Showing results by narrator "A. R. Thorne" in All Categories

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds is a rousing, all-original anthology that stands both as a significant achievement in its own right and as a heartfelt tribute to a remarkable writer - and equally remarkable man. A nicely balanced mixture of fiction and reminiscence, Multiverse contains more than a dozen stories and novellas by some of today's finest writers, along with moving reflections by, among others, Anderson's wife, Karen.

A train bound for a mysterious destination stops in the middle of a meadow. As the hours pass and the cause of the delay remains unknown, we meet the various passengers. There is a priest, a former president, a lonely waitress, an elderly couple, and a young orphan boy, each pondering the significance of the journey thrust upon them and what awaits them at their destination. Will they find order? Loneliness? Love?

Until he was nine years old, when he was adopted into a loving family, Jody was a little boy whose only experience of love was a painful, twisted hell. Now, two decades later, he moves from one woman to another, pointedly avoiding love - the thing he wants most but has never known how to give or take. Jody trusts only his wise and faithful dog Einstein to truly understand him and the darkness that haunts his life even in the bright light of a summer’s day. A chance meeting with Tess, an elderly woman still mourning her long-dead son, sends Jody on a journey back to the tortured memories buried deep below his scars.

Minerva Parkinson has just received distressing news: she's dying. Though she and her husband Henry have been married for many years, their marriage has grown listless, and she therefore chooses to keep her dire prognosis to herself. With the hopes of leaving Henry with fond memories of her, she buys a houseboat to fulfill his dream of a riverboat trip, and they set off down the Missouri River. Things are looking good until they meet two strangers, a young woman named Nora and a mysterious man named Mr. Mortimer, who possesses knowledge beyond the worldly realm.

After years of struggle, Emma Conway is living the dream - a happy second marriage and a great career. She is the driving force behind Acordinol, a hugely successful painkiller that has pharmaceutical giant Percival & Baxter riding high. But her dream becomes a nightmare when a Wall Street raider threatens her company with a hostile takeover. Worse, the raider is no ordinary cutthroat; it's her ex-husband Josh Katz, father of their sixteen-year-old son .P&B goes for a "poison pill" defense.

Given how quickly its operations have achieved global impact, it may seem that the Islamic State materialized suddenly. In fact, al-Qaeda's operations chief, Sayf al-Adl, devised a seven-stage plan for jihadis to conquer the world by 2020 that included reestablishing the Caliphate in Syria between 2013 and 2016. Despite a massive schism between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, al-Adl's plan has proved remarkably prescient. In summer 2014, ISIS declared itself the Caliphate after capturing Mosul, Iraq - part of stage five in al-Adl's plan.

Crip and Henrietta aren't your typical California private eyes. For one thing, Crip's real name is Tom Bateman. His sometime sidekick with body piercings and spiked green hair, Henrietta, calls him "Crip" because he's in a wheelchair. When she isn't mocking him, Henrietta grows marijuana, hangs with jailbirds, and brings in cases that reek of trouble - and weed - at first sniff. In these episodes, we watch Crip and Henrietta's relationship grow as both characters struggle to bridge chasms of bitterness and mistrust.

Billy Ed and Dory Barnes left the honky-tonk in Tombley's Walk on a warm Texas night. They were looking for a little privacy. They never returned. Billy Ed's body was found soon after, ripped to pieces by a savage, wolf-like creature that walked on two legs. Dory survived the brutal attack. But she has been changed into something horribly, inexplicably... different.

Michael Robb, a young journalist and aspiring author, has just landed a dream assignment: interviewing the renowned but reclusive author Edward Granville. The famous writer and his devoted wife, Virginia, have for many years lived in isolation on the Pacific Coast at their hilltop retreat, Stonecliff. Not long after Michael's arrival, strange things begin to happen.Granville's wife disappears, and Michael meets Nina, an unforgettably beautiful, unearthly young woman who by all appearances is Granville's mistress.

