Showing results by narrator "Lauren Pedersen" in All Categories

Jill's family law career is in a rut. Watching a client go back to her abusive husband, yet again—and then learning she's been passed up for a partnership, yet again-finally prompts her to take a break. She'll have to dip into her emergency fund. But after all those long days in her windowless office, subsisting on leftover cake from the break room, it's time to smell some flowers. When she arrives in picturesque South Cove on the Pacific coast, she finds friendly residents, a peaceful beach, and nature's beauty.

Detective James Holton has been honorably discharged from the Army Criminal Investigation Division due to wounds sustained when an IED blew up near him. Now with the Lake City Police Department, he's rooming with his good buddy and partner, Cole, while he figures out his family dynamics. Physician Assistant Lainie Jackson is eighteen months out from an attempted murder perpetrated by her ex, which ended when she managed to grab the weapon and shoot him. When he appears to have survived and is back to finish the job he started, Lainie insists it's not possible.

If you read (or listen to) nothing else on artificial intelligence and machine learning, listen to these ten articles. We've combed through hundreds of Harvard Business Review articles and selected the most important ones to help you understand the future direction of AI, bring your AI initiatives to scale, and use AI to transform your organization.

Is this a case of a runaway bride—or a guilty groom? Greg zeroes in on Josh but finds him so annoying that he quietly asks Jill's help in keeping his number-one suspect distracted. She knows that Josh is searching for something else besides his fiancee—a bank robber's buried gold bullion. And when the professor he'd been discussing it with turns up dead, she can't help wondering if what looked like cold feet was actually cold-blooded murder.

Many workers believe that to compete with other top talent they must embrace a culture that rewards long hours and constant connection to work. Businesses and society have encouraged this by endorsing busyness, overwork, and extreme commitment as the most valued traits in workers. But more often it's an implicit contract, a buildup of organizational and cultural norms and the adoption of new technologies that increasingly make it easy to tether people to work. Either way, this workaholic behavior is unhealthy and counterproductive for workers and for organizations. It's time to fight back.

Politics can be infuriating. From unjust policies to unholy politicians, there are justifiable reasons to be upset or walk away altogether. Yet we must stay involved if we are to protect and sustain our fragile nation from the divisions that threaten it. With more than two decades of experience working in the highest levels of government, insider Denise Grace Gitsham offers a remedy to America's dark political reality: Christians filled with light, love, and Christ's heart for unity.

One in four American workers says their workplace is a "dictatorship." Yet that number almost certainly would be higher if we recognized employers for what they are—private governments with sweeping authoritarian power over our lives. In this compelling book, Elizabeth Anderson examines why, despite all this, we continue to talk as if free markets make workers free, and she proposes a better way to think about the workplace, opening up space for discovering how workers can enjoy real freedom.

Anna Stoltzfus lives a quiet but fulfilling life in Promise Glen. Though she lost her beloved brother in a tragic accident, her family is supportive and close-knit, and her job as a cherished teacher at the Orchard Hill Amish School fills her heart with joy each day. Anna knows one day she'll find someone she can love and marry, but she's perfectly happy with the life she created. Anna's comfort is quickly dashed, however, when the man Anna deemed responsible for James's death returns to the Amish community—Matthew King.

When Leah Beiler pictured returning to Promise Glen, she imagined taking everything she learned from her aunt's business in Upstate New York and starting up a quaint herbal tea shop of her own. What she didn't expect was for Josiah Burkhalter to insist on helping her. Josiah might have been her childhood sweetheart but they've both changed a lot since then and Leah's not sure she can trust the man who once broke her heart.

After losing my husband three years ago, I'm ready for a fresh start for me and my daughter. I appreciate all of my parents' help, of course, but I can't live with them forever (and I don't want to). Dr. Drew Reed, my father's coworker, informs me his basement (turned income-property) is available for rent. And he also needs a part time nanny. Lucky for him, I can do both! But living in such close proximity, seeing him in those dang sexy surgical scrubs, and watching him with our girls . . . is making my heart thaw in ways I never expected. But am I ready to love again?

In the face of hardship, you need perseverance and determination. You need grit. But how do you build it? This book explores how you can persist in difficult situations. You'll learn how to convince yourself to do hard things, find support in trying circumstances, and know when you're pushing yourself too hard. This volume includes the work of: Angela Duckworth, Misty Copeland, Shannon Huffman Polson, and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic.

We have all heard of post traumatic stress, but few of us think about the possibility of post traumatic growth—the positive ways in which we can be transformed by our trauma. Yet this is precisely what can happen when we face our hurts, struggle through the rubble of our broken relationships, and unearth the ways God wants to use our trials to refine and mature us.

At the time of diagnosis, breast cancer patients are faced with many overwhelming decisions about possible treatments. Living with Breast Cancer provides you with an overview of what to expect from testing and treatment, which cancer specialists you may need to see, and common terms to use to help communicate your needs to your team. This empathetic resource full of relatable stories teaches patients and caregivers how to ask the right questions to get the best possible care.

Peace in the US Republic of Letters, 1840-1900 explores the early peace movement as it captured the imagination of leading writers. The book charts the rise of the peace cause from its sources in the works of William Penn and John Woolman, through the founding of the first peace societies in 1815 and the mid-century peace congresses, to the postbellum movement's consequential emphasis on arbitration.

Some days you're on fire at work; other days you're burned out and easily distracted. How can you maintain your drive, make consistent progress, and expend your energy wisely? This book will help you identify what's behind your flagging engagement and productivity—and provide the expert research and advice on what to do about it.

You’re tired. You have trouble sleeping and thinking, you feel down and stressed out, and you worry that you’ve lost your edge. You're plagued by many physical symptoms, too! Your doctor told you that you were depressed, handed you a prescription for an antidepressant, and referred you to a psychiatrist. Your heart of hearts truly believes that you're not depressed, but you don't know what causes you to feel this way.

The first date is your earliest opportunity to get to know someone intimately. It’s your chance to find out if you’re compatible, if you have the same passions, and if the same things make you tick. For this to happen though, you need a killer question to spark hours of conversation. This is your golden key to securing a second date.

Everyone has to start somewhere, right? Well, Meghan Markle wasn't always the successful blogger, actress, fashionista, and princess that we know today. She's had many roles from her success as Rachel Zane in Suits, to her ascendancy into the British royal family, to the not so glamorous days as a briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal. 

Are you ashamed of your body? Do you wish your body were different? Taller? Thinner? Stronger? Has your body somehow become a painful place to be when you want it to be a place of joy and pleasure? You are not alone. A vast majority of women are dissatisfied with their appearances, and would change something about their bodies if they could.

If Adele Marten’s troubled childhood taught her anything, it was that family is everything. So when the time comes to keep a promise she made to her dying friend, she knew she would do whatever it takes to reunite a father and son...who have never met. Even risk her fragile heart.