Narrator

Pam Ward

Pam Ward
  • Less than three months after retiring from a thirty-year law enforcement career, Kim Colegrove’s husband chose suicide. Since that day, Colegrove has been helping first responders across the country practice techniques to cope with the stress and trauma that their work brings. And this book continues that mission by offering first responders and their families hope by introducing meditation and mindfulness as viable and practical tools to help reduce stress, regulate emotion, and improve overall health and well-being.

    Coping with the Stress of First Responder Life

    First responders have the incredibly difficult job of running toward danger while the rest of us run away. No training can prepare them for what they will see and endure. Colegrove understands this, and her personal experience opened her eyes to the desperate need for an effective form of stress relief and support for first responders.

    No matter our profession, taking care of our mental health needs to be a priority. For first responders like cops and EMTs, ensuring that their heads are in a healthy place is crucial, because each day can bring them face-to-face with another trauma. With forty years of experience, Kim Colegrove is here to share with listeners that there is a viable and practical resource for first responders found in meditation.

    In 2017, Kim founded the PauseFirst Project, Mindfulness for First Responders. She teaches techniques that help reduce stress, regulate emotion, and improve overall health and well-being. Colegrove’s work to bring awareness is a tribute to both her husband and the countless other first responders who struggle with the realities of their jobs.

    Listeners will find evidence-based practices to help first responders and their families deal with stress, as well as interviews with first responders who share their stories of overcoming, surviving, and thriving.

  • This groundbreaking multicultural anthology shares moving personal stories about the impacts of Alzheimer’s and dementia.

    An estimated 5.7 million Americans are afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease, including ten percent of those over sixty-five, and it is the sixth leading cause of death. But its effects are more pervasive: For the nearly six million sufferers, there are more than sixteen million family caregivers and many more family members. Alzheimer’s wreaks havoc not only on brain cells—it is a disease of the spirit and heart for not only those who suffer from it, but also for their families.

    This groundbreaking anthology presents forty narratives, both nonfiction and fiction, that together capture the impact and complexity of Alzheimer’s and other dementias on patients, as well as their caregivers and family. Deeply personal, recounting the wrenching course of a disease that kills a loved one twice—first they forget who they are, and then the body succumbs—these stories also show how witnessing the disease and caring for someone with it can be powerfully transformative, calling forth amazing strength and grace.

  • The theft of a friend’s priceless, family-legacy Christmas ornaments brings amateur detective and culinary expert, Sadie Hoffmiller, back on the case in a new standalone cozy mystery.

    In the latest chapter to the Culinary Mystery series, amateur detective Sadie Hoffmiller continues combining her sleuthing with her cooking and baking to connect with people and gain information she might otherwise not have access to. Moreover, now that Sadie is married to Detective Pete Cunningham, she has a street-savvy husband to test out her crime-solving theories.

    With Christmas approaching, Sadie is preparing for a large blended-family gathering including many new grandchildren—in their home in Fort Collins, Colorado. Even with the festive chaos, Sadie drops everything when word gets out that her friend, Mary, is the victim of a holiday robbery.

    At ninety-four years old, and nearly blind, Mary knows this is may be her last Christmas and the last year to enjoy her family heirloom Christmas tree ornaments. She wants just one more holiday to display her ornaments and following Christmas Eve Mass, she’ll pass them on to her great-granddaughter, Joy. Though priceless to the family, the collection has been valued at $40,000, and the Christmas tree in the care facility has never looked so good. But before the ornaments can be retrieved by Mary, eleven of the most expensive ornaments are stolen.

    A holiday Christmas caper might be new to Sadie, but she’s ready to mix in her seasoned crime-solving skills with a pinch of new holiday recipes.

  • Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States has sold more than 2.5 million copies. It is pushed by Hollywood celebrities, defended by university professors who know better, and assigned in high school and college classrooms to teach students that American history is nothing more than a litany of oppression, slavery, and exploitation.

    Zinn’s history is popular, but it is also massively wrong.

