Showing results by narrator "Nicholas Nicholas Tecosky" in All Categories

When the Boston Red Sox defeated the Colorado Rockies in the 2007 World Series, they did more than win their second world championship in four seasons - they changed forever the identity of a franchise once defined by its spectacular failures. If winning the 2004 World Series permanently buried Boston’s tragic past, the team’s 2007 championship reinforced its promising future while changing the culture, mentality, and mind-set of the Red Sox and their followers.

Devin Eveson is a Soulkeeper, travelling through remote villages as a preacher and healer. But when a dragon awakens - the size of a mountain and leaving great chasms in its wake - the veil is torn, flooding the land with ancient magic and forgotten races. Now Devin must set aside his words of peace and accept his new role: slayer of monsters and protector of the human race. But not all the creatures that have reawakened mean humanity harm. And as Devin slowly befriends people of these new races, his discomfort in his role grows.

Beat Spirit exposes the truth that life doesn't have to feel standardized, patented, predictable, interminable or robotic for today's new Beats. Listeners will howl with Ginsberg and take off on the road with Kerouac, as they discover new frontiers of thought and spirit with Beat Spirit. It kick-starts the rebellious, non-conformist and fiercely independent streak that lives within everyone.

For years, Columbia freshman Serena has dreamed of visiting Paris - the city where her parents had their idyllic, romantic honeymoon. And since her father unexpectedly died two years ago, Serena has cooked up a plan to travel to Paris with her mother and sister as a way to celebrate and remember her dad. Unfortunately, her mom and sister are less committed to the plan - her mom backs out to attend a conference in London, and her sister makes plans in Madrid after a misunderstanding with Serena.

It is October 1519 - and the Mexican empire is on the brink. Hernán Cortés leads an army of Spaniards and their native allies to Moctezoma’s capital. Moctezoma believes the only way to save his empire is to heed the God of War and sacrifice Flower, a beautiful woman warrior, in exchange for protection from the invaders. But a different faction - the resistance - wants to overthrow Moctezoma and go to war against the invaders. The resistance has other plans for Flower - if they can only help her escape before Moctezoma offers her as a sacrifice.

Does your nonprofit have a reliable way of knowing the impact its making? Beginning with an eye-opening discussion of what strategy is, Mission Impact: A Breakthrough Strategy for Nonprofits reveals how the process of strategy development should be designed with authoritative coverage of mission impact, vision, five-year strategic stretch goals, strategy implementation, and management.

In the burgeoning missional church movement, churches are seeking to become less focused on programs for members and more oriented toward outreach to people who are not already in church. This fundamental shift in what a congregation is and does and thinks is challenging for leaders and congregants. Using the metaphor of map-making, the book explains the perspective and skills needed to lead congregations and denominations in a time of radical change over unfamiliar terrain as churches change their focus from internal to external.

Larry Cole has everything a man could want. He loves his wife and is devoted to their two small sons. His career as an architect is both creatively satisfying and financially rewarding. His house in suburban Pinecrest Manor is attractive and comfortable. But then Larry sees a new neighbor standing at the school bus stop. Margaret Gault is young, blond, beautiful - and married. She’s everything Larry didn’t realize was missing from his life, and he must have her. Maggie tells Larry she’s never been in love. But this isn’t about love. It’s about need and desire. And lies.

Through a heady cocktail of drugs and the occult, Bosley slips through time and space and glimpses The End. Cities lay in ruins, and those who still cling to life hide in the rubble like frightened animals. Walking carcasses shamble through the debris exacting a horrible fate upon any living they find. This horrific future is the only world fourteen year old Ocean has ever known. Starving and alone, she struggles for even the most basic of necessities: food, water, shelter, love….

Detective Lou Eisenfall likes to keep the peace in his wealthy Napa Valley town. He does not like problems, but now he has two of them. John Manis, aka Johnny Manic - charming, stylish, impulsive, and reckless - has just rolled into town with a flashy car and a success story that doesn't add up. Marilyn Dupree, passionate and volatile, wants out of her marriage to the town's richest man. Johnny and Marilyn have a chemistry like nitrogen and glycerine, and that makes Lou very uneasy. Now someone is dead out on the highway....

