Xe Sands has narrated 231 audiobooks on Listento.it by 179 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 3,703 ratings. The most-rated is Silent Child.
Off the Wild Coast of Brittany
Summary
An unforgettable story of resilience and resistance set during WWII and present-day France on a secluded island off the coast of Brittany Natalie Morgen made a name for herself with a memoir about overcoming her harsh childhood after finding a new life in Paris. After falling in love with a classically trained chef, they moved together to his ancestral home, a tiny fishing village off the coast of Brittany. But then Francois-Xavier breaks things off with her without warning, leaving her flat broke and in the middle of renovating the guesthouse they planned to open for business. Natalie's already struggling when her sister, Alex, shows up unannounced. The sisters form an unlikely partnership to save the guesthouse, reluctantly admitting their secrets to each other as they begin to heal the scars of their shared past. But the property harbors hidden stories of its own. During World War II, every man of fighting age on the island fled to England to join the Free French forces. The women and children were left on their own...until 300 German troops took up residence, living side-by-side with the French women on the tiny island for the next several years. When Natalie and Alex unearth an old cookbook in a hidden cupboard, they find handwritten recipes that reveal old secrets. With the help of locals, the Morgen sisters begin to unravel the relationship between Violette, a young islander whose family ran the guesthouse during WWII, and Rainier, a German military customs official with a devastating secret of his own.
©2021 Juliet Blackwell (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Amphibians
Summary
Amphibians invites further contemplation of female physicality - what it means to reside in a female form. An amphibious aircraft crashes in Maine, a young girl skinny-dips with her elders, a distraught cruise ship dancer boards a water taxi in Grenada, and travelers to Dubai and Abu Dhabi long for familiar oceans; back in New England, small-town artists try to smudge out their tedium with seaside transgressions. Amphibians celebrates home in a cross-cultural way, and the sensation of feeling not quite right in one's own skin, on land and near water, at home and abroad.
©2021 Lara Tupper (P)2021 Tantor
The Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus
Summary
One of "the best writers of our time" (Ann Patchett) offers this hilarious yet haunting cycle of stories. John Irving writes of Allan Gurganus: "His narration becomes a Greek chorus, Sophocles in North Carolina." Since the explosive publication of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All decades back, Gurganus has dazzled audiences as "the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation" (John Cheever). These 10 classic tales attest to the growing depth of his genius. Offering characters antic and tragic, Gurganus charts the human condition as we live it now. His parables recall William Faulkner's scope and Flannery O'Connor's corrosive wit. We encounter a seaside couple fighting to save their dog from Maine's fierce undertow; a mortician whose dedication to his departed clients exceeds all legal limits. A virginal 78-year-old grammar-school librarian has her only erotic encounter with a Joe Exotic-like polyamorous snake farmer. In the lead-off story, already excerpted in The New Yorker, cholera strikes a rural village in 1850 and citizens blame their doomed young doctor, who saved hundreds. A sublime ventriloquist, Gurganus again proves himself among our wisest writers.
©2021 Allan Gurganus (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Radicalization to Terrorism
Summary
Terrorism and radicalization came to the forefront of news and politics in the US after the unforgettable attacks of September 11th, 2001. When George W. Bush famously asked "Why do they hate us?," the President echoed the confusion, anger and fear felt by millions of Americans, while also creating a politicized discourse that has come to characterize and obscure discussions of both phenomena in the media. Since then the American public has lived through a number of domestic attacks and threats, and watched international terrorist attacks from afar on television sets and computer screens. The anxiety and misinformation surrounding terrorism and radicalization are perhaps best detected in questions that have continued to recur in the last decade: "Are terrorists crazy?"; "Is there a profile of individuals likely to become terrorists?"; "Is it possible to prevent radicalization to terrorism?" Fortunately, in the two decades since 9/11, a significant body of research has emerged that can help provide definitive answers. As experts in the psychology of radicalization, Sophia Moskalenko and Clark McCauley propose 12 mechanisms that can move individuals, groups, and mass publics from political indifference to sympathy and support for terrorist violence.
©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Tantor
Ham
Summary
Three years ago, Ham retired to a quiet life in the remote desert of Northern Mexico. Realizing what she was doing would likely end in her death, she severed all ties, disappearing across international borders. Her retirement ended abruptly with a single message. The sole person in the world Ham feels the least bit of loyalty to is in trouble, in need not only of Ham but of the very skills that put her into hiding. Acting against every ingrained maxim, and ignoring the myriad warning signs popping up along the way, Ham returns north to find a great deal has changed in her time away. The world moved on, evolving in ways she would have never imagined. From local gang affiliates to the Los Angeles Police Department, everybody seems to be involved in something, all of it somehow leading back to a woman. A woman relying entirely on Ham to get her through....
©2018 Dustin Stevens (P)2019 Tantor
The Heart's Bidding
Summary
The Heart's Bidding, a slice-of-life family drama with a touch of gentle romance. Kaylee Heart would rather run through a roaring fire than endure even a minute of public speaking. Put in an 80-hour work week? No problem. Shut down her grandfather’s gold-digging girlfriend? Easy peasy. Stand in front of an auction crowd and call for bids? Show her the exit. So she has no idea how Gerald, the golden-voiced auctioneer she’s been crushing on at the local auction house, can find the courage to stand on stage every week, with all those eyes on him. But as cruel fate would have it, she is about to find out. Her family antique shop, the Vintage at Heart, has tripped over one financial hurdle too many and Kay is propelled, full speed, into her biggest phobia — the spotlight. With terror chasing her, she’ll have to fight to keep the family business from closing forever. Even if the battle takes place in front of a live crowd....
