Showing results by narrator "Priya Ayyar" in All Categories

After her parents' deaths, Avery Ayers takes over the family business, Antiquities & Artifacts Appraised, from the home office in Lilac Grove and a branch in Manhattan. Now living back at home with her younger sister Tilly and their newly moved-in, eccentric Aunt Midge and her Afghan hound, Avery's life is filled with jewels, tapestries, paintings, and rare finds. But their world is rocked when Avery learns that the theft of a priceless ruby may be connected to her parents' demise.

Ellis loves popcorn. No, she really loves popcorn. It's serious. So when her school and her dads ban all snack foods - including popcorn - Ellis won't listen. But when she tries to quietly sneak her favorite salty snack, one kernel refuses to pop. Loudly. Soon, the kernel has sprouted a face, arms, and legs! He's alive, his name is Popcorn Bob, and he is not in a good mood. He is hangry. Will Ellis be able to keep Bob a secret until she can get rid of him? (And after a few days with him, will she still want to?)

Yasodhara tells the story of her own Sinhala family, rich in love, with everything they could ask for. As a child in idyllic Colombo, social hierarchies, their parents’ ambitions, teenage love shape Yasodhara and her siblings’ lives, and, subtly, the differences between Tamil and Sinhala people; but the peace is shattered by the tragedies of war. Yasodhara's family escapes to Los Angeles. But Yasodhara's life has already become intertwined with a young Tamil girl's.

The United States is recognized as the most religiously diverse country in the world, and yet its laws and customs, which many have come to see as normal features of American life, actually keep the constitutional ideal of “religious freedom for all” from becoming a reality. Christian beliefs, norms, and practices infuse our society; they are embedded in our institutions, creating the structures and expectations that define the idea of “Americanness.”

Star-Touched Stories by Roshani Chokshi combines three lush and adventurous stories in the Star-Touched World. Death and Night - He was Lord of Death, cursed never to love. She was Night incarnate, destined to stay alone. After a meeting, they wonder if, perhaps, they could be meant for more. Poison and Gold - Now that her wish for a choice has come true, Aasha struggles to control her powers. Rose and Sword - There is a tale whispered in the dark of the Empire of Bharat-Jain. A tale of a bride who loses her bridegroom on the eve of her wedding.

Thanks to Aunt Midge’s unlikely friendship with Nicholas Pennington, the Duke of Valle Charme, Avery Ayers and her associates at Antiques and Artifacts Appraised head off to their most glamorous assignment yet—cataloguing and appraising the contents of a castle-like mansion on the Hudson River. But regal splendor becomes a backdrop to mayhem when the precious Viktor Petrova timepiece disappears—and housekeeper Suzanne Vick plummets from a parapet to her death.

News stations across the country are reporting mysterious messages that Earth has been receiving from a planet - Alma - claiming to be its creator. If they’re being interpreted correctly, in seven days Alma will hit the kill switch on their “colony” Earth. True or not, for teenagers Jesse Hewitt, Cate Collins, and Adeem Khan, the prospect of this ticking time bomb will change their lives forever. With only a week to face their truths and right their wrongs, Jesse, Cate, and Adeem’s paths collide as their worlds are pulled apart.

The Daughters of Izdihar—a group of women fighting for the vote and against the patriarchal rule of Parliament—have finally made strides in having their voices heard...only to find them drowned out by the cannons of the fundamentalist Ziranis. As long as Alamaxa continues to allow for the elemental magic of the weavers—and insist on allowing an academy to teach such things—the Zirani will stop at nothing to end what they perceive is a threat to not only their way of life, but the entire world.

Humanity is currently facing a series of interconnected emergencies that threaten our very survival—from climate change to economic inequality and beyond. And yet, at the same time, a global shift towards harnessing our collective power to create a life-affirming future is flourishing. Featuring chapters by forty-three leading-edge contributors, Our Moment of Choice provides eye-opening and inspirational visions for a unified, peaceful, and thriving world.

