Showing results by narrator "Susan Bennett" in All Categories

A much-loved early classic from #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Jackson, this heartwarming holiday tale is set in small-town Oregon, where a little girl’s letter to Santa ends up bringing the gift of romance to a widowed mom and a single dad.

Few of us need convincing that the American health insurance system needs reform. But many of the existing proposals focus on expanding one relatively successful piece of the system or building in piecemeal additions. These proposals miss the point. As the Stanford health economist Liran Einav and the MIT economist and MacArthur Genius Amy Finkelstein argue, our health care system was never deliberately designed, but rather pieced together to deal with issues as they became politically relevant.

Physicians enter their professions with the highest of hopes and ideals for compassionate and efficient patient care. Along the way, however, recurring problems arise in their interactions with some patients that lead physicians to label them as "difficult." Some studies indicate that physicians identify 15 percent or more of their patients as "difficult." The negative feelings that physicians have toward these patients may lead to frustration, cynicism, and burnout.

Eighteen-year-old Lireinne Hooten has always been on the lowest rung of the ladder. Abandoned by her mother, Lireinne lives with her stepfather in an old trailer on Million Dollar Road. Every day she walks the long mile, through a canopy of live oaks, to her job at the world's largest alligator farm.

This emotional debut by Randy Susan Meyers tells of two sisters torn apart by domestic tragedy. When her mother throws her father out, young Lulu is told never to let him in again. But Lulu disobeys, and the consequences are heartbreaking. Lulu’s mother ends up killed, and Lulu and her sister Merry are orphaned. Now, as the sisters grow into adulthood, they find the ghosts of their past are difficult to outrun.

Rose, the mother of twentysomething aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter’s death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water? Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen? When the official investigation rules the death an accidental drowning, the body possibly lost forever in Central America’s deepest lake, an unsatisfied Rose travels to the memoir workshop herself. She hopes to draw her own conclusion—and find closure. When Rose arrives, she is swept into the curious world created by her daughter’s literary hero.

For as long as she can remember, Allie Massey, a gifted physical therapist, has dreamed of making her grandparents' ten-acre estate into a trauma recovery center using equine therapy—a dream her grandmother, Nana Dale, embraced wholeheartedly. But when her grandmother's will is read, Allie is shocked to learn the property has been sold to a developer.

In Every 90 Seconds, Anne P. DePrince argues that to end violence against women, we must fundamentally redefine how we engage with it—starting by abandoning the idea that violence is a problem involving only those who abuse or are abused. Instead, DePrince illuminates how violence against women is inextricably linked to other issues that stoke our greatest passions.

Mass Confusion reveals how an unlikely pilgrim—a corporate attorney turned hospice nurse—was finally able to grasp the life-changing truths of her faith. After 40 years of drifting in and out of the church, Susan Dolan experienced a life-transforming event that led her to renew her spirituality, return to her faith, and rediscover joy and peace—in the midst of the Catholic Church's ravaging sexual abuse crisis that caused untold thousands to reject the Church. Discover what happened to Susan and how it can impact your life, too.

On the surface, Maureen’s life appears no different from any other stereotypical 54-year-old housewife's: a suburban home in a small Pennsylvania town, two loving kids, grandchildren, and a husband to dote on at the end of the day with a home-cooked meal and a crisp martini. But fat bitch, dumb bunny, slut, tramp: these are just a few of the cruel words that echo in Maureen’s ears every day and define the harsh reality she actually lives in.

Before Nicholas V. Landrew can enjoy more than a few weeks in his new role as emperor of the universe, his world begins to fall apart. His mortal enemies, the Craborzi, have cloned him, and are using these carbon copies to produce an intergalactic reality show called The Abominable Emperor - killing a clone in every episode! Worse, they've joined forces with his other mortal enemy, the Phlemhackian talent agent, Morglob Sputum, who is also out for vengeance. But worst of all, his parents want him to take out the garbage!

In Stories Are What Save Us, Chrisinger shows - through writing exercises, memoir excerpts, and lessons he's learned from his students - the most efficient ways to uncover and effectively communicate what you've learned while fighting your life's battles, whatever they may be.

For thousands of years, practitioners of shamanism have found healing and wisdom by connecting to their own spirits and the spirit that lives in all things. Shamanism can be practiced by anyone. Wherever we are, the powers within the web of life and the keys to our personal evolution are available. In these pages, longtime shamanic practitioner and intuitive consultant Mara Bishop introduces the simple yet profound method of shamanic journeying.

Number one New York Times best-selling author Linda Lael Miller enchants listeners with a spark of sensuality in Christmas of the Red Chiefs, a romantic holiday novella. In this bittersweet tale, a young woman can't hide her broken heart - or her past - when she returns to her hometown for the holidays. But a sexy widower may just help her discover the true meaning of home this Christmas season.

Cool summer mornings begin with the rose orange sun and the smell of earth, and fade into hot summer nights with a yellow moon, covered in a quilt of stars. There are wagon rides, farm dogs, trips into town, and games of kick the can. These are prairie days. Patricia MacLachlan applies her lyrical, sparse voice and vibrant, tender art from Micha Archer to transport listeners to the prairie of her youth in this stunning celebration of the beauty in the world.

As July 4, 1928, approaches, Sheriff Lily Ross and her family look forward to the opening of an amusement park in a nearby town, created by Chalmer Fitzpatrick - a veteran and lumber mill owner. When Lily is alerted to the possible drowning of a girl, she goes to investigate, and discovers schisms going back several generations, in an ongoing dispute over the land on which Fitzpatrick has built the park.

When Erin Reece left Wolf Point 15 years ago after graduating high school, she’d planned to never set foot in her childhood hometown again. But an urgent phone call from her father’s doctor leaves Erin with no choice but to return to a place filled with painful memories and wounds that never closed. Two decades ago, people in Wolf Point started disappearing without a trace - including Erin’s mother.

Dr. Jessie Drake, in her mid-60s, following the sudden deaths of her parents and Kat, her partner of 20 years, has fled the Vermont life she has known for decades. In an effort to escape the oppressive constancy of grief, she accepts a job from an old flame from her residency in New York City's Roosevelt Hospital and agrees to assist Ben as the ship's doctor on a British liner.

After years of lives lived apart, Lottie Gardner, her brother, Cameron, and their old friend Elizabeth reunite in their hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lottie has arrived to settle the estate of her elderly mother in decline. It's also a chance to slip away from a passionless marriage. What she longs for is the kind of heedless romance she sees in her brother's rekindled fling with his childhood sweetheart. But Elizabeth is in the throes of a marital crisis of her own. When blind desire culminates in a senseless tragedy, the three must confront the choices they've made for love.

No one thought that MacTrump - Lord of MacTrump Towers, Son of New York - would ascend to the highest position in the kingdom. Yet with the help of his unhappy but dutiful wife Lady MacTrump, his clever daughter Dame Desdivanka, and his coterie of advisers, MacTrump is comfortably ensconced in the White Hold as President of the United Fiefdoms, free to make proclamations to his subjects through his favorite messenger, McTweet. The Democrati, mourning the loss of their cherished leader O'Bama, won't give up without a fight.