Showing results by narrator "Ross" in All Categories

Walt Disney left behind big dreams when he died in 1966. Perhaps none was greater than the hope that his son-in-law, Ron Miller, would someday run his studio. Under Miller’s leadership, Disney expanded into new frontiers: global theme parks, computer animation, cable television, home video, and video games. Despite these innovations, Ron struggled to expand the Disney brand beyond its midcentury image of wholesome family entertainment, even as times and tastes evolved.

The era of the coronavirus has tested America, and our leaders and institutions have conspicuously failed. That failure shouldn’t be surprising: Beneath social-media frenzy and reality-television politics, our era’s deep truths are elite incompetence, cultural exhaustion, and the flight from reality into fantasy. The Decadent Society explains what happens when a powerful society ceases advancing - how the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemate, and demographic decline creates a unique civilizational crisis.

On the eve of a recurring catastrophic event known to extinguish nations and reshape continents, a troubled orphan evades death and slavery to uncover her own bloody past - while a world goes to war with itself. In the frozen kingdom of Saiduan, invaders from another realm are decimating whole cities, leaving behind nothing but ash and ruin.

With one look at Leonardo Volante, I knew he'd be the kind of husband who takes off his belt when his bride is sassy. But I wasn't expecting to be ordered to strip the moment we were wed. Or to be quite so shamefully wet when he bared me... Even before he saw the arousal glistening on my thighs, he knew I needed him to bend me over, redden my ass, and then take me so roughly that I scream his name as he makes me his.

I was born with noble blood in my veins. Heir to a powerful dynasty. Wealth. Power. Aristocracy. Temptations too dangerous to resist. Until someone tried to steal it all. Scarred and broken, I emerged from the flames. Now I’ve returned to take what’s mine.

I'm the girl no one wants. Scarred beyond repair and locked away, I'm tainted and tarnished. Unworthy of friendship, love, or hope. But I was born into Bratva life, and my life is not my own. I'm ripped from my home and forced to marry a man I've never met, sight unseen. He's ruthless, possessive, and fierce. My husband.

I've been kept in a gilded cage. Hidden from the world of men. I was naïve. I was innocent. Until him. Until the night the king of the criminal underworld took me as his own.

We have entered a new world of work. It’s a world where successful leaders embrace a human-centric approach, prioritizing the mental health and personal responsibilities of their employees alongside their professional ones. However, post-pandemic, a dark side to the empathetic workplace has emerged and many well-intentioned business leaders are struggling to keep both productivity and morale high. In The Empathy Dilemma, author, speaker and empathy advocate Maria Ross explores the difficulties organizational leaders are having, and the solutions they need to get back on track.

I'm used to women wanting me, not hating me, but my wife looks at me like she's hoping my next breath will be my last. Our marriage wasn't by choice, but when I vowed to be her husband, I meant it. I never go back on my word, so we're married whether she likes it or not. At least for the moment. The plan was for me to stay married until we got what we needed from her brothers. As long as I don't touch her, we can annul this unfortunate blip on my bachelor timeline. The problem is she looks sweet, and she smells sweet, and then I risk everything and take a taste.

Zev Hunter was an elite warrior, a dark-blood dealer of death to rogue Lycans who preyed on mankind. He was a loner, never given to personal attachments, and damned fierce at his job. But Zev begins to question his past and his purpose when he awakens in the darkness of the sacred cave of warriors - and is soothed back to consciousness by the sensuously familiar voice of one woman, the woman who has haunted his fantasies for centuries. She was Branislava, member of the Dragonseeker clan.

Lucretius was born in 99 BC, and On the Nature of Things is his only surviving work. His aim was to free the Roman world from its two great terrors - the gods and death. Lucretius argues that the gods are not actively involved in life, so need not be appeased; and that death is the end of everything human - body and soul - and therefore should not be feared. But On the Nature of Things is also a poem of striking imagery, intimate natural observation and touching pathos.

It ends where it begins. Four couples. Six books. One saga. Tristan and Morana. Dante and Amara. Alpha and Zephyr. Shadow Man and Lyla. The world is darker. The game more dangerous. The stakes much more deadly. A new era is born.

After completing his groundbreaking research chronicled in DMT: The Spirit Molecule, Rick Strassman was left with one fundamental question: What does it mean that DMT, a simple chemical naturally found in all of our bodies, instantaneously opens us to an interactive spirit world that feels more real than our own world? When his decades of clinical psychiatric research and Buddhist practice were unable to provide answers to this question, Strassman began searching for a more resonant spiritual model.

Thanquil Darkheart is a witch hunter for the Inquisition, on a holy crusade to rid the world of heresy. He’s also something else...expendable. When the God Emperor gives Thanquil an impossible task, he knows he has no choice but to venture deep into the Wilds to hunt down a fallen Inquisitor.

No data is completely safe. Cyberattacks on companies and individuals are on the rise and growing not only in number but also in ferocity. And while you may think your company has taken all the precautionary steps to prevent an attack, no individual, company, or country is safe. Cybersecurity can no longer be left exclusively to IT specialists. Improving and increasing data security practices and identifying suspicious activity is everyone's responsibility, from the boardroom to the break room.

I told myself I didn’t want her. Didn’t need her. But it was all lies. I craved her touch. Craved the way her sweet red lips took away the pain. Yet, I knew I couldn’t have her. Not when my enemies are determined to put a bullet in my back. They believe the way to get to me is through her. Coming for her will be their downfall. As the president of the Kings MC, there’s one thing I’m known for: doing whatever it takes to protect the ones I love. I’ll fight until I have nothing left to give.

Cole King...the name alone leaves a bad taste in my mouth, a reminder of how he broke my trust in the worst way possible. My best friend of 20 f--king years. He had my back and I had his. Always. Until he crossed the line. Now visions of him sinking between my girl's legs, making her scream in all the ways only I should've been doing, haunt me, mixed with images of all the ways I can rip his damn throat out. I've tried to forget it and move on, but I can't. Ways to inflict even just a small portion of the pain he made me feel f--king consumes me. Somewhere in his fucked up, twisted mind, he thought it would be okay to share my girl. Now.... Now, he gets to see what it feels like to share what is his.

Greer Forbes, a sunny clan chief's daughter, has always embraced life's bright side. But one fateful summer with the Mackays of Dun Ugadale will change her life forever. Brodie Mackay, the rugged, illegitimate son of a chieftain, toils over his anvil, crafting iron and steel by day and losing himself in tavern revelry by night. Loyal to his kin but wary of love's snares, he has never surrendered his heart—until now. When Greer, relentlessly cheerful and inquisitive, crosses paths with Brodie, sparks fly. Their connection is undeniable, but Brodie is determined to resist.

For better or worse, Wagner is the most widely influential figure in the history of music. Around 1900, the phenomenon known as Wagnerism saturated European and American culture. A mighty procession of writers, artists and thinkers felt his impact. Anarchists, occultists, feminists and gay-rights pioneers saw him as a kindred spirit. Then Adolf Hitler incorporated Wagner into the soundtrack of Nazi Germany and the composer came to be defined by his ferocious anti-Semitism. Neither apologia nor condemnation, Wagnerism is a work of intellectual passion.

He’s my best friend’s older brother, off limits and incredibly tempting. I shouldn’t peak into Brendon’s sketchbook, even if the tattoo artist is as brooding and stoic as the day is long. I can’t help myself. I peel it open, run my fingers along the paper, soak up every ounce of him. His drawings are as beautiful and bold as his dark eyes and his cocky smile. Only, there, on the third page - that’s no tattoo mockup. That’s me. Naked. Ready. Waiting in his bed.