Showing results by narrator "Madeleine Maby" in All Categories

Brought up in the savage captivity of her unstable grandmother's rural Pennsylvania home, Mari Calder once yearned for rescue. Now she struggles every day to function as an adult in the confines of normal society. Left with only a foggy recollection of her childhood, she's consumed with being a dutiful wife to her husband, Ryan, and mother to their two children. But an unexpected twist of events returns her to that long-forgotten house in the woods.

Raised in a funeral home, Caroline Connors saw her mother miscarry when she was just a young girl and realized that she had a calling. Unlike her family, who guided souls on their way out, Caro chose to bring them in. As a doula, Caro spent years providing comfort and emotional support to women in labor. But when her best friend, Mary Grace, experiences complications, she makes a quick decision, taking the baby’s life into her hands as her lifelong friend passes away.

As a Category 3 hurricane bears down on Nantucket, Dionis Mather and her father have their work cut out for them. Their family business is to ferry goods and people back and forth from Tuckernuck, the private island off Nantucket’s western tip, a place so remote and exclusive that it is off the electric grid. As caretakers of the small plot of sand in the middle of the Atlantic, the Mathers are responsible for evacuating Tuckernuck’s residents, who range from an elderly native who refuses to leave her family home to the abandoned summer house pets of an absentee NFL quarterback.

They are the families considered worthy of a listing in the exclusive Green Book - a discriminative diary created by the niece of Edith Roosevelt’s social secretary. Their aristocratic bloodlines are woven into the very fabric of Washington - generation after generation. Their old money and manner lurk through the cobblestone streets of Georgetown, Kalorama, and Capitol Hill. They only socialize within their inner circle, turning a blind eye to those who come and go on the political merry-go-round. These parents and their children live in gilded existences of power and privilege.

Most people know about President FDR, but do you know the woman who created his groundbreaking New Deal? As a young girl, Frances Perkins was very shy and quiet. But her grandmother encouraged Frances to always challenge herself. When somebody opens a door to you, go forward. And so she did. In this empowering, inspirational biography, discover how the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet led the charge to create the safety net that protects American workers and their families to this day.

1934. Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family's Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, was infected by the infamous "sleeping sickness" devastating families across the country. If only she could trade places with her older sister, June: blonde and beautiful, married to a wealthy doctor, living in a mansion in St. Paul. And June has a coveted job, too, as one of "the Bettys", the perky recipe developers who populate the famous Betty Crocker test kitchen.

The sisters Hemingway were coming back to Cold River.... Hadley, the poised, polished wife of a senator. Pfeiffer, the successful New York book editor. Martha, who skyrocketed to Nashville stardom. They each have a secret...a marriage on the rocks, a job lost, a stint in rehab...and they haven’t been together in years. Returning for the funeral of the aunt who raised them, the sisters must stay together in their childhood home, faced with a puzzle that may affect all their futures.

In Educational Pluralism and American Democracy, education policy expert Ashley Rogers Berner envisions a K-12 education system that serves both the individual and the common good. Calling for education reform that will enable US public schools to fulfill the longstanding promise of American education, Berner proposes a radical reimagining of both the structure and content of US public school systems. She urges policymakers to embrace educational pluralism, an internationally common model in which the government funds diverse types of schools that deliver more universal content.

American consultant Kat is staffed on a six-month project in London and has two very small, very reasonable ambitions before returning home: get promoted to partner and fall in love with a handsome English aristocrat. No problem, right? But work is a grind, and the British men she meets are a far cry from her royal ideal. Then one morning, she sees a man on a double-decker bus and just knows that he’s her person. But when Kat finally musters the courage to board the bus and introduce herself, he turns out to be very different from the Prince Charming she expected.

Karina is trying to keep her mind on getting a cosponsor for a bill, but it's tough with her mom blowing up her phone. By the time Karina finally stops hitting "ignore", Mom is frantic. It appears Karina's Aunt Vera has disappeared, fibbed to her employer about the reason for her absence, even abandoned her beloved cat, Nightshade—which is completely out of character. Karina would bet her favorite pair of designer shoes that Vera is in some kind of trouble.