Donna Postel has narrated 109 audiobooks on Listento.it by 104 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 476 ratings. The most-rated is Seth Speaks.
Ron Howard
Summary
Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the Moon...and Beyond, the first full-length biography of Ron Howard, takes an in-depth look at the Oklahoma boy who gained national fame as a child star, then grew up to be one of Hollywood's most admired directors. Although many show-biz kids founder as they approach adulthood, Ron Howard had the advantage of brains, common sense, and two down-to-earth parents who kept him from having an inflated view of his own accomplishments. He also had a longstanding goal: to trade the glare of the spotlight for a quieter but equally creative life behind the camera. This biography tracks his career from 1960, when he debuted as six-year-old Opie Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show through 2002, when he accepted his Academy Award as Best Director for A Beautiful Mind. Author Beverly Gray, an entertainment industry veteran, has spoken to teachers, friends, and professional colleagues from all phases of Howard's career. She has also combed the archives to gain further insight into this very private man whose accomplishments have brought pleasure to so many.
©2003 Beverly Gray (P)2021 Tantor
The Last Teacher
Summary
As parts of everyday life begin to fade away, one teacher struggles to keep a semblance of normality for the teenagers in her classroom. But what can she teach to students who know they will one day be the final remnants of mankind? "The Last Teacher" is a story from The Great De-Evolution series about the lessons that are most important in life.
©2015 Chris Dietzel (P)2021 Podium Audio
Double Dog Dare
Summary
For dog trainer and search-and-rescue volunteer Raine Stockton, the last few months have been marked by murder, danger, and betrayal. A luxury vacation to the Caribbean resort island of St. Bart's sounds like the perfect antidote for stress, particularly since it includes three of her favorite traveling companions: her boyfriend, Miles; his daughter, Melanie; and Raine's happy-go-lucky golden retriever, Cisco. But even in paradise, trouble finds them. An American actress has suffered a fatal diving accident, and someone close to Miles appears to have been involved. As more and more people from Miles' past surface, he and Raine are drawn reluctantly into a murder investigation. Raine, far more comfortable in her native North Carolina mountains than in this foreign culture, surrounded by the baffling behavior of the rich and famous, is at a distinct disadvantage. But she faces her worst fears when someone she loves goes missing, and she is forced to navigate unfamiliar terrain in an alien land to track down a killer. And this time even Cisco can't help her.
©2014 Donna Ball (P)2015 Donna Ball
High Crime Area
Summary
In the title story, a white aspiring professor is convinced she is being followed. No need to panic - she has a handgun stowed away in her purse, just in case. But when she turns to confront her black male shadow, the situation isn't what she expects. In "The Rescuer" a promising graduate student detours to inner-city Trenton, New Jersey, to save her brother from a downward spiral. But she soon finds out there may be more to his world than to hers. And in "The Last Man of Letters" the world-renowned author X embarks on a final grand tour of Europe. He has money, fame, but not a whole lot of manners. A little thing like etiquette couldn't bring a man like X down, could it? In these and five other biting and beautiful pieces, Oates confronts, one by one, the demons within us, demonstrating that sometimes, it's not the human side that wins out. Contents: "The Home at Craigmillnar", read by Ray Chase "High", read by Donna Postel "Toad-Baby", read by Luci Christian "Demon", read by Chris Patton "Lorelei", read by Tamara Marston "The Rescuer", read by Julia Whelan "The Last Man of Letters", read by Ray Chase "High Crime Area", read by Julia Whelan
©2014 Original material, The Ontario Review, Inc. Recorded by arrangement with John Hawkins and Associates, Inc. (P)2014 HighBridge Company
Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners
Summary
Best Books of Fall 2018 Selection by PopSugar "Stunning... An intricately satisfying story about love and understanding that is full of both nostalgia and surprising optimism." (Kirkus Reviews) "A propulsive and endearing debut." (J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times best-selling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest) A formidable matriarch learns the hard way that no family is perfect in this witty, sparkling debut novel. Dearest loved ones, far and near - evergreen tidings from the Baumgartners! Violet Baumgartner has opened her annual holiday letter the same way for the past three decades. And this year she's going to throw her husband, Ed, a truly perfect retirement party, one worthy of memorializing in her upcoming letter. But the event becomes a disaster when, in front of two hundred guests, Violet learns her daughter Cerise has been keeping a shocking secret from her, shattering Violet's carefully constructed world. In an epic battle of wills, Violet goes to increasing lengths to wrest back control of her family, infuriating Cerise and snaring their family and friends in a very un-Midwestern, un-Baumgartner gyre of dramatics. And there will be no explaining away the consequences in this year's Baumgartner holiday letter…. Full of humor, emotion and surprises at every turn, Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners brings to life a remarkable cast of quirky, deeply human characters who must learn to adapt to the unconventional, or else risk losing one another. This is the story of a family falling to pieces - and the unexpected way they put it all back together.