    Scholar Mary Grabar exposes just how wrong in her stunning new book Debunking Howard Zinn, which demolishes Zinn’s Marxist talking points that now dominate American education.

    In Debunking Howard Zinn, you’ll learn, contra Zinn:

    • How Columbus was not a genocidal maniac, and was, in fact, a defender of Indians
    • Why the American Indians were not feminist-communist sexual revolutionaries ahead of their time
    • How the United States was founded to protect liberty, not white males’ ill-gotten wealth
    • Why Americans of the “Greatest Generation” were not the equivalent of Nazi war criminals
    • How the Viet Cong were not well-meaning community leaders advocating for local self-rule
    • Why the Black Panthers were not civil rights leaders

    Grabar also reveals Zinn’s bag of dishonest rhetorical tricks: his slavish reliance on partisan history, explicit rejection of historical balance, and selective quotation of sources to make them say the exact opposite of what their authors intended. If you care about America’s past—and our future—you need this book.

  • Empowering biographies of older women in history

    Antony said of Cleopatra, “Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety.” Shakespeare’s sentiment can be applied to the women profiled in Great Second Acts who refused to be defined by the dates on their birth certificates. Their lives are testimony that one can be feisty after fifty. And to those who think otherwise, in the words of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “I dissent.”

    Marlene Wagman-Geller, author of Once Again to Zelda and Behind Every Great Man, presents a fascinating collection of biographical vignettes of dozens of women of a certain age who have excelled, inspired, and achieved. Learn how these women changed their respective fields of art, politics, science, mathematics, media, literature, activism, education, and more.

    From actresses, yoga teachers, folk artists to business women, prime ministers, monarchs, and authors, this group of exceptional women will illustrate that women can achieve anything, no matter their age. Listeners will find

    • biographies of influential women such as Prime Minister Margert Thatcher, chef Julia Child, Mother Teresa, feminist Gloria Steinem, actress Rita Moreno, Judge Judy Sheindlin, and many more;
    • empowering quotes from strong women who refused to be kept down; and
    • motivational, inspirational, and educational stories of older women.

    Written in an accessible narrative style, listeners of all ages will enjoy Wagman-Geller’s entertaining storytelling prose of these remarkable women. An excellent gift for students, mothers, sisters, or friends, Great Second Acts will endure and delight.

  • What does it take to become the second-in-command of one of the most powerful countries in the world? Mike Pence’s rise to the vice presidency of the United States wasn’t always easy. To some, he is the personification of American conservative values, but to others, his ideals are the epitome of prejudice and bigotry.

    In Pence: The Path to Power, journalist Andrea Neal showcases how the vice president arrived at this position of influence. Neal interviews friends, family, staff, former teachers, and politicians on both sides of the aisle to reveal a multifaceted view of the self-described Christian, Conservative, and Republican—in that order—from his beginnings in a large Irish Catholic family in Columbus, Indiana, through the scandals of his first election, to his time beside Donald Trump. This candid look at Mike Pence’s life exposes his unexpected path to power and the individuals who influenced him along the way.

  • Even if you don’t have your dream job, every day is precious and filled with opportunities. Make the Most of Your Workday challenges you to actively manage and make the most of workday possibilities and problems. With drive, determination, and optimism, it offers solutions to workday predicaments. You can take control; you don’t have to wait for leaders, people, or circumstances to change. No matter your level, situation, or dilemma, Mary shows you how to regroup, reframe, and bounce back.

    Make the Most of Your Workday begins with six common scenarios. Can you relate to any of the following challenges?

    • Getting caught up in office dramas
    • Watching workloads increase while resources decrease
    • Feeling your interest, enthusiasm, and focus fade
    • Yearning for effective leadership
    • Wanting to avoid working with certain people
    • Feeling at the mercy of technology

    Make the Most of Your Workday contains powerful strategies and tools from several key areas and combines them into a concise practical guide, from strengthening your mindset and self-awareness to identifying needs and goals, from prioritizing your time and energy to communicating effectively and managing the unexpected.

