Showing results by narrator "Linden Teri Clark" in All Categories

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 20 Stories about love and letting go.

When Christine’s husband calls her during a girls’ night in with her sister and asks for a divorce, she’s devastated. And bewildered. Admittedly, her marriage was in a rut, but at least she had someone, and an idea of how her future would be. Now, in the run-up to her 40th birthday, she has to start over. With the help of loyal girlfriends and her courageous decision to move to the city, she gradually starts to find her feet on the ground again - and begins to make a new life for herself.

When ex-downhill skier Jade Hart's two sisters give her a Kidnap Fantasies questionnaire, Jade is aroused at the prospect of having no-strings fun in the sun with a stranger whose only job would be to fulfill her every intimate fantasy. Although she knows she's too shy to send it in, she secretly pours her deepest wishes into the questionnaire. Soon the Kidnap Fantasies questionnaire mysteriously vanishes and then Jade's fantasy man appears on her luxury yacht.

Escaping her broken marriage, successful author Elena settles into a hastily arranged sublet. Shattered, on the verge of coming unhinged, she’s unable to sleep, write, or even unpack. Then she discovers an innocent pastime to occupy her restless days and nights - watching her neighbors through the kitchen window. The Storms seem like the perfect family, but the more Elena sees and hears, the more she believes that there’s something terribly wrong in the house next door.

When Philip Drem, the most feared and hated IRS auditor, is murdered, junk food junkie Jill Smith finds a long list of suspects among Berkeley's eclectic community.

Straight-laced, veterinary surgeon, Summer Wynters is ready to break the rules. And who better to break them with than the most irreverent of all men, mega rock star Malcolm Angel? With one last summer free from work obligations, Summer moves to New York City, and at the coaxing of her friend, pretends to be a model so she can spend one wild night with Malcolm. Rock star, Malcolm Angel, tortured by a dark past, may be the poet laureate of romance, but he, like science-minded Summer, has never believed in romantic love. How could he? With his history, he doesn't deserve to be loved.

In a business world that spans several continents, it is no longer common for everyone to speak English as a first language. Whether you speak English as a first, second, or even third language, intercultural business communication means that getting it right first time has never been more important for you and your organization. English can never be standardized in the global and digital marketplace; instead, we can learn how to customize business English according to our own values and culture and communicate successfully across borders.

Thirty years have passed since Christine and her father, Heinz, vacationed together. It was such a disaster - an exasperated Heinz left the moody teenager at a gas station to teach her a lesson - that Christine vowed never to travel with him again. But now her mother is insisting that Christine and her best friend, Dorothea, take Heinz along on what is supposed to be a relaxing girls’ trip to the beach. And she’s not taking no for an answer. Suddenly Christine and Dorothea have a chaperone, though high school is long since over.

Ever since discovering her lifelong best friend was sleeping with her (now ex) husband, Christine's trust in other women has been a little shaky. Sure, she has a few close friends, but she's also fiercely independent and shies away from sharing too much with them. When Ruth, one of her colleagues, hears Christine saying that she doesn't feel the need for a best friend, she wishes she could show her how enriching a good female friendship really can be. She embarks on a mission to find Christine’s girlfriends.

A call from an ex-husband is never welcome. For Berkeley cop Jill Smith it wins a Nobel Prize for chutzpah. Her ex wants a favor. His "friend" and co-worker, Anne Spaulding, is missing. Anne's ransacked apartment - complete with blood-sprayed walls - gives Jill the chilling feeling that her ex may be up to his arrogant neck in murder. Now Jill's out with the street people of Berkeley and the crazies of People's Park to uncover the fate of a welfare worker. But her best suspect is her ex: the former "significant other" who still pushes her buttons.

At 28, writer Kayleen Schaefer's brother was one of the most promising young filmmakers in Hollywood, having shot to success as the writer and director of "Chapter 27," starring future Oscar-winner Jared Leto as John Lennon’s killer Mark David Chapman. Then, five years later, to the surprise of those closest to him, he left it all behind - abandoning his career, his family and his life, without telling anyone where he was going.

Carrie Hansen won’t let her failing health stop her from fulfilling her own last wish. Vowing to transform an aging plantation house into a beautiful wedding venue, she plans to live out her last days celebrating happiness. But between renovation problems and family interference, Carrie fears she’ll never see anyone walk down the aisle. Civil War soldier Thomas Gentry took his final breath back in 1861 and has been haunting the crumbling manor ever since. So when the new owner messes with his routine and starts renovating the place, he vows to preserve the status quo.

Making the choice to add a dog, as an addition to the family unit, is not something to be taken lightly. This is a very big and important decision and should be given due consideration. Get all the info you need here.

Although the citizens of Berkeley are famously tolerant, that progressive attitude disappears at the property line between the homes of Dr. Hasbrouck Diamond and Leila Sandoval. In the Berkeley hills , there are no worse neighbors than Diamond and Sandoval. What began as a tiff about garbage cans and street parking has exploded into full-blown war, drawing in the city, the press, and now—to the irritation of detective Jill Smith—the police department.

Precisely because the dance floor stands apart from the everyday world, allowing dancers to play, experiment, and take on new roles, it also serves as a stage for human behavior. Antoinette Benevento, a former national ballroom dancing champion and co-owner of Fred Astaire Dance Studios, has been a student of that stage for 25 years. She has discovered that getting out on the dance floor is a powerful and empowering metaphor for living fully in all realms of life.

Forty-six-year-old divorcée Christine is finally happy - or so she thinks. She has an amazing boyfriend but she also has a drama-filled family she fears might scare him off. And when Christine spies her dependable Aunt Inge in the company of a man who is most certainly not her husband, it sends the family drama into overdrive - and delivers an unexpected wake-up call to Christine. Because after witnessing the newfound passion with which 60-something Inge is tackling each day, Christine becomes aware of the mounting frustrations in her supposedly fabulous life. Sick and tired of playing it safe, Christine finally decides the time has come to make some big changes.

Raised in Karkov, a military, male-dominant kingdom, twins Natalia and Jillian know nothing but battle. When Jillian emerges as the dominant twin and apparent heir to the throne, Natalia, the softer and more diplomatic sister, ceases her military training. As Natalia prepares to marry the prince of her father’s favored Western ally, Jillian is set to become the first woman Lion of Karkov.

After six months of perfect weather, the people of Berkeley, California, have forgotten how to drive during a thunderstorm. Newly christened homicide detective Jill Smith is on her way home to a chocolate ice cream dinner when she gets caught in a traffic jam at the city’s only roundabout. At the front of the line, she sees the trouble: a flipped-over Cadillac and one dead driver. The man behind the wheel was one of the city’s leading citizens, a philanthropist in a town that puts charity first.

At first the townspeople of Cherryvale welcome the rising medium Kate Bender and her family. Kate's messages from the Beyond give their tedious dreams hope and her mother's potions cure their little ills—for a price. No one knows about their other business, the shortcut to a better life. And why shouldn't their family prosper? They're careful. It's only from those who are marked, those who travel alone and can easily disappear, that the Benders demand their pound of flesh. But even a gifted seer like Kate can make a misstep.

Melanie Hansen loved her younger sister, Carrie. But when Carrie moved to Missouri to restore an antebellum house, Melanie was pretty sure her baby sister had lost her mind. Then her worst fear comes true: Carrie dies. When a letter arrives, asking Melanie to return to Celebration House, she has no choice but to leave all that she knows in Seattle and travel to Missouri. All Melanie wants to do is find a buyer. But that’s a difficult task with all of the restrictions her sister and the local historian, Zach Oakes, put on the sale of the house.