Showing results by narrator "Karen Murray" in All Categories

AstroLit is a cosmic voyage through the lives and works of literary giants from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. Renowned literary history scholars McCormick Templeman and Rachel Feder bring the twelve signs of the zodiac to glimmering life by analyzing the astrological influence of over fifty illustrious writers' sun signs on the shape and depth of their work. Each of the twelve sections focuses on a particular zodiac sign, featuring profiles of three celebrated authors, analyzing their works and lives through the prism of their astrological sign.

Eleven-year-old April Jackson loves playing the drums, almost as much as she loves her best friend, Zee, a violin prodigy. They both dream of becoming professional musicians one day. When Zee starts attending a new school that will nurture his talent, April decides it’s time for her to pursue her dreams, too, and finally take drum lessons. She knows she isn’t very good to start, but with Zee’s support, she also knows someday she can be just as good as her hero, Sheila E., and travel all around the world with a pair of drumsticks in her hand.

When an international warning siren accidentally goes off, convincing everyone that a meteor shower may just be the end of life as they know it, six couples—friends, exes, crushes and rivals—must take shelter. Inhibitions are abandoned, confessions are made and love blossoms, but what happens when the world doesn’t end?

Curtis finds love in Iraq as he struggles to stay alive in a war he doesn't want to fight, and Letha discovers her own beauty in the love of her child. There is the "good daughter" who realizes that there's only one way to help her brother and her family. Other stories center on the daily drama of the Curl-E-Que beauty shop, or capture the slapstick side of passion.

Nanette's day is not off to a good start. Her on-again, off-again relationship with Walter is off...again, and when she offers a fellow busker a place to stay for the night he ends up murdered on her kitchen floor. To make matters worse, the busker turns out to have been an undercover cop. And his former partner has taken an immediate and extreme dislike to Nanette. When she finds that the dead man stashed a wad of cash in her apartment, cash that could go to help his blind girlfriend, Nanette's desire to do the right thing lands her in trouble.

Nanette is on the rocks. Heartbroken and alone in New York, she finds what comfort she can in the bottom of a bottle. But her life seems to turn around when she's given a voodoo doll, so much so that Nanette seeks out the doll's creator, Ida, to thank her. That's when Nanette's luck seems to run out, and Ida ends up with a bullet in her head. Guilt-ridden, Nanette resolves to get justice for her new friend, only to find that Ida was hiding some dark skeletons in her closet.

When Nanette's mother calls with the news that her Aunt Vivian has gone missing, it's not exactly out of the ordinary. Vivacious and bohemian Aunt Vivian has never been one to play by the rules. This time, however, the circumstances surrounding Vivian's disappearance are rather troubling. Would Nanette be up to polishing her French language skills and flying to Paris, where she was last seen, to track her down? It's not a tough decision for Francophile Nanette.

With an unconventional Christmas setting of Egypt and written in sweet, lyrical prose, Brown Baby Jesus is sure to become a holiday classic embraced by families of all races and backgrounds.

Priscilla Joyner was born into the world of slavery in 1858 North Carolina and came of age at the dawn of emancipation. Raised by a white slaveholding woman, Joyner never knew the truth about her parentage. She grew up isolated and unsure of who she was and where she belonged—feelings that no emancipation proclamation could assuage.

Coretta Scott King is known for being the wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but she was a civil rights activist and leader in her own right! She was a singer and an author, too, and her work made a difference for Black Americans and for all women for decades to come.

Two unsung women whose power using food as a political weapon during the civil rights movement was so great it brought the ire of government agents working against them.

From the number one New York Times best-selling series comes the latest title in the Who HQ Now format for trending topics. It tells the history of a political and social movement that advocates for nonviolent civil disobedience and protests against incidents of police brutality - and all racially motivated violence - against Black people.

When Fly and Stela meet in 21st-century New York City, it seems like fate. He's a Black American musician from a mixed-religious background who knows all about heartbreak. She’s a Catholic science teacher from the Caribbean, looking for lasting love. But are they meant to be? The answer goes back decades - all the way to their parents' earliest loves.

When Oprah Winfrey was growing up, her family expected her to become a maid like her grandmother. But she had different dreams. She went after them and turned her dreams into reality, becoming a media superstar and inspiring countless other people along the way. Complete with an introduction from Chelsea Clinton!

Award-winning Black authors and artists come together to create a moving anthology collection celebrating Black love, Black creativity, Black resistance, and Black life.

When Helena Andrews heard this declaration on Saturday Night Live, her first reaction was How daaare you? But after a commercial break and some thought, she decided to poke at the stereotype that says "successful" and "bitch" are synonyms. Unafraid and frank, she comes to realize that being a bitch is sometimes the best way to be—except, of course, when it's not.

Camilla’s childhood was immersed in love and chaos, and steeped in perfection. As an adult she hasn’t looked back, refusing to acknowledge the people and places that scarred her so many years ago. But a cancer diagnosis forces Camilla to turn to the past, and all its pain, to save her daughter. As Camilla discovers the bittersweet limitations of motherhood and reconciliation, she also awakens an inspiring message about the mortality issues we all must face.

In 1994, Patagonia invited representatives from 75 grassroots nonprofit organizations to gather and learn from active experts how to be more effective at what they do. In 2016, Patagonia published Tools for Grassroots Activists, a compilation of presentations from the Tools conferences, accompanied by case studies and inspiring essays from environmental leaders. The world since then has changed in profound ways, and this new edition reflects the world we now occupy.

Listen to the sound of survival, courage, and democracy—the soundtrack of America. Hear Billie Holiday's raspy, mournful voice, and tap your foot to Louis Armstrong's trumpet. Scream with James Brown and bop your head to Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Can you spot the 80+ references to artists like Robert Johnson, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimi Hendrix, Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, and Beyonce?

When Four Stories by American Women was first published by Penguin Classics in 1990, it understandably reflected the second-wave feminist interpretations of that time—a period marked by an impressive recovery of what were then considered to be minor American writers. This updated and expanded volume, Twelve Stories by American Women edited by Arielle Zibrak, offers a more diverse selection of writers—including Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, María Cristina Mena, Zitkala-Ša, Sui Sin Far, and Barbara E. Pope.