Showing results by narrator "Paul Brion" in All Categories

The premature death of his dad and a tumultuous childhood has left coal miner Tommy 'Huck" Sawyer hardened to emotion and relationships. Andi Sullivan is the one woman who can break through that tough exterior. But Andi, the twin sister of Tommy's best friend, is destined for better things, away from her harsh father's control and their sooty mining town. It seems everything is against Tommy ever having the one thing his heart wants most.

It shouldn't be a surprise to Azy that her pregnancy is...different. Everything else about her has been too. A girl from Chicago who is half mermaid and mated to a dragon Wyvern? Yeah. That's not exactly the kind of life she can talk to anyone about. But she's only a few months along and already the size of a house. She'll happily let her little ones take over her entire body if it will keep them safe from the woes of the world, which not only include the dark forces of hell, but also uninvited mermaids, a whole crew of wedding planning friends, and a bizarre prophecy.

In 2004, journalist Bill Bishop coined the term "the big sort". Armed with startling new demographic data, he made national news in a series of articles showing how Americans have been sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities - not by region or by state but by city and even neighborhood. Over the past three decades, we have been choosing the neighborhoods (and churches and news shows) compatible with our lifestyles and beliefs.

Beginning firmly with teachers and all those working with students, including administrators and counselors, the Plum Village approach stresses that educators must first establish their own mindfulness practice since everything they do in the classroom will be based on that foundation. The book includes easy-to-follow, step-by-step techniques perfected by educators to teach themselves and to apply to their work with students and colleagues, along with inspirational stories of the ways in which teachers have made mindfulness practice alive and relevant for themselves and their students.

The Hitler Youth division was assigned the mission of the Führer's Ardennes offensive: Capture the main highway to the primary objective, Antwerp, whose seizure Hitler believed would end the war. Had the Germans taken the Belgian port, it would have cut off the Americans from the British and perhaps led to a second, more devastating Dunkirk. Author Steven Zaloga describes how American foot soldiers faced down Hitler's elite armored spearhead - the Hitler Youth Panzer Division - in the snowy Ardennes forest during one of World War II's biggest battles, the Battle of the Bulge.

Convulsed by a civilizational crisis, the great thinkers of the Renaissance set out to reconceive the nature of society. Corrupt and reckless tyrants sowing discord and ruling through fear; elites who prized wealth and status over the common good; military leaders waging endless wars. Their solution was simple and radical. They would rebuild their city, and their civilization, by transforming the moral character of its citizens. Soulcraft, they believed, was a precondition of successful statecraft.

The Rise of the West is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers, and argues instead that human cultures interacted at every stage of their history. The author suggests that, from the Neolithic beginnings of grain agriculture to the present, major social changes in all parts of the world were triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli, and he presents a persuasive narrative of world history to support this claim.

Wrecker lives for the Fallen Lords MC. The club is the only thing he cares about. Until her. Alice's world is spiraling. The one person she thought she'd always have is gone, leaving her to pick up the pieces of her own shattered heart. Except, the only way she can find to do that may ruin her. When Wrecker gets the call to check in on Alice, the woman he finds is just a shell of the outspoken crazy lady he knows her to be. That guts him. He wants the real Alice back, and he'll stop at nothing to pull her out of the darkness.

Nocturnal energies differ from those of Daylight and Witches have long known how to take advantage of Lunar Powers and the spiritual entities that prefer the darkness for particular magical operations. This innovative book explores special techniques for working with the Night Powers and the subtle effects of dark symbols to: cast a Nocturnal Magick Circle; invoke the Dark Gods and Goddesses; skry the night; open the Gates to the Underworld; cast spells through the Dark Ether; and explore the symbolic realm of shadow, illusion, and the mysteries of the unknown.

In the fifteenth century, even before the city states of the Apennine Peninsula began to coalesce into what would become, several centuries later, a nation, "Italy" exerted enormous influence over all of Europe and throughout the Mediterranean. Viewing the Italy (the many Italies?) of that time through the lens of today allows us to gather a fragmented, multi-faceted, and seemingly contradictory history into a single unifying narrative that speaks to our current reality as much as it does to a specific historical period. This is what the French historian Fernand Braudel achieves here.

Freak has watched his brothers fall for the women they love time and time again and is more than familiar with the signs of a man about to hand over his heart. When Carnie comes tumbling into the clubhouse asking for help, all it takes is a bat of her innocent stare and sassy tongue for Freak to know what is about to happen. But when he finds out how old she is, he hesitates to stake his claim. As a Fallen Lord through and through, he will make sure to protect her even though he's promised himself not to touch her.

The last time I saw Nevada Kane, I was 17, and he was loading his things into the back of his truck, about to embark on a 14-hour drive to the only college that offered him a full ride to play basketball. I told him I'd wait for him. He promised to do the same. But life happened. I broke my promise long before he ever broke his - and not because I wanted to. We never saw each other again.... Until 10 years later, when Nevada unexpectedly returned to our hometown after an abrupt retirement from his professional basketball career. Suddenly, he was everywhere.

Anticipating a new dawn of freedom after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russians could hardly have foreseen the reality of their future a decade later: a country impoverished and controlled at every level by organized crime. This riveting book views the 1990s reform period through the experiences of individual citizens, revealing the changes that have swept Russia and their effect on Russia's age-old ways of thinking.

Soar with Dr. Steven Farmer and our sacred storytellers as they share personal tales of spirit animals appearing to them in real life, in dreams, or symbolically, to share their mystical yet practical medicine. Experience how these spiritual allies can guard, aid, heal, and guide you in the most unexpected and delightful ways. Renowned "animal spirit guy" Dr. Steven Farmer explains how these profound encounters affirm our intimacy with the animal world and the realm of Spirit.

This practical guide helps therapists from virtually any specialty or theoretical orientation choose and adapt mindfulness practices most likely to be effective with particular patients, while avoiding those that are contraindicated. The authors provide a wide range of meditations that build the core skills of focused attention, mindfulness, and compassionate acceptance. Vivid clinical examples show how to weave the practices into therapy, tailor them to each patient's needs, and overcome obstacles.

Here, Daniel J. Siegel and Marion F. Solomon have gathered leading writers to discuss such topics as: attention, resilience, and mindfulness; neuroplasticity - how the brain changes its function and structure in response to experience; "loving awareness" as the foundation for mindful living; how mindfulness training can help build empathy and compassion in clinicians; self-compassion; addictions; using breath practice to cultivate well-being; and much more.

Boink messed up huge, and the Fallen Lords MC is not happy. Now it's his chance to redeem himself by protecting the same woman who had distracted him that day. Mayra needs a safe place to land, and the Fallen Lords Clubhouse is perfect until her past comes back with a vengeance. Boink is the only one who will save her, but even he doesn't seem to like her much.

They came to Earth for one thing - to find mates. These hot alpha aliens will keep you company all night long. This is a collection of five steamy stand-alone science-fiction romance novels. No cliff-hangers, no cheating, and plenty of steam. 

Cora was mine. No one knew it, but she was still mine. Months of spending every spare minute together and then I was sent to keep an eye on Jenkins. Cora's brother. Things went sideways. The lunatic captured me, tortured me, and then, I was suddenly dumped at the feet of the Fallen Lords. Now I was safe with my brothers, but suddenly she wasn't. Jenkins has what is mine, and I will do anything to get her back. Cora was mine. Contains mature themes.

Not everyone can become a tyrant. It requires a particular confluence of events to gain absolute control over entire nations. First, you must be born with the potential to develop brutal personality traits. Second, your predisposition to antisocial behavior must be developed and strengthened during childhood. Finally, you must come of age when the political system of your country is unstable.