Showing results by narrator "LIsa Flanagan LIsa Flanagan" in All Categories

Luckily for humanity, scientist Marie Curie applied her brilliant mind and indomitable spirit to expanding the frontiers of science, but what if she had instead drifted toward the darkness? At the cusp of between child- and adulthood, at the crossroads between science and superstition, a teen Marie Curie faces the factual and the fantastic in this fabulous collection of stories that inspire, delight, and ask the question: What if she had used her talents for diabolical purposes?

Here is a celebration of the bizarre and beautiful, and a marriage of unlikely worlds. From a reverence of the dead to the sacrifices the living make to unspeakable gods, from clockwork dreams to tales of merciless revenge, Kiernan blurs the artificial lines of genre, and shows us a world where there is no division between the light and dark.

The year is 1861, the eve of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration. For Kate Warn, the first female private detective in American history, the only assignment tougher than exposing a conspiracy to assassinate the new president is training her new mentee, Hattie MacLaughlin, in the art of detection. The two women’s mission to save the president takes them from the granges of rural Maryland to the heart of secessionist high society, and sets them on a collision course that could alter the course of history.

On a cold November night, Evelyn Van Pelt steals her roommate’s two underfed and neglected little girls from their beds and drives to the northwestern hometown she fled 14 years earlier - Cormorant Lake. There, hidden in the mountains and woods, dense with fog and the cold of winter, Evelyn grapples with the guilt of what she’s done, and as she attempts to reconcile her wild independence with the responsibilities of parenthood, she reconnects with the two women who raised her - her foster mother, Nan, and her biological mother, Jubilee.

Husband and wife Archie and Francine Hughes are heroes in their hometown of Philadelphia. Archie is a football star, while Francine is a Grammy-winning singer. So everyone is in a state of shock when news breaks about the seemingly perfect couple. One spouse is murdered. The other is Suspect Number One. Even before the case hits the courtroom, it's the hottest ticket in town. For the defence: Cooper Lamb, private investigator to the stars. For the prosecution: Veena Lion, an attorney so bright she's got to wear shades.

In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s 15th collection of short fiction, 19 tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.

When the shadowwalkers were victorious in their battle against the Ant Queen, they hoped their work to save Caldera was done. But the rainforest has begun to rumble. Rumi, a scholarly tree frog who can control the wind, must bring his band of animal friends to face the greatest danger they’ve yet encountered - the giant volcano beneath the jungle itself. While the volcano roars, rumors of a mysterious evil blanket Caldera - the Elemental of Darkness has emerged and is building a legion of followers.

Ella is nearing 30, and not yet living the life she imagined. Her artistic ambitions as a student in Minnesota have given way to an unintended career in caregiving. One spring, Bryn - a retired carpenter - hires her to help him care for Jill, his wife of many years. As Ella is drawn ever deeper into the couple's household, she is profoundly moved by the tenderness Bryn shows toward Jill. Ella is startled by the yearning this awakens in her, one that complicates her feelings for her girlfriend, Alix, and causes her to look at relationships of all kinds in new ways.

Hollywood, 1946. The war is over, and 18-year-old Clara Berg spends her days shelving reels as a vault girl at Silver Pacific Studios, with all her dreams pinned on getting a break in film editing. That and a real date with handsome yet unpredictable screenwriter Gil. But when she returns a reel of film to storage one night, Clara stumbles across the lifeless body of a woman in Vault 5. The costume, the makeup, the ash-blonde hair are unmistakable - it has to be Babe Bannon, A-list star. And it looks like murder.

There are few art forms as visceral and emotional as opera - and few that are as daunting for newcomers. A Mad Love offers a spirited and indispensable tour of opera's eclectic past and present, beginning with Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in 1607, generally considered the first successful opera, through classics like Carmen and La Boheme, and spanning to Brokeback Mountain and The Death of Klinghoffer in recent years.

Fetching was once the only female rider in the Lot Lands. Now she is the leader of her own hoof, a band of loyal half-orcs sworn to her command. But in the year since she took power, the True Bastards have struggled to survive. Tested to the breaking point by the burdens of leadership, Fetching battles desperately to stave off famine, desertion and the scorn of the other half-orc chieftains, even as orcs and humans alike threaten the Lots' very existence. Then an old enemy finds a way to strike at her from beyond the grave - and suddenly only one faint hope for salvation remains.

