Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.
Audiobooks Narrated by Christa Lewis
Browse audiobooks narrated by Christa Lewis, listen to samples and when you're ready head over to Audiobooks.com where you can get 3 FREE audiobooks on us
Christmas is no humbug affair in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts. The merry festivities are well underway in the quaint seaside village, and the halls of the posh Castleton Manor literary retreat are decked out in full Victorian décor. This year, the manor is hosting the Charles Dickens Society's annual gala, compete with parlor games and dramatic readings of A Christmas Carol, and culminating in a costume ball. Faith Newberry, Castleton's private librarian and archivist, loves being part of the holiday hustle and bustle while catering to the eccentric guests' bookish whims.
When a thief nicks some valuable antique jewelry from one of the suites, Faith is more than happy to leave the investigating to the Lighthouse Bay police. But then the obnoxious president of the society, Charles Huffam, is found dead as a doornail beneath the village's fifty-foot Christmas tree, and Faith's personal Scrooge, her boss Marlene Russell, is suspected of the crime. Faith has no choice but to make the unkind man's death her business.
Marlene's not the only person who has a bit of undigested beef with Huffam. The murder weapon was a length of chain which had been brandished by the seemingly mild-mannered gentleman playing Marley's ghost during the reading. And what about the overbearing woman whose romantic advances Huffam spurned, and her daughter, for whom Huffam had more than a passing fancy? Even Brooke Milner, Faith's friend and fellow Candle House Book Club member, might have wanted to see a stake of holly driven through Huffam's dark heart.
Faith will need all the help she can get from her friends, and especially from her fearless feline, Watson, to unmask the assailant -- or is that wassailant? -- before Castleton Manor's surplus population is decreased by yet one more.
It's Gatsby Week at Castleton Manor, the elegant retreat for booklovers in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts, and the roaring twenties are in full swing. Charlotte Jaxon, owner of the manor, arrives to put on the ritz and oversee the festivities celebrating the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Faith Newberry is sitting pretty when she receives a brief respite from her duties in the library to assist Charlotte in organizing the events that have everyone jazzed up, including a fashion show, an antique car race, and a Gatsby Ball.
But then something happens that's not on the agenda: one of the guests starts receiving threatening letters.
Avis Roth is a powerful-and ruthless-literary agent, so everyone around her quickly dismisses the intimidating letters, assuming they're from an author who was in a lather over being rejected. When Avis is involved in a frightening incident at the manor and then a freakish mishap at the country club, the plot thickens. Were they merely accidents, or is someone determined to put the big cheese agent out of commission?
As Faith and her fellow Candle House Book Club members search for clues, they discover that not many people consider Avis to be the bee's knees. She and her associates are rarely on the same page, and some have a serious beef with her. It's past time to deliver the goods on the perpetrator, but will Faith-aided by her clever tuxedo cat, Watson-determine who's on the level and who's feeding her a line? Or will the culprit avoid getting caught and remain on the lam?
It's lights, camera, action at Castleton Manor, the exclusive literary retreat in Lighthouse Bay, Massachusetts. Faith Newberry's role as librarian expands to include assisting the producer in filming a remake of Alice in Wonderland. Faith and her friends in the Candle House Book Club thrill in the behind-the-scenes drama, and even Faith's loyal cat, Watson, eagerly pursues his big-screen debut.
But the production falls down the rabbit hole when the star playing Alice enters the maze to shoot a scene, then vanishes. The actress has a history of disappearing, and some claim she's mad as a hatter. Did she leave of her own volition? Or is there something more sinister going on?
The situation gets curiouser and curiouser when more trouble and turmoil occur on the set, culminating in a serious crime. Faith's friend Midge is found at the scene, and she's hardly grinning like a Cheshire cat when she becomes the prime suspect. Faith vows to find the real culprit, but as she attempts to solve the great puzzle, she realizes the task is easier said than done.
It's up to Faith and the rest of her friends in the book club-along with Watson who shows up right on cue to make a startling discovery-to clear Midge's name. But will they be able to pull a white rabbit out of their hat in time? Or will it be the final curtain for Midge?
