Showing results by author "M. J. Roberts" in All Categories

Money is a fact of everyday life. We earn it, spend it and save it. We’re tempted to worship it and to trust it to provide for our needs. While much has been written about the power, danger, and stewardship of money, little has been written about what money actually is and whether or not money itself is moral. That information gap has been exploited to enrich a privileged few, enslave millions, and reap confusion and division throughout the world. How did this happen and what can we do about it?

The Underdark: Beneath the surface of Faern lies a whole different world. A world of drow, deep gnomes, and other denizens of the dark. A world of cities like Menzoberranzan and Skullport, of warriors and rogues like Drizzt Do'Urden and Liriel Baenre and numerous others. Leave the security of the surface world and seek out the darkness that lies below. Welcome to the Realms of the Underdark.

Buckle up for an explosive ride into the heart of battle with 'Contested Landing' – the ultimate anthology of military science fiction that'll leave you on the edge of your seat! Get ready to dive headfirst into the fray as fearless defenders clash with relentless invaders in heart-pounding actions across the cosmos. From pulse-pounding firefights to jaw-dropping heroics, these adrenaline-fueled tales will thrust you into the heart of interstellar conflict like never before.

Over the centuries, two important beliefs arose in Europe: a faith that man could order his own destiny and that progress was normal. By 1900, doubts arose concerning traditional Western values. The continuing problems of the world's poor, environmental deterioration, the inequality of women, and continued warfare pose real questions about the advancement of the human race.

Murder comes in two familiar forms. Whether as a crime of passion with high emotions or a cold dispassionate plot to take life in order to gain in some way, the act strikes us all as somehow inhuman. Beneath us as civilised beings. But however we cloak our animal instincts the need to remove a human being and gain relief from abuse or gain from money, the term is just the same – MURDER. Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, J M Barrie, W W Jacobs and many others bring their literary heft to bear in as calculating a way as any killer could.

T.S. Eliot tells us in his poem “The Hollow Men” that the world will end not with a bang, but with a whimper. Well, he was wrong. Dead wrong. When death and destruction come, the screams of terror, horror, and excruciating pain will rend the blood-red sky and be heard across the world. When your number is up, there’s nowhere to run and no place to hide. You can't cheat death; death will find you. It always does.

There is a persistent and incorrect idea, reinforced by countless film misrepresentations, that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were always staid and dull British chaps of middle years (or older), with Holmes a spry, cranky, and impatient eccentric, and Watson a white-haired and portly Boobus Brittanicus, a la Nigel Bruce. Students of the true and Canonical Sherlock Holmes know this to be a falsehood.

Suburban soccer moms and soy latte-sipping men have no clue what these blue-collar men and women have to put up with on a daily basis. From chupacabras chewing the cable lines during the big game to zombie infestations boiling out from beneath that derelict double-wide on the other side of the trailer park, the heroes of It Came From the Trailer Park: Volume Two have their work cut out for them! Hold their beer, Romero and Hitchcock. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

One completely straight guy. One very dominant, very experienced musician. After weeks of tension and want, can the straight guy get over his fear to see if things will go as thermonuclear as they are in his mind?

Originally published in 1876, General Henry M. Robert's guide to smooth, orderly, and fairly conducted meetings has sold over six million copies in eleven editions. Robert's Rules of Order is the book on parliamentary proceedings, yet those not well versed on what has now become a rather thick document can find themselves lost—and delayed—while trying to locate the most important rules. The solution? Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised in Brief.

Almost always when we think of Ghost Stories, we first think of those written by the Victorians. If you want a really good ghost story to bring that edge of chill, that foreboding of dread, that feeling that in an empty house we are not quite alone and that sometimes the sharp, sheer shock of what just happened is upon us then look no further than ‘The Victorian Ghost Story’ for your reading and listening pleasure.

Almost always when we think of Ghost Stories, we first think of those written by the Victorians. When you consider the depth of literary talent available over the extraordinary length of Queen Victoria’s reign, allied to the fascination with their all things spiritual on ‘the other side’, then perhaps it’s simply right place, right time. Whatever the reasons given or proffered the reality and known facts are that if you want a really good ghost story to bring that edge of chill, that foreboding of dread, then look no further than ‘The Victorian Ghost Story’ for your listening pleasure.

In this volume our classic authors conjure up all sorts of damnations and destructions in literary assaults testing our will to survive and our ingenuity to overcome situations where the outlook is bleak at best and the total extinction of us at worse.

We began with a question: “Do you listen to respond, or listen to understand?” While many books are written about how to get your point across, effective communication is about transmitting and receiving messages as close to the intended meaning as possible. One central issue contributes more than others to the deterioration of a message’s intended meaning. Real-world communication can be compared to standing on a two-way street filled with loud and distracting traffic. Imagine that you are on one side of that street, but the person trying to speak with you is on the other side.

Drummer Ryder Chord has been living half a life since he was 16 when a brutal tragedy strikes his family and he and his best friend hit the road. Ryder, desperate to forget, throws himself into touring life and writing music. When Lexi joins the band, Ryder’s life becomes almost tolerable. Until one day when the rest of the band isn’t there and Ryder and Lexi have to share a hotel room: with only one bed.

James rescued Mariah from the worst moment of her life, but that night still affects her life 10 years later. After what happened to Mariah that night, she’ll never be whole again, and she has to keep moving. Then the hero who saved her walks back into her life, and she agrees to couch surf at his place during the holidays.

Brad is a very straight guy who gets one random thought. Just one stray thought. That leads to another and another; and then a question. And then, that thought becomes an obsession that might just push him to venture to find out about gay-straight action.

Jake has harbored a secret crush for his boss for a long time. Can he finally work up his nerve to ask Ryan out? Maybe. Maybe, if it's not a date. After all, Jake is a young, wisecracking, don't-hold-me-down type of guy. Not a date is just his speed. But can Ryan convince him that not real dates are nice, lots of scalding, white-hot sex is great, but real love is better?

Life on a Montana ranch can be harsh. It's lonely for Noah, growing up with just his brother. When Noah's brother Clay hires Kevin, things immediately begin to change. Noah knows Kevin's straight. But that doesn't stop how Noah feels; the craving to touch and feel someone's skin against his for the first time. Can Noah get Kevin to fall in love with him, and get him to stay?

Eli is a math geek and still a virgin. He wants the real connection he sees between couples in his community but his shyness doesn't help. Eli's quiet demeanor and brainiac abilities scare some guys off. He wants to meet the right guy and he'd be able to play it cool if his face didn't flame as red as his hair every time a hot thought replaced mathematical proofs.