©2018 Gretchen Anthony (P)2018 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Revolutionary Mothers
Summary
The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American, and Carol Berkin shows us that women played a vital role throughout the struggle. Berkin takes us into the ordinary moments of extraordinary lives. We see women boycotting British goods in the years before independence, writing propaganda that radicalized their neighbors, raising funds for the army, and helping finance the fledgling government. We see how they managed farms, plantations, and businesses while their men went into battle, and how they served as nurses and cooks in the army camps, risked their lives seeking personal freedom from slavery, and served as spies, saboteurs, and warriors. She introduces us to 16-year-old Sybil Ludington, who sped through the night to rouse the militiamen needed to defend Danbury, Connecticut; to Phillis Wheatley, literary prodigy and Boston slave who voiced the hopes of African Americans in poems; to Margaret Corbin, crippled for life when she took her husband's place beside a cannon at Fort Monmouth; to the women who gathered firewood, cooked, cleaned for the troops, nursed the wounded, and risked their lives carrying intelligence and participating in reconnaissance missions. Here, too, are Abigail Adams, Deborah Franklin, Lucy Knox, and Martha Washington, who lived with the daily knowledge that their husbands would be hanged as traitors if the revolution did not succeed.
©2005 Carol Berkin (P)2018 Tantor
Strength
Summary
A fresh and powerful book of daily meditations that encourages women to discover their inner power and manifest it in every area of their lives
Strength is a wise and profound book that helps women deal with both the large and small bumps in the road of life. Here are over 125 meditations, stories, and musings on becoming stronger, happier, healthier, and more bodacious. The goals are to accept, honor, and activate sacred personal strength and to embrace a wisdom that facilitates change within and encourages (or demands, if need be) the world to become a better place.
Strength can be read cover to cover or more casually by choosing topics from the table of contents. Topics include: facing fear, embracing your inner Brunehilde, mirroring Jesus and Rosa Parks, sharing wisely, and knowing you're good enough is no longer enough.
"I hope Strength becomes your ally and you can hear me cheering you on as you courageously, compassionately, and gently become stronger and more empowered. I also hope it will make you chuckle on occasion." --Sue Patton Thoele
©2019 by Sue Patton Thoele. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Evil Eye
Summary
Listeners know that few authors are able to create an atmosphere of unease and terror as well as Oates, a fact confirmed by the four novellas presented here. In the title story, "Evil Eye," a young woman has recently become the fourth wife of a highly demanding man. When his first wife comes to stay with them, she warns the new bride that her husband is insane, and that she must find a way to protect herself. In "So Near Anytime Always," a fateful meeting in a library leads to a boy's obsessive interest in a teenage girl. In "The Execution," spoiled college student Bart Hansen has forgotten to factor in one person in his plan to commit the perfect, brutal crime: his mother. And in "The Flatbed," a beautiful young woman struggles with frigidity until a shocking act releases her. All the novellas in this collection revolve around the theme of love gone wrong - horribly, shockingly wrong..
