Showing results by narrator "Holly Fielding" in All Categories

Now more than 133 million Americans live with chronic illness, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all health care dollars, and untold pain and disability. There has been an alarming rise in illnesses that defy diagnosis through clinical tests or have no known cure. Millions of people, especially women, with illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue syndrome face skepticism from physicians and the public alike.

Who are the people you’ll never forget? For Mary Murphy, there are five, eulogized here in an utterly unforgettable voice. Mary tells the story of her own life - her childhood spent trading one home and father figure for another, her efforts to track down her rebellious sister, and her winding search for purpose - through her experiences and encounters with the people who shaped her path. The result is an unconventional and moving story about identity, family, and belonging.

Katie Johnson may make her living consulting with new moms on the latest, greatest baby gadgets no parent should be without, or which mommy meet-ups are the most socially desirable, or whether melon truly is the new black, but the success of her marriage to her husband, Alex, depends on controlling her own urges toward motherhood. He's adamant that they stay childless. Sure, Katie understands that he's upset over the fact that his out-of-town ex-wife rarely lets him see their 10-year-old son, Peter. But living vicariously through her anxious clients and her twin sisters' precocious children only makes Katie resent his stance more deeply.

Eve has a new home, a new face, and a new name - but no memories of her past. She’s been told that she's in a witness protection program. That she escaped a dangerous magic-wielding serial killer who still hunts her. The only thing she knows for sure is that there is something horrifying in her memories the people hiding her want to access...and there is nothing they won’t say - or do - to her to get her to remember. At night she dreams of a tattered carnival tent and buttons being sewn into her skin.

Modern stories for modern times, Crash Diet is at once brilliant and bitter, happy and heartbreaking. In 11 stories, acclaimed novelist Jill McCorkle tells the varied tales of today's southern women, the lives they end up leading, and the loves that distract them. Sandra knows that the best revenge is her ex-husband's credit card; Ruthie is stuck owning a motel that the highway has bypassed; Anna is a widow who goes to airports and looks in on other people's lives; Bunny waits eagerly for her absent sister's postcards for advice on how to live.

Guarding the manicured wilds of an exclusive retirement community might seem like exile to a homicide cop. But Addie Gorsky moved to Florida to live with her ailing father, not to chase criminals. In fact, her new job as head of Mystic Cove security is a nice break from all the big-city bloodshed. But when the community's most despised resident is found dead in his tricked-out golf cart, Addie's ready for action. The local cops focus on the obvious suspect - the unhappy wife - but Addie knows there's more to the story.

Here, in her first collection in eight years, McCorkle collects 11 brand-new stories bristling with her characteristic combination of wit and weight. In honeymoon shoes, mud-covered hunting boots, or glass slippers, all of the women in these stories march to a place of new awareness, in one way or another, transforming their lives. They make mistakes, but they don’t waste time hiding behind them. They move on. They are strong. And they’re funny, even when they are sad.

In 1492 people of the Jewish faith were leaving Spain by the thousands. Not even the Conversos, those who had converted to the Catholic faith, were safe. Inquistors sought out heretics and encouraged informers to report anyone who might not be truly Catholic. Those accused were then questioned and tortured. Those declared guilty could be burned at the stake. This audiobook confronts issues of faith and bigotry, while wrestling with the questions of loyalty, betrayal, and the secrets that may lie in every human heart.

Colby Blanchard is the popular cheerleader with the grades, the hunky boyfriend, and the homecoming crown in the bag. Then things go bad - like turning-into-a-vampire bad. And complicating things is the fact that her orthodontist father has removed her canine teeth to give her a perfect smile, so she can't even do the vampire thing properly. Luckily, he's fitting her with some new headgear so she can feed. (So now she's not just a vampire but a dork.)

Jill McCorkle's new collection of 12 short stories is peopled with characters brilliantly like us - flawed, clueless, endearing. These stories are also "animaled" with all manner of mammal, bird, fish, reptile - also flawed and endearing. She asks, what don't humans share with the so-called lesser species? Looking for the answer, she takes us back to her fictional home town of Fulton, North Carolina, to meet a broad range of characters facing up to the double-edged sword life offers hominids.

