Showing results by narrator "Liam" in All Categories

When Brian Doyle passed away at the age of 60 after a bout with brain cancer, he left behind a cult-like following of devoted listeners who regard his writing as one of the best-kept secrets of the 21st century. Doyle writes with a delightful sense of wonder about the sanctity of everyday things, and about love and connection in all their forms: spiritual love, brotherly love, romantic love, and even the love of a nine-foot sturgeon.

Growing up, I was the problem child teachers didn't know what to do with. The troubled teen whose parents wished was never born. The system's made of cracks, and I fell through each and every one, all in a futile effort to protect the family legacy. They tried to fix me. Doctors… therapists… teachers… pastors... And they failed. Epically. Now, eighteen, and fresh out of Hell, I'm thrown into the last place I ever expected. Rehab. Enter Nolan Dresden. Newly divorced. A recovering alcoholic. Almost double my age.

What was I thinking, trading my last painting for a "lucky" necklace? Instead of good fortune, the cursed trinket saddled me with a stocky, heavily tattooed ghost named Prudence. Determined to make the most of things, I struck a bargain: I'd help him with his problem if he'd help me with mine. En route to Oregon to help him shed his spectral existence, my ghostly companion becomes something more, and causes me to make a few unexpected discoveries about myself. Now I'm craving a connection that should send me running for the hills, and time is against me.

At the age of twenty-five, Leland Meadows has his whole life mapped out in front of him, with four rules to live by. No new friends. No dreams or aspirations. No repeat hookups. And definitely no committed relationships. Leland's looking for safety, not heartbreak and disappointment. Then, one day, he receives an offer he can't turn down.

Asa Mulvaney is half of a psychopathic whole. He and his twin brother live together, party together…kill together. In the Mulvaney family, murder is the family business and business is good. So, when an experiment separates Asa and his brother, Asa is forced to navigate the world on his own for the first time in his life. Zane Scott is a small-time crime blogger and amateur sleuth, but he dreams of a byline in a major paper someday. When he winds up at a boring fundraiser beside Asa Mulvaney, they share a passionate encounter that leaves Zane with an ache in his chest and a story.

After more than a decade, the last person I expected to see walk into the Four Bears Construction offices as a new hire was Ridge. He was my first crush, and my first heartbreak when he started dating my sister. When he left her at the altar without so much as a note, I wrote him off for good. No amount of excuses and explanations can erase what he did. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. But when we end up being sent to a remote campground alone to spend a month rebuilding the cabins, it’s too easy to remember why I fell for him in the first place.

On May 6, 2010, financial markets around the world tumbled simultaneously and without warning. In the span of five minutes, a trillion dollars of valuation was lost. The Flash Crash, as it became known, represented the fastest drop in market history. When share values rebounded less than half an hour later, experts around the globe were left perplexed. What had they just witnessed? Navinder Singh Sarao hardly seemed like a man who would shake the world's financial markets to their core.

Hockey is my life. It's my only goal, my only escape. Everything was going according to plan. All I had to do was focus on the game, keep my head down, then get drafted into the NHL. Starting the year as the captain of FU should have made that easy, but now my attention is torn between the ice and taunting my rival's little sister, Madeline Peters. My only real solace is the mystery girl inside my phone who refuses to tell me her name. Then, one drunken knock on the wrong door brings Madeline into my bedroom.

Avi Mulvaney is many things. Son. Twin. Owner of the fashion label, Gemini. Murderous psychopath. Together, he and his brother, Asa, make one brutally efficient monster, ridding the world of predators who victimize the innocent. History proves Avi and Asa don’t do well apart, but their father has decided to test that theory. Felix Navarro knows exactly who he is. Baby brother. Fashionista. Vigilante. While he’s not happy that his big brother married a Mulvaney, the union has its perks.

Between running a garage full of beefed-up gear-head mechanics and bailing my idiot brother out of trouble every other week, the last thing I have time for is a relationship. I’ve tried it too many times, and the ridiculous reasons I always find to end it have become a running joke around the garage. But I’ve learned my lesson. No. More. Boyfriends. I don’t care how many times Porter falls asleep drunk in my bed or how cute he looks covered in oil smears while I teach him how to fix up the vintage car he has rusting away in his garage; I’m not going to fall for him.