  • In this remarkable culinary biography, Rae Katherine Eighmey presents Benjamin Franklin’s experimentation with food throughout his life. At age sixteen, he began dabbling in vegetarianism. In his early twenties, citing the health benefits of water over alcohol, he convinced his printing press colleagues to abandon their traditional breakfast of beer and bread for “water gruel,” a kind of porridge he enjoyed. Franklin is known for his scientific discoveries, including electricity and the lightning rod, and his curiosity and logical mind extended to the kitchen: he even conducted an electrical experiment to try to cook a turkey.

    Later in life, on his diplomatic missions—he lived fifteen years in England and nine in France—Franklin ate like a local. Eighmey discovers the meals served at his London home-away-from-home and analyzes his account books from Passy, France, for tips to his diet there. Yet he also longed for American foods; his wife Deborah sent over some favorites including cranberries, which amazed the London kitchen staff. He saw food as key to the developing culture of the United States, penning two essays presenting maize as the defining grain of America. Eighmey revives and re-creates recipes from each chapter in his life. Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin conveys all of Franklin’s culinary adventures, demonstrating how Franklin’s love of food shaped not only his life, but also the character of the young nation he helped build.

  • Collected here are ten Western short stories by Richard S. Wheeler, the award-winning author who makes storytelling look easy.

    In “Mugs Birdsong’s Crime Academy,” celebrated criminal Mugs Birdsong decides to found an academy that will instruct lawmen on the ways and means of lawlessness. “The Last Days of Dominic Prince” is the tragic tale of a cattle baron and his final conflict with the forces of political correctness. “Dead Weight” introduces us to a coffin maker who constructs a work of art. And in the title story, two young men in the gold fields of California spend one last night together as one of them confronts his own imminent death.

    This collection also includes “The Square Reporter,” “A Commercial Proposition,” “The Great Filibuster of 1975,” “The Tinhorn’s Lady,” “Hearts,” and “Looking for Love at a Romance Writers Convention.”

  • Every town has at least one beloved, if misunderstood, eccentric, and Beanie Bradsher belongs to Mayhew Junction. Some, LouWanda Crump, for example, would call Beanie a spectacle, but Beanie just marches—and dresses—to the beat of a different drum.

    Not much has changed over the years in this town. On any given morning, you’ll find the same people at the same table at the same café, and none of them have changed one iota in the past twenty years. But now Beanie Bradsher has won the lottery, and might be dating Sweet Lee Atwater’s husband. And the hometown basketball star Vesuvius Jones just got a face full of Red Velvet cake at the Trunk-or-Treat.

    The gossip has never been juicier, which might just be a good thing. Lord knows this town could use a good shaking up.

  • Nelson Mandela led a long and remarkable life. From his earliest days herding cows in a South African village, he became a child of privilege, a rebellious runaway, an impoverished student, a father, a successful lawyer, a political dissident, a rising star in the African nationalist movement, an underground saboteur, the chief defendant in three show trials, a political prisoner, a secret negotiator with South Africa’s rulers, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, president of his country, and a statesman who held South Africa together long enough to find reconciliation and the path to prosperity.

    But despite all this, Mandela saw himself as a pragmatic politician with one fixed goal: the end of apartheid rule in South Africa. Apart from that one overarching aim, everything else was tactics. If non-violence worked, he was for it; when bombs and guns were winning, he would use them too. He started or suspended negotiations as circumstances demanded and ignored grievances in favor of peace. If the cause required that he sacrifice his freedom and much of his personal life, so be it. He was always focused on the prize, and, in the end, he won it—and with it, the world’s adulation and the enduring love of his people. This is his story.

  • During the nineteenth century, the United States entered the ranks of the world’s most advanced and dynamic economies. At the same time, the nation sustained an expansive and brutal system of human bondage.

    This was no mere coincidence. Slavery’s Capitalism argues for slavery’s centrality to the emergence of American capitalism in the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. According to editors Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman, the issue is not whether slavery itself was or was not capitalist but, rather, the impossibility of understanding the nation’s spectacular pattern of economic development without situating slavery front and center.

