Showing results by narrator "Rob Shapiro" in All Categories

James Gleick explains the theories behind the fascinating new science called chaos. Alongside relativity and quantum mechanics, it is being hailed as the 20th century's third revolution.

In 1937, as the Nazis gained control and anti-Semitism spread in the Free City of Danzig, a majority German city on the Baltic Sea, 16-year-old Justus Rosenberg was sent to Paris to finish his education in safety. Three years later, France fell to the Germans. Alone and in danger, penniless and cut off from contact with his family in Poland, Justus fled south.

General George Patton needed a miracle. In December 1944, the Allies found themselves stuck. Rain had plagued the troops daily since September, turning roads into rivers of muck, slowing trucks and tanks to a crawl. A thick ceiling of clouds had grounded American warplanes, allowing the Germans to reinforce. The sprint to Berlin had become a muddy, bloody stalemate, costing thousands of American lives. Patton seethed, desperate for some change, any change, in the weather.

Aiden St. Delphi will do anything to save Alex. Even if it means doing the one thing he will never forgive himself for. Even if it means making war against the gods.

Wanting the perfect man doesn't make me crazy. I just know what I like. A powerful billionaire in a suit wasn't even my first choice. McAllister Stonewall was never on my radar; I didn't even know he existed. I do now. His hands are all over me at work. The heat of his chest pressing against my bare back as he bends me over the desk is the only thing on my mind. He is my most forbidden desires unleashed. He is my new secret obsession. He is my Mr. Perfect. Until the moment I realize there's no such thing as perfect.

A sinister group—code-named Zodiac—has launched a series of devastating global attacks. Twelve targets across the world, twelve code-named missions. Operating distinct sleeper cells, they are the ultimate terrorist organization, watching and waiting for a precise moment to activate the next group. It’s a frightening and deadly efficient way to stay one step ahead … and cause the most chaos. For ex–CIA operative Jed Walker, chaos is his profession. Burned by his former agency, he is determined to clear his name. Stopping Zodiac is the only way.

After the successful but disastrous raid on Mount Weather, Daemon's facing the impossible. Katy is gone. Taken. Everything becomes about finding her. Taking out anyone who stands in his way? Done. Burning down the whole world to save her? Gladly. Exposing his alien race to the world? With pleasure. Surrounded by enemies, the only way Katy can come out of this is to adapt. After all, there are sides of Daedalus that don't seem entirely crazy, but the group's goals are frightening...

First Glen Duncan gave us his monstrously thrilling, genre-reinventing The Last Werewolf: the tale of Jake, a werewolf with a profoundly human heart, considering bringing to an end the timeless legend of his kind.... Then Talulla Rising: Jake’s werewolf lover, mother to newborn twins, on the run from those who want her destroyed... And now By Blood We Live: a stunningly erotic love story that gives us the final battle for survival between werewolves and vampires.

In war-torn Syria, the lone survivor of a massacre is pulled from beneath a pile of bodies. She is given one instruction: “Find Jed Walker.” Ex-CIA, Walker is a man who thought he was long out of the game. Discovering a terror outfit is smuggling people from the Middle East into the United States, he is drawn back in. At first Walker thinks these human traffickers are driven purely by profit and greed, but soon learns their motives are much worse—and they have ties to the highest levels of power.

Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But such successes are the exception. Consider how London’s Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions over budget. More modest endeavours, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why?

When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington establishment felt it had prevailed in a world-historical struggle. Our side had won, a verdict that was both decisive and irreversible. For the world’s “indispensable nation”, its “sole superpower”, the future looked very bright. History, having brought the United States to the very summit of power and prestige, had validated American-style liberal democratic capitalism as universally applicable.

Victor is the killer who always delivers...for the right price. And Heloise Salvatierra, patron of Guatemala's largest cartel, is ready and willing to pay him just that to eliminate the competition: her sister. Heloise has been battling Maria for control of the cartel in an endless and bloody war. Now, Victor decides who survives. An easy job if it weren't for the sudden target on his back.

Homeless. Hungry. Desperate. Doe has no memories of who she is or where she comes from. A notorious career criminal just released from prison, King is someone you don't want to cross unless you're prepared to pay him back in blood, sweat, sex, or a combination of all three. King's future hangs in the balance. Doe's is written in her past. When they come crashing together, they will have to learn that sometimes in order to hold on, you have to first let go.

Dispatches from the 2016 election that provide an eerily prescient take on our democracy's uncertain future, by the country's most perceptive and fearless political journalist.

It’s 2005, New Orleans, pre-Katrina, and Jed Walker has just started at the CIA. He’s sent on a mission by Harold Richter, CIA field operations legend and trainer of agents provocateur. The task is a one-way ticket—survive and succeed at all costs—and Walker is an off-the-grid, solo, deniable asset. As Katrina comes to town to forever change a city and a country, it’s clear to Walker that his life as a spy has the potential to shape global events.

An insidious curse is weakening the Norse kingdom of Saylok, where no daughters have been born in years. Washing up on these plagued shores is Ghisla, an orphaned stowaway nursed back to health by Hod, a blind cave dweller. Named for a mysterious god, Hod is surrounded by prophecy. To Ghisla, he’s a cherished new friend, but to Hod, the girl is much more. For when Ghisla sings, Hod can see.

How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust - and features over 40 eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters from the period.

The Endgame is Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. Trainor's most ambitious and news-breaking book to date. A peerless work of investigative journalism and historical recreation ranging from 2003 to 2012, it gives us the first comprehensive, inside account of arguably the most widely reported yet least understood war in American history - from the occupation of Iraq to the withdrawal of American troops.

I remember everything, only now I wish I didn't. When the fog is sucked away from my mind like smoke through a vacuum, the truth that has been beyond my reach for months finally reveals itself. But the relief I thought I would feel never comes, and I'm more afraid now than I was the morning I woke up handcuffed in King's bed. Because with the truth comes dark secrets I was never meant to know. I don't know if I'm strong enough to resist the magnetic pull toward King that grows stronger every day.

In Geneva, American lawyer Joel Converse meets a man he hasn’t seen in twenty years, a covert operative who dies violently at his feet, whispering words that hand Converse a staggering legacy of death: “The generals . . . they’re back . . . Aquitaine!” Suddenly Converse is running for his life, alone with the world’s most shattering secret.