Books published by publisher Urban Audiobooks and Blackstone Audio

[Young Adult Fiction] [Read by Nicole Small] She can uncover the biggest celebrity secrets, but now Maya Morgan's hottest story ever is way too up-close-and-personal. -- For once, everything in Maya's life is falling perfectly into place. She's getting serious media cred uncovering the source of a new designer drug doing major glitterati damage, and the new man in her life is giving her all the cool bling and attention she craves off-camera. But the truth behind her scoop is about to cut too close to home -- and put Maya and her family in the crosshairs. Soon, she'll have to decide just how far she can afford to go to save her family, her career . . . and herself.

[Read by Danella] She dishes celebrity dirt no one else dares. But now, Maya Morgan is about to get a taste of her own medicine. Gossip show Rumor Central has gone beyond Miami to national syndication, so now's the time for Maya Morgan to really make her brand blow up. But things start to blow up in her face when a superfan takes over her online life, trashing her reputation and putting her gossip future at risk. Now Maya will need every down-and-dirty move -- and a little help from her frenemies -- to manage this disaster and save everything she's dished so hard to get.

[Juvenile Fiction - Social Issues / Adolescence] What is the true price of fame? The teen reality show Miami Divas made media sensations out of Miami's richest in-crowd -- and Maya Morgan is one of them. Now Maya's been offered her very own show, and she'll do whatever it takes to step up the fame - and that includes spilling some secrets her friends wish were left buried. But as Maya gives up the goods, someone will do anything to shut her up. Between backstabbing lies and hard truths, this gossip girl has only one chance to make things right - before it's too late.

Does America still have a rendezvous with destiny? Is there yet a generation to come forth from this nation which will turn the hearts of not only its countrymen back to the living God, but the heart of the world as well? Charles C. Coffin's The Story of Liberty, originally published in 1879, reaches back into the records of history to observe the hand of the Great Author and give a direction for the days ahead. As we look at that which preceded our nation's history and led to its founding, we will begin to have an idea of what liberty cost those who love the truth and how much still is at stake.

Much of the richness of our language and moral education is owed to a Greek slave who was executed over two thousand years ago. Literally hundreds of metaphors, axioms, and ideas that are woven into the very fabric of Western culture--from "sour grapes" and "crying wolf" to "actions speak louder than words" and "honesty is the best policy"--all came from Aesop's Fables. An extraordinary storyteller who used cunning foxes, surly dogs, clever mice, and foolish humans to describe the reality of a harsh world, Aesop created narratives that are appealing, funny, politically astute, and profoundly true. And Aesop's truth--often summed up in the pithy "moral of the story"--retains an awesome power to affect us, reaching us through both our intellects and our hearts. Included here are such fables as "The Country Mouse and the Town Mouse," "The Wind and the Sun," "The Farmer and the Stork," "The Lioness," "The Brash Candlelight," "The Old Woman and the Physician," "The Mole and Her Mother," "The Swallow and the Crow," "The Man Bitten by a Dog," "The Fox and the Grapes," "The Monkey and the Dolphin," "The Hares and the Frogs," and many, many more.

In the early 1800s, the British Navy stands as the only bulwark against the militant fanaticism of Napoleonic France. Captain Jack Aubrey, R.N., ashore after a successful tour of duty, is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make certain investments in the city. This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionage, the province of his friend Stephen Maturin. Is Aubrey’s humiliation and the threatened ruin of his career a deliberate plot? This dark tale is a fitting backdrop to the brilliant characterization, sparkling dialogue, and meticulous detail which O’Brian’s readers have come to expect.

The Dracula mythology has inspired a vast subculture, but the story has never been better told than by Bram Stoker. His myth is powerful because it allows evil to remain mysterious. The high virtue of Lucy can simply be drained away, like her blood, and scientific skill cannot resist the dreadful potency of the undead. Only the old magic is effective against the Count's appalling power.

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in...If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life."--Rachel Carson First published more than three decades ago, this award-winning classic brings Rachel Carson's unique vision to a new generation of readers. The Sense of Wonder relates Carson's intimate account of adventures with her young nephew, Roger, as they enjoy walks along the rocky coast of Maine and through dense forests and open fields, observing wildlife, strange plants, moonlight, and storm clouds and listening to the living music of insects in the underbrush. It is a refreshing antidote to indifference and a guide to capturing the simple power of discovery that Carson views as essential to life. The Sense of Wonder is a timeless volume that will be passed on from parent to child to grandchild, as treasured as the memory of an early morning walk when the song of a bird was heard as if for the first time.

Two ebullient young men are engaged in a passionate search for dharma, or truth. Their major adventure is the pursuit of the Zen way, which takes them climbing into the High Sierras to seek the lesson of solitude, a lesson that has a hard time surviving their forays into the pagan groves of San Francisco's Bohemia with its marathon wine-drinking bouts, poetry jam sessions, experiments in "yabyum," and similar nonascetic pastimes. This autobiographical novel appeared just a year after the author's explosive On the Road put the Beat generation on the literary map and Kerouac on the bestseller lists. The same expansiveness, humor, and contagious zest for life that sparked the earlier novel ignites this one. The novel is based on Kerouac's experiences during the mid-1950s while living in California, after he'd become interested in Buddhism's spiritual mode of understanding. One of the book's main characters, Japhy Ryder, is based on the real poet Gary Snyder, who was a close friend and whose interest in Buddhism influenced Kerouac. This book is a must-read for any serious Kerouac fan.