Showing results by narrator "Gabra Zackman" in All Categories

You know how it feels: You’re in a meeting, or on the bus, and realize you’re picking up the emotional state of the person next to you. Life as an empath can feel overwhelming, but The Happy Empath gives you tools to help you navigate charged emotional territory - and stay even-keeled even in stormy moments.

First published nearly a quarter-century ago and one of the very few short-story collections to win the PEN/Faulkner Award, this is American fiction at its most vital - each narrative a masterpiece of sustained power and seemingly effortless literary grace.

Jesus indeed has the power to heal Joanna's body, but it is her soul that blossoms through her friendship with Mary, and as one of Jesus' disciples. But as word of Jesus' miracles reach Herod's court and the ruler becomes increasingly wary of his fame among the people, intrigue, treachery, and murder cast shadows onto Joanna's new path, changing her life forever.

When her earliest childhood friend is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Becker sets off on a quest to immerse herself in what it means to be mortal. Can we live our lives more fully knowing some day we will die? With a keen eye toward that which makes life worth living, interfaith minister, mom, and perpetual seeker Barbara Becker recounts stories where life and death intersect in unexpected ways.

The corridor of the Fine Arts Building was deserted, save for two figures at the far end, two men approaching slowly. Rose was about to go into the classroom, where she'd left her purse, when she saw a sign on the door - a crude sign in pencil, on a ragged sheet of paper. "Collapse of Western Civilization - Dr. Norbert Beilstein," it said. "Visitors welcome."

Grace Valentine had the perfect marriage and a great career managing her husband’s real estate office. Or so she thought until three months ago when she was served with divorce papers. Thanks to her philandering ex, not only is she out of a husband, she’s out of a job, too. At the age of 45 with the help of her coven, Grace is ready to pick up the pieces and move on. But her only job prospect is at the rival real estate office, and it’s only for a trial run. She’ll need to prove that she can sell the haunted properties of Premonition Pointe before she’s hired permanently.

Yvette Townsend’s life was perfect, right up until her husband fell in love with someone else. Newly divorced and still reeling from her broken dreams, Yvette’s sworn off men. Now she’s determined to lose herself in her magic and her beloved bookstore. There’s only one problem - she has an unexpected new business partner who’s driving her crazy both at work and after hours.

Atlantic City, 1934. Every summer, Esther and Joseph Adler rent their house out to vacationers escaping to “America’s Playground” and move into the small apartment above their bakery. Despite the cramped quarters, this is the apartment where they raised their two daughters, Fannie and Florence, and it always feels like home. Now Florence has returned from college, determined to spend the summer training to swim the English Channel, and Fannie pregnant, after a miscarriage, is on bed rest for the duration of her pregnancy. The apartment is bursting at the seams.

Adrift in the winter of 2021 after a sudden breakup and the ensuing depression, the novelist Catherine Lacey began cataloguing the wreckage of her life and the beauty of her friendships, a practice that eventually propagated fiction both entirely imagined and strangely true. Betrayed by the mercurial partner she had trusted with a shared mortgage and suddenly catapulted into the unknown, Lacey’s appetite vanished completely, a visceral reminder of the teenage emaciation that came when she stopped believing in God.

"It's suicide, Shyla. You're the prize they want". Through her courage and tenacity, Shyla Sun-Kissed has awoken the power of The Eyes of Tamburah. But this feat only marks the beginning of the challenges that the magical order, the Invisible Sword, faces to free the underground city of Zirdai. Though they have allies among the monks and splinter cells inside the city, Shyla knows the Invisible Sword doesn't have the strength to win. With the group fracturing due to the strain of losses from their latest ordeal, it's up to Shyla to forge a new united order.

A former prodigy who refuses to believe her best years are behind her and a young virtuoso searching for his passion both get an unlikely shot at their dreams in this sparkling debut about second chances, unexpected joys, and the miraculous power of music.

When the Elementals are recruited by Petra to execute a super-secret global project that is supposed to change humanity for the better, it seems as though the girls will be rocketed to fortune and glory. But when they accidentally unleash a dark and terrible force, things deteriorate rapidly into death and destruction...This lethal entity seems immune to their magic and it is too late to turn back.

Saxony Cagney counts herself lucky when she wins a position as an au pair in Venice for the summer. It’s her responsibility to take care of two young boys - speak to them in English, make sure they get to their swimming lessons on time. Piece of cake, right? She forms a strong bond with the youngest boy–Isaia. She also meets two Italian men… both are smart, successful, sexy. So far things are going her way. Who doesn’t like options?

When Vampire-Demon Sam Kyllwood discovers he's the keeper of some mysterious circle, he laughs it off. When he finds out that his younger brother is supposed to fight to the death in said circle, he snaps right to furious. And that's before he starts uncontrollably making things explode - it turns out it's never too late to develop deadly new immortal abilities. But even those explosions are nothing compared to what happens when he tries to handle a very suspicious, brilliant, and beyond sexy human female.

Eloise hasn't quite figured out how to move on after the death of her son, Eddie. She makes good money, buys a new apartment, learns the piano, engages in an office flirtation, but nothing seems to brighten her days quite like the occasional letter from one of her accounting clients, Ed B. When, after months of correspondence, Ed invites Eloise to his country home for a visit, she finds herself overwhelmed by the "Eddies" of her life - the one she lost, the one she writes to, and the one she's eternally searching for.

When you think of St. Petersburg noir, some of the greatest literary names immediately spring to mind - Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Gogol, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Modern day St. Petersburg lavishly offers the scenery and conditions for true noir stories, and the writers in St. Petersburg Noir succeed in concocting their own worlds within this city with stories ranging from mystical to outwardly grotesque.

After Ya’ara Stein is forced out of her job at the Mossad - the secret intelligence service of Israel - she is called upon by the prime minister for a classified job. Known for her aptitude, beauty, and deadliness, Stein is asked to set up a secret unit that will act independently, answerable only to the prime minister. This streamlined and deadly unit, filled with bright young men and women recruited and trained by Stein, quickly faces threats both old and new.

Big Tobacco meets Silicon Valley in this gripping exposé of what happened when two of the most notorious industries collided—and the vaping epidemic was born.

When a robot defies his programming, is he broken? Or is he something else?

After years of struggling, Haven Daly has finally accepted that she's nuttier than a fruitcake. Why else would she see visions of a beautiful but tormented male every night...and actually believe she can talk to him, even feel his touch? But thanks to those dream journeys, she can paint images nobody else on earth can duplicate. In each brush stroke, she captures the blatant masculinity and raw desire in his eyes that promise he's coming for her...and soon.