Why aren't we more like other apes? How did we win the evolutionary race? Find out how 'wise' Homo sapiens really are.
Prehistory has never been more exciting: New discoveries are overturning long-held theories left and right. Stone tools in Australia date back 65,000 years-a time when, we once thought, the first Sapiens had barely left Africa. DNA sequencing has unearthed a new hominid group-the Denisovans-and confirmed that crossbreeding with them (and Neanderthals) made Homo sapiens who we are today.
A Pocket History of Human Evolution brings us up-to-date on the exploits of all our ancient relatives. Paleoanthropologist Silvana Condemi and science journalist François Savatier consider what accelerated our evolution: Was it tools, our 'large' brains, language, empathy, or something else entirely? And why are we the sole survivors among many early bipedal humans? Their conclusions reveal the various ways ancient humans live on today-from gossip as modern 'grooming' to our gendered division of labor-and what the future might hold for our strange and unique species.
In A Tale of Two Cookies, a cozy mystery from Eve Calder, it's nothing but sugar and spice at The Cookie House, but elsewhere on Coral Cay everything isn't so nice.
Pastry chef Kate McGuire is loving life on the laid-back island of Coral Cay, Florida. As junior partner in a bakery renowned for luscious desserts-especially her cookies-life is pretty sweet. So when an old friend arrives and announces a spur-of-the-moment beach wedding, that's just the icing on the wedding cake.
But the groom vanishes right as a television crew descends on the town to film a hot, new realty show. Is there a connection? Is her friend Desiree somehow involved? Or did groom Judson simply get cold feet? The bride and groom were paired better than warm cookies and cold milk, so Kate doesn't buy it.
As the show's cast runs amok on the island and the investigation into Judson's disappearance heats up, Kate and her pal Maxi, along with town dog Oliver, will brave the rambunctious world of reality TV and a wedding weekend gone awry, in an all-out effort to find the missing groom.
The inspiring true story of an indomitable librarian’s journey from Nazi Germany to Seattle to Vietnam—all for the love of books.
Growing up under Fascist censorship in Nazi Germany, Ruth Rappaport absorbed a forbidden community of ideas in banned books. After fleeing her home in Leipzig at fifteen and losing both parents to the Holocaust, Ruth drifted between vocations, relationships, and countries, searching for belonging and purpose. When she found her calling in librarianship, Ruth became not only a witness to history but an agent for change as well.
Culled from decades of diaries, letters, and photographs, this epic true story reveals a driven woman who survived persecution, political unrest, and personal trauma through a love of books. It traces her activism from the Zionist movement to the Red Scare to bibliotherapy in Vietnam and finally to the Library of Congress, where Ruth made an indelible mark and found a home. Connecting it all, one constant thread: Ruth’s passion for the printed word, and the haven it provides—a haven that, as this singularly compelling biography proves, Ruth would spend her life making accessible to others.
This wasn’t just a career for Ruth Rappaport. It was her purpose.
Everyone loves hockey superstar Pierce Miller. Everyone except Lia Bailey.
When the two are forced to teach a skating class to save the rink, Lia's not sure she'll survive the pressure of Nationals and Pierce's ego. Not only can't he remember her name, he signed her bottle of water like she was one of his groupies. Ugh.
But if there's one thing Lia knows better than figure skating, it's hockey. Hoping to take his ego down a notch-or seven-she logs into his team website under an anonymous name to give him pointers on his less-than-stellar playing.
Turns out, Pierce isn't arrogant at all. And they have a lot in common. Too bad he's falling for the anonymous girl online. No matter how much fun they're starting to have in real life, she's afraid he's going to choose fake-Lia over the real one . . .
June 6, 1944. Allied forces hit the beaches of Nazi-occupied France. Among the countless lives shattered are those of five spirited women with starkly different lives. As the war reaches its tipping point, each of the women fight for the survival of themselves, their countries, and their way of life during one of the most pivotal days in history.
