Showing results by narrator "Scott Merriman" in All Categories

Summertime in Bleak Harbor means tourists, overpriced restaurants, and the Dragonfly Festival. One day before the much-awaited and equally chaotic celebration, Danny Peters, the youngest member of the family that founded the town five generations ago, disappears. When Danny’s mother, Carey, and stepfather, Pete, receive a photo of their brilliant, autistic, and socially withdrawn son tied to a chair, they fear the worst. But there’s also more to the story. Someone is sending them ominous texts and emails filled with information no one else should have.

Why the best way to drive growth might be to focus rather than expand When Sanjay Khosla took charge of developing markets for Kraft Foods in 2007, the business was floundering. Six years later, annual sales had soared from $5 billion to $16 billion with significant improvement in profitability. The secret? Making fewer, bigger, and bolder bets and stopping a lot of small stuff. Kellogg School professor Mohanbir Sawhney discovered a similar formula for stellar results - focus and simplicity - in advising Fortune 500 companies.

Working in sales, you have the opportunity to make more money and drink more coffee than you ever thought possible! You also get these bonus benefits: customers who lie to your face, quotas that change as soon as you hit them, management that puts soul-crushing demands on you to produce...and so much pressure you're likely to experience PSSD (Post Sales Stress Disorder).

Scott Hartley first heard the terms fuzzy and techie while studying political science at Stanford University. If you majored in the humanities or social sciences, you were a fuzzy. If you majored in the computer sciences, you were a techie. This informal division has quietly found its way into a default assumption that has misled the business world for decades: that it's the techies who drive innovation.

Stepping out from the Dungeons of the Divine, Hui Yue found himself in a world unlike anything he had ever seen before. This was a dog-eat-dog world where he had to fight to prove his worth. With Lan Feng by his side, Hui Yue continues his adventure, soaring toward the heavens, towards the world where people will sing songs about his achievements and fear his overwhelming strength.

The Fallen Gods War drove the remnants of a victorious army across the ocean in search of a new homeland. A thousand years later, the lifeless continent of Draegora is largely forgotten, a symbol for the regiments that remain. Demons to some. Protectors to others. The power of their god-touched blades has forged a nation, though many resent their absolute control. Riam and Nola are unknowing descendants of the old world. When it’s discovered they carry enough Draegoran blood to serve in the regiments, they are dragged away from their families to begin training.

For pretty Ohioan Joan Rogers and her two teenaged daughters, a Florida sunset cruise was a dream come true. They were so taken with friendly boat owner Oba Chandler that they gladly accepted a ride with him on beautiful Tampa Bay. Little did naive mom and two daughters know that behind Chandler's mask of a gracious host lurked a daring and ruthless ex-con, a thief and a liar, a seductive Don Juan who used and discarded wives and children. As the sun serenely sank below the Gulf of Mexico, Chandler suddenly shut down the engines, dropped anchor, and turned into a sadistic torturer.

A single mother and lawyer, Iris has a colorful caseload, a young son with behavior issues, and a judgmental mother. She also has a brother - shocking news she uncovers by accident. Why did her mother lie to her for her entire life? Why did she hide the existence of Ray Boelens from her?

We depend on - we believe in - algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. It's as if we think of code as a magic spell, an incantation to reveal what we need to know and even what we want. Humans have always believed that certain invocations - the marriage vow, the shaman's curse - do not merely describe the world but make it.

Digital technology is transforming every corner of the economy, fundamentally altering the way things are done, who does them, and what they earn for their efforts. In The Wealth of Humans, Economist editor Ryan Avent brings up-to-the-minute research and reporting to bear on the major economic question of our time: can the modern world manage technological changes every bit as disruptive as those that shook the socioeconomic landscape of the 19th century? Find out.

Everybody likes Chris Goodman. Sure, he's a little odd. He wears those funny bell-bottoms and he really likes the word ennui and he shakes your hand when he meets you, but he's also the kind of guy who's always up for a good time, always happy to lend a hand. Everybody likes Chris Goodman, which makes it especially shocking when he's murdered.

