Showing results by narrator "P.J. Ochlan" in All Categories

Flourishing people are strong and weak. Two common temptations lure us away from abundant living: withdrawing into safety and grasping for power. True flourishing, says Andy Crouch, travels down an unexpected path - being both strong and weak. We see this unlikely mixture in the best leaders - people who use their authority for the benefit of others while also showing extraordinary willingness to face and embrace suffering.

A quarter of a century after the end of Communism swept away the ideological conflict of the "short 20th century", a new world is once again taking shape, this time in the Middle East. But what does the crisis in the region, and its refugee exodus into Europe, signify for the future of the world? And why has the noble dream of nation-building failed? Focusing mainly on religion, ideology or economics, most analysis ignored one crucial factor: asabiyyah, or group feeling, something outlined six and a half centuries ago.

Recovering nice guy Paul Coughlin points the way for all men who yearn to live lives of boldness and conviction - like Jesus. Using anecdotes from his own life, powerful and poignant stories, and vivid examples from our culture, Coughlin shows how men can say no to the "nice guy" syndrome and yes to lives of purpose, passion, and vitality.

It's been more than a year since the cruise ship Queen of the Sea was transported in time and space to the ancient Mediterranean not long after the death of Alexander the Great. Captain Lars Floden and the other "Ship People" are trying to plant the seeds of modern civilization. It's not an easy task, to put it mildly. For they have plenty of enemies, too. Cassander is using every foul means available to turn Macedonia and Greece into his own empire.

His father is a white trapper, his mother an Athabascan Indian who walks a thousand miles in winter to reunite with her family. Thus, Jimmy Huntington learns early how to survive on the land. Huntington is only seven when his mother dies, and he must care for his younger siblings. A courageous and inspiring man, Huntington hunts wolves, fights bears, survives close calls too numerous to mention, and becomes a championship sled-dog racer.

Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. It was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark.

With the scalding sting of betrayal still tearing at his soul, American covert operative Chase Fulton steps through a door he believes he can never reopen and into a world unlike the one he’d known since stepping off the playing field and onto the battlefield.

In September of 1892, Oscar Wilde and his family retreated to the idyllic Norfolk countryside for a holiday. His wife, Constance, has every reason to be happy: two beautiful sons, a stellar reputation as an advocate for progressive causes, and a delightfully charming and affectionate husband and father, who is perhaps the most famous man in England. But as an assortment of houseguests arrive, including an aristocratic young wannabe poet named Lord Alfred Douglas, Constance gradually—and then all at once—comes to see that her husband's heart is elsewhere.

China's strategic capabilities and doctrine have historically differed from the United States' and Russia's. China has continued to modernize and expand its arsenal despite its policy of no first use, while the United States and Russia have decreased deployed weapons stocks. This volume brings together an international group of distinguished scholars to provide a fresh assessment of China's strategic military capabilities, doctrines, and political perceptions in light of rapidly advancing technologies.

With his team back in the fight, American covert operative Chase Fulton is forced to dive into his own psyche and revive the devoted warrior deep within. As opposing worlds tug at every corner of his mind, he must once again immerse himself into the realm of the fearless to face an opponent unlike any he’s known.

An unprecedented, captivating narrative of the Nazi rise to power, the Holocaust, and Hitler's postinvasion plans for Russia told through the recently discovered lost diary of Alfred Rosenberg - Hitler's 'philosopher' and architect of Nazi ideology. Only recently discovered by former FBI agent Robert Wittman, the diary of Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg, who led the Nazi party when Hitler was interned in 1923, is a groundbreaking document and an object of rumour, obsession and evil.

The incredible story made front-page headlines on newspapers and television stations across the nation. Affluent Chuck Stuart and his wife were attacked in their car, Mrs. Stuart killed and Stuart wounded. Then, the case exploded anew when Stuart's hoax was exposed and he committed suicide!

When Memoirs was first published in 1975, it created quite a bit of turbulence in the media - though long self-identified as a gay man, Williams' candor about his love life, sexual encounters, and drug use was found shocking in and of itself, and such revelations by America's greatest living playwright were called "a raw display of private life" by the New York Times Book Review. As it turns out, Williams' look back at his life is not quite so scandalous as it once seemed.

On the heels of the most emotionally tumultuous mission of his life, American covert operative Chase Fulton is forced to bury the past and lead his team into the most high-risk assignment of their careers. The world of wealth, privilege, and prestige on the island paradise of St. Barts is but a thin veil beneath which an intricate web of deception, intrigue, and unthinkable danger boils and flourishes.

As former American covert operative Chase Fulton struggles to adapt to life on the sidelines following a catastrophic injury, he finds himself waging a battle like none he’s ever faced.

Berlin does not make it easy to write noir fiction - or perhaps Berlin makes it too easy. Noir tradition casts a long, influential, and even daunting shadow. Neither Döblin nor Benn, Brecht nor Lang, catered to any crime fiction traditions. They merely steeped their literary projects in a great deal of noir. And so it is with most of the stories in our anthology: they do not necessarily follow the usual patterns of crime fiction, but regard noir as a license to write as they wish, a certain way of approaching the city, and a prism through which its nature is viewed....

Everybody starts at the bottom when they change careers. Alerio Sisera understood the concept. He even recognized the difference between being a military man who lived by the gladius and a politician who used a pen to craft agreements. But the theory went to Hades when a series of brutal robberies required Lictor Sisera to investigate the crimes. Bringing fresh eyes to the scenes, a different perspective to the questioning, and postulating a hypothesis ended when blades were drawn.

When the sun sets and darkness consumes the bayous of Southern Louisiana, a world comes alive that can neither be confined nor adequately described. It’s a place of ancient magic, filled with the music and laughter of a people who spend their lives in self-imposed isolation, cut off from the rest of the world and its trappings of modernity. Time passes with the slow progression of the moon across the sky, and ancient spirits whisp their way through Spanish moss and across the mist of waters infested with predators from another era.

Having spent the years since his potentially catastrophic injury growing stronger physically, as well as mentally, and as Chase takes one more stride toward mirroring the achievements of his mentor, he is faced with a fight that may leave his already battle-torn body with wounds too deep to heal and covered by the blood of a man who may have never existed. Loyalties are tested, and fortitude is tried, as three decades of history are torn apart in search of a man who could be nothing more than a lie told to destroy one of America’s greatest warriors.

American covert operative Chase Fulton and his team of tier-one operators are ordered to find and rescue the victim, but that’s only phase one of the mission that may change the landscape of international diplomacy forever. In a tropical paradise where vacationers see nothing less than perfection in every detail, from the Bahamas to South America, Chase and the team are forced to dive beneath the flawless surface and into the depths of terroristic depravity to unravel a web of unthinkable atrocity and infiltrate and devour an evil like none they’ve ever faced.