©2013 The Ontario Review, Inc. Recorded by arrangement with John Hawkins and Associates, Inc. (P)2013 HighBridge Company
Tie My Bones to Her Back
Summary
A historic western that opens in 1873, a time when recession is forcing thousands westwards to recoup their fortunes. The West is tough, brutal and the Indian is the enemy. But when a white woman is raped, it is a half-breed Cheyenne who comes to the rescue. From the author of Jake and Upland Passage.
©1997 2014 Robert Jones (P)2013 Audible Inc.
Dying for Love
Summary
Dr. John Yelenic was a successful dentist in a small Pennsylvania town. When he met Michele Kamler, he thought he'd finally found the woman of his dreams. She was beautiful, intelligent, and seemed to want all the same things out of life as he did. Michele married Yelenic in 1997. But by 2002, the relationship fell apart…and what followed was a bitter, three-year-long battle in which Michele made demands for Yelenic's money and even accused him?falsely, it would later be shown?of sexual abuse. Michele began dating Kevin Foley, a Pennsylvania State Trooper. When, in 2006, Yelenic was found murdered?slashed to death in his own home?Foley was the prime suspect. At the time of Yelenic's death, Michele was listed as beneficiary on more than $1 million in insurance benefits. Did Foley believe Michele stood to inherit this money? Or did this well-known hot-head act alone? This is a shocking true story of greed, corruption, and cold-blooded murder.
©2011 Carlton Smith (P)2018 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Morningstar
Summary
In her admired works of fiction, including the recent The Book That Matters Most, Ann Hood explores the transformative power of literature. Now, with warmth and honesty, Hood reveals the personal story behind these works of fiction. Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, in a household that didn't foster the love of literature, Hood nonetheless learned to channel her imagination and curiosity by devouring The Bell Jar, Marjorie Morningstar, The Harrad Experiment, and other works. These titles introduced her to topics that could not be discussed at home: desire, fear, sexuality, and madness. Later, Johnny Got His Gun and The Grapes of Wrath influenced her political thinking as the Vietnam War became news; Dr. Zhivago and Les Miserables stoked her ambition to travel the world. With characteristic insight and charm, Hood showcases the ways in which books gave her life and can transform - even save - our own.
©2017 Anne Hood (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Home in the Morning
Summary
A powerful debut from a new literary talent, this novel tells the story of a Jewish family confronting the tumult of the 1960s - and the secrets that bind its members together. Jackson Sassaport is a man who often finds himself in the middle. Whether torn between Stella, his beloved and opinionated Yankee wife, and Katherine Marie, the African American girl who first stole his teenage heart; or between standing up for his beliefs and acquiescing to his prominent Jewish family’s imperative to not stand out in the segregated South, Jackson learns to balance the secrets and deceptions of those around him. But one fateful night in 1960 will make the man in the middle reconsider his obligations to propriety and family, and will start a chain of events that will change his life and the lives of those around him forever. Home in the Morning follows Jackson’s journey from his childhood as a coddled son of the Old South to his struggle as a young man eager to find his place in the civil rights movement while protecting his family. Flashing back and forth between Jackson's adult life as a successful lawyer and his youth, Mary Glickman’s riveting novel traces the ways that race and prejudice, family, and love intertwine to shape our lives.
©2010 Mary Glickman (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
The Silver Swan
Summary
In The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham chronicles one of the great underexplored lives of the 20th century and the very archetype of the modern woman. "Don't touch that girl, she'll burn your fingers," FBI director J. Edgar Hoover once said about Doris Duke, the inheritor of James Buchanan Duke's billion-dollar tobacco fortune. During her lifetime, she would be blamed for scorching many, including her mother and various ex-lovers. She established her first foundation when she was 21; cultivated friendships with the likes of Jackie Kennedy, Imelda Marcos, and Michael Jackson; flaunted interracial relationships; and adopted a 32-year-old woman she believed to be the reincarnation of her deceased daughter. Even though Duke was the subject of constant scrutiny, little beyond the tabloid accounts of her behavior has been publicly known. In 2012, when 800 linear feet of her personal papers were made available, Sallie Bingham set out to probe her identity. She found an alluring woman whose life was forged in the Jazz Age, who was not only an early war correspondent but also an environmentalist, a surfer, a collector of Islamic art, a savvy businesswoman who tripled her father's fortune, and a major philanthropist with wide-ranging passions from dance to historic preservation to human rights.
