Showing results by narrator "Xe Sands" in All Categories

From her well-remembered New Yorker essays about the financial demands of big-city ambition and the ethereal, strangely old-fashioned allure of cyber relationships to her dazzlingly hilarious riff in Harper's about musical passions that give way to middle-brow paraphernalia, Daum delves into the center of things while closely examining the detritus that spills out along the way. With precision and well-balanced irony, Daum implicates herself as readily as she does the targets that fascinate and horrify her.

Lena, a young mother living on the edge of heartbreak. Her sister-in-law, Mary, more beautiful than loved. Alvinia, midwife to the county and mother of ten. Gustie and Jordis, trying to make a home together but finding their place on either the reservation or in Charity precarious. The women come together in the face of natural hardships—childbirth, disastrous weather, and disease—and the unnatural malevolence of people who mean them harm. In the end, they find themselves bound by a secret none of them could have predicted.

In a beautiful text that all families facing serious illness can relate to, a mother explains her own illness and changing body to her child. Offering comfort, guidance, and explanation, the mother reassures her daughter that no matter how life unfolds in the journey ahead, their love for one another will always stay strong.

When Lynn and her husband set out for a weekend retreat to repair their rocky marriage, icy roads lead to a fatal collision that ends Lynn's life. Stranded between the physical world and the afterlife, Lynn experiences the grief of her loved ones as they process her death. Lynn's lifelong friends are tortured by not only loss but also unspoken wounds in their friendship. With clever influences from above, Lynn coaxes them to reunite at a beachside cottage on the one-year anniversary of her death.

When a young woman who calls herself Suzie Q. approaches Luke to find her missing cat, Luke takes the job and winds up getting hold of a Magic 8 Ball that correctly predicts the future and answers any question, so long as it has nothing to do with lotto picks or love.

Max Davenport craves a break from the press. Constantly on the run from paparazzi and over-enthusiastic women, the football star takes to the small town of Green Hills to embrace a simpler lifestyle with his sister. But his pulse unexpectedly quickens when he discovers his sibling’s usually frumpy-dressed friend swimming in his backyard pool…opening his eyes to her breathtaking beauty.

Luke and Lyle have gotten used to investigating lost pets and cheating spouses. Then, Marva DeLonghi walks into their office. Someone's out to kill her, but her story's vague.

Fresh-out-of-a- bad-relationship New York City single, Sofia La Scala, carves out time once a week for happy hour with her best friend Chloe in search for Mr. Right. But when Chloe can’t make it out one night, Sofia meets seductive billionaire, Alex Chambers. The two immediately connect and begin flirt–filled exchanges that heat up rapidly and eventually lead to a steamy romance. The relationship challenges Sofia’s norms and flings her into a world of fantasy, role playing and lust.

Stiletto is a timely, fast-paced feminine mystery told in two diverse voices—a tense, erotic duet between the sharp, intuitive Detective Anna Crane and her prime suspect, the brilliant biochemist Eleanor Kiernan. Both women are haunted by the tragic loss of a sibling, but Kiernan's twin brother died of an overdose of the opiate she helped to create.

For nine months in Auschwitz, eighteen-year-old Eva Fleiss clung to sanity by playing piano on imaginary keyboards. After liberation, Eva and the five remaining Jews of Laszlo, Hungary, journey home, seeking to restart their lives. Yet the town that deported them is not ready to embrace their return. Their former neighbors and friends resist relinquishing their newfound status and property, and they struggle with their roles as perpetrators, enablers, and bystanders during the Holocaust.

Discovering the simple pleasure of having someone to share the load, Landry grapples with uncertainty when she is called to New York City to respond to a medical crisis. And though Davis is unsure where their relationship stands in her absence, even the start of a global pandemic can’t dim his dreams of sliding a ring onto her finger.

Private detectives Luke, Lyle, and Debbie have seen the worst of the worst, but nothing will prepare them for the new danger they must face. After uncovering the corruption of former State Governor, Marva DeLonghi, and sending her to prison, the trio thought their work was done. But when Marva escapes and powerful crime lord Philipe Ruskov demands a favor, they are thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

In the small, Southern town of Wesleyan, Georgia, where the air smells of red clay and sea salt, Margaret Elliot has lived a seemingly charmed life—until the recent loss of her beloved husband. Since then, Margaret has been seeing visions of her Aunt Edith, the indomitable woman who raised her after her parents died when she was a baby. As these mysterious and undeniable visitations continue, Margaret becomes convinced that Aunt Edith is trying to tell her something important.

Dylan Pace is Bodega Bay’s own hometown hero. From working Search and Rescue to picking up shifts as a paramedic with the local fire department, his life was the job. Until he blew out his knee for the last time. Scrambling for a new direction, Dylan is shocked when Mr. Levinson, his recently deceased mentor, leaves him part of the famous Inn by the Bay.

M’Kenzee Davenport knows love doesn’t last. So despite marrying her high school crush on a whim in Vegas, the gritty photojournalist never believed the union was real. But when her husband-in-name-only goes missing on a mission for the FBI, she’s stunned to receive his effects as next-of-kin.