Laural Merlington has narrated 292 audiobooks on Listento.it by 176 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.4★ across 3,316 ratings. The most-rated is Scythe.
Seeds of Revenge
Summary
Megan Sawyer is determined to farm year-round. She's braving a December snowstorm after pitching her greenhouse greens to Philadelphia chefs when she sees a stranger stranded on the side of the road. It's Merry Chance's niece Becca, and she's headed to Winsome to sell her love potions at holiday events - or so she thinks. Merry has an ulterior motive in inviting her niece to Winsome, but her plan to reunite Becca with her estranged father goes awry when Becca's father turns up dead. Megan soon realizes that Becca was not the only person in Winsome who despised her father. When Megan's aunt, the famous mystery author, is implicated by her novels, things become personal. Megan must follow the literary rules while sifting through the victim's sordid past, but can she uncover the truth before someone else in Winsome is murdered?
©2017 Wendy Tyson (P)2017 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Hanukkah Bear
Summary
A bear wakes to wonderful smells that lead him to the house of Bubba Brayna. Bubba Brayna makes the best latkes in the village, but at 97, she doesn't hear or see well. When the bear arrives at her door, she believes he is her rabbi. Bubba Brayna and the bear light the menorah, play the dreidel game, and eat all the latkes. The mix-up is revealed, Bubba Brayna has a laugh about it, and everyone works together to make more latkes.
©2013 Eric A. Kimmel (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Obstruction of Justice
Summary
Two people have died in macabre accidents, one struck by lightning on Tahoe's highest mountain and one mowed down by a hit-and-run driver. In the middle of a controversial procedure to exhume one of the bodies, powerful businessman Quentin de Beers is killed. Charged with murder, Quentin's angry grandson won't talk, even to Nina Reilly, his defense attorney.
To save her client, Nina must expose the truth about his troubled family and untangle the hidden connections that link all three deaths. As the trial draws to an end, both the D. A. and Nina will make a harrowing decision to obstruct justice in order to prevent a terrible injustice.
©1998 Perri O'Shaughnessy (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Dawn Light
Summary
In an eye-opening sequence of personal meditations through the cycle of seasons, Diane Ackerman awakens us to the world at dawn---drawing on sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, poetry, organic farming, and beekeeping. As a patient and learned observer of animal and human physiology and behavior, she introduces us to varieties of bird music and other signs of avian intelligence, while she herself "migrates" from winter in Florida to spring, summer, and fall in upstate New York. Humans might luxuriate in the idea of being "in" nature, Ackerman points out, but we often forget that we are nature---for "no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams." Joining science's devotion to detail with religion's appreciation of the sublime, Dawn Light is an impassioned celebration of the miracles of evolution---especially human consciousness of our numbered days on a turning earth.
©2009 Diane Ackerman (P)2009 Tantor
Still River
Summary
The riddle of enigma... Years of exacting study were coming to an end. All five student scientists, each the best its species had to offer, were one step away from their final degrees. One examination remained: The students were to determine why the tiny planet of Enigma, a planet with so little mass that it should never have had an atmosphere, in fact it did. Everything seemed to be running smoothly until the only human member of the team, Molly was accidentally blown into one of the deep fissures that pocked the planet's surface. She found herself trapped in a series of tunnels and caves that only led her deeper into the riddle that was at the heart of Enigma. But as her concerned companions followed her, they found Enigma's most puzzling anomaly. For in the dark passages they discovered life - life which couldn't possibly exist.
©1987 Hal Clement (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Fast and Loose
Summary
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels comes a new, action-packed novel.
The Sisterhood: a group of women bound by friendship and a quest for justice. Now their male allies, the Men of the Sisterhood, have formed a top-secret organization of their own, with the same goal of helping the helpless and righting the wrongs of the world....
With the women of the Sisterhood away on a covert assignment, their significant others could be expected to kick back and enjoy a little drama-free downtime. But that's not the way Jack, Ted, Harry, Charles, and the rest of their comrades roll. An urgent call has come to the headquarters of their organization, BOLO Consultants. Bert Navarro, head of security for Countess Anna de Silva, suspects that Annie's deluxe casino, Babylon, is being stealthily and expertly robbed. But figuring out who's hacking into Babylon's security system proves more difficult than expected - and may have implications for one of BOLO's own. The security expert working for them has unlocked one hard fact - that there are more than enough suspects to investigate. But the men of BOLO will do what it takes to prove that, even in Vegas, there's no gambling with justice....
