First Thought

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.

After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. There are two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of minds. The group that opens trade with the aliens will reap unimaginable riches.

Ten years have passed on Tines World, where Ravna Bergnsdot and a number of human children ended up after a disaster that nearly obliterated humankind throughout the galaxy. Ravna and the pack animals for which the planet is named have survived a war, and Ravna has saved more than one hundred children who were in cold-sleep aboard the vessel that brought them. While there is peace among the Tines, there are those among them - and among the humans - who seek power. And no matter the cost, these malcontents are determined to overturn the fledgling civilization....

The Changed Life was originally intended to be given as a spoken address by the renowned 19-century Scottish evangelist Henry Drummond.

This book is for first-time startup founders in the B2B space. Maybe you’re a software engineer, product manager, salesperson, doctor, or lawyer building your first startup. My bet is that although you’re an expert at your technical skill, you yourself recognize that there’s a lot to learn when it comes to building a product, marketing it to a specific audience and overall running a company.

No one could have predicted even two years ago that an African American would take the oath of office as president of the United States in January of 2009. For many, the occasion marks the climax to the civil rights movement and the fulfillment of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream that Americans could be judged on the content of their character and not the color of their skin. This collection, with about 400 letters from Americans of all walks of life, is being created to stand as a symbol of this exciting moment in history.

Are you a first-time mother, or are you pregnant again after a loss? Do you feel overwhelmed with your condition, the delivery, or the overall motherhood journey ahead? Are you looking for ways to ease your mind, and to experience an empowering pregnancy and a mindful childbirth? If so, these 1000+ affirmations are for you, as they will boost up your confidence and internal strengths through meditation and positive thinking. 

There are two sides to every story. When Dylan first meets Zia, she's standoffish and indifferent, something he isn't used to when it comes to the opposite sex. When Zia offers to help him get out of his own way to meet girls with more than just a pretty face, he accepts, but his motives are not what Zia suspects.

When Maggie takes a tumble, she tries to brush it off but ends up at the doctor's office anyway. The examination takes an interesting turn, but the doctor is thorough in all of her methods. Warning: This audiobook contains very explicit sex including first time lesbian sex, sex with a doctor, cunnilingus, oral sex, girl on girl sex, doctor-patient sex, and more. Only mature adults who won't find graphic sexual content offensive should listen to this story.

In order to understand today's democracy, we need to start from its earliest beginnings by understanding the works of the ancient philosophers who laid the foundations of democracy from the early days. Even looking at the democracy around the world today, it's clear that there are degrees to which countries choose to adhere or stray from democratic ideals. Understanding where these ideals developed from and the development of democracy over time is essential to determining what endangers these ideals in the present.

A Quiet Murmuration by Peter Deeley is a book of musings about our strange and changing life in this new century, offered from the point of view of a father, brother, son, closet philosopher, and CrossFit athlete. From a beach in Thailand or his own porch, he grapples with those nagging life questions we all have, but don’t always admit to. A Quiet Murmuration delves into the depths with humor, honesty and real mercy for the human race. Peter Deeley never spares himself but shares generously with his listeners.

Trapped between his real life and his dreams of being a creative writer Adam lives in quiet desperation, only on his daily commute on the train to Grand Central does he find he is able to escape in private world writing and imagination. His life as an accountant is an endless grey reality -- until one day as the train moves into the darkness of the tunnel.

More than any other people on earth, Americans are free to say and write what they think. The reason for this extraordinary freedom is not a superior culture of tolerance, but just 14 words in our most fundamental legal document: the free expression clauses of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Anthony Lewis tells us how these rights were created, revealing a story of hard choices, heroic (and some less heroic) judges, and fascinating and eccentric defendants who forced the legal system to come face-to-face with one of America's great founding ideas.