Showing results by narrator "Cassandra A Campbell" in All Categories

The weight of their family secrets could not have shaped Pearl and Ruby Crenshaw any differently. Ruby's a runner, living in Dallas and only reluctantly talking to their mother, Birdie, when she calls from prison. Pearl is still living in her mother's fixer-upper and finds herself facing a line in the sand: her weight is threatening to kill her. And unless she takes drastic action, the future looks dire. But when Ruby's buried rage explodes in a hilariously viral way, the mistake has life-altering consequences.

Quinn recognized Francesca Maroun as his soulmate the moment he met her in grad school. Of course he did. The Merriams always recognize their soulmates instantly. It just never occurred to him that world events could drive them apart so they wouldn't end up together. Knowing there was no one else for him, Quinn devoted himself to the family business instead. Since he’s taken the reins of the troubled company, he doesn't have the time to dwell on Francesca - much.

The year is 1883, and in New York City it's a time of dizzying splendor, crushing poverty, and tremendous change. With the gravity-defying Brooklyn Bridge nearly complete and New York in the grips of antivice crusader Anthony Comstock, Anna Savard and her cousin, Sophie - both graduates of the Woman's Medical School - treat the city's most vulnerable, even if doing so may put everything they've strived for in jeopardy.

A wide range of women—actors, athletes, academics, CEOs, writers, small-business owners, birth workers, physicians, and activists—share their experiences of becoming mothers in this multifaceted, moving, and revealing collection.

In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard’s world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become “summer sisters”. Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long complicated friendship has faded.

In May 2005, Natalee Holloway disappeared from a high school trip to Aruba. A 22-year-old Dutchman, Joran van der Sloot, was arrested in connection with the murder, only to be released after questioning. He admitted to being present for Holloway's death - but later recanted his statement.

Faye Longchamp, back in school to pursue her archaeological aspirations, has landed a job as chief archaeologist for a rural development project, so she heads to the hills of Alabama with Joe, her Cherokee assistant. She’s looking forward to a legitimate dig and hopes to uncover the mystery of the Sujosa, an ethnic group of mysterious origin. The Sujosa have lived in Alabama’s most remote hills for centuries and have shown an impressive immunity to many diseases, including AIDS.

The year is 2037, and on the tiny island of Isola, seven people have been selected to compete in a 48-hour test for a top-secret intelligence position with the totalitarian Union of Friendship. One of them is Anna Francis, a workaholic bureaucrat with a nine-year-old daughter she rarely sees and a secret that haunts her. Her assignment: to stage her own death and then to observe, from her hiding place inside the walls of the house, how the six other candidates react to the news that a murderer is among them.

Tressa Danell is finished with men - from the wastrel who left her a widow to the smelly trapper who keeps proposing to the banker who wants to repossess her bakery. Every hour is spent working to pay off her late husband's debt and keep a roof over her son's head, though it's doubtful she can do both for very long. But one thing's certain - she'll never be beholden to a man again.

Few writers have successful blended hard science and speculation with fully realized characters as Gregory Benford has in his critically acclaimed novels. Now he draws us into a vortex of mystery and danger at the heart of the galaxy in his dazzling epic drama, Furious Gulf.

While the best way to deal with a sociopath is to avoid him or her entirely, sometimes circumstance doesn't allow for that. What happens when the time comes to defend yourself against your own child, a ruthless ex-spouse, a boss, or another person in power? Using the many emails and letters she has received over the years, Dr. Martha Stout uncovers the psychology behind the sociopath’s methods and provides concrete guidelines to help navigate these dangerous interactions.

It's my first Thanksgiving back in Moonshadow Bay, and everything is hunky-dory until the Witches Guild assigns me a research project for the upcoming Winter Solstice Festival. Not only do I melt down my computer, but I download a demon who ends up stuck in my house. But Tarvish the Funtime demon is the least of my worries when my grandmother asks my BFF and me to go undercover. A magical pyramid scheme has moved into town and it's siphoning more than money off its recruits. Will we be able to take it down, or will the leader of the cult manage to silence us for good?

For years Maggie Sheets has been an invisible hand in the glittering homes of wealthy New York City clients, scrubbing, dusting, mopping, and doing all she can to keep her head above water as a single mother. Everything changes when a former employer dies, leaving Maggie a staggering inheritance - a house in Sag Harbor. The catch? It comes with an inhabitant: the deceased's 82-year old mother, Edith.

Stan and Charmaine are a married couple trying to stay afloat in the midst of an economic and social collapse. Job loss has forced them to live in their car, leaving them vulnerable to roving gangs. They desperately need to turn their situation around—and fast. The Positron Project in the town of Consilience seems to be the answer to their prayers. No one is unemployed and everyone gets a comfortable, clean house to live in . . . for six months out of the year. On alternating months, residents of Consilience must leave their homes and function as inmates in the Positron prison system.

In this powerful and wide-ranging collection of essays, Rebecca Solnit turns her attention to the war at home. This is a war, she says, "[W]ith so many casualties that we should call it by its true name, this war with so many dead by police, by violent ex-husbands and partners and lovers, by people pursuing power and profit at the point of a gun or just shooting first and figuring out who they hit later."

The young street urchin Hissune gets his due for helping Lord Valentine regain his throne. As a reward, he is sent into the depths of the Labyrinth, a massive library of memory cubes in which the entire history of Majipoor is preserved. As Hissune prepares for a summons to return to Castle Mount, he relives the lives of Majipoor's most famous and notorious inhabitants.

As a child, she was abandoned, abused and raped. By her teens, she was deep into a lifestyle of hitchhiking, petty crime, and the sex trade. In her twisted mind, uncontrollable bouts of violence were pure survival skills.

Bookstore owner Tricia Miles has put up - and put up with - her uninvited college roommate for weeks. In return, Pammy has stolen $100. But the day she's kicked out, Pammy's found dead in a dumpster, leaving loads of questions unanswered.

Beth Hertzler works alongside her beloved Aunt Lizzy in their dry goods store, and serving as contact of sorts between Amish craftsmen and Englischers who want to sell the Plain people's wares. But remorse and loneliness still echo in her heart everyday as she still wears the dark garb, indicating mourning of her fiance.

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most listeners, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown - until now. In this utterly captivating audiobook, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature's elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.