Audiobooks narrated by Rosemary Benson

A Time for War: Veterans' Stories from One American Town: Scituate, Massachusetts

From Vietnam vet Ronald Wheatley, A Time for War features in-depth interviews with sixty-five veterans who served in WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as stories of veterans from the Revolutionary, Civil and Cold Wars. These are enlisted men and women, officers and volunteers, connected by a small seacoast town located midway between Boston and Plymouth. A Time for War is a rigorous and moving exploration of what it means to serve in war, from the chaos of combat to the idealism that drives people to enlist. A poignant look into the character, service, and sacrifice of rural Americans in military duty, the book includes articles about Paul R. Brown, a WWII B-17 bombardier and POW; Rick English, a naval flight officer during Operation Desert Storm; Frank Moody, a communications officer aboard a nuclear-powered submarine during the Cold War; and four-star general George Casey. “This work, fashioned over twenty years, is a marvelous testament to the diversity of those who have participated in American conflicts and of their many and sundry expressions of patriotism…a valuable historical record of martial valor that’s well-researched, intelligently organized, and lovingly offered. An engaging journalistic account of American military and civilian service during wartime.”—Kirkus Reviews

Ronald B. Wheatley (Author), Johnny Heller, Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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A World Without Soil: The Past, Present, and Precarious Future of the Earth Beneath Our Feet

A scientist's manifesto addressing a soil loss crisis accelerated by poor conservation practices and climate change This book by celebrated biologist Jo Handelsman lays bare the complex connections among climate change, soil erosion, food and water security, and drug discovery. Humans depend on soil for 95 percent of global food production, yet let it erode at unsustainable rates. In the United States, China, and India, vast tracts of farmland will be barren of topsoil within this century. The combination of intensifying erosion caused by climate change and the increasing food needs of a growing world population is creating a desperate need for solutions to this crisis. Writing for a nonspecialist audience, Jo Handelsman celebrates the capacities of soil and explores the soil-related challenges of the near future. She begins by telling soil's origin story, explains how it erodes and the subsequent repercussions worldwide, and offers solutions. She considers lessons learned from indigenous people who have sustainably farmed the same land for thousands of years, practices developed for large-scale agriculture, and proposals using technology and policy initiatives.

Jo Handelsman (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief

When a loved one dies we mourn our loss. We take comfort in the rituals that mark the passing, and we turn to those around us for support. But what happens when there is no closure, when a family member or a friend who may be still alive is lost to us nonetheless? How, for example, does the mother whose soldier son is missing in action, or the family of an Alzheimer's patient who is suffering from severe dementia, deal with the uncertainty surrounding this kind of loss? In this sensitive and lucid account, Pauline Boss explains that, all too often, those confronted with such ambiguous loss fluctuate between hope and hopelessness. Suffered too long, these emotions can deaden feeling and make it impossible for people to move on with their lives. Yet the central message of this book is that they can move on. Drawing on her research and clinical experience, Boss suggests strategies that can cushion the pain and help families come to terms with their grief. Her work features the heartening narratives of those who cope with ambiguous loss and manage to leave their sadness behind, including those who have lost family members to divorce, immigration, adoption, chronic mental illness, and brain injury. With its message of hope, this eloquent book offers guidance and understanding to those struggling to regain their lives.

Pauline Boss Phd, Pauline Boss, Ph.D., Pauline Boss, Phd (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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An Improbable Pairing

It began as a simple flirtation . . . In September of 1963, Scott Stoddard, an American graduate student, is traveling to Switzerland, when he meets the Countess de Rovere, a French divorcee; he is smitten, and she is intrigued. What begins as a little coquetry soon becomes a serious love affair, much to the consternation of the Countess’s ex-husband and mother, not to mention the Countess’s friends of European high society. A meeting of equals poses problems enough, but what about one between two people who seem to have so many differences? And when a man of traditional attitudes couples with an independent and self-confident woman, something’s got to give. It won’t be the countess. As their liaison transcends an affair that cannot be dismissed, they all agree that something must be done. An Improbable Pairing is a historical romance that chronicles the enduring themes of a young man’s coming of age and the rebellious love of the mismatched. This pas de deux, set in the golden years of 1960s Paris, Geneva, Gstaad, and Cannes, provides an insider’s peek into the worlds of haute couture, three-star gourmet restaurants, and lavish hotel suites—the domains of rank and privilege. But society’s privileged resist when an interloper threatens to upset their cozy structure.

