Showing results by narrator "Marie Hoffman" in All Categories

One of the best time investments in your day is taking five or ten minutes each morning to make sure you look good. This may sound like vanity, or even like an extra burden during busy mornings, but you owe it to yourself to see that you're well groomed and looking your best before you leave the house. Knowing how good you look will make you happier and more confident throughout your day. When you take good care of yourself, you're more likely to be able to focus on your work and take good care of others.

Hollywood is full of secrets, which means LA detective Kacey Chance is never short on work. Kacey's new assignment involves a top film executive known for his mind-bending plot twists. Kacey's job is to find out what other secret twists the executive is hiding. This job takes Kacey far away from the comfort of the office, and gives her a chance to use her clever detective tricks to gain access to off-limits locations. There are no limits to what she'll do to solve this case. But when she finds herself trapped in a very tight space, Kacey has to ask herself: Have I gone too far?

Over the last 40 years, the leadership industry has grown exponentially. Yet leadership education, training, and development still fall far short. Moreover, leaders are demeaned, degraded, and derided as they never were before. Why? The problem is that leadership has stayed stuck. It has remained an occupation instead of becoming a profession. Unlike medicine and law, leadership has no core curriculum that is considered essential. It has no widely agreed on metric, or criteria for qualification.

Then: Twenty years ago, Alys’ husband, Sam, was in a terrible car accident that left him fighting for his life. His recovery was slow and painful, and just at the point when Alys began to hope, he sent her away, refusing to see her ever again for reasons she could never understand. Now: Married again and living in a new town with a new family, Alys feels like she’s sleepwalking through life. She’s just lost her job, her grown-up daughter is flying the nest, and her new husband doesn’t see - or even seem to care about - the downward spiral she is in.

In Companions in the Darkness, Diana Gruver looks back into church history and finds depression in the lives of some of our most beloved saints, including Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Without trying to diagnose these figures from a distance, Gruver tells their stories in fresh ways, taking from each a particular lesson that can encourage or guide those who suffer today. Drawing on her own experience with depression, Gruver offers a wealth of practical wisdom both for those in the darkness and those who care for them.

Building from his acclaimed anthology Tales of Two Americas, beloved writer and editor John Freeman draws together a group of our greatest writers from around the world to help us see how the environmental crisis is hitting some of the most vulnerable communities where they live. In the past five years, John Freeman, previously editor of Granta, has launched a celebrated international literary magazine, Freeman's, and compiled two acclaimed anthologies that deal with income inequality as it is experienced.

Emily Dickinson was one of the most reclusive of all poets. She spent much of her life in seclusion in her father’s house in Amherst, and only a handful of her 1800 poems were published in her lifetime. Credit for the posthumous publication of her work must be given to her editor and friend Thomas W. Higginson, who reported that, in spite of the voluminous correspondence which passed between himself and Dickinson, he only met her twice in person.

Three Muses is a love story that enthralls: a tale of Holocaust survival venturing through memory, trauma, and identity, while raising the curtain on the unforgiving discipline of ballet. In post-WWII New York, John Curtin suffers lasting damage from having been forced to sing for the concentration camp kommandant who murdered his family. John trains to be a psychiatrist, struggling to wrest his life from his terror of music and his past.

Martha Piper and Indira Samarasekera had vastly different career paths on their way to becoming the first (and so far only) female presidents of two of Canada's largest and most respected research universities and directors of some of the nation's largest market cap companies, but what they had in common was their gender, their willingness to take risks when leadership opportunities presented themselves, and a work ethic second to none. It was not always easy, pretty, or fair, but it was always the result of choosing to answer the call to lead.

It's movie time in Sugar Springs, and the whole town is pitching together to get the historical Coliseum Theater ready for the event of the year - the premiere of Missing Girl, local author Wally Harrison's best-selling novel turned film. Thrilled to bring tourists to Sugar Springs, the town comes together to host the late author's event. But when a stranger arrives, boasting he has definitive proof that Wally didn't write Missing Girl...well, drama leaps from the page into real life.

