Showing results by narrator "Léon" in All Categories

Standing on the edge of the stage, I knew this was it. This was the moment I had been preparing for. I pushed through 20 long weeks of grueling mental and physical training to be able to step out on stage and make it all worth it. I was 35 years old, and in the last eight months, I had experienced the most challenging adversity of my life. It was a fight to the end. It was trying to keep my head on for 20 weeks. And when it was all over, I wasn't even guaranteed a plastic trophy. The day was finally here, but I had nothing left.

When Mackenzie's 17th birthday comes around, she plans to spend a few years at the school for the marked learning about her new powers and then leaving and living her life. But nothing goes as planned when she attends the marking ceremony and all 12 marks appear. Kenzie lives in a world where being marked with six powers is normal, being marked with seven or more is rare. But being marked with 12? Well, that's unheard of.

In space, mutiny means death - that’s why Inspector General Park Yerim is taking her investigation so seriously. The alleged mutineer is Captain Nicolau Aames, whose command of the massive Earth-Mars vessel Aldrin has come under fire. The vast System Initiative says he disobeyed orders, but his crew swears he’s in the right. En route to Mars, Park gathers testimony from the Aldrin’s diverse crew, painting a complex picture of Aames’s character: his heroism, his failures, even his personal passions.

Once upon a time, the world was neatly divided into prosperous and backward economies. Babies were plentiful, workers outnumbered retirees and people aspiring towards the middle class yearned to own homes and cars. Companies didn't need to see any further than Europe and the US to do well. Printed money was legal tender for all debts. We grew up learning how to 'play the game', and we expected the rules to remain the same as we took our first job, started a family, saw our children grow up and went into retirement with our finances secure. That world - and those rules - are over.

On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the decade since, the world has mourned her death amid new revelations about her relationship to her Blackness, her sexuality, and her addictions. Didn’t We Almost Have It All is author Gerrick Kennedy’s exploration of the duality of Whitney’s life as both a woman in the spotlight and someone who often had to hide who she was. This is the story of Whitney’s life, her whole life, told with both grace and honesty.

Every witch knows you shouldn't use spells for revenge. Blair doesn't care much for right and wrong, but she's already on the council's radar. What's the best mortal way to get back at a cheating ex-boyfriend? Bewitching his dad, of course.

I'm Dan Hope and inside my head I keep a list of things I want to come true. For example, I want my sister to go to university at the North Pole and only come back once a year. I want to help Sherlock Holmes solve his most daring mystery yet. I want to be the first eleven-year-old to land on the moon. And finally I want my dad to love me.

Exclusive interview with best-selling author Donna Leon. Donna joins us to discuss the latest in the Brunetti series, The Waters of Eternal Youth.

I'm not a worldly woman. I'm not cultured, well-traveled, or well educated. I'm just a housewife. A mother. I'm the woman with the handsome husband, beautiful daughter, the large house. If you saw it from the outside, you'd probably think I have the perfect life. You would most definitely be wrong. But I don't blame you. We all see what we want to see, turning a blind eye to what others want to stay hidden. Especially when it comes to love. They say love is blind. But I'm more apt to say it's wretched. Love is what made me stay. But love is also what saved me.

Being an AMIA agent isn't always easy, yet I wouldn't change it for the world. Sure, all the paperwork is boring, but nothing quite beats the satisfaction of closing a case. Unfortunately, some cases are harder to crack than others. And finding my psychotic uncle might just be the most difficult assignment of all. My team and I aren't going to give up that easily, though. When a one-night-stand-gone-wrong results in an unexpected partnership, I must set aside my principles in order to save my brother's life.

She’s an angel. And she doesn’t mind dancing with a demon. That’s why I’d move mountains, dry seas, and hydrate the desert if it made her happy. She brought goodness to the world. It was only right that I made it hers, along with the two tiny beauties that shared her hazel eyes and perfect smile. For them, I’d do whatever. For them, I’d become whoever.

Craig Bromfield was just 13 years old when Brian Clough, on a whim, took him and his older brother, Aaron, in. They came from Southwick, a depressed area of Sunderland, where they lived with their abusive stepfather, and from where they longed to escape. After initially meeting Clough while out begging for money, Clough later invited the brothers to stay at his house. From there a relationship formed that would see Craig living with the Cloughs for nine years, where he was a first-hand witness to the many aspects of Clough’s character—his gruffness, his humour, his big-heartedness.

In this edition of Letters to Penthouse, men and women confess every exquisite detail of their torrid affairs, sensual adventures, and wild one-night stands. No adventure is too daring-no kink too dirty. Married couples, perfect strangers, frisky friends, and randy roommates mix and match their desires - and share every sizzling detail of their erotic exploits.

Folk magic conjurer and root worker Orion Foxwood invites you to take a walk through his native Appalachia, through moonlit orchards and rural farms, to the dark of the crossroads.

An account of the author's meetings with the 135-year-old sage known as the Shivapuri Baba and the story of a forty year pilgrimage round the world on foot. A description and analysis of a teaching known as Swadharma — "Right Life."

Political instability, poverty, climate change, and the insatiable appetite for cheap labor all fuel clandestine movement across borders. As those borders harden, the demand for smugglers who aid migrants across them increases every year. Yet the real lives and work of smugglers—or coyotes, or guides, as they are often known by the migrants who hire their services—are only ever reported on from a distance, using tired tropes and stereotypes, often depicted as boogie men and violent warlords.

"Hold tight. The way to go mad without losing your mind is sometimes unruly." So begins La Marr Jurelle Bruce's urgent provocation and poignant meditation on madness in black radical art. Bruce theorizes four overlapping meanings of madness: the lived experience of an unruly mind, the psychiatric category of serious mental illness, the emotional state also known as "rage," and any drastic deviation from psychosocial norms.

Chance Washington only has a few things on his mind when he embarks on a trip back to his hometown. Completing the assignment for work that's sending him there in the first place, helping his mom make progress on her fixer-upper home, and catching up with some of his best friends who he doesn't get to see often enough. What is not a part of those plans is hooking up with the little sister of one of his best friends.

Lilith knew her fate upon death, even if her wrongdoings were ones rooted in vengeance. She didn't know what to expect once becoming a resident of Hell, but falling in love with the devil himself wasn't part of the plan. Lucifer has a throne to uphold and nothing can distract him from making all of his subjects fear and respect him. He tries to keep his distance from the one person in Hell who has made him feel again, but the temptation keeps growing. Maybe, just for her, he can show his soft side.

Hell's never been hotter with the long-lost spawn of Satan firmly where she belongs. With a shiny new corporeal body and deep desperation for adventure, Mara is ready to paint the town red. After nearly a decade of possessing humans to survive, Mara is looking for answers and she won't stop until she has the full picture. Despite her paranoia, she manages the loyalty of three very attractive demons. Whether she'll use this army for war or for her own personal pleasure is yet to be seen.