Showing results by narrator "Cynthia Barrett" in All Categories

The COVID-19 pandemic has left a trail of loss, misery, and economic ruin in its wake. With such destruction, can there be any silver lining? As veteran science journalist Debora MacKenzie illuminates in this captivating, acclaimed book, there is one: With the lessons learned from this disaster, we can stop it from happening again. Here, in this fully revised and updated edition, she lays out the full story in accessible, gripping detail.

At age fifty, Margaret Spencer's empty nest and empty marriage prompt her to answer an ad for part-time office work at the office of private investigator Nat Southby. Suddenly, she is deep in the most unlikely of adventures for a woman in 1950s Vancouver, helping him with a case of missing young women involved in a shady business ring. Maggie finds unexpected freedom as a developing detective and along the way she uncovers evil in the quaintly urban setting.

Forced to flee her abusive fiancé, Cassandra Shay’s disappearance into Montana territory is delayed when she discovers her fiancé and uncle’s plot to murder her illegitimate brother and another innocent cowboy. Ty Bishop hates the Shays, but accompanies Jake Curtis to meet Jake’s newfound uncle, Derrick Shay. Ty’s suspicions are confirmed when he and Jake are imprisoned and left to drown. After Cassie frees them, the men travel with her for her own protection.

Long, long ago, the Gods forged Twelve Swords of Power, each with a unique and deadly quality. They forged too well, for the swords could kill the Gods themselves. Then the swords were lost, scattered across the land; and many are they, both good and evil, who are desperate to find them again. This story is of Farslayer, the sword that can kill from across an entire world. The game is fierce; the prize is the sword.

Four little words. That’s all it took. Just four words to turn Andi Vanzant’s world upside down. Until then, Andi thought her life was perfect: married to an adoring man, recently tenured at Northampton University, and a published author. But when her husband is killed by a drunk driver just blocks from their home, his death plunges Andi into a grief from which she cannot imagine ever surfacing. Her family and friends do their best to help her pick up the pieces, but nothing they do or say will ever bring back what Andi lost that night.

Kristina Riggle explores the messiness of life’s love stories, especially those involving teenage almost-stepchildren, a unreliable ex-wife, and the words no parent ever wants to hear: “Your child is missing.” A poignant, honest, and unforgettable novel that fans of Katrina Kittle and Elin Hildenbrand will take into their hearts, Things We Didn’t Say is exactly the sort of well-written, complex relationships story that women love to listen to, discuss, and share with their friends.

This book shows how schools can - and must - develop expertise in "learning variation" (understanding how different kinds of minds learn) and apply this knowledge to classroom instruction in order to address the chronic learning challenges and achievement gap faced by millions of students. Barringer shows how using what we know about learning variation with a focus on discovering learning strengths, not just deficits, can help schools create plans for success for those students who often find it elusive.

A top “must-have” for any listener of Holocaust and World War II survival accounts. This incredible true story is both a witness to the Holocaust through Polish eyes and the story of how Henry Zguda, a Polish Catholic swimmer, survives Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

When they first met at Harvard in 1946, young Kenny O’Donnell and Bobby Kennedy could not have imagined where their lives would take them. The friendship they built saw them through some of the most pivotal moments of the twentieth century - including Robert Kennedy’s tenure as attorney general and O’Donnell’s time spent as John F. Kennedy’s chief of staff - and only ended with RFK’s tragic death.

Gretchen Waters' writing career is cut abruptly short when she dies from a fall down a set of stone library steps. It is a tragic accident and no one suspects foul play, certainly not Gretchen's best friend from college, Jamie, who's been named the late author's literary executor. But there's an unfinished manuscript Gretchen left behind that is much darker than Tammyland: a book ostensibly about male country musicians yet centered on a murder in Gretchen's family that haunted her childhood.

Passed over for promotion and dumped by her boyfriend, Nina O'Malley is further frustrated when her editor assigns her one of the "soft" stories she despises - covering a gala benefit supporting the AIDS Memorial Quilt. More determined than ever to prove she deserves a promotion to the NY office, Nina decides to write a series featuring a local quilting group raising money for AIDS research.

Vermont newspaper editor Cozie Hawthorne is astounded by the money she makes when her collection of Yankee essays becomes a best seller. But that doesn't mean she'll let success go to her head: She still drives a rusted Jeep and lives in a house - built in 1790 - that seems more amenable to bats than it does interesting men.

Back in Vancouver, Maggie and Nat begin their next adventure at a cranberry bog where a veterinarian's assistant has been found dead. A long trail with a faint scent to follow, their victim's double-life leads them to a strip club, a bogus religious sect, and a nursing home with a dark underlying secret.

Sold into prostitution, Sara Fuller robs a client and flees to her brother in White Pines, Montana. Anxiously awaiting his mail order bride, rancher Caleb Young is delighted when a beautiful woman steps off the stagecoach. A series of misunderstandings soon finds the two taking their marriage vows. When Sara discovers she isn't Caleb's intended bride, she hides her scandalous past and sets out to prove she can be a good wife. Caleb adores Sara but suspects her of hiding something very important. Despite Sara's secrets, their love grows and a child is conceived.

Andi and David have settled happily into Andi's Northampton home, but David wants more. He wants them to get married. But their discussion is put on hold when Wylie, a fifteen-year-old girl, shows up in their backyard, bearing news that takes David’s mind off the future and sends it spiraling into the past. Reeling from David's news, Andi receives a startling announcement of her own, one that leads to a relationship with her estranged mother. As Andi and her mother get closer and Wylie weaves her way into their lives, Andi finds solace in an old comfort: her ex-fiancé.

On the edge of the remote salt flats of Australia, a young woman blows in from nowhere and disturbs the precarious equilibrium of a family farm. The boy is fascinated by her, his mother despises her, and the brutish farmhand wants to possess her. When the woman mysteriously disappears, the only trace of her a bloodied dress, the boy sets out in search of an Indian hawker who may or may not have the answers. As he journeys through the broken landscape, accompanied only by his horse and his dog, the boy becomes aware of another party converging murderously on his destination.

With one of Texas's most heinous serial killers still on the loose, it's Colby agent Joel Hayden's sworn duty to protect single mom Laney Seagers. Getting a job at Laney's High Noon bar is easy for Joel … but gaining the trust of the fiercely independent beauty is considerably harder. Amid escalating danger, Joel struggles to safeguard the shattering family secret that could destroy all Laney has ever known. As he witnesses her world starting to unravel, how can he protect her without revealing what he knows?

When miners release an ancient and deadly virus, Lori, a nurse, finds herself at ground zero of a deadly battle for survival. With time running out, can Lori find the strength to fight an ever-increasing enemy and save her family? A fast-paced, exhilarating ride through a zombie apocalypse, this story asks the question: what would you do to save the people you love?

Jackie Delgado didn't want a new man in her life until a dreaded blind date turns out to be more exciting than she'd ever imagined. When her youngest son leaves for college, Jackie is hit hard by empty nest syndrome and pours herself into her work as a teacher. Bowing to pressure from friends, Jackie agrees to a blind date. But when Mark Brennan calls, she realizes the date won't be "blind". He's the father of one of her students.

Over 100,000 businesses have slow or non-paying customers. Yet very few actually have a workable plan for claiming the missing revenue that results. This book gives you a complete solution and tool set to ensure your business maximizes its collections while maintaining an effective, profitable credit plan. Get Paid enables you to decide what matters most to your business when it comes to billing, payment terms, pricing, cash flow, and more.