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The Words in My Hand
- Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2016
- Narrated by: Abigail Hollick
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
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Editorial reviews
"Guinevere Glasfurd's writing is fresh and elegant. I loved the subject and the way she brings Amsterdam in the 1600s into vivid, believable life." (Dinah Jefferies, best-selling author of The Tea Planeter's Wife)
"Amsterdam in the 17th Century springs to life in The Words in My Hand...This first novel from Guinevere Glasfurd is wonderfully atmospheric." ( Good Housekeeping)
Publisher's summary
Shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2016.
The Words in my Hand is the reimagined true story of Helena, a 17th-century Dutch maid desperate to educate herself and use her mind in an era when women were kept firmly in their place.
Helena works in the Amsterdam lodging house of an English bookseller who rents out a room to the mysterious 'Monsieur', who turns out to be René Descartes. Always trying to keep one step ahead of the authorities desperate to suppress his free thinking, Descartes and Helena form an unlikely bond which turns from teaching into an affair.
For all his learning, it's Helena who provides him with insights and emotional perspective from the everyday life all around him. For this is Helena's story, a woman who yearned for knowledge, who wanted to write so badly - and who could afford nothing - she made her own ink from beetroot and used her body for paper.
Weaving together the story of Descartes' quest for reason with Helena's struggle for literacy, the novel follows Helena's journey across the Dutch Republic as she tries to keep their young daughter secret. Through Helena's story, everyday objects are transformed into new ways of learning. Their worlds overlap yet remain sharply divided; the only way of being together is living unseen. Helena and Descartes face a terrible tragedy and ultimately have to decide if their love is possible at all.
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- By: Charlie N. Holmberg
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Knowelden, Joel Froomkin
- Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spellbreaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his mastership when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain.
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Interesting read/listen
- By Roderica Ruddle on 12-21-20
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How Green Was My Valley
- By: Richard Llewellyn
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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How Green Was My Valley is Richard Llewellyn’s best-selling - and timeless - classic, as well as the basis of a beloved film. As Huw Morgan is about to leave home forever, he reminisces about the golden days of his youth when South Wales still prospered, when coal dust had not yet blackened the valley. Drawn simply and lovingly, with a crisp Welsh humor, Llewellyn’s characters fight, love, laugh, and cry, creating an indelible portrait of a people. Richard Llewellyn (1906–1983), a Welsh novelist, was born in Hendon, England, in the county of Middlesex.
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The rhythm of life... the pattern of words...
- By Jan on 04-16-13
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Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
- By: Laura Ruby
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Frankie’s mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That’s why Frankie's not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now, Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other orphans - two young, unwanted women doing everything they can to survive.
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Boring, boring, boring
- By Marie J. on 08-20-21
By: Laura Ruby
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The Last Carolina Girl
- By: Meagan Church
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For fourteen-year-old Leah Payne, life in her beloved coastal Carolina town is worlds away from the harsh realities of the day. Loyal to her lumberjack father, she knows only of the familiarity of her small community, the magic of the natural world, and the creative intuition that prompts her to march to the beat of her own drum. But when an accident takes her father's life, leaving her an orphan, Leah finds herself cast into a family of strangers whose welcoming façade hides a terrible secret.
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WOW
- By Savannah Brown on 06-10-23
By: Meagan Church
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The Essex Serpent
- A Novel
- By: Sarah Perry
- Narrated by: Juanita McMahon
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness: her marriage was not a happy one. Wed at 19, this woman of exceptional intelligence and curiosity was ill-suited for the role of society wife. Seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive 11-year old son, Francis, and the boy's nanny, Martha.
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Unbearable Narrator
- By ACB on 06-08-17
By: Sarah Perry
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A Joyful Christmas
- 6 Historical Stories
- By: Cynthia Hickey, Liz Johnson, Vickie McDonough, and others
- Narrated by: Carolyn Molloy
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
A Christmas collection to warm the heart. Grab a warm cup of tea and watch as romance is kindled and joy is restored to broken lives during six bygone-era Christmas celebrations.
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Heartwarming!
- By Smile on 12-16-23
By: Cynthia Hickey, and others
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Mountain Laurel
- By: Lori Benton
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Ian Cameron, a Boston cabinetmaker turned frontier trapper, has come to Mountain Laurel hoping to remake himself yet again - into his planter uncle’s heir. No matter how uneasily the role of slave owner rests upon his shoulders. Then he meets Seona - beautiful, artistic, and enslaved to his kin. Seona has a secret: She’s been drawing for years, ever since that day she picked up a broken slate to sketch a portrait. When Ian catches her at it, he offers her opportunity to let her talent flourish, still secretly, in his cabinetmaking shop.
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An emotional journey of want and will, of bondage and freedom.
- By J. Snow on 09-22-20
By: Lori Benton
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The Heiress
- The Revelations of Anne de Bourgh
- By: Molly Greeley
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As a fussy baby, Anne de Bourgh was prescribed laudanum to quiet her, and now the young woman must take the opium-heavy tincture every day. Growing up sheltered and confined, removed from sunshine and fresh air, the pale and overly slender Anne grew up with few companions except her cousins, including Fitzwilliam Darcy. Throughout their childhoods, it was understood that Darcy and Anne would marry and combine their vast estates of Pemberley and Rosings. But Darcy does not love Anne or want her.
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A beautiful work of historical fiction
- By Alex M on 02-21-21
By: Molly Greeley
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The Third Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Talia Carner
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 10 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
The turn of the 20th century finds 14-year-old Batya in the Russian countryside, fleeing with her family endless pogroms. Desperate, her father leaps at the opportunity to marry Batya to a worldly, wealthy stranger who can guarantee his daughter an easy life and passage to America. Feeling like a princess in a fairytale, Batya leaves her old life behind as she is whisked away to a new world. But soon, she discovers that she’s entered a waking nightmare. Her new “husband” does indeed bring her to America.
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brilliant novel based on shocking truth
- By Rochelle Jewel Shapiro on 07-05-20
By: Talia Carner
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The Puzzle Women
- By: Anna Ellory
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Berlin, 1989. Siblings Rune and Lotte are shaken awake by Mama and told to follow her quietly into the night. Last time they snuck away from Papa, with Mama bruised and broken, they were back within a week. But this time they are starting a new life, Mama says - where nobody can ever hurt them again. Ten years later, the memories of their escape are blurry; Mama is long gone, and the siblings are back at Papa’s house.
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Heartbreak to Joy
- By Jo Ann Roussey on 01-17-21
By: Anna Ellory