Showing results by narrator "Elisabeth Ashby" in All Categories

In a trio of popular gender rituals—sorority rush, beauty pageants, and the Confederate Pageant of the Natchez (Mississippi) Pilgrimage—young white southern women have readily ditched contemporary modes of dress and comportment for performances of purity, gentility, and deference. Clearly, the ability to "do" white southern womanhood, convincingly and on cue, has remained a valued performance. Based on ethnographic research and taped interviews, Southern Beauty goes behind the scenes of the three rituals to explore the motivations and rewards associated with participation.

Eighteen-year-old Jewel, reliving her memories, finds herself suddenly thrust into the pas,t living in the world of mortals. Only this life and this version of herself is different. Yet, one thing stays the same, she finds herself in the path of Anubis, an Egyptian god. She needs him even though it could cost her everything. But Anubis just sees her as an annoying complication to his quiet life he just can’t have - at least that’s what he tells himself. Even as he is drawn to the beautiful, dangerous goddess.

This compelling and compassionate mystery takes place in the quirky island town of Key West, Florida, where 21-year-old Jillian Dougherty, a newly graduated Boston nursing school student away from home for the first time, finds herself completely absorbed into the island's homeless population. Meet the island inhabitants that live under the bridges, behind the hedges, and on the edge of sanity in this tourist-island mecca.

In a community full of supernatural powers, 18-year-old Jewel longs for a life of normalcy. But nothing in her life is ordinary. And suddenly she discovers she's more abnormal than she ever realized - complete with a past she never knew existed. Once a goddess from ancient Greece, Jewel is the main reason everyone has their special abilities.

The ghost of gaslighting past can linger long after you’ve broken free. A gaslighter’s sneaky and slippery tactics can leave their mark deep within you. Recovery and true self-actualization are absolutely possible, with the right guidance. Countless victims, like you, have recovered using the techniques outlined in this book. Many of which are absolutely free and can be started immediately.

You’re just too sensitive! That didn’t happen. You must be imagining things. I don’t remember saying anything like that. You must have misunderstood me. Do these phrases seem familiar? Perhaps, a little too familiar? If you hear them often, you might be a victim of abuse called gaslighting. Gaslighting can happen everywhere, and nobody should have control over your emotions and feelings - nobody but you.

When Sheriff Red Hammergren welcomes billionaire Vance Judson back to Lykkins Lake for his high school reunion, his return stirs up more than nostalgia—it unearths old grudges, long-buried betrayals, and a reckoning sixty years in the making. At the same time, a young podcaster, drawn to whispers of an unsolved hit-and-run from the same era, begins asking questions—questions that cut too close to the truth and put a target on her back.

When LAPD Homicide detective Marcy Kendrick and her partner Angel Reyes investigate the bizarre death of a drug dealer in an abandoned warehouse, they discover he was waterboarded—with baptismal water. As the death toll continues to rise, it becomes clear the killer is on a religious mission. It's the kind of sensational case the press loves, and they make the most of it, stirring up a frenzy, dubbing the killer the Templar.

The race to Mars had ended generations ago, pushing those seeking fame to venture beyond known borders. Major corporations battled to be first in securing resources and the future, vying for ownership of a new galaxy, akin to historical westward settlers. A single blinking red light signaled a seismic shift—a colossal deposit of zosmodious ore that eclipsed all others. The catch? It lay on an uncharted planet, Code Name Viridian. Could this audacious find reshape the course of humanity, transcending even human boundaries?

In 1976, Di Rushing and her husband, Sam decided to open the first winery in Mississippi. Their business was thriving by 1990, with eight national award-winning wines, a beautiful vineyard, and a successful restaurant. But in March of 1990, a series of unforeseen events rocked the operation. After the Rushings discovered one of the tour guides, Ray Russell, selling drugs in the winery parking lot, they fired him. He responded with a terrorizing vengeance that persisted over the next nine months. 

Fifty-something Kathleen used 23andme to identify her biological mother, who is rumored to have a child with a priest. Kathleen believes that her father is Angie's great-uncle Ed, a beloved monsignor. Couldn't it be one of the other seven priests in the family? Despite initial reluctance, she is drawn full force into the mystery. Angie visits archives around Wisconsin, creating dossiers on the potential priest fathers. Kathleen discovers articles online with tantalizing clues hidden in plain sight.

Pregnant at fifteen after gleefully losing her virginity to pansexual neighborhood strongman Francis Anthony Mozzarelli, she is robbed of her baby by a pack of nefarious nuns and her embittered papa has her sterilized without her consent (legal in 1935). With the help of a besotted Francis and her top-secret meatball recipe, a devastated Bella embarks on a riotous quest through Depression-era Coney Island sideshows, the tawdry world of peek-a-boo striptease routines, a queer mob marriage, and a tasty collection of wisdom-filled recipes to find her lost child, herself, and maybe even true love.

LAPD detective Marcy Kendrick and her partner, Angel Reyes, are called to investigate the brutal sex murder of an up-and-coming starlet. A calling card has been left at the crime scene. This was the work of a professional, Alejandro 'El Gato' Gómez, an infamous drug lord who has evaded LA police for over a decade. Gómez has a right-hand man, a mysterious assassin known as El Mariachi de los Muertos. The assassin, for reasons unknown, is on a murderous rampage across LA. The bodies are piling up. But why? 

Panic grips LA as a cop killer stalks the streets. So far, three officers from the Downtown Precinct have been murdered and there are no clues as to who is doing this or why. Detective Marcy Kendrick and her partner Angel are assigned the case. The dead cops' friends and partners at the Precinct insist they have no idea why the victims were targeted.

Vincent was on the hunt. His sister was still on the run. First, on a job to the alien planet Viridian and then beyond. It didn't make any sense. Wasn't one alien world enough? Not for Helen. She discovered a vast network of worlds connected through a system called The World Engine, and she was on the move. Looking for a way past the gravity well, keeping her ship stranded on Viridian. She was out there searching, and he was nipping at her heels.

Project Viridian promised a new frontier, but for Helen, it's become an alien battleground. With her life flipped upside down, can Helen survive long enough to see rescue ships that might never arrive?

Told against the backdrop of the deprivation of World War I, the tragedies of the influenza epidemic, and the burden of generations of betrayal, That Pinson Girl unfolds in lyrical, unflinching prose, engaging the timeless issues of racism, sexism, and poverty.