Showing results by narrator "Michael" in All Categories

My life was ordinary, but never boring. That is, until a colossal tower landed smack-dab in the middle of the city. What should have followed was mass panic and hysteria, but I never got to that part. Why? Simple. I was taken along with 99,999 other people from Earth and dropped onto an unknown world. Strange beings appeared before us—floating, featureless figures that call themselves demi-gods. They ruled this place, this fantastical world called Gaea. The reason why they took us? We'd supposedly been selected to show that Earth was worth saving from an upcoming cataclysmic event.

It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous - and a consummate musician. When the local doctor's daughter's letters to her fiancé go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable.

When Moslem fundamentalists blow up a key Soviet oil complex, making an already critical oil shortage calamitous, the Russians figure they are going to have to take things into their own hands. They plan to seize the Persian Gulf, and more ambitiously, to neutralise NATO. Thus begins Red Storm, an audacious gamble that uses diplomatic maneuvers to cloak a crash military build-up. When Soviet tanks begin to roll, the West is caught off guard. What looks like a thrust turns into an all-out shooting war, possibly the climactic battle for control of the globe.

Chosen from birth to usher in a new era, Poppy’s life has never been her own. The life of the Maiden is solitary. Never to be touched. Never to be looked upon. Never to be spoken to. Never to experience pleasure. Waiting for the day of her Ascension, she would rather be with the guards, fighting back the evil that took her family, than preparing to be found worthy by the gods. But the choice has never been hers. The entire kingdom’s future rests on Poppy’s shoulders, something she’s not even quite sure she wants for herself. Because a Maiden has a heart. And a soul. And longing.

New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

When a pair of young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and inhuman characters alike. In his transcendent fourth novel, Pulitzer Prize finalist Daniel Mason delivers a magisterial and highly inventive tale brimming with love and madness, humor and hope. Following the cycles of history, nature and even language, North Woods shows the myriad, magical ways in which we're connected to our environment, to history and to each other.

Discover the secret to flourishing in an age of division: belonging. In a world filled with discord and loneliness, finding harmony and happiness can be difficult. But what if the key to unlocking our potential lies in this deceptively simple concept? Belonging is the feeling of being a part of a group that values, respects, and cares for us—a feeling that we can all cultivate in even the smallest corners of social life.

Artemus Steele's life was weird enough before he started juggling flaming swords and battling creatures from the pit. Now he's part of a ragtag team trying to stop Armageddon, armed with nothing but newfound powers they can't control, a book of prophecies they can't read, and a hellhound who keeps eating the furniture. As Chicago becomes the flashpoint for celestial warfare, Artemus and his misfit crew must master their abilities, decipher ancient riddles, and save the world—all while dodging fireballs, demon claws, and the occasional hellhound temper tantrum.

The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition (NRSVue) Audio Bible is now available on audio, ready for you to start hearing Scripture today. This audio Bible includes the entire Old Testament and New Testament, as well as the Apocrypha. The NRSVue is intended to be as literal as possible so that the meaning of Scripture can be as clear to the lay audience as it is to the dedicated biblical scholar. The NRSV translation has become known as the most accurate of English-language translations, based on available manuscript evidence, textual analysis, and current philological understanding.

Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 is a new and improved version of the book that Jim Collins and Bill Lazier wrote years ago. In this upgraded edition, Jim Collins honours his mentor, Bill Lazier, who passed away in 2005, and re-examines the original text of Beyond Entrepreneurship with his 2020 perspective.

In Don’t Say Um, public speaking expert Michael Chad Hoeppner equips you with the physical tools you need to quickly improve your public speaking - for good. Packed with simple-to-master practical exercises like finger-walking to stop yourself using filler words to deep breathing to fix quivering, you'll discover how to transform how you communicate - because how you say something matters more than what you say.

At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl's fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands, and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated, and inaccurate stories.

Locked away in a padded room, Gambit watches as the world goes to hell. Blood rains from the sky. Screams echo through the city. Monsters tear through reality. The world transforms overnight into the GREAT GAME, an apocalyptic battleground where monsters hunt, dungeons materialize, and the System destroys everything humanity once knew. All for the entertainment of the unseen audience.

Andrea wants to submit but not to just any so-called Dom. He has to be tougher than the slum-bred bullies she grew up with. She's given up on finding a true Dom when her friend finagles her a place as a trainee in an exclusive BDSM club with the powerful Shadowlands Masters. Andrea's thrilled - and terrified. Forced to accept an unknown submissive into his carefully run trainee program, Master Cullen is furious. Not only is the young woman new to BDSM, but she's unsuited to her role.

With its genius CEO and breakthrough technology, the Silicon Valley-based Pax AI Corporation is one of the hottest companies in the sector. But when one of Pax AI’s top scientists is murdered at a prestigious tech conference, company executives and foreign spies are all on the suspect list. In the aftermath of the killing, CIA officer Colt McShane has been assigned to a joint counterintelligence unit based in San Francisco. The unit’s leadership believes that an international espionage ring has been stealing classified technology from Pax AI.

I came to Whispering Key for a job. That was all. To show the world Mason Bloom could be more than a small-town doctor living a medium-sized life. Private doctor on a swanky island with a posh resort? Check. But from the moment I set foot on this island, nothing went according to plan. And I definitely didn’t expect Fenn Reardon, the island’s incredibly attractive, incredibly infuriating, incredibly male resident tour guide, to become the one person I can’t live without.

In The Aviator, Navy fighter pilot Jack Knapp reports to the aircraft carrier Independence for his first deployment in the Pacific. As a “nugget”, he must learn the ropes and gain acceptance among the tight-knit tribe of the squadron called the Gargoyles. In The Warfighter, Jack returns to Independence, which is now bound for war games in South Korea. Once aboard, he must contend with a tough new commander and a failed romance.

At twenty-four, Cody has already lost hope of having a life of his own. All his time is spent playing nurse to a dying, spiteful stepfather and maid to his bully half-brother. His only escapes are playing his favorite online fantasy game, Black Oasis, and talking to the strange, unearthly presence under his bed that may or may not actually exist. Everything changes when his nightly visitor, who introduces himself as Nor, starts talking back. As their connection deepens, Nor invites Cody into the surreal world existing just beyond his nightmares.

After Troy died, I didn’t want to love again. I didn’t think I could. Then, Ethan explodes into my life like a firework on the Fourth of July, bringing light, laughter, and more than a bit of mischief. Dammit! I knew he was going to be trouble. I just didn’t expect my heart to be in danger.

Britain's national icon, Michael Parkinson reads his long-awaited autobiography. From prize-winning journalist to chat show king on a show voted one of the top ten British TV programmes of all time, Michael Parkinson's starry career spans over four decades. Now an international celebrity himself, the man from a humble but colourful Yorkshire mining family who can tease out the secrets of even the most reticent star guest, at last reveals his own story.