Showing results by narrator "David Stifel" in All Categories

For 10 years Bill Stokes was a roving reporter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal. He has written reams of material about his vivid impressions of people, animals, events, personal activities, and "things in general". Bill Stokes obviously enjoys his role as Wisconsin's favorite journalist. In this delightful book he shares that fun with all.

Of all the creatures of the deep blue, none is as captivating as the octopus. In Many Things Under a Rock, marine biologist David Scheel investigates four major mysteries about these elusive beings. How can we study an animal with perfect camouflage and secretive habitats? How does a soft and boneless creature defeat sharks and eels, while thriving as a predator of the most heavily armored animals in the sea? How do octopus bodies work? And how does a solitary animal form friendships, entice mates, and outwit rivals?

We're back with Bertie Wooster and his devoted man, Jeeves, in Carry On, Jeeves, the second collection of P.G. Wodehouse's much-loved series. There are trips to America, scandalous books and articles to tend with, near misses in love, and schemes aplenty, all under the watchful eye of Jeeves, who always finds a way to make things just right.

Simmering racial tensions inflamed by discriminatory punitive measures sparked a violent confrontation aboard the USS Kitty Hawk while it was engaged in air strikes off the coast of North Vietnam. The US Navy charged Black sailors with rioting and assaults on White sailors in an incident referred to as a race riot, while totally ignoring violent unprovoked assaults committed by White sailors and Marines.

It all comes down to one final fight for the future of the Federation. Even without the Morgana in her head, Stephanie's attitude has become dark indeed. Now, she has decided the best way to stop a war is attack. Unfortunately, the Telorans have not arrived, and will likely miss this battle. Stephanie considers the cost in lives of those in cryo-storage and is willing to gamble the whole effort to save those who are still sleeping. Is it the best decision militarily? Probably not. But if she didn't, she wouldn't be the Witch of the Federation.

In 1871, the Franco-Prussian War was raging. The workers of Paris, fed up with a government that had begun the hated war, and the exploitation, repression, and abuse of "their" government, took matters into their own hands. They instituted the Paris Commune - of, by, and for the workers. Observing these events through news reports of the time, one of the foremost thinkers of the 19th century, Karl Marx, made three speeches to the International Workmen's Association.

The First Battle of the Marne produced the so-called Miracle of the Marne, when French and British forces stopped the initial German drive on Paris in 1914. Hundreds of thousands of casualties later, with opposing forces still dug into trench lines, the Germans tried again to push their way to Paris and to victory. The Second Battle of the Marne (July 15 to August 9, 1918) marks the point at which the Allied armies stopped the massive German Ludendorff Offensives.

Someone is murdering high-ranking Vietnamese government officials, so the head of Saigon's homicide division, Captain Chyang Fang, a troubled Chinese Vietnamese man, is given the task of finding the killer. Hated by almost everyone in Saigon and an outcast in both Chinese and Vietnamese circles, Fang has to rely on his wit, biting sarcasm, and not-so-capable assistant, Sergeant Phan - a man who would rather play on his smartphone than work - to find the killer who leaves toy cobras on the bodies of his victims.

In early 2014, sparked by an assault by their government on peaceful students, Ukrainians rose up against a deeply corrupt, Moscow-backed regime. Initially demonstrating under the banner of EU integration, the Maidan protesters proclaimed their right to a dignified existence; they learned to organize, to act collectively, to become a civil society. Most prominently, they established a new Ukrainian identity: territorial, inclusive, and present-focused with powerful mobilizing symbols.

A respected physics professor and author breaks down the great debate over the big bang and the continuing quest to understand the fate of the universe.

Laurence's quiet life in Seattle is shaken and stirred when 70-year-old Eva sweeps him off his 76-year-old feet. He's a retired Boeing engineer who likes to read and cook. She's a powerhouse CEO who suggests shocking ideas about sex, love, and marriage. Romance is exciting at every age, but can this unlikely couple create a future together? Drew's gallery is struggling through the Great Recession. He risks his finances and reputation to try to save it with a unique Basque art exhibit.

When Somerton County "bad girl" Leona Darling goes missing, Deputy John Lee Quarrels is ordered to find her. How hard could it be? Just look in the nearest gin mill, right? But Leona was nowhere to be found. As he begins asking questions, John Lee discovers that Leona was a badge bunny, a cop groupie who was well-known on a less than professional basis by many of his fellow lawmen. He also discovers that asking questions can get you into trouble, especially when the people you are asking wear badges, carry guns for a living, and have something to lose.

The northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union's 35th state. In Seceding from Secession: The Civil War, Politics, and the Creation of West Virginia, authors Eric J. Wittenberg, Edmund A. Sargus, and Penny L. Barrick chronicle those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of the West Virginia.

From the legendary antagonism between Athens and Sparta during the Peloponnesian War to the Napoleonic Wars and the two World Wars of the twentieth century, the past is littered with long-term strategic rivalries. History tells us that such enduring rivalries can end in one of three ways: a series of exhausting conflicts in which one side eventually prevails, a peaceful and hopefully orderly transition, or a one-sided collapse. However, in spite of a wealth of historical examples, the future of state rivalries remains a matter of conjecture.

Biologist Rob Dunn reveals the crucial influence that other species have upon our health, our well-being, and our world in The Wild Life of Our Bodies - a tour through the hidden truths of nature and codependence. Dunn illuminates the nuanced relationships that exist between homo sapiens and other species, relationships that underpin humanity's ability to thrive and prosper in every circumstance. Fans of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma will be enthralled by Dunn's powerful, lucid exploration of the role that humankind plays within the greater web of life on Earth.

North and South follows the young Margaret Hale as she is caught in the middle of the brutal world between employers and local workers following the Industrial Revolution. She finds herself at odds from the very start with John Thornton, a local factory owner and self-made man, as she believes him to be unfeeling and callous about the poverty and suffering of the workers while John sees Margaret as haughty and entitled. Further conflicts arise when the workers strike and Margaret feels compelled to intervene with no regard for her own safety.

Just days after the wedding of Valeria Brinton and Eustace Woodville, a series of strange incidents causes Valeria to believe her husband is hiding a dark secret. She discovers he has been living under a false name, and when questioned, Eustace refuses to discuss it. Upon further digging, Valeria finds Eustace had been on trial three years ago for the murder of his wife. However, the verdict had come down as the scotch verdict of not proven. This implied his guilt, but there was not enough evidence for a conviction nor did it exonerate him.

The Incendium Maleficarum has been lost and Carter Weston presumed dead, but the story is only just beginning. Now Carter's only daughter, Rachel Jones, and his oldest friend, Henry Armitage, must embark on an epic journey that will take them from the hell-blasted Tunguska forest to the catacombs of Paris to the shores of the Scottish Isles.

The story continues with Hope but First War, book five in the Heretic of the Federation series, where the fights explode on Earth and for Dreth.

A classic tale of doomed romance, Longfellow's classic epic poem reminds us that man's inhumanity to man and refugees have been with us many centuries. The story of how the Cajuns came to Louisiana is only a part of this moving, evocative poem. Two lovers separated by a cruel fate stand against a canvas of America in the making.