Showing results by narrator "MIke Vendetti" in All Categories

What is worse: capital punishment or life in prison? You be the Judge.

"Three-Day Blow'' is a short story that became a chapter from In Our Time. Jake (Hemingway's alter ego) hikes to his friend Bill's house where they spend the morning talking and drinking. The conversation is mostly chit-chat until the liquor loosens them up enough to discuss Jakes's breakup with Marjorie.

The story is about a 25-year-old Harvard student who follows a "clean" life. He marries a 40-year-old clean Southern woman and the two try very hard to have a baby. Eventually, both become disenchanted with each other, and the wife's girlfriend moves in to live with her.

As I listened to this, I couldn't help but compare Buggs and Ad to George and Lennie in Steinbeck's Mice and Men. Buggs protects Ad as George protected Lennie. Ad, though diminutive in size, as a former professional boxer could be as dangerous as Lennie when he had a crazy spell. Hemmingway portrays Buggs as the true leader of the group, highly intelligent, articulate, and gentle to his companion Ad while leading Ad to believe he is in charge.

Big Two-Hearted River features a single protagonist, Hemingway's recurrent autobiographical character Nick Adams, whose speaking voice is heard just three times. Hemingway explores the destructive qualities of war, but he also creates a great fishing story.

There comes a time in the course of a battle when a soldier leaves his fate in the hands of the Gods of war. He carries on with the battle at hand, the only way he knows how - fight now, think later. Stephen Cranes’ classic novel ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ offers us an insight into the mind of a young soldier. As he delves into the black depths of both PTSD and trauma, Cranes’ striking descriptions and masterful prose make this captivating novel unmissable for fans of Jack London, John Steinbeck, and Edith Wharton.

The poems in this collection, "Fairies and Fusiliers", appeared in 1918, after Robert Graves returned from World War I in his early 20s. The fairy poems are from the carefree happy days of childhood and make-believe recalled by a man who has lived the reality and horror of war. The poems of war are written only as one who has witnessed it can tell them.

"Traitor's Hands" is a short story by Agatha Christie that was published in Flynn's, a weekly pulp magazine, in the edition of 31 January 1925. This short story was later published as "Witness for the Prosecution".

Days have turned into weeks with no contact from anyone outside of North America, where the power, communication, and transportation grid has been completely destroyed by massive solar flares. In the ensuing chaos, grocery store shelves have been stripped bare and panicked survivors have fled the cities and towns, sweeping across the countryside in a desperate attempt to find sustenance and avoid the violence.

Imagine if you will a three-year journey to outer space and back, drinking distilled water, breathing filtered air, and synthetic food. You can imagine the anticipation of returning to Earth, and then discovering you are allergic to everything on Earth from women to the air you breathe. This is the story of four aging astronauts, able only to look at Earth from their spaceship or venture out to water the geraniums wearing a spacesuit.

"Just room for one inside, sir," isn't quite as bone-chilling as hearing "room for one more, honey" in one of the Twilight Zone's most popular episodes, "Twenty Two." The Rod Serling masterpiece was inspired by E.F. Benson's "The Bus-Conductor". A ghost bears the chilling news instead of a recurring dream in Benson's chiller.

As massive solar flares bombard the Earth, an intense electromagnetic pulse brings down America’s long-neglected power grid. The electric age ends and anarchy descends as desperate citizens panic. Artie Drager, whose dream Bahamas vacation turns into every parent’s worst nightmare, finds himself stranded thousands of miles from his home and only daughter, Jessica. As the horrible aftermath unfolds, Jessica is frantic about her father lost somewhere at sea. But first she must save herself right at home.

Imagine if you will, a cat-like animal able to read your mind. That is not too far-fetched because I believe at times my cat can read my mind, but this cat is different. This creature also has another power, the ability to project to your mind. It is so intent upon pleasing you, that what you think about becomes very very real. Real to the point you believe and act upon what the cat projects.

First published in 1953 ,"Time Enough at Last" by Lynn Venable is the basis for the eighth episode of The Twilight Zone, becoming one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone. It is "the story of a man who loves books yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them. Hope springs forth when the protagonist appears to be the sole survivor of a gigantic nuclear attack, but wait folks; there is more."

"The time is the day after tomorrow. The place: a far off corner of the universe. The cast of characters: three men lost among the stars, three men sharing the common urgency of all men lost.... They're looking for home. And in a moment they'll find home, not a home that is a place to be seen but a strange, unexplainable experience to be felt."

The world has been in anarchy for 200 years, and society is disintegrating. There is, however, a small oasis with a government that is doing well, hidden from the rest of the world. The AL, or Anarchy League, whose purpose is to destroy all government, stumbles upon this settlement.

The Spoon River Anthology, by Edgar Lee Masters, narrated by the award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti and professional actress Kathy Verduin, is a collection of short free-verse poems that collectively narrates the epitaphs of the residents of Spoon River, a fictional small town named after the Spoon River, which ran near Masters' home town of Lewistown, Illinois.

How far would you go to get your family out if you were convinced that America was doomed? Would you build an underground bunker and stockpile it with ammunition and supplies? Buy a cabin in the woods and start growing all your own food? Not if you were obsessed with boats the way Terry Bailey is obsessed. Terry has an escape plan to sail to the very ends of the earth; the only real option left to survive what's coming, according to him.

As Eric Branson meets new friends and foes in his struggle to prevent the hostile occupation of his brother’s jurisdiction and the broader Gulf Coast region, the intel he gathers leads to stunning conclusions. Eric’s focus until now has been to defend his tribe, namely, his immediate family, and the small group of friends and allies that have joined them. Will knowledge of a vast conspiracy change his priorities, or will he still choose to leave behind a nation in ruins?

Eric Branson has done his best to mind his business and look out for his own. But when he’s backed into a corner even as his goal is in sight, Eric’s course of action is straightforward and clear. The odds aren't on his side, but experience, tenacity and courage still are. Will they be enough to save his family?