Susan Denaker has narrated 73 audiobooks on Listento.it by 65 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 906 ratings. The most-rated is Originals.
The Family
Summary
They have wielded enormous financial power and dominated world politics for more than half a century. They have been appointed to positions of great power and have been elected as governors, congressmen, senators and presidents. They have shaped our past and, with our country at war under the leadership of their number one son, they are, more critically than ever, shaping our future. As the Bush family has risen to dominance, so too they have been master orchestrators of their own public image, acting and operating under the shield of privacy their money and status have always afforded them. Until now. Number one best-selling author and investigative biographer Kitty Kelley has closely examined the lives of Jacqueline Onassis, Nancy Reagan, Frank Sinatra, and the British Royal family. Now the First Lady of unauthorized biography reckons with the first family of the United States - and the result is at once a rich and shocking history and a very human portrait of the world’s most powerful dynasty. An important work on wealth, power, and class in America, The Family is rich in texture, probing in its psychological insight, revealing in its political and financial detail, and stunning in the patterns that emerge and expose the Bush dynasty as it has never before been exposed. Ms. Kelley takes us back to the origins of the family fortune in the Ohio steel industry at the turn of the last century, through the oil deals and international business associations that have maintained and increased their wealth over the past hundred years. The book leads us through Prescott Bush’s first entrée into government at the state level in 1950s’ Connecticut, to George Herbert Walker Bush’s long and winding road to the White House, to his son’s quick sweep into the same office. Along the way, we see the complex relationships the Bushes have had with the giants of the century - Eisenhower, Nixon, Joseph McCarthy, Kissinger, Reagan, Clinton - as well as the often ruthless methods used to realize their goals. Perhaps most impressive - and surprising - is the way the book delves behind the obsessively protected public image into the family’s intimate private lives: the matriarchs, the mistresses, the marriages, the divorces, the jealousies, the hypocrisies, the golden children, and the black sheep. At a crucial point in American history, Kitty Kelley is the one person to finally tell all about the family that has, perhaps more than any other, defined our role in the modern world. This is the book the Bushes don’t want you to hear. This is The Family.
©2004 Kitty Kelley (P)2004 Books on Tape
Can't Hurry Love
Summary
From award-winning author Molly O’Keefe comes a wonderfully written contemporary romance about second chances at life and at love. Victoria Baker, the penniless widow of a disgraced financier, is ready to stand up, be counted, and make a new life for herself and her beloved son in Texas. She’s taking over Crooked Creek ranch, her birthright, and turning it into something special. All that stands in her way is Eli Turnbull, a rugged, too-handsome cowboy who wants the land just as badly. If Victoria wants a fight, Eli will give her one. He’s devoted his life to Crooked Creek, and he’s not about to let some pampered city girl - even one as brave and beautiful as Victoria - turn it into some silly spa. But Victoria’s and Eli’s burning anger and frustration only fuel heat of another kind: uncontrollable passion. And soon they each realize that the person standing in their way is the one they can never do without.
©2012 Molly O'Keefe (P)2013 Random House Audio
There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell
Summary
When her husband is offered a post at a small northwestern university, Maye Roberts is only too happy to pack up and leave the relentless Phoenix heat for the lush green quietude of Spaulding, Washington. While she loves the odd little town, there is one thing she didn't anticipate: just how heartbreaking it would be to leave her Phoenix friends behind. And when you're a childless 30-something freelance writer who works at home, making new friends can be quite a challenge. After a series of false starts nearly gets her banished from the town, Maye decides that her last chance to connect with her new neighbors is to enter the annual Sewer Pipe Queen Pageant, a kooky but dead-serious local tradition open to contestants of all ages and genders. Aided by a deranged former pageant queen with one eyebrow, Maye doesn't just make a splash; she uncovers a sinister mystery that has haunted the town for decades.
©2007 Laurie Notaro (P)2007 Books on Tape
The Bluest Blood
Summary
For English teacher Amanda Pepper, the champagne gala on behalf of Philly Prep's library is her introduction to the ultrarich Main Line society - an evening so extravagant that nothing can tarnish the party...not even a group of protesters outside burning the host in effigy. The Moral Ecologists, who vehemently claim that "reading pollutes the mind", will do anything to advance their agenda. And - when her affluent new acquaintances, Neddy and Tea Roederer, prove to be just as deceitful and violent - Amanda learns firsthand that the bluest blood bleeds just as red. Especially when it comes to murder....
