The brooding Fire Lord of Ashmoor Manor receives an adorable, curvy human as his ward! I'm getting married today and I'm so freaking depressed. My bridal gown is exquisite. The ring is enormous. But my groom is evil personified and I'm being tricked into this doomed marriage. I'm seconds from breaking into a full-on ugly cry. And right then, as if by magic, the church doors burst open. Women scream and children scramble as a huge satanic-looking alien stomps down the aisle, flicking his tail, flashing flames and wreaking chaos in his wake. He's looking right at me. "Charlotte Cruz?" the devil questions. I give a jerky nod, shocked into silence. The monster grunts in response, sweeps me off my feet and carries me away from the altar.
Did you know God made you MORE than your disease, and he has a purpose for you? Well, he did and he does! No matter how many needle sticks you get that make you shout, "Ow!" or scary tests that make you want to scream, or cold waiting rooms you have to sit in that make you feel small, God sees you, your bravery, and the MORE he created you to be. The author's disease began when she was a little girl, so Whitney knows first-hand the emotions and feelings these children experience and the frightening unknowns they face. In this book, Whitney encourages every child who's battling disease to see themselves how God sees them and shout the powerful message to the world- "I am MORE!"
This eye-opening narrative journey into the rapidly changing world of artificial intelligence reveals the dangerous ways AI is exploiting the unconscious habits of our minds, and the real threat it poses to humanity: "The best book I have ever read about AI" (New York Times bestselling author Roger McNamee). Artificial intelligence is going to change the world as we know it. But the real danger isn't some robot that's going to enslave us: It's our own brain. Our brains are constantly making decisions using shortcuts, biases, and hidden processes—and we're using those same techniques to create technology that makes choices for us. In The Loop, award-winning science journalist Jacob Ward reveals how we are poised to build all of our worst instincts into our AIs, creating a narrow loop where each generation has fewer, predetermined, and even dangerous choices. Taking us on a world tour of the ongoing, real-world experiment of artificial intelligence, The Loop illuminates the dangers of writing dangerous human habits into our machines. From a biometric surveillance state in India that tracks the movements of over a billion people, to a social media control system in China that punishes deviant friendships, to the risky multiple-choice simplicity of automated military action, Ward travels the world speaking with top experts confronting the perils of their research. Each stop reveals how the most obvious patterns in our behavior—patterns an algorithm will use to make decisions about what's best for us—are not the ones we want to perpetuate. Just as politics, marketing, and finance have all exploited the weaknesses of our human programming, artificial intelligence is poised to use the patterns of our lives to manipulate us. The Loop is call to look at ourselves more clearly—our most creative ideas, our most destructive impulses, the ways we help and hurt one another-so we can put only the best parts of ourselves into the thinking machines we create.
Mark and Giulia's life together began as a storybook romance. They fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in the psych ward for nearly a month. One day she was vibrant and well-adjusted; the next she was delusional and suicidal, convinced that she was the devil and that her loved ones were not safe. All she wanted was to die. Eventually, Giulia fully recovered, and the couple had a son. But, soon after Jonas was born, Giulia had another breakdown, and then a third a few years after that. pushed to the edge of the abyss, everything the couple had once taken for granted was upended. A story of the fragility of the mind, and the tenacity of the human spirit, My Lovely Wife is, above all, a love story that raises profound questions: How do we care for the people we love? What and who do we live for? Breathtaking in its candor, radiant with compassion, and written with dazzling lyricism, Lukach's is an intensely personal odyssey through the harrowing years of his wife's mental illness, anchored by an abiding devotion to family that will affirm readers' faith in the power of love.
