Showing results by narrator "Susan Bennett" in All Categories

Few of us need convincing that the American health insurance system needs reform. But many of the existing proposals focus on expanding one relatively successful piece of the system or building in piecemeal additions. These proposals miss the point. As the Stanford health economist Liran Einav and the MIT economist and MacArthur Genius Amy Finkelstein argue, our health care system was never deliberately designed, but rather pieced together to deal with issues as they became politically relevant.

When Janey Sweet, CEO of a couture wedding dress company, is photographed in the front row of a fashion show eating a bruffin - the delicious lovechild of a brioche and a muffin - her best friend and business partner, Beau, gives her an ultimatum: lose 30 pounds or lose your job. Sure, Janey has gained some weight since her divorce, and no, her beautifully cut trousers don't fit like they used to, so Janey throws herself headlong into the world of the fitness revolution.

Lane Driscoll has been having nightmares where she’s chased by a strange man. When she has a threatening run-in with someone who looks just like the man from her dreams, she decides to leave her hometown until she figures out what’s going on. Lane seeks refuge in beautiful Mystic Creek, where she gets a job working at the local perfume shop. Soon after she arrives, a handsome customer seems to think he recognizes Lane, but calls her by the wrong name.

Ever since his mother was killed, 17-year-old Cayder Broduck has had one goal - to see illegal users of magic brought to justice. People who carelessly use extradimensional magic for their own self-interest, without a care to the damage it does to society or those around them, deserve to be punished as far as Cayder is concerned. Because magic always has a price. So when Cayder lands a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to apprentice under a premier public defender, he takes it.

In Start More Than You Can Finish, writer, artist, and entrepreneur Becky Blades offers a powerful new mindset for our modern world: acting on more ideas makes us happier—and reveals our highest creativity. She empowers listeners to become "stARTists"—initiators with a bias for action and the courage to ignite ideas—and introduces the concept of "stARTistry. Start More Than You Can Finish challenges the tropes our dads, moms, and third-grade teachers told us about finishing. In today's world, we must, in fact, start more than we can finish.

Against the backdrop of the wave of demonstrations known as the Arab Spring, in 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets demanding freedom, democracy, and human rights. The government's ferocious response, and the refusal of the demonstrators to back down, sparked a brutal civil war that over the past five years has escalated into the worst humanitarian catastrophe of our times. Yet despite all the reporting, the video, and the wrenching photography, the stories of ordinary Syrians remain unheard.

A broken promise reveals a terrifying legacy in this electrifying novel from the New York Times best-selling author of When All the Girls Have Gone. Seattle gallery owner Virginia Troy has spent years battling the demons that stem from her childhood time in a cult and the night a fire burned through the compound, killing her mother. And now one of her artists has taken her own life, but not before sending Virginia a last picture: a painting that makes Virginia doubt everything about the so-called suicide.

Oz Adway is a rare breed: an accountant who wants to get dirty. And, by the way, a wolf shifter working for the Interspecies Placement Agency. Bored with his safe office job, he volunteers to find runaway bear cub Sally Smalls, recently orphaned by a plane crash. Piece of cake, right? Unfortunately, Sally's taken refuge with "ordinary" human Lila Kai, a reluctant guardian who has no idea what's going on, but will destroy anyone who tries to take the cub.

Mojo is trying to enjoy her lovely new home, courtesy of her wealthy sister, Greer, but she'd rather be back in her apartment over Bad-Ass Bert's Biker Saloon in Cave Creek, Arizona. Life was a lot simpler then. Now her sexy cop boyfriend can't seem to let go of his past, while her sister's being blackmailed for secrets in hers. And Mojo's stuck in the middle again. Then there's the ghost who comes to her for help...and the threats being made against the still-living.

Verity Lane might be a Shifter who can't shift (known as a "squib"), but woe betide anyone who tries to tell her who she is or what she's capable of. She's a proud member of a club for squibs out to prove themselves by participating in dangerous stunts. Which is probably how she ended up on this strange island....

Best known for his glorious comic novels, Charles Portis was also a prolific essayist, travel writer, and newspaper reporter. Now, for the first time, these writings—journalism, short fiction, memoir, travel stories, and even a play—have been brought together in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany. The collection encompasses the breadth of Portis’s fifty-year writing career, covering topics as varied as road tripping in Baja, Elvis’s visits to his aging mother, and his own boyhood in Arkansas.

In this uplifting holiday novel from New York Times bestselling author Fern Michaels, there are secrets to be uncovered, friendships to deepen, and romance in the air when four women travel to Italy for a Christmas to remember....

For as long as she can remember, Allie Massey, a gifted physical therapist, has dreamed of making her grandparents' ten-acre estate into a trauma recovery center using equine therapy—a dream her grandmother, Nana Dale, embraced wholeheartedly. But when her grandmother's will is read, Allie is shocked to learn the property has been sold to a developer.

It’s George and Mara Spencer’s 25th wedding anniversary, and the Spencer daughters are finally back under the same roof again: Lottie, the youngest, Mara’s adored only child, and Lottie’s two older half-sisters, Dinah and Vaughan, the daughters of George’s first marriage - a marriage that ended in a terrible tragedy, with the death of his beautiful young wife. In the years since, their father has found happiness again...but on this hot summer day in Birch Bend, when catastrophe strikes at the anniversary party.

When Carly Sears, a young woman widowed by the Vietnam War, receives the news that her unborn baby girl has a heart defect, she is devastated. It is 1970, and she is told nothing can be done to help her child. But her brother-in-law, a physicist with a mysterious past, tells her that perhaps there is a way to save her baby. What he suggests is something that will shatter every preconceived notion Carly has. Something that will require a kind of strength and courage she never knew existed. Something that will mean an unimaginable leap of faith on Carly's part.

In nine short stories and one brand-new, never-before-heard Sherlock Holmes mystery, Laurie R. King blends her long-running brand of crime fiction with historical treats and narrative sleight of hand, starting with England's declaration of war in 1914. As told in Mary Russell's teenage diaries, the whip-smart girl investigates familial mysteries, tracks German spies through San Francisco and generally delights with her extraordinary mind - until an unimaginable tragedy strikes.

Phoebe has loved Jake Pierce since childhood, and that love continues without hesitation while she watches him create a financial dynasty. But when Phoebe learns that her husband's triumphs are the result of an elaborate Ponzi scheme, her world unravels. Lies underpin her life and marriage. And as Jake's crime is uncovered, the world obsesses over her. Did she know her gilded life was fabricated by fraud?

The comprehensive fifth edition of the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book draws upon the knowledge and expertise of more than 4,500 physicians, scientists, and researchers. Prior editions of this trusted medical reference guide have sold more than 1.5 million copies. And with 38 chapters, this new, updated edition will provide the information people need to check symptoms; understand prevention and treatment options; and so much more.

Diamonds are no one’s best friend when the jewels in question are smuggled conflict gems. Meg Jennings and her Labrador, Hawk, have undertaken many search-and-rescue missions, but this case has an unusual twist. A Philadelphia syndicate is importing diamonds from war-torn African nations and selling them with fake certificates to Stateside dealers.

Keeping their search-and-rescue skills honed isn’t just a job requirement for FBI Special Agent Meg Jennings and her Labrador, Hawk—it’s essential to saving lives. A water search training weekend in the Boundary Waters area of Minnesota has attracted participants from all levels of law enforcement, each vying to win. The races are challenging, the rivalry is intense, and Meg is already under pressure when Hawk alerts to a scent in the water—and discovers the fresh body of one of Meg’s fellow competitors.