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.

Johnny D. Boggs turns the battlefield itself into a character in this historical retelling of Custer's Last Stand, when George Custer led most of his command to annihilation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in southern Montana in 1876. More than 40 first-person narratives are used - Indian and white, military and civilian, men and women - to paint a panorama of the battle itself. Boggs brings the events and personalities of the Battle of the Little Bighorn to life in a series of first-hand accounts.

J. Paul ("Little Paul") Getty III, the grandson of Getty Oil founder J. Paul Getty, may have been cursed by money and privilege from the moment he was born. Falling in with the wrong people and practically abandoned by his famous family, Getty was a child of his international jet-set era, moving from Marrakesh to Rome, nightclubs to well-appointed drug dens. His high-profile kidnapping defined the decade - and was permanently memorable for the ear that was mailed to his mother as evidence of the kidnappers' intentions.

Built on top of the gates of Hell, Grimm City is the Devil's capital on earth. A place where every coffee shop, nightclub and shopping mall is the potential hunting ground for any of the supernatural entities that inhabit the Grimm City world. Death's 17-year-old apprentice, Nathaniel, comes into his own as he leads an uprising against the Devil with the help of a half-dead wraith and a giant hit-man. What results is a bloody, brutal revolt that calls upon the loyalties of both the living and the dead.

The Powered protected us, inspired us, showed us new possibilities for humanity. But when the great names walked away, when the capes and boots and chest-blazoned symbols vanished, all they left behind was a single child to take up their burden.

From the creator of the hit HBO series True Detective comes a powerful, gleaming-dark thriller rich with Southern atmosphere. Roy Cady is by his own admission 'a bad man'. With a snow flurry of cancer in his lungs and no one to live for, he's a walking time-bomb of violence. Following a fling with his boss' lover, he's sent on a routine assignment he knows is a death trap. Yet after a smoking spasm of violence, Roy's would-be killers are mostly dead and he is mostly alive.

With the blood of a Dragon on his hands, Anuka Sandbar and his friends flee from the horde of Dragons hunting them. Desperate for a weapon to use against the Dragons, Anuka assembles a band of professional thieves and thugs to infiltrate a secret dungeon.

Separated by a great distance in the 1890's, can a widower and a schoolteacher overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of their love and commitment? John Feist unfolds a true-love story, old-fashioned letter style, in his historical romance novel, The Color of Rain.

Turquoise Eyes combines compelling narrative while teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills. Set after a bank begins implementing a new retail banking strategy, we follow Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo, a director general in the Mexican government, who has received some disturbing news. A whistleblower has emailed Teresa with troubling news about a mistake in the loan default calculations and reserve ratios. The numbers do not add up. This audiobook teaches advanced business concepts through a compelling storyline.

War has torn Tarsynium asunder. However, the true war lies just ahead...After the defeat of the king’s army at Dunmar City, a letter arrives from the Conclave's High Magus seeking a truce. The Nightingales, in desperate need of friends, leave their mountain stronghold to forge a new alliance with rangers and mages, to unite themselves against the king. But when political intrigues lead our young heroes into a trap, they face a punishment reserved for only the vilest of criminals: Exile.

Our Divided Political Heart will be the must-listen book of the 2012 election campaign. Offering an incisive analysis of how hyper-individualism is poisoning the nation's political atmosphere, E. J. Dionne Jr., argues that Americans can't agree on who we are because we can't agree on who we've been, or what it is, philosophically and spiritually, that makes us Americans.

The Mafia at War reconstructs the relationships between the Mafia and Allied intelligence organizations.

Discover how Jewish gangsters clashed with Nazis on the streets of New York; how Mafiosi nearly issued contracts to kill top Nazis, including Hitler; how Mafia-backed bandits conducted a guerrilla war for Sicilian independence; and how Eisenhower was happy to arm the Mafia during the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Factoryville warmly welcomed their new neighbors, who seemed eager to fit in - at first. Soon, however, the Homeyers' pleasant disposition began to change. Anna, once highly visible and engaging, was rarely seen at all anymore, and Charles, who was always kind and neighborly, became distant and withdrawn. Local residents were baffled by their behavior. But their curiosity soon turned to suspicion when Anna Homeyer suddenly disappeared, leaving the town with a number of unanswered questions.

After months recuperating in hospital, US Marine Jack Cohen hoped a Caribbean cruise would help him recover from the horrific injuries he sustained fighting in the Middle East. Instead, when the ship is attacked, he is once again thrust into battle to protect Atlantica against the ruthless enemy hunting her, and the insidious threat already aboard.

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.

Deeply sourced within Obama's economic team, Noam Scheiber is uniquely qualified to profile the squad of elite administration insiders who have set and managed the president's economic policies from before the start of his term in office, through the crisis, and into our current prolonged recovery. These are people we know - or think we know: Obama, Geithner, Summers, Orszag, and a host of others.

The Orcs of Scell live a hard and dangerous life. Plagued by constant infighting among the clans, outside raiders and pirates, and worse. It is a life that allows no growth as a people. One Orc sought a way out of the cycle of social decay, but at great cost.... His head was taken, and his eldest son, Thun, was sent off to learn with humans. Now Thun, trapped between and shunned by two worlds, returns to find his clan near ruin and his kind living worse than ever. Driven by his father's dream, Thun will fight to unite the Orcs and save his people. No matter what it takes.

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.

When the solar flares first erupt, Cameron tries to rationalize the disaster away. The electrical grid will come back up. The government will reassure the panicked populace. The hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes will abate. Most importantly, Cameron’s husband and daughter will get home safely from New York City. Instead, Cameron finds herself alone as the world tears itself apart. Her best hope for refuge is the family’s isolated cabin, but distance isn’t the only obstacle Cameron faces.

In a world where any act of magic could open a portal to hell, the Order insures that no wizard will live to summon devils, and will kill as many innocent people as they must to prevent that greater horror. After witnessing a horrendous slaughter, the village girl Heloise opposes the Order, and risks bringing their wrath down on herself, her family, and her village.