Showing results by narrator "Ellen Archer" in All Categories

In the spirit of the demolition derby, where drivers take heedless risks with reckless abandon, welcome to the first convocation of The Secret Society of Demolition Writers. Here is a one-of-a-kind collection by famous authors writing anonymously and dangerously. With the usual concerns about reputations and renown cast aside, these 12 daredevils have each contributed an extreme, no-holds-barred, unsigned story, each shining as brightly and urgently as hazard lights.

A lyrical work of narrative nonfiction that portrays how the largest domestic oil discovery in half a century transformed a forgotten corner of the American West into a crucible of breakneck capitalism. As North Dakota became the nation's second-largest oil producer, Maya Rao set out in steel-toe boots to join a wave of drifters, dreamers, entrepreneurs, and criminals. With an eye for the dark, absurd, and humorous, Rao fearlessly immersed herself in their world to chronicle this modern-day gold rush, from its heady beginnings to OPEC's price war against the US oil industry.

The moment a mysterious boy moves in next door to Sydney and Allyson Tate, both of their lives begin to change in ways that neither of them can ignore. When Allyson meets Graham Copeland, she instantly feels like he's a kindred spirit - shy and awkward like her, someone who has trouble making friends. It's almost impossible to resist having a crush on him.

Hedda Chase is a top-flight executive producer at Gladiator Films, fast-tracked in the business since she graduated from Yale. An aggressive businesswoman, she recently pulled the plug on a film project initiated by one of her predecessors. The screenwriter on the project was Hugh Waters, a wannabe with a dead-end marriage and a day job at an insurance company. This script was his ticket out - and now he's out for revenge.

The end of the world was just the beginning.

Civilization has fallen, leaving California an unforgiving, decimated place. But Cass Dollar beat terrible odds to get her missing daughter back - hoping she and Ruthie will be happy. Yet with the first winter, Cass is reminded that happiness is fleeting in Aftertime. Ruthie retreats into silence. And Flesh eating Beaters still dominate the landscape.

In the annals of business trips gone horribly wrong, Evangeline Harker's journey to Romania on behalf of her employer, the popular television newsmagazine The Hour, deserves pride of place. Sent to Transylvania to scout out a possible story on a notorious Eastern European crime boss named Ion Torgu, she has found the true nature of Torgu's activities to be far more monstrous than anything her young journalist's mind could have imagined.

Exactly one year ago, Camaro Espinoza killed five bad men in New York City and fled town. Now she's keeping a low profile in Miami, running night charter catch-and-release fishing trips off the coast. It's a simple life for a former combat medic. But it wasn't easy to come by. Camaro plans to do everything she can to hold on to it.

America meant "freedom" to the immigrants of the early 1900s - but a freedom very different from what they expected. Cities were crowded and jobs were scare. Children had to work selling newspapers, delivering goods, and laboring sweatshops. In this touching book, Newberry Medalist Russell Freedman offers a rare glimpse of what it meant to be a young newcomer to America.

The sordid death of Philip Stilwell sends shock waves through the Alibi Club, the city's most infamous after-hours haunt, a glittering hotbed of deals and debaucheries. There's much more to Stilwell's untimely end than a sex game gone wrong. His murder and the desperate attempt to keep a deadly weapon out of German hands will bring together the strands of a twisted plot of betrayal, passion, and espionage, one connected to the Alibi Club — and to the most explosive secret of the war.

Lula, a 26 -year-old Albanian woman living surreptitiously in New York City on an expiring tourist visa, hopes to make a better life for herself in America. When she lands a job as caretaker to Zeke, a rebellious high school senior in suburban New Jersey, it seems that the security, comfort, and happiness of the American dream may finally be within reach. Her new boss, Mister Stanley, an idealistic college professor turned Wall Street executive, assumes that Lula is a destitute refugee of the Balkan wars.

A newlywed couple steps into the sauna in their deluxe honeymoon suite – and never steps out again. When another couple is killed while boarding their honeymoon flight to Rome, it becomes clear that someone is targeting honeymooners, and it’s anyone’s guess which happy couple is next on the list.FBI Agent John O’Hara is deep into the case, trying to figure out who this deranged killer is. At the same time, Special Agent Sarah Brubaker is hunting another ingenious serial killer, whose victims all have one chilling thing in common.

Clint McCade roared into town to visit his best friend, just as he had a dozen times before - but this time the rugged photographer had romance on his mind! When Sandy Kirk told him she'd lost her heart at last, he vowed to help her get her man. Practicing seduction and pretending to be lovers started out as a game, but would their lips and bodies betray the desire neither dared to confess?

After her grandfather's death, Sara inherits an ancient pendant and a near-impossible quest - master the mysterious pendant's source of magic. Driven to do so, she must find the other two stones of power, long considered lost, while preventing an unknown enemy from finding her first. Unprepared and alone, she travels to where the keepers of the stones, the Siobani, were last seen. Along the way she meets Tobar, leader of the nomadic Heleini tribe.

"Little Surrenders" is a dark, mesmerizing short story about a marriage that’s reached its breaking point, and just how far a woman will go to reinvent herself after one too many compromises.  

When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans or leave. She decides to marry him. This is the story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith, when their three children help their mother to care for Michael. Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching and yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable poignancy the depth of family love.

When Megan Rooney gets fired from her job, her life is turned upside down. But then her sexy neighbor, Nick Walker, tells her that he needs a wife for a weekend trip to Tuscany, and she's the perfect candidate. She surprises herself when she agrees to go - but what if the lie turns out to be exactly what she's always wanted?

She used to work for the US government, but very few people ever knew that. An expert in her field, she was one of the darkest secrets of an agency so clandestine it doesn't even have a name. And when they decided she was a liability, they came for her without warning. Now she rarely stays in the same place or uses the same name for long. They've killed the only other person she trusted, but something she knows still poses a threat. They want her dead, and soon.

The CIA's highly classified Special Activities Division is in the business of tracking people down and keeping secrets hidden. Then a botched field operation reveals some dark dealings between an officer's superiors and an informant, dealings she's not supposed to know about. And a plot that could kill thousands of Americans. Including her husband and daughter. Knowing that her leadership is corrupt to the core, she is forced to give up her identity and to work from the shadows. But it's not easy staying hidden when your enemies are elite intelligence operatives.

Liz and Laurie are mother and daughter, but they couldn't be more different. Laurie is a free spirit whose creative career is about to reach new heights. Her mother Liz is a world-renowned doctor, and everything in her life has always been just so. But when Laurie gets an unexpected call, she decides to take her mother away on a trip to Paris and Norway. As they explore Europe together, Laurie finally starts opening up to her mother. Will unburdening themselves of the secrets that have kept them apart bring them closer together?

Cuddle up with your little one and listen to these three bedtime Bible favorites: Goodnight, Manger and Goodnight, Ark by Laura Sassi, and Goodnight, Angels by Melody Carlson.