Showing results by narrator "Sean Patrick" in All Categories

Laney McGregor’s previous holiday season ended in disaster. Add to that her recent Election Day loss, and her spirits are decidedly un-bright. She’s determined to spend a quiet Christmas at home in Mapleton, helping out on her family’s tree farm when needed but mostly keeping to herself. That is, until a job opportunity sweeter than sugar plums gets dangled in front of her … if only she’ll participate in a sequence of Christmas clichés.

When Sadie and Max are selected as contestants on the famed reality singing show STARMAKER's special festive season, Sadie thinks she's finally gotten her big break—and Max sees a chance to step out of his megastar father's shadow. But then they're paired up for duet week and stun the world with their onstage chemistry. With fans going wild for #Saxie, the judges demand they remain a duo—on and offstage—or exit the competition. Faking a relationship shouldn't be too hard, except for one small problem: Sadie and Max can't stand each other.

Five years in the making, this brilliant, in-depth investigative reporting on the history, politics, and science of alcoholism will show how AA became our nation's de facto treatment policy, even as evidence for more effective remedies accumulated. US of AA is a character-driven, beautifully written exposé, full of secrecy, irony, liquor industry money, the shrillest of scare tactics and, at its center, a grand deception. US of AA shines a much-needed spotlight on the addiction treatment industry. It will forever change the way we think about the entire enterprise.

Being a Catholic hipster is all about an attitude - an attitude grounded in being part of a countercultural community of believers dedicated to something bigger than themselves in a world dominated by self-centeredness. It’s about yearning to learn more about the faith by seeking out “Catholic cool” - overlooked saints, forgotten prayers and feast days, and traditional practices long set aside by mainstream believers. The Catholic Hipster Handbook will help listeners realize the only way to go against what’s normal and accepted in the culture is to be authentically Catholic.

1234 A.D. - For as long as she can remember, the Lady Adalind de Aston has loved Sir Maddoc du Bois. Being sent away to foster did nothing to cure her of her unending love for Maddoc, a sentiment he did not return. Years later, Adalind returns from fostering as a cultured and beautiful woman. So beautiful, in fact, that tales of her beauty are legendary and a string of hopeful suitors follow her home. Maddoc, now faced with this exquisite and refined creature, is tasked, as the captain of the army, with chasing the suitors away.

AD 1266 - Chadwick "Chad" de Lohr, son of Daniel de Lohr is a hero at the Battle of Evesham. Saving the hostage Henry III from Simon de Montfort, he is riding high on a wave of royal praise at the conclusion of the battle. But that favor with the king is short-lived. Henry, once again in power after the death of de Montfort, is determined to rid his country of the de Montfort-supporting rebels once and for all.

The Novara: Our last hope. Built to deliver two million souls from a solar system in disarray, the colossal ark ship set off into the endless night with the hopes and dreams of the human remnant. They would find a new home. A new Earth. The Novara’s descendants—those promised a green Eden—live a ship-bound life. But it is not the isolated existence their ancestors had envisioned. One hundred and twenty-nine years ago, there was a collision, a devastating encounter that answered one of humanity’s oldest questions . . . We are not alone.

Commander Torin Gray is known among the Bruce's most elite Highland warriors as Shadow because of his prowess at infiltrating any English stronghold and discovering its weaknesses before bringing the king's army to its doors. After watching the English massacre his family when he was a boy, he vowed revenge on them all, one stronghold at a time. For him, the Scottish War of Independence is personal and he will not be stopped. But nothing could have prepared him for the beautiful outlaw he's about to face, or how bravely she draws him out of the shadows and into the light.

In the 1990s, researchers in the Arctic noticed that floating summer sea ice had begun receding. This was accompanied by shifts in ocean circulation and unexpected changes in weather patterns throughout the world. The Arctic's perennially frozen ground, known as permafrost, was warming, and treeless tundra was being overtaken by shrubs. What was going on? Brave New Arctic is Mark Serreze's riveting firsthand account of how scientists from around the globe came together to find answers.

The Marigold, a gleaming Toronto condo tower, sits a half-empty promise: a stack of scuffed rental suites and undelivered amenities that crumbles around its residents as a mysterious sludge spreads slowly through it. Public health inspector Cathy Jin investigates this toxic mold as it infests the city’s infrastructure, rotting it from within, while Sam “Soda” Dalipagic stumbles on a dangerous cache of data while cruising the streets in his Camry, waiting for his next rideshare alert.

