Showing results by narrator "Shawn Jain" in All Categories

I've spent a short lifetime learning that what people say they want is rarely what they actually want. What I hope for is a relationship where both of us feel comfortable together. I think I've finally found what I'm looking for in a mail-order bride. Then he shows up. While I'm surprised, it doesn't take long for me to understand that he's everything I need and all I've ever wanted. But then he's gone, and I'm not sure what to do.

After a series of relationships where I've been made to feel inadequate because of my asexuality, I've made the sole focus of my life my coaching career. I love hockey—the chill of the ice, the fast-paced, high-stress game. I love the fans and the atmosphere. The energy. Now that I'm coaching in the NHL, I feel a sense of serenity and comfort with life. All that's left is to get my team to the Stanley Cup. The frustration that my boys feel echoes through me, and after one of the most horrible plays I've ever witnessed, I turn my back on the ice—only to catch his eyes.

As the last boy left from the original crew of waiters at The Tap Tavern searching for his Daddy, Archie's filled with nervous excitement. And a little dread. Okay, he's scared to death. He's never been able to get past the kissing portion of a date before he tenses up and ruins everything. What man is going to want to deal with that? Maybe it's time to admit that what happened to him as a pre-teen has broken him forever.

When Christian hired Levi, all he saw was a young man with a wound on his face so recent that it hadn't healed yet and desperation in his eyes. He didn't know his story, but he didn't need to. One of the reasons he'd opened The Tap Tavern was to give people who needed a safe place to land a job-a home away from home.

Trapped in a cave in the Hindu Kush, Annja Creed has a dream vision of the Monkey King, trickster hero of the Chinese classic Journey to the West, who charges her to protect her rescuer, a historian seeking the scepter that may have inspired the Monkey King’s magic staff. The key lies in a lost journal from the Dunhuang Library, an ancient trove of knowledge deep in the Gobi Desert. But unseen rivals will kill to protect the secret or claim it for themselves. Annja begins her own journey, protecting her friend from danger and death, in the footsteps of the Monkey King himself.

Sparks are flying in Winter Wonderland this Christmas in this LGBTQ+ young adult rom-com from Jason June, New York Times bestselling author of Out of the Blue, Jay’s Gay Agenda, and Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball! All Aaron wants for Christmas is for his brother, Casey, to...

In this candid and personal account, Vineet Nayar—HCLT's celebrated CEO—recounts how he defied the conventional wisdom that companies must put customers first, then turned the hierarchical pyramid upside down by making management accountable to the employees, and not the other way around.

In Not with a Bug, But with a Sticker: Attacks on Machine Learning Systems and What to Do About Them, a team of distinguished adversarial machine learning researchers deliver a riveting account of the most significant risk to currently deployed artificial intelligence systems: cybersecurity threats. The authors take you on a sweeping tour—from inside secretive government organizations to academic workshops at ski chalets to Google's cafeteria—recounting how major AI systems remain vulnerable to the exploits of bad actors of all stripes.

Cove Nash knew she was going to follow in her uncle's footsteps from a young age, and she's finally making it as a musician. Pack life would only get in the way, so it's not an option. After all, not every omega wants or needs alphas... But life on the road isn't anything like she expected, and...

Bestselling author Phil Stamper takes the Golden Boys from summer fun to senior year in the next installment of his charming duology. After a life-changing summer, these four friends are finally ready for senior year. Gabriel is thrilled to create his school's first LGBTQ+ advocacy group, but...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE Megha Majumdar’s electrifying new novel, following her acclaimed New York Times bestseller A Burning, is set in a near-future Kolkata, India in which two families seeking to protect their children must battle each...

Sometimes when you meet your person, you immediately click, and all the pieces of your life fall into place. Instant best friends. Platonic soulmates. Hockey buddies and vacation partners. And sometimes, you don't even know you've fallen in love. When a joke about marrying my best friend is taken seriously, we embark on making it happen. I mean, Etna makes a strong argument for marriage, even though it was my teasing idea, so who am I to argue? For seven months, we hurtle toward a wedding and a life together that allows us to be best friends forever.

Ideology consists of normative prescriptions regarding how society should be shaped, together with an interpretive roadmap indicating how this normative vision can be implemented in reality. Ideological Fixation is the result of tensions and conflicts between these two elements. The book focuses on ideologies' factual claims about the world, typically subordinate to, and often distorted by, their normative commitment. In exploring this phenomenon, the book combines insights from evolutionary psychology regarding the nature of some of our deepest proclivities.

One weekend can change everything. Caulder I've lived a very quiet life, keeping my deepest secrets close to my chest. I let no one in, not even my closest friends. When I'm invited to participate in the All-Star Games, I'm suddenly forced to share a hotel room—and a single bed—with a...

Everyone should learn how to handle a stick. Atty High school sweethearts, dream wedding, exotic honeymoon, white picket fence, two and a half kids… that's the dream. My prescribed future. Except, I don't want any of that. When my on/off girlfriend of fifteen years and I finally called it...

When I fled my small town home to fly across the globe for a potential job on a remote island, I did it on a whim. And let's just say my parents were not happy. According to them, the journey of self-discovery is not nearly as important as tending the family farm.

Welcome to Apex City, formerly Bangalore, where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve. With the right image, values, and opinions, you can ascend to the glittering heights of the Twenty Percent—the Virtual elite—and have the world at your feet. Otherwise you risk falling to the precarious Ten Percent, and deportation to the ranks of the Analogs, with no access to electricity, running water, or even humanity. The system has no flaws. Until the elusive "Ten Percent Thief" steals a single jacaranda seed from the Virtual city.

An incisive and inspiring call to look beyond capitalism to chart a road map for a planet ravaged by pandemics, climate crisis, and wars. Prompted by trenchant questions by international solidarity organizer Frank Barat, renowned author and activist Vijay Prashad shows that the path toward hope and liberation lies in looking closely at myriad, under covered struggles being waged all across the world by workers in countries such as India, Kenya, Peru, Tunisia, and Argentina. A marvelously global but grassroots perspective.

National bestselling author Phil Stamper crafts the perfect summer friendship story, starring four queer boys with big hearts and even bigger dreams. It’s the summer before senior year. Gabriel, Reese, Sal, and Heath are best friends, bonded in their small, rural town by their queerness, their...

Nida, intelligent and lonely, has married into an affluent political family and is desperately searching for meaning in her life, while impulsive, lovely Sasha, from the ordinary middle class, willingly consorts with rich men who can satisfy her frantic longing for designer labels and upmarket places. Nida and Sasha meet at the famous Data Sahib Dargah and connect—their need to understand why their worlds feel so alien and empty bringing them together.