Showing results by narrator "Robin Miles" in All Categories

In 1798 Daniel Dickinson, a young Quaker, sets out with two horses, a wagon full of belongings, his five children and a 15-year-old orphan wife. When Daniel suddenly trades a horse for a young slave, Onesimus, it sets in motion a struggle in his conscience that will taint his life forever and a chain of events that lead to two murders and the family's strange relationship with a runaway slave named Bett.

Cassie McGonegal and her niece, Brigid, work upstairs in the factory rolling cigars by hand. Meliah Amey Ravenel works in the basement, where she stems the tobacco. While both white and black workers suffer in the harsh working conditions of the factory and both endure the sexual harassment of the foremen, segregation keeps them from recognizing their common plight until the Tobacco Workers Strike of 1945.

In 1809, at the age of 18, Henriette Faber enrolled herself in medical school in Paris - and since medicine was a profession prohibited to women, she changed her name to Henri in order to matriculate. She would spend the next 15 years practicing medicine and living as a man. Drafted to serve as a surgeon in Napoleon's army, Faber endured the horrors of the 1812 retreat across Russia. She later embarked to the Caribbean and set up a medical practice in a remote Cuban village, where she married Juana de León, an impoverished local.

In 1959 Cuba, Natalia San Martín was nothing short of a princess: sheltered, pampered, and courted by her very own prince, a childhood friend turned lifelong love. All that changed on the fateful New Year's Eve when Fidel Castro and his followers seized control of the country, with tragic consequences for not only the island but Natalia herself. Five years later, in 1960s New York, she's known as Natalie Martin - living a life that's bleak but thankfully anonymous.

A song, a pressed flower, and the sound of two girls' voices recovered from a burned wooden beam by using a brand-new laser technique to read a charred surface like the grooves of an old 78 rpm record. These are the clues that archaeologist Digger Morgan discovers while working on a routine dig at a Maryland plantation. Who were the girls? When was the fire? The answers all lead to 1920s jazz pioneer Kit Jeffers, whose voice mysteriously appears on Digger's computer and whose existence remains haunted by a singular tragic event.

Ifi and Job, a Nigerian couple in an arranged marriage, begin their lives together in Nebraska with a single, outrageous lie: that Job is a doctor, not a college dropout. Unwittingly, Ifi becomes his co-conspirator - that is until his first wife, Cheryl, whom he married for a green card years ago, reenters the picture and upsets Job's tenuous balancing act.

Everyone has had that moment--we see a need in our church, our school, our neighborhood, our family, or our world and we think, Someone really should get to work on that, never imagining that we might be the answer to that need. We don't have the time, the expertise, the money. We've got careers to manage, bills to pay, meals to prepare, and families to attend to. Besides, who are we to think we can change the world?

Ingenuity and surprise rule in this funny and colorful companion to Red: A Crayon’s Story written and illustrated by Michael Hall, the New York Times–bestselling creator of My Heart Is Like a Zoo. The crayons are ready to tell the thrilling tale of Frankencrayon. The costumes are made, the...

It remains without question the most memorable and memorized speech in American history. On November 19, 1863, in 272 words delivered among the freshly dug graves of Union dead upon the country's bloodiest battlefield, Abraham Lincoln redefined American liberty and forever altered the course of...

Light Atonement takes listeners on a spiritual journey, one that is as enlightening as it is unusual. Ariyana, the narrator of this journey, describes her transition from life as a wife, mother, and successful entrepreneur to a spiritual traveler who develops the capacity to move through alternative universes, to communicate with angels, and to heal the sick. More than anything else, she emerges from this journey with knowledge that can provide comfort and guidance for all listeners.

Twenty-something Ceseli Larson is mourning the recent death of her cherished father. His passing comes as she prepares to undertake a planned but harrowing expedition to the lost ruins of Axum. Axum, capital of an ancient kingdom and the possible resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, was also once the famous home of the Queen of Sheba. Ceseli hopes to uncover its long-forgotten archaeological mysteries.

This short story is from the anthology Mitigated Futures. Twelve science fiction stories about the oncoming future, each of them representing a possible glimpse of what could be just around the corner... or much further down the corridor. These stories previously appeared in places like Clarkesworld Magazine, The Year's Best SF, Subterranean Magazine, and in various anthologies. They deal with the future of war, our climate, and technology's effect on our lives.

Humanity continues to gain control of the Forty Eight Worlds as they deorbit wormholes and join the many worlds and civilizations together. But as they do so, they must deal with the horrors of past injustices as humanity forms new societies out of the wreckage of the old. And some of those horrors aren't content to rest. Kay, who has rescued herself from a hellish life dominated by uncaring alien creatures, seeks bloody twisted revenge for what was done to her.

When Francine's a little girl, she'll do just about anything for her papa. But as Francine grows older, she and Papa start fighting about everything - school, fiddling, and boys. Then the others come calling, fairies from no tale Francine has ever read. They ask her to come fiddle at their court, promising magic and all the music she wants. Francine gladly goes with them. When war starts between the two Creole fairy courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie, Francine finds she's fighting her papa again.

It's 1964, and Sunny's town is being invaded. Or at least that's what the adults of Greenwood, Mississippi are saying. All Sunny knows is that people from up north are coming to help people register to vote. They're calling it Freedom Summer. Meanwhile, Sunny can't help but feel like her...

The Reverend Sarah Obadias is broken, bitter, and stripped of the reassurance of faith when she walks into a West Village restaurant in Manhattan. Here she encounters Abraham Darby, a rumpled but well-regarded painter who seduces the minister into his life of excess and emotional intensity. "I’ve run away from my life," Sarah tells him. "I know," Darby replies. "Take mine." But for Sarah,each day with the artist will bring a new reality - or lack of it.

Nothing can mend a broken heart quite like family. Sherry has struggled all her life to understand who she is, where she comes from, and, most important, why her mother slapped her cheek one summer afternoon. The incident has haunted Sherry, and it causes her to dig into her family's past. Like many family histories, it is fractured and stubbornly reluctant to reveal its secrets. But Sherry is determined to know the full story. In a few days' time, her extended family will gather for a reunion, and Sherry sets off across the country with her mother, Dumpling, to join them.

Critics and audiences alike have hailed Heather A. Clark’s Chai Tea Sunday as a rich and powerful debut novel. Here, 30-something Nicky Fowler tries to pick up the pieces of her shattered marriage after it is destroyed in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy. Traveling to Kenya to volunteer at an orphanage, Nicky hopes that her fragile spirit can be repaired. Aided by chai-fueled conversations with her host mother, she develops the strength to put her life back on track.

Gathering of Waters is a deeply engrossing tale narrated by the town of Money, Mississippi - a site both significant and infamous in our collective story as a nation. Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families. Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit

Kelly is delighted to accept the offer of a friend’s family summer place on a Louisiana lake for her much-needed vacation. On arrival, however, she discovers the house already occupied by a darkly handsome stranger named Charles, his associate, and an elderly man who appears to be their prisoner. Retreat is impossible; Kelly is forced to join the trio. Charles is charming and considerate beyond most crooks, but a ruthless captor; all attempts to escape his guard are futile.