Showing results by narrator "Victor Bevine" in All Categories

In cool, precise prose, and with an unerring sense of the absurd, the four novellas of Compulsory Happiness create a picture of everyday life in a grotesque police state, expressing terror and hope, fear and solidarity, the humorous triviality of the ordinary and the painful search for an ideal.

A serial bomber is wreaking havoc throughout Europe. Former New York City cop Michael Finnigan and former Spanish assassin Katalin Fiero - the brains behind St. Nicholas Salvage & Wrecking, a covert bounty-hunting operation based in Cyprus - may be the only ones who can stop the carnage. The partners have a reputation for tracking down the worst of the worst in international crime while staying firmly under the radar. But as they draw ever closer to the bombers, and as the terrorism sweeps up Katalin’s own family, the two must decide if they can continue to operate in the shadows.

Stephen Heywood was 29 years old when he learned that he was dying of ALS - Lou Gehrig's disease. Almost overnight, his older brother, Jamie, turned himself into a genetic engineer in a quixotic race to cure the incurable. His Brother's Keeper is a powerful account of their story, as they travel together to the edge of medicine.

Twin brothers Yarik and Dima have been inseparable since childhood. Living on their uncle's farm after the death of their father, the boys once spent their days helping and observing the fishermen, their nights spellbound by their uncle's mythic tales. Years later, the two men labor side by side at the Oranzheria, a sprawling glass greenhouse built over farmlands; a capitalist experiment that keeps the surrounding townspeople in perpetual daylight.

A little sex. A little death. Most people would kill to live in glamorous Palm Beach, with its beautiful women, five-star resorts, and dazzling coast. But most people don't know what really goes on in the bedrooms of the rich and famous....Mark Durand did - and now the handsome high-class "walker," who escorted the wealthiest women to posh affairs, is dead, his beheaded corpse found in an abandoned cattle pen.

Selden, a former mercenary, gave up war to settle in Balathex, the City of Fountains, and set up shop as a fencing master. But old habits die hard, and a man can use a secondary source of income when he has a habit of picking losing horses at the hippodrome. So he still hires out his sword on occasion and generally finds himself enmeshed in supernatural mysteries and fighting sorcerers, demons, and the like. This is an origin of sorts. It relates how he first got himself established in Balathex

Hartmut Esslinger, internationally acclaimed designer and founder of frog design, inc., reveals the secrets to better business through better design. Having spent 40 years helping build the world's most recognizable brands, Esslinger shows how business leaders and designers can join forces to build creative strategies that will ensure a more profitable and sustainable future.

Hope for Democracy introduces new tools for tamping down hyper-partisanship and placing citizens at the heart of the democratic process. It showcases the Citizens' Initiative Review, which convenes a stratified random sample of citizens to study ballot measures. Citizen panelists interrogate advocates, opponents, and experts, then write an analysis that distills their findings for voters.

Daemus Alaric and his band of dauntless companions venture to the Devil’s Horn, the mystical home of Trillias, the mercurial Ancient of Sport and Tests. Their quest—to recover the lost Tome of Enlightenment, cast into the bowels of the mysterious Laurentian Labyrinth by the fallen Keeper, Graytorris the Mad. Will they survive the god’s gambit?

In 2018, the first genetically modified babies were reportedly born in China, made possible by the invention of CRISPR technology in 2012. This controversial advancement overturned the preexisting moral consensus, which had held for over 50 years before: While gene editing an adult person was morally acceptable, modifying babies, and thus subsequent generations, crossed a significant moral line. John H. Evans here provides a meta-level guide to how these debates move forward and their significance to society.

Epic in scope, Macrolife opens in the year 2021. The Bulero family owns one of Earth's richest corporations. As the Buleros gather for a reunion at the family mansion, an industrial accident plunges the corporation into crisis, which eventually brings the world around them to the brink of disaster. Vilified, the Buleros flee to a space colony where young Richard Bulero gradually realizes that the only hope for humanity lies in macrolife - mobile, self-reproducing space habitats.

Tackling a weight problem is often viewed as a personal responsibility that requires making healthier choices. The latest research, however, shows that external factors - from family and friendships to advertising and the workplace environment - have an equal, if not greater, impact on America's growing waistline. Just look at the stats: A person's chance of becoming obese increases by 57 percent if a close friend is obese, 40 percent if a sibling is obese, and 37 percent if a spouse is obese. That's where Thinfluence comes in.

A riveting political thriller and love story. Set primarily in contemporary Russia and the United States, here is a novel that brilliantly knits together four seemingly unconnected lives: Adam, a CIA intelligence operative who suffers from albinism and searches for the Russian assassin who killed his mother, an act he witnessed as a child; Lily, a young Hawaiian Chinese journalist who falls in love with him; Bazil, an Indian intelligence operative from Mumbai who befriends Adam; and Zahira, a beautiful Afghani girl mutilated by the Taliban.

A car is found crashed on a beach in the Canary Island resort of Fuerteventura. In the trunk is a cardboard box containing the body of an infant - no one knows his name, and there is no trace of a driver. The last thing Fuerteventura needs is a murder. The island already has half-empty bars and windswept beaches, and the local police are under pressure to abandon the investigation. But longtime islander Erhard, who sees more than most people, won't let the investigation drop - and he has nothing to lose.

Thirty-seven-year-old freelance writer Avery Jankowsky is devastated when his girlfriend, Deirdre, confesses that she has been having an affair. Beside himself with jealousy and grief, Avery accepts his uncle Ezra's advice - and his tickets to an all-expenses-paid international sex tour. Sensing a white-hot book idea (and a chance to get back at faithless Deirdre), Avery joins a group of wealthy and accomplished travelers on a mad Nordic whirl, descending ever deeper into a world that is equal parts hilarity and nightmare.

Dungeon Party links a fantasy world and the people playing in it. When longstanding personality conflicts erupt, the volatile Randall Keller secedes from Alan Crandall's gaming group. In pursuit of a coveted prize at an upcoming convention, Alan replaces Randall with two female recruits who reinvigorate the campaign. Randall chooses a darker path by spreading infectious cynicism through the gaming community while plotting his revenge. When the Middle Mirth convention gets underway, Alan's group must stop Randall and his avatar.

As Cadrith savors his success, the mercenaries deal with the aftermath of their last confrontation. The thread that's bound them to this point is hard to break and is pulling them into yet another conflict where even the gods are bracing their gates. The battle lines have been drawn. The pieces are in place. The conflict to come will be waged on many fronts and through many faces, but victory is far from assured.

David Leavitt's second collection of stories further confirms a talent deep and wonderfully creative in its empathy. A Place I've Never Been explores family relationships, friendships, and romantic relationships, among characters whose sexuality is fluid or uncertain—a barrier or under threat. A real estate agent happily married to a woman finds himself in love with another man in "Houses". A man entering a bold new world of gay hookups feels sheltered from the most intimidating attentions by his more attractive, charismatic friend.

Few relationships are as simple - and rewarding - as those between man and animal. From the loyal dog who risks his own life to rescue a drowning boy to the lost kitten who comforts a grieving woman to an abandoned horse and foster child who come to save each other, these inspiring true stories highlight the hope, healing, happiness and - most of all - unconditional love animals bring to our lives. Whether you love sloppy dog kisses, or melt at every kitty meow, this heartwarming collection is one to treasure.

Ranging from the wicked noir Shanghai of 1946 to the echo chambers of Hollywood to remote, snow-covered mountains, Stuart Archer Cohen's This Is How It Really Sounds follows three men, each in search of a different life.