Contemporary Women Audiobooks | Fiction & Literature

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From the bestselling author of Bee Season comes an astonishingly complex psychological drama with a simple setup: two eleven-year-old girls, best friends and fierce rivals, go into the woods. Only one comes out . . . Leaders of a mercurial clique of girls, Celia and Djuna reigned mercilessly over their three followers. One after-noon, they decided to walk home along a forbidden road. Djuna disappeared, and for twenty years Celia blocked out how it happened. The lie Celia told to conceal her misdeed became the accepted truth: everyone assumed Djuna had been abducted, though neither she nor her abductor was ever found. Celia's unconscious avoidance of this has meant that while she and her longtime boyfriend, Huck, are professionally successful, they've been unable to move forward, their relationship falling into a rut that threatens to bury them both. Celia returns to her hometown to confess the truth, but her family and childhood friends don't believe her. Huck wants to be supportive, but his love can't blind him to all that contradicts Celia's version of the past. Celia's desperate search to understand what happened to Djuna has powerful consequences. A deeply resonant and emotionally charged story, The False Friend explores the adults that children become—leading us to question the truths that we accept or reject, as well as the lies to which we succumb.

Myla Goldberg (Author), Myla Goldberg (Narrator)

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The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia: A Novel

Narrator Gladys Cailiff is eleven years old in 1938 when a new schoolteacher turns Threestep, Georgia, upside down. Miss Grace Spivey is a well-traveled young woman who believes in field trips, Arabian costumes, and reading aloud from her ten-volume set of The Thousand Nights and a Night. The real trouble begins when she decides to revive the annual town festival as an exotic Baghdad bazaar. Miss Spivey and her project transform the lives of everyone around her: Gladys' older brother Force (with his movie-star looks), their pregnant sister May (a gifted storyteller herself), and especially the Cailiffs' African American neighbor, young Theo Boykin, whose creative genius becomes the key to a colorful, hidden history of the South. Populated by unforgettable characters-including three impressive camels-The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia rides a magic carpet from a segregated schoolroom in Georgia to the banks of the Tigris-and back again-in an entrancing feat of storytelling. "A great tribute to the power of education, strong women, and the fine art of storytelling."-Jill McCorkle, author of Going Away Shoes

Mary Helen Stefaniak (Author), Robynn Rodriguez (Narrator)

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World and Town: A Novel

Sixty-eight-year-old Hattie Kong, descendant of Confucius, daughter of an American missionary, has lived to see both her husband and her best friend die back-to-back in a single year: 'It was like having twins' She got to book the same church with the same pianist for both funerals and did think she should have gotten some sort of twofer from the crematorium.' But two years later, it's time for Hattie to start over. She moves to a small New England town where she is soon joined by a Cambodian American family and an ex-lover now a retired neuroscientist all of them looking for their own new lives. What Hattie makes of this situation and of the changing town of Riverlake challenged as it is, in 2001, by fundamentalist Christians, struggling family farms, and unexpected immigrants lies at the center of a novel that asks deep and absorbing questions about religion, home, and what 'worlds' we make of the world. Moving, humorous, and broad-ranging, World and Town is rich in character and brilliantly evocative of its time and place. This is a masterful novel from one of our most admired writers. 'Jen's prose is unique, dense, and enthralling, and her characters are marvels of authenticity.''Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Gish Jen (Author), Janet Song (Narrator)

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A Tiny Bit Marvellous

A Tiny Bit Marvellous is comedian Dawn French's hilarious pageturner. Everyone hates the perfect family. So you'll love the Battles. Meet Mo Battle, about to turn 50 and mum to two helpless, hormonal teenagers. There's 17-year-old daughter Dora who blames Mo for, like, EVERYTHING and Peter who believes he's quite simply as darling and marvellous as his hero Oscar Wilde. Somewhere, keeping quiet, is Dad . . . who's just, well... Dad. However, Mo is having a crisis. She's about to do something unusually wild and selfish, which will leave the entire family teetering on the edge of a precipice. Will the family fall? Or will they, when it really matters, be there for each other? A Tiny Bit Marvellous is the number one bestselling novel from one of Britain's favourite comic writers. Praise for A Tiny Bit Marvellous: 'Funny, really enjoyable, highly recommended. A wonderful writer - witty, wise, poignant' Wendy Holden 'A fantastic slam-dunk pageturner. Funny, enriching . . . page after page I laughed out loud' Mail on Sunday 'Beautifully observed. Makes you laugh on every page' The Times 'A brilliantly observed, very funny novel of family life' Woman and Home Dawn French has been making people laugh for thirty years. On purpose. As a writer, comedian and actor, she has appeared in some of this country's most long running, cherished and celebrated shows, including French and Saunders, The Comic Strip Presents. . ., Murder Most Horrid, The Vicar of Dibley, Jam and Jerusalem, Lark Rise to Candleford, and more recently, Roger and Val Have Just Got In. Her bestselling memoir, Dear Fatty, was published to critical acclaim in 2008. Her first novel, A Tiny Bit Marvellous, was also a great success, going straight to No.1. Dawn's second novel, Oh Dear Silvia, is out now.

