Showing results by narrator "Alex Picard" in All Categories

In this unflinching and riveting coming-of-age memoir, Patricia Grayhall battles sexism in a male-dominated profession. She plunges into a life that is never boring—and certainly never without passion. Tossed around in the rough seas of medical training, chronically exhausted and emotionally drained, Patricia chafes at the toxic masculinity of the culture of medicine facing many of the same issues women face in male-dominated fields today.

Luckily for humanity, scientist Marie Curie applied her brilliant mind and indomitable spirit to expanding the frontiers of science, but what if she had instead drifted toward the darkness? At the cusp of between child- and adulthood, at the crossroads between science and superstition, a teen Marie Curie faces the factual and the fantastic in this fabulous collection of stories that inspire, delight, and ask the question: What if she had used her talents for diabolical purposes?

This is the story of a Canadian woman who was in the Advanced Training Institute, run by Bill Gothard, for fourteen years. The amazing thing is that she never knew she was in a cult until several years after she was out. That's what happened to Christine in 2014. She has spent the past nine years trying to deprogram and change the way she sees the world. Join her as she navigates the cult, goes through a divorce, finds out she was in a cult and subsequently has to unlearn all she believed to be true.

Retirement isn't easy for a former CIA assassin. For fifty-five-year-old Helen Warwick, it may be impossible. Even Helen's family doesn't know the true nature of the work she's done for decades—the secret black ops, the sanctioned executions. But her plan to spend time reconnecting with her grown children has just been blown up-along with her son's house—by hired killers. Why is she being targeted now—and by whom?

Josephine teaches philosophy in a high school in Drancy, a suburb of Paris. Her life is a balancing act between Xanax, Propranolol, and Tupperware lunches in the staff room. The directives of the National Education Board are increasingly absurd and intolerable and she follows them with playfulness at times and derision at others. When, one evening, Josephine walks into a strip club on the Champs-Elysée, her life is completely overturned.

As an elite assassin for the CIA, Helen Warwick was trained to keep a low profile. But now that she's retired, she's forced to take on a very different, and very public, role—as the proud mother of a rising young politician. At a DC press conference for her son's campaign, she sees the ominous green light of a gun laser fixed on her son's head, and her CIA training kicks in. She jumps into action, pushes her son down, and saves him from a sniper's bullet. In that moment, Helen realizes she will never escape the secrets of her past—or the deranged man she thought she killed.

I Never Said I Love You is the story of an unlikely love affair between two young people, spanning two decades. Listeners will take a journey across the globe as the couple, years later, unexpectedly reconnect, revisit the past, and ultimately find their own way forward.

For years the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security has curated an interactive online tool for professionals that identifies the activities involved across all phases of an outbreak. The Georgetown Outbreak Activity Library (GOAL) captures what needs to get done, when, and by whom. Now, in The Outbreak Atlas, Rebecca Katz and Mackenzie S. Moore have translated this complex material into a book designed for a public audience.

Hundreds of years in the future, humans have spread into the stars, with wealthy nation-states settling and colonizing habitable planets, though the deep-seated conflicts of modern humanity have regrettably persisted. Newly appointed Commander Persistence Andrews has to navigate the power struggles of greed, power, and ego, but this woman has grit like no other.

Victoria Tate has had enough of her controlling, incompetent husband Warren. But planning the perfect murder is more difficult than she expected. When the social event of the year, an over-the-top costume ball, is rescheduled for the date she has selected for her crime, Victoria has to scramble to make sure she will still be able to follow through. But even hours of listening to crime podcasts cannot prepare her for the next wrench that is thrown into her plans: Warren turns up dead by someone else's hand.

How do you mark a quarter century? While parties are great—and we'll have those—I wanted to distill the time in a tangible way. To hold it in my hands, and share with you, dear listeners, in celebration and appreciation. But how? A collection! I dove into my published short fiction. Some I included because they were challenging to write. Several show my growth as a writer. I love them all. There's science fiction, fantasy, and, yes, horror. Plus an all-new story from Night's Edge.

As a board-certified family physician, Dr. Laurie Blanscet soon realized that traditional medical care was not about preventing problems. It was about waiting for problems to happen. She experienced this firsthand in 2006 when she almost died after a "routine" surgery at the age of 38. As she fought her way back from the brink of death, weak and bedridden, she dedicated herself to researching a better way to live—promoting optimal health from within. In Live Long, Live Well, Dr. Blanscet shares what she discovered, revealing the seven components of ultimate wellness.

Peer through the windows of Raven Day McShane’s life as she leaves her army life for the civilian world—not an easy task for any military veteran. With undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, Raven and her son, Aaron, encounter tremendous hardships as they journey through life, not always together, ultimately to learn that life is not how we plan. But together or apart, they realize that they can put life back together with faith in each other and with love.

Renaldo Calabasas may be the most talented writer Heron High has produced. But at the height of the AIDS crisis and amidst the homophobia present most everywhere in 1986, not many of his fellow students seem to agree. But something changes the night Rene is struck by lightning and only his closest friend, Katie, and love interest, Tommy, can tell he's undergone some inexplicable transformation.

It is 1965, and Cora, a young, hearing impaired woman, buys a one-way ticket to the island of St. Thomas, where she discovers four dolphins held in captivity as part of an experiment led by the obsessive Dr. Blum. Drawn by a strong connection to the dolphins, Cora falls in with the scientists and discovers her need to protect the animals.

Across forty years, three continents, and a past incident in 1560 France, Serafina Olegario tests the boundaries of love, power, and corruption as she fights to escape her life of poverty and abuse. Serafina’s quest begins in Brazil when she’s possessed by the warrior goddess Yansã, who emboldens her to fight yet threatens to consume her spirit. Fueled by power and enticed by Exú, an immortal trickster and intermediary to the gods, Serafina turns to the seductive magic of Quimbanda. It’s dangerous to dance in the fire. But when you come from nothing, you have nothing to lose.

This is the story of New York City, told through the prism of one block, bordered by 23rd Street to the south, 24th Street to the north, Fifth Avenue and Broadway to the east and Sixth Avenue to the west. It’s a story of forest and cement, bird cries and taxi horns, theatres and factories, gambling dens and gourmet foods. It’s also the story of high life and low life, immigrants and tourists, farmers and aristocrats, crooked cops and moral reformers, toy stores and social climbers

Something strange is going on next door. Suspicious that an elderly neighbor may be in danger, Barbara and her friend Vicky investigate mysterious activities down the street. Barbara also has worries further from home, as a certain attractive but crooked restaurant owner has discovered the part she played in his downfall. Can Barbara uncover the truth next door without being blind to a more shadowy danger across town?

A violent assault on a door-to-door salesman leaves the man's life hanging in the balance as Barbara, Craig, and Deputy Elwood search for answers. Was it the victim's estranged wife? A business competitor? A dissatisfied customer?

Mary Mulligan has two problems: her wisdom teeth…and everything else. Her only daughter is moving overseas. Her husband would rather go golfing than spend time with her. And Mary’s left to wonder why she abandoned her career ambitions when loneliness is all she has to show for it. Plus her teeth really, really hurt. But that’s one problem she can fix—never mind the stories that say if she gets her wisdom teeth removed, the last thirty years of her life will be erased. In fact, Mary wouldn’t mind if the Mulligan curse were actually true.