Showing results by narrator "Zura Johnson" in All Categories

We're at an inflection point in data, where our data management solutions no longer match the complexity of organizations, the proliferation of data sources, and the scope of our aspirations to get value from data with AI and analytics. In this practical book, Zhamak Dehghani introduces data mesh, a decentralized sociotechnical paradigm drawn from modern distributed architecture that provides a new approach to sourcing, sharing, accessing, and managing analytical data at scale.

Loren Calla has only ever been ordinary. As a human struggling to survive in a city that caters to the needs of vampires, werewolves, witches, and other supernatural creatures, she always assumed her life would remain simple, predictable, and as safe as her world would allow.

In this book, technical strategist Sarah Wells provides practical, in-depth advice for moving to microservices. Having built her first microservices architecture in 2013 for the Financial Times, Sarah discusses the approaches you need to take from the start, and explains the potential traps most likely to trip you up. You'll also learn how to maintain the architecture as your systems mature while minimizing the time you spend on support and maintenance.

Gemma lives with her mother in an isolated antique shop in Michigan, near a small patch of woods that conceals an enchanted gateway to fairyland. She knows she's not supposed to go into the woods - her mother Virginia has warned her multiple times about the monsters that lurk there - and yet defiantly, curiously, she goes anyway. Virginia understands her daughter's defiance. She knows the lure of the woods all too well. Her mother warned her about the monsters that resided there, and she also did not listen. Until a witch cursed her true love, Ash - Gemma's father - into the form of a beast.

Nicole Victoria didn't grow up with wealth. But she learned the secrets to financial freedom and now specializes in helping twenty and thirty-something women effortlessly manage their money and build bank accounts that never stop growing. Money isn't everything, but everything takes money. Maybe you have debt. You feel like you'll always be playing catch up. Maybe you've tried to get help before, tried to budget, followed traditional advice . . . but it just doesn't work for you. You're stressed and overwhelmed, feeling stuck because you don't know where things went wrong.

Thirty years ago, Harold Biddle died in a tragic accident—but there's more to the story. Now, the teenage kids of Harold's classmates are determined to find out what happened to him all those years ago... as long as Harold's spirit doesn't exact his revenge first! But Harold Biddle isn't the only monster roaming the streets of Port Lawrence. From doppelgangers to haunted books and one creepy dummy, Isaiah, Margot, James, and the rest of their friends have to fight to stay alive or risk becoming monsters themselves!

Owen Larrabee is not my soulmate. He wasn't when I confessed my love to him on his wedding day, and he isn't now. I should probably say that I wasn't the bride when that happened. I don't have the best timing. He's got a temper, he's moody, and he has a history of being misunderstood and making big mistakes. I, on the other hand, make pumpkin cupcakes, spend my Friday nights curled up with a beloved romance novel, and long to be kissed in the rain. Owen is my best friend's older, off-limits brother and the only boy I ever thought I loved.

Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story”, how the process almost ruined her life, and how she is now trying to recover.

Demeter: a goddess of life, living half of one. Demeter did not always live in fear. Once, she loved the world and the humans who inhabited it. After an act of devastating violence, though, she hides herself away among the grasses and wildflowers. Her only solace is her daughter . . . Before she was Persephone, she was Core. Core is as bright as summer and devoted to her mother, even during their millennia in exile from Olympus. But she craves freedom. Naïve and determined, she secretly builds a life of her own—and as she does so, she catches the eye of a powerful god . .

Psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has dedicated her life to the study and prevention of ERS—a space-based condition most famous for a case that resulted in the brutal murders of twenty-nine people. When she's assigned to a small exploration crew, she's eager to make a difference. But as they begin to establish residency on an abandoned planet, it becomes clear that crew is hiding something. While Ophelia focuses on her new role, her crewmates are far more interested in investigating the eerie, ancient planet and unraveling the mystery behind the previous colonizer's hasty departure.

Looking back, Tara Carter wonders if what followed her first kiss was a warning of things to come. At the young age of 10, her heart broke when her best friend, Trey, moved 1,500 miles away. Crossing paths five years later, the two teens exchange beautiful letters that cement their love. They embark on an idealized relationship, despite trauma and heartbreak on both sides, only to be forced apart shortly after.

Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America and winner of countless awards—including the Hugo, Nebula, Edgar Allan Poe, and Bram Stoker—Harlan Ellison proved once more that he was both unpredictable and irrepressible in this second collection of innovative science fiction. Again, Dangerous Visions—the middle installment in a planned three anthology series—includes award-winning stories from incomparable writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, Gene Wolfe, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Piers Anthony, Dean Koontz, and James Tiptree, among many others.

Becoming a parent, once the expected outcome of adulthood, is increasingly viewed as a potential threat to the most basic goals and aspirations of modern life. We seek self-fulfillment; we want to liberate women to find meaning and self-worth outside the home; and we wish to protect the planet from the ravages of climate change. Weighing the pros and cons of having children, millennials and zoomers are finding it increasingly difficult to judge in its favor. With lucid argument and passionate prose, Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman offer the guidance necessary to move beyond uncertainty.

Rei Deimos, half succubus-half satyr, is a magic-sensing, chaos-wielding mess. When her brother decides she needs to get her life together, he kicks her out of their house. With nowhere else to go, Rei finds herself at the tavern of an inn, with nothing but a bottle of red wine to keep her company. It's there that the grumpy demon runs into a mysterious cloaked figure who she soon discovers is Amora Lianna of Cerys, the runaway princess with one goal in mind: to find her missing magic.

Five months ago, an accident left Diana Sparrow badly injured and missing a few months of her memory. As if that's not enough, she's started having recurring nightmares about the night of the accident. Dreams that feel so real, she's left questioning: maybe she didn't just slide off the road into a ditch. Maybe, just maybe, she hit something. Or someone. She can't turn to her former best friend Val, who's been sleeping with Diana's husband Jonathan for months, but she might find some comfort in newcomer Cole Pelham. But is Cole connected to what happened that night?

In Shadow Lab, a brilliant roster of speculative fiction writers pulls listeners into a diverse and genre-bending collection of stories, each as irresistible as the last.

Avalee Elvis prides herself with being able to fix just about anything. . . except her past. Unable to put the puzzle of her life together, she pours heart and soul into making neglected places whole again. As the owner of Lowcountry Lost, Avalee spends her days in hot-pink Carhartt overalls and a tool belt reclaiming Lowcountry properties. Making them beautiful again releases the deep sigh that soothes the hurt she holds.

Wyn and Remy Gastineau were perfect together. Until, without warning, Remy walks out on their life, love, and marriage. Wyn is blindsided and heartbroken. It takes her years to get over the loss of Remy. Sometime later, their children call a family meeting, and Remy is acting strange. Wyn refuses to hope. Remy has moved on. She must do the same. But she’s wrong. Remy wants her back, and he’s pulling no punches. He’s determined to do the work to piece together the marriage he shattered. Forced by circumstances to tell Wyn things he never wanted her to know, Remy reveals his tragic secrets.

Stay-at-home mom Eloise Williams is PTO president and a respected local philanthropist who sits on the boards of many distinguished charities. In addition to being a doting wife and mother, she is also a serial killer.

Humor and heart collide when two fake dates accidentally ruin a wedding and must play matchmaker to fix it, perfect for fans of Christina Lauren and Tessa Bailey.