Showing results by narrator "Pam Ward" in All Categories

From the Tea Party to Occupy Wall Street, however divergentt heir political views, these groups seem united by one thing: outrage over a system of power and influence that they feel has stolen their livelihoods and liberties. Increasingly, protesters on both ends of the political spectrum and the media are using the word corrupt to describe an elusory system of power that has shed any accountability to those it was meant to help and govern. But what does corruption and unaccountability mean in today's world?

The Big Ratchet is the story of the ratchets: the technologies and innovations, big and small, that propelled our species from hunters and gatherers on the savannahs of Africa to shoppers in the aisles of the supermarket. Our species long lived on the edge of starvation. Now we produce enough food for all 7 billion of us to eat nearly 3,000 calories every day. This is such an astonishing thing in the history of life as to verge on the miraculous. The Big Ratchet is the story of how it happened.

In the summer of 1916, a big twister brings destruction to the land around Boynton, Oklahoma. Alafair Tucker's family and neighbors are not spared the ruin and grief spread by the storm. But no one is going to mourn for Jubal Beldon, who made it his business to know the ugly secrets of everyonei n town. It doesn't matter if Jubal's insinuations are true or not. In a small town like Boynton, rumor is as damaging as fact.

For Brenda Spahn, entrepreneur and businesswoman, wealth was a lifestyle - until a brush with the law threatened to send her to prison. In those dark moments, Brenda made a promise to God.

Spared incarceration, a renewed Brenda glimpsed into the lives of women serving time in one of the worst places in America - the JuliaTutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama. What she saw prompted a God-inspired vision. With a heart to help and a will that couldn't be crushed, Brenda fought the system and overcame tremendous obstacles to take ex-cons into her home.

When former Congressman Mark Stedman throws in the towel on his presidential campaign, his only choice is to return to his home state and decide how to spend the rest of his life...until he meets Josiah Stoltzfus, an Amish farmer from Pennsylvania. Using his old campaign headquarters for a base, Mark Stedman determines to introduce a new candidate to America. He pledges to do everything in his power to make sure Josiah gets elected. But can a plain man of faith turn the tide of politics and become the leader of America? And what will he have to risk to do it?

Ann Meyers Drysdale is one of the greatest stars in the history of basketball. But her rise wasn't without controversy. Her 1979 NBA bid to play with the Indiana Pacers brought a barrage of criticism. But Ann simply wanted to play among the best. She had always competed with the guys. A female first in many categories, Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first woman ever signed to a four-year athletic scholarship to UCLA, where she remains the only four-time Bruin basketball All American, male or female.

Roman Catholic sisters first traveled to the American West as providers of social services, education, and medical assistance. In Across God’s Frontiers, Anne M. Butler traces the ways in which sisters challenged and reconfigured contemporary ideas about women, work, religion, and the West; moreover, she demonstrates how religious life became a vehicle for increasing women’s agency and power.

The daughter of a Swedish minister growing up in Colorado, Thea Kronborg's musical talent sets her apart from her contemporaries. Driven by her determination to satisfy her artistic impulse, she moves to Chicago, where she falls in love with a wealthy married man. Her ability to resolve the tensions between her personal and professional lives and to communicate through her art makes her an unusual and thoroughly modern heroine.

When Raelene Phillips first spotted her, Dixie Lee was a cuddly furball, sitting on a pillow in a small cage. It wasn’t long before the puppy was whisked to her new home where she proceeded to warm the hearts of everyone. Chuckle along with the Phillips as you enjoy the canine antics that have delighted them so much.

A response to all those grandmother books with flowers and puppies on the cover, Grandma Rules is a book for the hip, baby boomer grandma who realizes that after all the work she put into her own kids, she can take a break and have fun with her grandkids. A perfect gift for the greatest grandmothers you know, this book is laugh-out-loud funny while offering useful insights and tips on how to embrace the world’s greatest job.

Kathy McNeely, a marine biologist and environmentalist, and a Russian scientist investigate a mysterious oil spill in pristine Antarctica despite storms, tourists, a reporter, and a series of so-called accidents at various research stations.

Embrace your inner Mrs. Potato Head! She’s so much more real and full of fun than Barbie ever could be. And she knows how to laugh like only those who have discovered the humor, heart, and wisdom of true womanhood can laugh. Mrs. Potato Head’s hormones are out of whack. Her memory is held together by sticky notes. But she’s got a sense of humor that just won’t quit, and she’s learned to accept and enjoy herself as she is - because God does.

Permanent Present Tense tells the incredible story of Henry Gustav Molaison, known only as H. M. until his death in 2008. In 1953, at the age of 27, Molaison underwent a dangerous "psychosurgical" procedure intended to alleviate his debilitating epilepsy. The surgery went horribly wrong, and when Molaison awoke he was unable to store new experiences. For the rest of his life, he would be trapped in the moment. But Molaison’s tragedy would prove a gift to humanity.

You won't hear these stories in the local news, but Jesus Christ is doing miracles in some of the most unlikely places around the world. His faith propelled Dois Rosser out of the boardroom and into villages in Mongolia, India, Congo, Cuba, and dozens of other needy nations to invest his earthly fortune in building churches and broadcasting the gospel.

Carol Kent and her husband, Gene, are now living what some would call a heartbreaking life - their son, Jason, a young man who initially had so much promise, is now living out a life sentence for murder in a maximum security prison. Between a Rock and a Grace Place reveals that when seemingly insurmountable challenges crash into our lives, we can find "divine surprises" as we discover God at work in ways we never imagined.

No one looks at growing older quite like Martha Bolton. Whether she's contemplating why some people turn cantankerous as they age, suggesting songs and books for the middle years, or looking at the benefits of shrinking, she keeps readers laughing out loud. And when readers are laughing the loudest, she'll touch them with a moving or poignant observation to remind them about the value of life.

The year 1916 was not shaping up to be a good one for Alafair Tucker, and finding Bernie Arruda dead in a ditch didn’t help matters. Alafair had not wanted to go to Arizona in the first place. But her 10-year-old daughter, Blanche, was suffering from a stubborn ailment of the lungs, and her best chance for a cure was dry desert air. So Alafair and her husband, Shaw, had bundled their sick child onto the train and made the difficult trip from Oklahoma to the home of Alafair’s sister in Tempe, Arizona.

The grueling past months finally seem about to blossom into a happy future together for Dr. Claire McCall and her fiance, John Cerelli. But their wedding plans are interrupted by circumstances so devastating they threaten everything Claire holds dear: her medical career, her relationship with John, and quite possibly her freedom.

"Halie" Jackson grew up in poverty on the levees of New Orleans, hunting for alligators for food along the Mississippi River with her brother, Peter. But every Sunday young Mahalia sang proudly in the church choir, the youngest member at age five. She left school after eighth grade and worked as a maid to help support her family. However, her passion for singing her special brand of music known as "gospel" never waned.

This entertaining collection features 13 short mystery stories from some of our finest writers, all based on a piece of music. Editors Claudia Bishop and Don Bruns present the stories with two essays, discussing the short mystery and the musical mystery.