Melissa Hurst has narrated 17 audiobooks on Listento.it by 13 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 774 ratings. The most-rated is So You Want to Talk About Race.
So You Want to Talk About Race
Summary
A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that listeners of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide In So You Want to Talk About Race, editor-at-large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions listeners don't dare ask and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans. Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned and crystallize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word". A Harper's Bazaar pick of One of 10 Books to Read in 2018.
©2018 Ijeoma Oluo (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Leota's Garden
Summary
Once Leota's garden was a place of beauty - where flowers bloomed and hope thrived. It was her refuge from the deep wounds inflicted by a devastating war, her sanctuary where she knelt before a loving God and prayed for the children who couldn't understand her silent sacrifices. At 83, Leota is alone; her beloved garden is in ruins. All her efforts to reconcile with her adult children have been fruitless. She voices her despair to a loving Father, her only friend. And God brings a wind of change through unlikely means: one, a college student who thinks he has all the answers; the other, the granddaughter Leota never hoped to know. But can the devastation wrought by keeping painful family secrets be repaired before she runs out of time?
©2006 Francine Rivers (P)2013 Recorded Books
The First Love
Summary
In the summer of 1951, 18-year-old Maggie Esh is in need of some hope. Sweet-spirited and uncommonly pretty despite struggling with a debilitating illness, she is accustomed to being treated kindly by the young men of her Old Order Amish church district. Yet no one but Jimmy Beiler ever asks her out, and she always declines, certain he only pities her. To make matters worse, Dat has recently remarried, less than a year after Maggie's mother died. And while her stepmother is kind, she's much younger than Mamm, and she simply doesn't understand Maggie or her illness the way Mamm did. Strong in her faith, Maggie has been taught to accept her lot in life as God's will. But with declining health, an unsettled family situation, and few future prospects, any sense of hope seems elusive. When tent revival meetings come to the area, Maggie attends out of curiosity, but the words of the evangelist begin to stir something deep inside her. Dare she hope for a brighter future?
©2018 Beverly M. Lewis, Inc. (P)2018 Recorded Books
A Love Transformed
Summary
Widowed and penniless, with two small children, Clara Vespers returns to her uncle's ranch in Montana, the only place she has ever been happy. As she tries to find that feeling again, she encounters a suitor from her past and is soon followed by her brother-in-law, who will stop at nothing to bring her back to the family business. The riveting final story in the Sapphire Brides series. When Clara Vesper's husband, Adolph, dies suddenly, Clara is stunned - but not grief-stricken. Her marriage to Adolph had been arranged, their primary interaction revolving around the sapphire jewelry Clara designed and Adolph produced and sold. Widowed and penniless, with two small children, Clara decides to return to her aunt and uncle's ranch in Montana, the only place she has ever been happy. Curtis Billingham, injured in a sapphire mine collapse, is recuperating at the ranch of his friends, Paul and Madeline Sersland. But when the Serslands' niece returns from New York City, Curtis curses both his broken body and his broken past. Clara, the love of his life, has come back to him, but he is no longer worthy of her love. Clara's brother-in-law Otto Vesper, Adolph's business partner, fears that the loss of Clara's design skills will doom the company's prospects. Following her to Montana, Otto is prepared to do whatever it takes to get Clara to return with him to New York. As Clara fights for love and freedom, a dangerous secret in her late husband's life comes to light, threatening everyone she loves.
©2016 Peterson Ink, Inc. (P)2016 Recorded Books
A Beauty Refined
Summary
Phoebe Von Bergen is excited to accompany her father when he travels from Germany to purchase sapphires in Montana. Little does she know that her father's plans - for the gemstones and his daughter - are not what they seem. Ian Harper, a lapidary working in Helena, finds the young woman staying at the Broadwater Hotel more than a little intriguing. Yet the more he gets to know her, the more he realizes that her family story is based on a lie - a lie she has no knowledge of. And Ian believes he knows the only path that will lead her to freedom. Meeting Ian has changed everything. Phoebe is determined to stay in America, regardless of her father's plans. But she may not be prepared for the unexpected danger as the deception begins to unravel.
©2016 Peterson Ink, Inc. (P)2016 Recorded Books
The Energies of Love
Summary
In this groundbreaking audiobook, Donna Eden and David Feinstein (authors of Energy Medicine and Energy Medicine for Women) draw on the real-life experiences of couples who have attended their popular "Energies of Love" workshops, as well as their own relationship as husband and wife, to show how an understanding of your energy system and that of your partner can help you build a more harmonious and loving bond. A relationship begins with the meeting of two very different energies. This union of energies determines the ways in which you communicate, fight, love, and want to be loved. You cannot make your partner think like you or want what you want. But Energies of Love illustrates how these differences can be the foundation of a rich partnership and maintain the spark that keeps a relationship exciting.
