Showing results by narrator "Jacob York" in All Categories

What happens when a major earthquake changes your entire world, and the boy you thought you hated ends up saving your life? Three times! Courtland Reese is the guy everyone hates and makes fun of because … well, he is weird. He communicates with animals. Strange or interesting, I can’t quite figure out, but when he saves me from being trampled by my horse, I start to understand him a little better, and maybe I'd like to get to know him better.

When storied delinquent Cullen Hickson enters the orbit of the O'Dell siblings, everything changes. Bri and Ray find an alluring, addictive outlet in Cullen, who opens their eyes to a world they didn't know existed. For Ray, that means experiencing the singular thrill of crime - from breaking and entering to grand theft auto - while Bri quickly dives into an all-consuming romance with the enigmatic upperclassman.

As a 22-year-old teacher with Teach For America - a program that puts college grads in front of the country's poorest children - Harris Sockel grew up in the same room as his students. From spending exorbitant amounts of money on neon-colored card stock to watching parents pull their kids from his class because he looked too young to teach, he saw the baffling, bleak, and very human side of the way we approach poverty in school.

The last storm brought death and famine to the rural town at the heart of this story. Now another storm is brewing, and many believe it to be the work of spiteful Old Lady Deakins. In this dark and unpredictable tale, the woman assumed to be responsible for the storm might be the only one able to lift the town's curse.

This is a how-to guide for awesomeness, albeit told from someone who struggles to attain such a glorious ideal. The book outlines 24 different methods for improving one's life using a variety of studies, books, concepts, and good old personal experience to do so. The book highlights five major areas of life: productivity, conquering fear, wellness, relationships, and money and provides practical steps to improve each. It is my sincerest hope that this book will aid its listeners along the path to achieve the awesomeness each of us deserves.

Olen Steinhauer's crafty story - "The Start-Up" - begins as an affectionate recounting by Tom, a down-on-his-luck graduate caring for his sick mother and reconnecting with his awkward friend, Jerry McLaughlin. Jerry lives in a relative's basement in Chicago, and over the intervening months the two young men strategize Jerry's seemingly innocuous plan to become a supervillain in the spirit of Bond greats like Blofeld.

My Papai always said wine made everything better. Countless times he uttered those familiar words to me - "The Merlot will melt your problems away, meu amor. With a good bottle of wine in your hand, you hold the magical key to anything you want." I believed my father wholeheartedly, until my world came crashing down on me at 24 years old. It wasn't going to take wine to help Brody and I find our way back to one another. It was going to take fighting...not only for our love - but for my life.

With Hurricane Madison barreling toward Aberdeen, Georgia, the Hurst family scrambles to prepare their home for the coming gale. But as the eye of the storm approaches, Cooper Hurst becomes all too aware that their household will have to endure far more than wind and rain. Creepy and atmospheric, JC Hemphill's Erasure is a dark thrill from start to finish.

What happens when you tell your girlfriend you have bipolar disorder? Taylor Beck's searingly honest essay details everything from his past relationships to the steps leading up to his most recent confession - and his girlfriend's surprising response. Whether or not listeners have personal experience with mental illness, it's hard not to draw inspiration from Beck's words and to root for him through his ups and downs.

What's it like to be both blind and gay? How does romance work for those who, despite this double disorientation from the mainstream, are certain of their sexual identity? To find out, Michael Lowenthal signs up for the Rainbow Bear Valentine's Cruise and joins a group of blind gay men, along with their human and canine companions, for a weeklong Mexican sail on the Royal Caribbean Vision of the Seas.

Three young men from different backgrounds have graduated from medical schools and have become surgical fellows at a leading teaching hospital in Boston. They learn to become surgeons, to communicate with patients and families, and to be observed and appraised by their peers and professors on daily rounds. And each month, each attends the meeting of the Mortality Conference, known to all as the Death Committee, which examines every patient loss for possible human error, in order to prevent it from happening again.

Jeff Stymeweather went to Legaland because he heard everything there was legal. He had to see it for himself as his family life was miserable and he couldn't seem to find the peace to finish his fantasy novel. At first, nothing seemed odd about the new small town but as Jeff learned more and more about the inhabitants of Legaland he discovered that everything being legal really meant that there were no laws or rather only ones that people chose to follow.