Showing results by narrator "Gavin Marguerite" in All Categories

Cherico's newlywed librarian, Maura Beth Mayhew, is back from her honeymoon, and she and Jeremy McShay are settling into married life. Maura Beth's father has even given them the down payment on a charming cottage. But as the holidays approach, Cherico's economy is struggling. Beloved local shops have closed, jobs have been lost, and there's even a mysterious crime spree afoot. Amid the gloom, Maura Beth decides what the community needs is a healthy dose of Christmas cheer - which means a special meeting of the Cherry Cola Book Club....

In a small town in Mississippi, a young, upbeat librarian has been given an ultimatum: increase the library’s circulation dramatically or close its doors. Maura doesn’t just start a book club; she gets involved in unique and unexpected ways with her patrons. She entertains and advises, she has potluck dinners, and life in the town begins to imitate art. The patrons begin to relate their own lives to the work of writers like Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee. In moving and personal ways, Maura helps them deal with such subjects as long-lost love and a brush with death.

As a lowly freshman, Presley Moran walks high-school corridors paved with the stuff of family legend. Her cousin, Barry, a senior heartthrob and brainy varsity letterman, insists that looking good on paper is the key to success. But Presley's young aunt Betsi, a former homecoming queen, has her own ideas about good looks and how to use them.

Is your workplace working for you and your employees? Studies show that unhealthy work habits, like staring at computer screens and rushing through fast-food lunches, are taking their toll in the form of increased absenteeism, lost productivity, and higher insurance costs - but it doesn't have to be that way. Companies such as Google, Apple, Aetna, and Johnson & Johnson have used innovative techniques to incorporate healthy habits and practices into the workday and into their culture - with impressive ROI.

Whether you're a new or seasoned manager, your responsibilities can become overwhelming at times. There are days and new situations that will leave you feeling vulnerable. You don't know where to start or even what to ask! The Manager's Answer Book can help. In question-and-answer format, this easy-to-use guide provides information on many aspects of managing.

Why do couples break up? In The Commitment Dialogues, best-selling author Matthew McKay dissects a range of typical dialogues gone wrong in order to illustrate how fear sabotages relationships. He introduces listeners to 10 couples struggling with specific issues. As their dialogues unfold, each couple's core problems are revealed. Dr. McKay then shows how his techniques can help heal fractured relationships and get couples working as a team to resolve conflicts over money, children, monogamy, commitment, and more.

Leaders have talked about the importance of corporate culture for decades, but the success of iconic companies like GE, Apple, and Google show how culture is a strategic lever that can be utilized for driving growth, change, and innovation. In this new age of globalization, rapid technology shifts, and constant disruption, the 21st-century marketplace is more volatile and uncertain than ever. To thrive, businesses need a new kind of emphasis around culture.

The year is 1967. Gin Mitchell knows a better life awaits her when she marries Mason McPhee. But nothing can prepare her for the world she and Mason step into when he takes a job with the Arabian American Oil company in Saudi Arabia. In the gated compound of Abqaiq, Gin and Mason are given a home with marble floors, a houseboy to cook their meals, and a gardener to tend the sandy patch out back. Even among the veiled women and strict laws, Gin's life has become the stuff of fairy tales. But when a young Bedouin woman is found dead, Gin's world closes in around her.

The "Lackawanna Six" were young men, born of Yemeni families long settled in upstate New York, who took a trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan and spent time in an al-Qaeda training camp long before the specter of 9/11, before most people had even heard of Osama Bin Laden, and before the existence of the Homeland Security Act.

In The 24-Hour Rule and Other Secrets for Smarter Organizations, business consultant Adrienne Bellehumeur shows how her six steps of documentation can become your and your team’s new superpower.

Twenty-one years after its incorporation and 16 years after its stock peak, Yahoo sold for 96% less than its value on January 3, 2000, when it had closed at an all-time high of $118.75 per share, resulting in a market capitalization of $120 billion. Wall Street valued Yahoo!, at that time in business less than six years, higher than it did Disney, News Corporation, and Comcast combined. Yahoo!'s story is one of missed strategies, failed opportunities, and poor execution.

The rumor of the flood to come was too terrible to be true, and like most, Re Jana does not believe it. How could a god, anyone's god, determine who deserves to live and who to die?

The winds of fate have blown cruelly on a family that once had it all: money, power, prestige. The lives of three beautiful daughters were forever changed when, on a sultry night in Midnight, Alabama, a murder-suicide shattered the Wilde family. The girls grew up to live separate lives but now have returned home, each to face a danger no one can see coming. Former homecoming queen Samantha surprised everyone by going into law enforcement, but beneath her tough facade lies a wary heart.

Are we living the good life - and what defines good, anyway? Americans today are constructing a completely different framework for success than their parents' generation, using new metrics that TEDWomen speaker and columnist Courtney Martin has termed collectively the "New Better Off".

"Big Data" is on the covers of Science, Nature, The Economist, and Wired magazines, on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. But despite the media hyperbole, as Christine Borgman points out in this examination of data and scholarly research, having the right data is usually better than having more data; little data can be just as valuable as big data. Borgman, an often-cited authority on scholarly communication, argues that data have no value or meaning in isolation; they exist within a knowledge infrastructure.

In this audiobook, you'll find countless examples, lessons, and insights into what it means to feel like you've failed and come out stronger on the other side. You'll learn insights from physicians, a golf professional turned college professor, entrepreneurs, a sales executive, and many more. As the world judges them, they are successful. They've achieved notoriety and prosperity in their chosen fields. However, you might be surprised to learn just how much failure they had to endure on their way to the top.

Throughout her life, Alexandra Penney's worst fear was becoming a bag lady. Even as she worked several jobs while raising a son as a single mother, wrote a multimillion-dollar best-selling advice book, and became editor in chief of Self magazine, she was haunted by the image of herself alone, bankrupt, and living on the street. And then, one day, that's exactly what happened.

Career Courage serves as a personal coach through the soul-searching and planning process ahead, whether you're a college grad contemplating choices, a seasoned professional seeking new directions, or a stay-at-home mom preparing to reenter the workplace. Packed with exercises and stories of inspiring second acts, the book poses tough questions about motivation, confidence, character, risk tolerance, and more.

Stuart's got problems...It's raining. He's bored. And worst of all, he's new in town, so he's got a lot to worry about. But what does a kid like Stuart need in order to have an adventure? A cape, of course.

In the colorful small town of Cherico, Mississippi, librarian Maura Beth McShay is preparing for an exciting new installment in her own life story - with some help from the Cherry Cola Book Club. Overseeing the opening of Cherico's new library has been a labor of love for Maura Beth McShay, made extra challenging by the fact that she and Jeremy are expecting their first child. And there's another plot twist on the horizon: Jeremy's sister, Elise, has taken a sabbatical to have a baby and will be staying in Cherico during her pregnancy.