New England Literature

When a shy high-school student's body is found washed up on the shore of a quiet New England beach town - an apparent suicide - 15-year-old Terry Novak doesn't know what to think. Something just doesn't add up, so he decides to do some investigating of his own with the help of his best friend, Abby. It doesn't take long before they learn that asking questions puts them in grave danger, and surviving is going to be a fight.

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most listeners, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown - until now. In this utterly captivating audiobook, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature's elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.

Ella Bridges faces her most challenging investigation so far when the vicar dies suddenly at the May Day Fete. But with evidence scarce and her personal life unraveling in ways she could never have imagined, she misses vital clues in the investigation. Working alongside Sergeant Baxter of Scotland Yard, will Ella manage to unearth the clues needed to catch the killer before another life is lost? Or will personal shock cloud her mind and result in another tragedy?

When young Mattie Silver arrives at her cousin Zeena Frome's farm in the New England village of Starkfield, no one could have imagined the tale of sublime and thwarted passion which ensues. Starkfield, like so many New England village communities, is a place where the emotional terrain resembles the physical: stony, hard, and snow covered much of the year. Ethan Frome - "the most striking figure in Starkfield" - ekes out a bleak living from his ungenerous farm, until Mattie brings love and a dream of escape. The powerful sway of obligation and duty and Ethan's inherent dignity make this novel a great American tragedy.

When her mother telephones from France with news of her imminent arrest, Ella along with her aunt and an eccentric friend rush to her aid. But what starts as a simple disappearance quickly turns to murder and Ella finds herself embroiled in a mystery which is far more complex than she'd anticipated.

Embark on a journey through 19th-century New England with 'A New England Nun' by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. This annotated edition unveils the nuanced layers of societal expectations and women's autonomy. Explore the symbolism of wild grapes, the metaphorical imagery of an uncloistered nun, and Joe Daggett's poignant honesty.

August 1901: A fundraiser for a new Rhode Island Audubon Society brings Emma to Vinland, the Viking-themed seaside home of her relative, Florence Vanderbilt Twombly, where the guest of honor is Edith Roosevelt, wife of Vice President Theodore Roosevelt. Emma's observation of harmless philanthropy is proven wrong the following morning when one of Mrs. Twombly's houseguests from the luncheon becomes mysteriously and dangerously ill. Accompanying police detective Jesse Whyte, Emma discovers a box of petit fours supposedly sent by Mrs. Roosevelt.

When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike. In his transcendent fourth novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason delivers a magisterial and highly inventive tale brimming with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we're connected to our environment, to history and to each other.

Miranda is too busy for cancer. But medical tests don't lie. A deadly tumor is taking over her 18-year-old brain, threatening to shatter her hard-earned dreams of an Ivy League education to dust. Schoolwork competes with plans for treatment, and Miranda's stress heightens when her parents schedule the local pastor's kid to come over and pray for her healing every morning before school. When Miranda's health takes a turn for the worse, she looks into religious matters. Including life after death. Just in case.

Kate's perfect life is a lie. Her finances are a mess, her marriage is struggling, and her teenage daughter, Claire, makes life even more difficult with her moodiness. Day after day, she hides the truth. But when her estranged father schedules a visit, she seizes her last chance to try to make him proud of what she's made of her life since dropping out of law school. If Kate can't get life together before her father comes to town, she'll only prove she really is a failure. Just like he's always believed.

It's summertime in Busman's Harbor, Maine, and the clamming is easy - or it was until a mysterious new neighbor blocks access to the beach, cutting off the Snowden Family Clambake's supply. Julia Snowden is just one of many townspeople angered by Bartholomew Frick's decision. But which one of them was angry enough to kill?

When oyster farmer Andie Greatorex is robbed of a bucket of oyster seeds worth $35,000, she comes to Julia Snowden for help. Who wants to sink Andie's successful business? Is it a rival oyster farmer, an ex-employee, a neighbor who objects to the oyster cages floating on the beautiful Damariscotta River, a lobsterman who feels pushed out by the farm leases, or someone from Andie's personal life? Then Andie turns up dead, floating by her dock in the SCUBA gear she wears when harvesting her oysters.

A young couple buys an historic New England home with plans to restore it to its original time and beauty. But they have scarcely moved in when strange and frightening things begin to happen. From a child's gravestone in the backyard, to a horrific history discovered about previous owners, there is little time for them to enjoy this home.

A New England Nun is the tale of Louisa Ellis' struggle with the commitment of marriage after having waited 14 years for her fiancé to return from his stay in Australia. Complication arises when her fiancé falls in love with another woman, and Louisa does not want her independent life disrupted.

Hayley Powell, food and cocktails columnist for Bar Harbor's Island Times, is...well, kind of broke. So when she's selected for that extreme coupon-clipping reality game show coming to town...she's thrilled, especially when her competition is nasty nurse Candace Culpepper. But when Haley stumbles across a face-down-in-the-snow Candace - scissors gleaming between her shoulders - she knows the next thing she'll be selected for will probably be a police line-up.

A man escaping from a hotel fire glimpses a woman standing beneath a tree. He approaches her and sets in motion a series of events that will change his life forever. Years later, traveling from New England to Florida by train, he reflects on his obsession with this unknown and ultimately unknowable woman, his courtship of her, his marriage to her, and the unforgivable act that ripped their family apart.

Welcome to Greenwich, Connecticut, home of scenic beaches, dazzling autumn foliage, and swoon-worthy affluent men. Hindered by a recent surgery that has left his arm in a sling, Eric Salko’s life is upended when the VP of his investment firm hires a temporary new personal assistant to run errands and help with Eric’s daughter, Bella. All bets are off when the stunning employee enters his palatial Connecticut estate. Broke and with her life in shambles, Kira Blumquist is desperate to make the most of her lucky break.

Jess is trying put a painful past behind her and finally secure her college degree. But when a greedy man buys her entire block and threatens to evict all the tenants, including her and her uncle, she knows she has to do something drastic to save her home...and the church property that holds her parents' graves. Being filthy rich has its perks. But Axel still hates running his father's large development firm. Drowning his sorrows in alcohol, parties, and pretty faces, Axel is too self-absorbed to admit his life is spiraling out of control.

It is the late spring of 1978 in a world in which the American Revolution failed in 1776 after George Washington was killed and the Continental Army was destroyed at the Battle of Long Island. The rumbling aftershocks of the Empire Day atrocities which reverberated through Two Hundred Lost Years are threatening to come to the boil. While in Philadelphia the politics become ever more fractious in Spain the Royal Alcazar is a citadel besieged in a country which might as well still be stuck in the 19th century.

Female friendship is intense and that intensity can erupt into dangerous passions when teenage girls are cooped up in an exclusive East Coast boarding school. Beautiful, streetwise Cassidy Thomas; debutante jock Abby Madison; academic, sensitive Karen Mullens; and sophisticated troublemaking Zoey Spalding are four seventeen-year-olds who should be cruising happily through their Senior Year. But jealousies are simmering. And when Zoey plays a game with the class list—if you lose your virginity you get a star beside your name—it sets in motion a chain of shocking events.