Showing results by narrator "Amanda Cobb" in All Categories

In a long-unoccupied mansion, a new mother is confined to what was once a nursery. She is assured by her physician husband that it is a necessary cure to ease her "nervous depression." Isolated and powerless, she becomes obsessed with the peeling, sickly colored wallpaper. In it, she sees what no one else can: a prisoner desperate to escape its maddening design. A condemnation of the patriarchy, The Yellow Wallpaper explores with terrifying economy the oppression, grave misunderstanding, and willful dismissal of women in late nineteenth-century society.

From the moment Isabel Archer arrives in England, the soon-to-be heiress is in high demand. But the idealistic American rejects two proposals - and convention altogether. Headstrong Isabel prefers to shape her identity and confront her own destiny. When she is finally swayed, it’s by the manipulative charms of expatriate Gilbert Osmond. Where once was promise and determination is now the fear that the independence she’s pursued might have been forever lost.

What Luck, This Life begins in the aftermath of the space shuttle's break-up, as the people of Piney Woods watch their pastures swarm with searchers and reporters bluster at their doors. A shop owner defends herself against a sexual predator who is pushed to new boldness after he is disinvited to his family reunion. A closeted father facing a divorce that will leave his gifted boy adrift retrieves an astronaut's remains. An engineer who dreams of orbiting Earth joins a search for debris and instead uncovers an old neighbor's buried longing.