Showing results by narrator "Charles Constant" in All Categories

A bold novel that reimagines two of the most legendary characters in American literature - Captain Ahab and Ishmael of Moby-Dick. At the end of a long journey, Captain Ahab returns to the mainland to confront the true author of the novel Moby-Dick, his former shipmate, Ishmael. For Ahab was not pulled into the ocean’s depths by a harpoon line, and the greatly exaggerated rumors of his untimely death have caused him grievous harm - after hearing about Ahab’s demise, his wife and child left Nantucket for New York, and now Ahab is on a desperate quest to find them.

For more than 70 years, Gifford's Ice Cream and Candy Company was associated with nothing but pleasure for native Washingtonians and visitors to the nation's capital. But behind the iconic business's happy facade lay elaborate schemes, a crushing bankruptcy, two million dollars of missing cash, and a tragic suicide. As the last Gifford heir unfolds his story with remarkable immediacy and candor, he reveals the byzantine betrayals and intrigue rooted in the company from its modest beginnings - dark influences that would ultimately destroy the legendary Gifford business.

The Turners know in their hearts that they're anything but normal. Jenna is a high schooler dressed in black who is fascinated with breaking into her neighbors' homes, security systems be damned. Everett genuinely believes he loves his wife...he just loves having a continuing stream of mistresses more. JT is a genius kid with Asperger's who moves from one obsession to the next.

Bishop is trapped deep inside Montana's Apex Valley along with his injured wife, a shotgun-wielding stranger named Colbrick, and a sneaking suspicion he's never making it back to Chicago. Things no man has seen before haunt the woods. Strange animal species creep behind pine trees, some of them with flashing red tags that blink faster and faster. Giant birds mimic the sound of humans and lord over the sky. Leaf-shaped creatures attack anything that moves and flash vivid colors across their glistening backs.

Vienna: Years Ago includes six short stories focusing on a collection of people in 1945 Vienna, including a Vienna police inspector, an American soldier, a former SS major, an American woman doctor, and various friends, lovers, spouses, and enemies.

At the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics, track and field star Jesse Owens ran himself straight into international glory by winning four gold medals. But the life of Jesse Owens is much more than a sports story. Born in rural Alabama under the oppressive Jim Crow laws, Owens' family suffered many hardships. As a boy he worked several jobs, like delivering groceries and working in a shoe repair shop, to make ends meet. But Owens defied the odds to become a sensational student athlete, eventually running track for Ohio State.

In a quiet suburb of New York City, a mansion on a gated estate houses one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the United States - an elite Mafia whose dons belong to the finest families that the WASP establishment has to offer. Millions of dollars flow in and out of 19 Purchase Street, toted by bagmen who gladly risk everything to share in the syndicate's profits. Nothing disrupts operations - until a courier gets a dangerous idea.

In the wake of the 2008 financial crash, Daniel W. Drezner, like so many others, looked at the smoking ruins of the global economy and wondered why global economic governance structure had failed so spectacularly, and what could be done to reform them in the future. But then a funny thing happened. As he surveyed their actions in the wake of the crash, he realized that the evidence pointed to the exact opposite conclusion: global economic governance had succeeded.

Allison and James Price move to the navy-blue forests of Concordia, Idaho, hoping to leave behind the chaos of Los Angeles and the painful memories of his indiscretions. Once settled in the picturesque town, where time seems to have stalled and life moves at a slower pace, their six-year-old daughter, Reagan, befriends a mysterious young girl who seems too idyllic to be true with her pressed pinafores and perfectly curled pigtails. One late autumn evening, as their playdate winds down, both girls vanish into thin air.

Men are commonly expected to act "masculine" (e.g., self-sufficient, stoic, strong, dependable, brave, tough, and hard-working) while avoiding stereotypically "feminine" traits (e.g., emotional expressivity, empathy, and nurturance). Few, however, realize that these qualities - when taken to the extreme - can cause emotional constriction, substance abuse, depression, aggression, and violence in many men.

