Showing results by narrator "P. J. Ochlan" in All Categories

It is through first contact with an alien species that humanity learns of the Dream. It is a plane of mental existence where people are able to communicate by their thoughts alone - over distances of thousands of light-years. To ensure that future generations will have this ability, human genetic engineering produces newborns capable of finding and navigating the Dream. They become known as the Silent. Rust is just one planet among many in the Empire of Human Unity.

Master of Thin Air opens with a fall that the author very nearly could not stop down an almost vertical rock ramp leading to a 3,000-foot drop. The qualities that saved him then on K2 - in addition to his mountaineering know-how and sheer good luck - drove his 16-year journey to summit all of the world's 8,000ers, the 14 peaks that exceed 8,000 meters (26,000-plus feet) and take climbers into the death zone. Incredibly, he accomplished that feat without the aid of bottled oxygen for every mountain but one.

Social scientists have adopted the practices of more traditional scientists in the past few decades - using randomized trials to design policies aimed at improving educational levels, lowering crime rates, elevating employment rates, and improving living standards among the poor. Andrew Leigh and P.J. Ochlan bring the lives of these radical researchers to life as their experiments to overturn conventional wisdom lead to breakthroughs like finding the cure for scurvy and discovering what policies really improve literacy rates.

Gerald Asher, who served as Gourmet's wine editor for 30 years, has drawn together this selection of his essays, published in Gourmet and elsewhere, for the collective insight they give into why a wine should always be an expression of a place and a time. Guiding the reader through 27 diverse wine regions in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and California, he shows how every wine worth drinking is a reflection of its terroir - in the broadest sense of that untranslatable word.

In the near future, after the internet grinds to a halt amid a wave of cyberattacks, a company named Zodiac steps in to replace it with an evolved, augmented-reality version called the Grid. Harrigan, a hard-drinking private detective living as off-Grid as possible, is about to be evicted from his apartment when a stranger shows up asking for his help in finding Anna, an escort who's absconded with more than just his heart. Anna has come into possession of a program/entity called Mirror, Mirror, which has the capacity to merge the Grid and reality.

When terrorists bomb bridges across the country and threaten the Hoover Dam, the vulnerability of America’s infrastructure becomes a matter of national security. But Dan Reilly, a former Army intelligence officer, predicted the attacks in a secret State Department report written years earlier - a virtual blueprint for disaster, somehow leaked and now in the hands of foreign operatives.

Behold the Rolling Stones: run-ins with the law, chart-topping successes, and now the World's Greatest Continually Operating Rock and Roll Band. 50 Licks tells the story of the Stones, right from its very origins. On July 12, 1962, London's Marquee Club debuted a new act, a blues-inflected rock band named after a Muddy Waters song-the Rolling Stones. They were a hard-edged band with a flair for the dramatic, styling themselves as the devil's answer to the sainted Beatles.

Before Kendi learned to use his talent of navigating the plane of mental existence known as the Dream, he had to escape his physical existence as a slave.

Police Inspector Lu Fei has an unfortunate talent for getting himself into hot water with powerful and well-connected people. Which is why he's been assigned to a backwater town in a rural area of Northern China and quietly warned to keep his head down. But while running a sting operation on the sale and consumption of rare and endangered animals, Lu comes across the curious case of a waitress who has gone missing. Her last known whereabouts: a restaurant frequented by local elites, owned by smooth-talking gangster, and known for its exotic—and highly illegal—delicacies.

On December 16, 1944, Hitler launched a massive surprise attack on the Allies: the Battle of the Bulge had begun. Planned by the Germans with the utmost secrecy, the battle was one of the largest and bloodiest fought by the United States in World War II. Near complete surprise crippled the Allied line early on, but fierce resistance and massive air attacks ultimately gave Allied forces the edge. Had Hitler's gambit succeeded, a German victory in the war would have certainly been possible, if not likely.

Find out what piranhas eat - and don't eat! - in this irresistibly funny book from Aaron Blabey, the best-selling creator of Pig the Pug! Everyone knows that piranhas don't eat bananas - except for Brian. This little fish loves to munch not only on bananas, but on fruit of all kinds! Brian's piranha friends think he's crazy. Piranhas don't eat bananas - their sharp teeth are for eating meat! And there's a scrumptious pair of feet dangling in the water nearby....

A farang is dead and the Bangkok police have a confession the next morning from a young paint-thinner addict. He claims he killed Ben Hoadly, an expat Brit, but Calvino has his doubts when he sees heavy bruises on the kid's face. In no time, Calvino is working both sides, out to find the killer for Hoadly's wealthy father, and eager to clear the addict's name for a beautiful friend who runs a charity in the slums.

Written in startlingly beautiful prose, Harmless Like You is set across New York, Berlin, and Connecticut, following Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and Yuki's son, Jay, who, as an adult in the present day, is forced to confront the mother who abandoned him when he was only two years old.

Ned is not just any troll. Even though Ned is nearly seven feet tall, with a nose the size of a pickle, Ned has a heart full of love! A heart that swoons over poetry and craves true friendship! And when it comes to humans...it's complicated. So complicated that, long ago, Ned fled the Enchanted Realm for the one place no one would notice a troll hiding in plain sight: New York City. But one human boy - Cody - has noticed.

Era Gualtieri—public enemy #1, swashbuckler, provocateur, hero, villain, philosopher, madman—is about to have the worst Holiday Season of his life. For starters: Prince Raphael Koschei, the so-called Hero of Luminar, is dead. Good riddance and all, but the assassin was none other than Era's bestie and perpetual "it's complicated," Liv. As the Empire mourns its problematic fave, Era sees his chance to put a stop to House Koschei's "Island" conspiracy. But when he finds what he seeks, let's just say too much truth can be a biohazard.

When you need a memory to be wiped, call me. Transferring unwanted memories to my own mind is the only form of magic I've ever mastered. But now I'm holding so many memories, I'm not always sure which ones are actually mine anymore. Some of them are sensitive; all of them are private. And there are those who are willing to kill to access the secrets I'm trying to bury....

The battle with the bandits is over, and the companions turn toward building the village of Alem’s Crossing. At the same time, Arthur is thrust into his new reality after discovering his true heritage. The young thief, Rayne, raids a noble’s treasury to find nothing more than disappointment and a hidden note. Given a quest of divine origin, he gathers a group of refugees to flee the city and head for the promise of a better life in the small village of Alem’s Crossing, on the edge of the kingdom.

Award-winning author James Alan Gardner evokes a sense of wonder that is synonymous with great speculative fiction. Now, in his first short-story collection, he brings together the numerous tales that have made his reputation, ranging from the everyday experience to the cosmic, from peanut butter sandwiches to space drives. There are stories of wonder, imagination, humanity, and the unknown and tales that remind us of the importance of possibility.

This long-awaited translation of Confessions, which Stephen Greenblatt describes as central to the legacy of Adam and Eve, enlivens the beguiling world of late antiquity. No modern, well-versed literature lover can call her education complete without having listened to Augustine’s Confessions. One of the most original works of world literature, it is the first autobiography ever written, influencing writers from Montaigne to Rousseau, Virginia Woolf to Gertrude Stein.

In this star-studded audiobook commissioned specially for audio, Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s narration is woven together with powerfully acted scenes from Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the speeches and writing of Lincoln, Emerson, and others, bringing the Civil War to dazzling, authentic new life. Riveting dialogue, personal letters, and the infamous Lincoln-Douglas debates reverberate with powerful relevance today.