At 800 feet in length, the Hindenburg was the largest airship ever built - just slightly smaller than the Titanic! Also of a disastrous end, the zeppelin burst into flame as spectators watched it attempt to land in Lakehurst, New Jersey, on May 6, 1937. In under a minute, the Hindenburg was gone; people jumping from windows to escape. However, only 62 of the 97 crew members and passengers onboard survived. The exact cause of the disaster is still unknown and remains a fascinating historical mystery, perfect for this series.

Angela Merkel is a boss. A trailblazer. An icon of colorful suits. Formerly the new leader of the free world. With an entire hand gesture named after her (the “Merkel Diamond”) and celebrated in a viral meme for sparring with Trump, Angela Merkel spent a decade economically and politically revitalizing her country. No one is better positioned than New York Times Berlin correspondent Melissa Eddy to pull back the curtain on the woman who engineered Germany’s rise to wealth, power, and an economy worth 3.8 trillion in USD.

After Catherine Wells’ ship experiences a deadly incident in deep space and loses contact with NASA, the entire world believes her dead. Miraculously - and mysteriously - she survived, but with little memory of what happened. Her reentry after a decade away is turbulent: Her husband's moved on with another woman, and the young daughter she left behind has grown into a teenager she barely recognizes. Catherine, too, is different. There are periods of time she can’t account for, and she begins waking up in increasingly strange and worrisome locations, like restricted areas of NASA.

True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals and have politicians, doctors and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges listeners into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they'll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who's never met another deaf person before, Austin, the school's golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing and February, the headmistress, who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact.

The Planeswalkers have defeated Nicol Bolas and saved the Multiverse - though at grave cost. The living have been left to pick up the pieces and mourn the dead. But one loss is almost too great to bear: Gideon Jura, champion of justice and shield of the Gatewatch, is gone. As his former comrades Jace and Chandra struggle to rebuild from this tragedy, their future, like the future of the Gatewatch, remains uncertain. As the Gatewatch’s newest member, Kaya aims to help write that future. In joining, she pledged an oath to protect the living and the dead; now that oath will be tested.

Almost a year has passed since Anika and Gretel's horrifying night in an abandoned cannery in the Back Country and the subsequent beginning of their quest to the Old Country for answers to the mysteries of Orphism. But rumors are reaching the far shore that the evil Witch of the North, presumed dead since that night of terror, is alive and strong. And hunting again. But this time, no one is safe. Everyone Gretel loves is in danger, and she must summon a new level of power and conviction to end her family's nightmare forever.

From one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists comes Certain American States, whose insightful and lonely stories beg you to discover the emotional universes hiding at their cores. Catherine Lacey brings her narrative mastery to Certain American States, her first collection of short stories. As with her acclaimed novels, she gives life to a group of subtly complex, instantly memorable characters whose searches for love, struggles with grief, and tentative journeys into the minutiae of the human condition are simultaneously gripping and devastating.

High school senior Anders Thorson is unusually gifted. His band, Last Things, is legendary in their Northern Minnesota hometown. With guitar skills that would amaze even if he weren’t only 18, Anders is the focus of head-turning admiration. And Thea Malcom, a newcomer to the insular town, is one of his admirers. Thea seems to turn up everywhere Anders goes: gigs at the local coffeehouse, guitar lessons, even in the woods near Anders’ home. When strange things start happening to Anders, blame immediately falls on Thea. But is she trying to hurt him? Or save him?

With her face on wanted posters from New York to Missouri, Christal Van Alen dons a disguise, determined to clear her name by bringing the real killer to justice. But when outlaws ambush her wagon train, her fate falls into the hands of the most dangerous gunslinger in the West. Bringing a gang of deadly felons to justice was supposed to be Macauley Cain's last job. Then the Confederate soldier-turned-undercover US marshal could retire in peace. But first he is going to solve the mystery of the beautiful blonde in widow's weeds.