Audiobooks narrated by Erin Bennett

A revealing biography of Anne Frank, exploring both her life and the impact of her extraordinary diary In this innovative biography, Ruth Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank (1929–1945) from ordinary teenager to icon, shedding new light on the young woman whose diary of her years in hiding, now translated into more than seventy languages, is the most widely read work of literature to arise from the Holocaust. Comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit, this book chronicles and interprets Anne’s life as a Jew in Amsterdam during World War II while also telling the story of the diary—its multiple drafts, its discovery, its reception, and its message for today’s world. Writing alongside Anne rather than over her, Franklin explores the day-to-day perils of the Holocaust in the Netherlands as well as Anne’s ultimate fate, restoring her humanity and agency in all their messiness, heroism, and complexity. With antisemitism once again in the news, The Many Lives of Anne Frank takes a fresh and timely look at the debates around Anne’s life and work, including the controversial adaptations of the diary, Anne’s evolution as a fictional character, and the ways her story and image have been politically exploited. Franklin reveals how Anne has been understood and misunderstood, both as a person and as an idea, and opens up new avenues for interpreting her life and writing in today’s hyperpolarized world.

Ruth Franklin (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming

The story of factory farmers, rescued farm animals, and rural communities standing up to big corporations and constructing their own new world that will change the way we eat In Transfarmation, president of Mercy For Animals Leah Garcés explains how food and farming policies have failed over decades and offers insights into the wave of change coming from a new crop of farmers and communities who are constructing a humane and sustainable farming system. Factory animal farming faces an abundance of issues-from environmental concerns and animal cruelty, to exploited farmers and poor working conditions-and more and more farmers are searching for a way out and for a new start. Using insights from interviews and fieldwork, Garcés shares the perspectives of three groups: · Farmers-such as the Halley farm, where a family crushed by chicken factory farming builds a new way by transitioning their farm to growing hemp and rescuing dogs. · Animals-like Norma, an industrial dairy cow who was sentenced to death after injuring a worker in an effort to protect her calf. · Farm communities-including stories like how the hog industry in North Carolina preys on historically Black communities by contaminating the air and water for decades with hog pollution. Garcés demonstrates the reasons why we must end factory farming and calls on readers to imagine a future world where Transfarmation is complete and we have transitioned to a just food and farming system.

Leah Garcés (Author), Erin Bennett, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Shades of Light: A Novel

'I was desperate. . . . I couldn't turn off the dark thoughts, no matter how hard I tried or how much I prayed. And then I spent a whole weekend in bed, and the crying wouldn't stop, and I got really scared. I've had bouts with depression before—it's kind of a cloud I've learned to live with—but this time was different. I felt like I was going under, like I'd never feel hopeful again, and then that just made my anxiety worse and it all spiraled from there.' Wren Crawford is a social worker who finds herself overwhelmed with the troubles of the world. Her lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression are starting to overcome her. She finds solace in art, spiritual formation, and pastoral care along with traditional therapeutic interventions. But a complicated relationship from her past also threatens to undo her progress. Fans of Sharon Brown's bestselling Sensible Shoes Series will be delighted to discover some old friends along the way. As Wren seeks healing in this beautifully written novel, readers are invited to move beyond pat answers and shallow theology into an experience of hope and presence that illuminates even the darkness.

Sharon Garlough Brown (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Remember Me: A Novella about Finding Our Way to the Cross

''It is finished,' Jesus says. It's a bold declaration for us to make too. What does it mean to say 'It is finished' when so much is unfinished? It means we are people who live hope in two directions, both backward and forward. We long for the kingdom to come in fullness, even as it has already come. And we trust that the One who has begun the good work in us and for us will indeed complete it.' In this sequel to Shades of Light, Katherine Rhodes, the beloved director of the New Hope Retreat Center, finds her own grief tapped by Wren Crawford's struggles with depression and loss. Through a series of letters to Wren, Katherine reflects on the meaning of Christ's suffering and shares her own story of finding hope. How does one begin to live again under the crushing weight of grief? And how can healing come when there's so much left unresolved? With Katherine as a companion in sorrow, Wren moves forward in her commitment to paint the stations of the cross for a prayer journey at New Hope, discovering along the way a deeper communion with the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief. Readers are invited into a similar journey of reflection through Katherine's words and Wren's paintings. At the back of the book, a devotional guide with Scripture readings, prayer prompts, and full-color art provides the opportunity to ponder the depths of God's love by meditating on Jesus' journey to the cross.

