Showing results by narrator "Esther Wane" in All Categories

Leadership can be learned: New evidence from neuroscience clearly points to ways that leaders can significantly improve how they engage with and motivate others. This book provides leaders and managers with an accessible guide to practical, effective actions, based on neuroscience.

Unregulated capitalism is bad for women. Socialism, if done properly, leads to economic independence, better labour conditions, better work/family balance and, yes, even better sex. If you like the idea of such outcomes, then come along for an exploration of how we can change women's lives for the better.

Marcus Kincaid, earl of Ashford, has returned to England after a 10-year absence to find his younger sister embroiled in a potential scandal that could ruin her chance at marriage. His aunt has already called in reinforcements - The Paragon. 

Since giving up their city jobs in London and moving to rural France over ten years ago, Janine and husband Mark have renovated their dream home and built a new life for themselves, adjusting to the delights and the peculiarities of life in a small French village. Including much-loved village characters such as Mr. and Mrs. Pepperpot, Jean-Claude, Claudette, and the infamous Bread Man, Toujours La France also introduces listeners to some new faces and funny stories, as Janine and Mark continue their lives in this special part of northern France. There is never a quiet moment.

Rachel lives a quiet life in the peaceful countryside, content with her perfect man and her lovely dog. But when she stumbles upon a body in the woods one day, all that shatters. She knows what she has to do: run. Don’t get accused of murder. But when this victim is identified as her boyfriend’s estranged wife, Rachel realises she’s already the prime suspect. With mounting evidence against her, Rachel’s only hope is to keep her past well hidden.

Lorelei is half elf in a kingdom where that bloodline is synonymous with "slave". The Umbra King holds everyone captive with his pet dragon who knows no mercy. She hides in the shadows and steals to stay alive, until a rebel group gives her an offer she can't refuse. The King seeks a bride. If she can get close enough, she could drive a dagger into that wicked man's heart. But the bridal games are more difficult than most. Lorelei must prove herself not only beautiful, but talented, poised, and deadly as the king. 

First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation. Susan Blackmore shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began, a survival of the fittest amongst competing ideas and behaviors. Ideas and behaviors that proved most adaptive-making tools, for example, or using language - survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible.

In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxatarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people's fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max's mind is a shadow of what it once was . . . leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara's new, ruthless queen. Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger.

The brain is the basis of everything we do: how we behave, communicate, feel, remember, pay attention, create, influence, and decide. Why We Do What We Do combines scientific research with concrete examples and illustrative stories to clarify the complex mechanisms of the human brain. It offers valuable insights into how our brain works every day, at home and at work, and provides practical ideas and tips to help us lead happy, healthy, and productive lives. 

Charlotte feels shell-shocked as she takes in the scene before her. To the left is her (ex?) fiancé’s retreating figure as he hotfoots it back to civilization; in front, the crumbling Greek island farmhouse she thought was their shared dream; and just below, a goat munching merrily on her sunhat…. 

Tisaanah bargained away her own freedom to save those she left behind in slavery. Now, bound by her blood pact, she must fight the Orders' war—and Max is determined to protect her at all costs. But when a betrayal tears apart Ara, Max and Tisaanah are pushed into an even bloodier conflict. Tisaanah must gamble with Reshaye's power to claim an impossible victory. And Max, forced into leadership, must confront everything he hoped to forget: his past, and his own mysterious magic. All the while, darker forces loom—far darker, even, than the Orders' secrets.

Mairead's world is falling apart. Recently separated, she has returned to her beautiful childhood home in Ireland to nurse her dying mother. But as Brigid sits pale and papery thin, looking out over the Atlantic Ocean, she has one last request for her only daughter. Brigid hands Mairead a stunning turquoise necklace and a small black-and-white photograph of her mother, Ellen, a woman she never met. She begs Mairead to go to New York, the last place Ellen was seen alive, and find out what became of her. Mairead cannot ignore her mother's dying wish.

The Princess Companion: This retelling of the classic fairy tale The Princess and the Pea reimagines the risks and rewards that come when one royal family goes searching for a true princess. The Princess Fugitive: In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, the girl in the red hood has been swallowed up by the wolf and must decide if she's willing to fight for her freedom. Happily Ever Afters: Sarah and Evelyn have already risked everything to help Ava win a crown. But they soon learn that a coronation is a beginning.

Event organizer Megan Fallon is gearing up for a concert in honor of the oldest tree in the county: the ancient village oak on Bliss Bay's village green. What she's not gearing up for, though, is stumbling over the dead body of Bliss Bay's most unpopular villager, under the oak tree's sprawling boughs. With a murder investigation underway, a mystery that has everyone looking like a suspect, and a cat that needs a new home, there's also the small matter of the theft of forty-eight garden gnomes to get to the bottom of.

Mathematics prodigy, Caroline Jellico, plans to support herself by winning big in the gaming hells of London - while dressed as a boy. She's tired of waiting for the elusive Roe to notice her. She'll marry him or no man.

Strange things have been happening to Layah and her younger sister, Izzie, ever since their mother dragged them to a rain-soaked cottage miles from anywhere in the Lake District: there is a peculiar whistling at night, a handful of unusual feathers appear and a sudden, frightening banging at the door. And their mother is behaving very oddly. Layah is mourning the loss of her dear grandmother in Poland - and can almost hear her voice telling her the old myths, legends and fairy tales from that place. 

Justin Rodale is the wealthy bastard son of the duke of Chanceworth. Educated with the rest of the aristocrats, he knows all the rules by which Society lives, but he is beholden to no one. Clarissa Kincaid has been raised to be the perfect English lady...in need of the perfectly respectable English husband. She's found her quarry, but the man won't commit, and she finds herself seeking assistance in the form of seduction lessons from someone the opposite of respectable...Justin.

Lorelei did what she was supposed to do: cut the King's throat, liberate a kingdom, and then fade into the darkness once more. But this time, she can't leave. The rebellion wants to use her as a figurehead in their mad plan to steal a kingdom from a bloodline, and Lore has other more pressing matters at hand. The King survived, and within his clutches are the last dragon eggs in all of Umbra.

This thought-provoking anthology offers a close examination of the psychology behind the intricate narrative and compelling characters in author George R.R. Martin's best-selling work, A Song of Ice and Fire, and the popular HBO TV series based upon his books, Game of Thrones. In Martin's richly detailed world, deceit, manipulation, and greed rule the day, and almost everyone fights for power over the realm or simply over their own lives. How do love and hate, good and evil, need and greed, altruism and narcissism drive the very best and very worst human behaviors?

This fully revised and updated third edition of 50 Top Tools for Coaching includes a greater emphasis on professional qualification and accreditation, enhanced tools on self-development and strategy, a brand-new addition of transactional analysis tools, and an increased amount of career coaching tools. The authors have also solicited feedback from readers to create a "readers' top tools" section and they provide real-life examples from coaches on how the tools in the book have helped them be more successful and serve their clients better.