Showing results by narrator "Jean Ann Douglass" in All Categories

For John Freeman—literary critic, essayist, editor, poet, “one of the preeminent book people of our time” (Dave Eggers)—it is the rare moment when words are not enough. But in the wake of the election of 2016, words felt useless, even indulgent. Action was the only reasonable response. He took to the streets in protest, and the sense of community and collective conviction felt right. But the assaults continued—on citizens’ rights and long-held compacts, on the core principles of our culture and civilization, and on our language itself.

Apple orchards in bucolic Washington state. Office parks in Southern California under cover of night. The home of an elderly man in Miami. These are some of the workplaces where female workers have suffered brutal sexual assault and shocking harassment at the hands of their employers, often with little or no official recourse. In this harrowing yet often inspiring tale, investigative journalist Bernice Yeung exposes the epidemic of sexual violence levied against women farmworkers, domestic workers, and janitorial workers and charts their quest for justice in the workplace.

From humble beginnings, a heroine will be forged in fire. Forced to retreat from the army of the dead with her remaining force of Raiders and their dragons, Lila begins to despair that her people will ever be anything but a ragtag band. Even wielding the fabled crown of Roskilde, she cannot unite the Raiders - it seems she is not the one to fulfill Danu’s cherished prophecy. But Danu isn’t giving up yet. Though he suspects the evil Havick has obtained an ancient book that will allow him unspeakable power, help may come from an unlikely source: the dragon Riders of Torvald.

In this lively and illuminating book, historian Sophia Rosenfeld explores a long-standing and largely unspoken tension at the heart of democracy between the supposed wisdom of the crowd and the need for information to be vetted and evaluated by a learned elite made up of trusted experts.

Lila knows her people’s way of life is dying, but trying to get Raiders to become Dragon Mercenaries is no easy task. Although the world around them is changing, many among the Raiders still cling to the old ways of piracy. When a desperate message arrives from the West Witches, Lila and her new friend, the eccentric, unseasoned magician Danu, must risk a mission to the island of Sebol to learn what they can of the new danger they face, a threat that menaces all the Western Isles.

Harper Cody used to worry about the SATs or a getting a new laptop for Christmas...but now, she only wants to keep her little sister alive. At 5:59 a.m. early in September, life as she knew it came to an end with a nuclear flash ninety miles away in Colorado Springs. For two months, her family sheltered in the basement of their home, surviving on whatever canned goods Dad could scavenge. Passing evacuees told of a safe haven in the mountains, but her father refused to leave. He thought their home was safe...until a gang of looters kicked in the door.

An epidemic hits the country, and Brooklyn Harper is stolen from the life she knew. Implanted in a rural camp, Brooklyn and her friends are severed from their families and the outside world. Each day is filled with combat training to assure their safety against a mysterious virus and the creatures it creates - violent humanoids with black blood. Two years later, Brooklyn’s cabin-mate, Dawson Winters, finds a letter that shatters the illusion they’ve been living in. There is a world outside Camp Eleven, and the virus that supposedly destroyed their country seems non-existent.

Lindy Mason is happy to be back at Lincoln High School. As principal, she's faced with the tough decision on how to handle a bullying case involving Maddie Myers, daughter of the boy who made her high school days a misery. Ryan Myers is panicked when he rushes into the principal's office to rescue his daughter and shocked to see Lindy behind the desk. Single parenting means plenty of sleepless nights, time he spends regretting his mistakes and worrying over Maddie's future. Lindy and Ryan have to come to terms with the way life's twists bring change and for the better.

Callie’s magic is finally her own. She and Derek dispatched Ford. They should have been able to breathe, but layers of sin run deep beneath Gem City. Another mob boss quickly rises, and his sights are firmly set on Callie—and her family. Mobile soul rental shops begin to bite at the Soul Charmer’s business. His retribution is wicked, but the blowback threatens to crush Callie. If she can’t maintain the tenuous balance of souls in Gem City, more lives will be lost. Only the more magic she uses, the more danger finds her.

Megan Carey was ready to embark on a trip to Europe, finally taking time to do something purely for herself, but when she finds her father on the brink of suicide, her plans go out the window. Her father is being blackmailed by a reclusive genius who’s demanded TK Carey show up to answer for his crimes. Panicked, Megan volunteers to go in his place.

In the aftermath of the turbulent '60s, unable to reconcile her monastic existence in upstate New York with the plight of the community’s poor, Sister Jude leaves the convent only to become ensnared in her best friend’s crumbling marriage. Intimidated by her talented but overbearing husband, Vincent, a pregnant Connie shows up at Jude’s door with her two children in tow. Jude's mission to feed the hungry and free Connie from her weakness for Vincent is complicated by her own attraction to Matt, a passionate but burned-out activist, back from the inner city to work his family’s farm.

Find a Place for Me is a memoir about facing a marriage’s last act—a spouse’s death—as a couple united in mind and holding hands. Deirdre and Bob are married eleven years and have two young children when forty-three-year-old Bob is diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS determines the journey their marriage will now take, but Bob and Deirdre are resolute in how they will traverse their remaining months as a couple.