A decade after The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns, which Politico called "Moneyball for politics," journalist Sasha Issenberg returns to the cutting edge of political innovation to reveal how campaigns are navigating the era's most pressing challenge: how to win in a world awash in lies. The Lie Detectives is a lively and deep secret history of Democratic politics in the Trump years.

Sir Weston de Royans, a powerful, pious knight from a good Yorkshire family, his first introduction to Lady Amalie is a shocking one. But he eventually comes to know a beautiful, intelligent and humorous young woman who is in great torment and harbors a terrible secret. However, Weston harbors secrets of his own, deep family secrets that he has tried to run from for all of these years. As Weston and Amalie fall deeply in love, the two of them must reconcile themselves to these secrets and find understanding and forgiveness.

Throughout history, two perspectives on the world have dueled in our minds: the extrinsic—that of mechanism and physics—and the intrinsic—that of feelings, thoughts, and ideas. The intrinsic perspective allows us to tell stories about our lives, to chart our anger and our lust, to understand our psychologies. The extrinsic allows us to chart the physical world, to build upon it, and to travel across it. These perspectives have never been reconciled; they almost seem to exist on different planes of thought.

In 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic raged, the US was hit by a ripple of political discontent the likes of which had not been seen since the 1960s. The spark was the viral video of the horrific police murder of an unarmed Black man. The killing of George Floyd galvanized a nation already reeling from COVID and a toxic political cycle. Tens of thousands poured into the streets to protest. The entire country suddenly seemed to be roaring for change in one voice. Then nothing much happened. Fredrik deBoer explores why these passionate movements failed and how they could succeed in the future.

Take a walk through almost any neighborhood in Manhattan and you’ll likely pass some of the most significant clubs in American music history. But you won’t know it—almost all of these venues have been demolished or repurposed, leaving no record of what they were, how they shaped music scenes, or their impact on the neighborhoods around them. This Must Be the Place examines how these scenes came together and fell apart—and shows how these communal artistic experiences are not just for rarefied geniuses but available to us all.

Jen did not want to leave the city. She did not want to move to a farm with her mom and her mom's new boyfriend, Walter. She did not want to leave her friends and her dad. Most of all, Jen did not want to get new "sisters", Andy and Reese. As if learning new chores on Peapod Farm wasn't hard enough, having to deal with perfect-at-everything Andy might be the last straw for Jen. Besides cleaning the chicken coop, trying to keep up with the customers at the local farmers' market, and missing her old life, Jen has to deal with her own insecurities about this new family.

Monday, Kierk wakes up. Once a rising star in neuroscience, Kierk Suren is now homeless and broken by his all-consuming quest to find a scientific theory of consciousness. When he’s offered a spot in a prestigious postdoctoral program, he decides to rejoin society and vows not to self-destruct again. Instead of focusing on his work, however, Kierk becomes obsessed with another project—investigating the sudden and suspicious death of a colleague.

When Cassie lands in Chicago, all she knows is that Detective Harris has a lead on what happened to David. But when they meet face-to-face, Cassie realizes her friend is grasping at straws, and the glimmer of hope she sees on the horizon fades fast. At every turn, it feels like Cassie’s life is crumbling around her. Until, that is, she notices a mysterious shadow following her around the city. Cassie has never experienced a haunting quite like this, but if she can puzzle out its purpose, it might just lead to some real answers.

Some say vaping is a public health revolution that could help save millions of lives worldwide. But there is one big problem: teenagers. Instead of catering to adult smokers, the e-cigarette industry appears to overwhelmingly target non-smoking youth. Big Vape uses the dramatic rise and fall of Juul to tell a larger story of big business, public health and youth culture.

As Lawrence Ingrassia shows in this timely and eye-opening audiobook, a growing number of digital entrepreneurs have found new and creative ways to crack the code on the bonanza of physical goods that move through our lives every day. They have discovered that manufacturing, marketing, logistics, and customer service have all been flattened - where there were once walls that protected big brands like Gillette, Sealy, Victoria’s Secret, or Lenscrafters, savvy and hungry innovators now can compete on price, value, quality, speed, convenience, and service.