©2014 Donna Eden and David Feinstein (P)2014 Recorded Books
Flight Patterns
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of The Sound of Glass and coauthor of The Forgotten Room tells the story of a woman coming home to the family she left behind - and to the woman she always wanted to be. Georgia Chambers has spent her life sifting through other people's pasts while trying to forget her own. But then her work as an expert on fine china - especially Limoges - requires her to return to the one place she swore she'd never revisit. It's been 13 years since Georgia left her family home on the coast of Florida, and nothing much has changed except that there are fewer oysters and more tourists. She finds solace in seeing her grandfather still toiling away in the apiary where she spent much of her childhood, but encountering her estranged mother and sister leaves her rattled. Seeing them after all this time makes Georgia realize that something has been missing - and unless she finds a way to heal these rifts, she will forever be living vicariously through other people's remnants. To embrace her own life - mistakes and all - she will have to find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past and the secrets she was forced to keep.
©2016 Harley House Books, LLC (P)2016 Recorded Books
Stray Affections
Summary
Charlene Ann Baumbich—award-winning journalist and best-selling author of the Dearest Dorothy novels—launches a series of heartwarming stories linked by the swirling flakes of one special snowglobe. In this charming tale of second chances, renewed faith, and forgiveness, a captivating heirloom triggers inexplicable changes.
©2009 Charlene Ann Baumbich (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
Finding Our Way Home
Summary
The inspirational fiction of Charlene Ann Baumbich delivers rays of hope and generous helpings of humor. Finding Our Way Home is a tale of unlikely friendship - and of the profound impact people can have on the lives of others. After principal ballerina Sasha Davis injures herself and sees her career come to an all-too-sudden end, she hopes to find some measure of solace in her Minnesota hometown. Realizing she needs more help than she’d like to admit, Sasha hires a live-in aide - and both their lives are forever changed.
©2012 Charlene Ann Baumbich (P)2012 Recorded Books
Divine Appointments
Summary
The New York Times best-selling author of the Dearest Dorothy novels, Charlene Ann Baumbich has garnered popular and critical acclaim for her pitch-perfect characterization and endearing humor. Continuing the Snowglobe Connections series she began with Stray Affections, Baumbich delivers Divine Appointments, a poignant look at life, faith, and love that’s sure to enthrall listeners everywhere.
©2010 Charlene Ann Baumbich (P)2010 Recorded Books, LLC
Hope's Highest Mountain
Summary
Ingrid Chastain readily agreed to accompany her father to deliver vaccines to a mining town in the Montana Territory. She never could have anticipated a terrible accident would leave her alone and badly injured in the wilderness. When rescue comes in the form of a mysterious mountain man who tends her injuries, she's hesitant to put her trust in this quiet man who seems to have his own wounds. Micah Bradley left his work as a doctor after unintentionally bringing home the smallpox disease that killed his wife and daughter. But his self-imposed solitude in the wilds of Montana is broken when he finds Ingrid in desperate need of medical attention, and he's forced to face his regret and call on his doctoring skills once again. Micah can't help but admire Ingrid's tenacious determination despite the severity of her injuries, until he learns the crate she brought contains smallpox vaccines to help quell a nearby outbreak. With Ingrid dead set on trekking through the mountains to deliver the medicine - with or without his help - he has no choice but to accompany her. As they set off through the treacherous, snow-covered Rocky Mountains against all odds, the journey ahead will change their lives more than they could have known.
©2019 Misty Beller (P)2019 Recorded Books
A Treasure Concealed
Summary
Best-selling Author Tracie Peterson Launches Exciting New Series Set in 1890s Montana Emily Carver wants a home where she can put down roots instead of following her gold-hungry father from one mining camp to another. She also longs for tenderness and love, both of which are missing in her life. Yet when she realizes she's losing her heart to the intriguing new man in camp, she fiercely fights her feelings, afraid that love will only result in disappointment and heartache. Caeden Thibault, a young geologist, comes to Montana to catalog minerals indigenous to the state. He's a serious and guarded young man trying to escape the pain of his past. He has avoided all romantic entanglements, fearing he might become like his abusive father. But something about Emily Carver has caught his attention, something he never expected.... Will these two broken souls allow God to bring healing and hope to their hurting hearts?
