Showing results by narrator "Nezar Alderazi" in All Categories

When a man's favourite elephant vanishes, the balance of his whole life is subtly upset. A couple's midnight hunger pangs drive them to hold up a McDonald's. A woman finds she is irresistible to a small green monster that burrows through her front garden. An insomniac wife wakes up in a twilight world of semi-consciousness in which anything seems possible - even death. In every one of these stories Murakami makes a determined assault on the normal.

What are the secrets to a healthy, happy, and wealthy retirement? To answer that question, longtime Morningstar columnist and podcaster Christine Benz asked 20 retirement thought leaders to go deep on a single lesson that they believe contributes to success in retirement. These lessons range from nitty gritty financial matters to quality-of-life considerations that help pre-retirees and retirees maximize their “time on earth” allocations.

A beautiful woman walking into Myron Bolitar's office asking for help should have been a dream come true. Only this woman, Suzze T, is in tears - and eight months pregnant.... Suzze's rock star husband has disappeared, and she fears the rumours questioning her baby's paternity have driven him away. For Myron, questions of fatherhood couldn't hit closer to home. His own father is clinging precariously to life, and the brother who abandoned the family years ago has resurfaced - with danger following close behind.

Tycho of Rillisk has been a lot of things: son and brother, stablehand, prisoner, soldier and friend to the king. Now, four years after Grey took the throne of Emberfall, Tycho has taken on a new role: courier and spy. As the only person the king can trust, Tycho carries secret messages back and forth between the kingdoms of Emberfall and Syhl Shallow. But even though the war is over, peace still seems far away.

The King’s Courier Tycho has made a treacherous bargain. Now beholden to the magical scraver who saved King Grey’s life, one false move could end everything. Jax escaped his life in Briarlock and traveled with Tycho to Emberfall. But life outside his small village brings unexpected challenges – and unlikely adversaries. After years of hating the royal family and their magic, Callyn never expected to be at the Queen’s side, with magic at her fingertips. But at the royal court, she can’t trust anyone – including the man she thought she loved.

The two a.m. phone call is from a young, frightened, lost girl who has called the one adult who had promised to help her if she ever got into any trouble: Myron Bolitar. But his help proves not to be enough. He picks her up from a cold street corner and - against his better judgment - is persuaded to drop her at an unknown address. This is a mistake that he lives to regret, for Aimee Biel's final wave from a darkened porch turns out to be the last time anyone will see her.

One morning on the outskirts of Damascus, two starving friends were walking through their war-ravaged city. They entered a once familiar street that had now been turned to rubble - concrete bridges towered over them like tombs, and houses were turned inside out. One of them, Aeham, turned to the only comfort he had left - his piano - and composed a song of hope. It was a song that would reach beyond the rubble and bring a message of solidarity to his fellow Syrians and all those suffering the devastation of war.

Myron is summoned to Paris at the behest of an old lover, Terese. She is in unspecified trouble and needs his help. When he gets there, he discovers that her husband has been murdered and she is the main suspect. The interesting thing is that more than one blood-type has been discovered at the scene - and the other blood can only be attributed to her daughter. But she died 10 years before.

In Lessons from a Warzone, Al Roumani shares his very personal account of coping with the day-to-day realities of leading an organisation in dangerous and hostile conditions. His story shows how inspiration can come from the unlikeliest of places - from the timeless wisdom of merchants in ancient souks to the changing patterns of military checkpoints. During that time, not only did the bank remain robust when others faltered - it thrived and became the undisputed leading bank as people's trust in its capability to safeguard their lifelong savings strengthened.

The last interstellar colony ship is down to its final batch of humans after the robots in charge unhelpfully deleted the rest. But rebooting a species and training them for the arduous task of colonisation isn't easy - especially when the planet below is filled with monsters, the humans are more interested in asking questions than learning and the robots are all programmed to kill each other.

Steinbeck's first posthumously published work, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights is a reinterpretation of tales from Malory's Morte d'Arthur. In this highly successful attempt to render Malory into Modern English, Steinbeck recreated the rhythm and tone of the original Middle English.

Sami’s childhood is much like any other - an innocent blend of family and school, of friends and relations and pets (including stray cats and dogs and the turtle he keeps on the roof). But growing up in one of the largest cities in Syria, with his country at war with itself, means that nothing is really normal. And Sami’s hopes for a better future are ripped away when he is conscripted into the military and forced to train as a map maker.

Renni and Mahu are brothers, but they are complete opposites. When Mahu hatches a plot to rob the tomb of a long-dead general in the Valley of the Kings, Renni is swept into the crime to help his family. But taking the general's heart scarab sets a much greater chain of events into motion, which are governed by dark and mysterious powers. Will the brothers and their friend Balaal manage to return it before Anubis, the god of death, comes to collect their souls? Or will they, and the general, be cast into the Great Darkness forever?

After foiling the plot against Prince Khaem, Renni hopes life will return to normal. Except, when Balaal's father sends a message calling her home, Renni must face the reality that the lives of him and his friends are no longer entwined. As the group splits onto their separate paths, darker forces move in the shadows, intent on claiming the world as their own. Will Renni, Mahu and Balaal discover who are their friends and who are foes, or will the world be plunged into eternal night? Join Renni in the spectacular finale of the Nile Adventures series.

Renni, Mahu and Balaal are enjoying the summer after thwarting the evil vizier, Paser, and returning the heart scarab to General Tatia. When new adventures call, the children set off up the flooded Nile to the mystical city of Shedet to see its glorious temples dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile-headed god. But things are not as they appear, and the wicked never rest for long...

Invited to Pharaoh's newest city, Renni, Mahu and Balaal are hoping for some peace after the defeat of Paser. However, Renni silently worries about the three of them going down different paths: Renni to his painting, Mahu to his apprenticeship under a ship captain and Balaal to the home she longs for. But, among the shimmering stones and lavish palaces of Per Ramessu, shadowed figures are plotting something. Will Renni, Mahu and Balaal solve the cryptic messages in time or will chaos be unleashed?

Photographer Maggie Redford is happy to watch life from the stands. She's already met and lost the love of her life and would rather spend her time snapping shots of Chicago's MLB team. But Maggie's thrown a curveball when the team signs Tommy Mikals, a tattooed hotshot whose talent for making plays is matched by a playboy reputation. Tommy knows he's on the brink of losing his baseball career for good and that the Cougars are his last shot at redemption. Vowing to give up his party-boy ways, he can't afford any distractions - including one gorgeous team photographer.

Nasser Abu Srour grew up in a refugee camp in the West Bank, on the outskirts of Bethlehem. As a child, he played in its shadow and explored the little world within the camp. As he grew older, he began questioning the boundaries that limited his existence. Later, sentenced to life in prison, with no hope of parole, he found himself surrounded by a physical wall. This is the story of how, over thirty years in captivity, he crafted a new definition of freedom. Turning to writings by philosophers as varied as Derrida, Kirkegaard and Freud, he begins to let go of freedom...

Senior Sunrise is the highlight of the summer - an epic overnight at the beach to kick off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan it's the first time seeing each other after junior prom, when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. Now, after ghosting each other, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn't care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake. But when it's time for the senior class tradition of writing letters to themselves - what they wish they would do this year if they were braver - Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan.