Showing results by narrator "Scott Merriman" in All Categories

Welcome to Cyrene, a city where energy is currency and music is the lifeblood of its young citizens. Everyone lives on the grid, and the residents of the world's largest playground are encouraged to pursue every physical and emotional pleasure imaginable. Vee is the lead singer of the Sugar Skulls, an all-girl band that is Corporate's newest pet project. Micah haunts the city like a ghost after an overdose of a deadly illegal street drug knocks him off the grid.

Keir Sarafian may not know much, but he knows himself. And the one thing he knows about himself is that he is a good guy. A guy who's a devoted son and brother, a loyal friend, and a reliable teammate. And, maybe most important of all, Keir is a guy who understands that when a girl says no, she means it. But that is not what Gigi Boudakian, childhood friend and Keir's lifelong love, says at all. What Gigi says seems impossible to Keir - something inexcusable - the worst thing he can imagine, the very opposite of everything he wants to be.

The Bronx, 1958. The Policewoman's Bureau doesn’t officially exist, and yet it handles those cases only a woman's touch could solve. Marie Cirile, a young officer with the 44th Precinct, has joined the few women stepping away from the select matronly duties available to female officers to take up serious cases. With courage and a stiff upper lip when undercover, Marie is dispatched in often grim and scary circumstances, using her air of innocence and others' prejudice against her to take down degenerates and sex offenders.

Seventeen-year-old Matthew Munson is ranked 13th in the state in Bash Bash Revolution, an outdated video game from 2002 that, in 2017, is still getting tournament play. He’s a high school dropout who still lives at home with his mom, doing little but gaming and moping. That is, until Matthew’s dad turns up again. Jeffrey Munson is a computer geek who’d left home eight years earlier to work on a top-secret military project. Jeff has been a sporadic presence in Matthew’s life, and much to his son’s displeasure insists on bonding over video games.

We depend on - we believe in - algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. It's as if we think of code as a magic spell, an incantation to reveal what we need to know and even what we want. Humans have always believed that certain invocations - the marriage vow, the shaman's curse - do not merely describe the world but make it.

An American climber in the Himalayas stumbles on a shipment of backpack nuclear weapons headed into Tibet for use against China. Pursued by spy agencies and other killers across Asia, North Africa, Europe and the United States, he is captured then rescued by a beautiful young woman with whom he forms a deadly liaison. They escape, are captured and escape again, death always at their heels. A terrifying international manhunt and stunning love story, Tibetan Cross is a European best seller.

Meet nine courageous young adults who have lived in the United States with a secret for much of their lives: they are not U.S. citizens. They came from Colombia, Mexico, Ghana, Independent Samoa, and Korea. They came seeking education, fleeing violence, and escaping poverty. All have heartbreaking and hopeful stories about leaving their homelands and starting a new life in America. And all are weary of living in the shadows.

An undeciphered language in Crete. A rash of mysterious disappearances, from Bolivia to Japan. An ancient warning at the ruins of Babel. And a new spiritual leader, who claims that human history as we understand it is about to come to an end.

Why the best way to drive growth might be to focus rather than expand When Sanjay Khosla took charge of developing markets for Kraft Foods in 2007, the business was floundering. Six years later, annual sales had soared from $5 billion to $16 billion with significant improvement in profitability. The secret? Making fewer, bigger, and bolder bets and stopping a lot of small stuff. Kellogg School professor Mohanbir Sawhney discovered a similar formula for stellar results - focus and simplicity - in advising Fortune 500 companies.

Desmond Taylor - a free-spirited loner and heir to a family fortune - didn't mean to fall in love. But when he stumbles upon a beautiful archer deep in the wilderness, they begin an electrifying and wild romance like no other. To make matters even more complicated, the woman is the goddess Artemis.

November 13, 2015. It was a Paris night that began like so many others - until a series of terrorist attacks brought darkness to the City of Light. Stirred by the tragic events at the Bataclan music club, One Night in November locks into the hearts and minds of all those whose paths crossed that fateful fall evening...

Everybody likes Chris Goodman. Sure, he's a little odd. He wears those funny bell-bottoms and he really likes the word ennui and he shakes your hand when he meets you, but he's also the kind of guy who's always up for a good time, always happy to lend a hand. Everybody likes Chris Goodman, which makes it especially shocking when he's murdered.

One Christmas morning, while young Amish twins Henry and Harvey are sledding, they find a big black dog wandering in a field. They adopt the Newfoundland and name him Lucky, and he soon becomes their best friend and playmate. When tragedy strikes and Harvey drowns in a spring creek, Henry's only source of comfort is his furry companion. To make matters worse, the Depression is especially hard on Henry's parents who have more children than they can care for. He is sent to live with another family, where he becomes enchanted with Katie Stoltzfus.

In The Synthetic Age, Christopher Preston argues that what is most startling about this coming epoch is not only how much impact humans have had but, more important, how much deliberate shaping they will start to do. Emerging technologies promise to give us the power to take over some of Nature's most basic operations. It is not just that we are exiting the Holocene and entering the Anthropocene; it is that we are leaving behind the time in which planetary change is just the unintended consequence of unbridled industrialism.

After narrowly surviving an encounter with the Architects, Daniel Calder experiences visions of global destruction, dreamlike moments of insight, and vivid "memories" of a meeting with a famous scientist - none of which ever happened. When he and his sister, Morag Chen, are attacked by unknown assailants deep in the cavernous city of the I'iwa cave dwellers, they must escape with an enigmatic, centuries-old mathematical calculation. Time is running out. All signs point to the final "Anabasis", when the Babel myth will reach its terrible culmination.

The Fallen Gods War drove the remnants of a victorious army across the ocean in search of a new homeland. A thousand years later, the lifeless continent of Draegora is largely forgotten, a symbol for the regiments that remain. Demons to some. Protectors to others. The power of their god-touched blades has forged a nation, though many resent their absolute control. Riam and Nola are unknowing descendants of the old world. When it’s discovered they carry enough Draegoran blood to serve in the regiments, they are dragged away from their families to begin training.

"We're sorry but your recommendation wasn't approved." We've all heard those words; it's a sentence that swallows your hopes and crushes your confidence. Getting ideas or projects approved and securing the resources needed to implement them is one of the greatest challenges business leaders face. With multiple stakeholders, constrained budgets, and competing agendas, it's difficult to cut through the clutter and garner the required support.

Why I Run: 35 Progressive Candidates Who Are Changing Politics is a collection of original essays from women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and progressive allies who have recently run for office. Contributors like Stacey Abrams, Deb Haaland, Jason Kander, Andrea Jenkins, and Michelle Lujan Grisham share what inspired them to run, what it takes to win, and what lessons can be learned in the face of a loss.

It was supposed to be a simple proof of concept. The physics were sound. Over 100 teleportation experiments had already been successfully performed.... Debate raged over whether the Reidier Test's disastrous outcome resulted from human error, government conspiracy, or sabotage. No one had actual knowledge of the truth. But hidden from the public eye, there existed a government report commissioned from criminal psychologist Dr. Hilary Kahn, chronicling the events that took place.

Matthew Grzbc is just your average newly divorced dad. He shares custody of his six-year-old daughter. He may still be in love with his ex-wife. He believes he probably doesn't deserve his sexy, successful, driven girlfriend. And he plays the harp - that's his job.