Showing results by narrator "Paul Bellantoni" in All Categories

On Board: The Modern Playbook for Corporate Governance is the ultimate guide for corporate directors, executives, governance professionals, and students navigating today's fast-evolving business landscape. Written by a seasoned corporate director, investment banker, and expert witness in corporate litigation, this essential resource delivers a historical perspective, data-driven insights and stories from inside boardrooms on board leadership, fiduciary duties, CEO issues, regulatory compliance, and governance best practices.

As World War III rages, the scientists in Antarctica are thankful for the isolation—until a group of Chinese scientists arrive at the American research base. In their truck is a dead body, the first murder in Antarctica. The potential for a geopolitical firestorm is great, and, with no clear jurisdiction, the Americans don’t know what to do. But they soon realize the Chinese scientists have brought far more with them than the body…

Shamus "Shame" Flynn is a Death magic user with a smart mouth and a bad attitude. His job riding a desk while keeping an eye on the city's humdrum magic users isn't making his mood any better. Sure, the most dangerous magic was locked away for good three years ago, but that doesn't mean people have stopped trying to access the old, deadly powers.

Inspired by real events, The Lady of Lake Como follows the story of a lieutenant with the Italian police who, during the height of World War II, is tasked with investigating the unsettling disappearance of two women from his small town. Complicating matters, Ezio receives a detestable order from his superiors to arrest a Jewish man simply for the accident of his birth. While en route to carry out his unbearable duty, Ezio has a crisis of conscience when he encounters a nun whose secret forever changes his heart.

George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. George Michael: A Life explores the compelling story of a superstar whose struggles, as well as his songs, continue to touch fans all over the world.

As a foster kid in the system, Emerson Duplessis never had two nickels to rub together. He worked harder than anyone else he knew and graduated with a degree in accounting—the safest career he could imagine. But when a round of unexpected layoffs leaves him unable to pay his rent, he resorts to taking temp jobs found for him by friends.

By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him—and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.

Ava Graham's ducks are in a row as she heads off to Italy to complete her final law school credits and fulfill a promise she made to her late mother five years ago. Ava expects her long-term boyfriend to propose before her trip, but instead of giving her a ring, he suggests they use her time abroad as a "break" before settling down. When James Massini arrives—late—to the airport to pick up Ava as a favor to his aunt and uncle, he's surprised to find that she's not a young coed, but a fascinating woman approaching thirty with a superiority complex and a habit of underestimating him.

When Quaker Pastor Sam Gardner is asked by the ill Unitarian minister to oversee a wedding in his place, Sam naturally agrees. It's not until the couple stands before him that he realizes they're two women.

As new forms of lie detection gain momentum in the present day, Tremors in the Blood reveals the incredible truth behind the creation of the polygraph, through gripping true-crime cases featuring explosive gunfights, shocking twists, and high-stakes courtroom drama. Touching on psychology, technology, and the science of the truth, Tremors in the Blood is a vibrant, atmospheric thriller and a warning from history: beware what you believe.

The Quozl just need somewhere to call home. A gentle race of extraterrestrial rabbits, they have a propensity for reproduction that has left their home planet, Quozlene, dangerously overpopulated, and in their search for greener and less-crowded pastures, they have discovered the perfect place to start over: the third planet away from a healthy, warming sun.

Wren’s world shattered the day Arrik became king and broke every promise he’d made to her. Fueled by rage and betrayal, she must double-cross her husband to save the realm from war. But with every passing day, as her devilish king tries to entice Wren to stand by his side, she finds herself struggling not to fall for his charms and seduction. After years of scheming, Arrik finally held the world in his hands. But it wasn’t enough.

Seduced by the government’s offer of 320 acres per homesteader, Americans and Europeans rushed to Montana and the Dakotas to fulfill their own American dream in the first decade of the twentieth century. Raban’s stunning evocation of the harrowing, desperate reality behind the homesteader’s dream strips away the myth—while preserving the romance—that has shrouded our understanding of our own heartland.

In Red Sauce, Ian MacAllen traces the evolution of traditional Italian-American cuisine, often referred to as "red sauce Italian," from its origins in Italy to its transformation in America into a new, distinct cuisine. It is a fascinating social and culinary history exploring the integration of red sauce food into mainstream America alongside the blending of Italian immigrant otherness into a national American identity.

Lord Byron was the most celebrated of all the Romantic poets. Troubled, handsome, sexually fluid, disabled, and transgressive, he wrote his way to international fame—and scandal—before finding a kind of redemption in the Greek Revolution. He also left behind the vast trove of thrilling letters (to friends, relatives, lovers, and more) that form the core of this remarkable biography.

Batman is one of the most compelling and enduring characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased through countless incarnations since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? Batman and Psychology explores these and other intriguing questions about the masked vigilante.

Seren Colburn's had nothing but bad luck her entire life, so she's not surprised when Dave, a possible buyer for her family mansion, mistakes her for a vagrant squatting in the unfurnished home. If she wasn't about to lose her movie-star grandmother's house to the bank, she wouldn't even be selling it.

When Ed White, clad in his gleaming space suit with a large American flag on his left shoulder, eased himself outside his Gemini spacecraft in 1965, Americans had a new space hero. They also learned a new acronym: EVA, short for extravehicular activity, more commonly known as "spacewalking." Though few understood the tremendous risks White was taking in his twenty-two-minute space walk, Americans watched with immense pride and patriotism as White, tethered to Gemini 4, propelled himself around the spacecraft with a pressurized oxygen-fueled zip gun.

Why are we devastated by a word of criticism even when it’s mixed with lavish praise? Because our brains are wired to focus on the bad. This negativity effect explains things great and small: why countries blunder into disastrous wars, why couples divorce, why people flub job interviews, how schools fail students, why football coaches stupidly punt on fourth down. All day long, the power of bad governs people’s moods, drives marketing campaigns, and dominates news and politics.

In How to Be a Lawyer, a team of veteran lawyers and entrepreneurs delivers an eye-opening discussion of how to translate your years of training and education into a running start in the world of practice. The book bridges the gap between law school and practice, whether you hope to be a big firm transactional attorney, a solo criminal lawyer, work for the government or any other legal profession. You'll discover how you can use what you learned in law school and how you can develop the real skills you'll need as you deal with clients and colleagues.