LA detective Kacey Chance partners up with sophisticated matriarch Tippy Booker to search the city for a missing kitty. Kitty...as in tiger. An honest-to-goodness, full-grown tiger. This case takes Kacey into the world of magic and stage magicians. Will she be able to separate truth from illusion? It isn't easy to see through the spells cast by a talented illusionist.

In Wise Aging: Living with Joy, Resilience, & Spirit, Rabbi Rachel Cowan and Dr. Linda Thal give us the tools we need to navigate the challenges of aging as we find joy and meaning in our lives. With the same warmth, humor, and wisdom that draws thousands to their innovative workshops on aging, they deliver practical, real world suggestions: journaling exercises, meditations, and activities that dig deep and lead us to a better understanding of how to age well.

As Sugar Springs gears up for its all-class high-school reunion, Mississippi bookstore owner Arlo Stanley prepares to launch her largest event: a book signing with the town's legendary alum and best-selling author Wally Harrison. That's when Wally is discovered dead outside of Arlo's front door, and her best friend is questioned for the crime. When the elderly ladies of Arlo's Friday Night Book Club start to investigate, Arlo has no choice but to follow behind to keep them out of trouble.

It was only a few months ago that the ladies of Arlo's Friday Night Book Club - Fern, Camille, and Helen - solved the murder of the renowned author Wally Harrison. So when they select Wally's best seller, Missing Girl, for their next discussion, Arlo is hopeful it will be the end of their mystery hunt. But since their recent success as sleuths, the crew officially sees themselves as a women's mystery club, and they're convinced Missing Girl was inspired by a 50-year-old cold case.

The book of Esther reads much like a fairy tale: a young Jewish queen, her wise older cousin, an evil royal servant, and a self-centered king. But Esther is no fairy tale. From the beginning of the book to the end, God is the main character of the story - even though he's never mentioned. Join Lydia Brownback as she digs deeper into the book of Esther and learn how God is faithful to keep his promises and deliver his people. This story ultimately points to the gospel, revealing the need for a better deliverer, a better king, and a better kingdom than any found in this world.

Kacey Chance said goodbye to her actress dreams to become a private investigator, but now her work is sending her straight into the heart of Hollywood. Her new assignment takes her undercover, working as a personal assistant to a handsome actor. Someone is trying to destroy his career, and it's up to Kacey to find out who, and why. Being on set is every bit as fun as Kacey imagined. The case seems easy enough, until she hits a moral dilemma. Exactly how far should an investigator go to discover the truth?

Kacey Chance is a former actress turned detective. Luckily for her, acting skills come in handy during investigations. Kacey's latest assignment is to investigate a suspicious workplace accident. The victim, who worked at local hangout Rockburger, is seeking a large cash settlement. A stakeout at the victim's residence reveals nosy neighbors and colorful roommates who drop hints that nothing about this accident is quite as it appears.

Kacey Chance is an aspiring actress with a cute face and a plucky attitude. She's trying to break into Hollywood, but it isn't easy. She was the prettiest girl in her hometown, but in LA she's a dime a dozen. When a friend offers Kacey a job working at a detective agency, the young actress jumps at the opportunity. The detective agency is unlike any she's ever seen in the movies. It's run by three handsome, single brothers and their sassy grandmother. Her first day at the agency is anything but boring.

The massive orphan train exodus whisked three-year-old Teresa from the safety of her New York orphanage, where the worst thing the Foundling nuns did was wash her curly black hair, to a desolate house and cold-hearted "parents" in Kansas. There, she entered a small and strange Volga German world whose inhabitants spoke a language she had never heard. In this odd world, she encountered whippings and sexual abuse. Mail-Order Kid looks at the orphan train movement through the eyes of one small child who yearns to know her "real" mother.

Kilee Brookbank was a typical sixteen-year-old, but her last ordinary day erupted in an explosion that consumed her house, burning forty-five percent of her body and sending her to the brink of death. After thirty-eight days of surgeries, skin grafts, physical therapy, and excruciating pain, Kilee had to discover how to live again. Now a thriving college student, Kilee has become an author, advocate, and philanthropist focused on helping other young burn survivors and their families.