Books with author C.K. Thompson

90,000 stargazers can't be wrong! Our original Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations was such a hit that we're bringing it back in an affordable paperback edition for a new generation! From Andromeda to Pegasus, Orion to the Big Dipper, this super informative guide covers it all with dazzling glow-in-the-dark illustrations of the constellations, eight sky maps, and fascinating retellings of the legends behind the constellations. Helpful tips on locating stars in the night sky through every season of the year make this a book the whole family can enjoy together.

90,000 stargazers can't be wrong! Our original Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations was such a hit that we're bringing it back in an affordable paperback edition for a new generation! From Andromeda to Pegasus, Orion to the Big Dipper, this super informative guide covers it all with dazzling glow-in-the-dark illustrations of the constellations, eight sky maps, and fascinating retellings of the legends behind the constellations. Helpful tips on locating stars in the night sky through every season of the year make this a book the whole family can enjoy together.

Note To Reader: Book Two Is Now On Amazon. Be Sure To Check It Out :)Determined to save his dying father, Roland Roper only has one hope. Decades after the Greystone war, wizards are now presumed to be extinct. That is, until rumors fly that one has been sighted outside the village. Knowing it's his father’s only hope, Roland sets out to find this forgotten wizard. With the help of his friend Tristan, the two set out on an adventure into the unfamiliar world. Attacked by a magical creature in the dark woods, they learn he is connected to the forgotten wizard. Taking the creature hostage, the two decide to use him as leverage to attract the wizard. Even with the help of this creature, convincing the wizard to heal his father turns out to be more of a challenge than once thought. In a struggle to save his father, Roland learns what it takes to be a man in this coming to age story. For a Limited Time, Get Book Two for only 99 cent At This Link: https://www.amazon.com/Forgotten-Wizard-Book-Two-ebook/dp/B01ENRQDXS

Growing up as an abandoned orphan on the doorstep of strangers earned Beldagar a life of servitude. He finds he has a strange talent to turn off the abusive voices of his heartless family, but all he longs for is equal footing among them. The worst part of it is working in the cold gold mines of the mountain shadowing the primitive village. It seems the deeper they dig the more dangerous it becomes and the strange manifestations haunting him grow more intense affecting his safety. His relentless life changes one day while safely observing the festival for the Gods, in which he sees Rose. For the first time his life seems to be altering, but in the twirling moment a strange sorceress shows up revealing to him a world of opportunity through her magic as well as warning of an ancient monstrous legend about to wake with in the heart of the mountain. The cursed sorceress foresees Rose’s death and offers him a deal to save her life. As Beldagars manifestations increase he is tempted to do all he can to save her, but what if the final cost is murder? Follow this epic spell binding YA fantasy adventure today for FREE!

Nikki Harmon thinks the move to a sleepy little town in Virginia will be a boring one. After all, with a name like "Bland", you can't really expect all that much.But all of that changes when she meets Adam Blackwater, leader of a group of boys known as the Keepers.Adam Blackwater has protected his tribe's secret for his entire life. Six Keepers to guard the legend, from one generation to the next. He thinks everything will stay safely hidden.Little does he know, one girl will change it all.Scroll up and click to begin the adventure today...

Mage Fade - A Short StoryIn the beginning, Mage's were something we just heard about. Nothing more than an interesting story. Never in our lives did we expect one to capture us. See, after the war, we were forced to live in the Greylands. It was the place that all of the elves ran to for safety. Cold and harsh, life wasn't easy as we managed to survive hiding in holes.As brothers, we had each other, but that was about it. Life wasn't ideal, but at least we were together. Of course, whether you know it or not, time is always ticking as you head towards your destiny. It was that one moment that changed everything. If the Mage didn't find us, it would have been different. It had to be.

From the bestselling author of Blood and Money: A haunting true story of three people locked in a fierce struggle against time and the sea—and each other. In July 1973, Bob Tininenko; his wife, Linda; and his brother in-law, Jim Fisher, set sail from Tacoma, Washington, on a thirty-one-foot trimaran down the West Coast to Costa Rica. The journey was expected to take a matter of weeks, but ten days into the cruise, the party encountered a freak storm off the coast of northern California. When gale-force winds and fifty-foot waves capsized their boat, the voyage became a nightmare. For seventy-two days, the trio was lost at sea. Challenged by nature and compromised by a bitter rivalry, their courage and will to live was put to the ultimate test. Jim, the owner and skipper of the boat, was a devout fundamentalist whose recognition of God’s will in every event brought him into increasing conflict with his brother-in-law. As the two men battled to take control of a dire situation, Linda kept a secret that would lead to heartrending tragedy. A “hair-raising” (Houston Chronicle) account of shipwreck and survival and a searing portrait of faith without reason, Lost! is an unforgettable true story from “a writer of tremendous power and achievement” (Detroit Free Press).

