Showing results by narrator "Stephen Bel Davies" in All Categories

Joan Boice, a retired school teacher afflicted with dementia, hoped to hang on to her dignity and safety when she checked into Emerald Hills, a facility run by America’s largest assisted living company. What she and her family got was an introduction to what many think is the country’s next great health crisis.

The year is 1989 in Los Angeles, and Miles Jameson is about to graduate from high school. The last big party of high school is approaching, along with the end of a turbulent decade, and Miles has only a vague desire to “work with his hands” (his girlfriend points out that this is a bit trite). Marked with the disaffection and apathy that filled a particular era, and that has always marked adolescence, author John Duncan Talbird gives us a rollicking and bacchanalian look at the challenge of making something of yourself, even when it seems there is little to work with.

Winter looms in this place of icy splendor near the top of the world-chilling a heart already frozen by hatred and cold dreams of revenge? Experience and adversity have made the storyteller Chakliux a wise and powerful hunter and a man of great respect. But a tender heart is his weakness. In his village lives the beautiful Aqamdax for whom he yearns, though she is mated to a cruel and dangerous tribesman she does not love. It is Chakliux she runs to under a clear, moonlit sky while the village sleeps.

Rebelling against her fashion-drug designer father, freelance journalist and troubled clone Wynne Cage covers a data-heist that places her in the rank of a thief. To make matters more complicated, Wynne must also confront the forces of a world with unlimited bio-technological advantages.

Hard-living musician Flynn "Flint" Clinton has left heartache and his wild ways behind in Nashville, returning to his sleepy hometown of Northfork, North Carolina. There he hopes to start a new life as owner of the Stardust Caf, relaxing and raising his two preteen sons in peace and quiet. Then Flint meets the colorful, indomitable Joella Sanderson, a blond bombshell who serves a mean cup of caffeine at the Stardust - and whose amazing voice belongs at the top of the charts.

The Devil gives Norman Reeves an ill-fated mission he has no choice but to accept: Find the center of Eden and reverse the Fall of Man. Thrust into a place called Creation, Norman's task is plagued by unimaginable people and events. He must unravel impossible clues to free the Three Trees and keep himself out of Hell at the same time. On this surreal and humorous journey, Norman discovers many things better left unknown: the shocking secret lives of people close to him and the other unthinkable reason he was brought here.

In spring 2008, inspired by the Vietnam-era Winter Soldier hearings, Iraq Veterans Against the War gathered veterans to expose war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here are the powerful words, images, and documents of this historic gathering, which show the reality of life in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Haldane, son of the Get warlord Black Morca must flee for his life through a familiar landscape turned strangely alien, aided by a wizard of uncertain abilities and the hazardous favor of the Goddess Libera. His perilous journey will take him to a final battle amidst the standing stones of power of Stone Heath where he will discover his true destiny. An exciting, thought provoking tale by critically acclaimed and award winning masters of the genre.

Nestled in upstate New York, Stratburgh University has a problem. Three sorority sisters have disappeared, and the police say they simply ran away. The students are outraged. Even openly gay junior Jamie Bradford is concerned, only he has other worries. He doesn’t have a boyfriend and is willing to disregard the troublesome news on campus to find one. With hopes of finding a lover, Jamie attends the party of the year and becomes involved with two men at the same time. One is the man of his dreams; the other is a man of his nightmares and a police officer. And Jamie’s hell begins. The cop has another goal and will stop at nothing to achieve it. He’s even willing to track Jamie through the Catskill Mountains and New York City to get what he wants. Jamie’s life.

A revelatory history of the operatic masterpiece that both made and destroyed Rouben Mamoulian, its director and unsung hero. "Bring my goat!" Porgy exclaims in the final scene of Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess. Bess, whom he loves, has left for New York City, and he’s determined to find her. When his request is met with astonishment - New York is a great distance from South Carolina’s Catfish Row - Porgy remains undaunted.

It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port left in Europe - a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until their escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class.

Ash Levine, the top detective in the LAPD's elite Felony Special Squad, is called out to solve the murder of two young black men found shot to death in a Venice alley. The case is a high priority because one of the victims is the son of City Councilman Isaac Pinkney, a frequent critic of the LAPD. As Ash closes in on the killer, the investigation becomes increasingly complex - and personal. Ash soon discovers he is not just an investigator, but a target.

Universal Love welcomes listeners to a near-future world where our everyday technologies have fundamentally altered the possibilities and limits of how we love one another. In these gripping stories, a young boy tries to understand what keeps his father tethered to the drowned city they call home. A daughter gets to know her dead mother's hologram better than she ever knew her living mother. And, at a time when unpleasant memories can be erased, a man undergoes electronic surgery to have his depression, and his past, forever removed.

Even ghosts need help from a Cunning Man. Hiram and his son Michael are dowsing a well in Eastern Utah when they hear a cry of help from the ghost of a small boy, torn to pieces by wild animals. Before they can even begin to look into that tragedy, however, a prosperous local rancher is murdered right before their eyes. In an attempt to both help the ghost and find the killer, Hiram and Michael must navigate an eccentric cast of characters that includes failed bank robbers, a seductive fortune-teller, an inept sheriff, a crazy prospector, and a preacher with an apocalyptic grudge....

Hiram is a man with mystical abilities derived from the commonsense application of Scot-Irish folk wisdom and German Braucher magic. He possesses an arcane Bloodstone that allows him to see a lie the moment it is spoken. Behind the played-out farms and failed businesses are demons, curses, sorcerers, and unatoned wrongs. Bags of groceries and carpentry won't be enough this time. The job will take a man who has known sorrow. A man who has known war. A man of wisdom. A man of magic. The job will take a cunning man.

As a child, Kyrioc was groomed to be the head of one of the most powerful noble families in Koh-Salash, a city built inside the skeletons of two murdered gods. Kyrioc himself dreamed of becoming head of the High Watch, the highest political position in the land. Those dreams have turned to dust. Presumed dead after a disastrous overseas quest, Kyrioc now lives in a downcity slum under a false name, hiding behind the bars of a pawnshop window. Riliska, a 9-year-old pickpocket who sells stolen trinkets to his shop, is the closest thing he has to a friend.

Freedom of choice lies at the heart of American society. Yet, many Americans don't realize that these choices are illusory at best. The available options in food, healthcare, education, transportation, and even online presence are largely constructed by corporations. At What Cost confronts how globalization, financial speculation, monopolies, and control of science and technology have enhanced the ability of corporations and their allies to overwhelm influences of government, family, community, and faith.

Distinguished author Dr. Charles R. Chaffin delivers a fun and evidence-based exploration of how you can devote more attention on what you believe is important while ignoring the distractions that increasingly permeate your life. Using research from cognitive, education, positive, and clinical psychology, the book identifies the sources of noise and distraction in this information age and how we can manage it in all aspects of our lives.

Lead & Influence explains how to use the power of ownership to become even more successful in leading your organization. Based on 30 years of leading and influencing across distances and cultures, author Mark Fritz has identified key leadership mindsets and habits that create a culture of ownership. It begins with a leader's personal ownership. Second, it's about enabling personal ownership in others. Third, it's about enabling team and organizational ownership. Why? Because you want your people to not just do their job, but also to own the achievement (the outcomes).

The US military in general, and its many elite organizations in particular, possesses a culture of high performance. Courage to Execute outlines the six basic principles that operate at the foundation of high performance, which include leadership, organization, communication, knowledge, experience, and discipline, known together as LOCKED. When all are practiced effectively, teamwork emerges. But the most elusive quality that's at the heart of all elite military teams, the element that organizations and businesses desire to perform more efficiently and effectively, is trust.