Showing results by narrator "Joel Simler" in All Categories

Romance can be a little complicated when you get sucked into a wormhole. Just ask high school English teacher June Flint. One little solar flare happens and suddenly you find yourself 85 years in the future. Eighty-five years from your dream job. Your ailing mother whose only companion in this world is you. Your favorite stuffed-crust pizza from DeLucia’s on Sunday nights. But when June’s cell phone inexplicably picks up a signal, she’s able to call back to the present—more specifically, four weeks before she accidentally time traveled.

This compulsive novel wrestles with vital questions of our time: sentience, purpose, life, death, and how to make a really good commercial. Told entirely through questionably obtained company emails, chat transcripts, TED Talks, training sessions, and more, this all-too-probable future pits emotionally intelligent AI against emotionally stunted humans.

The fifteen stories and three screenplays that make up Volumes Two and Three of the Emmy® Award–winning Netflix Original series Love, Death + Robots. Featuring bestselling authors and screenwriters from all over the globe, curated by filmmakers Tim Miller and David Fincher, and Supervising Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson.

Amrapali Anna Singh is an historian and analyst capable of discerning the most cryptic and trivial details from audio recordings. One day, a mysterious man appears at her office in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, having traveled a great distance to bring her three Type IV audio cassettes that bear the stamp of a library in Buenos Aires that may or may not exist. On the cassettes is the deposition of an adventure journalist and his obsessive pursuit of an amorphous, legendary, and puzzling "City of Dreams."

Hugo didn’t ask for this gift that his father, brilliant biologist Abednego Danner, bestowed upon him; a “gift” that promises a life of greatness. From being a baby that can launch himself from a second-story window unscathed, a boy that can leap canyons and hurl boulders, a football star that can beat an opposing team single-handed, a man capable of crushing an entire enemy platoon with his bare hands; surely such a person could steer the entire world to their whims. But, does the world hold any post for a man of such strength?

When I convinced my friends to join me in a scheme to play the stock market, it paid off beyond our expectations. Honestly, most days I don’t even remember that I’m a billionaire. But it was big news for my family. In fact, my cousin made me guardian of her son in the event something happened to her. At face value, it sounds kind of nice. But I never really knew my cousin.

You ever meet someone and have that immediate click? That was Kayla and me. First day of our first teaching jobs and we both just knew we were going to be best friends forever.

The Hathaway sisters might have grown up apart, but when they agree to move to Jasper Creek, Oregon, to revitalize their grandfather’s farm, it seems a straightforward decision. Until they meet their neighborhood cowboys… Sweet-natured Teddy has never met a man worth taking a risk on, until now. Tomboy Joey has more affinity with farm equipment than men, until a brooding cowboy changes her mind. Prickly baker Georgie can’t resist the temptation of the most forbidden cowboy of all, and sparks fly between ceramicist Elliot and the grumpy single-dad rancher next door.

At the end of summer, sixteen years ago, we promised we’d keep in touch. And I did. She didn’t. I spent a year reaching out to her in every way imaginable, desperately clinging to the future we’d planned while we walked hand-in-hand on the beach. When July rolled around again, I waited eagerly, for her family’s return. They never came. She never came. I blamed her. I blamed myself. I blamed my big, involved family who are basically royalty on this island our ancestors found. After a while, I forgave her and moved on. Of course I did. Carrying a torch for sixteen years would be ridiculous.

In 1999, the bestselling video game Tony Hawk’sPro Skater was released, and a new generation was exposed to skateboarding culture right in their very own homes. Kids and adults alike could now spend hours playing as actual skateboarders, learning the vernacular, listening to the music skateboarders loved, and having fun onscreen before trying to skate IRL in the driveway.

Dalamaar orchestrates a complex plot to assassinate the King and the Ainoren, relying on numerous moving parts. However, unforeseen events and unexpected allies complicate his scheme, jeopardizing his plan. As tensions rise and loyalties are tested, the fate of the Ainoren hangs in the balance, leading to a suspenseful confrontation.

The Best of Bizarro Fiction: Vol. 2 features 11 carefully crafted surreal tales of the absurd, the hilarious, and the outright horrific. Edited by Matthew A. Clarke.

Silver City is not the kind of place you'd want to be with no recollection of who or what you are. Especially if you happen to find yourself naked in a pig barn, with a fresh bullet hole in your forehead. Suffocated with overwhelming anger and seemingly superhuman strength, the dead man sets out to discover who is responsible, why he was targeted, and what the speckled gunk sealing his wounds is. Gangsters, police, and freakish creatures that dwell in the depths of the silver mines, the entire city is working to bring him down.

I never figured that I’d be someone who fell for a damsel in distress. I see my share of hurting and wounded people in my job at the island health clinic. Wanting to help and heal is why I went into medicine. So why is Teresa different? No idea. All I know, is that she’s come into my clinic twice now with injuries that can’t possibly have been accidental, no matter what she said at the time. I want to protect her. I’ll do whatever it takes. Even if what she needs most is a marriage of convenience.

Sunny—short for Sunshine—is the best there is. And she’s got at least ten years on me, so it’s not like there can be anything romantic. Older women have never been my vibe. So I’ll spend the time with her, alone on the boat, and soak up all the things she has to teach me. And do everything in my power to ignore just how good she looks while she does it.

Jenna and I have been friends since college. Not besties or anything. Just the kind of friend you hit up when you want to go to a party but don’t want the pressure of a date. She’s fun. Independent. And she gets me. Which is probably why we dated for a while—more for fun than anything.

Joanna Landau and Michael Golden guide you through the actual steps needed to successfully counter one of the greatest threats facing the Jewish people today: a Next Generation that is less and less connected to both Israel and their own Jewish identity. Whether you’re a devoted advocate for Israel, a Jewish community leader, or just a concerned parent or grandparent, this book is for you.

Love might be a choice, but some choices are off limits. They say opposites attract—and I’m not going to disagree. In fact, I’d be doing my best to see if the attraction was mutual if not for one little thing. She’s my best friend’s little sister.

A deviant kid tires of his absent father's antics and summons a curse that will kill him the moment he tells one of his tired zingers. Little does he know that this time, his dad has left for good.

This book is a collection of short stories directly inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and his writing. Each new story is coupled with an original work that inspired or influenced it. These stories were written for those who have experienced tragedy, loss, love, and beauty. For those not appreciated in their lifetime. For those with an incomplete story in their heart. This is For Edgar.