Showing results by narrator "Shaun Grindell" in All Categories

Born a slave, the Roman Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c. 55-135 AD) taught that mental freedom is supreme, since it can liberate one anywhere, even in a prison. In How to Be Free, A. A. Long - one of the world's leading authorities on Stoicism and a pioneer in its remarkable contemporary revival - provides a superb new edition of Epictetus's celebrated guide to the Stoic philosophy of life (the Encheiridion) along with a selection of related reflections in his Discourses.

They were a picture-perfect family - until a bitter divorce drove Darren Mack over the edge. A Reno millionaire, Mack was ordered by the court to pay his wife $10,000 a month in alimony. Instead, he stabbed her in the garage while their daughter watched TV upstairs. The only person Mack hated more than his wife was the family court judge who presided over their divorce. So, after killing his wife, he loaded his gun and went after the judge...and headed for Mexico with a stash of concealed weapons. 

Summer comes to Ireland, and an uneasy peace holds at Loch Garman. The Northmen, eager to get to sea, work relentlessly on their ships, with the aid of their unlikely allies, the Irish, who are just as eager to see them go. But not everyone is willing to just let them sail away. Certain that God demands the heathens be punished, the one-eyed warrior turned monk Brother Becc is determined that Thorgrim and his men will not simply go free. And when another band of raiders arrives, Becc finds the excuse he needs to take action.  

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA - was established on July 29, 1958. Ever since that day, NASA has been at the forefront of efforts to explore outer space, resulting in the Apollo missions to the moon, the Skylab space-station, and today's space shuttle. But behind the open face of NASA, there is a much more mysterious world. NASA has been linked to a wealth of high-level cover-ups.

I'm not all that special, really. I'm sure there are a lot of girls with old gypsy blood who see the dead, have killer cults hunting their family, and turn into something that gets scary when they panic. Yep. I'm just an ordinary girl. I wish people would believe that. I've been labeled as one thing or another for most of my life: Death Girl. Crazy Gypsy Girl. Gothic Chick. Monster. It took my mother's death for me to finally start getting answers about what's really been going on. Unfortunately, most of the answers come from men...who aren't just men.

In this history of fishing - not as sport but as sustenance - archaeologist and best-selling author Brian Fagan argues that fishing was an indispensable and often overlooked element in the growth of civilization. It sustainably provided enough food to allow cities, nations, and empires to grow, but it did so with a different emphasis. Where agriculture encouraged stability, fishing demanded movement. It frequently required a search for new and better fishing grounds; its technologies, centered on boats, facilitated movement and discovery.

Linden McGregor is tall, rugged, and gunslinger handsome - a helicopter pilot with a Scottish brogue and charm to spare. He's also one of Stephanie Robson's best friends and has fit into that box for as long as she's known him.

Fi has always known there's something not quite right about herself. Not quite human. For as long as she can remember, Fi has been sensitive to other people's emotions. So sensitive, she works a night job as a cleaner to avoid being overwhelmed by all of their feelings. After a night on the town goes wrong, Fi comes to the attention of the Academy of Avalon. The obscenely beautiful jerk of a man who comes to collect her confirms her suspicions - Fi isn't human at all.

Are significant numbers of humanity the product of an ancient and advanced alien civilization? Have we, across the millennia, been periodically modified and refined as a species? In short, has our genetic make-up been manipulated by otherworldly beings that view human civilization as one big lab experiment? These are controversial and thought-provoking questions. They are also questions that demand answers, answers that may very well be found by examining those people whose blood type is Rh negative.

Dominic Ramos is a Premiership football player with a secret. There are no trophies for being gay in his game. Locked into his rep as the meanest defender on the pitch, keeping his secret is soul-crushing, but love has no place in his sport, even if his soft heart craves it. Lucky Coleman is on his knees when he meets a man with more money than sense. It's a Grindr hook-up for cash, not a love match, but dreaming of his desperate, kind eyes earns a place amongst his numerous bad habits.  

