Showing results by narrator "Vikas" in All Categories

The modern lifestyle with its excesses and worldly desires, the constant need to be connected, and the rapid development in technology, has made stress and lifestyle-related diseases the norm. The need for meditation, thus, is more acute. Meditation calms the mind, brings focus and enhances the senses, resulting in a better quality of life and work. And with the right Mantras, meditation becomes a highly effective tool in unleashing the immense potential within oneself.

Nick Antosca's The Girlfriend Game is a tumble through the looking glass into a vortex of violence and desire. The 12 stories in the newest collection by the Shirley Jackson Award-winning author are brutal, urgent and unforgettable. In "Predator Bait", a decoy in a sex-sting news show questions her job and the man who shares her bed. An undependable son watches his mother become a creature he hardly recognizes in "Amphibian". A young man plots the death of his girlfriend's killer in "Winter Was Hard".

Acclaimed Israeli intelligence analyst Avi Melamed has spent more than 30 years interpreting Middle East affairs. His long-awaited Inside the Middle East challenges widely accepted perceptions and provides a gripping and uniquely enlightening guide to make sense of the events unfolding in the region. Melamed considers all the major power players in the Middle East, explains the underlying issues, and creates a three-dimensional picture, an illustration that connects the dots and provides a fascinating road map.

All legends are born of truths. And just as much lies. These are mine. Judge me for what you will. But you will hear my story first. I buried the village of Ampur under a mountain of ice and snow. Then I killed their god. I've stolen old magics and been cursed for it. I started a war with those that walked before mankind and lost the princess I loved and wanted to save. I've called lightning and bound fire. I am legend. And I am a monster. My name is Ari. And this is the story of how I let loose the first evil.

In 1892, Bombay is the center of British India. Nearby, Captain Jim Agnihotri lays in Poona military hospital recovering from a skirmish on the wild Northern frontier, with little to read but newspapers. The case that catches Jim's attention is being called the crime of the century: Two women fell from the busy university’s clock tower in broad daylight. Moved by the widower of one of the victims - his certainty that his wife and sister did not commit suicide - Jim approaches the Framjis and is hired by the Parsee family to investigate what happened that terrible afternoon.

The fruit of the long history of John Brockman's profound engagement with the most important scientific minds who have been thinking about AI - from Alison Gopnik and David Deutsch to Frank Wilczek and Stephen Wolfram - Possible Minds is an ideal introduction to the landscape of crucial issues AI presents. The collision between opposing perspectives is salutary and exhilarating; some of these figures are deeply concerned with the threat of AI, including the existential one, while others have a very different view.

Aroma, texture, sound, emotion—these are just a few of the elements that play into our perceptions of flavor. The Flavor Equation demonstrates how to convert approachable spices, herbs, and commonplace pantry items into tasty, simple dishes. In this groundbreaking book, Nik Sharma, scientist, food blogger, and author of the buzz-generating cookbook Season, guides home cooks on an exploration of flavor in more than 100 recipes.

If you had any ties to Marbella, it was impossible for you not to have heard the stories about Prince Elias and his debauchery. Every summer he arrived with his security detail and friends in tow and rented out a row of cottages near the water. Cottages that belonged to my family. Each of those summers, my parents sent me away - summer camp and later, boarding school. Anything to keep me away from the royals and their partying. I hadn’t been home in years, but when I finally come back for the summer, I see that not much has changed.

An energizing case for hope about the climate comes from Rebecca Solnit, called “the voice of the resistance” by the New York Times, and climate activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua, along with a chorus of voices calling on us to rise to the moment. Not Too Late is the book for anyone who is despondent, defeatist, or unsure about climate change and seeking answers. As the contributors to this volume make clear, the future will be decided by whether we act in the present—and we must act to counter institutional inertia, fossil fuel interests, and political obduracy. T

Unequal access to technology and the revenue it creates is one of the most pressing issues in the United States. An economic gulf exists between those who have struck gold in the tech industry and those left behind by the digital revolution; a geographic divide between those in the coastal tech industry and those in the heartland whose jobs have been automated; and existing inequalities in the technological access—students without computers, rural workers with spotty WiFi, and many workers without the luxury to work remotely.

A Queer History of the United States abounds with startling examples of unknown or often ignored aspects of American history - the ineffectiveness of sodomy laws in the colonies, the impact of new technologies on LGBT life in the 19th century, and how rock music and popular culture were, in large part, responsible for the devastating backlash against gay rights in the late 1970s. Bronski documents how, over centuries, various incarnations of social purity movements have consistently attempted to regulate all sexuality, including fantasies, masturbation, and queer sex.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Friends don't bang friends. I want my friends to stay in my life, especially that flirty, clever, outgoing best friend of mine. It's a darn good thing Owen and I made a pact in college to never ever sleep together, or else I'd be tempted. Trouble is, eight years later, I've been wondering what his kisses taste like. And I've been curious if our chemistry would extend into the bedroom. If he might feel the same risky pull. But I don't want to lose Owen.

Harvest transports listeners to the beautiful and eerie world of India’s cotton fields. Source of the most intimate and universal of commodities, we find these white-flecked lands pushed to their limit by global pressures.

Everyone at Fairvale Academy knows about the dare Bryson Keller has accepted - each week he has to date the first person who asks him out. He just never specified it could only be girls. When closeted Kai challenges straight Bryson to secretly date him, it should be a recipe for heartbreak. But as the two boys open up to each other, they find themselves getting closer. With his heart on the line, Kai must grapple with his growing feelings for a boy who can never be his...right?

Halloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol' Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever the name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. How he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death. Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in this one-horse town.

At eight years old, Shulle has known only life in a small village with her loving but peculiar father. When Uncle Shebna offers shelter in Jerusalem in exchange for Shulle's help tutoring King Manasseh, Judah's five-year-old co-regent who displays the same peculiarities as her father, she's eager to experience the royal court. But Shulle soon realizes the limits of her father's strict adherence to Yahweh's Law when Uncle Shebna teaches her of the starry hosts and their power.

Ron Currie’s gutsy, funny book is instantly gripping: If God takes human form and dies, what would become of life as we know it? Effortlessly combining outlandish humor with big questions about mortality, ethics, and human weakness, Ron Currie, Jr., holds a funhouse mirror to our present-day world.

Sadie and Max fell in love while training to be classical pianists in music school, and they’ve been chasing their dreams together ever since. Now they’ve gotten engaged and are on the verge of a bright future—until an unexpected twist throws them out of harmony. When they’re both finalists in the prestigious Van Cage piano competition, they go from being each other’s biggest fans to fierce rivals. The winner will be launched into a meteoric career as a concert pianist, but only one can take first place.

In How to Win in a Winner-Take-All World, Neil Irwin, senior economic correspondent at the New York Times, delivers the essential guide to being successful in today’s economy when the very notion of the “job” is shifting and the corporate landscape has become dominated by global firms. He shows that the route to success lies in cultivating the ability to bring multiple specialties together - to become a “glue person” who can ensure people with radically different technical skills work together effectively.

Meet Harry, aspiring tech entrepreneur. He’s a would-be Steve Jobs trapped in a cubicle gig at an angel investor firm, so close and yet so far from his dreams. His marriage is foundering, his career is stalled out, and all he wants is to create an app like Uber, or Tinder, something to make real change in the world, and change his own life forever. Now meet Peter, a deeply troubled computer genius who lives in a basement apartment, chugging red wine, nursing old grudges and writing code. When Harry meets Peter, it’s both of their lives that will change, when they invent an app for murder.