lucky peasant woman novel Audiobooks

“Papa explains the war like this: ‘When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.’ The great beasts, as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly, are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the small chickens.” Once in a great while comes a storyteller who can illuminate worlds large and small, magical and true to life. When the Elephants Dance introduces us to the incandescent voice of Tess Uriza Holthe, who sets her remarkable first novel in the waning days of World War II, as the Japanese and the Americans engage in a fierce battle for possession of the Philippine Islands. The Karangalan family and their neighbors huddle for survival in the cellar of a house a few miles from Manila. Outside the safety of their little refuge the war rages on—fiery bombs torch the beautiful Filipino countryside, Japanese soldiers round up and interrogate innocent people, and from the hills guerillas wage a desperate campaign against the enemy. Inside the cellar, these men, women, and children put their hopes and dreams on hold as they wait out the war, only emerging to look for food, water, and medicine. Through the eyes of three narrators, thirteen-year-old Alejandro Karangalan, his spirited older sister Isabelle, and Domingo, a passionate guerilla commander, we see how ordinary people must learn to live in the midst of extraordinary uncertainty, how they must find hope for survival where none seems to exist. They find this hope in the dramatic history of the Philippine Islands and the passion and bravery of its people. Crowded together in the cellar, the Karangalans and their friends and neighbors tell magical stories to one another based on Filipino myth and legend to fuel their courage, pass the time, and teach important lessons.

In a fusion of fact and fiction, nineteenth-century women institutionalized as hysterics reveal what history ignored “ City of Incurable Women is a brilliant exploration of the type of female bodily and psychic pain once commonly diagnosed as hysteria—and the curiously hysterical response to it commonly exhibited by medical men. It is a novel of powerful originality, riveting historical interest, and haunting lyrical beauty.” — Sigrid Nunez , author of The Friend and What Are You Going Through “Where are the hysterics, those magnificent women of former times?” wrote Jacques Lacan. Long history’s ghosts, marginalized and dispossessed due to their gender and class, they are reimagined by Maud Casey as complex, flesh-and-blood people with stories to tell. These linked, evocative prose portraits, accompanied by period photographs and medical documents both authentic and invented, poignantly restore the humanity to the nineteenth-century female psychiatric patients confined in Paris’s Salpêtrière hospital and reduced to specimens for study by the celebrated neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his male colleagues. Maud Casey is the author of five books of fiction, including The Man Who Walked Away , and a work of nonfiction, The Art of Mystery: The Search for Questions . A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the St. Francis College Literary Prize, she teaches at the University of Maryland.

An exclusive society of the world's most powerful gentlemen. Nothing will get between them and the women they want. Hope Malloy is not intimidated by rich, powerful men. So when she's hired to find a bride for billionaire Rafe Sterling, she’s certain the assignment will be easy. Not only is he sexy and a renowned philanthropist, the man is heir to one of the country’s largest hotel fortunes. Who wouldn’t want to marry him? Rafe Sterling does not want a wife. Too bad it's the one thing he desperately needs. His father ran off with a woman half his age, and Rafe can't become permanent CEO of Sterling Worldwide unless he's married. When he’s ambushed by the competent matchmaker, he’s captivated by her intelligence and seductive innocence. All of a sudden, he is thinking about a future and having her under his complete and total command. Will she run when she discovers his deepest, darkest secrets and shocking, sensual demands?

They say librarians are old-fashioned. I’m anything but. As a 23-year-old woman I have my whole life ahead of me, and I’m in no rush to settle down. But my favorite patron of the Golden Creek Library has a different opinion … and at 72, Charles McArthur is hard to argue with. He wants to set me up with his grandson and I don’t have the heart to say no. When my date comes to my door, I am oh-so-glad I said yes. Chuck McArthur is a tall, dark, and handsome man who happens to love books as much as I do. He calls me Cookie, just like his gramps, and I’m more than eager for him to have a taste. Luckily for me, he likes a woman with some curves, and lucky for him, his dirty talk is quickly becoming my favorite sound. Best part? Chuck and I want the exact same thing: a no strings attached relationship But when tragedy strikes, everything changes. I may like it when he talks wordy to me … but maybe I need more than talk. Maybe I need forever.

