Audiobooks narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers

Gardening Can Be Murder: How Poisonous Poppies, Sinister Shovels, and Grim Gardens Have Inspired Mys

This fun, engrossing book takes a look at the surprising influence that gardens and gardening have had on mystery novels and their authors. With their deadly plants, razor-sharp shears, shady corners, and ready-made burial sites, gardens make an ideal scene for the perfect murder. But the outsize influence that gardens and gardening have had on the mystery genre has been underappreciated. Now, Marta McDowell, a writer and gardener with a near-encyclopedic knowledge of the genre, illuminates the many ways in which our greatest mystery writers, from Edgar Allen Poe to authors on today's bestseller lists, have found inspiration in the sinister side of gardens. From the cozy to the hardboiled, the literary to the pulp, and the classic to the contemporary, Gardening Can Be Murder is the first book to explore the mystery genre's many surprising horticultural connections. Meet plant-obsessed detectives and spooky groundskeeper suspects, witness toxic teas served in foul play, and tour the gardens-both real and imagined-that have been the settings for fiction's ghastliest misdeeds. A New York Times bestselling author herself, McDowell also introduces us to some of today's top writers who consider gardening integral to their craft, assuring that horticultural themes will remain a staple of the genre for countless twisting plots to come. "This book is dangerous. A veritable cornucopia of crime fiction and gardening lore, it faces the reader with multiple temptations-books to seek out, plants to obtain, garden tours to book." -Vicki Lane, author of the Elizabeth Goodweather Appalachian Mysteries

Marta Mcdowell (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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American Classicist: The Life and Loves of Edith Hamilton

A biography of the remarkable woman whose bestselling Mythology has introduced millions of readers to the classical world Edith Hamilton (1867–1963) didn’t publish her first book until she was sixty-two. But over the next three decades, this former headmistress would become the twentieth century’s most famous interpreter of the classical world. Today, Hamilton’s Mythology (1942) remains the standard version of ancient tales and sells tens of thousands of copies a year. During the Cold War, her influence even extended to politics, as she argued that postwar America could learn from the fate of Athens after its victory in the Persian Wars. In American Classicist, Victoria Houseman tells the fascinating life story of a remarkable classicist whose ideas were shaped by—and aspired to shape—her times. Hamilton studied Latin and Greek from an early age, earned a BA and MA at Bryn Mawr College, and ran a girls’ prep school for twenty-six years. After retiring, she turned to writing and began a relationship with the pianist and stockbroker Doris Fielding Reid. The two women were partners for more than forty years and entertained journalists, diplomats, and politicians in their Washington, D.C., house. Hamilton traveled extensively around the world, formed friendships with Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound, and was made an honorary citizen of Athens. While Hamilton believed that the ancient Greeks represented the peak of world civilization, Houseman shows that this suffragist, pacifist, and anti-imperialist wasfar from an apologist for Western triumphalism. An absorbing narrative of an eventful life, American Classicist reveals how Hamilton’s Greek and Roman worlds held up a mirror to midcentury America even as she strived to convey a timeless beauty that continues to enthrall readers.

Victoria Houseman (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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The War of Words: How America’s GI Journalists Battled Censorship and Propaganda to Help Win World W

From New York Times bestselling author Molly Guptill Manning comes The War of Words, the captivating story of how American troops in World War II wielded pens to tell their own stories as they made history. At a time when civilian periodicals faced strict censorship, US Army Chief of Staff George Marshall won the support of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to create an expansive troop-newspaper program. Both Marshall and FDR recognized that there was a second struggle taking place outside the battlefields of World War II—the war of words. While Hitler inundated the globe with propaganda, morale across the US Army dwindled. As the Axis blurred the lines between truth and fiction, the best defense was for American troops to bring the truth into focus by writing it down and disseminating it themselves. By war’s end, over 4,600 unique GI publications had been printed around the world. In newsprint, troops made sense of their hardships, losses, and reasons for fighting. These newspapers—by and for the troops—became the heart and soul of a unit. From Normandy to the shores of Japan, American soldiers exercised a level of free speech the military had never known nor would again. It was an extraordinary chapter in American democracy and military history. In the war for “four freedoms,” it was remarkably fitting that troops fought not only with guns but with their pens. This stunning volume includes fourteen pages of photographs and illustrations.

