Showing results by narrator "Maria" in All Categories

New religious movements aren’t earthquakes - they’re not generated by blind natural forces, and they’re not inevitable. Social and spiritual change requires a catalyst to set it in motion. And in the case of Islam, that catalyst has a name: Muhammad. He was a charismatic individual, born of the existing culture of sixth-century Arabia and yet somehow alienated from it. He drew on existing religious ideas in radically new ways that would change his world - and ours - forever. Join Maria Dakake of George Mason University for a riveting exploration of Islam’s founding prophet.

Unstoppable is the fiercely honest, fearless, darkly funny autobiography of global tennis star Maria Sharapova. In the middle of the night, a father and his daughter step off a Greyhound bus in Florida and head straight to the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. They ring the bell, though no-one is expecting them and they don't speak English. They have arrived from Russia with just 700 dollars and the conviction that this six-year-old girl will be the world's next great tennis star. They are right.

Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex. In this book, she brings together their extraordinary stories, whilst also chronicling her own journey towards sexual freedom. From finding queer community in Egypt to living a polyamorous life in Senegal to understanding the intersectionality of religion and pleasure in Cameroon, their necessary narratives are individual and illuminating.

In this poignant and deeply personal audio experience, host Maria Luisa Tucker investigates the disappearance of her own father, and uses the many theories that emerge to explore what it means to be a family today.

As long as she can remember, Maria Konnikova has been fascinated by the tension between luck and skill. But nothing could prepare Konnikova for the string of bad luck that befell her in 2015, when, in quick succession, she was diagnosed with a painful auto-immune disease, her beloved grandmother died in a tragic accident and unexpected layoffs for her mother and husband left the family in financial disarray.

Maria Bamford is a comedian’s comedian (an outsider among outsiders) and has forever fought to find a place to belong. From struggling with an eating disorder as a child of the 1980s, to navigating a career in the arts (and medical debt and psychiatric institutionalization), she has tried just about every method possible to not only be a part of the world, but to want to be a part of it. In Bamford’s “trademark blend of disarming intimacy and dark whimsy” (Publishers Weekly), Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult brings us on a quest to participate in something.

Growing up in New York, brothers Emil and Brighton, always idolised the Spell Walkers - a vigilante group sworn to rid the world of spectres. While the Spell Walkers and other celestials are born with powers, spectres take them, violently stealing the essence of endangered magical creatures. Brighton wishes he had a power so he could join the fray. Emil just wants the fighting to stop. Then, in a brawl after a protest, Emil manifests a power of his own, one that puts him right at the heart of the conflict.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of How to Be an Overnight Success by Maria Hatzistefanis. 'You are not born an entrepreneur. It's a skill that you learn along the way.' When the skincare company Rodial launched its cult 'snake' serum, the press quickly called the business an 'overnight success'. However, Rodial's founder, Maria Hatzistefanis, had been toiling for 18 years, building the company from scratch in her bedroom. Now, the beauty boss sets out to demonstrate in this very accessible book that its success stemmed from sheer hard work, tireless efforts and a lot of patience.

Michelle was a young mother when she was kidnapped by a local bus driver named Ariel Castro. For more than a decade, she endured unimaginable torture. In 2003 Amanda Berry joined her in captivity, followed by Gina De Jesus in 2004. Their escape on May 6, 2013, made headlines around the world. In Finding Me, Michelle will reveal her story, and how she has found the courage to now build a life worth living.

As the only wolf-shifter in my pack not to shift, being rejected from my home when I turned 18 was not unexpected when the shifter war was so close. But being sent to a secret academy full of immortal wolf-shifters, demons, and teachers with no morals wasn’t something I planned for. Luna Alpha Academy is for rejects only. They choose wolves that no one cares about if they go missing, and if I can survive long enough to learn the dark magic they teach, I might even be welcome back home as a wolf-witch.

Nazafareen is a Breaker, a mortal who has the rare ability to shatter spell magic - although her power carries a high price. With the memories of her former self erased and nowhere else to turn, she comes to Nocturne hoping to start a new life under the triple moons of the darklands. But when an assassin forces Nazafareen to flee to the sunlit mortal city of Delphi, she finds herself embroiled in a deeper mystery whose origins lie far in the past. Why was the continent sundered into light and dark a thousand years before?

In Art Money Success, Maria tells personal stories of her own business deals, successes, and failures while sharing unconventional wisdom that will explode your art sales. If you are interested in generating more money and success from your art, then this audiobook is for you!

Dyson Blake lies dying on a subway platform thinking she'll be just another statistic. This isn’t how she thought she’d go out. Fang-deep in some helpless man isn’t how she thought she’d wake up. She didn’t think she’d wake up at all, but here she is, sucking someone's life out in a cemetery.

The Moon has been sucked through a wormhole in space and has arrived countless miles away from its proper place. The crew of Moonbase Alpha can only guess at the resultant devastation left behind on Earth. They must decide how best they can survive. Some Alphans find it difficult to let go of the notion of returning to Earth, others are facing the reality that they must find another home to ensure the survival of the human race. They can't survive on Alpha indefinitely.

Con men are artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. They hold a deep, enigmatic fascination for us. But how do they do it? Whether it's a suspicious-looking email or a multimillion-dollar global swindle, Maria Konnikova investigates the psychological principles that underlie each stage of the confidence game and the profile of both the con artist and his mark.

The last 60 years of dietary advice, warning women to avoid fat, have actually worsened women’s health. If you’re approaching menopause, in menopause, or are interested in improving your health naturally, here is a book that explains the history of menopause, the evolutionary benefits of this life event, and how to eat the right foods to help you enjoy what should be the longest and most fulfilling part of your life.

A charismatic young tech entrepreneur, Chase Stapp, played by Haley Joel Osment (Goliath, The Kominsky Method), concocts a designer cannabis brand and has high hopes of disrupting the entire budding industry.

On Thursday, 1st July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag. The gum remained with him for 20 years—a sacred totem, his creative muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with every passing year.

The Urban Promise Prep School vows to turn boys into men. As students, J.B., Ramón, and Trey are forced to follow the prestigious "program's" strict rules. Extreme discipline, they’ve been told, is what it takes to be college bound, to avoid the fates of many men in their neighborhoods. This, the Principal Moore Method, supposedly saves lives. But when Moore ends up murdered and the cops come sniffing around, the trio emerges as the case's prime suspects. With all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested.

Maria Ressa has spent decades speaking truth to power. But her work tracking disinformation networks seeded by her own government, spreading lies to its own citizens laced with anger and hate, has landed her in trouble with the most powerful man in the country: President Duterte. Now, hounded by the state, she has 10 arrest warrants against her name, and a potential 100+ years behind bars to prepare for - while she stands trial for speaking the truth.