Service Alert
CD service concludes July 31, 2025
Users have until the end of day July 15th to place requests for CDs. CELA will cease production and mailing CDs effective Thursday, July 31.
Title search results
Showing 1 - 10 of 10 items
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Women biography, United States history
Human-narrated audio
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • KIRKUS PRIZE FINALIST • A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed…
down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives. NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY • &“Deeply layered and insightful . . . [a] bold reflection on American history, African American resilience, and the human capacity for love and perseverance in the face of soul-crushing madness.&”— The Washington Post &“A history told with brilliance and tenderness and fearlessness.&”—Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley&’s survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley&’s granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language— including Rose&’s wish that &“It be filled with my Love always.&” Ruth&’s sewn words, the reason we remember Ashley&’s sack today, evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love passed down through generations. Now, in this illuminating, deeply moving new book inspired by Rose&’s gift to Ashley, historian Tiya Miles carefully unearths these women&’s faint presence in archival records to follow the paths of their lives—and the lives of so many women like them—to write a singular and revelatory history of the experience of slavery, and the uncertain freedom afterward, in the United States. The search to uncover this history is part of the story itself. For where the historical record falls short of capturing Rose&’s, Ashley&’s, and Ruth&’s full lives, Miles turns to objects and to art as equally important sources, assembling a chorus of women&’s and families&’ stories and critiquing the scant archives that for decades have overlooked so many. The contents of Ashley&’s sack— a tattered dress, handfuls of pecans, a braid of hair, &“my Love always&”—are eloquent evidence of the lives these women lived. As she follows Ashley&’s journey, Miles metaphorically unpacks the bag, deepening its emotional resonance and exploring the meanings and significance of everything it contained. All That She Carried is a poignant story of resilience and of love passed down through generations of women against steep odds. It honors the creativity and fierce resourcefulness of people who preserved family ties even when official systems refused to do so, and it serves as a visionary illustration of how to reconstruct and recount their stories today
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
General fiction
Human-narrated audio
"Kingsolver is a writer who can help us understand and navigate the chaos of these times." —Minneapolis Star Tribune From…
the New York Times bestselling author of Unsheltered and Flight Behavior, a brilliant novel which enthralls, compels, and captures the heart as it evokes a young hero's unforgettable journey to maturity. "Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose." Demon Copperhead is set in the mountains of southern Appalachia. It's the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Award winning fiction, Historical fiction, Serious and literary fiction, Movie and television tie-ins, Romance
Human-narrated audio
A novel of manners set in New York society in the 1870's. Newland Archer is torn between his attraction to…
a woman separated from her husband, and his security in a bland but proper marriage. Pulitzer Prize winner. 1920.
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
General fiction, Serious and literary fiction, Family stories
Human-narrated audio
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy,…
where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos. But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most? An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women , Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
Braille (Contracted), Electronic braille (Contracted)
Romance
Human-transcribed braille
A novel of manners set in New York society in the 1870s, an age of convention, propriety, and tribal solidarity.…
Newland Archer is torn between his attraction to Countess Olenska, a femme fatale, and his security in a bland, but proper, marriage to her cousin May. Pulitzer Prize. 1920
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Women biography, Family and relationships, Nature
Human-narrated audio
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK THE PERFECT AUDIOBOOK FOR NATURE LOVERS, BIRDERS, AND GARDENERS * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER…
* AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK * INDIE NEXT PICK From the beloved New York Times opinion writer and bestselling author of Late Migrations comes a "howling love letter to the world" (Ann Patchett): a luminous book that traces the passing of seasons, personal and natural.℗ In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons-from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring-what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.℗ Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a little more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author-and from us. For, as Renkl writes, "radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world."℗ With fifty-two original color artworks by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Food and drink, Journals and memoirs, Biography
