Showing results by narrator "Lee Ann Howlett" in All Categories

This story is told from the perspective of Peggy, a teenager in the tiny town of Riverbank. Peggy is good friends with a girl named Nelly Deane. Nelly is considered by many to be the prettiest and most fun-loving girl in town. What happens to Nelly in the ensuing years after Peggy leaves Riverbank for college and then abroad is related through Peggy's infrequent visits back home and the letters she receives from one of the older women of Riverbank.

Blanche Devine is a middle aged woman who has lived in the same small Midwestern town most of her life. She decides she wants to purchase a 'real' home in a pleasant neighborhood in the town. Because Blanche has a past as the town's 'scarlet' woman, many of the self-described good and respectable people do not want her as a neighbor. Edna Ferber wrote mostly about women and their place in society along with their plight when they did not follow society's norms.

War has always changed men physically and mentally. They go away as healthy physically fit young men; when they come back, if they do they are not the same young man who went away. They may have suffered disabling physical injury in addition to a mental injury that may or may not manifest itself physically, but typically it is there. In World War I they called it shell-shocked, today we call it PTSD. This is a short story by Edna Ferber of a healthy, husky, and slightly arrogant in a nice way young man, and the beautiful girl awaiting his return home.

Vickie's daughter is dead. Just one more dead druggie among the hundreds that die each year in Jacksonville's drug infested slums. Vickie needs to find answers. Was it really an accidental overdose, or a murder? To find the answer, she must leave her safe life behind and plunge into the terrors of the drug culture. Will the search lead her to love? Or will she end up on a morgue slab, just one more casualty in the war against drugs?

Yankees flock to the sunny South where flowers bloom even in the middle of winter and summertime rules for most of the year. What nobody tells you is why the Yankees hightail it back North again. Yankee, Go Home exposes the gritty side of the South. Get lost in Arkansas and chased through Alabama by a madman. Find out who really won the Civil War and why. Discover the South through the eyes of a Yankee in this memoir of a Yankee in the South.

After a painful divorce, Casey returns to the haven of her childhood, great grandmother Weesie's tiny log cabin. Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains of North Georgia, the cabin rekindles memories of her happiest years as a young child enjoying Granny Weesie's tales of treasure. Casey seeks a peaceful refuge she will share only with her cat, Smokey. However, much more than early memories await Casey in Bluejay, Georgia.

Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything tougher than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest, but her next job, managing editor of a local newspaper, delivers some surprises. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator's family. With the help of reporter pal Clarice and the new man in her life, Phil, Amy uncovers a number of shadowy figures....

Based on actual letters Fitzgerald sent to his sister to help her on how to be more attractive for men, Bernice Bobs Her Hair is the story of a socially hopeless girl being changed into a socially attractive girl to end up attracting the boy of her helper. The story is a depiction of the changing face of youth during Fitzgerald's time and has been adapted into several movies as it remains a story that impressed all readers over the years.

Come sit on the porch a spell. Let's talk about times gone by and folks we remember, about slow summer evenings and lightning bugs in a jar. Listen to the music of a creaky swing and hand-cranked ice cream and cicadas chorusing in the sultry night air. Let's talk about how things used to be in the South - and for some of us, they way they still are. Welcome to the world of Sweet Tea and Jesus Shoes, where award winning authors Deborah Smith, Sandra Chastain, Virginia Ellis, Debra Dixon, Donna Ball and Nancy Knight come together for the first time to create this poignant, humorous collection of nostalgic tales.

At the end of her life, Beth Sanders learns a haunting secret. In this chilling short story, an ordinary woman find she must come to terms with a horrifying evil.

Mysteriously banished to live with demanding Aunt Augusta on Florida's remote, untamed Merritt island of 1904, young Emma-Lee Palmer discovers a dark family secret. Befriended by a kindly sea captain, Emma-Lee and Aunt Augusta discover courage, renewed hope, and the importance of family in this transcendent story of healing and redemption through God's unconditional love. Inspired by a true story, The Distant Shore is a powerful blend of action, adventure, romance, and the quest within each of us to find our heart's home.

Edmund Lester Pearson was a journalist, court reporter, and librarian. He’s considered by many to be the first real true crime author in the U.S. Here he writes about the Lizzie Borden murders, axe murders that happened at sea, the murder of a wealthy New York businessman, and two others. Several of these crimes remain unsolved. Although he meticulously researched these crimes and interviewed many witnesses, his accounts are entertaining and, at times, even humorous.

Some people will go to almost any lengths to win fame and public admiration. Christmas at Alpine Village tells the story of just such a person. As each year passes without her winning the coveted Best Business Christmas Decoration prize in the small town of Newkirk, CA, more lights are added, and more ribbons and evergreens are hung, all to no avail. But, while the prize continues to elude her, other events are occurring that are ultimately of far more value to those who live at the Village.

What have jobs really been like for the past 40 years and what do the workers themselves say about them? In What Workers Say, Roberta Iversen shows that for employees in labor market industries—like manufacturing, construction, printing—as well as those in service-producing jobs, like clerical work, healthcare, food service, retail, and automotive—jobs are often discriminatory, are sometimes dangerous and exploitive, and seldom utilize people’s full range of capabilities. Most importantly, they fail to provide any real opportunity for advancement.

Censorship, entailing the banning of books works on the stage and film, and public speeches, is not new. During the late 1920s in Boston, Massachusetts, it reached a fever pitch. Book banning was prominent but officials in the city also managed to stifle free artistic expression in theatrical productions, and the right to express ideas in a public forum. The bans were often carried out under the law by religious groups, the serving Mayor of Boston, and even the local police.

In the future, Earth is ruled by women and many of the men have fled to other planets. Ferdinand is a boy on a spaceship headed to Venus where the men are said to be plentiful. He's with his older sister, Evelyn, who decided to leave Earth in search of a husband. After Ferdinand stumbles on a stowaway named Butt Lee Brown, a battle of the sexes ensues. Satire and humor abound in this tale from William Tenn.

A young married couple with a baby is eking out a living while the husband, Roger, works to establish his own advertising company. His wife, Gretchen, is stunningly beautiful and unhappy with how much time Roger spends working. After an evening with Roger's old friend, George Tompkins, who suggests that Roger needs more of a work/life balance, a flirtation begins between George and Gretchen.