The dead have been ravaging the planet for months. Both the East and the West coasts of the United States have collapsed and the U.S. military is in full retreat. All their attempts to stem the tide of the dead have failed. Former Counterterrorism Agent Mark Steele and his fellow survivors have been bushwhacked in the West Virginia hills. The fringe West Virginians are teaching him a valuable lesson in the new rules of the apocalypse. The mountain folk are as resilient as they are ruthless and Steele must find a way out to save his people. In a desperate gamble to stop the virus, retired Air Force Colonel Michael Kinnick has been entrusted with finding Dr. Joseph Jackowski who’s gone missing in West Virginia. Kinnick’s depleted unit of Special Forces soldiers are to the breaking point as the dead assault them at every step. Outside of Pittsburgh, Dr. Joseph Jackowski’s quest to find Patient Zero has stalled. Unwillingly conscripted into the National Guard, he has been enlisted into Colonel Jackson’s rapidly depleting force. As the military quarantine disintegrates around Pittsburgh, death marches closer, and time is running out. Steele is forced to go further than he ever imagined in order to save his loved ones, but when he is done, will anyone still recognize him? Will he recognize them? And will he recognize himself? In this thrilling sequel to End Time, Daniel Greene continues his fast paced and gripping apocalyptic saga. The Breaking, transports us to a near future composed of death, honor, destruction and hope as the United States falls and lives crumble before a devastating zombie virus.

Long before we were immersed in artificial intelligence, we met it in the movies—in HAL, R2D2, and the Terminator. Obsequious robots, homicidal mainframes, and uncanny virtual companions prepared us for a future that has now arrived. Today, AI shapes daily life through chatbots like ChatGPT, autonomous systems that navigate our streets, and financial algorithms that track our spending. With AI everywhere, we need to understand how these systems work, what their limits are, and where they may take us next. In Understanding Artificial Of Minds and Machines, philosopher Patrick Grim traces the story of AI from ancient legends to the neural networks behind today’s breakthroughs. You see how modern systems became so powerful so quickly. You also explore the very meaning of “intelligence,” discovering how modern AI succeeds by drawing on three vast datasets that let systems learn from examples; deep-learning architectures loosely modeled on the brain’s layers; and feedback loops that help models refine their behavior. Together, these give AI the flexibility that lets it mimic intelligence. But there are downsides that the course brings these into sharp black-box opacity, where systems offer answers with no explanation; deepfakes that blur the boundary between real and fabricated; and the much-debated “Singularity,” the point at which machines might one day outpace human intelligence. Knowing how AI works is the best strategy for navigating what comes next. If AI follows the pattern of past technological revolutions, it may eventually slow and plateau. Or future advances, such as quantum computing, may push it far beyond where it stands today. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau warned over 250 years ago, it’s crucial “to foresee that some things cannot be foreseen.” PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Alternate cover edition for ASIN: B01CSOU6S6 For previous cover edition see here The fall of mankind is nigh. And it all began in the dark primal jungles of the Congo River basin. Easily ignored with just a click. When protests turn violent in front of the US Embassy Kinshasa, only the foreign policy experts paid attention. As civil war erupts and people rip each other apart in the streets of the African capital, a disinterested public across the globe turns the channel. They should have planned accordingly. In an effort to avert disaster and preserve its self-image, an overwhelmed US Department of State dispatches a team of elite counterterrorist agents to bring their besieged people back alive. Agent Mark Steele, a rising star within the Division, and his team of gritty operatives are trained to traverse the worst dregs that society has to offer, all while operating from the shadows. But Steele’s team is wading headfirst into a maelstrom of death so much worse than rebels in the streets. A highly contagious microbe is spreading unchecked through the streets killing everyone in its wake, only to bring them back again as the ravenous undead. Only a lone CDC virologist understands the extent of the outbreak at hand. He cowers amongst the embassy staff praying for extraction from the hands of death, and fearing his part to play in the growing global epidemic. Follow this harrowing tale of survival, duty, love and horror as the living dead bring the world to its knees.

1988. Charleston, South Carolina. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. . But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act… different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries - and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil? Like an unholy hybrid of Beaches and The Exorcist, My best Friend's Exorcism blends teen angst, adolescent drama, unspeakable horrors, and a mix of '80s pop songs into a pulse-pounding supernatural thriller.

Alma Harper and her friends are lost in Widowsfield. They're trapped in a lie created by The Skeleton Man, and even death provides no escape. As they struggle to discover the truth about the once sleepy town, a new evil emerges: The Watcher in the Walls. As the lies are exposed, the liars are revealed, and the only way out of the maze is to fall into the lies and disappear. As Alma struggles to find a way out of Widowsfield, a new character comes to town. Her name is Nia, and she is a gifted young woman that can pull memories out of the world around her. Of course, the true memories of Widowsfield are lost behind the lies. As she gets closer to the truth, others will attempt to exploit her gift. All the while, The Skeleton Man plans his escape. What if he gets out?