©2020 Sallie Bingham (P)2020 Tantor
Red Rose Crew
Summary
In 1975, a group of amazing women rowed their way to international success and glory, battling sexual prejudice, bureaucracy, and male domination in one of the most grueling and competitive sports around. Among the members of the first international women's crew team - and one of the first women's teams anywhere - were Gail Pearson, the soft-spoken MIT professor who fought equally hard off the water to win the political battles neccessary for her team to succeed; lead rower Carie Graves, a statuesque bohemian from rural Wisconsin who dropped out of college and later became the most intense rower of the crew; and Lynn Stillman, a tiny 16-year-old coxswain from California. On hand to guide them was Harry Parker, the legendary Harvard men's crew coach who overcame his doubts about the ability of women to withstand the rigors of hard training. From their first dramatic bid at the 1975 World Championships to their preparations for their first Olympic Games in 1976, this gripping story of bravery, determination, and indomitable spirit captures a compelling moment in the history of sports and of America.
©2000 Daniel J. Boyne (P)2020 Tantor
The Secrets on Chicory Lane
Summary
From the New York Times bestselling author comes a new novel of suspense about coming-of-age in the 1960s - and the neighborhood street where first love, a child abduction, and abuse collide. Sixty-one-year-old Shelby Truman, a romance novelist, has received a request to visit her childhood friend, Eddie, who is on Death Row. Though mentally ill, Eddie is scheduled to be executed for the disturbing, brutal murders of his wife and unborn child. As Shelby travels home to Texas for the unnerving reunion, she steps back into memories of her past, recalling her five-decade-long relationship with Eddie in order to understand what led the beautiful but troubled boy who lived across the street to become a murderer. Shelby and Eddie used to visit an abandoned fallout shelter in his backyard, their "secret hiding place" where they could escape Eddie's abusive father, enjoy innocent playtime, and, later, adolescent explorations. As they grow increasingly close, a tragedy occurs one July fourth, an event that sets in motion a lifelong struggle against an Evil - with a capital "E" - that has corrupted their all-American neighborhood. With only a few days left for Eddie to live, Shelby braces herself for a reunion that promises to shed light on the traumatic events that transpired on her street, changing everything Shelby thought she knew about the boy on Chicory Lane.
©2017 Raymond Benson. (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
The Jew Store
Summary
In 1920, in small-town America, the ubiquitous dry goods store was usually owned by Jews and often referred to as "the Jew store". That's how Stella Suberman's father's store, Bronson's Low-Priced Store, in Concordia, Tennessee, was known locally. The Bronsons were the first Jews to ever live in that tiny town of one main street, one bank, one drugstore, one picture show, one feed and seed, one hardware, one barber shop, one beauty parlor, one blacksmith, and many Christian churches. Aaron Bronson moved his family all the way from New York City to Tennessee to prove himself a born salesman - and much more. Told by Aaron's youngest child, The Jew Store is that rare thing - an intimate family story that sheds new light on a piece of American history. With a novelist's sense of scene, suspense, and, above all, characterization, Stella Suberman turns the clock back to a time when rural America was more peaceful but no less prejudiced, when educated liberals were suspect, and when the Klan was threatening to outsiders. In that setting she brings to life her remarkable father, a man whose own brand of success proves that intelligence, empathy, liberality, and decency can build a home anywhere.
