Showing results by narrator "Alan Carlson" in All Categories

I’ll make her cry gilded tears if she ever runs again. Esme was just a girl in a nightclub. Until I made her the center of my world. The queen to my kingdom. The mother to my child. We had the future in our hands. And then she left me on that mountain to die. Little by little, I clawed my way back. Back to life. Back to strength. Back to where I belong. And now, the time has come to reclaim what belongs to me.

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada's petroleum industry and America's biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration—the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina—John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world.

Carter Mosley is thrust into an unexpected adventure when his childhood friend and former dive partner, Jeff Shelton, leaves him a cryptic message. Carter is hesitant given his friend's shadowy past, but loyalty draws him in. Joined by Avery Turner, he heads to England to follow the trail. The quest turns deadly when Jeff is murdered and a link to Captain Ace Mullins, a legendary pirate whose tale conceals a priceless treasure, is unveiled.

Is good character something that can be taught? In 430 BCE, Socrates set out to teach the vain, power-seeking Athenian statesman Alcibiades how to be a good person—and failed spectacularly. Alcibiades went on to beguile his city into a hopeless war with Syracuse, and all of Athens paid the price. In The Quest for Character, philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci tells this famous story and asks what we can learn from it.

Broken isn’t forever. It’s time I worked on myself and my mental health. I won’t give up. Broken can’t be forever. What happened to Eli still haunts my thoughts, no matter what I do to block it out. Broken won’t be forever. I see Lauren in myself, and it hurts. I see Kenzo and Atticus, and it hurts. I run into Saint and Ambrose, and it hurts. Then there’s Drake, so determined to reopen the wounds of the past. Please don’t let broken be forever. It hurts.

Eight weeks ago, Johnny Malone showed up at my office, flipping a playing card between his fingers like I was wasting his time. Me. The one with the PhD. The one a self-confessed arsonist came to for help in controlling his "urges". The one he visits every week and undresses with his eyes.

Battling a wolf to save a little girl’s life makes Argus Brock a local hero. But what the small town of Redstone doesn’t know is that the tough teenager is a secretly a werewolf, which means the wolf Argus bit during the fight is now a werewolf, too. But unlike Argus and his wolf pack siblings, this wolf man is far from tame.

When Lyric Jackson stopped for gas in Redemption, Tennessee, she wasn't sure what to think of the small town nestled in the middle of the Smoky Mountains. Then she got one look at Holton Clarke, saw that charming smile, and fell instantly. One night with the man in uniform sparked an ember of hope, but things didn't quite end how she'd expected. All Holton Clarke ever wanted to do was protect the people he cared about. He thought he'd be able to do that better as a deputy for his hometown, but one call turned his whole world and everything he thought he knew upside down.

One Sought Death, One sought the Truth, and one sought his next meal. They all found more than they expected.

She’s been proposed to five times. Five. She even said yes to one of them. And then broke his heart when she called it off. Not to mention her mother’s heart. And her grandmother’s. And his mother’s. And...you get the picture. Paige Asher has now officially sworn off all dating. Diamonds give her hives. All she wants is to be a yoga-doing, cat-collecting vegetarian in peace. Away from her marriage-crazy family and all their expectations. So when her weekend fling turns into a real friend and offers her a place to escape, she finds herself on his doorstep in Louisiana.

Some worship him and some want him dead, but either way, tensions run high when “Ray Boy” Calabrese is released from prison. It’s been 16 years since Ray Boy’s actions led to the death of a young man. The victim's brother, Conway D'Innocenzio, is a 29-year-old Brooklynite wasting away at a local Rite Aid, stuck in the past and drawn into a darker side of himself when he hears of Ray Boy’s freedom. But even with the perfect plan in place, Conway can’t bring himself to take the ultimate revenge on Ray Boy, which sends him into a spiral of self-loathing and soul-searching.

Life can seem to be a serious business. We could also look at it as a game—or a series of games. They include survival, love, power, pleasure, courage, creativity, and the Master Game! In this insightful book, Richard Smoley gives a lively but profound account of these games. He talks about how we play them, the mistakes we make, and how we can play them best. The culmination is the Master Game. Richard explores practices from the great spiritual traditions to show how to reach this mastery. If you play this game, you will reach new heights of wisdom, courage, kindness, and performance.

Among today’s most successful businesses are those that have significantly transformed our daily routines. This focus on the consumer experience, not solely on product, has enabled them to drive remarkable growth and customer loyalty and, in many cases, to create totally new marketplace categories. Seeing the How invites you to reimagine your brand, company, or idea through the lens of consumer experience. It gives today’s disruptors a path to offering consumers a new and better way to do what they do, clearly demonstrating how to see opportunities, and how to seize them to great advantage.

When Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert decide to adopt an orphan who can help manage their family farm, they have no idea what delightful trouble awaits them. With flame-red hair and an unstoppable imagination, eleven-year-old Anne Shirley takes Green Gables by storm. Anne’s misadventures bring a little romance to the lives of everyone she meets: her bosom friend, Diana Barry; the town gossip, Mrs. Lynde; and that infuriating tease, Gilbert Blythe. From triumphs and thrills to the depths of despair, Anne turns each everyday moment into something extraordinary.

It was, maybe, the first job I'd ever had where people were happy to see me. An odd feeling indeed, to wield this kind of power. To be this kind of force. As near to magical as any mortal should stride. A technician of unspeakable joy. Braving the neon mountains to return with blue raspberry concentrate. Tearing out sundae cone fangs from the mouths of snow beasts. And so on.

Brendon Abram combines his first-hand experience with PTSD in the field and years of teaching to offer this practical guide to bringing trauma-sensitive yoga to both clinical and studio settings. Drawing on his work with military veterans, first responders, and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, he emphasizes the importance of respecting the uniqueness of every individual and demonstrates how to use the foundational principles of yoga to create a safe experience.

After 25 years on the job, Detective Roscoe Conklin trades his badge for a pair of shorts and sandals and moves to Bonaire, a small island nestled in the Southern Caribbean. But the warm water, palm trees, and sunsets are derailed when his long-time police buddy and friend back home is murdered. Conklin dusts off a few markers and calls his old department, trolling for information. It's slow going, but no surprise there; after all, it's an active investigation, and his compadres back home aren't saying a damn thing.

Everything has been one elaborate lie. My name. My identity. My entire existence. Brody Harcourt exposed me as a fraud, turning me from a queen into a pariah. Now there will be hell to pay.

A beloved professor of theology and archaeology at Harvard, Cal Donovan has achieved renown—but he drops everything when he is called by his friend Pope Celestine to investigate the potential existence of a mysterious prophecy. And it soon becomes clear that another party is desperate and willing to kill for the same information.

After two daughters of a wealthy railroad baron are abducted, they hire a famous bounty hunter and a couple Pinkerton detectives to find them. As they investigate, it’s discovered the girls’ abduction wasn’t random but part of a larger conspiracy that will propel them on a deadly hunt to rescue the girls before they’re lost forever.