Showing results by narrator "Soneela Nankani" in All Categories

In this provocative, utterly original work of 'scientific fiction', Kai-Fu Lee, the former president of Google China and best-selling author of AI Superpowers, joins forces with celebrated novelist Chen Qiufan to imagine our world in 2041 and how it will be shaped by AI. In 10 gripping short stories, set 20 years in the future, they introduce listeners to an array of eye-opening 2041 settings.

Seventeen-year-old Julie Clarke has her future all planned out - move out of her small town with her boyfriend, Sam; attend college in the city; spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his belongings, and tries everything to forget him. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces memories to return. Desperate to hear him one more time, Julie calls Sam's cell phone just to listen to his voice mail recording. And Sam picks up the phone.

In Daevabad, where djinn can summon flames with a snap of their fingers, where rivers run deep with ancient magic, and blood can be as dangerous as any spell, a clever con artist from Cairo will alter the fate of a kingdom. Nahri’s life changed forever when she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad, she needed all of her grifter instincts to survive. Now, as Nahri embraces her heritage and her power, she must forge a new path.

1348. As the Black Plague ravages Italy, Ginevra di Gasparo is summoned to Florence after nearly a decade of lonely exile. Ginevra has a gift—harnessing the hidden powers of gemstones, she can heal the sick. But when word spread of her unusual abilities, she was condemned as a witch and banished. Now, the same men who expelled Ginevra are begging for her return.

"Just three dates. That's all I'm asking. One boy shares your sense of humor. Another has similar interests and ideals. The third boy has a helpful heart like yours." When Aditi Gupta comes home late from work as a pediatric resident one night and her grandfather offers this pitch, she reluctantly agrees. She's far too busy with med school to be dating, and besides, she dreams of a love for the ages, like her parents, not an arranged marriage. And yet she finds herself agreeing to three dates because she loves her grandfather. All she has to do is make herself utterly ineligible.

Bangalore, 1922: Pregnant and confined to the house by her protective mother-in-law, Kaveri Murthy has resolved to take a break from detection. But when an elderly woman is stabbed at night and dies clutching a photograph of Kaveri while asking for her help—how can she refuse? Missing the assistance of her husband Ramu, who is working in Coorg, Kaveri investigates her new case with her able assistants, milk boy Venu and housemaid Anandi. They find a trail of secrets that lead them to suspect the killer may be in Coorg.

After a disastrous accident derails Tempest Raj’s career, and life, she heads back to her childhood home in California to comfort herself with her grandfather’s Indian home-cooked meals. Though she resists, every day brings her closer to the inevitable: working for her father’s company. Secret Staircase Construction specializes in bringing the magic of childhood to all by transforming clients’ homes with sliding bookcases, intricate locks, backyard treehouses, and hidden reading nooks.

Chef Ashna Raje desperately needs a new strategy. How else can she save her beloved restaurant and prove to her estranged, overachieving mother that she isn’t a complete screwup? When she’s asked to join the cast of Cooking with the Stars, the latest hit reality show teaming chefs with celebrities, it seems like just the leap of faith she needs to put her restaurant back on the map. She’s a chef, what’s the worst that could happen? Rico Silva, that’s what.

In Seraphine Caelum’s world, gods exist. So do goddesses. Sera knows this because she is one of them. A secret long concealed by her parents, Sera is Lakshmi reborn, the human avatar of an immortal Indian goddess rumored to control all the planes of existence - Illysia (the Light Realm), Earth (the Mortal Realm), and Xibalba (the Dark Realm). Marked by the sigils of both heaven and hell, Sera’s avatar is meant to bring balance to the mortal world, but all she creates is chaos.

As a successful social media journalist with half a million followers, 17-year-old Cal is used to sharing his life online. But when his pilot father is selected for a highly publicized NASA mission to Mars, Cal and his family relocate from Brooklyn to Houston and are thrust into a media circus. Amidst the chaos, Cal meets sensitive and mysterious Leon, another "Astrokid", and finds himself falling head over heels - fast. As the frenzy around the mission grows, so does their connection.

Aspiring musician Pete Hamilton has nothing in common with his older brother, Leo, an aerospace engineer. Until their late father leaves them the family farm, a sprawling dairy operation in Vermont. Pete wants to hold on. Leo wants to sell. All the embattled brothers can agree on is to skydive over the fields and sprinkle their father’s ashes—a grand gesture the old man would have loved. But when the plan goes terribly wrong, only one unexpected eyewitness can see what’s really going on.

Kithamar is a centre of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold. This is Alys'. When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives.

In this groundbreaking work, Sara Ahmed demonstrates how queer studies can put phenomenology to productive use. Focusing on the “orientation” aspect of “sexual orientation” and the “orient” in “orientalism,” Ahmed examines what it means for bodies to be situated in space and time. Bodies take shape as they move through the world directing themselves toward or away from objects and others. Being “orientated” means feeling at home, knowing where one stands, or having certain objects within reach. Orientations affect what is proximate to the body or what can be reached.

The Serpent King is the most eligible bachelor in the land: a monster with dark and terrible magic and the ruler of the last free kingdom. Riches and power await his future bride - but also a life forever trapped in the games of court. That fate is eighteen-year-old Saphira's worst nightmare. Ever since the Empire made her an orphan, she's found freedom in being invisible. So, despite her rare gift for harnessing the magic in gemstones, she lets an unscrupulous jewelsmith take credit for her increasingly sought-after work.

Mira Braddock's uncle was once the most powerful man in Nova City, and before his death, he empowered his niece with a Tier 7 Nexus Implant. Cybernetically enhanced and trained as a warrior, Mira is not only peerless on the battlefield but also possesses the ability to control the Mist that's pervaded every machine—and person—she encounters. Setting her vengeful sights on Nora Lancaster, the woman who betrayed her uncle and took over his empire, Mira wages a war against the city's competing overlords, tearing apart their fragile alliances and turning them against one another.

Rebel of the Sands is packed with train robberies, festivals under the stars, powerful djinni magic and an electrifying love story. Dustwalk is Amani's home. The desert sand is in her bones. But she wants to escape. More than a want. A need. Then a foreigner with no name turns up to save her life, and with him the chance to run. But to where? The desert plains are full of danger. Sand and blood are swirling, and the sultan's enemies are on the rise.

A reproduction of the classic text, unavailable now for more than a decade, with a new introduction by the author. The Hite Report, first published in 1976, was a sexual revolution in six hundred pages. To answer sensitive questions dealing with the most intimate details of women's sexuality, Hite's innovation was simple: she asked women, a lot of them, everything--and published the results. One hundred thousand women, ages fourteen to seventy-eight, were asked what they do and don't like about sex; how orgasm really feels, with and without intercourse.

Mira Salvi has the perfect life—a job she loves, a fiancé everyone adores, and the secure future she’s always imagined for herself. Really, she hasn’t a thing to complain about, not even when she has to go on her engagement trip to New York alone. While playing tourist in the city, Mira chances upon a lost ring, and her social media post to locate its owner goes viral. With everyone trying to claim the ring, only one person seems to want to find its owner as badly as Mira does: journalist Krish Hale.

SparkNotes Audio presents … No Fear Shakespeare audio recordings! Listen to full cast performances of Shakespeare's plays in all their brilliance—and understand what every word means!

When chef Holly’s carefully built life unravels—first through a painful betrayal, then a near-fatal accident—she’s left reeling, uncertain of everything she once believed in, including love. Reluctantly making her way to India, Holly hopes only for quiet and a little distance from her pain. But what she finds is something else entirely: unexpected moments of insight, unlikely friendships, and the stirring return of her own strength.