Showing results by narrator "Lee Ann Howlett" in All Categories

Is it hard to find time for yourself? Do you often ignore what you want and focus, instead, on what others want? Do you find it difficult to speak up for yourself? Yes! I Said No! gives you specific tools to set healthy boundaries and retake control of your life. You will learn how to do what you want to do. Without drama. Without anger. Without fear. A series of simple-to-follow examples and clearly stated tools will help you invest in yourself, say yes when you want to, and say no when you need to.

Ten years after a tragic incident on the lake, an AA meeting in a small, religious town in the deep south of the USA descends into bitterness and chaos when a flood hits. Trapped within the local church, tempers escalate and well-buried secrets begin to emerge. Personalities clash, reputations are dissected and questioned, and everybody's demons are laid bare.

Floyd Dell has been called "one of the most flamboyant, versatile, and influential American Men of Letters of the first third of the 20th century". Though he was primarily a newspaper and magazine editor, most prominently of the radical left-wing magazine The Masses, he also published many best-selling feminist works. As a staunch advocate of feminism, socialism, psychoanalysis, and progressive education, his writing greatly shocked the American bourgeoisie at the time, to the point where it became so controversial, he was put on trial twice for his subversive literature.

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) may be considered the Canadian counterpart to Mark Twain. For many years he was professor of economics at Magill University and published a number of well-regarded texts on economics and political science. However, he is best known today for his many volumes of humorous fiction. During the 1920s he was one of the most widely read authors in the English-speaking world and was considered by Jack Benny and Groucho Marx to be one of the greatest comic writers of all time.

The Mantle follows the life of a civil servant, Akaki Akakievitch who just loves his work! Born in St Petersburg, he is a copy writer, meaning he copies text from one place to another. In his spare time and after work hours, he also copies. When given more responsibility, he begs to return to...copying. One particular winter, he notices that, between home and office, he is cold, his mantle is threadbare, and he can no longer repair it himself. Our conflict begins here, as Akaki seeks a solution to his threadbare mantle.

Not long after the beginning of the 20th century, a woman has a dream about what she imagines the 21st century will bring. This utopian fiction piece was written by Winnifred Harper Cooley in 1902. Cooley is best known for her book The New Womanhood. Cooley's mother, Ida Husted Harper, was an author, a journalist, and a prominent figure in the United States' women's suffrage movement.

Dreaming of days of yore, Tim Porter organizes the return of Cosmo Draper, the town's favorite mayor. Only trouble is, Cosmo's been dead for years, right?

The deadly hurricane of 1928 claimed 2500 lives, and the long-forgotten story of the casualties, as told in Black Cloud, continues to stir passion. Among the dead were 700 black Floridian men, women, and children who were buried in an unmarked West Palm Beach ditch during a racist recovery and rebuilding effort that conscripted the labor of blacks much like latter-day slaves.

One woman learns the consequences of having a PlaceNook account when all her "friends" show up on her doorstep unannounced.

Despite its patina of humor, the work is a merciless exposé of the commercial middle class dishonesty, and the convenient immorality hiding behind social conventions, which are characteristic of a developing urban society. The most noble character, Serafima, is a compelling mixture of naïveté, whimsicality, sentimentality, and obstinate practicality - one of the finest character portraits in Russian drama.

In this lively and enlightening study, Kathleen B. Casey explores the ways in which the gender- and race-bending spectacles of vaudeville dramatized the economic, technological, social, and cultural upheaval that gripped the United States in the early 20th century. She focuses on four key performers: Eva Tanguay, Julian Eltinge, Lillyn Brown, and Sophie Tucker.

How would you be affected if your mother died giving your life? And how would such a loss affect your children? These questions are the foundation of many issues raised by the author in her search for the missing pieces of a grandmother who in 1905 died giving the author's mother life. It was a tragedy that seemed to affect multiple generations, the voids in identity and ill-spent guilt flowing from the stream of blood that kept mother from daughter, and then from granddaughter. But it was a search well-spent.

American Kate Chopin, now considered an early feminist, was a prolific writer of short stories in addition to two novels. Most of her stories were set in Louisiana, where she moved after marrying. Characters in her stories are as varied as her themes. Her use of irony and her ability to write so convincingly of characters from diverse backgrounds are hallmarks of her work. This collection includes "The Kiss", "The Unexpected", "An Egyptian Cigarette", "The Locket", "The Blind Man", and "Her Letters".

A young Confederate soldier is given a solid gold locket before he heads to war. He and the woman who gave it to him are passionately in love and long for the time when they can be together. The locket is noticed by some of the other soldiers and plays an important part in what transpires as battle looms over their camp.

The terrorized children of Governor's Road grew up without resolution or closure to the most devastating event of their young lives. Their friend, a child their age, disappeared one afternoon and somehow, they never seem to learn what happened. Saddened parents decide to protect their children, and the obvious fear recedes in the face of the calm that settles back over the neighborhood. But, fear never really disappears until it's confronted.

A blind man shuffles along a busy neighborhood street attempting to sell pencils to residents and people passing by. The blazing sun and too many layers of clothing don't appear to hamper his persistence. What occurs in this story illustrates American writer Kate Chopin's use of irony and the element of luck in all our lives.

A woman nearing the end of her life knows that she must destroy intimate love letters between herself and another man so that no one, particularly her husband, can ever read them. Unable to part with them while still alive, the provision she makes for their disposal upon her death leads to devastating consequences.

Randall and Dorothea are young and passionately in love and plan to marry. When Randall has to leave Dorothea for a short period, the two spend their time exchanging a flurry of letters and can hardly bear being separated. Randall's scheduled returned is delayed when he becomes severely ill. What happens when the now sickly Randall is finally able to see Dorothea again says much about the differences between love, lust and passion, and the vagaries of youth.

A woman is visiting a friend who travels widely, and he offers her a package of Egyptian cigarettes he received as a gift while in Cairo. The package has never been opened and has no print of any kind to indicate a brand, its origin, or its ingredients. The woman decides to try one of the cigarettes in the man's private smoking room. Her experience when she smokes one of the cigarettes shakes her to her core.

Nathalie, a lovely and determined young lady, plans to marry Mr. Brantain, an unattractive but extremely wealthy man. When an unexpected event occurs involving her brother’s friend, Mr. Harvy, the consequences illustrate the finality of the choice Nathalie makes.