Showing results by narrator "Julie McKay" in All Categories

Dori, at age 17, participates in a hate crime against a gay boy from her school and runs away to escape prosecution - and her own harrowing childhood. In her pocket, she carries the address of an older, half-sister she’s never met. She has no idea that her sister Teresa is married to another woman. When Dori and Teresa finally meet, they’re forced to confront that, while they don’t like or really even understand one another, they are inextricably bound together in ways that transcend their differences.

Since the age of 12, McKenzie Arnold has spent every summer at Albany Beach, Delaware, with her best friends, Aurora, Janine, and Lilly. The seaside house teems with 30 years of memories - some wonderful, others painful - and secrets never divulged beyond its walls. This summer may be the last they spend together, as Janine contemplates selling her family cottage.

Lambda Award and American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award-winning author Dorothy Allison is known for her bold and insightful writing on issues of class and sexuality. In Skin, she approaches these topics through 23 impassioned essays that explore her identity - from her childhood in a poor family in South Carolina to her adult life as a lesbian in the suburbs of New York - and her sexuality.

Bastard Out of Carolina, nominated for the 1992 National Book Award for fiction, introduced Dorothy Allison as one of the most passionate and gifted writers of her generation. Now, in Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, she takes a probing look at her family's history to give us a lyrical, complex memoir that explores how the gossip of one generation can become legends for the next.

First published in 1988, the award-winning Trash showcases Allison at her most fearlessly honest and startlingly vivid. The limitless scope of human emotion and experience are depicted in stories that give aching and eloquent voice to the terrible wounds we inflict on those closest to us. These are tales of loss and redemption; of shame and forgiveness; of love and abuse; and the healing power of storytelling.

Writer Halley Brennan couldn't dream up a better love story than her own. Married for eleven years, she and her husband, Adam, are still living their happily ever after. They both know what they want - and don't want - for their life together. And that includes being child-free. But when one of them has a change of heart about wanting a baby, it brings their marriage and life plans into harsher focus. Devastated that this bombshell might destroy their relationship, Halley finds comfort in her closest friends.

Less than 48 hours. That's how long Florence W. Aldridge has to live. Every event in a person's life is connected. The state of our lives, at any given time, is the sum of everything we have done and everywhere we have been. Our next decision determines, not merely where our lives end, but who we become along the way. How far can one lost woman go to redeem herself by the time the clock stops ticking? These are the final moments of Florence W. Aldridge....

Sassy has never been so dangerous. Question: What do you get when you take a witty housewife with deep, dark secrets and coop her up in a house with a frustratingly demonic dishwasher and a professional killer who just happens to look like The Gladiator? Answer: You get a thrilling tour de force of unexpected action that's peppered throughout with comedic beats and seriously dark undertones. From opening paragraph all the way to the very end, Error Code is a non-stop romp.

Americans are disgusted with watching politicians screaming and yelling at one another on television. But does all the noise really make a difference? Drawing on numerous studies, Diana Mutz provides the first comprehensive look at the consequences of in-your-face politics. Her book contradicts the conventional wisdom by documenting both the benefits and the drawbacks of in-your-face media.

Cassie Blake seems to lead a charmed life as the heiress to Fenton's, San Francisco's most exclusive department store. But when she discovers her husband Aidan, a handsome UC Berkeley professor, has had an affair with a student, she flees to the comfort of her best friend Alexis' Presidio Heights mansion, where she wonders if she should give their marriage one more chance.

In the beautiful, barren landscape of the Far North, under the ever-present midnight sun, Frances and Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other. Their lives have been upended - Frances has fled heartbreak and claustrophobic Manhattan for an isolated artist colony; Yasha arrives from Brooklyn to fulfill his beloved father's last wish: to be buried "at the top of the world. They have come to learn how to be alone.