    American capitalism—renowned for its celebration of market competition, private property, and the self-made man—has its origins in an American slavery predicated on the abhorrent notion that human beings could be legally owned and compelled to work under force of violence.

    Drawing on the expertise of sixteen scholars who are at the forefront of rewriting the history of American economic development, Slavery’s Capitalism identifies slavery as the primary force driving key innovations in entrepreneurship, finance, accounting, management, and political economy that are too often attributed to the so-called free market.

    Approaching the study of slavery as the originating catalyst for the Industrial Revolution and modern capitalism casts new light on American credit markets, practices of offshore investment, and understandings of human capital. Rather than seeing slavery as outside the institutional structures of capitalism, the essayists recover slavery’s importance to the American economic past and prompt enduring questions about the relationship of market freedom to human freedom.

    Contributors: Edward E. Baptist, Sven Beckert, Daina Ramey Berry, Kathryn Boodry, Alfred L. Brophy, Stephen Chambers, Eric Kimball, John Majewski, Bonnie Martin, Seth Rockman, Daniel B. Rood, Caitlin Rosenthal, Joshua D. Rothman, Calvin Schermerhorn, Andrew Shankman, Craig Steven Wilder.

  • From the heart of National Geographic comes this expansive guide to the clans, tribes, ethnicities, and peoples of the world.

    Organized in keeping with our knowledge of the migration of human groups through history, with statistics and a cultural portrait of each ethnic group, People of the World becomes a fascinating round-the-world tour of customs and traditions as well as a go-to source for background information to round out one’s own family history.

    From the Tuvans of Siberia to the Samoans and Tahitians of Polynesia, from the Mapuche of Chile to the Sami of Scandinavia, 222 of the world’s 10,000-plus ethnic groups are featured. Some were chosen because of their commonality as ancestors to many; others were chosen because their numbers are dwindling, and soon their cultures may become extinct. Maps, photographs, and traditional sayings enhance the accounts of many of the most important and interesting cultures in the world today.

  • From Phyllis Schlafly, the woman whose celebrated classic A Choice, Not an Echo upended the 1964 Republican Convention, comes a persuasive new argument for a surprising conservative choice: Donald Trump.

    For the first time since 1980, a significant number of Republicans are considering abandoning their party’s nominee. This is a grave mistake, Schlafly says, because a Donald Trump “radical redirection” could actually set America back on the path of Reagan’s conservative revolution.

    In The Conservative Case for Trump, Schlafly and coauthors Ed Martin and Brett M. Decker set aside the circus of the campaign and zero in on eight defining points of the Trump agenda to convince Republican voters that Donald Trump—improbable as it may seem—is the true conservative they’ve been waiting for.

  • This compelling reference presents the history of ancient Greece—the culture that brought us democracy, the Olympics, Socrates, and Alexander the Great—through gripping stories: the rise and fall of the phenomenal empire, the powerful legacy left by ancient Greece for the modern world, the new discoveries shedding light on these ancient people that are still so much with us.

    Greek art and architecture dominate our cities; modern military strategists still study and employ Hellenic war tactics; Greek poetry, plays, and philosophy are widely read and enjoyed; and science, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy all build on the fundamentals of early Greek thinking.

    Gain fascinating insights into Greek island living, ancient social networking, and the extreme priority Greeks placed on athletic competition. Learn of spectacular discoveries such as buried palaces, the Uluburun shipwreck, and the earliest writing ever found in Europe. A stunning treasure, this uniquely comprehensive and accessible history of ancient Greece is perfect for anyone interested in the origins of our modern world.

  • When Charlie Finley bought the A’s in 1960, he was an outsider to the game—an insurance businessman with a larger-than-life personality. He brought his cousin Carl on as his right-hand man, moved the team from Kansas City to Oakland, and pioneered a new way to put together a winning team. With legendary players like Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, and Vida Blue, the Finleys’ Oakland A’s won three straight World Series and riveted the nation.