Human-narrated audio
In her long-awaited memoir, Ina Garten-aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation,…
and cultural icon-shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table. Here, for the first time, Ina Garten presents an intimate, entertaining, and inspiring account of her remarkable journey. Ina's gift is to make everything look easy, yet all her accomplishments have been the result of hard work, audacious choices, and exquisite attention to detail. In her unmistakable voice (no one tells a story like Ina), she brings her past and her process to life in a high-spirited and no-holds-barred memoir that chronicles decades of personal challenges, adventures (and misadventures) and unexpected career twists, all delivered with her signature combination of playfulness and purpose. From a difficult childhood to meeting the love of her life, Jeffrey, and marrying him while still in college, from a boring bureaucratic job in Washington, D.C., to answering an ad for a specialty food store in the Hamptons, from the owner of one Barefoot Contessa shop to author of bestselling cookbooks and celebrated television host, Ina has blazed her own trail and, in the meantime, taught millions of people how to cook and entertain. Now, she invites them to come closer to experience her story in vivid detail and to share the important life lessons she learned along the way: do what you love because if you love it you'll be really good at it, swing for the fences, and always Be Ready When the Luck Happens
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Poetry, Humour
Human-narrated audio
The debut poetry collection from Lyndsay Rush (aka @maryoliversdrunkcousin) is a humorous and joyful celebration of big feelings, tender truths,…
and hard-won wisdom, for fans of Maggie Smith, Kate Baer, and Kate Kennedy. At long last, a book of poetry for people who didn't even know they liked poetry. And they're in good company: author Lyndsay Rush didn't know she liked it either. That is, until she embarked on an internet experiment under the Instagram username @MaryOliversDrunkCousin that turned into a body of work that struck a chord with women across the country; thanks to her signature wordplay, witticisms, and-against all odds-wisdom. With titles like "Shedonism", "Someone to Eat Chips With", "It's Called Maximalism, Babe", and "Breaking News: Local Woman Gets Out of Bed", Rush's debut collection of poetry uses humor to grapple with the female experience-from questioning whether or not to have children, to roasting the patriarchy, to challenging what it means to "age gracefully"-and each piece delivers gut-punching truths alongside gratifying punchlines. Readers walk away from Lyndsay's work feeling seen, celebrated, and wholly convinced that joy is an urgent, worthwhile pursuit. With over 140 convention-bending poems-most of which are never-before-seen-this book is quite literally A Bit Much
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
General fiction, Serious and literary fiction
Human-narrated audio
"What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don't understand yet . . . " When retired…
math teacher Grace Winters inherits a run-down house on the Mediterranean island of Ibiza from a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. Grace arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan. Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend's life and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have possibly dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past. Filled with wonder and wild adventure, this is a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning
DAISY audio (CD), DAISY audio (Direct to player), DAISY audio (Zip)
Women sleuths, Serious and literary fiction, Mysteries and crime stories, Humourous fiction
Human-narrated audio
In this latest installment of Alexander McCall Smith's beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi…
take on an intriguing new case and uncover surprising truths. In the rolling hills just outside Gaborone, surrounded by a grove of acacia trees, lies the Great Hippopotamus Hotel. With spacious rooms overlooking the Botswanan countryside and a fine and loyal staff, the hotel has served as a refuge to weary travelers for many years. But a sudden string of misfortunes threatens to ruin the hotel's reputation. Food poisoning befalls an unlucky diner, laundry mysteriously disappears from the drying line, and a scorpion stings one of the guests. Mishap after mishap occurs, until it becomes apparent that these incidents are more than simple coincidences—something foul is afoot. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are on the case to find out who could be responsible for these unfortunate events. Meanwhile, one of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni's most important clients has asked him to source a sports car, putting him in a ticklish position, as the man's wife seems to be unaware of the purchase, and the client is taking great pains to keep it that way. With a healthy dose of good humor and kindness, Mma Ramotswe and her associates must help restore the reputation of the hotel and prove that even the most difficult situations can be remedied with honesty and compassion