Why would a smart New York investment banker pay $12 million for the decaying, stuffed carcass of a shark? By what alchemy does Jackson Pollock's drip painting No. 5, 1948 sell for $140 million? Intriguing and entertaining, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark is a Freakonomics approach to the economics and psychology of the contemporary art world. Why were record prices achieved at auction for works by 131 contemporary artists in 2006 alone, with astonishing new heights reached in 2007? Don Thompson explores the money, lust, and self-aggrandizement of the art world in an attempt to determine what makes a particular work valuable while others are ignored.This book is the first to look at the economics and the marketing strategies that enable the modern art market to generate such astronomical prices. Drawing on interviews with past and present executives of auction houses and art dealerships, artists, and the buyers who move the market, Thompson launches the reader on a journey of discovery through the peculiar world of modern art. Surprising, passionate, gossipy, revelatory, The $12 Million Stuffed Shark reveals a great deal that even experienced auction purchasers do not know.

Dragons, magic, and more...Welcome to Shifter’s University!Claire Pratten has a secret—one that she’s never shared with a soul. Whenever she is frightened, her “other” self comes out. Normally she has no problem hiding what she is, but lately life at her foster home has gotten harder and keeping her secret is getting tougher.Logan Fairmont is a dragon shifter and more than accustomed to looking out for himself—and others. In fact, he is one of the few Imperium University students tasked with spending weekends in the city, searching for young shapeshifters on the edge of revealing their magic to the human race. When he finds Claire, Logan knows she will need the help of the University and its teachers to blend into society.He thinks he knows what she is.But magic is never quite so simple. Scroll up and click the buy button now to begin the adventure!

Having to share your soul with a wolf isn't easy, but that is what Brian Shaw is learning to do. Amidst learning about Indian legends and folklore, he's also finding out what becoming a Keeper truly is.And that's just the easy part.An old evil is stalking the forest and it is up to the Keepers to discover her secrets before she destroys all they hold dear. As legend, ghosts, and the past link to the present, will Brian and the Keepers be strong enough to defeat her? Or will history repeat itself once again?The Keeper Saga recommended reading order:Hidden Moon, book oneOnce Upon a Haunted Moon, book twoThe Wolf, the prequelWynter's War, book threeCharmed

Hello, world.Facebook's algorithms shaping the news. Self-driving cars roaming the streets. Revolution on Twitter and romance on Tinder. We live in a world constructed of code--and coders are the ones who built it for us. From acclaimed tech writer Clive Thompson comes a brilliant anthropological reckoning with the most powerful tribe in the world today, computer programmers, in a book that interrogates who they are, how they think, what qualifies as greatness in their world, and what should give us pause. They are the most quietly influential people on the planet, and Coders shines a light on their culture.In pop culture and media, the people who create the code that rules our world are regularly portrayed in hackneyed, simplified terms, as ciphers in hoodies. Thompson goes far deeper, dramatizing the psychology of the invisible architects of the culture, exploring their passions and their values, as well as their messy history. In nuanced portraits, Coders takes us close to some of the great programmers of our time, including the creators of Facebook's News Feed, Instagram, Google's cutting-edge AI, and more. Speaking to everyone from revered "10X" elites to neophytes, back-end engineers and front-end designers, Thompson explores the distinctive psychology of this vocation--which combines a love of logic, an obsession with efficiency, the joy of puzzle-solving, and a superhuman tolerance for mind-bending frustration. Along the way, Coders thoughtfully ponders the morality and politics of code, including its implications for civic life and the economy. Programmers shape our everyday behavior: When they make something easy to do, we do more of it. When they make it hard or impossible, we do less of it. Thompson wrestles with the major controversies of our era, from the "disruption" fetish of Silicon Valley to the struggle for inclusion by marginalized groups.In his accessible, erudite style, Thompson unpacks the surprising history of the field, beginning with the first coders -- brilliant and pioneering women, who, despite crafting some of the earliest personal computers and programming languages, were later written out of history. Coders introduces modern crypto-hackers fighting for your privacy, AI engineers building eerie new forms of machine cognition, teenage girls losing sleep at 24/7 hackathons, and unemployed Kentucky coal-miners learning a new career. At the same time, the book deftly illustrates how programming has become a marvelous new art form--a source of delight and creativity, not merely danger. To get as close to his subject as possible, Thompson picks up the thread of his own long-abandoned coding skills as he reckons, in his signature, highly personal style, with what superb programming looks like. To understand the world today, we need to understand code and its consequences. With Coders, Thompson gives a definitive look into the heart of the machine.