Showing results by narrator "Jewels" in All Categories

Tara Spencer's mysterious pregnancy causes her family and fiance to turn against her, and sidetracks her plans for medical school. Only a stranger, Cyril Woods, believes her claim that she's still a virgin. The religious order that Cyril belongs to thinks Tara's child may be a new messiah. But when prenatal testing raises troubling questions the order becomes Tara's enemy, convinced she will trigger the first stage of the Apocalypse.

What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.

After screwing up my life in the lower 48, I take a chance on an old friend’s offer and head to Alaska for a fresh start. A day in, I’m pitching a tent in the middle of nowhere. I’ve been through plenty - being alone in the wilderness isn’t the scariest thing I’ve faced. But um...these wolves who’ve hunted me down? They’re kind of freaking me out. They say I’m their remedy - their mate. That I can’t leave. I thought what we shared was nothing but a romp in the woods. Turns out I’m coming face to face with my destiny.

“As far as I know, you can only die once…” But when Aetna Simmons disappears from her lonely Bermuda cottage, she leaves behind not one but ten suicide notes. Ten different suicide notes. And no other trace to speak of, not even a corpse, as if she’d never existed. Drafts of a Suicide Note is the darkly enigmatic love letter of Kenji Okada-Caines, a petty criminal who once exposited on English literary classics and now, marooned on his native isle, nurtures an obsession with Aetna’s writing.

This is the story of Dr. Geneva Smitherman, aka "Dr. G," the pioneering linguist often referred to as the "Queen of Black Language." In a series of narrative essays, Dr. G writes eloquently and powerfully about the role of language in social transformation and the academic, intellectual, linguistic, and societal debates that shaped her groundbreaking work as a Black Studies O.G. and a Womanist scholar-activist of African American Language.

In Upper Hand, celebrated founder and CEO of The Plug, Sherrell Dorsey, delivers a personal and eye-opening exploration of how to ensure that marginalized communities aren't left behind as technology continues its inexorable march forward. In the book, listeners will learn to think about how we can strategically shape the coming decade to include Black and Brown communities. Upper Hand offers guidelines, insights, and frameworks for navigating the new world of work that is dominated by Silicon Valley-rooted technologies, inaccessible networks, and constant automation.

From the moment Africans were first brought to the shores of the United States, they had a hand in shaping the country. Their labor created a strong economy, built our halls of government, and defined American society in profound ways. And though the Emancipation Proclamation wasn't signed until 300 years after the first Africans arrived, the fight for freedom started the moment they set foot on American soil.

At thirty-six, undefeated rodeo champion AJ Garza is supposed to be retiring, not chasing after an all-new closed-circuit rodeo tour with a million-dollar prize. But with the Houston rodeo program that saved him as a wayward teen on the brink of bankruptcy, he'll enter. And he'll win. Enter Lilian Sorrow Island. Raised by her grandparents on the family ranch in Muskogee, OK, Lil is more a cowboy than city boy AJ will ever be. It shows. She's not about to let him steal the prize that'll save her ranch, even if he is breathtakingly magnificent, in pretty much every way going.

From rising sci-fi author Don Vodka comes the tale of an alien war that began 20,000 years ago and now stretches across the galaxy to Earth in the year 2068. Featuring 16-year-old Misty Remington, daughter of meta-human Dazzle Shelton. Misty and Rikkie, trained by Dazzle since they could walk, are an integral part of Earth’s defense force. Amid the chaos, and with their world turned upside down, the two girls must navigate uncharted territory while the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Serafina has a secret dream. She wants to go to school and become a doctor with her best friend, Julie Marie. But in their rural village outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti, many obstacles stand in Serafina's way - little money, never-ending chores, and Manman's worries. More powerful even than all of these are the heavy rains and the shaking earth that test Serafina's resolve in ways she never dreamed. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, this exquisitely crafted story will leave a lasting impression on your heart.