Librarian note: See alternate cover editions here and here. The Duke and I is a romance set in the Regency era. In the ballrooms and drawing rooms of Regency London, rules abound. From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable… but not too amiable. Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen. Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar. The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...

Predator meets Bridgerton in this alien sci-fi romance. Isobel Nott isn’t one to obey the rules of polite society. With a marriage she doesn’t want looming ahead, she spends her remaining time as a spinster in quiet rebellion. Which is exactly how she finds herself in the woods at night investigating two flying objects that crash-land there. What she isn’t expecting to find are people—hulking, well-armored, and battling. When the victor throws her over his shoulder and carries her out of the self-destructing ship, her life is irrevocably changed. Ved Qon Cleave is brutal and exacting. He has ensured that anything that could make him weak was destroyed long ago. But when he’s led into an ambush, dragged through a tear in space, and stranded on a planet far away, everything changes. Isobel Nott shouldn’t know that he exists. And he certainly shouldn’t be drawn to her. Nothing good could come from such a connection—they don’t belong in each other’s worlds. His is harsh and brutal, hers is full of rules and manners. As his enemies close in from all sides, he can’t afford to have any weaknesses. But it may already be too late. September 30 release

Long before we were immersed in artificial intelligence, we met it in the movies—in HAL, R2D2, and the Terminator. Obsequious robots, homicidal mainframes, and uncanny virtual companions prepared us for a future that has now arrived. Today, AI shapes daily life through chatbots like ChatGPT, autonomous systems that navigate our streets, and financial algorithms that track our spending. With AI everywhere, we need to understand how these systems work, what their limits are, and where they may take us next. In Understanding Artificial Of Minds and Machines, philosopher Patrick Grim traces the story of AI from ancient legends to the neural networks behind today’s breakthroughs. You see how modern systems became so powerful so quickly. You also explore the very meaning of “intelligence,” discovering how modern AI succeeds by drawing on three vast datasets that let systems learn from examples; deep-learning architectures loosely modeled on the brain’s layers; and feedback loops that help models refine their behavior. Together, these give AI the flexibility that lets it mimic intelligence. But there are downsides that the course brings these into sharp black-box opacity, where systems offer answers with no explanation; deepfakes that blur the boundary between real and fabricated; and the much-debated “Singularity,” the point at which machines might one day outpace human intelligence. Knowing how AI works is the best strategy for navigating what comes next. If AI follows the pattern of past technological revolutions, it may eventually slow and plateau. Or future advances, such as quantum computing, may push it far beyond where it stands today. As Jean-Jacques Rousseau warned over 250 years ago, it’s crucial “to foresee that some things cannot be foreseen.” PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Alternate cover edition for ASIN: B01CSOU6S6 For previous cover edition see here The fall of mankind is nigh. And it all began in the dark primal jungles of the Congo River basin. Easily ignored with just a click. When protests turn violent in front of the US Embassy Kinshasa, only the foreign policy experts paid attention. As civil war erupts and people rip each other apart in the streets of the African capital, a disinterested public across the globe turns the channel. They should have planned accordingly. In an effort to avert disaster and preserve its self-image, an overwhelmed US Department of State dispatches a team of elite counterterrorist agents to bring their besieged people back alive. Agent Mark Steele, a rising star within the Division, and his team of gritty operatives are trained to traverse the worst dregs that society has to offer, all while operating from the shadows. But Steele’s team is wading headfirst into a maelstrom of death so much worse than rebels in the streets. A highly contagious microbe is spreading unchecked through the streets killing everyone in its wake, only to bring them back again as the ravenous undead. Only a lone CDC virologist understands the extent of the outbreak at hand. He cowers amongst the embassy staff praying for extraction from the hands of death, and fearing his part to play in the growing global epidemic. Follow this harrowing tale of survival, duty, love and horror as the living dead bring the world to its knees.

Approximately 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, triggering a chain of events that would end the reign of the dinosaurs and usher in the age of mammals. Despite its colossal scale, this incident was not the only event of its kind—in fact, it wasn’t even the first. Rather, it’s only the most recent mass extinction our planet has witnessed across its 4-billion-year lifespan. In the last 500 million years alone, the Earth has experienced five major extinction events, each of which dramatically altered the planet and left a trail of fascinating geological evidence for us to uncover. In the six lectures of Earth’s Great Extinctions, geologist Rachel Phillips digs deep into these mass extinction events, known as the “Big Five,” utilizing the fossil record to explore what caused them, how life recovered after each one, and what they can teach us about modern climate change and extinctions. From the ice age of the Ordovician period to the “Great Dying” of the Permian extinction to the climate catastrophe that ended the dinosaurs, you’ll explore the many factors that led to these events and what they can tell us about Earth in both the past and the present. There is a growing scientific consensus that we are in the early stages of a sixth mass extinction. While the changes the planet is undergoing are human-driven, the ultimate causes—global temperature change, sea-level change, desertification, and other impacts—are not so different from the mass extinctions of the past. Better understanding how and why these catastrophic events occurred is not just an exercise in exploring the past, but a crucial step in determining our own future.

