Showing results by narrator "Michael Kramer" in All Categories

Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, offers a challenge to his Church. Can he bring about significant change? Should he? Garry Wills argues that changes have been the evidence of life in the Catholic Church. It has often changed, sometimes with bad consequences, more often with good - good enough to make it perdure. In this brilliant and incisive study, he gives seven examples of deep and serious changes that have taken place within the last century.

Tyvian Reldamar — criminal mastermind, rogue mage, and smuggler of sorcerous goods — has just been betrayed by his longtime partner and left for dead in a freezing river. To add insult to injury, his mysterious rescuer took it upon himself to affix Tyvian with an iron ring that prevents the wearer from any evildoing.

Buck, a huge 4-year-old Scottish Shepherd-Saint Bernard cross-breed, lived a life of ease at Judge Miller's Santa Clara Valley estate. This is the story of Buck and how he was thrust into the life of a sled-dog in the savage Klondike during the Gold Rush, and how he ran with the wolves. Jack London, born in San Francisco on January 12, 1876, is well known for his stories involving men and animals and their struggles in the environment.

When Corporal Elijah Russell's superb horsemanship is revealed during a firefight in northern Iraq, the young Army Ranger is assigned to an elite Special Forces unit preparing to stage a secret mission in eastern Afghanistan. Elijah's task is to train the Green Berets - fiercely loyal to their enigmatic commander, Captain Wynne - to ride the horses they will use to execute this mission through treacherous mountain terrain. But as the team presses farther into enemy territory, the nature of their operation only becomes more mysterious, and Wynne's charismatic power takes on a darker cast.

Oscar-winning actor Richard Dreyfuss has spent nearly five decades on the stage and silver screen. However, through his longtime interest in political and social activism, Dreyfuss has emerged as a leading voice in the area of civic engagement and active citizenship, earning posts at St. Antony's College, the University of Oxford, and the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles ACLU Foundation.

It was an annus horribilis for Iran's Supreme Leader. The Green Movement had been crushed, but the regime was on edge, anxious lest democratic protests resurge. International sanctions were dragging down the economy while talk of war with the West grew. Hooman Majd was there for all of it. A new father at age fifty, he decided to take his blonde, blue-eyed Midwestern yoga instructor wife Karri and his adorable, only-eats-organic infant son Khash from their hip Brooklyn neighborhood to spend a year in the land of his birth.

Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stamping ground. At a time when the supernatural world is in upheaval and spilling over into the mundane reality of the living, his skills have never been more in demand. A good exorcist can charge what he likes - and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle - but there's a risk: sooner or later he's going to take on a spirit that's too strong for him. After a year spent in 'retirement', Castor is reluctantly drawn back to the life he rejected and accepts a seemingly simple exorcism case - just to pay the bills, you understand.

Foreign correspondent Neely Tucker and his wife, Vita, arrived in Zimbabwe in 1997. After witnessing firsthand the devastating consequences of AIDS on the population, especially the children, the couple started volunteering at an orphanage that was desperately underfunded and short-staffed. One afternoon, a critically ill infant was brought to the orphanage from a village outside the city. She'd been left to die in a field on the day she was born.

New York Times best-selling author Tracy Whitney - Sidney Sheldon's most popular and enduring heroine - is back again in the sensational and gripping follow-up to Chasing Tomorrow. Once upon a time, Tracy Whitney was one of the best thieves in the business. Then she settled down, had a baby, and planned to spend the rest of her days quietly, living anonymously, devoted to her son. But tragic news has forced Tracy to face her greatest nightmare.

Tracy Whitney never wanted to settle down. Responsible for some of the world's most astounding heists with her brilliant, charming partner Jeff Stevens, she's enjoyed the danger and relished the intensity of life on the wild side. But she's had enough of conning the rich and corrupt out of their ill-gotten fortunes. The one thing that would make her life complete now is marriage and a child with Jeff. But first, Tracy must finish one last job.

It's been three months since the cruise ship M/S Atlantica arrived in a hostile new world. The survivors dream of building a home, but just as their hopes rise, they learn the true cost of saving thousands of people from catastrophe. Conrad Wakefield, the architect of the Locus project, killed billions. Fleeing, Wakefield unleashes the full fury of the advanced weaponry of his ship, the Osiris, leaving a trail of death and destruction.

Twins Thomas and Ashley Ross knew at a young age that their gift - the ability take on another person’s memories - would eventually be used for the “good” of humanity. But it would come at a price. Contracted with the government from age 12 until their 18th birthday, the twins would be forced to endure the destructive process that had taken the lives of many other children like them. As each day passes, they wonder if survival is even possible, or worse: Will it even matter when they’re already broken beyond repair?

French ex-pat Tristan Mourault is the wealthy, urbane heir to a world-renowned collection of art - and an insatiable voyeur enamored with Karen Miller, a 15-year-old from a working-class family in San Francisco. Deciding he must 'rescue' Karen from her unhappy circumstances, Tristan kidnaps her and stages her death to mask his true crime.

A killer is stalking the dark streets of Dublin. Before each attack, he makes the sign of the cross; then he sends his victims to God. After a foreign politician’s daughter is brutally assaulted and left for dead, her body branded with burns from a blazing cross, the case falls to Detective Inspector Mike Mulcahy. Mulcahy is one tough cop, but this crime is beyond comprehension – and "the Priest" is a nemesis more evil and elusive than any Mulcahy has ever faced.

When scientists discover how to fold space and teleport men to planets that are light years away, spaceships will soon become obsolete. Humankind will soon spread throughout the galaxy. Dan Jensen is a self-made man - an entrepreneur, an adventurist, never satisfied with what he has or where he's at. When an accident during the first attempt at interstellar teleportation puts him on an alien world, he finds himself marooned with a geologists, a flower shop owner, an old man and an RPG playing high school geek...total deadweight.

For Sumi, adrift and alone since her grandmother died, the answer is obvious. When she discovers that the magic of the Shapewalkers may have run in her family, she knows she wants to use it to help people. But even magic isn't a simple answer to all of life's problems, and in a kingdom like Berill, magic might invite new ones.

On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Union artillery lieutenant Bayard Wilkeson fell while bravely spurring his men to action. His father, Sam, a New York Times correspondent, was already on his way to Gettysburg when he learned of his son's wounding but had to wait until the guns went silent before seeking out his son, who had died at the town's poorhouse. Sitting next to his dead boy, Sam Wilkeson then wrote one of the greatest battlefield dispatches in American history.

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but if you ask Castor he'll tell you there's quite a bit of arrogance and reckless stupidity lining the streets as well. And he should know. There's only so many times you can play both sides against the middle and get away with it. Now, the inevitable moment of crisis has arrived and it's left Castor with blood on his hands. Well, not his hands, you understand; it's always someone else who pays the bill: friends, acquaintances, bystanders.

A cache of diamonds is stolen in Phoenix. The prime suspect is former Maricopa County sheriff Mike Peralta, now a private investigator. Disappearing into Arizona's mountainous high country, Peralta leaves his business partner and longtime friend, David Mapstone, with a stark choice: He can cooperate with the FBI or strike out on his own to find Peralta and what really happened.

It's a race to the surface and freedom. A fast-paced, action-adventure pitting humans and cyborgs led by one family, the Henry's, against the transhumanist government of Eris which has instituted "hard-kill" measures to eliminate the now useless Fleshie population.