After Humanity is a guide to one of C.S. Lewis's most widely admired but least accessible works, The Abolition of Man, which originated as a series of lectures on ethics that he delivered during the Second World War. These lectures tackle the thorny question of whether moral value is objective or not. When we say something is right or wrong, are we recognizing a reality outside ourselves, or merely reporting a subjective sentiment? Lewis addresses the matter from a purely philosophical standpoint, leaving theological matters to one side. He makes a powerful case against subjectivism, issuing an intellectual warning that, in our "post-truth" twenty-first century, has even more relevance than when he originally presented it. Lewis characterized The Abolition of Man as "almost my favourite among my books," and his biographer Walter Hooper has called it "an all but indispensable introduction to the entire corpus of Lewisiana." In After Humanity, Michael Ward sheds much-needed light on this important but difficult work, explaining both its general academic context and the particular circumstances in Lewis's life that helped give rise to it, including his front-line service in the trenches of the First World War. After Humanity contains a detailed commentary clarifying the many allusions and quotations scattered throughout Lewis's argument. It shows how this resolutely philosophical thesis fits in with his other, more explicitly Christian works. It also includes a full-color photo gallery, displaying images of people, places, and documents that relate to The Abolition of Man, among them Lewis's original "blurb" for the book, which has never before been published.
In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.
The Ward Wolf Pack Books 1-3 Hunted. Hated. Meet the secret wolf pack of Alaska. His Lost Mate, Book 1 Nash Ward, alpha to a pack of white wolves, took his role as leader very seriously when his family and pack were almost destroyed by a clan of bear shifters ten years prior. It became his duty to protect the remaining four members, but when a human female shows up, scenting of his mate, his carefully hidden world opens up. His Stubborn Mate, Book 2 Mason’s wolf wants nothing more than to tuck Charlie under his arm and run away with her, but the stubborn pilot won’t give in when she finally realizes his true nature. Word from the lower forty-eight has informed the humans about shifters, but she could care less what he is. In fact, she would rather fly planes and deliver supplies than allow him to touch her. Her Protective Mate, Book 3 Aspen Ward and her wolf yearn for a mate and family of her own, but she knows it’s an impossibility living so far away from any humans. With the arrival of his brother’s plane, and the customer they service with supplies, she soon realizes why her mating scent is so strong around the human male.
A vampire and a scientist’s fates are passionately entwined in a race against time in this thrilling romance in the #1 New York Times bestselling “utterly absorbing and deliciously erotic” (Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author) Black Dagger Brotherhood series. In the venerable history of the Black Dagger Brotherhood, only one male has ever been expelled—but Murhder’s insanity gave the Brothers no choice. Haunted by visions of a female he could not save, he nonetheless returns to Caldwell on a mission to right the wrong that ruined him. However, he is not prepared for what he must face in his quest for redemption. Dr. Sarah Watkins, researcher at a biomedical firm, is struggling with the loss of her fellow scientist fiancé. When the FBI starts asking about his death, she questions what really happened and soon learns the terrible truth: Her firm is conducting inhumane experiments in secret and the man she thought she knew and loved was involved in the torture. As Murhder and Sarah’s destinies become irrevocably entwined, desire ignites between them. But can they forge a future that spans the divide separating the two species? And as a new foe emerges in the war against the vampires, will Murhder return to his Brothers...or resume his lonely existence forevermore?
A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. He's a hard drinker, largely absent, and it isn't often he worries about the family. Esch and her three brothers are stocking up on food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; at fifteen, she has just realized that she's pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pit bull's new litter, dying one by one. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to a dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family - motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce - pulls itself up to face another day.
His Stubborn Mate The Ward Wolf Pack Novella Series Book 2 Mason Ward has spent the last eleven years, learning to fly planes in the Alaskan wild, delivering supplies to those who lived off the grid and hikers looking for the thrill of going at it on their own. But, as a white wolf and a hunted shifter, he lives his life in solitude. Charlie Hines has applied to every place she can think of, looking for a job as a bush pilot. She knows the backcountry better than anyone else and has the resume to prove it. When she steps through the doors of Ward Air & Transportation, she knows she has found the place she belongs, but there’s one complication. Mason’s wolf wants nothing more than to tuck Charlie under his arm and run away with her, but the stubborn pilot won’t give in when she finally realizes his true nature. Word from the lower forty-eight has informed the humans about shifters, but she could care less what he is. In fact, she would rather fly planes and deliver supplies than allow him to touch her.