Molly Guptill Manning (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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The New Roaring Twenties: Prosper in Volatile Times

The world and its economic foundations are shifting beneath our feet. We are at the threshold of the new roaring twenties—a resurgent era of technology-driven advancement with greater financial equality and economic expansion. Not unlike the famed decade of the previous century, our next ten years will be filled with striking cultural shifts, new challenges, and, ultimately, abundant financial opportunities. Paul Zane Pilzer, the economist/entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author, sees a better world on the horizon. In The New Roaring Twenties, he imparts inspiration and a new template for escaping the shadow of a global pandemic, with all its fallout, and stepping into the resplendent possibilities of the future. Pilzer details eleven economic and societal pillars that will be essential for navigating our new world: Economic: Explosive technology-driven wealth An energy revolution Job market upheaval Accelerated arrival of AI robots The gig economy Universal Basic Income opportunities Societal: Growing influence of Millennials Expansion of the sharing revolution Consumer surplus Shift from material consumption toward better quality of life A new Pax China/Americana Drawing on what these eleven pillars tell us about who we have been and who we are becoming, Pilzer shares practical guidance for thriving in the uncharted territory of the next decade. The New Roaring Twenties offers solid ground in a shifting world, revealing the principles that will allow you to find new pathways to financial success and personal happiness.

Paul Zane Pilzer (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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The Bonobo Sisterhood: Revolution Through Female Alliance

Foreword by Ashley Judd “Rosenfeld’s tour-de-force takes the power of female alliances to a higher level, giving us a road map for a new vision of women’s equality through the relationships and bonds we form among one another. The gift of this book is that it gives us hope.”—Valerie Jarrett, New York Times bestselling author of Finding My Voice, and former senior advisor to President Barack Obama The Bonobo Sisterhood is a revolutionary call to action for women and their allies to protect one another from patriarchal violence. Internationally recognized legal expert Diane L. Rosenfeld introduces us to a groundbreaking new model of female solidarity; one that promises to thwart sexual coercion. Urgent, timely, and original, The Bonobo Sisterhood harnesses the power of the #MeToo movement into a road map for sex equality in humans. Our closest evolutionary cousins, the bonobos have a unique social order in which the females protect one another from male aggression. The takeaway? Evolutionarily, bonobos have eliminated sexual coercion and enjoy a more peaceful, cooperative, and playful existence. We have much to learn from them. Rosenfeld explores the implications of the bonobo model for human societies and systems of governance. How did law develop to elude women’s rights so consistently? What difference does it make that we live in a patriarchal democracy? And what do bonobos have to offer as living proof that patriarchy is not inevitable? Most important, how can women break down barriers among themselves to unleash their power as a unified force? Rosenfeld has answers. The Bonobo Sisterhood takes us through real-life stories from the courtroom to the classroom and beyond, charting a new vision of a collective self-defense among women and their allies. It offers an action plan accessible to everyone immediately. This is an open invitation to anyone who wants to challenge the status quo. It starts with the power inherent in each of us knowing that we have selves worth defending, and awakening that power for ourselves and for our sisters. We now have a new model for real change, Rosenfeld reminds us. It’s time to use it. The Bonobo Sisterhood forges a path to create and discover a new meaning of equality, liberty, and justice for all.

Diane Rosenfeld (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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Ghost Eaters: A Novel

A terrifying supernatural page-turner that explores ghosts, grief, and god complexes Ever since their on-again, off-again college romance, Erin hasn’t been able to set a single boundary with charismatic but reckless Silas, who has been chasing the next big high since graduation. When he texts her to spring him out of rehab, she knows enough is enough. She is ready to start a career, make new friends, and meet a great guy—even if that means cutting Silas off. But when Silas turns up dead from an overdose, Erin’s world falls apart. When Erin learns that Silas discovered a drug that allowed him to see the dead, she doesn’t believe it’s real but agrees to a pill-popping “séance” to ease her guilt and pain. When she steps back into the real world, she starts to see ghosts everywhere from her Southern hometown’s bloody and brutal past. Are the effects pharmacological or something more sinister? And will Erin be able to shut the Pandora’s box of horrors she has opened? With propulsive momentum, bone-chilling scares, and dark meditations on the weight of history, this Southern horror will make you think twice about opening doors to the unknown.

