Showing results by narrator "Ellen Archer" in All Categories

A vital and sweeping examination of today's "boy crisis", demonstrating the ways in which we raise boys into a culture of toxic masculinity and offering solutions that can liberate us all. Whether they're being urged to "man up" or warned that "boys don't cry", young men are subjected to damaging messages about manliness: They must muzzle their emotions and never show weakness, dominate girls and compete with one another. Boys: What It Means to Become a Man examines how these toxic rules can hinder boys' emotional and social development.

In the quiet, wealthy enclave of Brecken Hill, an older couple is brutally murdered hours after a tense Easter dinner with their three adult children. Who, of course, are devastated. Or are they? They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of them is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened.

A lyrical work of narrative nonfiction that portrays how the largest domestic oil discovery in half a century transformed a forgotten corner of the American West into a crucible of breakneck capitalism. As North Dakota became the nation's second-largest oil producer, Maya Rao set out in steel-toe boots to join a wave of drifters, dreamers, entrepreneurs, and criminals. With an eye for the dark, absurd, and humorous, Rao fearlessly immersed herself in their world to chronicle this modern-day gold rush, from its heady beginnings to OPEC's price war against the US oil industry.

Karigan may have heard the First Rider's call, but she's not about to let it take over her life...or at least that's what she thinks. She swore to complete a dying man's mission - to deliver a sealed letter to King Zachary. Now that task, more dangerous than she could have imagined, is complete and her work is done, Karigan wants to leave the dangerous world of tainted magic and ancient magicians behind her and return home. Exhausted in both body and spirit, she plans to return to her quiet life and her father's business.

How far in the future is Mornhavon now? A hundred years? Ten years? Only one year? There's no way to tell. So though the immediate threat has passed, Mornhavon's shadow still lies heavily on the land and on their minds...although there are threats closer to home as well. The D'Yer Wall, protecting Sacoridia from the dark, corrupted Blackveil forest, remains breached despite Karigan and her fellow Riders' best efforts.

In this exquisite, transporting debut, 15-year-old Polly Kimball sets fire to the family farm, killing her abusive father. She and her young brother find shelter in a Massachusetts Shaker community called The City of Hope. It is the Era of Manifestations, when young girls in Shaker enclaves all across the Northeast are experiencing extraordinary mystical visions, earning them the honorific of "Visionist" and bringing renown to their settlements.

Joe Wolf has raised his children to have the same cut-throat mentality that built his own California business empire: kill or be killed. When Joe's body is discovered adrift in the San Francisco Bay, his daughter Jenny finds herself head of the Wolf empire. With her brothers trying to seize her newfound power and assets from under her, Jenny discovers that each of them has the means and motive to kill.

Paris, 1975. Camille sifts through letters of condolence after her mother's death when a strange, handwritten missive stops her short. At first she believes she received it by mistake. But then, a new letter arrives each week from a mysterious stranger, Louis, who seems intent on recounting the story of his first love, Annie. They were separated in the years before World War II when Annie befriended a wealthy, barren couple and fell victim to a merciless plot just as German troops arrive in Paris. But also awaiting Camille's discovery is the other side of the story.

Clint McCade roared into town to visit his best friend, just as he had a dozen times before - but this time the rugged photographer had romance on his mind! When Sandy Kirk told him she'd lost her heart at last, he vowed to help her get her man. Practicing seduction and pretending to be lovers started out as a game, but would their lips and bodies betray the desire neither dared to confess?

Karigan G'ladheon is a Green Rider - a seasoned member of the royal messenger corps whose loyalty and bravery have already been tested many times. And her final, explosive magical confrontation with Mornhavon the Black should have killed her. But rather than finding death, and peace, Karigan wakes to a darkness deeper than night. The explosion has transported her somewhere - and into a sealed stone sarcophagus - and now she must escape, somehow, before the thinning air runs out and her mysterious tomb becomes her grave.

Hanna Schutt never suspected that her younger daughter's happiness would lead to her husband's death and the destruction of their family. When Dawn brings her new boyfriend home from college for a visit, her parents and sister try to hide their doubts because they're glad that Dawn--always an awkward child--appears to have grown into a confident, mature young woman in her relationship with Rud.

In the heart of Louisiana, Amanda Trent has arrived at her cousin's plantation to find Amelia's death looming over the war-torn grounds. There is a dark secret in the shadows around every corner and in the heart of Amelia's widower, Jason Monteigne. Amanda only wants to leave the haunted home but an accident has ensnared her in a tangled web of mystery, passion and hidden desire. What is it that haunts Jason's every moment and will Amanda discover the truth of her cousin's death?

It is the summer before their senior year in Saratoga Springs, NY. At first, organized, serious Nina has trouble adjusting to her leadership workshop at Stanford University. Although she desperately misses Avery and Mel, who are waitresses at a restaurant back home, she quickly falls head over heels for eco-warrior Steve, who has grown up in a commune on the West Coast - so different from Nina's secure middle-class experience. When she returns to New York, she immediately senses Mel and Avery are keeping secrets and soon discovers they have become lovers.

America meant "freedom" to the immigrants of the early 1900s - but a freedom very different from what they expected. Cities were crowded and jobs were scare. Children had to work selling newspapers, delivering goods, and laboring sweatshops. In this touching book, Newberry Medalist Russell Freedman offers a rare glimpse of what it meant to be a young newcomer to America.

In the spirit of the demolition derby, where drivers take heedless risks with reckless abandon, welcome to the first convocation of The Secret Society of Demolition Writers. Here is a one-of-a-kind collection by famous authors writing anonymously and dangerously. With the usual concerns about reputations and renown cast aside, these 12 daredevils have each contributed an extreme, no-holds-barred, unsigned story, each shining as brightly and urgently as hazard lights.

Aylin's body was found in her garden, her hair immaculately styled as usual. Her death came as a shock - after all, who would have wanted someone so admired and talented dead? Who - among the many she'd helped, the few she'd hurt, and all those she'd left behind - might have been driven to murder?

Liz and Laurie are mother and daughter, but they couldn't be more different. Laurie is a free spirit whose creative career is about to reach new heights. Her mother Liz is a world-renowned doctor, and everything in her life has always been just so. But when Laurie gets an unexpected call, she decides to take her mother away on a trip to Paris and Norway. As they explore Europe together, Laurie finally starts opening up to her mother. Will unburdening themselves of the secrets that have kept them apart bring them closer together?

In a stately West Village townhouse, a wealthy socialite and her secretary are murdered. In the 24 hours that follow, a flurry of activity circles around their shocking deaths: The head of one of the city's last tabloids stops the presses. A cop investigates the killing. A reporter chases the story. A disgraced hedge-fund manager flees the country. An Iraq War vet seeks revenge. And an angry young extremist plots a major catastrophe.

Lula, a 26 -year-old Albanian woman living surreptitiously in New York City on an expiring tourist visa, hopes to make a better life for herself in America. When she lands a job as caretaker to Zeke, a rebellious high school senior in suburban New Jersey, it seems that the security, comfort, and happiness of the American dream may finally be within reach. Her new boss, Mister Stanley, an idealistic college professor turned Wall Street executive, assumes that Lula is a destitute refugee of the Balkan wars.

After her capture at the hands of Grandmother and the Second Empire, Karigan G'ladheon is making halting progress towards recovery. Karigan takes on increasingly dangerous missions, haunted by the specter of her torturer, Nyssa, and sinking ever further into the mire of her recollections of the past and the losses she's sustained. Meanwhile, the forces of the Second Empire are moving on Sacoridia and their primary target is a vulnerable garrison that guards a crucial mountain pass.