Gary Dickson (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Anxious Eaters: Why We Fall for Fad Diets

What makes fad diets so appealing to so many people? How did there get to be so many different ones, often with eerily similar prescriptions? Why do people cycle on and off diets, perpetually searching for that one simple trick that will solve everything? And how did these fads become so central to conversations about food and nutrition? Anxious Eaters shows that fad diets are popular because they fulfill crucial social and psychological needs-which is also why they tend to fail. Janet Chrzan and Kima Cargill bring together anthropology, psychology, and nutrition to explore what these programs promise yet rarely fulfill for dieters. Considering dietary beliefs and practices in terms of culture, nutrition, and individual psychological needs, Anxious Eaters refrains from moralizing or promoting a 'right' way to eat. Instead, it offers new ways of understanding the popularity of a wide range of eating trends, including the Atkins Diet and other low- or no-carb diets; beliefs that ingredients like wheat products and sugars are toxic, allergenic, or addictive; food avoidance and 'Clean Eating' practices; and paleo or primal diets. Anxious Eaters sheds new light on why people adopt such diets and why these diets remain so attractive even though they often fail.

Janet Chrzan, Kima Cargill (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Asylum Between Nations: Refugees in a Revolutionary Era

Why some of the most vulnerable communities in Europe, from independent cities to new monarchies, welcomed refugees during the Age of Revolutions and prospered Driven from their homelands, refugees from ancient times to the present have sought asylum in worlds turned upside down. Theirs is an age-old story. So too are the solutions to their plight. In the wake of the American and French Revolutions, thousands of men and women took to the roads and waterways on both sides of the Atlantic-refugees in search of their inalienable rights. Although larger nations fortified their borders and circumscribed citizenship, two port cities, German Hamburg and Danish Altona, opened their doors, as did the federated Swiss cantons and the newly independent Belgian monarchy. The refugees thrived and the societies that harbored them prospered. The United States followed, not only welcoming waves of immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century but offering them citizenship as well. In this remarkable story of the first modern refugee crisis, historian Janet Polasky shows how open doors can be a viable alternative to the building of border walls.

Janet Polasky (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Because of Sex: One Law, Ten Cases, and Fifty Years That Changed American Women's Lives at Work

Best known as a monumental achievement of the civil rights movement, the 1964 Civil Rights Act also revolutionized the lives of America's working women. Title VII of the law made it illegal to discriminate 'because of sex.' But that simple phrase didn't mean much until ordinary women began using the law to get justice on the job-and some took their fights all the way to the Supreme Court. Among them were Ida Phillips, denied an assembly line job because she had a preschool-age child; Kim Rawlinson, who fought to become a prison guard-a 'man's job'; Mechelle Vinson, who brought a lawsuit for sexual abuse before 'sexual harassment' even had a name; and most recently, Peggy Young, UPS truck driver, forced to take an unpaid leave while pregnant because she asked for a temporary reprieve from heavy lifting. These unsung heroines' victories, and those of the other women profiled in Gillian Thomas's Because of Sex, dismantled a Mad Men world where women could only hope to play supporting roles; where sexual harassment was 'just the way things are'; and where pregnancy meant getting a pink slip. Through first-person accounts and vivid narrative, Because of Sex tells the story of how one law, our highest court, and a few tenacious women changed the American workplace forever.

Gillian Thomas (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Come Sit with Me: How to Delight in Differences, Love through Disagreements, and Live with Discomfor

Being human is hard. Being in relationships with other humans is even harder. People are complex and relationships are messy but loving one another well is possible. Whether navigating political or religious differences, or dealing with toxic people or our own unforgiveness, this book tackles the struggles no one really wants to talk about. But there is hope! We can actually grow closer to God and others through the circumstances we'd rather run from. In Come Sit with Me, twenty-six (in)courage writers help you navigate tough relational tensions by revealing their own hard-fought, grace-filled learning moments. They show you how to delight in your differences, honor and value others even when you disagree, connect before you correct, trust that God is working even when people disappoint you, and live and love like Jesus by serving others. Whether you're in the middle of a conflict without resolution or wondering how to enter into a friend's pain, this book will serve as a gentle guide. Discover how God can work through your disagreements, differences, and discomfort in ways you might never expect.