American expatriate Mildred, better known as Axis Sally, has a thriving career as a Nazi radio propagandist, but her conscience haunts her. Meanwhile, across the English Channel, young medical volunteer Theda is pushed to her limit as shiploads of casualties dock in Portsmouth. Closer to the front, intrepid Flora aids the French resistance while seeking out her vanished parents. Iron-willed Emilia has climbed the Gestapo ranks, but she is now bent on betraying them. Finally, dignified Adelaide's faith is shaken when she is forced to quarter German soldiers.
Now, during the most perilous twenty-four hours of their lives, all five women must summon courage they never knew they had as they confront the physical dangers of war alongside treacherous family secrets, heartbreak, and the ability to trust themselves. For these women, their inner strength is their only hope. But is it enough? How far can one person go for the things they believe in?
In 1982, amid the nuclear paranoia that engulfed the US and the Soviet Union, Samantha Smith, a fifth grader from Manchester, Maine, wrote a letter to the Kremlin asking the Soviet leader if he was going to start a war. When Pravda, the biggest Soviet newspaper, published her letter-and Samantha received an unprecedented invitation to visit the Soviet Union -her family embarked on a historic journey.
The story of a young American girl's letter to the Soviet leader and her innocent curiosity about the other side of the Iron Curtain holds an important lesson for every American. America's Youngest Ambassador provides insights into a forgotten era and has an important message for young people who strive to be more involved in facilitating change, both locally and worldwide.
Juxtaposing Samantha's narrative with that of her own childhood in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Lena Nelson explores the consequences of government propaganda on both sides of the ocean and reveals how Samantha Smith's journey in the summer of 1983 helped melt the hearts of the Soviets and thaw the ice of the Cold War. Drawing on interviews conducted in both the US and Russia with key players in the events of those days, Nelson blends storytelling, anecdotes, and analysis of Soviet-American relations to tell the story of this unprecedented moment in history.
She’s a talented pastry chef―with a secret recipe for solving crimes…
WELCOME TO THE COOKIE HOUSE
Kate McGuire’s life was sweet in Manhattan before she lost her restaurant job and fiancé both. But sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles, and soon she finds herself starting from scratch in the island town of Coral Cay, Florida. It has everything she’s looking for: sunny beaches, friendly locals, and a Help Wanted sign in the bakery shop window. Once she convinces the shop’s crusty owner Sam Hepplewhite to hire her, Kate can’t tie on her apron fast enough. Little does she know that trouble, like warm dough, is on the rise. . .
WHERE CRIMINALS GET THEIR JUST DESSERTS
Stewart Lord is a real estate developer with a taste for a different type of dough: the green kind. He knows that he could make a killing by purchasing the Cookie House from Sam, who flat-out refuses to sell. But when Stewart turns up the heat on Sam―then turns up dead after eating a fresh batch of Sam’s cinnamon rolls―all eyes focus on the town’s beloved bakery. When the police arrest Sam for murder, Kate must somehow prove that her curmudgeonly boss is innocent. Enlisting the help of a team of lovable locals, Kate sets out to catch the real culprit with his hand in the cookie jar…before someone else gets burned.
'This delightful cozy has memorable characters...and a satisfying plot twist.' - Booklist
With Elspeth, the heir to the throne of Valdemar, now of marriageable age, Talia, the Queen's Own Herald, returns to court. Here, she finds the Queen and heir beset by diplomatic intrigue as various forces vie for control of Elspeth's future.
But just as Talia is about to uncover the traitor behind all these intrigues, she is sent off on a mission to the neighboring kingdom, chosen by the Queento investigate the worth of a marriage proposal from Prince Ancar. And, to her horror, Talia soon discovers there is far more going on at Prince Ancar's court than just preparation for a hoped-for royal wedding. For a different magic than that of the Heralds is loose in Ancar's realm-an evil and ancient sorcery that may destroy all of Valdemar unless Talia can send warning to her Queen in time.
Talia could scarcely believe that she had finally earned the rank of full Herald. Yet though this seemed like the fulfillment of all her dreams, it also meant she would face trials far greater than those she had previously survived. For now Talia must ride forth to patrol the kingdom of Valdemar, dispending Herald's justice throughout the land.
But in this realm beset by dangerous unrest, enforcing her rulings would require all the courage and skill Talia could command-for if she misused her own special powers, both she and Valdemar would pay the price.