    Now Carl Finley’s daughter Nancy reveals the whole story behind her family’s winning legacy—how her father and uncle developed their scouting strategy, why they employed odd gimmicks like orange baseballs and “mustache bonuses,” and how the success of the ’70s Oakland A’s changed the game of baseball.

  • Harriet Tubman is one of the giants of American history—a fearless visionary who led scores of her fellow slaves to freedom and battled courageously behind enemy lines during the Civil War. And yet in the century since her death, next to nothing has been written about this extraordinary woman aside from juvenile biographies. The truth about Harriet Tubman has become lost inside a legend woven of racial and gender stereotypes. Now at last, in this long-overdue biography, historian Kate Clifford Larson gives Harriet Tubman the powerful, intimate, meticulously detailed life she deserves.

    Drawing from a trove of new documents and sources as well extensive genealogical research, Larson reveals Tubman as a complex woman—brilliant, shrewd, deeply religious, and passionate in her pursuit of freedom. The descendant of the vibrant, matrilineal Asante people of the African Gold Coast, Tubman was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland but refused to spend her life in bondage. While still a young woman she embarked on a perilous journey of self-liberation—and then, having won her own freedom, she returned again and again to liberate family and friends, tapping into the Underground Railroad.

    Yet despite her success, her celebrity, and her close ties with Northern politicians and abolitionists, Tubman suffered crushing physical pain and emotional setbacks. Stripping away myths and misconceptions, Larson presents stunning new details about Tubman’s accomplishments, personal life, and influence, including her relationship with Frederick Douglass, her involvement with John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry, and revelations about a young woman who may have been Tubman’s daughter. Here too are Tubman’s twilight years after the war, when she worked for women’s rights and in support of her fellow blacks, and when racist politicians and suffragists marginalized her contribution.

    Harriet Tubman, her life, and her work remain an inspiration to all who value freedom. Now, thanks to Larson’s breathtaking biography, we can finally appreciate Tubman as a complete human being—an American hero, yes, but also a woman who loved, suffered, and sacrificed. Bound for the Promised Land is a magnificent work of biography, history, and truth telling.

  • Discover how each figure of the nativity can lead your family closer to Christ this Christmas season. Learn the tradition of the tinkling bell, whip up a batch of French cocoa, create a tender mercy tree, and find ways to make your gift-giving more meaningful as Celebrating a Christ-Centered Christmas guides you through seven meaningful traditions inspired by the nativity setting. These simple experiences will give you an opportunity to escape from the frantic busyness of the Christmas season to spend time reflecting on the Savior and the miracle of His birth.

  • Some secrets can come back from the grave.

    In the summer of 1916, a big twister brings destruction to the land around Boynton, Oklahoma. Alafair Tucker's family and neighbors are not spared the ruin and grief spread by the storm. But no one is going to mourn for Jubal Beldon, who made it his business to know the ugly secrets of everyone in town. It doesn't matter if Jubal's insinuations are true or not. In a small town like Boynton, rumor is as damaging as fact.

    But as Mr. Lee, the undertaker, does his grim duty for the storm victims, he discovers that even in death Jubal isn't going to leave his neighbors in peace. He was already dead when the tornado carried his body to the middle of a fallow field. Had he died in an accident, or had he been murdered by someone whose secret he had threatened to expose? There are dozens of people who would have been happy to do the deed, including members of Jubal's own family.

    As Sheriff Scott Tucker and his deputy Trenton Calder investigate the circumstances surrounding Jubal's demise, it begins to look like the prime suspect may be someone very dear to the widow Beckie MacKenzie, the beloved music teacher and mentor of Alafair's daughter Ruth. Ruth fears that the secrets exposed by the investigation are going to cause more damage to her friend's life than did the tornado. Alafair has her own suspicions about how Jubal Beldon came to die, and the reason may hit very close to home.

  • New York Times bestselling author Marie Bostwick crafts a timeless tale of friendship, love, and the choices we must make in their name.

