Showing results by narrator "Richard Poe" in All Categories

Uplifting and occasionally heartbreaking stories of love from the time of slavery in the American south.

In the early hours of May 6, 1856, the steamboat Effie Afton barreled into a pillar of the Rock Island Bridge - the first railroad bridge ever to span the Mississippi River. Soon after, the newly constructed vessel, crowded with passengers and livestock, erupted into flames and sank in the river below, taking much of the bridge with it. As lawyer and Lincoln scholar Brian McGinty dramatically reveals in Lincoln's Greatest Case, no one was killed, but the question of who was at fault cried out for an answer.

The brutal struggle for power in post-nuclear America continues for the nine barons who rule the new world order. These emissaries of a long lost race are facing extinction from within their own ranks and from the rebel forces fighting to reclaim earth and expose the horrifying truth of mankind’s heritage. Computer programs from the world before the Skydark are being salvaged and use to power the cities and villes of the 22nd century. An enforcer turned renegade, Kane and his group learn of a mother load of tech hidden deep within the ocean of the western territories.

Bill Reed manages a wildlife sanctuary in rural Idaho, caring for injured animals - raptors, a wolf, and his beloved bear, Majer, among them - that are unable to survive in the wild. Seemingly rid of his troubled past, Bill hopes to marry the local veterinarian and live a quiet life together, the promise of which is threatened when a childhood friend is released from prison.

Two bodies have been found in the master bedroom of a mansion in Dundurn's old-money neighborhood under the mountain. Howard Terry and his son, Matthew, have both been shot twice in the chest. Under Matthew's body is a doll with blood red cotton wadding spilling out of its head. Nearby, a female mannequin in a nightshirt lies on its back with two bullet holes in the chest. On the other side of town, a body is discovered below the Devil's Punch Bowl waterfall. Leaning against an enormous rock is a man in a cotton nightshirt wearing a papier mache donkey's head. Two rounds in the chest.

Acclaimed historian Edward J. Renehan, Jr., author of The Lion's Pride, focuses on the World War II era to craft a welcome addition to the Kennedy literature. Renehan shows how family patriarch Joseph was an ambitious but occasionally embarrassing diplomat, while wartime disaster elevated second son John to great heights. Sisters Kathleen and Rosemary also emerge as strong individuals in this compelling glimpse at the great American dynasty.

“You don’t write a novel out of sheer pity any more than you blow a safe out of a vague longing to be rich”, writes Nelson Algren in his only longer work of nonfiction, adding: “A certain ruthlessness and a sense of alienation from society is as essential to creative writing as it is to armed robbery.” Nonconformity is about 20th-century America: “Never on the earth of man has he lived so tidily as here amidst such psychological disorder.” In Nonconformity, Algren identifies the essential nature of the writer’s relation to society....

Nelson Algren’s two travel writing books describe his journeys through the seamier sides of great American cities and the international social and political landscapes of the mid-1960s. Algren at Sea brings them together in one volume. Notes from a Sea Diary offers one of the most remarkable appraisals of Ernest Hemingway ever written. Who Lost an American? is a whirlwind spin through Paris and Playboy clubs, New York publishing and Dublin pubs, Crete, and Chicago.

In 1935 Betsy Throckmorton’s father lures her from a New York job with Time magazine back to Claybelle, Texas, with the promise that she can be the editor of his Claybelle Standard-Times. Betsy brings along her husband, Ted Winton, an easterner and Yale graduate to whom she is constantly explaining Texas. Ted will run Ben Throckmorton’s radio station, KVAT, where Booty and Them Others sing in rivalry with the better known WBAP Light Crust Doughboys. Betsy is a serious journalist though, and she sets out to change the paper....

Back then Tommy had been separated from his sisters after he stood up to their abusive father. Jim was by Tommy's side through it all. But one winter night, a chance event on a frozen lake forever changed the balance of their friendship. Now Jim fishes alone on a bridge as Tommy drives by in a new Mercedes, and it's clear their fortunes have reversed. Over the course of the day, the life of each man will be irrevocably altered.

Author of the award-winning novel Finn, Jon Clinch has drawn favorable comparisons to William Faulkner. With Kings of the Earth, he takes listeners to an upstate New York farm where the three Procter brothers live in stasis. When one dies in his sleep, the other two are soon suspected of murder.

Is George Orwell the most influential writer who ever lived? Yes, according to John Rodden's provocative book about the transformation of a man into a myth. Rodden does not argue that Orwell was the most distinguished man of letters of the last century, nor even the leading novelist of his generation, let alone the greatest imaginative writer of English prose fiction. Yet his influence since his death at midcentury is incomparable. No writer has aroused so much controversy or contributed so many incessantly quoted words and phrases to our cultural lexicon.

Listen to writings by Bill Gates, Andrew Grove, Michael Eisner, David Packard and other business leaders. Possessing a rare combination of business genius and true grit, these captains of industry have created unprecedented wealth for their companies and themselves, pioneered revolutionary new industries, and in some cases, directly shaped the destinies of entire nations.

Still reeling from a particularly difficult operation, and having plummeted back into the drug and alcohol addiction that got him kicked out of the military, Joe has just managed to detox at the clinic of a Chinese herbalist when the mob bosses phone: they need Joe to help them swindle a group of opioid dealers (of all things). But these are no typical drug-ferrying gangsters.

Nevermore brings one of America’s most enigmatic writers to the attention of a new generation of children. This intriguing biography examines the life and times of the author and poet who would have a huge influence on future generations of writers, poets, artists, and even songwriters. Poe pioneered the psychological horror story, the detective story, and the emerging genre of science fiction. Through his dark tales and unforgettable verse, as well as his literary criticism, he made major contributions to the development of the modern short story and modern poetry in America.

Actor Matthew McConaughey descends into a surreal desert of the soul, an admirer of Miley Cyrus performs a 3,000-word sentence in defense of his passion, an aging porn star dons a dinosaur costume to film the sex scene of a lifetime, and Leonard Cohen shills for Subway: these mercurial and wildly varied stories explode the conventions of short fiction.

George Washington as he's rarely seen. Besides being a general and the first president of the United States, George Washington was also a farmer. His efforts to create a self-sufficient farm at Mount Vernon, Virginia, mirrored his struggle to form a new nation. Excerpts from Washington's writings are featured throughout the book, which also includes a timeline, resource section, as well as essays on Washington at Mount Vernon and his thoughts on slavery.

This collection of short poems from Newbery Award-winning author Paul Fleischman delightfully celebrates the essence of birds. The companion to Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, its poems feature two voices speaking sometimes together and sometimes in turn. Experience the magic and magnificence of the immortal phoenix. Enjoy the fluttering elation of finches at dawn and the swiftness of swallows at dusk. And empathize with the loneliness of the pigeon in the Cincinnati Zoo.

Robert Olmstead crafts riveting prose about love, war, and the human condition. Set in 1950, The Coldest Night follows Henry, a marine who arrives in Korea just before the devastating Chosin Reservoir battle. Days of brutal fighting leave Henry forever haunted by what he’s seen, but the true depth of his scars doesn’t become apparent until he returns home - and finds that the combat he loathed may be the closest he’ll ever come to feeling truly alive.

In 1941, when Charlie was district attorney, Abe "Kid Twist" Reles was Charlie's star witness against the biggest crime syndicate in New York. While under 24-hour police watch, Reles jumped - or was he pushed? - out the window of the seedy Coney Island motel where he was being hidden, and with him went Charlie's case....