Clay Mcleod Chapman (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodi

The travel bible for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and/or mood and distraction disorders, offering helpful tips to soothe any child's travel anxieties. Traveling with children can be challenging, but for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and/or mood and attention disorders it can be especially intimidating. How should parents of children experiencing sensory meltdowns deal with clueless and judgmental onlookers? What are the best methods to alleviate motion sickness when your child might already be on a cocktail of drugs? Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse answers these and hundreds of other questions parents may have when traveling with their children.

Dawn M. Barclay (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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Still So Strange

MONSTROUS BARGAINS AND BALLADS Drawing heavily on Lovecraftiana and myth, these are tales of devil’s bargains, love songs to monsters, and the people?human and otherwise?who inhabit liminal spaces. Ghosts, gods, and ghouls make their way as best they can, one step sideways from the mortals around them. Many are connected; some are puzzle pieces that don’t quite fit. Spanning a decade of writing, Still So Strange is Amanda Downum's first collection of short fiction, and includes stories originally released in Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales, as well as original, unpublished work.

Amanda Downum (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic and Change

How do we begin to cope with loss that cannot be resolved? The COVID-19 pandemic has left many of us haunted by feelings of anxiety, despair, and even anger. In this audiobook, pioneering therapist Pauline Boss identifies these vague feelings of distress as caused by ambiguous loss, losses that remain unclear and hard to pin down, and thus have no closure. Collectively the world is grieving as the pandemic continues to change our everyday lives. With a loss of trust in the world as a safe place, a loss of certainty about health care, education, and employment, lingering anxieties plague many of us, even as parts of the world are opening back up again. Yet after so much loss, our search must be for a sense of meaning, and not something as elusive and impossible as "closure." This book provides many strategies for coping: encouraging us to increase our tolerance of ambiguity and acknowledging our resilience as we express a normal grief, and still look to the future with hope and possibility.

Pauline Boss (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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Bias Interrupted: Creating Inclusion For Real and For Good

A cutting edge, relentless, objective approach to inclusion. Companies spend billions of dollars annually on diversity efforts, with remarkably few results. Too often diversity efforts rest on the assumption that all that's needed is an earnest conversation about 'privilege.' That's not enough. To truly make progress with diversity, equity and inclusion, we must focus less on documenting the problem and more on just stopping the transmission of it. In Bias Interrupted, Joan C. Williams shows how it's done, and reassuringly, how easy it is to get started. Leaders just need to use standard business systems and standard business tools-data and metrics-to interrupt the bias that is constantly transmitted through formal systems like performance appraisals and the informal systems that control access to opportunities, like mentoring programs. The book presents fresh evidence based on Williams's research and work with companies, in that interrupting bias helps every group-including white men. Comprehensive, though compact and straightforward, Bias Interrupted delivers real, practical value in as efficient and accessible manner as possible to an audience that has never needed it more. It's possible to interrupt bias. Here's where you start.

Joan C. Williams (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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Succubus Blues

When it comes to jobs in hell, being a succubus seems pretty glamorous. A girl can be anything she wants, the wardrobe is killer, and mortal men will do anything just for a touch. Granted, they often pay with their souls, but why get technical? But Seattle succubus Georgina Kincaid's life is far less exotic. At least there's her day job at a local bookstore-free books; all the white chocolate mochas she can drink; and easy access to bestselling, sexy writer, Seth Mortensen, aka He Whom She Would Give Anything to Touch but Can't. But dreaming about Seth will have to wait. Something wicked is at work in Seattle's demon underground. And for once, all of her hot charms and drop-dead one-liners won't help because Georgina's about to discover there are some creatures out there that both heaven and hell want to deny . . .

Richelle Mead (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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Succubus On Top

Love hurts, and no one knows it better than Georgina Kincaid. If she so much as kisses Seth Mortensen, the shy, sexy writer she's been dating, she'll drain his life force. Admittedly, the shapeshifting and immortality perks of a succubus are terrific, but it's completely unfair that a she-demon whose purpose is seduction can't get down with the one mortal who accepts her for who she is . . . It's not just her personal life that's in chaos. Doug, Georgina's co-worker at a local bookstore, has been exhibiting bizarre behavior, and Georgina suspects something far more demonic than double espressos. She could use an assist from Bastien, an irresistibly charming incubus and her best immortal friend, but he's giving Georgina some highly distracting come-hither vibes. Georgina is going to have to work solo on this one-and fast, because soon, Doug's life won't be the only one on the line . . .

Richelle Mead (Author), Elisabeth Rodgers (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Elisabeth Rodgers