Guardian spirits. Divine presences. Demonic powers. Ghosts. The concept of "genius loci" is indeed an ancient one, found in nearly every human mythology. Genius Loci is a huge anthology of 31 all-new fantasy and science fiction stories drawing on the rich tradition of place-as-person. Within this audiobook, the authors present stories of sentient deserts, beneficent forests, lonely shrubs, and protective planetary spirits, as edited by Jaym Gates.

After a magical eruption devastates the kingdom of Belwar, royal heir Adraa is falsely accused of masterminding the destruction and forced to stand trial in front of her people, who see her as a monster. Adraa's punishment? Imprisonment in the Dome, an impenetrable, magic-infused fortress filled with Belwar’s nastiest criminals - many of whom Adraa put there herself. And they want her to pay.

A powerful meditation on identity and belonging, Sejal Shah explores the tension of being both invisible and hyper-visible in a country that struggles with race. The daughter of immigrants from India and Kenya, Shah wrestles with her experiences growing up in—and returning to—western New York, an area of stark racial and socioeconomic segregation. Her work illuminates how we are all marked by family and place; by the limits of our bodies; by our losses and regrets; by who and what we love; by our ambivalences and our silences.

Fifteen-year-old Simran "Simi" Sangha comes from a long line of Indian vichole - matchmakers - with a rich history for helping parents find good matches for their grown children. When Simi accidentally sets up her cousin and a soon-to-be lawyer, her family is thrilled that she has the "gift." But Simi is an artist, and she doesn't want to have anything to do with relationships, helicopter parents, and family drama. That is, until she realizes this might be just the thing to improve her and her best friend Noah's social status.

Ever since the 2016 election, pundits have been saying our country has never been more divided - that if progressives want to reclaim power, we need to be "pragmatic", reach across the aisle, and look past identity politics. But what if we're getting the story all wrong? In The Marginalized Majority, Onnesha Roychoudhuri makes the galvanizing case that our voices are already the majority - and that our plurality of identities is not only our greatest strength, but is also at the indisputable core of successful progressive change throughout history.

THE HARVEST FESTIVAL of Pongal is days away, and V. Malar could not be more excited for the celebration. With her aunt, uncle, and cousins Priya and Kamal flying in to visit her home in Pori, India, Malar and her parents have food to prepare and a house to clean, so they can be gracious hosts to their guests. When Priya and Kamal arrive, they take over Malar’s room and compare everything about Pori to their home in Seattle. Even when Malar shows them the farm animals and the local temple, her cousins whisper secrets to each other, laughing and making Malar feel left out.

A queen of punk before her time. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story for ever. Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, a Black punk artist before her time. Despite her unconventional looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her one night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together.

As rhythmic as the swish of a loom, and as vibrant as a skein of brightly dyed wool, this lyrical book shares the history and practice of weaving through the centuries and around the world, as imagined by a young weaver learning her craft. At once a celebration of a time-honored art and a meditation on the ways we are interconnected, Woven of the World gathers the threads of weaving—as a technical skill, as a cultural tradition, and as a metaphor for how our lives are knit together—into a radiantly intertwined whole.

What is the right way to handle an abusive partner? An unexpected pregnancy? A toxic friendship? Chronic unemployment? Gender dysphoria? A family member going to war? A disability? Anger? Loneliness? Finding themselves in disempowering, frightening, or otherwise unendurable circumstances, the girls, women, and non-binary characters in Maria Adelmann's stories look for ways to free themselves into new lives or, at the very least, new states of feeling.

When the Colonial Marines set out after their deadliest prey, the Xenomorphs, it’s what Corporal Hicks calls a bug hunt—kill or be killed. Here are fifteen all-new stories of such “close encounters,” written by many of today’s most extraordinary authors. Set during the events of all four Alien films, sending the Marines to alien worlds, to derelict space settlements, and into the nests of the universe’s most dangerous monsters, these adventures are guaranteed to send the blood racing—one way or another.

Project Animal Farm provides a riveting and revealing look at what truly happens behind farm doors, as discovered by a fearless young woman. Sonia Faruqi, a 25-year-old Ivy League graduate and investment banker, had no idea that the night she arrived at the doorstep of an organic dairy farm would mark the beginning of a journey that would ultimately wind all the way around the world. Instead of turning away from the animal cruelty she would come to witness, Sonia made the most courageous decision of her life.