Showing results by narrator "Chris Ciulla" in All Categories

A former naval starfighter pilot, Maarkean Ocaitchi once fought to protect the Alliance and its principles of freedom and democracy, but his sister's rebellious past forced them both into a life of smuggling. He nevertheless refuses to believe her assertions that the whole system is corrupt...until she is arrested and condemned to death as a traitor. Now, Maarkean must decide where his loyalty lies, and will either spark a rebellion or help crush the spirit of democracy once and for all.

The United States military hides a secret: the completely real existence of eat-your-brains, one-bite-and-you're-dead zombies. The Army has known they exist for over 100, and has been quietly and expertly keeping the secret. Until now. His hometown destroyed, with everyone he has ever known dead and gone, the sole survivor of the massacre at Fall Creek joins a secret military group to combat the single greatest threat our world has ever faced. Unfortunately, his help may come too late.

Small-time magician Oscar Diggs' life suddenly changes when he's hurled from uneventful Kansas into the enchanting Land of Oz. The inhabitants there see Oscar as a powerful wizard, and they shower him with the fame and fortune he has always imagined would be his. That is until three very powerful witches start to question Oscar's abilities. Drawn into an increasingly dangerous world, Oscar must quickly figure out who is good and who is evil in order to combat the wicked forces at large.

After robbing some banks, Torn Slater knows he should lay low. But when a beautiful widow asks for his help, he can't say no. Her reckless son has gone looking for trouble in Mexico - and found it in a woman called La Señorita. This power-mad femme fatale combines the torture methods of the Spanish Inquisition with the heart-ripping rituals of the Aztecs to get whatever she wants. And she wants the widow's son. Slater would be lying if he said taking down La Señorita would be easy. But dead men don't lie....

The birth of South Sudan was celebrated the world round. But the celebration would not last: South Sudan's freedom-fighters soon plunged their new nation back into chaos, shattering the promise of liberation and exposing the hubris of their American backers. Drawing on extraordinary personal stories of identity, liberation, and survival, this narrative tells an epic story of paradise won and then lost. Zach Vertin's firsthand accounts, from deadly war zones to the halls of Washington power, bring listeners on an extraordinary journey into the rise and fall of the world's newest state.

Moving to a new city was supposed to be a fresh start for her family. Now it’s a nightmare. Her little girl was supposed to be at day care when Kelsey arrived to pick her up. But they have no record of her daughter ever being there. And to make matters worse, her husband is missing too - he won’t pick up his phone, and the school he supposedly works at says he never accepted their job offer.

After surviving an ambush and a firefight on a glacier, Danny and the other mech operators discover that the aliens have sent out a distress signal, seeking extraterrestrial reinforcements. Realizing that they need to prepare for another potential attack, the operators take refuge in a military base where they learn that the Mech Command plans to conduct operations in space in the near future. Armed with this intel, the operators return to Washington, DC where Danny begins to gather evidence about the activities of the head of the Mech Command, Jonas Vidmark.

Racing against spooks and space pirates, freighter captain Mike Starrunner embarks on a do-or-die mission to prevent interstellar war. After the failure of the Fleet's containment operations, the disruptive gene-mod known as the Transcendence is about to fall into the hands of criminals who'll use it to conquer the Cluster. Mike and his crew are the only ones with a chance of catching them in time. Out on their own without backup, they chase the Travelers to a dead planet where a shocking discovery awaits.

In this novel, award-winning author Dale Peck recounts the childhood of his father, Dale Peck Sr. Raised in poverty with seven brothers and sisters in suburban Long Island, terrorized by an abusive mother, Dale Sr.’s life changes when his alcoholic father dumps him at his uncle’s dairy farm in upstate New York. There, he begins to thrive, finding real love and connection with his Uncle Wallace and Aunt Bess. But ultimately, he is unable to outrun the chaos and violence of his old life.

In The Coming of Democracy, Mark R. Cheathem examines the evolution of presidential campaigning from 1824 to 1840. Drawing on period newspapers, diaries, memoirs, and public and private correspondence, The Coming of Democracy is the first book-length treatment to reveal how presidents and presidential candidates used both old and new forms of cultural politics to woo voters and win elections in the Jacksonian era.