When small-town girl Kennie Sue Ledbetter wakes up in a Reno hotel between two guys in rumpled tuxedos, she thinks things can't get any worse. When she steps on the wedding bouquet and sees the ring on her finger, she knows things can't get any worse. But then she finds out she's married to the guy who won her in a coin-toss in front of the wedding chapel, and "worse" has a name and a face: Alexander Carruthers, the gorgeous silver-tongued devil who believes in love at first sight, in fate, and in doing whatever it takes to keep her.

Alex Cassidy's parents always said they'd move heaven and earth to ensure she married well. And this time, they did! After all, Alex was turning thirty and still had no husband - that was a combination they just could not live with. The day she turned 3-0, Alex woke to find, at the foot of her bed, looking dapper and doting, the ghosts of her parents. Most ghosts were fleeting apparitions, but Alex's ghosts were here to stay... at least until they delivered her birthday present - Mr. Right!

It was all planned. A weekend away at an exclusive hotel in the Hollywood Hills where vampire PI Nick planned to have some alone time with his hexy honey, Jazz. have some alone time with his hexy honey, Jazz. Except Stonegate Manor isn’t what it appears to be. Jazz isn’t impressed. The hotel doesn’t boast spa facilities that seriously upset magick bunny slippers Fluff and Puff. A celebutante psychic is seriously ticking her off. Not to mention the old-fashioned bellhop is a zombie.

Suffering from Peter Pan Syndrome and survivor guilt, Navy Seahawk pilot and playboy, Brian “Skylark” Crawford, swears he’ll never settle down, unsure he deserves the happiness promised by marriage - besides, there’s too many hot chicks out there. War widow and veterinarian, Daisy Schneider, swears to love only animals after her Marine pilot husband is killed in Afghanistan. Although she fills her life with work, it fails to put a dent in her loneliness - or the guilt that she might have saved her husband.

There's something about a man in uniform…but there’s something about a woman in one, too. When Hallie McCabe meets Philip Johnston at a picnic, she is drawn to his integrity. He is a gentleman. But also an officer. From her ship. Aware of the code against fraternization between officers and enlisted, Hallie conceals her Navy status, hopeful she and her secret will stay hidden on their aircraft carrier until she can figure out a way for them to sail off into the sunset together.

When sexy, buttoned-down accountant Jeff gets sucked into Cecilia's sticky, single-mom universe, his life turns inside out. Her checkbook's a nightmare, her oldest kid hates him, and she's messy, mouth-watering, independent, and annoyingly unforgettable. He can't stay away. Quirky Cecilia has her life (sort of) in order, and doesn't need a man pointing out where it's not. A single mom with three kids and a dog can't afford a sex life, even if he is hotter than ever, and strong just when she needs him to be. Plus, his parrot hates her.

Stuck with a plane ticket to Israel bought for her by a Polish Catholic ex-boyfriend, Eileen Pollack sets out on a hectic, solitary journey around the country, cataloging the region’s rich history, natural beauty, and troubled politics, while examining her own complicated relationship to her Jewish faith and heritage. In this darkly comic, incisive, and nuanced essay, Pollack upends the listener’s expectations as well as her own. A travel essay filled with bewilderment, outrage, humor, and faith, “All of Us, We All Are Arameans” takes us on a trip around Israel and the West Bank that few American tourists would have the chutzpah to attempt.

Dolphins are magical creatures: They comfort the heartbroken, rescue the lost, even heal the sick. At the Hope Key Dolphin Assisted Therapy center in Florida dolphins use their healing powers to help autistic children communicate and to soothe other troubled people. But what if you don't want help? What if you've gone so far down the wrong path that you can't go back? Katy Grant can't see any way back from the path her life has taken. And she doesn't really care. Working at Hope Key keeps her out of jail. And it just might give her the chance at revenge she wants on the man who ruined her life.

At 25 years old Stephanie Yoder was already fed up with the monotony of 9-5 life. After much agonizing, she quit her stable desk job to backpack around Asia. During a year of travel through Japan, China and South East Asia she became a minor Chinese celebrity, was attacked by giant parrots and met the love of her life. In A Year Without Make-Up, Yoder chronicles some of her craziest adventures along with providing helpful tips and encouragement for others looking to make a life change.