Great Westerns

A short story satire for our times Young Billy Hoeksma, future governor of Michigan, is age six. He skips away from school one day in the early 1970s, urged on to steal a Playboy magazine. Young Billy heads off to the drug store in the wrong direction. He gets lost. When Billy is reported missing by embarrassed school authorities, his wealthy father, the rising right-wing business and political figure William "Will" Hoeksma, Sr., fears the boy’s been kidnapped. He orders his private security team – headed by the enigmatic Vietnam veteran Wilbur Tuttle – to find his son. And so the ...

Along with the volcanic destruction of Pompeii and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Lisbon quake of 1755 is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. After being jolted by a massive quake, Lisbon was then pounded by a succession of tidal waves and finally reduced to ash by a fire that raged for five straight days.

In 1919 two Tennessee boys joined the Army to fight, yes, but mostly to see the world and to be together away from the prying eyes of family. The book follows these two lovers through WWI, the 1918 flu pandemic, prohibition, the Great Depression and their lives after until the beginning of WWII. Funny, heart wrenching, and mostly true.

The decade after the First World War saw a period of growing prosperity and new freedoms for the average American. With help of clever bankers, brokers, and a supply of easy money the average man and woman found their path to wealth – the stock market. As moths are drawn to a flame, so were the gullible investors lured to the securities exchanges seeking to turn their pennies into dollars. For years the market just went up and up, and as the lyrics of the song of the time echoed, “Blue skies, Smiling at me, Nothing but blue skies, Do I see.” By the end of the decade the cracks in the ...

Are you excited about planning your next trip? Do you want to try something new? Would you like some guidance from a local? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this Greater Than a Tourist audiobook is for you. Greater Than a Tourist - Zagreb Croatia by Marijana Janjić offers the inside scoop on Zagreb.

John Lackland was born to King Henry II and Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitane in December, 1166; he was the youngest of five sons. However, he unexpectedly became the favored heir to his father after a failed rebellion by his older brothers in 1173. He became king in 1199, though his reign was tumultuous and short. After a brief peace with Phillip II of France, war broke out again in 1202 and King John lost most of his holdings on the continent. This led to conflict upon his return from battle. Buffeted from all sides, King John was pushed in 1215 to sign the Magna Carta.

Are you excited about planning your next trip? Do you want to try something new? Would you like some guidance from a local? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this Greater Than a Tourist audiobook is for you. Greater Than a Tourist- Kolkata, India by Anisha Mandal offers the inside scoop on Kolkata. Most travel books tell you how to sightsee. Although there's nothing wrong with that, as a part of the Greater than a Tourist series, this book will give you tips from someone who lives at your next travel destination.

After his daughter was born prematurely in 2010, Matt Burriesci set out to write a book about 32 great books, from Plato to Karl Marx, and how their lessons have applied to his life. As someone who has spent a long and successful career advocating for great literature, Burriesci defends the great books in this series of tender and candid letters, rich in personal experience and full of humor.

Greater Than a Tourist—Florence, Italy by Celia Vergon offers the inside scoop on Florence. Most travel books tell you how to travel like a tourist. Although there is nothing wrong with that, as part of the Greater Than a Tourist series, this book will give you travel tips from someone who has lived at your next travel destination.

Are you excited about planning your next trip? Do you want to try something new? Would you like some guidance from a local? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this Greater Than a Tourist book is for you. Greater than a Tourist - Western Cape South Africa by Melanie du Toit offers a local’s insight to the stunning landscapes, diverse culture, and unique experiences offered by the Western Cape.

In this interview, Simon Winchester, the international best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman and Krakatoa, talks about his new book, A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906.

Greater Than a Tourist - American Southwest, by Julia McDonnell, offers the inside scoop on the American Southwest. This audiobook will give you travel tips from someone who has lived at your next travel destination.

There are many theories as to why the United States and then much of the world entered into a long period of price deflation, high unemployment, and an overall significant economic downturn, which we now call the Great Depression. People always wonder why this horrendous event occurred and there is no simple answer to this question. It was a perfect storm of events that came together and brought about an inevitable plummet in the lives of millions.

Greater Than a Tourist - Sibiu Transylvania Romania, by Iris Matubis-Diaconescu, offers the inside scoop on Romania. This audiobook will give you travel tips from someone who has lived at your next travel destination.

With travel tips and culture in our guidebooks written by a local, it is never too late to visit Verona. Greater Than a Tourist: Verona Veneto Region Italy offers the inside scoop on the city of love. Most travel books tell you how to travel like a tourist. Although there is nothing wrong with that, this audiobook will give you candid travel tips from someone who has lived at your next travel destination. Experience cultural, culinary delights, and attractions with the guidance of a local. Slow down and get to know the people with this invaluable guide.

This thoughtful examination of a century of travel writing about the American West overturns a variety of popular and academic stereotypes. Looking at both European and American travelers' accounts of the West, from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America to William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways, David Wrobel offers a counternarrative to the nation's romantic entanglement with its Western past and suggests the importance of some long-overlooked authors, lively and perceptive witnesses to our history who deserve new attention.

Greater Than a Tourist: Wroclaw, Poland by Paula Kolesnik offers the inside scoop on Wroclaw. As part of the Greater Than a Tourist series, this guide will give you travel tips from someone who has lived at your next travel destination.

Mark Scarbrough has been searching for something his entire life. Whether it’s his birth mother, true love, his purpose, or his sexual identity, Mark has been on a constant quest to find out who he really is, with the great Western texts as his steadfast companions. As a boy with his head constantly in a book, desperate to discover new worlds, he can hardly distinguish between their plots and his own reality.

Greater Than a Tourist - Arad Romania, by Casandra Lazea, offers the inside scoop on Arad. This audiobook will give you travel tips from someone who has lived at your next travel destination.

Prepare to dive deep into the origins of Western philosophy, where the seeds of rational thought and scientific inquiry were first planted. In Thales & Zeno: Unveiling the Roots of Western Thought, you will explore the groundbreaking ideas of two of history’s most influential thinkers, Thales of Miletus and Zeno of Elea. This isn’t just another philosophy book—it’s your gateway to understanding the minds that shaped the intellectual world as we know it. Unlock the Secrets of Ancient Wisdom: Discover how Thales, the "Father of Western Philosophy," dared to explain the world through ...