Dawn French (Author), Dawn French (Narrator)

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The Reluctant Prophet: A Novel

God gets the girl, the girl gets the Harley. “I found Jesus seven years ago, but until that Sunday morning, I didn’t know what to do with Him.” At age forty-two, Allison Chamberlain is still making a half-hearted attempt to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up. Although she has been a pew-sitting member of a church for seven years, “prophet” has never been on her short list of possible careers. Then one Sunday Allison senses a divine nudge to buy a Harley and ride it wherever it may take her. Soon she wonders if she is called to present the reality of Christ to one of society’s darkest corners—and challenge her own church to look beyond its fears. The first in a brave trilogy, The Reluctant Prophet shows how one person’s response to God’s call can change a community forever. ***Please contact Member Services for additional documents***

Nancy Rue (Author), Kirsten Potter (Narrator)

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Lady in Waiting

Content in her comfortable marriage of twenty-two years, Jane Lindsay had never expected to watch her husband, rad, pack his belongings and walk out the door of their Manhattan home. But when it happens, she feels powerless to stop him and the course of events that follow Brad's departure. Jane finds an old ring in a box of relics from a British jumble sale and discovers a Latin inscription in the band along with just one recognizable word: Jane. Feeling an instant connection to the mysterious ring bearing her namesake, Jane begins a journey to learn more about the ring-and perhaps about herself. ~ In the sixteenth-century, Lucy Day becomes the dressmaker to Lady Jane Grey, an innocent young woman whose fate seems to be controlled by a dangerous political and religious climate, one threatening to deny her true love and pursuit of her own interests. As the stories of both Janes dovetail through the journey of one ring, it becomes clear that each woman has far more infl uence over her life than she once imagined. It all comes down to the choices each makes despite the realities they face.

Susan Meissner (Author), Donna Rawlins, Samantha Eggar (Narrator)

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Legacy

This compelling, centuries-spanning novel brilliantly interweaves the lives of two women - a writer working in the heart of modern academia and a daring young Sioux Indian on an incredible journey in the eighteenth century. The result is an unforgettable story of courage in the face of the unknown. At the age of thirty-eight, Brigitte Nicholson has a job she likes, a man she loves, and a book on the women's suffrage movement that she will finish - someday. Someday is Brigitte's watchword. Someday she and Ted, a rising star in the field of archaeology, will clarify their relationship. Someday she will have children. Someday she will stop playing it so safe. Then, on a snowy day in Boston, Brigitte's life is jolted. Suddenly everything she counted on has changed and she finds herself questioning every choice she has made along the way. As she struggles to regain her balance and plot a new course, Brigitte agrees to help her mother on a family genealogy project. In Salt Lake City at the Family History Library, she makes a stunning discovery - reaching back to the French aristocracy. How did Brigitte's mysterious ancestor Wachiwi, a Dakota Sioux, travel from the Great Plains to the French court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette - and into the arms of a French marquis? How did she come to marry into Brigitte's family? What is the truth behind the tantalizing clues in the fragmented, centuries-old records? Following the threads of Wachiwi's life, Brigitte travels to South Dakota, then on to Paris, irresistibly drawn to this brave young woman who lived so long ago. And as she comes closer to solving the puzzle of Wachiwi's journey, her previously safe, quiet life becomes an adventure of its own. A chance meeting with a writer of historical fiction, a new opportunity, and a difficult choice put Brigitte at last in the forefront of her own story. With a complex and powerful family legacy coming to life around her, someday is no longer in the future. Instead, in Danielle Steel's mesmerizing new novel, someday is now.

Danielle Steel (Author), Arthur Morey (Narrator)

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Lost & Found

Rocky's husband, Bob, was just forty-two when she discovered him lying cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor . . . and Rocky's world changed forever. Quitting her job and chopping off all her hair, she leaves Massachusetts - reinventing her past and taking a job as Animal Control Warden on Peak's Island, a tiny speck off the coast of Maine and a million miles away from everything she's lost. She leaves her career as a psychologist behind, only to find friendship with a woman whose brain misfires in the most wonderful way and a young girl who is trying to disappear. Rocky, a quirky and fallible character, discovers the healing process to be agonizingly slow. But then she meets Lloyd. A large black Labrador retriever, Lloyd enters Rocky's world with a primitive arrow sticking out of his shoulder. And so begins a remarkable friendship between a wounded woman and a wounded, lovable beast. As the unraveling mystery of Lloyd's accident and missing owner leads Rocky to an archery instructor, who draws her in even as she finds every reason to mistrust him, she discovers the life-altering revelation that grief can be transformed . . . and joy does exist in unexpected places. "Jacqueline Sheehan eloquently and expertly channels both human and canine voices in this bittersweet island-set tale of wounded lives renewed." - Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Becoming Finola

Jacqueline Sheehan (Author), Sandra Burr (Narrator)

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Jump!

