Showing results by narrator "Andrew Eiden" in All Categories

This is a story of philosophy, identity, and the powerful grip of travel, written by an iconic American author at the height of his fame, after spending ten days in France searching for his French heritage. Was the satori handed to him by a taxi driver, a waiter, a monsieur with a dazzlingly beautiful secretary, or while feeling fearful in the foggy streets at 3:00 a.m.? Or was it when hearing a requiem by Mozart in an old church, seeing trees in the Tuileries Garden, or while walking on a bridge over the River Seine?

Highly awkward teenager Stanley Owens meets his match in beautiful, brainy Vera Baxter when they tie for first place in the annual national spelling bee - and the two form a bond that will change both of their lives. Though their mothers have big plans for them - Stanley will become a senator, Vera a mathematics professor - neither wants to follow these predetermined paths. So Stanley hatches a scheme to marry Vera in a sham wedding for the cash gifts, hoping they will enable him to pursue his one true love: crossword puzzle construction.

Ever since Stanley Lambchop was flattened by a bulletin board, each day brings new adventures! Stanley’s second grade teacher, Ms. Root, loves science, and she has an exciting surprise in store for the class: they’re getting a pet! Stanley and his classmates can’t wait to play with their adorable hamster, Cottonball, and learn all about animal life. But then Cottonball escapes! Stanley and his best friend, Marco, have some ideas on what to do to find her, but they’ll need to work through their disagreements and overcome engineering roadblocks to construct the best solutions for Cottonball.

When Sloane sees a child in tears in a playground one afternoon, she can't help herself – she tells the girl's (very attractive) dad she's a nurse and helps him pull a bee sting from his daughter's foot. With this lie and chance encounter, Sloane becomes the nanny for Jay and Violet Lockhart who seem to have everything: a beautiful brownstone house, a daughter in private nursery school, and long summers on an idyllic island just off the coast of New York. Sloane wants to be just like them. But Sloane isn't the only one lying.

This book presents the formative years in the life of Jack Duluoz—Kerouac’s alter ego—beginning with his high school experiences as a sporting jock in small-town New England and his time at Columbia University on a football scholarship. Just as Jack’s glamorous new adult life begins, so does World War II, and he joins the US Navy to travel the world. The more he experiences, the more he realizes the limits of his former plans and decides to and return to New York, where he collides with the start of the Beat movement—and a riot of drugs, sex, and writing.

The allure of literary letters and rare first editions captures the imaginations of three professors of English literature and leads to tragedy in the wake of the Great Kobe Earthquake of 1995.

This collection of short, contemporary plays by award-winning playwright Susan C. Hunter provides a wide range of thought-provoking listening. Each play is a stand-alone gem, yet experienced together, they are eloquently connected, often mirroring the humorous and dramatic sides of the same themes. Alternately hilarious and moving, it is read by a full cast of talented narrators.

Ed and his childhood friend Danny are gearing up in Kodiak, Alaska, preparing to join the Angie Piper's crew for another season of crab fishing. Ed is a relative newcomer, but despite the perils of the trade, he sees no reason to fear for Danny's safety. The Angie Piper has always been blessed. She has a stalwart captain, Fred; a crack engineer, Dave; and two time-tested pros to keep the rest of the operation running smoothly, exuberant Loni and the more reticent Salazar.

A flight from New Delhi to New York. Two strangers, seat 7A and seat 7B, who have nothing in common. Absolutely nothing. Except they are both hoping the seat next to theirs remains empty. It doesn’t. Mid-flight turbulence and infant incontinence forces them to interact, the cool Wall Street guy and the mom with the drool-stained sweater and ordinary aspirations. Blistering wit, opposing views, and some unexpectedly poignant admissions keep them addictive, engaged, and hopelessly sleep deprived through the fifteen-hour journey.

