Showing results by narrator "Ramon De Ocampo" in All Categories

Ever wonder what goes on behind closed board room doors when organizations pick their top leaders? It can be a contentious, secretive, even brutal process. Most of our leaders look good on paper - they have charisma, credentials, and confidence - yet they lack the real qualities that are necessary to succeed. In Why Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders?, Cohn and Moran share the same insights and ideas they use to help organizations make better choices.

From clueless newbie to expert duelist, Level 1 Nullifier, and somewhat trustworthy partymate to the best friends he's ever had. If only he hadn't been maimed along the way. Now, his friends seek the power to heal him, but with two hostile guilds and aggressive new monsters breathing down their necks, all he can do is try to keep up. His friends trust him. He hopes it doesn’t get them killed.

Alcatraz Smedry is back with a bang - infiltrating the Library of Alexandria, looking for his not-dead-after-all father and discovering a strange golden sarcophagus that might hold the key to his amazing talent for breaking things. Oh, and his best friend Bastille's come along too - for evil-librarian-bashing purposes, of course.

Five running backs were selected in the first round of the 2008 NFL Draft. Jamaal Charles was not among them. Despite piling up the fourth-most rushing yards at the University of Texas in just three seasons, he waited for eight other running backs to get selected ahead of him. The Middle School Rules of Jamaal Charles features the stories and lessons of Jamaal’s childhood, defined by people overlooking him.

It’s been only a few weeks since Van uncovered a magical secret - that wishes really can come true, and that a mysterious society called the Collectors protects us from the dire consequences even the smallest wish can have. Van knows only too well how wishing can go awry: His mother is recovering from a broken leg, his friend Pebble has been stolen away by the evil wish collector Mr. Falborg, dozens of dangerous creatures called Wish Eaters have escaped into the world, and Van himself has almost died - twice - all because of wishes.

There comes a time when offering your life for your child’s doesn’t work, when you realize that it’ll never be enough. The cold needle in his warm vein was a welcome comfort to my son at first. But then it became the monster that kept us apart. Heroin lied, and my son believed. It took him to a world where the last year didn’t happen, to a place where his father was still alive. What Beck didn’t understand was that it couldn’t bring his father back from the dead. It couldn’t take away his pain, not permanently.

In I Need a Hug, a tiny porcupine just wants a cuddle. All of the other animals turn him away because of his prickly spikes. But finally the porcupine meets an animal who's happy to hug....

What’s the problem? Sixteen-year-old Filipino American Angelo Rivera will tell you flat out. Life sucks. He’s been uprooted from his San Diego home to a boring landlocked town in the middle of nowhere. Behind him, ocean waves, his girlfriend, and the biggest skateboarding competition on the California coast. Ahead, flipping burgers at his parents’ new diner and, as the only Asian in his all-white school, being trolled as “brown boy” by small-minded, thick-necked jocks. Resigned to being an outcast, Angelo isn’t alone.

From the author of Return to the Dirt comes an outlandish collection of stories, including "Anything for my Bubela", "Jar Baby", and "Night Fright".

After the king of Damask dies, Bad Prince Charlie is put on the throne to divert attention from his uncles' plan-to procure Weapons of Magical Destruction.

Jessica Hagedorn's edgy and entertaining new novel centers on the lives of two women who are neighbors in Manhattan's West Village. Mimi Smith is a filmmaker of low-budget slasher movies in search of new material. Her neighbor Eleanor Delacroix is a legendary writer of erotic fiction, now nearing eighty and addicted to cocaine and gin. Their personal and artistic lives begin to collide in unexpected ways.

The Zang, an elder race of the galaxy, may be a shrinking population, but they're also intelligent, curious, and powerful. What's more, they practice a most unusual art form: they bonsai star systems. Eager to witness this first hand, Lieutenant Lord Thomas Kinago, accompanied as always by his personal assistant Parsons, sets out on a several-week jaunt to see the Zang destroy a moon to enhance the beauty of a star system.

In the epic conclusion to Alex and Ren's quest, they must face off against the Death Walkers, The Order, and an army raised from the dead. Can Alex put an end to the chaos and send these evil spirits back where they belong without putting an end to his own life?

It’s time for animals to take fate into their own paws! The Endangereds is the first book in a thrilling new adventure series by world-renowned environmentalist and Emmy-nominated host of Xploration Awesome Planet Philippe Cousteau and award-winning TURBO Racers author Austin Aslan. The A-Team meets the animal kingdom in the first book in the thrilling new adventure series from the host of Xploration Awesome Planet Philippe Cousteau and award-winning author Austin Aslan.

Middle school is off to a rocky start for Marvin Watson. Doomed to misfit status, his only friends are a girl with major orthodontics, the smelliest boy in school, and the trio of sarcastic man-size moths that live in his attic. No one said middle school would be easy! Also, no one said that Marvin's town would be threatened by mutant bugs, including a very hungry Shakespeare-quoting spider. But life in the suburbs is full of surprises.

A year after losing their best friend, JD and Danny are still brokenhearted. JD’s decision to join the Air Force only makes him yearn for “before” more than ever. Danny, who’d rather paint murals than open a book and certainly never thought of himself as college material, makes the equally impulsive choice to do what Juan will never be able to and enrolls in a community college. Danny’s father, The Sarge, is proud of him for the first time ever for living out Sarge’s own dream of being a first-generation college student, but Danny can’t shake the thought that it should be Juan, not him

In Dare to Matter, VisionSpring founder Jordan Kassalow shares his own inspiring story and a nuts-and-bolts plan to help listeners who what to make a difference right now, no matter what their job, no matter what their circumstances, on their own terms, in their own time, in concert with their commitments and responsibilities.

Sure enough, the competitors are intimidating, and the monsters terrifying - though neither more so than blossoming friendships with two determined swordswomen. Spurred by pure-hearted altruism alone, Pavel joins their quest to find the Storm’s Breath: an artifact that bestows magic powers - and real-world riches - upon the first player to find it. And with a ruthless mage on their heels, he’ll find plenty of opportunities for bravery.

Copper Inskeep holds Windydown Vale’s deepest and darkest secret: He is the ghoul who haunts the Vale, donning a gruesome costume not only to scare travelers away from the dangers of the surrounding swamps, but also to keep them from discovering Windydown Vale’s best-kept secret. When a terrified girl claims she and her father were attacked by a creature, one that could not have been Copper, her accusation threatens Copper’s secret, his closest friendship, and the fate of all Windydown.

Jasmine Yap’s life is great. Well, it’s okay. She’s about to move in with her longtime boyfriend, Paul, before starting a nursing program at community college - all of which she mostly wants. But her stable world is turned upside down when she catches Paul cheating. To her giant, overprotective family, Paul’s loss is their golden ticket to showing Jasmine that she deserves much more. The only problem is, Jasmine refuses to meet anyone new. But...what if the family set up a situation where she wouldn’t have to know? A secret Jasmine Project.