Showing results by narrator "Megan Tusing" in All Categories

Clinching is the technique used to bend a driven horseshoe nail to hold the shoe to a hoof. Rainy Dale is The Clincher, a 20-something high school-dropout turned farrier (horseshoer) who is haunted by a secret she carries. Estranged from her California D-list actress momma and her ranch hand Texas daddy, she tracked down her childhood horse in small-town Oregon - a land full of cowboys and their horses - then stayed to build a life with her tools, steel, and forge. She’s sleeping in a garage and trying not to fall for her landlord, the hapless and hopeful chef, Guy.

Antonio, a merchant sailor, has no idea how dangerous Fina Perona is when he rescues her from drowning in the middle of the Lingering Sea. His ship is headed to the home Fina just abandoned, carrying desperately needed payment for her father's prized wine stores. Pirates attack, and as Antonio and Fina escape the clutches of slavery, she steals back her family's small fortune from the pirate captain's quarters. Fina doesn't need Antonio's protection - she's more dangerous than he could ever be - but she needs his experience as a navigator.

Several years in the future, an all-female astronaut team circumnavigates the globe once every 90 minutes aboard the International Space Station, prepared to be a powerful presence in space. When a surprise set of "everyday citizens" tags along for the ride, all protocol flies right out the proverbial...airlock.

When Ana fails at her duties as a tree guardian, she opens the door for dark magic to take hold of the Mother Tree - the source of all magic in the region. An evil force moves throughout the Lingering Sea, and no witch is safe. Ana must turn to Carlo, the grandson of her best friend and the missing key to saving the tree and righting her wrongs. Unfortunately, Carlo's sanity rests on a razor's edge and may lead to the salvation or destruction of all magic.

Trampled by Unicorns: Big Tech's Empathy Problem and How to Fix It explores how technology has progressed humanity's most noble pursuits, while also grappling with the origins of the industry's destructive empathy deficit and the practical measures Big Tech can take to self-regulate and make it right again. Author Maëlle Gavet examines the tendency for many of Big Tech's stars to stray from their user-first ideals and make products that actually profoundly damage their customers and ultimately society.

You are probably not aware, because of their hidden nature, but artificial intelligence systems are all around you affecting some of the biggest areas of your life - jobs, loans, kids, mental health, relationships, freedoms, and even healthcare decisions that can determine if you live or die.

The Rise of a New American Left is the first book to look closely at this new politics. Propelled by interviews with AOC and the other key figures and organizations that have shaken up American politics, the book includes portraits of groups like Democratic Socialists of America, the Sunrise Movement, and Justice Democrats, explaining who they are, where they come from, and what they want.

The Viking job has to get easier in time, right? That's wishful thinking on Valerie's part. The Jarls keep dropping her and Jacob into problems it would take Heimdall's foresight to unravel. Someone is messing with an inexplicable list of companies right here in America. Their connection is unclear, but Valerie sees Cleopatra behind every move. When will it stop? Is her enemy renting space in her head for free?

Kathy Kelly's world was shattered when a plane carrying her husband - an Iraq War veteran and devoted father - and her two children vanished from the sky one night. No trace of the plane was ever found. Eight years later, Kathy has struggled to rebuild her life, but then wreckage of his plane is found in the wilderness of Great Smoky Mountains National Park - hundreds of miles from where her husband's plane should have been. The pilot perished in the crash, but there is no sign of Jack or the children.

When someone shoots at volcanologist Aubrey Smith on Mount St. Helens, it’s up to K-9 officer Isaac McDane to protect her even though she broke his heart a decade ago. But as people keep dying and signs point to Aubrey’s sister being involved or the next potential victim, they’ll have to work together to track down the killer before he finishes his hit list.

Nib is a subway mouse. As a young mouse, he loved to hear the stories about Tunnel's End: a beautiful yet dangerous, roofless world. One day, Nib decides to set off, away from his dirty, crowded home, to find his dream. Along the way he meets a girl mouse named Lola, who joins him. Together, they navigate the long and dangerous tunnel, until, one night, when they have almost given up hope, they hear a small chirping sound. . . it is Tunnel's End, more beautiful than Nib ever dreamed.

