Showing results by narrator "Nick Mondelli" in All Categories

With 2016 promising to be an interesting and hotly contested election year, Votes of Confidence offers young listeners an essential guide to the past, present, and future of American elections.

r the death of his parents, Jim was sent to live with his grandparents in Black Hawk Nebraska. There he befriended Antonia, the daughter of Bohemian immigrants. Years later, Jim, now a successful lawyer in New York, returns to his childhood home and Antonia. Jim's love for Antonia has endured, much as she herself has endured tragic circumstances.

Remember how many lies we told, Molly? It’s enough to make my head spin. You were wild when I met you, and I was mad for you. But then something happened. And now you’re gone. But don’t worry. I’ll find you. I just need to sift through the story of us to get to where you might be. I’ve got places to look and a list of names. The police have a list of names, too. See now? There’s another lie. There is only one person they’re really looking at, Molly. And that’s yours truly.

Only three students had access to a teacher’s racy photos before they went viral. There’s Mouse, a brainy overachiever so desperate to escape his father and go to MIT that he would do almost anything, legal or not. Then there’s Drew, the star athlete who can get any girl’s number - and private photos - with his charm but has a history of passing those photos around. And finally, there’s Jenna, a good-girl-turned-rebel after her own shocking photos made the rounds at school last year, who is still waiting for justice.

Wily’s enemies are after his throne. The man who kept him captive for much of his childhood, the evil mage Stalag, is still at large, and Wily knows the kingdom will never be safe as long as he’s a threat. Meanwhile, Wily’s father, the Infernal King, has escaped prison, and he’s looking to retake power. When Wily learns the villains are traveling to the fabled Eversteel Forge to build a mechanical army, it’s up to him and his companions to journey across the sea and stop their enemies.

During the tumultuous year of 1968, four teens are drawn together: Ronnie Bingham, who is grieving his brother’s death in Vietnam; Milo, Ronnie’s bookish best friend; Ramrod, a star athlete who is secretly avoiding the draft; and Hana, the new girl, a half-Japanese badass rock-n-roller whose presence doesn't sit well with their segregated high school. The four outcasts find sanctuary in The Vinyl Underground, a record club where they spin music, joke, debate, and escape the stifling norms of their small Southern town. But Ronnie’s 18th birthday is looming.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, 16-year-old Kyle Donohue watches the first twin tower come down from the window of Stuyvesant High School. Moments later, terrified and fleeing home to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge, he stumbles across a girl perched in the shadows, covered in ash, and wearing a pair of costume wings.

Sometimes that very thin line between illusion and reality is not as clearly defined as we would like it to be. It certainly wasn't the day that Alan Mitz stumbled into the garden of Abdul Gasazi. For in this bizarre and eerie place - where strange topiary trees loomed - the evil visage of Gasazi casts its shadow. And even after Alan escaped, the spell of Gasazi still seemed to penetrate into his everyday world. In this extraordinary, unusual, and unique book, Chris Van Allsburg explores both real and surreal worlds with incredible deftness.

Seventeen-year-old Evie Beckham has always been too occupied with her love of math and frequent battles with anxiety to want to date. Besides, she’s always found the idea of kissing to be kind of weird. But by senior year, thanks to therapy and her friends, she’s feeling braver than before. Maybe even brave enough to enter the national math and physics competition or flirt back with the new boy. Meanwhile, Evie’s best friend, Caleb Covic, has always been a little in love with her. So he’s horrified when he is forced to witness Evie’s meet-cute with the new guy.

Pearl Jenkins is a nobody. She was a woman who lived as a hermit in the woods. Then, one day, she's nowhere to be found, and all that's left is a pool of blood and a child no one knew existed, raised completely off the grid and in the grip of Pearl's manic paranoia. Kateri Fisher is used to being an outsider. Now, she's the only female detective in the tiny upstate New York town of Spring Falls, where everyone knows everyone, but no one will talk. It's fitting that she takes the case that no one else wants. But as Kateri struggles to navigate the harsh rules of a new town.

