Showing results by narrator "Shawn K. Jain" in All Categories

After a series of relationships where I've been made to feel inadequate because of my asexuality, I've made the sole focus of my life my coaching career. I love hockey—the chill of the ice, the fast-paced, high-stress game. I love the fans and the atmosphere. The energy. Now that I'm coaching in the NHL, I feel a sense of serenity and comfort with life. All that's left is to get my team to the Stanley Cup. The frustration that my boys feel echoes through me, and after one of the most horrible plays I've ever witnessed, I turn my back on the ice—only to catch his eyes.

I've lived a very quiet life, keeping my deepest secrets close to my chest. I let no one in, not even my closest friends. When I'm invited to participate in the All-Star Games, I'm suddenly forced to share a hotel room—and a single bed—with a stranger. My carefully guarded world starts to come undone when he kisses me, and I can't get enough.

High school sweethearts, dream wedding, exotic honeymoon, white picket fence, two and a half kids… that's the dream. My prescribed future. Except, I don't want any of that. When my on/off girlfriend of fifteen years and I finally called it quits for good, I decided that I'm ready for a new beginning. I didn't expect that new beginning to be a dude.

His sanity restored, Felix Harrowgate knows there's only one way back to the life he once knew as one of an elite society of wizards: return to Melusine and restore the Virtu, the source of the city's power and protection. After all, it was the manipulations of Felix's former master that destroyed the magical orb. Now that Felix has determined his course of action, there's a very specific companion he needs for this epic journey.

Are we all a little crazy? Roughly fifteen percent of the population will have a psychotic experience, in which they lose contact with reality. Yet we often struggle to understand and talk about psychosis. Interactions between people build on the stories they tell each other-stories about the past, about who they are or what they want. In psychosis we can no longer rely on these stories, this shared language. So how should we communicate with someone experiencing reality in a radically different way than we are?

Even a gay athlete has an appearance to uphold. There are a handful out in every sport and while every trashy magazine wants to get the scoop on what the gays are up to, looking for a scandal and a way to ruin us, every one of us is constantly on our best behavior. Acting a certain way, dressing a certain way, speaking a certain way. If the world knew the real me, it'd shudder. Lace. Pearls. Dresses. Collars. All I want is to be someone's pretty little doll that they dress up and tell me how pretty I am. I want to be loved for the real me, not the image I'm forced to show to the world.

At a time when a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis seems unattainable, understanding the roots of their conflict is an essential step in restoring hope to the region. In The Iron Cage, Rashid Khalidi provides a lucid context for the realities on the ground today, a context that has been, until now, notably lacking in our discourse.

Wicky's never been magically stalked before. He kinda likes it, to be honest. For some reason, it's upsetting everyone else, though. Maybe he should figure out who it is. Ooooo, maybe his fated one is on the other end! In…Thailand?

It’s the summer before senior year. Gabriel, Reese, Sal, and Heath are best friends, bonded in their small, rural town by their queerness, their good grades, and their big dreams. But they have plans for the summer, each about to embark on a new adventure. Gabriel is interning at an environmental nonprofit in Boston. Reese is attending design school in Paris. Sal is volunteering on Capitol Hill for a senator. Heath is heading to Florida, to help out at his aunt’s boardwalk arcade.

Sometimes, all it takes is a single moment to realize you're needed somewhere, and in that moment, your entire life changes. Felton has so many broken pieces that he can barely breathe. But that's okay. I'm going to show this man what love is. If he doesn't have the capacity to protect himself, I'll do it for him. The abuse ends now.

Welcome to Melusine, a city as wondrous as it is corrupt. Within its walls lies a stronghold of power and magic, a shining setting for the brilliant Felix Harrowgate. A well-respected wizard and darling of the court, Felix harbors sordid secrets from his peers in the aristocracy: a dark past in which a sadistic wizard enslaved him body and mind, even as he schooled Felix in how to walk among noblemen as if he were one of them. An abuser Felix believes himself free of, until a return to his former master's lair leads to his harrowing fall from grace.

Since half-vampire Cat Crawfield and her undead lover Bones met six years ago, they've fought against the rogue undead, battled a vengeful Master vampire, and pledged their devotion with a blood bond. Now it's time for a vacation. But their hopes for a perfect Paris holiday are dashed when Cat awakes one night in terror. She's having visions of a vampire named Gregor who's more powerful than Bones and has ties to her past that even Cat herself didn't know about.

When you fight for so long, sometimes it's just easier to give in. I want to give in to the god before me. Sent to me from the heavens, Owen is the very definition of divine perfection. But he doesn't know my truth. If he did, he'd know that I don't belong in his world. The shame of seeing the disgust on his face when he figures it out keeps me running from him. Even though fate or destiny or something cruel keeps throwing us together. Maybe he's the motivation I need to get my shit in order. But can I do it before he figures out I'm nothing but a street rat?

Decolonizing Palestine challenges the weaponization of biblical texts to support the current settler-colonial state of Israel. Raheb argues that some of the most important theological concepts—Israel, the land, election, and chosen people—must be decolonized in a paradigm shift in Christian theological thinking about Palestine.

Commodities For Dummies gives you a complete overview of the basics of investing in commodities. Step-by-step explanations, plus the most up-to-date market information and global events, make it easy to invest in the stuff the world is made of. This book helps you identify the most valuable commodities to add to your portfolio, use commodities as a safe haven in shifting economic times, and come out on top. Learn quick, with real-life examples, expert advice, and basic explanations to get you involved in energy, agriculture, and metals.

It's totally normal for two straight guys to do this when they're alone, right? That's what I keep telling myself after I meet Reggie. I'm a pro tennis player, and I usually spend my life on the court. But an embarrassing injury in the middle of the US Open sidelined my career, landing me in the hands of my new athletic trainer. Reggie is a big old jock with an easy smile, and my grumpy butt has never met anyone like him. We start hanging—at the gym and at his place, on the tennis court and out at the bar. I haven't had a real friend in years, and Reggie's big heart warms me deep inside.

Welcome to Apex City, formerly Bangalore, where everything is decided by the mathematically perfect Bell Curve. With the right image, values, and opinions, you can ascend to the glittering heights of the Twenty Percent—the Virtual elite—and have the world at your feet. Otherwise you risk falling to the precarious Ten Percent, and deportation to the ranks of the Analogs, with no access to electricity, running water, or even humanity. The system has no flaws. Until the elusive "Ten Percent Thief" steals a single jacaranda seed from the Virtual city.

All Aaron wants for Christmas is for his brother, Casey, to get over his ex, Raquel. He’d prefer not to be at Winter Wonderland, the island north of Alaska that’s home to a year-round Christmas theme park. But Casey loves Christmas, so here they are. Unfortunately for Aaron, Casey’s determined to do anything to win Raquel back. All Kris wants for Christmas is for his uncle to move back to Winter Wonderland to be the first gay Santa. To make that happen Kris needs to win the Race, his grade’s annual competition to see who can get a guest to fall in love with them first.

When I fled my small town home to fly across the globe for a potential job on a remote island, I did it on a whim. And let's just say my parents were not happy. According to them, the journey of self-discovery is not nearly as important as tending the family farm.

Traveling across India, interviewing Hindu zealots, armed insurgents, jailed dissidents, and politicians and thinkers from across the political spectrum, Siddhartha Deb reveals a country in which forces old and new have aligned to endanger democracy. The result is an absorbing—and disturbing—portrait. India has become a religious fundamentalist dystopia, one depicted here with a novelist's precise language and eye for detail.