For too long, the Southern woman has been synonymous with the Southern belle, a "moonlight and magnolias" myth that gets nowhere close to describing the strong, richly diverse women who have thrived because of - and in some cases, despite of - the South. No more. Garden & Gun’s Southern Women: More Than 100 Stories of Trail Blazers, Visionaries, and Icons obliterates that stereotype by sharing the stories of more than 100 of the region’s brilliant women, groundbreakers who have embraced the South’s proud traditions and overcome its equally pervasive barriers.

When Jaya Mill’s parents were killed and her brother was kidnapped in an attack on her childhood home, she saw only one future for herself: Enlist in the Union Starfleet and learn to defend herself. Now, as a lieutenant commander aboard the UNS Avalon, Jaya and her elite counter-terrorism unit enlist the help of Tynan Vasuda, an alien scientist from the Szacante Federation, to investigate the potentially sinister research of the new and mysteriously well-funded Sons of Priam.

Big hats, big trucks, big oil fortunes — Texas clichés all. And while those elements do flourish throughout Texas, they alone hardly define the place. The Lone Star State is and has always been a great melting pot, home to sprawling cities, trailblazing innovators, and treasured traditions from all over, many of which become ingrained in popular culture and intertwined with the American ideal.

After being held prisoner for three years in an Afghan prison, Jake Dawson is finally going home - except everyone, including his wife and young sons, believed he was dead. Jake has changed since he left for war, and now he isn’t sure where he belongs. Sally has changed, too. Her marriage to Jacob was on shaky ground even before his last deployment, but he’s still every inch the hot, headstrong man she loves, despite his wounds, both visible and invisible. Seeing him with their three boys makes her want to fight for this unexpected second chance.

Dresden is cursed. His chest houses a hive of bees that he can't stop from stinging people with psychosis-inducing venom. His face is a shifting montage of all the people who have died because of those stings. And he has been this way for centuries—since he was eighteen and magic flowed through his homeland, corrupting its people. He follows harbingers of death, so at least his curse only affects those about to die anyway. But when he arrives in a Midwest town marked for death, he encounters Essie, a seventeen-year-old girl who suffers from debilitating delusions and hallucinations.

Captain Jaya Mill and her band of rebels have been on the run for a year, their following growing in the beleaguered outer colonies. But every encounter with the Union Navy leaves them licking their wounds, as the Union amasses a horde of enhanced marines. Tynan rushes to find the key to disrupting the virus that bestows superior abilities to the Union’s chosen soldiers, but he fears Jaya will become a casualty of their own weapon.

He’s been hunting it for a long time now - a one-eyed, blue-eyed ghoul that took everything from him - and now Wash is about to confront his greatest threat. Whether it ends in victory or defeat, it will end. After her own dangerous journey on the road, Ana is more determined than ever to find Wash and finally repay him for helping to save her sister. Following through on that promise, though, might cost her everything. In Remains, the third and final installment in the After the Purge: Vendetta story, there is no turning back.

As Jaya struggles to recover from life-threatening injuries, Luka unites the dissident voices in the galaxy to create something better to take the Union’s place. But he soon finds that it’s much harder to build a civilization than it is to tear one down. Jaya seeks answers in her past about the man now terrorizing the galaxy, revealing still more mysteries about her father’s origins.

Ethan Rutledge might own the local Christmas tree farm, but the holiday hasn’t been welcome in his home since Wendy Patterson left him heartbroken 12 years ago. But now Wendy’s back, fresh from a tour of duty as a female Navy SEAL. Wendy learns about how Ethan’s been nurturing the one thing he has to remember her by: a gorgeous Norway spruce tree. Can the magic of Christmas and the spirit of the town help rekindle the romance between two people who thought they’d left love behind years ago?