Showing results by narrator "Christina Traister" in All Categories

Deeply shaken after a brutal attack, Bailey Carpenter struggles to reclaim control over what had once seemed like a neatly ordered life. Unable to face her job, her friends, or even the world outside her apartment, Bailey is trapped with her thoughts, replaying the attack in her desperate search for every detail that will help the police uncover the identity of her unknown assailant.

Living in bustling New York City, Lily Quinn has plenty of distractions and is struggling to finish college as well as pay her rent. But that all pales in comparison when Amy, her best friend and roommate, disappears without a trace. Spencer O'Malley, a cynical NYPD detective assigned to Amy's case, immediately captures Lily's attention. Though he is wary and wrestling with his own demons, he, too, is irresistibly drawn to Lily. But fate has more in store for Lily than she ever expected.

Caitlin of House Sans Merci is the young half-human pilot of a sentient mechanical dragon. Returning from her first soul-stealing raid, she discovers an unwanted hitchhiker. When Caitlin is framed for the murder of her brother, to save herself she must disappear into Industrialized Faerie, looking for the one person who can clear her. Unfortunately, the stakes are higher than she knows. Her deeds will change her world forever.

After two years away, Katie Lantz returns to her Amish community nine months pregnant—and unmarried. With nowhere else to turn, she nervously knocks on her family's door, fearing she'll be shunned. Yet the handsome stranger who now owns the farm welcomes her in—just in time for Katie to give birth. Carpenter Elam Sutter and his kindly mother care for Katie and her newborn in a loving way she never dreamed was possible. But in the face of a heart-wrenching choice, Katie learns just what family, faith and acceptance truly mean.

What happens when you think you have it all, and then, suddenly it’s taken away? Willa Chandler-Golden’s father changed the world: with his self-help best seller Is It Really Your Choice? Why Your Entire Life May Be Out of Your Control, millions of devoted fans found solace in the notion that everything happens for a reason. Though Willa isn’t entirely convinced of his prophesies, she readily admits that the universe has delivered her a solid life: a reliable husband, a fast-paced career.

When an elderly woman is found raped and brutally murdered in San Francisco, Vail heads west to team up with SFPD Inspector Lance Burden and her former task force colleague, Detective Roxxann Dixon. As Vail, Burden, and Dixon follow the killer’s trail in and around San Francisco, the offender continues his rampage, leaving behind clues that ultimately lead them to the most unlikely of places: a mysterious island ripped from city lore whose long-buried, decades-old secrets hold the key to their case.

Is stress a deadly disease on the rise in modern society? Can mind-body practices from the East help us become well? When it comes to healing, we believe we must look beyond doctors and drugs; we must look within ourselves. Faith, relationships, and attitude matter. But why do we believe such things? From psychoanalysis to the placebo effect to meditation, this vibrant cultural history describes mind-body healing as rooted in a patchwork of stories, allowing us to make new sense of our suffering and to rationalize new treatments and lifestyles.

Once a privileged son of the South, Hunter Calhoun now stands a widower shadowed by the scandal of his wife's death. Burying himself in his success with breeding thoroughbred racehorses, he's left his family to crumble and forgotten how to comfort his grieving children. When a prized stallion arrives from Ireland crazed and unridable, Hunter is forced to seek help for the beast. Removed from the world of wealth and social privilege, Eliza Fylte has inherited her father's famed gift for gentling horses.

A missing son returns - only to vanish again within 24 hours. Can a secret from his mother's past unlock the mystery of his disappearance? When Carrie Morgan's young son is snatched from the backseat of her car, she prays for one more day with him. Months later, she comes home to find Ben safe and sound in his crib. But the next day he's gone again, and the police suspect her involvement. Carrie is convinced that Ben is dead and that his brief return was a miracle sent to help her move on.

On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a bar by two young men, then savagely beaten, tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, and left to die. Five days later, Lesléa Newman arrived on campus to give the keynote speech for the University of Wyoming’s Gay Awareness Week. October Mourning is Lesléa Newman’s deeply personal response to the events of that tragic day and its brutal aftermath.

Ten years after the Seventh Cavalry massacred more than 200 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, J. B. Bennett, a white rancher, and Star, a young Native American woman, are murdered in a remote meadow on J. B.'s land. The deaths bring together the scattered members of the Bennett family.

From Daniel Mallory Ortberg comes a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Adapted from his beloved Children's Stories Made Horrific series, The Merry Spinster takes up the trademark wit that endeared Ortberg to listeners of both The Toast and his best-selling debut Texts from Jane Eyre. Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children's stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.

Five cousins must band together to decide the future of their shared inheritance—the family’s sprawling property in Stowe, Vermont—but with each at a different place in life, reaching a unanimous decision seems unlikely.

A year after forest fires ravaged the town of Crow Valley and claimed the life of Dale Jepson―karaoke legend, local prison guard, and all-around good guy―the community hosts a high-stakes karaoke competition. But when a convicted murderer escapes from nearby Crow Valley Correctional, residents discover there’s more on the line than local, perhaps even national, karaoke fame.

The first time I met Malcolm Shepherd, I whispered in his ear. I had my reasons for doing it, which he knew nothing about. It probably seemed a bit odd to him, and he undoubtedly got the wrong idea about me. Because of that, one thing led to another and we ended up kissing only ten minutes after our first introduction.

Christmas has never brought out the best in the MacDougal family. Still, year after year, they gather together in the Blue Ridge Mountains to try to make the season merry and bright. But this year is an especially strained one, with Shayne’s impending divorce, Morwenna’s slavish devotion to work and Bobby’s reluctance to face what life has to offer. They’ve never felt less like a family. Then, in the midst of a snowy sibling shouting match, a mysterious stranger appears.

Build a more equitable world for your daughter. Today’s generation of feminist dads are raising confident, empowered daughters who believe they can achieve anything. But the world is still profoundly unequal for women and girls, with workplaces built by men for men, massive gender pay gaps, and deeply ingrained gender stereotypes. Dads for Daughters: How Fathers Can Give Their Daughters a Better, Brighter, Fairer Future offers fathers guidance for building a world where their daughters can thrive.

When a Canadian spy comes to ex-black ops specialist Aubrey Sentro for help tracking down notorious Cold War spymaster Günter Witt, she wants to say no. It’s been thirty years since Aubrey’s captivity in East Berlin, and she has no desire to return. Her focus now is on mending the relationships that suffered during her years working in the shadows. But when a ruthless mercenary targets Aubrey and her daughter, the game changes.

In Ava’s dreams, her son, Noah, looks just the way she remembers him: a sweet two-year-old in rolled-up jeans and a red sweatshirt. When Ava wakes, the agonizing truth hits her all over again. Noah went missing two years ago, and his body has never been found. Almost everyone, including Ava’s semi-estranged husband, Wyatt, assumes the boy drowned after falling off the dock near their Church Island home. Ava has spent most of the past two years in and out of Seattle mental institutions, shattered by grief and unable to recall the details of Noah’s disappearance.

In 406 BC, to seal a tenuous truce, the young Roman Caecilia is wedded to Vel Mastarna, an Etruscan nobleman from Veii. Leaving her militaristic homeland, Caecilia is determined to remain true to Roman virtues while living among the sinful Etruscans. But, despite her best intentions, she is seduced by a culture that offers women education, independence, sexual freedom, and an empowering religion.