Showing results by narrator "Kristin Kalbli" in All Categories

In 1831, Lucretia Winslow Chapman was a wife and mother of five who had founded one of Philadelphia's first boarding schools for girls. But her comfortable life and marriage to prominent local scientist William Chapman changed forever the night Lino Espos y Mina appeared at their door, requesting lodging. It wasn't long before the Cuban con artist had entrenched himself in the Chapman home and begun an illicit affair with Lucretia.

"Perfect deadpan marks the opening of Ali Simpson’s The Monster'" writes Susan Merrell of The Southampton Review in her introduction to this issue of Recommended Reading.

Shelby Preston, a young single mother, is at a crossroads. She feels suffocated by her hardscrabble life in rural Georgia and dreams of becoming a professional chef. Lord knows her family could use a pot of something good. In Atlanta, Mallory Lakes is reeling from a bad breakup. The newspaper food columnist is also bracing for major changes at work that could put her job at risk. Determined to find the perfect recipe for how to reinvent herself, she gets involved in the growing farm-to-table movement.

Based on the major themes found on the most active Facebook page in history, Jesus Daily is a 365-day interactive devotional that goes beyond even the fan page to create a deeper experience and cultural movement that celebrates your redemption in Christ. Jesus Daily presents a devotional thought, but also challenges you to respond to each daily reflection using a variety of social media tools.

When three pregnant, homeless women die within a week of one another inside the emergency room of County Hospital in East Los Angeles, Dr. Kelly Morales begins to question why and how. When Dr. Morales attempts to question her colleague pathologist Dr. Jake Hamilton he becomes agitated and obviously anxious at her questions. Hours later, Dr. Hamilton is murdered.

Set in San Francisco and North Carolina, the linked stories in Damn Love introduce us to characters struggling with love in all its complicated forms, including a young doctor getting over a breakup with the help of a patient, a newly married gay man who reconnects with his estranged mother, a trio of physicists caught in a surprising love triangle, and a soldier who takes secrets with her to the Iraqi desert.

Jenny Carpenter is the unrivaled pie-baking champion of Last Chance, South Carolina's annual Watermelon Festival and the town's unofficial spinster. With her dream of marriage and children on hold, she focuses on another dream, turning the local haunted house into a charming bed-and-breakfast. But her plans go off course when the home's former owner shows up on her doorstep on a dark and stormy night...

In the fall of 1983 when my mother was 29, she received news from her superiors at her shoe factory in Yun, a county in Henan Province, that every female worker who had already had one child would be required to undergo sterilization. The Chinese Communist Party had introduced the one-child policy a few years earlier in 1979, but this was the first time my mother had heard about the policy. And it was the first time it was implemented in her hometown.

This tale begins: "It was a time when the world, though filled with sound, was quiet." Technology has replaced the need to speak through texting, but when a virus spreads across the entire world that leaves everyone blind, doctors come together to fight the epidemic. But, as "The Voiceless" seeks to answer, what does the ability to speak mean without the desire to do so?

The Oriental Wife is the story of two assimilated Jewish children from Nuremberg who flee Hitler’s Germany and struggle to put down roots elsewhere. When they meet up again in New York, they fall in love both with each other and with America, believing they have found a permanent refuge. But just when it looks as though nothing can ever touch them again, their lives are shattered by a freakish accident and a betrayal that will reverberate into the life of their American daughter.

With contributions from celebrity and "ordinary" parents alike, each story speaks to the range of emotions and experiences of all types of parents - single parents, foster parents, parents of adopted children, or part of a two-parent family with biological children. By sharing the personal experiences of others, this book will offer inspiration and advice to parents going through a difficult time, provide reassurance to those who worry that they’re not living up to the Supermom or Superdad ideal....

Ross Gardiner has had his fill of difficult relationships. Returning to Last Chance after a rough divorce, the town's handsome new fire chief just wants safety and stability - a tall order given his dangerous job and the way he has the attention of all the single women in town. All except Sabina Grey, the girl who stole his heart when they were teenagers.

With her trademark acerbic wit and compassion, Francine Prose offers a sharp-eyed consideration of how men and women differ in their pursuit - and avoidance - of power, sex, and competition. A satire of the pieties of New Age religion and knee-jerk feminism, Hunters and Gatherers nevertheless radiates sympathy for our efforts to reconcile spiritual longings with our earthbound, all-too-human nature.

Earth, the fantasy - the place where mankind originated, the storied vista of green, rolling hills and unblemished mountains and fields of amber grain waving in a light breeze. Earth, the reality - a junk world, a dirty, dangerous, rundown planet filled with detention camps, flop houses, taverns, human body parts factories, mobsters' palaces, and a lawless immigrant community of aliens and humans on the run.

What if the nation were able to capitalize on the energy of Americans willing to serve and volunteer for a year or more? This inspirational book tells the stories of real people who have dedicated themselves to service and the nonprofits that engaged them. It shows how selflessness and service have transformed lives and communities, and can address similar problems throughout the country. The author profiles successes, demonstrates measurable effects, and shows how impact is made.

Amy has spent her life in isolation. Locked away in the Centre, a secret government facility where children with extraordinary abilities are raised as highly skilled fighters, she longs for a normal life. A life where being around people doesn't overload her sensitive telepathic mind. A life where she can't see through the eyes of a murderer as he hunts down his next victim....

I Don't Know What I'm Doing Here is a collection of essays for every person out there who feels like they're never going to fall in love or they're never going to be happy or they're just not sure that they'll ever get their life together. It answers questions like, "When are you supposed to drop the 'what are we' bomb?" and "What's the difference between being happy and being happier than someone else?" And, perhaps most importantly, "Why do women's menstrual cycles sync up?"

Dorrie Gilbert, a potter who lives alone, is completely unprepared for motherhood when her oddball, overweight, and orphaned nephew Hugo comes to live with her, demanding to know the truth about his parents and horrified that she doesn't own a television so he can watch the soap opera he's devoted to. As Dorrie and Hugo attempt to work things out, each learns some hard and surprising, but deeply satisfying, truths about real life.

It was a night she'd never forget: two strangers coming together in a moment of intense desire. But now, sheltered Hannah Raymond is expecting the child of a rugged naval seaman she thought she'd never see again. Riley Murdock has been searching for Hannah for months-ever since that soul-shaking night of passion. Now fate has reunited them. Determined to give his child the chance he never had, Riley marries Hannah. They've created the miracle of life together, but is that enough to spark love?

Lindy Kyle flees to Seattle to weather a broken heart, but is unprepared for a roommate like Rush Callaghan. Strong, sensitive, and sexy, the temporarily dry-docked naval officer is everything she's ever dreamed of in a man...and in a husband. Though they are swept away on a tide of passion, Rush holds duty to his country above all else. When he has to return to service, does Lindy have the courage to be his wife?