Showing results by narrator "Liam" in All Categories

I used to believe in fairy tales, but I've kissed far too many frogs that never turn into Prince Charming. The glass slipper never fits. I'm always the ugly step-sibling; never the princess. They're the same crushing blows every time. Why is it so difficult to accept that I like myself the way I am? With my pretty dresses, pastel tattoos, and sparkly nail polish, I like to feel beautiful. All I want is my happily ever after. To be cherished and adored and loved for who I am. I desperately want to find my forever person. Why am I always left with a broken heart instead?

The Four Points of the Compass takes the listener on a journey of directional discovery. Jerry Brotton reveals why Hebrew culture privileges east; why Renaissance Europeans began drawing north at the top of their maps; why the early Islam revered the south; why the Aztecs used five colour-coded cardinal directions; and why no societies, primitive or modern, have ever oriented themselves westwards. He ends by reflecting on our digital age in which we, the little blue dot on the screen, have become the most important compass point.

In this extraordinary tour de force, David Goldblatt tells the full story of soccer's rise from chaotic folk ritual to the world's most popular sport - now poised to fully establish itself in the USA. Already celebrated internationally, The Ball Is Round illuminates soccer's role in the political and social histories of modern societies, but never loses sight of the beauty, joy, and excitement of the game itself.

A century before Britain became involved in this terrible business, whole villages and towns in European countries were being depopulated by slavers, who transported the men, women, and children to Africa, where they were sold. This is the forgotten slave trade, one which saw over a million Christians forced into captivity in the Muslim world. Starting in the ancient world, Simon Webb traces the history of slavery in Europe, showing that the numbers involved were vast and that the victims were often treated far more cruelly than black slaves in America and the Caribbean.

Kim Philby, the so-called Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring, was the Cold War's most infamous traitor, a Soviet spy at the heart of British intelligence. Philby joined Britain's secret service MI6 during the war and went on to head the section tasked with rooting out Russian spies before becoming the service's chief liaison officer with the CIA. He betrayed hundreds of British and US agents to the Russians and compromised numerous operations inside the Soviet Union.

Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption, and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy.

I thought things would change when I found the others. We would stop running. We would fight the Mogadorians. And we would win. But I was wrong. Even though we have come together, we barely escaped from them with our lives. And now we're in hiding, figuring out our next move. The six of us are powerful - but not strong enough to take on their entire army. We haven't discovered the full extent of our Legacies. We haven't learned to work together. Time is running out, and there's only one thing we know for certain: We need to find Number Five before they do.

Damiano’s parents have never had any faith in him, so it’s no surprise when his new boss doesn’t either. He’s determined to prove Graham Brandt wrong though, if only he could stop pushing the man’s buttons and dreaming about tearing them off. It’s frustrating being a hot-blooded young man, particularly when your sexy boss is straighter than the level he uses on job sites.

Work, sleep, and sometimes eat. Rinse and repeat. That’s been my life for the past two years. One struggle after another. Fighting to keep my sister alive. Fighting to maintain the strength to not give up. I had everything under control. I had a routine. Order. Until a certain Mr. Tall-Dark-and-Handsome turned my world on its axis. He’s relentless. No matter how much I shut him down, he keeps showing up.

I'd been waiting my whole life to run. When I uncovered hidden papers detailing my inheritance, I knew my time had come. I packed my trunk full of plant babies, black nail polish, and determination. With my demons in the rearview mirror and my trauma for company, I made my way to Elmwood. The remote Maine mountain town is home to my future, a potential love interest, and a lot of really weird, possibly deadly secrets.

Returning to my hometown, to normalcy, after all I've been through feels strange, to say the least. Returning to the friends and family who have all moved on with their lives while I'm still trapped with demons of my past haunting me is the worst kind of torment. I'm safe now. Lydia, the woman who stole me when I was just nine years old, is in prison. I'm free. But I don't feel free. I don't even know who I am anymore. The child I was is dead, and the man I've become is lost.

Someone once told me I give daddy issues a bad name. I laughed at the time, but since I found myself living with my dad's best friend, Stuart Wiseman, it doesn't feel all that funny anymore. Living with him is a nightmare. He's super pedantic about everything. He takes one look at me and decides I need help with adulting, and he seems absolutely positive he's the man for the job. He's hellbent on improving me, scolding me about this and correcting me on that.

In the fading town of Stain’d-by-the-Sea, young apprentice Lemony Snicket has a new case to solve when he and his chaperone are hired to find a missing girl. Is the girl a runaway? Or was she kidnapped? Was she seen last at the grocery store? Or could she have stopped at the diner? Is it really any of your business? These are all the wrong questions.

On December 24th, 1998, fifteen-year-old Annie Ryan attended a Christmas party at her uncle William's palatial estate. She arrived at five, sat down for dinner at six, and then excused herself from the dinner table around 6:15. She was never seen again. William Ryan, looking for a new set of eyes, hires Bobby McGowan to take the case. After all, Bobby found his mother's killer after twenty years. How much more difficult could this be?

No wrong moves. Those were the words the first boy I ever loved whispered in my ear on graduation weekend. Naively, I believed him. Now those three little words feel like a bad omen I can’t escape. Every move I’ve made since I returned to South Chapel hurts my ex-boyfriend, Greedy. But it’s for his benefit. That’s what I tell myself. Intentionally hurting him is for the best. It has to be. I said goodbye to the possibility of forever with him the moment my mom and his dad “introduced us” at their engagement dinner. Three years have passed, but that doesn’t matter to Greedy.

Following in the grand tradition of such Irish memoirs as Angela’s Ashes and Are You Somebody?, Liam Clancy relates his life’s story in a raucously funny and star-studded account of moving from provincial Ireland to the bars and clubs of New York City, to the cusp of fame as a member of Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers.

Liam Thomas was an officer in the Met for over a decade, many of those years spent deep at the heart of Britain's most dangerous criminal enterprises in the murky world of undercover surveillance. Before him, his father had also been a police officer, a pillar of their small community. Fighting corruption was Liam's life. But the murky world of undercover work teaches him that justice is far from black and white - and a family secret reveals that corruption is closer to home than he had ever expected.

After my honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, it only made sense to put my skills to good use as a personal bodyguard. The contracts keep me moving and traveling, and the money is good. All I've ever wanted was to make sure my mother and sister were taken care of after my father passed away. So when Anthony Costello, the notorious mob boss and my dad's ex-employer, asked me to take on a special job for his family, I couldn't say no. But not even my six-year stint as an elite Marine could have prepared me for the hellscape that is being trapped in a secluded safe house with his son.

Lottie Pumpkin is an ordinary girl who longs to be a princess; Ellie Wolf is a princess who longs to be ordinary. When fate puts them in the same dorm at Rosewood Hall, the two come up with the perfect solution: to swap places. Now back for their second year at Rosewood, Connie and Ellie are close as ever and learning more about their new roles. But strange things are happening at Rosewood. With pupils being poisoned, it seems like the threat of secret organisation Leviathan is growing closer. Lottie and Ellie are determined to find the culprit. But is danger closer than they think?

Casual fun with my emotionally stunted, overgrown frat boy roommate slash co-worker should be perfect, right? Shep seems to be just as allergic to commitment as I am to emotions, but that doesn't mean we don't need our stroker rods serviced, if you catch my drift. Now if he'll just stop looking at me with those dopey puppy dog eyes while I'm elbow deep in a diesel engine, and making my stomach flip with that smile of his, that would be great…