©2016 Fern Michaels (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
No One Is Here Except All of Us
Summary
In 1939, the families in a remote Jewish village in Romania feel the war close in on them. Their tribe has moved and escaped for thousands of years, but now, there is nowhere else to go. At the suggestion of an 11-year-old girl and a mysterious stranger who has washed up on the riverbank, the villagers decide to reinvent the world: deny any relationship with the known and start over from scratch. And for years, there is boundless hope. But the real world continues to unfold alongside the imagined one, and soon our narrator - the girl, grown into a young mother—must flee her village to find her husband and save her children - and propel them toward a real and hopeful future.
©2012 Ramona Ausubel (P)2012 Dreamscape Media
Animal Crackers
Summary
With bravura storytelling, daring imagination, and fierce narrative control, this dazzling debut introduces that rare writer who finds humanity in our most unconventional behavior, and the humor beneath our darkest impulses.In these strange, funny, and unnerving stories, animals become the litmus test of our deepest fears and longings. In the title story, an elephant keeper courts danger from his gentle charge; in "Miss Waldron's Red Colobus," a headstrong young woman in Africa is lured by the freedom of the monkeys in the trees; in "Talk Turkey," a boy has secret conversations with the turkeys on his friend's family's farm; in "Slim's Last Ride," a child plays chilling games with his pet rabbit; in "Gallus Gallus," a pompous husband projects his anger at his wife onto her prized rooster.This fresh, inventive debut will introduce Hannah Tinti as one of the most gifted writers of her generation. Enter her world at your own risk, and you will come away bewitched.
©2005 Hannah Tinti (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
The Way I See It
Summary
As many as 1.5 million children and adults in the U.S. have autism. The lifetime cost of caring for a child with autism ranges from $3.5 to $5 million. Our children - our future - are at stake. The world needs to listen to what Temple Grandin has to say. In this innovative audiobook, Dr. Temple Grandin gets down to the REAL issues of autism, the ones parents, teachers, and individuals on the spectrum face every day. Temple offers helpful do's and don'ts, practical strategies, and try-it-now tips, all based on her "insider" perspective and a great deal of research. These are just some of the specific topics Temple delves into: How and Why People with Autism Think Differently Economical Early Intervention Programs that Work How Sensory Sensitivities Affect Learning Behaviors Caused by a Disability vs. Just Bad Behaviors Teaching People with Autism to Live in an Unpredictable World Alternative Medicine vs. Conventional Medicine Employment Ideas for Adults with Autism This revised and expanded edition contains revisions based on the most current autism research, as well as 14 additional articles including "The Role of Genetics and Environmental Factors in Causing Autism", "Understanding the Mind of a Nonverbal Person with Autism", "Finding Mentors and Appropriate Colleges", and many more!
©2013 Temple Grandin (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Breach of Promise
Summary
At glitzy Lake Tahoe, couples break up every day, but none quite so glamorous or successful as Lindy and Mike Markov. The scenario starts off in the standard way: Mike's met a younger woman and wants out. The problem? Mike and Lindy built a $200-million business together and Mike claims he doesn't owe Lindy a dime since they never married.
Ready to fight, Lindy hires Nina Reilly to represent her in her palimony suit, and lacking the resources to handle a case with stakes so high, Nina turns to an expert litigator in palimony law who insists on hiring a jury consultant. The case is hardly open-and-shut, and complicating things further, a carefully chosen juror winds up dead. With a host of possible suspects and the biggest case of her career hanging in the balance, the pressure's on Nina to find the killer, win the case, and save the day.
©1999 Perri O'Shaughnessy (P)2007 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Nobody's Child
Summary
A powerful and humane exploration of the history of the "insanity defense", through the story of one poignant case. When a three-year-old child was found with a head wound and other injuries, it looked like an open-and-shut case of second-degree murder. Psychologist and Attorney Susan Vinocour agreed to evaluate the defendant, the child's mentally ill and impoverished grandmother, to determine whether she was competent to stand trial. Even if she had caused the child's death, had she realized at the time that her actions were wrong, or was she legally "insane"? What followed was anything but an open-and-shut case. Nobody's Child traces the legal definition of "insanity" back to its inception in Victorian Britain nearly 200 years ago, from when our understanding of the human mind was in its infancy, to today, when questions of race, class, and ability so often determine who is legally "insane" and who is criminally guilty. Vinocour explains how "competency" and "insanity" are creatures of a legal system, not of psychiatric reality, and how, in criminal law, the insanity defense has too often been a luxury of the rich and white.