When high school sweethearts Karen and Richard Sharpe married, they shared an interest in medicine, a desire for family, and a dream for the future. For Karen, that dream became a nightmare. After years of abuse at the hands of her physician husband, she put an end to their 26-year marriage. Fearing a crushing divorce settlement, Richard ended the marriage first by unloading a .22-caliber rifle into Karen's chest. The murder revealed more about the millionaire doctor - and his double life - than polite Boston society was prepared for.

When a sink hole opens up near the Australian outback town of Pintalba, it uncovers a pristine cave system. Sam joins an expedition to explore the subterranean passages as paramedic support, hoping to remain unneeded at base camp. But, when one of the cavers is injured, he must overcome paralyzing claustrophobia to dive pitch-black waters and squeeze through the bowels of the earth. Soon he will find there are fates worse than being buried alive, for in the abandoned mines and caves beneath Pintalba, there are ravenous teeth in the dark.

It is 935 A.D., and the North is in turmoil. King Harald Fairhair has died, leaving the High Seat of the realm to his murderous son, Erik Bloodaxe. To solidify his claim, Erik ruthlessly disposes of all claimants to his throne, save one: his youngest brother Hakon. Erik's surviving enemies send a ship to Wessex, where the Christian King Athelstan is raising Hakon. Unable to avoid his fate, he returns to the Viking North to face his brother and claim his birthright, only to discover that victory will demand sacrifices beyond his wildest nightmares.

In 1945, the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki became the first and last victims of the atom bomb, the most destructive man-made force our planet has ever known. Or were they just the latest in a long line of Armageddon-level events? Is it possible that our civilization is, in reality, just one of many? Did previous cultures blossom, develop, and thrive only to destroy themselves, tens or hundreds of thousands of years ago, with the same atomic technology?

With their ill-fated raid on the monastary at Glendalough torn apart by betrayal and defeat, Thorgrim Night Wolf and his handful of survivors from the crew of Sea Hammer find themselves in desperate and tenuous straits. Stranded far from the safety of Vik-lo, surrounded by enemies, and with barely enough men to work the longship's oars, the Norsemen must make their way back through a dangerous and uncertain country. Thorgrim, however, is not interested in mere survival. His one thought, his one desire, is to take revenge.

Marius's life has no meaning; not since he was cursed into the twisted, bloodthirsty creature of night. For years the witches have waited for their salvation, a way to return the magic that was sacrificed when the curse was first cast. Jak, a boy born with power that the witches have not seen in a century, is their prophesied savior. The one who is to kill the creature, break the curse and restore magic to his coven. Sent to the creature's castle as the final Claim, Jak must get close enough to land the final blow. It is what he has trained all his life to accomplish.

All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree, and take over his dad's ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career. What Blake and Amanda don't want is to be paired up with each other for their final project, but that's exactly what they both get when they're forced to collaborate on a writing piece.

I've known him my entire life. Before marriage. Before fatherhood. Before betrayal. Now, he's one of rock's bad boys trying to be good. Trying to be the best father he can for his daughter. He's my brother's best friend. He's my boss. He has a wife. Max isn't mine to have, but I want him all the same. And I haven't survived all that I have to not go after what I want. 

John Edward Robinson was a 56-year-old grandfather from rural Kansas. An entrepreneur and Eagle Scout, he was even honored as "Man of the Year" at a Kansas City charity. To some of the women he met on the internet, he was known as Slavemaster - a sexual deviate with a taste for sadomasochistic rituals of extreme domination and torture...even killing. 

Nothing could have shocked the sleepy community of Morgantown, West Virginia, more than the lurid details that surfaced after a house fire claimed the life of Shelly Michael's husband, Jimmy. Local authorities suspected possible arson. Then they discovered that Jimmy had been dead before the fire even started - paralyzed by a fatal dose of muscle relaxant.... Did Shelly Michael, a respected nurse and mother, kill her second husband and torch her own home?