As long as LonelyDaddy is on the other side of the computer screen, there’s a chance he could be the man Emerson has been dreaming of. I’ve gotten used to being alone, to disappearing inside the fictional worlds between the pages of a book, and letting my lonely life fade away.

Every psychopath in the Mulvaney family has a role to play. Archer Mulvaney is the gambler, a drunken reprobate making his living as a high-stakes poker player. Very few people know the real Archer, not even his brothers. But there is one man who knows far too much. Mackenzie Shepherd spends his days photographing endangered wildlife. He’s also the brother of a sociopath and son to the woman who literally wrote the book on raising one. When his mother asks him to head a secret government project, it seems like the perfect excuse to run away from his life.

They say love comes from the most unexpected places. I found mine hiding in my bushes from the cops. My life before Luke was a carefully structured routine. It was predictable and organized, just the way I like it. Some would call it boring, but I call it smart self-preservation. If there’s one thing that could threaten to bring it all crashing down, it’s Luke van Beek. He swept into my world like a tropical cyclone, all hot and chaotic, and tore down my safeguards. Now I can’t seem to rid myself of this charming, larger-than-life, ridiculous man.

Orphaned at a young age, Samara has been left under the care of her three horrible brothers for many long years. But just when she thinks she cannot take another day of their abuse, a handsome prince offers for her hand in marriage. Samara's brothers agree to the wedding in exchange for a large dowry, but on her way to salvation in her new kingdom, her carriage is ambushed and she is rescued by Lore, the wicked Prince of Nightshade, who demands a favor in return.

With incomparable wisdom, skill, and wit, world-renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith traces the history of the major speculative episodes in our economy over the last three centuries. Exposing the ways in which normally sane people display reckless behavior in pursuit of profit, Galbraith asserts that our "notoriously short" financial memory is what creates the conditions for market collapse. By recognizing these signs and understanding what causes them we can guard against future recessions and have a better hold on our country's (and our own) financial destiny.

Dylan Gallagher’s hot neighbor loathed him from the second he moved in, and causing a flood, falling through the floor, and landing directly onto that same neighbor’s bed probably means that’s unlikely to change. The poorly timed “It’s Raining Men” joke didn’t help. Meanwhile, ER nurse Derek Chang’s life is a literal when-rains-it-pours nightmare. A man he hates dropped into his life along with an astronomically expensive problem originating from Derek’s own apartment’s plumbing.

We became famous overnight. One day, I was a twenty-four-year-old drummer slinging pizzas to make ends meet, and the next, I was a member of the most popular alternative band ever. Despite being world-famous, there was no connection in it. I'd lost touch with reality, with intimacy. I couldn't find a place to be normal. I'd lived my entire life straight-edged while watching obsession destroy my best friend. Obsession terrified me—that is until I met him.

After Katmere, I shouldn't be surprised by anything. Including the existence of a world beyond my world called the Shadow Realm. Yet here I am, stuck in a strange, dangerous place with the worst of the supernaturals, the monster that other monsters fear: Hudson Vega. He might be Jaxon's brother and ridiculously hot, but he's a complete bona fide pain in my ass. The question is whether we'll find a way out before I kill him...or run out of time.

In this, the first book to take a big-picture view of the entire post punk period, acclaimed author and music journalist Simon Reynolds recreates a time of tremendous urgency and idealism in pop music. Full of anecdote and insight, and featuring the likes of Joy Division, The Fall, Pere Ubu, PiL and Talking Heads, Rip It Up And Start Again stands as one of the most inspired and inspiring books on popular music ever written.

Smart-mouthed hacker Caspian escaped an abusive home at 16. Now he's one of the most sought-after black-hat hackers in the world. Jonah is a ruthless contract killer with only one weakness: the vibrant runaway he took in years ago, Caspian. But Cas bailed when he turned 18, and Jonah has maintained a steady diet of eat, kill, sleep since then. A threat to Cas' life brings him back years later - not as the boy Jonah remembers, but as a hardened computer hacker with a price on his head and a list of names everybody wants.