Showing results by narrator "Scott Merriman" in All Categories

Sacrificing his life to protect his best friend was a decision Hui Yue did not regret. Yet who could have known that death was not the final destination, but rather the beginning of a new adventure into a world filled with demonic beasts and martial arts cultivation? Hui Yue soon finds that within this world, strength is what determined your future accomplishments...and there is no space for the weak. Embarking upon this new life, Hui Yue meets friends, experiences betrayal, and embarks on his own journey of cultivation to overcome his limits and increase his strength.

A searing confessional infused with the darkest humor, Permanent Midnight chronicles the opiated abyss of a Hollywood screenwriter and his formidable climb into sobriety. Made into a major motion picture starring Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, Permanent Midnight is revered by critics and an ever-growing cult of devoted fans as one of the most compelling contemporary memoirs.

Jon Talbot is a history professor who makes sense of the past by examining facts. He also knows how to speculate about the what-ifs. Jon’s doing both following the death of his wife, Pax. Driving home late from a volunteer assignment, she plunged off a mountain highway and died. The police find nothing suspicious about the facts: a deer in the road, a blown tire, a broken neck. But the what-ifs are leading Jon down a twisting trail of secrets. After five years of marriage, he is finally getting to know his wife.

Abandoned by his mother when he was young, twenty-two-year-old Rave Wayne knows all about loss. That doesn't mean he's used to it. After he's dumped by the girlfriend he assumed he'd spend his life with, Rave is longing more than ever to connect. Then, as if by miracle, he receives an invitation from his grandfather, a man he thought was long gone, to come for a visit in rural Tennessee.

Joe Arneson's ordinary life is upended by troubling dreams of himself as a different man in another place and time. It isn't until he visits his estranged grandmother, Pearl, in her Wisconsin hometown that a startling connection emerges. Drawn into his family's past, Joe discovers secrets weighing on the old woman's soul: the tragic death of her sister Alice a half century ago and its ripple effect on all who loved her.

When Jackson St. James decided that six weeks in Vermont's Green Mountains would help him get his life together, he didn't anticipate replacing his craving for whiskey with a craving for his alluring new landlord, Gabby. Now, instead of prioritizing his sobriety and the resolution of the lawsuit threatening his business, he's making excuses to spend time with the spunky young landscaper whose candor is more than a little addictive.

At an off-campus party, university professor Rose Taylor is drugged, undressed, and photographed on a burner phone. In seconds her humiliation is uploaded, and millions of JPEGs are zipping like immortal wasps through the Internet. But why would someone target her? She has no vengeful exes or rival academics, no stalkers, or unhinged students. Jon Avery, the sharpest, most experienced investigator in the sheriff’s office, is determined to find out who’s behind this horrific invasion of privacy.

Graham Patterson’s life has hit a dead end. His career as a comedian is failing. The love of his life recently broke up with him and he literally has no idea what to do next. With nothing to lose, he buys a new car and hits the road, planning to drive across country and hopefully figure out his next moves before reaching California. But along the way Patterson does something his old self would never have even considered: he gets tattooed by a brilliant tattoo artist in North Carolina.

Ruth and her little brother, Aubrey, are just teenagers when their older brother ships off to Iraq. When Joseph returns, uninjured, only three and a half months later, Ruth is happy he is safe but also deeply worried. How can it be that her courageous big brother has been dishonorably discharged for refusing to go out on duty? Aubrey can't believe that his hero doesn't have very good reasons.

Life is not about you. It’s about what you do for others. That’s the realization that has driven Tom Rath - the mega-bestselling expert in self-development research - to evolve his focus from one’s inward search for strength to the larger outward search for purposeful contribution to others. It’s Not About You is a short introduction to the next chapter in the life and career of perhaps our greatest living self-help writer.

