Showing results by narrator "Rosemary Benson" in All Categories

Driven from Ireland during the potato famine, Protestant Victoria MacPherson and Catholic Maeve O'Reilly find themselves thrown together aboard a Manhattan-bound ship. After a treacherous journey, they arrive in New York City in 1851, with only a small purse of silver and the promise that Maeve's brother will find them there. But when he doesn't show, the girls are quickly conned out of their savings by a smooth-talking scam artist, leaving the two destitute in the tenements of Lower Manhattan.

When Nathaliey, a young wizard, is taken prisoner by marauders trying to break her will and force her to join the sorcerer's acolytes, the last help she expects is from the griffin riders who have harassed her and her companions through the mountains. But when their chief rescues Nathaliey from an enemy-held castle, the griffin riders join a temporary alliance of wizards and paladins to push back the sorcerer's invasion.

In 2009 Cristina Nehring's brilliant first book, A Vindication of Love, was featured on the cover of the New York Times Book Review. An important new voice had appeared in American letters. Just as suddenly, Nehring seemed to disappear—only to reemerge like a bolt from the blue.

In the wake of the American and French Revolutions, thousands of men and women took to the roads and waterways on both sides of the Atlantic—refugees in search of their inalienable rights. Although larger nations fortified their borders and circumscribed citizenship, two port cities, German Hamburg and Danish Altona, opened their doors, as did the federated Swiss cantons and the newly independent Belgian monarchy. The refugees thrived and the societies that harbored them prospered.

In The Sales Agility Code, leaders at industry-leading sales training and development firm VantagePoint Performance help you learn and replicate what the highest-performing salespeople do to succeed in an unpredictable and ever-changing market.

"The whole world is watching!" cried protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention as Chicago police beat them in the streets. When some of that violence was then aired on network television, another kind of hell broke loose. Some viewers were stunned and outraged; others thought the protestors deserved what they got. No one—least of all Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley—was happy with how the networks handled it. In When the News Broke, Heather Hendershot revisits television coverage of those four chaotic days in 1968—not only the violence in the streets but also the tumultuous convention itself.

Anxious Eaters shows that fad diets are popular because they fulfill crucial social and psychological needs—which is also why they tend to fail. Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill bring together anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explore what these programs promise yet rarely fulfill for dieters.

Hear the call to overcome today's culture of hate and bring healing and hope into our life together. While right-wing conservatives dare to call themselves Christians as they tear down equality and justice, commit horrific acts of violence, and fan the flames of fascism in America, Carter Heyward issues a call to action for Christians to truly hear God's message of peace and love.

President Gerald Ford suffered two attempts on his life during his term in office: one by a young woman in Charles Manson's Family, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, and the other by a far more unlikely candidate—an average middle-aged mother of five—Sara Jane Moore. After thirty years in contact with Moore in prison, journalist Geri Spieler deconstructs her life in Housewife Assassin, tracing the path from Moore's small-town upbringing in West Virginia to that fateful moment when she tried to assassinate the president.

Being human is hard. Being in relationships with other humans is even harder. People are complex and relationships are messy but loving one another well is possible. Whether navigating political or religious differences, or dealing with toxic people or our own unforgiveness, this book tackles the struggles no one really wants to talk about. But there is hope! We can actually grow closer to God and others through the circumstances we'd rather run from.

When Abortion Was a Crime is the must-listen book on abortion history. Originally published ahead of the thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, this award-winning study was the first to examine the entire period during which abortion was illegal in the United States, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and ending with that monumental case in 1973. When Abortion Was a Crime is filled with intimate stories and nuanced analysis, demonstrating how abortion was criminalized and policed—and how millions of women sought abortions regardless of the law.

When the birds first called, Susan Fox Rogers was in a slack season of her life. The woods and rivers that enthralled her younger self had lost some of their luster. It was the song of a thrush that reawakened Rogers, sparking a long-held desire to know the birds that accompanied her as she rock climbed and paddled, to know the world around her with greater depth. Energized by her curiosity, she followed the birds as they drew her deeper into her authentic self, and ultimately into love.

Millions of Americans suffer from depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental health issues, and many get psychiatric help. For many of those patients, medication is a necessary part of treatment. But pharmaceuticals are not a cure-all. Sometimes they are ineffective, leaving patients feeling hopeless, as though nothing can be done. Some medications also have terrible side effects, leading patients to discontinue the drug. More and more, patients are turning to more natural products, supplements, essential oils, and herbs to solve their problems.

Through its shocking incongruities and transgressive forms, the grotesque offers an intriguing lens for exploring the scandal of the gospel and the challenges of Christian preaching. Drawing on diverse sources - from Swedish crime fiction and contemporary poetry to James Cone, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Pussy Riot - this book will examine the theological, homiletical, and social implications of a grotesque gospel for contemporary preachers.

In forensic and compelling detail, Jytte Klausen traces how Islamist revolutionaries exiled in Europe and North America in the 1990s helped create and control one of the world's most impactful terrorist movements - and how, after the near-obliteration of the organization during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, they helped build it again. She shows how the diffusion of Islamist terrorism to Europe and North America has been driven, not by local grievances of Western Muslims, but by the strategic priorities of the international Salafi-jihadist revolutionary movement.

Lamentations is a novel about the first group of families crossing west to Oregon in 1842, from the perspective of the dozen women on the trip. Although none of these women left a written record of her journey, the company clerk's daily notations provided documentation of historical events.

Humans depend on soil for 95 percent of global food production, yet let it erode at unsustainable rates. In the United States, China, and India, vast tracts of farmland will be barren of topsoil within this century. The combination of intensifying erosion caused by climate change and the increasing food needs of a growing world population is creating a desperate need for solutions to this crisis.

On September 13, 1971, armed troops and corrections officers at the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York slaughtered 29 rioting prisoners and 10 hostages in a hail of gunfire. Negotiations for a peaceful resolution had stalled. The sticking point was the prisoners' final demand: amnesty for their murder of correctional officer William "Billy" Quinn, committed four days earlier during the takeover.

America is a country shaped by immigration. It is estimated that as many as 4.5 million Irish arrived in America during the 1800s and early 1900s. Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one-third of all immigrants to the United States. Rather than an unimpassioned history lesson, Roberta shares the immigrant story through the eyes of of her own Irish ancestors. To really understand the Irish experience, you have to live it.

The sudden appearance of a portly gnome on a humdrum, ordinary day definitely threw me for a loop. When this gnome began to speak to me about building him a home in our neighborhood, I know my eyes were as big as saucers, but I tried to appear casual. And I even managed to answer graciously, “Sure, I’d be glad to.” Then other gnomes who wanted to live in my neck of the woods showed up. Fairies, too! They all became part of my world. And their world became part of mine.