©1998 Judith Greber (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Snow on the Tulips
Summary
A stranger's life hangs in the balance. But to save him is to risk everything. The war is drawing to a close, but the Nazis still occupy part of the Netherlands. After the losses she’s endured, war widow Cornelia is only a shadow of the woman she once was. She fights now to protect her younger brother, Johan, who lives in hiding. When Johan brings Gerrit Laninga, a wounded Dutch Resistance member, to Cornelia’s doorstep, their lives are forever altered. Although scared of the consequences of harboring a wanted man, Cornelia’s faith won’t let her turn him out. As she nurses Gerrit back to health, she is drawn to his fierce passion and ideals, and notices a shift within herself. Gerrit's intensity challenges her, making her want to live fully, despite the fear that constrains her. When the opportunity to join him in the Resistance presents itself, Cornelia must summon every ounce of courage imaginable. She is as terrified of loving Gerrit as she is of losing him. But as the winter landscape thaws, so too does her heart. Will she get a second chance at true love? She fears their story will end before it even begins.
©2014 Liz Tolsma (P)2014 Thomas Nelson
With Friends Like These
Summary
By the Anthony Award-winning author of I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia, another Amanda Pepper mystery. Well-known Broadway playwright and TV producer Lyle Zacharias is throwing himself a lavish birthday party in his hometown of Philadelphia. Guests include his current wife, ex-wives, friends, former partners - not to mention Amanda Pepper and her own irrepressible mother, Bea. Yet when Lyle drops dead in the middle of a speech, it appears the likely perpetrator is none other than Bea, whose gift was 50 delicious, but apparently poisoned, tarts! It's up to Amanda to clear her mother's name and find the real murderer...before he or she strikes again! But Amanda herself may be the next target! Who says teaching isn't exciting? With any more excitement, Amanda will have to retire before she hits thirty-one...if she lives that long!
©2012 Gillian Roberts (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Philly Stakes
Summary
Book two in the Amanda Pepper mystery series. Amanda Pepper, an English teacher at school for Philadelphia's filthy rich, is determined to teach the kids a lesson about the true spirit of Christmas. She intends to have them cook and serve a meal to the homeless, but unfortunately a powerful parent takes over, and the simple meal turns into a catered affair - topped off by murder. Of course, Amanda wants to solve the crime with her sometime boyfriend, cop C. K. Mackenzie. She's equally determeind to teach the the elusive killer a lesson or two, as well. From Gillian Roberts, the Anthony Award-winning author of Caught Dead in Philadelphia, I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia, With Friends Like These..., and How I Spent My Summer Vacation.
©1989 Judith Greber (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Till the End of Tom
Summary
Traditionally, Old Philadelphians keep a low profile. They associate with one another and leave life as discreetly as they have lived it. So Philly Prep English teacher Amanda Pepper, who thinks her only current problems are keeping her well-meaning family from hijacking her wedding, is understandably stunned to discover a perfect specimen of the species dying at the foot of the school’s marble staircase. It is anybody’s guess what led to Tomas Severin’s apparent fall and, indeed, why he was in the building in the first place. More questions arise when Amanda enters her otherwise empty classroom and finds a take-out cup of herbal tea laced with the party drug her students call roofies. Why would a middle-aged Philadelphian have a date-rape drug in his tea? Why does he have Amanda’s name scribbled in his pocket notebook? Hired by a member of the Severin family household, Amanda and her fiancé, C. K. Mackenzie, realize that many people felt their lives would improve if Tom’s life ended - making it seemingly impossible to determine who’d been harassing Severin with threatening phone calls. Tom Severin leaves behind angry ex-wives, one recently dropped fiancée, and the current (about to be exed) Mrs. Tomas Severin. As secrets are unearthed, and cruelties old and new revealed, it’s apparent that The End of Tom is just the beginning of the grief he caused. To thousands of adoring Amanda Pepper fans, Gillian Roberts’s new mystery offers unmitigated delight. A note to the uninitiated: There could be no better time for you to meet “the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers...giving more wit per page than most writers give per book” (Nancy Pickard).
©2004 Gillian Roberts (P)2004 Books on Tape
Strip Search
Summary
Welcome to the world of Susan Pulaski, an unconventional and unusually subversive Las Vegas police behaviorist who's already been canned once and has never been needed more. In Sin City, someone is ritually murdering handpicked victims, each with dirty secrets in their pasts. The killer's gimmick: not only does he leave behind parts of the victims' bodies, he also writes obscure mathematical formulas in their blood. Pulaski doesn't have a clue what the codes mean. But she knows someone who will. Darcy O'Bannon is a 26-year-old whose autistic savant skills are perfect for unraveling the thinking of Vegas' most savage serial killer, peering into a numerological mystery that stretches back hundreds of years. With her own life one spark away from going off the rails, her department turned against her, and the lives of those she cares most about in jeopardy, Pulaski hunts for dangerous prey in the shadow of the Strip - with herself as the perfect bait. The incomparable William Bernhardt brings to life America's most fascinating city and invites us to join one woman's fight to stay sane, stay alive, and keep a killer from making the most shocking score of all.