©2020 Bernie Mark Miller (P)2020 Bernie Mark Miller
Confessions of a Secret Admirer
Summary
Some secrets are meant to be revealed...or so you'll discover in three sexy, unforgettable Valentine's Day stories from New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Jennifer Ryan and contemporary romance stars Candis Terry and Jennifer Seasons. "Waiting for You" by Jennifer Ryan Rancher Grant Devane has waited for Taylor Larson's return to Fallbrook for more than 10 years. Now that the fearless beauty has come home on her terms, he'll do anything and everything necessary to win back her heart. "Sweet Fortune" by Candis Terry Sarah Randall is tired of being invisible to the opposite sex. So when a leap of faith sends her to Sweet, Texas, and into the path of ridiculously hot deputy Brady Bennett, she's determined to catch his eye...even if it means staying hidden just a little bit longer. "Major League Crush" by Jennifer Seasons Professional baseball player Drake Paulson can't help wanting to know more about his cute, shy neighbor. But when he discovers her deepest secret and she flees, it'll be up to him to win her trust - and her love - one gift at a time.
©2014 Jennifer Ryan, Candis, Terry, Candice Wakoff (P)2015 HarperCollins Publishers
Hieroglyphics
Summary
Lil and Frank married young, launched into courtship when they bonded over how they both - suddenly, tragically - lost a parent when they were children. Over time, their marriage grew and strengthened, with each still wishing for so much more understanding of the parents they’d lost prematurely. Now, after many years in Boston, they have retired in North Carolina. There, Lil, determined to leave a history for their children, sifts through letters and notes and diary entries - perhaps revealing more secrets than Frank wants their children to know. Meanwhile, Frank has become obsessed with what might have been left behind at the house he lived in as a boy on the outskirts of town, where a young single mother, Shelley, is just trying to raise her son with some sense of normalcy. Frank’s repeated visits to Shelley’s house begin to trigger memories of her own family, memories that she’d rather forget. Because, after all, not all parents are ones you wish to remember. Hieroglyphics reveals the difficulty of ever really knowing the intentions and dreams and secrets of the people who raised you. In her deeply layered and masterful novel, Jill McCorkle deconstructs and reconstructs what it means to be a father or a mother, and what it means to be a child piecing together the world all around us, a child learning to make sense of the hieroglyphics of history and memory.
©2020 Jill McCorkle (P)2020 Recorded Books
The Other Mothers
Summary
A story of fertility, feminism, and family. Jenn Berney was one of those people who knew she was destined for motherhood - it wasn't a question of if, but when. So when she and her wife, Kelly, decided to start building their family, they took the next logical step: They went to a fertility clinic. But they soon found themselves entrenched in a medical establishment that didn't know what to do with people like them. With no man factoring into their relationship, doctors were at best embarrassed and at worst disparaging of the couple. Soon Jenn found herself stepping outside of the system determined to disregard her. Looking into the history of fertility and the LGBTQ+ community, she saw echoes of her own struggle. For decades queer people have defied the patriarchy and redefined the nuclear family - and Jenn was walking in their footsteps. Through the ups and downs of her own journey, Jenn reflects on a turbulent past that has led her to this point and a bright future worth fighting for. With clarity, determination, and hope, The Other Mothers gives us a wonderful glimpse into the many ways we can become family.
©2021 Jennifer Berney (P)2021 Tantor
Survival Lessons
Summary
Fifteen years ago, Alice Hoffman received a diagnosis that changed everything about the life she'd been living. Most significant - aside from the grueling physical ordeal she underwent - was the way it changed how she felt inside and what she thought she ought to be doing with her days. Now she has written the book that she needed to read then. In this honest, wise, and upbeat guide, Alice Hoffman provides a road map for the making of one's life into the very best it can be. As she says, "In many ways I wrote this book to remind myself of the beauty of life, something that's all too easy to overlook during the crisis of illness or loss. There were many times when I forgot about roses and starry nights. I forgot that our lives are made up of equal parts sorrow and joy, and that it's impossible to have one without the other…I wrote to remind myself that in the darkest hour the roses still bloom, the stars still come out at night. And to remind myself that, despite everything that was happening to me, there were still some choices I could make."
©2013 Alice Hoffman. Recorded by arrangement with Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, a division of Workman Publishing Company, Inc. (P)2013 HighBridge Company
Hacking
Summary
Learn to hack! Below are sample topics covered in this audiobook: Hacking into computers and smartphones Ethical hacking Scanning your systems Pinpointing specific vulnerabilities The best tools for each kind of hacking Cracking encryption Flaws in websites and applications Attacking with frameworks Penetration testing Linux Step-by-step commands to perform Phishing Advantages and disadvantages of WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc. Other wireless hacking resources And various other subjects related to hacking If you really want to learn more about hacking, then this audiobook will definitely provide you with detailed information as well as other resources you can learn from.
©2018 Abraham K White (P)2018 Abraham K White