Historical Homes

June 1917. While German Gotha bombers raid London from above, a man's body is fished from the Thames below. The man had been garrotted and his tongue cut out, and as the killer has taken care to remove identifying items, Detective Inspector Marmion and Sergeant Keedy struggle to name the victim before they can begin properly with their investigation. The list of suspects grows ever longer, and as Marmion wrangles with the case, he and his family must also contend with their anxieties for his now-missing son. The interminable presence of war and pitched battles between rival gangs suggest the Home Front is more insecure than ever before.

Israel Meir Lau, one of the youngest survivors of Buchenwald, was just eight years old when the camp was liberated in 1945. Descended from a 1,000-year unbroken chain of rabbis, he grew up to become Chief Rabbi of Israel--and like many of the great rabbis, Lau is a master storyteller. Out of the Depths is his harrowing, miraculous, and inspiring account of life in one of the Nazis' deadliest concentration camps, and how he managed to survive against all possible odds.

Devastated by her father’s death days after her triumphant graduation from Oberlin College, Amanda Stewart is all alone in the world. Her father’s unscrupulous business partner offers her an indecent proposal to earn a living. Instead, to fulfill a promise she made to her father, she resolves to start a school to educate and uplift their race. Sorting through her father’s papers, she discovers he had carried on a mysterious correspondence with a plantation in Milford, Georgia. She determines to start her teaching work with the formerly enslaved.

For nine months in Auschwitz, eighteen-year-old Eva Fleiss clung to sanity by playing piano on imaginary keyboards. After liberation, Eva and the five remaining Jews of Laszlo, Hungary, journey home, seeking to restart their lives. Yet the town that deported them is not ready to embrace their return. Their former neighbors and friends resist relinquishing their newfound status and property, and they struggle with their roles as perpetrators, enablers, and bystanders during the Holocaust.

Overlooking the Thames, the Cliveden mansion is flanked by two wings and surrounded by lavish gardens. Throughout its storied history, Cliveden has been a setting for misbehavior, intrigue, and passion - from its salacious, deadly beginnings in the 17th century to the 1960s Profumo affair, the sex scandal that toppled the British government. Now, in this immersive chronicle, the manor's current mistress, Natalie Livingstone, opens the doors to this prominent house and lets the walls do the talking.

A moving tale of the unshakable bond between two brothers set against a backdrop of family secrets, loyalty, and small town life. Earl "Earwig" Gunderman is sixteen-years-old when the world is thrust into war and his older brother Jimmy is shipped out to the Pacific theater. Being what they used to call simple-minded, Earwig must cope without the protection of his revered older brother as he strikes out towards independence and adulthood.

In 1916, the people are settling down to the business of war. As conscription reaches into every household, Britain turns out men and shells in industrial numbers from army camps and munitions factories up and down the land. Bobby Hunter gains his wings and joins his brother in France. Ethel, the under housemaid, embarks on a quest, and Laura sets out on her biggest adventure yet.

It is 1939, Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings.

While other adolescent girls are listening to grunge rock or swooning over boy bands and movie stars, Loretta knows little of life beyond the Home for Wayward Girls, the secluded ranch where her parents run a program designed to “correct” teen girls’ “bad behavior.” Some new residents arrive with their moms and dads, while other are accompanied by transporters—people paid to forcibly deliver these “problem” teens—girls caught swearing, smoking, drinking, or kissing.

Lucien and Norman Parker are as close as twin brothers can be. Together with their father, they run a railway station in Warm Springs, OK, during the Depression. But they never expect a woman to come between them: both Lucien and Norman fall in love with the same girl. Lucien marries her, and soon World War II takes both men away from home, to the Pacific. It is there, as prisoners of war, that their bond breaks: one of them dies, and the other makes the agonizing decision that will change his life forever.