Kalinda has brought peace to the Tarachand Empire, at least for now. Bhutas no longer need to hide their gifts. The last of the rebels have been banished. And Prince Ashwin is set to take over as rajah. But for Kalinda, this came at a great loss. Her childhood home. Her best friend. The love of her life. Deven is still trapped in the Void, though he is able to find his way to Kalinda each night. He has been lucky so far—mortals are not meant to last in the Void for long, and Deven has lasted longer than most. But when he doesn’t visit one night, Kalinda knows that his luck has run out.

Things started out so sweet. Everyone was going to be rich. All because of Trunk Man. He was the guy Papa and his meatheads stuffed in the back of a stolen Nissan and drove to a forest preserve outside Detroit. He owed Papa big-time. To save his own sorry neck, Trunk Man made an offer: a million dollars in bonds tucked away in a safe. Boost it, split it, and toss Trunk Man from a roof. Easy.

Kip has been working with millionaire Max Ringle in a shady scheme to help rich, spoiled kids gain admission to elite universities. Ringle, the mastermind of the fraud, cops a plea and shifts the blame to Kip. Dr. Melissa Gold, Lassiter's fiancée, tries to keep the ailing lawyer strong enough for a grueling trial, even as his symptoms of brain damage grow worse. As a fiery showdown with Ringle brings the courtroom to a fever pitch, Lassiter risks everything - including his own life - to fight for his nephew's freedom.

He was standing face-to-face with a dead woman…and she was holding a gun. Lieutenant Seth Buchanan finds his homicide investigation - and his heart - thrown into turmoil when Grace Fontaine turns up very much alive - and in possession of one of the huge blue diamonds known as the Stars of Mithra. The cool, controlled cop never lets his feelings get in the way of his job, and everything he knows about the notorious heiress tells him she's bad news.

In the wake of a disastrous firefight with a Mexican cartel, two El Paso police officers find themselves in a military hospital facing a debriefing about what went wrong. As their accounts unfold, Tony, a by-the-book cop, begins to believe that hotheaded Matt might have divided loyalties. Could he have intentionally led the team into a trap that saw the death of a beloved senior officer? Or is the truth even more terrifying than Tony dares to imagine?

We depend on - we believe in - algorithms to help us get a ride, choose which book to buy, execute a mathematical proof. It's as if we think of code as a magic spell, an incantation to reveal what we need to know and even what we want. Humans have always believed that certain invocations - the marriage vow, the shaman's curse - do not merely describe the world but make it.

After the events of the first two books of the Vicious Circle series, Carey and Randall reached LA during the early '80s punk scene, which was heavily mixed up with Chinatown. A young Chinese girl with silver hair is the Empty One that seems to run things there, and her ex-lover, an Empty One named Zang, has apparently turned against them and may or may not be on Carey's side.

When photojournalist Peter St John returns home after a two-year absence, the life he’s been running from catches up. For years his mother’s presence, coupled with Pete’s own psychic gift, has triggered visits to 1917. There, he relives battles of the Great War, captures the heyday of Coney Island on canvas, and falls in love with an enchanting and enigmatic songstress named Esme. Present-day Pete still pines for Esme, and his love endures...but so does his vivid memory of killing her.

Contains books one and two of Condemning the Heavens... On the continent of Chang'an, humans had lived as livestock and slaves to the Primordial Beasts. These beasts were ferocious, bloodthirsty, and overwhelmingly powerful, but even so, the humans managed to prevail in the face of despair. As the human race grew stronger the Primordial Beasts fought back with relentless fierceness, rousing beast hordes to engage in frenzied battles over the land. Every single child on the continent was taught martial arts for the sake of fighting these Primordial Beasts.

From the outside, the Davenports look like any other family living a completely ordinary life - until that devastating day when five-year-old Jonah is killed, and the family is torn apart. As the fury of guilt engulfs them, the Davenports slowly start to unravel, one by one. Losing her son forces Rachel to withdraw into a frayed, fuzzy reality. Her husband, Sam, tries to remain stoic, but he's consumed by regret with the choices he's made. Eden mourns her brother, while desperately fighting to regain a sense of normalcy.