Showing results by narrator "Justin Miller" in All Categories

Eleven-year-old Leo is an "armchair adventurer." This, according to Dad, means he'd choose adventures in books or video games over real-life experiences. And while Leo hates the label, he can’t argue with it. Unlike his little sister Lizzie, Leo is not a risk-taker.

Peter Thompkins needs a public image overhaul. After a tense confrontation with one of the few other queer kids in his small-town high school, rumors about him are becoming more elaborate by the day. Meanwhile, his best friend Alan (aka teen drag queen Aggie Culture) is throwing Mason County’s debut Drag Extravaganza. Although Peter is a self-described “dragnostic,” he decides to help produce the show, hoping to prove that he isn’t a self-hating gay. In the process, he finds himself facing down angry guard dogs, angrier bigots, and a very high-strung church lady.

Startling, suspenseful, deeply humane yet alert to the undertow of our darker instincts, the eight stories in Animal Person illuminate what it means to exist in the perilous space between desire and action, and to have your faith in what you hold true buckle and give way.

Eleven-year-old Rodney is starting sixth grade in a new school, in a new home in a new state. The new school is really old and smells like someone ate a couple of pounds of glue and then barfed it back up, and he's in a class with a bunch of kids who seem to sort of hate him. Even his best friend won't write him back. It's strange, because just a couple of months ago, Rodney was one of the most popular guys in his fifth-grade class. He lived in Las Vegas, with his mom, older sister and his dad, who was a successful professional poker player.

From Governor General's Literary Award-winning author Susin Nielsen comes a funny and heartfelt story about learning how to rise above your most embarrassing moment with humor, best friends, and a killer triangle solo.

An experimental fiction, I Become a Delight to My Enemies uses many different voices and forms to tell the stories of the women who live in an uncanny Town, uncovering their experiences of shame, fear, cruelty, and transcendence. Sara Peters combines poetry and short prose vignettes to create a singular, unflinching portrait of a Town in which the lives of girls and women are shaped by the brutality meted upon them and by their acts of defiance and yearning towards places of safety and belonging.

The surest way to retiring poor is working for money instead of getting money to work for you. Whether you have a 9-5 job or are self-employed, if you cannot put money to work for you in some way, your odds of working the rest of your life and perhaps retiring poor are very high. Moreover, if you work for money, you cannot really do everything you want to do whenever you want to do it since your income is directly connected to your efforts- if you stop working, it is only a matter of time before the income dries up.

I'm Bill Michaels. I'm 59-years old and have worked hard all my life. But I still ended up losing my job. That's life. What you do after it all falls apart, well, that makes the real story. I came down to the Keys for a long weekend and decided to stay forever. Or until my luck and money runs out. Like I said, I lost my job up north, but was it much of a loss?   

This memoir is a unique insight into the personal journey and thoughts of one pilgrim who travelled across the Camino de Santiago twice. The pilgrimage from the south of France to Santiago, Spain, is not just about the places to see, cathedrals, or sites, but an invitation to meet travelers along the way and hear their stories. What drives people to walk 500 miles and how does it change them? More Than All the Steps is an invitation to walk with me and other pilgrims as we experience the crunch of dirt under our feet and the bonds created with others and the trail.

Once upon a time in a small pond, there lived many little animals. The tiniest of them all were the tadpoles, but one tadpole was just a tad too small. His name was Fin, and he had an ENORMOUS question. "HOW DO I GET BIGGER?"