Showing results by narrator "Natasha Soudek" in All Categories

What exactly is the difference between a love letter and a suicide note? Is there really any difference at all? These might be the questions posed by Dear Sweet Filthy World, Caitlin R. Kiernan’s 14th collection of short fiction, comprising 28 uncollected and impossible-to-find stories. Here are 28 tales of apocalypse and rebirth, of miraculous transformation and utter annihilation. Here is the place where professing your undying devotion might be precisely the same thing as signing your own death warrant or worse.

This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great - the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of an icon in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction listeners and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. This volume features Founding Father and scientist Benjamin Franklin.

A Is for Alien is award-winning author Caitlín R. Kiernan’s first collection devoted entirely to her science-fiction work. It includes the critically acclaimed novelette Riding the White Bull, along with seven other tales of a less-than-utopian future. Ranging from the wastelands and mountains of Mars to the streets of a late 21st-century Manhattan, from the moons of Europa and Saturn to an iceless Antarctica, these tales bring Kiernan’s trademark brand of the eco-gothic to bear on what it means to be human and the paths and decisions that may face mankind....

After decades of the Cold War and renewed tensions, in the wake of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, cooperation between the United States and Russia seems impossible to imagine - and yet, as Douglas Smith reveals, it has a forgotten but astonishing historical precedent. In 1921, facing one of the worst famines in history, the new Soviet government under Vladimir Lenin invited the American Relief Administration, Herbert Hoover’s brainchild, to save communist Russia from ruin.

After destroying the Crescent Stone, Madeline returns home, bringing Shula and Yenil with her. As her health continues to deteriorate, Madeline feels the Sunlit Lands calling her back. Meanwhile, Jason, Darius, and the rest of the inhabitants of the Sunlit Lands fight for survival and freedom. The magic that fuels the land is failing, threatening to destroy them all. Will Madeline’s return save the land and its people?

Given the initials F.A.D. at birth, Fiona Alison Duncan has always had an eye for observing the trends around her. But after years of trying to please others, looking for answers in books and astrological charts, and clocking endless hours as a celebrity journalist just to make rent, Fiona discovers another way of existing: in the Real, a phenomenological state few humans live in.

Three years have passed since the devastation of Golyna. Anna, once the maker of immortals, continues to fight the evil she unwillingly created through her rune-carving magic. Secreted away in an isolated mountain monastery, she works as a teacher to young scribes, guiding them toward runes that foster peace rather than endless war. So when the tracker who murdered her brother comes to Anna’s redoubt, begging for his eternal runes to be undone, Anna agrees to grant his wish on one condition - that he aid her in rooting out the remnants of Volna, a genocidal regime....

They were sent to investigate the first extraterrestrial signal. What they found was beyond anything they could have imagined - or feared. On a voyage to a mysterious moon in the Alpha Centauri system, the UEA Centaurus meets with disaster. Only the quick thinking of the flight engineer, Rachel Terman, saves some of the crew. Crash-landing on the moon, trillions of kilometers from Earth, they struggle to carry out their mission and try to survive. But nothing has prepared them for what they will face.

Tourmaline Harris's life hit pause at 15, when her mom went to prison because of Tourmaline's unintentionally damning testimony. But at 18, her home life is stable, and she has a strong relationship with her father, the president of a local biker club known as the Wardens. Virginia Campbell's life hit fast-forward at 15, when her mom "sold" her into the services of Hazard, a powerful attorney: a man for whom the law is merely a suggestion.

Three long years have passed since Anna, First of Tomas, survived the purge in Malijad after being forced to use her scribe sigils to create an army of immortals. Safely ensconced in the shelter of the Nest, a sanctuary woven by one of her young allies, Anna spends her days tutoring the gifted yet traumatized scribe, Ramyi, and coming to terms with her growing attachment to an expatriate soldier in her company. Away from her refuge, war drums continue to beat. Thwarted in her efforts to locate the elusive tracker and bring him to justice, Anna turns to the state of Nahora for help.

Emma is a wolf-shifter on the run from humans who killed her parents 15 years ago. When she steps on an old trap in the Tennessee woods, she is truly screwed. Hungry and tired from weeks of running, she assumes she's going to die. Liam and Jaden are also wolf-shifters. They're staying in a cabin in the wilderness for the summer to catalog the plant life in the area. Hoping to spend lazy months enhancing their own relationship and escaping women altogether, they are surprised to find a trapped female wolf on their first day at the cabin.

When Antonio Forte met Lauren Bradley, he never expected that making the choice between a possible relationship with her or destroying her company in a hostile takeover would be a hard one. Antonio has always put business before pleasure, but, for the first time, he wants both. After proposing a merger of their two companies, Antonio is hoping Lauren accepts his offer so he can show her the world and together they can have it all.

It's the summer of 2008. Chicago's Hyde Park senator is running for the White House, the city is vying to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, and "Poison", a lethal form of heroin, has killed more than 250 people, including dozens of suburban girls from prominent families. Natalie Delaney, a crime reporter from the Chicago Times, discovers that daughters of Democratic powerhouses are the real targets. Obsessed with finding who is behind the killings, Natalie becomes entangled in an underworld where drugs, cops, gangs, politics, and privilege collide.

Given as a sexual toy to a violent warrior, Katya fights for freedom. In her world, a sect of indoctrinated fighters protect the villages and occasionally "brides" are given to the caged men. Katya finds her warrior is an innocent and gentle man, just as much a prisoner as she is. Passion blooms as the lovers search for a way to save themselves, overcome their masters, and change their world.

In the great city-state of Meviel, manners, status, and the family luck can steer your fate - or change it utterly. In these three stories luck and love play a part - as do pirates, swordplay, and midnight assignations. Step into the courts and drawing rooms of Meviel, where an edged sword and a ready wit are your best weapons in life and in love.

First published in 1926, this book is Willa Cather's sparest and most dramatic novel, a dark and prescient portrait of a marriage that subverts our oldest notions about the nature of domestic happiness.

From a childhood of abuse came loneliness, fears, and torments in my life. Then, after going through a nervous breakdown, an abusive marriage, and a desire to no longer live, one day, miraculously, it all began to change. Listening to my testimony, you, too, will come to realize that not only did God protect me, but God himself is now using my yesterdays for his glory. God saved me to be here for each one of you. The spark of life that seemed to no longer be within me was still present and burns brighter than ever today.

When her fiancé destroyed her with a "Dear Katie" letter a week before their wedding, Kate Stillman still took a vow - it would be a cold day in hell before she gave a man anything more than one night. Free from emotional entanglements, her photography career is skyrocketing, there's the occasional hot one-night-stand, and her heart is off-limits. It's the perfect plan until a Miami getaway brings her face-to-face with Peter Barrett.

Anais Cooper is burnt out on big city living. When she unexpectedly inherits a house on Anastasia Island, a suburb of St. Augustine, Florida, she quits her job and moves south. Anais's goal is to turn the ramshackle house into an upscale spa. Retired athlete Palmer Freeman, Anais's next door neighbor, has plans for the property. All his offers are turned down flat. It's just a matter of time. He doubts that Anais has the business acumen or means to turn the home into an income producing property. Palmer, a single parent, raising two girls, has his own challenges.

Navy SEAL Griffin Caldwell is not happy with his team's top-secret mission, training the first female SEALs. Griffin's determined to prove that his trainee Sherri Tate - a former beauty queen - doesn't have what it takes to join the world's most elite warrior's club. But then he sees what she's capable of, and even this hard-nosed SEAL has to admit she's tough as nails. What he won't admit to is the attraction sizzling between them.