Showing results by narrator "Xe Sands" in All Categories

The Marvel of Martyrdom takes a broad perspective on self-sacrifice and martyrdom, bringing together religion, popular culture, history, psychology, and mythology. Stories of individuals both famous (Gandhi) and obscure (Rodrigo Rosenberg) intertwine with research on altruism, happiness, and radicalization to terrorism. The changing landscape of the book's setting - from The Roman Empire to 19th-century Russia to Nazi Germany to post-World War II India to present day Ukraine - makes the power of self-sacrifice and martyrdom come alive.

Maggie Bennett’s irresistible beauty and deadly skills in the martial arts always got her out of the tight spots. But she couldn't escape a stab of pain and passion when her new partner turned out to be tall, sensual Randall Carter. Once before, his kisses had promised forever - until the morning he'd walked out of her life. Now a thrilling, high-voltage chase after a mysterious spy has led her back into his arms and behind Europe's Iron Curtain, where Maggie and Randall become desperate players in an electrifying game - ready to break every rule...in danger and desire.

For nine months in Auschwitz, eighteen-year-old Eva Fleiss clung to sanity by playing piano on imaginary keyboards. After liberation, Eva and the five remaining Jews of Laszlo, Hungary, journey home, seeking to restart their lives. Yet the town that deported them is not ready to embrace their return. Their former neighbors and friends resist relinquishing their newfound status and property, and they struggle with their roles as perpetrators, enablers, and bystanders during the Holocaust.

Gretchen Waller arrives at the remote estate, Mill Hollow, eager to begin her job as assistant to handsome author John David Honeycutt. Amid the snowbound wild of the haunting north woods she finds deception and danger as John's investigation into his family's history stirs up dark secrets - secrets which have already led to murder. Drawn to John, Gretchen soon takes up his quest to uncover the truth. Can they solve the crime before the killer strikes again or will Mill Hollow claim more victims when shadows fall?

This stunning novel introduces Susan Lindley, a woman adrift after her husband's death. Suddenly gifted her great uncle's Pasadena mansion, Susan decides to restore his extensive collection of preserved animals, tending to "the fur and feathers, the beaks, the bones and shimmering tails." Meanwhile, a menagerie of uniquely damaged humans - including a cheating husband and a chorus of eccentric elderly women - joins her in residence.

If only life were as simple as breathing in and letting go. Millie Hart has made a career writing happy endings. While her real life is often less than enchanting, at least she has her stories, featuring strong, vibrant women ready for any challenge and men who stand in support of their dreams. Millie makes millions of readers swoon, but despite her agent’s deep objections, her new project is fueled by her intense drive to prove something. All she needs is four months in Bodega Bay. No meet-cutes, no kissing, just blissful silence. Drake Branch is happy to be alive.

Joyce Carol Oates, a queenpin of the noir genre, has brought her keen and discerning eye to the curation of an outstanding anthology of brand-new top-shelf short stories (and poems by Margaret Atwood!). While bad men are not always the victims in these tales, they get their due often enough to satisfy listeners who are sick of the gendered status quo, or who just want to have a little bit of fun at the expense of a crumbling patriarchal society. This stylistically diverse collection will make you squirm in your seat, stay up at night, laugh out loud, and inevitably wish for more.

Finding Mrs. Warnecke tells the inspiring story of Cindi Rigsbee, a three-time Teacher of the Year, and Barbara Warnecke, the first-grade teacher who had a profound and lasting impact on Cindi's life. Cindi, an insecure child who craved positive attention, started her first-grade year with a teacher who was emotionally abusive and played favorites in the classroom. Two months into the school year, her principal came into the classroom and announced that half the students were being moved to another classroom.

It wasn't his fault she lay broken and battered. He wasn't responsible for the injuries covering her bruised body. Her heart, however, told a different story. She endured the pain of its jagged edges as it shattered against her chest, ripping through the hope she once held. Her spirit was broken, and only one man was to blame for that.

