Showing results by narrator "Soneela Nankani" in All Categories

Gender inequality in the fields of education, law, employment and wages lead to incalculable social and political disparities. These disparities in turn give rise to endemic poverty and violence, to individual frustration, social instability, and cultural disaffection. When women are deprived of their rights, economies are eroded, democracies weakened, and the fabric of societies radically undermined. This pioneering book shows, once and for all, the direct correlation between the freedoms given to women and the prosperity enjoyed by all.

Raina Anand may have finally given in to family pressure and agreed to let her grandmother play matchmaker, but that doesn't mean she has to like it - or that she has to play by the rules. Nani always took Raina's side when she tried to push past the traditional expectations of their tight-knit Indian-immigrant community, but now, she's ambushing Raina with a list of suitable bachelors. Is it too much to ask for a little space? Besides, what Nani doesn't know won't hurt her....

Told in alternating narratives that bridge centuries, the latest novel from New York Times best-selling author Samira Ahmed traces the lives of two young women fighting to write their own stories and escape the pressure of familial burdens and cultural expectations in worlds too long defined by men.

Bree Bozeman isn’t exactly pursuing the life of her dreams. Then again, she isn’t too sure what those dreams are. After dropping out of college, she’s living a pretty chill life in the surf community of Pacific Beach, San Diego…if “chill” means delivering food as a GrubGetter, and if it means “uneventful”. But when Bree starts a new Instagram account - @breebythesea - one of her posts gets a signal boost from none other than wildly popular self-help guru Demi DiPalma, owner of a lifestyle brand empire. Suddenly, Bree just might be an up-and-coming Instagram influencer.

Through a series of essays, poems, and comics, 30 creators give voice to moments that defined them and shed light on the immense diversity and complexity of the Asian American identity. Edited by CAPE and with an introduction by renowned journalist SuChin Pak, My Life: Growing Up Asian in America is a celebration of community, a call to action, and a road map for a brighter future.

We could all learn a thing or two about living in balance from our friends in the plant and animal kingdom. Take, for example, the jellyfish, one of the most energy-efficient animals in the world, moving through the ocean by contracting and relaxing, with frequent breaks in between. Or the avocado tree, which can credit its existence to a mutually beneficial relationship with the prehistoric sloth, followed by some hungry, hungry humans and the advent of agriculture.

Zeus, Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, and the other denizens of Mount Olympus feel almost as present and larger than life today as they did when they were worshipped as gods. Humanity has been telling and retelling stories about the characters from Greek and Roman myth for centuries—heck, the Romans liked the Hellenic originals so much, they remade them faster than Marvel remakes Spider-Man movies. And from Virgil's Aeneid to Xena: Warrior Princess to Percy Jackson to The Song of Achilles, the obsession has never waned.

When their Republic was ravaged by plague and fell into chaos, a monastic order of girls called the Daughters of Zahra took up arms and became known as Warmaidens. Fifty years later, the plague has passed, and the Republic survived, but the Warmaidens live on, training for battle since childhood and providing protection to their communities. With the day of Princess Naomi’s wedding fast approaching, Roxshana prepares to say good-bye to her best friend. They have one last mission together: the monthlong journey south to Naomi’s homeland, where she will be wed.

It's been years since Meena separated from her husband, Nikhil . . . years since they first laid eyes on each other in their home state of Texas, years since they spontaneously wed in Las Vegas and she felt true happiness. Now a high-powered lawyer on Capitol Hill and ready to move on (at least, she thinks so) with another successful lawyer, Shake, Meena has returned to Texas. This time, finally to obtain a divorce. But there’s one thing Meena didn’t account for: a hurricane forming in the Gulf, veering right toward them and giving them no choice but to hunker down.

"Aren't you a terrorist?" "There are no roles for people who look like you." "That's a sin." "No girls allowed." They've heard it all. Actress Alia Shawkat reflects on all the parts she was told she was too "ethnic" to play. Former NFL player Wade Davis recalls his bullying of gay classmates in an attempt to hide his own sexuality. Holocaust survivor Fanny Starr tells of her harrowing time in Aushwitz, where she watched her family disappear, one by one. What made them rise up through the hate? What made them overcome the obstacles of their childhood to achieve extraordinary success?