Breeze did not want to get involved. He had problems of his own, but when he saw the man on the sailboat punch his partner, he was forced to act. He didn't need a woman around while he plotted his revenge against the man responsible for Brody's death. He was on a mission, and this stranger could only slow him down. This thriller culminates on a remote Florida island, where only one warrior will survive - he who can harness the savage within.

How to be a great online searcher, demonstrated with step-by-step searches for answers to a series of intriguing questions (for example, "Is that plant poisonous?"). We all know how to look up something online by typing words into a search engine. We do this so often that we have made the most famous search engine a verb: We Google it - "Japan population" or "Nobel Peace Prize" or "poison ivy" or whatever we want to know. But knowing how to Google something doesn't make us search experts; there's much more we can do to access the massive collective knowledge available online.

This indelible quote from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance applies especially well to California, where legend has so thoroughly become fact that it is visible in everyday landscapes. Our foremost historian of the West, Richard White, never content to "print the legend," collaborates here with his son, a talented photographer, in excavating the layers of legend built into California's landscapes. Together they expose the bedrock of the past, and the history they uncover is astonishing.

The smog beast wafted into downtown Los Angeles on July 26, 1943. Nobody knew what it was. Secretaries rubbed their eyes. Traffic cops seemed to disappear in the mysterious haze. Were Japanese saboteurs responsible? A reckless factory? The truth was much worse - it came from within, from Southern California's burgeoning car-addicted, suburban lifestyle. Smogtown is the story of pollution, progress, and how an optimistic people confronted the epic struggle against airborne poisons barraging their hometowns.

Cécile, a stylish 47-year-old, has spent the weekend visiting her parents in a provincial town southeast of Paris. By early Monday morning, she's exhausted. These trips back home are always stressful, and she settles into a train compartment with an empty seat beside her. But it's soon occupied by a man she instantly recognizes: Philippe Leduc, with whom she had a passionate affair that ended in her brutal humiliation 30 years ago. In the fraught hour and a half that ensues, their express train hurtles toward the French capital.

There’s hardly anyone in the world more down-to-earth than Jesus. That sounds far-fetched because, well, Jesus is God. But read the Gospels and you find Jesus telling stories that ring true from beginning to end, stories you can immediately identify with, stories that make you go “hmmm”.

Scott Billings has a pretty good life, or so it appears. But something is missing for him. Like many others, he finds himself just going through the motions, sleepwalking through life, until an unexpected and unique encounter with a street beggar allows him to see the possibility of a new reality; a dream world that is more real than anything he's ever experienced. Based on the true story of the author's transformational journey, Uncovering the Life of Your Dreams takes you on a journey of your own toward a more enlightened life filled with abundance, joy, and absolute freedom.

In the spring of 1994, psychoanalyst-in-training Steven Poser arrived for his clinical internship at one of the last remaining nineteenth-century mental hospitals in New England. Intending to observe and offer compassionate care to the most chronically ill patients, he ended up staying for two years, forming close therapeutic relationships with three female patients suffering from schizophrenia, "Agnes," "Mrs. Lutzky," and "Lucia." Drawing from his clinical diary, Poser presents his encounters with the women in their own words, each speaking in a poetry of her own invention.

Tom Corbett, Roger Manning, and the big Venusian Astro have triumphed over the perils of interplanetary pirates, rogue reactors, and hostile environments. But when the Polaris is assigned to lead a “wagon train” of ships to colonize a distant world, the cadets find themselves in a dangerous situation that could finally signal the end of the “best unit” in the Academy.

HansjÖrg Wyss grew up in a working-class family in Switzerland. As a college student in the 1950s, he traveled to the United States for a summer job in Colorado. It was there that he first experienced the majesty of the Grand Canyon and the American West, which forever changed him. As a business leader, Wyss pioneered a medical device company that transformed orthopedic surgery to the benefit of both doctors and patients. It was in business that Wyss developed a groundbreaking approach to problem-solving to create maximum impact.