In The Dinosaur Tourist, Caitlín R. Kiernan’s 15th collection of short fiction, 19 tales of the unexpected and the uncanny explore that treacherous gulf between what we suppose the world to be and what might actually be waiting out beyond the edges of our day-to-day experience. A mirror may be a window into another time. A cat may be our salvation. Your lover may be a fabulous being. And a hitchhiker may turn out to be anyone at all.

Devorah Blachor, an ardent feminist, never expected to be the parent of a little girl who was totally obsessed with the color pink, princesses, and all things girly. She wasn't sure how to reconcile the difference between her parental expectations and the reality of her Disney-worshiping three-year-old daughter. Offering insight, advice, and plenty of humor and personal anecdotes, this mother shares her story of how she surrendered control and opened up - to her Princess Toddler, to pink, and to life.

When Treat Byrnes walks into her bookstore café, Eve Alexander wants to eat him up. Bad boy isn't her usual flavor, but for the sexy contractor, she's willing to take a walk on the wild side. Treat has a history of falling for damsels in distress, but Eve doesn't need rescuing. Not even when her café is sabotaged. Only when Treat finds out the saboteur is his own mother, he knows he has to do something before things go too far.

Sissie Klein barely remembers the night that tore her from the carefree life she knew. Not long after the shocked teen is pushed into marriage, she's rushed to the hospital, where a catastrophic delivery seals her destiny. Sissie may not have been ready for motherhood, but she loves her daughter fiercely, and she's determined to give her the opportunities she forfeited. Some fates, however, can't be avoided. When Meg is a young woman, tragedy steals her father, leaving behind a legacy of deceit—and a toddler.

Truth Be Told, part of the bestselling Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan series by Agatha, Anthony, Mary Higgins Clark, and Macavity Award-winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan, begins with tragedy: a middle-class family evicted from their suburban home. In digging up the facts on this heartbreaking story - and on other foreclosures - reporter Ryland soon learns the truth behind a big-bucks scheme and the surprising players who will stop at nothing, including murder, to keep their goal a secret.

With divorce looming, Paige MacInnes isn’t sure what to do with herself. She’s spent so much time being everything to everyone else that she’s pretty sure she’s forgotten how to just be Paige, the woman. Maybe, she’ll be able to find herself again in Magnolia Bloom.... With the help of loved ones and lifelong friends (and maybe even a sexy Scotsman), Paige will need to figure out how to preserve the legacy of the MacInnes estate - all while learning the importance of trusting her heart, the power of second chances, and ensuring her own happily ever after.

From the author of the National Book Award longlisted epic The Great Offshore Grounds, here is the debut novel that launched her career - a story of activism, police violence, and white guilt in a not so distant dystopian America.

Morning finds them covered with dried blood, their clothing shredded and their memories hazy. Things soon become horrifyingly clear: the Whistler is a vampire and Natalie and Sophie are his latest victims. The young women leave their babies with Natalie's mother and hit the road, determined not to give in to their unnatural desires. Hunger and desire make a powerful couple. So do the Whistler and his Mother, who are searching for Sophie and Natalie with the help of Twitter and the musician's many fans.

Pine Valley librarian Livvy Harmon has big dreams, which include marrying Dr. Slade McKinney. Trouble is, he’s kissed her only once in their four months of dating, and it wasn’t all that great. But Livvy isn’t ready to give up yet on hooking such an amazing man, even though Slade seems to have time for everyone but her.

Cutting Teeth is about the complex dilemmas of early midlife-the vicissitudes of friendship, of romantic and familial love, and of sex. It's about class tension, status hunger, and the unease of being in possession of life's greatest bounty while still wondering, is this as good as it gets?

But over the years, Lovell and Hannah's conversations have become charged with resentments and unspoken desires. She's become withdrawn and directionless. His work affords him a convenient distraction. The children can sense the tension, which they've learned to mostly ignore. Until, after one explosive argument, Hannah vanishes. And Lovell, for the first time, is forced to examine the trajectory of his marriage through the lens of memory - and the eyes of his children.