Showing results by narrator "Chris Abernathy" in All Categories

They say lightning never strikes twice. Puck Reed certainly hopes not. The last time he was hit, the jolt wiped his memory clean. He was a boy then, on the island with a group of tourists when he got caught outdoors during a heavy thunderstorm. Admitted to the local hospital as a John Doe, Puck's caretakers never showed up to claim him. Now an adult, a strange chain of events sets Puck on a reluctant search for his real parents. Afraid of what he might learn and what it will mean for his future, Puck must confront his darkest secrets to find peace.

Our lives are built around businesses that connect far-flung rural places to urban centers and global destinations. This "country capitalism" that proved successful in the US South has made it possible to satisfy our demands at the click of a button, but each click comes with hidden environmental costs.

In this true story of adventure, author Jack Nisbet recreates the life and times of David Thompson—fur trader, explorer, surveyor, and mapmaker. From 1784 to 1812, Thompson explored western North America, and his field journals provide the earliest written accounts of the natural history and indigenous cultures of the what is now British Columbia, Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. Thompson was the first person to chart the entire route of the Columbia river, and his wilderness expeditions have become the stuff of legend.

How does one begin to understand the idea of a distinctive southern way of life—a concept as enduring as it is disputed? In this examination of the American South in national and global contexts, celebrated historian Charles Reagan Wilson assesses how diverse communities of southerners have sought to define the region's identity.

Hamilton McWhorter III's service to family and country make him a standout among America's Greatest Generation. A Georgia native whose family roots date from that region's settlement during the 1700s, McWhorter was a naval aviation cadet undergoing training when Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan on December 7, 1941. After earning his Wings of Gold in early 1942, Ensign McWhorter was trained as a fighter pilot in the robust but technologically outmoded F4F Wildcat. Initially assigned to VF-9, he saw first combat in November 1942 against Vichy French forces in North Africa.

When all the species of birds, trees, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, wildflowers, dragonflies, tiger beetles, and ants are tallied, Alabama harbors more species than ninety percent of the other states in the US. The state's 4,533 species, with more being inventoried and discovered each year, are supported by no less than sixty-four distinct ecological systems—each a unique blend of soil, water, sunlight, heat, and natural disturbance regimes. Although Alabama is teeming with life, the state's prominence as a refuge for plants and animals is poorly appreciated.

In recent years, food writers and historians have begun to retell the story of southern food. Heirloom ingredients and traditional recipes have been rediscovered, the foundational role that African Americans played in the evolution of southern cuisine is coming to be recognized, and writers are finally clearing away the cobwebs of romantic myth that have long distorted the picture. The story of southern dining, however, remains incomplete.

Hannah Hammer unknowingly stumbles upon an EMP conspiracy so sinister she thinks it’s a movie plot. Blogging about it has attracted the attention of a shadow government agency that immediately sends its most skilled assassin to neutralize her. The stakes are high for those behind the plot because discovery means a trial for treason. In this intense second installment of the electrifying World on Edge series, society has collapsed, unlikely heroes emerge, and a daring group of brave citizens band together to defend their country.

Gunman River Hicks, along with twins Connor and Abby Mack, his wary teenage trail companions, stop in Abilene to catch their breath. But when Abby kills the sheriff's son in self-defense, they are forced to flee to Colorado, pursued by a vengeful posse. Signing on as regulators for the Rocky Mountain Railroad, they are assigned to protect a gold shipment. Loaded with business magnates, miners, gamblers, and deadbeats, the train lacks only a spark to explode into violence.

While waiting for his quarry to arrive in the mining town of Willimet, Hicks joins a pair of outlaws with a scheme to find a lost cache of gold. With Hicks gone, Conner and Abby are welcomed into the home of a local widow - the richest lady in town with a deadly secret agenda. When the widow develops an unnatural attachment to Abby, and her three unbalanced sons turn deadly, the beautiful mansion on the hill turns into a possessed house of horrors.

Fourteen-year-old Connor Mack dreams of a life adventure while stuck plowing, doing all the chores, and being treated as a slave on the half barren family spread in East Texas. He plans to one day flee the beatings delivered by his hulking older brothers and lazy pa. But he knows if he does, he must take his twin sister Abby - who is not always right in the head - with him.

Can the "Most Fired Show on the Radio" save Atlanta from a good ole boy with a short fuse? Whatever happens, it will be a blast - it always is with the Brad and Bone Morning Show. Following the show's annual Blow Up Bash, where Brad and Bone blow up anything and everything their listeners are ready to get rid of, a series of online comments from an anonymous fan raises concerns about a possible threat to the football stadium. Julia, a new member of the stadium security team, enlists the show's help to find the fan and prevent disaster. Will the show go on?

When Candybar shows off in class by eating a "bug" (raisin) instead of learning the spelling words, Mrs. Bean keeps him after school to study the words. He hatches a plan to bypass any studying, but everything unravels when two mischievous dogs throw his plan into chaos.

The circus comes to Munchytown, and the Munchy Bunch gang can't wait to go! But when the clowns put Chompy in their cannon stunt, his fear of clowns and Candybar's sneaky antics nearly derail the show!

Rags Bertram is a man with a past. But he isn’t one to boast about it. A former soldier in the US Special Forces, Rags came to the island and bought an old marina to stay off the grid and out of trouble. He’s living the good life - working on the water by day and playing on it by night, often while holding a cold beer in his hand. No one on Hideaway Isle knows about Rags’ former life until trouble suddenly finds him.

Odessa has targets in their sights and the clock is ticking as they prepare to unleash a blitzkrieg upon their sworn enemies. Their operatives are embedded at the highest levels of government in the United States and Europe. Exposing them is the key to preventing a biological disaster that can threaten the Western world's water supply and kill millions. Gunner Fox and the Gray Fox team face off with an enemy thought to be extinguished nearly a century ago.

Memphis Mayhem weaves the tale of the racial collision that led to a cultural, sociological, and musical revolution. Beginning with the 1870s yellow fever epidemics that created racial imbalance as wealthy whites fled the city, David Less moves from W. C. Handy's codification of blues in 1909 to the mid-century advent of interracial musical acts like Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the birth of punk, and finally to the growth of a music tourism industry.

Throughout Lewis and Clark for Dummies, you find out about Jefferson's western exploration from his earliest efforts to see the Corps assembled through the aftermath for the explorers, the tribes, and the United States. But the focus of Lewis & Clark for Dummies is on the period between Jefferson's confidential letter to Congress requesting dollars to mount a western exploration (January 18,1803) and the expedition's triumphant (and improbable) return to St. Louis (September 23, 1806): 42 months that changed the world.

Edward Zane Carroll Judson aka Ned Buntline (1821-1886) was responsible for creating a highly romantic and often misleading image of the American West, albeit one that the masses found irresistible in the mid-to-late 19th century. Some scholars estimate that he wrote at least 400 dime novels over his lifetime and perhaps as many as 600. The Notorious Life of Ned Buntline is an open-eyed look at the man who sparked an American legend but whose own scandalous life somehow escaped history's limelight.

An new historical anthology from transatlantic slavery to the Reconstruction curated by the Schomburg Center, that makes the case for focusing on the histories of Black people as agents and architects of their own lives and ultimate liberation, with a foreword by Kevin Young.