Showing results by narrator "Kevin Stillwell" in All Categories

Harlowe Franklin blew out a tired, scotch-laced breath. It was May, yet he’d had Stevens light a fire before the personal concierge turned in around 10 p.m. He craved a sense of cozy, but would settle for any feeling other than the frustration that had taken up residence in his bones. The defense attorney sighed and sank deeper into the tufted leather chair, still missing the wallowed out one his wife donated to Goodwill months ago.

Two recent books about Soviet history help answer questions raised by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine: What is wrong with Russia and why, despite two decades of optimistic predictions that it was on track to become a "normal" country, has it never become one?

Trump’s rise has made Canadians more conscious of—and more full-throated defenders of—the pluralistic values that inform their society. Without meaning to, Trump has done much to give Canada the elevated international stature it has long craved.

It is a measure of how much the United States’ security has improved since the more dangerous moments of the Cold War that the most troublesome issues in the military field today concern not weapons of mass destruction but targeted killing. The power that comes with access to the nuclear codes, of course, remains foremost when considering a presidential candidate’s fitness for office. Yet no American leader has authorized the use of nuclear weapons since 1945.

The tip of the needle is as sharp as a thorn, but it makes only a slight indentation as it touches the bulging, blue-black surface of the vein. George Hartley marvels that something as fine and sharp as that tip—created by slicing a hollow tube at a low angle—can even graze the delicate skin without piercing it. The flesh on the inside of the elbow is thin, pale, and dusted with freckles; the vein is engorged from the elastic tourniquet on the upper arm; the machined needle is precise, purposeful, and perfect .

How did 21st-century Russia end up, yet again, in personal rule? An advanced industrial country of 142 million people, it has no enduring political parties that organize and respond to voter preferences. The military is sprawling yet tame; the immense secret police are effectively in one man’s pocket. The hydrocarbon sector is a personal bank, and indeed much of the economy is increasingly treated as an individual fiefdom. Mass media move more or less in lockstep with the commands of the presidential administration.

United States president Steve Wade believes his latest affair, with the beautiful Lucia Benoni, is a secret. When Lucia is murdered under mysterious circumstances, FBI agent Kelly Smith is called to investigate. As he dives deeper into the case, he uncovers links between Lucia, a hostile foreign power, a group of vicious white supremacists, and a shadowy high-placed Washington figure known only as “Fox.”

We spent two weeks in Iraqi Kurdistan in order to gain a better understanding of ISIS and the war against it. Our research involved interviewing Kurdish security officials, peshmerga commanders, intelligence officers, and Kurdish prisoners who had joined ISIS. We learned more about the conditions that take someone away from his or her home, family, and friends to the so-called caliphate.

Jack Carney’s life is unexpectedly put on hold. He is not a criminal lawyer, but his friend needs help. He remembers his time in Japan flying covert missions against the Russians. What would his flight crew think of him now? By comparison, his legal career lacks purpose. If he defends Connor, there will be consequences. His firm does not allow involvement in criminal cases.

When neighborhood dogs keep turning up dead, Peter commits himself to finding the killer. His investigation leads him nowhere - until it doesn't. It isn't long before Peter finds himself on the ultimate quest for truth.

From the New York Times and #1 international bestselling author of Far From True, a short story where the grifter is not who he seems. Sam seems like an ordinary guy. While he is filling up his car with gas in Stamford, Connecticut, a car whips into the station lot, stops alongside, and asks him...

In recent years, as public anxiety over growing inequality has intensified, policymakers and academics have started scrambling for some increasingly extreme solutions. The good news is that these and other radical solutions are also unnecessary. Over the last dozen years or so, one country - Brazil - has shown that there’s a far better, less provocative, and more market-friendly way to fight inequality.

Women in 22nd-century sovereign America are expected to be seen and not heard. Caitriona Hayden did not get that memo. As she struggles to make her way in the world after her powerful uncle dies, being "seen" is the least of Cait's problems.

The Russian millennials who will inherit Vladimir Putin's political system won't upend it. Drawing on hours of conversations with Russia's future leaders, Ellen Mickewicz explains why they will uphold the status quo.

Three big trends - a growing reliance on older voters, an extremist ideological turn, and an increasing internal rigidity - have changed the Republican Party over the past decade, weakening its ability to win presidential elections and inhibiting its ability to govern.

Today, orphanages are common in many parts of the world. But a look at young people who spent their childhoods in institutions in Romania reveals just how developmentally damaging such places can be.

For nearly four centuries, since the Peace of Westphalia, the concept of sovereignty has occupied the core of what international order there has been. But an approach to international order premised solely on respect for sovereignty is no longer sufficient. Today’s circumstances call for an updated operating system—call it World Order 2.0—that includes not only the rights of sovereign states but also those states’ obligations to others.

The new book A Troublesome Inheritance confirms that the basic biological facts of race and human evolution are indisputable. But at certain moments, the book ceases to be a scientific inquiry into race and becomes something far more troubling.

How should politicians and policymakers respond to economic inequality? A new collection of essays offers some answers, but much work still needs to be done to turn academic ideas into practical proposals.

Today, there is essentially one accepted narrative of the economic crisis that began in late 2007. Overly optimistic homebuyers and reckless lenders in the United States created a housing price bubble. Regulators were asleep at the switch. When the bubble inevitably popped, the government had to bail out the banks, and the United States suffered its deepest and longest slump since the 1930s. For anyone who has seen or read The Big Short, this story will be familiar.