Today more than ever, everyone must be her or his own healer, and this is especially true in the management of anxiety and depression. In the first major conceptual leap in mental health care in 40 years, Mind Easing's three-layered healing plan harmonizes wellness approaches, therapy, and when needed, medicine into a safe and effective plan tailored to the needs and wishes of the individual.

In late November 1941, two college football teams, Willamette University and San Jose State, set sail for Honolulu for a series of games with the University of Hawaii. Instead of a festive few weeks of football and fun, the players found themselves caught up in the first days of the United States' war with Japan. For two weeks after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, the young men were recruited to dig and man trenches, string barbed wire, guard hotels, and join patrols as martial law took hold in Honolulu.

Hope Beiler needs Aaron Kanagy’s help. She is determined to give her sister a beautiful new bed frame as a wedding present, and Aaron is the best carpenter in Charity Creek. Unfortunately, she can’t move past something he said last year...and there’s unexplained animosity between their fathers that makes interacting difficult. Aaron wishes he could spend more time honing his woodworking craft, but his parents need help running their gift shop. When Hope approaches him with a solution that will allow them both to achieve their goals, he accepts.

Sylvie Snow knows the pressures of expectations: a woman is supposed to work hard, but never be tired; age gracefully, but always be beautiful; fix the family problems, but always be carefree. Sylvie does the grocery shopping, the laundry, the scheduling, the schlepping, and the PTA-ing, while planning her son’s Bar Mitzvah and cheerfully tending her husband, Paul, who’s been lying on the sofa with a broken ankle.

In Mark Haines’s former life, he was an evangelical youth pastor, a role model, and a family man - until he abandoned his wife, his daughter, and his beliefs. Now he’s marking time between sunny days surfing and dark nights working security at an industrial complex. His isolation is broken when Cindy, a charming 22-year-old drifter he sees hitchhiking on the Pacific Coast Highway, hustles him for a breakfast and a place to crash - two cynical kindred spirits.

Rocco is still reeling from the death of his best friend’s girlfriend, who was murdered as she slept in his bed. There’s no doubt that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and paid the ultimate price. With the identity of the hit man still unknown, a cloud lingers over Rocco, dulling his judgment and leaving this antihero exposed to other threats. For Rocco has stepped on one too many people’s toes over the years, namely the Mafia that is still being rooted out in Aosta.

Massachusetts State Police detective Tommy Kelly is called to Nantucket Island, where a boy’s skeletal remains have been discovered at a construction site—interred for thirty-five years. The crime is especially gutting for Tommy, the father of two boys. It’s also the beginning of a grim mystery. Because no child during that period was even reported missing. Tommy is partnered with Nantucket PD’s best detective, Jo Harris, who first chafes at the idea of a mainlander encroaching on her territory. And their work together is only raising more troubling questions.

Camille and Will Prescott have relocated from San Diego to Phoenix for a fresh start in a quiet gated community. After the traumas Camille’s marriage survived, it’s just the sanctuary she needs. As for her new neighbors, there’s Sozi, seemingly well intentioned if not for her invasive meddling and her desperate overtures to make a friend. And Mara and Oscar, an unstable couple around whom troubling rumors swirl. Patiently listening to Sozi’s gossip and watching Mara and Oscar ever so closely has become something of a hobby for Camille.

Under Cancún’s hard blue sky, a beach boy provides a canvas for tourists’ desires, seeing deep into the world’s underbelly. An enigmatic encounter in Copenhagen takes an IT consultant down a rabbit hole of speculation that proves more seductive than sex. The collapse of a love triangle in London leads to a dangerous, hypnotic addiction. In the Nevada desert, a grieving man tries to merge with an unearthly machine.

Everyone wonders what it's really like in space, but very few of us have ever had the chance to experience it firsthand. This captivating collection brings together stories from dozens of international astronauts - men and women who've actually been there - who have returned with accounts of the sometimes weird, often funny, and awe-inspiring sensations and realities of being in space.