In the race to become multitasking superhumans, we've lost touch with the actual root of where all these valuable skills are found. This audio gives you the training you need to set yourself apart from others and to advance to the next stage in your employment, whether you are just starting out or need to reinvigorate your career. Some of the best business minds at work today identify the principles of productivity and elevating your career.

The Singers, an all-American family in the California style, are about to lose everything. Anne is a bureaucrat in the Los Angeles Office of Sustainability whose ideals are compromised by a proposal from a venture capitalist seeking to privatize the city's wastewater. Her brother, Ben, a former Navy SEAL, returns from Afghanistan disillusioned and struggling with PTSD, and starts down a path toward a radical act of violence. And Anne's teenage son, Aaron, can't decide if he should go to college or pitch it all and hit the road.

In the summer of 1916, a big twister brings destruction to the land around Boynton, Oklahoma. Alafair Tucker's family and neighbors are not spared the ruin and grief spread by the storm. But no one is going to mourn for Jubal Beldon, who made it his business to know the ugly secrets of everyonei n town. It doesn't matter if Jubal's insinuations are true or not. In a small town like Boynton, rumor is as damaging as fact.

Bernard Elliot, a poet, and Frances Reardon, a fiction writer, meet at a writers' colony during the summer of 1957 and begin a friendship and correspondence. Bernard, well-born and Harvard-educated, is gregarious, reckless, and passionate; Frances, the precocious daughter of a middle-class Irish family, is circumspect, wry, and more than a little judgmental. What starts as an exploration of faith eventually becomes a romance, a development complicated by Bernard's fall into manic depression and Frances' struggle to decide whether she is strong enough to weather the illness with him for the long term.

Based on a review of research literature from sociology, organizational psychology, and behavioral economics, this audiobook develops a theory of consent generation and distinguishes three groups of consent-producing mechanisms: socialization, incentive mechanisms, and participation and interest representation.

Iris Maeve has always had a penchant for things from the past. It's why she studied art history in college and why she opened her own antiques store in Destiny Falls. She prefers the simpler things, the slower pace of life in her hometown. She has her shop, her friends, and her little cabin in the woods. Her life is going according to plan. Until one night, her store is broken into. The thieves got away with some of her antiques and left her with a big mess to clean up. Enter Arlo Michaels, bartender and everything that she wants in a man. And it looks like he wants her too.

Drawing on fascinating examples from diverse social contexts, Don't Take It Personally introduces a general framework to better understand the deeper connection between seemingly disparate phenomena, from racial profiling and hate crimes to "secret Santa" gifting.

In the footsteps of Desert Solitaire, these essays by an award-winning writer and student of culture sift decades of experience backpacking and boating for a stance that questions the mainstream. More than mere tales of bravado, they offer glimpses into the heart of the places explored, with the Grand Canyon as their center of gravity. Vivid, finely crafted, shot through with humor, self-effacing while deeply opinionated, No Walk in the Park shows what it means to meet nature on nature's terms.

The growing movement for universal basic income (UBI) has been gaining attention from politics and the media with the audacious idea of a regular, unconditional cash grant for everyone as a right of citizenship. This volume in the Essential Knowledge series presents the first short, solid UBI introduction that is neither academic nor polemic. It takes a position in favor of UBI, but its primary goal remains the provision of essential knowledge by answering the fundamental questions about it: What is UBI? How does it work? What are the arguments for and against it? What is the evidence?

In October 1859, abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. His goal was to secure weapons and start a slave rebellion. The raid was a failure, but it galvanized the nation and sparked the Civil War. Still one of the most controversial figures in American history, John Brown's actions raise interesting questions about unsanctioned violence that can be justified for a greater good.

Record Mason’s whole life has been a curse, actually. At least that’s what her parents have always told her. It’s kind of a long story. She’s sick of being a problem for her family and bringing them down with her bad luck, though, so she packs up her old car and hits the road. She’s got a plan…kind of. That plan comes to a screeching halt when her car breaks down just outside of Destiny Falls, Michigan. Luckily for her, she has a friend that lives in town, and after a call to the local mechanic, she’s determined to get back on with her new life.