©2007 William Bernhardt (P)2007 Books on Tape
Make Money, Not Excuses
Summary
Get rich, don’t bitch “I don’t have time to deal with my money.” “Managing money and investing is too intimidating.” “I’m not a numbers person.” “My husband takes care of our finances.” “I’m just not good with money.” Jean Chatzky has heard all the excuses for why women don’t deal with their finances. She used to make them herself. For the first time, Jean tells you how she made every financial mistake in the book - not paying her bills, going into credit card debt, letting her 401(k) lapse - before finally making the decision to take control of her money and her future. Whether you’ve made these mistakes or you want to avoid them, if you’re ready to take charge of your financial life then this is the book for you. In it, Jean shares these valuables lessons: Where to start How to decode financial jargon (it’s easier than you think) How to get over your “I’m not smart enough to deal with money” feelings Why being a “good-enough investor” will make you more money in the long-term (while trying to be a “great investor” will drive you crazy) Why you might think you are bad at math, and why that doesn’t have to be true How (and where) to save your money Why women make better investors - and higher returns - than men Jean is famous for her ability to explain money and investing. In a clear and accessible way, she breaks down all the scariest parts of dealing with money - from investing in stocks to saving for your retirement - to make them doable, easy, and yes, even enjoyable. She also includes throughout a “Map to a Million,” great tips on easy and quick financial changes you can make immediately...that really add up! Are you ready to be rich? If you want to get rich, if you want to be wealthier than you are today, you really need to do only four things. That’s right, just four things. You need to make a decent living You need to spend less than you make You need to invest the money you don’t spend so that it can work as hard for you as you’re working for yourself And you need to protect yourself and this financial world you’ve built so that a disaster - big or small - doesn’t take it all away from you Everything else is just window-dressing. The fees - and how to avoid them. The advisors - and how to hire them. The deals. The scams. The ins. The outs. They are all interesting. Some of them are even quite important. But until you have conquered the heart of the matter, they are all minutia. The four cornerstones, by contrast, are the meat and potatoes of your financial life. If you do those things today, you’ll start getting rich tomorrow. And once you feel set financially, you’ll be able to start focusing on the truly important things in life. (From the Introduction)
©2006 Jean Chatzky (P)2006 Books on Tape
A Hole in Juan
Summary
No matter the season, the Philadelphia private school where Amanda Pepper teaches English is never a center of tranquility. But with Halloween and the annual Mischief Night party only days away, the hope is that nothing more than old-fashioned vandalism and pranks will take place. No such luck. Trouble erupts long before the witching hour, as the school is plagued by a series of mishaps ranging from the trivial to the potentially deadly - and most of which seem to center on a group of popular seniors. A fire alarm rings during a test; all the orange and black paint is stolen from the art room; the mustard packets are taken from the cafeteria. Perhaps more serious: chemicals and equipment disappear from the science lab, as does one of Amanda's exams and her attendance book. And the dapper new science instructor, Juan Reyes, receives a threatening message recalling that a teacher was once flayed to death by his students. As Amanda juggles teaching, moonlighting as a private investigator with her husband, C. K. Mackenzie, and coping with C.K.'s visiting 16-year-old high-school-dropout nephew, she tries to find out what, or who, is behind the ominous events. Before she can unmask the tricksters, the turmoil in the school increases when students rise up against the administration's censuring (and censoring) of a campus poet. Then unrest escalates into a lethally explosive menace, and Amanda receives a warning that there is more - and far worse - to come.
