Showing results by narrator "Jenny Hoops" in All Categories

English hairdresser, Ethel, is alone after the deaths of her family and her wartime fiancé. Widow and single mother, Alice, bringing up two daughters, receives an unexpected inheritance that will transform her life. War bride, Joan, is mother to three small children with a fourth on the way and money in short supply. All are brought together in a rural Canadian town where they each try to build a future - often in spite of the men in their lives. 

Edna Coffman, School Board Chairperson and community icon, hires thirty-something coaches Luke Carter and Madison Danielsen with the specific directive of returning the town sports fortunes to its former championship status. The unique-to-small-town interactions are at the forefront in this tale, and clearly demonstrate the close interconnections between school, sport and community in rural small-town America.

In a world expected to reach a staggering population of 10 billion by 2050, and with global temperatures rising fast, humanity must fundamentally change the way it grows and consumes food. Uncertain Harvest brings together scientists, chefs, activists, entrepreneurs, farmers, philosophers, and engineers working on the global future of food to answer questions on how to make a more equitable, safe, sustainable, and plentiful food future.

Walking is a form of exercise that’s available to most people. You don’t need any special equipment other than some supportive walking shoes. And there’s no need for an expensive membership at a fitness center. I wrote this book to break down the myths about physical, mental, and spiritual walking, to share the successes and challenges of my lifelong walking journey, to provide strategies and tools to embrace different types of walking at every age and stage of life, and to help teach others about building physical, mental, and emotional resilience and inner strength. 

The Call of the Wild is Jack London's most popular and enduring work. Set in the frozen wilderness of the Yukon, it tells the story of the magnificent dog Buck, who is a loyal family pet until cruel men steal him and make him a pawn in their feverish search for the gold of the Klondike. Brutally beaten into serving as a sled dog, Buck finds the blood of his wolf ancestors rising within him.

Haunted by her student's disappearance for more than a decade, Elaine finally stumbles onto a vital clue, only to discover someone will do anything to keep the truth buried. When her life is threatened, she allows the one person she trusts to whisk her away to Texas for safety. But assuming a false identity and hiding among the quirky residents of a nursing home is not what she had in mind.

It’s 1942 in Washington, DC. Louise Pearlie is now a chief file clerk at the legendary OSS, the precursor to the CIA, and enjoys being an independent working woman despite wartime privations. But a casual friendship struck up with Alessa di Luca, a secretive war refugee, sucks Louise into a dangerous game of mafia bosses, Nazi spies, banished royalty, and Sicilian aristocracy - placing not only her job but her life in jeopardy.

Greg Hallstead lost the championship buckle to Terry McCaskill at this year's Policemen's Rodeo. Now, he's partnered with his rival, working undercover at a Florida resort while sparks fly between them at every turn. Greg and Terry are unconvincing as a brother/sister duo, but even less convincing are the cops pretending to be their "parents": a gay "dad" and sexy, flirty "mom". Still, the four cops may survive, if the resort owner's wife, Emerald, doesn't reveal she dated Greg years ago. And if a hotel hooker doesn't recognize him from past arrests.

In Beneath the Full Moon, psychiatrist Nan Nelson invites you inside the mental hospitals and psych wards where she’s practiced for over 30 years and shares her personal anecdotes and insights from working with the mentally ill. Told with humor and heart, Nan recounts stories and case studies of patients suffering from depression, PTSD, OCD, addictions, and more. Dr. Nelson ends each chapter with valuable and practical tips for how family members can support their loved ones who may be struggling with mental illnesses.

February, 1944. Washington, DC. With the war entering its most dangerous phase, Louise Pearlie is thrilled to be reassigned to the London office of the OSS. But in order to take up her new post, she must make a perilous crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in the SS Amelia Earhart. Accompanying her on the voyage to Liverpool is an eclectic group of passengers, including the aloof Blanche Bryant, whose husband, Eddie, died in mysterious circumstances on the ship’s voyage out to New York, three months before.

