Showing results by narrator "Rob Farella" in All Categories

The United States in the mid-1800s boiled with conflict and promise. The bloody Civil War raged. A ruminating President sat in the White House. William Gould Raymond (“W.G.”) was as complicated as the times. His life a mosaic of faith, addiction, health setbacks, his sprawling family, service as a Union Army officer, and then as a Lincoln-appointed hospital chaplain. W.G.’s place in history, though, stands as the initial commanding officer responsible for raising what would become the 1st United States Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) of the District of Columbia.

Evan and Mary Ward had their hands full with four small children, trying to make ends meet, when the call from Social Services came. Unfortunate circumstances led them to take custody of a niece and two nephews, making theirs a family of nine. Evan sees an opportunity to improve their financial situation, and through a series of astute moves, perseverance, and friendly demeanor, the family prospers.

Holliday follows the infamous 1880s gambler, dentist, and gunslinger, Doc Holliday. From the outset, Doc has been diagnosed with tuberculosis and is told to head to dryer climates and imbibe to prolong his life. He has also heard of a spring located somewhere along the frontier that could cure him—what he believes to be the mythical Fountain of Youth. The novel portrays Holliday as a rock star, a living legend, increasingly hounded by paparazzi, enamored by death, cards, booze, and women.

Funny, fast-moving, and thought-provoking, Five Minutes from Chaos tells the story of Charlie Neb, a philosophy professor who spends his days lecturing to anxiety-filled frat boys and cheerleaders.

Young Revolutionary War veteran Barnabas Locke makes winter camp in an isolated canyon in the Colorado wilderness, finding pictographs and petroglyphs made by the Ancient Ones. His elderly Arapaho mentor appears like a dream at his fire, issuing a warning but leaving behind a very real huge black dog. Barnabas uses all his frontier skills and learns new ones to survive a mountain winter, but traps himself in a manmade pit, discovers a mysterious abandoned city, and outruns an unnaturally large and beautiful spotted cat.

In spring 1782, young Revolutionary War veteran Barnabas Locke and his Abenaki friend, the visionary Squando, reunite to cross the Mississippi and travel deep into the Great Plains. At the riverbank, they find their hired keelboat commandeered by the imperious young Spanish Isabella and her brother Ramon, who are fleeing the river pirate Joe Fontaine with a cache of jewels.

On the Fringe is a deeply-moving memoir, a reflective and soul-baring account of the author's extraordinary journey as a professional who helped people from dying of AIDS, cholera, and other diseases across the globe. As an anthropologist, Green worked on every inhabited continent, giving the listener an on-the-ground look at how we aid developing nations. Chapters take listeners to one exotic locale after another, describing gypsies in Montenegro, sex workers in Tanzania, disease researchers in Bangladesh, spirit mediums in Africa, and Samaritans in Palestine.

Spencer Ward inherited the family business of outdoor camping equipment from his father. But Spencer cut corners and neglected his own family just to make more money, no matter the cost. To him, the bottom line was the only thing that mattered. Slowly, he learns that his father, unbeknownst to most of the people in the company, wasn't afraid to share and give to those who needed his help. Spencer learned that the more he gave, the more he got back, and it was a life lesson that changed his whole relationship with his employees as well as his wife and children.

In I See Myself, Joe Bonsall reflects on the contrasts and the crossroads of his life. From growing up in the inner city of Philadelphia to sitting on the front porch of his log home in rural Tennessee. From hanging with a street gang in his teens to surrendering to Christ at a youth camp. From working as a short order cook to headlining sold-out arenas. And now—from running across the stage each night to being sidelined by a neuromuscular disorder that has stolen his mobility.

War-seasoned young Barnabas Locke arrives at Harris’s Ferry, where he does business with John Harris II, as a trader of goods going into the contested Ohio Country. Powerful interests want information about Indian alliances with the British, even as the Revolutionary War continues in the East and as white settlers illegally swarm across the boundary line of the Ohio River.

It is 1777, early in the Revolutionary War, when fleet young Barnabas Locke runs against an hourglass to become a courier in Captain Whitcomb’s Rangers. In the defense of Fort Ticonderoga, he is dispatched as a solo spy to track the movements of troops and gunboats as British General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne masses his forces for the expected assault down Lake Champlain.

The dual challenges of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that threatens the world and the unexplained loss of parents that threatens a family are the driving forces behind the lives of two boys and their grandfather. Willie, Denny and their grandfather, Pop, have lived together for nine years, ever since the boys' parents died in an accident that remains a mystery to the boys. Denny reluctantly leaves for college, while Willie enters sixth grade, fearful of the menacing missile crisis and curious about his parents' fate.