This collection of tales is for fans of ghost-story writer Mary Downing Hahn’s scary but not too scary books. Even the stories without actual ghosts are spooky. Each tale turns something ordinary - a pigeon, a white dress, a stranger on the bus, a puppet - into a sinister link to the supernatural. For the human characters, secrets from the past or careless behavior in the present can lead to serious trouble. All the stories have a young person as their central character, so all will resonate easily with young listeners who enjoy the eerie, the creepy, and the otherworldly.

After the death of my beloved aunt and a troubling experience with a stalker, I’m ready for a fresh start somewhere quiet. I leap at the chance to become the pastry chef at a quaint dude ranch in western Montana. Soon, I’m happily working under the talented and sexy, Caspian Moon. If only I could concentrate fully on my cakes instead of yearning for the boss who has made it clear that employees are off-limits. Even if they don’t want to be.

Culture Smart! Cambodia is for all those who want to do more than just scratch the surface of this fascinating country. Thoroughly updated, this new edition will enrich your understanding of the land and its people. It explains the key values, attitudes, customs, and traditions that you need to be aware of and provides practical tips and vital information on how to make the most of your time in Cambodia.

Culture Smart! Iceland will take you to the heart of this plucky Nordic nation. It will equip you with a deeper understanding of your hosts and with the tools to turn your visit into a more meaningful and enriching experience, whatever your reason for traveling. Behind a stoic veneer lies a proud, industrious, and egalitarian people, whose straightforwardness and ability to wing it have seen them thrive in this beautiful but unforgiving environment.

Malaysia presents visitors with an exciting and fascinating medley of cultures—Malay, Chinese, Indian, Arab, Eurasian, Dayak, and Aboriginal. Though very much a modern nation state, its diverse communities retain a considerable amount of their unique heritage and, in its customs, religions, festivals, costume, cuisine, languages, and architecture, Malaysian society perfectly illustrates the virtues of a vibrant pluralism.

The French are "different." You'll often hear this in conversations among the "Anglo-Saxons," as the French like to call English speakers. "Different" means charming, challenging, questioning, stylish, and doing things in their own way and to their own advantage. By looking at the attitudes and values of the French, and explaining how French life and business works, Culture Smart! France shows you how to fit in as a foreigner.

Mikey makes everything a joke, even the clinical depression he's struggled with for years. After a run of failed jobs, he becomes the unlikely basketball coach at a high school for high-risk offenders who are experiencing mental illness. The position becomes suddenly available after the team tried to strangle their last coach.

When fifteen-year-old Nate Watson moves to Windsor to live with his mysterious Aunt Celia, the last things on his mind are witches and magick and ancient vendettas. While Nate focuses on building a new life for himself and his younger brother, making new friends and adjusting to a new high school, he can’t escape the feeling that something isn’t as it seems. Nate’s search for answers leads him to a forbidden locked door in Aunt Celia’s mansion. Inside, he finds a witch’s workshop full of mystical artifacts, some dating back to the time of the earliest Puritan settlers.

Trapped in a hidden realm, Kiran and his sworn family must escape to save their world from destruction. The gods are watching him and his time twin Asher closely. With allies new and old, they must rise to the challenge, growing stronger to win a high-stakes tournament where they are the underdogs. Can they beat the odds while evading dark sect clans and demonic forces? Tasked with a higher purpose, Kiran faces a difficult choice. Protect his world or the ones he loves. Time waits for no one, but can Kiran grow strong enough to bend it to his will?

Buying and renovating the old plantation house seems like a great idea. The fact that it’s supposedly haunted by the spirit of a murdered prostitute is a minor oversight. I don’t believe in that crap anyway. But after a late-night rendezvous with a sexy spirit elicits a very real nocturnal emission from me, I have to rethink my belief in poltergeists…and love. The intoxicating woman who has been trapped here for over a century casts a spell over me with her humor, courage, and passion. I have to do something to free her from her ethereal prison.