©2020 Susan Vinocour (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
A Walk on the Beach
Summary
Shortly after arriving on Cape Cod to spend a year by herself, Joan Anderson’s chance encounter with a wise, playful, and astonishing woman helped her usher in the transformations and self-discoveries that led to her ongoing renewal. First glimpsed as a slender figure on a fogged-in beach, Joan Erikson was not only a friend and confidante when one was most needed, but also a guide as Anderson stretched and grew into her unfinished self. Joan Erikson was perhaps best known for her collaboration with her husband, Erik, a pioneering psychoanalyst and noted author. After Erik’s death, she wrote several books extending their theory of the stages of life to reflect her understanding of aging as she neared ninety-five. But her wisdom was best taught through their friendship; as she sat with Anderson, weaving tapestries of their lives with brightly colored yarn and exploring the strength gathered from their accumulated experiences, Joan Erikson’s lessons took shape on their small cardboard looms as well as in her friend’s revitalized life. In writing about their extraordinary friendship, Anderson reveals a need she didn’t know she had: for a mentor to help navigate the transitions she faced as she grew beyond middle age. And when Joan Erikson had to face her husband’s death and the growing limitations of her own body, Anderson was able to give back some of the wisdom she had gleaned. To this poignant and ultimately joyful account, Joan Anderson brings the candor and sensitivity that have made her an acclaimed speaker and writer on midlife and its possibilities. A Walk on the Beach is an experience to savor and treasure, a glimpse of the exuberant spirit that can be sustained and passed on in all our friendships.
©2004 Joan Anderson (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Little Pink Slips
Summary
After the towering stilettos of The Devil Wears Prada comes a biting, mordantly funny debut novel about the extremely unladylike business of publishing a very ladylike magazine. Once there was a little girl from Fargo, North Dakota, named Maggie Goldfarb who grew up, moved to Manhattan, and morphed into Magnolia Gold, the highly paid editor in chief of Lady magazine. With a corner office, a designer wardrobe, and dozens of loyal employees, Magnolia has been hired to update the dowager of women's magazines. She's on her way to giving Lady a face-lift when she is ignominiously replaced by Bebe Blake, a brash television personality who remakes the magazine in her own hilariously inappropriate image. With her ketchup-red hair, skintight clothes, and penchant for "boy toys", Bebe is more out of control than a speeding limo. Maddeningly unpredictable, she confounds everyone at the newly christened Bebe with her personal vision of what a women's magazine should be, and baffles them further with her bawdy sense of humor and over-the-top generosity. Shunted off to the darkest corners of executive purgatory - an overlooked back office she shares with a cockroach or two - Magnolia seethes from the sidelines as Bebe turns her beloved, once-profitable Lady into a sideshow. As things go from bad to worse, Magnolia fears that her career will never recover, but even she can't predict how deeply satisfying her eventual triumph will be. And not just at work: amidst the frenzy of backstabbing at the office, Magnolia finds Mr. Right in a city of Mr. Not-Quites. Inspired by real-life events, Little Pink Slips is about the fall, rise, and sweet revenge of a woman who witnesses corporate shenanigans at their most flagrant. Filled with gossipy revelations about celebrity obsession and behind-the-scenes details of the media business in all its malfeasant glory, this novel is delicious, can't-stop-reading fun.
©2007 Sally Koslow (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.
To the Ends of the Earth
Summary
Photographer Cat Cochran has been to exotic places most people only dream about, but all she wants to do is settle down and get her life in order. One last assignment and she can put her past behind her. But first she must photograph the mysterious and elusive ship designer T.H. Danvers and his awesome creations. Travis Danvers is dangerous - a millionaire with an athlete's body; an enigmatic charmer capable of breaking down Cat's well-constructed defenses with a buccaneer's arrogance and flourish. She knows she must resist him, for experience has taught her that pain is the eventual price of pleasure to be found in the arms of such a man. But caught in the waves of a sensual sea, Cat hears a siren whisper seductively, telling her to abandon all caution; to ride with Travis on the winds of forever.
©1998 Elizabeth Lowell (P)2008 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Digging Up the Remains
Summary
Between hosting a haunted house on her lawn, serving on the town’s 400th Anniversary Planning Committee, and prepping for the Fall Festival’s 10k fundraiser, Lilly has her hands full. She doesn’t have time for prickly newspaper reporter Tyler Crane, who’s been creeping around town, looking for dirt on Goosebush’s most notable families...until he’s found dead on the race route moments before the start. An unfortunate accident? Or did Tyler unearth a secret that someone in Goosebush is willing to kill to keep? By planting nasty rumors and cultivating fear, Tyler sowed a fair share of ill will during his brief time in town. Weeding through the suspects will be thorny, but Lilly and her Garden Squad are determined to root out the autumnal assassin before the Fall Festival flops.
