Showing results by narrator "Sean" in All Categories

By the author of the modern classic The Black Swan, this collection of aphorisms and meditations expresses his major ideas in ways you least expect. The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from Greek mythology: the story of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection by either stretching them or cutting their limbs. It represents Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s view of modern civilization’s hubristic side effects.

Unconditional love, does it really exist or is it an urban myth. What does it really mean? Do you love someone because of their flaws? Or in spite of them. And at what point are the conditions more to bear than the love is worth. This is what I’m trying to decipher, this is my story, I’ll let you be the judge.

They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I survived, but at what cost? They aren't going to stop until they get victory and more blood is shed. We're all in danger, fighting to stay on top. The most unlikely alliances are forming. But I guess that's what happens when you anger the masses. It's a tale as old as time — rivals coming together when war is brewing on the horizon. A deadly rival club threatens to bring us all down. But that's not the only problem I have. I have to fight to keep us all together. And that might be the biggest challenge of all.

While suspended from the Philadelphia Police Department, Mitch Tanner travels to Savannah, Georgia, to visit Cassie, the medium who assisted on his last case, in hopes of uncovering a clue to the whereabouts of his estranged wife and son. When he arrives in Savannah, he finds himself embroiled in a triple homicide and kidnapping that Cassie has been called upon to assist in by the local detectives. It isn't long before the case gets personal. Very personal. Now, Mitch is in a race against the clock to stop a deranged madman before he kills again.

Legends aren't born. They're forged. Dug Sealskinner is a down-on-his-luck mercenary travelling south to join up with King Zadar's army. But he keeps rescuing the wrong people. First, Spring, a child he finds scavenging on the battlefield, and then Lowa, one of Zadar's most fearsome warriors, who's vowed revenge on the king for her sister's execution. Now Dug's on the wrong side of that thousands-strong army he hoped to join ­- and worse, Zadar has bloodthirsty druid magic on his side.

At the age of 74, best-selling author Irvin Yalom turns his attention to one of the great human questions: our fear of death. He suggests that what he calls the 'awakening experience' can help us acknowledge, accept, and make use of our fear of death in a positive manner. These awakening experiences often follow a loss, a trauma, or the death of a loved one, illness or just growing old. Yalom shows us how such an awakening can be the turning point for a more meaningful life.

When Seán meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe depression, the couple comes face-to-face with crisis. Wrestling with this, Seán Hewitt delves deep into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures and poets before him. From a 19th-century cemetery in Liverpool to the pine forests of Gothenburg, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of solace and hope. All Down Darkness Wide is an unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds.

When Prince Theodore Rinaldi vanishes, Shepard “Shep” Winchester III will do anything to bring him back. What starts as a mission of duty ignites into a forbidden obsession—one that blurs every line between loyalty and love. Back in New York, the Kings are under attack, their secrets exposed, their brotherhood fractured. And when an attempt on Theo’s life plays out in front of flashing cameras, the world sees what they were never meant to: a touch too intimate, a look too raw.

Who are we? Nobody really knows. We’re seven powerful heirs to empires, ruling Manhattan from our thrones on Park Avenue. By day, we’re the elite, untouchable, and more connected than you could ever imagine. By night, we revel in the darkness of our secrets, pulling strings that make the city bow to our whims.

Think you know what it's like being a baller's girl? You don't. My fairy tale is upside down. A happily never after. I kissed the prince and he turned into a fraud. I was a fool, and his love—fool's gold. Now there's a new player in the game, August West. One of the NBA's brightest stars. Fine. Forbidden. He wants me. I want him. But my past, my fraudulent prince, just won't let me go.

Heather Pierce is done being a wallflower, both personally and professionally. Desperate to live a different life for one night, she attends a speed dating event. Maybe here, anonymous unless she chooses otherwise, she can become someone new. When a man way out of her league sits across from her, Heather gathers her courage and takes charge of what she wants, secretly fearing he won't desire the real person she's desperate to hide.

Using newly declassified information, Dick Russell builds on three decades of painstaking research in On the Trail of the JFK Assassins, offering one of the most comprehensive and authoritative examinations of the assassination of our 35th president. Included are new revelations, such as the theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was subjected to “mind control,” Russell’s personal encounters inside the KGB headquarters, and new information gleaned from an interview with Oswald’s widow.

My name is Lucian Quinn, and I own one of the most successful software companies in the world. I'm 29, rich, and single. Impressive, right? I'm also a favorite target for every hungry socialite looking to land the uncatchable catch. What these women don't know, though, is that I'm completely screwed up and damaged beyond repair. The only part of me I'll ever willingly give them is the hour it takes to make them scream...several times. Then I saw her....

Nigeria. The densely packed cities are abandoned and in ruins. Isolated villages survive behind locked doors under constant threat of a war on two fronts; a war the living cannot win. Hidden miles into the desert is a secret weapon that, if unleashed, will bring peace—but at the risk of total annihilation. Undermanned and with scant resources, Michael Talbot's squad of misfits is ordered to retrieve classified data of the utmost imperative.

Drake Stoker, leader of the elite Reaper Special Forces, is trapped in the deepest depths of Hell – a nightmarish realm where monsters roam and the damned endure unspeakable horrors. Each step unveils new terrors, forcing Drake to battle for his sanity and survival, desperate to see daylight again.

The Silurian Period, approximately 420 million years ago. A time even before the dinosaurs. Evolution was just beginning to flex its muscles, and on land and in the sea, new creatures were evolving. In this strange world arrive a team of time travelling North Korean agents with one goal – change the past and alter the future. And if they are successful, the United States may never exist. Following them back in time are Alex Hunter and his team of elite HAWCs. And for Alex Hunter, this mission is personal.

When pioneering business journalist and Inc. magazine editor at large Bo Burlingham wrote Small Giants, it became an instant classic for its original take on a common business problem - how to handle the pressure to grow. Now Burlingham is back to tackle an even more common problem - how to exit your company well. Sooner or later, all entrepreneurs leave their businesses and all businesses get sold, given away, or liquidated.

Faust is one of the pillars of Western literature. This classic drama presents the story of the scholar Faust, tempted into a contract with the Devil in return for a life of sensuality and power. Enjoyment rules, until Faust’s emotions are stirred by a meeting with Gretchen, and the tragic outcome brings Part 1 to an end. Part 2, written much later in Goethe’s life, places his eponymous hero in a variety of unexpected circumstances, causing him to reflect on humanity and its attitudes to life and death.

In these Messenger Lectures, originally delivered at Cornell University and recorded for television by the BBC, Richard Feynman offers an overview of selected physical laws and gathers their common features into one broad principle of invariance. He maintains at the outset that the importance of a physical law is not "how clever we are to have foundit out but…how clever nature is to pay attention to it" and steers his discussions toward a final exposition of the elegance and simplicity of all scientific laws.

Summer lovin’ happens so fast—but in these stories, it’s built to last. Sit back and relax, ideally poolside, as top romance authors deliver a refreshing six-pack of summer reads. Whether it’s a sleepaway-camp rivalry, a second chance at love, or opposites attracting, each sun-kissed short story offers more than just a fling.