Showing results by narrator "Christopher Ragland" in All Categories

These 16 short tales delve into realms of existential investigation, from dark horror and science fiction futures to fantastical flights of scientific wonder. Each story is a self-contained world of its own, a moment in time that illuminates a thought, a person, an experience or a curiosity.

Alan Seeger was born on 22nd June 1888 in New York. After attending several elite preparatory schools, he enrolled at Harvard in 1906, where he also edited and wrote for the Harvard Monthly. War’s looming dark shadow was to have a transformative effect on the young poet and on 24th August 24th, 1914, he joined the French Foreign Legion so he could fight for the Allies. On American Independence day, 4th July 1917, whilst urging on his fellow soldiers in a successful charge at Belloy-en-Santerrem he was hit several times by machine gun fire and died.

For more than 50 years, NASA's Mission Control has been known for two things: perfect decision-making in extreme situations and producing generations of steely-eyed missile men and women who continue that tradition. A key to that legacy of brilliant performance is a particular brand of leadership, especially at the working level in Mission Control. Take the ultimate insider's look at the leadership values and culture that created the best team on this planet. Paul Sean Hill was responsible for NASA's Mission Operations support for manned space flight from 2007 to 2011.

Southern California - sunny days, blue skies, neighbours on flying bicycles ... ghostly submarines ... mermen off the Catalina coast ... and a vast underground sea stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Inland Empire where Chinese junks ply an illicit trade and enormous creatures from ages past still survive. It is a place of wonder... and dark conspiracies. A place rife with adventure - if one knows where to look for it. Two such seekers are the teenagers Jim Hastings and his friend, Giles Peach.

Art and life. Each the mirror of the other. This then is the classic definition of what ‘Realism’ as a writing form really is. Some might call it a fancy term for the mundane day to day pursuits but in the hands of an author it comes alive. We are drawn into characters and landscapes that we can empathize with, we can, metaphorically speaking, help shoulder their burden, be on the long trail with them whatever the landscapes, the hurdles, incidents and other people may place in their literary way.

John Griffith Chaney was born on January 12th, 1876, in San Francisco. In late 1876 his mother married John London and the young child was brought to live with them as they moved around the Bay area, eventually settling in Oakland where now, calling himself Jack, he completed grade school. In the Klondike Jack began to gather material for his writing. During the late 1890s Jack was regularly publishing short stories and by the turn of the century full-blown novels.

Prince Corrick is out of options. Held captive by the vicious Oren Crane, he’s desperate to reunite with Tessa, but will need to ally with the rebel leader Lochlan, who until now wished him dead. An unlikely but deadly pair, Corrick and Lochlan must plot their next moves carefully... An island away, Tessa Cade is heartbroken and angry. Grieving Corrick, and unsure how to find a way back to Kandala, she doesn’t know who to trust. Until Rian--the man she trusts least--makes an offer: aid in a plot to finally oust Oren Crane and see what the future holds.

Winner: Barry Award for Best Paperback Original. Finalist: Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original. Mickey Prada's a nice kid. He works hard at a neighbourhood seafood market in Brooklyn, putting fish on ice. He's got a nice girlfriend. He even delayed college a year to help his sick dad. But Mickey's got a problem. A customer at the fish store, Angelo Santoro, keeps asking Mickey to place bets for him, and Angelo keeps losing.

Eight hundred years ago, the Zhen Empire discovered a broken human colony ship drifting in the fringes of their space. The Zhen gave the humans a place to live and folded them into their Empire as a client state. But it hasn't been easy. Not all Zhen were eager to welcome another species into their Empire, and humans have faced persecution. For hundreds of years, human languages and history were outlawed subjects, as the Zhen tried to mold humans into their image. Earth and the cultures it nourished for millennia are forgotten, little more than legends.

