Showing results by narrator "Coleen Marlo" in All Categories

Every year, some two million parents in the US suffer the death of a son or daughter. The unnatural sequence of the child's preceding the parent in death creates a wrenching loss and overwhelming emotional and spiritual disorientation. Most of these bereaved parents find relief from their isolation only in the company of others like themselves. The Grieving Garden offers support, understanding, and, ultimately, comfort and hope from those who have sowed the same tears over the death of a child.

Nina Sankovitch has always been a reader. As a child, she discovered that a trip to the local bookmobile with her sisters was more exhilarating than a ride at the carnival. Books were the glue that held her immigrant family together. When Nina's eldest sister died at the age of 46, Nina turned to books for comfort, escape, and introspection. In her beloved purple chair, she rediscovered the magic of such writers as Toni Morrison, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ian McEwan, Edith Wharton, and, of course, Leo Tolstoy. Through the connections Nina made with books and authors (and even other readers), her life changed profoundly.

There is a proverbial ticking time bomb in our midst. It's the toxic lifestyle that is wreaking havoc on our nation's health and well-being and posing an equal threat to everyone from the very young to the very old. In today's fast-food-obsessed, couch-potato culture, two-thirds of all adults and one-third of all children are either overweight or obese, rates of diabetes and heart disease are soaring, and the future for many of us looks dismal.

Diandra Casey and Gregory York are childhood rivals and longtime adversaries, both vying for the same powerful position at one of the country's most elite department stores. In order to determine who is best suited for the job, the two are confined together for a week in an elegant Boston town house, where they must catalog and store a priceless collection of antiques. But away from the pressures of corporate life, their feelings for each other suddenly seem less clear as attraction flares between them....

When one of her favorite people goes missing, aka Alfred, Ava goes into mama-bear mode. Nobody is going to get away with stealing her friend and butler. The immortal Vikings are the first names on her suspect list, but was it really them? The truth stone aids in the search, but Ava begins to doubt even that as everyone who has ever met Alfred becomes a suspect.

Debriefing collects all of Susan Sontag's shorter fiction, a form she turned to intermittently throughout her writing life. The book ranges from allegory to parable to autobiography and shows her wrestling with problems not assimilable to the essay, her more customary mode. Here she catches fragments of life on the fly, dramatizes her private griefs and fears, lets characters take her where they will. The result is a collection of remarkable brilliance, versatility, and charm.

Just when she's finally figured out how to manage on her own, Jill Murray's ex-husband, Seth, is back. Jill's life just hasn't turned out quite the way she'd planned. By now, she'd hoped to be jetting around the world as a high-end cultural coach. Instead, she's answering phones for a local travel agency and teaching cooking classes at the community center. Enter free-spirited entrepreneur Billy who hires Jill as a consultant for an upcoming business trip. Suddenly, her no-boys-allowed life is anything but.

Natural Meditation offers easy-to-follow meditation cues for meditating in natural settings or meditating on natural images or objects. Sidebars throughout the book provide suggestions on how to incorporate nature into your mindfulness practice.

Do you see women your age portrayed as puttering gardeners and docile grannies? Do you feel bombarded by anti-aging products that insist you must "defy" getting older? Do you feel invisible in professional and social situations? And have you had enough, and are you ready to challenge the intertwining of sexism and ageism in our culture? Susan Douglas knows that you are not alone.

The psychic powers of the Concordia sisters are increasing, but so is the body count. (You'd think this was Cabot Cove or Midsomer instead of Sarasota, Florida.) Amanda and her sisters are on the hunt for a treasure buried by their godmother, Letty. A moody ghost, their quirky fellow shop owners, and an overworked police detective all play a part in them unraveling the mysteries of Letty's life and untimely death. But can Amanda keep her family safe as they barrel, like a bull in a consignment shop, toward a showdown with the person responsible for Letty's murder?