Investigative journalist Zoe Greene, traumatized by a serial killer, has switched to writing for a soap-opera digest. Obsessed with soap star Warren Clark, she delights in joining him at his home in Mexico. But nearby, the mutilated body of a teenager was found recently, his heart torn from his body. From the moment Zoe arrives, things go wrong. Warren disappears for long stretches of time. Other Americans she meets hide strange black crosses and blood-tipped cacti in their homes.

Samantha Leiffer is trying to get a grip on reality. Her live-in boyfriend, detective John Krull, isn't deeply troubled, he's just quiet. Her ex isn't a stalker, he's just trying to be friendly. And the nerdy stranger who gives Sam a note warning her of danger unless she calls him, is just hitting on her-until one by one, people vaguely connected to her start getting killed. Now Sam knows she's not imagining the murderer - and that he's closer than she thinks.

Samantha Leiffer has a self-centered self-help guru for a mother, a cadre of off-kilter Greenwich Village pals, and an ambisexually-cheating ex-boyfriend. She doesn't need more grief. Then she spies two people dumping a dubious-looking ice chest into the Hudson River, and she has a chilling hunch about what's inside. Not being the kind of girl to let two psychos get away with murder, Sam sets out to unravel a mystery - and is soon being stalked by a sinister, shadowy figure who's wearing one-of-a-kind mirrored contact lenses.

When Southern California radio deejay Desiree Germain hosts a contest on the air, she is immediately taken by the smooth, deeply masculine voice of caller number twelve, Kyle Harrison. Later that afternoon, the man behind the voice walks into her studio, and Desiree is instantly smitten. Kyle Harrison is not only devastatingly handsome, he is a brilliant, extremely wealthy entrepreneur from Seattle who is used to getting what he wants. Desiree can't help her attraction to Kyle - and if the intense way he looks at her and keeps delaying his flight back to Seattle is any indication, it seems her feelings are more than reciprocated.

When freelance advertising artist Kelli Ann Harrison agrees to oversee the final phase of construction on her brother's glamorous Lake Tahoe house, she intends to make a holiday out of it: lend her brother a helping hand and at the same time enjoy the area's winter sports. An unexpected encounter at a holiday mixer, however, leads to a job offer that throws Kelli's plans into disarray. Grant Pembroke, founder of Pembroke Advertising, is in town to bid for the lucrative Cassera's Casino account.

At thirty-one, Kat Fallon's luck with men shows no sign of improving. But when she asks her best friend Nav Bharani to be her date at her younger sister's wedding in Vancouver, she has no idea that she's about to get on board the most surprising ride of her life…Nav has been secretly in love with Kat ever since he moved in next door. When she reveals that she loves taking train rides, especially the meeting-strangers part, Nav devises a plan to win Kat's heart. On every leg of her trip to Vancouver, he shows up disguised as a different sexy stranger.

When her friend disappears, and the cops seem uninterested in following up the case, a glamorous young woman starts her own investigation. With the help of an autistic child and her ex-lover, she digs deeper into the missing woman's affairs - especially her job as a criminal defense attorney.

Merilee has planned her wedding to Matt since they were seven. Yet with the big day drawing near, she has serious cold feet. Though Matt is shocked when she calls off the wedding, he has to admit that he, too, has a craving for something more. But there's no sense letting their Mexican Riviera honeymoon cruise go to waste. So they go: as friends, not as lovers. On a cruise where anything goes, they'll have a chance to be adventurous and test their limits - including their sexual ones. And they may discover all the excitement they will need to sustain a lifetime together...

A widowed mother of two, Annie Harlowe has a secret: She likes to call her late husband's cell phone just to hear his voice, even if it is only a recording. Then one night she dials - and something extraordinary happens.... Thomas Brannock IV has had his life mapped out since he was a kid, but a free-spirited woman with flowing hair and sun-kissed cheeks is about to change all that. Still reeling from her heart-to-heart with the other side - and wondering if she's so lonely she's gone off her rocker - Annie literally bumps into Thom at the posh soiree she's catering at his family's Southampton mansion.

When Nicole Whitcomb's car runs off a Colorado mountain road during a blinding snowstorm, she is saved from death by a handsome, fascinating, and enigmatic stranger. Snowbound with him for days in his beautiful home high in the Rockies, she finds herself powerfully attracted to him. But there are things about him that mystify her, filling her with apprehension. Who is Michael Tyler? Why does he live alone in such a secluded spot and guard his private life so carefully? What secret - or secrets - is he hiding?