Plant Fiction

Janie Mason just wants to get through the season. She's under enormous pressure at work, her boss is brilliant but self-centered, and the holidays bring up a lot of memories she'd rather leave unremembered. The only thing that's making things tolerable for her right now is that she's getting to work more closely with Bill Sparks, the man she's crushing on, and Jeremy, someone who was just beginning to be a friend pre-lockdown and who has become the only person she can rely on now that everyone is back in the office. January really can't come soon enough.

We share an innovative, light-hearted story as our hero traverses a typical English hamlet, helter-skelters along (with the aid of providential fate, in particular, the natural world of plants, trees and the numerous animals roaming the village) while, at the same time, being plunged into unexpected adventures and discovering how Christmas traditions have evolved from their inception to current Christmas practices and values.

Mike and his wife Lisa - both covert assets of the International Market Stabilization Institute, a privately funded organization operating outside official channels to protect North America's financial interests - are sent to Russia after an attempt on their superior officer's life. It is a mission fraught with peril and one that becomes exponentially more dangerous when their covers are blown within hours of setting foot in Moscow.

Miss Mary Morstan has been receiving pearls and she knows not why or from whom. Now she receives something else: a letter that promises to reveal the mystery and to "right the wrongs" against her. "If you distrust me," continued the correspondent, "bring two friends." She brings Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Meet Nancy Youngblood, a blithe and vivid heroine of an investigating disposition. When Nancy inherits a minor interest in a factory soon to become vital to the winning of World War II, she sees it as a chance to get closer to Robert Dalhart, who has taken over the factory on his father's death. Nancy has always loved him but because they grew up together on the same block Robert thinks of her as a kid sister. But soon sabotage, murder, and strikes threaten the plant and Robert - who evidence suggests may be the culprit, perhaps as an agent of the German government.

Plant Your Feet Firmly is an intimate glimpse of Asian America. Through the pages of seven short stories, the listener is treated to a delicate taste of ordinary people living extraordinary lives - from a cool grandpa to a grieving mother to a disillusioned husband.

Chris Astor is a man in his early forties who is going through the toughest stretch of his life. Becky is Chris's fourteen-year-old daughter, a girl who overcame enormous challenges to become a vibrant, vital young woman - and now faces her greatest obstacle yet. Miea is the young queen of a fantasy land that Becky and Chris created when Becky was little, a fantasy land that has developed a life of its own and now finds itself in terrible, maybe fatal trouble.

Darker than the night, like a piece of reality had been ripped out of the world to grant a view into the endless abyss of the void, a shape rose from the low hills of the moor, towering above all. Sherlock Holmes, his brother Mycroft, and their associate Mary Morstan are some of the most adept mages in London, safeguarding the peace of the city. Their daily life of solving crimes is interrupted when an ancient threat rises in Dartmoor.

The year is 1200, well, let’s just say it’s a time of brutal beauty, where the clash of steel echoes through the valleys and the stench of death hangs heavy in the air. Forget the polished tales of valiant knights and virtuous queens.

What may we become? How will we endure? The future is a daunting realm, filled with real and imagined perils. So enter it prepared! Here are vivid tales about possible tomorrows, from the keen eye and colorful pen of David Brin, a modern master of speculative fiction.

Imagine the mid-1980s, last day of school, summer break. A teen rushes to meet his mother, who is being released from the hospital after cancer surgery. When the teen arrives, he finds out his mother is dead, but his ex-gangbanging dad, who's been in jail the last eight years, is at the hospital, ready to take the teen home. Mendel is a coming-of-age story about a high school senior who must learn how to forgive as he navigates life without his mother. To honor his mother, he joins Mendel's track team, but his father's thuggish past catches up with them.

Jimmy Kozlowski has a regular gig playing Paul McCartney in the Beatles tribute band Help!. The band is part of a cottage industry built around mimicry, where each group strives to be the ultimate Fake Fab Four. And none strives harder than Help!, thanks to Gene Klein, its John Lennon and leader. Gene's just gotten his Medicare card and spends much of his time caring for his ailing mother. But he hasn't lost a step on guitar or vocals and is determined to take Help! to the top, his goal being to perform in Liverpool one day.

In the 1990s American workplace, survival of the fittest is sometimes less about clawing your way to the top than developing good camouflage. And Audrey Rohmer is doing her very best to blend in as an undistinguished middle manager. Uninspired by her job and uneasy about her father's new marriage, Audrey coasts through the work week leaning on her “partner in apathy”–an admin assistant named Pooter–to keep her relationship with the married head of her department from becoming water cooler gossip.

Ben Seidel wasn't sure how serious they were when he and his wife, Shira, discussed having an open marriage. But when Shira announces that she is going on a date with Liz, any ambiguity evaporates. Suddenly, every day is new terrain for Ben, navigating between keeping things together with Shira and exploring new partners. And when one of those new partners begins to matter to him more than he ever anticipated, he discovers that the complexities of this new life are only just beginning.

Recent retiree Ruth Singer is reflecting on her life and wondering what direction it might have taken if she'd made different choices. What if she'd had her tubes tied before her difficult youngest child was born? What if she'd run off with Danny Fortuna when she'd had the chance? Not only does Ruth ponder these questions, she lives those what-if lives in her imagination. As the chaos of her real life swirls around her, she contemplates the roads she never took, the choices she never made, and comes to understand how she became the woman she is - and why.

Jesse Sienna doesn't believe that love can last. His parents' marriage was caring but passionless, and his own romantic history tells him that love can burn bright, but that it cannot burn for long. So when his elderly father, Mickey, moves in with him and seems unable to understand Jesse's no-strings-attached relationship with Marina, his current girlfriend, Jesse barely pays attention. It's just another example of how different they are - and more evidence that he and his father will never connect on any meaningful level.

Throughout their married lives, baseball star Gaspar Bethlen's wife gave him a lovingly crafted mystery every year for Christmas. Solving the clues led him to his present, but the mysteries themselves were the true gift. Now, Beth has died, leaving Gasper a wreck of a man. But Beth left behind a clue, the beginning of one final Christmas mystery, and it's much more than either of them expected.

The catastrophic Purge War at the end of the 21st century destroys planet Earth, jeopardizing the future for the remnants of humanity. Horrific repercussions roll across the ages until, generations later, a scientific group called the Time Forward Project harnesses a deep-space wormhole in which they can travel through time. They find the portal unstable and shrinking, but they have little choice but to take desperate, drastic measures and journey back to prevent the war.

As a child, Annie Baskin envied her older sister. Sarah was beautiful, smart, popular, and contemptuous of her messy, graceless kid sister. Annie grew up in Sarah’s shadow, knowing she was second-tier, second-rate, an also-ran. The other Baskin girl.

The arrival of Julian Mack, an openly gay new student quickly gaining the attention of bullies, draws Nate into a friendship that tests the limits of what he can endure. Absorbed by the need to please Julian, Nate is quickly at odds with his best friend Michelle and her efforts to protect him. As Nate struggles to find what meaning music has in his life, rumors about him swirl around school, leaving him to decide between defending Julian and his reputation or the safety and comfort of his haven of music and color.