On a bitterly cold night in December, 1943, government girl Louise Pearlie and her friend Joe Prager are enjoying a quiet drink in the Baron Steuben Inn, when a bloodstained body is discovered behind the bar. Although the victim had been a regular customer, no one seems to know anything about him. When it turns out there is a link to Louise’s top-secret work at the OSS, she is ordered to find out as much as possible about the murder while keeping the connection secret from those involved, including the investigating police detective.

The 1940s, Washington, DC. Government girl Louise Pearlie is asked to review the file usage of a missing analyst from the Office of Strategic Services - the United States’ wartime intelligence agency - only to learn he’d drowned in the Tidal Basin days before. The OSS confirms it was an accident, and Louise is sent back to her regular job in the file rooms. Her time spent investigating Paul Hughes at least has one positive outcome, though: Louise meets a young woman in the OSS Reading Room, who asks her to join her “salon".

It’s 1942. Louise Pearlie, a young widow, has come to Washington, DC, to work as a clerk for the legendary OSS, the precursor to the CIA. When, while filing, she discovers a document concerning the husband of a college friend, Rachel Bloch—a young French Jewish woman she is desperately worried about—Louise realizes she may be able to help get Rachel out of Vichy France. But then a colleague whose help Louise has enlisted is murdered, and she realizes she is on her own, unable to trust anyone.

The 1940s, Washington, DC. Government girl Louise Pearlie has a new job inside the OSS - the Office of Strategic Services: recruiting German prisoners of war for a secret mission inside Nazi Germany. It’s a big chance for her, and Louise hopes she can finally escape her filing and typing duties. With the job comes two new colleagues: Alice Osborne, a propaganda expert, and Merle Ellison, a forger from Texas who just happens to speak fluent German. But when the three arrive at Fort Meade to interview the first German POWs to arrive there, their mission is beset by complications.

Young widow Louise Pearlie seizes a chance to escape the typewriters and files of the Office of Strategic Services, the United States’ World War II spy agency, when she’s asked to investigate a puzzling postcard referred to the OSS by the US Censor. She heads off to St. Leonard, Maryland, to talk to the postcard’s recipient, one Leroy Martin. But what seemed like a straightforward mission to Louise soon becomes complicated.

Tal Neilson is slowly losing his mind. He’s convinced his dead father Geri has been murdered, but no one believes him. Geri’s voice in his head is screaming for revenge. Is the voice real or a product of Tal’s addiction? Can Tal ignore his widowed mother’s attraction to Geri’s business partner?  

Canadian Shorts II is a specially selected collection of short stories by established and emerging Canadian authors. Showcasing Canada's diverse writing talent, there is a story for every listener, from literary fiction to scifi fantasy to prairie gothic to romance-thriller. 

Swept up in a whirlwind courtship, Katja and Wasyl begin life anew in a Ukrainian settlement of Western Canada. The dusty Canadian prairies promise hope and independence, but when war breaks out between the old world and the new, their newfound stability is shattered. Rumors of the internment of Ukrainian-Canadians haunt the new settlers. Would the country they love betray them like this? An incident throws the couple and their young children into turmoil, and Katja faces the prospect of enduring a Canadian winter without Wasyl by her side.

It is the dawn of the French Revolution when masses of hungry peasants burn the chateaux of aristocrats throughout France. After the death of his estranged family, an 18-year-old nobleman, the Marquis Marcel de la Croix, is forced to raise the royalist banner. The wreck of his family fortress becomes a bastion for newly disenfranchised aristocrats, and Marcel and his fiery associate, Pierre Lafont, lead a rebel group called the League of the Star. After a bitter falling out with Lafont, Marcel escapes to England incognito, hoping to put the past behind him.

Every girl's favorite book about horses, this beloved autobiography of a carriage horse in 19th-century England is filled with humor, drama, intrigue, and hope. Follow Black Beauty as he leaves his happy colt-hood home to follow his destiny as a carriage horse, and to the destructive life of a cab horse in London. You'll meet the whole series of Black Beauty's people, from devious, nasty Seedy Sam to the most wonderful of grooms, James Howard, and his cab-driver Jerry Barker and his cheerful family, and finally Black Beauty's saviour, Joe Green.