Showing results by narrator "Clark Linden" in All Categories

window display is an enchanted forest of sweets, a collection of conical hats delights the eye and the habitus nibble chocolate witches from fanciful mismatched china. While in their tiny blue kitchen, Magalie Chaudron and her two aunts stir wishes into bubbling pots of heavenly chocolat chaud. But no amount of wishing will rid them of interloper Philippe Lyonais, who has the gall to open one of his world famous pastry shops right down the street.

After a childhood as unpredictable as the flip of a coin, Faith Sterling has finally found her comfort zone in the kitchen of an upscale Manhattan restaurant. A workaholic chef, at least there she's in control. So when her free-spirited and often-gullible mother, Connie, calls to announce that she's won a bed-and-breakfast on the Jersey Shore, Faith's patience boils over. Convinced the contest is a scam, she rushes to Wave's End to stop Connie from trading her steady job for an uncertain future.

Abigail Willard first spots her from the back of a New York cab: the spitting image of Abby herself at age 22 - right down to the silver platforms and raspberry coat she wore as a young artist with a taste for wildness. But the real Abby is now 46 and married, with a corporate job and two kids. As the girl vanishes into a rainy night, Abby is left shaken. Was this merely a hallucinatory side effect of working-mom stress? A message of sorts, sent to remind her of passions and dreams tossed aside? Or something more explosive and life-altering?

An Absorbing Errand uses stories of artists' lives, personal anecdotes, and insights from the author's work as a psychotherapist to examine the psychological obstacles that prevent people from staying with, and relishing, the process of art-making. Each chapter is devoted to a problem intrinsic to the creative process and illustrates how these very obstacles, once understood, can become prime sources of the energy that actually fuels the mastery of art-making.

The stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul will encourage listeners to stay upbeat, because there's always a brighter way to look at life. This collection includes 30 Stories about play, what's important, and belief.

Sara Friessen, the youngest daughter of Laura and Andy, believes she’ll never find the man who can make her soul sing, especially because after just one meeting with her father, every young man who has ever knocked on her door has come to the quick conclusion that she isn’t worth the trouble. Fearing the promised wrath (as Andy so aptly puts it) that could befall them if they mess with his daughter, they always run the other way.

Scarlett Hughes is overly involved in the lives of everyone around her, especially her neighbors, including: a young goth girl who chalks her very traditional wishes on the sidewalk; a forgetful mailman; and an older couple whose main excitement in their lives are the formal-sounding scam emails from foreign lands promising large sums of money.

Lauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter north of Los Angeles, but it's often human nature that puts her in the path of danger. Just like when she helps rescue four adorable beagle puppies that were dumped down a drainpipe at a nasty puppy mill. One of the mill's employees has a history of dog abuse—and a bone to pick with Lauren. And when he's found dead at HotRescues after threatening her, Lauren will have to sniff out the real killer to keep herself out of a cage....

Patti M. Hall’s life is pitched into an abyss of uncertainty when a golf ball-sized tumour is discovered in her teenage son’s head and he is diagnosed with gigantism, a disease of both legend and stigma. After scrambling to access a handful of medical experts in the field, Patti learns that her son could grow uncontrollably, his mobility could be permanently limited, and his life could be cut short without timely and aggressive treatment. Patti’s attention shifts fully to her son, away from her relationships as well as her own career and health.

Dearly beloved, we are gathered in this month of June for a wedding at the Parker family ranch. Or so the invitation says! Little does the family know that not just one Parker sister is getting married, but three. Will this be the wedding of the season, or will three sisters end up with broken hearts?

Growing up, Cat Friessen didn’t always know who she was. In fact, her earliest memory is of being alone in a silent world, terrified and misunderstood, left like garbage in a Mexican orphanage. The memory haunts her, and it’s one she’s never shared with her parents Neil and Candy Friessen, who have given her their name, their love, and a surgery that changed her life for the better. Now 19, Cat struggles with her sheltered existence and the fact that she doesn’t really fit in.

Bernard Malamud - the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of such acclaimed works as The Fixer, The Natural, and The Assistant, peer to Philip Roth and Saul Bellow, and an enduring literary influence - was a very private man. In this candid, loving, and beautifully written memoir, Malamud's daughter explores her renowned father's life and literary legacy, drawing from her own memories as well as from her father's letters and journals. An indispensable companion to Bernard Malamud's fiction, My Father Is a Book offers unique insight into the relationship between an author's life and art.

Her mommy meltdown is seen around the world! When Quinn Barrett’s son refuses to wear his hand-crafted costume to the Little Wonders Preschool Happy Halloween Parade and Dance Party she loses it - complete with stomping, screaming, and costume-destruction galore. Not her best day. And caught on viral video. Yep, “Halloween Mom” is now internet famous. The posting culprit: tattooed, blue-haired, west-coast transplant Daisy McGulch, out of place in the posh New England town and unable to blend with the other perfect mommies of Little Wonders Preschool.

When the body of Shadow Valley resident Dason Williams is discovered in his mother’s basement it appears to be a clear-cut case of suicide, but seasoned paranormal investigator Maureen Keslyn knows otherwise. A photograph on the dead man’s wall links him to a murdered teenage girl whose body bears the marks of a dangerous paranormal creature known as the Medusa. Convinced that the Medusa is on a killing spree, Maureen joins forces with an unwieldy team - Jake, the local sheriff, Matt, the Shadow Valley Manor cook, and Sophronia, a teenage girl with an uncanny affinity for ghosts.

Ivory Osburn is a determined single mom with a six-year-old son she fiercely protects. She’s kept her child a secret from the charming cowboy billionaire, Tripp Walker, despite her growing feelings for him. Just when she thinks she has everything under control, her ex threatens to take her son away due to her unstable situation. Desperate and out of options, Ivory turns to Tripp with an unexpected proposal—a marriage on paper to provide the stable family image she needs to keep her son away from her abusive ex. Tripp, who’s been longing to bridge the gap between them, agrees.

When shelter manager Lauren Vancouver finds out that her old mentor, Mamie Spelling, is an animal hoarder, no one is more shocked, and she jumps in to help re-home the cramped critters. But Mamie's troubles don't end there. She's accused of murder when the CEO of a pet shelter network is found dead. And Lauren's dogged determination to clear her former friend of murder may put a killer on her tail.

When Anna Hannack’s father-in-law brings home a wounded stranger only days before Christmas, Anna’s not happy. Christian charity moves the Hannack family to help the injured man, but the young widow Anna keeps her distance. The tragedies of life have shattered her trust, and she’s determined not to let another stranger threaten her family. Could it be, though, that this rugged Scotsman is actually the gift Anna’s young children have asked of the Christ Child this Christmas?

It starts as a prank - a way to blow off steam after a long summer at Camp Horseshoe. Among the teen counselors, tensions and hormones are running high. No wonder the others agree when Jo-Beth Chancellor suggests they scare Monica O'Neal a little.... or a lot. Monica has it coming, and no one will really get hurt. What could go wrong? Everything.

NHL star captain Dane Forrester thought he’d divorced his Vegas wife. But when Mallory ambushes him in his Alaskan hometown because there’s been a clerical error in their dissolution paperwork, he’s sure fate has intervened. She wants the documents signed again, but this time Dane isn’t going along with her request.

Saving animals and solving murders seem to go paw-in-paw for shelter manager and amateur sleuth Lauren Vancouver. But this time, mixed up in a murder that may close a much-needed new shelter, Lauren will have to keep herself and her critters safe from an unleashed killer.