Showing results by narrator "J. A. Smith" in All Categories

Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood. The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

Susy Branch (Tavi Gevinson) and Nick Lansing (Adam DiMarco) aren’t into each other, but they share a similar problem. Susy is a down-on-her-luck socialite who doesn’t want to get a real job, and Nick is a struggling writer who’s tired of tutoring the kids of the one percent. All of their wealthier friends are getting married, to seemingly lucrative results. So, Susy and Nick devise a plan: have a wedding.

Over the span of 48 lectures, four experienced lawyers and teachers recreate key parts of the first-year law student experience, introducing you to main areas of law most every beginning student studies. Enriched with famous cases from the annals of American law and powerful arguments by some of history's most successful lawyers, these lectures offer access to an often intimidating, surprisingly accessible, and civically important field.

The decision has been made. Jessie has taken the magic, and all the weird that goes with it. Including wings. There's only one problem - she can't figure out how to access them. Through a series of terrible decisions, Jessie realizes she must ask for help. Gargoyle help. But she could've never predicted who answers her call - he's an excellent flier, incredibly patient, and a good trainer. He's also incredibly handsome. And interested. Maybe flying isn't the only thing she needs help with. Maybe she needs help getting back on that saddle, too, emerging into the dating pool.

Trinity Marrow has lost the battle and her beloved Protector. Even with both demons and Wardens on her side, Trin may not win the war against the Harbinger. Bringing Lucifer back to the world to fight the Harbinger is probably a really, really bad idea, but they’re out of options—and the world’s ultimate fallen angel is the only being powerful enough to impact the outcome. As Trin and Zayne form a new and more dangerous bond and Lucifer unleashes Hell on earth, the apocalypse looms and the world teeters on the end of forever. Win or lose, one thing is certain—nothing will ever be the same.

Whether advocating for the peaceful use of nuclear energy or mentoring the next generation of scientists, Bohr’s influence extended far beyond his laboratory. Here in this book, we explore both his life and his life’s work in full.

In this valuable and revealing anthology, cultural critic and best-selling author Roxane Gay collects original and previously published pieces that address what it means to live in a world where women have to measure the harassment, violence, and aggression they face, and where they are "routinely second-guessed, blown off, discredited, denigrated, besmirched, belittled, patronized, mocked, shamed, gaslit, insulted, bullied" for speaking out. Contributions include essays from established and up-and-coming writers, performers, and critics.

Among the legendary heroes and outlaws of the Wild West, few names echo louder than that of Wild Bill Hickok. Wild Bill wasn’t just a name whispered in saloons or shouted on the stage of Buffalo Bill’s world-famous Wild West shows. Long before he stepped onto any stage, Wild Bill had carved his path in blood, sweat, and gunpowder. He was a Civil War scout who could read the vast plains like a map, a fearless marshal who faced down lawlessness, and a frontier sheriff whose very name sent ripples through the towns he protected.

Becoming Duchess Goldblatt is two stories: that of the reclusive real-life writer who created a fictional character out of loneliness and thin air, and that of the magical Duchess Goldblatt herself, a bright light in the darkness of social media. Fans around the world are drawn to Her Grace's voice, her wit, her life-affirming love for all humanity, and the fun and friendship of the community that's sprung up around her.

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit. But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

It isn’t often that Kate Daniels and the Beast Lord Curran get to take a break from protecting their pack and enjoy some time for themselves. So when Curran offers Kate a romantic dinner in town, there’s no way she’s going to pass. But their quiet night doesn’t stay quiet for long. The trouble starts with a necromancer dying at a nearby table, continues with bloodthirsty vampires crashing through the windows, and ends with more blood on the walls than any dining establishment needs.

When the establishment of the State of Israel was announced on May 14, 1948, it seemed to many people that the new nation could not survive for long. The haste with which it was created meant that Israel lacked the infrastructure of government, and its armed forces consisted of little more than a handful of lightly armed former guerilla fighters. Ranged against it were some of the most powerful nations in the Arab world, including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Syria.

The politics and recent history of the Middle East can seem baffling to outsiders. Nowhere was that more evident than during the Lebanon War that raged in 1982. Even contemporary reporting often made fundamental mistakes, and there was little general understanding of what was happening and why. This conflict involved a bewildering number of groups and influences from different parts of the world. The precipitating event was the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador in London, carried out by members of a Palestinian terrorist group.

Audrey Pilar is a master in the art of breaking up. Her friends have dubbed her ritual of leaving men as “The Expiration Date.” Hurt from her past has caused Audrey to protect her heart at all costs, even if it means self sabotage. She’s developed the habit of looking for red flags, and it seems to work for her—until she meets Sullivan Santiago. The confident, thirty-three-year-old owner of Sullivan’s Coffee Tavern is unlike anyone she’s ever met, and for Audrey, if it’s too good to be true, it usually is.

Everything is all fun and games until living on the "wild" side becomes the rule instead of the exception. It's good to be bad... within reason, of course. And in this case? It's very, very good.

A relatively recent addition to more traditional law school topics like torts and contracts, legislation and regulation have become more and more of a mainstay in some of the country’s top law schools. Over the course of 12 nuanced and balanced lectures, examine a host of topics including the nature of regulation, the merits of lawmaking by legislation, the challenge of interpreting statutes, and the role of federal agencies in our legal system.

For better or worse… That was the promise Denver and Kensa made, but it’s a sentiment they’ve somehow lost along the way. What started as a passionate wildfire has diminished to a flicker, all but snuffed out by unspoken fears, perceived betrayal, and a complete breakdown in communication. Can either of them tuck their ego away long enough to rekindle their flame?

They say that laughter is the best medicine, and no one could quite make us laugh like Robin Williams. His meteoric rise to fame was fueled by an irrepressible sense of humor and dazzling improvisational skills. From the extraterrestrial Mork to the inspiring John Keating in Dead Poets Society and the endearing Genie in Aladdin, Williams’ performances captured the hearts of millions.

This audiobook contains three major works on Marxism: The Communist Manifesto, Wage-Labour and Capital, and Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Cyrus II of Persia was one of the greatest leaders that the world had ever known, he was the one in whose footsteps other empire builders would follow. From Alexander the Great to countless Roman emperors and Ottoman sultans - it was the mighty shoes of Cyrus that they all attempted to fill.More than merely a successful conqueror, Cyrus the Great is known just as much for being a great liberator as he is known for his conquests. He was even credited in the Bible as the one who freed the Jews from their long-held Babylonian exile.