Showing results by narrator "Christopher Lane" in All Categories

Before he was the engaging professor who brought mythology into people’s living rooms through his conversations with Bill Moyers, before he became known as the thinker whose ideas influenced Star Wars, and before his now-beloved phrase “follow your bliss” entered the popular lexicon, Joseph Campbell was a young man who tried his hand at writing fiction. After years of Depression-era unemployment, when he lived off money he had earned playing saxophone and read the world’s great literature in a syllabus of his own design, Campbell published his first short story.

In the four years since he traveled through time to save the world, Quinn Black has settled happily into life as a new space race billionaire, despite the fact he’s no longer able to travel or loop time. But before long, things start to go horribly wrong. The system he created to save the planet mysteriously begins to malfunction. His team receives a cryptic message, and he’s hurled back into the past once again...but with a twist. Now, instead of trying to go back in time, he’s desperate to travel in the other direction and get back to the future.

In this series of essays, Roger Kimball, managing editor of the New Criterion and an art critic for the London Spectator, examines the current art scene with a scathing intelligence and a crystalline eloquence of writing style. Particularly amusing are his dissections of art-show catalogspeak.

Prep school sweethearts Ian and Andi Copeland are envied by everyone they know. They have successful businesses, a beautiful house in St. Louis, and their eldest daughter, Cassidy, is following in their footsteps by attending prestigious Glenlake Academy. Then, a submerged car is dredged from the bottom of a swimming hole near the campus. So are the remains of a former writer-in-residence who vanished 20 years ago - during Ian and Andi’s senior year.

Former CIA station chief of Azerbaijan Mark Sava has given up the spy game and become a professor in the city of Baku. But when a gunman makes a brazen attempt on his life in the hallowed halls of the national library, Sava suddenly becomes a persona non grata in his adopted home. The Azeri government gives him only a few hours to leave the country, and the CIA wants him back in the US. But Sava learns that his friend John Decker has been kidnapped - and knows he has no option but to find Decker.

Originally published in 1959, Advertisements for Myself is an inventive collection of stories, essays, polemic, meditations, and interviews. It is Mailer at his brilliant, provocative, outrageous best. Emerging at the height of "hip", Advertisements is at once a chronicle of a crucial era in the formation of modern American culture and an important contribution to the great autobiographical tradition in American letters.

No sooner had my two Jeep convoy cleared the gate of the ranch when I received a radio call from Jill. She informed me that O.P. 3 had just spotted a Hummer driving down the road about five miles south of the ranch. It was headed south, away from Elko and the ranch at a high rate of speed. When we reached the main road, I cranked the wheel to the left and pushed the throttle to the floor.

It is the spring of 1945. And Repp, the master sniper, is about to carry out his final mission – even as Germany’s enemies overrun it, even while a tired, disorganized team of American and British agents tries everything in its power to stop him. Because for Repp, this is the job at which he cannot fail. For this time, he possesses the ultimate killing tool. And with it, he will commit the ultimate crime.

As Vieliessar confronts the first waves of the forces of Darkness, her destined Bondmate, Runacar, leads a rag-tag group to war. For centuries, the Elves have hunted the Otherfolk - minotaurs, gryphons, dryads, and more - considering them beasts. But they have a complex society, Runacar discovers, and though he is an Elf, takes it as his mission to help them reclaim their lands from his former friends and allies.

A New Year's Eve celebration begins with the pop of a champagne cork - and ends with the bone-chilling screams of a killer's victims . Ten-year-old Ben Brook is the lone survivor of the brutal murder of his wealthy family at their upstate New York compound. But from the moment he evades death, Ben's life is in constant danger. Can NYPD detective Buddy Lock keep the boy safe from a killer intent on wiping out the entire Brook clan?

Attorney Ben Corbin travels to Norway to settle a dispute between Karl and Gunnar Bjornsen, feuding brothers on the verge of developing a revolutionary neural stimulant that could turn first responders into superheroes. But more than just the fate of their pharmaceutical empire is at stake. What starts as a sibling rivalry takes a deadly turn as Gunnar flees with the secret formula and Karl finds himself in the crosshairs of a bribery investigation.

Former Soviet surgeon Roman Ivanescu honors his Hippocratic Oath never to do harm by working at a blood bank in Manhattan. Quenching his violent thirst without killing a soul, Roman resists his natural urges and dances on the edge of sanity. Entranced by his first taste of her, Roman hunts down prima ballerina Maiko Himura, who awakens in him a passion he thought long dead. But when Roman finds out his new love has just a few weeks left on earth, he must make a terrible choice. And for every gift, there is a price.

" Transparent Things revolves around the four visits of the hero - sullen, gawky Hugh Person - to Switzerland.... As a young publisher, Hugh is sent to interview R., falls in love with Armande on the way, wrests her, after multiple humiliations, from a grinning Scandinavian and returns to NY with his bride.... Eight years later - following a murder, a period of madness and a brief imprisonment - Hugh makes a lone sentimental journey to wheedle out his past...." (Martin Amis)

Attitude affects every facet of our lives - from the way we handle stress to how we communicate at work. The way we view difficulties and setbacks can make the difference between success and failure. Roger Fritz has devoted his career to helping people overcome obstacles and achieve their goals by changing their outlook on life.

The plan: to rob the Reina, a super-luxury hotel off the coast of Spain. The crew: three seasoned criminals with the skills to pull off the heist of the century. The edge: every aspect of the scheme has been simulated in a computer, down to the last variable.

Who Speaks for Islam? is about this silenced majority. This book is the product of the Gallup World Poll's massive multiyear research study. As part of this groundbreaking project, Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents of more than 35 nations that are predominantly Muslim or have significant Muslim populations.

Ghosts of the Unremembered Past is a suspenseful story of a young boy growing up in a family shaped by intrusion, loss, and tragedy and of that same boy, as a young adult, seeking help from a gifted psychoanalyst. The juxtaposition of the protagonist's childhood and early adulthood highlights the crippling effects of emotional isolation and the transformative power of relational connection.

American radiologist Peter Ross just wanted a vacation. But when he meets the beautiful Angela Locke on a Spanish beach, he soon finds himself caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact. From Barcelona to the rain-swept streets of Paris, from the towers of the Alhambra to its darkest catacombs, Peter Ross is an ordinary man in desperate circumstances: racing to uncover a secret lost for centuries, before he becomes its next victim.

In the eighteen years since her father went to prison for killing her mother and brother, Della Stallings has battled a crippling phobia. Her fear only grows when her father’s released. She still believes he killed her family, but the police don’t have enough evidence to arrest him again. When new grisly murders occur - each bearing the telltale signs that seem to implicate her father - Della begins to wonder if the real murderer is still out there. Could her father have been framed?

Andy Crowl barely knew his recently deceased cousin, Craig Moore, so he’s especially surprised to be named as the sole beneficiary in Craig’s will. Not that there’s much to inherit: just an empty bank account and a run-down house. Once Andy arrives in the town of Mortom, however, he’s drawn into his puzzle-obsessed cousin’s true legacy: a twisted and ominous treasure hunt. Beckoned by macabre clues of dead rats and cemetery keys, Andy jumps into the game, hoping to discover untold wealth. But unsavory secrets - and unanswered questions about Craig’s untimely demise - arise at every turn....