Showing results by narrator "Richard Joel" in All Categories

North America's biggest cat was once killed for bounty dollars, slaughtered with impunity and driven toward extinction. But today's cat of intrigue, despite our lingering fears and misconceptions, has returned to much of its native range in the western United States and gained respect as a predator integral and necessary to wild ecosystems. This turnaround was triggered by one man: Maurice Hornocker. Cougars on the Cliff recounts the early years of his research when he tracked lions following a dog's nose and footprints in the snow—before telemetry was available.

In 1922, three of the Irish Republican Army's top gunmen arrived in New York City seeking ven­geance. Their target: "Cruxy" O'Connor, a young Irishman who kept switching sides as revolution swept his country in the wake of World War I. Cruxy's last betrayal dealt a blow to Ireland's struggle for independence: six of his IRA comrades were killed when he told police the location of their safe house. A year later, the IRA gunned him down before a crowd of horrified New Yorkers.

A Nebraska native, Claude Wheeler wants to attend the State University but instead lives a typical college life as a Temple College student. However, when his successful father decides to expand the family farm, Claude's reality is changed forever as he's forced to drop out to help realize his father's dream. Later, as war wages on in Europe, he enlists, hoping to escape his dreary fate and find purpose.

With the civilized universe conquered, it’s up to the uncivilized to fight back. Rico prefers working alone, but this time, he’s leading an army against his two greatest enemies, who both have one thing in common: Rico’s own DNA. Fighting a personal battle on a galactic scale, Rico enlists thieves, murderers, and malcontents (plus one space princess) to help him save the universe from tyranny. And considering Rico’s new associates, it’s not a question of whether he’ll be betrayed, but when, and by whom.

The year is 1962, and every night Grace lays her head on her pillow at the Texas State Lunatic Hospital, she reminds herself she is not what they say she is. Her children and her husband are not dead...they’re searching for her. Someone knows the truth. Strangely, that someone is hell-bent on making sure the truth stays buried. The question is… why? Meanwhile, Grace has bigger fish to fry, starting with her new roommate. Elizabeth is certifiable, and she has star status—a deadly combination, Grace realizes.

The Uses of Delusion is about aspects of human nature that are not altogether rational but, nonetheless, help us achieve our social and personal goals. Psychologist Stuart Vyse presents a lively, accessible exploration of the psychological concepts behind "useful delusions," fleshing out how delusional thinking may play a role in love and relationships, illness and loss, and personality and behavior. Along the way Vyse draws on the work of William James, Daniel Kahneman, and Joan Didion—who wrote about her compelling belief that her deceased husband would soon return to her.

Science Be Dammed is an alarming reminder of the high stakes in the management - and perils in the mismanagement - of water in the Western United States. It seems deceptively simple: Even when clear evidence was available that the Colorado River could not sustain ambitious dreaming and planning by decision-makers throughout the 20th century, river planners and political operatives irresponsibly made the least sustainable and most dangerous long-term decisions.

Confidence is sexy. Confidence is powerful. Call it what you want - chutzpah, charisma, or the cool factor. But whatever you call it, Randy Cohen, the CEO (chief energizing officer) of TicketCity, says it’s all about swagger - or confidence with an attitude! Cohen has been courtside, ringside, and inside at some of the greatest events on the planet - Olympics, Super Bowls, and sold-out mega-concerts. Secrets of Swagger shares his expertise on how 10 celebrities have reached amazing success by channeling their inner power and then strutting their stuff all the way to the bank.

Franklin is a wanted man living under an alias, and, more curiously, he has three wives. No More Strangers and Foreigners is a true story of polygamy lived in the open - not the sordid brand of the 21st-century polygamy with its child brides and forced marriages, but the saga of ordinary love and extraordinary lives. In a chain of polygamist colonies south of the Texas border, founded by fellow Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), the Spencers immerse themselves in the culture of their adopted land.

Dungeon. Quest. Adventure. A journey into madness. When John Younger answered the Regent's call to find a missing prince, he thought it would be an easy way to make some coin. He was wrong. Thrust into a life-or-death battle with creatures only heard about in stories long since forgotten, John finds himself in a dungeon of elder ones and old gods. As he descends into the heart of darkness, John must use all of his brains and brawn to successfully make it through each floor of the dungeon, while saving others and gaining the favor of those within.

When a mat-trans malfunction strands Ryan Cawdor and his friends in a gutted redoubt in the West Indies, the crystal waters offer them a tantalizing glimpse of untouched splendor. But the oasis is abruptly shattered by violent and ruthless pirates, and Ryan has to barter with a young guide, a teenage boy on a blood quest against a sadistic local warlord, to navigate a land teeming with predators-mutie, human and animal. The race is on to find a second redoubt, buried deep in the inhospitable heart of Monster Island.

Matthew Crain gives internet surveillance a much-needed origin story by chronicling the development of its most important historical catalyst: web advertising. Profit over Privacy uses the 1990s as its backdrop to show how the massive data-collection infrastructure that undergirds the internet today is the result of twenty-five years of technical and political economic engineering.

The thought of missing Christmas has little Calvin quaking in his roots. The smallest tree on his famous farm, his branches get all ruffled when a grumpy old coot says he isn't strong enough for ornaments. But he's thrilled when he's finally pulled from the ground and put on sale just in time for Christmas Eve!

There are two ways to be a hero. One is more violent than the other. And the universe needs a hero, because a mysterious entity known as the Fathom is terrorizing the known universe and seizing control. But they’ve made one mistake: They woke Rico, the universe's greatest killer, from a coma. And he’s decided he might be the good guy this time. But being a hero isn’t easy. Rico has to work with others (not his favorite), and the impossible odds means it’s going to take an insane scheme or two (more to his liking).

How can Peter confess his feelings for Gemma without ruining what they have? Perhaps the right moment is a trip to Split Rock Falls, the spectacular waterfalls not too far from town. There, surrounded by the beauty of unspoiled woods and crystal waters, Peter will finally be able to reveal what is in his heart, and Gemma will understand that the two of them are meant for each other. But Peter does not realize that Gemma's destiny has already been written...

Collin War wakes up in a bed that is not his own, in a body that feels changed. He is the first of his kind, the first to recover from a mysterious fever that has ravaged the world. Collin awakens in the small town of Goshen, Montana, a community struggling to survive while maintaining a faithful existence. He yearns for his lost family but finds himself drawn to the people of Goshen.

Freud, Dora (no, not that Dora), and surfing’s secret Austro-Hungarian roots.

A toolkit of proven strategies and practices for building capacity and creating transformation. Recent years have seen a proliferation of information on how to make change in business, in social and environmental movements, and on a more personal scale. But, even with all this attention, two out of three change efforts fail to achieve their desired result. How can you make your own effort buck this trend?

Edgar Award Nominee for Best Paperback Original! Bestselling sensation Lisa Turner conjures a riveting Southern gothic mystery set in Memphis, with echoes of Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil and Lisa Gardener, in which detective Billy Able is thrown into a vortex of bizarre murders...

Edgar-nominated and bestselling author Lisa Turner’s hard-boiled Detective Billy Able returns in this dark Southern mystery about the murder of a dazzling Memphis socialite—and the scandals revealed in the wake of her death The heart can be an assassin. Detective Billy Able knows that from...