Showing results by narrator "Michael Curtis" in All Categories

This audiobook coins the term "noble automation" as combining intelligent automation technology with the inspired and insightful leadership necessary to help humans become heroes. Doing so stimulates a wave of human innovation and taps into the incredible potential of people working toward inspiring goals. Companies profit, and people thrive. The benefits of implementing noble automation include freeing people to be more human by removing drudgery, providing insights, and allowing us the time and energy to feel, think, empathize, and connect.

Jacob Crestmore has given up on the idea of a brighter future, but when a mysterious woman reveals the wrongs of his past, he sets out on a journey to recover an artefact that can unlock a power he never knew existed. With an evil empire trying to stop him, and the threat of war looming, will he find the artefact in time?

Since being thrown out by his parents, Caden has been struggling to survive on the streets. He finds an unlocked car and settles in to sleep, but is soon interrupted when someone steals the car. With little choice but to ride along, Caden soon learns that first impressions aren’t always correct. Damario has been raising his little brother and sister by himself since his parents were deported. He finds himself stealing cars to make ends meet, but he never expected to find someone sleeping in the back of one of them. And he really didn’t expect this stowaway to change his life.

Clubbed Two is historical fiction, set in Philadelphia from 1982 to 1992. Club Sanctuary can be seen as a metaphor for the greater LGBTQ community, but it is written as a real place, with characters who are fabulous, funny, and flawed. The author combines historical characters and events with fictional ones, creating a story that's entertaining, informative, and emotional. The love story between the two main characters, Joey and Henry, serves as a vehicle for connecting the stories of diverse Queer characters.

Rio and Caden met under harsh circumstances when they were both teenagers trying to survive on their own. Together, they’ve made a family for themselves, and now they have a chance to add one more—a child of their own. When Caden’s sister offers to be their surrogate, they’re overjoyed. Now, if they can navigate nine months of pregnancy hormones, morning sickness, and mood swings, everything will be easy—until one little newborn arrives and keeps them busier than they ever imagined possible. Nine months seemed tough, but the first 12 will be even more challenging.

It all started with a discovery. A cave beneath a waterfall that held a crystal. Two boys—best friends—embark on a journey they’re told will help all mankind. As the years go by, their friendship turns to love, and their adventure turns into a battle. Drew Langly is the keeper of the crystal. With his contact, the crystal allows them to jump to different timestreams and help, if they can, to further that society or fix anything that improves their lives. When he’s ripped from the timestream, it’s the beginning of what will change everything they’ve come to know.

In America's small business landscape, the fail-success rate leans entirely too far in favor of failure, and past experiences provided the author with invaluable insight into many of the reasons. Adam Starks' Vultured is part autobiography, part self-help book, highlighting the dark side of entrepreneurship by identifying pitfalls in the decision-making process as it relates to starting and running a small business. Serving as a cautionary tale, the book warns against all such mistakes one can make that may result in landing on the failing side of a small business venture.  

Summer, 1989. It is a time for splashing in the lake and exploring the wilderness, for nine teenagers to bond together and create friendships that could last the rest of their lives. But among this group there is a young man with a secret—a secret that, in this time and place, is unthinkable to his peers. When the others discover the truth, it will change each of them forever. They will all have blood on their hands. Odd Man Out is a heart-wrenching tale of bullies and bigotry, a story that explores what happens when good people don't stand up for what's right.

Rio and Caden have been together for a few years now. It’s a rare weekend they get to spend alone. When Rio suggests they get away to Tahoe for the weekend a few weeks before Christmas, Caden is too excited to even think of saying no. They start their trip, and even though they think they’ve planned for every emergency, they can’t control what Mother Nature has in store for them. When the car in front of them spins out in the newly fallen snow, they stop to help and soon find out that Caden’s not as alone in this world as he had originally thought.

Gay bars have been closing by the hundreds. The story goes that increasing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, plus dating apps, have rendered these spaces obsolete. Beyond that, rampant gentrification in big cities has pushed gay bars out of the neighborhoods they helped make hip. Who Needs Gay Bars? considers these narratives, accepting that the answer for some might be: maybe nobody. Greggor Mattson embarks on a journey across the country to paint a much more complex picture of the cultural significance of these spaces, inside "big four" gay cities, but also beyond them.