When marriages, friendships, and families come undone, to what lengths do we go to keep it all together? That question lies at the heart of Brendan Mathews's buoyant and unforgettable debut collection of moving and darkly witty stories. From rock-star flameouts to church burnings to ordinary people trying not to fall out of love, these stories are packed with vivid detail, emotional precision, and deft, redemptive humor.

Three years ago, the sun began to die. In a desperate attempt to reignite the failing star, the United States joined the rest of the planet in unloading its nuclear arsenal at the flickering ember. When they finally reach their target, it's 30 degrees in July and getting colder. Lisa and her husband, Guy, sit shivering on a South Carolina hilltop, watching as humanity's best hope at survival shimmers faintly...then disappears below the horizon. In a world with little light, nothing is guaranteed - least of all survival.

Change Up is every fan’s box-seat ticket to a remarkable baseball event: a round-table conversation among the participants themselves about pivotal developments that changed the game, from the 1960s to today. Here, through the eyes and words of star players like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Ichiro Suzuki, baseball legends like Cal Ripken, Earl Weaver, and Jim Bouton, and award-winning writers like David Marainiss, Bob Lipsyte, and Robert Whiting who reported the stories, are vivid and very personal accounts of some of the most important happenings in the history of the sport.

Ella's best friend Lila has always been a good girl who likes pretty clothes and preppy boys. But ever since the first day she met Micha's best friend Ethan, she hasn't been able to stop thinking about him. Girls have always flocked to Ethan - but never princesses like Lila. And until Lila came into his life he never wanted them to. From the outside the two couldn't seem more different, but somehow they have a connection deeper and more intense than anyone could have imagined.

Morgan's world is turned upside down when she is forced into an engagement to Brian DeMacleo. Brian is an infuriating, overbearing, conceited, arrogant bastard who does nothing but treat her like a child. Not only does Brian have to deal with his...condition... but now he has to deal with the lovely Morgan. Or rather, the not so lovely as personality goes. The woman does nothing but argue and try to irritate him. At least they can find some common ground in that neither of them wish to get married. They will get out of the marriage no matter what it takes.

Musicians Johnny “Whoops” Watson and Billy Bates and their band, Conflict, again find themselves navigating treacherous ground when the life of their manager, mentor and friend is threatened by an unknown adversary. Can they aid their friend and survive the danger while still successfully pursuing their dream of a life in music?

Inspector Sebag is a policeman in Southern France with an unparalleled sixth sense, who excels at slipping into the skin of killers and hunting them down. However, when a retired French Algerian cop is discovered in his apartment with the symbol OAS left near his body and few indications as to who killed him or why, Sebag’s skills are put to the test. Days later, when a controversial monument is destroyed and another French Algerian is shot down, Sebag begins to put the pieces together.

After his brothers and sisters ruin his favorite alphabet book, Teetu the bunny has had enough of his big bunny family! When he sneaks off into the night, what he discovers is more marvelous than he ever dreamed. He sees animals and trees and beauty and moonlight, and puts his adventures into a new book he creates all by himself. But soon Teetu tires of being alone, and just as it gets to be too much . . . a big fluffy surprise comes to save the day!

Partridge has escaped the safety of his father's empire and left the Dome, where his people - the Pures - have sheltered for so long. He has ventured into the destroyed world inhabited by the Wretches, who live crippled by their injuries. Pressia, a Wretch, is desperate to decode the secrets of the past and, together with Partridge, she must seek out the answers that will save all their futures.

Morgan Beale is a pop icon - and hates every second of it. He begins adapting the latest best seller, The Chihuahua in the Blue Prada Bag, into a blockbuster movie just before his celebutante wife starts remodeling their Hollywood home, driving Beale to a hotel. Dodging the paparazzi one morning on his way to Starbucks, he spots his writing partner, Luke, who has been dead for over a decade, and who is staring into a mysterious hole in the ground....