Sharon Garlough Brown (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hypochondria: What's Behind the Hidden Costs of Healthcare in America

A brutally honest but humorous account of the journey through the labyrinth of health care, including an eye-opening exploration of the skyrocketing costs—both personal and systemic—inflicted by hypochondria and the cost to the nation’s health-care system, and how consumers eventually pay for this precipitous rise in costs Hal Rosenbluth, the maverick executive behind Take Care Health Systems, former president of Walgreens Health and Wellness and now chairman and CEO of New Ocean Health Solutions, offers an unfiltered exposé of his 227 medical claims in just two years—exposing the underbelly that illness anxiety may be costing the average sufferer and the health system as a whole. Hypochondria: What’s Behind the Hidden Costs Healthcare Costs in America is a bold exploration and a call to action to address the broader impact that each stakeholder—health plans, providers, health systems and big pharma—have on the nation’s overstressed health-care system. The book also offers a well-rounded guide to the traditional and not so typical solutions that can help people manage illness anxiety. While the book is serious in nature, Rosenbluth and Marnie Hall spin you through an amusement ride of anecdotes. From the evolution of Rosenbluth’s global management firm to his onset of Type 2 diabetes, a tale woven with sleeping meds, nocturnal PB&J sandwiches, and anti-anxiety drugs; to founding a company with the youngest Johnson & Johnson president, and his most recent entry to digital health care, Hypchondria is an unfiltered, no-holds-barred saga that enlightens and entertains and opens a new dialogue about how the United States can get better at managing health and arresting costs of care. Hypochondria is not just a memoir but a call for greater discussion among patients, families, providers, employers, and health-care executives. It’s a beacon for change by unraveling the commercialization of health care, dissecting big pharma’s role in America’s pill-popping culture, and proposing alternative, disruptive solutions.

Hal Rosenbluth, Marnie Hall (Author), Erin Bennett, Stephen Graybill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Future Tense

Human history has always been shaped by technology, but AI is like no technology that has come before it. Unlike the wheel, combustion engines, or electricity, AI does the thing that humans do best: think. While AI hasn’t reproduced the marvelously complex human brain, it has been able to accomplish astonishing things. AI has defeated our players at games like chess, Go, and Jeopardy!. It’s learned to recognize objects and speech. It can create art and music. It’s even allowed grieving people to feel as though they were talking with their dead loved ones. On the flip side, it’s put innocent people in jail, manipulated the emotions of social media users, and tricked people into believing untrue things. In this non-fiction book for teens, acclaimed author and teacher Martha Brockenbrough guides readers through the development of this world-changing technology, exploring how AI has touched every corner of our world, including education, healthcare, work, politics, war, international relations, and even romance. This is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how artificial intelligence got here, how to make the best use of it, and how we can expect it to transform our lives.

Martha Brockenbrough (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Kingdom of Rage: The Rise of Christian Extremism and the Path Back to Peace