©2006, 2013 Judith Greber (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Off the Sidelines
Summary
Fourteen years before Kirsten Gillibrand succeeded Hillary Rodham Clinton as senator from New York, she heard her future mentor say these life-changing words: "Decisions are being made every day in Washington, and if you are not part of those decisions, you might not like what they decide, and you’ll have no one to blame but yourself." A young corporate lawyer at the time, Gillibrand felt as if she’d been struck by lightning. She instantly knew that her voice - all women’s voices - were essential to shaping the future of this country, and that she had a greater purpose in life: to speak up and effect change. Now, in this extraordinary memoir, the senator, wife, and mother of two recounts her personal journey in public service and galvanizes women to reach beyond their busy lives and make a meaningful difference in the world around them. Off the Sidelines is a playbook for women who want to step up, whether in Congress or the boardroom or the local PTA. If women were fully represented in politics, Gillibrand says, national priorities would shift to issues that directly impact them: affordable daycare, paid family medical leave, and equal pay. Pulling back the curtain on Beltway politics, she speaks candidly about her legislative successes (securing federally funded medical care for 9/11 first responders, repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell) and her crushing disappointments (failing by five votes to pass a bill protecting survivors of sexual assault in the military). Gillibrand also shares stories of growing up the daughter and granddaughter of two trailblazing feminists in a politically active family in Albany, New York, and retraces her nonlinear path to public office. In Off the Sidelines, Gillibrand is the tough-love older sister and cheerleader every woman needs. In her sharp, honest, and refreshingly relatable voice, she dares us all to tap into our inner strength, find personal fulfillment, and speak up for what we believe in.
©2014 Kirsten Gillibrand (P)2014 Random House Audio
No Time to Wave Goodbye
Summary
New York Times best-selling author Jacquelyn Mitchard captured the heart of a nation with The Deep End of the Ocean, her celebrated debut novel about mother Beth Cappadora, a child kidnapped, a family in crisis. Now, in No Time to Wave Goodbye, the unforgettable Cappadoras are in peril once again, forced to confront an unimaginable evil. It has been 22 years since Beth Cappadora's three-year-old son Ben was abducted. By some miracle, he returned nine years later, and the family began to pick up the pieces of their lives. But their peace has always been fragile: Ben returned from the deep end as another child and has never felt entirely at ease with the family he was born into. Now the Cappadora children are grown: Ben is married with a baby girl, Kerry is studying to be an opera singer, and Vincent has emerged from his troubled adolescence as a fledgling filmmaker. The subject of Vincent's new documentary, "No Time to Wave Goodbye," shakes Vincent's unsuspecting family to the core; it focuses on five families caught in the tortuous web of never knowing the fate of their abducted children. Though Beth tries to stave off the torrent of buried emotions, she is left wondering if she and her family are fated to relive the past forever. The film earns tremendous acclaim, but just as the Cappadoras are about to celebrate the culmination of Vincent's artistic success, what Beth fears the most occurs, and the Cappadoras are cast back into the past, revisiting the worst moment of their lives - with only hours to find the truth that can save a life. High in a rugged California mountain range, their rescue becomes a desperate struggle for survival. No Time to Wave Goodbye is Jacquelyn Mitchard at her best, a spellbinding novel about family loyalty, and love pushed to the limits of endurance.
©2009 Jacquelyn Mitchard (P)2009 Random House
The Fire
Summary
A quest for a mystical chess service that once belonged to Charlemagne spans two centuries and three continents, and intertwines historic and modern plots, archaeological treasure hunts, esoteric riddles, and puzzles encrypted with clues from the ancient past.
©2008 Katherine Neville (P)2008 Random House Audio
The Divorce Papers
Summary
Witty and wonderful, sparkling and sophisticated, this debut romantic comedy brilliantly tells the story of one very messy, very high-profile divorce, and the endearingly cynical young lawyer dragooned into handling it. Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm's most important client. After 18 years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant Golightly's. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their 10-year-old daughter Jane - and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she's never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can't be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It's her first divorce, too. Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn't leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a hard look at her own relationships - not only with her parents, but with colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself. Much like Where'd You Go, Bernadette, The Divorce Papers will have you laughing aloud and thanking the literature gods for this incredible, fresh new voice in fiction.
©2014 Susan Rieger (P)2014 Random House Audio
Can't Buy Me Love
Summary
In Molly O’Keefe’s captivating new contemporary romance, a woman with a past and a man without a future struggle to find a place where they belong. A girl from the wrong side of the tracks, Tara Jean Sweet knows that opportunity will never knock; she’ll have to seize it. Elderly Texas rancher Lyle Baker has a dying request: He will give Tara Jean a stake in his leather business in exchange for a little family subterfuge. All Tara Jean has to do is play the part of a gold-digging fiancée to lure Lyle’s estranged children home. The mission is soon accomplished. Now Lyle’s gone - and his ridiculously handsome son, Luc, an ice hockey superstar sidelined by injuries, is the new owner of Crooked Creek ranch. He’s also Tara Jean’s boss. But being so close to sinfully sweet Tara Jean does crazy things to Luc’s priorities, like make him want to pry her deepest secrets from those irresistible lips. But when Tara Jean’s past demands a dirty showdown, will Luc stay and fight?
