Showing results by narrator "Laural Merlington" in All Categories

Police psychologist Dot Meyerhoff's caseload is usually filled with cops—which is why she's hesitant to help an adopted teenager locate her birth parents. But the teen's godmother is Dot's friend Fran and a police widow to boot. How could Dot possibly say no? Once Dot starts digging into the case, though, she's drawn into a murky world of illegal adoptions and the choices a young pregnant woman might make as a last resort. Soon there's only one thing Dot knows for sure: the painful truth of what happened all those years ago might heal one family—but it's certain to destroy another.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Resolution gives you great stories with practical ideas for today's times – for your mind, your body, and your wallet! Everyone makes resolutions – for New Year’s, for big birthdays, for new school years. In fact, most of us are so good at resolutions that we make the same ones year after year. They can be life-changing or really quite simple. Listen to real stories from real people about their year-round resolutions.

Officer Randy Spelling has always wanted to be a cop. The eager rookie comes from a law enforcement family and, at least as far as police department psychologist Dr. Dot Meyerhoff is concerned, the young woman is up to the challenge. But when Officer Spelling mistakenly shoots and kills a pregnant teen, the community is outraged, and the family of the victim demands justice. Feeling protective of the traumatized cop in her care, Dot tries to stop Officer Spelling from her desperate attempts to apologize to the girl's family.

The images of the burning towers, the heartbroken friends building memorials, the minute-by-minute accounts of the horrors of that day - all are indelibly etched on our collective consciousness. But what of those left behind after 9/11? What have they, and we, learned from the gift of time? In Project Rebirth, a psychologist and a journalist examine the lives of eight people who were directly affected by the events of September 11, 2001.

With bravura storytelling, daring imagination, and fierce narrative control, this dazzling debut introduces that rare writer who finds humanity in our most unconventional behavior, and the humor beneath our darkest impulses. In these strange, funny, and unnerving stories, animals become the litmus test of our deepest fears and longings

Nativity, Missouri, is in trouble. When the small town is bypassed by the newly constructed highway, it loses its much-needed holiday traffic—threatening not only the town’s financial survival, but its very heart and soul. Outside consultant Jake Brisco threatens everything the community...

Set against the backdrop of the war in Afghanistan, Saving Cinnamon chronicles the love story of Navy Reservist Mark Feffer and a stray puppy he bonded with while stationed outside of Kandahar. When Mark is about to return stateside, he decides to adopt Cinnamon and sets up her transport back to the United States. But the unthinkable happens: Cinnamon is abandoned by the dog handler who was supposed to bring her home and disappears without a trace.

Helen Sloane is in for one interesting year.Written as a series of journal entries, Heaven Help Helen Sloane is refreshingly honest, poignant, and often hilarious, documenting—in Helen’s own words—the daily struggles a young Christian woman must face. Helen’s new job as a social worker...

Cassandra de Warenne spends her days in a quiet English manor, looking after her young niece, while her sister, Tracey, lives the glamorous life of a jet-setter. When Cass meets Tracey's newest conquest, Antonio de la Barca, she isn't prepared for the intense and immediate attraction - an attraction that heralds something deeper, more powerful, and more dangerous than Cass could ever imagine.

When baby Max is kidnapped during Mardi Gras, Jane and Kyle Madison’s life falls apart. What their daughter, Melanie, does next is unthinkable. Max vanished into thin air while in the care of his teenage sister, Melanie.

Ponce Morris is a beautiful, rich widow who's been dubbed "the spare wife" because she's the perfect companion to the wealthy, powerful couples she socializes with. She'll go to sports events with the husbands, throw elegant dinner parties, and shop with the wives.

Since the first Christmas, angels have been delivering messages of God's extravagant love. They watched over the Christ Child so long ago, and they are watching over us all today. We Hear the Christmas Angels presents inspiring, personal stories of angels still delivering tidings of comfort, protection and joy, particularly at Christmas time.

Beautifully crafted and driven by warm, vibrant characters, The Mammoth Cheese follows the residents of rural Three Chimneys, Virginia, on their historic journey to re-create the making of the original Thomas Jefferson-era, 1,235-pound "Mammoth Cheese."

Is your spiritual life more like a fast-food run than an intimate dinner for two?Whether it’s the busy mother’s wish to be Wonder Woman—minus the metal bra—or battles with an exploding hot water heater, or fighting the “Resolutionary War” of New Year’s Day, Mary Pierce understands...

Once there was a little girl from Fargo, North Dakota, named Maggie Goldfarb who grew up, moved to Manhattan, and morphed into Magnolia Gold, the highly paid editor in chief of Lady magazine. With a corner office, a designer wardrobe, and dozens of loyal employees, Magnolia has been hired to update the dowager of women's magazines. She's on her way to giving Lady a face-lift when she is ignominiously replaced.

Rachel Simon's historic home on a charming tree-lined street was hardly ideal. It was too small, too dark, and there was a gaping hole in the dining room ceiling. So when the house is burglarized, Rachel and her husband, Hal, agree it's time to sell. But in a difficult housing market, and with Hal being an architect, they soon realize: Why leave when they can renovate?

Olive is the most unlikely of secret agents, a professional assassin in her sixties who's known only as "The Knit Lady." She begins her trade by killing the Italian mobster who'd cheated her late husband, and then is quietly recruited by "The Brokers." Now she's hired to kidnap and kill retired British agent Benjamin Scarlatt. But The Knit Lady has scruples, and when an Islamic terrorist group takes control of the cruise ship on which both she and Scarlatt are traveling, she decides to fight back, with knitting needle, scalpel - and plastic explosives.

When Stalina Folskaya flees her native Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, she sets out for America with her dreams - and her painful past - firmly in tow. In St. Petersburg, Stalina was a trained chemist, but in America, disillusioned with her profession, she takes a job as a maid at the Liberty, a seedy, “short-stay” motel on the outskirts of Hartford, Connecticut. Even here, gutsy Stalina sees opportunity, convincing the owner to let her transform the motel into a destination with fantasy settings.

Married Americans enjoy over 1,000 benefits and entitlements that are withheld from our nonmarital counterparts. Health insurance, immigration rights, tax privileges (such as the estate tax), and hiring policies favor the married. Despite this blatant and widespread prejudice, nonmarital Americans—nonmarital people—have not galvanized as a group to demand equality and inclusion. Why? Moving Past Marriage argues that it is because of our troubled relationship to history.

Analyzing the meanings of masculinity in contemporary culture, this book examines specific cultural male icons like Mohammad Ali, Harvey Keitel, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dan Quayle, and Newt Gingrich and explodes the male stereotypes such as the cowboy, the father, the homosexual, and the Black terror. Written by cultural studies scholars from departments of film, media studies, English, women's studies, and sociology, the discussions touch on almost every conceivable issue concerning the complex meanings of masculinity and contemporary society.