Showing results by narrator "Ron Butler" in All Categories

Music teacher Beth and film producer Jay seem to have the perfect life together in LA. When Cassie, Beth's old best friend and college wild child, turns up unexpectedly, everything changes. But what neither of them know is what Cassie is running from. And that it's going to have consequences for them all. Something is about to go very wrong. And someone is going to lie about it.

Whether the issues are protest, labor, patriotism, or class division, it is clear that professional sports are no longer simply fun and games. Rather, the industry is a hotbed of fractures and inequities that reflect and even drive some of the most divisive issues in our country. The nine provocative and deeply personal essays in Full Dissidence confront the dangerous narratives that are shaping the current dialogue in sports and mainstream culture.

Jean-Michael Basquiat and his unique collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, Javaka Steptoe's vivid text introduces young listeners to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean - and definitely not inside the lines - to be beautiful.

With this inspiring book of meditations, every day brings a reminder of "the wholeness and beauty of our nature, of the glad spirit that dances in each one of us". Addressing the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, Glad Day speaks to the issues that touch everyone, regardless of sexual orientation: change, fear, self-disclosure, faith in a power greater than ourselves, success and failure, openness to ourselves and others.

The extraordinary partnership of Barack Obama and Joe Biden is unique in American history. The two men, their characters and styles sharply contrasting, formed a dynamic working relationship that evolved into a profound friendship. Their affinity was not predestined. Obama and Biden began wary of each other: Obama an impatient freshman disdainful of the Senate's plodding ways; Biden a veteran of the chamber and proud of its traditions.

When a middle-class kid from the suburbs was caught using Facebook to distribute firearms bought legally at Indiana gun shows to notorious gangsters across the border - was he a kingpin or a scapegoat? David Lewisbey received perhaps the harshest sentence ever in a gun-trafficking trial. A college student from the suburban outskirts of Chicago, he allegedly embodied the enterprising swagger of his favorite rap lyrics, moving weapons for stacks of cash. John H. Richardson tours Chicago’s gun-soaked South Side with Lewisbey’s clientele and meets with the “Big Man” himself to unpack the truth.

Thirteen of the most accomplished YA authors deliver a label-defying anthology that includes 10 short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play about topics like gentrification, acceptance, untimely death, coming out, and poverty, and ranging in genre from contemporary realistic fiction to adventure and romance. This collection will inspire you to break conventions, bend the rules, and color outside the lines.

Sierra's Homecoming by #1 New York Times bestselling author Linda Lael Miller Sierra McKettrick felt like a fraud. She might be moving to her family’s ancestral ranch with her son, but being a McKettrick by blood isn't enough to make her fit in. And from the moment she meets ranch hand Travis Reid, she knows he'll be a handsome distraction she doesn't need. When Sierra forms a connection with her ancestor Hannah McKettrick—also a woman with a young son and an inconvenient attraction to the wrong man—she begins to realize that there are some bonds that even time can't break.

On New Year's Eve, 1939, a horrific triple murder occurred in rural Oklahoma. Within a matter of days, investigators identified several suspects: convicts who had been at a craps game with one of the victims the night before. Also at the craps game was a young black farmer named W. D. Lyons. Political pressure mounted to find a villain. The governor's representative settled on Lyons, who was arrested, tortured into signing a confession, and tried for the murder. The NAACP's new Legal Defense and Education Fund sent its young chief counsel, Thurgood Marshall, to take part in the trial.

Named after the first man at the creation of the world in Malagasy mythology, Ietsy Razak was raised to perpetuate the glory of his namesake and expected to be as illuminated as his Great Ancestor. But in the chaos of modernity, his young life is marked only by restlessness, maddening insomnia, and an adolescent apathy.

Bryce Witherspoon’s heart races every time she sees Kaegan Chambray. Everyone in town knows they can’t stand each other, but the truth is, even though the man broke her heart 10 years ago, she still feels that irresistible, oh-so-familiar jolt of desire. When Kaegan returned to Catalina Cove to run the family business, he knew there’d be no avoiding Bryce. The woman he thought he’d one day marry was instead the biggest heartbreak of his life. But when Bryce lets slip a devastating secret, he discovers just how wrong he was to let her go all those years ago.

In the wake of a devastating teen pregnancy that left her childless and heartbroken, Vashti Alcindor left Catalina Cove, Louisiana, with no plans to return. Now, more than a decade later, Vashti reluctantly finds herself back in her hometown after inheriting her aunt’s B and B. Her homecoming gets off to a rocky start when the new sheriff, Sawyer Grisham, pulls her over for speeding, and things go downhill from there.

A steamy opposites-attract story about a playboy CEO determined never to settle down and a hopeless romantic who knows it just takes the right person to reform a rake.

Known in the Dominican Republic and Togo as Vodu, in Benin as Vodún, and in Haiti as Vodou, West African religion has, for hundreds of years, served as a repository of sacred knowledge while simultaneously evolving in response to human experience and globalization. Spirit Service: Vodún and Vodou in the African Atlantic World explores this dynamic religion, its mobility, and its place in the modern world.

Burned-by-love architect Hunter McKay came home to Phoenix to open her own firm, not rekindle her fleeting high school romance with playboy Tyson Steele. But when she runs into the sexy surgeon at a nightclub — and he unleashes that legendary Steele charm — Hunter fears she’s headed straight for heartbreak once again.

Nikki Cartwright can’t believe Jonas Steele — the Jonas Steele — has chosen her for a high-profile marketing venture. It could make her career. But when she remembers the kiss they once shared, a kiss so intimate it sent their desire skyrocketing from simmering to blazing, Nikki knows she must guard her heart against the seductive Phoenix playboy — as if her life depends on it.

The biggest mistake of Jaye Colfax’s life was letting Velvet Spencer leave. For three years, they were together exclusively and it was great—at least for Jaye. But Velvet wanted more. Jaye wouldn’t commit to anything because he just didn’t believe in love or marriage. Tired of waiting, Velvet left him without so much as a goodbye. Only then did Jaye realize he’d been too proud to admit he loved her. But it was too late—his stubbornness had cost him the love of his life.

Thomas McGurrin is a fourth-grade teacher and openly gay man at a private primary school serving Portland, Oregon's wealthy progressive elite when he is falsely accused of inappropriately touching a male student. The accusation comes just as Thomas is thrust back into the center of his unusual family by his younger brother's battle with cancer. Although cleared of the accusation, Thomas is forced to resign from a job he loves during a potentially life-changing family drama.

Ten-year-old Tybre Faw is obsessed with history and the civil rights movement, and he devours every book he can find on the subject. When he learns of Congressman John Lewis's harrowing and heroic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the fight for the right to vote, Tybre is determined to meet him.

It’s been 10 years since she broke his heart, but Leslie Cassidy’s elegance still stuns rugged Alaskan executive Sloan Outlaw. Now, thanks to a ruthless enemy targeting Leslie’s company, Sloan can use his wealth and influence for something nice - and something naughty. He’ll save her company - if she’ll spend a week with him at his luxurious winter retreat! But when a snowstorm keeps them cabin-bound, this notorious Outlaw will discover that getting what he wants for Christmas might be more than he bargained for.