corvids, songbirds, ants, pigeons, bats, sparrows, fungi, and linden trees—and the experts who study their surprising abilities to survive, and thrive, in the city.

It starts innocently enough. Four kids—three girls, one boy—are at one of their houses, playing games. One of them has read about "Bloody Mary" and the idea that if you look into a mirror and say her name thirteen times, she will show you the future. Some legends say she'll show you your one true love or a skull to mark your death within five years. Others say that conjuring Bloody Mary will bring her into your world.

Charles and I were law students when I fell for him. He was handsome, charming, sure of himself—and he deigned to look at me. We had a dream-come-true courtship, wedding, and honeymoon, all orchestrated and paid for by his wealthy parents. Then he brought me home…and I woke up. Nineteen months and a baby later, I'm standing in our pristine living room, looking at Charles lying in a pool of blood.

None of us expected a visit from the devil himself, but after Lucifer comes a-knocking, we know things are about to heat up fast. According to the demons, the only way to protect me is to bind us all together. Forever. Something I’m not sure I’m even willing to do. But with Greed’s ring still on my finger and Lucifer’s sights set on making me his next plaything, what other choice do I have? When I’m dragged to Hell against my will, I’m determined to find a way topside again. But the darkness within me is enjoying this deadly vacation a little too much.

In the vast palace of the empress lives an orphan girl called Nothing. She slips within the shadows of the Court, unseen except by the Great Demon of the palace and her true friend, Prince Kirin, heir to the throne. When Kirin is kidnapped, only Nothing and the prince’s bodyguard suspect that Kirin may have been taken by the Sorceress Who Eats Girls, a powerful woman who has plagued the land for decades. The sorceress has never bothered with boys before, but Nothing has uncovered many secrets in her 16 years in the palace, including a few about the prince.

This quietly powerful memoir of longing and acceptance casts a humanizing eye on a little-understood American religious tradition and a woman's striving to grow within and beyond it.