As immortal Seasons, Jack and Fleur wielded powerful magic in their roles as a Winter and a Spring. Yet there wasn’t magic strong enough to keep them apart and they risked everything for their love, for the freedom to live their lives as they choose together. That choice came at a cost and Jack had to sacrifice his Winter magic and his immortality. Although he’d do anything for Fleur, he can’t deny the emptiness he’s felt since.

Sheridan DeMarco wants to be anywhere but home for the holidays. She’s happy to spend Christmas house-sitting in South Carolina, far away from her parents’ new blended families. Too bad when she arrives at the charming beach cottage, she isn’t as blissfully alone as she planned.

Ryan Shanley prefers to be called Shan. It's not much, but it helps put some distance between his life during and after serving in the Union army. And he'll put even more distance between the two once he arrives in the Wyoming Territory, where he has a land grant for two square miles. On the stage to Tico, the town nearest his ranch, he meets Sarahlee Gordon. She was only planning to visit Wyoming long enough to sell the cabin she inherited from her uncle. But the attraction between the two becomes obvious on the stage and grows after they arrive.

Two women - strangers - board a plane. Different lives, different purposes for their trip. Three days later, they text their friends the same exact messages about the same man. They say they've fallen for handsome stranger Trent McCarthy and are running away with him. And then the texts go cold, the red flags go up, and the woman are declared missing. Who's telling the truth? Who is this Trent, and what has he done with these women? Or, what have they done with him? . . .

This bundle includes Activate, Reboot, and System Failure. This diverse group of kids from all over the world has plenty in common. They love computers, coding, hacking, and gaming—it literally flows through their veins. One more thing: they are all technically dead.

Ethan is living a solid, rational life as a bail bondsman in Florida when he’s compelled to make a seemingly irrational decision: abandon his job and his girlfriend and head south to rescue the daughter of his ex-lover, Michelle. She appears to have been kidnapped by the Mara - vicious street gangs ripping apart the fabric of Central American life - and there’s every reason to believe the girl is dead already. Except for the one that Ethan has been hiding from everyone: she is calling to him in his dreams with three desperate words…I’m still alive.

Laura: a teenage girl struggling to fit into her small, sleepy town in upstate New York, slowly drifting away from reality, into the secret life she inhabits online. Paul: a twentysomething wannabe rock star, back home from NYC, broke and jobless, living with his mother. April: a math teacher with two kids, running her church's vacation Bible school, discontent with another summer planning crafts and regurgitating verses. Ben: a boy stuck at VBS, still adjusting to the presence of his foster brother, DeShawn, a quiet, brooding kid from Brooklyn. Over summer, their paths will collide.

"I live in a coastal town in the deep south of the Mekong Delta. During the war this was IV Corps, which saw many savage fights. Although the battles might have long been forgotten, some places cannot forget." Thus begins the harrowing yet poignant story of a North Vietnamese communist defector who spends 10 years in a far-flung reform prison after the war, and now, in 1987, a free man again, finds work as caretaker at a roadside inn in the U Minh region. One day new guests arrive at the inn: an elderly American woman and her daughter, an 18-year-old adopted Vietnamese girl....

When the family patriarch, Elliot, dies, it's revealed that he had been keeping five separate families, and in the aftermath of their discovery, his widows and children must come together to keep from losing all they have. But their livelihood is threatened when Elliot's estranged son tries to blackmail them, unleashing a series of violent confrontations between different factions of the family. A sparse family drama reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy, combined with the intimate first-person narratives of Kazuo Ishiguro, Lord of California is a powerful debut novel.

Golden Age Hollywood - a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue. Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary temptress. So when the film's mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingenue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

Ever since Stanley Lambchop was flattened by a bulletin board, each day brings new adventures! It’s the hundredth day of school, and the second graders in Classroom 2E will each be bringing in one hundred of something to celebrate. Stanley knows exactly what he wants to bring—flat pancakes. But the number of people coming to the party keeps changing! Stanley must add, subtract, and multiply his way to the perfect treat for the Hundredth Day of School bash. Will he get the numbers right?