Showing results by author "Sami" in All Categories

I live in a world where people are ruled by animalistic impulses and none are more than me. Weak, too easily influenced by others, my kind are best married off to be protected by my mate. So that's what I'm doing, attending soirees and parties with the glittering elite, looking for the man that will complete me. Then I meet him. Orion Ratcliffe, heir to Ratcliffe Industries and all-around bad boy, we're shoved together by his parents in the hope of a match.

When an underground safe house collapses in Santa Carina Valley, California, FBI Agent Susan Parker is called to lead the investigation. Still reeling from her husband's murder and struggling to rebuild her life as a single mom to her young daughter, Susan is now faced with her toughest case yet. As Susan digs deeper, she uncovers a chilling truth—this was no accident, but a cold-blooded mass murder. The trail leads to a mysterious figure known as ‘The Saint,’ a supposed savior with a twisted hatred and deadly agenda.

Ruud Gullit knows better than anyone else that to understand soccer you have to understand strategy. When he started playing soccer, his only "strategy" was to get the ball, outrun everyone else to the other end of the field, and score. At first it served him well, but as he advanced through the sport, he learned that it takes much more than speed to make a winning team.

The Heart takes place over the 24 hours surrounding the resulting heart transplant, as life is taken from a young man and given to a woman close to death. In gorgeous, ruminative prose, it examines the deepest feelings of everyone involved as they navigate decisions of life and death.

Hold Fast is the uncompromising story of Backpage.com, the world’s most scandalous website, and the rise and fall of alternative weekly newspapers nationwide.

Your church has the opportunity of a lifetime. The world has shifted, and a new, brighter tomorrow awaits. The Church Revitalization Checklist is a tool to help you start fresh, leverage your strengths, and discover hidden opportunities for church growth.

Hurricane Matthew is a force to be reckoned with. It has been forecasted to drown the city of Houston in an unrelenting torrent of rain. In the days before its arrival, the city was evacuated, leaving behind only a skeleton police force and civilians unable to flee its destructive path. It’s the perfect time and the perfect place for the perfect crime.

“He fixes everything that’s wrong with you in three days.” This is what hooks Sam when he first overhears it at a fancy dinner party in the Hollywood Hills: the story of a globe-trotting shaman who claims to perform “open-soul surgery” on emotionally damaged people. For neurotic, depressed Sam, new to Los Angeles after his life in New York imploded, the possibility of total transformation is utterly tantalizing. He’s desperate for something to believe in, and the shaman - who promises ancient rituals, plant medicine, and encounters with the divine - seems convincing.

What happens when two of the most dangerous men in the world are now in civilian life? What if one of those men is living on a houseboat? What if bad, bad men throw a teenage girl off the end of his dock? If you are Jackson, you dive into deep water and save the girl. But, when the ingrate disappears into the mean streets of Phoenix you don’t let that stand. You recruit your old partner, Blackhawk, and together you take on two of the bloodiest cartels in the Southwest. Yeah, that’s what happens.

Keo has been in tough situations before. Some have been tougher than others, but he’s always managed to come out on top thanks to an innate stubbornness, the skills he’s honed from a previous life, and a whole lot of Lady Luck. But Luck can sometimes be a fickle mistress, there are always people with more skills, and stubbornness has a tendency to bite you in the ass if you’re not careful. Since leaving Gaby at Axton, Keo finds himself being stalked by a highly-trained group of humans in the day and hordes of the undead at night. Someone, something out there wants him, and it won’t be denied.

In spring 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned to his friend and army commander, Manaf Tlass, for advice about how to respond to Arab Spring-inspired protests. Tlass pushed for conciliation but Assad decided to crush the uprising - an act which would catapult the country into an eight-year long war, killing almost half a million and fueling terrorism and a global refugee crisis. Assad or We Burn the Country examines Syria's tragedy through the generational saga of the Assad and Tlass families, once deeply intertwined and now estranged....

Stunned to learn that her son, Sam, is about to become a father at 19, Lamott begins a journal about the first year of her grandson, Jax's, life. In careful and often hilarious detail, Lamott and Sam - about whom she first wrote so movingly in Operating Instructions - struggle to balance their changing roles with the demands of college and work, as they both forge new relationships with Jax's mother, who has her own ideas about how to raise a child.

Back in the 1860s, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone more famous and revered than Preston Dilettante, America’s greatest long-distance pedestrian. Preston’s descendants dispersed across the U.S.A., and his most devoted among them, Walker Dilettante, shall literally follow in his ancestor’s footsteps and walk across the country. He just wants to reunite the whole lot before his beloved Grandpappy walks his last steps. But Walker’s walk isn’t a solo trip — he’s joined by his social media-savvy cousin Ria, and trailed by mysterious forces and ancient rivals alike. And along ...

Science is a force for good in the world—at least usually. But sometimes, when obsession gets the better of scientists, they twist a noble pursuit into something sinister. Under this spell, knowledge isn’t everything, it’s the only thing—no matter the cost. Bestselling author Sam Kean tells the true story of what happens when unfettered ambition pushes otherwise rational men and women to cross the line in the name of science, trampling ethical boundaries and often committing crimes in the process.

Nanao, nicknamed Ladybug - the self-proclaimed “unluckiest assassin in the world” - boards a bullet train from Tokyo to Morioka with one simple task: Grab a suitcase and get off at the next stop. Unbeknownst to him, the deadly duo Tangerine and Lemon are also after the very same suitcase - and they are not the only dangerous passengers onboard. Satoshi, “the Prince”, with the looks of an innocent schoolboy and the mind of a viciously cunning psychopath, is also in the mix and has history with some of the others.

Former Chicago police officer and Outfit associate Fred Pascente is the man who links Tony Spilotro, one of Chicago's most notorious mob figures, to William Hanhardt, chief of detectives in the Chicago Police Department. Pascente and Spilotro grew up together on Chicago's Near West Side, and as young toughs they were rousted and shaken down by Hanhardt.

Japanese literary sensation Fuminori Nakamura’s latest novel is as a dark look into human psyche - what turns someone into a killer? Can it be something as small as a suggestion?

Jackson and Quigley were this close to joining the FBI (Frosty Bureau of Investigation), until Jackson’s mom found out and they ended up scrubbing seagull poop instead. At least they have Uncle Bryn’s birthday party to look forward to. But when they get to the Ice Cream parlor, the FBI agents are acting strange. Instead of talking, Uncle Bryn and his friends just finish their glowing green ice cream, then jump into a waiting ice cream truck and disappear. It's obvious that something has gone very, very wrong, and now Uncle Bryn is suspected of being a master thief!

Contrary to popular belief, death is not a moment in time, such as when the heart stops beating, respiration ceases, or the brain stops functioning. Death, rather, is a process - a process that can be interrupted well after it has begun. Innovative techniques, such as drastically reducing the patient's body temperature, have proven to be effective in revitalizing both the body and mind, but studies show they are only employed in approximately half of the hospitals throughout the United States and Europe.

For every night, there is a new dawn. One night. That was all it took for the world to be forever changed. Creatures that once lived in the shadows rose, spreading like a plague across the globe, swallowing whole cities and collapsing unprepared governments. Survivors call it The Purge. In the months since, every night has been a struggle against the supernatural terrors that thrive in the darkness. The days are no better, with constant battles against human traitors that have chosen to serve the new overlords. But an end to the nightmare is finally at hand.