Selling sex has never been more profitable—or dangerous—for everyone on both sides of the screen. Jewels Jade should know. She has spent most of her life working in the adult entertainment industry. Porn isn’t just for men in trench coats and shady video store backrooms anymore. From vanilla to vile, it’s all online. Just like social media, though, online porn banks on fresh content and takes viewer data mining to the bank, creating a snowballing cycle of algorithms, addictive behaviors, and extreme performances that have consequences beyond our wildest dreams and nightmares.

Birdie Boucher is a woman who lives her life in the shadows of her infamous mother. A powerful voodoo priestess of the south who uses magic to wreak havoc on the lives of anyone who gets in her way. And any woman she believes is the lover of her philandering husband.

Coralyn Jewel shares her story of how she went from Olympic hopeful to thriving in the adult entertainment industry. The story starts from the interview and is finished off with words from Coralyn to her listeners. Her experiences inform, humanize, and even entertain. Author Ryan Michaels beautifully conveys the humanity and eye-opening entertainment of his conversations with an adult performer and swinger lifestyle coach.

This revised edition of Ar'n't I a Woman? reviews and updates the scholarship on slave women and the slave family, exploring new ways of understanding the intersection of race and gender and comparing the myths that stereotyped female slaves with the realities of their lives. Above all, this groundbreaking study shows us how black women experienced freedom in the Reconstruction South—their heroic struggle to gain their rights, hold their families together, resist economic and sexual oppression, and maintain their sense of womanhood against all odds.

When weapons-grade nuclear materials left over from the Cold War surface in a North African city, Dalton Drake, former CSIS agent, lethal field operator, and confirmed ladies’ man, is hired to track down those responsible. Working with a coalition of intelligence agencies, military branches, and the scientific community, he is tasked with locating and intercepting the terrorists, who are on the move in a stolen cargo ship in the North Atlantic.

Lacette Graham's twin sister, Kellie, has been competing with her since they shared a crib. And in 33 years, nothing has changed-except success, money, and men have come into play. But when the girls' parents separate, and their grandmother dies, Kellie's selfish manipulating reaches new heights. With her mother in the throes of a mid-life crisis, her father and greatest ally out of the house, and her sister out to steal her inheritance, Lacette is truly on her own. Then she meets talented, attractive Douglas Rawlins. There's just one problem: He avoids her like poison.

Ever since Scarlet Rocket showed up in the flesh, she's turned my structured world upside down. My neatly ordered life, my hand-painted Aliens versus Vampires figurines, my expertly curated comics collection - none of these things provide any shelter from her sexy, sassy onslaught. It's a disaster of my own making. She didn't exist until I created her. Now, I can't get her out of my mind, and all I want to do is get her into my bed. Never mind that she's a thief, a liar, a con woman. Every step she takes leaves chaos in her wake. And damn if I don't want more of it.

In each woman there is a secret question, one she doesn't always dare ask: "Is there something more? Is there something I don't know? Is there a higher sexual pleasure, something deeper than the one I've experienced? Many women wondered, Do my past traumas, or my partner's failure to fully understand my body prevent me from experiencing my true sexuality?Most sexually active women have asked themselves these questions at some point in their lives. Perhaps they haven't used these exact words, but the essence of their questions remains the same: Is there more?

When a young woman, Sarah Connelly, is found murdered in her home in New York’s elite Sleepy Point suburb, it triggers questions about the neighbor who discovered the body, Audrey Hughes. This kind of attention is the last thing Audrey wants. Moving to Sleepy Point was supposed to provide her with a new quiet start after a trauma left her with incurable blindness. But the other reason she settled next door to Sarah was to spy on her.

The Huntresses of Artemis must obey two rules: never disobey the goddess, and never fall in love. After being rescued from a harrowing life as an Oracle of Delphi, Kahina is glad to be a part of the Hunt; living among a group of female warriors gives her a chance to reclaim her strength. But when a routine mission goes awry, Kahina breaks the first rule in order to save the legendary huntress Atalanta.