Cassie and the rest of the crew have found themselves in the middle of a conflict between two alien civilizations hell-bent on destroying each other...and anyone else who gets in their way. What was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission soon becomes a fight for their lives. But Cassie knows it isn’t enough to simply survive. The war is coming to Earth, and only she has the information that can possibly stop the devastation it will bring. With humanity’s fate in the balance, Cassie must decide who she can trust and who she's willing to sacrifice in order to complete her mission.

There is a vast cultural movement emerging from beyond the Western world. Truly global in its range and allure, it is the biggest challenge yet to Hollywood, McDonald's, and blue jeans. This is an audiobook about these new arbiters of mass culture arising from the East - India's Bollywood films, Turkish soap opera, or dizi, and South Korean pop music. Carefully packaging not always secular modernity with traditional values in urbanized settings, they have created a new global pop culture that can be easily consumed.

Agatha Arch's life shatters when she discovers her husband in their backyard shed, in flagrante delicto, giving the local dog walker some heavy petting. Suddenly, Agatha finds herself face to face with everything that frightens her...and that's a loooooong list. Agatha keeps those she loves close. Everyone else she keeps as far away as possible. So she's a mystery to nearly everyone in her New England town. To her husband, she's a saucy no-B.S. writer. To her Facebook Moms group, she's a provocateur. To her neighbor, she's standoffish.

Maple Mehta-Cohen has been keeping a secret: she can’t read all that well. She has an impressive vocabulary and loves dictating stories into her recorder - especially the adventures of a daring sleuth who’s half Indian and half Jewish like Maple herself - but words on the page just don’t seem to make sense to her. Despite all Maple’s clever tricks to hide her troubles with reading, her teacher is on to her, and now Maple has to repeat fifth grade. Maple is devastated - what will her friends think? Will they forget about her?

Caring for someone with dementia can be a challenging, heartbreaking experience … but it can also be rewarding, fulfilling and meaningful. Most dementia caregivers find that the first, and sometimes most difficult step, is accepting the diagnosis and adjusting to a new normal. In Day to Day: Living With Dementia, Angela Lunde, M.A., an expert in dementia care at Mayo Clinic, helps you take that first step and chart your path toward living well, even in the face of dementia.

A romance to sweeten your morning coffee; an erotica to spice up your evening wine. Are you in the mood for "nice"? Or, are you in the mood for "naughty"? How about a little dollop of both? These sweet, fun, and sexy stories follow five sisters and their chosen brother as they navigate romance, passion, and baking in and out of the hallowed walls of their Nana's old house in the borough of Queens, New York. Both in Queens and back home in the North Fork, these diverse siblings walk in a sex-positive world, surrounded by love in all its many forms.

War is coming. Despite everything Maya and her father have done, the veil that protects the human world is failing. The Lord of Shadows has raised an army powerful enough to challenge the orishas. And it’s only a matter of time before he breaks through the veil and destroys Maya’s neighborhood and the rest of the world.

Religious-liberty lawyer Asma Uddin has long considered her work defending people of all faiths to be a calling more than a job. Yet even as she seeks equal protection for Evangelicals, Sikhs, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Jews, and Catholics alike, she has seen an ominous increase in attempts to criminalize Islam and exclude American Muslims from their inalienable rights. Somehow, the view that Muslims aren’t human enough for human rights or constitutional protections is moving from the fringe to the mainstream - along with the claim “Islam is not a religion.”

On a humid day in June 1806, on the edge of Ohio's Great Black Swamp, 17-year-old Susanna Quiner watches from behind a maple tree as a band of Potawatomi Indians kidnaps her four older sisters from their cabin. With both her parents dead and all the other settlers out in their fields, Susanna makes the rash decision to pursue them herself. What follows is a young woman's quest to find her sisters and the parallel story of her sisters' new lives.

Tessa Hart's agoraphobia means she doesn't interact with many people - except for the online fandom of pop sensation Eric Thorn. She knows it sounds crazy, but he's the only one who seems to understand her, even though they've never met. Held prisoner by his contract and sick of his creepily obsessive fans, Eric creates a fake Twitter account to mess with one of his biggest followers, @TessaHeartsEric. Instead they form a bond via Twitter that neither could have imagined.