Showing results by narrator "Annette Romano" in All Categories

The spoken word has immense potential for either building up or tearing down. Too often, it's the latter. Many of us are daily carrying around hurtful words, sometimes without even knowing it. These negative words have great influence over our lives and the lives of those around us. But thankfully, they are not the last word. Mary Busha speaks to the hurting and guides them toward victory over the harmful, demeaning, or insulting words of their past.

Thirteen-year-old Andi Carter wants to surprise her mother with the perfect birthday gift. But keeping her plans to earn money a secret from her family is easier said than done. It takes time, but at last, one of Andi's ideas is working out...until the day she witnesses a back-alley crime that places a beloved citizen at the scene.

Jada Baker might be a millennial, but she was born to worry - about her mom, her job, abused animals, and the growing hatred she sees playing out in the news every day. But she also believes that the system will work, that goodness will win over evil, and that she can find a love as rich and deep as the love her parents have for one another. And when Amie Luca, a veterinarian whose compassion and dedication to helping mistreated animals captures her heart, Jada finally begins to trust that she has found what she’s been searching for all along.

When a winter flood in Fresno closes school temporarily, Andi is outraged when she's sent to live with a spinster aunt in San Francisco, doomed to finish the winter term of school at Miss Whitaker's Academy for Young Ladies. But her new roommate, the equally untamable Jenny, and the timid but tenderhearted Lin Mei, a young girl who works at the school, expose her to a whole new world. Soon these three new friends find themselves in more trouble than they can handle.

When public defender Rian Coulter moved to Pensacola, Florida, from Birmingham, she thought she'd escaped the specter of a vicious serial killer preying on young women. A killer that was never caught. Now, police are discovering new victims. All young women, all brutally savaged, all with their hands and feet bound together behind them.

Andi Carter has just turned nine. She and her palomino, Taffy, are old enough to be a real horse-and-rider pair at last! With a beautiful new saddle, Andi's sure she is ready to learn to trick ride like her friend Riley used to do before he left the ranch. Sadly, big brother Chad knocks down any trick-riding plans, but Andi cheers up when she discovers a new friend at her special spot. Her fun with Sadie is soon threatened, though. They are caught in the middle of a boundary quarrel between the two families. Both Sadie's pa and Chad are stubborn as mules and neither will back down.

The summer after Andi Carter turns nine the circus comes to town. She can't wait to get in line to see the elephants, acrobats, and - most of all - the champion bareback rider. What could be more thrilling than riding your very own horse under the big top?

It's 1943, and the world is at war. Audrey Draper is committed to the war effort, and beyond that, to finding her own personal and financial independence. And she is not alone. Ruth Evans also chooses to seek employment. As a waitress living on her own, she not only searches for freedom, but also a way to fulfill an important promise. And then there's young Amelia, a 15-year-old rape victim who is being forced to return to a dark and dangerous home.

When the Circle C ranch decides to host a rodeo competition with two other ranches, dozens of cowboys are eager to prove they're the best riders and ropers in the valley. But they're not the only ones who want to show off their skills. Andi aims to lasso her way to the prizes, even if big brother Chad says the contest isn't for kids.

This volume features 20 self-identified female authors writing about intersectionality, including women of color, disabled, transgender, and GLB/GSD (Gender and Sexual Diversities). We have curated amazing short fiction, flash fiction, poetry, essays, and art. It's personal, political, and a great listen.

Andi Carter has gold fever! Someone near town has struck it rich. Now Andi can't stop wondering if there might be some of the glittery metal in the creeks on the Circle C ranch. Her brothers agree that she might find something that sparkles. But they laugh whenever they talk about it. Andi is determined - when she finds gold, she'll be the one laughing!

When Fresno is hit with an unexpected outbreak of deadly scarlet fever, Andi Carter is scared. Her town friends are getting sick and school is closed until it passes. Far from the danger, at least Andi has her horse Taffy and plenty of work on the Circle C ranch to distract her. But is she really safe? First one ranch hand, then two, and then her brother Mitch fall ill. Mother is convinced that the only way to protect Andi from this terrible disease is to send her far away to fussy Aunt Rebecca in San Francisco.

Callie plans on a smooth senior cross country season - then finds herself holding the keys to the nuthouse when she agrees to be team captain. Her coach expects her to blend the girls into a championship-caliber team to take on perennial champs, Fairchild Academy. Callie escapes into her running, even as running the team makes her crazy. Mark, the boy's team captain, makes her crazy, too. Callie struggles to manage the team, but Mattie, a fast redhead with an eye on Mark, complicates everything.

Molly & Magnum is a fun and exciting adventure about Molly, a blue and gold macaw, and her best friend, Magnum, a Great Dane. Their owner, Mindy, loves the outdoors and also loves animals. Mindy's family continues to grow with even more animals and birds. Mindy's life goes from being sad and lonely to being full of joy and happiness. Mindy goes on a hiking trip in the mountains and finds more than she expected.

With a magical amulet in hand, three friends are whisked back in time to the Salem witch hunts, a terrible time in our history. When Tituba, the Parris' slave, secretly teaches the children a lot more than housekeeping, like voodoo, fortunes, and spell casting, it leads to utter chaos in the village. Ultimately, Emily, Megan, and Ben uncover a hidden secret which may alter the course of history.

The Widow (La Viuda) is 92 years old. She lives in a house filled with photos and coins, jewels, and a sable coat. Aware that her memory is failing, but burning with desire to record the story of her life on paper, she hires Gabriela, a 19-year-old Mixteca from Mexico. Gabriela is one of the few survivors of a massacre and treacherous journey to El Norte. Gabriela and the Widow is a story of chaos, revenge, and change: death and love, love and sex, and sex and death.

Honor, an orphan, finds her way to the Victorian boarding house where she thinks her mother might have birthed her. World War II has just ended, which alerted many Americans to the world beyond, but Honor and Billy's lives are limited to the dead-end town of DeForest Junction, Ohio, and its nearby notcherie, where exotic women sell their bodies to the rail men.

The soul is an individualized electric charge in the massive cell that we call the cosmos. And our cosmos is a functional organism in the body that we call God, or infinite intelligence. Drawing from mythology, spirituality and depth psychology, the author takes a brief look at the nature of the soul in order to offer an alternative approach to existing in the world. If you're interested in the inner life, then this is the book for you!

Jeanne Les Flambeaux is the underachiever in her very accomplished restaurateur family. No one ever expected her to amount anything, so she hasn't. When her lover, Johnny, steals the family jewels, Jeanne must find him and the jewels before her family discovers their loss. Fortunately she's aided in her task by Crane, a talking crystal skull who only speaks to her. Together they embark on a wild and wacky journey across the Great American Southwest.