The greatest ideologically motivated violent threat to American democracy is a Church that has lost its soul. How did a Church that purports to follow the teachings of Jesus - the Prince of Peace - become a breeding ground for violent extremism? When Elizabeth Neumann began her anti-terrorism career as part of President George W. Bush's Homeland Security Counsel in the wake of the September 11 attacks, she expected to spend her life protecting her country from the threat of global terrorism. But as her career evolved, she began to perceive that the greatest threat to American security came not from religious fundamentalists in Afghanistan or Iraq but from white nationalists and radicalized religious fundamentalists within the very institution that was closest to her heart - the American evangelical church. And she began to sound the alarm, raising her concerns to anyone in government who would listen, including testifying before Congress in February of 2020. At that time, Neumann warned that anti-Semitic and white supremacist terrorism was a transnational threat that was building to the doorstep of another major attack. Shortly after her testimony, she resigned from her role as Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention in protest of what she believed was then-President Trump's failure of leadership and his stoking of the hatred, anger, and division from which she had dedicated her life to protecting her country. Her worst fears came true when she witnessed the attack on the capital on January 6, 2021. In Kingdom of Rage, Neumann explores the forces within American society that have encouraged the radicalization of white supremacist, anti-government and other far-right terrorists by co-opting Christian symbols and culture and perverting the faith's teachings. While Neumann offers decades of insights into the role government policies can play to prevent further bloodshed, she believes real change must come from the within the Christian church. She shines a bright light on the responsibility of ordinary Americans - and particularly American Christians - to work within their families and their communities to counteract the narrative of victimization and marginalization within American evangelicalism. Her goal for this book is not only to sound a warning about one of the greatest threats to our security but to rescue the Church from the forces that will, if left unchecked, destroy it - culturally, morally, and ultimately quite literally. This is a book for anyone who wants to understand the unholy marriage of right-wing politics and Christian exceptionalism in America and who wants to be a part of reversing the current path towards division, hatred, violence and the ultimate undermining of both evangelical Christianity and American democracy.

Elizabeth Neumann (Author), Erin Bennett, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Creation of Tabloid Justice in America

Before the sensational cases of Amanda Knox and Casey Anthony—before even Lizzie Borden—there was Polly Bodine, the first American woman put on trial for capital murder in our nation’s debut media circus. On Christmas night, December 25, 1843, in a serene village on Staten Island, shocked neighbors discovered the burnt remains of twenty-four-year-old mother Emeline Houseman and her infant daughter, Ann Eliza. In a perverse nativity, someone bludgeoned to death a mother and child in their home—and then covered up the crime with hellfire. When an ambitious district attorney charges Polly Bodine (Emelin’s sister-in-law) with a double homicide, the new “penny press” explodes. Polly is a perfect media villain: she’s a separated wife who drinks gin, commits adultery, and has had multiple abortions. Between June 1844 and April 1846, the nation was enthralled by her three trials—in Staten Island, Manhattan, and Newburgh—for the “Christmas murders.” After Polly’s legal dream team entered the fray, the press and the public debated not only her guilt, but her character and fate as a fallen woman in society. Public opinion split into different camps over her case. Edgar Allen Poe and Walt Whitman covered her case as young newsmen. P. T. Barnum made a circus out of it. James Fenimore Cooper’s last novel was inspired by her trials. The Witch of New York is the first narrative history about the dueling trial lawyers, ruthless newsmen, and shameless hucksters who turned the Polly Bodine case into America’s formative tabloid trial. An origin story of how America became addicted to sensationalized reporting of criminal trials, The Witch of New York vividly reconstructs an epic mystery from Old New York—and uses the Bodine case to challenge our system of tabloid justice of today.

Alex Hortis (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Million Little Choices

Sometimes secrets just won't stay hidden . . . Now from USA Today bestselling author and Christy Award Hall of Fame inductee Tamera Alexander comes the story of two women from different centuries living in the same house who share strikingly similar journeys. Claire Powell's life is turned upside down when her beloved husband admits to a "near affair." But when Stephen accepts a partnership with an Atlanta law firm without consulting her and buys a historic Southern home sight-unseen―it pushes their already-fractured marriage to the breaking point. Claire's world spirals, and she soon finds herself in a marriage she no longer wants, in a house she never asked for. In 1863, Charlotte Thursmann, pregnant and trapped in a marriage to an abusive husband, struggles to protect her unborn child and the enslaved members of her household. Desperate, she's determined to right the evils her husband and others like him commit. But how can one woman put an end to such injustice? Especially if her husband makes good on his threat to kill her? Both Claire and Charlotte discover truths about themselves they never realized, along with secrets long hidden that hold the power to bring God's restoration―if only they choose to let it. This Southern historical fiction novel includes: - Dual-timeline plot - Thought-provoking treatment of the themes of difficult relationships, infidelity, forgiveness, and trust - Discussion questions―you're all set for book club!

