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An exclusive society of the world's most powerful gentlemen. Nothing will get between them and the women they want. Hope Malloy is not intimidated by rich, powerful men. So when she's hired to find a bride for billionaire Rafe Sterling, she’s certain the assignment will be easy. Not only is he sexy and a renowned philanthropist, the man is heir to one of the country’s largest hotel fortunes. Who wouldn’t want to marry him? Rafe Sterling does not want a wife. Too bad it's the one thing he desperately needs. His father ran off with a woman half his age, and Rafe can't become permanent CEO of Sterling Worldwide unless he's married. When he’s ambushed by the competent matchmaker, he’s captivated by her intelligence and seductive innocence. All of a sudden, he is thinking about a future and having her under his complete and total command. Will she run when she discovers his deepest, darkest secrets and shocking, sensual demands?

Tolly Lee is pearls, debutant balls, and old silver on the breakfast table. She is ashamed of something she did thirteen years ago, but she was only sixteen and she didn't set out to do it. Still, she should not have led college senior Nathan Scott to think she was his age. She never imagined a football star like him would keep calling her, but it was mostly a long distance relationship and it's not like they had sex. In the end, she paid for her sins with her heart and she might not be done paying. When she moved to Merritt, Alabama, Nathan had been gone for over a decade. Now that he's back, and if the good citizens of her adopted hometown learn of her part in costing their hometown hero his chance at an NFL career, she might as well pack up her law practice and move to Siberia. A sports commentator christened Nathan Scott "The Angel" because of his flawless face and his ability to leap to catch a football, as if he had wings. He still has the face but his leaping days ended when he was injured after going on the football field distracted, only hours after catching the girl of his dreams in a terrible lie. He would never have accepted the job as head football coach of Merritt High if he'd known Tolly had set up shop on Main Street. Not that he still has feelings for her. But a small town has a way of reviving the past and when common interest in an orphaned teenager forces Tolly and Nathan to agree to an uneasy truce, guilt and old resentments resurface. With no end zone in sight, their mutual attraction leads to a Scrimmage Gone South.

Bestselling author and renowned Zen teacher Steve Hagen penetrates the most essential and enduring questions at the heart of the Buddha's teachings: How can we see the world in each moment, rather than merely as what we think, hope, or fear it is? How can we base our actions on reality, rather than on the longing and loathing of our hearts and minds? How can we live lives that are wise, compassionate, and in tune with reality? And how can we separate the wisdom of Buddhism from the cultural trappings and misconceptions that have come to be associated with it? Drawing on down-to-earth examples from everyday life and stories from Buddhist teachers past and present, Hagen tackles these fundamental inquiries with his trademark lucid, straightforward prose. The newcomer to Buddhism will be inspired by this accessible and provocative introduction, and those more familiar with Buddhism will welcome this much needed hands-on guide to understanding what it truly means to be awake. By being challenged to question what we take for granted, we come to see the world as it truly is. Buddhism Is Not What You Think offers a profound and clear path to a life of joy and freedom.

Murder can be most foul… Is a sweet ending possible when a rival meets his bitter end? Marilyn Hayes, amateur sleuth and owner of SubLime Sweets, Key West’s most popular pie shop, is stunned when a nearby rival starts selling Key Lime pie. The pie mysteriously tastes all too similar to Marilyn’s, and when her rival starts giving his Key Lime pie away for free, Marilyn’s business takes a huge hit. Furious, she tries to beat him at his own game, but when she lashes out, and her rival is later found dead in his shop, her actions look more than suspicious. A special investigator comes in to tackle the case, and his gaze is laser-focused on Marilyn…as the prime suspect. With business dwindling rapidly, and a detective who is ready to close the case and throw Marilyn in jail, the stressed-out pie baker has to find the real killer before it’s too late. Will she clear her name and save her business? Find out in this delicious Cozy Culinary Mystery!

Customer Success Leads to Your Success If you liked Crucial Conversations , The Challenger Sale or books by Grant Cardone, you’ll love Closing the Sale . Guide the conversation. Closing is a process, not an event. In the closing process, there are inevitably many conversations with a variety of potential clients. Closing the Sale will teach you how to influence good decisions to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes from these conversations. Turn talking into decision making. For clients, decision making can seem daunting. They may often favor the noncommittal "maybe" over the decisive "yes" or "no." Essential Secrets to Closing the Sale will teach you how to help your clients make the best possible decisions for both their business goals and your own. Customer success is your success. Closing the Sale will show you how to attain the only real success. the win-win situation. Because the more you focus on creating success for your clients, the more successful you will be. Closing the Sale will teach you the five essential skills to the sale closing process: Identify the End in Mind Decision Address Client Key Beliefs Resolve Objections Prepare the Conditions for Good Decision Making Open Purposefully, Close Powerfully

