Showing results by narrator "Patrick Lawlor" in All Categories

Ross Egan has quietly labored for years in the West African nation of Dutannuru, a tiny republican democracy that emerged from the wreckage of the brutal civil war that claimed the brilliant engineer's wife and child. Then Egan is abruptly thrust onto the world stage at the center of the deadly international crisis. His actions and resulting notoriety land him on the short list of individuals capable of challenging the US presidential incumbent, seen by some as the most dangerously leftist president ever.

Benjamin L. Corey thought he was suffering a crisis of faith, but it turned out to be a spiritual awakening. Corey became aware that the constant fear of hell and judgment that defined his Christian faith was out of sync with the idea that God acts from love and promises to deliver us from fear. In the wake of this realization came newfound insights - from reading the Bible to reexamining American life and the church's role in the wider world.

Recently released from prison, Dade Lockett was serving time as an accessory to robbery. His partner in crime, Pete Dillard, was not captured. In fact Dillard abandoned Lockett during the chase, taking all the money with him. While on his way to confront Dillard and settle the score, Lockett witnesses a raid on a ranch defended by a young woman, her younger brother, and an old man. The last thing Lockett wants is to be distracted from his purpose, but his fundamental sense of decency compels him to act.

Eclipsing the traditional sports memoir, House of Nails, by former world champion, multimillionaire entrepreneur, and imprisoned felon Lenny Dykstra, spins a tragicomic tale of Shakespearean proportions - a relentlessly entertaining American epic that careens between the heights and the abyss. Nicknamed "Nails" for his hustle and grit, Lenny approached the game of baseball - and life - with mythic intensity.

Andy Destra is a mostly honest cop in the most notoriously corrupt and crime-ridden city in America: Auction City. After discovering explosive information that reveals corruption within the highest levels of the police department, Andy is kicked off the force, framed, and disgraced, left to wage a lonely one-man crusade against conspiracies he can't prove.

Waiting for a Friend is the story of a 50-year-old man who has an unexpected meeting with a best friend from his teenage years, and they catch up on each other's lives, renew their friendship, and lament the passage of so many decades.

When Reece Johnston was a boy, a fire destroyed his home, killing his mother and brothers while leaving him scarred for life. It also kindled something dark inside him: an irresistible attraction to flames in all their terrifying, tantalizing power. But after two failed arson attempts - and two trips to the mental ward - he was finally able to put down the matches and pick up the pieces.

10 ways to make all your relationships great - Step up your investment in your relationships. From your spouse, children, and co-workers. Make the most of all your relationships starting now and be surprised at how your life improves.

Cultivating high-performance teamwork is like growing a garden. We get out of it what we put into it. The i in Team challenges common misperceptions about teamwork and exposes the critical ingredients missing from many of today's teams, businesses, and organizations. In it, authors Michael McMillan and John Murphy show you how to experience a paradigm shift, transcending independent thinking and unleashing interdependent power.

If we’re honest, no one really cares about theology unless it reveals a gut-level view of God’s presence. According to pastor and ministry leader Hugh Halter, only the incarnational power of Jesus satisfies what we truly crave, and once we taste it, we’re never the same. God understands how hard it is to be human, and the incarnation - God with us - enables us to be fully alive. With refreshing, raw candor, Flesh reveals the faith we all long to experience - one based on the power of Christ in the daily grind of work, home, school, and life.

While at a reading of a Kurt Vonnegut biography, private investigator Jim Wolf senses someone watching him. He catches sight of a young woman, maybe mid-twenties, who is short and has straight, straw-colored blond hair, granny glasses, and freckles. Her figure is more boyish than that of a grown woman. She wears jeans and a man's white dress shirt, and a cheap necklace of amber-colored beads with silver disks circles her neck. Her name is Emily.