MARCUS WELLSTON never expected to inherit his father's title. After all, he is the youngest of three sons. However, his eldest brother Trevor is judged incapable of meeting the title’s responsibilities, and his second brother Myles lost his life in an freak accident; therefore, Marcus has returned to Tweed Hall and the earldom. Having departed Northumberland years prior to escape his guilt in his sister’s death, Marcus has spent the previous six years in atonement with the Realm, a covert governmental group. Now, all he requires is a biddable wife with a pleasing personality. Neither of...

Start to broaden your wine experience from simply drinking to truly appreciating with this beginner's guide to wine tasting. Written by Jasper Rhodes and narrated by Riley Pines, this audiobook simplifies the world of wine, making it more accessible and enjoyable for everyone. Learn the fundamental principles of wine tasting through an approach that builds your knowledge from the ground up.

Washed up on a foreign shore, Tristan is lucky to be alive. As before, it seems to be a miracle - the Holy Grail the young Templar squire is protecting has saved his life yet again. But now he is lost in a strange land, and he doesn’t know if his friends, the fiery archer Robard Hode and the Saracen assassin maid Maryam, still survive. Tristan’s knack for getting into trouble is alive and well, though, and he quickly finds himself drawn into a conflict between a heretical band of Cathars and the oppressive King of France.

Mary Bingham had failed her father many times, but she never imagined he would force her to marry a total stranger. Escape into the vast plains of Iowa, 1878…. When Mary carelessly burns down the family home, seriously injuring her littlest sister, the consequences are dire. Her Pa no longer trusts her with his two younger daughters. Mary is devastated when he takes her directly to the church and marries her off to a boy she barely knows. Carrying a burden of guilt, Mary is not surprised that her father doesn’t want her anymore, but she is unable to handle the sorrow and shame. So, she ...

After a merciless winter, spring has sprung in 1880 Stockholm, and the city awaits the arrival of the SS Vega, the first ship to have sailed the Northeast Passage. Life is busy at the orphanage, but twelve-year-old Mika quickly notices that the older orphans are up to something—and it doesn’t look good. When Constable Hoff approaches her with information about thefts around the city, Mika becomes even more concerned about what the other kids are up to—and what they might be planning for the Vega celebration.

As war rages and brave soldiers returning home from the frontline need nurses more than ever, fiercely proud redhead Sylvia Roberts is determined to help in any way she can. In spite of her mother’s belief she isn’t good enough, Sylvia believes that becoming a home front nurse is her calling. Together with the two friends she makes on her first day in the job – Freda and Veronica – she knows she can help save lives. And, as the devastation of war shows no signs of ceasing, their work becomes ever more vital.

Who is Charlotte Mason? The Angel Orphan tells the true and inspiring story of the courageous young girl who changed the face of education in the United Kingdom and beyond. In this fictionalized biography, author Leah Boden brings to life the story of the intelligent young girl who grew to be an author and champion of education. Charlotte Marie Shaw Mason was born in Wales and raised as an only child in the north of England. Her family struggled, but she became a self-directed learner. Orphaned as a teenager, Charlotte had a lifelong struggle with illness. Yet Charlotte persevered.

Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover, and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour featuring some old hands from her early days playing honky-tonk bars in Washington State and Nashville, plus a few new ones. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age ten and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood.

A rancher in need of a wife or he loses everything. A promise to her grandfather to be a mail order bride just may be unfulfilled. Briggs Blackwood is stuck between a rock and a hard place. While ranching is in his blood, and he loves it, he has to meet one requirement to take over the BW Ranch: get married and produce at least one grandchild within five years of his mother's death. Briggs never wanted to get married. Not being able to find a woman who sparks his interest, he gives up trying to find a bride. Hoping his father changes his mind, Briggs waits until the very last minute to ...

In the eighth book in the Treegate Series on American History, the author takes readers back to the beginning—to the Revolutionary War—with another epic adventure with a new young hero. In this classic coming-of-age story set during the Revolutionary War, 16-year-old Matt Tyler (a naïve cobbler’s apprentice) unwittingly aids a rebel spy and is forced to slip behind British enemy lines to survive—only to be captured by the Continental Army. His only hope to make it home alive is to find a strength he never knew he had. Along the way, Matt finds himself caught up in major events of ...