Showing results by narrator "Laural Merlington" in All Categories

Once there was a little girl from Fargo, North Dakota, named Maggie Goldfarb who grew up, moved to Manhattan, and morphed into Magnolia Gold, the highly paid editor in chief of Lady magazine. With a corner office, a designer wardrobe, and dozens of loyal employees, Magnolia has been hired to update the dowager of women's magazines. She's on her way to giving Lady a face-lift when she is ignominiously replaced.

Eleanor Merritt, a do-gooding American family-planning worker, was drawn to Kenya to improve the lot of the poor. Unnervingly, she finds herself falling in love with the beguiling Calvin Piper despite, or perhaps because of, his misanthropic theories about population control and the future of the human race. Surely, Calvin whispers seductively in Eleanor's ear, if the poor are a responsibility they are also an imposition.

When Elizabeth Mooney escaped the shame of her "white trash" family to marry the crown prince of her small town, Howell Whittington, she never dreamed that 30 years later she'd end up trapped in a loveless marriage to the cruel banker who's foreclosing on all her friends. Then Howe has a stroke in church, and when he wakes up, he's transformed. He wants to be a real husband - which scares proper, repressed Elizabeth to death - and sets out to right past wrongs....

Is your spiritual life more like a fast-food run than an intimate dinner for two? Whether it’s the busy mother’s wish to be Wonder Woman—minus the metal bra—or battles with an exploding hot water heater, or fighting the "Resolutionary War" of New Year’s Day, Mary Pierce understands the dilemmas of being a woman in today’s 24/7 world. From disorganized misery to extreme organizational mania. Pierce deals with our fumbling attempts to grow closer to God, encouraging us as she invites us to laugh, cry, love, embrace life, and pray!

Rosie Gardener Bliss loses her best friend and business partner Vickie Winters the day she marries sweet-talking Kent Bliss. Vickie tried to warn Rosie that Kent is a handsome womanizer who's only marrying her for her money. Rosie believes Vickie is jealous, because overweight Rosie is getting married while slim Vickie remains single. On her third wedding anniversary Rosie decides she's had enough of Kent. He's ignored her, cheated on her, and spent her hard-earned money.

How often have you seen a teenage girl pretend to be perturbed, but secretly smile, when she is told that she acts or looks just like her mother? Fathers, brothers, and friends sometimes shake their heads in wonder as girls "turn into their mothers". This new collection from Chicken Soup represents the best stories from Chicken Soup's library on the special bond between mothers and daughters, and the magical, mysterious similarities between them.

This book continues Chicken Soup for the Soul's focus on inspiration and hope in these difficult times. These inspirational stories remind us that each day holds something to be thankful for - whether it is having the sun shine or having food on the table. These stories of the joy of giving, attitude, and being grateful for what you have remind us of the simple pleasures of family, home, health, and inexpensive good times.

Nevada is home to Hope Gardener, its rugged, majestic beauty a balm for the aches of her heart and spirit. But the cattle ranch she owns and loves is dying, thanks to the worst drought the area has ever seen. Hope needs a miracle or she will lose the land that has been in her family for generations. And then, the miracle appears on horseback.

Determined not to be like her irresponsible and selfish parents, Corinne Fremont has never dropped her guard in her professional or personal life. But Maverick businessman Corey Haraden conducts both his love life and business with enthusiasm. Corinne isn't like the women he usually dates, but she intrigues him.

So you think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, the girl with the unfortunate name and the inability to tell the difference between her grandmother and a member of a different species? Well, then, try your hand at answering these questions: Which character (not including Little Red herself) is the most fashion challenged? Who (not including the wolf) is the scariest? Who (not including Granny) is the most easily scared? Who is the strangest? (Notice we’re not "not including" anyone, because they’re all a little off.) Who (no fair saying "the author") has stuffing for brains?

Phoebe Hoban, author of definitive biographies of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Alice Neel, now turns her attention to Lucian Freud, the grandson of Sigmund and one of the greatest painters England has produced. Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open is the first biography to assess Freud’s work and life, showing how the two converge.

A rising star in the CIA, Erin Baker is driven by tragedy from her past. When she was a child, her eight-year-old sister, Claire, was kidnapped. Though Claire was miraculously found, she was changed forever. As was Erin, who now just might get what she's always wanted: the chance to make a difference in someone's life. But she must be willing to risk everything she holds dear.

Olive is the most unlikely of secret agents, a professional assassin in her sixties who's known only as "The Knit Lady." She begins her trade by killing the Italian mobster who'd cheated her late husband, and then is quietly recruited by "The Brokers." Now she's hired to kidnap and kill retired British agent Benjamin Scarlatt. But The Knit Lady has scruples, and when an Islamic terrorist group takes control of the cruise ship on which both she and Scarlatt are traveling, she decides to fight back, with knitting needle, scalpel - and plastic explosives.

Thanks to her superstitious mother, Esther knows some tricks for avoiding bad luck: toss salt over your left shoulder, never button your shirt crooked, and avoid black cats. But even luck can't keep her family safe from the Great Depression. When Pa loses his job, Esther's family leaves their comfy Chicago life behind for a farm in Wisconsin. Living on a farm comes with lots of hard work, but that means there are plenty of opportunities for Esther to show her mother how helpful she can be.

Unwilling to force her live-in love Case McCord into a proposal of marriage, a pregnant Pru Kenyon decides to walk away from the man she loves, not telling him that she is expecting his baby. But she never bargained for how much Case is willing to do for love.

On the eve of her retirement, Georgia attorney Mikala Aulani is as vivacious and vibrant as ever, eagerly anticipating a happy future with her partner, Ben. But if Kala has learned anything in35 years of practicing law, it’s that the truth can always surprise you. And when Adam Star turns up at her office, confessing to the long-ago murder of his wife, Kala must return to a notorious case that has never stopped haunting her. Ten years have passed since young nurse Sophie Lee was accused of murdering her wealthy patient.

Locke, California, 1928. Three bedraggled Chinese women suddenly appear out of the mist one afternoon in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River, and their arrival throws the community into confusion. Two of the women are unknown to the townspeople, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor, who had left her behind in China many years earlier and had not yet returned for her.

In an age when corporate executives are focused on smoothing out differences and achieving consensus, Saj-nicole Joni and Damon Beyer contend that happy workers aren't always productive; they often become prone to boredom and complacency. While organizational harmony and strategic alignment are important, the health and well-being of organizations also depend on carefully constructed and constructive conflict.

Lara Chandler has come home to the Rocking B Ranch - though not for Carson Blackridge. Four years ago he cruelly rejected her, and her love turned to hate. But the chance to research the history of the ranch on a business footing is one she just can't pass up. Carson is waiting, though, and he is determined to show her that he's long regretted the way he treated her.

Patrol woman Charlotte Monroe has cop instincts. Scratch that. There isn't a name for the intuition she possesses, something that borders on psychic, an ability to read people's faces and body language like the morning headlines - to size up their intentions and act before they do. But none of that prepares her for the stranger who shows up on her doorstep with a chilling warning for her husband, a mysterious note scrawled in Cherokee hieroglyphics and a promise of things to come: "You're Next."