Showing results by narrator "Hillary Huber" in All Categories

Julia Ward (1819-1910) was an heiress and aspiring poet when she married Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, an internationally acclaimed pioneer in the education of the blind. Together the Howes knew many of the key figures of their era, from Charles Dickens to John Brown. But Samuel also wasted Julia's inheritance, isolated and discouraged her, and opposed her literary ambitions. Julia persisted and continued to publish poems and plays while raising six children.

Born in 1925, Maria Tallchief spent part of her childhood on an Osage reservation in Oklahoma. With the support of her family and world-renowned choreographer George Balanchine, she rose to the top of her art form to become America's first prima ballerina.

The statues disappeared in an instant. While they were on Earth, they caused confusion and destruction without ever lifting a finger. They also contributed to the untimely death of April May: a young woman who stumbled into their path, naming them the Carls and gaining viral fame in an avalanche of conspiracy theories. When April's friends try to carry on with their lives, a series of clues arrive - mysterious books that seem to predict the future - and which also seem to suggest April may be very much alive...But there's a bigger mystery to solve.

Theodora "Teddy" Bentley, zookeeper at the Gunn Zoo, takes the zoo's llama, Alejandro, to a Renaissance fair in the Monterey Bay area. That is where Teddy discovers the still-warm body of the Reverend Victor Emerson, owner of the local wedding chapel, dressed in his costume as Henry the Eighth. At first it appears that Alejandro stomped the man to death, but a closer look shows a crossbow dart in the man’s back.

Young Maris has been summoned to his mother's bedside as she nears the end of her life; she feels she must tell him her version of their family history, the story of his early life, and the ways in which he changed the lives of others. Maris was born with what some might call a blessing and others might deem a curse: His very large, very special ears enable him to hear the secrets of the dead as well as the memories that haunt his Latvian hometown.

In “Oh, El” a dominant woman can’t stop herself from toying with the tender heart of her co-worker. The title story, “Wild Failure” is a doomed love story between an agoraphobic and a wilderness hiker. In “Half Pipe” a teen girl’s heterosexual ambivalence results in chaos at a skate park. A group of idealistic roommates find themselves the subject of a true crime podcast in “Murder at the Elm Street Collective House.” In “The Sex Castle Lunch Buffet” a woman reflects on her brief stint at a 90s strip club after she learns of the death of a former client.

A precisely observed, superbly crafted novel, The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver charts the dramatic changes in the lives of three generations of one remarkable family, and the summer place that both shelters and isolates them. Ashaunt Point, Massachusetts, has anchored life for generations of the Porter family, who summer along its remote, rocky shore. But in 1942, the U.S. Army arrives on the Point, bringing havoc and change.

Leonidas is coerced into a dice game at his local popina, with a stranger who turns out to not be such a stranger after all. His presence puts all around him in danger, and Leonidas struggles to keep the man’s identity secret.

In these wonderfully funny and poignant stories, Willett’s eccentric, complex characters think and do the unconventional. Soft, euphonic women gradually grow old; weak, unhappy men confront love and their own mortality; and abominable children desperately try to grow up with grace. With a unique voice and dry humor, Willett gives us a new insight into human existence, showing us those specific moments in relationships when life suddenly becomes visible. Critically acclaimed when it was first published, Jenny and the Jaws of Life is being brought back due to popular demand.

The field is all around us. It's our needs and our wants. This is what George tells Lydia. A disturbance, however, is something that keeps us from grasping and attaining the things we need. Usually, we can adapt to these disturbances and move forward. But, what happens if a disturbance becomes too great to move past? In this entrancing tale of loss and understanding, acclaimed author Lynne Sharon Schwartz plots the course of a woman's life, through the cycles of love, loss, and acceptance.

With global warming out of control, large swathes of North America have been struck by famine and drought and are now known as the Desert. A young woman sets out across this dry, hostile landscape, gradually building an arcane apparatus she believes will bring rain to the parched earth. Jesse lives alone, far from civilization. Once, he too made rain, but he stopped when his abilities caused fatalities, bringing down not just rain but scorpions, strange snakes, and spiders.

Amazing women with a story to tell. Join Mae West as she shakes up the entertainment industry with her wit and wisdom or create colorful art pieces with Yayoi Kusama that are larger than life itself. These women in history defied the expectations of conventional society to live the lives they chose, regardless of what others thought.

Challenging Operations takes up the apparent paradox of medical professionals resisting reforms designed to help them and their patients. Through vivid anecdotes, interviews, and incisive observation and analysis, Katherine Kellogg reveals the complex ways that institutional reforms spark resistance when they challenge long-standing beliefs, roles, and systems of authority. Shedding new light on the difficulty of implementing reforms, Challenging Operations offers concrete recommendations for effectively meeting that challenge.

Business is about making money, but it's also about making decisions. There are relatively small decisions, like when to call a meeting or which emails to answer quickly. Then there are the big decisions that can make or break a business - which product to launch, whom to hire, how to spend. Hard work, analytics, past successes, intelligence, and a great business plan aren't enough anymore. Many of us are scrambling to discover the path to success but have found instead that we've lost our way.

For more than a decade, a harsh Congressional immigration policy kept most Jewish refugees out of America, even as Hitler and the Nazis closed in. In 1944, the US finally acted. That year, Franklin D. Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board and put a young Treasury lawyer named John Pehle in charge. Over the next 20 months, Pehle and his team tricked the Nazis, forged identity papers, maneuvered food and medicine into concentration camps, recruited spies, leaked news stories, laundered money, negotiated ransoms, and funneled millions of dollars into Europe.

Spanning eras and cultures from ancient Rome to medieval England to 1950s Hollywood, Jennifer Wright's It Ended Badly guides you through the worst of the worst in historically bad breakups. In the throes of heartbreak, Emperor Nero had just about everyone he ever loved - from his old tutor to most of his friends - put to death. Oscar Wilde's lover, whom he went to jail for, abandoned him when faced with being cut off financially from his wealthy family.

A lesson on the power of vanity, "The Necklace" tells the story of Madame Mathilde Loisel and her husband. Mathilde always imagined herself as a socialite with beautiful gowns and wonderful jewels. Her husband, however, is a lowly clerk and the two have little money. Desperate to attend an important party, she borrows a friend's diamond necklace to match the dress her husband bought for her. But when Mathilde loses the expensive jewels, she nearly destroys her life in an effort to pay back the debt.

Five years ago, Aegis Security op manager Marley Addison's lover died in a South American raid gone horribly wrong...or so she thought. When she receives a phone call telling her that he is still very much alive and in danger, she vows to bring him home safely, even if Aegis CEO and former Navy SEAL Jake Ryder has kept her out of the field for the last few years. Then Jake shows up in Colombia to help her, leaving Marley annoyed...and more than a little distracted by her alarmingly handsome boss.

Alice and her three closest friends meet the enigmatic Jack Wyck. Enticed by his philosophy and the promise of a constant party, Alice and her friends join Mr. Wyck's small group of devoted followers. Their idyll takes an increasingly sinister turn. Mr. Wyck's grand scheme goes wrong, culminating in a night of horrific murders.

Texas girl Babe Didrikson never tried a sport too tough and never met a hurdle too high. Despite attempts to keep women from competing, Babe achieved All-American status in basketball and won gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics. Then, Babe attempted to conquer golf. One of the founders of the LPGA, Babe won more consecutive tournaments than any golfer in history. But at the height of her fame, she was diagnosed with cancer. Babe would then take her most daring step of all....