Showing results by narrator "Nicole Vilencia" in All Categories

We are now living in a world with over 100 brands of bottled water. The United States alone is home to over 45,000 shopping malls. And there are more than 19 million customized beverage choices a barista can whip up at your local Starbucks. Whether it’s good or bad, the real question is why we behave this way in the first place. Why do we telegraph our affiliations or our beliefs with symbols, signs, and codes? Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits contains 20 interviews with the world’s leading designers and thinkers in branding.

Dr. Ali Torveau knows just how fragile life can be - she sees death and tragedy every day in the trauma unit. Battling the dark forces of fate is her life's work and she doesn't want or need anything else, certainly nothing as transient as love. Plenty of women try to change her mind, but she never has any trouble saying no. Not until the day firefighter Beau Cross shows up in her ER and sets Ali’s carefully ordered world aflame.

Take a peek inside the heads of some of the world's greatest living graphic designers. How do they think, how do they connect to others, what special skills do they have? In honest and revealing interviews, 19 designers, including Stefan Sagmeister, Michael Beirut, David Carson, and Milton Glaser, share their approaches, processes, opinions, and thoughts about their work with noted brand designer Debbie Millman. The internet radio talk host of Design Matters, Millman persuades the greatest graphic designers of our time to speak frankly and openly about their work.

Wynter Thompson, divorced with a young child, struggles to balance the demands of her surgical residency with the responsibilities of motherhood - and between the two, discovers there is little time left for anything else. She manages to convince herself that she has everything she needs, because another chance at love is definitely not in her game plan. Pearce Rifkin is a woman with a plan, and it doesn’t include a serious relationship. Chief Surgical Resident is just a stepping stone to her lifelong goal.

We all know what is healthy to think and what is not, much like we know that eating an apple is better than gorging on donuts. But once we start thinking anxious thoughts, it is tough to move from disaster to reality. Our brain can ruin our day. The road map to happiness can be found in Freeing Yourself from Anxiety. Unlike most guides, Dr. Tamar Chansky’s book explains that the solution is not positive thinking but possible thinking. Armed with her strategies, listeners can achieve accurate perceptions of their lives that can liberate them from fear and perfectionism.

In an age fraught with terrorism, United States Secret Service canine teams risk their lives to safeguard the president, the vice president, their families, visiting heads of state, and a host of others. Unprecedented access to these heroic dog teams has allowed a fascinating first-time-ever look at a very special breed of heroes.

Xaviera Hollander may not have invented sex, but she is certainly one of its most outspoken proponents. Her book The Happy Hooker has sold more than 16 million copies worldwide and continues to captivate new listeners with its humor, its zest for life, and, above all, for its downright honesty. She followed the success of her book with her monthly sex advice column for Penthouse, "Call Me Madam", which helped readers find fulfillment in bed for almost 30 years.

A leading dog-blogger offers a tour of military working dogs' extraordinary training, heroic accomplishments, and the lasting impacts they have on those who work with them. Maria Goodavage here tells heartwarming stories of modern soldier dogs and the amazing bonds that develop between them and their handlers. Beyond tales of training, operations, retirement, and adoption into the families of fallen soldiers, Goodavage talks to leading dog-cognition experts about why dogs like nothing more than to be on a mission with a handler they trust.

Holly Hill (pseudonym) gave up her job at the behest of her wealthy boyfriend - and then found herself dumped and penniless. After spending six weeks in bed pining for her lost love, she was encouraged by a friend to be "open-minded" about her career choices - and ended up placing an online ad for a sugar daddy. She received an almost overwhelming response from all sorts of men, but most of them were married men whose wives had lost interest in sex. As Holly interviewed the men and settled on a candidate, she decided to record what happened next.

Laura owns what might be the world’s most extensive collection of BDSM lesbian erotica, but that’s as close as she’s gotten to the world of her fantasies. Until, that is, her friend Adele introduces her to Adele’s mistress Jeanne - art collector, heiress, and experienced dominant. Nothing in Laura’s reading prepares her for the powerful reaction she has to Jeanne or how completely she is captivated by this sensual new world. With Jeanne’s first command, Laura’s life changes forever.

Long before Desperate Housewives, there was Bedelia: pretty, ultra femme, and adoring as a kitten. A perfect housekeeper and lover, she wants nothing more than to please her insecure new husband, who can’t believe his luck. But is Bedelia too good to be true? A mysterious new neighbor turns out to be a detective on the trail of a kitten with claws of steel a picture-perfect wife with a string of dead husbands in her wake. Caspary builds this tale to a peak of psychological suspense as her characters are trapped together by a blizzard.

"Dr. Spock? Check. Penelope Ann Leach (Remember her?) Check. What to Expect When You’re Expecting? Check. I had a 700 dollar Bellini crib for God’s sake! Everything was perfect…." And so begins Kim Stagliano’s electrifying and hilarious memoir of her family’s journey raising three daughters with autism. Always outspoken, often touching, and sometimes heartbreaking, Kim Stagliano is a powerful new voice in comedic writing.

It’s no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions and health coverage earned by millions of retirees. Employers blame an aging workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs - a perfect storm of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures. But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Award-winning investigative reporter Ellen E. Schultz reveals how large companies and the retirement industry - benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks - have all played a huge, hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits.

The love of a dog or cat helps heal soldiers’ emotional trauma. One very special woman and program reunites them after the war.

When Barack Obama ran on a platform of "hope and change" four years ago, he promised to unite the country. But as Kate Obenshain reveals in Divider-in-Chief, Obama has done exactly the opposite. Rather than seeking common sense, pro-American solutions, he has pursued far-left policies, a radical leftist agenda, and an attitude that’s both condescending and dismissive of Main Street America. As a result, America has become a nation of even greater polarization and disillusionment.

Liberals always think they know best. Yet never before has the Left been so determined to brainwash our kids, says Washington Times columnist Marybeth Hicks in Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid. Whether it’s through schools, the media, or so-called parenting experts, this book exposes the myriad ways liberals are indoctrinating tomorrow’s voters and the next generation of leaders into a socialist worldview.

Aspiring race-car driver Kate Reilly goes looking for a full-time ride in the American Le Mans Series—and stumbles over a dead driver. When she takes that driver’s job just hours later, she also takes pole position on the list of suspects in his murder. Suddenly she’s in the hot seat with little time to clear her name and get ready to race a Corvette at Lime Rock Park.

In the tradition of Sophie Kinsella and Lauren Weisberger comes this charming debut about a young woman who moves to Manhattan in search of romance and excitement, only to find that her apartment is haunted by the cantankerous ghost of an old beat-generation writer, who needs her help in finishing his life’s work.

When Kate Reilly arrives in Long Beach, California, a week ahead of the Grand Prix, she is immediately plunged into a new social scene - as well as a murder investigation. Her cousin, Billy, is found dead, with Kate's card in his pocket. The cops want to know why, and sponsors and race organizers - anxious to keep racing's image clean - want Kate to investigate. Doubting she can solve another murder, especially that of a relative she despised, Kate reluctantly agrees.

From the top ad people all over the world - the ones who create the best television commercials and ads: the ones you love, the ones you remember, the ones you wish you had thought of yourself - come their own stories, in their own words, about the first work they ever did…and lived to talk about, barely. They talk about the zaniness and craziness; they talk about the good guys and the bad girls, and vice versa; they talk about things you think can only happen on television or in the movies but actually happened to these people. You may not believe what you hear, but in the ad world, you may not believe what you see, either.