Showing results by narrator "Chris Ruen" in All Categories

Bill, an IT manager at Parts Unlimited, has been tasked with taking on a project critical to the future of the business, code named Phoenix Project. But the project is massively over budget and behind schedule. The CEO demands Bill must fix the mess in 90 days, or else Bill’s entire department will be outsourced. With the help of a prospective board member and his mysterious philosophy of the Three Ways, Bill starts to see that IT work has more in common with manufacturing plant work than he ever imagined.

"There are no unsacred places," the poet Wendell Berry has written. "There are only sacred places and desecrated places." What might it mean to behold the world with such depth and feeling that it is no longer possible to imagine it as something separate from ourselves, or to live without regard for its well-being? To understand the work of seeing things as an utterly involving moral and spiritual act? Such questions have long occupied the center of contemplative spiritual traditions.

I fell in love with Carter James Callahan’s smart-mouthed smirk long before it was labeled “The Sexiest Smile in Hollywood.” I also fell for his broad, muscular shoulders, his impossibly blue eyes, his… Nope! Not going there anymore. Because while Carter may frequent my dreams every night, I will only ever frequent his friend zone, which is why I’m on an official mission to rid myself of my pesky feelings for him. I’m gonna put myself out there, start dating, and stop hopelessly crushing on my best friend. Deep down, I know this is for the best.

Danika hasn't had an easy life. Being insanely attracted to bad boys has never helped make it easier. One look at Tristan, and every brain cell she possessed went up in smoke. This man was trouble with a capital T. It was a given. She knew better. Bad boys were bad. Especially for her. Considering her history, it was crazy to think otherwise.

Their love had the power of a runaway freight train, and the potential to be just as destructive. The tempestuous sequel to Bad Things picks up where the first book left off. Reeling from a profound loss, Tristan and Danika struggle to pick up the pieces and build a life together, but the hard habits of a lifetime are not so easy to escape. Rock Bottom takes us on a dual point of view journey through addiction and desire, through love and agony, and answers the question we've been asking since these characters were introduced in Grounded.

Years of training are about to pay off for hockey player Nikola Vereshkova. A call to play in the big league means he can finally come through for those who need him. His relocation to Chicago comes with built-in friends - and one gorgeous enemy who was less than impressed with him after their first encounter. Sadie Alexander knows all about the drastic measures men will take just to get laid. She's not only experienced it firsthand but lived to tell about it in her online column, Sadie Says.

Over six years after the night that changed everything, Danika finds herself forced to spend the weekend constantly in Tristan’s company, as they attend the wedding of two of their dearest friends. It’s been long enough that she feels they can be friendly again without it destroying her peace of mind, but just a small amount of time in his presence has her remembering something she had forced herself to forget: There’d been a reason she’d gone through hell with this man, for this man, some true good to precede the bad.

True-crime podcaster Jess Keeler has returned to Deeton County, North Carolina, to pick up where her grandfather left off. Sheriff’s Deputy Big Jim Ballard, her grandfather, was a respected detective—until it all came crashing down during a 1972 murder investigation. For Jim, solving the murders of two teens should have been the highlight of his already storied career. Instead, he battled his own mind, unsure where his hunches ended and the truth began.

Seventeen-year-old Ashlyn Lanski is tired of her boring, single life. Swimming and spending time with Tatiana, her best friend, are her only sanctuary. The girls plan to leave their drab lakeside town far behind for college, and Ash hopes to finally ditch her longtime crush for Finley, Tatiana's twin brother. But when Tatiana and her family fail to return home after a family emergency, Ashlyn chooses to do something drastic to find them

One bad hit has left the career of young NHL center Luke Hudson in question. When he arrives for rehab with a minor league team, his injury has robbed him of the edge that made him great. Team trainer Adella Price's job is to help Luke get back in peak condition. But their one on one sessions shake her resolve to remain unattached. Dell is hands-off to all hockey players, even one as charming and successful as Luke.

