Showing results by narrator "Natalie" in All Categories

Observant and relentlessly honest, Long Quiet Highway starts out as a reflection on the people, places, and experiences that helped best selling author Natalie Goldberg discover the transformational power of writing. Soon it crystallizes into a winding koan that cuts through sentiment to get at the truth of the spiritual life and the discipline needed to achieve it.

Balto stole me from Lucian without raising a finger. I thought I would finally be free, finally get my life back. But Balto has other plans for me. Now I'm his prisoner. He'll keep me and enjoy me as long as he wants. Until Lucian gives him back the skull diamond. I never want to return to Lucian again, not after being with a man like Balto. The only chance I have is to become more valuable than that diamond, to have Balto want me enough not to trade me back to Lucian. But can I ever compete with a diamond worth billions?

Rebekah Wilde was eighteen when she left St. Cyprian, officially stripped of her magic and banished from her home. Ten years later, she’s forced to return to face the Joywood Coven, who preside over not just her hometown but the whole magical world. Rebekah is happy to reunite with her sister, and with her friends, but the implications of her return are darker and more dangerous than they could have imagined. The Joywood are determined to prove Rebekah and her friends are a danger to witchkind, and her group faces an impending death sentence if they can’t prove otherwise.

Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance—and Lin is dangerously short of allies. As her own governors plot treason, the Shardless Few renew hostilities. Worse still, Lin discovers her old nemesis Nisong has joined forces with the rogue Alanga, Ragan. Both seek her death. Yet hopes lies in history. Legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies, she may yet be able to turn the tide. If she fails, the Sukai dynasty—and the entire empire—will fall.

What does it take to have a long writing life? Drawing on her years of writing, teaching, and practicing Zen, Natalie Goldberg shares the experiences that have opened her to new ways of being alive - experiences that point the way forward in our lives and our writing. The "great spring" of this book title refers to the great rush of energy that arrives when you think no life will ever come again - the early yellow flowering forsythia, for example.

After thwarting the man behind the gruesome ironborn murders—and breaking several fae laws to do so—all Arlo wants is a quiet summer. As the deity of luck’s Hollow Star, capable of bringing about endless possibilities, this shouldn’t be too much to ask, right? But someone is still trying to summon the mythical Seven Deadly Sins. All signs point to immortal meddling, and if this is the gods’ attempt at returning to the Mortal Realm, it’s Arlo they’re going to use to do it.

I don’t care what other people think as long, as they leave me alone to focus on my research on soil microbiology. Plus, I walk with a cane thanks to a childhood accident. I have scars on my face. And if that isn’t enough to scare people off, my bad attitude and general grumpiness seal the deal. Which is just the way I like it. Except, I’ve been short listed for one of the most prestigious academic fellowships around. To win it, I’ll have to give a series of speeches. On a stage. With an audience. While being filmed.

After her father’s death, Ellie Frasier takes over the feed store in Promise. Still in mourning, she relies on her friends for comfort. But now her long-standing relationship with one of those friends, rancher Glen Patterson, seems to be turning into something else.…

The Three Kingdoms are at war, but Meilin’s father refuses to answer the imperial draft. Trapped by his opium addiction, he plans to sell Meilin for her dowry. But when Meilin discovers her husband-to-be is another violent, ill-tempered man, she realizes that nothing will change for her unless she takes matters into her own hands. The very next day, she disguises herself as a boy and enlists in her father’s place.

A caravan driven at breakneck speed through the hills of Montana is the least of Magdalena Baxter's concerns. Evicted from their home, and due to soon give birth, the Gypsy woman is forced to follow her husband, Oswald, a drunk and abusive miner who hopes to find work in a neighboring town. Despite calling Sweetwater Springs home, wealthy banker Caleb Livingston clings to his elitist East Coast ways. While this may have brought him prestige, he's missed out on romance at every turn.

Dear Diary, It will take more than threats - and one overbearing rancher - to drive me away from my rightful property...When I inherited this isolated land near the Mexican border, I knew running it would be difficult and dangerous - very different from my privileged life in Louisiana, where I was the genteel Miss Trilby Lang. But I certainly didn't expect that my neighbor, Thorn Vance, would be challenging me at every turn.

For over a decade, Cassiopeia Vitt has been building an authentic French castle, using only materials and techniques from the 13th century. But when a treasure is unearthed at the construction site - an ancient book of hours - a multitude of questions are raised, all pointing to an ancient and forgotten religious sect.

One of the world’s foremost writing teachers invites listeners on a joyful journey into the reading and origins of haiku.

In Grizzly Falls, Montana, Detectives Selena Alvarez and Regan Pescoli are struggling with a new commander and a department in the midst of upheaval. It's the worst possible time for a homicide. A body has been found, missing a finger. Alvarez hopes this means a murderer with a personal grudge, not a madman. But then a second body turns up…

Sang Sorenson and the Academy boys return to Ashley Waters High School but before they get a chance to even settle in, Sang's life is threatened by an anonymous caller. They retreat to the protective walls of the Morgan estate, a safe house for when the boys are under fire. But when new threats can break through those barriers that once kept them secure, it leaves Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North rushing to figure out who is hunting them.

School teacher Marceline Bellini gave up everything - men, sex, anything resembling a social life - to raise her young daughter. To be the perfect parent. But when she attends an engagement party in her standard stick-in-the-mud mode, her friends begin plying Marcy with shots. Just enough to convince her that a little fun doesn't sound like a bad idea...and having some naughty fun is an even better one.

From the outside, Awa seems like a normal teen, struggling with anxiety over school and friendships. Secretly, she holds a rare power. She is a Dreamweaver, one who walks between worlds: that of waking life and the Dreamrealm. Now, she's finally managed to master some of her powers and alchemize the shadow fragments that were plaguing the beautiful Dreamrealm. Still, she knows there's so much more that has to be done in order to face the terrifying shadow.

In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist Anna Berkova is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time—and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path.

Everyone wants a piece of the magical disaster zone for their own agendas, and some will stop at nothing to destroy the border and bring catastrophe down on the world. It's up to Miyara to host a summit, bringing all the players to one place so she can find out what's going on and forge the connections necessary to stop it before it's too late for everyone.

Sang Sorenson's abusive mother is secure in a hospital, and her father has vanished to a new family of his own, leaving Sang and her sister to fend for themselves. Sang is hanging by a thread, and her only hope is a group of boys she feels she barely knows. She's never really alone. The Academy team has stepped in, promising to protect and care for Sang. Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North take over, showing Sang they can be depended on for anything.