Showing results by narrator "Kim Niemi" in All Categories

After her divorce, Athena has returned to coastal Michigan to work in her family's garden center and raise her son, while also caring for a mischievous wild raccoon and fending off her family's annoying talent for nagging. Working alone at the garden center one night, Athena is startled by a handsome stranger who claims to be the rightful owner of a valuable statue her grandfather purchased at a recent estate sale. But she has even bigger problems on her plate.

Apocalypse Television features a dramatic insider's account of the making of and backlash against The Day After. No other book has told this story in similar fashion, venturing behind-the-scenes of the programming and news divisions at ABC, the backlash from the conservative movement and Religious Right, the challenges encountered by the film's production team, and the experiences of the citizens of Lawrence, Kansas, where the film was set and shot.

After a five-year cultic misadventure in a secret "school," Friedman wrote her cautionary tale. Memoir led to research on narcissistic abuse and a recovery template for empaths. With humor and compassion, Friedman describes how the cult exploited her empathy. She interviews former members from other cults and includes research from leading experts. We learn that all cults and cons market false hope by leveraging human nature to profit from the vulnerable.

Judith Thurman, a prolific staff writer at The New Yorker for more than two decades, has gathered a selection of her essays and profiles in A Left-Handed Woman. They consider our culture in all its guises: literature, history, politics, gender, fashion, and art, though their paramount subject is the human condition. Thurman is one of the preeminent essayists of our time—"a master of vivisection," as Kathryn Harrison wrote in the New York Times. "When she's done with a subject, it's still living, mystery intact."

This thoughtful and heartfelt book develops two main themes: the healing power of a compassionate understanding towards ourselves and others, and the ways boundaries are set within and around various areas of our lives. It examines how we live these boundaries, how they impact us, and what it takes to live these with deeper satisfaction. This book also addresses shame and rage; the impact of trauma; the power of parental messages, spoken and unspoken; and transgenerational burdens.

The feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan (1921-2006), pathbreaking author of The Feminine Mystique, was powerful and polarizing. In this biography, the first in more than twenty years, Rachel Shteir draws on Friedan's papers and on interviews with family, colleagues, and friends to create a nuanced portrait.

Our children's first digital footprints are made before they can walk-even before they are born - as parents use fertility apps to aid conception, post ultrasound images, and share their baby's hospital mug shot. Then, in rapid succession come terabytes of baby pictures stored in the cloud, digital baby monitors with built-in artificial intelligence, and real-time updates from daycare. Unwittingly, parents, teachers, and other trusted adults are compiling digital dossiers for children that could be available to everyone - friends, employers, law enforcement - forever.

For years, Rafiel Trall, one of Goldport's finest, has been walking the fine line between enforcing human law and protecting the shifters who come his way. A lion shifter himself, he's found this duty onerous. Lately, it's been lightened by his friendship with Tom Ormson, a dragon shifter, and Kyrie Smith, a panther shifter. This should make it easier for him to find a solution for the crimes of a feral shifter - but not when an as-yet-unnamed entity takes out the Great Sky Dragon, the head of all dragon shifters.

Shapeshifters Kyrie and Tom try to live a normal life in a small Colorado town - normal, that is, considering one of them is secretly a panther and the other a dragon. But now a primeval Shifter feud grows infinitely more deadly, and Kyrie and Tom find themselves warriors in an ancient struggle for Shifter destiny itself! Quick-witted fantasy doyenne Sarah Hoyt continues the brilliant contemporary fantasy Shifter saga begun in Draw One in the Dark.

Every one of us has the beast inside. But for Kyrie Smith, the beast is no metaphor. Since she was 15, when she first shape-shifted into a savage black panther, Kyrie has questioned her humanity and moved from town to town, searching for a way to feel human again. Kyrie's lonely life changes forever while waitressing at a cheap diner. Investigating screams from the parking lot, Kyrie stumbles upon a blood-spattered dragon crouching over a mangled human corpse. The dragon changes back into her coworker, Tom, naked, dazed, and unable to remember how he got there.