The New York Times has hailed Joyce Carol Oates as "a dangerous writer in the best sense of the word, one who takes risks almost obsessively with energy and relish." Black Dahlia & White Rose, a collection of 11 previously uncollected stories, showcases the keen rewards of Oates's relentless brio and invention. In one beautifully honed story after another, Oates explores the menace that lurks at the edges of and intrudes upon even the seemingly safest of lives - and maps with rare emotional acuity the transformational cost of such intrusions.

In Yes, You Can Do This! Claudia shares her own reasons for starting a business and makes a call to action for women to consider entrepreneurship so that they can create businesses with the rules they want and change the playing field for others, making a significant impact in the world. More than a how-to guide on building a business, Claudia provides clear examples and practical resources to help others create the life they want through entrepreneurship.

Called to the home of her fiancé's former mistress late one night, Francesca finds her curiosity piqued. But upon arrival, she is shocked to find Daisy Jones's bloodied body…and even more devastated when the evidence points to one suspect—her fiancé, Calder. Francesca cannot—will not—believe that Calder is capable of such an act. Still, she is unable to shake her instinctive sense that Calder is lying about something. The police are far less inclined to believe his innocence, and Calder is arrested for Daisy's murder.

Independent jewelry designer Ivy Marlow had it all - the man, the security, and the ring. Now all she has to her name are a broken engagement, the crushing worry of a flailing business, and the haunting feeling of complete betrayal. The last thing Ivy expected to find attending a posh New York art show was him. Jax Walker is everything she doesn't need but can't resist. He's gorgeous, brazen, unapologetic, and powerful. He becomes the escape Ivy has been craving and longing for.

Though Diane Randall’s jewelry business is a great success, her marriage is not, and she finds herself growing lonely as her children near adulthood. Meanwhile, her eighteen-year-old daughter Julia is falling dangerously in love, and Diane’s mother, Jean, is relishing her newfound freedom as a single woman in Europe. Distracted by their individual concerns, the three women are ill-prepared for the crisis that suddenly appears on Diane’s doorstep in the form of a handsome FBI agent asking about an explosive secret that’s laid buried for decades.

Marianne Stokes fled England at seventeen, spiraling into the manic depression that would become her shadow. She left behind secrets, memories, and tragedy: one teen dead, and her first love, Gabriel, badly injured. Three decades later she's finally found peace in the North Carolina recording studio she runs with her husband, Darius, and her almost-daughter, Jade...until another fatality propels her back across the ocean to confront the long-buried past.

In this groundbreaking comprehensive analysis, based on more than 25 five years of in-depth surveys involving 100,000 men and women across dozens of Fortune 500 companies, Barbara Annis and Keith Merron provide a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of forces that have combined to create and perpetuate gender inequality. Gender Intelligence exposes common false assumptions that prevent men and women from successfully performing together at work.

Millions of American parents sit down to dinner every night, wondering why fully grown children are joining them - or, more likely, grunting good-bye as they head out for another night of who knows what. Sally Koslow, a journalist, novelist, and mother of two "adultescents" digs deep to reveal what lies behind the current generation's unwillingness - or inability - to take flight. By delving into the latest research and conducting interviews with parents and offspring, Koslow gives voice to the issues of prolonged dependency.

Morgan Jewell and Fay Ramsey are enjoying their last summer together before college. Fay is shy, with a controlling mother, and Morgan is the perfect, wild, loud-mouthed yang to Fay’s yin. But when Fay is found dead, Morgan’s entire world crumbles. Years later, Morgan is still haunted by the abrupt end to her best friend’s life. Morgan, now a homicide detective, has failed to make a picture out of the crooked puzzle pieces Fay left behind. The leads have run dry - until she’s called to the scene of a murder: a woman whose body is left mangled, too similar to Fay’s to ignore.

Mistaken identity...or the real thing? After undergoing plastic surgery and opening a shop with a friend, Lauren Stevenson was looking forward to starting afresh. Then some peculiar things began to happen. She was nearly run down by an out-of-control car. A few days later she was attacked by a wild dog. Several items in her home had somehow moved. Matt Kruger showed up soon after. He's handsome, passionate, and says he's a close friend of her brother's. But why has Matt appeared now? After all, her brother has been dead for more than a year....