Showing results by narrator "Erica Sullivan" in All Categories

Aven knows she is an expert baker of cakes and cookies since she has been baking with her mom for a really long time. Plus no one bakes quite like she does. She cracks eggs with her feet and measures sugar and flour with her feet—plus measuring cups—since she was born without arms. And now Aven has her eye on the prize: a beautiful blue ribbon for baking at the county fair. So she teams up with her friends Kayla, Emily, and Sujata. But it turns out they all have very different tastes and a lot of opinions about baking.

Early in her career, Katie Pryal learned that being a professor isn’t easy if your brain isn’t quite right. “I was a junior in college when I finally realized that I was different in a way that my medically inclined parents would call ‘clinical.’” In these deeply personal, fiery essays, Pryal tells her story of transformation that began the moment she chose to publicly disclose her own mental illness and leave her career in higher education to begin fighting for a better world for people with psychiatric disabilities.

Two young women attending college decide to have a summer adventure canoeing the rapids-strewn Thelon River that runs 450 miles through the uninhabited Barren Lands of subarctic Canada. Holly made the trip once before with a group of skilled paddlers she trained with at camp, and she wants to share that experience with her friend and lover, Lee, believing it will draw them closer. But a week in, Holly, the risk-taker, falls while taking a selfie near the edge of a cliff. She is left injured and comatose, and soon dies.

In How We Disappear, award-winning author Tara Lynn Masih offers listeners transporting and compelling stories of those taken, those missing, and those neither here nor gone—runaways, exiles, wanderers, ghosts, even the elusive Dame Agatha Christie. From the remote Siberian taiga to the harsh American frontier, from rural Long Island to postwar Belgium, Masih’s characters are diverse in identity and circumstance, defying the burden of erasure by disappearing into or emerging from physical and emotional landscapes.

Cara Foster is, one might say, eco-anxious—perhaps even eco-neurotic. She eats out of dumpsters—not because she wants to but because it’s the right thing to do—does laundry as seldom as possible, takes navy showers every couple of days, and is reevaluating her boyfriend for killing a spider. Then, during a mimosa-soaked Sunday brunch, she meets her boyfriend’s alluring mother, Millie. As they begin spending time together, getting pedicures and drinking martinis, Cara becomes hooked on Millie and this new freedom from the harsh realities of life in the twenty-first century.

What would you do if your country was counting on you to deliver an important message? That’s the story of 16-year-old Sybil Ludington’s famous midnight ride. In 1777, Sybil and her family believe the American colonies should be free from British control, and Sybil’s father leads a regiment of New York militiamen. Using spy tactics and codes, the Ludingtons gather intelligence, hoping to stay one step ahead of their enemies. When British troops raid nearby Danbury, Connecticut, Sybil gallops through the night to call out her father’s men. 

Though India Devlin left her hometown to pursue a brilliant career as a criminal prosecutor, she has always loved historic Devlin’s Light, visiting as often as her busy schedule permits. But when her brother is found murdered on the steps of the lighthouse - the town’s namesake - she returns to uncover who killed Ry. When her brother’s good friend, Nick Enright, offers to help in her investigation, India accepts - after all, he’s the one who found Ry that night, and heard his mysterious last words.

Georgia Enright has dedicated her life to dance. But at age 26, her hopes of becoming a lead dancer are dashed. So she ventures to Pumpkin Hill, an old farm owned by her newly found half sister, Laura Bishop, to contemplate her future. There, discovering an affinity for country life - and a barn just perfect for giving dance lessons - Georgia enjoys an oasis of peace…until Matthew Bishop arrives.

Twenty-eight, single, and struggling to keep her little shop of handicrafts afloat, Zoey Enright is pleasantly surprised when a knockout audition for a home-shopping network lands her an impressive job as an on-air saleswoman. Little does she know, Delaney O’Connor, the company’s CEO, is bringing his only grandson and the hero of Zoey’s childhood, Ben Pierce, home from Europe to run the network. Ben’s one true passion was Grand Prix racing - until he laid eyes on Zoey again, all grown up and more beautiful than ever. But he also must face his haunted past....

