Showing results by narrator "Robin Eller" in All Categories

In this startling group memoir, four friends - Black and White, gay and straight, immigrant and American-born - use Toni Morrison’s novels as a springboard for intimate and revealing conversations about the problems of everyday racism and living whole in times of uncertainty. Tackling everything from first love and Soul Train to police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, the authors take up what it means to read challenging literature collaboratively and to learn in public as an act of individual reckoning and social resistance.

In Notes of a Native Daughter, Keri Day testifies to structural inequalities and broken promises of inclusion through the eyes of a black woman who experiences herself as both stranger and friend to prevailing models of theological education. Inviting the listener into her religious world she not only uncovers the colonial impulses of theological education in the United States but also proposes that the lived religious practices and commitments of progressive Afro-Pentecostal communities can help the theological academy decolonize and reenvision multiple futures.

In the United States, most people who own small businesses struggle daily to make ends meet. Two-thirds of businesses earn less than $25,000 a year. Thankfully, Susie Carder - entrepreneur and business coach to everyone from Steve Harvey to Paul Mitchell - has developed the ultimate formula for incredible success. But she didn't create it overnight. Susie Carder was at rock bottom financially during the Great Recession of 2008 when she was inspired to dig in and rebuild her fortune from the ground up.

Classic fables take on new meaning as five of today’s most original bestselling authors serve up some deliciously modern twists. New reflections on evil queens, charmless princes, and star-crossed lovers branch out in provocative and enchanting directions. Follow the path and see where it leads...

Showcasing the work of literary giants like Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Alice Walker, and authors whom listeners may be surprised to learn were "in the life", Black Like Us is the most comprehensive collection of fiction by African American lesbian, gay, and bisexual writers ever published.

Gracie Kingston begins renovations on the Philadelphia house inherited from her grandmother and finds a secret room. It is connected to a house nearby, the home of William Still, the man known as the father of the Underground Railroad. As she researches, she discovers a mystery in her house’s ownership. In 1855, Olivia Kingston helps a mother and her young child by hiding them in a secret room in her home. As she helps, she learns that there may be an impostor conductor in their community. As Gracie’s and Olivia’s stories intertwine, they learn the meaning of sacrifice and love.

Savannah is lucky. The daughter of upper-class African-American parents in Washington DC in 1919, she lives luxuriously, with an elite education and her pick of the young men in her set. But lately the structure of her society - the croquet games, the Sunday teas, the pretentiousness - has felt suffocating. When she meets a young man from the working class named Lloyd, Savannah has a chance to see how the “other half” lives. Saddened by their situation, she is motivated to make a true difference.

There's a critical debate taking place over one of our most treasured rights: free speech. We argue about whether it's at risk, whether college students fear it, whether neo-Nazis deserve it, and whether the government is adequately upholding it. But as P. E. Moskowitz provocatively shows in The Case Against Free Speech, the term has been defined and redefined to suit those in power, and in recent years, it has been captured by the Right to push their agenda. What's more, our investment in the First Amendment obscures an uncomfortable truth

Ten-year-old Grace is in search of a subject for her fifth-grade history project when she learns that her four times-great grandfather once stabbed his lover to death. His grisly act was memorialized in a murder ballad, her aunt tells her, so it must be true. But the lessons of that revelation—to be careful of men and desire—are not just Grace’s to learn. Her family’s tangled past is part of a dark legacy in which the lives of generations of women are affected by the violence immortalized in folk songs like “Knoxville Girl” and “Pretty Polly” reminding them always to know their place.

Before she meets the Empress Blair, Anne Manx wants nothing more than to spend her quiet vacation getting a tan. Empress Blair, though, has a compelling problem. Her father has been killed, and she fears she's next. If Anne Manx can keep the Empress alive for mere two months, she'll reach her 18th birthday and take over for her father. Complicating things is Mr. Logan. who shows up just in time - but whose side is he on? Nothing is ever easy for Anne Manx, and she's rapidly running out of lives.

The year is 2120. The humans are dead. The mages have retreated from the world after a madman blew up civilization with weaponized magical technology. Safe within domes that protect them from the nuclear wasteland on the other side, the mages have spent the last century putting their lives back together.

N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption. In these stories, Jemisin sharply examines modern society, infusing magic into the mundane, and drawing deft parallels in the fantasy realms of her imagination. Dragons and hateful spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

When all she wanted was to fit in, Tamika Catchings stood out and felt left out, never knowing one day she'd stand out - as a basketball superstar and an inspiration. She faced being set apart by her hearing loss, separated from family, living up to high expectations, and the pain and discouragement of debilitating physical injury. Yet she reached for the stars with hard work, perseverance, and her faith in God. Through the silence, she found the way to shine.

In the literary world, the debate around writing and commerce often begs us to take sides: either writers should be paid for everything they do or writers should just pay their dues and count themselves lucky to be published. You should never quit your day job, but your ultimate goal should be to quit your day job. It's an endless, confusing, and often controversial conversation that, despite our bare-it-all culture, still remains taboo.

Eve is the rock in her family of seven, the one they always depend on. Faith is the dancer all the boys want, but she only has eyes for the one she can’t have. KeeKee is a poet who won’t follow the rules, not even to please her estranged father. Nia is a prisoner longing to escape her overprotective mother. Ready or not, it’s time for these four friends to face the sun.

Born into slavery in 1862, Ida Bell Wells was freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. Yet she could see just how unjust the world she was living in was. This drove her to become a journalist and activist. Throughout her life, she fought against prejudice and for equality for African Americans. Ida B. Wells would go on to co-own a newspaper, write several books, help cofound the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and fight for women's right to vote.

A chance meeting reunites Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, estranged friends who have long been separated by their ambitions. Since losing touch, Irene has become a wife and mother in Harlem, where she remains closely connected to her racial heritage. The seductive Clare, however, now “passes,” enjoying the privileges of white society while hiding her roots from the world, including her rich (and racist) husband.

Experience the height of the Jazz Age through the eyes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of the most notable authors in American literature. This collection includes: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Great Gatsby.

In today's world, we have come to rely so heavily on technology to communicate that it has led to increased anxiety for many when talking face to face. In How to Overcome Shyness, you'll learn to step away from distractions, overcome your shyness, and be more successful and comfortable in social situations. With real-world examples, brief exercises, and simple tips, you'll become more confident communicating in all situations from dating to work to large social events and parties.

Who do you trust when you have no one left but yourself? Kenzie is a military-trained assassin, hunting her target in Mexico. Cori is a student at the University of Guadalajara. One fateful afternoon their lives will come together under a flurry of gunfire. Questioning the lies around them, they will soon learn that they can not live without each other. On the run from an unknown enemy, they must learn to trust each other, and to believe they'll make it out alive.