Showing results by author "Eric Smith" in All Categories

It's the 22nd century. Humanity has taken its first steps into the galaxy, and we've found ourselves in a vast playground of alien races, environments, and cultures. As the newest players on the universal stage, though, our position is readily apparent - we're at the bottom of the food chain.

Crucibles: History's Most Formidable Rites of Passage explores fourteen elite organizations, with a special emphasis on the onerous trials designed to cull initiates from aspirants. It analyzes the underlying commonalities of such trials, describing how they work, why people are willing to subject themselves to such rigors, and how such tests benefit or harm the organizations that require them.

A geriatrics and palliative medicine podcast for every health care professional. Two UCSF doctors, Eric Widera and Alex Smith, invite the brightest minds in geriatrics, hospice, and palliative care to talk about the topics that you care most about, ranging from recently published research in the field to controversies that keep us up at night. You'll laugh, learn, and maybe sing along. CME and MOC credit available (AMA PRA Category 1 credits) at www.geripal.org

There is no universal adoption experience, and no two adoptees have the same story. This anthology for teens edited by Shannon Gibney and Nicole Chung contains a wide range of powerful, poignant, and evocative stories in a variety of genres. These tales from fifteen bestselling, acclaimed, and emerging adoptee authors genuinely and authentically reflect the complexity, breadth, and depth of adoptee experiences.

They are priceless, multifaceted jewels of misjudgment. Masterworks of the moronic. Steroid-juiced stupidity wearing a size 9XX dunce cap embroidered with one simple word: “Duh”. They are the colossally, often laughably bad notions that have leapt from the short-circuiting synapses of some of the world’s brightest (and dimmest) brains, then faithfully chronicled here in 100 of the Worst Ideas in History.

Boldly go where no geek has gone before! You keep your action figures in their original packaging. Your closets are full of officially licensed Star Wars merchandise. You’re hooked on Elder Scrolls and Metal Gear, but now you’ve discovered an even bigger obsession: the new girl who just moved in down the hall. What’s a geek to do? Take some tips from The Geek’s Guide to Dating. This hilarious primer is jam-packed with cheat codes, walkthroughs, and power-ups for navigating the perils and pitfalls of your love life with ease.

Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith bring together current and former prisoners, activists, and academics for a new understanding of how race, gender, ability, and sexuality are lived under the crushing weight of captivity. Through a politic of gender self-determination, this collection argues that trans/queer liberation and prison abolition must be grown together. From rioting against police violence and critiquing hate crimes legislation, to prisoners demanding access to HIV medications, and far beyond, Captive Genders is a challenge for us all to join the struggle.

The road to Sandy June's Legendary Frybread Drive-In slips through every rez and alongside every urban Native hangout. The menu offers a rotating feast, including traditional eats and tasty snacks. But Sandy June's serves up more than food: it hosts live music, movie nights, unexpected family reunions, love long lost, and love found again. That big green-and-gold neon sign beckons to teens of every tribal Nation, often when they need it most.

We all need a place to escape from the real world. For Divya and Aaron, it’s the world of online gaming. While Divya trades her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay rent, Aaron plays as a way to fuel his own dreams of becoming a game developer – and as a way to disappear when his mom starts talking about medical school. After a chance online meeting, the pair decides to team up – but soon find themselves the targets of a group of internet trolls who begin launching a real-world doxxing campaign.

A daughter of rock ’n’ roll royalty has a secret crush. A lonely ticket-taker worries about his sister. An almost-famous songwriter nurses old wounds. A stage manager tires of being behind the scenes. A singer-songwriter struggles to untangle her feelings for her best friend and his girlfriend. In this live-out-loud anthology, the disparate protagonists of 16 stories are thrown together for one unforgettable event: their high school’s battle of the bands.

Originally published a decade ago and now expanded, this book is a homage to the greatest detective story writer of the 20th century, an Anglo-American who took Los Angeles, his adopted home, off the road maps and into the land of legend. For Raymond Chandler, who died in 1959, his literary descendants will do just about anything, and that includes contributing to an anthology honoring him. Thus, in here we find the likes of Sara Paretsky, Robert Crais, Loren D. Estleman, Jonathan Valin, Robert Campbell, Eric Van Lustbader, Simon Brett, Julie Smith, Jeremiah Healy, Roger L. Simon, James ...

Adam Stillwater is in over his head. But this pinball arcade is the only piece of his dad that Adam has left, and he's determined to protect it from Philadelphia's newest tech mogul, who wants to turn it into another one of his cold, lifeless gaming cafés. Whitney Mitchell doesn't know how she got here. Her parents split up. She lost all her friends. Her boyfriend dumped her. And now she's spending her senior year running social media for her dad's chain of super successful gaming cafés—which mostly consists of trading insults with that decrepit old pinball arcade across town.

With the exception of Christianity, the major religions of the world have a peculiar doctrine in common. Though it goes by many names, the belief in Multiple Mortal Probations is held by most of earth's inhabitants, so why isn't it taught among Christianity? Traces of the doctrine can be found in the Bible, and other precious remnants of it are preserved in biblical apocryphal texts. Was the concept of multiple lives once taught among biblical peoples, but lost through the doctrinal biases of the members of the Second Council of Constantinople? If so, could this be the single potentially ...

Saddle up for adventure and get ready for three brand new rousing action tales of the wild and wooly west featuring the Masked Rider, Virgil Earp, and Wild Bill Hickock. Outlaws, rustlers, gamblers, and pioneers, they're all here with a striking cover by Rob Davis and Shane Evans. Here is six gun action at its pulp finest!

Sometimes your only chance to survive and what you most fear...is to be Inked. Tattoos once were an act of rebellion. Now they decide your destiny the moment the magical Ink settles under your skin. And in a world where Ink controls your fate, Caenum can't escape soon enough. He is ready to run from his family; his best friend, Dreya; and the home he has known just to have a chance at a choice.

Tired of living below your hopes, capabilities, and expectations? Should you keep your business or "take the money and run"? What would you have others do? Discover the common mistakes that may have cost you success, happiness, and opportunity in the past...and how you can avoid them in the future. In the dazzling Town Hall discussion you'll learn the unexpected payoffs, prices and possibilities from this distinguished panel of business leaders.

According to many viral videos of their public shouting matches, the Plazas and Ortiz families have a well-known food truck rivalry. Jordan and Cindy have spent all of high school making cheesesteaks and slinging insults at each other across their shared Philadelphia street. But the truth? They’re in love, and it’s all just an act for the tourists. When the fake feud lands them a reality tv show pilot, Jordan and Cindy find themselves having to lie on a much bigger scale.

Teenager Leila’s life is full of challenges. From bouncing around the foster care system to living with seasonal affective disorder, she’s never had an easy road. Leila keeps herself busy with her passion for environmental advocacy, monitoring the Urban Ecovists message board and joining a local environmental club with her best friend, Sarika. And now that Leila has finally been adopted, she dares to hope her life will improve.

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.

After being dishonorably discharged from the Alliance Space Force for failing to follow orders, Captain Justin Rogers and his uniquely unique robot friend Argo have hard choices to make. It wasn't just his faith that kept Justin from destroying a ship full of innocent religious refugees, who his commanders insisted were ruthless pirates. Still, in his heart of hearts, Justin knew he had to take a stand and couldn't let these Solar Alliance atrocities continue.