Showing results by narrator "Valerie Martin" in All Categories

Jen is just getting used to her life on Peapod Farm with her new stepsisters, Andy and Reese. But when the school year starts, there are even more changes in store for her. Jen has to navigate new friends and new challenges--but at least she'll have Andy with her, right? As she starts the sixth grade, she finds that her stepsister seems way more interested in crushes and boys than hanging out with her, while Jen wants to know when the world decided boys and girls couldn't be "just friends" anymore.

Claire Messud discusses her New York Times Best Book of 2006 with fellow novelist Valerie Martin. The Emperor's Children is a brilliant contemporary novel of manners that puts under a magnifying glass the flawed ambitions of three college friends on the verge of their 30s, trying to make a place for themselves in New York. To set the tone for this enticing discussion, actress Hope Davis reads an excerpt from the book.