Showing results by author "Brian Swain" in All Categories

The complete rankings of our best - and worst - presidents, based on C-SPAN's much-cited Historians Surveys of Presidential Leadership. Over a period of decades, C-SPAN has surveyed leading historians on the best and worst of America's presidents across a variety of categories - their ability to persuade the public, their leadership skills, their moral authority, and more. The crucible of the presidency has forged some of the very best and very worst leaders in our national history, along with everyone in between.

Vanguard Corporation, an agricultural company led by a greedy and mercurial CEO, has developed a new line of genetically modified seed products. Vanguard's testing in Belarus, Colombia, and India initially goes well, but midway through the crops' development, reports begin to emerge of bizarre insect observations linked to incidents of domestic animal slaughter, and eventually, the death of several people. The high-growth genetic enhancements engineered into the seeds have been transferred into the insects through their ingestion of the test crops.

This children's book entitled Hegel and Hobbes Have an Adventure is the story of four animal friends - Hegel the hedgehog, Hobbes the hamster, Plato the platypus, and Immanuel the Ant - who band together for an adventure that will teach them all valuable lessons about teamwork, friendship, and the power of optimism.

"My America" is a poem that examines the full range of human experience and emotion in the context of everyday places and images. From urban to rural, from the coasts to the plains, the stories are of ordinary people, their loves, their fears, and their dreams. It is Winesburg, Ohio and On the Road rolled up in one audacious and unforgettable journey.

With an acerbic wit and an honest approach, Swain shares his perspective on such pivotal matters as how to ski without losing a limb or your self-esteem, how to correctly prepare and consume lobster according to Maine standards, and whether marketing ploys hypnotically convince consumers to replace perfectly functioning items without a second thought.

Movlady Saidov is a young man struggling to navigate a tightrope between rage and love, embroiled in a complex web of conspiracy only partly of his own making. His story is fiction, but the technology, the politics, and the tension are as real as the headlines of yesterday's newspaper.