Kaze Lee just married the woman of his life, Darcy Quint, but on the night of their wedding, his family sent him to fight in a war on behalf of his brother. Forced to leave his wife alone, he fought many brutal battles and won many of them, ultimately winning the war. He returned with glory and honor, but his wicked brother poisoned him because of jealousy, turning him into a retard. Fortunately, an intimate session with his wife cured him. Never forgetting the oppression of his family and the insults he received from the world, he ought to take revenge on those who hurt him and his wife now that he had awakened.

Sarah Gardner is rushing to get herself married. She doesn’t require her partner to be filthy rich or anything, just without any vices or bad habits. As long as he fits that bill, she’ll marry him. Charles Xander is being forced by his domineering mother to marry. Thus, he ends up hitched to a woman his mother picked out for her. In any case, neither of them have time to date anyway. Besides, they’ll need to get married at some point, so why does it matter who they marry at all? Things change, of course. And for Sarah and Charles, they inevitably do…Even if they never expected them to.

Adriana, the alpha’s illegitimate daughter was hated and bullied by everyone for her birth and not having a wolf. On the night of her eighteenth birthday, she overheard her father talking to her brothers about giving her up to the Lycan king, in order to form a peace treaty.Xander is nothing like she expected, but one thing is certain, everything thing she has heard about him being ruthless is true. When the secret her father has vowed to take to his grave is now out in the open, Adriana realizes not having a wolf is the least of her problems. Will Xander stand for all his mate is made of when he finds out the truth about her, or will he discard her and treat her like every other woman he has been with?NOTE: This book is a Duet and the part two will be released in September. It is highly recommended that you read this first.

“Marry me? Aren’t you scared of death?”Rumor has it Eliljah Moses is a jinx to everyone close to him, that his ill fate was the reason both his sisters and three fiancees had all died.Sally Summers married him with no expectations, and was ready to embrace death should it come for her.Initially she thought she would have to care for him, but little did she expect to be pampered to the nines by him.In his words, “She’s my woman, only I can bully her.”He also said, “Whoever dares to touch my woman, I’ll be sure to make their lives a living hell.”He even said, “My woman will bear me a pile of children!”

Willow Nason suffered a calculated betrayal. Her virginity was taken, and the man from that fateful night left a token of his presence behind.However, she lost the token and could not locate the man, leaving her with nothing and an uncertain future.Five years later, armed with four little treasures, she returned with a determination to turn things around.Unintentionally, she drew the attention of an immensely powerful figure who held the power to make life-altering decisions in the world.First child: "Mommy, I've hacked into the tycoon's company. He'll come to apologize to you."Second child: "Mommy, I accidentally got involved in a scheme and lured the tycoon to our home."Third child: "Mommy, the tycoon wants to take me abroad to taste gourmet food."Fourth child: "Mommy, Daddy left you a priceless token."She had always believed her treasures to be ordinary little kids, so why were they all prodigies?!Then, a certain influential figure who was cold and imposing arrived at her home. He forced her to the corner of the bed and said, "Woman, you gave birth to my children secretly. You need to be held accountable for that." "What do you want me to do?" Willow said in a panic.The tycoon wrapped his arm around her waist. He flashed her a devilish smile and said, "Give birth to another one."

Take her! She is ours! The little wolf in front of me seemed as frozen as me, but that ancient old need only turned stronger now that she stood in front of me. I reached out and grabbed her by her neck. She gasped, shocked, and then I pushed her backwards, closing the door behind us and locking it. Yes, she was trapped now with the big, bad lycan king. *** Anastasia lost everything when she was a young child. Her entire family was killed by mysterious lycans. It leaves her scarred for life and burned after a violent fire takes her home from her. Anastasia swore revenge after she is found by her aunt and taken in. She will find the lycans who took her family from her and end them all. At a party where the lycan King Roman will introduce his new queen, Anastasia runs into the lycan king after he finds her in a bathroom. Suddenly he becomes the center of her world. But can she trust him when she has sworn she hates all lycans? Roman never wants to fall in love or even meet his mate. He chooses a queen. A friend he has known for many years, but at the very party where he is going to present her to all wolves and lycans, he runs into Anastasia. She is like no other woman he has met, and while he knows he must have her, Ana wants nothing to do with any lycan. Can Roman convince her to trust him? Or will Ana keep her heart closed forever? The scars on her body tell her never to let anyone in, but the lycan king's hands on her make her feel so warm. *Book 1*