Narrator

Susan Ericksen

Susan Ericksen
  • Finalist Pacific Book Awards 2018! Empowering stories of game-changing women

    Dorothy Parker observed, “It’s a man’s world”; the lady entrepreneurs and game-changers profiled in Women Who Launch would beg to differ. Unlike the matrons of the 1950s—the women who lunched—these kick-ass females left their DNA in the annals of time.

    A history of women in business and beyond: Julia Ward-Howe showed what’s good for the goose is good for the gander when she created the Girl Scouts of America. Sarah Josepha Hale—authoress of Mary Had a Little Lamb—convinced Lincoln to launch a national day of thanks while Anna Jarvis persuaded President Wilson to initiate a day in tribute of mothers. Estee Lauder revolutionized the cosmetics industry. The tradition of these Mothers of Invention continued when, compliments of knitter Krista Suh, the heads of millions were adorned with pink, pussy-cat ears in the largest women’s march in history. These women who launched prove, in the words of Rosie the Riveter, “We can do it!”

    Biographies of women creators, innovators, and leaders: Women Who Launch is filled with inspiring true stories of women activists, artists, and entrepreneurs who launched some of the most famous companies, brands, and organizations today and changed the world. It is at once a collection of biographies and a testament of female empowerment.

    Listeners will find

    • the stories behind renowned companies, brands, and organizations and the diverse women who launched them;
    • empowering quotes from strong women and those who refused to be kept down; and
    • motivation to all women who want to succeed in their careers, launch companies, and change the world.

    Find motivation in your career and life with the amazing history of women entrepreneurship, activism, and leadership.

  • Glimpse behind the façade of rich and famous women

    The Grass Isn’t Greener on the Other Side: Heiresses have always been viewed with eyes of envy. They were the ones for whom the cornucopia had been upended, showering them with unimaginable wealth and opportunity. However, through intimate historical biographies, Women of Means shows us that oftentimes the weaving sisters saved their most heart-wrenching tapestries for the destinies of wealthy women.

    Happily Never After: From the author of Behind Every Great Man, we now have Women of Means, vignettes of the women who were slated from birth―or marriage―to great privilege, only to endure lives which were the stuff Russian tragic heroines are made of. They are the nonfictional Richard Corys―those not slated for happily ever after.

    Women of Means is bound to be a non-fiction bestseller, full of the best biographies of all time. Some of the women whose silver spoons rusted include:

    • Almina Carnarvon, the real-life counterpart to Lady Cora of Downton Abbey
    • Liliane Bettencourt, whose chemist father created L’Oreal … and was a Nazi collaborator
    • Peggy Guggenheim, who had an insatiable appetite for modern art and men
    • Nica Rothschild, who traded her gilded life to become the Baroness of Bebop
    • Jocelyn Wildenstein, who became a cosmetology-enhanced cat-woman
    • Ruth Madoff, the dethroned queen of Manhattan
    • Patty Hearst, who trod the path from heiress … to terrorist


  • From the author of The Coincidence of Coconut Cake comes a novel about a frustrated wife and mother who hatches a scheme to reignite her marriage—and risks everything in a gamble she hopes is a sure bet.

    When Milwaukee-area wife and mother MJ Boudreaux notices her husband, Chris, seems more interested in the casino than her, she’s bothered that she isn’t more upset. She picks up poker as a way for them to spend more time together—and reignite their marital flame.

    Although the game doesn’t give her the quality time with Chris that she’d hoped, MJ finds she has a knack for it. Increasingly unhappy at home, she turns to the felt top of the poker table for comfort. Intoxicated with newfound freedom, MJ begins spending more time at the gambling tables and less with her family, finally carving out for herself a place outside her role of wife and mother.

    After a string of great wins, MJ finds herself in Vegas, attracting the attention of a certain magnetic poker star. But when she’s forced to choose between her family and her exciting new lifestyle, the stakes may be higher than she thought, and she’ll have to play her hand carefully … or risk losing it all.

  • Rachel Connery is on a seek-and-destroy mission, out for revenge against the mysterious, charismatic man who enticed millions of dollars from her dying mother and cheated Rachel out of her inheritance. She wants retribution and is willing to use every seductive trick at her disposal to obtain it.

    But desire is a dangerous weapon that cuts both ways, and her trap could end up catching her in a nightmare of forbidden feelings.

  • Annie Sutherland is a woman determined to uncover the truth about her father’s death. She had thought he was a low-level bureaucrat but after his murder begins to suspect his true profession was more complex.

    She goes seeking answers from her father’s protégé and successor at the CIA, James McKinley. What she gets from him instead is a one-way trip to a shadowy underworld filled with intrigue, terror—and passion. Now she’s in over her head.

  • The plan was for beautiful Claire to marry the terrifyingly sinister Simon of Navarre, wizard in residence to Richard the Fair. Instead, her plain sister Alys takes her place, proving herself more than a match for the man with the secrets. Meanwhile, sweet Claire falls in love with a handsome knight, and the truly evil Richard the Fair tries to make life miserable for all.

    Set in medieval times, this is a rich, gorgeous tale of love, deception, and ultimate redemption.

  • Sharon McCone is hired by her husband's security firm to track down the "ever-running man", who has been setting off explosive devices at their various offices. She doesn't have to look for long. When McCone narrowly escapes an explosion in her apartment building, she catches a glimpse of his retreating figure. The ever-running man is dangerously close—and it seems that anyone connected to the firm is within his deadly range. Complicating matters is McCone's discovery of the firm's shady past. Forced to question her reluctant husband Hy about its history of corruption, she puts her marriage in jeopardy. But uncovering the secrets of the firm may be the only way she can save her husband's life—and her own.