Showing results by narrator "Amy Soakes" in All Categories

Gertrude Stein held a unique position at the center of the modernist movement. She was a novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in America, she moved with her family to Paris where she ran a Paris salon frequented by many famous historical figures, such as Ernest Hemingway, Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henri Matisse, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, and Sinclair Lewis.

To wrest her inheritance from her evil stepmother, Cindy must marry a respectable man before she turns 25. The upcoming royal ball is the perfect place to find one - with the help of a fairy godmother. Or at least, a drunken prostitute with some magical skills. At the ball, though, King Caspian sets his sights on her. It’s not like Cindy doesn’t know better - but surely no one’s more respectable than a king. So really, what does she have to lose? Everything, as it turns out. Because the king isn’t human at all, but a monster who’s hellbent on having Cindy in his bed again.

Gertrude Stein's work flourished in a world which was finding bold new ways of expressing itself. Forms like Impressionism, cubism, expressionsism and other non-representational styles were developed that provoked and challenged the observer (as well as the established art world). What avant-garde artists did with paint and ink, Gertrude Stein did with words – dispensing with conventions of grammar and clarity, she gave free rein to word play and the musicality of sounds, without regard to their meaning or relationships.

Between 1922 and 1923, Katherine Mansfield wrote four volumes of short stories. This recording includes all sixty-three stories from the four collections, including a number of incomplete stories collated after Mansfield’s death.

This collection contains a mixture of stories about ghosts and contacts from spirits, some by celebrated authors, together with essays on psychical research. As Joseph French notes in the preface, even for the skeptic, tales of ghostly activity retain a distinct fascination. The widespread interest in psychic phenomena in the early twentieth century proved to be a significant stimulus to literary production.

“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad … “So begins this historical tale of romantic adventure. Andre-Louis Moreau is an orphan and cousin of the beloved Aline. He is raised by his godfather, the Lord of Gavrillac, and matures into an educated lawyer—while Aline sets her mind on marrying the rich but dishonorable Marquis de la Tour d’Azyr. But when Moreau’s closest friend is killed by the Marquis in a duel, Moreau vows vengeance. After publicly denouncing the aristocracy and stirring up the crowds, Moreau is forced to go into hiding.

Amongst the remnants of the ancient Saidican Empire lies Golias Hollow, an underground community of people who’ve taken refuge from the tainted surface. Completely cutoff from the outside world, the men and women of the Hollow follow the teachings of the prophet Dormiar, sacrificing a select few to the outside each year in a ceremony known as “The Choosing”.

More than a month after Ari’s dramatic departure from Cliffhaven, he still remains adrift. During the long journey south back to Ethereal Tower, he thinks of nothing so much as what he could have done differently to save Kerys and Eva, the two women he loved most. The loss of them affects him like an unhealed wound, painful and prone to tearing open at the slightest touch. He’s left with empty questions, a dormant sword, and a fast dwindling lifespan. Oh, and Rin. Of course, Ari has never been the type to give up easily.

New problems bring new opportunities. After escaping the attack on Varna, Rav, Ari, and friends begin converting an ancient arena into a home defensible against the Weatherblight. For the first time in his life, Ari understands what it means to be a part of a real community. But establishing a new frontier town brings with it a new set of responsibilities. He’s needed as a leader, a cornerstone of the newly growing settlement. He’s needed as a man, to give comfort and intimacy to the women he loves. He’s needed as Lord Stoneblood.

After a harrowing escape from the Weatherblight, Ari, Kerys, and Eva find themselves on Deepwater Spire, an ancient structure surrounded by endless ocean. With no other options, they bide their time, slowly building up the essence they need to reactivate the teleportation wards that will allow them to travel freely. Their isolation takes on a life of its own, manifesting as much in their relationships with each other as their situation in the world.

In the hours just before dawn, blasphemous curses echo throughout the stone manor. A knife clatters to the floor, and a feisty young widow is bound, blindfolded, and led to the marriage altar. The king couldn't possibly have sanctioned this farce of a marriage, could he? After all, she alone transformed a few mud huts and starving serfs into a flourishing town, never once hesitating to pay generous taxes to his royal kingdom.

I should have known better. Hot guys didn’t hit on big girls without an agenda. They didn’t approach them in bars and talk their way into your bed. They also didn’t make you feel beautiful and proud of your curves. But I was going through a dry spell - actually, I’d kind of been going through a dry spell all my life - and dry spells sucked. Of course I slept with him. Fell for his easy smile; the man swept me off my feet, rocked my world, then robbed me blind. Angry and embarrassed, I engaged the help of my best friend to track the thief down and make him return what he took. But what does a girl do when she finds not one thief, but an entire family?

Shy librarian Catena likes her quiet life, until a huge naked man muscles his way into her house, insisting he's been woken from his centuries-long sleep to be her personal protector.

What should have been a breeze of a bank heist for James Glenn and his crew goes violently wrong, forcing them to flee, blood-stained and angry. They stumble onto a remote lodge that doesn’t open for another month—a perfect place to lie low until the heat’s off.

This collection of 35 short poems was first published in 1927, and is a sequel to When We Were Very Young, which was the first anthology of verse dealing with the domestic adventures of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.

February 1933: When her aunt gifts her 200 pounds, 20-year-old Nancy Wake embarks on a world cruise. Afterward, she becomes a journalist and finds work in Paris. The city is glamorous, brimming with journalists, artists, and refugees. While travelling across Europe on assignments, she catches the eye of wealthy industrialist Henri Fiocca, and destiny intervenes. But as clouds of war swarm over Europe, German troops are on the march. Horrified when she witnesses Nazis whipping Jews on Vienna’s streets, Nancy vows to stop them if she ever has the chance.

As with many of Ostrovsky's plays, the target of the author's satire is the merchant class and the inevitable corruption associated with mercantile endeavors. In Ostrovsky's bitterly realistic world, all personal encounters end in transactions, some humourous and some tragic.

A central theme of Ostrovsky's plays is the inevitable struggle between the demands of personal morality and and those dictated by social propriety. In this grim drama, the dramatist sketches a tragic incident arising from the conflict of two social classes: the petty tradesmen and the nobility. From the coarse environment of the first emerge honest, upright natures like Krasnov, the earnest shokeeper; from the superficial, dawdling culture of the second come weak-willed triflers like the ineffectual landowner, Babayev.

In his short life, Australian poet Barcoft Boake completed 30 poems, the most famous of which is the pastoral lament, "Where the Dead Men Lie", which was first published in the The Bulletin in December, 1891. This collection was prepared and edited by critic and anthologist, A. G. Stephens, who also appended a detailed memoir of the poet.

This collection was published in 1901 and contains some of Lawson's best known stories. Most of the stories are set in the Australian bush, and feature many of Lawson's iconic characters, like squatters, swagmen, and struggling selector farmers. A persistent theme is the harshness of rural life and the inevitability of personal tragedy.