©2016 Peterson Ink, Inc. (P)2016 Recorded Books
Faith's Mountain Home
Summary
Nate Long has always watched over his identical twin brother, Aaron, even when it put him on the wrong side of the law. When Aaron is wounded in a shootout, the brothers are taken to Settler's Fort to recover. As Nate works to make reparations for their past, he marvels at the nursing Aaron receives under the care of a woman with all the reason in the world to resent him. Laura Hannon knows what it is to start over, and she knows Nate's newfound faith is real. What she can't look past is how far he allowed himself to be led astray by his brother's weaknesses. As a fledgling trust grows between Nate and Laura, they stumble upon a mysterious cave in the mountains that may not be as uninhabited as it seems. As they work together for a common cause, will the new lives they seek for themselves include love, or is there too much that stands between them?
©2021 Misty Beller (P)2021 Recorded Books
A Treasury of Miracles for Women
Summary
USA Today and New York Times best-selling author Karen Kingsbury is beloved across the nation for her moving tales of faith and redemption. In A Treasury of Miracles for Women, Kingsbury recounts uplifting true stories in which mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters are touched by God’s presence in extraordinary ways.
©2002 Karen Kingsbury (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC
Love's Mountain Quest
Summary
After losing her husband in the Rocky Mountain wilderness, young widow Joanna Watson is struggling to make a new home for her five-year-old son, Samuel, in the little mountain town of Settler's Fort. When she returns home from work to find Samuel and the woman watching him missing - and the sheriff dead - she enlists a man she prays has enough experience in this rugged country to help. Isaac Bowen wants nothing more than a quiet, invisible life in these mountains, far away from the bad decisions of his past. But he has a strong suspicion of who's behind the kidnapping and murder, and if he's right, he knows all too well the evil they're chasing. As they press on against the elements, Joanna fights to hold on to hope, while Isaac knows a reckoning is coming. They find encouragement in the tentative trust that grows between them, but whether it can withstand the danger and coming confrontation is far from certain in this wild, unpredictable land.
©2020 Misty Beller (P)2020 Recorded Books
The Testament of Harold's Wife
Summary
From award-winning author Lynne Hugo comes a witty, insightful, refreshingly unsentimental novel about one woman's unconventional path from heartbreak to hope. After losing her husband, Harold, and her beloved grandson, Cody, within the past year, Louisa has two choices. She can fade away on her Indiana family farm, where her companionship comes courtesy of her aging chickens and an argumentative cat. Or, she can concoct a plan. Louisa, a retired schoolteacher who's as smart, sassy, and irreverent as ever, isn't the fading away type. The drunk driver who killed Cody got off scot-free by lying about a deer on the road. Harold had tried to take matters into his own hands but was thwarted by Gus, the local sheriff. Now Louisa decides to take up Harold's cause, though it will mean outsmarting Gus, who's developed an unwelcome crush on her, and staying ahead of her adult son who's found solace in a money-draining cult and terrible art. Louisa's love of life is rekindled as the spring sun warms her cornfields, and she goes into action. But even the most perfect plans can go awry. A wounded buck and a teenage boy on the land she treasures help Louisa see that the enduring beauty of the natural world and the mystery of human connection are larger than revenge. And, so is justice.
©2018 Lynne Hugo (P)2018 Recorded Books
The Book of CarolSue
Summary
Award-winning author Lynne Hugo returns with a life-affirming, poignant novel in the spirit of A Man Called Ove - a story brimming with both wit and warmth about how a family gets on...and goes on. CarolSue and her sister, Louisa, are best friends, but haven't had much in common since CarolSue married Charlie, moved to Atlanta, and swapped shoes covered with Indiana farm dust and chicken poop for fresh pedicures and afternoon bridge. Louisa, meanwhile, loves her farm and animals as deeply as she'd loved Harold, her late husband of 40 years. Charlie's sudden death leaves CarolSue so adrift that she surrenders to Louisa's plan for her to move back home. But canning vegetables and feeding chickens are alien to CarolSue, and after stumbling onto a secret Louisa's been keeping from her, CarolSue resolves to return to Atlanta - until Louisa's son, Reverend Gary, arrives with an abandoned infant and a dubious story. He begs the women to look after the baby while he locates the mother - a young immigrant who fears deportation. Keeping his own secrets, Gary enlists the aid of the sheriff, Gus, in the search. But CarolSue's bond with the baby is undeniable, and she forms an unconventional secret plan of her own. Only Gary knows about the outsider with the power to explode their lives. How many mistakes can be redeemed?
©2020 Lynne Hugo (P)2020 Recorded Books