Zeitgeist is a modern cyber thriller, the hero is a Big Data analyst, who can use i.e. data from your phone to predict your future behavior – and it's not made up, it's real, the author works for big companies doing just that, but on bigger consumer groups, to predict future trends on the markets. It's a story about corporations and whistleblowers, blogger-journalists, but action-packed and intense. It also has a few shocking plot twists.

The world of business books is a curious place where one can find everyone from great businesspeople like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs and Elon Musk to the most spectacular business failures such as Enron and the subprime business market. There are geniuses, hard workers, academics and entrepreneurs as well a few charlatans and hucksters. There's even room for Donald Trump. The 70 titles covered were chosen with various parameters in mind to cover a range of areas of business.

The kingdom of Kandala is on the brink of disaster. Rifts between sectors have only worsened since a sickness began ravaging the land, and within the Royal Palace, the king holds a tenuous peace with a ruthless hand. King Harristan was thrust into power after his parents’ shocking assassination, leaving the younger Prince Corrick to take on the brutal role of the King’s Justice. The brothers have learned to react mercilessly to any sign of rebellion - it’s the only way to maintain order when the sickness can strike anywhere.

Tessa Cade has gone from masked outlaw to palace advisor, but even with her newfound power, she can’t stop the sickness still raging and the kingdom’s supply of Moonflower elixir is dwindling. Prince Corrick is trying to find a new way to lead, but it isn’t easy to repair the rift between the royals and the people—or the one growing between himself and Tessa. When an emissary from the a neighboring kingdom of Ostriary arrives with an intriguing offer, Tessa and Corrick set out on an risky uncertain journey to find a new source of the lifesaving elixir.

School principals are constantly being pulled in different directions. How do you focus on the things that matter most? In this inspiring book from Danny Steele, creator of the popular Steele Thoughts blog, and Todd Whitaker, bestselling author and speaker, you’ll learn how to center your leadership on your core values and the practices that have the biggest impact.

If you don’t offer great customer experience, your main competitors will take away 50% of your business. Period. Gone are the days in which businesses could simply offer an "OK" experience and get away with it. In today’s hypercompetitive environment, companies can no longer be just B2C or B2B. They must become B2Me—more personal, more relevant.

Teachers deal with change on a regular basis, but there are some principles at the core of teaching that remain constant and that have the biggest impact on student achievement. In this inspiring book from the authors', bestselling author and speaker, you’ll learn how to focus on the most important things in the classroom, not just the "current" things. The authors reveal essential truths that will make you a more effective educator in areas such as student relationships, classroom management, and classroom culture.

In today’s competitive business landscape, the art of communication is more important than ever. It’s essential to develop a deep awareness of not only what we say, but also how we deliver it, resulting in a message that is both credible and incredibly impactful. In this era of digital communication and information overload, clear messaging has never been more vital - and personal credibility has never been more valuable.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4th July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town synonymous with the earlier Salem Witch Trials. It was instrumental in Hawthorne’s later use of American Gothic and dark romanticism in his writing. Hawthorne’s short stories were first published in magazines but in 1837 were collected and published as ‘Twice-Told Tales’. A steady literary career still did not come his way and so he worked in a good position at Salem’s port and married the love of his life, Sophia Peabody. They moved to live in ‘The Old Manse’ at Concord, Massachusetts.

Two thousand years ago there lived a man who sold some valuable information for a fee of 30 silver coins. His name was Judas Iscariot, and he is no longer with us. The coins, however, still exist - and still hold an elusive power over all who claim them. Like Andrew, whose attempts at innkeeping bring in stranger business than he ever expected. And Aunt Naomi, whose most-prized family heirloom is a silver spoon - with a curiously ancient-looking engraving.

Gary Foster's life is finally heading in the right direction. After years of trying, his wife, Beth, is pregnant, and he recently opened a business with his brother. But one phone call changes everything. After collapsing suddenly, Beth is rushed to the hospital. Tests reveal a devastating diagnosis: an inoperable brain tumour. Their only hope is an expensive experimental treatment available abroad, with a cost that's out of their reach. And Beth's time is running out.