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

Guarding the Secrets recounts the terror-stricken life and murder of 16-year-old Tina Isa, who was condemned by her other family members for becoming Americanized, before her father, an accused Palestinian terrorist, murdered her in November 1989. The killing was recorded by accident due to the FBI having bugged the house in an attempt to prove the father's ties to terrorism. The events leading up to the murder are expertly told by author Ellen Harris, including Tina's older sisters urging their father to kill their younger sister.

Dolly Parton is instantly recognizable for her iconic style and persona, but how did she create her enduring image? Dolly crafted her exaggerated appearance and stage personality by combining two opposing stereotypes - the innocent mountain girl and the voluptuous sex symbol. By developing a multilayered image and persona, Dolly both critiques representations of femininity in country music and attracts a diverse fan base ranging from country and pop music fans to feminists and gay rights advocates.

On January 9, 2002, twelve-year-old Ashley Pond left her family’s apartment in Oregon City, Oregon, to catch her bus to school. Then, she vanished. Ashley loved her single-parent mother, but she hated her drinking, and the father figures in her life had come and gone. So she had learned to rely on her friends. Recently, however, things in her life had become even more complicated, so when she disappeared, many people believed she’d simply run away. But Janine O’Neill had prosecuted crimes against children in Oregon City for seven years.

The 1920s was a bustling time in Hollywood, as starry-eyed young women sought fame and fortune—only to discover that their dreams did not match the reality of the film industry. Edgcumb Pinchon was there to report on it all. He interviewed women who worked as “extras” in Hollywood, and was himself involved in the film business as a screenwriter and author. He describes here the hierarchy of those on set (in front of and behind the camera) with first-hand knowledge and humor.

When Ann Carbine marries Larry Best in the Salt Lake temple in 1961, she's certain their marriage will last forever. Eleven years later, she learns that he's been having affairs with men. Devastated by the revelation, Ann feels betrayed and abandoned. She still loves Larry and wants to save their marriage. However, powerful emotions pull Larry away from his family, just as AIDS is beginning its relentless march through the gay community.

In Losing Eden award-winning historian Sara Dant debunks the myth of the American West as “Eden” and instead embraces a more realistic and complex understanding of a region that has been inhabited and altered by people for tens of thousands of years. In this lively narrative Dant discusses the key events and topics in the environmental history of the American West, from the Beringia migration, Columbian Exchange, and federal territorial acquisition to post–World War II expansion, resource exploitation, and current climate change issues.

First published in 1881, the subtitle of the book reads "It was written as a book "for children and those who love children." Heidi, as a 5-year-old orphan, has been handed off by her young aunt, Dete, to live with her grandfather in the Swiss Alps. The story follows her life as she falls in love with her grandfather and he with her and the life of goat-herding that they share.

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery around 1820. This biography by Elizabeth Ross Haynes was published just eight years after Harriet's death (1913) as a part of her book Unsung Heroes. Over the years Ms. Tubman's legacy as a former slave, an abolitionist, a humanitarian, a suffragette, and a spy and agent for the US Army has grown. Beginning in 2020 her face will grace the US 20 dollar bill.

The story of one of racing's earliest dynasties, the historic Belair Stud, began with William Woodward's childhood memories of grand days at the racetrack, inspiring dreams of breeding a champion or two of his own. Woodward turned those dreams into reality, building Belair Stud on his family's Maryland estate, launching what would become the preeminent thoroughbred breeding and racing empire in America and chasing racing's biggest prizes in both the United States and England.

Originally published in 1991 as a Book of the Month Club Featured dividend and awarded the Best Nonfiction Book by the American Society of Journalists and Authors, this authoritatively researched portrait of Queen Isabella brings to life one of the most controversial figures in European history--a woman who was passionate lover to Ferdinand of Aragon, conquered the Moors (Muslims) of Spain, funded Columbus on his famous journey, brought the Renaissance to Spain, and was hated for introducing the Spanish Inquisition.

As the curtain falls on the March family's tale, we revisit the Plumfield clan 10 years later, all grown up and finding their way through life's adventures and misadventures.  

Dying to Get Married is a modern day morality tale of the perversion of an American dream. Julie Miller was a successful executive, who, through a newspaper ad, met who she thought was "Mr. Right". Little did she know that he had a violent past and a predisposition for bizarre sexual rituals.

In Black Walden: Slavery and Its Aftermath in Concord, Massachusetts, Elise Lemire brings to life the former slaves of Walden Woods, and the men and women who held them in bondage during the 18th century. After charting the rise of Concord slaveholder John Cuming, Black Walden follows the struggles of Cuming's slave, Brister, as he attempts to build a life for himself after 35 years of enslavement.

In this vivid memoir, Neidhardt explores her childhood in wider familial and social contexts. Drawing upon a trove of family letters and other archival material, she follows her parents’ journey from privilege to food stamps—from their formative youths, to their embrace of pioneer homemaking and rural poverty, to their sudden and wrenching return to conventional society—and explores the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s as it was, and as she lived it.

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.

American Spiritualism—a movement that at its peak claimed more than a million followers—was born out of the basic human longing for contact with a loved one lost to death. But Spiritualism's true spark came in 1848 from something no more or less powerful than a bored teenage girl. This is the first authoritative biography of Maggie Fox, the world-famous medium and cofounder of the Spiritualism movement that swept America in the mid-1800s. What started as a prank soon transformed into a movement.

At the ripe age of 73, Imogene Deal McGregor has a penchant for following her own instincts, as well as more grit and spunk than her hypochondriac son, Billy McGregor, and Billy's impulsive partner Jackson can handle. The boys take Imogene to New Orleans with their devilishly handsome English bulldog Goose, hoping to visit friends and attend a second line parade, but moments after arriving in the French Quarter, they find their friend Glenway Gilbert murdered in his art gallery.

A man is found dead in the study of his New York City house and Detective Gryce is called upon to deduce the how and why of his murder - if it is indeed a murder. With the assistance of Miss Amelia Butterworth, Gryce must investigate the meaning of the meager clues, including the cries of a talking bird, in order to uncover what happened to the victim. Solving this crime will involve several generations of two families. Author Anna Katharine Green was often referred to as "the mother of the detective novel" and was an early influence on Agatha Christie.

During a high society party set in New York City in the early 1900s, a beautiful woman is murdered and her precious diamond stolen. A young woman attending the party had just accepted a marriage proposal from a handsome young man. Unfortunately, the young man is the prime suspect in the murder due to circumstantial evidence. From there, the story takes many twists and turns before the identity of the killer is finally revealed.

Lena Carver works as her physician brother’s medical assistant, housekeeper, and cook despite her disfigurement from a childhood accident. Each year, the Christmas holidays come with contradictions - cherished memories of a mysterious encounter and painful recollections of a great loss. Lena lives with the belief that she is beyond love’s reach, until a dark-eyed cowboy arrives broken, bruised, and bent on changing her mind.