Explore sacred trees from around the world and learn how to use their spiritual energy in your magickal practice. From the Norse Yggdrasil and the Christian Tree of Knowledge to the Jewish Sephiroth and the Buddhist Bodhi Tree, this book features the mythology of mystical trees and their influence on societies throughout history. Under the Sacred Canopy introduces you to Universe Trees, as well as Trees of Life and Wisdom from an array of cultures, including the Mayan ceiba tree, Mesopotamian huluppa tree, and Greek oracle oaks.

Survivors of childhood sexual abuse can begin a recovery journey informed by accurate understandings, not myths, and empowered by processes that help them thrive. Written for men and women by an author who is herself a survivor, this guide tells the truth about what complex trauma means for your physical and mental health. Listeners will learn how to build key recovery processes into their lives, including grieving, meaning-making, forging healthy connections with others, and finding hope. This guidance is scientifically-based, in findings from positive psychology.

The teaching of history has long been the subject of partisan warfare. Religion often plays a prominent role in these debates, as secular progressives and conservative Christians disagree over which historical figures are worthy of study, how (or whether) certain events should be portrayed, and ultimately how tax dollars should be spent. But what about students who are educated outside the public schools, either in religious schools or at home? How are they learning history, and what effect does that have on our democracy?

The left and right will always have strong policy disagreements, but constructive debate and negotiation are not possible when each side demonizes the other. In this book, social psychologist Ronnie Janoff-Bulman provides a new framework for understanding why and how we disagree. Janoff-Bulman asks listeners to consider the challenging possibility that both liberalism and conservatism are morally based and reflect genuine concern for the country. Understanding that our political differences are rooted in two natural forms of morality can help us begin to detoxify our politics.

Lynne Tillman became one of nearly 53 million Americans who care for a sick family member when her mother developed an unusual and little understood condition called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. Instantly, Tillman's independent and spirited mother went from someone she knew to someone else, a woman entirely dependent on her children. Mothercare is both a cautionary tale and sympathetic guidance for anyone who suddenly becomes a caregiver, responsible for the life of another—a parent, loved or not, or a friend.

An unprecedented number of Americans will soon be 55 or older. More so than ever before, the question is on our minds: How do I age well? In this accessible and upbeat guide, Schlossberg builds on the concepts she pioneered in her smash hits Retire Smart, Retire Happy and Revitalizing Retirement with an engaging take on positive aging. Looking at the basic issues of aging—health, finances, and relationships—listeners will learn to think about and develop a deliberate plan to age happily.

Athena Spencer works with her big Greek-American family (whom she also anonymously blogs about) at their garden center near Lake Michigan. She's also gained a reputation for crime-solving—and that's what brings flower-shop owner and fellow sleuth Abby Knight Salvare to her door . . . Abby has come from Indiana to this Lake Michigan town to help her cousin, Jillian, who was emceeing a local fashion show and now stands accused of murdering one of the models.

Today's children and teenagers are anxious about many things. For parents, teachers, counselors, and youth leaders longing to understand and help the young people in their lives, When Anxiety Roars unpacks the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual factors that influence anxiety in children and offers specific practical steps to take together to tame that anxiety. Integrating faith with best practices to reduce anxiety, it also teaches coping skills that will help children live more confidently today and into the future.

In From Survive to Thrive, Dr. Margaret S. Chisolm, a psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, describes a tried-and-true plan to help anyone grappling with life's challenges learn how to flourish. Dr. Chisolm does not define health as the mere absence of illness. She wants you to be able to lead the best life possible - to thrive! Dr. Chisolm provides insight into how listeners can cultivate healthy habits and more positive reactions to life's provocations, choosing not to allow past life circumstances or a disease state to define their well-being.

Athena has invited Case Donnelly, recently relocated from Pittsburgh and awaiting his PI license, to accompany her to a Save Our Dunes fundraiser and art festival. And her date proves helpful when the body of a disgraced photographer turns up during a nature walk. The crime - and the photos taken by the dead man - raise a lot of questions about local politics, environmental battles, and the victim's womanizing ways.