Carol Rafel knows the lengths to which the sorcerer Kragan will go to impede the fulfillment of her prophecy: destroy the wielder of necrotic magic before she destroys him. Never far from Kragan’s evil grasp, she is struck down by his wicked spell. Carol’s assassin husband, Arn, has no choice but to cast aside his precious weapon to embrace a more powerful one: the clairvoyance he shares with Carol. With time-sights linked, they must now rely on the dreamscapes of their minds to track Kragan into the shadows.

Jo Greaver is a model of success. Young and ambitious, she’s built a thriving beauty business from nothing. But she has secrets she’ll do anything to keep buried. When her blackmailer offers to meet, Jo expects to pay him off - but gets a bullet instead. Bleeding and in shock, Jo flees with no one to turn to. When NYPD detective Sheryn Sterling and her partner, Rafael Mendoza, find Andray Baxter murdered in his own home - shot through the heart - everything points to Jo as the killer. Her blood is at the scene, and so are disturbing photos of her taken as a young teen.

Known by his National Guard rescuers as "the Miracle Man," Eric recounts his rise to success and fame as a hockey player and Olympian, his long and painful fall due to crystal meth addiction, and his unbelievable ordeal in the wilderness. In the end, a man whose life had been based on athleticism would lose both his legs to frostbite and had to learn to walk - and snowboard - again with prosthetics. He realized that he couldn't come to terms with his drug addiction or learn to walk again by himself. He had to depend on God for his strength.

Jimmy Adams was laid off from a hedge fund in early 2009. Wearied by eight years in the bond market and disillusioned by the financial services profession, he decides to get an "honest job" for a change. Before he knows what hit him, Jimmy finds himself waiting on tables of barflies at his local Waffle House.

Kragan, wielder of malignant magic, is nearing his ultimate goal. Lorness Carol Rafel is pursuing her millennia-old destiny as well. It has been prophesized that the noble sorceress will destroy Kragan before he lays waste to the kingdom of Endar and reigns as an unholy god. In Kragan’s favor is the mighty Dread Lord, bound to Kragan’s will, and an army of the resurrected dead that far outnumbers the Forsworn followers at Carol’s side. The final battle on the besieged fortress is upon them. And Arn’s visions of its outcome are terrifying.

Keir Sarafian may not know much, but he knows himself. And the one thing he knows about himself is that he is a good guy. A guy who's a devoted son and brother, a loyal friend, and a reliable teammate. And, maybe most important of all, Keir is a guy who understands that when a girl says no, she means it. But that is not what Gigi Boudakian, childhood friend and Keir's lifelong love, says at all. What Gigi says seems impossible to Keir - something inexcusable - the worst thing he can imagine, the very opposite of everything he wants to be.

Abandoned by his mother when he was young, twenty-two-year-old Rave Wayne knows all about loss. That doesn't mean he's used to it. After he's dumped by the girlfriend he assumed he'd spend his life with, Rave is longing more than ever to connect. Then, as if by miracle, he receives an invitation from his grandfather, a man he thought was long gone, to come for a visit in rural Tennessee.

On a hot summer night in a midwestern town, a high school teenage prank goes horrifically awry. Alcohol, guns, and a dare. Within minutes, as events collide, innocents becomes victims - with tragic outcomes altering lives forever, a grisly and unfortunate scenario all too familiar from current real-life headlines. But victims can also become survivors, and as we come to know each character through his/her own distinctive voice and their interactions with one another, we see how, despite pain and guilt, they can reach out to one another, find a new equilibrium, and survive.

What chance does a young woman stand against the world’s supreme evil? Lorness Carol Rafel was prophesied to destroy the unfathomably dangerous Kragan. But as the magic wielder’s monstrous horde marches on Endar Pass, razing everything in its wake, Carol fears that Kragan is not only unstoppable but that he has risen from his tomb more powerful than ever.