Considered one of the greatest short story writers of all time, Anton Chekhov heavily influenced the evolution of the modern short story. Most notably, he used a technique that would later be called "stream of consciousness", in which he eschewed the traditional story structure and simply wrote as though he was thinking aloud. Written in that same vein, "The Lottery Ticket" is a story about money, luck, and relationships. Proceeds from sale of this title go to Reach Out and Read, an innovative literacy advocacy organization.

A shape bends over a drink at the end of the bar in Big Emma's on Oakland's Jack London Square, looking like a bundle of black clothes someone has left on the barstool. Full red lips that match brightly dyed hair are the only source of color, as if an artist had begun to colorize her just before she walked out of frame in a '40s noir movie. Her name is Susan, and she is there to hire PI Jim Wolf to find her husband's killer - and to protect her from a man called Red. Wolf takes her case, but Susan is soon murdered. Then an attempt is made on Wolf's life … and the hunter becomes the hunted.

The Island of Yew is divided into five kingdoms, the central of which, Spor, is a place ravaged by crimes and robbers. One day, a young girl, Sesely, living in the nicer kingdom of Heg, is enjoying a picnic with some companions. A fairy comes down and begs them to help change her into a human. Sesely and her friends, amazed, obey her orders and soon they find themselves in the company of a young man, named Prince Marvel. Prince Marvel desires to go on adventures and become a hero, which he is able to do easily enough in crime-ridden Yew.

Francesca Crawford is sleeping when the murderer enters her apartment. The door is locked, but the killer is agile, climbing down from the roof, knife in hand. The killer is expert, stabbing Francesca only once, straight through the heart. She doesn't even wake up. John Andera comes to Dan Fortune, the one-armed private investigator, begging him to find justice for Francesca. Andera is a salesman, an ordinary fellow who met the girl - who turns out to be the high-class daughter of an upstate mayor - a few weeks before her death.

Gang- and drug-related inner-city violence, with its attendant epidemic of incarceration, is the defining crime problem in our country. In some neighborhoods in America, one out of every 200 young black men is shot to death every year, and few initiatives of government and law enforcement have made much difference. But when David Kennedy, a self-taught and then-unknown criminologist, engineered the "Boston Miracle" in the mid-1990s, he pointed the way toward what few had imagined: a solution.

Imagine for a moment you're Marcus Cooper. A slick stranger meets you in a bar. You're drunk. You talk a lot. Without realizing it he's learning about you. Your desire for money and women. By night's end he makes you a million-dollar proposition to cause a drunk-driving accident. Sounds crazy to you? Maybe, maybe not. You're out of work. Bills are piling up. You owe your bookie six grand. But mostly you're twenty years removed from being the high-school football star you once were, doubting how much longer life is worth living.

Young Max Gross truly was hapless in a big city. He was seemingly without luck or hope. He had bedbugs, a bad break-up, and an audit by the IRS that threatened to break his soul. But he had heart (as well as two nagging parents). When Gross saw the smash comedy Knocked Up, he realized his day might have arrived. All these years of being a world-class schlub would finally pay off. Thinking quickly, Gross wrote an article about the phenomenon and soon found true love.

Gary Paulsen takes listeners along on his maiden voyage, proving that ignorance can be bliss. Also really stupid and incredibly dangerous. He tells of boats that owned him, good, bad, and beloved, and how they got him through terrifying storms that he survived by sheer luck. His spare prose conjures up shark surprises and killer waves as well as moonlight on the sea, and makes listeners feel what it’s like to sail under the stars or to lie at anchor in a tropical lagoon where dolphins leap, bathed in silver.

Rolly and Abigail Rogers, residents of Kanab, Utah, come from a long line of dedicated pot hunters who scour the desert southwest in search of valuable antiquities. When the couple fails to return from a weekend “skeleton picnic,” a pot-hunting trip, along the desolate Arizona Strip, local Sheriff Charley Sutter enlists the help of J. D. Books, law-enforcement ranger with the Bureau of Land Management.