Tamera Alexander (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Raising a Kid Who Can: Simple Strategies to Build a Lifetime of Adaptability and Emotional Strength

Three mental health professionals cut through the "parenting advice" noise with this accessible, easy-to-skim book filled with actionable strategies and tips to build a child's capacity to thrive where they are planted, in good times and bad. It's time to parent smarter, not harder. Filled with scientifically based and eminently actionable advice and strategies, Raising a Kid Who Can boils down the ten essential things that every child needs to thrive so that parents can stop drowning in information and get to the business of raising healthier, happier humans. Written by three mental health professionals who work with families, organized for easy skimming, and designed to be useful at any stage in a child's life, the book devotes one short, impactful chapter per principle, including Resilience, Attention and Self-Control, Psychological Flexibility, Self-Motivation, Compassion and Gratitude. The result is a new approach to a parenting guide, one that takes a wholistic approach to nurturing a child's development and help parents get right to the information they need, when they need it.

Catherine Mccarthy, Heather Tedesco, Jennifer Weaver (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Spinoza: The Outcast Thinker

An entertaining and accessible introduction to the radical philosopher of freedom of thought and religion is the only biography of Spinoza for young adults. The second title in the Philosophy for Young People series. - Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature - A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Books 'Clarity, accessibility and spot-on relevance to issues facing modern society make this a must read.' --Kirkus Reviews, starred review A brilliant schoolboy in 17th-century Amsterdam, Bento Spinoza⏤formally Baruch and later Benedict de Spinoza⏤quickly learns to keep his ideas to himself. When he is 23, those ideas prove so scandalous to his own Jewish community that he is cast out, cursed, and effectively erased from their communal life. The scandal shows no sign of waning as his ideas spread throughout Europe. At the center of the storm, he lives the simplest of lives, quietly devoted to his work as a lens grinder and to his steadfast search for truth, striving to embody a philosophy of tolerance and benevolence. Spinoza does not live to see his ideas change the world. What caused such an uproar? Spinoza challenged age-old ideas about God, the Bible, and religion. His God was the sum total of nature, not a father-figure who created the world and takes care of humankind. His bible was a book like any other, not a holy text to be interpreted only by religious authorities. His religion was a commitment to basic moral behavior, not a collection of superstitions or rituals. For such ideas, Spinoza was reviled, but he emerged from his experience as one of history's most articulate voices for freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. Those of us who enjoy the fundamental rights of modern democracies are the beneficiaries of Spinoza's quiet bravery. Spinoza: The Outcast Thinker is the second book in the new Philosophy for Young People series, introducing readers to seminal philosophers from ancient times up through the present day.

Devra Lehmann (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Middle School Superpowers: Raising Resilient Tweens in Turbulent Times

From the author of Middle School Matters, discover how to bolster any middle schooler's resilience by leveraging the 12 Middle School Superpowers they need to manage disappointment, self-regulate emotions, take healthy risks, and recover from any setback. Middle school can be one of the toughest times in a kid's life-for them and for their parents and educators. It's filled with transitions, upheaval, and brand new experiences that can be overwhelming and intimidating. But licensed clinical professional counselor Phyllis Fagell has put together a practical, evidence-based, and compassionate guide for parents and educators to help their tweens through most challenging situations. Middle School Superpowers teaches middle schoolers how to activate the 12 superpowers they need to discover their strengths and navigate tough decisions and disappointment: Flexibility * Belonging * Sight * Bounce * Agency * Forcefield * Security * Healing * Vulnerability * Daring * Optimism * Balance Whether they lose a friend, get cut from a team, make a mistake on social media, bomb a test, struggle with negative body image or identity-related issues, or feel weighed down by societal problems, these "superpowers" will help them find their place and thrive. Middle School Superpowers is the key to raising confident, self-aware, independent, and resilient kids who can recover from any setback-now and in the future.

Phyllis L. Fagell (Author), Erin Bennett (Narrator)

Audiobook

Audiobooks Narrated by Erin Bennett