©2020 Julia Henry (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Belonging
Summary
In the high-desert town of Frenchman's Bluff, Idaho, Felicia Kristoffersen has set out to create a future for herself that is better than her painful past. Alone in the world with only her faith to sustain her, she must prove herself as this tiny community's new school teacher. She cannot, must not, fail. But, there are those who never wanted her there to begin with. Five years after the death of his wife, local merchant Colin Murphy cares about just one thing: raising his daughter, Charity. Colin wants to give her the educational advantages he never had. The new schoolmarm's inexperience doesn't sit well with him, and if this teacher up and marries like the last one did, Charity's heart will be broken once again. A woman who hasn't known love. A man who lost the love he had. In the midst of the wide, sage-covered plains, each is about to discover that life's bitterest circumstances truly can work together for good.
©2011 Robin Lee Hatcher (P)2011 Zondervan
Jubilee
Summary
Jubilee lives with her beloved aunt Cora and her faithful dog on a beautiful island. Years ago, when her mother left, Jubilee stopped talking. Now she communicates entirely through gestures, taps, and by drawing cartoons, speaking only when she's alone - or with Dog. This year, Jubilee faces a big change - leaving her small, special classroom for a regular fifth grade class. She likes her new teacher, and finds a maybe-friend in a boy named Mason. But Jubilee's wandering feet won't stop until they find her mother. And now, she discovers that her mother has moved back to the mainland, nearby. If Jubilee finds her, will her mother's love be what she needs to speak again?
©2016 Patricia Reilly Giff (P)2016 Dreamscape Media, LLC
The Spare Wife
Summary
Ponce Morris is a beautiful, rich widow who's been dubbed "the spare wife" because she's the perfect companion to the wealthy, powerful couples she socializes with. She'll go to sports events with the husbands, throw elegant dinner parties, and shop with the wives. She's cool and nonthreatening because the two things everyone knows for sure are that Ponce doesn't like sex and doesn't have a romantic bone in her body.Over the years, she has managed other people's lives - and her own - perfectly. Ponce has everything under control, exactly the way she likes it. Until....Babette Steele, an ambitious aspiring journalist, finds out that Ponce is having an affair with a socially prominent and very married man and decides to break the scandal in a juicy magazine piece. For Ponce's circle, day-to-day existence quickly becomes a complicated game of social and professional chicken - whoever outsmarts and outmanipulates the other will win.There is a lot at stake, not only for Ponce but for her friends, all of whom are in the midst of crises of their own: a philandering novelist who hasn't been able to write since his breakout Wall Street best seller; an aging billionaire who can't seem to resist young women (the younger the better); a legendary news-show producer on the decline; an old-time politico looking to rebound from his wife's death; and an editor at a glitzy magazine that covers the worlds of politics, fashion, and Hollywood.As Ponce's life threatens to come apart at the seams, the author takes us into a world she knows intimately: a dynamic Manhattan filled with opinion makers and social fakers.
©2008 Alex Witchel (P)2008 Brilliance Audio
Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers
Summary
Baby boomers retiring: American baby boomers are aging, and 15 million of them never had children. Who will take care of them? Unprecedented in US history, this demographic will create challenges for these individuals, as well as for society. Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers is a passionate exploration of the path ahead for "Solo Agers". Solo Agers aging well: In Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers, Sara Zeff Geber coins the term "Solo Ager" to refer to the segment of society that either does not have adult children or is single and believes they will be on their own as they grow older. However, it's not just the Solo Ager that can learn from this book. Financial advisors, elder law and estate attorneys, senior care managers, and others whose clientele is on the far side of 60 will benefit as well. Retirement and good living: With a compelling and accessible style, Gerber takes listeners on a journey, starting with the choice for childlessness and why so many boomers were able to make that decision. She then reviews the role of adult children in an aging parent's world and suggests ways in which Solo Agers can mitigate the absence of adult children by relationship-building and rigorous planning for their future.
©2018 Sara Zeff Geber (P)2019 Tantor
Little Women
Summary
Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of this, Louisa May Alcott's most popular and enduring novel. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy - united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.
©1868 Public Domain (P)2007 Alpha DVD LLC