Showing results by narrator "Jean Ann Douglass" in All Categories

A proudly humanist portrayal of sexual impulse and impropriety in the City of Angels, The First 50 is a chronological recapitulation of 50 erotic encounters that take place between the ages of 13 and 33. Columbine, 9/11, the Iraq War, and the Great Recession set the stage as a young woman navigates the ambient decadence that has long defined Los Angeles.

If you find yourself running away from fear, you’re running in the wrong direction. Fear demands that we move toward it, face it, and hear its messages. When we fail to do this, the price is high - chronic anxiety, sleeplessness, damaged relationships, skyrocketing pharmaceutical use, and more.

The Mireces worship the bloodthirsty Red Gods. Exiled from Rilpor a thousand years ago, and left to suffer a harsh life in the cold mountains, a new Mireces king now plots an invasion of Rilpor’s thriving cities and fertile earth. Dom Templeson is a Watcher, a civilian warrior guarding Rilpor’s border. He is also the most powerful seer in generations, plagued with visions and prophecies. His people are devoted followers of the god of light and life, but Dom harbors deep secrets, which threaten to be exposed when Rillirin, an escaped Mireces slave, stumbles broken and bleeding into his village.

New Brunswick, 1934. When a cook in a logging camp finds an orphaned baby bear, he brings it home to his wife, who names the cub Bruno and raises him alongside her newborn daughter, Pearly Everlasting. During the Great Depression, amidst severe poverty and dangerous work conditions, Pearly’s family and the woodsmen form a close-knit community that embraces the tame, young bear in their camp. But when a new camp supervisor—who increasingly endangers the lives of the loggers for profit—arrives, he is less accepting of Bruno.

Business as usual is over. The age of hyper-change is upon us, and technology is at the forefront. Since the dawn of the microchip, exponential growth has defined modern technology. Today, entire industries are being upended by software, sensors, cameras, LiDAR, processors, and optics — all growing smaller by the day.

Lexi has always wanted to know more about the mother who passed away when she was only a child. But her dad will barely talk about her. Is it so wrong to want to learn about the mom she never got to know? When Lexi’s grandma dies and secretly leaves her a worn blue chest that belonged to Lexi’s mother, Lexi is ecstatic to find a treasure trove of keepsakes. Her mom held on to letters, pamphlets, flyers, and news articles all from the same beautiful summertime getaway—Mackinac Island—plus a cryptic postcard that hints at a forbidden romance.

Women are, and have always been, all these things and more. Looking through the ages and across the globe, Anita Sarkeesian, founder of Feminist Frequency, along with Ebony Adams, PhD, have reclaimed 25 stories of remarkable women who dared to defy history and change the world around them. 

June 6, 1944. Allied forces hit the beaches of Nazi-occupied France. Among the countless lives shattered are those of five spirited women with starkly different lives. As the war reaches its tipping point, each of the women fight for the survival of themselves, their countries, and their way of life during one of the most pivotal days in history. Now, during the most perilous hours of their lives, all five women must summon courage they never knew they had as they confront the dangers of war alongside treacherous family secrets, heartbreak, and the ability to trust themselves.

Megan Carey was ready to embark on a trip to Europe, finally taking time to do something purely for herself, but when she finds her father on the brink of suicide, her plans go out the window. Her father is being blackmailed by a reclusive genius who’s demanded TK Carey show up to answer for his crimes. Panicked, Megan volunteers to go in his place.

Dena was a busy midwife trapped on the hamster wheel of working motherhood. Adam was an eccentric Buddhist yogi passing as a hardworking dad. Bella was 14 and wanted to be normal. Sophia was up for anything that involved skipping school. Together, they shouldered backpacks, walked away from their California life of all-night births, carpool schedules, and Cal Skate, and crisscrossed India and Nepal for eight months - a journey that led them to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the tree where the Buddha sat, and the arms of Amma the Divine Mother.

Dinah Caldwell has been filling her father's role since he abandoned their family four years ago. She and her grief-stricken mom run their subsistence farm deep in the Ozarks, making sure her younger brother never has to worry. Until the day Gabriel Gates, who owns everyone in Charlotte County, kills her mother to steal her family's well.

Callie Delgado always puts family first, and unfortunately her brother knows it. She’s emptied her savings, lost work, and spilled countless tears trying to keep him out of trouble, but now he’s in deeper than ever, and his debt is on Callie’s head. She’s given a choice: Do some dirty work for the mob, or have her brother returned to her in tiny pieces. 

This collection of true, feel-good holiday stories celebrates the gift of dogs. It's the perfect companion for those magical Christmas evenings in front of the fireplace with your favorite canine companion. It also makes a heartfelt gift for dog-loving friends. Contributors include Lauraine Snelling, Melody Carlson, Amy Shojai, and many more.

A blue girl lives in the woods, eating secrets baked into moon pies and shaking up a small lakeside town. In this small lakeside town, mothers bake their secrets into moon pies they feed to a silent blue girl. Their daughters have secrets too - that they can’t sleep, that they might sleep with a neighbor boy, that they know more than they let on. But when the daughters find the blue girl, everyone’s carefully held silences shake loose. 

Dragons, magic, princesses of mighty kingdoms: elements of fantasy that have carried on throughout the many ages and yet may one day be forgotten. Enter, and delve into the roots of fantasy, rediscovering the fantastic, and exploring lost worlds. This is storytelling at its best. This collection of original works will take listeners back to the moment when they first fell in love with the genre; featuring stories from writers across the spectrum such as Mark Lawrence, R.S. Belcher, Miles Cameron, and many more.

From the depths of German and American archives comes a story one soldier never wanted told. The first volunteer killed defending Robert E. Lee’s position in battle was really a German assassin. After fleeing to the United States to escape prosecution for murder, the assassin enlisted in a German company of the Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Mexican-American War and died defending Lee’s battery at the Siege of Veracruz in 1847.

Six months ago, Harper Cody stressed out over finding the right college. Now, she’ll be thrilled if she makes it to her 18th birthday. Unexpected nuclear war destroyed the world she knew, along with her dreams for a future. Violent thugs took away her parents and home, sending her fleeing into the ashes with her traumatized little sister. Following her best hope for survival, she chased a rumor of safety in the mountains.

For John Freeman—literary critic, essayist, editor, poet, “one of the preeminent book people of our time” (Dave Eggers)—it is the rare moment when words are not enough. But in the wake of the election of 2016, words felt useless, even indulgent. Action was the only reasonable response. He took to the streets in protest, and the sense of community and collective conviction felt right. But the assaults continued—on citizens’ rights and long-held compacts, on the core principles of our culture and civilization, and on our language itself.

1962. In the middle of Brooklyn Heights sits the Starlite: boutique dress shop by day, underground women's club by night. Started by the shop's proprietor after her councilman ex-husband, Fred Abbott, ruined her reputation, Madeline's social club soon becomes a safe haven for women from all walks of life. These after-hour soirées soon bring two very different women into Madeline's life - Elaine, a British ex-pat struggling to save her marriage, and Lisa, a young stewardess whose plans for the future are suddenly upended.

From humble beginnings, a heroine will be forged in fire. Forced to retreat from the army of the dead with her remaining force of Raiders and their dragons, Lila begins to despair that her people will ever be anything but a ragtag band. Even wielding the fabled crown of Roskilde, she cannot unite the Raiders - it seems she is not the one to fulfill Danu’s cherished prophecy. But Danu isn’t giving up yet. Though he suspects the evil Havick has obtained an ancient book that will allow him unspeakable power, help may come from an unlikely source: the dragon Riders of Torvald.