Showing results by narrator "Anna Fields" in All Categories

The first edition of Crucial Conversations exploded onto the scene and revolutionized the way millions of people communicate when stakes are high. This new edition gives you the tools to prepare for high-stakes situations; transform anger and hurt feelings into powerful dialogue; make it safe to talk about almost anything; be persuasive, not abrasive; and more. 

In December 1937, in the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. Amazingly, the story of this atrocity- one of the worst in world history- continues to be denied by the Japanese government.

Ann Patchett’s award winning, New York Times best-selling Bel Canto balances themes of love and crisis as disparate characters learn that music is their only common language. As in Pratchett’s other novels, including Truth & Beauty and The Magician’s Assistant, the author’s lyrical prose and lucid imagination make Bel Canto a captivating story of strength and frailty, love and imprisonment, and an inspiring tale of transcendent romance. 

When Faye Travers is called upon to appraise the estate of a family in her small New Hampshire town, she isn't surprised to discover a forgotten cache of valuable Native American artifacts. However, she stops dead in her tracks when she finds in the collection a rare drum, ornamented with symbols she doesn't recognize and dressed in red tassels and a beaded belt and skirt, especially since, without touching the instrument, she hears it sound.

For ex-FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, it's the beginning of his worst nightmare: a car abandoned on a desolate stretch of Oregon highway, engine running, purse on the driver's seat. And his estranged wife, Rainie Conner, gone, leaving no clue to her fate.

Abigail was the last keeper of the house, the last to know the Howland family's secrets. Now, in the name of all her brothers and sisters, she must take her bitter revenge on the small-minded Southern town that shamed them, persecuted them, but could never destroy them.

Dean Robillard is the Chicago Stars' hotshot quarterback. Not only does he have lightening reflexes on the field, he is also utterly gorgeous. First seen in the critically acclaimed Match Me If You Can, Dean is trying to recover (both mentally and physically) from a shoulder injury by taking a road trip. Along the way he meets Blue, a beautiful woman down on her luck, and as they spend more time together their attraction grows.

As a sniper with the elite Massachusetts State Police SWAT Team, Bobby Dodge saved a woman and her young son by shooting her armed husband. But vicious rumors begin to circulate the next morning when Bobby loses his gun and his privileges. It turns out the dead man was the son of a prominent Boston judge and had accused his wife of poisoning their son.

The rapist left an indelible mark on their lives; now three women must live with the consequences of his violent brutality. But when he's murdered on his way to trial, the police investigation takes a scorching new focus. All three women had a reason to hate him. All three wanted him dead. But which one of them murdered him? Explosively plotted and unnervingly suspenseful, The Survivors Club sizzles from beginning to end.

John Forbes Nash, Jr., a prodigy and legend by the age of 30, dazzled the mathematical world by solving a series of deep problems deemed "impossible" by other mathematicians. But at the height of his fame, Nash suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown and began a harrowing descent into insanity, resigning his post at MIT, slipping into a series of bizarre delusions, and eventually becoming a dreamy, ghostlike figure at Princeton, scrawling numerological messages on blackboards.

A serial killer watches and waits. Each time, he takes two victims, preparing the first's body with all the clues the police need to find the second, who is still alive. The clock ticks, and the second one can still be saved. But the police never make it in time. The second one dies. For years, the killer has plagued the city with the same pattern, but the police never pick up on it quickly enough.

What do you do when a killer targets the people you love the most? When he knows how to make them vulnerable? When he knows the same about you? These are the questions that haunt FBI Special Agent Pierce Quincy. The police say his daughter’s death was an accident. Quincy will risk everything to learn the truth - and there’s only one person willing to help. Ex-cop Rainie Connor had once been paired professionally - and personally - with the brilliant FBI profiler. He helped her through the darkest days of her life.

It is a boiling hot Boston summer. Adding to the city’s woes is a series of shocking crimes, in which wealthy men are made to watch while their wives are brutalized. A sadistic demand that ends in abduction and death. The pattern suggests one man: serial killer Warren Hoyt, recently removed from the city’s streets. Police can only assume an acolyte is at large, a maniac basing his attacks on the twisted medical techniques of the madman he so admires. At least that’s what Detective Jane Rizzoli thinks.

This is Ayn Rand's challenge to the prevalent philosophical doctrines of our time and the "atmosphere of guilt, of panic, of despair, of boredom, and of all-pervasive evasion" that they create. One of the most controversial figures on the intellectual scene, Ayn Rand was the proponent of a moral philosophy, an ethic of rational self-interest, that stands in sharp opposition to the ethics of altruism and self-sacrifice.

Jane, a struggling filmmaker in New York, is given her big break, a chance to travel through the United States to produce a Japanese television program sponsored by American meat exporters. Meanwhile, Akiko, a painfully thin Japanese woman struggling with bulimia, is being pressured by her child-craving husband to put some meat on her bones, literally.

Daniel Hecht has created a plausible, heart-stopping ghost thriller. Relying on the science of parapsychology to spine-tingling effect, he brings to life a remarkably compelling character in Cree Black, as well as the ghosts she confronts.

She's a fashion model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden freeway "accident" leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she is transformed from the beautiful center of attention to an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists.

Following in the tradition of the Tao Te Ching, that ancient Chinese classic text on human nature (as well as more popular interpretations, like the best-selling The Tao of Pooh) comes The Tao of Warren Buffett, a compendium of quotes from America's favorite businessman. Buffett's investment strategies and life philosophies are revealed in this collection of sayings, some of which have never been heard before. Warren Buffett can teach us all a few secrets of success.

Hailed by critics as "monumental" ( Boston Globe) and "utterly romantic" ( New York magazine), Véra, the story of Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov, brings to shimmering life one of the greatest literary love stories of our time. Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, Pale Fire, and Speak, Memory, wrote his books first for himself and secondly for his wife.

Whitney MacAllister has all the wealth, power, and beauty anyone could ever wish for, and is therefore profoundly bored. Enter Douglas Lord, a good-looking, street-smart thief, who brings Whitney into his world of high adventure and murderous rivals. They come to a business agreement: Whitney will bankroll Douglas on an expedition to retrieve the legendary lost treasure of a long-dead Madagascar queen; in exchange, Whitney will get to come along and keep half the money once they have gained their prize.