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Years after her Chinese half-sister assails her with ghost stories set in the mysterious world of Yin, Olivia — a young woman from San Francisco — finds herself in China. Looking for a way to reconcile her past with dreams for her future, Olivia's American assumptions are shaken by Chinese ghosts, but she also finds reasons to hope.

For decades, a quartet of Chinese women who have emigrated to San Francisco gather to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk—they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Over the years, their stories have informed the lives of four daughters who feel the weight of family and world history on their shoulders. With wit and sensitivity, this novel explores the deep, complicated, and sometimes painful connections between mothers and daughters.

Falsely accused of a crime and betrayed by his closest friend, the weaver Silas Marner has been hoarding his earnings for 15 years. Distanced from his religious community, he has devoted himself to his work and taken pleasure only in counting his coins. Then in a single day, his gold is stolen and a lovely child appears on his doorstep. As he changes his life to meet the irresistible needs of the child, Marner accepts that the loss of the gold was a necessary exchange for the child.

Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon offers fresh interpretations of the most widely read and loved poet of the 20th century—translated and read by a master of poetic expressiveness. Out of the great profusion of Neruda's poetry, Stephen Mitchell has selected forty-nine poems and brought them to life for a new generation of listeners. These are poems of a happy man, deeply fulfilled in his sexuality, at home in the world, in love with life and its infinite particular forms, and overflowing with the joy of language.

Jean Valjean is one of society's victims. A poor but honest peasant, he is caught stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving family and is sent to prison. By the time of his eventual release, he has become a hardened criminal, but his friendship with the saintly Monseigneur Bienvenu gives him another chance at life. This new, respectable life is precarious, for Valjean is still sought by the law, in the person of the implacable Inspector Javert.

The welfare of children—a theme of many novels by Charles Dickens—is central to Nicholas Nickleby, the story of a fatherless young man, his mother, and his sister who find themselves at the mercy of a greedy and unscrupulous relative. Nicholas Nickleby is both a vivid indictment of the exploitive, brutal boarding schools of the late 19th century and a celebration of a little family's resilient generosity of spirit. Actor Paul Scofield's performance captures the warmth and charm of this story and its array of colorful characters.

One day, 14-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find two notes in her mailbox, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up?

William Butler Yeats's early poetry is suffused with the radiant lyricism of Irish folklore and myth; the yearning romance and distinctly Irish voice of these first works of the Nobel laureate have inspired scores of poets. This splendid selection offers a distinctive sampling of the Yeatsian voice.

Jalaluddin Rumi, a spiritual mystic of the Islamic world, is recognized as one of the most influential poets in history. His words are charged with an unequalled blend of literary genius and spiritual wisdom. No matter how often we listen to Rumi, each time is always the first time. Like This is a compilation of more than twenty of the beloved Persian poet's most beautiful verses. Narrator Coleman Barks' warm and sensitive reading combines with the world-renowned musicianship of Hamza El Din and Steve Coughlin to create an enthralling listening experience.

This timeless saga traces the intertwined lives of a group of prosperous Jewish Holocaust survivors in New York City after World War II. A chain of events disrupts the close-knit community as each refugee struggles to reconcile the horrific past with the difficult present and explores both the nature of faith and the nature of love. Marriages and affairs fall apart; age and death take their toll; the wisdom of the scripture and kabbalah and the precepts of the great philosophers and avatars of modern science are passionately debated in extended conversations that seethe with drama.

Emma Bovary is the original desperate housewife. Beautiful but bored, Emma is not content to be the mere dutiful wife of a French country doctor. She believes she was meant for something more—a life of luxury, leisure, and, above all, true and passionate love. She spends lavishly on clothes and on her home and throws herself headlong into a reckless series of doomed affairs. Soon heartbroken and crippled by debts, she takes drastic action, with tragic consequences for her husband and daughter.

Rainer Maria Rilke has been called the most significant and compelling poet of spiritual experience of the 20th century. His exploration of the struggle between life and art and the supremacy of divine love over personal love has touched the hearts of men and women everywhere. The poems in this reading are from the selected poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell.

Drawing upon everyday incidents, common situations, and rural imagery, Robert Frost fashioned poetry of great lyrical beauty and potent symbolism. His language is simple, clear, and colloquial, yet dense with meaning and wider significance. This brilliant collection features some of Frost's greatest works, including "The Road Not Taken," "Asking for Roses," "The Death of the Hired Man," "In the Home Stretch," "Into My Own," "Meeting and Passing," "Mending Wall," and more.

Surrounded by his children, who all seem to be going through life crises, and his wife, who is wrestling with her own demons, small-town Texas local Duane Moore can't seem to make sense of his life anymore. To the perplexity of his family and friends, he ditches his pickup, starts walking everywhere, and moves to a crude shack six miles out of town. But his attempts to go off the grid are far from successful, and he struggles with increasing depression.

For decades, a quartet of Chinese women who have emigrated to San Francisco gather to eat dim sum, play mahjong, and talk — they call themselves the Joy Luck Club. Over the years, their stories have informed the lives of four daughters who feel the weight of family and world history on their shoulders.

For decades — in China and in San Francisco — Winnie Louie and Helen Kwong have kept each other's confidences, but those secrets are about to be revealed. Convinced that she is dying, Helen decides to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of hidden truths — not only hers, but those of Winnie and of Winnie's daughter, Pearl.

For decades — in China and in San Francisco — Winnie Louie and Helen Kwong have kept each other's confidences, but those secrets are about to be revealed. Convinced that she is dying, Helen decides to celebrate the Chinese New Year by unburdening herself of hidden truths — not only hers, but those of Winnie and of Winnie's daughter, Pearl.

These passages from the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson on religion and spiritual philosophy reveal a metaphysical thought that is quintessentially American and universally relevant to the spiritual needs of today's world. It is seldom that an American philosopher is found among the gurus, mystics, and masters present in the spiritual milieu. Emerson combined the spiritual intuition of the East with the philosophical acumen of the West.

Lisa Kron invites her audience on a roller coaster ride through the Kron family album in 2.5 Minute Ride. Rising and falling between high hilarity and deep disquiet, Kron demonstrates with disarming simplicity that humor and horror can share the same human moment. Kron's' performance switches back and forth between her journey to Auschwitz with her septuagenarian father, a Holocaust survivor; her Michigan family's annual pilgrimage to a Sandusky, Ohio amusement park, and more.

A brooding, suspenseful novel of sensuality and vengeance, set amid the fields and villages of 19th century England. Bella Ford, jilted by her unscrupulous lover, plans revenge that ends in a catastrophic act of violence.