(in)courage (Author), Kathleen Li, Lisa Reneé Pitts, Rosemary Benson, Siiri Scott (Narrator)

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Contagious You: Unlock Your Power to Influence, Lead, and Create the Impact You Want

The much-anticipated follow-up to Contagious Culture shows aspiring leaders how to embody the qualities they wish to cultivate in their organizations. In Contagious Culture, Anese Cavanaugh proved that it's possible to create an energized and engaged organizational culture that spreads from person to person. Now, in Contagious You, she hones in on the individual, showing us how each of us is contagious in our own way and stressing the importance of leading with intention to achieve positive results. For anyone who's sought to create change, or felt sucked into the drama and chaos of a toxic work environment, this book will advance the notion that everyone at an organization is a leader - for good or for bad - and that leaders have tremendous power to influence those who follow their example. The quality of our leadership is based upon our intentions, energy, and presence. By emphasizing authorship, self-care, and response-ability (not responsibility) as leadership skills and therefore cultural amplifiers, Contagious You shows you how to walk the path of more effective leadership while navigating the road blocks in your way. Whether these road blocks are working with negative co-workers with secret agendas and unrealistic expectations, or just the general "busyness" of life and its excessive demands, this book will take you on a journey to create more space, more courageous leadership, and stronger collaboration to influence others and create the impact you desire. The common denominator is YOU. No matter what level you're on, your intentions, energy, and presence impact your ability to do anything within your life. Contagious You is an invitation to UNLOCK your own power. YOU set the tone. YOU are the culture. So show up, lead, and intentionally become the change you wish to see.

Anese Cavanaugh (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Creation and the Cross: The Mercy of God for a Planet in Peril

In this fresh creative approach to theology, Elizabeth Johnson asks how we can understand cosmic redemption in a time of advancing ecological devastation. In effect, how can we extend the core Christian belief in salvation to include all created beings? Immediately this question runs into a formidable obstacle: the idea that Jesus's death on the cross was required as atonement for human sin-a theology laid out by the eleventh-century theologian St. Anselm. Constructing her argument (like Anselm) in the form of a dialogue, Johnson lays out the foundations in scripture, the teachings of Jesus, and the early Church for an understanding that emphasizes the love and mercy of God, showing how this approach can help us respond to a planet in peril.

Elizabeth A. Johnson (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Crow Hollow

In 1676, an unlikely pair—a young Puritan widow and an English spy—journeys across a land where greed and treachery abound. Prudence Cotton has recently lost her husband and is desperate to find her daughter, captured by the Nipmuk tribe during King Philip’s war. She’s convinced her daughter is alive but cannot track her into the wilderness alone. Help arrives in the form of James Bailey, an agent of the crown sent to Boston to investigate the murder of Prudence’s husband and to covertly cause a disturbance that would give the king just cause to install royal governors. After his partner is murdered, James needs help too. He strikes a deal with Prudence, and together they traverse the forbidding New England landscape looking for clues. What they confront in the wilderness—and what they discover about each other—could forever change their allegiances and alter their destinies.

Michael Wallace (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Crushing Quota: Proven Sales Coaching Tactics for Breakthrough Performance

Make sales coaching a daily priority for top-of-game staff performance Those who do it right prove time and time again that sales coaching works. If you're one of the many managers yet to reap the benefits of sales coaching, the solution is in your hands. Based on one of today's most popular sales training programs Crushing Quota breaks the process down into manageable components, so you can make sales coaching a realistic, meaningful part of your staff's job. It all comes down to three critical points that the vast majority of sales managers today are missing: * Provide clear direction for sellers on how to get to quota-for all sales roles * Ensure effective execution by coaching the right things, in the right measure, executed the right way * Assess seller performance and make timely course corrections It's all about helping your people make the best use of their time and effort. That's what coaches do. When a salesperson is skilled at making important decisions about which priorities to pursue and which ones to ignore to-results follow. It's that simple. Crushing Quota teaches you how to develop the best coaching approach for your teams and their individual sellers using powerful research-based best practices. This is the definitive guide to making sales coaching work for any sales team in any industry.

Jason Jordan, Michelle Vazzana (Author), Rosemary Benson (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Rosemary Benson