    While New Bern, Connecticut, lies under a blanket of snow, Cobbled Court Quilts remains a cozy haven for its owner, Evelyn Dixon, and her friends. Evelyn relishes winter’s slower pace—besides, internet sales are hopping, thanks to her son Garrett’s efforts. In addition to helping out at the shop, Garrett has also been patiently waiting for his girlfriend, Liza, to finish art school in New York City. But as much as Evelyn loves Liza, she wonders if it’s a good idea for her son to be so serious so soon with a young woman who’s just getting ready to spread her wings.

    Liza’s wondering the same thing, especially after Garrett rolls out the red carpet for a super-romantic New Year’s Eve—complete with a marriage proposal. Garrett’s the closest thing to perfect she’s ever known, but what about her own imperfections? The only happy marriage Liza has ever seen is her aunt Abigail’s, and it took her decades to tie the knot. Soon Liza is not only struggling with her own fears but with the mixed reactions of her friends and family. And when she finds herself torn between a rare career opportunity and her love for Garrett, Liza must grasp at the thinnest of threads and pray it holds.

  • In this Pulitzer Prize–winning biography, Barbara Tuchman explores American relations with China through the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed “Vinegar Joe,” Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of the National Review, “one of the historians most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story.”

    Joseph Stilwell was the military attaché to China in 1935 to 1939, commander of United States forces, and allied chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek in 1942–44. His story unfolds against the background of China’s history, from the revolution of 1911 to the turmoil of World War II, when China’s Nationalist government faced attack from Japanese invaders and Communist insurgents.

  • In Boys Should Be Boys, one of our most trusted authorities helps parents restore the delights of boyhood and enable today's boys to become the mature, confident, and thoughtful men of tomorrow. Boys will always be boys—rambunctious, adventurous, and curious, climbing trees, building forts, playing tackle football, and pushing their growing bodies to the limit as part of the rite of passage into manhood. But today our sons face an increasingly hostile world that doesn't value the high-spirited, magical nature of boys. In a collective call to let our boys be boys, Dr. Meg Meeker explores the secrets to boyhood, including

    –why rules and boundaries are crucial—and why boys feel lost without them

    –how the great outdoors is still the best playground, offering the sense of adventure that only Mother Nature can provide

    –the essential ways to preserve a boy's innocence—and help him grow up

    –the pitfalls moms and dads face when talking to their sons

    –why moody and rebellious boys are not normal—and how to address such behavior

    –how and when the "big" questions in life should be discussed: why he is here, what his purpose is, and why he is important

    Parents are blessed with intuition and heart, but raising sons is a daunting responsibility. This uplifting guide makes the job a little easier.

  • New York state assemblyman, assistant secretary of the Navy, New York City police commissioner, governor of New York, vice president, and, at forty-two, the youngest president ever, Theodore Roosevelt—in his own words—"rose like a rocket." He was also a cowboy, a soldier, a historian, an intrepid explorer, and an unsurpassed environmentalist—all in all, perhaps the most accomplished chief executive in our nation's history. Roosevelt built the Panama Canal and engaged the country in world affairs, putting a temporary end to American isolationism. He also won the Nobel Peace Prize, the only sitting president so honored. In Lion in the White House, historian Aida Donald masterfully chronicles the life of this first modern president, illustrating the courage of this great leader.

  • “Halie” Jackson grew up in poverty on the levees of New Orleans, hunting for alligators for food along the Mississippi River with her brother, Peter. But every Sunday young Mahalia sang proudly in the church choir, the youngest member at age five. She left school after eighth grade and worked as a maid to help support her family. However, her passion for singing her special brand of music known as “gospel” never waned.

    Praised by parents, teachers, and historians, the Young Patriots Series is an ideal way to sweep today’s young listeners into history. The everyday details of family life, the time period in which they lived, what they wore, and the challenges they faced in school create a window through which children can access history. The early evidence of character, responsibility, ability, and courage showcase situations to which every child can relate.