Showing results by narrator "Luci Christian" in All Categories

Ruben Crosscroft is not your typical butler, a proper old gent in black tails. The awesome Aussie arrives sporting athletic shorts and a T-shirt. Blue-eyed, virile, tanned - he is no sexless wooden servant.... Which comes as a shock to divorcee Blaire Thomlin, who'd won Ruben's services in a contest for two whole weekends. Having a man around the house again made Blaire nervous, but Ruben cooks, cleans, and caters to Blaire's ever desire...including a few not in his job description. He turns Blaire's life around and makes her start to believe in love once more. Until ugly rumors surface about his past....

The first time I ever saw Smoky, she was on fire. My three children and I had arrived at the dump outside our Arizona desert town to throw out the weekly trash. As we approached the pit, which was smoldering, we heard the most mournful cries of a cat entombed in the smoking rubble.

Shadows dancing around the table mirrored the excitement in the faces of the children. It was a party - and not just any party. It was New Year's Eve. And for once they were allowed to stay up.

Veterinarians and vet technicians reveal pet tips and cautionary tales that can save time, trouble, and trauma for everyone in the family.

True stories of heroic canines with one thing in common: When it came to risking their lives, they never once hesitated.

Most people living in the world today believe that heaven exists, and regardless of their vision or religious persuasion, most believers expect it to be a better place. Perhaps that explains why there is sometimes ruthless - even bloody - disagreement over who exactly gets in. Author Gail Cameron Wescott explores these topics and more here.

In the dreary days of November 1965, American actress Iolanthe Green has become the toast of the West End. Charismatic, mysterious, and beautiful, she brings color and a sprinkling of glamour to the scuffed boards of Soho's Galaxy Theatre. But one evening, after another rapturously received performance, Iolanthe walks through the stage door and out into the cold London night - and vanishes.

Liz has spent years working a gazillion hours a week picking up the slack for coworkers with kids, and she's tired of it. So one day when her stress-related nausea is mistaken for morning sickness by her bosses - boom! Liz is promoted to the mommy track. She decides to run with it and plans to use her paid time off to figure out her life: work, love, and otherwise. It'll be her "meternity" leave.

Singing almost as soon as she could talk, Denyce Graves decided as a young girl that music was something she could always call on - even when she possessed nothing else.

Under normal circumstances, a Time Fetch sends out its foragers to collect only those moments that will never be missed or regretted. It then rests, waiting to be called back by the Keeper, who distributes the gathered time where it is needed in our world and others. When eighth grader Edward innocently mistakes a sleeping Fetch for an ordinary rock, he wakes its foragers too early, and they begin to multiply and gobble up too much time. Soon the bell rings to end class just as it's begun. Buses race down streets, too far behind schedule to stop for passengers. Buildings and sidewalks begin to disappear as the whole fabric of the universe starts to unravel.

Taking a friend's advice, Litty Matthew decided to try the opposite of shopping to boost her mood and escape the sense of constriction that had settled over her life. "And I don't mean just giving to Goodwill, honey," her friend had said. "You should try holding a giveaway."

After losing her leg in a brutal war, Maja Kazazic thought she'd never walk without pain again. Then she saw a dolphin with an artificial tail, and her life changed once more.

Once in a while, a first novel arrives like a bolt of lightning, commanding attention with an explosion of power, grace, and light. Flying in Place is such a book. As unflinching as The Lovely Bones, as startling as Beloved, it is a work to bear witness - with bravery and compassion - for the experience of millions of readers and their loved ones. Emma is 12, a perfectly normal girl, in a perfectly normal home. With a perfectly normal father...who comes into her bedroom every night in the hours before dawn. Emma will do anything to escape.

Smudge, the English springer spaniel who had turned the Rowlands' lives upside down, would leave the family having put everything right.

Many dog lovers claim that certain dogs find them rather than the reverse. This was certainly the case for the family of Diesel, a blue heeler whose traumatic past had left him aggressive and distrustful.

Whitney has been in so many foster homes that she can give a complete rundown on the most common varieties of foster parents - from the look-on-the-bright-side types to those unfortunate examples of pure evil. But one thing she doesn't know much about is trees. This means heading for Foster Home number 12 (which is all the way at the top of the map of California, where there looks to be nothing but trees) has Whitney feeling a little nervous. She is pretty sure that the middle of nowhere is going to be just one more place where a hyper, loud-mouthed kid who is messy and small for her age won't be welcome for long.

Dani was born with her heart on the wrong side of her body. In her 15 years of life, she’s had more doctor’s appointments, X-rays, and tests, and eaten more green hospital Jell-O than she cares to think about. Fourteen-year-old Amanda is a competitive gymnast, her body a small package of sleek muscles, in perfect health. The two girls don’t know each other, don’t go to the same school, don’t have any friends in common. But their lives are about to collide. Acclaimed author Jill Wolfson tackles this fascinating story with her trademark honesty and wit.

Sylvie isn't your average girl. When she dresses up she looks eighteen, and she's spent the last three years in foster care plotting her escape to Hollywood. But as Sylvie quickly learns on the road, zigzagging across the Midwest in a stranger's two-tone blue Pontiac, life isn't like the movies. Left broke and stranded in the middle of the country, she has no choice but to accept the help of Walter Murchison, a Bible salesman who is just a little too good at selling to be trusted.

Author Ardis Whitman looks at the ways in which we tend to understand and experience joy, explains the difference between joy and happiness, and offers guidance on how to restore our lives to the eager openness to all the world that is so often the prelude to joy.

Only a year ago Isabel Moore was married, the object of adoration of her 10-year-old daughter, and thought she knew everything about her wild, extravagant, beloved best friend, Josie. But in that one short year: her husband moved out and rented his own apartment; her daughter grew into a moody insomniac; and Josie - impulsive, funny, secretive Josie - was killed behind the wheel in a single-car accident.