Jacks Williams is Ritchie Ford’s one great love. Their life as the rhythm section of the band Vertical Smile is perfect—only upstaged by the one they share as lovers. Until one night Jacks locks himself in the bathroom and slices his arms open, shattering everything Ritchie knows. Ten years earlier, Jackson Williams, III appeared to lead a charmed life. In reality, it was hell. Trapped in an abusive home, Jacks acted out small rebellions and dreamed of freedom. Until Ritchie Ford rescued him like a puppy, and everything changed. He would be perfect for Ritchie—it was the least he could do.

Years of political violence and protests against injustice have revived interest in teaching civics in schools. The problem? Civic education—as it currently exists—privileges systems, not students. It promotes incremental change within a broken democracy rather than responding to the youth-led movements that call for the abolition of inequitable social structures. What will it take to prepare young people for the just future they are fighting for?

Ziggy has ANXIETY. Partly this is because of the way his mind works, and how overwhelmed he can get when other people (especially his classmate Alice) are in the room. And partly it's because his mother disappeared when he was very young, making her one of many Native women who've gone mysteriously missing. Ziggy and his sister, Moon, want answers, but nobody around can give them.

Greg Abimbola is a language teacher at the prestigious Calderhill Academy in Pittsburgh. Only that's not his real name or the only secret he's hiding. Greg has a closetful. When the murder of a wealthy parent on school premises shines an unwanted spotlight on Calderhill Academy, Greg is determined to avoid attention—that is until the closest person to a true friend he has is arrested for the murder. To prove her innocence, Greg will reluctantly emerge from the shadows. But doing so will put him in danger. His past is determined to find him, and his past is full of bad things.

Home, for Noah York, is Oakland, New Hampshire, the sleepy little town where Noah's mother, Virginia, had a psychotic breakdown and Noah got beaten to a pulp as a teenager. Then there were the good times—and Noah's not sure which ones are more painful to recall. Now thirty-seven and eking out a living as an artist in Providence, Rhode Island, Noah looks much the same—and swears just as colorfully—as he did in high school.

Money Management for Traders by trading expert Bennett A. McDowell is a refreshing gem that spells out everything you need to know about protecting yourself from risk of ruin in your trading and investing. These time-tested strategies are easy to implement once you've listened to this colorful and straightforward audiobook. You're sure to become a money management expert in no time. Plus, there's tons of support from the author's team, giving you the confidence to build out a custom plan that works for you. Climb aboard and benefit from these essential risk control truths!

In the 23rd century, spaceships just don't go missing. FBI agent Ray Volk is assigned to a task force to investigate a tragic accident: the disappearance of interplanetary passenger liner ValuTrip Cardinal, carrying 500 souls between Mars and Earth on a routine run. What looks like a cut-and-dried case of pressure loss is complicated by the arrival of a Martian Captain. A very cute Martian Captain who keeps sticking his nose in Ray's investigation.

Since being thrown out of his home by his parents, Caden has been struggling to survive on the streets. He lives in constant fear, stresses over his next meal, and dreads trying to find a safe place to sleep at night. He eventually finds an unlocked car and settles in to sleep, but is soon interrupted when someone steals the car. With little choice but to ride along, Caden soon learns that first impressions aren’t always correct.

The potential impact of runaway climate-change has long been grossly underestimated. The world is rapidly approaching an existential crisis—the Anthropogenic Extinction—the sixth annihilation of Earth-bound species since life first appeared 3.5 billion years ago. Assisted by teammates Eric Evans and Bella Moreno, and Thay Tuan, the team’s consigliere, Luc Ponti, now an astrophysicist at MIT, succeeds in creating a stabilized micro-wormhole, which is launched by NASA into high-Earth orbit and used as a means to contact intelligent life on exoplanets well within the “Goldilocks” zone.

After a fire consumes the Heller Home for Children, the residents of Morganville, North Carolina thought they knew evil.... They were wrong.