Central Kansas Library System

"A gripping historical mystery based on the real-life diary entries of Martha Ballard, an 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history. Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of...

Cecelia Holland's historical fiction is well known for its immersion in exotic cultures, and Until the Sun Falls, one of her most successful books, takes the reader into the heart of the Mongol horde during the conquest of Russia and eastern Europe in the thirteenth century. Genghis Khan had told his people they were destined to rule the world, and by his death they had made an impressive start. His four sons followed him to the leadership of the...

Little children throughout the world wait impatiently for Christmas to arrive. As parents know, it can seem as if the days just crawl by. Now your family can learn and put to use Advent traditions from the country of Germany during the Christmas season. No doubt mothers have long been inventing ways to keep young children occupied during the Advent season-like Gerhard Lang's mother, who in the mid-1800s helped her young son count the days on a calendar...

In 1976, Cassandra Taylor is paying her dues as a session musician when she meets rockstar Jeff Kingston. She is plunged into the glamourous rock-n-roll world until the music industry demons infiltrate their relationship and Cass is reduced to being a casualty of his stardom. Years later, with a successful songwriting career of her own, Cass finds Jeff is back, asking for a second chance. On the verge of finally having the career and relationship...

1798, France. Nuns move along the dark corridors of a Versailles hospital where the young Sister Perpetu©Øe has been tasked with sitting with the patient who must always be watched. The man, gaunt, with his sallow skin and distended belly, is dying: they say he ate a golden fork, and that it's killing him from the inside. But that's not all--he is rumored to have done monstrous things in his attempts to sate an insatiable appetite... an appetite...

"In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person's greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope has gone, the tale comes with a warning. Every wish demands a price. Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that...

If she'd known the consequences, would she have made the same choice?An underground, sophisticated community hidden for thousands of years, ruled by the sacred laws handed down by the Ancients.A young Healer -- forbidden to pair and committed to the service of the Great Spirit.A handsome protector -- compelling but out of reach.A powerful Chieftain -- who demands obedience above all else.What if...The People's existence is thrown into jeopardy when...

"Germany, 1929. At a festive gathering of young bohemians in Weimar, two young artists, Max, a skilled Jewish architect, and Bettina, a celebrated avant-garde painter, are drawn to each other and begin a whirlwind romance. Their respective talents transport them to the dazzling lights of Berlin, but this bright beginning is quickly dimmed by the rising threat of Nazism. Max is arrested and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau where only his talent...

Barely able to walk and rendered mute by the cancer metastasizing in his throat, Ulysses S. Grant is scratching out words, hour after hour, day after day. Desperate to complete his memoirs before his death so his family might have some financial security and he some redemption, Grant journeys back in time. He had once been the savior of the Union, the general to whom Lee surrendered at Appomattox, a twice-elected president who fought for the civil...