Lonely and broke, Cleveland divorce survivor Allie Harper believes all her problems would be solved if she could find a nice, smart, hot guy and enough money to get her car fixed. The hot guy arrives first: He's in a crosswalk clutching a bag of groceries while a blonde in a Hummer is leaning hard on her horn, sending the man's groceries and white cane flying. How has this woman missed the fact that the man is blind? From the curb, an outraged Allie jumps to his rescue, rebagging the groceries as well. The money is in the bag - literally.

Silver Screen Kisses is a collection of stories inspired by movies that are on every favorite-movie list. Written by award-winning and best-selling authors, these contemporary romances take the listener back to Echo Ridge in the spring, when the promise of new love is budding just like the tulips around the Emerald Inn Bed & Breakfast.

"The road," Kerouac wrote, "is life," and the women in these three stories hit the road looking for fuller, richer lives than the ones they have at home. One flies to Ireland to land a husband; one, who hoped to find shelter in paradise, realizes her journey isn't over; and one loses a lover, a friend, and a few precious illusions about herself as she drives across America.

The friendship of two tightly knit New York City couples whose bond isn't quite what it seems threatens to unravel after the publication of a story in a well-known literary magazine that bears a strange resemblance to their real life. This wry, urban novelette blurs the lines between love and lust, loyalty and betrayal, laying bare the power of literature to expose parts of ourselves we may not want to see. Christine Benvenuto oh-so-lightly pokes fun at Manhattan's privileged class, and her observations are all the more biting for their subtlety.

When we meet Shalem, a young woman in her late 30s, she is enduring small talk at a cocktail party hosted by one of her husband's colleagues. One talks about her breast milk and her twins; another frets about the matronly ass of his girlfriend. Shalem has arrived at the age of no longer young but not old and balancing the in-between. What she wears isn't cool. What she thinks isn't cool.

Lloyd Bunker's obsession with avoiding stoplights has run him and his '67 Pontiac GTO off the road, maybe for keeps. As they race to figure out what happened to Lloyd, T&A recruits Allie's former nemesis, Officer Tony Valerio, plus her best friend and ex-landlady, Margo, and television reporter Lisa Cole to help them follow a lethal trail of escalating crimes ranging from scrapping to pushing opioids to multiple murders. It's no longer just about Lloyd.

Quincannon’s pursuit of two con men who have absconded to Hawaii with a considerable sum of his employer’s assets dovetails nicely with Sabina’s vision of a second honeymoon. But neither is wont to stay out of trouble, and Sabina inadvertently becomes involved in a locked room/dying message murder in Honolulu.

Two authors with decades of experience promoting human rights argue that, as the world changes around us, rights hardly imaginable today will come into being.

Worst. Birthday. Ever. My first boyfriend dumped me - happy birthday, Josie! - my dad is who knows where; I have some weird virus that makes me want to hurl; and now my ex is licking another girl’s tonsils. Oh, and I’m officially the same age as my brother was when he died. Yeah, today is about as fun-filled as the swamps of Dagobah. But then weird things start happening. Like I make something materialize just by thinking about it.

When novelist Mia Gladwell attempts to reinvent herself by moving into the house of a famous writer, she discovers that life there is not what she expected.

If Indie had it her way, she would never choose to river raft with three other high school seniors, mostly strangers to each other, from her journalism class. A loner, a jock, an outsider, an Instagram influencer. As the trip unfolds, the unpredictable river forces them to rely on each other. Social masks start to fall as, one by one, each teen reveals a deep secret. One is harboring immense grief, unwilling to forgive after the death of a loved one. One is dealing with a new disability and an uncertain future. One is fearful of the repercussions of coming out....