Showing results by narrator "Sean Crisden" in All Categories

Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.

Aidan Spencer walked away from his family and his friends when the woman he'd loved since childhood died while attempting to kill his best friend's wife. Aidan had chosen to save another and in doing so had lost Cassie. For over a year, he's been isolated from everyone he loves until a family emergency brings him back home. When he meets a woman along the way whose problems are more dire than his own, Aidan must decide if he's strong enough to fight for the woman he's falling in love with.

Delaney won't let a mix-up delay her vacation, so she agrees to share a secluded cabin with another guest - a sheikh bent on seduction.... In the mountains of Montana, charming player Stone helps a prim and proper lady find her mother - for the reward of passion-filled nights under the stars.... Back in Atlanta, firefighter Storm will sweet-talk any woman into his bed - even a too-hot-too-handle virgin who leaves him craving more....

War correspondent Remi Taleb needs to get to Beirut. Fellow journalists who were kidnapped by terrorists have a story to tell, and she will report on it. So, if that means hitching a ride with a senator who may or may not be a danger to herself (and everyone else), so be it. But when everything goes wrong along the way, Remi will need to stay sharp just to survive and not become part of the story….which would be a lot easier if she wasn’t distracted by the handsome head of the senator’s security team.

In Necropolitics, Achille Mbembe, a leader in the new wave of francophone critical theory, theorizes the genealogy of the contemporary world, a world plagued by ever-increasing inequality, militarization, enmity, and terror as well as by a resurgence of racist, fascist, and nationalist forces determined to exclude and kill. He outlines how democracy has begun to embrace its dark side - what he calls its "nocturnal body" - which is based on the desires, fears, affects, relations, and violence that drove colonialism.

Is perfectionism a good thing, or does it get in our way? In The Perfectionist's Handbook, clinical psychologist Jeff Szymanski helps listeners navigate their way out of the "perfectionism paradox": If your intentions are good (wanting to excel) and the outcomes you want are reasonable (to feel competent and satisfied), why would perfectionism backfire and result in unhappiness and stress? Learn when perfectionism will pay off, and when and why it sabotages you.

Something about the country brings out the best - and the sexiest - in a man, and country boys are a special breed. These tobacco-chewin', cattle-ropin' icons in temptingly baggy overalls or skin-tight wranglers rank with cops and soldiers as one of the most potent symbols of the naturally masculine male. Sweating and sensual not from the gym but from honest, hard work (and play), they come in all shapes, sizes, and erotic potential. City homos hike the wilds to commune with nature and nature boys. Gay pioneers enjoy rural living and loving. Lonesome queers meet for moonlight trysts in the cornfields.

The moment Blayze McKnight joins the Pryde pack he knows it is only a matter of time before everyone finds out that he is not what he claims to be. Being the last of his kind, Blayze was never taught the way of the dragon. Because the man he wants he can never claim as his. After shifting into his true form to save the man he deeply cares for, he runs. Fear of being rejected, Blayze turns his back on the friends and the pack he once called home. And giving up on ever finding his draco corde. His dragon heart.

Freeman, the new novel by Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes place in the first few months following the Confederate surrender and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Upon learning of Lee's surrender, Sam - a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army - decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and set out on foot to return to the war-torn South. What compels him on this almost-suicidal course is the desire to find his wife, the mother of his only child, whom he and their son left behind 15 years earlier on the Mississippi farm to which they all "belonged".

As a founding member of The Vers, a queer podcast I host with my three best friends, I’m "The Loner"—quieter than the others, and except for them, I don’t let myself get too close to people. Most of them just let you down anyway, or maybe it’s just that something about me chases people away.

Mia Monroe is running. Running from a person she doesn't ever want to find her. Running from a past she doesn't ever want anyone to know. Desperate to find a future that yesterday she could only dream of having.Jordan Matthews likes easy. Easy women. Easy life. Then he meets Mia. She's damaged, troubled, and has more baggage than any person can carry. But the more Jordan gets to know Mia - for the first time in his life - he finds himself wanting to try hard for something, for someone...for her. And then life isn't so easy anymore. Jordan is everything Mia shouldn't want.

The club comes first. I've lived by those words my whole life - assumed I'd die by them, too, and I never had a problem with that. My Reaper brothers took my back and I took theirs, and it was enough. Then I met her. Tinker Garrett. She's beautiful, she's loyal, and she works so damned hard it scares me sometimes. She deserves a good man - one better than me. I can't take of her yet, because the club still needs me. There's another woman, another job, another fight just ahead.

Grady Dalton is in a rut. He’s 38, without a boyfriend, and has yet to find the place that feels like home. The closest he ever got was his best friend, Nathan. But it’s been seven years since he passed, and life isn’t getting easier. That’s how he ends up in Briar County, hoping to grow roots in the place Nathan had loved. Deacon Sharpe spends his days serving homemade ice cream and his nights alone, pretending he’s getting by after his wife’s death better than he is. His world is rocked when a man shows up who claims to have been his brother-in-law’s best friend.

A woman with an abusive past finds her happy-ever-after with seven obsessed, over-the-top alpha males in a post-apocalyptic world. If you’re looking for a reverse harem story bursting with eroticism against a backdrop just bleak enough to keep the tension going, this story is for you.

Security specialist Matt Montgomery has never forgotten—or forgiven—Madison Archer for walking away and ripping out his heart. Three years later, she crashes back into his life, terrified that her wealthy husband is trying to kill her. Matt vows to protect Madison, but there’s a price. He’ll have revenge by making her submit to his every sexual demand.

Tina Chen just wants a degree and a job, so her parents never have to worry about making rent again. She has no time for Blake Reynolds, the sexy billionaire who stands to inherit Cyclone Systems. But when he makes an offhand comment about what it means to be poor, she loses her cool and tells him he couldn't last a month living her life.

Of all the men on the Icehome beach, Thrand's the most competitive and most aggravating. He's cocky. Arrogant. Turns everything into a rivalry. He's a pain in the you know what. He also keeps insisting that I kiss him. After all, I'm the one that told him a kiss didn't mean anything. It shouldn't. A kiss is just a kiss as far as humans are concerned. But Thrand's a clone, a race of people called a'ani, and he's been brought up to play hard and to win. And he wants to win me. But does Thrand want me for the right reasons? Or am I just another conquest?

In the predawn hours of a gloomy February day in 1994, two thieves entered the National Gallery in Oslo and made off with one of the world's most famous paintings, Edvard Munch's Scream. It was a brazen crime committed while the whole world was watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Baffled and humiliated, the Norwegian police turned to the one man they believed could help: a half English, half American undercover cop named Charley Hill, the world's greatest art detective.

Have you ever felt like you were living your life for a future that was predetermined? Like there was some bigger picture you just prayed you would someday see clearly? That picture has been crystal clear to me since I was old enough to recognize it for just what it was. Or, I should say, recognize him for who he was.

He’s the Sergeant at Arms for the Dark Knights MC. He enforces the rules and gets his hands dirty. She’s the daughter of a biker. Property of another MC. She’s young. He’s not. He’s lived a life. She’s just finding her way. She’s a bad idea. A very bad idea. One which can quickly turn allies into rivals. One war is over, he’s not ready to begin another. But the temptation might make it unavoidable.