A freelance film editor, Tracy Bateman goes where the work is. So when his old partner calls with an assignment, Tracy finds himself on a plane to Rome. But there are surprises waiting for him - deadly surprises that will lead him on a desperate chase across Europe, into the hands of a pair of brutal drug smugglers, and back to New York City, where the greatest betrayal of all awaits.…

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, Michael Benfante went to work, just like he had day after day, at his office on 81st floor in the World Trade Center North Tower. Moments after the first plane struck, just 12 floors above him, Benfante organized his terrified employees, getting them out of the office and moving down the stairwells. On his way down, he and another co-worker encountered a woman in a wheelchair on the 68th floor.

Eli Sabatino, determined to make a name for himself amid Seaside, New Jersey's nightlife, has laid out the perfect plan for success. But that plan didn't include Layla, the hopeful bartender who walked in for an interview. He knows that as an employee this alluring blonde is off-limits, but he can't fight the undeniable force of attraction that pulls him toward her. Layla Del Luca has the weight of the world on her shoulders. With a full course load, a boyfriend, a sister to take care of, and an alcoholic mother, she needs to regain control of her life.

Blaine Crabtree never considered himself a lucky man until Libby Gentry came into his life. Now, he isn't sure if he is lucky or just the biggest sap in the parish. To be fair, he is a married man now with a baby on the way, but that doesn't stop old habits from dying hard. With his friends calling for him to go out and a job relocation out of town, he isn't getting to see much of Libby, but a certain ex keeps finding her way back to him. When Blaine feels like the walls are closing in around him, will he break out and go on his own path, or are he and Libby meant to be?

Ash and Fin's only desire is to be together and dive into their happily ever after, though their conflicting worlds work to pull them apart. Neither is ready to convert to the other's life: Become a human or a mer. Little do they know that somewhere in Natatoria a secret holds the fine fabric of everyone's lives together. If the truth is discovered, Ash and Fin will no longer have the luxury of waiting. They'll be forced to choose. But will it be for loyalty or love? Or will someone else make the choice for them if they can't decide?

Falling into catatonic states where she freezes in the middle of a resuscitation and hears dead nuns talking to her? Not good. Maybe Angela should check herself into her own hospital...except a lost girl's life depends on her. Because the girl IS real. The threat to her is deadly. Aided by a police detective fallen from grace, Angela searches the midnight catacombs beneath the city, facing down a ruthless gangleader and stumbling onto a serial killer's lair. Her desperate quest to save the girl leads her to the one thing she least expected to find: a last chance for love.

Gin Fielding is counting the days until she escapes the small-town life of Roper, Missouri, for college at NYU. She prefers to blend in, though she’s far from invisible. But when she protects a younger student from a bully, the spotlight turns on her. Chase Matthews enjoys the small-town celebrity being the star quarterback brings. When Gin defends his little sister against a bully, he decides to change her senior year in ways she never imagined. When Gin declines Chase’s invitation to be part of the elite Sweet 16, the repercussions turn both their lives upside down.

After a summer spent with her aunt Dee in tiny Elsbury, Louisiana, former Chicago princess Libby Gentry traded in her old life for a new one with the Southern Casanova Blaine Crabtree. But just when she thinks things are changing for the better, old girlfriends of Blaine's start coming back into the picture, and not a single one of them are friendly or bad on the eyes. Combine the worry of passing her first semester at St. Joseph Community College and sponsoring her tomboy cousin in cotillion and Libby can barely keep up.

Starting her career as a software engineer, Luba Sakharuk is well aware of the fear of failure that can creep in when new opportunities arise. Over the years, she has faced moments of doubt and questioned her abilities, time and time again, as she progressed her career. As each new chance appeared on the horizon, her limiting beliefs would kick in like clockwork. Yet, each time, the doubt faded away, to be replaced, on reflection, with a story of learning, and often success.

Trillion Dollar Economists explores the prize-winning ideas that have shaped business decisions, business models, and government policies, expanding the popular idea of the economist's role from one of forecaster to one of innovator. Written by the former Director of Economic Research at Bloomberg Government, the Kauffman Foundation and the Brookings Institution, this audiobook describes the ways in which economists have helped shape the world.