©1998 Stella Suberman (P)2016 Tantor
Mourning Lincoln
Summary
Through deep and thoughtful exploration of diaries, letters, and other personal writings penned during the spring and summer of 1865, Martha Hodes, one of our finest historians, captures the full range of reactions to the president's death - far more diverse than public expressions would suggest. She tells a story of shock, glee, sorrow, anger, blame, and fear. "'Tis the saddest day in our history", wrote a mournful man. It was "an electric shock to my soul", wrote a woman who had escaped from slavery. "Glorious News!" a Lincoln enemy exulted. "Old Lincoln is dead, and I will kill the goddamned Negroes now", an angry White Southerner ranted. For the Black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts, it was all "too overwhelming, too lamentable, too distressing" to absorb. There are many surprises in the story Hodes tells, not least the way in which even those utterly devastated by Lincoln's demise easily interrupted their mourning rituals to attend to the most mundane aspects of everyday life. There is also the unexpected and unabated virulence of Lincoln's Northern critics and the way Confederates simultaneously celebrated Lincoln's death and instantly - on the very day he died - cast him as a fallen friend to the defeated White South. Hodes brings to life a key moment of national uncertainty and confusion, when competing visions of America's future proved irreconcilable and hopes for racial justice in the aftermath of the Civil War slipped from the nation's grasp. Hodes masterfully brings the tragedy of Lincoln's assassination alive in human terms - terms that continue to stagger and rivet us 150 years after the event they so strikingly describe.
©2015 Martha Hodes. Published by Yale University Press. Recorded by arrangement with Martha Hodes, c/o The Strothman Agency. (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Sick Enough
Summary
Patients with eating disorders frequently feel that they aren't "sick enough" to merit treatment, despite medical problems that are both measurable and unmeasurable. They may struggle to accept rest, nutrition, and a team to help them move towards recovery. Sick Enough offers patients, their families, and clinicians a comprehensive, accessible review of the medical issues that arise from eating disorders by bringing relatable case presentations and a scientifically sound, engaging style to the topic. Using metaphor and patient-centered language, Dr. Gaudiani aims to improve medical diagnosis and treatment, motivate recovery, and validate the lived experiences of individuals of all body shapes and sizes, while firmly rejecting dieting culture.
©2019 Taylor & Francis (P)2019 Tantor
This Road We Traveled
Summary
Three generations of the Brown women travel west together on the Oregon Trail, but each seeks something different. When the trail divides, a decision must be made that could bring survival or tragedy. The challenges faced will form the character of one woman - and impact the future for many more. Drama, adventure, and family struggles abound as three generations head west on the Oregon Trail. When Tabitha Brown's son makes the fateful decision to leave Missouri and strike out for Oregon, she refuses to be left behind. Despite her son's concerns, Tabitha hires her own wagon to join the party. Along with her reluctant daughter and her ever-hopeful granddaughter, the intrepid Tabitha has her misgivings. But family ties are stronger than fear. The trials they face along the way will severely test Tabitha's faith, courage, and ability to hope. With her family's survival on the line, she must make the ultimate sacrifice, plunging deeper into the wilderness to seek aid. What she couldn't know was how this frightening journey would impact how she understood her own life - and the greater part she has to play in history. With her signature attention to detail and epic style, New York Times best-selling author Jane Kirkpatrick invites listeners to travel the deadly and enticing Oregon Trail. Based on actual events, This Road We Traveled will inspire the pioneer in all of us.
©2015 Jane Kirkpatrick (P)2016 Recorded Books
High in Trial
Summary
A weekend competition turns deadly in this seventh Raine Stockton Dog Mystery. Dog trainer Raine Stockton and her happy-go-lucky golden retriever, Cisco, have been looking forward to the opening weekend of AKC competitive agility all winter. They travel to the low country of South Carolina to compete against some of the top dogs in the Southeast for blue ribbons, squeaky toys, and perhaps even that elusive title of High in Trial. But even in this carefree atmosphere of high-spirited dogs and dedicated owners, ambition runs high, and when one of the competitors is found brutally murdered it begins to look as though corruption might have penetrated even this last bastion of decency and sportsmanship, the AKC. While Raine and Cisco stalk a killer, back home a 20-year-old mystery is unfolding--one that will have devastating consequences for Raine and those she loves. And every hour that passes brings a deadly threat closer.
©2013 Donna Ball (P)2015 Donna Ball