Showing results by narrator "Joshua Saxon" in All Categories

In Animal Spirits, the distinguished historian Jackson Lears explores an alternative American cultural history by tracking the thinkers who championed the individual's spontaneous energies and the idea of a living universe against the strictures of conventional religion, business, and politics. From Puritan times to today, Lears traces ideas and fads such as hypnosis and faith healing from the pulpit and stock exchange to the streets and the betting table. We meet the great prophets of American vitality who spoke of the "god within-rendering us diseaseless incarnations of the great I Am."

Under the Poppy is a brothel owned by Decca and Rupert. Decca is in love with Rupert but he in turn is in love with her brother, Istvan. When Istvan comes back to town, louche puppet troupe in tow, the lines of their age-old desires intersect against a backdrop of approaching war. Hearts are broken when old betrayals and new alliances - not just their own - take shape, as the townsmen seek refuge from the onslaught of history by watching the girls of the Poppy cavort onstage with Istvan’s naughty puppets.

Two years after the colonies declare their independence, the American and British armies fight a seemingly endless series of bloody battles in the east. But on the Tennessee frontier, the war is fought by far fewer rules of engagement. In the wilderness, those who strike silent and swift win the day, every tree or rocky hill might hide an enemy waiting with bullet and blade, and a painless death is a rare gift.

In the chill Northern Wastes, near the ruins of a dead Dragon King's lair, the last remnants of the empire of the wolf gather at the summons of one of their own long thought slain. Through force of arms, blood magic, and the promise of an evil risen from the grave in the form of a great undead dragon, they intend to remake their realm no matter what the cost.

The clash of armies in the American Civil War left hundreds of thousands of men dead, wounded, or permanently damaged. Skirmishes and battles could result in casualty numbers as low as one or two and as high as 10s of thousands. The carnage of the battlefield left a lasting impression on those who experienced or viewed it, but in most cases the armies quickly moved on to meet again at another time and place. When the dust settled and the living armies moved on, what happened to the dead left behind?

For the elder sibling Kildare, every morning begins with the memory of betrayal. Once governed by the principles of morality, Kildare has become an instrument of blood and steel - where the speed of his sword arm metes out his own brand of justice. Only the strength and resolve of his brother Zedaine keeps him from succumbing to the ever-present rage that burns behind his dark eyes. While employed by the mysterious sage Blade, the pair stumble upon Chameleon, a runaway tribeswoman displaying extraordinary psychic powers.

Back for the final installment, a freshly revived David and the rest of the immortal vampyres return to the place it all began: Africa. As they continue to fend off Discordia’s attacks, the close proximity of the reincarnated gods forces them to discover more about their shared pasts than ever before. Joined by new gods, and some long forgotten, the Ancient Ones must find a way to heal old wounds and reconcile their pasts, or risk the ruin of all.

Top talent is hard to come by. And seeing your stars walk out the door is painful—and expensive. You need to take steps to ensure that you attract, develop, and retain your best people.

In a direct challenge to the People’s Republic of China, the United States Navy has been sent to the South China Sea. They, along with their Japanese allies are there to conduct Freedom of Navigation operations in International Waters near the disputed Spratly Islands chain. But as escalating tensions mount, something extraordinary has taken place. Lurking high up in the clouds at 20,000 feet above sea level, an elusive object of unknown origin or intent has intruded upon contested airspace leaving little room for error.

The 1960s brought Seth and Payton all they'd fantasized about—perfect friendships, a successful four-man band, and most importantly, each other. Together they embarked on a tour that brought them stimulating highs and shattering lows, and they prospered and suffered in one another's arms. The two men carried each other and carried a group that created both a history and a future for rock. But, at some point, their music blurred with the news of their love, and the world was faced with the choice to embrace its heroes or revert back to its deep-rooted prejudices.

In 2002, we learned that Pres. George Washington had eight (and, later, nine) enslaved Africans in his house while he lived in Philadelphia from 1790 to 1797. The house was only one block from Independence Hall. It housed the enslaved men and women Washington brought to the city as well as serving as the country's first executive office building. In Slavery in the North, Marc Howard Ross not only asks why enslavement disappeared from the North's collective memories but also how the dramatic recovery of these memories in recent decades should be understood.

In 1708, the governor of South Carolina responded to a request from London to describe the population of the colony. This response included an often-overlooked segment of the population: Native Americans, who made up one-fourth of all enslaved people in the colony. Yet it was not long before these descriptions of enslaved Native people all but disappeared from the archive. In Enslaved Native Americans and the Making of Colonial South Carolina, D. Andrew Johnson argues that Native people were crucial to the development of South Carolina's economy and culture.

On a sultry August morning in 1970, the battered body of a young woman was hoisted from a dry well just outside Hogansville, Georgia. Author and investigator Clay Bryant was there, witnessing the macabre scene. Then fifteen, Bryant was tagging along with his father, Buddy Bryant, Hogansville chief of police. The victim, Gwendolyn Moore, had been in a violent marriage. That was no secret. But her husband had connections to a political machine that held sway over the Troup County Sheriff's Office overseeing the case. To the dismay and bafflement of many, no charges were brought.

From the award-winning author of The Cipher and Buddha Boy, comes Velocities: Stories, Kathe Koja's second electrifying collection of short fiction. Thirteen stories, two never before published, all flying at the speed of strange.

If you love axe-wielding barbarians, shape-shifting dragons, possessed toys, or cryptic assassins, then grab your traveling pack and join in the adventures.

October 1943: The tide of war in the Pacific has begun to turn in favor of the United States and her allies...the U.S. military deploys a number of new air groups in the Solomon Islands, including a naval fighting squadron known as the Blue Devils...Soon, the Blue Devils are forced to fight on two fronts: against the known enemy, the Japanese, and an unknown, predatory force on the island that threatens to destroy McLachlan and his men.

Gleefully mixing SF, fantasy, and horror, Screaming Science Fiction is a full-length collection of nine thrilling, chilling, spine-tingling stories by horror master Brian Lumley (Necroscope), including "No Way Home", "Snarker's Son", "The Strange Years", and a nearly 20,000 word novella (Feasibility Study) appearing for the first time anywhere.

Myles's courtroom testimony should have put Pryor, their one-eyed ringleader, behind bars after the bank robbery gone wrong, yet somehow Pryor got off scot-free while Myles served time. Now, upon his release, Myles decides he is done with his life of wrongdoing—a change that will only be possible if he can kill Pryor and turn over a new leaf. Pryor has other ideas, and the collision between these two deadly forces soon leaves the ex-con in critical condition, clinging to life in a hospital bed.

Sometimes the world is a very dark place. You know the magic is still out there, but it feels distant or displaced. Voices in the Darkness is an attempt to create a link, to bring some of those voices together in a single work of art. Six award-winning authors lent their talent to this work. The stories are unique and dark, filled with wonder and emotion.

March 31, 1985. Two white patrol officers in search of a gang member followed a pickup truck carrying seven young Black men up a dirt driveway in the Encanto neighborhood of San Diego. Minutes later, gunshots rang out, and the truck's driver, Sagon Penn, fled the scene in an officer's patrol car. Penn was an idealist who believed in the power of Buddhist chants to bring about the oneness of humanity. The two police officers were rising stars in one of the most progressive police departments in the country, yet one that had suffered more officers killed in the line of duty than any other.