Jilly Cooper returns to horses in a fabulously entertaining romp through the world of jump racing. Etta Bancroft - sweet, kind, still beautiful - adores racing and harbours a crush on one of its stars, the handsome, high-handed owner-trainer Rupert Campbell-Black. When her bullying husband dies, Etta's selfish, ambitious children drag her from her lovely Dorset home to live in a hideous modern bungalow in the Cotswold village of Willowwood. Etta's life changes when, in the snow in nearby woods, she finds a horribly mutilated filly, which she names Mrs Wilkinson and nurses back to health. The filly charms everyone in the village, then tests reveal her to be a spectacularly well-bred racehorse. After a nail-biting court case, she is awarded to Etta, thus ensuring the lasting and vengeful enmity of her former trainer and owner. A village syndicate is formed to put the filly into training, consisting of a riotous mix of local characters, who set off to the races in a minibus clanking with bottles. Ridden by Rupert's delectable god-daughter, Amber, Mrs Wilkinson captivates vast crowds as she progresses from point-to-point to major races and brings fame and fortune to the syndicate, until, at last, she is entered in the Grand National. Can she be the first mare in over fifty years, and Amber the first woman ever, to win this mighty race? In Jump! you will meet rich, capricious owners, obsessive trainers, gallant stable lads and lasses and tough, brave jockeys; you will fall in love with the horses, and above all with Mrs Wilkinson herself - hilarious, heroic and gutsy, she will gallop into your heart forever.

Jilly Cooper (Author), Samantha Bond (Narrator)

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Mini Shopaholic: (Shopaholic Book 6)

Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) thought motherhood would be a breeze and that having a daughter was a dream come true - a shopping friend for life! But it's trickier than she thought - two-year-old Minnie has a quite different approach to shopping. She can create havoc everywhere from Harrods to Harvey Nicks to her own christening. She hires taxis at random, her favourite word is 'Mine', and she's even started bidding for designer bags on ebay. On top of everything else, there's a big financial crisis. People are having to Cut Back - including all of Becky's personal shopping clients - and she and Luke are still living with Becky's Mum and Dad. To cheer everyone up, Becky decides to throw a surprise birthday party - on a budget - but then things become really complicated. Who will end up on the naughty step, who will get a gold star and will Becky's secret wishes come true?

Sophie Kinsella (Author), Fenella Woolgar (Narrator)

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The Pirate Queen

The envy of all her friends, wife and mother Saphora Warren is the model of southern gentility and accomplishment. She lives in a beautiful Lake Norman home, and has raised three capable adult children. Her husband is a successful plastic surgeon--and a philanderer. It is for that reason that, after hosting a garden party for Southern Living magazine, Saphora packs her bags to escape the trappings of the picturesque-but-vacant life. Saphora's departure is interrupted by her husband Bender's early arrival home, and his words that change her life forever: I'm dying. Against her desires, Saphora agrees to take care of Bender as he fights his illness. They relocate, at his insistance, to their coastal home in Oriental—the same house she had chosen for her private getaway. When her idyllic retreat is overrun by her grown children, grandchildren, townspeople, relatives, and a precocious neighbor child, Saphora's escape to paradise is anything but the life she had imagined. As she gropes for evidence of God's presence amid the turmoil, can she discover that the richest treasures come in surprising packages?

Patricia Hickman (Author), Flora Plumb (Narrator)

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One True Theory of Love

Meg Clark believes in the "hokey pokey" theory of life, which demands that you put your whole self in; she even teaches it to her kindergarten students. But after the love of her life betrays her, and her father takes a flying leap off the pedestal she set him on, Meg has a hard time putting this theory into practice. What's the point of opening yourself up if your heart comes back a little more broken each time? Now only one man receives Meg's full devotion: her nine-year-old son, Henry. She's happy with her single-mom life. She and Henry are taking on the world in their own lively way, and it's enough. Still, sometimes love finds you, whether you're ready or not. Love comes to Meg in the form of Ahmed Bourhani, an exotically handsome Iranian-American who befriends her and Henry over a game of chess in a coffee shop. Meg knows that second chances require a leap of faith, and the result is more often a complicated mixed bag than a neatly packaged happily-ever-after. Sometimes in order to heal you have to hurt, but most of all you have to live your life and put your whole self in. . . . "A promising author." - Booklist

Laura Fitzgerald (Author), Julia Whelan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Contemporary Women Audiobooks in Fiction & Literature