Showing results by narrator "Amy Tallmadge" in All Categories

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Neil Clarke has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year's writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome "sensawunda" that the genre has to offer.

It's not easy to be a teen girl, and it's definitely not easy parenting one. Parenting a Teen Girl is a guide for busy parents who want bottom-line information and tips that make sense - and work. It also offers scripts to improve communication, and exercises to navigate stressful interactions with skill and compassion. Whether your teen girl is struggling with academic pressure, social difficulties, physical self-care, or technology overload, this book offers practical advice to help you connect with your teen girl.

Delighted by the promise of living and working in a glittering Gilded Age mansion, Minerva Biggs moves to idyllic Bryd Hollow, North Carolina with her dog Plantagenet. She's looking for a new beginning; what she finds is five quite possibly deranged people, four French bulldogs, two distracting dimples attached to one inconvenient man . . . and one murder. Nope, make that two murders.

On the night before they leave for college, Clare and Aidan have only one thing left to do: figure out whether they should stay together or break up. In 12 hours, they'll be heading to opposite ends of the country, and they're anxious to resolve things before they go. But the quiet night they had planned quickly turns into an unexpected adventure, a roller-coaster ride through their past that leads to family and friends, familiar landmarks and unexpected places, hard truths and surprising revelations.

When Quakers Flora Saferight and Bruce Millikan embark on the Underground Railroad, they agree to put their differences aside to save the lives of a pregnant slave couple. With only her mother's quilt as a secret guide, the foursome follows the stitches through unknown treachery. As they embark on their perilous journey, they hope and pray that their path is one of promise where love sustains them, courage builds faith, and forgiveness leads to freedom.

Jillian Lawton and Lesley Adamski. Two girls from very different backgrounds become best friends in the turbulent '60s, but their circumstances and choices - and their mistakes - take them in opposite directions. Lesley stays in their hometown. She marries young, living a life defined by the demands of small children, never enough money, and an unfaithful husband. Jill lives those years on a college campus shaken by the Vietnam War, and then as an idealistic young lawyer in New York City. But they always remain friends.

There are two social functions in Savannah guaranteed to get people talking: weddings and funerals. And just as consignment shop owner Reagan Summerside agrees to marry the hunky Walker Boone, her neighbors, sisters Annie Fritz and Elsie Abbot, step up their business as professional mourners. They are so successful that the Sleepy Pines Retirement Center has hired them as a part of their retirement package. But then the residents at Pines suddenly begin dying at an alarming rate. And the sisters are the first suspects.

In A Simpler Motherhood, Emily's on a mission to remove stress from the lives of moms and busy families seeking less stuff and more joy in their daily life.

Minerva is thrilled at the chance to spend a week at the resort, managing a Gatsby-themed role-play event-and chilled when one of the players turns up dead. With a killer on the loose, everyone from the police chief to her overprotective boyfriend wants her to back off and go home. But Minerva can never resist the call of the past.

When Minerva identifies a murder weapon as a priceless sixteenth-century artifact, she's sure her eyes must be deceiving her. Even by Bryd Hollow standards, five hundred years seems like an absurd amount of time to hold a grudge. The knife can't possibly be real. Can it? Each bizarre secret she uncovers leaves Minerva more determined to get to the bottom of the blade's origins. But the deeper she digs, the more she angers and alienates her new friends. And the police. And possibly a few unsavory criminals.

Krista Doyle grew up in a small town in Louisiana where everyone was a gossip and a devout church goer. She attended church every Sunday where she listened to her grandfather preach from the stage, where she sang hymns from the audience as her mother led the choir, and where she was strictly taught that everything was black and white, right and wrong. So - how was Krista to cope with being a lesbian?

With each passing season in their first year of married life, Cheryl and Levi Miller find a fresh set of challenges and adjustments to be made as the Englisher and her Amish farmer husband learn to live together. But by observing their friends and loved ones in the Sugarcreek community, the newlyweds see, firsthand, how God uses each new phase of life to reveal inspiring insights, spiritual truths, and future surprises - all while they harvest a whole new crop of mysteries, as well!

As Thanksgiving approaches, Cheryl stumbles across a startling discovery: Someone is sleeping in Naomi and Seth Millers’ winter buggy and helping himself to food from their farmhouse cellar. Could it be the same person who is stealing from businesses up and down Sugarcreek’s Main Street? Despite Naomi’s insistence on extending the hand of hospitality to their unknown guest, when items are stolen from the Swiss Miss gift shop, Cheryl intends to get to the bottom of these mysteries

The Amish of Sugarcreek are experiencing a baby boom, and Cheryl enjoys delivering small gifts to the families. Then, while she is paying a call on the Swartzentrubers, the family discovers that one of their newborn twins is missing. Who on earth could do such a thing? A surprising discovery forces Cheryl to take matters into her own hands.

As Cheryl takes inventory of the Swiss Miss gift shop stock and acclimates herself to her new surroundings amid petting zoos and corn mazes, she notices something peculiar happening. Some of the items that customers want to purchase from her store are not listed in her inventory. Where are these quality products coming from? Is it, as Cheryl’s new friend Naomi Miller believes, that someone is sending her an anonymous blessing? If so, what is she to make of the menacing notes that keep surfacing, which warn her to “take care”.

When 22-year-old Susan Stachler was diagnosed with cancer, her mother, Laura, was struck by déjà vu. The same illness that took her sister's life was threatening to take her daughter's too. Heartbroken but steadfast, Laura pledged to help Susan through the worst of her treatments. When they discovered that Laura's homemade ginger cookies soothed the side effects of Susan's chemotherapy, the mother - daughter duo soon found themselves opening the business "Susansnaps" and sharing their gourmet gingersnaps with the world.

When unspeakable tragedy leaves young Eli an orphan, two families are devastated. But Taylor, Eli's aunt and legal guardian, vows to help him remember his parents by creating a Memory Quilt. As she begins piecing together the moments of his parents' lives, the story of the young family emerges and Taylor and Eli begin to heal. But Eli's uncle Reece is slow to let go of the past and still blames Taylor's brother for his sister's death. So, although he has long been attracted to Taylor, Reece keeps a safe distance away.

Tess has taken some ribbing from her fellow officer, Logan, for her quilting hobby. He finds it hard to align the brisk professional officer he patrols with during the day with the one who quilts in her off-time. Besides, he’s been trying to get to know her better and he’d like to be seeing her during those few nights a week she spends with her quilting guild. Then one afternoon Tess and Logan visit her aunt in the nursing home, and the woman acts agitated when Tess covers her with the story quilt. Aunt Susan is attempting to communicate a message to them about Tess’s uncle.

Surreal and strange, Katherine Vaz's Swan Sister follows a young girl who imagines away her baby sister's illness and death until the memory haunts her adult life, when she is a mother herself.

Coming-of-age is at its toughest in Dana Kletter's Night Song, where a mother and daughter become entwined with the same drug-addled trumpet player.