Showing results by narrator "Jennifer Aquino" in All Categories

Fourteen-year-old Tom Röschenberg has inherited a ghost train and its members of the undead are very lively! And it's a suspenseful time for our young Ghostsitter: Vlarad the vampire has consumed too much hamster blood and has now turned into one, and Wombie the Zombie's hundredth deathday is coming right up. But the ritual for celebrating Wombie's deathday is no easy task: It requires a voodoo dagger, a magic ring, and an enchanted cauldron, and if Tom and his undead friends don't perform the ritual in time, Wombie will turn to dust.

At the beginning of February 2060, Mount Erebus erupted, the first of a chain of Antarctic volcanoes that forever changed Earth’s future. Within days, sea levels began to rise, until 60 meters of water claimed coastlines worldwide. Twelve-year-old Xin-yi and her mother fled their home, surviving among a community of rice farmers. A year later, a chance conversation with international census officials prepared her for a new life.

From the Women's March in DC to #BlackLivesMatter rallies across the country, there has been a rising wave of protests and social activism. These events have been an important part of the battle to combat racism, authoritarianism, and xenophobia in Trump's America. However, the struggle for social justice continues long after the posters and megaphones have been packed away. After the protests are heard, how can we continue to work toward lasting change?

Mainstream perceptions about what it means to be Buddhist in America often whitewash and invisibilize the diverse, inclusive, and intersectional communities that lie at the heart of American Buddhism. Be the Refuge is both critique and celebration, calling out the erasure of Asian-American Buddhists while uplifting the complexity and nuance of their authentic stories and vital, thriving communities. Drawn from in-depth interviews with a pan-ethnic, pan-Buddhist group, Be the Refuge is the first book to center young Asian-American Buddhists' own voices.

Into our trash cans go dead batteries, dirty diapers, bygone burritos, broken toys, tattered socks, eight-track cassettes, scratched CDs, banana peels.... But where do these things go next? In a country that consumes and then casts off more and more, what actually happens to the things we throw away? In Garbage Land, acclaimed science writer Elizabeth Royte leads us on the wild adventure that begins once our trash hits the bottom of the can.

Choosing Leadership gives listeners the tools to sharpen their leadership skills, putting the responsibility for personal growth and professional development in their own hands. It counters stereotypes that lead us to believe it takes a fancy title, big budget, impressive credentials, charisma, or innate leadership traits to be a "leader." Rather, leadership is a choice; you choose when to manage and when to lead. It provides an opportunity to answer tough questions of yourself, process your own life lessons, reflect on your unique experiences, and create your best future self.

Hailed as “The Paris Review of BIPOC literature,” Kweli Journal has been a launching pad for many of today’s most celebrated writers. This powerful anthology marks the journal’s 15th anniversary, showcasing 15 unforgettable stories curated by founder Laura Pegram. With a foreword from award-winning author Edwidge Danticat, the narratives included in this vivid anthology explore the devastation of leaving home and the struggle to adapt to reimagined lives, lost loves, distant families, and buried pasts.

The Minerva Sierra Challenge is a grueling spectacle, the cyborg’s Tour de France. Rich thrill seekers with corporate sponsorships, extensive support teams, and top-of-the-line exoskeletal and internal augmentations pit themselves against the elements in a daylong race across the Sierra Nevadas. Marmeg Guinto doesn’t have funding, and she doesn’t have support. She cobbled her gear together from parts she found in rich people’s garbage and spent the money her mother wanted her to use for nursing school to enter the race.

Kimmie Park has finally met a man who gets her and laughs at her jokes. Matt West is kind, compassionate, and a smoking-hot FDNY firefighter. There’s just one—okay, many—problems. They’ve never met in person because he lives in New York, and she’s in Oklahoma. He also doesn’t know that her life recently imploded when she very publicly quit her retail job and became a meme in a viral video, known as the woman who twerked as she told off her boss. And he has no idea what she really looks like.

Jana Rubio and her best friend, Maddy Parsons, have an epic senior year finale queued up: catching their favorite band at the Orchards, an outdoor music festival a two-hour drive away. When a blowup over Maddy’s time-sucking boyfriend exposes a rift that may have already been growing between them, Jana calls off their joint trip and gets a lift to the festival from her church friend Nathan…only to realize Maddy and her boyfriend are along for the ride, too.

In her first collection of poems, Ching Yeung Russell captures elements of her youth in rich, vivid snapshots and authentic detail. Listeners of all backgrounds will relate to spirited Yeung Ying, her dynamic family, and her courage in the face of life's obstacles.

Self-limiting beliefs plague us all eventually. In a noisy world that sets unreasonable expectations of how you’re supposed to live your life, it’s easy to second-guess yourself. Self-limiting beliefs come from everyday things like expectations from others, social media comparison, cultural norms, and past experiences and traumas. Whether you’re feeling like you’re not enough, struggling to let go of the past, or yearning simply to live life on your own terms (maybe even all of the above), Born Unbreakable is the roadmap to putting life’s challenges in the rearview mirror.

There's harrowing tension in being Asayi. But join Asayi's circle to oppose a punitive regime. Court intrigues swirl, underbelly characters from different levels of society emerge, deceptions reign, yet truth emerges at the end. Layers of nuance unfold: the vulnerability of an autistic young woman in a merciless time period; political unrest, physical survival, secret identities, and finding ones tribe and love while facing injustices and revolts that are just as real as todays inequities and discontents.

When it comes to the gender gap, it is not enough to ask women to "lean in" and demand promotions and raises. Organizations have an obligation to level up and provide women with more opportunities for advancement. In this book, leadership and governance expert Carol Geffner makes a strong case that for women to reach their full potential, workplaces and their leaders must take a more proactive role in combating gender discrimination.

Study Break, a collection of interconnected contemporary Young Adult short stories written by Gen Z authors, explores different parts of "the college experience," from questioning your major to questioning your identity.

Seventeen-year-old Malaya is cursed. In her family, every girl’s first love ends in death after falling for someone evil. Good thing Malaya’s dream guy isn’t monstrous. Except the curse is real and preventing Malaya from noticing how much he has gaslit and isolated her until she can’t be saved. With no other options, the sea witch is the only one to help her.