Showing results by narrator "Nicol Zanzarella" in All Categories

Twenty hands on you under a fluorescent bulb. Conferences about blood cell count partly in the nude. And the tiny voice of a seven-year-old roommate across the curtain whose knock-knock jokes seem inexhaustible. These are the moments that make up teenage Nora's book of days as she manages her Crohn's disease in the pediatric ward of the hospital. But what Nora loses in comfort, health, and dignity she gains in the ability to examine the lives of those around her, people who are struggling to do their best.

Donald believes he knows all there is to know about seeing. An optician in suburban Boston, he rests assured that he and his wife, Viv, who works at the local stables, will live out quiet lives with their two children. Then Mercury - a gorgeous young racehorse - enters their lives, and everything changes.

The killer lives a normal life during the day while hunting the Throw Away Girls at night, punishing them for their dark urges. He leaves messages behind in his victims' blood, his explanations for enacting such brutal, twisted justice upon the unworthy. He watches the media coverage. He knows the wily reporter is chasing him. As Jaycee follows her gut and the evidence, she forces him to act. But when a killer is clever and cunning, he can infiltrate anywhere. Jaycee must utilize all her skills to expose him before he gets to her first.

Ever since she received word that her husband, Robert, was killed in the Civil War, Abigail has struggled to keep her Tennessee home and family together. Then a letter arrives claiming that Robert isn't dead, yet he has no plans to return. Desperate for answers, Abigail travels to Independence, Missouri, where she joins a westbound wagon train to find him.

After losing his parents and sister in a fire, Jake is raised by his grandparents. As he transforms from a traumatized boy to an exceptional student athlete and finally to an ambitious assistant DA, he learns to hide a crippling fear behind a stony mask. Until she turns 13, Bettina (Tina) Berenson is a shy, bookish girl rejected by both parents. But her life radically changes when her father starts taking her to the places he frequents: racetracks, prizefights, nightclubs, and the occasional company of gangsters he admires.

Life went terribly wrong for Addie Bates in San Diego, and she's been running from dark memories ever since. For 15 years, the Sleepy Valley Nudist Colony has provided a safe haven for Addie to hide from the crime she committed. But when the residents pack up to go on exhibit at the 1935 world's fair in San Diego, Addie returns and must face the thrilling yet terrifying prospect of reuniting with her estranged sister, Wavey.

Velveteen Vargas is an 11-year-old from Brooklyn who is granted a summer vacation in the country, courtesy of the nonprofit Fresh Air Fund. Her host family is a couple in upstate New York: Ginger, a failed artist on the fringe of Alcoholics Anonymous; and Paul, an academic who wonders what it will mean to "make a difference" in such a contrived situation.

The world of New York City school politics takes a deadly turn when Hector Sanchez, the popular principal of an up-and-coming public school, is murdered. Detective Claire Codella catches the high-profile case while she's still struggling to get back up to speed. This is her first case since taking leave to battle cancer.

When it comes to negotiation, there is an ugly double standard. As women, if we make concessions to further a deal, we're viewed as weak. But if we play hardball, we can be seen as overly aggressive - and the strategy backfires. No wonder most women hate negotiating.

An art dealer and owner of her own design studio, Perfect Touch, Sarah "Sam" Maddox travels the world to find the ideal artwork for her clients. Her sophisticated, comfortable life in San Francisco is light years away from the poverty of her family's dairy farm, and Sam will do whatever it takes to keep her business strong. A dedicated urban career woman focused on her work, she doesn't have time or energy for a family or distracting romantic entanglements.

"Open your eyes, Michelle." She gasped at the sight of the infinite night sky stretching all around her, full of more stars than she'd ever imagined. He'd thought of this. For her. It was so perfect, so romantic, it stole her breath. She smiled and curled her fingers around Ray's. When everything you love is on the line... The Isles of Scilly off the coast of England is remote, windswept and wild. It's the perfect place for Ray Powell to recuperate after the toughest Afghanistan mission the military contractor has ever run.

This could work, whispered the little voice in the back of her mind, the voice that had been silent for seven years...Years ago, former Marine Captain Cecily Knight fled her dark past and the nightmares forever haunting her nights. Alone in the remote Canadian wilderness, she survives day to day...until Ian Fairchild comes storming into her life and shatters her protective seclusion. Until one touch bared her soul. Aloof but intriguing, defensive but undeniable, Ian is everything Cecily shouldn't want but can't ignore.

Michael Chabon once said, "I scan the tables of contents of magazines, looking for Antonya Nelson's name, hoping that she has decided to bless us again." And now she has blessed us again, with a bounty of the stories for which she is so beloved. Her stories are clear-eyed, hard-edged, beautifully formed. In the title story, "Funny Once", a couple held together by bad behavior fall into a lie with their more responsible friends.

Ranging in age from six to 40, 38 sons and daughters of lesbians offer brief essays that could be valuable to like offspring, as well as to relatives and friends trying to understand the problems such children face. Homophobia, visited upon the children as well as their mothers, is the most commonly cited concern; some younger contributors feel isolated from their peers, and a couple of boys endure rejection from radical lesbian acquaintances.

It is the largest oil disaster in American history, and it could happen again. It is more than a story of ruined beaches, dead wildlife, corporate spin, political machinations, and financial fallout. It is a riveting human drama filled with people whose lives will forever be defined as "before" and "after the gulf oil disaster". Black Tide is the only book to tell this story through the perspective of people on all sides of the catastrophe.

After decades apart, the five siblings find themselves together again at their ailing mother’s bedside, caught in a deadlocked feud over her hospice care. Into the morass steps Murron Teinetoa, one of their bastard children, who carries an idealistic hope of finally fitting in among her estranged relatives.In an interweaving narrative, Malae portrays the Felices in their formative years of the fifties; he excavates the personal lives of the siblings in the eighties and nineties; and he follows Murron in the present as she raises her son as a single mother.

A murder victim is turned into a zombie, just long enough to cover up the circumstances of his own death.... A silent ghost with a friendly grin greets those about to meet their doom.... The only clue to who's killing a party of adventurers is the letter 'H', written in the blood of one of the victims.... All new stories of murder, suspense, and intrigue by Elaine Cunninham, Jeff Grubb, Ed Greenwood, and other favorite Forgotten Realms authors.

After all the testing and touring and applying, your child has been accepted to college. Congratulations! Now what? Distilling lessons and sharing stories (some cautionary, some entertaining, all helpful) from her long college advisory career, three-time Ivy League Dean Monique Rinere presents a unique month-by-month road map to a college experience that is rich, rewarding, and successful for teens and parents alike.

The Kree Starforce are the baddest elite warriors in the cosmic business. Vers, their newest recruit, brings impressive photon-blasting powers to the team, but her impulsive nature has inspired some distrust among fellow Starforce members Korath, Att-Lass, Bron-Char, and, most of all, Minn-Erva, the team's most valued sniper. Under the tutelage of her commander, Vers will learn the ways of Starforce whether she likes it or not. Will Vers prove her worth to the team, and to herself, or will the pressure to succeed be her ultimate downfall?

For centuries, women who emerge as mystic leaders have played vital roles in American culture. For just as long, they've been subjugated and ridiculed. Today, women and others across the nation are once again turning to their mystic powers to #HexThePatriarchy and help fight the forces that seem bent on relegating them to second-class citizenry.