Showing results by narrator "A. J. Jacobs" in All Categories

Some men are just off-limits. Like, say, all the other football players in the league…. I have to stop replaying the one night I spent with my rival. Trouble is, that white-hot encounter with the other quarterback answered a lot of questions I’ve had about myself, but it also led me into this mess where he hates me…

Luna Rexroth is everyone’s favorite wallflower. Underneath the meek, tomboy exterior everyone loves (yet pities) is a girl who knows exactly what, and who, she wants - namely, the boy from the tree house who taught her how to curse in sign language. Who taught her how to laugh. To live. To love. Knight Cole is everyone’s favorite football hero. This daredevil hell-raiser could knock you up with his gaze alone, but he only has eyes for the girl across the street: Luna. But Luna is not who she used to be. She doesn’t need his protection anymore.

She’d always been my destiny. The woman whose life was tied to mine. I just hadn’t planned on falling in love and being forced to choose between my vows and my soul. No matter how deep my connection to her ran, I had a greater purpose I was meant to serve. And now that she was carrying the Harbinger of the Apocalypse–the result of our passion–I had to get her away from the rest of them.

Roslyn Blackthorne is dead. Technically. I faked my death to get out of a loveless marriage, but that was only half the battle. To ensure my vampire duke can never find me, I have to run far and fast enough so he can’t catch me. Because if he does, it’s over. Not just my life—for real this time—but my entire family’s.

A. J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: "You don't know me, but I'm your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database." That's enough family members to fill Madison Square Garden four times over. Who are these people, A. J. wondered, and how do I find them? So began Jacobs' three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history.

The Birthday Children fought for survival against the elements, jungle wildlife, the “Grownups” who created them...and, as evil corrupted their numbers, even against themselves. With these opponents finally defeated, Em and her people realized that more threats were coming, traveling from across the universe to lay claim to their planet. The Birthday Children have prepared as best they can against this alien armada. Now, as the first ships reach orbit around Omeyocan, the final battle for the planet begins.

Is the Constitution a living document that needs to evolve with the times? Or should we try to divine the original meaning that our Founding Fathers intended, and hew to that as strictly as possible, as present-day originalists suggest? In The Year of Living Constitutionally, A.J. Jacobs tries to get inside the minds of the Founding Fathers by living as closely as possible to the original meaning of the Constitution.

Star quarterback Quentin Barnes has led his beloved Ionath Krakens to glory on the gridiron and become the most recognized individual in history, but it is off the field where his world crumbles around him. Over four seasons with Ionath, he's picked up powerful enemies: one of which drove his sister into the Portath Cloud, a place from which no ship returns.

Best-selling author and human guinea pig A. J. Jacobs puts his life to the test and reports on the surprising and entertaining results. He goes undercover as a woman, lives by George Washington’s moral code, and impersonates a movie star. He practices "radical honesty", brushes his teeth with the world’s most rational toothpaste, and outsources every part of his life to India—including reading bedtime stories to his kids.

Roslyn Blackthorne is dead. I should know, I watched it happen. My twin and I didn’t believe we’d ever meet our mate, and then she showed up in our bar, and the world as we knew it changed. Fate hadn’t been kind to us. Not once. So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that we lost her as soon as we claimed her. I spent so much time worried about her manipulative demon, I didn’t anticipate it would be my own sordid past that killed her.

The New York Times best-selling author of The Year of Living Biblically goes on a journey to understand the enduring power of puzzles: why we love them, what they do to our brains, and how they can improve our world.

He saved me from a vengeful wolf but became a monster to do it. And now I’ve lost him. My Viking. My Alek. Locked away in Novasgard, he’s beyond reach. I have no way to find him. No way to tell him about my secret. About the two words that changed everything. To make matters worse, Noah and Caleb want nothing to do with me now that they know. Two little words, and I’m on the verge of losing them. My confessor. My berserker. My prince. My alpha…the only one remaining by my side. A couple months ago, my biggest worry was finding my wolf.

Author A.J. Jacobs discovers that his coffee - and every other item in our lives - would not be possible without hundreds of people we usually take for granted: farmers, chemists, artists, presidents, truckers, mechanics, biologists, miners, smugglers, and goatherds. By thanking these people face-to-face, Jacobs finds some much-needed brightness in his life. Gratitude does not come naturally to Jacobs, but he sets off on the journey on a dare from his son. And by the end, it’s clear to him that scientific research on gratitude is true. Gratitude’s benefits are legion.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Lost to the Moon and experience the compelling world of The Mate Games: Pestilence.

Everything is falling apart just as I thought it was coming together. The Mercer twins say I’m their mate. I believe them, even if I can’t let them claim me. No matter how badly my soul yearns to be theirs.

A. J. Jacobs tackles his most challenging experiment yet: a yearlong mission to radically improve every element of his body and mind - from his brain to his fingertips to his abs. First, he had to tackle a complicated web of diet and exercise advice, most which is nonsensical, unproven, and contradictory. Second, he had to consult a team of medical advisers. And finally, he had to subject himself, over the course of two years, to a grueling regimen of exercises and a range of diets and nutritional plans.

Our fearless author, A. J. Jacobs, tackles a new intellectual adventure, an exploration of the most influential book in the world: the Bible. He determined that the best way to explore the Bible was to live it, as literally as possible. For one year.

They call her the Ghost of Dunhill Cemetery, but most people think “the Cemetery Girl” is just a story. In some ways, that’s true. Her chosen name is Calexa Rose Dunhill, but she doesn’t know her real name. When she first arrived here, all she knew was that someone had tried to murder her, dumped her body, and left her for dead. Calexa has been hiding out, afraid to seek out her true identity in fear that her would-be murderer would find her and finish the job. And someone is searching for her...a man who holds the key that will unlock the secrets of Calexa’s past.

Janey's family is about to set sail for the adventure of a lifetime! The only problem? Janey must leave her school, her life, her best friend, the entire country behind for new adventures—coral reefs, colorful markets, and new cultures. Life at sea is exhilarating, but there's a major downside: when you're raising anchor every few days with sights on a new harbor, it's almost impossible to make new friends.

Growing up under his punk rocker dad’s spotlight, 18-year-old Luke Greenly knows fame and wants nothing to do with it. His real love isn’t in front of a crowd, it’s on the page. Hiding his gift and secretly hoarding songs in his bedroom at night, he prefers the anonymous comfort of the locally popular podcast he co-hosts with his outgoing and meddling, far-too-jealousy-inspiringly-happy-with-his-long-term-boyfriend twin brother, Cullen. But that’s not Luke’s only secret. He also has a major unrequited crush on music blogger Vada Carsewell.