A Rose for the Crown

A Rose for the Crown ♥ ♥ ♥
Rosalyn Landor
20 discs

Kate is married at a young age to an older merchant and becomes wealthy when her husband dies. Her second marriage is to a cousin who prefers the stableboy to his wife. She meets Richard of Gloucester and falls in love. Her husband is killed during an attack and she bears Richard three children.

Wallis & Edward: Letters

Wallis & Edward: Letters ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Davina Porter Neil Hunt, Betty Harris

By the end of this fascinating and superbly edited collection of the 1930s letters of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, one comes as close as possible to knowing the writers. In contrast to the popularly accepted picture of a scheming woman, Wallis in particular comes across as a likeable, vibrant woman who got caught up in something she didn’t understand.

Girl with the Pearl Earring

Girl with the Pearl Earring ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Ruth Ann Phimister

16-year-old Griet’s life is transformed by her brief encounter with artists Johannes Vermeer.  As a maid in the Vermeer home Griet becomes a trusted assistant to the artist and eventually becomes the subject of Vermeers most significant portrait

Brother and Sister: A Novel

Brother and Sister: A Novel ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Lindsay Duncan

Nathalie and David were adopted as babies by a warm and loving couple, the Dexters, and they enjoyed happy childhoods. Their sibling bond continues to be unusually strong, and they still share a mutual pretense that being adopted gave them a psychic freedom impossible in a conventional family. Now David is married with three young children and a thriving gardening business. When Nathalie-living with artistic designer Steve and mother to five-year-old Polly-admits to herself that her lack of family history is an open wound, she convinces David that they both should trace down their biological mothers.

Visions of Emma Blau

Visions of Emma Blau ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Kim Edwards-Fukei

In 1905, Stefan Blau, recently emigrated from Burgdorf, has a vision of a girl dancing in a courtyard (foreshadowing identifies her as his eventual granddaughter, Emma) and resolves to give substance to his dream in a building that he will call the Wasserburg. Stefan’s passion for the Wasserburg is also a curse, manifested when both his first wife and his second die in childbirth. Determined not to risk another child, he returns to Burgdorf and marries Helene Montag (sister of Leo, the dwarf Trudi’s father in Stones). Helene tricks him and has a child of her own–and survives–but the sibling rivalry among Stefan’s offspring, combined with the personality defects they acquire when he reserves all his love for the Wasserburg, will threaten to destroy the family.

To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette

To the Scaffold: the Life of Marie Antoinette  ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Davina Porter

Much maligned in her lifetime, Marie Antoinette is likewise much misunderstood by history, which portrays her as a vain, selfish, and insensitive woman of limited intellect.  Tracing Marie Antoinette from her childhood among her 13 brothers and sisters at the court of her legendary mother, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie was not as the selfish queen of lore but  a reasonably intelligent, opinionated woman of decidedly conservative bent whose ultimate “crime,” for which she paid with her life, was having the wrong title in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Shopgirl

Shopgirl ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Steve Martin

Mirabelle Buttersfield sells expensive evening gloves nobody ever buys at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills.  Mirabelle attempts to forge a relationship with middle-aged, womanizing millionaire Ray Porter while being pursued by socially inept and unambitious slacker Jeremy. Also playing roles in her life are her father, a dysfunctional Vietnam veteran, and Lisa, her promiscuous, image-obsessed co-worker and voracious rival.

The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Paul Michael

This book describes the attempts of Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard, to solve the murder of renowned curator Killed at the Louvre.   A baffling cipher is found near his body. The Curator’s  granddaughter, Sophie Neveu and Langdon attempt to sort out the bizarre riddles and are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo Da Vinci.

The Shadow in the North

The Shadow in the North ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Anton Lesser

In 1878 in London, Sally, now twenty-two and established in her own business, and her companions Frederick and Jim try to solve the mystery surrounding the unexpected collapse of a shipping firm and its ties to a sinister corporation called North Star.

Cousin Bette

Cousin Bette ♥ ♥ ♥
Read by Johanna Ward

Unmarried middle-aged Bette, plots the destruction of her cousin Adeline and her husband Baron Hector Hulot.  Harboring a deep resentment of her relatives’ success Bette conspires with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, in the seduction and torment of a series of men.   In the end Baron Hulot sacrifices his family’s fortune and good name to please Valérie, who then leaves him for a tradesman named Crevel.