Showing results by narrator "Joe Barrett" in All Categories

Who is Jimmy Moran? It starts with a lucky penny. Then a muse who bestows a mystical gift. Or maybe a curse? Family, friends, and fights abound as Jimmy breaks the law, looks for love in all the wrong places and experiences loss that transforms him. A mischievous Bronx boy becomes a man in his search for the love of his life. This is the coming-of-age story of the character we meet in the Claire Trilogy, who becomes a mob lawyer, Claire the mule's best friend, and the leader of the motley crew of magical misfits.

When a chorus girl is found dead on a Broadway stage dressed in the leading lady's costume, there are no signs of violence, no cuts, no bruises, no marks at all. If pressed, the coroner would call it a suicide, but then that would make her the second girl to turn up dead in such a manner in the last few weeks. And the news of a possible serial killer would be potentially disastrous to the burgeoning theater world, not to mention the citizens of New York.

Spies on Trial brings the listener fast-paced stories of foreign spies engaged in daring deeds of sleuthing that undoubtedly have more than their fair share of intriguing moments. But nowhere is this suspense more intense than inside the courtroom, where the drama of intense covert activities is fully unfurled, offering fascinating glimpses into this vast and nefarious underground world of international espionage.

Until John Wilson met the warm, wise woman who became his fourth wife, the object of his most intense devotion had always been the work of William Shakespeare. From his feat of memorizing Romeo and Juliet and half a dozen other plays as a student to his evangelical zeal as a professor, John's faith in the Bard has shaped his life. But now his mental powers have been diminished by dementia, and his wife has reluctantly moved him to a residential care facility.

A beautifully crafted collection of eight short stories by Edna Ferber: In Gigolo, Edna Ferber delves into the minds of eight diverse characters from all walks and stages of life.

Hattie Evans, a retired schoolteacher, isn’t one to fuss. When her husband drops dead of a heart attack, she does her best to move on without too many tears. After all, Jerome was 70 years old. But an anonymous note, asserting that her husband was murdered, shakes her resolve, and she seeks out help. The police are useless, save that they send her to Fred Carver - a former Orlando cop who turned PI when a bullet shattered his left knee. Her case takes Carver into the depths of Solartown: an old-age mecca where 70 is the new 40, golf carts are the only way to get around, and death from natural causes is nowhere to be found.

Eran A. Zelnik offers a cultural history of early America that shows how humor among white men served to define and construct not only whiteness and masculinity but also American political culture and democracy more generally. Zelnik traces the emerging bonds of affinity that white male settlers in North America cultivated through their shared, transformative experience of mirth. This humor—a category that includes not only jokes but also play, riot, revelry, and mimicry—shaped the democratic and anti-elitist sensibilities of Americans.

After four years of horror the Great War has ended, and president Woodrow Wilson's arrival in Paris in December 1918 unites the city in ecstatic celebration. Major Jamie Fraser, an army physician who has spent 10 months tending to American soldiers, is among the crowd that throngs the Place de la Concorde for Wilson's visit. As an expert on the Spanish influenza, Fraser is also called in to advise the president's own doctor on how best to avoid the deadly disease.

"Madam President. The nuclear bombs just detonated in China, Russia, and off the coast of the United States did not, I repeat, did not originate from the planet Earth. It is my opinion, and the opinion of everyone here, that the Earth can no longer be defended from the Earth." President Carolina Garcia sat in the Roosevelt Room across the hall from the Oval Office and gazed at the four people sitting opposite her in unblinking shock.

Ray Bradbury's strange, magical, and unsettling story of a grown boy bent on understanding the man behind the beard, red coat, and hat at his local department store. An adolescent boy stands patiently in the back of the long line of children waiting to sit on the lap of their local Santa Claus...

A WORD TO THE WISE There are those of you who were saddened by Fergal's death in The Fall of Fergal. Now Fergal is back. There are those of you who recoiled at yet more death in Heir of Mystery. This should cheer you up. There are those of you frustrated by not knowing what was causing the...

Criminal defense lawyer Cash McCahill pleads for his life before a jury of one: La Tigra, the lethal leader of a drug cartel. To avoid ending up as an appetizer for her pet tiger, he promises to defend the case of her choice and win it. When La Tigra calls in the chit, Cash has no way out of cartel hell, except death. Lose at trial, and he will pay with his life.

In Laughing at Myself: My Education in Congress, on the Farm, and at the Movies, Dan Glickman tells his story of a classical family background, religious heritage, and "Midwestern-nice" roots, and how it led to a long and successful career in public service. Dan has successfully navigated the worlds of congressional politics, cabinet-level administration, and the entertainment industry and offers listeners the many tricks of the trade he has learned over the years.

In the past 20 years, big-time stock-car racing has become America’s fastest growing spectator sport. Winston Cup races draw larger audiences - at the tracks and on television - than any other sport, and drivers like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin have become cultural icons whose endorsements command millions. What accounts for NASCAR’s surging popularity?

When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest - her husband, her boyfriend, and the man who stole the car - and the residents of Anna Maria Island, with few facts to fuel their speculation, begin to fear the worst. Then, with the days passing quickly, her motel is set on fire, her boyfriend flees the county, and detectives begin digging on the beach. Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler's motel as the search for the missing woman gained momentum.

Goings: In Thirteen Sittings is Gordon Lish’s first completely original work in sixteen years, thirteen stories that mark the ongoing vitality of one of the era’s enduring scribes. Widely acknowledged as one of the most influential editors of our era, Gordon Lish has quite simply changed the face of American literature.

Colleges and universities have become increasingly costly and - except for a handful of highly selective, elite institutions - unresponsive to 21st century needs. But for the past few years, technology-fueled innovation has begun to transform higher education, introducing new ways to disseminate knowledge and better ways to learn - all at lower cost. In this impassioned account, Richard DeMillo tells the behind-the-scenes story of these pioneering efforts and offers a road map for transforming higher education.

Philip Ardagh's Unlikely Exploits chart the extraordinary changes in fortune of the downtrodden McNally family beginning with THE FALL OF FERGAL. The setting is an unidentified country suffering from an unexpected breakout of large holes. The McNally children find themselves in The Dell Hotel...

Hillary Clinton is running for the presidency with a message of hope and change. But, as Doug Henwood makes clear in this concise, devastating indictment, little trust can be placed in her campaign promises. Rigorously reviewing her record, Henwood shows how Clinton's positions on key issues have always blown with the breeze of expediency, though generally around an axis of moralism and hawkishness.

A hippie commune has invaded Black River Falls. While the majority of the townspeople believe that the bohemians have the right to stay - despite how bizarre some of their ways can seem - as always, there is a minority that constantly accuses them of everything from criminal activities to Satanism. As usual, lawyer and private investigator Sam McCain finds himself in the middle of the controversy, especially when the teenage daughter of Paul Mainwaring, is found murdered in the commune’s barn.