©2012 Molly O'Keefe (P)2013 Random House Audio
I'd Rather Be in Philadelphia
Summary
Book three in the Anthony Award-winning mystery series featuring Amanda Pepper, the resourceful English teacher at Philly Prep. Amanda is sorting books for a school fundraiser, when she comes across a book for battered women that contains a special and frightening message from its original, anonymous owner. Desperate to learn who donated the books, Amanda's search leads her to deliberate brutality and its cold-blooded consequences.
©2012 Gillian Roberts (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Long Time Coming
Summary
In this classic tale, a woman is reunited with the man she has loved for years, and must reveal the secret that will jeopardize her chance for happiness at last. He arrived out of the blue, a flesh-and-blood phantom from the past in a sports car as sleek and sexy as Law Kincaid himself. The world-famous astronaut was as devastatingly attractive as the first time Marnie Hibbs had laid eyes on him, 17 years before. But she well knew the perils of falling for a ladies' man like Law. And this time she had someone besides herself to protect. Law is determined to discover who is sending him anonymous letters claiming he'd fathered a son he knows nothing about. Showing up at the Hibbs' return address from the letters seemed like a step in the right direction. Marnie swears she isn't the guilty party, but when Law meets her son, it's like a one-two punch to his solar plexus. The boy is nearly the spitting image of Law. Law can't remember sleeping with Marnie; then again, he can't remember much about his crazy past. But there's more to it than that: Marnie claims the boy isn't biologically hers. As the tension between them becomes unbearable and the attraction undeniable, Marnie is forced to reveal a long-held secret...one that might cause her to lose both the boy she loves more than anyone, and the man she desires more than anything.
©1988 Sandra Brown (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Rnadom House, Inc.
Wolves in Chic Clothing
Summary
In The Right Address, Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman seared through the upper crust of New York’s glitterati with wicked glee. In their delicious new novel, Wolves in Chic Clothing, they train their merciless spotlight on the young princes and princesses poised to inherit Park Avenue. Julia, a hip, downtown salesgirl at Pelham’s jewelry store, finds her social life turned on its head when she is asked to deliver a necklace to the store’s young heiress, Lell Pelham, on Lell’s wedding day. Beguiled by Julia’s earnest cluelessness and her vintage-chic vibe, Lell and her gang adopt Julia, and “Eliza Doolittle” her into passing as the heiress to a family fortune, just for a laugh. Dazed by the whirlwind of trust funds, pedigrees, Cosmopolitans, and penthouses in her new world, Julia is unprepared for the ardent advances of Lell’s husband - or the vicious claws her new “friends” develop when they decide Julia is an ingrate, and demote her from society goddess to penniless cling-on with one well-timed editorial. Suddenly, she must return the borrowed couture clothes and try to remember who she was before the body snatching took place. Hilarious and completely addictive, Wolves in Chic Clothing is a modern-day rags-to-riches-and-back-again fairy tale that will leave fans stamping their Manolo Blahniks for more.
©2005 Carrie Karasyov and Jill Kargman (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.
All's Well That Ends
Summary
Barring the usual teenage pranks, all seems peaceful at Philly Prep, the private school in Philadelphia where Amanda Pepper teaches English. No doubt the money that appears to be missing from funds collected to aid victims of a catastrophic hurricane Down South will turn up. Probably the rumor that some of Amanda’s students have discovered the thrills of gambling is totally unfounded. In any case, Amanda has other things to think about. Her husband, private investigator C. K. MacKenzie, is struggling to help his Louisiana kinfolk reconstruct their post-hurricane lives. Her friend Sasha’s stepmother has just committed suicide - although, according to Sasha, Phoebe Ennis would never have killed herself, especially not while having a drink and wearing a red silk blouse and red sandals with four-inch heels. Amanda isn’t persuaded but reluctantly agrees to help investigate the woman’s demise, though the evidence for foul play is slim. True, the middle-aged compulsive collector of knickknacks wasn’t universally loved. Phoebe’s own son hated her and she bored her friends to death with hints of her “royal” lineage. And with four marriages behind her, she was already preparing to announce her renewed availability on the Net. But when another woman is found dead in Phoebe’s house, it becomes clear that something is indeed murderously amiss, and much closer to home than Amanda or anyone else could have imagined. All’s Well That Ends is the final book in Gillian Roberts’s acclaimed Amanda Pepper series. It’s also the best, irresistibly intelligent, and richly entertaining. Amanda’s farewell adventure brings the genius of “the Dorothy Parker of mystery writers” (Nancy Pickard) into full flower, and the bloom is sweet and a wonder to behold.
©2007 Judith Greber (P)2012 Audible, Inc.