Showing results by narrator "Johnny Heller" in All Categories

What can beer teach us about biology, history, and the natural world? From ancient Mesopotamian fermentation practices to the resurgent American craft brewery, authors Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall peruse the historical record and traverse the globe for engaging and often surprising stories about beer. They explain how we came to drink beer, what ingredients combine to give beers their distinctive flavors, how beer's chemistry works at the molecular level, and how various societies have regulated the production and consumption of beer.

From its launch in 1920 until its demise in 1951, the magazine Black Mask published pulp crime fiction. The first hard-boiled detective stories appeared on its pages. Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner and John D. MacDonald got their start in Black Mask. The urban crime stories that appeared in Black Mask helped to shape American culture.

Robert Howard grew up in poverty in a small town in Alabama, with a strong sense of faith and determination. When he enlisted in the army at age seventeen, his Granny Callie’s words echoed in his head, and he pledged to follow them to the bitter end. In the most dire of combat experiences, Howard ran directly toward his opponents, sacrificing his body to protect others and to complete the mission above all else. Time and time again, he survived battles that should have claimed his life, suffering countless bullets, a spinal injury, and shrapnel and blast wounds.

After decades covering war and disaster, best-selling author and acclaimed satirist P. J. O'Rourke takes on his scariest subjects yet: business, investment, finance, and the political chicanery behind them. Want to get rich overnight for free in three easy steps with no risk? Then don't buy this audiobook. This is P. J. at his finest, an audiobook not to be missed.

The sponsor of his baseball team tells Stosh about the bum rap Shoeless Joe Jackson got for his part in the scheme to fix the 1919 World Series. Now Stosh decides to use his special talent of traveling back in time to warn Jackson against becoming involved. The trouble is, some vicious gangsters stand to make a bunch of money if the fix is on - and they'll do anything to keep Stosh from interfering.

Eddie "Air" Ball wants to win the Finkle Foods poetry contest for a chance to sink a million-dollar free throw at halftime of the NBA finals. He knows he can make the shot, no problem. He's not so sure he can write a winning poem, though. Luckily, Eddie has the help of his best friend, Annie "Oakley" Stokely. Not only is Annie as good at shooting baskets as Eddie is, she also knows a lot about writing poems.

Intimate in scale, but grandly outfitted, the luxury cruise liner The Afrikaans hosts no more than 208 pampered guests, among them former FBI contract agent Thomas Prescott. When the ship is overtaken by African pirates who are demanding the US send medical relief to a small Zulu village in South Africa, it is up to Prescott to keep the 400 hostages alive. As the US tries to figure out how to combat the terrorists' plot from the outside, World Health Organization doctor, Gina Brady, undertakes the impossible task of rescuing three children from the secluded village.

Every battle needs a battlefield, especially in the eternal struggle between good and evil. But the unfortunate souls who are sent here don’t bide their time meekly awaiting judgment—they fight for their souls. Victor Goodspeed is a businessman, taken at the back end of his prime. He wasn’t a bad man, but he was a businessman, which didn’t tip the scales of morality in his favor. Now, he must fight for his life—his afterlife—with God and his armies of angels on one side, and the temptations of Lucifer and his minions on the other.

It’s 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, and criminal lawyer John J. Malone is nursing his blues in a Chicago dive bar. He’s been two-timed by his inamorata and abandoned by his favorite gumshoe partners, crime reporter Jake Justus and socialite Helene Brand, for their Bermuda honeymoon. But Malone’s not lonely for long. Suddenly, a stranger staggers into the bar, calls out the attorney’s name, and drops dead - stabbed in the back. In his possession is a key that could unlock the cold heart of Mona McClane, a wealthy and beautiful thrill-seeker.

Mars has been a source of fascination and speculation ever since the ancient Egyptians observed its blood-red hue and named it for their god of war and plague. But it wasn't until the 19th century when "canals" were observed on the surface of the Red Planet, suggesting the presence of water, that scientists, novelists, filmmakers, and entrepreneurs became obsessed with the question of whether there's life on Mars. The Big Book of Mars is the most comprehensive look at our relationship with Mars - yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Declared outlaws on Earth, Colonel Flash Gordon and his companions, Dale Arden and Hans Zarkov must flee to a distant planet. In deep space, far from a home they may never be able to return to, the trio become involved in a centuries-old battle which threatens the existence of the entire universe.

In the best-selling tradition of Liar's Poker comes a devastatingly accurate and darkly hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the wonderful world of management consulting.

Today it is widely recognized that gay men played a prominent role in defining the culture of mid-20th-century America, with such icons as Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Montgomery Clift, and Rock Hudson defining much of what seemed distinctly "American" on the stage and screen. Even though few gay artists were "out," their sexuality caused significant anxiety during a time of rampant anti-homosexual attitudes.

For Horrible Harry and all the other students in Miss Mackle’s third grade class, Halloween is the holiday with the most fun. Everybody wears a costume - even Miss Mackle. And each year, Horrible Harry has the spookiest disguise. So now, when Halloween arrives, the students wonder what Harry will be this year. Join Horrible Harry and the students of Room 3B in five spirited adventures that result from Harry’s unusual costume. Chapters including "Water, Water Everywhere!" and "The Case of the Missing Pixie Dust" will delight beginning readers and have them looking for more in the popular series.

When Brian DePalma's operatically violent and profane Scarface debuted in 1983, the film drew almost as much fire as the relentless gunfire in the film itself. The movie was a remake of 1932's Scarface—revamped for a new era of drugs, sex, and graphic violence. Attacked as both a celebration of cocaine-fueled excess and a condemnation of it, the film's reputation only grew as the years went by. But the real story of its success started nearly a century ago—when Hollywood first fell in love with the American gangster....

The War of the Cybernauts is the sixth in the series of fabulous novels inspired by the famous comic strip Flash Gordon, read daily and Sunday by millions of fans throughout the world. Twelve detection satellites mysteriously vanish while on routine space probes. Dr. Zarkov and Flash Gordon are sent to investigate. They encounter an amazing series of adventures when their space ship crashes on a gypsy planet inhabited by robots and plagued by an endless war. Two beautiful queens cast interested eyes toward Flash's visage.

Once in Golconda is a dramatic chronicle of the breathtaking rise, devastating fall, and painstaking rebirth of Wall Street in the years between the wars. Focusing on the lives and fortunes of some of the era's most memorable traders, bankers, boosters, and frauds, John Brooks brings to vivid life all the ruthlessness, greed, and reckless euphoria of the '20s bull market, the desperation of the days leading up to the crash of '29, and the bitterness of the years that followed.

Western culture has largely reduced Jesus to being an other-worldly savior of the soul pointing the way to heaven. But the messiah was far more. Ancient followers knew Jesus as one who came to redeem humanity physically mentally, spiritually and culturally. Wholly Jesus has a surprising voice in this holistic, pluralistic, ecological, peace-seeking world. And his message of transformed people transforming their world is radically unique and wonderfully freeing.

Flash Gordon is kidnapped and forced to perform as a trapeze artist in a circus of slaves. Flash foils his captors and forms an expedition to end the tyranny on the planet Mesmo.

Patrick J. Kennedy, the former congressman and youngest child of Senator Ted Kennedy, details his personal and political battle with mental illness and addiction, exploring mental health care's history in the country alongside his and every family's private struggles. A Common Struggle weaves together Kennedy's private and professional narratives, echoing Kennedy's philosophy that for him, the personal is political and the political personal.