As the foremost researcher in the area of correlating mindset with a variety of organizational learning factors, having performed a survey validation study of the Mindset Works, Inc. What’s My School Mindset? Survey and the Project for Educational Research That Scales (PERTS) academic mindset survey, the author has discovered links between the philosophical positions one holds and the theory of mind that describes what makes humans different from animals. This book proposes that the ability to recognize and respond to the differences between what we “see” and others “see” is the key reason for individuals, groups, and organizations to succeed or to fail. How we perceive differences and respond to them changes the way our brain develops and how our systems are designed. This book provides strategies for supporting continuous development and growth in individuals, in group dynamics, and in system/organizational development using the most current understanding and propositions of theories of mind. Our theories of physics are expanding through Newtonian, Classical, on to Quantum. Our technologies are expanding from simple tools, to industrialization, to digital information systems, and on to holographic imagery and virtual realities. Biological understandings have grown from magical beliefs about life, through static views of fixed DNA, to cloning, and the potential to regenerate organs and extend life. Our world is in need of an update on the social transformations occurring in human understanding that apply to addressing key issues of our day. This book revisits the concepts discussed in mindset theory and reframes it with a larger, more inclusive potential for understanding our world that empowers our ability for personal choice to improve our lives.

Part memoir, part cultural exploration, this book covers the author’s journey as she grows up in an evangelical Christian home, leaves religion behind as a young adult, and goes on to raise children in a family outside of religious belief. Maria Polonchek weaves a personal story with up-to-date studies and philosophic exploration of what it means to raise secular children in an otherwise religious world. Offering careful and respectful advice for other parents who are raising their children outside of a particular religious belief system, she explores the many other ways of instilling identity, belonging, and meaning into our lives and the lives of children. Honest and irreverent, the author admits to her religious “baggage” and searches for better understanding of such topics as religious education, morality, awe, death, purpose, and meaning, and tradition from secular perspectives. She interviews experts, looks at various studies, and turns to a variety of sources for answers, while maintaining a casual and personal tone. While she ultimately argues for parents to let their children shape their own beliefs, she encourages families to tend to existential and social needs that sometimes go unnoticed or unconsidered in life outside religion.

Imagined by one of the world's leading experts on Buddhism, this fictionalised conversation presents the essential biography of its famously wise founder. A relaxed chat with the Buddha tells us what he thought about impermanence, karma, mindfulness, compassion, love, and everything else that leads us toward a true understanding of ourselves and the cosmos. We know him as the Buddha, the "Awakened One". Born Siddhartha Gautama 2,500 years ago in northern India, he became one of the world's greatest spiritual leaders. He suffered as we do, then by his own efforts found the key to liberation from the bonds of desire, hatred and ignorance. As Westerners living in relative prosperity, we can identify with this man who had it all - love, success, money, talent, privilege - but set these things aside to search for something deeper and more enduring. This book presents an account of the Buddha's life followed by a series of plausible and illuminating but imagined conversations, which probe all aspects of his philosophy for living. The insights he conveys here offer us practical wisdom for a better life.

Despite the widespread popularity of Buddhist practices (like meditation), there is little understanding of the complex philosophy behind Buddhism. The historical Buddha, Gautama, was a real person—a radical—who challenged the religious leaders of his day. Buddha For Beginners introduces the reader to the historical Buddha, to the ideas that made him change his life, and to the fascinating philosophical debates that engaged him and formed the core of Buddhism. Buddha For Beginners compares Buddha's philosophy with those of his contemporaries, the later Buddhist schools, and Western Philosophy. The book includes a survey, distinguishing the philosophical differences among later schools of Buddhism, such as Theravada, Madhyamaika, Tantric, Zen, and others. Buddha For Beginners is not a book you read, it is a book you experience. It makes you stop and close your eyes. Through some magical combination of words, drawings, and intuitive wisdom, Buddha For Beginners conveys not only the facts of Buddhism, but the peace, the silence...the feel of it. It is historically accurate, spiritually challenging, and the white spaces mean as much as the words.

Timely, compelling, and certain to be controversial—a deeply researched study that reveals how companies and policy makers are hindering innovation-led growth Conventional wisdom holds that Western economies are on the threshold of fast-and-furious technological development. Fredrik Erixon and Bjorn Weigel refute this idea, bringing together a vast array of data and case studies to tell a very different story. With expertise spanning academia and the business world, Erixon and Weigel illustrate how innovation is being hampered by existing government regulations and corporate practices. Capitalism, they argue, has lost its mojo. Assessing the experiences of global companies, including Nokia, Uber, IBM, and Apple, the authors explore three key themes: declining economic dynamism in Western economies; growing corporate reluctance to contest markets and innovate; and excessive regulation limiting the diffusion of innovation. At a time of low growth, high unemployment, and increasing income inequality, innovation-led growth is more necessary than ever. This book unequivocally details the obstacles hindering our future prosperity.