Showing results by narrator "Patrick Lawlor" in All Categories

The popular Patheos blogger and a prominent figure within the Emerging Church Movement and Progressive Christianity explains how the ""American Christianity"" we are currently taught is actually a fear-saturated distortion of biblical faith. Benjamin L. Corey thought he was suffering a crisis of...

The first rule of warfare is to know one's enemy. The second is to know thyself. More than 15 years and three quarters of a trillion dollars after the US invasion of Afghanistan, it's clear that the United States followed neither rule well. America's goals in Afghanistan were lofty to begin with: dismantle al Qaeda, remove the Taliban from power, and remake the country into a democracy.

At a low point in his lowly career, Victor finds himself skulking through the streets of Philadelphia carrying a bag full of money for an ambitious politician. It is a rotten job on the wrong side of anyone’s line, but with bag in hand Victor is suddenly hobnobbing with the city’s elite, filling his bank account, and having sex with the politician’s gorgeous and deranged sister. But just when Victor begins to think he’s got a future in the political game, one of his payoffs ends up in the pocket of a dead woman, and Victor goes from bagman to fall guy.

When Santa Claus is a cop, you better watch out. It’s not looking like a very merry Christmas for San Diego cop Nick Pappas. Suspended from his job, alienated from his family, and persecuted by the press, he’s sorely tempted to turn his gun on himself. Except for his first name, he couldn’t possibly have less in common with jolly old St. Nicholas. But when a local mall decides it needs a secret Santa to help collar some vicious muggers preying on its holiday shoppers, Nick’s persuaded to red-suit up so as to take the naughty punks down and avert a ho-ho homicide.

David Morrell, best-selling author of First Blood, The Brotherhood of the Rose and The Fifth Profession, distills four decades of writing and publishing experience into this single masterwork of advice and instruction for fiction writers looking to make it big in the publishing world. With advice proven to create successful novels,

Leo’s boyhood hero, Henry “Heck” Sundstrom, was larger than life. Lately, however, Heck’s life has been spiraling out of control. First there was the honeymoon boating accident that killed Heck’s son and new daughter-in-law, Allison. And now the big man himself is dying — struck down by a delivery truck in a seedy section of Seattle. As he investigates, Leo begins to wonder if Allison went down with the ship. And whether, with the aid of his aging legmen, “the Boys”, he can prove the “late” Mrs. Heck is more alive — and lethal — than anyone ever suspected.

Anticipating problems, a prestigious global restaurant convention hires Leo as a security liaison. His assignment: monitor the movements of two adversarial steak-house competitors whose "beef" has previously made for some nasty confrontations and landed a food critic in the crossfire of two warring factions. Leo sends "the Boys" off to shadow all three parties and report back to him. But even the simplest of plans can cascade into catastrophe. And Leo soon finds himself served up as the prime suspect in a murder...realizing that both his life and career are at stake.

Remember the twin golden rules of hitchhiking? #1: Don't go hitchhiking, because the driver who picks you up could be certifiably crazy. #2: Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be certifiably crazy. So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Crazy #2? When Blake Crouch and Jack Kilborn face-off, the result is a terrifying tale of hitchhiking gone terribly wrong. Like a deeply twisted version of an "After School Special," SERIAL is the single most persuasive public service announcement on the hazards of free car rides.

Despite what the old adage says, the customer is not always right. Even companies that can seemingly do no wrong-like the coffeehouse giant Starbucks-have only recently started to figure this out.

The fifth installment in the funny, heartfelt, bestselling and widely acclaimed young middle grade series starring an unforgettable young boy on the autism spectrum, from National Book Award finalist Elana K. Arnold. For Bixby Alexander Tam (nicknamed “Bat”), nothing is more important than...

The air conditioner is often hailed as one of the modern world's greatest inventions—yet nearly as often blamed for global disaster. It has changed everything from architecture to people's food habits; saved countless lives, and caused countless deaths. First appearing in 1902, when Willis Carrier, an engineer barely out of college, developed the "Apparatus for Treating Air," everyone assumed it would instantly change the world. But the story of air conditioning and its rise to ubiquity is far from simple.

A bold new remedy for the sprawling and wasteful health care industry. In this provocative book, Jonathan Bush, cofounder and CEO of athenahealth, calls for a revolution in health care to give customers more choices, freedom, power, and information, and at far lower prices.

Humans have always been fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial life, often wondering if we are alone in the universe. Drawing on nearly fifty years as a leader in planetary exploration, Louis Friedman brings into focus the subject of extraterrestrial life, separating knowledge from conjecture, fact from fiction, to draw scientific and technical conclusions that answer this enduring question. Friedman argues that intelligent life is probably rare in the universe but that simple life is likely abundant on millions or billions of planets waiting now to be discovered.

Dave Nash smells trouble the moment he rides into Signal. He's only been working for Walt Shipley three weeks, but he feels he owes the man his life for giving him a job when no one else would. Now, Nash will do anything for Shipley—even if it means staring down the barrel of a gun. He'll face any danger for his new boss, but he hasn't reckoned on the most dangerous creature of all: a conniving frontier woman.

When Willis Wayde first lays eyes on the Harcourt mansion near Clyde, Massachusetts, he is fifteen years old. His father is an engineer at Harcourt Mill, and Willis is awestruck by the family's wealth and power. Seeking guidance from Henry Harcourt, Willis meets Bess, the old man's granddaughter. Their friendship eventually blossoms into love as the elder Harcourt takes the young man under his wing, recognizing in Willis a kindred spirit whose instinct for making money matches his own.

Beneath the surface of the apparently untutored and deceptively frank Abraham Lincoln ran private tunnels of self-taught study, a restless philosophical curiosity, and a profound grasp of the fundamentals of democracy. Now, in Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction, the award-winning Lincoln authority Allen C. Guelzo offers a penetrating look into the mind of one of our greatest presidents.

Rockin' in the Ivory Tower takes a close look at two smaller universities, Drew in New Jersey and Stony Brook on Long Island, to see how the culture of rock music played an integral role in student life in the late 1960s.

Two Tales From Herman Melville includes "The Lightning-Rod Man" and "The Bell-Tower."

Award-winning author and journalist Benyamin Cohen has a bizarre side hustle as the manager of Einstein's official social media accounts, which have 20 million followers—more than most living celebrities. In The Einstein Effect, Cohen embarks on a global quest to unearth Einstein's ongoing relevance today. Along the way, he meets scientists and celebrities, speaks to dozens with the last name Einstein (including two rabbis), and even tracks down the brain of Einstein, stolen from his body during the autopsy

L.A. private investigator Eddie Church doesn’t do divorce work, but collecting alimony and back child support for Louise Barris should be easy money. Korean War veteran Frank Barris has a new job and is flush again. All Eddie has to do is collect the check and deliver it to Louise and her airplane-loving little boy. When the check bounces, Eddie discovers that Louise isn’t the only one after Frank and this case involves much more than just battling exes.