Showing results by narrator "Josh A" in All Categories

New York Times best-selling and Hugo Award-winning author John Scalzi gift-wraps 15 short takes on the holiday season - interviews with holiday notables, "informational" articles about TV specials and Christmas carols, short stories and poems, and even a couple of nods to Thanksgiving and New Year’s - and puts them all into a stocking stuffer-sized package that makes the perfect gift for friends, family, or yourself.

A severed left hand is found in a minivan abandoned on a dry riverbed. When Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force lieutenant Reiko Himekawa and her team join the investigation, the hand is quickly identified as belonging to building contractor Ken'ichi Takaoka, and from the amount of blood spilled in the van, it is presumed that he was killed. However, searches fail to turn up the rest of the body, and the mystery deepens when a childhood friend shown a photo of the victim declares, "That's not Takaoka".

The latest work from one of America's most important young playwrights and creator of the current hit TV series, "Brothers and Sisters". Financial powerhouse Sandy Sonnenberg finds his personal and professional life threatened by unraveling secrets from his past. A tragic game of financial and moral betrayal plays out over four decades, with an exacting price - family, friends, love and marriage. Starring members of the original Off-Broadway production.

Gemma Turner once dreamed of stardom. Now the actress is on the cusp of obscurity. When she’s offered the lead in a radical new horror film, Gemma believes her luck has changed—but her dream is about to turn into a nightmare. One night, between the shadows of an alleyway, Gemma disappears on set and is never seen again. Yet, Gemma is alive. She’s been pulled into the film. And the script—and the monsters within it—are coming to life. Gemma must play her role perfectly if she hopes to survive.

Left reeling from a brutal attack by the Ulfrangar, Thatcher and his friends struggle to regroup. But their time is already running out. With the forces of their mysterious enemies now allying against them, the group fears they may have stumbled into an unwinnable fight for their lives. They know they need to get Phillip back in order to even the odds, but haggling with notorious crime lords and dueling assassins in the streets is not what any of them bargained for.

A Stephen King ghost story in the grand tradition, Riding the Bullet is the ultimate warning about the dangers of hitchhiking. Lock those car doors before listening!

Twelve-year-old Fee is a shy Korean American boy and a newly named section leader of the first sopranos in his local boys' choir. At their summer camp, situated in an idyllic and secluded lakeside retreat, Fee grapples with his complicated feelings towards his best friend, Peter. But as Fee comes to learn how the director treats his section leaders, he is so ashamed he says nothing of the abuse, not even when Peter is in line to be next.

Chase Cooper here, and this is my sixth diary as a sixth grade ninja. As always, there's trouble brewing in the halls of Buchanan School. A bandit is on the loose who's stealing from innocent students, and as each day passes, the bandit's reach grows even further. As if the situation wasn't bonkers enough, help has come in the unlikeliest of places - Wyatt. But I have sick feeling in my stomach about the whole mystery, like something far worse is going on than anybody realizes.

You are meant to be in relationships that bring joy and connection—that help you know soul-deep peace and leave you feeling loved instead of lonely. Instead, surface-level friendships, filtered social media feeds, unresolved conflicts, and unhealthy relationships can often seem to harm our self-worth, spiritual growth, and mental health—and keep us from the very relationships that could bring that true connection.

Robin Goodfellow. Puck. Prankster, joker, raven, fool...King Oberon’s right-hand jester from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The legends are many, but the truth will now be known as never before, as Puck finally tells his own story and faces a threat to the lands of Faery and the human world unlike any before.

The victims are the most popular girls in school, each murdered and arranged in a grim fairy-tale tableau. To find the killer, rookie detective Callum Pederson has gone undercover where the Princes hold court. He’s found enough secrets among the bros to bring them in for questioning - but he could very well get lost in the games the Princes play.

In August, 2014, years before the legalization of sports betting in the United States, when a mob-connected bookie named Zany is murdered, Eddie O’Connell is assigned to take over Zany’s operation and find the killer. The trail leads to an exclusive, private gambling club where simulcast wagering on horse racing is used as a front for illegal sports betting. With the assistance of Paula “Rudi” Rudinger, the manager of Zany’s bookie operation and former lover, Eddie meets those who owe gambling debts. Eddie had run up a gambling debt of his own, but now finds himself doing collection.

Technology thought leader and organizational architect Matt K. Parker breaks down the counterintuitive principles and practices that radically collaborative organizations thrive on. By combining the latest insights from organizational science, sociology, and psychology, he illuminates four imperatives that all radically collaborative organizations must embrace in order to succeed: team autonomy, managerial devolution, deficiency gratification, and candid vulnerability.

Tim and Rod grew up a few suburbs from each other in Newcastle, New South Wales. They were gay, but their worlds were not. Before they found each other, they were alone and miserable, marooned in a sea of impossible expectations. Rod was shackled by a conservative Christian upbringing, while Tim felt unmanly and inferior beside his macho, sport-obsessed older brothers. After enduring their own private versions of hell, Tim and Rod crossed paths on a dating app. They swiped for Mr Right, and suddenly everything clicked.

Gabe abandoned life as a conman after the disasters in Lincoln, and he managed to carve out a bit of peace with the scraps he had left. Unfortunately, bad guys suck at respecting personal boundaries. So, together with Heather and a group of weird new companions, he finds himself shackled to a horrifying cosmic game with sky-high stakes, inscrutable goals, and rules that seem to change every five minutes. And when old gods and monsters resurface to make things so much worse, he's finally forced to admit that he might not be talking his way past any of it.

Struggling to make it as a stand-up comic didn't always fit with being a single parent. But Josh figured out his own set of rules - through trial and (frequent) error. Early picking up kids from school? The nearby strip club is a great place to kill time and bond with some like-minded dads. Want a drunken heart-to-heart with your son? First make sure there's no Sharpie around in case you pass out.

Larry Dolman is a rather literal-minded ex-cop who now works private security. Eddie Miller is an airline pilot who's studying to get his real estate license. Don Luchessi is a silver salesman who's separated from his wife, but too Catholic to get a divorce. Hank Norton is a drug company rep who gets four times as many dames as any of the other guys. When a friendly bet goes horribly awry, they find themselves with two dead bodies on their hands and a homicidal husband in the wings - and acting more like hardened criminals than upstanding citizens.

In a forest in Wealdstone, Joshua Shaw's mundane world collides with the extraordinary, when he is magically thrust into the world of Beyond — a beautiful place which shares a boundary with the cursed prison known as The Void. As the shackles holding back the darkness begin to weaken, Joshua must discover who he truly is and face his destiny. Tommy, Guardian of the doorway between worlds, and Nybor, leader of the White Falcons are on hand to guide him.

Worldmask is a book that will exhilarate and enlighten you, as you journey through the depths of Torah wisdom and uncover the mysteries of creation. It is a book that will challenge and inspire you, as you learn how to apply the Torah’s teachings to your own life.

The image of modern corporations has been shaped by a focus on profits over people and the environment, but this approach to capitalism is no longer viable. We are at an inflection point where business must take the lead in healing the crises of our time. The Healing Organization shows how corporations can become healing forces.