Alternate cover edition for ASIN: B01CSOU6S6 For previous cover edition see here The fall of mankind is nigh. And it all began in the dark primal jungles of the Congo River basin. Easily ignored with just a click. When protests turn violent in front of the US Embassy Kinshasa, only the foreign policy experts paid attention. As civil war erupts and people rip each other apart in the streets of the African capital, a disinterested public across the globe turns the channel. They should have planned accordingly. In an effort to avert disaster and preserve its self-image, an overwhelmed US Department of State dispatches a team of elite counterterrorist agents to bring their besieged people back alive. Agent Mark Steele, a rising star within the Division, and his team of gritty operatives are trained to traverse the worst dregs that society has to offer, all while operating from the shadows. But Steele’s team is wading headfirst into a maelstrom of death so much worse than rebels in the streets. A highly contagious microbe is spreading unchecked through the streets killing everyone in its wake, only to bring them back again as the ravenous undead. Only a lone CDC virologist understands the extent of the outbreak at hand. He cowers amongst the embassy staff praying for extraction from the hands of death, and fearing his part to play in the growing global epidemic. Follow this harrowing tale of survival, duty, love and horror as the living dead bring the world to its knees.

Approximately 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, triggering a chain of events that would end the reign of the dinosaurs and usher in the age of mammals. Despite its colossal scale, this incident was not the only event of its kind—in fact, it wasn’t even the first. Rather, it’s only the most recent mass extinction our planet has witnessed across its 4-billion-year lifespan. In the last 500 million years alone, the Earth has experienced five major extinction events, each of which dramatically altered the planet and left a trail of fascinating geological evidence for us to uncover. In the six lectures of Earth’s Great Extinctions, geologist Rachel Phillips digs deep into these mass extinction events, known as the “Big Five,” utilizing the fossil record to explore what caused them, how life recovered after each one, and what they can teach us about modern climate change and extinctions. From the ice age of the Ordovician period to the “Great Dying” of the Permian extinction to the climate catastrophe that ended the dinosaurs, you’ll explore the many factors that led to these events and what they can tell us about Earth in both the past and the present. There is a growing scientific consensus that we are in the early stages of a sixth mass extinction. While the changes the planet is undergoing are human-driven, the ultimate causes—global temperature change, sea-level change, desertification, and other impacts—are not so different from the mass extinctions of the past. Better understanding how and why these catastrophic events occurred is not just an exercise in exploring the past, but a crucial step in determining our own future.

True love is put to the test in this romantic comedy brought to hilarious life by Santino Fontana (Frozen, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Stephanie Einstein, and a full cast! This Psych 312 assignment just might send me off the deep end. Determining whether love at first sight really exists with Robbie Moravian as my project partner of all people? He’s the sappiest man alive, so upbeat I could scream, and clearly rooting for happy endings at every turn. How does he not learn from experience considering our own meet-cute last semester almost got us expelled? But we both need to pass this course to graduate. So we’re interviewing five random couples about their meet-cutes and relationships and spending all this time together. Which is certainly...educational. Because it turns out Robbie isn’t just the charming golden boy I thought I knew. There’s some actual depth beneath all those lame dad jokes and the ‘70s-inspired thrift wardrobe (even if he does look ridiculously great in a flared collar). Next thing I know he’s walking me back to my office on the regular and finishing all my sentences and protecting me from freak storms, and... Wait. Could Robbie be right? Can happy endings really come from unhappy beginnings? Is he about to change my entire world view? Group projects are the worst.

Approximately 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, triggering a chain of events that would end the reign of the dinosaurs and usher in the age of mammals. Despite its colossal scale, this incident was not the only event of its kind—in fact, it wasn’t even the first. Rather, it’s only the most recent mass extinction our planet has witnessed across its 4-billion-year lifespan. In the last 500 million years alone, the Earth has experienced five major extinction events, each of which dramatically altered the planet and left a trail of fascinating geological evidence for us to uncover. In the six lectures of Earth’s Great Extinctions, geologist Rachel Phillips digs deep into these mass extinction events, known as the “Big Five,” utilizing the fossil record to explore what caused them, how life recovered after each one, and what they can teach us about modern climate change and extinctions. From the ice age of the Ordovician period to the “Great Dying” of the Permian extinction to the climate catastrophe that ended the dinosaurs, you’ll explore the many factors that led to these events and what they can tell us about Earth in both the past and the present. There is a growing scientific consensus that we are in the early stages of a sixth mass extinction. While the changes the planet is undergoing are human-driven, the ultimate causes—global temperature change, sea-level change, desertification, and other impacts—are not so different from the mass extinctions of the past. Better understanding how and why these catastrophic events occurred is not just an exercise in exploring the past, but a crucial step in determining our own future.

Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the unsolved murder of a preteen girl and the disappearance of another. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. Dogged by her own demons, she must unravel the psychological puzzle of her own past if she wants to get the story—and survive this homecoming. Librarian's Note: this is an alternate cover edition - ISBN 10: 0307341550 (ISBN 13: 9780307341556)