Showing results by narrator "Richard Poe" in All Categories

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.

Martin T. Manton was a corrupt federal appeals court judge in New York who was convicted in 1939 and sent to prison. At the time, this was a hugely important story: Manton was considered the highest-ranking judge in the United States after the nine Justices of the Supreme Court, and was nearly appointed to that august body in 1922. Yet his story has never been told in book-length form before, and never with the benefit of such exhaustive research.

The last thing a covert CIA operative wants is to become an overnight sensation. But once President Cahill exposed him on social media for killing an international drug cartel kingpin, this became Kelley’s new norm. Coming to Senator Frank Beemer’s aid after a diabolical shooting on the MAX, Portland’s metro-transit train, Garris is now on everyone’s radar.

Family members interact with powerful governmental, financial, and religious forces at a time of seismic cultural shifts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain are falling. Crises arise within and outside the family.

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.

On a cold morning in early spring, the body of a young woman is found trapped in the ice of Dundurn Bay. The next day at dawn, a homeless man discovers an unconscious school teacher in a public park. Gagged and bound with duct tape, the man is rigged to an elaborate bomb that's been set to blow if anyone attempts to free him. Detective Superintendent MacNeice and his team are called in to investigate the two seemingly unrelated crimes, and quickly find themselves venturing into the dive bars and rooming houses of Dundurn.

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.

From the author of the John J. Malone Mysteries: An estranged relative becomes heir to a Chesapeake Bay fortune - and his family’s ghostly history. If it hadn’t been for his great-uncle Philip, David Telefair would’ve grown up unwanted, forlorn, and poverty stricken in a New England parsonage. But for 20 years, David’s generous benefactor paid for his education, yearly summer camps, living expenses as he grew older, and any amenities he ever needed.

Reeling from family betrayal and tragedy, Gabe McKenna charts a new course as historical consultant on a motion picture filming in New Mexico. Before you can say "action!", he finds himself entangled in a web of illusion and deceit, where death plays the starring role. With the help of The Onion, a private investigator and longtime friend from New York, Gabe peels away layer after layer of dishonesty, battles brutal drug cartels, is accused of murder, and must unmask a mysterious, seductive woman to uncover the truth in a world full of lies.

What do you do when the dead come back and your loved ones disappear? All Gabe McKenna wanted was a new floor for his barn. What he got was seven corpses, all long dead. Seven rich men missing from New York. One of his closest childhood friends is gunned down in an Albuquerque casino. After escaping two attempts on his own life and with time running out, McKenna must uncover the connection and prevent his loved ones from joining the growing ranks of the dead.

Shaken by the death of his beloved wife and wrestling with powerful personal demons, Professor Gabriel McKenna leaves New York City for New Mexico to claim an inheritance from mysterious distant relatives. He finds something other than a Land of Enchantment. Unseen enemies threaten his life. Old friends turn up and rally to his side. Together they plunge into a lethal struggle for a 19th century treasure, the fabled Lost Adams gold.

McToad likes Thursdays. Why? Because on every other day of the week, McToad mows Big Island, but on Thursdays, McToad mows Tiny Island. To do so he puts his mower on the back of a truck, which drives to a train, which goes to a helicopter, which flies to a boat, which uses a crane to put the lawn mower onto Tiny Island. There McToad mows and drinks some lemonade, and before you know it, it's time to turn around and go back home.

In the 17 wide-ranging essays collected for the first time in Love and Other Ways of Dying, he brings his full literary powers to bear, pondering happiness and grief, memory and the redemptive power of human connection. In the remote Ukranian countryside, Paterniti picks apples (and faces mortality) with a real-life giant; in Nanjing, China, he confronts a distraught jumper on a suicide bridge.

Many dogs have human owners. Not this dog. He fetches his own slippers, curls up at his own feet and gives himself a good scratch. But there is one spot, in the middle of his back, that he just can't reach. So one day, he lets a human scratch it. And the poor little chap follows him home. What can the dog do but get a lead, so he can take the chap around? Dog lovers of all ages will revel in the humorous role-reversal as this dog teaches his human all the skills he needs to be a faithful companion.

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.

On July 1, 1776, battling bad weather and physical handicaps, the great patriot Caesar Rodney embarked on his historical ride to Philadelphia, where he would cast his vote for independence and help ensure the birth of the United States.

One of the most important patriots in post-Revolutionary times. Most people know Noah Webster for his dictionary masterpieces and his promotion of a living "American Language" that embraces words and idioms from all its immigrant peoples. But he was also the driving force behind universal education for all citizens, including slaves, females, and adult learners. Speaker of twenty languages, he developed the new country's curriculum, writing and publishing American literature, American history, and American geography. He published New York City's first daily newspaper.

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.

Thus begins one of the most famous poems in American history: Ernest L. Thayer’s "Casey at the Bat". When the powerful Mudville baseball team enters the ninth inning of their game behind by two runs, things seem pretty grim. And when the first two batters make outs, it looks like their best player, the mighty Casey, won’t even get a chance to win the game for them. Then, two unlikely players get hits, and suddenly the crowd is cheering as Casey strolls to the plate. Casey’s epic at-bat has delighted generations of listeners, young and old.

Through a series of letters, senior devil Slashreap trains his young protégé, Scardagger, to win an individual soul away from Heaven. As the devils plot their way to triumph, they reveal the spiritual dangers and risks we face in today’s society. Their frighteningly accurate perspective on issues such as contemporary technology and sexual mores is interwoven with timeless matters such as the power of prayer, the purpose of suffering, and the promises held out by Heaven… and Hell.