Showing results by narrator "Beth Richmond" in All Categories

The buzz word in education today is accountability. But the federal mandate of "no child left behind" has come to mean curriculums driven by preparation for standardized tests and quantifiable learning results. Even for very young children, unstructured creative time in the classroom is waning as teachers and administrators are under growing pressures to measure school readiness through rote learning and increased homework.

This love story takes place in Germany between the years 1936 and 1943. At the age of 17, Erna Neuman and Hans Traber fall in love. Nazi laws force their separation because Erna is Jewish. During World War II, Traber, now a soldier in the German army, finds Erna under circumstances that compel him to rescue her. Gradually and tenderly, their first love is re-awakened as he attempts to take her to safety on a perilous journey to Switzerland. He fails....

Anthony Wright made a career of getting what he wanted, whatever the price. When he's murdered and ends up as a late night snack for the zoo's 15-foot crocodile, few are shedding any tears. After police arrest the lead crocodile handler, it's up to zookeeper Lavender "Snake" Jones to prove her friend's innocence. But is she really helping? Each lie she exposes only serves to strengthen the case against him, rattles her belief in those she trusts and, in the end, threatens her own safety.

Modern dance was a movement that began at the turn of the 20th century when American dancers Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, and Ruth St. Denis broke from formal dance traditions with their own personal vision of movement. Soon, their visions evolved through Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman, who would all go on to teach their methods and present modern dance as a serious art form.

Former homicide detective, Sam Casey, finds it hard to stay away from crime scenes, especially those where victims have died violently, and where the killers are still unknown. Centuries-old skeletal remains of Native Americans along with artifacts are discovered during the construction of a downtown office building. Sam has a difficult time deciphering her visions of two moons and the sound of gravel crunching until she realizes the two moons are headlights.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is an informative introduction to the life of this remarkable woman. The former first lady and Yale Law graduate was destined for political life. Hillary Rodham Clinton brought her intelligence and drive to numerous projects during her husband's presidency in the 1990s. In 2000, she campaigned for the U.S. Senate as a representative from New York. Her win made her the first first lady to be elected to the Senate following her husband's presidency.

It's RN Gina Mazzio's wedding eve. But when she takes the week's final Ob/Gyn telephone advice call, a deadly serious male voice says, "She's all cut up." The police, the hospital administrator, and even Gina's fiancé, Harry Lucke, insist it was only a crank call, some sicko getting his Friday evening jollies. Gina doesn't buy it. After a second similar call, at her home, she starts to link the calls and caller with a series of nurse disappearances.

One week before her wedding a young woman strips, takes the time to fold her clothes, then calmly walks into Lake Michigan. When Sam Casey is asked to look into the death of a young mother who left her infant in a high chair, walked down the street and jumped off the overpass, Sam finds a strange similarity-they each received a phone call just prior to committing suicide. Both calls were from disposable phones and both calls lasted four seconds. Were these really suicides or something more sinister?

Spunky young grandma Cealie Gunther tries to avoid her hunky sometimes-ex lover Gil Thurman so she can rediscover herself. She also wants to avoid relatives so she won't become dependent on them. But a cousin who antagonized her in childhood pleads for Cealie to come to Gatlinburg, TN, needing Cealie's help or she'll face dire consequences. And Gil couldn't be opening another of his Cajun Delights restaurants there - could he? Torn between flying off for her planned exotic vacation or landing in the hills of Tennessee, Cealie knows where she must go. She can't believe what she finds once she gets there....

For 70 years, Sin Strip was the place to be in Chasen Heights, Illinois. It offered liquor, gambling, topless dancing, anything the heart desired. It was an age of self-indulgence that began a decline in 1995. But two weeks before the wrecking ball was to destroy one of the remaining landmark hotels, the police make a grisly discovery. Not all of Chasen Heights' secrets were destroyed when Sin Strip was closed down. The fifth book in the award-winning Sam Casey series, combines mystery with an element of paranormal.

Six-year-old Nemo is a member of the Concrete Community, the homeless who scrape out a life on the streets and in the shelters. Street savvy beyond his years, he relies on instincts to stay safe and cunning to find food and clothes. But curiosity gets the best of him when he finds a tunnel in the sub-basement of an abandoned building. His mother warns him to stay away. It could be dangerous, and he might get lost. The tunnel runs for blocks and is a great place to explore.

In 1985, Catherine DeMarco spent one hot July night where she shouldn’t have been, doing something she shouldn’t have been doing. This was a fatal mistake. Now Jimmy Taggart is sitting on death row. Details of that night are still hazy in his mind but the evidence was conclusive. No one believed in his innocence then. Only one person believes in it now. Sergeant Samantha Casey fought to clear the name of a Korean War vet in When the Dead Speak.

Free-spirited Tracy cheers when her stuffy husband, Drew, loosens up enough to rearrange the nose of his boorish boss, Ian Dragger. But Drew's timing couldn't be worse. When Dragger is found floating face down in the Eatons' pool, deader than disco, Drew is the one that wily Detective Patti Garcia zeroes in on as her prime suspect. Still, Tracy expects to clear her sweetie in short order.

Undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is always busy, but more so now than ever. The sheriff is still not completely recovered from his stay in the hospital, and she is recovering from a hospital stay herself. After a long day at work, Estelle is happy to clear off her desk and drive home, where her beloved family waits. She hears her cell phone ringing as she pulls into the driveway. A truck has gone off the road and the driver's body found near the wreck.

In 1847, Marjory Turner struggles with the difficult journey west to the Oregon Territory, recording her feelings in her journal. On the cusp of womanhood, she is ill equipped to deal with the hardships after her father dies in an accident midway through the journey. The already-strained relationship with her mother grows worse as her mother's behavior becomes more mysteriously irrational and Marjory is forced to take on the responsibility of her much younger siblings. But the trials strengthen Marjory.

Beware the menace posed by a dying man, a sniper in the woods and killer ladybugs. Accountant P.J. Benson recently inherited her grandfather's farm in rural Michigan. During tax season, she has no time for outside interests, but when she's suspected in the murder of a stranger who dies in her dining room, she's forced to turn sleuth.

Although drinking alcoholic beverages is legal for those 21 years and older in the United States, alcohol is a dangerous drug when misused or abused by those of any age. One of the most commonly used drugs among teens and adults, alcohol affects areas of the brain that influence pleasure, impulses, and coordination. Long-term abuse of alcohol has devastating effects on one's health and can be fatal to the user.

Back from an idyllic beach wedding and honeymoon on Kauai, Gina and Harry have barely unpacked when Ridgewood Hospital sends them off on an intriguing assignment to learn about and report on surgical robotics at a Santa Cruz area hospital. Intrigue turns to fear as they’re plunged into the midst of a deadly clash between hands-on medicine traditionalists and those eager to dive headlong into the futurist whirlpool of robotics.

Throughout his career, Johnny Cash was depicted - and depicted himself - as a walking contradiction: social protestor and establishment patriot, drugged wildman and devout Christian crusader, rebel outlaw hillbilly thug and elder statesman. Leigh H. Edwards explores the allure of this paradoxical image and its cultural significance. She argues that Cash embodied irresolvable contradictions of American identity that reflect foundational issues in the American experience.

Miffed that vacation plans with her chronically absent boyfriend Jenks Jenkins have gone awry, she accepts a job in Baja. So what if she and her friend Jan are spectacularly unqualified to take her yacht on a thousand mile cruise in the eastern Pacific Ocean in the middle of hurricane season? Hiring a handsome, if somewhat fishy captain for the trip might keep them off the rocks, but probably won t do the same for her future with Jenks.