Showing results by narrator "Vikas" in All Categories

Running from his past and living in fear of being discovered, Ion knows he will never be an average college student. But when Hawk, the beautiful, mysterious girl next door unearths his darkest secret, Ion’s life is flipped upside-down. He’s shocked to discover a whole world of people just like him; a world in another dimension, where things like levitation, shape-shifting, and immortality are not only possible, they’re normal. Ion struggles to control his powers in the real world while commuting between realms...until his arch enemy starts a fight he can’t escape.

It’s the late 1960s, and two lovers converge on an arid patch of earth in South India. John Walker is the handsome scion of a powerful East-Coast American family. Diane Maes is a beautiful hippie from Belgium. They have come to build a new world - Auroville, an international utopian community for thousands of people. Their faith is strong, the future bright. So how do John and Diane end up dying two decades later, on the same day, on a cracked concrete floor in a thatch hut by a remote canyon? This is the mystery Akash Kapur sets out to solve in Better to Have Gone.

Few business topics have aroused more skepticism in recent years than the notion of corporate purpose, and for good reason. Too many companies deploy purpose, or a reason for being, as a promotional vehicle to make themselves feel virtuous and to look good to the outside world. Some have only foggy ideas about what purpose is and conflate it with strategy and other concepts like “mission,” “vision,” and “values.” Even well-intentioned leaders don’t understand purpose’s full potential and engage half-heartedly and superficially with it....

Nearly 100,000 years after first contact with the machines that dominate the universe, only a few hundred humans survive. Trapped on Snowglade, a barren world near the center of the galaxy, Killeen and his child, Toby, of the Bishop Tribe, are primitive scavengers, homeless and hunted by the ruling “mechs”. Then suddenly, a strange cosmic entity – neither organic nor cybernetic or living matter – reaches out from a black hole to speak with Killeen.

Don’t be intimidated by Shakespeare! These popular guides make the Bard’s plays accessible and enjoyable.

All of my demons are coming to head. I thought Ari could push them back. I thought I could conquer my vices with her at my side. I thought wrong.

Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan's fall. Lovely—an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor—has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.

Letters of a Nation is a unique and timeless collection of extraordinary letters spanning more than 350 years of American history, from the arrival of the Pilgrims to the present day. Many of the more than 200 letters are published here for the first time, and the correspondents are the celebrated and obscure, the powerful and powerless, including presidents, slaves, soldiers, prisoners, explorers, writers, revolutionaries, Native Americans, artists, religious and civil rights leaders, and people from all walks of life.

Once thought to be pure academic legend, scientists recently found proof of the existence of viruses thousands of times larger than ordinary viruses. So far all have been innocuous, but what if one was a human pathogen? While drilling for oil in the desolate reaches of the Arctic, an unsuspecting company extracts a permafrost ice core that has been frozen for 30,000 years, accidentally releasing a "megavirus".

Marijuana has been used for thousands of years as a medicine, but pot has been illegal in the United States for most of our lives. Almost all states have now legalized its medical use, and many consumers and physicians are exploring it as an alternative to conventional treatments. There’s substantial evidence that marijuana (cannabis) is a safe and effective treatment for chronic pain, chemo side effects, sleep and mood disorders, MS, and Parkinson’s disease, among others.

A tragic car accident will forever change the Keller family. Fifteen-year-old Levon Keller survives, though his older brother, David, star athlete and golden child, does not. As the fragile family mourns while trying to move on, guilt-ridden Levon finds himself lost between the memory of his brother and the constant attention his younger sister requires with a rare genetic affliction. When beautiful and unpredictable teenager Lucy Bell moves in next door, Levon finds a trustworthy friend - one capable of providing salvation and true insight.

Headshot has just gone live and the whole world's playing the new Artificial Reality blockbuster. Unfortunately, unless you can buy your way onto the Survivor's side, you can only participate as a Zombie. Each week, the forces gather to tear each other down to the bone...until, at week's end, the Apocalypse is reset. Ryan's played the Beta for months, but now that his favorite game has launched, he finds it consuming his life - even as he struggles to decipher whether or not there's actually a way to succeed if you're not willing to Pay to Win.

Acts of Faith is a remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and coming to believe in religious pluralism, from one of the most prominent faith leaders in the United States. Eboo Patel's story is a hopeful and moving testament to the power and passion of young people - and of the world-changing potential of an interfaith youth movement.

From Africa to Asia and Latin America, the era of climate wars has begun. Extreme weather is breeding banditry, humanitarian crisis, and state failure. In Tropic of Chaos, investigative journalist Christian Parenti travels along the front lines of this gathering catastrophe - the belt of economically and politically battered postcolonial nations and war zones girding the planet's mid-latitudes. Here he finds failed states amid climatic disasters.

David Hallberg, the first American to join the famed Bolshoi Ballet as a principal dancer and the dazzling artist the New York Times described as "the foremost classical stylist of our day", presents an intimate journey through his artistic life up to the moment he returns to the stage after a devastating injury almost cost him his career. Beginning with his real-life Billy Elliot childhood - an all-American story marred by intense bullying - and culminating in his hard-won comeback, Hallberg's brave memoir dives deep into life as an artist.

Julia lived in her country club world and Colt...didn't. Then Julia dies in a car accident. Colt is devastated but can't mourn openly, and he's tormented that he may have played a part in her death. And when Julia's journal ends up in his hands, he is forced to relive their year together - just when he is trying to forget. The problem is, how do you get over someone who was never really yours to begin with?

Nathan died in the summer before his final year in high school, leaving behind a mother who was devoted to him and a girlfriend he loved. His mother and his girlfriend, Emma, are still alive; Nathan is not. But he wakes in his room—or in the shrine his mother’s made of his room—confused, cold, and unable to interact with anyone or anything he sees. The only clear memory he has is a dream of a shining city, and its glorious queen, but the dream fades, until he once again meets Emma—by the side of his own grave.

While Damien St. Cloud is off exploring a mysterious underground city, his sister Jennifer is tasked with investigating a horrific murder. What she discovers goes against everything she knows to be true. A human and an ogre have worked together to kill people before turning on each other. Can Jen solve the mystery and root out the threat approaching the kingdom? And what will Damien find in the abandoned city? Time is quickly running out.

The capital lies in ruins and Damien is no closer to finding Connor Blackman. Now word has come Damien's invincible father has fallen in battle. Damien and Jen set aside everything to hunt down the monster responsible. Meanwhile in the haunted lands, Connor is busy building an army of unstoppable soldiers. With Connor and Damien on a collision course, Jen and a handful of allies struggle to hold the pass that separates the kingdom from the haunted lands.

Juliette Ferrars isn't who she thinks she is. Nothing in her world is what it seemed. She thought she'd defeated The Reestablishment. She thought she'd finally taken control of her life, her power, her pain. But a lifetime of lies unravelling before her has changed all that. Stronger, braver and more resilient than ever, Juliette must fight for life and love. But first she has to survive the war being raged against her mind. She has to remember who she was.