Modern Fiction

In the aftermath of the brutal attack on his family compound, Alex Fletcher embraces his rapidly expanding role within the New England Regional Recovery Zone (RRZ). Fueled by a limitless drive to protect his family and a rekindled sense of duty, he enlists the reluctant aid of a local militia commander - to ease the public's fears of a federal government takeover.

Set in the 1980s against the backdrop of a swiftly gentrifying Manhattan, The Lost Language of Cranes tells the story of 25-year-old Philip, who realizes he must come out to his parents after falling in love for the first time with a man. Philip's parents are facing their own crisis: pressure from developers and the loss of their longtime home.

In this modern retelling of Hansel and Gretel, 13-year-old foster children Griselda and Holden escape from their abductor after three years of brutal captivity and try to cross the Shenandoah River on foot. Tragically, one of them makes it to safety, but the other is left behind. Ten years later, Griselda's boyfriend drags her to a fight club grudge match, and her world is turned upside down when she watches Holden step into the ring.

Unapologetic bombshell Gretchen LaRoe is happy to play matchmaker to everyone else content in knowing she once had true love. When the best friends of the Scorned Women’s Society take it upon themselves to interfere in Gretchen’s love life, they shouldn't be shocked to learn Gretchen already has a plan of her own. A jaw-dropping plan.

An allegorical story of World War I set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment.

Med school dropout Lena is desperate for a job, any job, to help her parents, who are approaching bankruptcy after her father was injured and laid off nearly simultaneously. So when she is offered a position, against all odds, working for one of Boston’s most elite families, the illustrious and secretive Verdeaus, she knows she must accept—no matter how bizarre the interview or how vague the job description. By day, she is assistant to the family doctor and his charge—the sickly, poetic, drunken heir to the family empire, who is as difficult as his illness is mysterious.

Quixotic is a word that the dictionary defines as "extravagantly chivalrous or romantic; visionary...." and that is a fitting definition, indeed, for this charming retelling of Don Quixote, the 17t- century Spanish classic by Miguel de Cervantes, now updated for the modern listener. The gallant and fragile Quixote will touch listeners, as will his faithful squire Sancho Panza and the tragically beautiful heroine of the gentle Don’s chivalries, the fair Dulcinea.

Teen influencer Naema Bradshaw has it all: she’s famous, stylish, gorgeous - and she’s an Eloko, a charismatic person gifted with a melody that people adore. Everyone loves her - until she's cast as the villain who exposed a Siren to the whole world. Dragged by the media, and canceled by her fans, no one understands her side: not her boyfriend, not her friends, not even her fellow Eloko.

A meditative and inspiring diary of Derek Jarman's famous garden at Dungeness. In 1986 Derek Jarman discovered he was HIV positive and decided to make a garden at his cottage on the barren coast of Dungeness. Facing an uncertain future, he nevertheless found solace in nature, growing all manner of plants. While some perished beneath wind and sea-spray, others flourished, creating brilliant, unexpected beauty in the wilderness. Modern Nature is both a diary of the garden and a meditation by Jarman on his own life.

To celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, Grace has planned the surprise of a lifetime for her husband—a romantic getaway to Paris. But she never expected he’d have a surprise of his own: he wants a divorce. Reeling from the shock but refusing to be broken, a devastated Grace makes the bold decision to go to Paris alone. Audrey, a young woman from London, has left behind a heartache of her own when she arrives in Paris. With no money or knowledge of French, a summer wandering the cobbled streets alone seems more likely…until she meets Grace, and everything changes.

In Alisha Rai’s second novel in her Modern Love series, a live-tweet event goes viral for a camera-shy ex-model, shoving her into the spotlight - and into the arms of the bodyguard she’d been pining for.

At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Rebecca Serle contends with in The Dinner List. When Sabrina arrives at her 30th birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.

On a sunny May morning in 1998 in Cortez, Colorado, three desperados in a stolen truck opened fire on the town cop, shooting him 20 times; then they blasted their way past dozens of police cars and disappeared into 10,000 square miles of the harshest wilderness terrain on the North American continent. Self-trained survivalists, the outlaws eluded the most sophisticated law enforcement technology on the planet and a pursuit force that represented more than 75 local, state, and federal police agencies with dozens of SWAT teams, U.S. Army Special Forces....

After an idyllic girlhood in Avonlea, Long Island, Anne has packed up her trunk, said goodbye to her foster parents, Marilla and Matthew, and moved to the isle of Manhattan for grad school. Together with her best friend, Diana Barry, she’s ready to take on the world and find her voice as a writer. When her long-time archrival Gilbert Blythe shows up at Redmond College for their final year, Anne gets the shock of her life. Gil has been in California for the last five years - since he kissed her during a beach bonfire, and she ghosted him.

High in the Himalayas near Darjeeling, the old mountaintop palace shines like a jewel. When it was the General's 'harem' palace, richly dressed ladies wandered the windswept terraces; at night, music floated out over the villages and gorges. Now, the General's son has bestowed it on an order of nuns, the Sisters of Mary. Well-intentioned yet misguided, the nuns set about taming the gardens and opening a school and dispensary for the villagers.

Leonidas: I am a Dragon Prince of the House of Smoke...and I am cursed. Falling in love was never in the cards for me. An angry witch made sure of that - if I lose my heart, I lose my life. Only now, a treaty guaranteeing peace will die with me, unless I convince some hapless human to fall in love with me and bear my child - a dragonling born of magic and a love that's true. But I know nothing of love. Five hundred years of guarding my heart and opening my bed mean I've got zero chance at this.

Cinderella married the man of her dreams - the perfect ending she deserved after diligently following all the fairy-tale rules. Yet now, 13 and a half years later, things have gone badly wrong, and her life is far from perfect. One night, fed up and exhausted, she sneaks out of the palace to get help from the witch who, for a price, offers love potions to disgruntled housewives. But as the old hag flings the last ingredients into the cauldron, Cinderella doesn't ask for a love spell to win back her Prince Charming. Instead, she wants him dead.

Zella has been faithful to the Program her entire life, never doubting Mother’s choice to keep her in isolation since birth. As the first “Child of the Lighthouse,” she’s always had a responsibility to be an example to the others—be grateful, be obedient. But after seventeen long years up in her lighthouse all alone, it’s getting a lot harder to push down her secret—and forbidden—dreams of living a normal life, no matter the risks she’s heard of. She secretly dreams of freedom.

A baby is born in privilege, blooming under the warmth of his parents' love. Jealousy sprouts and brings with it malevolent intentions. A king and queen cursed with an empty kingdom. A child abandoned in revenge. A misfit, the boy should turn hard and cold among the thorns he grows in. Despite lifelong attempts to destroy him, this child does not wither. Underneath his insecurity, he maintains a heart with the tenderest center. A heart that plays the most beautiful music.

Mary Shelley's 1818 novel presents the Faustian story of a man who aspires to create life out of death, with disastrous results. The novel is constructed as a series of first-person narratives, delivered by Captain Robert Walton, Victor Frankenstein, and his Creature, which makes it perfect for a dramatic reading presented by actor author Geoffrey Giuliano.