Showing results by narrator "Cat Gould" in All Categories

The world of magic is beautiful and enchanting, but there is darkness here too. Dara has been to hell and back trying to discover her destiny. Thrown into a world she didn't know she belonged to, she's completed the first task of claiming Emerald, but lost someone she cares about in the process. She finds her thoughts divided between finding the second stone - Topaz - and rescuing one of her warriors who was captured in battle. More now than ever, she's determined to put her power-hungry uncle and his plans for complete domination down once and for all.

How does a mother cope when she is forced to walk away from her three children and never see them again? That is what happened to JB's mother, Myrtle. Eventually, rescued from her despair by tall, dark, and handsome George Rowley, who fell in love with her, Myrtle started a new life and had seven more children. She buried the grief of losing her first children deep within and kept her pain secret. JB and her siblings were unaware of the existence of Myrtle's first three children until after she died.

The stories in Here Until August follow the fates of characters who, by choice or by force, are traveling beyond the boundaries of their known worlds. These are people who move with the seasons. We meet them negotiating reluctant or cowardly departures, navigating uncertain returns, or biding the disquieting calm that so often precedes moments of decisive action.

The situation was complicated, but the rules were simple. Rule number one: No catching feelings. Rule number two: We do this one time and one time only. Rule number three: This is our little secret. We made a hasty agreement fueled by heartbreak and liquor, but it turned out to be so much more. Darcy Shearer isn't the same woman I laid eyes on five years ago—everything has changed since that night . . . except the way I feel about her. I gave her my word, but now I'm taking her heart. She forgot the most important rule . . . that they're all made to be broken.

In 1947 Tilly’s grandmother bought an island. Its name is Småhølmene and it sits just off the coast of Norway. At first sight, the island seems bare, hardly more than a collection of rocks rising determinedly out of the water. Glittering and bittersweet, Island Summers lovingly portrays three generations of women and the island that became so irrevocably part of their lives. Now Mor-mor’s great-grandchildren are taking their turn, enjoying endless summers on Småhølmene, continuing the story that was begun over 50 years ago.

Naomi thought she'd met someone wonderful when Elliot came into her life, but he simply wasn't into her. It's the story of her life. While everyone around her is settling down, she gives up on trying to find her Mr. Right, and turns back to the one thing she has always loved - music. Enter Marcus - he was a year above Naomi at school, and she always had a killer crush on him. He now fronts a band with his older brother Theo. Marcus has the reputation of a playboy, and Theo, well...he's just bad news.

On the scorching February day in 2009 that became known as Black Saturday, a man lit two fires in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. In the Valley, where the rates of crime were the highest in the state, more than thirty people were known to the police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man they didn't know.

What's wrong with preferring domestic assistants with feminine personalities? We like our assistants to conform to gender stereotypes - so what? For one thing, Strengers and Kennedy remind us, the design of gendered devices reinscribes outdated and unfounded stereotypes. Strengers and Kennedy offer a Smart Wife "manifesta", proposing a rebooted Smart Wife that would promote a revaluing of femininity in society in all her glorious diversity.

It's only for a year. That's what sixteen-year-old Zel keeps telling herself after moving to Sydney for her dad's work. She'll just wait it out until she gets back to New York and Prim, her epic crush/best friend, and the unfinished subway project. Even if Prim hasn't spoken to her since that day on Coney Island. But Zel soon finds life in Sydney won't let her hide. There's her art teacher, who keeps forcing her to dig deeper. There's the band of sweet, strange misfits her cousin has forced her to join for a Drama project. And then there's the curiosity that is the always-late Stella.

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a longstanding problem that has increasingly come to the forefront of international and national policy debates and news. Yet, while we frequently read or learn about particular experiences or incidents of VAWG, we are often unaware of the full picture. Author Jacqui True provides an expansive frame for understanding VAWG in this book.

Ants have been walking the Earth since the age of the dinosaurs. Today there are one million ants for every one of us. The closer you get to ants, the more human they look: they build megacities, grow crops, raise livestock, tend their young and infirm, and even make vaccines. They also have a darker side: they wage war, enslave rivals and rebel against their oppressors. From fearsome army ants, who stage 12-hour hunting raids where they devour thousands, to gentle leafcutters gardening in their peaceful underground kingdoms, every ant is engineered by nature to fulfil a role.

When Melody Horrill arrived at university she was a troubled and lost young woman, hiding behind a carefully crafted exterior. She had experienced a childhood of emotional and physical trauma mainly at the hands of her violent father that was as damaging as it was brutal. One day Melody volunteered to help her lecturer monitor pods of river dolphins nearby. There for the first time she encountered Jock, a solitary dolphin with a maimed fin, who lived apart from the highly social pods. Melody was to form a bond with Jock that gave her the key to freeing herself from the demons of her own past.

At a summer journalism course for teens in Tasmania, privileged Samira, from a conservative, political family, and over-achiever country girl Alex bang heads. While covering a news story together, their fiery clashes turn into first love. But when things fall apart, they're left hurting. A year later, they discover they're both interning for the same university student paper. Awkward isn't even the start of the tension between them. One thing that hasn't died is the attraction between them.

In the ten years since the much-praised first edition, coaching has become a core requirement for leadership. It's a core part of business school programs, it's the norm on all leadership development programs, and all leaders and managers now have to be able to coach. The FT Guide to Business Coaching is the book on which many leaders rely, and this updated edition will give listeners a comprehensive introduction to coaching.

All his life, David has seen Katrina as the one woman he wanted in his life forever, and Katrina has felt the same. So why does she keep putting off their wedding? When they meet Elliot's new wife and family, David can't help but notice that Katrina is acting strangely. The questions is...why? Old insecurities and feelings resurface to threaten their happiness. Will their love be enough overcome them and get them to the altar?

Nevertheless We Persisted is a special audio-first anthology of poems, essays, and stories that explores themes of loss, love, and finding your own power. It's an astonishing collection filled with heart, tears, laughter, and ultimately hope. This collection was created from writers across the United States and also in Australia, England, India, and New Zealand. Each piece is performed by a talented narrator.

The Fragile Earth tells the story of climate change - its past, present and future - taking listeners from Greenland to the Great Plains and into both laboratories and rain forests. It features some of the best writing on global warming from the last three decades, including Bill McKibben’s seminal essay ‘The End of Nature’, the first piece to popularise both the science and politics of climate change for a general audience.

Katrina Mahoney lives in Western Sydney, Australia. She has a very full life attending university to study a law degree and training for triathlons, and now she is working part time as well. She couldn't possibly find time for a relationship, especially after her last one ended so catastrophically. Right now she is content focusing on work, study, and training while hanging out with her best friend, David Taylor, a womanizer with a heart of gold who would do anything for Katrina - except watch her get hurt again.

At a time when we suffer from unprecedented stress, comparison-itis and self-doubt, author Janine Garner asks us to slow down and turn our focus inward. She challenges you to take ownership of who you are and who you want to become, to rise above limitations, and unleash your brilliance within.

The photographs stop you in your tracks. Five children and their grandmother sheltering under an old wooden jetty as the air around them burns a fierce orange. Seen around the world, these were the images from the heart of the inferno that showed the Tasmanian township of Dunalley fighting for survival. On the morning of 4 January 2013, the people of Dunalley had watched with caution as a bush fire burned slowly on top of the hill. It was not an unusual occurrence - fires are a part of Australian life - and Dunalley had never been troubled before.