A Knot in the Grain
And Other Stories
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Narrated by:
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Laura Knight Keating
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Liz Pearce
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By:
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Robin McKinley
About this listen
Stories from the world of The Hero and the Crown and other magical places by a New York Times-best-selling Newbery Medal winner.
Robin McKinley returns to the mythical setting of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword in this “thrilling, satisfying, and thought-provoking collection” featuring two stories set in the world of Damar, plus three other fantasy tales featuring adventurous, pragmatic, and heroic young women (Publishers Weekly).
There’s mute Lily, in “The Healer”, who has the power to help others, and receives a startling opportunity to find her voice when a mysterious mage stumbles into town. And Queen Ruen, who is at the mercy of a power-hungry uncle until she encounters a shape-changer in “The Stagman”, In “Touk’s House”, a maiden who has grown up with a witch and a troll, has a chance to become a princess, but she must decide whether she would really live happily ever after. When a curse follows Coral to her new husband’s farm in “Buttercups”, the pair has a choice: Succumb to defeat, or find a way to turn a disastrous enchantment into a fruitful new venture.
Finally, travel to upstate New York with Annabelle. In the title story, her family moves shortly after her 16th birthday, and just as she starts to adjust to her new life in a small town, a plan to build a superhighway threatens her new home. But a strange box hidden in a secret attic in the new house may be the answer. This is a delightful assortment of tales from an author with “a remarkable talent for melding the real and the magical into a single, believable whole” (Booklist).
©1982, 1984, 1985, 1994 Robin McKinley (P)2021 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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With a modest inheritance and the three gowns that comprise her entire wardrobe, Theodora leaves Edinburgh—and a disappointed suitor—far behind. She is bound for Romania, where tales of vampires are still whispered, to visit an old friend and write the book that will bring her true independence. She arrives at a magnificent, decaying castle in the Carpathians, replete with eccentric inhabitants, including the castle’s master, Count Andrei Dragulescu.
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Process vs getting their
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Lark Rise
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- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
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Story
Lark Rise is Flora Thompson's childhood memories of a north Oxfordshire village, the people who lived and worked in it, and a way of life that has totally disappeared. The story is built around Laura and her brother Edmund, through whose eyes are seen 'old Sally', whose grandfather built the house she lived in before the enclosure of the heathland, children's games, the interaction of village and gentry, and the way in which the seasons governed life.
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A glimpse...
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By: Flora Thompson
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Every Heart a Doorway
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- Narrated by: Cynthia Hopkins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Children have always disappeared under the right conditions - slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere...else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she's back. The things she's experienced...they change a person. The children under Miss West's care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world.
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Utterly Moving
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By: Seanan McGuire
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Girl in Hyacinth Blue
- By: Susan Vreeland
- Narrated by: Loren Lester, Sheryl Bernstein
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A professor shows a colleague a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer - but why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of stories that trace ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration.
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wonderful
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By: Susan Vreeland
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The Unreal and the Real
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- Narrated by: Tandy Cronyn
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
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The Unreal and the Real is a major event not to be missed. In this two-volume selection of Ursula K. Le Guin's best short stories--as selected by the National Book Award winning author herself--the reader will be delighted, provoked, amused, and faced with the sharp, satirical voice of one of the best short story writers of the present day. Where on Earth explores Le Guin's earthbound stories which range around the world, from small town Oregon to middle Europe in the middle of revolution to summer camp.
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Shame on you, Audible
- By Audrey McCombs on 07-03-20
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Bless This House
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The house was built in the Old Queen's time: built for an Elizabethan pirate who was knighted for the plunder he brought home. It survived many eras, many reigns: it saw the passing of Cromwell and the Civil War. It became rich with an Indian Nabob and poor with a 20th century innkeeper. It saw wars, and lovers, and death. Children were born there, both heirs and bastards. It had ghosts and legends and a history that grew stranger with every generation.
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Bless This House - my take
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By: Norah Lofts
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Guest
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- Narrated by: Shelley Atkinson
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
When her adorable baby brother is replaced by an ugly, ill-tempered changeling, Mollie is determined to find the so-called Kinde Folke who took baby Thomas, return the changeling she calls Guest, and make them give Thomas back. Natural and magical obstacles and her own reckless temperament make her journey arduous and full of dangers, and a plot rich in surprises and twists makes this book a must-listen for Mary Downing Hahn’s fans.
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My kids loved it!
- By TaniaP on 10-14-19
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Bellefleur
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- By: Joyce Carol Oates
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
A wealthy and notorious clan, the Bellefleurs live in a region not unlike the Adirondacks, in an enormous mansion on the shores of mythic Lake Noir. They own vast lands and profitable businesses, they employ their neighbors, and they influence the government. A prolific and eccentric group, they include several millionaires, a mass murderer, a spiritual seeker who climbs into the mountains looking for God, a wealthy noctambulist who dies of a chicken scratch.
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Old School Gothic Literature (Not a beach read)
- By Keijon ford on 05-01-20
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The Fairy Godmother
- Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Book 1
- By: Mercedes Lackey
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
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Performance
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Story
Elena Klovis was supposed to be her kingdom's Cinderella - until an accident of fate left her with a completely inappropriate prince! Determined not to remain with her stepfamily, Elena set out to get a new job - and ended up becoming the Fairy Godmother for the land. But "Breaking with Tradition" was no easy matter. True, she didn't have to sleep in the chimney, but she had to deal with arrogant, stuffed-shirt princes who kept trying to rise above their place in the tale.
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An excellent start to a new series
- By Captain Skurvy on 01-16-13
By: Mercedes Lackey
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Novice Dragoneer
- Dragoneer Academy, Book 1
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Overall
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Fourteen-year-old Ileth grew up in an orphanage, and thanks to her stutter was never thought to be destined for much beyond kitchen work and cleaning. But she's dreamed of serving with the dragons ever since a childhood meeting with a glittering silver dragon and its female dragoneer. For years she waits, and as soon as she is old enough to join, Ileth runs away to become a novice dragoneer at the ancient human-dragon fortress of the Serpentine.
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She’s 14yrs old
- By Alex D. on 10-23-21
By: E. E. Knight
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Summer
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Overall
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Performance
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Wharton's most erotic and lyrical novel, Summer explores a daring theme for 1917, a woman's awakening to her sexuality. Eighteen-year-old Charity Royall lives in the small town of North Dormer, ignorant of desire until the arrival of architect Lucius Harney. Like the succulent summer landscape in the Berkshires around them, Charity's romance is lush and picturesque, but its consequences are harsh and real.
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Excellent first audible purchase!
- By lilyglint on 08-23-04
By: Edith Wharton
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What listeners say about A Knot in the Grain
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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- Bruce
- 07-16-21
Listen while you putter
A good listen for those hours puttering in the flower garden. Lily's speech problem normally would take months with a speech pathologist; mages know no such constraint. The ending felt satisfying, even for the older cast members. In “Touk’s House” I appreciated the lack of both anger (for mischief in the herbs) and a cycle of retaliation (for the witch's retribution). Better to just accept things. And thanks to the pure-hearted maiden, even an ugly cast member can find happiness. In “Buttercups”, we learn that flowers may not be what they seem; nor is Coral [note: just as coral is not a sea flower]. She is no gold digger, and again, the older cast member is truly blessed. And finally, as the garden theme continues (think vegetables), the young lady is truly lucky to have escaped her shallow-rooted friends, finding better things in her new garden and attic. What's knot to like in this story? Well, vapid teens. At least she escapes the old aspersions against "escapist" fantasy. Hopefully her emotions and intellect will eventually bloom as well.
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